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[Facekillz058]

BEAT THE SMELTER DEMON BEAT THE SMELTER DEMON
Last time I tried this guy, I was rocking a +5 Broadsword.
10 minutes ago, I came with with a PLUS 10 MAGIC ZWEIHANDER
I wasn't expecting him to take 400 damage per hit, but hey, I'm not complaining.
Now to get past all those freaking ironclads and shit on the way to the next fog gate.
Ugh.
Pretty sure my soul memory has jumping a couple hundred thousand since I've been in this place.

[SquidgyB]

just in case - anyone still having controller issues, try removing or disabling any other controllers you have plugged in. DSII seemed to be confused about having a virtual joystick in my windows controller list - even though the xbox controller was set to default. Removed the vJoy one and all was well.

[Baneling]

Oh boy bellbro is so much fun.

I almost feel bad for the people I spawn behind when I invade.

Almost.

[Girlinhat]

Oh boy bellbro is so much fun.

I almost feel bad for the people I spawn behind when I invade.

Almost.

Sunbro turned Bellbro is very fun.  I've got the Sunlight Spear (the greatest of the thrown lightning miracles).  The most destructive thing possible is to start casting it as soon as your target starts casting magic.  Lightning travels faster and, with the right setup, casts faster than most hexes and sorceries, so you end up belting them with a full lightning blast with no shield - you take a hit too, as they usually finish casting, but pretty much every time that lightning will do monstrously more damage.

Other sunbro rewards are less... rewarding.  The parma is shit and the sword is pretty terrible.

[alway]

Ehehehe, apparently in the Pursuer battle, you can accidentally kill the player you're supposed to be helping as a phantom. I accidentally kinda-sorta one-shotted one in the back with a ballista spike. :>

[Thexor]

I'm paranoid around ballistas whenever I'm sunbroing. There's a surprising number of them (including one nearly-useless one in the Iron Keep), and they deal a lot of friendly-fire damage if you're caught standing in front of one.

In other news, here's a save file backup tool. Apparently, some less-scrupulous individuals have been feeding hundreds of thousands of souls via invasions to inflate players' soul memory and screw them out of PvE. This simple tool backs up save files, so you have a solution in the unlikely situation that you get caught by one of these.

[Stuebi]

So, I dropped around 15 hours into the Game and collected two of the Great Souls. The game is fantastic and I especially enjoy Dual Wielding.

Now, about it being "less hard". Initially, I got that feeling too. But then I went back and fired up DS 1 and laoded some of my many saves, and I gotta say, Dark Souls 1 isnt that difficult either, once you're in the "zone". There's this point where you get used to dodge rolling even in melee, whre you get the hang of your chosen weapon and you get a feeling for observing the Enemies patterns before engaging. The difficulty for Bosses also heavily depends on how you play, I think.

I got really annoyed about those 3 Sentinel-suckers in the Bastille, while my Sorcerer friend first tried them with ease. On the other hand, I beat the Pursuer on my very first try flat with no Damage (granted, I got a luckshot with the Ballista out midway, which deals SO much damage to the guy), while the same friend almost emptied the entire area in between retrys on the guy.

When I think back to DS 1, it was similiar there as well. Some Bosses were almost pathetically easy for me, while I was about to gnaw my Keyboard apart with others (Altough, to my credit, I beat Ornie and Smough Solo on my third try, with killing fatso first.).

And one thing I gotta say, even tough I advance at a steady pace, especially with Sunbroing on the side, I'm enjoying the experience. The game is still infinetly harder than 90% of the other stuff thats on the market, the atmosphere is still great, same as the story. As long as im having Fun, its fine. Also there's still the option of putting up a "no summons" rule if I want it to be harder.

Fu*k the PvP tough. Im so glad that I dont intend to do the Bellfry Gargoyles and thus dont have to enter that stupid tower. I was attacked twice, and watched a buddy get invaded like 4 or 5 times in a row when he just wanted the Boss. Neither the mechanic nor the attitude has improved, the Dudes still keep lagporting around and wear gear and magic that you cant assess until they murdered you once. Afterwards you get some really stimulating comments on your Steam profile, or they even try to add you for insults. I remember now while I pulled the plug on Invaders back in DS 1 and will continue that tradition in DS 2 if the regular PvP gets to these levels of annoyance.

[Jelle]

Yeah about those bosses, I guess I shouldn't have joined the champion's covenant straight away on a first playthrough hahah. Well, monsters in general don't seem overly strong just some few of the bosses. Some of the other ones I've encountered (dragonrider, covetous demon, last giant) were an absolute cakewalk. Others, not so much.

I will say this a big reason why I'm disliking boss encounters in this game is the death system. In dark souls when you faced a powerful boss that required practice and learning their moves you can just fight, die, learn and do it all over again. Getting killed and learning seemed part of the experience. Meanwhile in dark souls 2 you get punished for it, making new boss fights, and challenging boss fights, more frustrating than it has to be. Losing is fun, but not if the game goes out of its way to punish you for it through stat loss.

Much enjoying the game otherwise, it's just the recurring max health loss on death, combined with the limited amount of available effigies, is killing a bit of the fun. Maybe if I could unhollow as many times as I'd want it wouldn't be such a problem.

[Stuebi]

Yeah about those bosses, I guess I shouldn't have joined the champion's covenant straight away on a first playthrough hahah. Well, monsters in general don't seem overly strong just some few of the bosses. Some of the other ones I've encountered (dragonrider, covetous demon, last giant) were an absolute cakewalk. Others, not so much.

I will say this a big reason why I'm disliking boss encounters in this game is the death system. In dark souls when you faced a powerful boss that required practice and learning their moves you can just fight, die, learn and do it all over again. Getting killed and learning seemed part of the experience. Meanwhile in dark souls 2 you get punished for it, making new boss fights, and challenging boss fights, more frustrating than it has to be. Losing is fun, but not if the game goes out of its way to punish you for it through stat loss.

Much enjoying the game otherwise, it's just the recurring max health loss on death, combined with the limited amount of available effigies, is killing a bit of the fun. Maybe if I could unhollow as many times as I'd want it wouldn't be such a problem.

There's a way to counteract the health loss:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You can find a ring in Heide's Tower of Flames, that limits healt loss while Hollowed. Also, human effigies are not so scarce as you would think. A lot of Enemies drop them, some chests contain them, and you can reset both even after they despawn via bonfire effigies. I'd wager it would take you quite a while to run out of options completely.

[Chosrau]

Or you could just let yourself be summoned as a shade, help someone out for 2 minutes and have all your humanity back afterwards

[nenjin]

I found the Sentinels super obnoxious too.

I think you're mostly right Stubei. So far I haven't gotten truly angry at anything in DS2 because, for the most part, dying is a focus issue. When you've got the damage, the healing, and enough toughness to not get 1-shot, it's really a matter of knowing what to avoid, not getting damage-greedy and not getting impatient.

That said, I do think DS2 is easier on a few levels. It's more user friendly, you're not getting hit by really tough bosses early on, way more healing available to all builds.

And really, the bosses. The Last Giant was stupid, stupid easy for me. Dragonrider 1 and 2 are easy with about 1 fight worth of paying attention to their patterns. (I died a bunch to Old Dragonrider, but only because I wasn't staying close to him.) The guy in No-Man's Wharf, the Heide Knights...So far there's been nothing the caliber of, say, the Capra demon's meanness. I could count the # of bosses I thought were easy in DS1 as a melee on one hand. In DS2, I'm running out of hands to count the # of bosses and minibosses I feel haven't been challenging.

So I dunno. I think someone that found Dark Souls a moderate challenge would find DS2 pretty easy for the first....20 hours?

For someone that was often pulling their hair out at DS1, I think DS2 hits a nice median point of difficulty.

[Stuebi]

Fair enough, the user-friendlieness is definetly a thing. DS 1 basically just threw you into the pit and then walked off to get popcorn. I think the last giant is a very decent big baddie for new players to meet. He is intimidating, and does quite a lot of damage, but has a strict pattern and easy flaws to abuse. Its not THAT far off the Asylum Demon, at least for me. The Asylum Demon was a wtf-moment because it hit you so early. I mean, he's laughably easy once you get close too, it's the initial shock that makes it memorable. (That, and the fact that some people try to kill him with the hilt, lol.)

Im a bit torn, again, I think a lot of the difficulty spikes and lows hail from the variety of builds avaible. It's noticeable when you ask people which Bosses annoyed them, and which just came off as easy. The only Bosses where I hear people consistently moan are the Sentinels (If you're unlucky, its 3 on 1. No wonder that so many people hate it. I eventually 3 manned it when I was tired of getting blindsided.), the Smelter Demon and a one I havent seen yet (And im not gonna spoil myself anything beyond the name, which I stumbled upon accidentally, not that Spoilers bother me that much.).

And tbh, I have no idea how to improve the system, or if it even needs improving. You could probably add some more patterns to the Bosses, have them react to certain playstyles (The Giant for example  could've tried to hinder you from just rolling between his Legs all the time. Or the Pursuer actively smashing Ballistae once you fire them.). I do think some of them have too many loopholes, or one big glaring one. Capra Asshole hat nothing beyond the fact that you could kite him on the stairs for a bit (And that doesnt help with the Dogs), and I was a bit dissapointed til now that there doesnt seem to be a Boss that comes at you so aggressively as, for example, Sir Artorias.

Stuff like that would probably consume a lot of time and planned content tough, which could ultimately lead to less areas and Bosses. And truth be told, I'd rather have a Boss or two I can transform into meat piles without a sweat and a lot of additional content, than 5 Capra Demons in 3 Areas.

PS, as everyone mentiones Capra Dude as a prim example of DS 1 being difficult. I think from all the serious Bosses in the game, he was the cheapest. It wasnt even him, it was those goddamn Dogs, and often came down to "Who stunlocks the other moron first.". Personally, I'd mention Guys like Artorias, Manus, Ornstein and Smough, Queelag or the like, because those really felt like my Skill was tested, not my capability of pimpslapping op Dog-Enemies led around by a giant goat.

[WillowLuman]

Gah fuck the ruin sentinels, pretty damned impossible for a sorcerer at that stage without help and I only have so many human effigies (and no online). Maybe I'll come back with soul spear once I get it. If I ever get on the xbox back home.

[nenjin]

I guess people end up fighting all three sentinels if they're not melee and can't stand to fight the first one on the ledge where you first arrive. I kicked the shit out of that one solo, just circle strafing and taking the odd hit on my shield. Then I jump down to fight the other two.

But even fighting just two at a time it was a hard fight. Can't count the number of times I used a Lifegem only to have one of those fuckers leap slam me and kill me before I could even roll again.

I can't even imagine that fight taking on all three. Guh.

What I've noticed is true for almost all the bosses is this: range has everything to do with it. Once you get outside a certain range from the bosses, they start spamming their nastiest attacks. Old Dragonrider and the Sentinels, in particular, will abuse the crap out of you if you don't keep very close. As a melee at least, if you stay close, they spend half their time turning and most of their attacks, except the ones designed to deal with people being close, are designed to hit someone directly in front of them.

I eventually beat the Sentinels as melee by always keeping both in my field of view, both within the melee range of their longest attack and constantly focusing on the same one til it was dead. As long as you don't let their attacks overlap on you (for example, being prepared for the second one to leap slam you after the one does), it just a matter of whittling the one down until it's dead and not getting clobbered.

As for what the bosses could do to make them harder...for example, the Last Giant has tiny AoE at his feet. I was expecting him slamming his foot down to force me to roll all the way out from underneath him....nah. The impact zone is literally about the size of his foot, to the point you can simply walk out of the way. If he's been a DS1 boss, his aoe would have been bigger and possibly included a shockwave to knock you on your ass.

Re: Capra....what made Capra so nasty to me was not his dogs. Fuck them dogs. It was his speed. The guy does not stop attacking for shit, and one of his attacks (where he swings both swords together) simply cannot be blocked with a level appropriate shield. It will go straight through it and take half your life. The only reason I beat Capra was I learned how and when to dodge roll that attack specifically. Once I figured that out (and stopped taking damage, i.e. needing to make myself vulnerable to heal) the fight wasn't so hard.

Another thing I noticed is that mobs are much, much faster in launching another attack if they can see you before the first one ends. It seems kind of self-evident, that guys who can see you will immediately attack again as soon as possible. But I swear in Dark Souls, bosses would attack again as soon as they were able, regardless of where you were in their field of vision. So that feels like a pretty important change.

There are just moments in DS2 boss fights where I catch myself going "You know this could honestly be harder....." Like seeing a particular moment or attack and being fully prepared for a nasty follow up, or for the boss not to pause....and it doesn't happen. I guess that's how well trained I am from Dark Souls, that part of me is actually wishing for some deliberate asshole moves. I think I have Dark Souls Stockholmes in the worst way :p

[Baneling]

Something of note for the Ruin Sentinels - Soul Spear Barrage is actually useful for that fight, as point-blank it does just enough poise damage to stun them every time you cast it.

With enough att and int, you can stunlock the first one for long enough to have a great heavy soul arrow or something be sufficient to kill it in maximum ~4 hits.