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[ShadowBroker]

if you're gonna go str priest, imbue with lightning, it stacks with faith and not much is strong against it. or blunt damage, for that matter. at same stats, the damage difference from a greatsword and demon great hammer is staggering.

[Sindain]

Staying human is a helluva lot easier in this one, at least past the early game. I don't know about anyone else but I'm drowning in human effigies, and you can still use co-op to regain humanity. One of the big reasons though are rings of life protection. They're basically rings of sacrifice from DaS1 but since you can repair all broken equipment now (including rings) you can have an infinite supply of them as soon as you get one.

I haven't actually found the invader covenant, but it seems to be so far along that it's nearly NG+ before invaders start arriving...

The invader covenant (the Blood Brothers) is pass the chariot boss, which is maybe halfway through the game? I got there at like sl 60 or 70 or somewhere around there, and I was probably over-leveled from doing excessive quantities of co-op. So yeah, someone who rushes for it should be low enough to invade as early as Lost Bastille, but the probable big reason you don't see many invaders are red orbs. Full red orbs don't exist and the only inexhaustible source of cracked red eye orbs is fighting and winning in the Blood Brothers arena. Unfortunately match ups in arenas seem to ignore sl and the total souls thingamajig (I've seen sl 25 chars that rushed to the blue arena face people using lightning Avelines and hitting for 600+ a whack...) so someone who rushes to Blood Brothers might be as low as sl 60 but they will still be facing people sl 125+ with fully upgraded equipment and who know what they're doing in PvP.
Long story short, they won't be winning many matches and thus won't get many cracked red eye orbs.

and bleed, bizarrely enough, goes up with Faith.

What? So you're telling me the 6 faith I have on my dex build is doubling the bleed accumulation on my falchion? That's... impressive.

[Facekillz058]

Dex scales up bleed too.

[Farce]

Naming bosses without spoilers, especially that one in Heide's

Why.

And yeah, gettin' summoned is super quick.  I've only really had problems with it in like, early morning times.  Otherwise, it's usually practically instant.

Staying human is a LOT easier later on, also, once you've found yourself a Life Protection ring or two, which are now repairable.  Dying just costs a few souls - well, 3000 - to repair those, then.  Co-op also rather inexplicably turns you human, too, so that's cool.

Also, so, PVP is hard.  I dueled someone with my normal (until then, pretty much only PVE character) in the Blue Sentinels, and they blasted me with Soul Homing Mass for basically a 1HKO, through my shield.  He was in superbuff armor, too.  Bad times.

[Girlinhat]

Yeah, DS2 seems even worse about overpowered magic in pvp...  I've gotten ganked by a few people, mostly in Heide's Tower, using advanced pyromancy or homing something.

If you do get into a sword fight with someone, it favors aggression.  You can break guard as an action that breaks guard, not just a stamina drain, and then get a parry attack on them.  If the enemy is using a smaller shield, you can usually go full assault and break their stamina as well.  If they're not even using a shield, then R1 spam seems to work relatively well.

[Sindain]

Yeah, DS2 seems even worse about overpowered magic in pvp...  I've gotten ganked by a few people, mostly in Heide's Tower, using advanced pyromancy or homing something.

If you do get into a sword fight with someone, it favors aggression.  You can break guard as an action that breaks guard, not just a stamina drain, and then get a parry attack on them.  If the enemy is using a smaller shield, you can usually go full assault and break their stamina as well.  If they're not even using a shield, then R1 spam seems to work relatively well.

Yeah mages are kinda overpowered right now. Really gotta get your dodges down to stand a chance as a melee char. The one saving grace is that magic costs stamina to fire now so if you can close on them after dodging a barrage they will usually be out of stamina and helpless.

You can still play defensively in melee fights, one important thing to remember is to keep backing up, guard break has shitty range and speed so its pretty much impossible to hit someone moving away from you with it.

Also, so, PVP is hard.  I dueled someone with my normal (until then, pretty much only PVE character) in the Blue Sentinels, and they blasted me with Soul Homing Mass for basically a 1HKO, through my shield.  He was in superbuff armor, too.  Bad times.

The arena is really hard, most of the people in there are people who regularly PvP and are using characters tailor built for PvP. if you face "normal" players via invasions or something you'll have an easier time. On mah dex build I'm struggling with about a 30-40% win rate in the Blood Brothers arena but I've won about 90% of my invasions or so.

[Facekillz058]

Been thinking of building a Hexer/Pyromancer Hybrid:
Are Pyromancies still has bad as the first game?
I don't feel like dumping 80000 souls into it just to be able to do 400 damage to things 5 feet away from me 4 times per bonfire.

[WillowLuman]

Played some more this past weekend, since I was home. Man, but sorceries seem pretty scarce in this game. I know there's supposed to be more but do you not get beyond the basic stuff until you get near the end or something?

Apparently there's an area called the huntsman's copse that I was supposed to visit earlier, since it's on the way to Heide, but they should have put the entrance somewhere else, because no one would think to go back through that tunnel rather than use the bonfire. Good thing I learned about it, though, because 2 bosses (the giant spider and the giant dograt) are a brick wall for me. So far all the bosses have been a bit easy (except for the Three Musketeers, who I found a way to skip), but those two are quite a surprise. I suppose if I can find Soul Spear or the equivalent elsewhere I'll come back to them.

One thing that's troubling me is that unlike DS1, this game seems to favor certain builds. It seems like it was built with melee characters and pyromancers in mind, since many of the bosses seem highly resistant to magic but weak to fire (and have surprisingly low poise).

[Facekillz058]

You can get Sorceries in No Man's Wharf, which is after Heide.
There is a man sitting on a dock near the spooky ship that appears when you ring the bell.
Talk to that man.
If you like magic, though, give a few thoughts to Hexes.
They do the same stuff Sorceries do, but with a lot more utility.

[WillowLuman]

I have given thought to them, since they keep popping up on the loading screen; I've got 45 int and 18 Faith. But just like with sorceries, I can't find the damn things. I found that guy in No Man's Wharf, but he only had some mid-range sorceries. The extra soul arrows and great soul arrows are useful, and that soul spear swarm wrecked the flexile sentry pretty well, but it's still not that much. And just like in DS1, Homing Soul Mass seems like it would be much better for PvP than PvE.

[Sindain]

*edit* the hex trainer is at the start of Huntsman Copse, so you should be able to find him by now.

And less like DaS1 and more like the original DS most of the high tier magic n stuff are either gotten from the boss soul merchants (one of which you might be able to unlock by now) or from loot.

Spoilers regarding aforementioned boss soul merchant and bosses.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The first boss soul trainer (Straid) is in Lost Bastille, at the top of the belly flopper filled tower; he is in a cell and petrified so you need to use a fragrant branch of yore to unpetrify him.

For the giant spider I recommend picking up a phantom to keep the spider horde off your back, then just get up right against her and sit to either side of one of her mouths. She should just sit there doing this stompy vomitty move and as long as you stay to the side of her mouth and close to her you won't get hit. Go to town with spells or if you can't get an angle, wait for her to finish before moving in front and landing a few attacks then return to the side once she starts vomitting again.

Also, the Ratdog is completely optional, just an FYI.

[WillowLuman]

Well, guess I'll pick up some hexes next time I'm home.

Wait, I just remembered, I preordered for PC last week! So I'll start over and go through everything again this Friday, then look for that guy.

[Folly]

Been thinking of building a Hexer/Pyromancer Hybrid:
Are Pyromancies still has bad as the first game?
I don't feel like dumping 80000 souls into it just to be able to do 400 damage to things 5 feet away from me 4 times per bonfire.

I'm playing a pure sorcerer, and finding pyromancies supplement my other spells very nicely. With 50 int, no faith, and a +3 flame weapon, Flame Swath is doing 1100 dmg, very wide area of effect, and fairly quick cast time, making it effective for both burning down bosses and blasting clusters of small enemies. Combustion is basically an alternative to a melee weapon, with short range but very quick cast time and around 400dmg per cast, with a high number of charges, making it an effective option for clearing trash and fighting any enemies who attack too quickly for your slow/strong spells. Lingering flame is like a land mine that explodes when an enemy comes within range; you can drop a bunch of them and then lure an enemy in, 1-shotting certain bosses.

Of course some spells are less useful than others...fireballs just don't do enough damage for the limited number of charges imo, and I've never gotten poison mist to hurt anything. But try them out and find the good spells, I think you'll be pleased.

[Girlinhat]

Pyromancy now scales with your "fire bonus" so pyromancy becomes a different beast.  In DS1, the lack of scaling made it popular for low-level players to utilize high-power equipment/spells without investing into levels.  In DS2, your pyromancy will scale, so it becomes much more on par with other options and can be used as a primary damage source against difficult mobs or pvp.  Flame Swathe is an impressive one.

[nogoodnames]

I've never gotten poison mist to hurt anything.

Odd. I've been using toxic mist on my main playthrough where I'm in the Victor's stone covenant. It's been a huge boon when dealing with strong, physically resistant enemies, and some bosses. Poison seems a whole lot more viable. Rather than a minor annoyance it's actually a threat now.