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[Mindmaker]

I really feel punished for picking full melee wherever I go. Dark Souls was a lot more balanced in this regard.
Right now I need to hunt down fire resistances for Smelter Demon apparently. What a pain.

[nenjin]

I really feel punished for picking full melee wherever I go. Dark Souls was a lot more balanced in this regard.
Right now I need to hunt down fire resistances for Smelter Demon apparently. What a pain.

I feel the opposite. I felt constantly at a disadvantage playing straight melee in DS. Dark Souls 2 seems a lot more forgiving to melee. At least, the amount of bosses who quick rush makes playing a caster feel at least somewhat as dangerous as playing melee.

As for Smelter Demon, you don't really need resist gear. Fire Quartz +1, Flash Sweat and a dip in the water pools should give you enough FR to at least beat the fight. He's pretty much a SOB regardless of whether you're playing melee or caster. He hits like a freight trainer, has huge sweeping attacks and likes to close range on the player. With my Knight, I can take multiple hits on my Drangleic Shield, so you don't even really need to roll dodge. You just need to keep doing damage despite the last half of the fight where he puts out tons of fire damage non-stop.

[Facekillz058]

I killed him with Lucatiel, +10 Magic Zweihander, and Magic Weapon.
No fire resist.
It took me two tries that way, if you have the option of these things.

[Jelle]

I really feel punished for picking full melee wherever I go. Dark Souls was a lot more balanced in this regard.
Right now I need to hunt down fire resistances for Smelter Demon apparently. What a pain.

Yeah the problem, imo, with dark souls 2 as opposed to 1 is that the description "slow tough hulking humanoid with large weapon and long sweeping attacks" accurately describes 3 out of 4 monsters, bosses included. And since the best strategy against big slow hulking monsters is to keep a distance and attack from range, wich magic is ideal for, this leads to the poor balance between melee and range strategies for pve there is. The silly amount of tracking all enemies have only compounds the problem.

It's especially obvious in the dragon shrine area, wich is an absolute breeze for spellcasters but a nightmare for melee characters. They drakekeepers are slow and can be easily picked off at range, but woe if you tangle with them up close, especially the mace guy.

[WillowLuman]

The game has gotten noticeably easier since I went hybrid and pumped faith until I could use lightning spear.

Also, were there supposed to be 2 dragonriders at Drangleic castle? I went through the fog gate and killed the dragonrider with 4 lightning spears and a punch. A few seconds before I killed it, another health bar appeared at the bottom, but as it died that disappeared and it just said "Victory Achieved."

[nogoodnames]

The game has gotten noticeably easier since I went hybrid and pumped faith until I could use lightning spear.

Also, were there supposed to be 2 dragonriders at Drangleic castle? I went through the fog gate and killed the dragonrider with 4 lightning spears and a punch. A few seconds before I killed it, another health bar appeared at the bottom, but as it died that disappeared and it just said "Victory Achieved."

There is a second one with a bow standing on a platform above you. They should have been there together at the start. You have to get the melee dragonrider to hit the platform to make him come down. Maybe there's something in place so that if you kill the first dragonrider before the other one gets knocked down you automatically win to ensure pure melee characters don't get screwed over.

[Mindmaker]

I really feel punished for picking full melee wherever I go. Dark Souls was a lot more balanced in this regard.
Right now I need to hunt down fire resistances for Smelter Demon apparently. What a pain.

I feel the opposite. I felt constantly at a disadvantage playing straight melee in DS. Dark Souls 2 seems a lot more forgiving to melee. At least, the amount of bosses who quick rush makes playing a caster feel at least somewhat as dangerous as playing melee.

As for Smelter Demon, you don't really need resist gear. Fire Quartz +1, Flash Sweat and a dip in the water pools should give you enough FR to at least beat the fight. He's pretty much a SOB regardless of whether you're playing melee or caster. He hits like a freight trainer, has huge sweeping attacks and likes to close range on the player. With my Knight, I can take multiple hits on my Drangleic Shield, so you don't even really need to roll dodge. You just need to keep doing damage despite the last half of the fight where he puts out tons of fire damage non-stop.

Wait what? Those pool actually have a use?
And I though I was just wasting my contraption stones. What do I need to do? Just stand in them?

I killed him with Lucatiel, +10 Magic Zweihander, and Magic Weapon.
No fire resist.
It took me two tries that way, if you have the option of these things.

The best I have are +5 weapons. Maybe this is my main problem.

[WillowLuman]

Just roll in them then run as fast as you can to where you need fire resistance. Those jars also douse you with water but tend to be inconveniently far from where it would be useful.

[Karkov]

-snip-

There is a second one with a bow standing on a platform above you. They should have been there together at the start. You have to get the melee dragonrider to hit the platform to make him come down. Maybe there's something in place so that if you kill the first dragonrider before the other one gets knocked down you automatically win to ensure pure melee characters don't get screwed over.

If you get close enough to the bow Dragonrider's platform he'll go ahead and switch to his other weapon and hop on down (he's not a very bright boss).

[WillowLuman]

I feel like I missed out on something, because dragonriders are fun (if easy) to fight.

[WillowLuman]

GAH MOTHERF****ING ALDIA KEEP

Hippos get cheapshot One-hit-kills by bodyslamming you from behind walls, and there's LITERALLY no way to see it coming. There is no amount of "Gud" that can prepare you for that, you have to have died to it and come all the way back to that point.

[Jack_Bread]

I really feel punished for picking full melee wherever I go. Dark Souls was a lot more balanced in this regard.
Right now I need to hunt down fire resistances for Smelter Demon apparently. What a pain.

My melee tactic for fighting the smelter demon was to pop lifegems before going in to hit him. I didn't prep any fire resist before hand and I think I had a +5ish greataxe at the time I killed him. I had Lucatiel and another player with me, too.

[BlackFlyme]

GAH MOTHERF****ING ALDIA KEEP

Hippos get cheapshot One-hit-kills by bodyslamming you from behind walls, and there's LITERALLY no way to see it coming. There is no amount of "Gud" that can prepare you for that, you have to have died to it and come all the way back to that point.

I know you can approach one of them from behind, if you go through a side-door.

When I hit it, the first thing it did was break the wall down instead of turning around to hit me.

[Jelle]

Actually if I recall you can see the first of those one eyed ogre things through an opening in the door, if you're paying attention. I saw the first one and took care not to fall for the trap. I did not however see the second one coming. 

[Mindmaker]

Well I switched to dex weapons and I'm suprised on how much more damage I can put out (given how much more attacks I can get out of them and the heightened stamina regeneration).
I'll probably spend some time upgrading my armour and then challenge the Smelter Demon again.