Dark Souls 2 (PC/PS4/XB1/PS3/360)

[Deadgye]

Ah whoops, guess I've never actually tried summoning for an area I've already cleared before. I wonder if not being able to summon for that guy was a design choice, or if it's only a byproduct of not being able to put down soapsigns in a boss room.

But yeah shades can help with bosses. Spend too much time with them before fighting the boss, and you may find them disappearing in the middle of the boss fight lol.

[Dngnhack]

I couldn't get a summon for the pharos doors rat boss either eventually ended up just soloing him.

On the vendrick note i had just beat the boss prior to his room with summons and then went into vendricks immediately and was doing full damage with 0 giant souls. (after getting ko'd it was down to no damage)

[Deadgye]

The "Key to the Embedded" is currently my favorite item in the game. Shit's basically a key-greatsword-blade.

"Sword that opens the Embedded's door. Shaped like a weapon, but is in fact a key.
Plunge the key into the EMbedded to bring a rhapsodic end to his fate.
The one-human Embedded, realizing that he could never resist the temptations of the flesh, bound himself eternally with chains. Since then, he has awaited the day that somebody will find this key, and bury it within his bosom."

[Gokku]

just beat the game missed a TON of stuff all ive got to say about NG+ is...WUT!!??? im getting my butthole reamed hard red phantom errwhere this is bananas

[Kuishen]

I'm actually going insane here because I want to stock up on Pharros stones a bit before NG+ via the rat covenant and every time it starts to summon somebody it waits like 15 seconds and then says "Summon Failed player unable to connect to multiplayer session."

I've gone to the duelist arena and done a few matches there to confirm that I can actually do pvp still.

I have to restart my game every time it fails because it won't attempt it again due to that bug.

EDIT: I give up. At least 15 rat covenant summons failed, 5 of my summon signs were failures in the same manner, and only 1 succeeded over the course of the past 2 hours. It's making me paranoid that it's on my end because I'm not seeing a lot of comments on forums/google about this kind of shit, coupled with the fact that my friend and I couldn't even join an xbox live party/chat today. When I test my connection on the xbox it doesn't tell me my NAT type is closed so I have to assume it's open because it's told me in the past if it's closed. The ports for Xbox Live are open in my router settings so yeah, I don't even fucking know anymore.

[Kaelan?]

Well, I think I just found a bug in regards to Vendrick and his defense (a way to bypass it).

Spoiler: show

however when I did summon him a fog gate appeared leading into Velstadt's room, which when I entered, de-summoned my friend; I guess you're not allowed to fight bosses with shades (to clarify, white soapstone = phantom, small white soapstone = shade).

This is another bug, I think. When I was fighting him, every now and then on my way to the boss, the previous boss' fog gate would be up, even though I had already killed him. I wasn't summoning anyone and I wasn't being invaded. It just seemed to randomly show up. Once I went through it, it would disappear. For me, his defense wouldn't change (I had 4 souls, so he took half damage).

Is there any way to survive the Ancient Dragon's breath attack? I'm SL163 with about 1910HP and it just straight-up oneshots me from full health (as a Human; not with the Hollowed penalty). Granted my Fire Defense isn't amazing, but the fact that it's an instagib even when I shield block has me curious.

Spoiler: show

Pretty sure those are just supposed to one-shot you no matter what, just like Vendrick's attacks are all unblockable. They're supposed to be challenge mode bosses, I think. Try using a shield with 90%+ fire block, if you can block it at all that's how you'd do it.

How's the magic? I gave up on my sorcerer build (at first) at four kings when I kept getting dumped on because magic was so slow, weak and left you vulnerable (i went back to it and got a moonlight greatsword). My first full playthrough was a Great Scythe that I +15'd and just kinda plowed my way through the whole game.

Not that great, tbh. You can get really strong, but only at the very very end of the game and towards NG+. For the other 95% of your playthrough, it's just harder than being a melee. The only real advantage is against a small amount of slow enemies you can take out from far away and against bosses if you have a summon/NPC tank.

Against everything else, magic is even slower and leaves you even more vulnerable than before (there's even a deadzone right in front of you where your spells don't hit...), and because of the new stat requirements you essentially can't afford defensive stats so a ton of things one or two-shot you.

When you take that into account, and the fact that lock on range is even shorter (whyyyyyyy) and that most enemies in the game can sprint now, you often don't even get to hit things before they're right on top of you (or you try, trade hits and lose most of your health, then get combo'ed to death).

Even as a very high-INT caster (and bare-minimum STR/DEX), I'd often end up switching to a fast melee weapon like half the time out of annoyance and several parts of the game became infinitely easier.

It's playable but...it's not really going to be any fun until you get to NG+. Def a lot less fun than playing caster in Dark Souls / Demons' Souls.

[Krandor]

Vendrick's attacks are definitely blockable.

[AoE]

Is there any way to survive the Ancient Dragon's breath attack? I'm SL163 with about 1910HP and it just straight-up oneshots me from full health (as a Human; not with the Hollowed penalty). Granted my Fire Defense isn't amazing, but the fact that it's an instagib even when I shield block has me curious.

Never tried myself but I read to stay under his tail.

As for Vendrick, all you need to do is stay behind him and dodge clockwise. Think of it, as you being a spider on his back that he's trying to get off.

[Kaelan?]

Vendrick's attacks are definitely blockable.

What shield are you using, with how much stamina? Every time I tried with 73 stability I always got guard broken

[Elcura]

I hate that you can't sprint after running out of stamina for what seems like an arbitrary amount of time. If I can do everything else with a tiny amount of stamina left, why can't I sprint unless I do something (like roll) before hand?

[Krandor]

What shield are you using, with how much stamina? Every time I tried with 73 stability I always got guard broken

Havel shield and my stamina was fairly low, Endurance was only in the low 20s. I could block up to 3 of his attacks before getting guard broken. Not that it mattered since could just keep circling and maybe have to block one attack when he did the large sweeps.

Also my Havel Shield is like +3 so 84 stability I think?

[Souj]

These loading screens entering and exiting the memories are killing me...

[SilentGrief]

Just got my platinum, about 90 hours of playtime.

Some of these trophies were such a pain.

[Elcura]

Man for anyone that needs sun medals, snake lady boss is the way to go. Just out your sign before the stairs that way you won't get summoned by people that haven't drained the poison

This is awesome, just be careful where you put your sign and don't do it directly in front of the stairs (do it off to the side). I've had a couple of occasions where I was summoned into the floor and couldn't escape.

[Datonare]

I don't suppose there's a closer bonfire to ancient dragon, is there?

[Krazy]

Got my first message over 500 today. It's "Try control" in front of one of the levers at Heide's Tower where you raise the gate and it closes behind you. I guess it was hard to see.

[tyven]

This is awesome, just be careful where you put your sign and don't do it directly in front of the stairs (do it off to the side). I've had a couple of occasions where I was summoned into the floor and couldn't escape.

yea that happened to me twice. You just need to save and quit and it will be okay but its definitely smarter to put the sign down to the side of the stairs. Can't wait to knock out the rest of the medals I need tonight for a spell I will never use cuz who the fuck wants 55 faith? Praise the Sun

[Charismatic]

yea that happened to me twice. You just need to save and quit and it will be okay but its definitely smarter to put the sign down to the side of the stairs. Can't wait to knock out the rest of the medals I need tonight for a spell I will never use cuz who the fuck wants 55 faith? Praise the Sun

Well, they do have the spices that lower the requirements now.

[Doombear]

Well, From Soft's response in this FAQ implies otherwise,
http://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/c...souls_ii_site/

Wouldn't be surprised if that FAQ was wrong in a few places.

This in particular I can tell you is not true at all, though I can see why it SHOULD be.

Q. When I equip the "Name-Engraved Ring", I cannot take it off after I am matched up with someone. Why?
A. When you use the Name-Engraved Ring to filter your matchmaking you cannot take off the ring until after the multi-player session ends.

When I co-op with my friend at a boss, if I am summoning, I just take the ring off after he joins my world, then I can equip a different ring, and/or grab an NPC/normal summon too.

[tyven]

Well, they do have the spices that lower the requirements now.

I would want like 35 spices lol