Sword skills are definitely useful but also very situation dependent. For instance the butcher knife that I use has a skill called sharpening that lets me regain health on hit with it for a time. On the other hand you have the stance ones which just offer new moves to use in your set that have extra features like dedicated guard break. For those I'd advise to grab one of the shields that let you use those skills without having to two hand the weapon, really useful for the straight sword you are using.

I actually loved that boss fight, it has such a cool mechanic if you play defensively since the boss is honestly trying to kill itself. Wish they went further with the Abyss watchers, maybe removing the limit on the amount of bodies the boss can raise but also increasing the amount that try to fight itself. Keep that going until you find yourself in the middle of a full scale brawl between the abyss watchers where you need to kill them all but also not draw the aggro for too many of them so you don't end up murdered.

 

Ah, I didn't know what about the fight. I guess that makes sense from the entrance cinematic. I assumed it was like DS1 since they were all trying to kill me always.

 

Pontiff Sulhyvan please, I am just a lowly knight who has not learned to parry. Please stop combo-ing me to a new grave.

In other news, the Stray Demon is a bitch, maybe because I did it after getting to the Irithyll. It doesn't compare to the Regular Demon, or to the

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Ancient Demon King or whatever that I still haven't beat.

 

Played a bit today.

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Started off by going back to the high wall and clearing the stuff I missed last time. Freed a prisoner and got an estus flask shard, which I probably should have got a lot sooner.

Finished out the cathedral of the deep. Got wrecked a few times by those annoying giants inside the tower. Not sure if they're killable - I shot one with 100 arrows and it didn't die, so idk. I think I got pretty much everything here, though I missed one small alcove near the one giant that had some big guys patrolling through it. Boss of the area wasn't too tough. Actually, it was the easiest boss so far.

Went to the Catacombs of Carthus next. Fuck, is that place annoying. I only found two bonfires in the place, so I'm sure I missed stuff. In fact, I know I missed at least one passage after the one bonfire (the one before the boss with the skeleton ball). There's an upper passage that has some big dudes up there that I died several times at without clearing, and I know there's an earlier passage across a bridge that I didn't go in, but I was sort of sick of the place. Boss was interesting, high lord wolnir. Died a few times before figuring it out. Also, for some reason, several times there were a horde of skeletons that kept coming, but the time I killed him, there wasn't. Not sure what that is about.

Made it to the boreal valley next. Might be the hardest place so far? I died many times, as every enemy is big and obnoxious. And, invisible zombies. I took it slow and eventually made it through and got to the 4th bonfire before typing this and taking a break.

 

I'm right at the final boss, tying up some loose ends. 37 hours, not bad. I only missed one optional area, a big one too, but it was imo extremely well hidden. Otherwise, I found all the npcs, covenants and areas. All but one Estus upgrades too. There really were a crazy amount of hidden and secret things. I think I got everything, but I'm sure my next playthrough will show me differently.

I've beaten every boss in the game on at least my third try, except the final boss of the optional area, Nameless King. He's the only one left before the final boss. Holy crap he's tough. Have to go to sleep after my third death, so that streak was broken. But I can see him taking like ten tries. Definitely the hardest boss in the game, unless the final boss surprises me.

I've really loved my playthrough. There were a few hiccups, I don't like the invasion changes and I get stuttering whenever I pick up items and move the camera, and phantoms lag badly sometimes, but this was something like a 9.5/10 experience.

 

continued playing

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From the boreal valley, I made my way to irithyll dungeon. fuck that place and fuck those guys with the brands. and fuck the room that has like 10 of them in it. Took forever, but I eventually made my way through the place and to the profaned capital. I went for the boss first (by chance). There weer enough messages on the ground that I figured out I needed to use a special weapon, so I got that and died like 10+ times trying to figure out how to use that. If you're read my previous posts, you'll see that I know jack-all about weapon skills. But, I eventually figured it out and killed him I had over 100k souls on the ground by the time I figured it out:/

Anyways, I continued with the profane capital, going in circles over and over again, eventually getting some neat stuff like a covetous ring. Couldn't find where the next area was though, so I doubled back to boreal valley and explored a bit around the distant manor bonfire. Eventually found that there's a boss here that I missed. I only had 2 estus flask when I decided to try him out, but I managed to beat him first try.

ending stats for the day: level 61. astora straight sword +7, dragon crest shield, knight helm, knight armor, cathedral knight gauntlets, pontiff knight leggings. I really wish there were some actual upgrades to the starting knight set, it's kind of annoying. currently working my way up to using one of the greatshields I have

 

If there are only two of them they both gun for you 90% of the time, but if a third joins the brawl then everything degenerates. It would be pretty sweet if it was a +1 Watcher per minute passed kind of deal regardless of how many are in play. With that said, I doubt my poor PC would be able to handle that load.

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Just got to a bunch of Black Knights with dragon bows. I'm experiencing wartime flashbacks. It turns out that I missed both a Mound Makers event in the Undead Settlement and the bros of sunlight. The completionist in me is dying a little bit.

I'm rocking a +7 Executioner's greatsword right now with Great Magic Weapon or w/e it's called. Lets me shred a lot of stuff with high physical resistance but still carry through a lot of damage with regular mobs.

 

And first playthrough done. Took 38 hours in the end. Nameless King on fifth attempt. It was just a case of getting good. Actually the first boss that I had to learn the moveset of.

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There are even four endings, yo. Hollow Lord all the way for me.

I have to say, straight swords are strong as fuck. The way poise works, and the faster combat, and the honestly buffed quality straight sword AR makes them insanely good. Full setup Sunlight Straight Sword gets buffed AR in the 600s.

Kinda wanna do pvp now, kinda want a new character. I guess I'll just start playing and see what happens. But the game was great, here's hoping it'll keep my attention for a long while.

 

Got gifted a legit copy of the game so I started from scratch this morning.

So many summons in High Wall of Lothric. So much lag too, the hosts and the enemies were just floating about the whole place. I was worried for a bit that it was something on my end, but my internet was running just fine at the time.

There was a couple of amazing co-ops too, and the one host that I liked best I gifted him the whole set of the Lothric Knights, shield and sword included. He proceeded to jump out of joy for the next two-three minutes.

Took me almost 3 hours of farming that one solitary LK for one piece of its chest armor and when I finally did get it, every single kill of him from then on was a chest piece. Before he finally dropped it, I had acquired 8 LK gauntlets, 10 LK leggings, 5 LK helms, 4 of LK swords and 7 of LK shields. Then the fucker started dropping his chest piece for every single run while I was farming some Throwing Knives from those other enemies.

@Idiot Rocker: Those are Silver Knights. BKs don't wield those kinds of weapons.

 

Yeah. I realized that when I logged in again.

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In other news got up to Dancer of the Boreal Valley. I'm already looking forward to doing my next run with something other than a STR build.

 

Accomplishments of the day:

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After Sulyvahn or w/e his name is, I went through the courtyard. Took out some giants, killed some fire clerics. Explored above the boss area and turned on the most pointless shortcut ever, since it doesn't actually bypass anything. Got to a spot where there's a long ladder to the ground and 2 demon dogs things (similar to the one at the beginning of the boreal place). Got killed once there before I noped out. Continued on and had to try my best to not get knocked off the butresses by silver knight archers. Fuck those guys.

Eventually made it through, and got to anor londo proper. Nostalgia of DS1 is deep, and I liked it. I was sad encountering the spots where Gwynevere was (amazing chest ahead!), as well as the other dude and the infinite hallway (forget his name). Also sad to see the the giant blacksmith was dead. Anyways, eventually made my way to the boss, after a few attempts at trying to kill that giant spider thing to open what I presume is a shortcut.

Aldrich wasn't too bad, certainly easier than Ornstein + Smough. Then, I had my first problem, in that once I killed the boss, there was a cutscene and I was teleported. I then attacked a statute (because a message told me to), and then I got rekt by Dancer of the Boreal Valley immediatly. I died after a decent battle, but the problem is that I didn't get a chance to rest at a bonfire inbetween, and I had no idea where I had been teleported too, or where my souls were. So, much to my shame, I had to actually look up where he was, which was back at the high wall of Lothric in a covenant church. Managed to recover my souls and beat him without too much difficulty, so crisis averted.

Continuing on, I noticed a split in the paths. I went to the left first, down into the consumed kings garden. I got rekt here and I didn't want to mess with all the status effects, so I tried the other path. The knights are fucking annoying, but I managed to eventually get to the bonfire and continue onto my way, to Lothric Castle. This place was kind of tough, but I slogged on, slowly clearing up to the next bonfire, where there were a pair of dragons doing stuff. A hundred arrows latter, I killed them (they gave nothing) and I explored around a bit, slowly unlocked shortcut, until eventually I was ready to go into the main cathedral. There were two paths here I missed, as after killed the greatsword knight once, I just ran by and up outside, I saw the fogdoors, but cleared some more around and found another elevator. I think there was another path here that I still didn't go down, but dying to these knights is kind of tedious. So, I went to the boss, Dragon Armour, and he was pretty easy. Fat and slow.

So, I killed him and made my way to the grand archives. Place isn't too hard, just tedious and you have to be careful. The enemies (ambushhats and waxclerics) die in 2-4 hits and give a ton of souls for some reason, so each run up through was giving me a whole level pretty much. Cleared out the place after an hour or two, opening the shortcuts and killing gargoyles outside and such. Got a titanite slab along the way. Ran through past a trio of dude and to the bonfire behind them. I never did go back and take them out. But, I went onto the roof and encountered three fat golden winged knights. Those guys were annoying, but I cheesed a bit by going on top of the tower and sniping them. I then came across the bridge, and slowly took on the normal skeletons, until I came upon the knights. There's like five of them in total, and I couldn't single any of them out at all. Not sure what you're supposed to do there, so I just ran past and all the way up the stairs and into the cathedral fog gate, and they deagroed. Inside, was the boss (or bosses). I died on my first attempt, since teleport shenanigans. Second try I killed him, only for the second guy to reanimate him. I died to the guys magic, so third time was the charm. When I took out the big guy, the small guy collapsed on to the floor and I wailed on him until the buy guy took him back up. Rinse and repeat, and he's dead.

So at this point in time, I wasn't really sure where to go. I knew of at least two other zones, one being in the dungeon area where there's a dragon statue, and the other was the place I found earlier, the consumed kings garden. So, here I admited, for the first time, I looked up what I was supposed to do next since I had all the key souls. That's when I saw that I completely missed a zone, the smouldering lake, so that's where I went.

Getting to it wasn't too hard, but triggering the passage wasn't obvious at first glance. The zone is a bit easy for my current level, which is a nice change of pace. Got to the swampy area with a giant worm and fucking annoying triple ballista thing. I collected the items on the ground, ran past the worm, and to the fog gate. The boss, some fire demon king thing, was pretty easy for where my character was at. Don't think I even flasked. Anyways, killed it, and mad my way to the next bonfire which led to some catacome-like fire-demon infested maze sort of thing. Reminded my a bit of the lost ruins of izaleth. I do find it weird how the boss of the zone is pretty much at the very beginning and there's a bunch of stuff to explore afterwards, but I'm fine with that. Explored a bit, got some Flask stuff, but eventually came across a black night on a bridge over a lake of fire. Naturally, I got knocked off, and I decided to call it a night.

stats: 30 hours played. level 81. +10 astora straight sword (I'm not really sure if the infusions work and if it's worth it to turn it into a raw or heavy blade or anything like that). Lothric Great Shield +6, various bits of silver knight armor, with the aristocrat's mask

 

Spoiler

Was doing some jolly cooperation at old demon king, had killed him four times pretty easily when on my fifth summon I see the host and another sunbro fighting the worm while the ballista rained hell.

Wound up spending about half an hour killing the worm and leading them to shut down the ballista before we killed the demon. Good times, nice change from the usual get summoned, bust down boss, repeat.

 

Stuff I did today:

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Only had time to play for a bit over an hour today, but I got a lot done. I finished off the fire lake place and shut down the ballista and killed the worm. I cleared on the demon-infested place as well, including the black knights and an npc invader. I wasn't able to get the items in the lava lake though, so I lost too much health too quick even with fire absorb stuff. IIRC, there was a ring in DS1 that negated lava, so perhaps there's something similar in this game.

I made my way towards the consumed king's gardens. Aside from the annoy things (I think they're called pus of man?) in the beginning, it was pretty easy, suggesting that I shouldn't have waited so long to do the place. The boss was very easy, perhaps the easiest in the game.

I continued past and found another area through an illusionary wall, which was some sort of mirror-world, almost identical to the cemetery of ash and firelink shrine. I killed the two crystal monsters and another npc invader before coming to the boss, a purified version of the very first boss of the game. Wasn't too hard. I called it quits after this, before going into the mirror-firelink shrink.

 

How's everyone enjoying the online, co-op and PvP?

Here's me experiencing the wonders of PvP at the Cathedral:

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Archdragon Peak is pretty awesome. At least the Ancient Wyvern is. Even if it dies like a bitch. The Nameless king, however, is awesome and refuses to die. Ten or more tries, all embered, and the best I've done is get him to a quarter health. His dragon buddy is easy, but then he gets his lightning spear and on so many lives I just get combo wombo'd down to nothing. Tried to summon an orange dude, but he died in 30s to the dragon. T_T

Also completed all the bosses up to and including the Twin Princes. Twin Princes weren't too hard, but I already knew the gimmick going in. Same thing for Yhorm, who's probably the easiest boss of the game. Oceiros and Dragonrider armor were also pretty easy. Can't say I like any of the boss weapons all that much, just going by the little images. The only one I've bought recently was Lothric's sword, to go with Lorian's armor I bought. And yes, I know, I could've bought Lorian's sword instead, but whatever.

I swap between a couple of straightswords while running through areas, but when I want to kill something really badly, I pull out my +10 Heavy Great Axe. It does all the damage. All of it. It has the worst hit box, though. Its roll attack is only good for chopping off someone's toes. All good things have a cost, I guess.

 

Finished the game today

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I went back and cleared some of the areas I know I previously missed, a bunch of them n the boreal valley since I pretty much just ran through it. Took out the two croc-dogs as well near the archbishop covenant and a bonfire. took out a trio of npcs in the archives as well.

Then, I went to the archdragon place. Fuck, that place is pretty tough. The snakemen are pretty stupid and will nonchalantly eat all of my 1.2k health, while dying in 3 hits themselves. The ancient wyvern was retarded, but I managed, but the nameless king was on a whole different level. Guy was pretty tough, though I eventually managed. Luckily the bonfire is right there so you don't have to kill anything. Killed Havel on the roof as well, annoying cunt. 10 backstabs I think.

Then, the last boss. Well, before that I did some farming and bought all the items from the shrine maiden that I unlocked. Havels shit is fucking heavy as fuck. Anyways, the end boss. Pretty damn easy. Two attempts, and the second attempt I barely had to use estus at all. I was expecting something a bit more... tough. I guess there's always NG+ for that, or NG++

final playtime was 37 hours

 

I'm an enormous DS fanboy, so it was pretty much guaranteed that as long as this game wasn't utter shit I'd love it. As it is, it falls closely behind Bloodborne as maybe my second favorite game of all time.

The whole thing played like a love letter to Dark Souls 1, and that's pretty much exactly what I was hoping for. Awesome areas, cool bosses, and weapons that actually have unique and interesting movesets made the game a real pleasure.

My first playthrough was a strength build running ultra greatswords -- Astora's into Profaned GS's. Tons of fun, but some bosses were definitely extremely hard to fight with such slow weapons. For a few bosses I had to bait out one attack over and over because it was the only window I had to hit.

My second playthrough was dex and I was pretty blown away by how easy the bosses became with a fast weapon (and also how ridiculous bleed is in this game). I've since done sorcery and pyro as well. I started miracles, but they're pretty much utter shit until you get sixty faith, and I didn't feel like duping Stray Demon's soul twenty times before having decent damage.

Right now I'm learning the speedrun for this game. The route is pretty straightforward and relatively safe for a DS speedrun. It basically takes advantage of the overpoweredness of straight swords and the luck scaling on Anri's sword combined with luck's effect on bleed. If anyone is interested in speedrunning this game, a friend of mine wrote up some notes on pastebin, and I can answer any questions you might have. The world record is currently around and hour and twelve minutes to kill all nineteen bosses.

 

72h spent playing the game thus far and not a single Blue Sentinel or Darkmoon summoning.

Not a single invasion as a Watchdog of Farron.

Seriously, what the fuck? Why are these three covenants so fucking broken?

 

When did you start trying?

I equipped Blue Sentinel as soon as I got it and got a ton of summonings into undead settlement and a few in road of sacrifices, but once I leveled up and moved on they pretty much stopped.

Seems to me like people are only using Way of Blue at low level.

 

On my first character? Right from the moment I got it, which is at Halfway Fortress. I was somewhere between SL 17-20 at the time, and my most upgraded (the zweihander) weapon was at +2. The few times it seemed like something was going to happen I got the "Could not be summoned" or whatever the message is for when it fails to summon you. Happened earlier today, on a new character, while I was farming a Black Knight for its chest piece.