So I'm finding DS2 waaaay harder than DS1. The thing is - I'm admittedly not very good at these games. However, in DS1, because raising any attribute also raised defense you could kind of just grind your way through that game. I don't think I beat O&S until I was like SL80. I know people play these games for the challenge, but I get my own kind of satisfaction from making the game "easy" by grinding.

That doesn't seem to work in DS2 since defenses are tried to specific attributes and I honestly have no idea what I'm doing. First I figured I would go for Dex since I was a Falchion guy in DS1 - but from what I'm seeing most bosses in DS2 has such short "vulnerability windows" where you can get multiple hits in that the game seems more suited to single shoting with slow, high damage strength weapons. However, I then read that magic was pretty viable in this game, so I started specing towards that and it helps for the basic enemies but seems too slow to use for bosses.

I've been having a terrible time with the bosses. I had to use the ballista trick to kill the Pursuer. Every other boss after that, I've had to summon phantoms. Luckily it seems they provide at least one non-player phantom for every boss fight so far, but I'm worried that's going to run out. In any case I beat the Lost Sinner (with two NPC phantoms) and that's as far as I've gotten. I'm not in No-man's Wharf and getting my ass handed to me basic enemies. I'm around SL70 BTW.

I think that's why I'm getting especially frustrated. At a certain point in DS1 I always level to where basic enemies just aren't a concern at all because they do so little damage, but here it seems even now, the basic grunts in the Land of the Giant can still kill me in 3 hits if I'm careless.

I have a couple of the respecing items, so I guess what I'm asking is: what's an easy way to progress through the game for someone whose reflexes aren't that great?

Get a high stability greatshield and put some points into stamina and whatever the hell equip load's tied to--endurance? You'll probably need some base strength to wield said shield. You'll be able to block a whole lot of attacks--and I bet wielding that shield with two hands (hold triangle/Y if it's in your left hand) will further increase its stability.

I went with dual Falchions for the entire game--though they're not the fastest, they're still relatively quick vs. heavier strength weapons and take a lot less stamina to use. I find it much safer to use because on some harder bosses (especially the DLC ones, who are among my favorite), the windows you have to attack are, as you said, very short. They can vary, and so having a relatively fast weapon that you can combo a couple times and then back off so you still have stamina to dodge/block safely is something I really appreciated. Sometimes all I'd do is a single R1 strike because of my stamina--or none at all!

The game gets easier as you progress, since the number of estus charges you have (and the amount they heal) increases. Plus, you'll be able to dump extra souls into basic lifegems sold by the old hag, and after a certain boss I've forgotten, she'll have an infinite supply of them.

If you feel ballsy (especially with the Pursuer, because you are far from done with him), bring a tiny shield for parrying. It takes some practice, but there are numerous humanoid enemies whose attacks are telegraphed slowly enough that you can get the parry timing down pretty nicely. (my preferred Pursuer strategy was wait for an attack I can parry, then switch to powerstanced Falchions and do two combos)

Edit: I should also note that the start of the game in Scholar is notably difficult versus the original game, but it gets easier, level design-wise, later on.

I'm having a tough time with the parry in this one. I got the parry down pretty well in DS1, but I just can't get a handle on the timing this one where instead of hitting the parry right before the attack hits you have to hit it during the enemy's wind up because you have your own wind up.

If you're not going heavy armor and greatshield you need to go adaptability and get your agility up to at least 100, this gives you invulnerability frames in your roll. I never played a sword and shield in DS2 so i can't comment really, but probably find havel's ring (or equivalent ) and up the stat that governs carry weight (can't remember if it was endurance in 2 or not). I basically raised endurance, dex, and adaptability.

Also i only played vanilla DS2 so i'm not sure if everything is 100% the same or not.

@oursin_360: the same status effects apply, so yes, pumping points into adaptability (attunement also increases agility, though not as substantial) until your agility hits 99 (105 was preferable for me, 13 iFrames helped a lot) is also a very good idea.

@sweetz: Parrying definitely feels different this time around. The only enemies I really spent any time parrying, for what it's worth, are the Pursuer, the sword-wielding Heide Knights, and a very particular Havel dude in the late game. Their attacks are slow enough that I can react accordingly. For everyone else, it was dodge city!

Also, I don't know if this is the case in Dark Souls II, but in III, the Caestus doesn't have more parry frames than other weapons--but its startup is incredibly fast, allowing you to begin your parry almost the moment you get hit, and still be successful.

Be sure to go to Heides tower of flame and get the ring of binding

Haven't seen it mentioned but if you really don't want to have trouble with the game ditch the bladed weapons and get yourself some hammers. Fromsoft went damn right crazy and made like 75% of the enemies in the game weak to strike damage. They also made the extra damage you get from using the proper weapon type significant.

Hell before they went on their game balance craze in the base game, power stancing 2 maces was obscenely overpowered in terms of damage it was capable of and it's ability to stagger enemies. You could easily stunlock most enemies that weren't bosses(and even a couple that were). They aren't nearly as broken now but are still very strong in terms of damage alone.

Learn to dodge. That's not an insult, it's the best advice I can give. I went back to the game a year after I beat it the first time and decided to dual weild and never have a shield, you become a demigod very quickly. Get the Agility stat to 99, it raises your invincibility frames significantly for the roll. The hard thing about Dark Souls 2 is it forces you to engage multiple enemies simultaneously by design, learning to dodge attacks will improve your ability to read enemy movement and make it much easier to handle several enemies at once. If you master dodging AND have a shield, nothing will kill you (except invading players).

I was half expecting this thread to be filled with "git gud" comments.

@sweetz: After finishing it last night, I would recommend taking your time and don't be afraid to just run through an area rather than fighting everyone. Also, I don't think most people will admit it but if you can get someone to play with you, co-op through the game if you think it'll help. You would be surprised to hear how many people play through these games with friends.

The difficulty in the game comes from the large amount of enemies in any given area. It can get frustrating, so just give yourself ample time and come back to an area if its getting the better of you.

Hope this helps.

I would recommend not ever using parry, and just getting the dodge down. Besides being more useful against a larger variety of obstacles than parries and also considerably easier to time, performing rising attacks from those dodges may help your "vulnerability window" issue as well.

Persevere!

Buy the mace, learn to love it's moveset and upgrade it as much as you can, other than that a good shield and strong enough armor that will still allow you to roll was what got me through this game.

protip: you wanna have at least enough dexterity to fire a bow correctly, there are some areas later on that would be a nightmare without a ranged attack.

Don't jump into dlc areas until you've got the game down. I remember banging my head in Sanctum City for hours because I was under-leveled and thought that was the next area.

This is so important. The adaptability has to be leveled in DS2 before rolling even feels good imo, otherwise it'll feel like you're getting tagged a lot by things you thought you just dodged.

If you're not looking to become very dodge-centric in your playstyle, you can breeze easily through this game by equipping a greatshield and circle strafing. There's really not much more to it, blocking w/ shields is just kinda OP in this game compared to other Souls titles. The important is to attack primarily when your enemy is recovering from their attack animations, and occasionally unblock for quicker stamina regen. Be warned though, there are some bosses (mostly in the DLC) that absolutely require some good rolling on your part. But hey, that's what summons are for.

Good luck, and if you have any specific questions please feel free to ask!

Enemies will eventually stop respawning. This is important.

This was not the case in Dark Souls 1. So if you are really having trouble, just keep taking down enemies and resting at a bonfire and eventually you will clear an area.

@memonk: Yup already got it ASAP. Would have quit already if not for that (I really don't like that mechanic, the game is punishing enough already).

@dudeglove: Already spec'd into magic a bit. It helps but enemies can close the distance fast and you get swarmed quickly. I find the cast times are too long to be any use in boss fights. I did however completely cheese the dragon in front of the Heide's Tower drawbridge (which is specific to Scholar of the First Sin as I understand it) with a bow. Flashbacks to the good old DS1 bridge dragon there.

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Thanks for the advice everyone. Last night I actually ended up grinding a bunch to raise strength the point where I could use the bastard sword and then upgraded it a couple times.

It's been quite a game changer. Being able to one shot basic enemies makes getting through the levels so much easier - and the swing on it doesn't even seem all that slower than what I had been using, the Uchigatana (which in retrospect I now think is complete garbage). Since I'm already over 20 in Dex, at this point I guess I'm specing towards using the Drangleic sword since I read that's good (and scales with Dex despite requiring 25 Str).

I'm wondering if I should use the respec item and reclaim what I spent in specing towards magic. IIRC I'm at 18 Int and like 16 Att. It has been nice for pulling some enemies and getting a little damage in before they're close, but that's a decent number of points I could sink into melee related stats.

Get Agility up to 105 for the sweet iframes.
Get a Caestus. Get two, in fact.
Powerstance those and punch your way through Drangleic.
Put on Rocky or Fist of the North Star tracks to play in the background.

Definitely get a beefy tower shield and block your way to victory. It's as close as you will get. Also put a lot of points into vigor and FAQ/Wiki all the estus shards.

When you see a dwarf looking enemy type, (not NPC). Kill them repeatedly for another greatshield. Trust me you'll want that.

@sweetz: If you're open to another weapon recommendation, I give maximum endorsement to the broken Santier's Spear. I don't know why I don't see anyone else recommending this thing--maybe people just never gave it a shot because it's so unconventional. It took me a few playthroughs before I gave it a real try and discovered how amazing it is. I've used almost every weapon in the game now, and it's become my favorite PvE weapon. Its moveset combines the best moves of halberds (wide multi-hit AOE), twinblades (rapid multi-hit combos), and spears (quick long-range thrusts). It's also buffable and has infinite durability. It requires 20 Str / 22 Dex, which you've pretty much got, and has no stat scaling to bother with. The points you save on Str / Dex can be spent comfortably rounding out your other stats. I use it with a rolling rather than blocking playstyle, since it requires readily switching between one-handed and two-handed to enjoy the full breadth of its moves, and juggling a shield is going to slow you down with more switching overhead. The damage is not the highest--only 350 + buffs--but its moveset is so powerful and versatile that it's easily one of the most fun weapons to use in the game.

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One of the issues with Dark 2 is it gives you access to infinite health regen items. As a result, enemies seem to have been intentionally balanced to hit harder, as otherwise it'd be too easy. But that said, you can abuse the ever living hell out of this by grinding for souls and extra life gems.

Another unique aspect of Dark 2 is that you can depopulate enemies by killing them I think between 10-12 times. So if a zone is giving you significant trouble, use it for grinding as it will also eventually result in an easier path through that zone.

As for a build, the ultimate "easy mode" build for PvE is probably a hex build. I've played around with that build, and while you'll be a little squishy, it trivializes a lot of the harder parts of the game. The nonstop complaining by some about hex builds back during the Dark 2 zeitgeist is a bit of a testament to how effective it can be.

Go to FextraLife PvE builds and search for "Chaos Warlock." That will give you a good idea of what to aim for stats-wise if you want to try this type of build. You don't need all of the things that guy suggests. For instance, the Chaos Blade is for PvP purposes. I'd skip the Roaring Halbred as well. The Silverblack Spear is the PvE weapon of choice for that build. I'd pair it with the Moonlight Greatsword. The Sunset Staff and Caitha's Chime are good picks for catalysts. The Chime is what makes this build a lot more viable against certain bosses, as it allows for fast casting. The staff is more powerful and is for when you can otherwise find larger windows.

Edit: All right, i booted up on my hex character, which is on NG+ having finished all the DLC so the SL will be pretty high (194). Stats are similar to that guy's build with more vigor and int with the spare points. I'm using a Magic Moonlight Great Sword + 5, a Dark Sunset Staff + , and a Defender's Shield + 5.

Armor set is Black Hood +5, Black Witch Robe + 5, Chaos Gloves, and Chaos Boots + 5. Rings are Dark Clutch Ring, Clear Bluestone Ring + 2, Chloranthy Ring + 1, and Third Dragon Ring. I just settled on using Dark Orb (3 copies for 72 casts), Affinity, and Scraps of Life for my spells. Looks like at some point I was mucking about with the Mace of the Insolent as I have a Dark version +10. I also had the Silverblack Spear up to +10 (Dark version). I kind of remember just eventually going back to the Moonlight Greatsword though in the end (304 + 231 damage). To get some of this equipment though, you need to mess around with bonfire ascetic's.

I too had a much, much harder time with DS2 than 1. What I did was constantly summon help. And even then some of the harder fights are still hard.

There's always the tried and true method of getting a good bow and picking off fools from far away (or just getting a few hits in and finishing them from afar). Since enemies despawn, it actually means being extra cautious the first few times through with bows isn't just a waste of arrows (like it is in other Dark Souls games) since the more you need to do it (if being cautious isn't enough) the easier it gets to be reckless.

Also fyi (maybe someone stated it already) there is a way to respec your character in this game and you can get it pretty early, so dont feel too married to the choices you've made if you dont like them.

Hey all just a little update, I'm still having a much easier time with the game since I switched to greatswords. I've been rolling with the Drangleic sword and that's still working well. Last night I beat the last of the 4 big bosses they tell you to get at the start of the game.

The difficulty definitely seems far more "front loaded" than DS1. I've gotten in the habit of using NPC summons whenever available and as a result, many later bosses I've actually beaten on my first try. It was smart of them to add a lot more of these for Scholar of the First Sin, accounting for the fact that eventually less people would be playing the game.

Hopefully they don't kick the difficult up too much for the rest of the game. The DLC is very hard as I understand it, I probably won't try to tackle any of that until after finishing most of the base game.

I would say that, more than being hard per se, parts of the DLC are just cheap as hell. I don't personally understand why it is so highly praised. The enemies who are undetectable until they come up out of the sand and swarm you feel like a violation of the basic principles that make these games good. But that's just my (completely correct) opinion.

So I got to the DLCs and...screw that mess. These bosses are impossible for me.

It feels like the developers spent too much time watching and catering to a few dozen YouTubers/streamers who dominate the game while forgetting hundreds of thousands of "normal" players who probably aren't looking for quite that level of challenge.

The game is so uneven, I had a really hard time in the beginning, completely breezed through the middle (pretty much thanks to NPC summons), and hit a brick wall with the DLCs.

I also had a high-dex build, and I still ended up using a mace +10 most of the time, either two-handing it or power-stancing with it and a broadsword +10. The unfortunate truth is this game is very much 'balanced' towards strike weapons, as far more enemies are weak to strike damage than are weak to blade or thrust damage. Couple that with how much more likely you are to stagger an enemy with a strike weapon, and it's hard to justify ignoring that weapon class, even when your build doesn't appear to benefit from using it. In the end, I got my dex to 50, and my strength to 40, and put the rest into defensive stats, all but ignoring magic.

Pay attention to damage multipliers on weapons. A high 'grade' on a weapon's stats increases the damage done by how high your level is in that stat. I used Ricard's Rapier +10 a ton because it has a dex bonus of grade 'S', which shot up the additional damage by a good 200 points towards the end of the game. Couple that with a high-level broadsword and you've got a pretty good dex power-stance combo.

Lastly, status effects are INCREDIBLY powerful against almost all the bosses - the problem is, the game doesn't communicate which status effect will help you in any way at all. My advice, shitty as it is, is just look up what a boss' status effect weaknesses are on the internet when you encounter them. There's literally no other way to know, and oh man, there are some shitty boss fights ahead of you if you don't ever get that information (it took me over 100 hours to complete this game and most of its DLC - don't waste 20 of those hours like I did struggling with dumbass boss fights).

Yeah dude, I just gave up on the third DLC boss fight (the samurai) and straight-up didn't bother with the last DLC area I entered (the ice one). They are, indeed, SUPER fuckin hard, and the payoff (the crowns) are only worth it if you are either early in the game or are doing a new game+. Don't waste your time, especially if you're just tryin to beat the damn thing at this point.

I managed to beat Dark Souls 2 and the DLC, but I do agree with you about this. I've talked pretty extensively about this in many other threads over the years, but to sum it all up: The bosses aren't so much hard as they are cheap. The Royal Rat Authority for instance has those 4 rats in the beginning. The challenge in the fight doesn't come from the boss - who's a freaking cake-walk - it comes from trying to kill those 4 rats as soon as possible. A large majority of the bosses are like this, rather than being hard, they just throw a bunch of minions at you and say it's good enough.

The DLC is pretty funny in that they contain the absolute worst bosses, and some of the best bosses in the game. The quality is all over the place.

Edit: Also, if you're determined to beat the game, I'd say redo your stats and be a mage. It makes the game a lot easier and trivializes some of the later bosses and enemies.

step 1: acquire +10 greatsword

step 2: acquire 50 strength

step 3: kill everything in 2 hits, bosses in 5 hits

(seriously greatsword completely trivialises the entire game)

I've been dabbling in magic, INT 35 currently. It was very useful in the middle of the game, but in the DLCs, everything seems to have so much magic resistance that I'm barely doing any damage.

To be honest, I'm tiring of the game and lack the motivation to beat the DLC bosses. I did get 2 of the crowns (Fume Knight was only beaten with the help of 3 other human players!), but haven't beaten any of the optional bosses, and in Ivory King, I can't get past Aava.

I'll probably just finish out the base game and then YouTube the alternate ending.

Pretty spot on. Blue Smelter Demon, the Gank Squad, and the Double Aava fight were all garbage. On the other hand, Sir Alonne, Fume Knight, and Burnt Ivory King are perhaps my three favorite bosses in the game (my favorites from the core game being Looking Glass Knight and Smelter Demon). In general, I loved the DLC content though and thought it was much better than the core game. And it had nothing to do with challenge. The content in general I just thought was better designed.

I do get the love it or hate it reaction the DLC tends to get though. I'd suggest tackling it after beating the core game if you're running into problems with it. Also, don't hesitate to summon to get through the harder fights if they're proving too frustrating. All of Alonne's attacks can be absorbed with a 100% physical damage reduction shield.

Fume Knight is probably the only one you're just going to have to "git gud" to beat. That dude is no joke.

This. There is nothing more satisfying then punching every stupid giant monster in its dumb face.

Got my second playthrough finished in 30 hours and had a much better time. Finally beat the last two bosses (I messed up triggering Aldia) solo. Still cannot get a handle on DLC or the three big optional bosses. Went immediately into a new character and rattled through four bosses in short time. Picked a bandit this time for a headstart on DEX. All my initial souls went on getting ADP to 20.

Ancient Dragon feels like a lottery. It's a marathon fight of watching him and taking the safest of shots but I'm not sure you can reliably bait him into safer attacks. Two handing a lot more in this game out of necessity and I feel I'll always need a bigger Plan B weapon for mob fights like Rat Vanguard. I'm using boss souls as I get them and might aim to permadeath some places to build up stock. I finished with 50 strength on my last run so might sacrifice some of that to boost ADP or something.

The base game, right now, is enjoyable piss. The extras and DLC are something else.