I know I'm not very good at this game. I have died probably hundreds of times. I was ok with that though. Until now. This area is making me want to leave this game. Those goddamn black knights are driving me insane. From the guys with the clubs that never stop attacking for a second and kill me in 2 hits, to the guys with big swords that ignore my great shield and walls to kill me or the scythe and shield guys with their ridiculous shied bashes, I am losing my will to continue with this quest. Words of comfort are needed duders.

have you tried running past them? i ran past them

Bait them to fight one on one. You can bait the first two back to the door. Then from there you can bait the smaller dudes on the stairs to fight one at a time. Then bait the next two big dudes to follow you down the stairs. I guess the only works if you ranged attacks. Lighting/spells or a crossbow/bow. I never had any issues with them due to having ranged attacks.

Well, if it helps you should know that the boss at the end of that area is completely optional, so you won't have to keep fighting your way through for boss runs at least. Can't you summon some help maybe? The dragon shrine is usually rife with people looking to help out.

@itwastuesday: Yep. That's what I ended up doing.

Just do one at a time. Dodge, and attack. Only the ones with the 2hand mace are that hard. Those are pretty fucking brutal if you get caught blocking and they wont stop swinging. Roll attack from behind, no more then 2 hits, repeat. If you are rolling slow, take off gear.

On my tanky dude, this was no problem due to easily blocking all the damage at very little stamina cost. On my magic dude, I just nuked them in 2-3 casts. I haven't done it yet with my fully offensive melee dude, but he's got powerful lightning spells too, so it won't be a problem either...

I don't know how you built your character, but maybe consider using a Soul Vessel and respec...

Apparently, the black knights have low resistance against getting crushed by a 5+ Dragon Tooth. And they really can't take the heat from being drowned in a Chaos Storm. If all else fail, run like hell.

Yeah, just get a bow and cheese them at range. Pretty sure poison arrows work on them. Takes a while if you haven't upgraded a bow, but it's the easy way to handle 'em.

Can't summon help (aside from shades) until there's a boss for the area, meaning you have to go it alone the first time.

My advice: poison arrows / poison throwing knives.

Poison arrows dude.

Turn Human and look for summon signs, someone will be able to help you through the level. Just don't attack the thing at the end, or you'll actually give up, especially if you're finding that bit hard.

Flame Swathe was immensely helpful first time through that area, also leashing the enemies to the hallway at the base of the steps helped too.

Yeah, run past them! I found the made wielding guys to be insane with my 2 handed melee character. You can just run straight through to the end of this level.

My advice is, to keep doing what you're doing, and keep dying.

Hope this helps.

Over-level and come back. Although even when I had, what I assume was way higher level than you're supposed to have at that point, they were a challenge.

For reference by the time I beat the final boss and then the optional final boss I was like level 165

Always be running

I ran past them as well. But only after constantly trying to take them on and dying. Trust me it's not worth it, just run past them. I've finished the game at this point but I'm thinking of going back to this area to take on the ancient dragon before starting NG+.

visit your friendly wheeler dealer gavlan for the poison arrows that kill every enemy in the shrine, without them ever taking a swing in anger

Don't try to block the old knights. They are too powerful for that. Either dodge and get one attack in, regain stamina and repeat; or use ranged attacks. Just keep at it. They should stop spawning at some point even. Also, you can run past them. If it's any consolation: it is one of the hardest area's in the game (assuming you are trying to kill everyone).

Whoah at the gibberish.

I also ran past this part. I basically took one look at the enemies and their placements and how much damage it would take to kill them and just decided they weren't worth the time, and so i did what i did throughout al least half the game, ran past them. Luckily there' s no boss at the end, unless you want a boss.

weakness: poison

Thanks duders, blame tiredness and frayed nerves for this. As many of you said, I popped over to Gavlan, bought myself a whole bunch of poison arrows, beefed up my Dragonrider Bow and waltzed on through the area. Turns out I'd died on the last dude about 4 times, not knowing that he was in fact the last dude and I could just sprint past him. Tantrum over, now I've just got the final boss to kill (got her down to about 6% health twice only to fail) and we're all done.

A little tip for the Ancient Dragon : Stay close to his toes from the back legs. This will prompt the stomp and, when he do, just run to the other too. Do not lock on him, keep the camera pointed to his front. If you see him slowly rising, that means he will breath fire under him, so run away. This methods prevents him from doing his AoE fire breath most of the time. Sometime, he will jump on the side. Just run to his tail for a swing, prompting him to smash you with it, offering you the opportunity to run back to his toes, without prompting his AoE attack.

Ah, the oft-neglected stat. :)

I don't get why people say "don't try to block their attacks". Blocking the Drakekeeper (the real name of the "big fat black dudes :P") attacks is perfectly viable if you have a good shield and decent stamina. You don't even need a tower shield, I use the highly underrated Defender Shield at +5 and have no problem at all blocking their hits. The Mace Drakekeeper's are tricky you just need to practice on the one early in the level and master his dodge timing, also... never fight them two at a time. If it has to be a two on one pick one of them off at range. The sword and shield Keepers are no different than the "Old Knights" from Hiede they just swing 1-2 more times, the same strafing plan still works you just don't attack after swing 2. Same goes for the Two hand sword Drakekeepers.

The Dragonknights though (guys in dumb looking gold armor) can be dangerous. Just treat them like you are fighting another player who has invaded and is too dumb to heal and you should be fine.

With every dark souls game, I hear a lot of complaints when players who enjoy a tanky, defensive build come across enemies that can out-tank them, and hit harder with better range. That's when the game is telling you to add some variety to your gameplay. We're intended to try different tactics. The game punishes players who place limits on their build. Such as the players who refuse to use any kind of range (not even consumables).

In my case, I hit some trouble with my pure INT build trying to take on those Lion dudes with high resistances in the shaded wood. I ended up using holy waters and a dagger for backstabs. Not what I built my character to do, but it worked.

Poison arrows. Poison in this game is extremely useful in almost all situations. So much so that I think it might be nerfed at some point but yea. Even if you can't wield the bow properly, the arrows will still take affect. Takes like 2 full poison to kill one of em and thats about 4 shots per poison affect.

Hell throwing knives work too.

Poison arrows. Poison in this game is extremely useful in almost all situations. So much so that I think it might be nerfed at some point but yea. Even if you can't wield the bow properly, the arrows will still take affect. Takes like 2 full poison to kill one of em and thats about 4 shots per poison affect.

Hell throwing knives work too.

Just wait until you get to the area after that. Range weapons will definitely be your best friend.

The cardinal rule of Souls games for me is to speak softly, carry a big sword, and if that doesn't work resort to poison arrows to give those jerks what they have coming.

Try tongue but hole.