You can't do forward+attack moves at close range any more.

Where beforehand you would hit forward and heavy attack, to then do a jumping move, it only works if you're far enough away to then close the distance on your opponent. The same goes for what the kick used to be, which is now a dash forward and guard-break move.

Am I missing something here? I assume if not, then they did this to force you into closer encounters that more resemble proper sword fights, and to get around people hanging back away from enemy animation only to then lunge in and do massive damage.

Subjectively though, I HATE this change!!!

Sorry to bump this up again, but I'm literally dying over and over from trying to do forward+attack moves and just swinging at nothing, I don't understand the system they've implemented, it's almost like you have to wait a second before you can jump into something powerful, otherwise it just fails.

Any help would be greatly appreciated please!! I'm losing my mind over how insanely cheap the hitboxes are on this too!

Yes. I had a problem with this at first too. I also noticed that every shield i got had less then 100% dammage reduction. most was 80% on a strength 15 shield. I also found that attacks now combo better, or just in genral as opposed to how they did before.

Basicly you attack slower then Dark Souls, and they attack faster. And tanks will need to build Vit as well as Str instead of just Str like last game. because everytime you get hit will still reduce your life. So dodgeing is much better then blocking this time round. I would suguest using a diffrent weapon, and relearn how to fight.

Somewhat related to this - damage now varies on a per weapon basis dependent upon your distance from the target. Some are better farther away, and the reverse is also true. On weapons like the Halberd I've seen up to a 20% change based on distance even using the same attack.

Cindy lost 20 pounds by using this simple trick!

Alot of the changes were meant to make using 2 swords viable

So we do know what determines whether or not you can bust out the jumping forward power attack? Y'know the likes of the jumping forward with a sword/axe etc? Sometimes it works even when quite close, others it's just you flailing around like an frickin moron! (Needless to say I think part 2 is far worse because of this crap)

There are definitely 100% damage reduction shields in the game, they're just much rarer.

@zeik: plus your shields scale so a 90% one might be 100 at the late game any way

Sorry but what the FUCK is up with these power attacks?? I don't understand what governs whether or not you can do one. I am CONSTANTLY dying because of an enemy opens up, I hit forward+attack and instead of a jumping attack it's a static swing leaving me WIDE OPEN.

Or it works....sometimes it just works, and I can't tell why. The jumping attacks trigger 100% outside of combat, but when fighting a guy it totally appears broken. Is there like a time limit on doing a jumping attack after an initial, or can they only be triggered when the enemy is in a particular state?

I haven't had an issue with it, although I don't try to use it too often. I remember reading the timing is tighter, but ? :/

A thought that I haven't tested yet but should be verifiable - maybe you need enough stamina to complete the jumping attack? If I recall in DS1 you could do anything as long as you had any stamina left, even if your bar empties during the move. If that's true it would probably seem work consistently outside combat when your stamina bar is full or when you're closing to engage, but if you're closely engaged and recovering from a block or roll you might not have enough stamina to pull off the attack and end up whiffing instead. This might explain a lot actually, as sometimes it seems like I whiff an attack that should connect.

The timing is tighter, you just have to get used to it. Honestly, the power attacks were never that good, and that didn't change in this game, it's easier to just hit the enemy. You do more damage quicker by just using normal or strong attacks, so I'd just stop using them if it's pissing you off that much, they're kind of shit anyway.

What the hell!? Did you just use a heavy shield and block all day long in DS1? Some of the Ultra sword jump attacks were ridiculously powerful and allowed you to control space not to mention how quickly they came out as opposed to just swinging your weapon. I you 2 handed heavy weapons you needed to use it expertly since you cant tank damage. What Dark Souls were you playing, guy?

I thought this thread was going to be about how you can go up and down ladders much quicker than before by holding run. Now that's a change that's good for everybody.

@imbiginjapan said:

Well, nobody seems to really have an answer for ShalashaskaUK666_noscope_420, but I do like yours the best. Like you said, Dark Souls 1 would let you take pretty much any action as long as you had non-zero stamina, even if technically that action would leave you with negative stamina. Dark Souls 2 seems to punish you in numerous ways for taking actions with low stamina, and maybe you're right about the game just not letting you perform actions that require more stamina than you actually have in your bar.

Especially coming off of Demon's Souls. My god that ladder climbing animation took forever. Another cool thing in DSII is that you can also jump off of ladders now if you just tap the button you use to climb ladders faster (X for me on PS3).

You can increase a shields resistance as well as stability by upgrading them.

Well, I never used heavy weapons. I found them very cumbersome, especially for PvP (which is what I mostly did) considering most people are using magic and/or fast weapons to gain the advantage. If you were doing large, slow swings, you were usually dead, especially if they were vertical. I used the great scythe quite a bit though, but never the jump attack, too much recovery.

@mb: It's not distance but rather weapon placement, so it's somewhat related. Damage output is related to the specific part of the weapon that hits the enemy. As an example, damage output would be different if your were to hit an enemy with the tip of your sword at the end of the swing, as opposed to if the sword impacted along it's entire length. Pretty neat system.

@feels: Are you positive about that? I got my information from ENB who worked on the official stategy guide with From. I guess it's possible he was wrong, though.

@mb: Yeah, I'm positive, considering my info is from ENB too lol. Watch his first video on DS2, starting at 30:40. I guess there's not much variation in damage, but there seems to be two distinct outputs depending on where you hit with your weapon. So technically yes, it is a matter of distance between yourself and the enemy too.