Polygon has a some general details regarding the first dlc, Crown of the Sunken King, up here.

My big main take-aways:

- The dlc starts from the Black Gulch.

- 3 main areas total, multiple bosses.

- One of the areas sounds very vertical in design, kind of like the Catacombs from DkS1

- Flying enemies that shoot equipment dissolving acid upon death.

- A bunch of status ailment based enemies in general.

- The final boss is not going to be yet another guy in armor with a big mace sword.

I'm torn on if I should wait for all three pieces of dlc to be released, or just jump in on day one so I can get a blind experience. I think in the end my curiosity will get the better of me.

In regards to the article, it sounds like we're getting more boss fights that involve multiple enemies. I didn't hate that in Dark Souls 2, but fighting more than one mob certainly proved difficult for my skill level.

I don't know why, but I'm not excited to get back into Dark Souls 2. The more I played the second, the less I liked it. It took mee 300 hours to decide that it wasn't as good as Dark Souls 1. I might pick up the DLC, not sure. Depends on how easily I can get to the DLC, seeing as how I had stopped playing after just starting NG++. So It might be easier to just roll a new character.

I always thought Black Gulch ended kinda suddenly. Nice to see they are revisiting that area.

That said, I'm looking forward to play 0% of the DLC.

Looks neat, dunno which of my 10 characters I should use. From making reviewers play through NG+ with a weird character sounds wonderful.

You forgot the main thing... out next week in the 22nd.

Super fucking excited for this

I can't get excited about more Black Gulch. I'm sorry.

Oh, good, those giant mosquitoes were my favorite in Dark Souls.

I just started playing again, trying again to keep that stupid NPC alive. She collapses like a cheap suit...

Really looking forward to this stuff.

I'm gonna wait for all three DLC to be out before I decide if I'm gonna get it or not. Dark Souls II just wasn't as good as Dark Souls. I'm about a half a play though away from getting platinum and just can't get interested in playing it more. Maybe I should go back and finish the Dark Souls 1 DLC. Still got 2 bosses left in that.

As long as it isn't a fucked up infinitely-spawning enemy like in Blighttown, then whatever (although I hate equipment degradation as much as everyone else).

I got a lot f mileage (for me, one play-through) out of DS2. I thought it as good a game, and better graphically, than the original Dark Souls. But I did pc with a new and very strong video card.

DLC is next week and I am up for it.

Are those giant black mouth enemies bosses? If they are regular enemies then I already dread fighting them; infinite poise, broken grab hitboxes and giant 180 degree pivoting frame......oh joy.

I don't know why everyone complains about the Mosquitos in Blighttown. All you need to do is to stock up on throwing knives and they are dead simple. The most annoying thing about them is the sound they make.

More status effects?

More weapon degradation?

More crowd management?

More big enemies with maces (assuming they're the same as the ones from the Shrine in the end game that have infinite stamina)?

None of these are things I enjoy. These aren't challenging, they're just annoying. Ugh.

@silentpredator: Based Mace Guy could beat almost every boss in the series in a 1 on 1.

We are ready for your DLC, From.

No no no no no!!!!!! The worst boss fights in Dark Souls 2 are the ones that have multiple enemies... Ugh. It really sucks to hear that. It's like From Software forgot how to make an interesting boss fight that doesn't involve more than one enemy. It's the most fun when it's just you and the boss, and the fight relies solely on your ability to dodge his attacks and time your own.

It's also disheartening to hear that they're adding more status effect enemies as well. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I feel like - again - they could try to find other ways to be difficult other than annoying status effects and multiple enemies. Maybe a level similar to Sen's Fortress where you have to avoid traps rather than worry about enemies. Anything different would be a good thing at this point.

Looking for some help on this. I went full melee/bow build my first run, but after starting New Game+ I switch to faith and just trolled the Rat/Bell Towers. Now the DLC is coming out I want to respec my dude back to pure melee bow. What should I look to invest in. I'm soul level 148 right now. Before I remember it was like a 40/40 str/dex build. Is this still good? I ended up using Katana's and curvered sword more. If that matter any.

@5enintendan: I'm hardly an expert on the second game, but from what I can tell. Faith builds are really strong in PVE as well. Just put sunlight blade on your, er, blade. And kill stuff! Making the weapon lightning infused also boosts the damage a fair bit.

Also for the thread. I'm not really looking to get back into the game again, but I do want to play the DLC at some point. I wonder if I can be lucky with a sale later on when all 3 are out.

Not really itching to plunge on back in to Dark Souls 2, so I think I'll pick this up when it's all three parts together. I don't know what it is, but this game doesn't have a the same spark the first one did, despite a lot of things being empirically better. Think I feel a bit like @viciousbearmauling, the more I played, the less I liked the game.

This first area seems like its totally insane for pvp.

Probably because everyone is condensed into the same place wanting to run the same area. I would play it offline for now anyway to get the "authentic" feel. It is the only way to avoid messages telling you where everything is etc etc.

@karkarov: I mean in general: really easy to hide/get lost, seed of the giants is nuts, lots of weird trap rooms, and a lot of potential for falling to your death.

Not sure what to pick this up for. Played through DS2 on PS3 but I think I'd rather own the dlc on PC despite having only put like 5 hours into the PC version.

@boboblaw: I believe the PC is the only one that has the "season pass" outside of Europe so buy it for PC.

That was my move a well. Besides the PC IS the superior version.

I fear a moolight greatsword/mage build might be OP in a non-NG+ context. Whatever, I'm still looking forward to magicking some sunken fools.

Apparently Jester Thomas makes a glorious return.

I used him in for the first time in my PC let's play I am doing..... guy is a beast despite his "I need to take a crap" stance and poofy pants.

Everything I've read about the first DLC sounds like they've doubled down on the very worst parts of Dark Souls II. I don't want to have to sit in menus managing my inventory because my primary weapon just broke. I don't want to be prodded into summoning other players because the PvE is unreasonably stacked against me. And I especially don't want sections like Black Gulch that don't understand "tedious" is not the same as "difficult". Waiting to hear what those who have actually played through it have to say.

I've played through about an hour, and so far I'm REALLY disliking it. Tell me, do you like fighting 4-5 guys at once who can poison you just by standing next to you? Do you like not having a bonfire or shortcut open up at any reasonable distance from the first one that forces you to go through a half hours worth of content all over again if you die? Do you like VERY small rooms where you hardly have any room to maneuver while fighting two enemies who have GIGANTIC health pools? I haven't even gotten to the first boss yet, and I'm almost ready to just quit playing right now.

Yeah, it's HARD, but it's not fun and it really doesn't feel fair when it's stacked against you so hard.

It is pretty glorious indeed.

I'm waiting for all three to be released before I play through them all together. Fingers crossed they'll be somewhere near the quality of the Artorias DLC :)

I highly doubt the last one. HIGHLY. Wait... multiple bosses? Okay, all the rest will be big armored guys with big mace sword except the final dlc boss.

I've played a few hours myself and I'm still on the fence about it, but from how the level is designed, I consider it more akin to DkS1 than DkS2. DkS2 had a huge problem with almost every level being totally linear in nature. One of the huge problems I had with DkS2 was how the world felt in contrast to how intricate it was in DkS1. For the DLC From seem to have copped on and have spent a lot of time designing the level with short-cuts in mind this time. There have been a couple of points so far where I've hit a switch walked through a door and been like "Wait a minute, I've been here before...". I was actually surprised to find shortcuts and it's felt better than the main game in that respect.

I do sort of agree with you on the whole "Yo, here's 5 guys pulling at once, deal with it" part of the design becoming rather tiresome after a while, but I see the need for it. They're preventing people from cheesing their way through a level, which is a problem they've tried to solve from DkS1. They need to come up with a better solution to what is probably a difficult problem. I have a very cautious play style so take that into account when I say I've been enjoying it so far. The "Drakeblood" soldiers or whatever they're called were destroying me earlier and it didn't feel cheap. I just needed to switch it up a bit. The only thing that has really annoyed me and made me take a break is that the first boss I've run into has these skeleton adds. I despise adds. It's a shitty way to make bosses harder, especially in Dark Souls.

So I beat what I presume to be the final boss of the DLC, and holy SHIT, that is the BEST boss fight ever implemented into a Dark Souls game I've played. I'm not even kidding. It's a LOT of fun to fight, and the music playing with it is also damn good. But yeah, the first boss having adds is really dumb, if I didn't have a phantom there that would have been a huge pain in the ass. That final boss though, that was worth the price of the DLC alone, I fucking LOVED IT! It's just you and him, no shitty adds, his attacks deal a lot of damage, but don't kill you in one hit, and the arena is spacious so you have room to move. THAT is what a boss fight in these games should be like!

I think the level would have been easier if I found some of the hidden bonfires, I only unlocked 3 of the 7 in the DLC, so I presume if you actually find them it does make the level a lot more manageable. I still think the enemies with the status effect attacks are annoying, but I can forgive it for giving me a damn good boss at the end.

Watched a video of the last boss and I have to say it does look mighty impressive, both in it's design and that of the arena you fight it in. Very imposing indeed.

Starting to get an itch to play this now.

@random45: Good to hear they're keeping the DLC boss standard high. Artorias was my favourite boss from the first game partly because it was just a well made, difficult, one on one fight, and partly because it was cool as fuck when he did that triple flip. :P

The best bosses in DS1 were all from the expansion, I hope this will be the same.