Hey ya'll, I was wondering if anyone else though DS2 used too many poison levels. It feels like every other level is poison focused and the game does not seem to provide a lot of ways to deal with poison. Is there some strategy I am missing?

Poison moss to cure it, and common fruit to better defend against it.

You can also simply break the statues in the Gutter and Gulch.

It runs out fairly quickly, just use radiant gems and power through it.

@turambar: It just seems like the poison levels put a strain on healing items and consumables that you otherwise need for combat.

Melentia sells life gems for 300 a pop, and you only need two to completely counteract the effects of poison.

I didn't have much of a problem with poison. The only time it killed me so far was toxic in NG+ from the Shadow Assassins in the Flexile Sentry battle. I've used it to good affect in PvP to force people into rushing what would normally be a patient battle. It's why poison moss is kept on my belt.

@turambar: I didn't realize there was a merchant with infinite lifegems. That'll work.

The only place I had any issue with it was in the Black Gulch. What a horrible, nasty place.

I can think of 2 levels where poison was adamant. Caressing Prayer for Faith users is useful.

I found the knock-back effect of a lot of the poison spitting to be more frustrating than the poison itself.

You're better off using Poison Moss though. It's one animation instead of two for the lifegems. The butterflies drop them when killed. Guaranteed drop, best I can tell. Just farm them for 10 minutes and you're probably good for the rest of the game, because contrary to how it may seem, you won't get poisoned that often. I was being pretty careless in Black Gulch and still had enough supply when I was done there.

2 lifegems is the cheapest/most efficient way to deal with poison. Being that almost all of the poison is avoidable there's not really an issue with having 3 or 4 zones with a strong poison element instead of 1 or 2; the issue with poison in the previous 2 games was the (almost) total inability to prevent it in certain areas. I suppose they could have had 1 more curse area and 1 less poison area or something; but Shrine of Amana will still get all the serious complaints.

@fredchuckdave: I don't know how avoidable the poison is in Earthen Peak and Black Gulch. You basically have to wade through poison in Earthen Peak and to avoid the poison in Black Gulch you have to painstakingly break a bunch of statues that repair themselves if you die. I just found the constant threat of poison in some areas to be annoying since I could easily deal with all of the enemies, but I would take constant damage from poison.

@thatpinguino: In Earthen Peak there are no areas where you have to wade through poison. In Harvest Valley there's 1 if you want a (mostly useless) bonfire but it won't poison you. Black Gulch you don't have to break all or even the majority of the statues; also firebombs break several in one go as well as killing the hand guys before they "spawn." The hardest room to not get poisoned in is in Drangleic Castle but it's still possible with a few well timed rolls; and it's the only poison in the entire area.

@fredchuckdave: How did you avoid getting poisoned in the room with Baleful Queen Mytha?

@thatpinguino: There is a way to fix that room. Burn the water wheel next to the second bonfire.

@thunderslash: What a Dark Souls-y answer to that room. Is there any indication that that is possible? Or do you just have to get lucky?

I was pretty overleveled by the time I got to the Gutter and the Black Gulch. I didn't die at all in the Gutter. I died once in the Black Gulch while opening a chest. I pretty much just ran right through it and beat the Rotten on my first try. If that's the most poisonous area of the game, I think I'll be fine as far as poison goes.

It's totally out of the blue but I put signs up explaining it there. The poison actually heals the boss.