Not really happy with many of the bosses straight up being nerfed, though some of the PvP balance changes are good.

http://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/22i095/patch_103_calibration_104_announced_for_april_8th/

• Changed the "heavy" throwing animation for Corrosive Urns. Reduced corrosive damage to items when hit.

• Increase in durability on Twin Blade Weapon / Decreased their durability degradation.

• Moonlight Greatsword can no longer be enchanted and buffed. Attack animation has been slowed / adjusted.

• The upward adjustment weight, the degree of toughness, the defense of "large helmet of Gerumu warrior" Armor (Thanks Google Translate. I have no idea what a Gerumu is).

• Reduced damage from the Ring of Thorns.

• Reduced damage from the Ring of the Old Sun

• Damage will not decrease for every enemy that Soul Spear pieces trough.

• Increase in casting time and decrease of damage for Soul Greatsword

• Upward adjustment of the bullet speed "lump of Seoul to be tracked" magic "crystal mass of Seoul to be tracked", and a lower adjustment of stamina take the amount of darkness surgery "those who follow" (Unsure of the horrible Google Translate)

• The downward adjustment of the amount of damage "torrent of Seoul" magic (I'm guessing a nerf in Soul Geyser or Soul Vortex)

• Casting speed on recovery spells being lengthened.

• Increased casting time and decreased damage for Wrath of Gods

• Decrease in damage and increase in casting time for all Fire Storm-esque pyromancies. Might also include a decrease in damage for Forbidden Sun.

• Increased defense for Lucatiel, Benhart, and Manscorpion Tark (one other NPC mentioned).

• The downward adjustment of the HP enemy "rupture the Dead" (???)

• Female mages in Shrine Of Amana receiving nerf in both damage and their spell's tracking ability.

• Fire Lizards in Forest of Fallen Giants will not spit fire in slower intervals.

• Downward adjustment period the occurrence of the shock wave of attack during downswing enemy of "backpack hammer" (???)

• The Last Giant now does even less damage to players and Well-Mannered Pate.

• The Lost Sinner now has less HP and does less damage.

• Royal Rat Authority now has less HP and does less damage

• Duke's Dear Freja's laser breath now does less damage.

• Enemies around Sinner's Rise now do less damage

• Shadow Men in the Flexile Senty's Boss area in NG+ now do less damage

Edit: Added the gamefaqs version which has far less engrish.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/693332-dark-souls-ii/68980403

Translated by /u/DracoExpolire

Throwing motion for Acid Urns changed to heavy throwing motion; effects of acid toned down.

Durability of Twin Blade category improved.

Moonlight Great Sword revised to be non-enchantable, attack speed reduced.

Gyrm Warrior’s Greathelm weight, poise and defense increased.

Ring of Thorns damage reduced.

Old Sun Ring damage reduced.

Soul Spear and Crystal Soul Spear revised to pierce and damage multiple enemies.

Soul Great Sword casting time revised.

Stamina reduction (on enemy) of Homing Soul Mass, Homing Crystal Soul Mass and Affinity reduced and bullet speed increased.

Soul Geyser damage reduced.

Healing spell casting speed adjusted to be slower.

Wrath of God damage effect period shortened.

Firestorm, Fire Tempest, Chaos Storm, Flame Swathe and Forbidden Sun damages reduced.

Firestorm, Fire Tempest and Chaos Storm duration time increased.

Defense of Lucatiel, Bellclaire, Benhart and Tark increased.

Health of exploding undead reduced.

Homing capability of spells casted by White Undead Sorcers and Amana Priestesses reduced.

Fire ball spitting frequency of Fire Lizards reduced.

Shockwave duration period caused by the attacks of Hammer Wielders (probably ones in Earthen Peak?) reduced.

Last Giant damage reduced.

Lost Sinner health and damage reduced.

Royal Rat Authority damage reduced.

Duke’s Dear Freja’s laser breath damage reduced.

NG+ Lost Sinner pyromancers health and damage reduced.

NG+ Flexile Sentry shadow assassins health and damage reduced.

Translations are done by me, and I work as a translator. I'm confident in my work.

Edit: Healing spell casting is adjusted to be slower. Thank you for pointing out.

Edit 2: Apparently "Online Regulation" is called "Calibration" in English. So this note is for Calibration v1.04

Edit 3: Wrath of God revision seems to be confusing some people. It means that the amount of time that counts as damage inflicted is reduced, meaning that the frames for which WoG is effective is reduced. Basically you can probably roll through it more effectively now.

So is this a patch or calibration?

Because a while ago I remember reading PATCH notes where they were supposed to have fixed the issue with helping out in a boss fight and not returning to human mode - and I could swear that just two days ago I was doing a lot of co-op and was still not reviving after a successful boss run.

I hope the changed "heavy" throwing animation on corrosive urns actually also means for all the lobbed thrown items. Throwing a Loyd's Talisman is soooo slow, requires a direct hit and they cost 1600 a pop. I can go through 3 or 4 a match. I hit a guy in the legs today and he was still able to heal and that cost me the match and it sucks. I like most of the other PvP changes, mainly casting times and damages for magics. Guess I'll stop using my Old Sun Ring though. I would guess that helmet nerf is Vengarl's. Might have to look into an alternative helm too.

Nerfing The Last Giant and the Royal Rat vanguard is crazy talk.

Weird to see so many boss nerfs; increasing the defense of NPCs like Lucatiel, however, are greatly appreciated. It's at least something to counteract their bone-headed AI.

It's the Royal Rat Authority, not Vanguard. The giant toxic dog-rat thing in Phaross' Tomb.

Also, it's Mild-Mannered Pate, you damned fools!

Were enough people really having so much difficulty with The Last Giant that his damage needed to be decreased even lower than what it was? He's practically a tutorial boss.

He can 1 shot low level characters that are fully hollowed. I was watching my friend fight him and he kept getting 1 shotted by the stomp attack. I know that he should 'get gud' but From Software probably have stats that show that new players were having difficulty against him.

Some important changes in there. It will definitely be weird to play through this game again in a few months after all these patches and adjustments get added in. Having done the Lucatiel quest-line already, she is a huge pain in the ass to keep alive.

I really hope "backpack hammer" is the Japanese name for those turtle knights.

• Upward adjustment of the bullet speed "lump of Seoul to be tracked" magic "crystal mass of Seoul to be tracked", and a lower adjustment of stamina take the amount of darkness surgery "those who follow" (Unsure of the horrible Google Translate)

I think this means Projectile Speed increased for Crystal Soulmass and Homing Crystal Soulmass, and Stamina cost decreased for the dark homing version (?)

I don't like them making bosses easier.

Holy shit. Literally everything in there is fantastic. PVP is going to be way more fun. Fuck your soulmasses!

"Increase in casting time and decrease of damage for Soul Greatsword"

I can understand the damage being decreased, but increasing the casting time is ridiculous, It's already hard enough to catch other players with it.

It wasn't all of them and for gods sake as tough as Lost Sinner is on NG+ I sort of welcome that nerf. That fight is ridiculous.

Don't like them making the shrine mages weaker. They were definitely tough depending on your build, but always doable. Makes that area pretty easy since that boss is pretty terrible. Guess I'll have to see for myself to be certain.

I believe this is referring to one of two Hexes, "Dark Hail", or "Affinity". They both drain stamina from the enemy when hitting them, and I believe this is what the patch is reducing.

@turambar:

Out of the things you were unsure about, I believe that the helm you were referring to was "Large Gyrm Helm", and "rupture of the dead" is most likely the Hex "Dead Again", which simply causes corpses to explode. Also, what I (and that other guy) wrote above.

I don't know, without the actual values or percentages none of this means much to me, could be huge changes or barely noticable. I don't think any of those bosses needed nerfs though, maybe lost sinner, but only the ng+ version.

Red-eye ring makes it a non issue. Most people simply don't use it.

This is just a straight c/p from Reddit. None of it was written by me.

I couldn't get a good sense of space when fighting him. Locking on to any part meant I'd apparently misjudge the whole boss, as attacks I seem to have avoided resulted in death or almost being dead. Only after not locking on was it a cake-walk. I just figured after two games of always locking on the lesson was to sometimes not going forward.

I think the issue was the ability to use during the stagger caused by homing soul mass to instantly kill someone in PvP. Casting speed can be increased to such an extent that it came out instantaneously.

I'm on NG+ now and Lucatiel barely survived the boss in No-mans wharf, and I used red eye ring on the lost sinner so the phantom I summoned could help. Lucatiel almost had full health at the end. I'm tempted to wait until Npc-Phantoms can take some more damage. Good on them for nerfing some magic since a lot of it is OP. But nerfing Bosses? The last Giant is easy and if they can't beat him they will have a hard time on other bosses.

Jeez, I completely forgot that thing even exists... hafta remember that for any following playthroughs.

I don't agree with any of the boss nerfs. If a player is truly having problems with a boss a single human summon will mop of the boss in no time flat. Good thing I beat those bosses already.

The Shrine of Amana Priestess nerfs are hilarious. Were people really having that much of an issue dodging their attacks? I had heard that the place was causing people a lot of problems, but they talked as if they had to dodge 10 oncoming attacks at all times. I was fairly disappointed when I arrived there myself and simply dodge rolled my way to every priestess. The tracking on their attacks was VERY impressive though. It was like a homing missile of death if you didn't know how to dodge (took me a few attempts to figure out the timing).

@do_the_manta_ray: The "rupture of the dead" refers to lowering the HP of the exploding undead guys.

I guess I'm glad I platinum'd the game before they started changing stuff, though I do feel kind of weird about all the boss nerfs. All of the things mentioned like the Lost Sinner on NG+, Freja's laser practically one-shotting me on NG+, those crazy-ass assassins in the Flexile Sentry fight, and the Shrine of Amana definitely all gave me serious trouble. I can definitely see why all of these are being implemented, I just don't like the idea of making the game easier just by dumbing stuff down. Oh well, magic nerfs, less HP on those exploding jerks, and buffs to Lucatiel and Benhart are certainly welcome and it will make future experimental runs less rage-inducing.

Love that Smelter Demon remains untouched.

I will forever feel like a real and true badass for having to solo beat the Rat Authority and Rat Vanguard. The Authority (in Doors of Pharros) in particular, was a true sonuvabitch.

Edit: I sorta understand why they would nerf those bosses, but I'm glad I beat them before the nerf. I should get a damn trophy for that.

Ironically, he is also the only boss that I died to 4 times. Every other boss (so far) I have beaten in one to two tries. Most of them one.

Speaking of which, the original Dark Souls also went through a few patches that ultimately made the game much easier than how it was at launch, so this isn't exactly a new predicament for one of these games. Though I guess it didn't occur quite this quick.

NG+ Flexile Sentry was boken, plain and simple. I'm glad they nerfed those mobs... But what makes them ridiculous isn't so much the damage the damage they can do, it's the way they can punish almost every single action :

- You block ? Guard break.

- You lock on ? Jumping away to make you turn your back on the other two... combined with backstab ability.

- You don't lock on ? Jumping in your back.

- You cast spell ? They are quicker than your cast speed.

- You hit them ? They have ring of thorns... and ridiculously high poise.

- Toxic damage.

- Bleed damage.

- Stunlocking.

- Room full of water that severly lower your speed and rolls.

The damage just make your death quicker, but considering all this, you will still die. NG+ Lost Sinner didn't gave me as much trouble.

@turambar: Smelter Demon didn't give no fucks about my Red Eye ring or the fact that I kept summoning another player in to help Lucatiel survive, he was fixated on killing her first.

Yeah, I used the Red Eye ring during the Giant Lord boss fight, to keep Bernhart alive, but it didn't seem to do anything. Dude kept getting stomped on.

I am glad I never have to worry about either of those quests again, what a pain.

Yep, that's an issue a many have noticed. Smelter, for whatever reason, seems to be an exception to the rule. Fortunately, you only need 3/4 successful summons, and the ring works fine on the other 3 bosses.

Pyro nerfs make sense, even if it hurts my meele guys. Even with the scaling, at low INT/FTH pyro is still incredibly powerful with a +10 glove and the better spells.

Shrine of Anama change is more than needed. I could get through fine with a bow sniping those guys, but forcing people to cheese through it is just not good design.

Boss changes mostly seem unnecessary, except for the ridiculous NG+ bosses. I wonder what numbers they must have been getting on those bosses to nerf them. The rest of those bosses seemed hard but fair, except for maybe those four shitty toxic rats.

That figures that they would increase the defense for Lucatiel after I just completed her quest. Good for Benhart though! Still in the process of doing his quest.

Or you can just use an ascetic and fight the same boss multiple times. I did this with Benheart and fought Prowling Magus twice and then Looking Glass Knight once.

1. None of the bosses or enemies needed nerfs.

2. All the other changes are OK or good.

3. Weapon/stats damage scaling is still broken.

Basically every aspect of the game I've explored to any depth is getting changed in ways I dislike. The exception is the increased survivability of Lucatiel, since she has died during every single boss fight, Red Eye Ring or no.

Wait, they NERFED bosses? Like, for real?

Thank god for the Shrine of Amana fixes, that place is hell if you don't have a good bow.

Stopped reading as soon as I got to the part about the casters in the Shrine of Amana. Thank fucking God!

@demoskinos: If I couldn't even get her to survive regular Smelter, I doubt she would stand a chance against an NG+ or above version. I've cut my losses and am gonna try and get her to survive the Rotten instead, since she only needs to survive 3 of 4 bosses to complete the questline.

Lucatiel no longer as shitty? Huzzah. Last Giant is (or was) probably one of the more lethal bosses in the game; it's fairly easy to see this doing a handful of co-op sessions. Authority is a boss where you either die in like 10 seconds or you win easily so that will naturally increase the number of deaths on it. Great Resonant Soul lives on.

Since I can't play online I probably won't patch for a while; doesn't really effect me at all.

I've done that boss dozens of times as a phantom using the Red Eye Ring and the 100% block shield. It seems like if I'm the second one in the room he'll change focus from the host to me. If I'm the third one in the room he'll ignore me completely. Also seems like whatever melee character is right in front of them is going to be a target that can take priority. That's probably why Lucatiel is always steals priority.

Ugh ... fuckin hate nerfs , I mean there wasnt anything as awful as the broken as hell fog ring from Dark Souls 1 , all those magics and soul mases could be dodged in a timely matter. Also bosses???? I bought Dark Souls not baby souls. Buffin Lucatile is good tho , even as most of you already completed her quest.

I chortled most heartily when I read about the nerfs to MLGS. Love it. LOOOOVE it. Boss nerfs? I could have done without that, but I don't mind the changes to those priestesses or the exploding guys.

@mosespippy: I think the helmet being referred to is probably the Gyrm Warrior Helm, if "large helmet of a Gerumu warrior" is any indication. Its base stats are just a little higher than Vengarl's Helm. Though, since they seem so comparable, maybe Vengarl's helm will get nerfed at some point too.

The Shrine of Amana priestess nerf is really bumming me out. They do NOTHING if you know how to dodge them. People who are used to playing with a shield should be punished by them.

I don't understand the problem with the exploding guys. They have never been an issue and I play in the Company of Champions so they do more damage and take more hits to take down. A combo attack is all that's needed to finish them. Just make sure not to aggro 3 at once and it's fine.

Good. Fuck the shrine of amana mages. Their range fucking wrecked me so many damn times.

Rest in pieces Old Sun Ring, only jerks liked you.

So PC version players will be using this version from launch? Glad I got to experience the "true Dark Souls II" with the Xbox version then :)

Edit: Buying the PC version also, that framerate looked sweet.

@golguin said:

Why? Just stick to Company of Champions if this shrine maiden nerf is making you so upset. The Shrine of Amana has been a continually brought up bit of bullshit that a lot of exclusively melee players didn't enjoy trying to get through. Sure, you obviously had no problems, but you're clearly a much more skilled and certainly dedicated player than the norm.

Now I'm sure you're looking at this as like the developers are destroying their vision of the harsh difficulty of dark souls or whatever for the sake of being more inclusive, but that's precisely why this company of champions covenants exists in the first place -- for the 'old guard' that want the extra challenge. Not to mention that you've already beaten the game within the covenant in the first place. So... what's the deal?

And besides, Dark Souls II on its standard settings really isn't that difficult to begin with anyway. So where's the harm in potentially ironing out a little bit of the frustration out of a section that a very large majority of players didn't care for?