@SuperMeatToy: Unfortunately I didn't have any Gold Pine Resin on hand when I took on the Capra Demon. Had to make due with Charred Pine Resin
@gogosox82: I haven't considered the Parrying Dagger, in fact I always seem to forget about it. I might pick it up and play around with it a bit, see how it feels.
@Vadis: I am allowing myself the use of fire bombs, they become much less useful as I progress so I don't think it is much issue to use them early on.
@dragonfrost: I am on the PS3 version and when the PC version comes out (and if it isn't an unplayable wreck) I will probably pick it up on there.
I had some free time on Thursday finally so I decided to jump back into the fray. Unfortunately it had been so long since I last played I awoke at the Firelink Shrine bonfire with no memory of what I was actually doing in-game at the time. After about 5 minutes of back flipping around the bonfire area I finally remembered I was at the Capra Demon. In hind-sight I probably could have just opened my laptop and checked my last couple posts in this thread.
In the spirit of honesty I will say that the Capra Demon took me way more attempts than I would have liked. Probably in the neighbourhood of 10 attempts, and all caused by the dogs. If I am fighting 2 v 1 I am fine, it is easy enough to keep tabs on both enemies and stay safe, but once you add a third it becomes chaos. Each fight basically went the same way, I would enter the arena, dodge the first attack by CD and the first dog but the other would clip me, and I would get pinned between the 2 dogs and part of the level; either the stairs on the left or the pillars on the right. Once my stamina had been eaten up by the dogs a quick swipe from Capra and back to the bonfire I go. The biggest issue was getting pinned so that I could roll/dodge. Due to not being able to upgrade stamina and the fairly weak stability/poise once I was pinned it was all over. On the successful run I managed to bait the dogs to the right and then made a dodge left and finally succeeded in bolting up the stairs. Applied some Charred Pine Resin for a fire boost and sat on the ledge waiting for the dogs to take them out. Capra got a good leaping hit on me from the stairs which startled me, I don't think I have ever been hit from him while in the corner, it took me down to about 5% health. After a quick pot and dealing with the dogs I was able to hop down and take CD 1 on 1. At that point the fight is fine, no different then any of the other Goat Demons in the game, you just have to mind your surroundings due to the tight space.
After I finally dealt with CD I marched headlong into the depths, and got promptly smashed by the first ambush of undead hollow. I think my hubris got the best of me, I completely forgot how many were on the upper level and forgot about the guy tucked back to the right of the stairs. A quick run back and I fought my way through the depths, rescued Laurentian because he is my favourite NPC, took on the Butchers' and then delved deeper into the Depths to hit the bonfire. After that, it was a quick run to take care of the Channeler and then take on the giant rat miniboss. This miniboss is always a pain in the ass for me, I always end up near a wall and the camera freaks out and then I get killed. This is exactly what happened during our first meeting, for our second encounter I took the drop from the Buthcher area, pelted him with a handful of firebombs and attempted a plunge attack that missed (it always misses, can you plunge attack that damn rat?). I slid down the left side of the slope to avoid the lower area with the Basilisks and basically made a beeline for Gaping Dragon. The Gaping Dragon is not a hard fight, it is simply a battle of attrition. My tactic for the entire fight after chopping his tail was to keep my distance, to bait him into slamming his "mouth" on the ground, run up and 2H the Bandit Knife to attack his head, I could usually get about 3 R1 swings in on the head before he started to go into the charge animation and I had to roll/flip away. Once he charge I would run up to her rear leg and get about 7 more shots on him (total damage per "round was about 520 dmg which is so pitiful). After he coiled back up I would run back to either bait another slam or him to jump into the air. It took a few attempts, the first time he jumped into the air and actually followed me a bit and landed right on top of me, instant kill. Second death he stunned me when he landed and did about 50% damage but then he moved his leg which clipped me and finished me off. Third attempt I had him down to a tiny chunk of health and he kept chasing me around the arena and wouldn't go into any kind of attack animation, I got spun around with the camera, lost my bearings and he slammed me. Fourth attempt was smooth and the killing fight.
After GD I ran back to the bonfire and decided I should grind out some L. Titanite Shards from the slimes outside the door before leaving the depths for good. I muted the volume, grabbed my iPod, put on the Bombcast and then the Penny Arcade D&D podcasts and ground out some shards to take my gear to +8 I believe (I need Chunks now) and my Knife and Shield to +10. Again in the interest of honesty I have a slight confession to make and might condemn me in the eyes of some. Farming those slimes takes forever as is, there was no danger to me of death it was only tedious. In the interest of saving myself some time since I don't have much free time to play atm I went to Laurentian grabbed the Pyro mit and combustion and used the souls from GD to upgrade the mit as far as I could. I used Combustion to farm the slimes after I had used 10 humanity. It still took me a few hours. At first I didn't want to because of the no pyro rule but the way I see it, I was going to farm them anyway, this just made it slightly more bearable and the moment I was done I put the glove in the bottomless box.
Farming completed, I ran back to Firelink and headed down to the back entrance of Blighttown, my only goal was to get in and out as fast as possible. I grabbed the key to New Londo and rushed down the structure. The only things I killed were the 2 firebreathing bugs at the bottom on the way to the bonfire. I unhollowed to kill Miranda for sport and then sprinted over to Quelaag's Lair. The Quelaag fight is one of the easier in the game. It is very easy to roll under her swings and circle-strafe to avoid the lava. If things get a little too lava-filled back away to another section and let her come to you. The only issue I had with this fight was when she slumps over and does the charge burst. As far as I know there is no tell that the attack is coming if you cannot see her front and see her slump over, by the time I realized it was coming and started to back away I would get hit and usually killed. I think it took me 3 tries to take her down.
Second bell rung, there was nothing to do other than head to the Fortress. Normally Sen's Fortress takes me a long time to get through because I am obsessive about collecting all shinies. This time I decided to just rush it and it other than a couple falls on the second set of swinging blades (the one with the Serpent Magus at the other end firing lightning directly at you) it was a piece of cake. I rushed to the top, grabbed the bonfire, the key to the shortcut, and unlocked the cage. The Giant at the top that throws the flaming boulders was a bit of a pain, took me a few attempts to take him down. Once again, the camera is oftentimes a greater threat on large enemies then the enemies themselves. I would get tangled up in his legs with the camera whipping around in all directions and then eat a punch or a stomp. Taking on the Iron Golem was fairly straight forward, like the giants, just roll through his legs or under his attacks. The camera once again conspired to kill me and caused me to get grabbed and slammed a couple times for an insta-death. Nothing remarkable about this fight though.
Finally to wrap up my play session I decided to at least try to get to the second bonfire in Anor Londo. Much like Sen's Fortress it was basically a straight run, and it is surprising how close it is when you aren't dicking around in the Painted World or with all the Painting Guardians on the lower floor. Once I spun the connecting path outside I sprinted past the gargoyle and up the stairs, flipped past the giant knight guardians and attempted to run past the Bat Wing Demons. I took a few lightning spears to the back but pretty easily made it up the ramp to the Dragon Greatbow Black Knights and then died, and died, and died, and died. I must have made that run about 10-15 times and each time it was like smashing into a wall. At this point I was pretty tired and just bullheaded about getting to that next bonfire. Unfortunately the Bandit Knife does piddly damage on a regular attack so I couldn't fight him like normal, I had to move fast because I didn't want an arrow in the back from the other Knight, I routinely missed my Parries (which I think is my only recourse here), kicking did nothing, and trying to simply slip past him only ended in more death. It also doesn't help that his fucking sword can clip through the corner geometry and hit me before I approach him (and I am not sure but I think that same geometry may have been messing with my parries).
So that is where I have left off, I just realized this post got really long, I am at work and have been typing it in sections between calls, sorry about that. If you have read this far you must be really bored.
TL;DR I progressed past Capra Demon onto the Depths, Killed Gaping Dragon, farmed to upgrade weapon/armour, killed Quelaag, cruised through Sens's Fortress, Fuck the Dragon Greatbow Black Knights.
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