anticucho

You don't need to kill the guards you can just sprint past them and traverse the white light without taking any damage. As you start down the stairs the guard usually goes to the right of the pillar to come at you (bro) and you can just go left and sprint to the white light avoiding the arrows from the left. It took me like 10 tries to kill smough/ornstein so I became a pro at running past the guard/archer.

I noticed it A LOT on snake knights in Sens Fortress and now on the gargoyles in Anor Londo. It is extremely frustrating. I get it on both melee and pyro attacks. It's gotten me killed a couple times :( (PS 3 player here)

I've quit a few times after a bad loss but I am good about going to start -> quit game -> PS3 button -> Turn off System and then staring at my blank LCD for a couple minutes. I go and get on my laptop, read the latest Steelers message boards, and next thing I know I'm browsing Youtube guides on the battle I just lost. Finally I find myself back in the command seat picking up my PS3 controller. The entire process lasts about 15 minutes. For the Capra Demon this process repeated itself about 6-7 times. I guess this is a very mild form of rage quitting.

@Cootsnoop said:

Im a pyro but i definitely feel like im wasting my souls on leveling up. I just beat the gaping dragon or whatever in depths. I have the drake sword and some shitty armor. I dont really know what to do next. I dont know where the forrest is at an i dont think i want to go the the area that depths unlock yet... Blighttown i think its called. And how the hell do i upgrade my magic or get new spells? I leveled up enough to unlock another attunement slot but i dont know what that even means.

While progressing through the Depths after the butchers you should have come across a guy trapped in a bunch of barrels. If you freed him he will be at the Firelink Shrine waiting for you. He's a pyro trianer. Go to his Purchase Items menu and there you can upgrade your Pyromancer Flame as high as +15. This makes an enormous difference in damage. I went from +1 to +10 and basically 5 shotted Havel the Rock with 5 fire orbs. You can also buy another Fireball spell and equip/attune it to a free slot thus giving you 16 fireballs. You can also purchase Fire Orb and Iron Flesh. At SL 28 I have 3 slots. 16 Fireballs , 6 Fire Orbs and 3 Iron Flesh. Thoes Stone Knights in Darkroot Garden go down to about 5% health after a single Fire Orb.

Now, the Drake Sword is just fine for now. I'm still using it as I've now beaten Darkroot Garden/Basin and am finally ready to head into Blight Town. You might want to take @Tenryu's advice and rush down into Valley of the Drakes and grab the Dragon Crest Shield. Maybe search on Youtube for a guide how to rush it. It's really easy. From there you can search Youtube for now to rush into Blight Town to grab the Crimson armor set. You can also pick up the Elite Knight armor from Darkroot Garden which is very easy to obtain.

Regarding the Heart of the Forest farming area. Search Youtube for it. I found a simple guide on how to do it. You need to find the first bonfire in Darkroot Garden next to an locked door. You buy the key/crest from the Blacksmith before entering darkroot garden.

I hope that helps you out a bit.

Well I used the Dark Garden forest farming spot to great effect. I got my flame to +10 now and got 1 flame orb to go with my fire ball. I assume I need to wait for the next Pyro trainer to get 6 more fire orbs. I got the Crimson armor + the Elite Knight armor. I love the look of the Elite Knight armor but not its weight. So I figured I'd try a new method on Havel who just owns me because I'm so bad at the strafing technique. I pulled him all the way back up to the top and went out the door part way down the steps. Havel comes out, takes one swing, and I fire orb him for about 350 damage. He goes back into the tower. I go back up and lure him back out and repeat. It took exactly 5 orbs with a +10 flame. Now I have elite knight armor and am < 50% endurance load.

I went and picked up the Dragon Crest Shield and Astora Sword as suggested. I have only 8 faith so I don't know if i want to farm to pump that up to 14. Is the sword worth it or are there any others that I could go after? I'm about ready to pick back up the campaign now and finish Dark Root Garden then head into Blight Town next. It was pretty fun spending a few hours upgrading though... I feel powerful with the +10 flame. I am too lazy to go farm more to get it to +15.

@Tenryu said:

@anticucho: I would personally spend 20k to open the heart of the forest so you can get the infamous cliff farming spot opened up and farm to your heart's content. It basically lets you skip the sucky parts of the forest and nets you back your souls pretty quick. About 6-7k every 30-45 seconds if you get good at it ;3!

The main thing about pyromancy is it's not stat dependent on any of its scaling, the strength of it is based solely on the upgrade level your catalyst is at. Later when you upgrade it shows an S on the flame, but that's only for the R2 punch with it... so don't be fooled into thinking it scales!

Since you have a higher endurance I would make sure to have a strong shield of some type, and then look into a good one hand weapon. Spears are good if you like the block+poke type of gameplay, but a useful 1h sword may be more to your preference. If you've got a master key you may want to swing by the Valley of Drakes shortcut after taking the elevator down from Fire Link to pick up the Dragon Crest Shield under the Plague Dragon as well as the Astora Straight sword that is there which is good if you have the faith to use it.

In terms of pyromancy spells you may find useful, Fire Orb is your go to spell for a while, which I recommend to get after unlocking the heart of the forest. It has good range, wind up time, and has a fairly good amount of AoE. Some people prefer the combustion spells but I'm not a fan of the range on them myself. For my advice though, unless you have a goal in mind for something to unlock with stats, don't level up. A lot of people make the mistake to just level up without a goal in mind, and you tend to blow stat points this way. Attunement to 14 is amazing because it gives you 3 spell casting slots, endurance to 40 eventually, and vitality to a maximum of 40-49 for an end character total. Past these values the scaling on them fails hard unless you're going for equip weight on endurance. Str/dex only as necessary for desired item equips as well. Once you unlock the heart of the forest you basically get free control over your character growth so plan accordingly!

Thanks so much. I did not know about that forest farming spot. I forgot I had the claymore and I read upgrading it to +5 lightning might be my best bet. I'll definitely unlock the forest and get the fire orbs. Great advice, thank you.

So my pyro is SL23, just beat the lower depths (gaping dragon) and got about 22k souls after upgrading flame to +4. I ran and got the Crimson Robe and also have the Drake Sword with Knight Shield. The only other pyromancy I have is Iron Flesh. I dont' know what to spend these souls on... leveling up or maybe getting 2xFire Orbs for a total of 16,000 souls. My stats are mostly Endurance with some Vitality. Anyway, I sorta prefer the melee route with pyro as a supplement. I plan to tackle Darkroot zones next. So, basically I'm looking for some guidance on what I can upgrade next and any suggestions for weapons I can go after to follow the great Drake Sword as I realize it's nearing its end. Thanks!

@Xael said:

@anticucho: You need to buy multiple copies of the fireball spell to attune it multiple times.

Ok that makes perfect sense. Where can I buy more copies? From the same pyromancer trainer I need to rescue I imagine?

Get 12 Dex / 16 Str to be able to equip the short bow and Drake sword if you plan to get it. I think the bandit starts with a low Dex. Endurance for more swings and reduced stamina depletion on blocks. Then Vitality but as a bandit it's all about offense so I'd go Endurance with almost all my points and a few into Vitality once I equipped what I wanted.

So I accidentally attacked an NPC after the first bell and decided I would start over. I am trying a Pyromancer. I read that I can attune the fireball to 2 slots for a total of 16 shots. But how do I do this? My guy has 3 attunement slots but when I go into attunement and choose the 2nd slot it won't let me put in a 2nd fireball. I'm sure I'm missing some requirement but what? Can someone explain how early in the game I can upgrade to 16? I'm back to around the Bell Tower again in just over an hour of gameplay. Soul level 12 or so. Also, how do I upgrade the flame? Is that later on in the game? Thanks!