golguin

@TobbRobb said:

Is the DLC ending in there? Because that is the only part where I really think its important to actually do the QTEs.

Though the game does a really good job of making you feel like a part of the action in QTEs, I'd recommend to play it instead of watching this. Even though the Panzer Dragoon/Hack'n'slash parts sucks ass.

It looks like the two anime episodes and the final ending episode are all in there. I would suggest people watch the video with a controller in hand to try to mimic what it feels like to BURST for real.

I'll let my friends know in the coming weeks.

No. I would have to see where it's going in trailers and previews.

I'm just glad Brad was able to play the DLC during the game and inform the rest of the bomb crew how lacking the ending was in hindsight. The EC and Leviathan should have been part of the game. Had they waited however many months they needed to implement that content in the final game then we wouldn't have had the situation that we're in now.

The series as a whole was damaged because of EA (let's accept that it was rushed) so lets just hope that developers everywhere took this sad tale as an example.

Don't block, dodge. Always be dodging. Equip armor that gives you fast roll or use the flip ring and get the timing of his attacks down. He was a really great fight early one when people didn't know how to fight him, but the last time I fought him as a phantom the match was basically a recreation of my 6th birthday with Artorias a pinata (all the kids ran in with stick and broke it).

When in doubt put down your summon sign and see how other people fight him. You'll have nothing to lose and nothing, but knowledge to gain. If you get really desperate you can always summon someone to help. He's a very popular boss so you'll always find help.

@Tesla said:

@golguin said:

Let's not talk about hypothetical situations with the Pyromancer and lets talk about reality. Here is the reality. If your character wants to use pyromancy and you have not invested 40-45 dex stat points into your character you are not going to hit anyone. Let's assume you do want to use pyromancy effectively and you've made the stat investment. Your are currently aiming at SL 60 and you want to use a weapon to fight effectively. What type of scaling weapon are you going to use? How many attunement slots are you going to have? What pyromancy spells are you going to attune? How high will you make your endurance stat to combine with equipment to decided on a slow, medium, fast, or flip dodge? How much vitality will you sacrifice in making these decisions?

We are talking reality so I'd like to hear from you what you would actually do.

Why are we talking reality and not hypothetical? This is not a thread about Dark Souls...this is a thread to discuss hypotheticals in Dark Souls 2. I said what I wanted in the sequel. I'm not wrong, you aren't right. It's all opinions and conjecture and I'm more interested in thinking about possible ways to change the game for the sequel, not pull out my Dark Souls dick and measure it with you.

You are wrong in asserting that class variety does not already exist in the game and proposing a "solution" for class variety that actually limits what people can do is a bad idea. No one is stopping you from brainstorming ways to improve combat, story, level design, or whatever, but if you propose something to fix an issue without fully understanding the issue to begin with then of course people are going to call you out on it.

In an earlier example you mentioned the "hunter class" as not being proficient enough at ranged combat to have that as her main weapon. I've been killed by people who free aimed their bow and whittled me down to nothing. The Avelyn crossbow is a favorite among a bunch of builds because it's so successful in combat. People already use ranged weapons to kill bosses that are too dangerous at close range. No one is going to say that ranged classes are useless, but it would be nice to have special techniques associated with bows like the special attacks found in melee weapons.

@Laivasse said:

There is a bit of an imbalance in available exp in the game. There are way more opportunities to boost your cop exp than there are to boost triad, which mostly only comes from triad story missions (which are red markers, iirc?). I used all the best Exp Boost suits I had access to, all the time, and I only maxed triad out around the last mission. If you don't want to miss out on the end of the triad skill tree, make sure to use the suits. The better suits (+15%) are only available at higher Face levels, too, so use the Face boosting accessories and keep an eye out for random encounter missions (which boost Face) to get access to them ASAP. Finally, always fight properly as opposed to running people over in cars or whatever. Get stuck in and use the range of melee techniques at your disposal, since your triad exp also improves this way.

So then I should try to look for missions that boost face in order to buy the clothes to boost my triad exp? Where do I find face missions to boost them?

I've noticed that that blue missions give both face and police exp. I don't remember what the green and yellow ones give, but I think I remember that they were a mix. I went on a buying spree and bought a 5% increase set for the police and triad. I also have a necklace and watch that increases face. How do I know how to dress before a mission? Are they always the same in regards to how they give exp? What about the fighting clubs?

@Tesla said:

@rebgav: You paraphrase me incorrectly when you say I suggest "adding restrictions". I'm talking about adding more player choice. Having the option to choose Fallout style traits is not restricting anyone, as you can simply say "no thanks" and be on your way.

With that said, adding certain restrictions can improve the game. Let's say Pyromancer class gets an attribute or spell or something (independent of stats) that no other class gets. And some other class gets some kind of dex based sword buff. Now, if you want to make a pyro dex guy you have a choice to make. A choice that will force you to consider how you play: I like fire and swords...but which do I like more?

At the end of the day, all I'm saying is make the classes matter, or take them out. But to me, having character classes in your game implies some kind of difference between the classes. It goes beyond stats too, how cool would it be to have the story change based on your class? Give the people that picked the Depraved some kind of cutscene or story nugget

It seems odd that I find myself in a thread whose subject is hypothetical changes for a sequel, and I am met not with brainstorming and spitballing ideas back and forth. Instead it is people telling me the status quo is fine.

Let's not talk about hypothetical situations with the Pyromancer and lets talk about reality. Here is the reality. If your character wants to use pyromancy and you have not invested 40-45 dex stat points into your character you are not going to hit anyone. Let's assume you do want to use pyromancy effectively and you've made the stat investment. Your are currently aiming at SL 60 and you want to use a weapon to fight effectively. What type of scaling weapon are you going to use? How many attunement slots are you going to have? What pyromancy spells are you going to attune? How high will you make your endurance stat to combine with equipment to decided on a slow, medium, fast, or flip dodge? How much vitality will you sacrifice in making these decisions?

We are talking reality so I'd like to hear from you what you would actually do.

@Tesla said:

@golguin: Sure your level 111 guy doesn't have to use any magic, but he probably has a few sorceries and miracles collected along the way in addition the the pyromancies. My biggest point remains that character class as a concept in any game is rendered moot when any class can become anything. I think they should give each class some unique attributes that have an effect on your talent tree progression throughout the whole game. Either that or remove the classes all together.

I think it would make for a more interesting game if there were trade offs. Say you had the choice to make your pyromancies more powerful but you're effectiveness with swords was decreased. You now have the possibility for two types of pyro dex characters where there was only one before. If there were modifiers like this similar to the Traits in Fallout games with good and bad side effects, I think it would allow for a lot more specialization and diversity in the characters.

My SL 111 character has every spell in the game, but that doesn't mean I invested the stats into faith or intelligence to use them. You are absolutely wrong in thinking that any class can become anything at the drop of a hat. Every starting character at the beginning of the game has the potential to become anything the player wants at the start of the game, but roads start to close off to you as you increase your soul level and start to make decide what weapons you'll want to use and what type of spells you'd like to able to use effectively.

The trade off is that specializing in one particular combat decision (strength, dex, faith, intelligence, health, and endurance) is what makes you unique to other people. My choices on my SL 111 character means that I am much weaker than I normally would be if I had known what I wanted to be when I first created this character. I put points into a variety of stats that are of no use to me. I have 8 attunement slots that were very useful in PVE, but are essentially useless in the way I PVP.

I want to emphasize that if you have only experienced PVP as high as SL 60 you have no idea what you are talking about. Builds take shape at SL100-120 for PVP. This talk of unique class attributes on a talent tree show a gross misunderstanding of the PVP that actually happens in the game.