We're Playing Dark Souls Too! - Part 03

Looks like Vinny's missed out on some areas (judging from the areas he can teleport to). That or he's going a very different way than I did.

I think maybe Vinny has not realized Stone Trader Chloanne will be selling limitless amounts of Titanite and other upgraded stones at that point in his game from how little his weapons are upgraded. Grinding out some souls and upgrading his weapons will make the game so much more easy for him.

I'm going to assume that's the guy who invaded Brad's game during a Breaking Brad livestream and proceeded to immediately break Brad's armor and weapons.

Vinny needs to upgrade more! My mage was decked out with a fire +10 greatsword and like +7 on all my armor even before this point. I had bunch of other weapons like half upgraded too. Also, I'm not saying go naked, but armor is only useful to a point, I've found. Upgrading weaker (but lighter) armor to be as good as a heavier armor is a pretty fast and easy thing to do. But also just getting below 70 percent by not equipping a helmet and not using a greatshield gives you more options.

I haven't played this but looking at your gear and my knowledge of the first Dark Souls, you really need to upgrade Vinny. Maybe take a break from progression and just farm ore to upgrade or whatever. I suspect you'll find it more feasible if you do =)

I cant wait for this to come to PC!

Right after watching this I fired up the game as I had just reached that area.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUCK!

Poor Vinny. I hope he switches to lighter armor and upgrades some weapons, for his own sake.

Potato_Marshal was some kid that invaded Brad's live Demon's Souls playtrough multiple times. He had overpowered really nasty equipment and magic of the kind that breaks armor and weapons (acid cloud, scrapping spear, etc). Near the end he would try and stall the playtrough using regenerating health and kiting Brad around without killing him -- he was clearly following the stream -- it was really annoying!

This.

Staying under 70% or under 55% pays off big time against some stuff in the late game. Or even against some of the heavier mid game bosses. I switched from my tank build to a sub 70 warrior after being stuck at the Rotten. That bastard eats heavy armor for breakfast!

I went the same way. Rolling is super important in this game. My friend is still struggling to beat Vendrick because he went for better armor/shield and didn't learn to roll well. You HAVE to roll through that fight, and probably never mess up once depending on your health.

Also, yeah, upgraded light armor > unupgraded heavy armor.

Yeah, the real Dark Souls begins right around that area...

@vinny@rorie@brad The softcap for majority of stats is 40, however there are stats that relate to one another. For example, you only get POISE if your ADP stat and your END stat are at the same level. So if you have 25 END and 24 ADP, when you put a point into ADP making it 25 as well, you'll gain some poise. However if you have 25 in both stats and you put another one into ADP making it 26 you will not get anymore poise until you also increase END. Poise increase is related to the ratio between END and ADP stat.

There are other stats interrelations like that as well.

Surprised Iron Keep was giving Vinny so much trouble. It's probably my favorite area of the game. Looks super cool, easy enemies, lots of souls though so good for farming. Great place. Even killed that optional boss, though he was tad bit of a motherfucker.

Man Vinny, you should reeeally upgrade and always stay under 70% equip load, because you can't really tank attacks like you could in Dark Souls, or at least when I tried it didn't work too well even with Havel's. I wish you luck on what comes after the Iron Keep.

I had the same reaction as Vinny when I found the 2nd sentinel in the castle...fuuuuuuuuuuuck that shit lol.

Yeah I definitely have that UI lag, I have the disc version. Its mainly right after a load there is huge lag in the menu, but after like 2 minutes after a load screen its perfect until another load. The thing I don't notice that they've talked about in every Dark Souls 2 video so far is the PS3 framerate, I honestly don't notice a difference between it and any other PS3 game I've played, maybe I'm crazy or something, or maybe its because I don't play much PC games and I haven't even touched a PS4/Xbone yet.

They are gonna take a break on these....aaaaaand RIP to this feature.

Do a podcast with patrick

Soooooooooooooo much this. For his build, it's a fucking nightmare

Seems like Vinny's been following some guides. I'll breakdown the stats.(120-150 is considered end game for those interested in challenging NG+ and pvp)

VGR below 19 is perfectly ok. starts at 30+ per point until 19. 20-49 is 20. 50+ is 5. Prevents one shots from errant swings and is a good safety net.

END increases stam by 2 until 19. Having a stamina bar that allows for 3 greatsword swings is a good breakpoint for melee builds.

VIT adds 1.5 equip load per point til 29. The main goal of VIT is to keep dodge rolls fast by not letting the equipment/equipload ratio go over 70%. Fast rolling is a nessecarry component of PVP and NG+.

ATN adds spell slots: 1 at 10 to 10 at 75. Dedicated spell casters usually stop at 50 and use a ring to grab the full 10 slots.

STR: If using Strength scaling weapons, increasing STR til the softcap for attack bonus at 40 is the most effective way to increase DPS. Also a minor increase in physical defense.

DEX: If using Dexterity scaling weapons, DEX until softcap at 40.

ADP is tied to endurance in increasing poise. The lowest of the two values is how poise is established(SS has Vinny with ring equipped). Neglible increase in healing/walking speeds and dodge roll invulnerability frames.

INT: Spellcasting scaling stat. Increases casting speed and orb count for certain spells. Soul arrow requires 10. Soul Geyser requires 64.

FTH: Spellcasting scaling stat. Increases casting speed. Dark Orb requires 10. Blinging bolt requires 65.

Aside from committing shards to +10 a weapon and slightly reducing the equip ratio to 70%, Vinny is on track to beating the game.

Darth is not Dutch for dark. We say 'donker'. It seems to be a common misconception.

Vinny... your max health is so low :(

Kind of wish they had done these more frequently. The wonder of the dudes showing off stuff ( and getting stuff wrong) was really nice.

Vinny attempting to beat the game with a bunch of +3 weapons hurts my dark soul.

Damn, I played as a sorcerer, and things Vinny seem to have problems with was things I literrally cruised through. I did the Iron keep in one single run, no deaths, only found two bonfires. And that was probably around level 90-95.

Meanwhile, I struggled some with the No Man's Warf boss (maybe died like 7 times), which is one I've heard Brad and other melee guys claiming to be very easy.

Ah Vinny you missed a secret bonfire on that boss run but more power to you. It's probably one of the most obscure locations in the game.

Have some fun upgrading and infusing your weapons though, I'm sure you have plenty of crafting materials. I love trying out all the weapons in this game.

This comment section brings me back to the good ol' days of "YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!" of Load Our Last Souls.

Vinny you need to upgrade your weapons. I at the exact place you are but i am doing way more damage with my +10 weapons.

You guys are ALL doing it wrong. The real way to play Dark Souls II is on PC in 4 weeks, alright! </pouting>

My strength build is one hitting all hostiles in Iron keep and is at a lower level than vinny, using a giant club two handing is killing all armored hostiles in one hit.

Aw man, Havel-tanking again? That playstyle looks so tedious and boring. :-/ (The best part of LOLS was when Vinny dropped that shit and actually learned how to play when facing Artorias).

Also, I read up on how to get that armor set after beating the game because I didn't encounter it in my playthrough and my conclusions are these: No way Vinny is not playing with a guide. ;)

@elixirbronze: I finished the game with a sorcerer and is almost done with my strength build, it is a lot easier in most part with my strength guy, he is two handing a giant club and is one hitting almost every hostile even late game, hitting damage is between 500-1100, 500 on light armored and 1100 on guys in iron keep and other with heavy armor. some boss fights are easier as a sorcerer. the no-man's wharf boss is super easy as a sorcerer just keep the pole in the middle of the room between you and the boss, he never even hit me:)

The level is really hard with just close range weapons and almost impossible if you can't roll as well. Vinny has a tough time ahead of him...

The game provides more than enough means to breeze through that level. Nothing is preventing a melee build from using a bow from time to time; except of course the player's unwillingness to change up their playstyle and try out some stuff.

I actually really enjoyed that level with my melee build (using a bow here, of course). It looked beautiful and it was a nice change of pace. Also, that boss is pretty cool.

I love rolling, too, but you don't have to roll for that fight. You can just hug him as close as possible and strafe to (your) right, circling around that way, and you'll avoid all his overhand swings easily, and usually avoid his swipe. The only problem is when he hops backward and you need to sprint up close to him before he does those charging attacks (they seem more difficult to dodge because they're super fast).

And hell yes to the last part. People seem to think upgrading armor is a waste, but it really isn't. You can take your defense from like 200 to 400 or 500 to over 1000 by upgrading whole armor sets (Looking Glass armor, for example). It helps a lot. Alva's armor is great, too. With just a small amount of points put into Vigor you can take a whole good hit from Vendrick and still have health remaining wearing upgraded Alva armor.

I played most of the game with the Drangleic sword and a +10 mace. Didn't have too many problems in iron keep, except on the boss. I think Mace +10 is secretly the most OP weapon in the game. I'm playing a strength build, not sure why vinny had such problems with Iron Keep.

Vinny can steel my soul anytime.

My large club +10 has one hitted most enemies with the two handed heaviest attack. I hate those (hippos?) tho. What? only +2 weapon, and keep your weight under 70% and try to keep it 1vs1. Please let Vinny keep playing from now on. Fun to see an area i've recently conquered being played by someone else. Also the ring against weapon breaking is king. The bonfires are more hidden later so remember that A/X button against the wall reveals hidden walls.

Yeah, I actually had no issues with Shrine of Amana my first time through, and actually I loved the aesthetics and atmosphere of the area. It turned out to be one of my favorites areas and I was surprised to find out that everyone is having so much trouble with it. I had more trouble with the Dragon Shrine and the Abyss covenant dungeons honestly.

I wasn't looking at DS2 related content at all during my entire first playthrough, but I got through Shrine of Amana easily with a Short Bow +6 with the base 12 Dex to weld it. I had around 400 iron arrows and 300 or so poison arrows that I just kept stockpiled in case I ever needed it, and I just cheesed all the casters that way, only took about 2 to 3 headshots for each one. Only died about two or three times in the entire area, even the frog woman boss thing was a joke.

I'm honestly surprised people don't even bother using bows, as 12 Dex is an extremely low amount of investment for something that can help you a great deal in the long run, and even when the damage starts being too weak bows can still be used for aggroing. I also got lucky and had a 95% magic resist shield drop from those phantom dudes in Undead Crypt, so I was rocking that for the whole Shrine of Amana area, and eventually figured out you can parry the magic arrows they shoot at you so that you take no damage.

As for the video, the crew seemed to dismiss the Mastadon Greatsword, but it's basically the Man Serpent Greatsword of this game, it has A STR scaling at +10, has a great moveset (almost the same as the MSGS from DS1), and does a great amount of damage. He should really switch to it from the Pursuer UGS/Drangleic GS, since both of those require rare materials to upgrade and the Mastadon only requires standard titanite.

22:39

"EVERYTHING IS BREAKING!"

What an amazing moment.

Hell, I blocked the homing soul arrows for days. Vinny just needs 5 more points in strength to use havel's shield with 90% magic def. With the whole havel set and a magic resist ring the only problem will be the templar looking dudes before the last bonfire.

Potato_Marshal was the guy who continually invaded the Breaking Brad: Demon's Souls streams and used corrosive cloud to destroy Brad's gear in addition to killing him repeatedly.

Yes. @vinny is in for a real bad time. Fuck that place.

I keep regretting my choice of the Dragonrider shield instead of the Bow. At the time I didn't think I'd put that many points into Dex. I've never used the shield, partly because it looks kind of dumb the way he holds it so low to the ground, and because it's heavier and doesn't offer any real advantages over other greatshields. For a boss soul item, it's extremely underwhelming.

You'd think the Mirror Knight would give you a 100% magic block shield, but nope!

Yeah, there's a notched whip in Huntman's Copse (on a hill I think) and the Darth Maul sword is in the Ruin Sentinels' level I believe.

Heck yeah +10 Mace. Went through the whole game with it, only occasionally using a +10 bastard sword for it's wide swing and occasionally for non-armored foes. I had a feeling the mace was that secret super weapon, and I was right. Ogto we're so smart.

@deathpooky: Shrine of Amana enemies drop Twinkling Titanite like hotcakes

@theblue: The patchnotes for 1.03 mention reducing the UI lag for the start menu and shop

@humanity: Supposedly you can reflect magic with the mirror shield but I believe it is only with the L2 which is so slow and hard to time

@humanity: I rolled with that shield until I found havel's near the end game. It's fine. And you don't need no bows when you got hella lighning spears. Seriously, get some, those things are OP.

Don't take a break from these videos!!! I love watching them, they are the best thing on the site at the moment

@dan_citi: the darth maul sword is in the bastille I think