100% trophies with 3 characters. Loving the pure caster/pyromancer build.

just beat darklurker on my first attempt, so i'm all pleased with myself, and i won 9 out of 10 pvp matches against dragon covenant dudes yesterday, and got invaded while fighting a black phantom (or is it red now?) that i summoned, and killed em both.

got a coupla pissy messages about op magic being op, but that one dude who beat me beat me good, and it wasn't through a slip up on my part, he just outplayed me. i'm guessing players will adapt to hexers soon enough.

all i know is for the first time ever in a souls game i ain't afraid of no invader, might even equip that item that boosts invasions for ng+, which i'll probably dive into later today. Also i might even hundred percent this bitch. what is going on? guess i got lucky picking INT/FAI out of the gate, or maybe it's just cos the game is awesome.

Finished it the other day. Took 39 hours and I think I was around level 140. Stuck with the Drangleic Sword ever since I got it super early on. Just upgraded it to +5 and that was good enough for me. Beat every boss minus the Ancient Dragon and I think there's another you have to be in a particular covenant for, or something?

@hh: If you're melee than that's pretty impressive, if you're a caster then almost not at all.

@fredchuckdave: ha ha, yeah fair enough, i just had my ass pwned in the blood covenant arena by a dude wielding two whips. ouch.

Beat the game, but never ended up beating the Dragon. I've seen the videos about how to beat him, but I'm at a point where beating him would give me no pleasure. The Dragon wins this playthrough round in my book. I might be ready to start over with a new character. Not much interest in NG. Though I might just take a break from the game.

I beat the game at SL 130. I only have three bosses that I did not kill, and I am not sure if I want to go through the hassle right now to deal with them.

I'm currently stuck at the Smelter Demon. I know he's optional but I want to beat my head against him a few more times. Before this I averaged about an area per day. Playing for about two to three hours on weekends and on during weekdays.

I have been going through NG+ at a pretty quick speed, I've fallen in love with the Curved Dragon Greatswod. Its doing way better than any pure Dex weapon i found. Finished up that last 2 Great Souls so im now on the run to the end. My world shattered when i found out that Chancellor Wellager doesn't sell what i need until after the Mirror Knight in NG++, and im a bit eager to move on but i really want this Plat. But overall the more i play the more i enjoy this entry.

No, duders, I was being serious about living in Iran and not having a decent internet connection. I absolutely loved the online stuff in Dark Souls 1, and certainly miss them here.

Started a new game, as a melee character this time, basically ran through the game quickly up until Iron Keep. I seem to be in the middle of a speed run.

Just finished the game as a DEX character with some pyromancy at SL 145. Mostly used +10 Falchion, but +5 Black Knight Halberd made an appearance in some places. Pyromancy Glove +10 helped deal with groups. Used Jester set and heavy armor for most levels, heavy armor just up till under 70% equip load for bosses. My big bottlenecks were the Pursuer and the Smelter. Stats:

VIG - 35

END - 23

VIT - 29

ATT - 16

STR - 20

DEX - 40

ADP - 23

INT - 3

FTH - 9

Still have three bonus bosses left, undecided if I want to bother with them, move to NG+, or start a new magic-based character. I opened up the Darklurker, but the fact that you have to spend effigies and fight through some tough enemies just to get to him is pretty annoying. I barely spent effigies in the game proper, but it took me half my supply just to open him up to fight with the annoying jump and hard-hitting enemies, and the first fight I was out of spells and low on estus since I didn't even know about him.

I guess I killed four old fogies and now I've reached some guy's rainy castle. That was a good 6 or so hours ago and I've been engaging in jolly pvp since then and honestly have very little inclination to continue progressing, other than the looming threat of soul memory becoming an issue.

About that... lol

I've lost count the amount of times I got the Smelter Demon down to a sliver of health. It's really getting comical. To add to the comedy, he's not even necessary in an actual speedrun. Oof, I guess I'll have to cancel my career in twitch speedrunning.

I'm still rocking the Bastard Sword (+10) and Tower Shield (+4) now with Vangarl's Armourset (+1). I might switch to a different greatsword, Mastadon Greatsword perhaps?

I've just beaten the Looking Glass Knight - on my first attempt. Defeated the Twin Dragonriders on my second attempt - I defeated the archer guy in 4 swipes. I still can't beat the Smelter Demon.

SL is about 115, with STR 40 and VIT & END ~24, VIG ~27 and ADP 20. Has anybody got any suggestions for improvements to my loadout or what to level for the rest of the game?

just had an awful time with that bunch of black phantoms on the way up to undead purgatory in ng+, lost a shitload of souls in the process.

Beat Ancient Dragon and Vendrick last night after having seen the credits the night before. I'm a pure melee build with a Claymore +10, a well upgraded Faraah armor set and some Pyromancy on the side. Though for the Ancient Dragon I put on some light leather armor and used the shield with the rose (stamina regen) because that guy one-shotted me anyway. Once you got the movement set of both of these bosses down, they aren't so bad.

Only thing that's left now is the Darklurker and that dark covenant. I played without a guide so naturally I missed that arc.

After some really mediocre middle sections bummed me out, I really warmed up to the game again towards the end. It's too bad that it's so inconsistent in many respects and doesn't have the same coherency as the first game. Still a very good game though and a worthy entry in the series.

I finally took down Vendrick last night, it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be thanks to his giant blind spot. It was the last thing I really wanted to do in the game but I think I might keep playing coop, helping other players as an Heir to the Sun. Does anyone know a good place to lay my sign down for an SL 179 character? I was summoned three times last night in the Undead Crypt but I'd rather not keep fighting the boss there over and over again.

@hh: Sounds like NG+ has tons of invaders as opposed to New Game. I only got invaded once in my 80 hours of playing. Should be interesting once I jump over to NG+.

@thelastgunslinger: Whoa what? You still get summoned as a SL179? I can't get anyone to summon me at SL130. Maybe I should level up a bit.

Only in some places. Undead Crypt seems to work more often than not and so does Dragon Shrine. The problem with the latter is it's always someone trying to kill the Ancient Dragon which is not on my "To Do" list.

@thunderslash: these aren't even invaders, ng+ has just extra black phantom mobs all over the place, as well as the occasional one-time-only phantom that pops up (out of an earlier game even) and provides a serious challenge to overcome.

@lumley: It might be worth it to put a few more levels into ADP to get your poise and agility up, but otherwise with your STR to the cap and enough equip load and DEX to use the weapons and armor you want, at a certain point it probably just makes sense to pump up your health/stamina as high as you can. You could also dabble in some useful pyro, but that's a big investment if you haven't done it so far.

I just got to Dragon Aerie yesterday, will cross the bridge tonight.

I am currently using a Mastodon Greatsword +10, a Mace +6, and a Pyromancy Flame +10 (Flame Swathe is the shit).

I am wearing the Faraam helmet and chest, both +10, Vengarl leggings and Drangleic gauntlets.

The only covenant I need to find is the Dragon one, which I know is coming up. I am also well on my way to getting all of the "inherit" trophies. I'm trying to get as many Trophies as possible during this run, I doubt I'll be able to get all the spell ones but I haven't looked into it too much.

Finished the game not too long ago. I went with a Sage build where I've got crazy high Attunement, Intelligence, and Faith with everything else pretty low. It means I can pretty much mix and match any spells to tackle just about any situation but Dark spells got me through most of the game. I have so many casts and do so much damage that I didn't even use a melee weapon anymore. I stuck with caster robes and Archdrake Staff and Chime both +10 and that all took me to the end. Just working on hitting up the optional bosses if I can otherwise I'm ready for a shot at NG+. I would like to fish for better caster gear and upgrades.

I think I just found a way to increase my physical defense slightly while doubling my elemental defenses and keeping my weight the same. I'll know the total improvement once this ball game is over. That's the best progress I've had in days as I've beaten all the bosses and am just farming for gear and covenant progress now.

Edit: After running the numbers I have improved my physical defense by 13.8%, elemental defense by 44.8% and poise by 22.2% while keeping my weight the same. My only stat decrease was 8 points of poison resistance.

A common tune amongst speedrunners has been talking about the randomness of the boss fights, and indeed almost every boss has like 10-12 attacks instead of the customary 3-5 and thus a lot of people had very hard runs of the game and a lot of other people had easier runs simply due to boss AI. For me this just further enhances the replayability and time it takes to truly "master" the experience.

SL 134 with a strength primary(40) and a minor in dex(25). Poise is over 105 and most of my physical damage resistances are over 1000. I'm currently rocking Havels Armor set with an Old Knights shield, a +10 large club imbued with fire, a +3 Dragonrider bow imbued with lightning, and +4 Estus Flask x10. For special occasions I also a +3 lightning Dragleic sword and a +2 Chariots lance. I just got my 4th lord soul and a giant souls tonight and plan on heading to the Shrine of Winter tomorrow to start the games last campaign. Feeling pretty good. I hit really freaking hard and with my new Havel set and stats I am shrugging off damage.

At the moment I'm going through NG+ with a Mundane Santier's Spear and pyromancy build. It is definitely a change from my first playthrough, which consisted of mostly a Large Club/Mastodon Halberd and a greatshield. Now I rarely even use a normal shield. I have managed to breeze through most of the beginning of the game with this specific build and even took out the Pursuer on his first encounter.

I have defeated the Ancient Dragon.

Finally, with my first character. Also, I realize now he's an easy fight. You just need to stand in front of him at 45 degree angles, he'll just shift and forward fire all day. I really wish it was possible to force that situation in co-op, would love to kill the boss for people, but in the end, people will bait other attacks.

Also beat Vendrick, just chaos stormed him 4 times, his vertical slashes just wiff you while you do it.

Oh yeah, getting stronger...

Next stop. Undead Crypt.

Despite being super excited for DS2, I haven't had much time to play it. It's really not the type of game you want to play in 30 min spurts. So I've got about 15 hours into it, SL 53-ish, and I'm at the fog gate to the boss in Huntsmans Copse. I started out as a pure INT build but as I read up I started balancing out with FTH. Currently 20 INT/18 FTH. I just bought the Archduke Staff for sorceries and hexes, and for melee I use a fire long sword +5 and a magic mace +3 as a backup.

Side Note - I exhausted all my dialog options with Cale in the Forest of Fallen Giants, but he never came back to Mejulah after I cleared the boss, what's up with that? I don't want to miss out on any lore or special items I can get from him if he needs to be at the map in the basement.

I beat this on Saturday. I didn't kill the Ancient Dragon or go into the Chasm, but I did everything else I could. Got all the Trophies except the "get all X type spells" ones.

Used the Defendor's soul to make his shield, since I head tale that it was really good. I'm sitting now in post game with a +10 Mastodon Sword, +10 Pyromancy Flame, +5 Defendor's Shield, +10 Faraam Helm, Chest, and Leggings, and +5 Haval's gauntlets. Balanced enough so I can still quick roll.

I'm not going to NG+ it yet. I'm going to put the game down for awhile and work on backlog. Maybe I'll hop back in at some point to try and get/kill everything I may have missed. I know I missed an estus shard somewhere.

Holy shit, man. Just passed that point in my own playthrough and my Soul Level is twice that.

Mind if I ask how you're managing? How's the game's challenge for you? Are you spending more on items than level? Any time spent summoning/being summoned?

It's been a decent challenge, but not overly hard. It's my understanding that there isn't a set path through the game, so you could have been to areas I haven't yet. Basically, my playthrough has been FoFG>Heide's ToF>No Man's Wharf>Huntsmans Copse. I haven't done Lost Bastille yet. I spend souls on spells and upgrading weapons, and that's about it. I haven't done much with online aspect of the game, so that might be why my SL is so low. I was invaded twice, won one lost the other. I just joined up with the Blue Sentinels, so maybe I'll equip that ring and get summoned, though I'm rubbish at pvp generally speaking in these games.

The Lost Bastille is the big differentiator. I felt like I got souls like crazy at the Bastille. That and I've been more level-focused in soul allocation.

Really fascinating how divergent two playthroughs can be, even with just a minor difference in path progression.

Just beat Iron Keep. In The Shaded Grove right now. I don't like this place.

Lagging behind a bit. I paused just before the Gutter and spent some time on PVP at the bell tower, then went on vacation for a few days. I finally continued last night and beat the Rotten, then went to the Shaded Woods and beat the scopion lady. I'm sure I missed quite a lot along the way, so I'm going to double back some before moving on to the Doors of Pharos.

Finished the game late last week. Felt like the game kind of lost its way near the end.. The Giant Memories were just no fun. Dragon Aerie was cool though. As for Vendrick, I just left him to chill in the crypt. I felt absolutely no need to kill him, considering (endgame lore spoilers ahead) he seems to have locked himself up there in an attempt to break the cycle. He's essentially cockblocking both Nashandra, who wants only to spread the abyss, and fate itself, who wants only to see the cycle continue. Without the king's ring, no-one can link the fire OR bring forth a new age of dark.. So yeah, once I got the King's Ring, I felt like it'd be the ultimate dick move to then kill his hollowed form. Dude isn't hurting anyone just pacing around in his crypt.

All kinda cool on a lore level, but I found the last 5 hours or so to be kind of a boring slog to play through. Finished at SL 125, went into NG+ pretty much immediately. Ran through Forest of Fallen Giants in about 10 minutes but then got as far as the room in Heide's Tower of Flame where there's 3 of the automatons and found there's now 5 of them. Had a few goes at it, big ol' NOPE. Haven't played since. Probably going to bust out Dark Souls 1 tonight. I was really enjoying this game but then people's complaints about DS2 started clicking into place for me as well, now I'm curious to go back and see how DS1 fares.

I originally planned to just make a straight dex build using katanas, but once i realized that miracles are basically required for invasions now i had to respec and put points into faith. So I got a dex/faith build going right now with sunlight blade/great heal and katanas.

I've reached Shrine of Amana. Nah, I'm good. In more pleasant news, I've finally reached rank 3 with the Bell Keepers. I don't even if the bellyband makes my dude look like he has a gut, I love it because it has a backpack. It took far longer for than it should have, but that's what I get for having such a poor connection.

Surprised more people haven't openly complained about Scorpioness Najka. She gave my melee build a serious challenge. Though, that's partly because she's probably one of the first bosses in the early-mid game you can't wallop by simply holding up your shield and circle-strafing.

Lit the first bonfire in Iron Keep, but haven't made a push into the territory yet. Will likely tackle that this weekend.