The Shrine of Amana. Holy fuck.

Let me explain. I've just finished the game yesterday, and I played fully solo with a poise + heavy ass armor + heavy ass shield + ultra great swords. That's how I've done all of my first run's with the Souls games, and it's still my favorite way to play. Having now finished the game, clearing Demon's Souls numerous times, S-Ranking Dark Souls and going through NG+4 and a Soul Level 1 run, I can easily say that the Shrine of Amana was the most frustrating thing I've encountered hands down.

This area feels like it was built to be a kick in the nuts to anyone who opted out of a range-capable class. The waist high water is annoying, but fully manageable. The lizard creatures hiding in the water weren't terribly difficult to spot and went down with a single swing, no problem in and of themselves. But the mages...oh my fucking god the mages. Under normal circumstances, they are cake. But this is a completely wide open area, and these guys are wielding the magical equivalent of a god damned sniper rifle. If they aren't clipped off the screen by the draw distance, then apparently they are close enough fire at you, at a very brisk pace I might add.

Combined with the high water slowing my movement (which doesn't slow enemy movement, slightly unfairly in my opinion), or totally draining my stamina trying to dodge/outrun the projectiles, I had an unbelievably difficult time trying to get through the final crowd of enemies right in front of the final bonfire. I tried a number of different equipment builds with varying levels of agility, but it made little difference. Did anyone else have a rough time with this spot, or was this just my own personal kryptonite?

Oh, and the magic is also homing, as if it wasn't bad enough.

I cheesed the mages with a bow my first time through, and I'll probably never go back to that area again. The boss design was fantastic though IMO, helped make up for it :D

I agree, I had a similar build. It was very frustrating getting through that area, the boss on the other hand was a piece of cake.

Yeah that place is a pain. I ended up buying like 500 dark arrows and just sniping all the magic casters.

Shrine of Amana is definitely a pain in the ass, but it's only the one checkpoint. The best part is the pop-in distance is virtually the same as the aggro distance and I think that's intentional. Boss is relatively easy/fun.

Despair ahead, and then tears. Just thinking about this area re-awakens the anger i felt during the 1 1/2 hours (or more) i spent trying to get trough this ridiculous rain of soul arrows.

Those guys are rough, but trial and error helped along the way. I found that using the pillars and other things in the environment helped a lot. But I agree, that area along with the room before the Undead Crypt boss are completely infuriating.

@elyk247: Yeah, that's what made the last stretch before the final bonfire so discouraging...nothing to hide behind whatsoever on the approach. And which part of the Undead Crypt do you mean? The one with all the knights right before the fog door?

Yeah it was really frustrating until I figured out the order of pillars to run to and the angle to attack the mages so I wouldn't get hit. At the least it's good the mages are pretty much stationary, because on the off chance you let one move you're pretty much fucked, since the layout only really allows 2-3 different paths through the area if you can't either survive the magic attacks / don't have decent ranged damage.

Only thing I have to say about that area is how fucking relieved I was when I discovered that the fog-gate didn't lead to a boss. After Black Gulch I was so convinced they decided to just take it up yet another notch with ridicolous runbacks.

I just got through that area. Not that bad if you cheese with a bow. Now the Undead Crypt, that is frustrating.

On this spot now with the knights and casters all over before the fog door. As you said its simple enough. I've cheesed my way through the place with poison arrows for the casters. But that last pile of dudes killed me twice now. Removed all the casters and then hit a knight with a poison arrow and man they B-lined it straight at me fast as all hell. I wasn't able to poison one.. they unleashed a flurry of giant attacks which killed my stamina.. I was able to run and they chased me through like half the area. Eventually they leashed.. repeat same thing again cept this time I died from the flurry of attacks. Such bullshit that they haul ass through the water.

@kaiserreich: which part of the Undead Crypt did you find frustrating?

I think you totally missed a bonfire in Black Gulch man. There is one like right above the boss door, which takes all of 15 seconds to get to the boss from.

Sigh.. Just cleared all the junk up to that last set of bastards again. Everything going perfectly.. And then I go behind some cover looking for the casters in the draw distance and slowly fall off into nothingness and die.

Un-F'n-believable

I totally did that AFTER I beat the boss, when heading towards the next area. And of course I died on the way back there, losing about 45,000 souls.

Even playing as a caster this area was probably the most frustrating. Especially the 2 at the end... It forces you to pretty much master the area before you can progress.

@bushpusherr: Ye, I did, found it later though. The run isn't very far either way, just sort of a death-trap =)

The only thing that frustrates me about this game is that it kind of goes against what I'm used to doing in the past two Souls games. Basically, in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, if you're fighting more than 3 enemies at once, you fucked up. In Dark Souls 2 they, at times, throw groups of 4 or 5 enemies at you. I guess what really frustrates me is the fact that I haven't been able to adjust and find my rhythm in this game yet. I mean, those greatsword wielding hallowed soldiers are more difficult than I thought they'd be.

But I'm still totally enjoying the game, I especially enjoyed the part where I parried The Pursuer and shot him in the face with a ballista.

@kaiserreich: Personally I found the Undead Crypt to be fun; a bit of trial and error but it's not too bad. Also who doesn't like double shield wielding enemies.

@fredchuckdave: @bushpusherr: I didn't realize what that bell below the steps did in the room before the boss. That and I just don't like wandering around dark crypts.

That area is fucking horrible. I have never gotten frustrated at any of the Souls games but this area was complete bullshit. I was just happy that this game has the enemies not respawn after a certain amount of times. Seriously, fuck that area.

I'm in Amana right now, doens't seem so bad, but then again i'm playing somewhat opposite of you. I'm using a dual wielding fast character who dodges, so i can run up and dodge and shot then one hit the caster.

Now if you want to talk places that are messed up, the fog area is kinda evil, though you can run past it. But the area with spiders? Screw that! Though this probably has more to do with my insane fear of spiders than anything else.

Just got done with this bullshit. If it wasn't for my bow, I don't think I would have ever beat it. The worst part is that unless you have a torch, you really don't know if you are just gonna walk into the abyss, but every time you roll the torch goes out. Plus the fact that the torch takes up your shield slot, so if you wanna see the ground beneath you, you can't evade in any way, which is impossible with all the casters. The game has been top-fucking-notch up until this level, always felt fair, but not this place. I wanted to choke the motherfucker who thought it was a good zone to put into the game. I know there are a lot of items I've missed in there, but I don't really think I give a damn. Fuck that area.