That is why I roll in filthy peasant rags. fashion souls be damned.

Has anyone done a playthrough focusing on using dual weapons ? I tried it out for a bit and it seemed disappointing, but I'm still sorta interested in playing around with it. What are the strengths and weaknesses of those weapons compared to just using a single hard-hitting weapon ?

@sterling said:

I've been doing the same thing, except I keep changing weapons because I haven't found one that I really like. This is actually turning out to be an issue because I have yet to upgrade a weapon and I'm having trouble deciding which stats to invest in. Granted I'm fairly early into the game, so I'm hoping this changes. I'm looking to try the Farron Greatsword; I haven't used an ultra greatsword before so this might be interesting. Any other boss weapons I should keep an eye out for?

@militantfreudian: I'm not sure in way of boss soul weapons. I just got the Farron Greatsword myself. And I am in love with it.

@militantfreudian: I will say that if you're interested in the Farron Greatsword, pump dex. It's really strange that I'm running around with a sharp uchigatana and a greatsword that both have a B rank in DEX. Also, the 2hL1 for the greatsword is awesome but uses a lot of stamina, so that might be another stat to focus on.

I loved the Deacons boss. It wasn't difficult but it was extremely satisfying using my stomp weapon skill to get in the middle of everyone and knock them flying.

I finally found Aldrich, and he couldn't have been in a better castle. Getting there took some looking up, though. I had completely forgotten about that one passage I walked past many hours ago and didn't have a clue where to go.

I was surprised to find out that the Black Knight at the Road of Sacrifices respawns, so I tried to farm his shield and turns out it's pretty darn good. Very good stability and solid resistances. Learning that I went back to the High Wall of Lothric to the Darkwraith and farmed the Dark Sword. It's quick and has a decent moveset so I upgraded it twice. Also, thanks @user_undefined for the tip!

Just spent the 20,000 souls for the key to the tower round back of fire link shrine. Don't want to spoil it for others necessarily but I will say there is some interesting stuff lore wise!

I was using an Eagle Kite shield and I'm never going to use the skill with that. Some sort of shield bash. Beat the Abyss Walkers with my second character. Got more rings on me and I've mained strength a bit more.

Yhorm the Giant - This is exactly the type of awful gimmick boss fight that make me question whether From actually understands why people like their games. I want to beat your boss with my build, not with some forced gimmick crap. Does anyone actually enjoy these things?

@militantfreudian: I got two of the Dark Swords last night myself. And I really, really like that sword. Its very fast for the damage it puts out. Its just an oversized straight sword. But it has better reach and a nice special move set. Rolling poke, and thrust up heavy for knock backs. And the stun special to guard break and stun. Plus the highest poise damage of any small, fast sword. I got one up to +6, and its doing 298 damage per swing for me. And I can get in 6 swings before I run out of stamina. If you go heavy infusion you get A on STR at +4. And if you use refined you get B/B on STR/Dex at +6. This is now my main.

Quick question: Has anyone ever been summoned as a Blue Sentinel or Blade of Darkmoon? I always have one of those on and I didn't get summoned once yet.

Yeah, I do. The game is full of bosses I can beat the traditional way. I like gimmick bosses if they're just sprinkled here and there.

@nevergameover: I think Yhorm was fun. He's so big and slow that if he actually took damage the regular way, it would have been an easy fight. I jumped in without knowing what to do and could easily dodge everything he threw at me. The gimmick made him more interesting for me, not less. There haven't been any bosses yet that I feel are anything as bad as the Bed of Chaos, although Deacons was a bit of a letdown considering I expected Aldrich. It was funny seeing all of them when entering the room though.

Others on here have said they are, but I haven't either. I'm level 55 however. Which is why I am not. To be summoned for this, the host (person that would summon you) can only be 10 levels below yours. And by my level, I am sure there are not many people using way of the blue. They need to widen that range.

@sterling: I've practically always had them on. From level 10 or whatever up to about 70 now and it's always been nothing, but good to know the range.

They definitely need to change some aspects of these covenants, right now they are pointless as hell.

I don't disagree that it makes him more interesting than he would be without the gimmick, but that's not a particularly high bar. As you said, he would incredibly lame without the gimmick. Therefore, gimmick makes him more interesting, but I do not think it is actually a fun fight as a result of it either.

And to make matters worse, it's not even a new gimmick. This is the exact same gimmick as the Storm King.

Easily my least favorite boss of the game so far.

@nevergameover: To be honest Yhorn was the fight I dreaded the most because he was billed as a Giant which in my mind just says the real boss would be an awful camera and a lot of ankle biting.

So I was pretty happy that he was the trick boss instead.

I'm feeling like a negative nancy while playing. The game feels to have more in common with Dark Souls 2, imo (my least favorite of the series). Many uninspired bosses (the 3rd boss is the only one that really seemed neat). Lots of paths that lead to dead ends. You'll beat a boss and it will be just a big empty room with a bonfire... or worse you will follow a path that literally leads to nothing, wtf? Enemies that have wind up attacks that can spin around 180 degrees and hit you. And I feel like the game doesn't look as good as Bloodborne did at all (frame rate aside). Lots of large open flat looking areas.

Maybe my expectations were off after reading reviews and people liking it more to the first game or at least an amalgamation of the best things of the series. I'll keep going, of course though. I've beaten 6 bosses I believe of which only 1 took me more than 2 tries. This is not because I'm good... I just feel like there isn't much technique to beating them.

Is there any reason to use pyromancy if I only have 10 points of int and faith? I kind of want to carry a spell with me but most of them I've tried do almost no damage. Is it worth reinforcing the pyromancy flame for more damage or will it be a negligible increase?

The four ring slots mean you can just carry a ring to grant you one atunement slot. That's my plan if I need a ranged fireball. I do miss the open world of Dark Souls, mind.

@49th: I've also been using the pyromancy flame with only 10int/faith (need those points for sweet stamina and strength). The one spell that seems usefull with those stats is the "carthus-flame-arc" -> weapon buff which adds fire damage to your weapon. No idea whether or not its worth to uprade the flame tho. I've heard that the weapon buff scales with the flame rather than int/faith, but so far (my flame is at +6) i haven't noticed any difference. For reference- my buff adds ~100 fire damage and stays active for 90 seconds. Pretty sweet considering the flame weighs literally ZERO and i basically started with 10/10.

I was down on the gimmick bosses for a bit and then I guess the game heard me and threw some tough motherfuckers my way.

I'm fine with the here and there gimmicks, there's plenty of good challenge down the line.

Here is a minor spoiler question for people who beat the game or are significantly ahead of me.

So I'm pretty early on, I just got to the marshy area with the giant crabs and guys holding big wooden spikes. Does the level design get significantly better? So far the environments have been somewhat drab and uninspired for the most part, and it has been getting worse the further I go along. Castle Wall was pretty interesting. Then the Settlement was ok.. like Bloodborne did this better because it was a lot more moody but whatever at least there are a lot of cool branching pathways. Road to Sacrifice or whatever was pretty bad looking and I'm playing on PC with everything on high. The area itself wasn't super interesting either and at one point I just decided to run through it after I got that one important item there. So the swamp so far.. is also pretty boring. I've heard the level design gets really great later in the game, and I'll obviously keep playing, but how later is "later" exactly? This must be the least interesting beginning few levels of a Souls game I've ever played.

This is strictly my opinion, but the level design, at least aesthetically, gets a lot worse overall. I'm near the end (I think? I'm going after the last Lord of Cinder, at least) and I feel like I've been walking through castles for a huge portion of the game. I'm hoping the final portion of the game takes me to same wacky places. Everyone I know playing the game has expressed similar sentiments, but that's only one other person because I'm a fucking loser.

@gunslingerpanda: That is at least some hope. I like castles more than marshes and forests.

There's an area that I like the design of so much that the other half of the game could just be swamps and bullshit all throughout and I'd probably call it a net positive.

I'm not sure about how well the reinforcement works since I only upgraded my flame twice due to having extra shards and didn't use it before that, but I invested the minimum 10 Faith and 10 Int and attuned the Carthus Flame Arc. It's super handy to be able to infuse my weapon with fire whenever needed. I probably won't go any further into pyromancy, I just wanted to be able to use that spell for the utility. Plus it looks bad ass.

Anyone find that the Crystal Sage Rapier doesn't do great damage despite the physical and magic damage it outputs? I don't know if the enemies I'm fighting are just 100% resistant to magic damage or what because only the physical portion of the damage is being dealt.

@thorntik: I'd guess it's a lack of good physical scaling and the general weakness of magic damage. I've gone through 40-50% of the game with a sorceress and magic does shit for damage against pretty much everything (infusing my katana with magic cut the dps by about 30%, despite my high Int). Nothing beats a pure physical weapon with B+ scaling unfortunately.

So I decided to try out a mercenary using dual-wield weapons. Everything was going great, playing super aggressively, just smashing my way through the game and thinking to myself that maybe there is something to these weapons. Then I accidentally hit something with my one-hand attack instead of my double weapon attack and discovered I do more damage hitting enemies with one weapon than with two (although it does take a slightly higher amount of stamina to attack, so it's probably balanced around that). Turns out getting the fire gem and knowing where all the early titanite is really helps. Only advantage I can possibly imagine dual-wielding has over using a shield at this point would be that you might stagger enemies easier, but again it turns out fire gem is really great for that as well.

Guess I'll see if a certain boss weapon changes things, but so far they seemed to have missed the mark with this new feature.

@humanity: In short, yes the levels get much better. That part is definitely the worst part of the game as far as level design goes. Its boring, confusing and frustrating. Later on you will mostly go through castles and dungeons so the scenery will be samey, but the construction gets very intricate with many alternate paths, secrets and shortcuts. The last third of the game, especially the optional areas, is easily my favorite part. Struggle through the swamp and the following catacomb and you will be rewarded.

@nevergameover: I beat him with my build, without the gimmick, first try. I loved that boss. A giant that actually had the might of a giant. I beat him by staggering him and doing headshot-criticals. It took a solid 15 minutes of dancing and dodging, but I enjoyed every second.

I was doing some coop today and came across what seemed to be a weird bug. I put my summon sign outside Wolnirs boss room and when the boss fight started:

unrelated but recently whenever I load up to a bonfire, all the status effect icons (bleed, frost poison etc) show up for a second on the screen as if I'm taking that kind of damage then disappear, that ones much less of a problem but also wondering if that happens to anyone else.

Character classes don't have any effect on stat caps, do they? According to a couple Wikis, a staff I'm using with an INT scaling of A has a softcap of 30 yet I've gone from 20 to 25 INT with no effect on the staff. Got a couple spells that require 30-32 int so I'll keep leveling it, but it just seems weird that the weapon isn't scaling anymore.

@sterling: The rolling stab is one of my favorite things about the sword, although I wish the the stomp attack was capable of breaking an enemy's guard.

I have a quick question: how do I get to the giant crystal lizard in the Road of Sacrifices, the one behind the iron door in the building where you find the Black Knight?

@militantfreudian said:

Have you extinguished all three flames in the Farron Swamp yet? The entrance to the lizard is in that general area.

I'm with you on this one. Seems like I really like ridiculously-sized castles and ruins, I thought the first area was pretty great.

I haven't played Bloodborne but even I thought the Undead Settlement had a "been there, done that" kinda feel to it. I was constantly reminded of Resident Evil 4's first few hours, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but eh, I'm kinda here for the castles. Some craziness wouldn't be unwelcome.

Undead Settlement was definitely a "Huh, Hemwick ..." moment. Its a series built on retreads but there's a fine line between fan service and lazyness. I don't mind it so far.

Ended the game using the Heavy Dark Sword +10 (amazing weapon), a 100% physical absorb medium shield, and the Dancer's Armor. Upgraded an ultra greatsword boss weapon to +5 but I hated it and went back. Got the blessed weapon enchant spell at the end of the game and loved it, just wish it had come earlier. Missed two bosses in a secret area accessed by a gesture.

Game is real good. Beat Iudex on NG+ and things are already different. New items in the first area so I can't wait to see how the rest of it pans out.

That's a symptom of online lag. It happens in PvP too I've had to fight completely invisible people who haven't loaded in.

Character classes don't have an effect on anything other than starting gear, stats and your ability to min-max your stats for optimal SL matchmaking. The soft cap is the attack rating gain from the stat which in turn affects how much the stat scales A with the staff. I'm not sure why you aren't seeing any changes from 20-25 INT if it's scaling A with INT. Are you sure you're looking at the right numbers, it should say for example '128 + 89'. The +89 would be the attack rating you gain from the A scaling with your INT stat.

@militantfreudian: Its from a wrap-back-around short cut from the next area. You open that gate from that side. You have to go all the way through the next area to get to it.

@ares42: I'm using dual hammers and the double swing definitely does more damage than the single swing does. Way more.

@plasmaduck: That is great to hear thanks! I always really enjoyed the castle settings in these games. I thought the Bastille in DS2 was really great, as was Boletaria in Demon's and the Undead Burg in DS1. I think they just work really well with that maze-like looping back on itself design sensibility the games have become known for. A big ol' swamp is not only boring, but those textures don't really hold up that great either!

Thanks again! Although I'm now dreading talks of catacombs.. I am happy there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

@justin258 Yah I'm right there with you, that first area was really good especially in how they work their way over rooftops and such. A lot more verticality than usual! When the gargoyles take you away and you land on those battlements I was like "heck yah this place looks awesome. I mean I thought Undead Settlement was pretty decent - I liked all the intertwining pathways that was cool. Like others have said I did get a bit of deja vu there, althought this whole game is just a bunch of deja vu from all the games that came before it.

Does the game do a good job of signifying the point of no return? I don't see myself ng+ ds3, so I'd like to see as much as I can in my current play through.

Thanks @sterling and @lawgamer for the tip. That was a slightly weird one; I didn't expect that I had to go to the end of the next area to find it. I scoured the Road of Sacrifices, and then the right path at Farron Keep, for illusory walls and hidden passages.

The Abyss Watchers fight is easily one of the best boss fights in the entire series. It has spectacle and, even though it seemed like I was a bit overleveled, it was an incredibly fun fight.

@mike: Strange, maybe it's just the sellsword twinblades. I'm about to get access to some more dual-weapons so I guess things are about to change =)

I have not looked at the actual item each time as I've always been under the impression (since the 1st game) that the total number (128 + 89 in your example) is what was reflected in the level up menu as the total # for that hand so when it was going up by 2-4 each time I added a INT, that was the scaling giving it that 2-4 boost.

I will check out the actual item page later when I boot up the game.