militantfreudian

@dussck said:

It's one of my favorite boss fights in the game. It was a very fun fight for me, especially when [she?] casts the black mist and splits into two, which she did three times when I fought her. I didn't think the fight was especially difficult, but I almost died a couple of times. The music and intro cutscene were really cool too. The boss fight overall was aesthetically stunning in my opinion.

Generally, I found the boss fights in Bloodborne to be more enjoyable than those in Dark Souls or Dark Souls 2. The Chalice Dungeon bosses are surprisingly good, even the gimmicky boss fights were kind of okay and not too annoying. I haven't fought Gehrman yet, but so far, Father Gascoigne is my favorite.

@panelhopper: I'm not sure if this will help, but you can go somewhere where you can find a decent set (if you still have the starting attire) and an item that will unlock levelling up at the Hunter's Dream. If you reached the bridge with the wolves/beasts, head down the first staircase. There's a pathway hidden by crates and barrels, break through them and go down the ladders. The enemies down there are a bit tougher, so try to parry them, especially the one with with pole weapon. Or maybe just run past them? Anyway, go down the ladder leading to the sewers with the rats, and go right. At the end of there's a body guarded by an enemy (pole weapon). Kill him and loot the body, then jump down. There are many enemies, don't try to kill them and go up the first ladder you see. If you reach the top there's a body guarded by few crows, if you loot it, you'll find an item called Madman's Knowledge. Consuming it grants you one Insight, which will unlock levelling up. Encountering a boss unlocks levelling up as well.

Keep in mind that weapon scaling improves the more you upgrade a weapon; that's why it's still worthwhile to dump points in STR for example. If you want to stick with a strictly melee build, then I suggest investing points mainly in STR and VIT. If you still want to increase your damage output even after hitting 50 in STR, then you might want to invest in SKL, especially if you're using Ludwig's Holy Blade. Alternatively, you can invest 8 points in ARC to get to 15. At which point, you have access to three Hunter Tools, including the arcane weapon buff @humanity is talking about. Investing in ARC should increases the electricity damage of the Tonitrus (not sure though).

@boniti said:

I'm not sure I agree. In my experience, certain bosses punished me for being too aggressive and forced me to parry or just hit-and-run (at least at some point during the fight), while others punished me for dawdling around and playing defensively. I felt like this made each boss fight feel fresh and interesting. Based on my play style in previous games, I approached the majority of bosses in those games in a similar manner -- that is to say, I tried to beat each on by attrition.

If you're looking for more challenging bosses, then I recommend doing the Chalice Dungeons. The last boss in the Lower Pthumerian Labyrinth (a Depth 3 dungeon) was harder than all the bosses I've encountered in the game thus far, save for Ebrietas maybe. The bosses in higher level dungeons (Depth 4 and 5) seem to allow for very little margin of error, so I hope you find what you're looking for.

I found the fight to be really intense as well, and I had some trouble avoiding his super punch. I think you did better than me; I must've healed like a dozen times. So, yeah, well done! Also, shame about the elevator glitch, I thought Ebrietas was just as challenging as the Bloodletting Beast.

Top 4

1. Bloodborne (probably)
2. Dark Souls
3. Dark Souls II
4. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

Order played

1. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
2. Dark Souls II
3. Dark Souls
4. Bloodborne

I'm curious what do people think of the Black Dragon Knights guarding the Dragon Shrine from DSII. They're some of my favorite enemies in the entire series, and the Hunters remind me of them.

Also, I just ran into the three Hunters in Yahar'gul, and that was an incredibly fun fight. The guy with the Threaded Cane decided to hang back and shoot the bolt attack every now and then, while the other two were up against me. I didn't expect to beat them on my first try, but that was pretty satisfying. To be fair, I found the first couple of fights against the hunters to be kind of frustrating, mainly because I didn't know how to fight them, but the last couple were fantastic (this one and the one in Byrgenwerth).

I love this show, so of course, I enjoyed this episode. One thing that stood out for me in this episode is how good the lighting was. I hope we see more of Ken and that this isn't it for him. Also, mustaches!

@shindig said:

I prefer playing these games along with everyone else to compare notes and stuff like that. Sure, you can go back to old forum posts, but it doesn't feel the same to me. It's definitely not a huge deal though; I played the first Dark Souls last year and I enjoyed it more than Dark Souls II, which I played around release.

I played three non-root dungeons, and I liked what I've played. I've gotten at least one good gem in each dungeon, but the pull for me so far has been the boss fights. I hope the loot gets better in higher level root dungeons.