Zombieheadbutt

@kyteki: Yep, I've installed it. What I'm experiencing is mostly input lag. I don't me "that animation takes too long!" input lag I mean I'm doing absolutely but standing there after I block an attack and lower my shield and the input I put in doesn't animate until a good 4-5 seconds later. Miracles that won't start casting until 3-4 seconds later even though I've already blocked the attack and lowered my shield and stood stock still for 3 seconds. THAT is whats killing me and I seem to be the only one getting this. Maybe its my controller? Its wired so it isn't normal wireless latency. It always seemed to happen right after a drop in framerate. My system isn't a lunch machine but it is an elite that came out just before Jasper.

@envane: Already killed the cat monsters. :) First try on those. Standing in the woods while they did there spin attack made that easy. Your the first person to actually agree that there is lag in this fight, lol. As I mention above, it isn't the lag itself thats killing me so much as the input lag it creates. I my PC hand't blow up or I would record it while happening because it seems to be unique to me. I'm talking INSANE amounts of time between pressing the button and actions occurring. I play a lot of fighting games so I'm kind of sensitive to input lag and frame drops, etc.

@Shirogane: Yea, I was just referring to the Eagle Shield. I'm pretty sure it's stability doesn't increase. :(

@Immuniity: Nice flow chart! "Giving a fuck." Has to be the hardes part of the fight.

@wolf_blitzer85: My Eagle Shield is +5 which I think is the max. Upgrading the shield doesn't decrease the amount of stamina it takes to block an attack. All shields have a stat called stability that can mitigate how much stamina an attack will take off when blocked if I'm not mistaken. I think stability doesn't go up with the upgrades which sucks. Eagle Shield has some very name stability, though.

@gla55jAw: I was wondering if I could use absolution for that! Still kind of confused as to how the covenants work in the game in regards to leaving them and joining them. I know just willy nilly leaving some can get your name in that name Darkmoon Book...which nobody wants.

@LordXavierBritish: Very nice! So....I should go through the forest as human? Yea, its good to know that I not just crazy and everyone else has that same problem. Normally I would say that farming technique is cheap but for as many cheap ass deaths as I've had no I think I might get some SL doing that, LOL. I have no ranged weapon other than a +5 Longbow and normally that'd work like a charm but Sif has a charging attacking that is hard to out maneuver. Its pretty rare and I might be able to doge it if I get the timing right so I might give it a shot. Its going to take a year and a month to kill her with arrows though. Damn that lag!

@Kyelb22: I'm starting to wonder if my lag is hardware related. I almost beat her on the first try also but then I got lagged out while trying to use a miracle and got destroyed. I also don't have a problem with the phantoms and humans in the forest except when I'm being invaded. I've killed all of the phantoms minus the Thief one that appears to be excempt from the respawn rule the others follow. Ha! I'm melee and have no offensive spells so Sif, while not hard, is much harder battle for me then a magic user. :)

@TaliciaDragonsong: I had a feeling that it was the covenant that was screwing me. Argh! I wish I could push that stupid cat off of a ledge! I can't even talk to it now. I've seen the error of my ways! No redemption. :(

@NekuCTR: If I kindle the fire I'm human...the unwashed masses will spill over me like a great tide of sharp objects. Your right though, five more flask would make that fight so easy. The miracle is too slow and is acting odd due to lag. I'm the second category of weight which is night the best roll but the next so I'm pretty nimble also. My problem is just that if I get hit once I'm no killable by the next hit and then I get lagged while healing and die.

@Valames: Ha, I actually checked your user icon to see if your where a furry. :) Yea, I want to pat her on the stomach every time I get under there just before I try to impale her with my Drake Sword. Its about time to get a better sword also.

@Turambar: Says your on the PS3. PS3 users not getting the crazy framerate issues the 360 users are? Not being biased but usually its the PS3 user who have these issues. I wish I had a PS3 so I could play the original game. :(

Sif the name of a Norwegian nature goddess so naturally I assumed they were pulling Norse mythology. I kind of defaulted the wolf to being female.

I've tried to kill Sif no less than 8 times now. There is a massive confluence of things that prevent someone from being able to beat her.

• I didn't join the Forest Hunter Covenant so now I have to deal with the mage, thief, cleric, and warrior every time I want to try her. You can just kill the mage and warrior and skip the rest but so help you if you trigger any of the other while trying to sneak around. Doesn't help that the thief is a phantom and annoying to fight. They're good for farming soul I give it that, though.
• Every time I reverse Hallow and become human and get invaded. I mean EVERY time. I've been invaded 7 times in a row trying to get to Sif while human so I can summon other players and EVERY time I've been invaded. None of these times have went well because enemies don't care about them so they just wander around the forest and wait for me to trigger something. If I try to just leave the forest they just wait to ambush me. I can't PROVOKE them into doing anything because they just wait for me to aggro or try to wait me out. I did get 1 shotted by a magic user even though I was wearing a Grass Shield with good magic resist. Argh! I know this has something to do with the fact that I didn't join the Forest Covenant but damn thats harsh!
• I've spent a grand total of 3 hours in grid-locked arena combat with Sif and I know her patterns inside and out. I could draw you a map of every telegraph she has. The reason I can't beat her is due to the horrible framerate drop that happens while playing her. It isn't Blighttown levels but its worse because her attacks are so fast that even a moment of lag can kill you. I die in two hits so I have to heal after every video lag that gets me hit. The lat is SO bad that if I wait for her to do her whirlwind attack so I can heal myself with flask or miracle. I've seen it as bad as a full 5 seconds after the attack is through it will finally kneel and heal. Doesn't seem that bad with a flask but thats still ridicules that its actually the framerate drop that is killing me. Sometimes my attacks won't even occur because the game is lagging so bad that I think it stops accepting controller input. I had her down to where she's limping and the game lagged and the shield block didn't animate/occur and I died.

I swear I think my apartment neighbors thinks I'm a wife abuser!

@Benny: I used the Moonlight Butterfly soul for souls before I knew it could be used to create special weapons. I nearly punched a hole in the wall when I figured it out. I wonder if I can put a summoning symbol down and be summoned to someone else's game and still get the soul since I've already owned it once or if I'm going to have to wait for a NG+.

@envane: The Drake Sword was a VERY nice early game weapon. I'll always remember cutting a bloody swath through the Undead Parish as soon as I got it. :)

So, my Drake sword is finally feeling like it's failing to get the job done and it time to start working on a weapon. I'm about 28 hours in and I just made it through through Blghttown and now I'm in the Forrest. You guys have been a great help and I was hoping to impose a few more questions.

I"m using primarily a STR based character (original, huh?) and none of the weapons I have really scale well with STR so I'm guessing Lightning is the way to go until I get higher SL. My current SL is 35 I believe with 24 STR and 20 END.

Now, is it a good idea to upgrade the non-named weapon like Great Axe, etc? Or should I be working on something like Astora's Longsword? (Don't have enough faith for that, of course)

Also, if you work a weapon up to +10 and then ascend it to Lightning does it reset to +0 and then back up to max at +5?

Really, I should just start poking my nose into it some more and figure it out but I didn't want to waste thousands of souls when there are wiser souls out here.

I think I got cheated out of a Butcher Knife due to a swamp bug killing me at the exact moment I killed Maneater Mildred. :( I almost haven't gotten lucky enough to get the Demon Great Mechete or a Black Knight Sword so my options are limited in the scaling STR department.

Thanks for any advice you guys might have. If I don't get a better weapon soon I might break a controller and I haven't done that since I was 12 playing SSFII:Turob

I'm proud to say that I eventually said, "Fuck it!" and went exploring again. I managed to clear out the entire bottom level of The Depths with half health due to my curse and get my souls back. Ah, there just aren't any games anymore that can give you that level of satisfaction. I was scared stiff when I finally found the path leading down to those frogs again but I bit the bullet and tackled it head out.

Managed to get the souls and fight my way way back up to Fire Shrine and then Undead Parish without taking so much as a single hit. Bought one purge stone to cure my curse and one for the road. I feel like a million bucks. :)