Dark Souls 2

Vaclav

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
12,650
877
How many people get to when he's even available to meet without finishing and moving to NG+, probably more than Phaz thinks but not too many.
 

axeman_sl

shitlord
592
0
Are there no dex weapons with more than like 40 durability? This shit is ridiculous. I wanted to play an actual dex character, like with rapiers and stuff, but I cannot find a weapon that will last from one bonfire to the next. The fuck?
 

Pemulis

Not Woke
<Bronze Donator>
3,297
9,175
there should be some tradeoff to the fact that it can reach across the map!

EDIT: LET THE NERFS BEGIN!

Throwing motion for Acid Urns changed to heavy throwing motion; effects of acid toned down.
Durability of Twin Blade category improved.
Moonlight Great Sword revised to be non-enchantable, attack speed reduced.
Gyrm Warrior's Greathelm weight, poise and defense increased.
Ring of Thorns damage reduced.
Old Sun Ring damage reduced.
Soul Spear and Crystal Soul Spear revised to pierce and damage multiple enemies.
Soul Great Sword casting time revised.
Stamina reduction (on enemy) of Homing Soul Mass, Homing Crystal Soul Mass and Affinity reduced and bullet speed increased.
Soul Geyser damage reduced.
Healing spell casting speed adjusted to be slower.
Wrath of God damage effect period shortened.
Firestorm, Fire Tempest, Chaos Storm, Flame Swathe and Forbidden Sun damages reduced.
Firestorm, Fire Tempest and Chaos Storm duration time increased.
Defense of Lucatiel, Bellclaire, Benhart and Tark increased.
Health of exploding undead reduced.
Homing capability of spells casted by White Undead Sorcers and Amana Priestesses reduced.
Fire ball spitting frequency of Fire Lizards reduced.
Shockwave duration period caused by the attacks of Hammer Wielders (probably ones in Earthen Peak?) reduced.
Last Giant damage reduced.
Lost Sinner health and damage reduced.
Royal Rat Authority damage reduced.
Duke's Dear Freja's laser breath damage reduced.
NG+ Lost Sinner pyromancers health and damage reduced.
NG+ Flexile Sentry shadow assassins health and damage reduced.
 

Phazael

Confirmed Beta Shitlord, Fat Bastard
<Aristocrat╭ರ_•́>
14,636
31,437
All good changes, really, though they should probably find a way to make adaptability below 40 useful. Poise is a bit wonky in NG+, but perhaps the hammer nerfs will solve that issue. Sad to see Sorcery and Pyro get nerfed so hard for PvP reasons when its PvE use was already suspect. MLGS nerf and Soul Great Sword nerfs were inevitable, but hopefully they are still useful. Slower healing spell casting time is a bit of a head scratcher, since almost no one is slotting it anyhow and its already balls ass slow to cast most heal magic. Glad to see the orbital laser mages in Amana get toned down a bit.

As for the durability issue, that's actually pretty simple. Minor in Sorcery and slot the repair spell and your problems are solved.
 

Pemulis

Not Woke
<Bronze Donator>
3,297
9,175
I actually have a higher AR with a +5 magic Darkrider's Halberd at 50 intelligence than I do with a +5 magic MLGS (before CMW). Time to break that baby out and get used to using it. I've also seen some cool things people are doing with dual blue flames. They drop like mad, but I don't have enough twinkling titanite to max out two.
 

Phazael

Confirmed Beta Shitlord, Fat Bastard
<Aristocrat╭ರ_•́>
14,636
31,437
BKGS and BKHB both scale A when upgraded on Int and have modest STR and DEX requirements, while still being among the best weapons in the game. Watcher GS is even better for a strictly Int caster and requires less in the way of stats to wield. You cannot expect to have all of that magic and then also get the best mele attack power in the game. At a certain point, the people who stat dumped purely into mele should excel in their chosen area. The fact that every single Sorcery PvP ganker was swinging one pretty much meant it was getting nerfed, hardcore. Alpha strike kills are pure frustration and discourage participation in PvP (the rolling lagstab tactic of DS1 nearly killed that game), which they clearly want even carebears like myself toughing it out. The corrosive nerfs were going to happen, regardless. Being able to turbo chuck five pots at someone in the time it took to cast one lightning strike was just retarded.

Unrelated to any of this, I would like to see the lock on radius expanded a little. I really hate not being able to lock something that is clearly running straight at me in open ground until it is in mele range.
 

Phazael

Confirmed Beta Shitlord, Fat Bastard
<Aristocrat╭ರ_•́>
14,636
31,437
I actually have a higher AR with a +5 magic Darkrider's Halberd at 50 intelligence than I do with a +5 magic MLGS (before CMW). Time to break that baby out and get used to using it. I've also seen some cool things people are doing with dual blue flames. They drop like mad, but I don't have enough twinkling titanite to max out two.
There are some interesting thing they can do, just by virtue of not having to swap to catalysts to get your nukes in. Mastering dual wield in this game is the toughest way to play (my next project) because you have to get good at parry in a game with a much narrower window. I am told Agility helps a lot with this, but Adaptability is such a garbage stat in terms of points invested into it. As far as twinkling goes, farming the guys on both sides of the third fire in Amana gets you lots of Twinkling and Effigies. Its a pretty easy farm clear from that spot and you can drop a sign to get extra souls helping idiots kill the Demon of Song.
 

Pemulis

Not Woke
<Bronze Donator>
3,297
9,175
I went back to the Shrine last night and got about 15 before they stopped respawning, which was enough to do one of two
frown.png


I'll probably play around with something with lesser stats to powerstance to see if I want to go that route before I respec and allocate some additional points into str and dex. I was hitting up the BoB duels with one maxed out blue flame in the offhand and my MLGS with hidden weapon, and it definitely confused people.
 

Phazael

Confirmed Beta Shitlord, Fat Bastard
<Aristocrat╭ರ_•́>
14,636
31,437
Covetous golden serpent ring and Jester hat ups the drop rate on those to ridiculous levels.
 

Forbin_sl

shitlord
304
1
I just seen on reddit (and im pretty sure it hasnt been linked already here) that the Dark Souls 2 website is tracking all sorts of stats for the game. Like top 3 items used in a type of weapon, armor slot, rings, as well as total games clears, deaths and other stuff.

DARK SOULS Beyond the Bonfire
 

axeman_sl

shitlord
592
0
Been trying a dex char lately and I just don't see what it's supposed to be good for. Dex scaling is 33% worse than strength by default, the weapons are worse, they have so little durability that they can literally break in a single long fight (my rapier went from full to warning level in the Ruin Sentinels fight, it would have broken mid-fight if I'd killed any trash on the way instead of skipping) and they have crappy movesets. Also, the good dex weapons don't become available until you're like two thirds into the game while some of the best strength and hybrid weapons can be obtained in the first zones. I wanted to try the lightly armored, fast-attacking playstyle and it has just been utter garbage so far, there are no redeeming qualities to it and I see no point playing it over a tanky build with something like a greatsword, claymore or halberd.
 

Derkon

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,504
1,264
^Yep, then you realize the bigger str weapons swing a good deal faster then they did in DS1 so the speed advantage dex weapons generally had is gone.
 

Phazael

Confirmed Beta Shitlord, Fat Bastard
<Aristocrat╭ರ_•́>
14,636
31,437
Yeah, in this game, Dex build really means "enough dex to slot this weapon". Building around STR, INT, and Faith are the better paths for weapon use.
 

Lenas

Trump's Staff
7,555
2,294
PC version looks and runs way better son, you cray. Just wait for the mods to come out for people to give this game Skyrim textures and you'll be poppin' eye boners all over Drangleic.
 

Kreugen

Vyemm Raider
6,599
793
not really surprising, the pc version is basically the same as the ps3 version graphically. pretty disappointing but to be expected i guess
Dark Souls II - PS3 vs. PC Graphics Comparison - IGN Video
So all of the lighting, shaders, higher poly terrain etc that were shown in the pre-release videos that were ripped out to make it run on consoles were also ripped out of the PC version. So much for their commitment to making a good PC game this time.
 

supertouch_sl

shitlord
1,858
3
The differences between the two are negligible considering the game doesn't take advantage of the PC's superior hardware. It's essentially a port at this point.

I'm not bothered by the graphics, but if you're gonna use the PC as a foundation for development, you should meet the platform's standards instead of releasing a definitive (whatever the hell that means) version months down the line.