[Coltaine -]

WinterPhoenix, on 24 February 2017 - 04:16 AM, said:

- Coltaine -, on 23 February 2017 - 10:33 PM, said:

The Gaping Dragon is female?

Funny Bossfight by the way. It may be easier without phantoms, if you are currently using the two summoning sings near the fog door.

The Halberd is one of my favourite weapons in the game. it has only low/medium scaling, but is a good candidate for a magic/elemental upgrade path. Maybe you have already found one of the necessary blacksmiths or embers. Should be stronger than the Drake Sword after that.

Halberd is great, and the scaling on it isn't bad at all once you get to higher upgrade levels tbh. As a general rule of thumb Magic/Elemental upgrade paths are inferior due to the way the enemies defenses work in Dark Souls. Every enemy has Physical defenses as well as Magical and specific elemental defenses. If your weapon does two types of damage the numbers lead you to believe you'd be doing more damage as it adds two values together, but the damage being done is actually checked against both defense values meaning weapons with split damage always do less damage in the long run. It's one really dumb thing about Dark Souls.

This confused me a lot on my first playthrough. Artorias with split damage ... not a good idea. But for most enemies in NG it is good enough and at the beginning very overpowered.

[Coltaine -]

With Spider Shield, Ninja Gear and some moss Blight Town shouldn't be that much of a problem. And the snipers don't respawn. I may be in a minority, but in my opinion blight town is a great level and I rarely use the master key for the short cut.

And the rusted iron ring is really useful down there. Also you get a good magic resistance shield and an important item in that area.

[Traveller]

- Coltaine -, on 24 February 2017 - 07:19 AM, said:

With Spider Shield, Ninja Gear and some moss Blight Town shouldn't be that much of a problem. And the snipers don't respawn. I may be in a minority, but in my opinion blight town is a great level and I rarely use the master key for the short cut.

And the rusted iron ring is really useful down there. Also you get a good magic resistance shield and an important item in that area.

I revisited the 'long' way on my last playthrough. It really is a devious, punishing level with no respite for a loong time - even having a big pile of those fire breathing insects at the very bottom.

But it is an ordeal - when I play now I go the short way, kill Quelaag, get the black set from the Ceaseless Discharge (and a ton of souls for killing it) then get the hell out.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 24 February 2017 - 08:23 AM

[EmperorMagus]

Thanks for the tips about the shortcuts guys. I'm gonna try to do it the hardway though. I've found the bonefire and so far the level design is beautiful (again...). The whole game feels alive.

My new equipment set up is quite great. I'm at 23 DEX so my Uchigatana is now outdamaging the Drake Sword (even without the bleed). Uchi + Crest Shield + Ninja set means I 'm quite nimble (under 25% carry load - btw, does that change my normal move speed outside rolling?) and I have a shit ton of stamina regen. The evil eye ring means I recover any damage that gets through the crest shield by killing the enemy.

The bonefire in this level is unfortunately situated again. It leas to a dead end on one side and into those dragon-lizard-dog thingies to the other side. There is also some loot high up on the dead end side which I can't find a way to for the life of me.

Edit: yay! Found a way to jump down to the corpse and loot "Laito" off it. I don't know how good it is, but it means I can rest easy tonight.

This post has been edited by EmperorMagus: 24 February 2017 - 08:50 AM

[Coltaine -]

You have to jump to it. But as you have already the Uchi you don't need it, as it is the Iaito, a very similar weapon. a bit longer reach, a bit less damage. Are there any differences in the moveset? I guess there have to be.

Following the dead end can lead you to a humanity, But I don't think that it is worth the trouble, if you are not low at humanity.

[EmperorMagus]

- Coltaine -, on 24 February 2017 - 08:51 AM, said:

You have to jump to it. But as you have already the Uchi you don't need it, as it is the Iaito, a very similar weapon. a bit longer reach, a bit less damage. Are there any differences in the moveset? I guess there have to be.

Following the dead end can lead you to a humanity, But I don't think that it is worth the trouble, if you are not low at humanity.

I'm perpetually at 0 humanity. Trying to keep my humanity high is just not worth it, since I die and die and die so many times.

[EmperorMagus]

Shit. Got ambushed by one of those fatties and lost 10k souls (I immediately died to one of these dog-dragon thingies afterwards...).

Why do you do this to me. I should've gone back and leveled up

I've killed 4 snipers so far and one mini boss (the tentacle thingie). I hope I'm at least halfway through this level. There are a lot of proud knight souls lying around here thankfully.

This post has been edited by EmperorMagus: 24 February 2017 - 09:26 AM

[Coltaine -]

I will correct myself. Low at Humanity, the item. Blighttown with a lot of liquid humanity would really be a bad idea.

10000 Souls? Don't worry. More frustrating things will happen

Should be all snipers in this part if I remember correctly. Time to go down.

[Traveller]

The long way is good only for the satisfaction you get from finally reaching the base bonfire. It is an ordeal though!

I love the use of 'depth' in this game. Down to undertown. Down to sewers. Down into Blighttown, into the swamp - you can even look way up to the daylight and the buttresses of the Castle. Then if you find the right place, you can go even deeper..

This post has been edited by Traveller: 24 February 2017 - 10:55 AM

[WinterPhoenix]

I agree with Traveller, I pretty much never use the long way down now, after the absolute nightmare that was my first experience - it's the flame spiders waiting for you at the bottom that really take the biscuit, they killed me first time I went down there. It is good to tackle it first time around though for the sense of achievement if nothing else, like Traveller says. There's also at least one sorcery down that route that's needed for trophies etc, something I always take into account but some people don't care about. I also agree about depth in the level design, it really is incredible to look up at the castle from the bottom of Blighttow, level design in general is just incredible in Dark Souls, it was lacking in the second one which I think is the biggest reason I never cared for it.

As Coltaine says 10000 souls is nothing really, not that it feels good to lose them. I remember losing a couple hundred thousand plus 99 humanity in Anor Londo once on NG+++, I was distraught, didn't touch it for a week lol Also like he says Iaito and Uchi are very similar weapons, the Iaito's moveset is different, however, and for some superior. If I remember correctly it's running attack has insane reach, you can also do a stepback thrust attack when two-handing it.

Moving around once you reach the swamp below is going to be frustrating as hell for you without the Rusted Iron Ring, any time you need to cross the swamp you will almost certainly be poisoned. Getting the ring requires a trip back to the Undead Asylum where you started the game though, it's basically a sort of sidequest accessible from Firelink. I can explain how if you want, it does make the bottom of Blighttown much simpler, though tbh once you've gotten to the bottom the area isn't half as annoying as getting there. Note: that once you do return to the Undead Asylum you do NOT need to fight the area boss to get the ring, all you need is the Undead Asylum West Key, which is found at Firelink above Petrus, you will need to fight a Dark Knight (or possibly 2) though. But yeah if you wanna know how to get there, I'll explain

This post has been edited by WinterPhoenix: 24 February 2017 - 01:46 PM

[Coltaine -]

If you are going back to the Undead Asylum don't forget to visit Snuggly. There is a little nest to the left side, when you are walking towards the Asylum, on a ledge at the cliff. If you drop the right items there you can get useful upgrade materials after quitting and reloading. And for the ring you don't have to fight any black knights at all, as long as you remember where you saw a shiny you couldn't get to at the beginning.

This post has been edited by - Coltaine -: 24 February 2017 - 03:32 PM

[WinterPhoenix]

- Coltaine -, on 24 February 2017 - 03:31 PM, said:

If you are going back to the Undead Asylum don't forget to visit Snuggly. There is a little nest to the left side, when you are walking towards the Asylum, on a ledge at the cliff. If you drop the right items there you can get useful upgrade materials after quitting and reloading. And for the ring you don't have to fight any black knights at all, as long as you remember where you saw a shiny you couldn't get to at the beginning.

You can get a Ring of Favour and Protection from Snuggly with the right gift (Xanthous Crown I think), arguably the best ring in the game - at least it would be without that annoying drawback. Of course there is a much easier method of getting one of those rings if you don't mind ending a particular character's involvement prematurely

You're right about the Knights as well, you don't have to fight either of them. I was thinking about the Peculiar Doll sitting in the cell you started the game in I guess.

[EmperorMagus]

I haven't found any sorcery on the way down yet. I did find pyromancy though.

And encountering those friendly flame spiders was great, we had tea witch each other (I died without doing one damage). Who the hell has ever heard of spiders breathing fire?

On a slightly related note, do we have any what his giant shaft housing blighttown is for? It seems to be man made and I'd think the lore would have some kind of answer.

[WinterPhoenix]

EmperorMagus, on 24 February 2017 - 08:05 PM, said:

I haven't found any sorcery on the way down yet. I did find pyromancy though.

And encountering those friendly flame spiders was great, we had tea witch each other (I died without doing one damage). Who the hell has ever heard of spiders breathing fire?

On a slightly related note, do we have any what his giant shaft housing blighttown is for? It seems to be man made and I'd think the lore would have some kind of answer.

Ya, Pyromancy was what I meant, it was near the tentacle thing you have to kill right?

I hated those spiders with a passion like you cannot imagine when I first played the game, when you only ever use the back way in though they become far less of an issue. Really the only reason they are annoying where they are is the number and location, dying sends you all the way back and next bonfire is literally 2 minutes past the ambush if that.

I actually can't remember much of the lore surrounding Blighttown tbh, Traveller might have a better idea maybe.

[EmperorMagus]

Well, I cleared the spiders. But some gigantic thing throwing boulders at me killed me before I could find the bonefire.

Jeez this game is hard.

[WinterPhoenix]

EmperorMagus, on 24 February 2017 - 08:36 PM, said:

Well, I cleared the spiders. But some gigantic thing throwing boulders at me killed me before I could find the bonefire.

Jeez this game is hard.

Don't go anywhere near the boulder dudes, when you've killed the spiders and made it to the bottom on the ramp turn right and stick to the walls on your side of the swamp, follow along until you find an alcove, bonfire is in there. If you're near a Boulder guy you've gone the wrong way, don't go towards the big tree you can see either, not yet.

[EmperorMagus]

WinterPhoenix, on 24 February 2017 - 08:43 PM, said:

EmperorMagus, on 24 February 2017 - 08:36 PM, said:

Well, I cleared the spiders. But some gigantic thing throwing boulders at me killed me before I could find the bonefire.

Jeez this game is hard.

Don't go anywhere near the boulder dudes, when you've killed the spiders and made it to the bottom on the ramp turn right and stick to the walls on your side of the swamp, follow along until you find an alcove, bonfire is in there. If you're near a Boulder guy you've gone the wrong way, don't go towards the big tree you can see either, not yet.

Thanks.

I've ragequit for now, But I will return to it in a few hours.

[Coltaine -]

This guys: http://darksouls.wik...wiki/Cragspider

I never thought of them as spiders actually. To me they always looked like some kind of strange demonbugs.

[Traveller]

They're more like skeletal... insects? Quite big, spit a flame at you if you let them. They only take a few swipes to kill but if you get a few at the same time they can be annoying.

Blight Town itself just looks like a shanty town/settlement that's built up in the gap between the fortress walls and the cliff. I like the way the stone buttresses and arches are incorporated into the wooden framework. Those goddamn walkways though..

This post has been edited by Traveller: 24 February 2017 - 09:02 PM

[WinterPhoenix]

Demonbugs is pretty accurate, I don't think they have 8 legs? But I think spiders work quite well as a real world substitute, demonbugs not being real an all

Go back to it Briar King, you know you want to, the sense of achievement is great plus it gets better once you leave the swamp behind (except the Great Hollow and Ash Lake, but they're optional). I'm a big fan of FF in general, and I quite liked FFXV but Dark Souls is a way better game, if you can deal with the frustration lol