[WinterPhoenix]

Traveller, on 05 March 2017 - 11:34 PM, said:

With a longbow at +8 I'd hesitate to upgrade another. The difference isn't that great and I've finished the game more than once with a longbow.

Those greatbows are awful to handle.

True, the difference isn't that great, it is there though and I was never one to shy a way from a nice farming session so I always used the Longbow upgrading it till I got the Composite and then I'd upgrade that. But you do pmae a good point though, if you don't want to farm to upgrade another and you already have +8 Longbow you don't really need to bother, the difference is not so amazing it'll be worth your time if you are one of the people who hate farming for shards both large and small.

Couldn't agree more about the Great Bows though, complete waste of time in my opinion.

This post has been edited by WinterPhoenix: 05 March 2017 - 11:40 PM

[EmperorMagus]

I don't mind farming at all. Dark Souls combat is therapy.

I ran past the archers and got to the second bonefire. There are a bunch of Silver Knights here now. They are a bitch to kill. Killing the sword handling ones is so hard I actually learned parrying through trial and error. I can parry the sword ones about 70% of the time, the spear ones about 50% of the time, and backstab the spear ones maybe 20% of the time. Back stabbing the sword ones seems to be impossible.

Then I found the two giant mechanical things that look like the first giants I saw in Anor Londo but are even bigger. Killing them both was honestly easier than killing a single silver knight. I didn't have any Estus left after killing them though, so I didn't go through the fog.

Also found Havel's set! It looks badass but sadly I cannot tolerate the incredibly slow movespeed I have with it even with Havel's ring equipped.

[amphibian]

Have you done the Lautrec storyline stuff?

[EmperorMagus]

amphibian, on 06 March 2017 - 05:02 AM, said:

Have you done the Lautrec storyline stuff?

I freed him from his prison somewhere in that undead castle.

He moved to firelink and the last time I went through firelink he no longer was there. The firekeeper was dead too.

By the way, when will I be able to figure out what's happening? Because all I know so far about this world that isn't from you guys is how to kill stuff...

[WinterPhoenix]

Silver Knights were always one of my most hated enemies in this game, so I'm with you on that - surprisingly they are so much easier for me in Dark Souls 3. I still can't really parry them tbh, the spear ones especially are difficult to parry. That being said I can get backstabs on Silver Knights which was my go to strategy, Pyromancy isn't a bad bet either sometimes. Just so you know, it is perfectly possible to actually skips whole parts of the building with the second bonfire. That double spiral staircase that looks like it can only be used one way, the wall blocking it off can be jumped over if timed right, this let's you skip certain rooms and go pretty much straight to the boss area. This is useful if you've already fully explored, but the Knights are being a pain in the arse, or for NG+ etc. Oh btw when you do get to the boss area, before you fight the area boss remember to open the giant doors so you make it an easy trip from the first bonfire straight to the boss if you die - these are the doors being guarded by the giants outside. Really search the whole area as well before going through the fog. This may seem like obvious advice but I genuinely didn't realise they could be opened on my first playthrough - idiot that I am lol -, meaning when I died to the boss I had to run through the Knights from the second bonfire all over again - didn't know it was possible to skip with the spiral staircase back then either. Once you've tried the fight, you will know how annoying this was for me back then.

Yeah Havel's really requires high Endurance as well as Havel's and probably a Ring of F/P as well if you want to wear the whole set, especially with the shield plus Dragon's tooth as well and still move at even mid-speed. You'd probably need stupidly high End - like 80 or something - to wear the set without a Ring of F/P and still move at a decent speed. With good End plus ring combo you can actually make a fast-roll build with certain elements of Havel's, fast-roll plus great poise = killer

EDIT: You really need to read everything, all item descriptions, however innocuous, to get a decent sense of the in-game lore tbh. It might even be better just to read a lore wiki after you have finished the game tbh. Btw if you have done Lautrec up to that point, you might want to be human when you first get to the boss area - is that actually necessary Amph? Can't remember - which will be a good idea for the boss anyhow.

This post has been edited by WinterPhoenix: 06 March 2017 - 05:20 AM

[EmperorMagus]

I'm playing on PC, and for the life of me I can't figure out a way to read item descriptions. Nothing seems to work at all. Similarly, I have 7 or 8 hollow soldier waist-cloths and at least 10 broken straight swords because no key seems to work for dropping items. I think it's what happened when I changed the original key configuration to match my mouse keys.

I have actually cleared every single room except the titanite demon one (this one seems to be stronger than the ones in Sen's/Darkroot). And I do have a fairly acceptable way to run from the second bonefire to the fog. I tried to open those gigantic doors but there didn't seem to be anyway for me to do it. I guess I'll have to try again next weekend.

[Coltaine -]

For the doors their is a mechanismen to the left side, like the one you used for the moving part of the bridge in Anor Londo.

50% Parry for the Spear Knights? Wow, I thing I never managed to parry them that often. Once the shortcut is open I normally just block the one in the way to the boss, until I have have moved around him and run afterwards.

If you have a lot of arrows you might be able to kill the titanite demon from above with arrows, but I'm not sure if this really works. I always used Pyromancy or Sorcery, if I remember correctly.

You can feed items to Frampt for souls at firelink shrine to get rid of them

A bit too late to start playing with a controller I would guess. I actually don't have a clue how the assingment of keys is for the PC, as a friend of mine told be that they did a bad job with the controls there, and so I bought my first controller for this game. And died a lot until I learned how to play with it.

Did you met the Giant Blacksmith already? Also, if you jump out of the broken window on the way to him, you can get a dragonslayer greatbow.

Try to use the black eye orb. I don't think that you have to in human form for that.
You can summon help for the boss by the way. The summoning sign should be near the archer in the hall with the two giant golemknights.

Also after this Bossfight: Amazing chest ahead

[WinterPhoenix]

There's actually a way to cheese that demon as well tbh. There's a specific spot from the balcony where you can fire through the columns and hit him, takes awhile to kill him and you miss every few arrows because of the way he moves, but yeah. I always tried to find ways to cheese those guys, I hated fighting them one on one, still do.

Can't really help on the PC configuration issue though. But one thing, did you buy the bottomless box from the merchant with the Uchigatana? If so you just put any excess items you don't want into from the bonfire screen.

EDIT: Deleted my stuff about the doors after the above comment, I was right after all, second guessing myself. Also Amazing chest ahead lol

EDIT 2: The reason I was saying he might need to be human is for the Lautrec invasion, I can't remember whether that can happe hollow, I have a feeling it does but yeah, it'll come up anyhow. Being human is good for the summon sign at any rate, but you should try it solo first Emp

This post has been edited by WinterPhoenix: 06 March 2017 - 07:20 AM

[Traveller]

Don't the item descriptions just appear when you select them in the inventory?

Once you finish this boss fight you can return to Firelink to start the Lautrec arc.

Good luck with O and S.. lightning resistance helpful!

[EmperorMagus]

Traveller, on 06 March 2017 - 07:30 AM, said:

Don't the item descriptions just appear when you select them in the inventory?

Once you finish this boss fight you can return to Firelink to start the Lautrec arc.

Good luck with O and S.. lightning resistance helpful!

I killed the cool one on my first try.

Then the second one crushed me.

[Coltaine -]

The silver knight armor set has a good lightning resistance. Or an upgraded Dingy Set, if you want to have fast roll.

[WinterPhoenix]

If you ever plan on getting all the boss souls and armour sets, then I highly, highly recommend you kill Smough (big fat dude) first now. Super-Ornstein (when the survivor absorbs the other) is much, much harder than Super-Smough. So if you want Ornstein's soul and armour it's preferable to kill him now, instead of waiting for NG+ where he is that much harder still!

I think Emp has already started the Lautrec arc Trav and completed the necessary before the invasion, what I don't know is whether he can invade Lautrec's world outside the boss fog gate as a hollow? Also if you beat O&S, can you still invade him at a later date? I can remember it's something to do with the Black Eye Orb, I think you get a onscreen notification of it behaving funny if you've done the necessary. but I cannot remember whether i ever got this while hollow. Killing him allows you to get the Armour of Favour that he wears (after beating the boss) and a Ring of F/P, so it's well worth your time Emp.

[EmperorMagus]

WinterPhoenix, on 06 March 2017 - 10:07 AM, said:

If you ever plan on getting all the boss souls and armour sets, then I highly, highly recommend you kill Smough (big fat dude) first now. Super-Ornstein (when the survivor absorbs the other) is much, much harder than Super-Smough. So if you want Ornstein's soul and armour it's preferable to kill him now, instead of waiting for NG+ where he is that much harder still!

I think Emp has already started the Lautrec arc Trav and completed the necessary before the invasion, what I don't know is whether he can invade Lautrec's world outside the boss fog gate as a hollow? Also if you beat O&S, can you still invade him at a later date? I can remember it's something to do with the Black Eye Orb, I think you get a onscreen notification of it behaving funny if you've done the necessary. but I cannot remember whether i ever got this while hollow. Killing him allows you to get the Armour of Favour that he wears (after beating the boss) and a Ring of F/P, so it's well worth your time Emp.

I did get the behaving funny message while hollow. I'll try to kill the guy next time I play.

[WinterPhoenix]

Ah cool, I genuinely wasn't sure if it only occurred when human or not. Just be aware Lautrec is actually a 3 on 1 gank squad, and one is a mage as well, so they can get you from range.

[Traveller]

Now you've reached the Cathedral you can upgrade weapons at the giant blacksmith, if you've found some embers. I still like Quelaags Fury Sword as you can get a good few swings in for the amount of stamina used - and it's not too heavy. You just need a curved blade at +5 and Quelaags Soul.

[amphibian]

While people have beaten this game playing with a Guitar Hero controller, I'm still surprised regular mortals play without using a game controller. Xbox one works well.

You have to have the Black Eye Orb from the dead firekeeper's body, then you'll be able to invade Lautrec, who killed her, for revenge in the great hall before the double boss. It's fun and you get good souls, so I'd recommend it.

[WinterPhoenix]

Traveller, on 06 March 2017 - 12:39 PM, said:

Now you've reached the Cathedral you can upgrade weapons at the giant blacksmith, if you've found some embers. I still like Quelaags Fury Sword as you can get a good few swings in for the amount of stamina used - and it's not too heavy. You just need a curved blade at +5 and Quelaags Soul.

Yeah the Fury Sword is always a good bet, for some reason it is a solid exception to the general rule of thumb against split damage. Plus it scales with humanity as a chaos weapon meaning it can can be that much more deadly if you an keep up decent humanity.

I find that it starts to lag behind some purely physical weapons by N+/++ tbh, but that's to be expected, it can still see you through before of it's sheer speed and will see you through anything in NG with relative ease. I killed Gwyn very first time I ever saw him with the Fury Sword + Iron Flesh (this was before it was somewhat nerfed), because I did so much damage so quickly. Always turn my Uchi into a Fury Sword once I reach the giant.

Actually that's a point, have you ever even used the other Queelag weapon, Chaos Blade? I've never bothered, I got it for the achievement but that's it. Apparently it's not all that good, which makes how OP it was considered in the second game a bit surprising.

This post has been edited by WinterPhoenix: 06 March 2017 - 04:38 PM

[EmperorMagus]

Holy mother of god.

I think half my blood has been replaced by adrenaline.

I went all in on my second attempt v Smough and cool guy. Had to use 6 humanity to heal myself (plus 10 charges of estus) but I freaking did it! Killed cool guy second too!

I also took care of asshole knight Lautrec. Ring of F&P is awesome. Is there any reason I would ever want to remove it?

[amphibian]

Probably not. Think about what you do best at in this game and try to build towards that. Try different weapons to see if one clicks with your brain the right way.

(Also... dodge more.)

[Coltaine -]

Second attempt? That's great

I failed a lot of times there on my first playthrough.

There are later some rings you have to wear to get through some areas. But as long as you don't try to wear two rings of F&P there should be no problem.