[Traveller]

I may already have the scroll, I explored quite a bit; I'm just good at picking up things and not even looking at them until later. I only just realised I have a load of pyromancies and Ashes to give to various npcs.

The black bow was pretty good in DS, but I don't think it had the range of a longbow and by then the damage difference was negligible.

I am going to have to go get it though!

[WinterPhoenix]

The weapon art on the Black Bow is a really cool (though perhaps only situationaly useful) Triple Shot, I'm sure how much better it is than the basic Longbow, I would say at least some better, I think the scaling is mostly similar though. In DS1 I never used either, always plumped for the Composite Bow.

I'm actually annoyed I gave Orbeck the second scroll before fighting the Abyss Watchers. Every time you speak to Orbeck if you select the talk option he speaks about the promise you made to find him scrolls, and acts like you're taking too long. So I looked up his character, apparently if you fight 4 bosses without giving him a single scroll (there are 4 I believe) he will leave, you only need to give 1 to reset, but now I've got to find the next scroll before I fight 4 bosses, Abyss dudes included, I've got a feeling it'll be tight. Finding two in the same area, I bet the others wont be until quite a bit later in progression :/

[Traveller]

Ah, didn't know that... I've been neglecting him as I'm not using magic, I don't have the stats for it.

And I forgot the Skill aspect of having the Black Bow.. definitely after that later!

[WinterPhoenix]

I'm actually not really using magic either tbh, in fact I almost never use magic in Souls games, I don't really enjoy it all that much. But I am eyeing the Trophies and such, so I'll need to at least buy the sorceries at some point. But yeah you need to have 10 intelligence and then Orbeck will agree to travel to Firelink, so long as you promise to look for scrolls for him, luckily the Thief class starts with base 10 in Int else he'd still be chilling outside the Crystal Sage on my game. I'm pleased the Miracle vendors don't have requirements, my Faith is only 8 lol

On the Skills/Weapon Arts, how much are you using them thus far? I admit I'm almost completely neglecting them with my Uchi, to the point where I simply allocated all Estus and haven't used a single Ashen flask in the entire playthough. Not to say they are not, or could not be useful, I simply forget they are there more often than not :/

[Traveller]

The skill on the Uchi is pretty good - packs a punch. I was knocking each of the Deacons of the Deep out in one hit with it. Also I just like to wait in stance as something charges right at me - then sweep it up and away at exactly the right second.

At the moment I'm mostly using the Uchi, but upgrading the frost sword at the same time as it has no wind up, you can slash slash slash almost instantly which is great for the faster stuff like other assassins.

I have two flasks allocated for it, as well as pyro. Fire Orb can be pretty useful sometimes.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 26 April 2016 - 07:46 PM

[Traveller]

I've missed Orbeck.. seems he got bored waiting and left. I had about three scrolls but just plain forgot about him, oh well.

Just slogged through catacombs. Way bigger than I expected. Skeletons, rats, basilisks, and a big fiery boss. Apart from an area of lava I can't get across at this point, I think that's that done for now. Got a ton of large shards so Uchi is really getting strong with my dex at 30+ now.

Got Havels Ring now too!

This post has been edited by Traveller: 26 April 2016 - 11:32 PM

[WinterPhoenix]

I've just made Havel's Ring about a hour ago, beat the Watchers on my first try, though it was close, I ran out of Estus completely. Now I am debating whether to go straight into the Catacombs, or spend however long it takes me to farm the two Darkwraith's outside the boss room for their gear, really, really want that dark sword! Might farm the Black Knight in Farron Keep while I'm at it if I do, since he's the same distance from the Perimetre bonfire as the Dark Dudes

At 20 Vit I can actually wear all my most protective gear and still mid-roll, but now with the ring I can have the Black Bow equipped at all times and still avoid fat roll, so that's useful.

I've no idea how long Orbeck waits outside the Crystal Sage boss arena, I'm assuming there is a boss progression limit on him if he's no longer there for you.

I'm probably going to go with a quality build on this character eventually, 40/40 Str/Dex is the goal. So I'm not sure how much longer I'll be using my Sharp Uchi +4, I'll probably switch to something with more balanced scaling and go refined or no infusion at all. I've seen there's a Pyromancy in the catacombs that use can use for constant flame buffing, Carthus Flame Arc or something, really interested in that if it isn't to intensive in one of the magic related skills.

[WinterPhoenix]

Wow, so I decided I would farm the Darkwraiths, at least until their sword dropped. 1st run, I leave the boos arena, sneak around the back to take out the 2-3 enemies in the copse of trees, give the wraiths time to march up the steps slaughtering as they go, and quite possibly loose some health as they clear the area, making the fight easier for me, plus more souls = win. Anyhow, strangely only one wraith goes on the warpath, the other is straggling behind, he makes his way to the top of the steps but is low on health and is killed by the 2 spear and shield wielding Gru right before the boss door. He has a drop, but I figure that's just the guaranteed Cracked Red-Eye Orb and ignoring it for the moment I kill the 2 Gru, and go off hunting the other Wraith. Kill him, just a Red-Eye Orb, so I make my way back to the first, that I didn't even kill, bang Dark Sword drop! I DIDN'T EVEN HAVE TO ACTUALLY KILL A SINGLE WRAITH! What are the chances of that??? lol

EDIT: 2nd run got the chest piece! What is this luck lol I knew there was a reason I chose the Thief starting class

This post has been edited by WinterPhoenix: 27 April 2016 - 01:22 AM

[Traveller]

The Black Knight sword is pretty easy, its sitting on a ledge behind him, and he's right near the bonfire.

I didn't get the chest piece but I got a dark sword from the wraiths after luring them up the stairs and taking them out individually.

Smouldering Lake is fun, loads of nods to DS and Lost Izalith. Got more pyros plus a tome, plus the Izalith Staff.
One of them, maybe the Tome, was in the arms of an ashy burnt out figure with many legs - like Quelaags sister in DS.

Orbeck is gone for good; he's been waiting in firelink and I didn't give him anything before I defeated 4 bosses, so he'll be a ng+ mission if I want anything.

I tried the Black bow - and all three arrows missed the target! I wasn't overwhelmingly impressed; I do like my Longbow with Puncture or powershot or whatever it's called.

If you need large shards for upgrades head into the catacombs area of the Smouldering Lake area, lots of drops there.

[WinterPhoenix]

Traveller, on 27 April 2016 - 07:50 AM, said:

The Black Knight sword is pretty easy, its sitting on a ledge behind him, and he's right near the bonfire.

I didn't get the chest piece but I got a dark sword from the wraiths after luring them up the stairs and taking them out individually.

Smouldering Lake is fun, loads of nods to DS and Lost Izalith. Got more pyros plus a tome, plus the Izalith Staff.
One of them, maybe the Tome, was in the arms of an ashy burnt out figure with many legs - like Quelaags sister in DS.

Orbeck is gone for good; he's been waiting in firelink and I didn't give him anything before I defeated 4 bosses, so he'll be a ng+ mission if I want anything.

I tried the Black bow - and all three arrows missed the target! I wasn't overwhelmingly impressed; I do like my Longbow with Puncture or powershot or whatever it's called.

If you need large shards for upgrades head into the catacombs area of the Smouldering Lake area, lots of drops there.

Ya my luck was silly for a while - I'm guessing that they aren't as rare a drop as say the Channeler's Trident in DS1, but even so - on my 3rd run I got the Leggings and 4th I got the gauntlets, sadly that's where my luck ran a little short. Took me another 20-25 runs to get the mask, but when it did finally drop I got 2 in one go. By the time I had the entire set I also had 4 swords, 4 chest pieces, 3 leggings, 2 gauntlets and 2 masks. One time, one of the Wraiths dropped, a Sword, the leggings and a Pale Tongue all on top of the guaranteed cracked red-eye orb, it was crazy! In terms of usefulness the Chest and Mask are actually not all that great compared to what I was wearing, but the gauntlets and leggings fit nice. The sword though! Man the sword is crazy awesome! At refined +5 with 23/18 Dex/Str split, it out damages my sharp Uchi by about 25 points, with one more upgrade it becomes B/B scaling and that goes up to about 50 points! I'm just starting out in the Smouldering Lake area to gather the necessary large shards. Haven't fought either Wolnir or the Old Demon King yet though.

Yeah I tried out the skill on the Black Bow as well, found it surprisingly lacklustre for how cool it sounds, it simply seems to situational to be of much use, plus genuinely hard to aim properly really. It's still better damage than the Longbow though, and it scales better, B scaling after a certain level, so still my go to bow. Though the shop lady is selling the Composite Bow now that I handed in the Grave Warden Ashes, so I might give that a try at some point.

Found a shield in the first area of Smouldering Lake, right near that crazy centipede thing, called the Shield of Want! Better in every area of defence than the Grass Crest Shield, and it's special effect is that you gain more souls, plus it stacks with the Covetous Silver Serpent Ring, I tested it So I'm forgoing the extra stamina regen from the Grass Crest, just my Chloranthy Ring now.

For some reason I simply could not kill that Fire Demon just before the lake, I had to cheese it by getting it stuck in the doorway and firing arrows, I wasted 5 embers on that fight :/ No idea why it was so difficult for me.

[Traveller]

Ha, did you shoot the mimic and let the demon kill it and everyone else in the room first?

Shield of Want is nice.

So is my new Flaming Sword pyro!

Is the Dark sword going to be as good for a dex build? I'm on 30+ dex but only about 14 Strength. I don't have anything with B scaling yet.

I headed into Boreal Valley area, it looks soo good after catacombs. It looks huge, and at first I just assumed it was all out of reach 'wallpaper', but no, you can really get into it - or at least the game does a good job of convincing you that you can. Lots of weird flame throwing mages, found about 3 bonfires already too. Most of these game areas seem huge.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 28 April 2016 - 06:35 AM

[WinterPhoenix]

Traveller, on 28 April 2016 - 05:46 AM, said:

Ha, did you shoot the mimic and let the demon kill it and everyone else in the room first?

Shield of Want is nice.

So is my new Flaming Sword pyro!

Is the Dark sword going to be as good for a dex build? I'm on 30+ dex but only about 14 Strength. I don't have anything with B scaling yet.

I headed into Boreal Valley area, it looks soo good after catacombs. It looks huge, and at first I just assumed it was all out of reach 'wallpaper', but no, you can really get into it - or at least the game does a good job of convincing you that you can. Lots of weird flame throwing mages, found about 3 bonfires already too. Most of these game areas seem huge.

No actually, didn't realise the mimic was there until afterwards!

Yeah the Carthus Flame Arc, I need another 2 points in Faith just to be able to use that, but it does look very useful.

If you infuse your Uchi with a Sharp Gem, it will certainly get to B scaling, perhaps even A if you've upgraded it enough, I'm not sure what it's upper limit is. I can't say for certain, but looking at my stats and the ridiculous damage on the Dark Sword, I would say that while it won't be as good for a sole Dex build as a quality build, it'll still outdamage the Uchi at similarly upgraded levels pretty easily, I mean your Str is still only 4 points lower than mine. Especially infused with Refined, B/B scaling is pretty sweet, though you have to get it to +6 for that, it's C/C until then and might be quite close to a Sharp Uchi until that time. All that being said, there are probably better Dex based weapons than the Uchi in the game, ones that will outdamage the Dark Sword on a pure Dex build, but again I can't say for sure. The Dark Sword really is beast though, and it can still be buffed on top of things.

I really think I might have screwed myself on the Orbeck front. I have to fight Wolnir to move on, which makes 2 bosses, even if I leave the Demon King alone till much later, I'll still have to reach either Irythyll Dungeon or The Grand Archives without fighting more than 1 boss. Now obviously I have no idea how far away either of those places are, I just looked up where the scrolls are, but I do know that to get to the archives you have to get into the rest of Lothric Castle, which requires beating the Dancer boss at the very least.

[Traveller]

Screwed how? He only disappears if you don't give him ANY scrolls before killing four bosses - which I didn't do, as I was carrying three scrolls and forgot to talk to him. If you've given him at least one he'll stick around now until you buy all of his spells, then you can summon him for a boss fight.

I haven't tried infusing anything yet; a refined Uchi would be pretty devastating I guess! I'm currently buffing it with Magic Weapon which is making short work of even the bosses.

But still, those dammed dogs!

This post has been edited by Traveller: 28 April 2016 - 11:40 AM

[WinterPhoenix]

Traveller, on 28 April 2016 - 11:35 AM, said:

Screwed how? He only disappears if you don't give him ANY scrolls before killing four bosses - which I didn't do, as I was carrying three scrolls and forgot to talk to him. If you've given him at least one he'll stick around now until you buy all of his spells, then you can summon him for a boss fight.

I haven't tried infusing anything yet; a refined Uchi would be pretty devastating I guess! I'm currently buffing it with Magic Weapon which is making short work of even the bosses.

But still, those dammed dogs!

No, every time you give him a scroll the counter starts again, so I gave him the Golden and Sage scrolls, then fought Abyss Watchers which puts the bosses fought at 1, if I now fight 3 more bosses without giving him either of the other 2, he'll disappear. Least that's what I understood to be the case, and it seems legit, because his talk option still has him talking about not keeping your promise.

Ya know, I've still never seen Patches or Siegward again.

[Traveller]

When did you see them last? I missed Patches appearance at the cathedral, but he is possibly triggered by the opening of the cathedral door shortcut. He was right there in the tower at firelink after I did that anyway. And having spoken to him, Siegward then appeared in the well.

Are you certain about Orbeck? I haven't read anything about a reset; just that he needs one to keep him there. But then I think I've fluffed a couple of the npc missions so far. Oh well just found another one in the dungeon - looks like a dark pyromamcer. I might suddenly have to invest a few souls into Faith.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 28 April 2016 - 04:59 PM

[WinterPhoenix]

Traveller, on 28 April 2016 - 04:09 PM, said:

When did you see them last? I missed Patches appearance at the cathedral, but he is possibly triggered by the opening of the cathedral door shortcut. He was right there in the tower at firelink after I did that anyway. And having spoken to him, Siegward then appeared in the well.

Are you certain about Orbeck? I haven't read anything about a reset; just that he needs one to keep him there. But then I think I've fluffed a couple of the npc missions so far. Oh well just found another one in the dungeon - looks like a dark pyromamcer. I might suddenly have to invest a few souls into Faith.

Well I've never seen Patches, not once, he just does not want to show his face for me :/ Siegward is in the well now, I've spoken to him since my last post, but he needs his armour, witch Patches is supposed to have. But no matter what I do he simply won't show up for me in the Cathedral or Firelink, meaning I have to leave Onion Bro languishing in his dire situation.

I figured there must be another pyromancer NPC, a female yes? Because Cornex refuses to take the Quelana Pyromancy Tome, says you need a female teacher.

I beat Wolnir, was a really, really easy fight tbh. Leaving the Demon King alone for now, because I want to see if I can get to another scroll with minimum bosses. So on my way to Irythyll, or keep floundering around trying to find Patches I guess. And no I'm not 100% sure about Orbeck, the way the NPC information that I read was listed though, I think my belief is correct, I guess I'll find out one way or another anyhow lol

[Traveller]

Did you visit the tower? Go right to the top where the keepers soul was, but go back down the elevator to the gate. It should now be locked with Patches standing on the other side.

I've just gone ahead into the dungeons and therefore missed another meeting with Seigward, which now means I can't get certain items, which is a bummer.

[WinterPhoenix]

Traveller, on 28 April 2016 - 07:13 PM, said:

Did you visit the tower? Go right to the top where the keepers soul was, but go back down the elevator to the gate. It should now be locked with Patches standing on the other side.

I've just gone ahead into the dungeons and therefore missed another meeting with Seigward, which now means I can't get certain items, which is a bummer.

Ah, maybe that'll work, I never went all the way to the top, I just climbed the tower stairs. I'll try and let you know if it works.

Ooh, question. Did you have to fight another boss before you could access the Irythyll dungeons?

[Traveller]

No. Wolnir, then Demon King, but he's optional I think. There's a beast at the start of Irithyll but he's not a boss. I did a bit of a speed run past a lot of nasties to reach bonfires deeper into the level; I've reached the dungeon but no bosses on the way.

Check the DS3 wiki re. Orbeck - that just says you need to give him one scroll to stop him leaving.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 28 April 2016 - 07:59 PM

[WinterPhoenix]

Sweet that worked with Patches, so I have him at Firelink now, I bought the armour and gave Onion Bro his stuff back, so I'll see him wherever he shows up later

Well hopefully you are right and it won't matter either way with Orbeck, but I'm going to try and avoid the bosses till I have it anyhow, think I'll do a similar speedy run to find bonfires like yourself tbh.

EDIT: I dealt with that Crocodile thing on the bridge, gave me more trouble than it should have, survived by the skin of my teeth, but thankfully it aint a respawning thing lol

This post has been edited by WinterPhoenix: 28 April 2016 - 08:44 PM