Dark Souls 2

Tuco_sl said:

So while you pros are talking about plating DS, I kind of ran aground playing DS2. I hate the specs I've tried and miss my build in DS1 that carried me through the whole game.

In DS1 I had a lightning winged spear that was boosted by my INT score, and had some spell casting. I felt like I was ready for any enemy encounter and could engage on my own terms.

In DS2 I've tried different melee specs including heavy weapon, mundane santier's spear, sword n board etc. and nothing is that fun. I keep hearing that casting is weak in this game and all the weapons I want to try seem so weak against bosses and tough mobs (so I always go back to blunt weapons).

What's an effective and fun PVE spec to try for a first playthrough?

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Not sure how far you are through the game, so not sure what's available to you yet.

I played sword and board with no spells at all the entire playthrough. Some annoying bosses, but nothing I couldn't handle completely solo (didn't summon at all). I went with the Knight's armor set after the Pursuer, a Drangleic shield (100% physical resistance), and an upgraded bastard sword. Once I was able to get the Drangleic sword I used that with the shield for the majority of the game. Later on I got a Claymore which scaled terribly but kept similar movesets and used that the rest of the game.

For bosses I used a Large Club +10 two handed and killed them in 3-8 hits depending on the boss (3 or 4 to kill last boss). It had the added effect of stunning the shit out of bosses, but it was too slow for normal mobs.


If you watch the speedrunners they all uses a hex build which is OP as fuck if you can manage it.

Yeah.. magic isn't weak, only sorcery is weak. Hexes and Faith builds are stupidly strong-I haven't played since that last patch so maybe it was nerfed but i doubt it lol

Gonna rev up that DLC tomorrow though and continue on my DGS/Faith bro~

Needless_sl said:

Yeah.. magic isn't weak, only sorcery is weak. Hexes and Faith builds are stupidly strong-I haven't played since that last patch so maybe it was nerfed but i doubt it lol

Gonna rev up that DLC tomorrow though and continue on my DGS/Faith bro~

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Faith got nerfed into the ground. Damage was reduced by about 20% or so on LS/GLS, and number of casts were reduced by anywhere from 25-80% depending on your ATT. 50 ATT is 8 casts now instead of 16 before. GLS damage and casts were reduced similarly.

DGS can now be buffed normally instead of only with its own effect, but the lightning scaling was dropped from S to B, durability is now only 40, and the weight increased by 50%.

Vorph_sl said:

Faith got nerfed into the ground. Damage was reduced by about 20% or so on LS/GLS, and number of casts were reduced by anywhere from 25-80% depending on your ATT. 50 ATT is 8 casts now instead of 16 before. GLS damage and casts were reduced similarly.

DGS can now be buffed normally instead of only with its own effect, but the lightning scaling was dropped from S to B, durability is now only 40, and the weight increased by 50%.

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Holy shit, why the fuck did they nerf everything that badly? I mean.. i could have a shit load of LB casts before and i rarely even used them so that's not a huge issue but still, the changes to DGS makes me pretty sad :\

Vorph_sl said:

Faith got nerfed into the ground. Damage was reduced by about 20% or so on LS/GLS, and number of casts were reduced by anywhere from 25-80% depending on your ATT. 50 ATT is 8 casts now instead of 16 before. GLS damage and casts were reduced similarly.

DGS can now be buffed normally instead of only with its own effect, but the lightning scaling was dropped from S to B, durability is now only 40, and the weight increased by 50%.

Click to expand...

Holy shit, why the fuck did they nerf everything that badly? I mean.. i could have a shit load of LB casts before and i rarely even used them so that's not a huge issue but still, the changes to DGS makes me pretty sad :\

The amount of times you can cast is really shitty for the beginning of the game though.. yeesh

People are saying that even though DGS damage and scaling were reduced it still does slightly more damage than a lightning claymore. 40 durability seems to be the real killer, making it no longer practical to use the self-buff at all, and being doubly fucked on the PC version with the 60 fps durability bug that will never be fixed.

I'm not sure I trust the guy who did the testing though, as my own tests at 50 faith a couple months ago only had the DGS very slightly ahead of the claymore before the nerfs. I find it rather hard to believe that the scaling can drop from S to B and still be better. Game got uninstalled though, as I needed the space on my SSD so I can't check it myself now.

Tuco_sl said:

What's an effective and fun PVE spec to try for a first playthrough?

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Get good and dual wield. Str to 40, Dex to whatever you need, other stats as you will.

Is it worth playing through the game NG+? I pretty much just beat NG and stopped.

Barbed club finally got fixed, but did they really not fix the cheater axe bug yet?

NG+ was just more of the same to me. Yeah, there's a few red phantom 'surprises' here and there, one or two bosses are made harder due to adds (two have adds, but one of them is joke regardless), and there's an extra optional Pursuer fight, but being high SL and having good weapons means the whole thing is actually easier than NG.

Vinyard_sl said:

Is it worth playing through the game NG+? I pretty much just beat NG and stopped.

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There are some minor changes to the game. A lot more red phantoms (including some respawning red normal enemy phantoms such as spiders, dogs and crap like that). A couple of the bosses have new mechanics as well.

But beyond that, not really. If you don't care about getting the platinum trophy (on PS3), than there really isn't much point in playing NG+ unless you really like the game and want some additional, minor, challenge.

what about if you went NG+ but didn't play the game and it's your only save but you want to do DLC

NG+ is definitely more challenging.. as they toss in a bunch of red/black phantoms in almost every new zone.
Bosses are more or less the same with the exception of a few (sinner has 2 gay pyromancer red phantoms)

Why can't they just unlock the DLC today? Ugh.... I'm dying to play it!

This shit drop yet?

Needless_sl said:

NG+ is definitely more challenging.. as they toss in a bunch of red/black phantoms in almost every new zone.
Bosses are more or less the same with the exception of a few (sinner has 2 gay pyromancer red phantoms)

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Yeah but I guess my concern is I don't want to play my NG+ up to a certain point to play the DLC. Wish I never went NG+..

Anyone in the DLC or is that tomorrow for PS3? I'm downloading later, can't at the moment so any info is appreciated...

@Needless, I feel your pain bro. I almost went to NG+ (my only save now) couple of days ago and remembered I would have to go through a lot to get to the DLC content.
Just push through bro!

PS store updates on Wednesdays, and according to Dark Souls facebook page, PC/Xbox get it today, PS3 tomorrow

I have not one fucking character anywhere near the Black Gulch shit. I have a NG++ in early Earthen Peak and a couple of shit characters on NG in FOFG...

I think..(hope) my original hex/katana character is still in NG and not NG+ hah
I'll just play through it with him in that case.. otherwise i'll probably just remake a faith character

I don't want to play through new DLC content on a NG+ character either hah