Dark Souls 2

So in 10 minutes in the Belfry I've been invaded 5 times. I just went offline. Last time I just quit the game in disgust as I've lost 6k on my ring of life breaking.

Really, From?

Gecko_sl said:

So in 10 minutes in the Belfry I've been invaded 5 times. I just went offline. Last time I just quit the game in disgust as I've lost 6k on my ring of life breaking.

Really, From?

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The two bell towers in the game are areas made specifically for PvP, they both can be ran through in like 30 seconds, and the second one in Iron Keep is an optional part of the zone that you dont even need to touch to access a boss.

Forbin_sl said:

The two bell towers in the game are areas made specifically for PvP, they both can be ran through in like 30 seconds, and the second one in Iron Keep is an optional part of the zone that you dont even need to touch to access a boss.

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Ahh, that makes sense.. Sounds like the Forest Covenant in DS1. I was just roaming along when suddenly I was at ground zero of PVPland.

Gecko_sl said:

Ahh, that makes sense.. Sounds like the Forest Covenant in DS1. I was just roaming along when suddenly I was at ground zero of PVPland.

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There's another area (The Gutter I think) that is also PVP oriented. It's under the control of the Rat King with tons of traps. If you join the Covenant and wear the ring that he gives you, you "pull" invaders into your world. The advantage is that you won't get attacked by any enemies and you can set traps all over the place. Luckily I was only pulled into someone's world once and actually had no problem killing the person who pulled me in.

Based on Gamefaqs, it seems that the Shrine of Amana is the "unofficial" PVP zone and that seems to be what I'm finding too. Never got invaded until I hit the Shrine and then I got invaded a couple times with people clearly geared and statted out for ganking people. I just wait by a bonfire so when my PVE character, inevitably, dies I just grab my souls and go on my way. It also sounds like Soul Level 150 is the "preferred" PVP level this time around and that's right where I'm around.

Anyway, entered Dragon Aerie and had to quit for now.

Be careful of rage quitting from invasions - apparently if you do it a bunch you get banned from online play. You can undo it with the Bone of Order but only once.

Angelwatch_sl said:

There's another area (The Gutter I think) that is also PVP oriented. It's under the control of the Rat King with tons of traps. If you join the Covenant and wear the ring that he gives you, you "pull" invaders into your world. The advantage is that you won't get attacked by any enemies and you can set traps all over the place. Luckily I was only pulled into someone's world once and actually had no problem killing the person who pulled me in.

Based on Gamefaqs, it seems that the Shrine of Amana is the "unofficial" PVP zone and that seems to be what I'm finding too. Never got invaded until I hit the Shrine and then I got invaded a couple times with people clearly geared and statted out for ganking people. I just wait by a bonfire so when my PVE character, inevitably, dies I just grab my souls and go on my way. It also sounds like Soul Level 150 is the "preferred" PVP level this time around and that's right where I'm around.

Anyway, entered Dragon Aerie and had to quit for now.

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That's interesting to hear. I'm around 150 myself (147) and spend a lot of time in the Shrine of Amana, farming for twinkling titanite, etc. I've yet to be invaded once. For that matter, I've yet to be invaded in ANY area outside of the Belfry and Pharros'. And this is on NG+ where there are way less restrictions on whom can invade whom. It's been really surprising to me so far - I was expecting a lot more activity.

Angelwatch_sl said:

It also sounds like Soul Level 150 is the "preferred" PVP level this time around and that's right where I'm around.

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From what i understand, in dark souls 2 matchmaking isn't based off of SL its based off of total souls collected on the character. This is total lifetime souls obtained by the character, even souls you have lost from dieing, the stat is listed on your character sheet.

So I joined the Sunbro covenant to work on that sword and ive assisted two people with the Belfry Gargoyles so far and not gotten any Sun Medals. Im sure Im doing something wrong but no idea what. Ideas?

Yukiri_sl said:

So I joined the Sunbro covenant to work on that sword and ive assisted two people with the Belfry Gargoyles so far and not gotten any Sun Medals. Im sure Im doing something wrong but no idea what. Ideas?

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Sun medals also drop from the large guys with the guy on top of them (the ones that shoot dark orbs) on the path to the Sun covenant.

Can probably farm them a bit with the +1 ring that gives extra chance for drops. (Get it from the merchant in the Iron Keep after you spend a certain amount of souls. I think I spent around 20k)

axeman_sl said:

Str scaling is apparently a lot better than dex scaling point for point. Someone crunched the numbers and dex turned out to give only 65% damage bonus compared to strength. It of course also gives bleed and poison damage, which is probably why the direct damage scaling is lower, but I've yet to see a build that really makes great use of these damage sources in a way that makes it as strong as a str build with a great club or something similar.

There's a few dex weapons that look like they could be viable, such as Ricard's Rapier, but then it turns out that it has only 45 durability which just isn't enough to be viable unless you're willing to reinforce and infuse two sets of weapons. I have trouble keeping my 70 durability weapon intact between bonfires, and that's a halberd that swings hard and slow. Wouldn't wanna see how quickly a super-fast weapon with 45 gets worn out.

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Well, the reason for this is that the damage bonus isn't based on the weapon anymore. In Dark Souls, for example, how much of a bonus you got was derived from the base damage of the weapon. The new system though is based purely on the Parameter Scaling*Stat. So if you have a 100 damage weapon with A scaling and a 200 with A scaling, if you had 40 strength, they'd both get the same damage bonus (While in DS1 the 200 weapon would get a lot more).

So, from what I've seen of speculation, because base damage is no longer a consideration, there's no real universal that ties your damage bonus to the "speed" of the weapon (The only thing really is the parameter bonus itself, but even a fast Dex weapon can have a b or higher bonus..). So the best weapons would be decided based on scaling, THEN speed. Which, I suppose, once the parsing is done, we'll see that high end dex weapons with good scaling generally swing faster and for less stamina per swing--which is why dex scales slowerr, to balance out how the damage bonus is applied over many swings. (In other words, if parameter bonuses are even, swing speed now determines which does more damage--I'm guessing Dex weapons swing faster and require less stamina, so pound for pound they scale better, so Dex overall had to scale worse .)

Not sure why they changed it. I thought the old system worked well. But then again, I don't have the game yet so I'm relying on weapon tests others are doing--take it with a grain of salt.

Droigan_sl said:

Sun medals also drop from the large guys with the guy on top of them (the ones that shoot dark orbs) on the path to the Sun covenant.

Can probably farm them a bit with the +1 ring that gives extra chance for drops. (Get it from the merchant in the Iron Keep after you spend a certain amount of souls. I think I spent around 20k)

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It's 10k

meh got bit in the ass with the stupid anti-farm mechanics in this game. Wanted to try to farm one of those mastodon halberds from the primal knight right outisde the bonfire of Pharros Doors but he went extinct and didnt drop it

That's what ascetics are for, plus gold covetous ring plus jesters mask (pretty sure nonring effects stack - I know jesters pants plus kitty ring stack makes any survivable fall damagefree that I've seen).

Yeah I was wearing the mask/ring, and I really don't want burn an ascetic and make the area permanently harder. Problem is it's all of 10 spawns before its extinct and that just seems a bit on the low side to me.

Not farmed them, but where I've counted it's 12 for everything technically. And if you don't want to ascetic for them no dice, yep.