A question for Dark Souls fans

[Exius Xavarus]

I'd say easiest would be the thief. With minimal practice you can insta-kill most anything. The bonus souls you get from doing high-damage kills is also easy to get so you can buy more items/level up earlier than other classes. And since the stats are more specialized than other classes you don't have to worry about what weapons/armor to use, since you're kinda stuck using the default gear.

Hardest would probably be the Hunter. If only because buying arrows can be a little expensive early on.

parrying is harder for some enemies. iv played through dark souls multiple times and i still cant parry dark knights half the time. starting with the bandits knife is nice though, because of the bleeding. playing a hunter doesnt mean you have to use a bow, it just means that you will probably be playing a dex build

Taking into account a Hunter's description, they're actually the best choice for those that want a melee Dex character quickly. At least, as far as I can see.
Higher starting Dex, Vit and End than the other Dex classes(if I recall correctly).

Edit: I meant to copy/paste this post into an edit of my first post, rather than posting a second one. Oops.

 

[Gottesstrafe]

Dark Souls isn't so much hard as it is unforgiving. If you have a firm grasp of the controls and the limitations of your equipment (i.e. don't swing a claymore in a narrow corridor), all that's left to do is be reasonably cautious and the enemies will pose little threat to you. The level design is presented in such a way as to punish noobs that rush in carelessly, really the only places that actually pose a threat (or at the very least annoy you) are Blighttown (FPS chugs and camping ghillie suit wearing zombies spam toxic darts) and Tomb of the Giants (pitch black darkness + giant skeletons).

As for classes, I found the easiest to be the warrior and knight classes, which start with decent equipment/stats. The harder ones are probably the Sorcerer (starts off with crap spells and equipment but becomes nigh a demigod by the halfway point of the game), the Thief (really needs a good understanding of the combat to use effectively), and the Deprived (meant as a challenge class for people who beat Demon's Souls, balanced stats but virtually no equipment).

On another tangent, it always baffles me when people complain about the game being too difficult and cite a lack of a proper tutorial to integrate new comers. The Asylum IS the tutorial, it explains the controls on the messages written on the floor and gives you every opportunity to test them out against the weakest of enemies at virtually no consequence (except your time). Learn the basics and you'll be fine, people have beaten the entire game at their starting level from just mastery of the controls alone.

Edit: Props to anyone else who started out with the Thief class

 

[Quazimofo]

I got REALLY lucky, summoned one of the NPC's and summoned a tank who was like level 500 or something. I spent the entire battle running around in circles while the guy took care of everything, whilst I occasionally jumped in for a swipe.

Now I'm stuck on Gwyn. Jesus Christ he is relentless.

put on havel's stuff, with a pimped out black knight shield, use iron skin pyromancy, and get the highest damaging weapon you can riposte with, then just spam parry when he gets close. that seems to work rather well

 

[Quazimofo]

Also, tell Ornstein and Smough I said hi.

Off topic, am I the only one that pronounces it 'Smuff'?

Being English, that's sort of what comes out, I imagined that 'smoo' wouldn't be right...(i.e. through)

It can't be right.

I believe it's supposed to be "Smoff." Cough, just replace the 'C' with 'Sm.' That's the way I pronounce it.

i just call the fight oranges and smores.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Also, tell Ornstein and Smough I said hi.

Off topic, am I the only one that pronounces it 'Smuff'?

Being English, that's sort of what comes out, I imagined that 'smoo' wouldn't be right...(i.e. through)

It can't be right.

I believe it's supposed to be "Smoff." Cough, just replace the 'C' with 'Sm.' That's the way I pronounce it.

i just call the fight oranges and smores.

I just call it Snuggles and Ornery.

 

[Windcaler]

Now I'm stuck on Gwyn. Jesus Christ he is relentless.

Gwyns weakness is parrying. Every attack except the grab and kick can be parried and both of those have easy to recognize tells. His very first attack is always the charge which is amazingly easy to parry, you just have to wait till the last possible second to hit the trigger and then he'll be down a ton of life.

If you dont want to go the parrying route (I personally dont because I like fighting Gwyn and want the fight to last longer) then first I recomend you get a shield that has 100% block and 90-95% fire block. I either use the Dragon crest shield or the Black iron greatshield. If you want a cheese victory what you can do is make a lightning zweinhander and just wait for his grab. As soon as he uses it back up and use the two handed strong attack. Personally I like fighting him with speedy weapons like a katana and I just wait for openings. The kicks and grabs are the best openings but he also does a 4 hit combo thats easy to dodge, then move in and attack. His charge also has a long enough delay for one attack if you just roll backwards at the last second

 

[The Code]

I haven't played any other class than the Thief, but from what I've been reading from everyone else, it's the hardest class to play as. The starting armor for the class is low-grade leather, and the base weapon has minimal range. You have to be in the guy's face in order for it to be effective, and you have to get BEHIND the guy in order to really do some damage. Don't get me wrong, the Riposte with the Bandit's Knife is incredibly satisfying, what with the impact noise, the red gush, and the sudden disappearance of the enemy's health bar, but my thief has slowly transformed into a pyromancer as things went along. The Gold-Hemmed Robes set, a +10 Winged Spear, a Black Knight's shield, and the Great Chaos Fireball (Which, by the way, is REALLY cool, not to mention powerful!) are what I have equipped, so yes, I suppose the Pyromancer is the easiest class to start with. Also, the Ring of the Evil Eye is handy. Like, really really handy.

As far as the game's 'insane difficulty' goes, it's not so much difficult as it is unforgiving. It doesn't behave like more recent titles that put you in a hall with the cake on the other end. It's more like you're in a massive playground and something is wrong. It's your job to figure out what it is and how to fix it on your own.

 

[Gottesstrafe]

Also, tell Ornstein and Smough I said hi.

Off topic, am I the only one that pronounces it 'Smuff'?

Being English, that's sort of what comes out, I imagined that 'smoo' wouldn't be right...(i.e. through)

It can't be right.

I believe it's supposed to be "Smoff." Cough, just replace the 'C' with 'Sm.' That's the way I pronounce it.

i just call the fight oranges and smores.

I call them Fatboy Slim. Of course, it helps that the first time I fought them Weapon of Choice was playing in the background...

 

[Fr]anc[is]

Sorcerer was my very first choice, and it just has to be the worst. A pure mage can roflstomp about 15% of enemies, including a large number of bosses, but the other 85% of the game I was stuck gently poking dudes to death with a spear because they had shields, are in your face so you don't have time to cast a spell, or aren't worth spending magic on. And cross your fingers so you don't leave lock on range and you end up shooting the ground because you can't manually aim magic. Yea I was probably doing it wrong but fuck it don't tease me with a playstyle that feels tacked on and then laugh at me when I try to play it that way. Just gave up on that guy and rerolled a thief. Now I have the horrid manual bow aiming to contend with, but it's marginally better now that I know what I'm doing.

 

[lapan]

There isnt really much difference of the classes apart from starting items.

 

[Darmy647]

i started with wanderer in demons souls. In dark souls i went to wanderer again and i was severely saddened by the new animations for swinging the falchion ;.;. But everything got a whole lot better when i got the spider queens fury sword!

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

snip

Actually, I forgot that you don't need the ring to join the covenant, you just need it to talk to her. Oops.