Dark Souls 2 - Great ... however...

[WWmelb]

So i'm about 150 hours into dark souls 2 playtime.. and for the most part, i think it is fantastic. It has it's flaws, or more to the point, let downs.. but overall i think it was a fun ride full of tension and a lovely bleak depressing story.

The PVP though... ugh.. for the record, i'm in australia.

When the pvp works, it was golden. The variety of builds, weapons and play styles i come across are varied and interesting, and appears there are a lot more options for valid weapon types than Demons' or Dark Souls.

But the lag... dear god the lag. The one thing that beats me in 9 out of 10 fights.

I have cross regional play restricted, however, i may be wrong, but it seems that Oceania is lumped into Europe regional, which means it really doesn't help much.

Lagbackstabs a plenty to go around, but the worst, and unbeatable lag problem for me is against casters. With high atunement, combined with the clear bluestone ring, spells hit me before i even see the beginning of a cast animation. There is nothing i can do about that, and no way to really defend against it.

I'm no master pvper at the best of times, however the games that appear to be fair to me with lag, i seem to win about 50% of the time, maybe a little under that, but predominantly i'm dead before i can even see a player move.

Le.. sigh. I honestly thought that moving back to dedicated servers would fix this issue, as the pvp in Demons' Souls worked fantastically for me, though that may have just been because of the small player base. I'm unsure.

Dark Souls i just avoided pvp because the P2P lagfest NEVER went away, and every fight was start, get backstabbed from 30 yards away, over.

DS2 isn't quite as bad, but it's close. Being stunlocked by dual-daggers from what appears to be about 15 yards drives me insane, and as mentioned before, casters are impossible.

The other things i've noticed that are a new problem and seems to be lag related, after speaking to a nice guy i had a long ass fight with, are these:

Lag can cause your attacks to cause no damage, even though they hit. I shield-broke this guy, and laid into his chest with a +10 fishing pole with sunlight blade on for a lovely crit, and his health bar didn't move. I figured maybe he was wearing something like the jester chest, but no, he wasn't. Just appears to be because one of us lagged, no damage was done. This seems to constantly happen with normal pokes and prods as well, even hitting someone with L1 L1 L2 power stance combo they lost zero health.

The other is sprinting. Sometimes in pvp, i hold my O button til my heart is content, but he just refuses to sprint. Just will not do it. And in the meantime the opponent has pussied out and gone to drink some sunny d (in duels? seriously? is there no honor left in DS? i get when you are invaded, but in duels????)


I don't know what if anything can be done to curb these issues, but it's leaving a very bad taste in my mouth. Especially needing 500 wins to rank up to full for the two covenants..

Anyways, overall i love this game to bits, don't get me wrong. It's heartbreaking that i cannot enjoy the pvp though, for when it works, it is quite awesome and all the different play styles seem very well balanced, even if it seems next to impossible to get a bleed on someone.

captcha: Michelin : Describe this brand

SMOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[WWmelb]

and now i just realise that a loss in brotherhood of blood give you a -1 to your rank count... so... there is really next to no way i can rank up in the covenant, seeing as 9 out of 10 matches are unplayable.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

Really?

That seems pretty rough. I only play offline, and have yet to go on to NG+ due to my obsession with making new characters to try out every conceivable thing without farming vessels.

I actually liked using hexes for a bit, sorcery was boring other than soul vortex, and lightning spears/miracles take any challenge out of the game.

So after many many hours, I'm now recreating my original character. Mastodon Halberd/Mirrah Greatsword+pyromancy.

Seems like I took a very long and pointless trip to come full circle, but I know the game reeeeeeally well now. And I've gotten the process of my character creation down to muscle memory lol

At least until NG+ anyways.

One thing that I don't understand is why the Watcher Greatsword doesn't get higher magic scaling if you infuse it with magic, but gets S magic scaling if you do bleed or poison. I really liked how it could buff itself, but even fully upgraded it wasn't that great :/

 

[WWmelb]

yeah it's incredibly rough. and yeah, i'm still in ng+ but now with every boss soul weapon just farming materials and levelling things and trying them out. i've come to the sad conclusion that i'm not going to be able to get my platinum the proper way, and will have to just go to NG++ to buy the last 4 spells i don't have, notearn them through PVP. Ahh but such is life lol i do still love the game though

 

[ExtraDebit]

sorcery is so broken, 90% of the spells are gimped with the exception of light, yearn and soul geyser. Faith build is the new sorcerer now.

 

[WWmelb]

sorcery is so broken, 90% of the spells are gimped with the exception of light, yearn and soul geyser. Faith build is the new sorcerer now.

trust me it's not gimped when the sorcerer cast spells faster than lag will allow me to seem them being cast lol

 

[King of Asgaard]

I do occasionally get horrible lag (EU, PS3), but it's maybe 1/20 instances, where the rest are mostly smooth.
Overall, as someone who avoided PvP in its entirety in the previous titles, I'm quite enjoying the PvP here, as it actually works most of the time. However,

all the different play styles seem very well balanced, even if it seems next to impossible to get a bleed on someone.

nope.
See, the way the new Poise system works, or doesn't work as the case may be, pretty much dissuades any and all heavy builds, because anything can stunlock them. As far as balance goes, magic remains incredibly powerful, though miracles are even more so now, and shields are a liability with the introduction of guard breaking. Bottom line, certain play styles are far weaker than others, to the point where I'm hoping for a balance patch to come out in the near future.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

Snip

You may have already tried this, and I understand the AUS Internet issue, but it's worth mentioning.

Don't use wireless for your console, plug in an ethernet cable and use wired to connect to Live/PSN. Go into your router and make sure UPnP is enabled, and forward these ports for Live/PSN access: 80,443,465,983,3478-3479,3658,5223,10070-10080.

You can also try assigning a static IP to your console, I can help with any of this if needed. It's also my understanding that From is experiencing server stresses due to the spike of people playing it now (and a lot of people are back playing Demon's these days, which still has its server up), and are working on optimizing the servers and future patches in order to make online play better moving forward, so that would be a matter of patience :/

Edit: Some routers (or one made more awesome with DD-WRT or similar) have a feature that allows you to optimize bandwidth usage for specific clients. Basically if the router allows it and your console has a static IP (or the router uses MAC addresses for this feature) you can tell it that your console gets dibs on as much bandwidth as it needs. This probably won't help much if you don't have PCs, smartphones, tablets, etc. connected to your router's Wifi and using bandwidth at the same time. If you're trying to get as good of a online experience as possible, turn off Wifi on any smartphones/tablets as well and don't download/torrent on any device when attempting to play. Hopefully any of this helps.

 

[Ham Blitz]

I don't have as much of a lag issue (I live in America so I don't have your connection issue), but my connection can be wonky at times and it is weird to get hit by a sword when you are 10 feet back. It doesn't happen for me but it is annoying when it does.
While I don't mind fighting against magic too much, it does seem to generally beat my heavy armor strength build character more often than not since then just run around, cast spells and then run again. I usually let myself get summoned as a Dragon member for PVP so I don't lose much, and when I do summon someone into my world it is near a bonfire so at least I don't lose my souls for good. My biggest complaint during PVP via summoning can be split into two things that stem basically can be described as dishonorable tactics (not that honor is a big thing I suppose it is just annoying).
The most common of these two is when you get summoned the guy is waiting right behind you to either backstab you, or more commonly cast some AOE pyromancy attack that does heavy damage as soon as you can move so you basically don't get to fight. The other one has only happened twice. The other player would be standing a a decent distance from me, doing nothing, so I assume "alright, time to bow then" so I select the duel bow emote, and as I start doing it, they then cast some powerful fireball attack and kill me. It just bothers me that they waited until I started bowing to attack. All and all, these are minor gripes, I just felt like saying them.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I've come across this a few times when I get summoned into someone else's world. Happened last night actually. I unloaded six or seven arrows into one of those Shrine of Amana Priestesses and the girl did not die. It usually only takes three arrows. I've seen it happen a few other times with other enemies when I'm playing with someone.

Never had a problem with PVP though. Probably because I don't even try to fight back. I have only won two PVP rounds out of all the times that I've been invaded. One was because the guy didn't realize What a Sunlight Spear was and took two straight to the face (which I've never been able to do to anyone else), and the other was because the invader didn't see the cliffs in the water in Shrine of Amana and must have fallen off. At least, I think that's what happened. He invaded, and then two minutes later it said he was dead, but I never saw him.
Usually, I just run to the nearest bonfire and wait for the person to come kill me. Fighting back is a waste of time for me because no matter what I try, I can never hit anyone. Everyone and their mother seems to know the exact moment when to dodge and counter attack except for me.

 

[WWmelb]

Snip

You may have already tried this, and I understand the AUS Internet issue, but it's worth mentioning.

Don't use wireless for your console, plug in an ethernet cable and use wired to connect to Live/PSN. Go into your router and make sure UPnP is enabled, and forward these ports for Live/PSN access: 80,443,465,983,3478-3479,3658,5223,10070-10080.

You can also try assigning a static IP to your console, I can help with any of this if needed. It's also my understanding that From is experiencing server stresses due to the spike of people playing it now (and a lot of people are back playing Demon's these days, which still has its server up), and are working on optimizing the servers and future patches in order to make online play better moving forward, so that would be a matter of patience :/

Edit: Some routers (or one made more awesome with DD-WRT or similar) have a feature that allows you to optimize bandwidth usage for specific clients. Basically if the router allows it and your console has a static IP (or the router uses MAC addresses for this feature) you can tell it that your console gets dibs on as much bandwidth as it needs. This probably won't help much if you don't have PCs, smartphones, tablets, etc. connected to your router's Wifi and using bandwidth at the same time. If you're trying to get as good of a online experience as possible, turn off Wifi on any smartphones/tablets as well and don't download/torrent on any device when attempting to play. Hopefully any of this helps.

Thansk for the tips, i'm going to go play around with some of these options and see how it pans out. i want to pvp in a stable environment very badly because when it works, i enjoy the hell out of it. If i have any further questions will send you a pm.

Thanks again!

 

[Skin]

Dark Souls 2 seems to have worse netcode than Dark Souls 1. The amount of phantom hits and phantoms rolls is stupendous. Sure, phantom hits would occur in Dark Souls, but never to this absurd degree and I played region locked.

 

[Ishal]

I do occasionally get horrible lag (EU, PS3), but it's maybe 1/20 instances, where the rest are mostly smooth.
Overall, as someone who avoided PvP in its entirety in the previous titles, I'm quite enjoying the PvP here, as it actually works most of the time. However,

all the different play styles seem very well balanced, even if it seems next to impossible to get a bleed on someone.

nope.
See, the way the new Poise system works, or doesn't work as the case may be, pretty much dissuades any and all heavy builds, because anything can stunlock them. As far as balance goes, magic remains incredibly powerful, though miracles are even more so now, and shields are a liability with the introduction of guard breaking. Bottom line, certain play styles are far weaker than others, to the point where I'm hoping for a balance patch to come out in the near future.

Eh... not everything can stun lock. I've had lot's of success on a heavy build and I'm using Lion Clan greataxes, which as far as I can tell, are some of the slowest swinging things in the game. I use Orma's greatshield, but I put a good chunk of points into Vit, so I don't fat roll. So far the only thing to stunlock me consistently have been daggers and cestus. Everything else I can roll away from while taking acceptable damage. Halberds and spears do nothing.

Faith is a bit out of whack though, but I'm more fussed about the scaling. The scaling is pretty poor across the board right now.

 

[Benpasko]

The other is sprinting. Sometimes in pvp, i hold my O button til my heart is content, but he just refuses to sprint. Just will not do it. And in the meantime the opponent has pussied out and gone to drink some sunny d (in duels? seriously? is there no honor left in DS? i get when you are invaded, but in duels????)

There's this mechanic, where if your stamina runs out completely, you can't sprint again until it's nearly full. Despite that information, I made this post just to make fun of your honor comment. The game's design actively encourages scumbag tactics against the ai, so logic dictates 'lie, cheat, steal' pvp.

 

[King of Asgaard]

I do occasionally get horrible lag (EU, PS3), but it's maybe 1/20 instances, where the rest are mostly smooth.
Overall, as someone who avoided PvP in its entirety in the previous titles, I'm quite enjoying the PvP here, as it actually works most of the time. However,

all the different play styles seem very well balanced, even if it seems next to impossible to get a bleed on someone.

nope.
See, the way the new Poise system works, or doesn't work as the case may be, pretty much dissuades any and all heavy builds, because anything can stunlock them. As far as balance goes, magic remains incredibly powerful, though miracles are even more so now, and shields are a liability with the introduction of guard breaking. Bottom line, certain play styles are far weaker than others, to the point where I'm hoping for a balance patch to come out in the near future.

Eh... not everything can stun lock. I've had lot's of success on a heavy build and I'm using Lion Clan greataxes, which as far as I can tell, are some of the slowest swinging things in the game. I use Orma's greatshield, but I put a good chunk of points into Vit, so I don't fat roll. So far the only thing to stunlock me consistently have been daggers and cestus. Everything else I can roll away from while taking acceptable damage. Halberds and spears do nothing.

Faith is a bit out of whack though, but I'm more fussed about the scaling. The scaling is pretty poor across the board right now.

When I said everything stunlocks, I meant that being hit by a dagger and being hit by a greatsword makes no difference with regards to stunlocking purposes, on a hit by hit basis. For what it's worth, I'm going for a dual great hammer build, and I've had quite a bit of success as well, but I know that if I get caught by anything small like fist weapons I might as well give up, because it is ridiculously easy to get caught in an infinite combo.

I've not had much to complain about vis-a-vis scaling. Most weapons tend to focus on one stat, so be at A or S scaling, or on a number, so usually Cs or Ds, which is fine for balancing. If I'm honest, the scaling I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around is with hexes. It supposedly scales on the requirement you have the least of, which has baffled me as to how to properly spec into dark magic.

 

[WWmelb]

I do occasionally get horrible lag (EU, PS3), but it's maybe 1/20 instances, where the rest are mostly smooth.
Overall, as someone who avoided PvP in its entirety in the previous titles, I'm quite enjoying the PvP here, as it actually works most of the time. However,

all the different play styles seem very well balanced, even if it seems next to impossible to get a bleed on someone.

nope.
See, the way the new Poise system works, or doesn't work as the case may be, pretty much dissuades any and all heavy builds, because anything can stunlock them. As far as balance goes, magic remains incredibly powerful, though miracles are even more so now, and shields are a liability with the introduction of guard breaking. Bottom line, certain play styles are far weaker than others, to the point where I'm hoping for a balance patch to come out in the near future.

Eh... not everything can stun lock. I've had lot's of success on a heavy build and I'm using Lion Clan greataxes, which as far as I can tell, are some of the slowest swinging things in the game. I use Orma's greatshield, but I put a good chunk of points into Vit, so I don't fat roll. So far the only thing to stunlock me consistently have been daggers and cestus. Everything else I can roll away from while taking acceptable damage. Halberds and spears do nothing.

Faith is a bit out of whack though, but I'm more fussed about the scaling. The scaling is pretty poor across the board right now.

When I said everything stunlocks, I meant that being hit by a dagger and being hit by a greatsword makes no difference with regards to stunlocking purposes, on a hit by hit basis. For what it's worth, I'm going for a dual great hammer build, and I've had quite a bit of success as well, but I know that if I get caught by anything small like fist weapons I might as well give up, because it is ridiculously easy to get caught in an infinite combo.

I've not had much to complain about vis-a-vis scaling. Most weapons tend to focus on one stat, so be at A or S scaling, or on a number, so usually Cs or Ds, which is fine for balancing. If I'm honest, the scaling I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around is with hexes. It supposedly scales on the requirement you have the least of, which has baffled me as to how to properly spec into dark magic.

As far as i can tell, the only thing that scales off of your lowest stat are mundane weapons. Fooling around with hexes, i have next to know intelligence, 16 i think, but 44 faith and the hexes do some substantial damage, resonant soul and great resonant soul i use a fair bit of.