Dark Souls 2: Lvl 55, Still can't beat The Pursuer.
- Thread starter Realitycrash
- Start date
Funnily enough I have had some problems as well with this boss. Mind you I was only SL like 30 or something and I kept dying over and over until my health wouldn't go lower (had like a quarter of health available).
After countless tries I took all my armor off and equipped my fire longsword and 2hded it (and also put Attack on Titan opening 1 in the background and went to town) until I learned his patterns.
One hit + back off the second you hit him was the safe route to take until I finally beat him..it was so fulfilling to do so.
After countless tries I took all my armor off and equipped my fire longsword and 2hded it (and also put Attack on Titan opening 1 in the background and went to town) until I learned his patterns.
One hit + back off the second you hit him was the safe route to take until I finally beat him..it was so fulfilling to do so.
You could try going back to town, spend 16,000 souls on the Armour merchant, teleport at the bonfire to reload the area then talk to him with zero souls. He gives you really good armour for it's weight, if you don't mind looking odd. You can tell if you've spent 16,000 souls already if he's already selling Alva armour.Realitycrash said:
I've heard this, but I've never encountered anything decent to buy from the armorer. How much does the Alva-armor cost? Might be worth buying even it means I have to waste 16000 souls before I can even buy it.Lotet said:
The Alva armour is 26300 souls, weighs 20.6 and gives 209 defense and is easily upgraded to have 10% more defense each upgrade.Realitycrash said:
The armour I was talking about is free (after the 16,000 of course), weighs 7.6 and gives 182 defense but I don't know if you can upgrade it so early.
There's 2 groups of armour, regular armour that upgrades with Titanite shards and such, which will double in power when fully upgraded. Then there's special armour that needs Twinkling Titanite, which is rare and only becomes 50% more powerful (rather than 100% of regular armour). These suits start off strong but all suits are generally equal when fully improved.
Though I'd recommend buying Titanite shards from the Blacksmith to upgrade weapons instead of armour at the beginning.
Seems like everyone already gave you the advice you needed.
Just stay close and roll at the very ends of his first 2 hits during his 3 hit combos, his third being the one that will least likely hit so you can just keep on strafing to the right. Also be aware of his glowing blue stab that will curse you on hit, back waaaaay the hell back when you sit it cause it has insane tracking ability. Otherwise he's pretty simple.
And a little fun pro tip someone probably already mentioned:
His wind up sprint attack can be eeeeeeeasily parried leaving him stunned for quite awhile. As he dashes towards you do the same and parry when you two practically kiss each other and *boom* parry and you get some free hits.
Or get used to his patterns once you get better equipment later on and eventually parry in front of ballista, run to said ballista, fire, then win.
Hard? Yes. Satisfying? Absolutely.
Just stay close and roll at the very ends of his first 2 hits during his 3 hit combos, his third being the one that will least likely hit so you can just keep on strafing to the right. Also be aware of his glowing blue stab that will curse you on hit, back waaaaay the hell back when you sit it cause it has insane tracking ability. Otherwise he's pretty simple.
And a little fun pro tip someone probably already mentioned:
His wind up sprint attack can be eeeeeeeasily parried leaving him stunned for quite awhile. As he dashes towards you do the same and parry when you two practically kiss each other and *boom* parry and you get some free hits.
Or get used to his patterns once you get better equipment later on and eventually parry in front of ballista, run to said ballista, fire, then win.
Hard? Yes. Satisfying? Absolutely.
Hang on, hold up! You don't use a shield? Like... at all? I just reached Aldia's Keep on NG+ last night and i can't for the life of me imagine how i'd ever have accomplished that without one... Then again i put more points into getting my poise up than my agility so my i-frames are kinda shit. Thank god for Dark Souls 1 teaching me when and how to dodge so i can make due with the short frames.StriderShinryu said:
I haven't played the game on NG+ without a shield as of yet so I can't speak to that. As to my experience on NG, however, I myself am still in the learning period with it (or without it in this case) but I am not using a shield at all. I'm dual wielding in dual wield power stance* or dropping to two hand a single weapon as required. I actually ended up spending quite a while fighting the Old Knights in Heide's Tower at the start because they train you really well to forgo a shield and rely on dodging/stepping everything. And, truth be told, I'm finding it more fun than I did playing through the couple runs I did with a shield.Ulquiorra4sama said:
* I'm not sure it's explained anywhere in game, but Dual Wield Power stance is activated by having a compatible pair of weapons with one in each hand. If you have enough stats to be at 150% or more of the normal weapon requirements for the weapons (generally str and dex) and hold down the Two Hand Your Weapon button for a second you'll go into dual wield power stance and get access to some new moves on the L1 and L2 buttons.
So summoning help is out, is it? May I ask why? No internet, or you just want to do this solo?
The Pursuer was hard for me the first time I fought him, but he's easy now. Here's what I do:
Stay just inside his sword range, like at the tip of his sword. I keep moving in a clockwise direction, circling him with my shield up. That way, if he does get a lucky hit in, it won't damage me. When he starts his first swing, try to back up just out of reach, then when his second swing comes, roll toward his sword arm. You should be able to roll under the second swing, and thus putting you right next to him, or even slightly behind him. Get your shield back up just in case, but his third swing should miss you completely seeing as you're now inside his guard. Smack him a few times as he swings and recovers from the attack, then back away just inside his range. Rinse, repeat.
Blue glowing sword thrust: Again, keep circling clockwise/in the direction of his sword arm. When the strike comes, as long as you're not too close and you keep circling, he will miss, because a thrust attack doesn't cover much ground. You can try to counter him here, but I find it a little too risky and just wait.
Charge attack. This one's a monster if it hits you. He backs way up, raises his shield, then charges at you, swinging his sword upward as he attacks. I don't even risk this one. If I see that come, I raise my shield, keep moving, as when he gets within range, I roll to my left/his right (again, his sword arm). If I feel I timed the roll right, I try to counter, but I usually just wait for that three hit combo of his, because it leaves him wide open.
If you can somehow, on your own, trick him to stand still long enough for you to run all the way to a ballista and hit him with it, his health is reduced to nothing.
The Pursuer was hard for me the first time I fought him, but he's easy now. Here's what I do:
Stay just inside his sword range, like at the tip of his sword. I keep moving in a clockwise direction, circling him with my shield up. That way, if he does get a lucky hit in, it won't damage me. When he starts his first swing, try to back up just out of reach, then when his second swing comes, roll toward his sword arm. You should be able to roll under the second swing, and thus putting you right next to him, or even slightly behind him. Get your shield back up just in case, but his third swing should miss you completely seeing as you're now inside his guard. Smack him a few times as he swings and recovers from the attack, then back away just inside his range. Rinse, repeat.
Blue glowing sword thrust: Again, keep circling clockwise/in the direction of his sword arm. When the strike comes, as long as you're not too close and you keep circling, he will miss, because a thrust attack doesn't cover much ground. You can try to counter him here, but I find it a little too risky and just wait.
Charge attack. This one's a monster if it hits you. He backs way up, raises his shield, then charges at you, swinging his sword upward as he attacks. I don't even risk this one. If I see that come, I raise my shield, keep moving, as when he gets within range, I roll to my left/his right (again, his sword arm). If I feel I timed the roll right, I try to counter, but I usually just wait for that three hit combo of his, because it leaves him wide open.
If you can somehow, on your own, trick him to stand still long enough for you to run all the way to a ballista and hit him with it, his health is reduced to nothing.
The poise you get from leveling scales with the lowest out of END and ADP, which means if you're getting poise, you're getting ADP.Ulquiorra4sama said:
Agility doesn't increase your i-frames, I'm pretty sure of that. It may increase the overall speed of your roll which in actuality may decrease your i-frames, but if it has any effect on rolling at all, it's very, very minor indeed.
To answer your question though, I've only ever used a shield on once character in both games and it was not my first either time. Late on into Dark Souls some friends of mine got it, so I had to think up new characters to co-op with them... One of them was a Sword 'n' Bored character, and I remade him for my 5th or so character in 2, though he's deleted now.
Now in 1, I noticed that shields made a couple of enemies completely trivial... In 2, I never ever used it, and that's with a character who rushed to Undead Crypt in a few of hours using an un-upgraded Longsword... so he was underpowered for more than half the game and I still never used it.
The only thing they are good for is parrying, which I'd much prefer to do with something that covers my weapon's weaknesses, if at all because of the risk. I honestly cannot see the purpose of blocking... Rolling Avelyn can be iffy, so there's that, and Rebel's Greatshield can 100% resist 1 non-physical damage type... but even then I'd prefer to roll to close distance.
1. His attacks are easy to dodge, you're either lagging because the laggy game is laggy, or you're not rolling at the right time. Also, you mentioned Old Knight's armor. That's very heavy. Are you above 70% weight rating? If so, take some of that heavy armor off so you can do a faster roll. You don't need any armor at all if you don't get hit, right?
When rolling, it's important that you don't hit the button at the first sign of an attack; wait until your opponent's weapon is actually about to hit you. Sometimes, on slower attacks, when you move too quickly, you'll actually complete the roll before the weapon gets to you, effectively placing yourself right back in harm's way. This is especially true if you have low ADP. Don't do that.
2. If you've already got all that covered, the only other thing I can think of is that you're using too much stamina by attacking too many times when you do get an opening. I'm impatient and this kills me more than anything. You need to learn to restrain yourself and attack only one or two times even when you have enough time for three or four.
If you still have trouble, take your weapon(s) off and go in without intent to harm, focusing 100% of your attention on avoidance. You'll quickly learn his patterns this way, the game will actually seem to slow down when you're not juggling offense and defense, and you won't be tempted to get yourself killed if you get cocky after dodging two or three swipes.
Good luck!
When rolling, it's important that you don't hit the button at the first sign of an attack; wait until your opponent's weapon is actually about to hit you. Sometimes, on slower attacks, when you move too quickly, you'll actually complete the roll before the weapon gets to you, effectively placing yourself right back in harm's way. This is especially true if you have low ADP. Don't do that.
2. If you've already got all that covered, the only other thing I can think of is that you're using too much stamina by attacking too many times when you do get an opening. I'm impatient and this kills me more than anything. You need to learn to restrain yourself and attack only one or two times even when you have enough time for three or four.
If you still have trouble, take your weapon(s) off and go in without intent to harm, focusing 100% of your attention on avoidance. You'll quickly learn his patterns this way, the game will actually seem to slow down when you're not juggling offense and defense, and you won't be tempted to get yourself killed if you get cocky after dodging two or three swipes.
Good luck!
Are you deliberately not summoning people?
The easy simple tactic is to summon phantoms to divert him, beeline to the ballista, and fire twice and he's dead.
My best other guess would be that you're either overloaded and rolling slow as a result, or rolling before he's commited to his attack so he just tracks you.
The easy simple tactic is to summon phantoms to divert him, beeline to the ballista, and fire twice and he's dead.
My best other guess would be that you're either overloaded and rolling slow as a result, or rolling before he's commited to his attack so he just tracks you.
Honestly you can literally skip The Pursurer, he is an entirely optional boss. If you want to proceed just got through Hiede's and the Wharf.
Meh. Honestly I'd say the No Man's Wharf area is much harder than the Pursuer for most builds. It's often the area I never bother doing because I always end up taking damage from the super-fast startup running attack that the pirate guys have if I'm using a weapon slower than a straight sword, and that annoys me.DarkishFriend said:
Yeah, Pursuer is a tough fight for the first time as a low level character. What I did was stay at the side of his shield(though in this case circle strafing don't yield particular results) and pay close attention to his move set. The most important part is to not get stuck in his combo b/c that will absolutely destroy you. His hits are so powerful that blocking also easily leads to guard break, that's why you need to stay on the side of his shield b/c its easier to dodge that way. Also avoid his curse attack at all costs. When Pursuer finishes his combo or single attack immidiately R2 him and roll away. Usually Pursuer does the same(jumps away) giving you time to heal or buff your weapon.
That's basically the strategy that worked for me. Dodge his attacks and learn the pattern of his attacks, pay close attention to your stamina and, when you have an opening, never hit him more than once. Pursuer and Ancient Dragon were probably the hardest bosses in the game for me not b/c they were that difficult per se but mostly b/c both required a very deliberate and timed approach that left little to no room for error.
That's basically the strategy that worked for me. Dodge his attacks and learn the pattern of his attacks, pay close attention to your stamina and, when you have an opening, never hit him more than once. Pursuer and Ancient Dragon were probably the hardest bosses in the game for me not b/c they were that difficult per se but mostly b/c both required a very deliberate and timed approach that left little to no room for error.
Hehe, wait until later on when you want the ring of blades+2 and you gotta take on 2 of them at the same time, super-buffed up with like 5K+ hp. @_@
When I started out I was really really intimidated by pursuer, but with a bit of ADP and patience, you can time his swings very easily. I killed him with a dual-wield build recently (dual rapiers) without taking a single hit, and was surprised at how 'good' I had gotten (not really, I just no longer feared him.)
An easy no-brainer way of killing him is to pump faith and lightning spear his butt to death. I think it only takes like 5 or 6 casts to take him down.
By the way, blocking is good in this game against regular enemies, but against bosses its kinda bad this time around, they definitely designed a lot of things around players dodging. You can block... but its slower imo, and riskier.
Also, remember this, with low ADP dodging (rolling) won't feel right. You need atleast 15 or so for it to start working effectively. Thought I recommend getting 38 ADP! (prepare responses saying im a noob and you can do it with base adp no prob!)
When I started out I was really really intimidated by pursuer, but with a bit of ADP and patience, you can time his swings very easily. I killed him with a dual-wield build recently (dual rapiers) without taking a single hit, and was surprised at how 'good' I had gotten (not really, I just no longer feared him.)
An easy no-brainer way of killing him is to pump faith and lightning spear his butt to death. I think it only takes like 5 or 6 casts to take him down.
By the way, blocking is good in this game against regular enemies, but against bosses its kinda bad this time around, they definitely designed a lot of things around players dodging. You can block... but its slower imo, and riskier.
Also, remember this, with low ADP dodging (rolling) won't feel right. You need atleast 15 or so for it to start working effectively. Thought I recommend getting 38 ADP! (prepare responses saying im a noob and you can do it with base adp no prob!)
He's either really easy or super hard, early in the game.
Easy method: his first attack is super easy to parry. After you parry him, he will be stunned for a few seconds. Run back and his him with the artillery. Parry him and and repeat. By this point you can just run up and smack him a few times to finish the job.
Hard method: roll back when he attacks and slash him once or twice when he finishes his combos. Fighting him this way is going to be a long fight and leaves little room for error
Easy method: his first attack is super easy to parry. After you parry him, he will be stunned for a few seconds. Run back and his him with the artillery. Parry him and and repeat. By this point you can just run up and smack him a few times to finish the job.
Hard method: roll back when he attacks and slash him once or twice when he finishes his combos. Fighting him this way is going to be a long fight and leaves little room for error
Sniper Team 4 said:
I am not summoning because it feels like cheating to pay co-op in a solo-player game experience. However, I did summon the errant female knight named L..Something for the Sentinel-boss. Why? Because its an in-built quest-mechanic that isn't controlled by another player. It's just using the tools that the game provides you, and not calling in multiplayer. Dunno if that reasoning makes any sense to you, but it does to me.
And no, still haven't beaten The Pursuer as a melee. My Cleric killed him easy with lightning-bolts, but my warrior keeps getting her ass handed to her. I realize that it is all about dodging around him when he swings, but the timing has to be so damn precise and after twenty attempts I just skipped him. I am decently geared up now and with Adaptability of 30 and upgraded Alva's Armor. Maybe I will try him again.