Dark Souls 3 hype thread!

[Sleepy Sol]

Abyss Watchers (4-5 deaths) - Died mostly due to O&S lock-on syndrome. Also was barely using my shield at this stage in the game, which would have helped enormously. - Yeah, the biggest problem I have with Abyss Watchers in general is how chaotic it can get in the first phase with multiple Watchers running jumping in and out of your vision. Second phase is easier because of not having to focus on jerking your camera all over the place to see where every Watcher is. Doesn't have much health, either, so not too frustrating.

Pontiff (7-8 deaths) - Couldn't get his phase 1 combos down right and oddly had an easier time in phase 2. In fact, I think his phase 2 only took me two tries. - On NG I honestly just started blocking and doing one-two hits after any attack and it seemed to work out fine afterwards. Second phase obviously takes quite a bit more caution but if necessary I'd just wait until they do the jumping attack since there's so much recovery on it that it's a safe 3-4 swings, and possibly more.

Aldritch (8-10 deaths) - I didn't see that she spawns magic missiles in her phase 2 teleport until the 5th time I died that way. They would hover off-screen so I had no idea they were there until one time when I rolled away during a teleport and watched her spawn them from a distance. That's my bad, really. Otherwise, her phase 2 arrows are basically instant death if you misjudge when they'll end. - I actually find Aldritch really easy in both phases. It's just particularly annoying if you find yourself at a distance from him and he just keeps doing long-range attacks that you have no room to attack during. So it can be a lot of running around for no reward and a boring fight as you're just waiting for a long-ass melee attack to get your hits in (which is why I recommend sticking close to minimize the chance of ranged attacks happening). Second phase arrows are absolutely easy to avoid. You just run. Don't roll. It's never fast enough. The only absolute bullshit situation I can think is if he does the big magic shots while you're running from phase 2 arrows. Then it's a crapshoot whether you live/get hit or not, because you almost always have to roll the shots, and rolling is not fast enough to avoid the arrows.

The above three I'd consider fair. For the most part it was my fault, though Pontiff's reach is a bit too ridiculous on his thrust attacks. The bellow two, however....

Dancer (20+ deaths) - The hitbox on her grab is straight up broken. I would have to either dodge away at the very start of her telegraph or dodge twice mid-way through after finishing my attack animation. Ironically I had the most success attacking her at the start of the animation and panic dodging just as her hand came for me. But that's just phase 1.

Phase 2 is just odder BS. I really don't mind that she has really tricky moves with misleading tells. That's fine and honestly pretty cool. However, she simply does too much damage per hit. She has multiple ways to kill the player for making a single mistake. That's just too much. Considering how tricky her combos are, you should be able to tank a little more of her hits than that.

She was much more frustrating for me than Ludwig was in BB, and that's saying a lot. - Agreed on grab hitbox. I'm not a big fan of the Dancer, to be frank.

Gundyr Champion (12-15 deaths) - Basically Gwyn on crack. I actually got incredibly good at fighting him, the only problem is that he perfectly highlights how wonky and broken enemy tracking is. In order to beat him you have to predict how spot-on he's going to land his punishing moves (kick and shoulder check, mainly). Sometimes he can spin like a ballerina and hit you 1/10th of a second after finishing another attack animation. Other times he biffs a shoulder check so hard he's actually out of range for a counter attack. He could have been a really interesting boss if they chilled out on the auto-lock tracking bullshit and just gave him more circle-strafe punishers. - Yeah, I dunno what they were on with a number of bosses and enemies in this game that have attacks with absolutely ridiculous tracking.

The rest of the bosses in the game went down in 1-2 tries (Dragonslayer Armour kept knocking me off the cliff though LOL). - I also got knocked off the bridge by him shoving me with his shield. I couldn't get mad at that death. That said, I think I may have 1-3 more left. - Should be correct. It's kind of impossible to miss more than maybe two-three bosses in this game and you already made it to the secret area, so... I just beat the big dragon in the secret area (which was a goofy fight) and ended there for the night. Pretty sure I just have the rest of that zone and the Archives left.

EDIT: Hilariously, some of these difficult bosses are a complete joke in co-op. I have solo'd them all so far, but have sunbro'd plenty. I co-oped the Gundyr fight a few times after beating him last night and he was literally x20 easier, if not more.

EDIT #2: I could also be at a disadvantage due to my build. I went Dex/Faith thinking it would hold up like it did in DS1, but I am starting to think that's not the case. First of all, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, to get decent damage out of spells you need to completely commit that stat over all others which basically fucks hybrids. Okay, that's fine, I get a lot of use out of Lightning Weapon + Oath, but it would be nice to have an opportunity to re-buff at any point during the harder fights. Some of them (especially Gundyr) offer no chance to re-apply any kind of buff, which kind of throws a wrench in my build. I can get them to phase 2 faster! Great! That's usually when they're at their hardest! D: - Can't speak from experience on that kind of build. I just pumped Strength for a while and generally only used heavy-ass hammers/axes. But I don't think I'd be opposed to the notion that it's kind of harder to get a pyromancy or magic character going compared to just being able to pump Str or Dex and going melee all the time.

Responses in bold. :v I can see where you're coming from with a lot of the bosses, honestly.

 

[Fappy]

-Snip-

Thanks for all the input. I'm thinking Dancer and Gundyr will be my only real problems on subsequent playthroughs. There are always a few bosses per Souls game that still give you a rough time on NG+ or new characters. Bed of Chaos doesn't count (no need to explain that one I hope XD), but Artorias and Manus both usually kill me at least once each. Four Kings can be rough too if my build doesn't play well with decking myself out in Havel's.

For Bloodborne Daddy G is either a cakewalk or one-shots me in Phase 2. Depends on what weapon I am using. I still get instant-kill grabbed by Bloodstarved Beast every once and awhile and Rom's crystals can be stupidly on-point sometimes. Other than that though, I usually one-shot everything, including Gehrman, who I actually beat using only one blood vial last playthrough. I haven't played the DLC enough to one-shot all the bosses, but it only takes me a couple tries to take down Ludwig and Orphan at this point.

Honestly, I am curious to see if NG+ bosses in DS3 can hold a candle to the more bullshitty cursed chalice dungeon bosses. I had to cheese cursed Rom so hard using the pizza cutter + fire paper + beast mode combo.

 

[Fat Hippo]

Parrying got way worse in DS2 and in DS3 it seems to be better again... Problem with it is that there are just about zero bosses that can be parried, so best case it is a nice little way to speed up getting through an area but won't actually help with the really tough stuff. I wasn't aware there were shields that let you use the skill without two handing, I might have to look at that. Got myself a sweet axe from an old fashioned douche that has a warcry, but I only remember to use it after I've already gotten my ass handed to me.

You can tell if a shield is for parrying by a little icon in the lower left corner of the item. Some of them have a little circle-shield type thing which indicates parrying, some have a sword which indicates weapon art-usage and one I've seen had a symbol which indicated shield-bashing.

So far I've mostly stuck to swords, so I haven't tried using warcry yet, but I probably should, and see how much of an effect it has. Combining warcry with some kind of fire or lightning resin should lead to a lot of damage output, I expect.

 

[Objectable]

I'm having trouble on this one boss. Not sure what it's called, so I grabbed a screenshot. Any help?

 

[Objectable]

I'm having trouble on this one boss. Not sure what it's called, so I grabbed a screenshot. Any help?

Depends on what's causing it. Do you get this from trying to summon phantoms, or when you have too many enemies in one room?
If you explain it, I can provide help. I've dealt with crashes / frame drops / all that, through particular fixes

I try to get it while trying to launch the game. On the rare occasion when it does work, it runs horribly.
Honestly, I was hoping to use this Dark Souls game as my launch point. A lot of the marketing turned me off since it was all "THIS GAME IS SUPER DUPER HARD GUYZ DON'T PLAY IT IF UR A CASUAL". But then Jim talked about it and how that marketing is dumb and doesn't represent the game at all, and a live stream.
I should have known better TBH. I heard bad things about the Dark Souls 2 port.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Spoiler

I'm having trouble on this one boss. Not sure what it's called, so I grabbed a screenshot. Any help?

Depends on what's causing it. Do you get this from trying to summon phantoms, or when you have too many enemies in one room?
If you explain it, I can provide help. I've dealt with crashes / frame drops / all that, through particular fixes

I try to get it while trying to launch the game. On the rare occasion when it does work, it runs horribly.
Honestly, I was hoping to use this Dark Souls game as my launch point. A lot of the marketing turned me off since it was all "THIS GAME IS SUPER DUPER HARD GUYZ DON'T PLAY IT IF UR A CASUAL". But then Jim talked about it and how that marketing is dumb and doesn't represent the game at all, and a live stream.
I should have known better TBH. I heard bad things about the Dark Souls 2 port.

Hardware? Operating system (Confirmation)?

 

[Silence]

I'm having trouble on this one boss. Not sure what it's called, so I grabbed a screenshot. Any help?

Depends on what's causing it. Do you get this from trying to summon phantoms, or when you have too many enemies in one room?
If you explain it, I can provide help. I've dealt with crashes / frame drops / all that, through particular fixes

I try to get it while trying to launch the game. On the rare occasion when it does work, it runs horribly.
Honestly, I was hoping to use this Dark Souls game as my launch point. A lot of the marketing turned me off since it was all "THIS GAME IS SUPER DUPER HARD GUYZ DON'T PLAY IT IF UR A CASUAL". But then Jim talked about it and how that marketing is dumb and doesn't represent the game at all, and a live stream.
I should have known better TBH. I heard bad things about the Dark Souls 2 port.

First, you should definitely not use 3 as a starting point. Even though it is not the point, 3 is fucking hard and definitely targeted at players of the first two games.

Second, that sounds like your PC can't handle it, honestly. I heard of a lot of bugs, but that is what happens to me with a game I can't run, not with bugs.

 

[Objectable]

I'm having trouble on this one boss. Not sure what it's called, so I grabbed a screenshot. Any help?

Depends on what's causing it. Do you get this from trying to summon phantoms, or when you have too many enemies in one room?
If you explain it, I can provide help. I've dealt with crashes / frame drops / all that, through particular fixes

I try to get it while trying to launch the game. On the rare occasion when it does work, it runs horribly.
Honestly, I was hoping to use this Dark Souls game as my launch point. A lot of the marketing turned me off since it was all "THIS GAME IS SUPER DUPER HARD GUYZ DON'T PLAY IT IF UR A CASUAL". But then Jim talked about it and how that marketing is dumb and doesn't represent the game at all, and a live stream.
I should have known better TBH. I heard bad things about the Dark Souls 2 port.

What's your Driver? Your Hardware and all the vital information so me and Accursed can help you.
(Type DxDiag in your Command Bar and then save the listing, there's even a button to save your information into a .doc)

I don't know the exact specs (Not at home) but it's an ASUS. I know, sue me, those things are terrible, but I neede a laptop cheap and it works for the majority of my games.
TBH I think it might be my hardware. I think I'll get a refund and just get DS 1 or something. Maybe Armored Core?

 

[DefunctTheory]

Spoiler

I'm having trouble on this one boss. Not sure what it's called, so I grabbed a screenshot. Any help?

Depends on what's causing it. Do you get this from trying to summon phantoms, or when you have too many enemies in one room?
If you explain it, I can provide help. I've dealt with crashes / frame drops / all that, through particular fixes

I try to get it while trying to launch the game. On the rare occasion when it does work, it runs horribly.
Honestly, I was hoping to use this Dark Souls game as my launch point. A lot of the marketing turned me off since it was all "THIS GAME IS SUPER DUPER HARD GUYZ DON'T PLAY IT IF UR A CASUAL". But then Jim talked about it and how that marketing is dumb and doesn't represent the game at all, and a live stream.
I should have known better TBH. I heard bad things about the Dark Souls 2 port.

What's your Driver? Your Hardware and all the vital information so me and Accursed can help you.
(Type DxDiag in your Command Bar and then save the listing, there's even a button to save your information into a .doc)

I don't know the exact specs (Not at home) but it's an ASUS. I know, sue me, those things are terrible, but I neede a laptop cheap and it works for the majority of my games.
TBH I think it might be my hardware. I think I'll get a refund and just get DS 1 or something. Maybe Armored Core?

...Yah. I suspect the cheap, featureless laptop probably is the problem.

I think it would be advisable to check game specifications from now on before purchasing. If you can't run DS3, it's only going to get worse as we go forward.

 

[Objectable]

Spoiler

I'm having trouble on this one boss. Not sure what it's called, so I grabbed a screenshot. Any help?

Depends on what's causing it. Do you get this from trying to summon phantoms, or when you have too many enemies in one room?
If you explain it, I can provide help. I've dealt with crashes / frame drops / all that, through particular fixes

I try to get it while trying to launch the game. On the rare occasion when it does work, it runs horribly.
Honestly, I was hoping to use this Dark Souls game as my launch point. A lot of the marketing turned me off since it was all "THIS GAME IS SUPER DUPER HARD GUYZ DON'T PLAY IT IF UR A CASUAL". But then Jim talked about it and how that marketing is dumb and doesn't represent the game at all, and a live stream.
I should have known better TBH. I heard bad things about the Dark Souls 2 port.

What's your Driver? Your Hardware and all the vital information so me and Accursed can help you.
(Type DxDiag in your Command Bar and then save the listing, there's even a button to save your information into a .doc)

I don't know the exact specs (Not at home) but it's an ASUS. I know, sue me, those things are terrible, but I neede a laptop cheap and it works for the majority of my games.
TBH I think it might be my hardware. I think I'll get a refund and just get DS 1 or something. Maybe Armored Core?

...Yah. I suspect the cheap, featureless laptop probably is the problem.

I think it would be advisable to check game specifications from now on before purchasing. If you can't run DS3, it's only going to get worse as we go forward.

The thing is, I understand why the FPS is so low, and I can deal with it. But why does it crash so often?

 

[DefunctTheory]

Spoiler

Spoiler

I'm having trouble on this one boss. Not sure what it's called, so I grabbed a screenshot. Any help?

Depends on what's causing it. Do you get this from trying to summon phantoms, or when you have too many enemies in one room?
If you explain it, I can provide help. I've dealt with crashes / frame drops / all that, through particular fixes

I try to get it while trying to launch the game. On the rare occasion when it does work, it runs horribly.
Honestly, I was hoping to use this Dark Souls game as my launch point. A lot of the marketing turned me off since it was all "THIS GAME IS SUPER DUPER HARD GUYZ DON'T PLAY IT IF UR A CASUAL". But then Jim talked about it and how that marketing is dumb and doesn't represent the game at all, and a live stream.
I should have known better TBH. I heard bad things about the Dark Souls 2 port.

What's your Driver? Your Hardware and all the vital information so me and Accursed can help you.
(Type DxDiag in your Command Bar and then save the listing, there's even a button to save your information into a .doc)

I don't know the exact specs (Not at home) but it's an ASUS. I know, sue me, those things are terrible, but I neede a laptop cheap and it works for the majority of my games.
TBH I think it might be my hardware. I think I'll get a refund and just get DS 1 or something. Maybe Armored Core?

...Yah. I suspect the cheap, featureless laptop probably is the problem.

I think it would be advisable to check game specifications from now on before purchasing. If you can't run DS3, it's only going to get worse as we go forward.

The thing is, I understand why the FPS is so low, and I can deal with it. But why does it crash so often?

If I were to take a wild stab at it, without knowing the specifics, there's two probable causes.

1. Memory issues (Either insufficient or simply old)
2. Old video card causing problems, either from insufficient power, archaic architecture, or so old it's firmware doesn't get updated

 

[PapaGreg096]

Has anyone beat the old demon king because that boss is cheap

 

[Fat Hippo]

Update on the my experience with shields in this game: like I mentioned previously, early on I was hardly using my shield against tougher enemies because I didn't have the stamina to take their combos with it anyway. But now that I have a shield with lots of stability (59), a lot more stamina (112) and the ring that boosts stamina recovery it has become far more feasible. I've even been in fights where I was trying to be too fancy with rolling around when I should have tried simply taking more hits with my shield, and was way more successful when I tried this style of combat. I'll see if things stay this way, or if new enemies I face will force me to practice my acrobatics once again.

 

[Fat Hippo]

Has anyone beat the old demon king because that boss is cheap

I beat him just now, but he was a mean bastard. After a few failed attempts, I decided to summon a phantom. Unfortunately, he got killed about 30 seconds into the fight, leaving me on my own. So I decided I would try a different strategy of a slightly more cheesy variety, and switched to a ranged weapon. With my trusty Arbalest+3 I pumped almost all of my standard bolts into him before he finally went down. At a distance, it's much easier to avoid most of his fire attacks, which are just bullshit when you're stuck under him slashing at his legs.

To help survive what fire attacks I couldn't avoid, I buffed my fire absorption as much as I could. I was wearing the red stoneplate ring, and casting the pyromancy spell "flash sweat". When my mana ran out, I started munching on red bug pellets. I still ended up using most of my estus flasks though. To keep my distance, I circled around the giant piles of demon corpses, allowing me to back away from him throughout the whole fight while I shot at him. Those piles were also useful in blocking the fireballs he summons to rain down on you once you've taken about half his health.

Overall, I've got no clue how you're supposed to solo him with a melee weapon. So many of his fire attacks cover almost the entire floor and would require dodge rolls of the highest precision to avoid. But since you're stuck under him, it becomes almost impossible to read his next attack when you're mostly stuck looking at his legs. But ranged weapons really do work pretty well.

 

[Silence]

Has anyone beat the old demon king because that boss is cheap

There are far worse bosses in the game. But, as far as I remember, try to stay behind him.

Update on the my experience with shields in this game: like I mentioned previously, early on I was hardly using my shield against tougher enemies because I didn't have the stamina to take their combos with it anyway. But now that I have a shield with lots of stability (59), a lot more stamina (112) and the ring that boosts stamina recovery it has become far more feasible. I've even been in fights where I was trying to be too fancy with rolling around when I should have tried simply taking more hits with my shield, and was way more successful when I tried this style of combat. I'll see if things stay this way, or if new enemies I face will force me to practice my acrobatics once again.

I found I needed shield for a lot of enemies and bosses now, just because I'm not as good with acrobatics - but the shield helped immensely. I even need different shields for different bosses/enemies.

But sometimes, you need to dodge, no way around it. Still, shield is immensely helpful.

Overall, I've got no clue how you're supposed to solo him with a melee weapon. So many of his fire attacks cover almost the entire floor and would require dodge rolls of the highest precision to avoid. But since you're stuck under him, it becomes almost impossible to read his next attack when you're mostly stuck looking at his legs. But ranged weapons really do work pretty well.

I beat him solo in meelee, staying behind him, very close, and dodging the flame attacks, worked.
And you can predict most moves, imo.

 

[Jandau]

Has anyone beat the old demon king because that boss is cheap

He's not too bad...

Stay at medium range until he starts to swing his weapon at you, then roll in and take a few swipes. Immediately get out, since he'll usually respond with a close range AoE. Every once in a while, he'll start channeling one of his big spells. One is another AoE around him, just stay back. The other will call down a rain of meteors which can be avoided by simply not standing still. Takes a bit of practice to learn the exact reads of each attack, but in general, that's it. Either he swings his weapon around, which means he can't hit you if you're close, he's trying to shake you off with a quick AoE, which you avoid easily, or he's casting one of his big spells, which just require you to run away (maybe sneak in a few hits when he's just starting to cast.

 

[EvilRoy]

I fucking... cannot deal with how much game there is here. I'm like 17 hours in, just got to the second cinderlord, and even as I sod around avoiding having to fight him - I KEEP FINDING MORE NEW SHIT. I'm even pretty sure I missed a coal somehow, and I left the vast majority of the swamp unexplored because I just didn't FEEL like it, man.

It wouldn't worry me so much, except I can tell that aside from the odd branching path this is clearly a largely linear game. Meaning that after I kill this asshole, chances are there is a whole nother segment of fuckery to be explored.

 

[Fat Hippo]

I fucking... cannot deal with how much game there is here. I'm like 17 hours in, just got to the second cinderlord, and even as I sod around avoiding having to fight him - I KEEP FINDING MORE NEW SHIT. I'm even pretty sure I missed a coal somehow, and I left the vast majority of the swamp unexplored because I just didn't FEEL like it, man.

It wouldn't worry me so much, except I can tell that aside from the odd branching path this is clearly a largely linear game. Meaning that after I kill this asshole, chances are there is a whole nother segment of fuckery to be explored.

I keep being worried that I missed something too. I probably missed a coal as well, and I think I missed a covenant. Can anyone tell me whether I should have found the covenant that lets you put down the purple summons? I'm in the Boreal Valley, and kept seeing those everywhere in the Undead Settlement, but never found the covenant for them.

 

[Fox12]

I fucking... cannot deal with how much game there is here. I'm like 17 hours in, just got to the second cinderlord, and even as I sod around avoiding having to fight him - I KEEP FINDING MORE NEW SHIT. I'm even pretty sure I missed a coal somehow, and I left the vast majority of the swamp unexplored because I just didn't FEEL like it, man.

It wouldn't worry me so much, except I can tell that aside from the odd branching path this is clearly a largely linear game. Meaning that after I kill this asshole, chances are there is a whole nother segment of fuckery to be explored.

I keep being worried that I missed something too. I probably missed a coal as well, and I think I missed a covenant. Can anyone tell me whether I should have found the covenant that lets you put down the purple summons? I'm in the Boreal Valley, and kept seeing those everywhere in the Undead Settlement, but never found the covenant for them.

That's the mound builders covenant. There are two ways to find it. The first is to go to the undead burg, cross the first bridge, and immediately take a right turn. There's a path hidden by some debris. After killing some enemies on a roof, you should find one of those big red guys with a saw. This one is non-hostile. He has a cage on his back. Walk up behind him and get into his cage. He'll take you to the covenant room. Talk to the guy there. He'll ask you a question. Choose the first option.

Alternatively you should be able to join it after defeating the huge tree boss in the church in undead burg. Go to the underground boss room after you win, and there should be an alter and a dead body. Approach it to join the covenant.

I believe the covenant is a dueling covenant that allows you to duel other players without invading them.