I just want to talk about Dark Souls...

scorptatious

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I have yet to play Dark Souls 2. So I can't say much about it.

As for the games I have played, Demons' Souls and Dark Souls, I kinda prefer the latter overall.

Demons' Souls introduced me to the Souls series and it was quite fun and challenging in itself. But I really enjoyed how much more grand and cohesive Dark Soul's world was. Plus the game I felt had more memorable boss fights and a more interesting cast of characters.

I just got my copy of Dark Souls: Prepare to Die edition via the mail, so along with re-experiencing the main game, I get to experience the DLC content I never touched. So I'm looking forward to playing that.
 

Dirty Hipsters

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s69-5 said:
Dirty Hipsters said:
Demon's Souls is still my fave in the series.

The level design is tightest in the series. The atmosphere is heads and tails above the others. I prefer the magic system in Demon's Souls to Dark Souls as well. While you may not enjoy the bosses as much - I'd argue there is more variety to them than any of the other games.

Too many boss fights in later Souls games are either rehashes of previous fights (from other games or within the same) or armor clad knights (ccw circle strafe ftw). Demon's Souls has more original fights whether they are "difficult" or not. Storm King is probably my fave fight in the whole series - Stormruler is AWESOME!

I like all of the games - but for me it's:
Demon's > Dark 2 > Dark
I just feel like too many of the bosses in Demons Souls were gimmicks that didn't utilize the main mechanics of the game. Storm King is a totally badass fight. You get harassed by the damn flying stingrays through the entirety of the shrine of storms and then at the very end you get to have your revenge and reek havoc on them and it's just so freaking sweet, but the fight falls short because you aren't using any previously introduced mechanics in the game. I mean hell, if you don't know the sword is there some people do the entire fight just using a bow because they don't know that there's a magical sword somewhere on the stage that you can use to kill everything, and I think that's a failing of the game design. At least Dark Souls 1 and 2 don't have any gimmick bosses (except bed of chaos). It's kind of unsatisfying when the boss fight isn't a test of the mechanics you learned beforehand, but rather just introduces a throw away plot device that's never used again. The stormruler greatsword is basically a "press X to win button" and that just feels wrong to me, especially after Dark Souls which forced you to fight hard for every victory.

But yeah, I won't disagree with you about the level design and atmosphere, they are absolutely top notch. In fact the atmosphere in Demon's Souls is so oppressive and mentally draining that I actually have trouble playing the game for long periods of time. Considering their goal was to create a world that feels utterly hopeless it's amazing how well they managed to accomplish that.
 

The_Blue_Rider

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Dirty Hipsters said:
s69-5 said:
Dirty Hipsters said:
Demon's Souls is still my fave in the series.

The level design is tightest in the series. The atmosphere is heads and tails above the others. I prefer the magic system in Demon's Souls to Dark Souls as well. While you may not enjoy the bosses as much - I'd argue there is more variety to them than any of the other games.

Too many boss fights in later Souls games are either rehashes of previous fights (from other games or within the same) or armor clad knights (ccw circle strafe ftw). Demon's Souls has more original fights whether they are "difficult" or not. Storm King is probably my fave fight in the whole series - Stormruler is AWESOME!

I like all of the games - but for me it's:
Demon's > Dark 2 > Dark
I just feel like too many of the bosses in Demons Souls were gimmicks that didn't utilize the main mechanics of the game. Storm King is a totally badass fight. You get harassed by the damn flying stingrays through the entirety of the shrine of storms and then at the very end you get to have your revenge and reek havoc on them and it's just so freaking sweet, but the fight falls short because you aren't using any previously introduced mechanics in the game. I mean hell, if you don't know the sword is there some people do the entire fight just using a bow because they don't know that there's a magical sword somewhere on the stage that you can use to kill everything, and I think that's a failing of the game design. At least Dark Souls 1 and 2 don't have any gimmick bosses (except bed of chaos). It's kind of unsatisfying when the boss fight isn't a test of the mechanics you learned beforehand, but rather just introduces a throw away plot device that's never used again. The stormruler greatsword is basically a "press X to win button" and that just feels wrong to me, especially after Dark Souls which forced you to fight hard for every victory.

But yeah, I won't disagree with you about the level design and atmosphere, they are absolutely top notch. In fact the atmosphere in Demon's Souls is so oppressive and mentally draining that I actually have trouble playing the game for long periods of time. Considering their goal was to create a world that feels utterly hopeless it's amazing how well they managed to accomplish that.
Having literally just beat Demon's, I actually really liked a lot of the unique boss fights in it, its pretty clear that in Demon's they were going for atmosphere over difficulty, the game just happened to be quite difficult. Whereas in Dark they clearly took their lessons from people telling them how hard the game was and integrated that difficulty into the atmosphere. Dark Souls has me shitting myself from the hopelessness of the situation. Demons has me shitting myself from the atmosphere, goddamn Valley of Defilement was 100x worse than Blighttown (well not as difficult actually, but it scared the absolute shit out of me. I didnt even find Selene Vinland because I just wanted to get my ass out of there).

Demon's had a lot of bosses it seems solely to tell story.
The boss fight against Garl Vinland and Lady Astrea, they really didnt want anything to do with you at all. The fight against the True King Allant is pathetically easy because he's clearly been corrupted into a simple pawn of the Old One, unable to wield the great Demon's Power. Theres probably one or two more, but im really tired and cant think well at the moment

I actually think Dark would have benefitted slightly if it had a boss character like this
I think Gywnn would have been more effective if the encounter with him was essentially him burning alive, unable to really do anything to you, the battle being more of an execution than a fight with a foolish dying god. From a story standpoint I think that would have been a much more effective encounter with the character. And for a traditional boss fight you have an elite knight guarding him like Vendrick has in DS2. It would also give first time players who never met Kaathe a look at what linking the flame actually entails

With that being said however, I can completely understand where you're coming from, I do think from a gameplay perspective, the bosses in Dark Souls are much more interesting, as well as more challenging in general. The friggin Belltower Gargoyles are actually a tougher fight than the Maneaters >.>
 

johnnybleu

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Dirty Hipsters said:
I just feel like too many of the bosses in Demons Souls were gimmicks that didn't utilize the main mechanics of the game. Storm King is a totally badass fight. You get harassed by the damn flying stingrays through the entirety of the shrine of storms and then at the very end you get to have your revenge and reek havoc on them and it's just so freaking sweet, but the fight falls short because you aren't using any previously introduced mechanics in the game. I mean hell, if you don't know the sword is there some people do the entire fight just using a bow because they don't know that there's a magical sword somewhere on the stage that you can use to kill everything, and I think that's a failing of the game design. At least Dark Souls 1 and 2 don't have any gimmick bosses (except bed of chaos). It's kind of unsatisfying when the boss fight isn't a test of the mechanics you learned beforehand, but rather just introduces a throw away plot device that's never used again. The stormruler greatsword is basically a "press X to win button" and that just feels wrong to me, especially after Dark Souls which forced you to fight hard for every victory.
It's true that most bosses in Demon's were more gimmicky fights and perhaps easier, but personally I really liked the change of pace. Bosses in Dark, and especially Dark 2, were just... more of the same. You handle them like you would any other enemy-- they just have more hp and hit harder.

In Demon's you often have to find a weak-spot, watch the terrain, use a specific item or tactic. I completely understand how something like the Dragon God fight is more of an annoying puzzle rather than a real fight, but I though it was refreshing. I also understand that it all comes down to personal preference, and I can see how changing the rules of the game for a boss fight might be lame.
 

The_Blue_Rider

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s69-5 said:
The_Blue_Rider said:
I sat down and completed most of the game in one sitting, beating the first half of Boletaria, The Shrine of Storms, The Burrow King, and The Tower of Latria. Now Ive only got to do Valley of Defilement and the last two parts of Boletaria.
Try this (I did it). I wanted a Faith build with the Large Sword of Moonlight as quick as possible so I did this:

Started as a Temple Knight and did 1-1 (as per the flow of the game).
Then skipped ahead immediately to the Valley of Defilement and obtained the Large Sword of Moonlight (located in 5-2).

That was not so easy...
Haha maybe in a few months or something. The valley of Defilement is still fresh in my mind. Holy shit that is a scary zone.
 

iLikeHippos

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Well, I've been trying to kill the Invisible Aava now for a while.

Now, for those of you who don't know what that is, it's a boss in the Dark Souls II dlc, where a boss is invisible to you until you gain an item to see it with. Otherwise, all you get is a beast that leaves nothing but small dustclouds as it jumps for your throat.
And since it's the dlc, the boss has 10 times the health of a normal boss and 2-3 times the damage.

So far, I've only gotten it down to 60% health before running out of Estus Flasks. Been trying to find a good way to reliable detect what the beast'll do so I can dodge or attack in time, but it's hella difficult xD .

Would love to hear advice, as I am losing the war of attrition easily, and bursting it down is a non-option.
 

Dirty Hipsters

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iLikeHippos said:
Well, I've been trying to kill the Invisible Aava now for a while.

Now, for those of you who don't know what that is, it's a boss in the Dark Souls II dlc, where a boss is invisible to you until you gain an item to see it with. Otherwise, all you get is a beast that leaves nothing but small dustclouds as it jumps for your throat.
And since it's the dlc, the boss has 10 times the health of a normal boss and 2-3 times the damage.

So far, I've only gotten it down to 60% health before running out of Estus Flasks. Been trying to find a good way to reliable detect what the beast'll do so I can dodge or attack in time, but it's hella difficult xD .

Would love to hear advice, as I am losing the war of attrition easily, and bursting it down is a non-option.
There are a bunch of spells that have large areas of effect, so they'll hit without you having to lock on or really knowing where the boss is outside of its general direction. Aava has fairly high resistance to all forms of magic though, so doing this would take a while and probably require you to have quite a few herbs on hand to replenish spell uses.
 

iLikeHippos

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Dirty Hipsters said:
iLikeHippos said:
Well, I've been trying to kill the Invisible Aava now for a while.

Now, for those of you who don't know what that is, it's a boss in the Dark Souls II dlc, where a boss is invisible to you until you gain an item to see it with. Otherwise, all you get is a beast that leaves nothing but small dustclouds as it jumps for your throat.
And since it's the dlc, the boss has 10 times the health of a normal boss and 2-3 times the damage.

So far, I've only gotten it down to 60% health before running out of Estus Flasks. Been trying to find a good way to reliable detect what the beast'll do so I can dodge or attack in time, but it's hella difficult xD .

Would love to hear advice, as I am losing the war of attrition easily, and bursting it down is a non-option.
There are a bunch of spells that have large areas of effect, so they'll hit without you having to lock on or really knowing where the boss is outside of its general direction. Aava has fairly high resistance to all forms of magic though, so doing this would take a while and probably require you to have quite a few herbs on hand to replenish spell uses.
That actually gives me a few ideas...

1. Using Northwarder set (increases spell-casting speed, although it doesn't say so) and using quick aoe spells like Lifepatch or Heavenly Thunder to deal damage instead of me swinging my sword in the direction I think the boss is, and then retreat to a relatively safe distance.

2. Using North-set and start casting Dark Hail to find out where Aava is. Truth is, that boss likes to tip-tap its toes quite randomly, with barely any traces to tell you where it might be. A lot of the time, I get mauled from behind when I am staring at a spot in front of me where I last saw it, assuming all the time it hasn't moved.

Either way, I think it should help to bring it down to at least 40% before I die a horrible death for the 40th time. Thanks!
 

Dirty Hipsters

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iLikeHippos said:
Dirty Hipsters said:
iLikeHippos said:
Well, I've been trying to kill the Invisible Aava now for a while.

Now, for those of you who don't know what that is, it's a boss in the Dark Souls II dlc, where a boss is invisible to you until you gain an item to see it with. Otherwise, all you get is a beast that leaves nothing but small dustclouds as it jumps for your throat.
And since it's the dlc, the boss has 10 times the health of a normal boss and 2-3 times the damage.

So far, I've only gotten it down to 60% health before running out of Estus Flasks. Been trying to find a good way to reliable detect what the beast'll do so I can dodge or attack in time, but it's hella difficult xD .

Would love to hear advice, as I am losing the war of attrition easily, and bursting it down is a non-option.
There are a bunch of spells that have large areas of effect, so they'll hit without you having to lock on or really knowing where the boss is outside of its general direction. Aava has fairly high resistance to all forms of magic though, so doing this would take a while and probably require you to have quite a few herbs on hand to replenish spell uses.
That actually gives me a few ideas...

1. Using Northwarder set (increases spell-casting speed, although it doesn't say so) and using quick aoe spells like Lifepatch or Heavenly Thunder to deal damage instead of me swinging my sword in the direction I think the boss is, and then retreat to a relatively safe distance.

2. Using North-set and start casting Dark Hail to find out where Aava is. Truth is, that boss likes to tip-tap its toes quite randomly, with barely any traces to tell you where it might be. A lot of the time, I get mauled from behind when I am staring at a spot in front of me where I last saw it, assuming all the time it hasn't moved.

Either way, I think it should help to bring it down to at least 40% before I die a horrible death for the 40th time. Thanks!
Does Aava get poisoned? Poison/Toxic Mist or Dark Fog might be really useful.

Lingering flame might also work. You could put it down before triggering Aava to jump down and then run back to it once he's been triggered.

Dance of Fire could also work because it uses a big sweeping motion, so you only need to know the general direction of Aava to use it. My advice would be to stand next to a statue, then cast it when Aava breaks it, that way you know he's close enough to get hit by it.
 

iLikeHippos

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Dirty Hipsters said:
iLikeHippos said:
Dirty Hipsters said:
iLikeHippos said:
Well, I've been trying to kill the Invisible Aava now for a while.

Now, for those of you who don't know what that is, it's a boss in the Dark Souls II dlc, where a boss is invisible to you until you gain an item to see it with. Otherwise, all you get is a beast that leaves nothing but small dustclouds as it jumps for your throat.
And since it's the dlc, the boss has 10 times the health of a normal boss and 2-3 times the damage.

So far, I've only gotten it down to 60% health before running out of Estus Flasks. Been trying to find a good way to reliable detect what the beast'll do so I can dodge or attack in time, but it's hella difficult xD .

Would love to hear advice, as I am losing the war of attrition easily, and bursting it down is a non-option.
There are a bunch of spells that have large areas of effect, so they'll hit without you having to lock on or really knowing where the boss is outside of its general direction. Aava has fairly high resistance to all forms of magic though, so doing this would take a while and probably require you to have quite a few herbs on hand to replenish spell uses.
That actually gives me a few ideas...

1. Using Northwarder set (increases spell-casting speed, although it doesn't say so) and using quick aoe spells like Lifepatch or Heavenly Thunder to deal damage instead of me swinging my sword in the direction I think the boss is, and then retreat to a relatively safe distance.

2. Using North-set and start casting Dark Hail to find out where Aava is. Truth is, that boss likes to tip-tap its toes quite randomly, with barely any traces to tell you where it might be. A lot of the time, I get mauled from behind when I am staring at a spot in front of me where I last saw it, assuming all the time it hasn't moved.

Either way, I think it should help to bring it down to at least 40% before I die a horrible death for the 40th time. Thanks!
Does Aava get poisoned? Poison/Toxic Mist or Dark Fog might be really useful.

Lingering flame might also work. You could put it down before triggering Aava to jump down and then run back to it once he's been triggered.

Dance of Fire could also work because it uses a big sweeping motion, so you only need to know the general direction of Aava to use it. My advice would be to stand next to a statue, then cast it when Aava breaks it, that way you know he's close enough to get hit by it.
I haven't tried poison just yet, as it comes with difficulty. The character I am playing has barely resources to upgrade Spotted Whip, and if I use Toxic Mist or the like, I am just obfuscating my vision even further that is already lacking as is. Even if I have two Spotted Whips at +5 and poison inf, it's still very difficult to hit Aava enough to apply the poison effect, or hit to begin with. High risk with low pay-out.

Lingering Flame is too slow to cast where Aava lands initially, but I can assume it will charge at me from a distance and land at a certain spot. If I prepare flames there, it could work out... Humm Hummm...
I don't know about Dance of Fire though. It has a sweep, but I am very inexperienced using it. I don't even know how long the range is.


Also, I've tried using spells to locate Aava now... turns out all of the faith spells are completely useless and just ends up killing me as I cast them. They are SOOOO slow :'(
but Dark Hail shows promise. The range is very lacking, but it does confirm where Aava is or isn't, and deals a good amount of damage if used at point blank range. Just wish it had faster casting speed, and it would be perfect.

The challenge continues!
 

Dirty Hipsters

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iLikeHippos said:
Dirty Hipsters said:
iLikeHippos said:
Dirty Hipsters said:
iLikeHippos said:
Well, I've been trying to kill the Invisible Aava now for a while.

Now, for those of you who don't know what that is, it's a boss in the Dark Souls II dlc, where a boss is invisible to you until you gain an item to see it with. Otherwise, all you get is a beast that leaves nothing but small dustclouds as it jumps for your throat.
And since it's the dlc, the boss has 10 times the health of a normal boss and 2-3 times the damage.

So far, I've only gotten it down to 60% health before running out of Estus Flasks. Been trying to find a good way to reliable detect what the beast'll do so I can dodge or attack in time, but it's hella difficult xD .

Would love to hear advice, as I am losing the war of attrition easily, and bursting it down is a non-option.
There are a bunch of spells that have large areas of effect, so they'll hit without you having to lock on or really knowing where the boss is outside of its general direction. Aava has fairly high resistance to all forms of magic though, so doing this would take a while and probably require you to have quite a few herbs on hand to replenish spell uses.
That actually gives me a few ideas...

1. Using Northwarder set (increases spell-casting speed, although it doesn't say so) and using quick aoe spells like Lifepatch or Heavenly Thunder to deal damage instead of me swinging my sword in the direction I think the boss is, and then retreat to a relatively safe distance.

2. Using North-set and start casting Dark Hail to find out where Aava is. Truth is, that boss likes to tip-tap its toes quite randomly, with barely any traces to tell you where it might be. A lot of the time, I get mauled from behind when I am staring at a spot in front of me where I last saw it, assuming all the time it hasn't moved.

Either way, I think it should help to bring it down to at least 40% before I die a horrible death for the 40th time. Thanks!
Does Aava get poisoned? Poison/Toxic Mist or Dark Fog might be really useful.

Lingering flame might also work. You could put it down before triggering Aava to jump down and then run back to it once he's been triggered.

Dance of Fire could also work because it uses a big sweeping motion, so you only need to know the general direction of Aava to use it. My advice would be to stand next to a statue, then cast it when Aava breaks it, that way you know he's close enough to get hit by it.
I haven't tried poison just yet, as it comes with difficulty. The character I am playing has barely resources to upgrade Spotted Whip, and if I use Toxic Mist or the like, I am just obfuscating my vision even further that is already lacking as is. Even if I have two Spotted Whips at +5 and poison inf, it's still very difficult to hit Aava enough to apply the poison effect, or hit to begin with. High risk with low pay-out.

Lingering Flame is too slow to cast where Aava lands initially, but I can assume it will charge at me from a distance and land at a certain spot. If I prepare flames there, it could work out... Humm Hummm...
I don't know about Dance of Fire though. It has a sweep, but I am very inexperienced using it. I don't even know how long the range is.


Also, I've tried using spells to locate Aava now... turns out all of the faith spells are completely useless and just ends up killing me as I cast them. They are SOOOO slow :'(
but Dark Hail shows promise. The range is very lacking, but it does confirm where Aava is or isn't, and deals a good amount of damage if used at point blank range. Just wish it had faster casting speed, and it would be perfect.

The challenge continues!
Are you using clear bluestone ring to increase cast speed? If you burn a bonfire ascetic in huntsman's copse to get the Skeleton Lords to NG+ they'll drop a +2 version of the ring which increases cast speed by 55%
 

iLikeHippos

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Dirty Hipsters said:
iLikeHippos said:
Dirty Hipsters said:
iLikeHippos said:
Dirty Hipsters said:
iLikeHippos said:
Well, I've been trying to kill the Invisible Aava now for a while.

Now, for those of you who don't know what that is, it's a boss in the Dark Souls II dlc, where a boss is invisible to you until you gain an item to see it with. Otherwise, all you get is a beast that leaves nothing but small dustclouds as it jumps for your throat.
And since it's the dlc, the boss has 10 times the health of a normal boss and 2-3 times the damage.

So far, I've only gotten it down to 60% health before running out of Estus Flasks. Been trying to find a good way to reliable detect what the beast'll do so I can dodge or attack in time, but it's hella difficult xD .

Would love to hear advice, as I am losing the war of attrition easily, and bursting it down is a non-option.
There are a bunch of spells that have large areas of effect, so they'll hit without you having to lock on or really knowing where the boss is outside of its general direction. Aava has fairly high resistance to all forms of magic though, so doing this would take a while and probably require you to have quite a few herbs on hand to replenish spell uses.
That actually gives me a few ideas...

1. Using Northwarder set (increases spell-casting speed, although it doesn't say so) and using quick aoe spells like Lifepatch or Heavenly Thunder to deal damage instead of me swinging my sword in the direction I think the boss is, and then retreat to a relatively safe distance.

2. Using North-set and start casting Dark Hail to find out where Aava is. Truth is, that boss likes to tip-tap its toes quite randomly, with barely any traces to tell you where it might be. A lot of the time, I get mauled from behind when I am staring at a spot in front of me where I last saw it, assuming all the time it hasn't moved.

Either way, I think it should help to bring it down to at least 40% before I die a horrible death for the 40th time. Thanks!
Does Aava get poisoned? Poison/Toxic Mist or Dark Fog might be really useful.

Lingering flame might also work. You could put it down before triggering Aava to jump down and then run back to it once he's been triggered.

Dance of Fire could also work because it uses a big sweeping motion, so you only need to know the general direction of Aava to use it. My advice would be to stand next to a statue, then cast it when Aava breaks it, that way you know he's close enough to get hit by it.
I haven't tried poison just yet, as it comes with difficulty. The character I am playing has barely resources to upgrade Spotted Whip, and if I use Toxic Mist or the like, I am just obfuscating my vision even further that is already lacking as is. Even if I have two Spotted Whips at +5 and poison inf, it's still very difficult to hit Aava enough to apply the poison effect, or hit to begin with. High risk with low pay-out.

Lingering Flame is too slow to cast where Aava lands initially, but I can assume it will charge at me from a distance and land at a certain spot. If I prepare flames there, it could work out... Humm Hummm...
I don't know about Dance of Fire though. It has a sweep, but I am very inexperienced using it. I don't even know how long the range is.


Also, I've tried using spells to locate Aava now... turns out all of the faith spells are completely useless and just ends up killing me as I cast them. They are SOOOO slow :'(
but Dark Hail shows promise. The range is very lacking, but it does confirm where Aava is or isn't, and deals a good amount of damage if used at point blank range. Just wish it had faster casting speed, and it would be perfect.

The challenge continues!
Are you using clear bluestone ring to increase cast speed? If you burn a bonfire ascetic in huntsman's copse to get the Skeleton Lords to NG+ they'll drop a +2 version of the ring which increases cast speed by 55%
Surprisingly, the clear bluestone ring +2 barely increases the casting speed. I also found out checking for Aava with a spell that leaves you unable to dodge, even for a second, is a bad idea.

The biggest challenge I find seems to be the dodging. I can't get it right 66% of the time, even though I can see from the smoke and predict what strike Aava is using. However, I once dodged Aava with a 80% success rate, which allowed me a lot of damage and healing. Maybe keen senses, armor and a good, swift weapon is the way to go.