Need advice about Dark Souls

[Pearwood]

Well since this is a recorded playthrough that means we can set conditions right? Hmm what's a good one for Sif... eh other than pissing off the Forest covenant there's not really much and even that only adds like 5 enemies. Do a zero damage run.

I'd also suggest the armour. It probably won't be helpful to you but it's a recorded playthrough and you owe it to the viewers to wear that badass armour.

 

[Ninjat_126]

Havil's armor, shield, and dragontooth are all in chests behind a hiddin wall in fat boy and slim's castle get that stuff it helps, great cool armor and weapon for free.

Sure, but only if you use the Ninja ****** Grain Ring or boost your END to ridiculous levels. Sure, I love the look of Havel's gear as much as any other guy, but it's broken as hell with the addition of a couple of rings.

My build was a basic mage build, with a high-level pyromancy flame and enchanted weapons. Combine the Ring of Favour and Protection with Havel's Ring, and I can fast-roll while wearing the upgraded Dark Set and Gold Hemmed Black Skirt. Add in the Dark Hand shield and a Lightning +5 Great Scythe to deal with the bastards in Havel's armor and the Mask of the Child and some Crystal Soul Spears to punch through armour, I don't do too badly.

 

[Windcaler]

Havil's armor, shield, and dragontooth are all in chests behind a hiddin wall in fat boy and slim's castle get that stuff it helps, great cool armor and weapon for free.

Unfortunately all of that is pretty much for Strength builds which dont fit what the OP is going for. He wants a magey character not a strength guy

 

[Kalikin]

So I'm probably too late, but whatever. My recommendation is that you don't make a boss weapon, as honestly they aren't as great as you'd expect, and you don't have the kind of stat distribution that would make one worth it (I really like Quelaag's Fury Sword, but since you don't have much DEX it would be useless for you). The exception might be the spear you can make from the Moonlight Butterfly.

Speaking of the Moonlight Butterfly, if you've beat it (which you clearly have), then you've managed to miss the divine ember. It's up the tower just past the battle on the rampart.

I'd wait to do the Sif battle if I were you. With those stats he's liable to one-shot you. It's guaranteed to if you get hit with his particularly nasty twirling attack. If you're determined to do him next, I'd put the souls into upgrading your shield so that you can block his attacks without getting your guard broken. He shouldn't be a threat if you keep your shield (with good stability) up whenever you're not blasting him from a range.

 

[hazabaza1]

blind playthroughs are the best.

NO

Was it a blind playthrough?
If so- Stop right now, delete all the videos, come back after finishing the game and do it again.

Otherwise...
Go do the Ariamis bit. It's a cool areas.

So long as it's not blind, whatever, just make sure you're doing good and having fun.

Seriously, fuck anyone who does blind LPs of Dark Souls.

What the fuck are you on about? The best part of Dark Souls is the learning experience. I don't want to watch hundreds of identical playhtroughs where everyone already knows where to go.

Just go search for a blind playthrough. Most of them are people not editing anything and overreacting when they die and spending fucking hours trying to beat one god damned boss and sucking dick while doing it.
Playing the game yourself is fantastic, and my first playthrough was one of the best gaming experiences in my life, mainly because I used minimal to no outside help, but I don't want to watch some stupid pricks prancing about doing shit and blaming a game because they're bad.
If you're going to do a blind LP of Dark Souls you should at the very least have played and finished Demon's Souls.

I get the feeling you just got back from watching MY Dark Souls livestream, where I got killed over and over again by two skeletons and never learned I wasn't supposed to go that way. In fact, despite my disdain for Dark Soul's control scheme, that was actually the most fun I had with that game.

I've learnt to only watch people who are actually good at the game a few days after I finished it.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

Okay, a few things:

- You don't NEED a divine ember for the Catacombs. Just drop down onto the platform below the first bridge you cross, and then down again in order to get to Pinwheel and murder him. It takes about five minutes.

- You will be able to kill Sif if you've already taken O&S.

- I would use the souls to level up, go to Ariamis and take out Priscilla.

 

[hazabaza1]

blind playthroughs are the best.

NO

Was it a blind playthrough?
If so- Stop right now, delete all the videos, come back after finishing the game and do it again.

Otherwise...
Go do the Ariamis bit. It's a cool areas.

So long as it's not blind, whatever, just make sure you're doing good and having fun.

Seriously, fuck anyone who does blind LPs of Dark Souls.

What the fuck are you on about? The best part of Dark Souls is the learning experience. I don't want to watch hundreds of identical playhtroughs where everyone already knows where to go.

Just go search for a blind playthrough. Most of them are people not editing anything and overreacting when they die and spending fucking hours trying to beat one god damned boss and sucking dick while doing it.
Playing the game yourself is fantastic, and my first playthrough was one of the best gaming experiences in my life, mainly because I used minimal to no outside help, but I don't want to watch some stupid pricks prancing about doing shit and blaming a game because they're bad.
If you're going to do a blind LP of Dark Souls you should at the very least have played and finished Demon's Souls.

I get the feeling you just got back from watching MY Dark Souls livestream, where I got killed over and over again by two skeletons and never learned I wasn't supposed to go that way. In fact, despite my disdain for Dark Soul's control scheme, that was actually the most fun I had with that game.

I've learnt to only watch people who are actually good at the game a few days after I finished it.

Wow... you are highly unpleasant...

Quite the contrary.
See, my first playthrough was probably similar to yours. I was doing bad, dying constantly, getting angry at the game, and just generally being shit. I had the means to record it, and it was pretty popular at the time. Hell, my youtube channel would probably be a lot larger than it is now if I did do a blind LP around release.

After getting about... half-way through I decided to watch some gameplay of people doing their own first playthroughs and see how they handled it. All in all, it was some of the worst LP watching I'd ever had. Honestly. It was like watching someone play IWBTG without the pleasantry of the fairly frequent checkpoints and no editing.

The only people I'll watch on their first playthroughs now are friends who come round and try it out for the first time. That way I can help them through, make their experience more enjoyable, tell them the intricacies of the game. Hell, one of my friends who to be honest, isn't quite as good as most people here at most games (I'm assuming anyway) got to Capra earlier than I did because of the advice and guidance I was giving him.

Now it's gotten to the point that I've played so much of this game that watching people do bad or even average is just kind of "meh" for me unless the commentary is something special. I like watching challenge runs, or just people doing really well.

So no, I'm not unpleasant and if you think I am you can go fuck yourself and I'd rather you not make assumptions.

 

[Fr]anc[is]

Now it's gotten to the point that I've played so much of this game that watching people do bad or even average is just kind of "meh" for me unless the commentary is something special. I like watching challenge runs, or just people doing really well.

So no, I'm not unpleasant and if you think I am you can go fuck yourself and I'd rather you not make assumptions.

So... don't watch them then. The only reason you seem to be here is to shit on OP.

 

[Kilo24]

The Intelligence is a poor choice: Pyromancy only scales with your flame's upgrade, not your Intelligence. It says that it scales with Int, but that actually only affects melee damage with the pyromancy flame. It's probably the stupidest design decision in Dark Souls, IMO. Since it's the only form of magic that doesn't rely on stats, it becomes far less expensive to improve than sorcery or faith.

EDIT: Probably should have read the OP a bit more carefully; I said the above while thinking he was primarily a pyromancer. I'll still leave it there in case someone else doesn't know it. END EDIT

Sif is one of the few bosses to whom I've never died in my playthroughs. He is rather easy; I wouldn't worry about him too much.

As for what to do next... well, it depends on what you want out of your build, really. Even if you're at a comfortable spot with the stat reqs and equipment you need, vitality and endurance are always quite useful. I would say that you should level those stats up or improve the flame, but I really don't know if you'd prefer a different weapon. I like halberds a lot, so I'd personally get the 16 Strength for them ASAP - but your preferences matter a heck of a lot with weapon choice so I'd advise you to try out the attacks of weapons before you invest stats. Something that scales with Int is advised, but since that includes a few boss weapons as well as any standard weapon you can improve to Enchanted that still is a big question.

As for what I did for my pyromancer, I got 19 Attunement, enough strength/dex to use the Greatshield of Artorias, Black Knight Halberd and a decent bow, then dumped the rest into vitality and endurance (maxing the pyromancy flame of course); I've been finding that build far more competent than my initial Faith-based one. The game almost became easy.

I will say that if you farm the phalanxes in the Painted World of Ariamis with Fire Storms or a similar massive AoE spell, 50,000 souls can be gained within a few minutes, so it's not that important what you do with it right now.

 

[hazabaza1]

anc[is]

Now it's gotten to the point that I've played so much of this game that watching people do bad or even average is just kind of "meh" for me unless the commentary is something special. I like watching challenge runs, or just people doing really well.

So no, I'm not unpleasant and if you think I am you can go fuck yourself and I'd rather you not make assumptions.

So... don't watch them then. The only reason you seem to be here is to shit on OP.

First off, I don't watch them. They're shit.
Second, I'm only explaining my reasoning to Bhaalspawn. If someone makes false assumptions about me or asks me something, I'll explain myself.
Third, OP has said many a time that it's not his first time through, so I'm not really too bothered if he makes videos of it. I just think that there's enough shitty blind Dark Souls LPs already.

 

[Sky Captanio]

For the Wolf I'd say just get a good shield. I did that in pretty average armour with a pretty average weapon, but the Eagle shield with enough endurance can take most of his attacks.

 

[In Search of Username]

I'd say go for the pyromancy flame. Though I'd recommend levelling up some more at some point unless you're sure you can handle it without doing so.

 

[Kalikin]

He shouldn't be a threat if you keep your shield (with good stability) up whenever you're not blasting him from a range.

Never fight Sif at range. Always stand under his belly and whack his exposed legs. The twirl will always miss if you are standing in the right spot below him. He goes down in a heap pretty quickly.

But you are right, you do need a good shield, just in case, as he does move fast.

That's definitely the way to go for someone with decent STR or DEX plus an appropriate weapon, but since the OP is a mage and said he's used to spamming bosses from afar, I figured maybe that wouldn't be the best way to do things. But then since I never use any magic except Hidden Body to help get past the Anor Londo archers, I don't know the cast times or range, so it mightn't be feasible to try taking pot shots if you can't get your shield back up quick enough.

 

[lapan]

Go into the painted world and get this set: http://darksouls.wikidot.com/xanthous-set (Fuck stats, aquire swag)

Make sure you have enough humanity left, then first clear the way into the garden with the phalanx dudes and open the door, then turn human to get invaded by Xanthous. He is on the left side in that area with the torch hollows

 

[Rheinmetall]

(I can't go to the Catacombs since I haven't found the Divine ember yet.)

Be a man and go to the Catacombs.
Do you know how early I did that shit?
Did you know I had no idea Holy weapons killed skeletons dead?
Did you know I killed Nito without killing the skeletons?

Go to the catacombs.

Hints for when you get there:

1. Bring a bow. Bring arrows. Bring a shield.

2. Scoot past the skeletons and kill the undead mages. That'll allow you to kill the skeletons for good.

3. Skeletons are stupid. Narrow pathways over very deep pits and blocking telegraphed strikes are handy for making unseemly problems go away temporarily.

4. Use the bow to kill the pesky undead mage that is out of reach after meeting the famous NPC from Demon's Souls.

5. By the time you get to the bottom, having killed all of the undead mages, the skeletons you dropped into the pit are easily killed if drawn into a tight squeeze and not allowed past the doorway. But always be mindful of the wheel variety. They are assholes.

6. Pinwheel is the easiest boss in the game. I don't think I've ever even broken a sweat against him, even at a low level...

7. Stay out of the Land of the Giants. Skeleton Dogs are even bigger assholes than wheely skeletons.

Sorry for the late reply, I was a little busy with doing my playthrough and uploading 143 whole videos and pretty much I didn't do anything else for the last month. I finally finished it. After reading your post about the Catacombs, I can't help but say that my visit in the Catacombs was the most embarassing part of my playthrough. I tried to battle with a divine+2 scimitar and with such low Strength stats it was a disaster. Catacombs is a place that sorceries can't save you. Sure I could farm off screen green shards and craft a Divine+5 weapon, and level up as much as I could, but this time for the needs of this series of videos I had to play the game "by the rules". So I was extremely weak and that weekness was depicted clearly. Fortunately Tomb of Giants went well, as I left it for last, having already grown strong enough and created my end-game weapons, a Longsword+15 buffed with Crystal Magic Sword sorcery, alternatively used with and a Magic Longsword+10.

I never used bows in Souls games, but as you said bows could be vital in situations like those you described with the undead pyromancers in the Catacombs. Coincidentally, without having read this post recently I experimented with bows and Dextrerity build with another character that i created just for this reason. I made a Darkmoon Bow+5 and now I think I understand how valuable a bow can be in this game.