Dark Souls 2

[Maf]

Well I beat the Blue Smelter Demon and some guy at the bottom and have the Old Iron Crown in my inventory. I think that means I did it? But I just checked the wiki to see what I missed and apparently I missed a whole boss? I’m guessing he is in that separate tower part with all the curse shit. I don’t know. This game. 
 

I just hope I got all the spells from this DLC. There are trophies for collecting them all. I will have to review once I’ve done the 3rd DLC to see if I got them all (Cross fingers I got them all because fuck these places).
 

Blue Smelter is one of those things where it’s attacks are easy enough to dodge it’s just if you get it wrong once you probably going to die. At least that’s how it was for my character. My dude’s sword was so weak I had to 2 hand it so anytime I got walloped it was pretty much over.

 

After some failed attempts I tried summoning some NPC’s to help but they actually made it way harder. My sword was doing zero damage with help because of the extra buff he got to his health. Just came down to the trusty roll to the right in the end.

 

I summoned a real player and NPC’s for the final boss guy. Just stood back and shot him with spells and dodged a couple of attacks here and there. Fuck you, I deserve it!

[one-armed dwarf]

I think the boss you missed might be the guy who hacks hitboxes. You should definitely fight it, you will really enjoy it I promise

 

My build was dual handed greatswords with high ADP, STR and DEX and minimal VIT or other defensive stats. Total glass cannon. Pretty fucked up and broken but a lot of fun.

[Maf]

My guy’s build very spread out. It’s INT, ATN and ADP. I had pretty low health and endurance for most of the main game, around 11 or 12 points for both. However my INT is now 64 so I can cast the best spell (Which is actually shit and never does anything, much better just pelting dudes with the little spells) so started to get health, endurance and strength close to the 30’s now.

 

It took me 37 hours to beat the whole main game and it’s taken another 11 hours to do the 2 bits of DLC. They really fucking step this shit up and feels like they have harsh prejudice against sorcerers. Hopefully the 3rd one has things that aren’t resistant to magic. Please ?

[one-armed dwarf]

It's possible to respec in this, isn't it?

Thing is getting all the mats to upgrade weapons you need for a respec, but that's an option.

Basically I'm telling you your build is shit, sorry dude. ?‍♂️

[Maf]

I didn’t see you solo no Blue Helter Skelter Demon Man 

 

#skillsoverbuilds

[DisturbedSwan]

DS2 was the first Souls game I properly committed to and absolutely adored it. I spent so many hours tormenting others for the Rat King laughing my arse off maniacally. Good times.

[Maf]

The 3rd DLC area I think has been noticeably easier than the 2nd one but by far had the hardest boss. It took maybe 15 tries at it with help (Because I’m sure someone can solo this, but def not me) and we still lost a lot. There was this one guy who’s name was Pagan Rider or something and he was really good and who I summoned a lot. And on the final try it was me, him and some other player and Pagan Rider died just before we could get the last hit in. Lol. Sorry, guy, appreciate the help, though. 
 

However there were so many adds that needed clearing before the boss even came out I was making 35-40 thousand souls per run. So I’ve levelled up about 12 times in the past hour alone. 
 

With the boss beaten this seems to have changed the area a bit so I need to go around again and open up remaining chests that were iced over before. Also there is some magic Zelda door that will only open when the torches have been lit which I should be able to do now. Not today, though. It’s been 3-4 hours of it today so will come back tomorrow and finish.

 

Certainly had more fun with the DLC than anything in the base game. Not that I think the base game is horrible just kind of boring. But all of these areas have been really inspired and provided interesting challenges and twisting ideas on the usual stuff you find. The only thing is I think the second one, the big fire castle, is a bit enemy spammy. Sometimes you walk in to a room and there’s like 5 dudes there and it’s difficult to aggro one at time. I just kind of sighed and was like Ok. Still only died a couple of times not counting boss encounters so it’s certainly doable just got a bit annoying.

 

But the DLC is much better than the DLC in Dark Souls 1 which, maybe unpopular, but I thought was fucking trash to be honest. 
 

In fact, in terms of look, aesthetic and some neat ideas I think DLC 2 and 3 are better than most areas in Dark Soul 1’s main game as well. The interlocking design of the central areas in DS1 are still smarter, in terms of look and location though these castles are amazingly fun and a lot more eye catching. One of my big criticisms of the Dark Souls series is in terms of looks and visual identity they really aren’t that strong. Anor Lando and these DLC areas for Dark Souls 2 are the only good counter arguments I’ve seen so far.

[one-armed dwarf]

I dont think those are unpopular takes, I've been saying the same myself. DSII's DLC really improves the game.

 

Of course you have to play through the main game to see that stuff but still.

 

DSI dlc isnt that good either imo. But I like how the ds2 dlc links back to it.

 

Spoiler

All the witches you fight are born from fragments of Manus' soul

 

[Maf]

I’m trying to be summoned for boss fights and not only does it take forever I’m yet to join someone’s world who doesn’t immediately die. Sigh.

[Maf]

So I’ve done all the DLC and have got all the spells I can for now. Now I’m on to NG+. It’s really annoying for me because you can’t get all the spells on your first playthrough. There are a few on NG+ and then there are a couple on NG++. I did screw up an NPC quest, apparently, and missed both a sorcery and a Pyromancy spell so I would have to do this anyway. But NG++, man, really?

 

Sigh.

 

Also annoying for me is they have changed the enemy placements slightly on NG+ and added a bunch of Red Phantoms. For shits and giggles, I guess. Would be awesome if that’s what you’re looking for. But I’m just trying to speedrun this shit, dude. C’mon. 

 

It’s still pretty speedy. In about an hour I’ve beaten past the Ruin Sentinels and just reached No Man’s Wharf. I know they both sort of lead to the same place but I just want to go to the Wharf to get that NPC and maybe some Branches of Yore. I think there is at least one down there. 
 

Here we go ?

[Maf]

Did new game+. That was really quite easy. Literally most areas I beat in 20-30 minutes because I just sped past everything. The only two times I had to stop was Iron Keep, because there are so many enemies and just no room to break fog walls in time. And the Ancient Dragon boss because I just got bad RNG with the constant fire attack. 
 

I don’t actually have to beat the game again now, just get back to the chancellor at Draglaic castle. I need to research it maybe but apparently you can just pay souls to get past the door to it instead of needing the 4 big boss souls to open it. But we will see. Hopefully have this completed tomorrow and then done! The whole game took me about 5+ hours today, hopefully tomorrow maybe get the rest done in 3 if I’m lucky.

[Maf]

Nope, to open the door without playing the game properly your character’s “Soul Memory” needs to be over 3,000,000 on that playthrough. So even though my character has a SM of 8+ million none of that was on NG++ so had to play through the game normally. Just sat down and did it tonight to get it out of the way. Looks like yeah it took about 3 hours to do the 4 main sections of the game. Some pics below

 

 

I wasted so many points in Faith and never ended up using it for anything. I guess the poison resistances and things are nice. 

[one-armed dwarf]

Now go plat Sekiro.

[Maf]

You go plat Sekiro I’m sleepy ?