Dark Souls Catch-All

I've never once equipped that ring. I can see it making exploration of that area a bit easier, but I haven't bothered. I found Stray Demon to be one of the toughest bosses in the game, so I dont go back to the Asylum until late.

Over the weekend, I learned about blocking, and feel stupid for not having learned it earlier. Now to figure out parrying and see if I can equip firebombs on the quick item menu.

rust iron ring is fantastic, and you don't need to fight the stray demon to get it.

mudbunny wrote:

Over the weekend, I learned about blocking

!!!

Welcome to dark souls. It's nice here this time of year.

Parrying is quite hard and you can only parry humanoid enemies that are roughly your own size. If you're having trouble with it then just ignore it. If you can't get it right let's say 80% of the time it'll do you more harm than good.

Fedaykin98 wrote:
MisterStatic wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

I don't think you're supposed to fight the dark knight in the Undead Burg at that point. I mean, you could, but most first-time players don't.

Really? But he is right there! (I guess technically he is a 'Black Knight' according to the strategy guide)

Really. Wow, can't believe you've been working on him for months and no one has told you! Go up instead.

Btw if anyone is on 360 and would like some co-op help, holla.

LOL! Yeah, I totally fought that guy my first time through and he's a big part of why I was stuck in that area for over an hour. In my defense, going up got me into a fight with a gigantic Taurus Demon, so really that knight guy seemed like the lesser of two evils... plus I could see he was guarding something shiny and I wanted to see what that was (turned out to be nothing too special IIRC)

Anyways, I couldn't take him in a stand up fight, but I ended up climbing onto a roof and firebombing him a bit, then doing a plunging attack on his head, then running back to the ladder and getting back onto the roof before he could hit me. 3 or 4 cycles of that and he was dead.

I didn't ever check... does he respawn?

kyrieee wrote:

Parrying is quite hard and you can only parry humanoid enemies that are roughly your own size. If you're having trouble with it then just ignore it. If you can't get it right let's say 80% of the time it'll do you more harm than good.

I'd say it is totally worth practising if you're intending to stick with the lighter swords, not least for the ending of the game

Hearing new players excited by this (or grudgingly deathzerging their way through) makes me very happy

DanB wrote:
kyrieee wrote:

Parrying is quite hard and you can only parry humanoid enemies that are roughly your own size. If you're having trouble with it then just ignore it. If you can't get it right let's say 80% of the time it'll do you more harm than good.

I'd say it is totally worth practising if you're intending to stick with the lighter swords, not least for the ending of the game

I am playing a knight right now, so sticking with lighter swords is not in the books.

Dark Knights do respawn.

JC wrote:

Dark Knights do respawn.

Not in undead burg they don't

Dakuna wrote:
JC wrote:

Dark Knights do respawn.

Not in undead burg they don't :)

well what do you know... shows you how often I went back to that area.

mudbunny wrote:

Over the weekend, I learned about blocking, and feel stupid for not having learned it earlier. Now to figure out parrying and see if I can equip firebombs on the quick item menu.

Right now, I'm only parrying normals. It's too hard for me to parry thrusts and two-handed strong attacks because the timing is so odd. It takes them forever to swing. I always end up trying to parry those too early.

Damn Sen's Fortress is annoying! So many bad missteps and booby traps. The snake men are easy to deal with by themselvs with backstabbing but combine them with narrow walkways of death and the annoyance kicks in.

I didn't think any level could be more annoying than Blighttown.

TempestBlayze wrote:

Damn Sen's Fortress is annoying! So many bad missteps and booby traps. The snake men are easy to deal with by themselvs with backstabbing but combine them with narrow walkways of death and the annoyance kicks in.

I didn't think any level could be more annoying than Blighttown.

It was the last narrow walkway just before you got to the rooftops that killed me repeatedly. And then I would get overconfident in some of the earlier parts and die a stupid death. Which reminds me, I still have 2 of the Titanite Demons down in the pit that I should get around to killing.

But, the fact that I was able to kill the boss on my second try made up for all the pain. Only the butterfly was as easy.

casktapper wrote:
TempestBlayze wrote:

Damn Sen's Fortress is annoying! So many bad missteps and booby traps. The snake men are easy to deal with by themselvs with backstabbing but combine them with narrow walkways of death and the annoyance kicks in.

I didn't think any level could be more annoying than Blighttown.

It was the last narrow walkway just before you got to the rooftops that killed me repeatedly. And then I would get overconfident in some of the earlier parts and die a stupid death. Which reminds me, I still have 2 of the Titanite Demons down in the pit that I should get around to killing.

But, the fact that I was able to kill the boss on my second try made up for all the pain. Only the butterfly was as easy.

When I took out the Iron Golem on my second attempt at SL1 I was happier than you can imagine.

casktapper wrote:
TempestBlayze wrote:

Damn Sen's Fortress is annoying! So many bad missteps and booby traps. The snake men are easy to deal with by themselvs with backstabbing but combine them with narrow walkways of death and the annoyance kicks in.

I didn't think any level could be more annoying than Blighttown.

It was the last narrow walkway just before you got to the rooftops that killed me repeatedly. And then I would get overconfident in some of the earlier parts and die a stupid death. Which reminds me, I still have 2 of the Titanite Demons down in the pit that I should get around to killing.

But, the fact that I was able to kill the boss on my second try made up for all the pain. Only the butterfly was as easy.

When I took out the Iron Golem on my second attempt at SL1 I was happier than you can imagine.

I've been playing this a bit, and got as far as Darkroot Garden (I have the key to the Depths but was advised to farm moss). My character is a Thief. I'm mostly building DEX and END at the moment, and I really like the faster pace compared to the Warrior or Knight I'd tried a bit previously. Does that sound like a viable way to proceed?

babakotia wrote:

I've been playing this a bit, and got as far as Darkroot Garden (I have the key to the Depths but was advised to farm moss). My character is a Thief. I'm mostly building DEX and END at the moment, and I really like the faster pace compared to the Warrior or Knight I'd tried a bit previously. Does that sound like a viable way to proceed?

Sounds fine to me. DEX is your damage stat, END gives you Stamina, maybe get some VIT for health, and ignore all the other stats unless you're using ewuipment that requires a little more STR.

Do be aware that certain types of weapon enchantments don't use stat scaling (fire, lightning), so your DEX will be a waste if you go in that direction.

Also, re: earlier comments on this page: Black Knights only respawn in the Kiln of the First Flame.

I could use some advice on leveling up at this point.

I've finished up with Darkroot Garden and am right around level 30. I'm using a +5 katana and a set of knight armor I found in the Garden, with the Gargoyle helm. So far I've been putting points into Vit and End and just started putting points into Dex when I leveled up the katana. I think I have Vit and End right around 20 with Dex pretty close to there 18 or 19 maybe.

Should I continue leveling these 3 equally? Or should I be focusing on one over the others? Are there other stats I should be looking at augmenting? I'm playing as a pyromancer and the magic has come in handy multiple times, so I would like to expand on that in the future maybe if I can.

If left to my own devices I think I would be inclined to put points into Endurance because I'm carrying enough weight to that I'm incurring a bit of a movement penalty and my character feels pretty slow. I *really* miss the "light-on-my-feet" springiness/quickness that made it easy to dodge/roll and circle around in battle.

Or should I just ditch the heavy armor and go back to something lighter and less protective?

Getting a few points of attunement would give you access to additional spell slots. I believe you get a slot after the first 2 points and again after the second 2 spent. Unfortunately, the next slot is a bit slower...but I haven't skilled far enough yet to say how many points it does take. Also look to upgrade your pyromancer flame, as that will scale the damage on your spells.

cls33 wrote:

I could use some advice on leveling up at this point.

I would focus on Endurance above the other two. It improves both your defence and your offence at the same time. Vitality is nice, but in the end it's your Estus Flasks that determine how much life you have. The size of your lifebar doesn't matter all that much as long as you're not getting 1-shot by attacks. Therefore I would focus on Dex > Vit. The Uchigatana has very nice Dex scaling as well.

As for the armor, my preference is to use lighter stuff in most situations (there are exceptions!). It's mostly a playstyle choice though, you're making it easier to avoid attacks but increasing the penalty for getting hit. Just make sure you have at least some poise (Wolf Ring is nice if you found it). With zero poise, getting hit by anything will interrupt your attack. Also, since you killed the Butterfly, try to find where the Watchtower Basement Key goes.

I agree that END is almost always useful. VIT you may already be done with.

After that, decide whether you want to commit to DEX as you damage stat. The alternative would be to use a fire or lightning weapon.

I can imagine a build where you use those elemental weapons and give levels to Attunement to grant more spell slots instead of leveling DEX.

I think I found it already. Is it the door that opens to some stairs leading down by the Taurus demon?

I opened that with my master key when I was in that area and some big thing ate me. So I figured I wasn't sposed to go that way

cls33 wrote:

Some big thing ate me. So I figured I wasn't sposed to go that way :)

That needs to be a Dark Souls Tshirt

cls33 wrote:

I think I found it already. Is it the door that opens to some stairs leading down by the Taurus demon?

I opened that with my master key when I was in that area and some big thing ate me. So I figured I wasn't sposed to go that way :)

There's a fellow at the bottom. If you ask nicely he'll help you out with problem you have.

For those who are interested, WolfStar76 will be streaming him playing Dark Souls for the very first time tonight at 9:30ish.

http://www.twitch.tv/wolfstar76

Yep, this is what's so damn captivating about this game.

So I revisited the watch tower. I was wrong, it wasn't something that ate me, it was a big dude with a GIGANTIC club who beat me to death. He damn near one-shotted me when I pulled aggro on him again, but I was able to run away, re-group and pull him all the way up the stairs, where I proceeded to methodically whittle him down and eventually take him out.

Then he dropped a ring that increased my equipment load by like 30 pts, which TOTALLY solved my slow moving problem.

I was then able to open the door he was guarding to someplace called Darkroot Basin? Which promptly scared me So I went back to the first bonfire in Firelink and quit for the night, I think I'll try going down tomorrow and see if I can make some progress on that 2nd bell.

That would be Havel's ring and yes it's quite helpful. He has other stuff laying around if you look hard enough.

Wrong thread.