Dark Souls Catch-All

The Chalice Dungeons are little more complex than that, but they were the weakest part of the game for sure. The thing is once you got through a few of them and gathered all the materials you needed (no grinding involved, the prior dungeons would always contain chests with the materials for the next) you could just rush them to fight bosses and ignore exploration.

imbiginjapan wrote:

The thing is once you got through a few of them and gathered all the materials you needed (no grinding involved, the prior dungeons would always contain chests with the materials for the next

That certainly was not my experience. I would get the kind of mats needed from the previous dungeons, but not remotely enough. I had to farm Arcane Haze from the big white insect monsters for a while. And pretty much all the Blood lvl stuff too.

While the chalice dungeons themselves were bad, they do have some of the best bosses in the game.

Shadout wrote:
imbiginjapan wrote:

The thing is once you got through a few of them and gathered all the materials you needed (no grinding involved, the prior dungeons would always contain chests with the materials for the next

That certainly was not my experience. I would get the kind of mats needed from the previous dungeons, but not remotely enough. I had to farm Arcane Haze from the big white insect monsters for a while. And pretty much all the Blood lvl stuff too.

While the chalice dungeons themselves were bad, they do have some of the best bosses in the game.

I got plenty of Arcane haze by breaking down unneeded low level Ritual Blood and Tomb Mold with the haze extractor.

At one point I needed 1 more Ritual Blood (4) but the prior chalice dungeon had an enemy that was guaranteed to drop it.

imbiginjapan wrote:

As much as I love these games I've never considered trying to platinum them. The idea of trying to get all the weapons collected & upgraded seems anti-fun. I was able to do Bloodborne because none of the trophies involved grinding, but Dark Souls... no thanks.

I never had any desire to platinum Dark Souls 2 and Bloodborne. Getting everything in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls definitely had some horrid grinding but aside from a few things each task was along the way to doing something else that I was having fun with.

On the later topic of Chalice Dungeons I gave up as they didn't feel rewarding to me. I also experienced a lack of the materials necessary for advancing through to further dungeons. I may have missed some chests but it is unlikely because I spent a lot of time checking areas for missed items.

I don't know if anyone else is watching Extra Play's play through of Dark Souls, but one of my favorite things about it his reactions to the beauty of the game. Him finding Ash Lake was the perfect example.

Skip to 36:10. I'm not sure why It's not starting there.

Whooo! Sen's fortress cleared out. Boy, I powered through there like there was nothing in my way. I did summon Tarkus for the Iron Golem mind. It does help that I've got my pyromancy glove up to +12

Had a quick dabble with Anor Londo, took out those 2 gargoyles and activated the rotating bridge gubbins. But now it is bed time. Tomorrow we face the archers, head for the giant blacksmith and find out how punishing O&S are.

DanB wrote:

Had a quick dabble with Anor Londo, took out those 2 gargoyles and activated the rotating bridge gubbins. But now it is bed time. Tomorrow we face the archers, head for the giant blacksmith and find out how punishing O&S are.

On my current play through I just realized that the 2nd gargoyle is cheeseable if you have range. Instead of turning the bridge, run to the bottom and he is easily within range of most ranged attacks. I mean at this point I doubt any of us need to cheese him, but I just like that I keep finding new stuff every time I play.

Also, getting to that chest on the left side of the rafters is not worth it.

DanB wrote:

Whooo! Sen's fortress cleared out. Boy, I powered through there like there was nothing in my way. I did summon Tarkus for the Iron Golem mind. It does help that I've got my pyromancy glove up to +12

Had a quick dabble with Anor Londo, took out those 2 gargoyles and activated the rotating bridge gubbins. But now it is bed time. Tomorrow we face the archers, head for the giant blacksmith and find out how punishing O&S are.

To me, using NPC summons is totally cool. Those guys are my homeboys!

S&O are proving to be more a problem this time through. When are they not? I want to kill Smough first, because reasons. The fact that I have put not points into vitality is starting to be a problem. I am easily one shot on the 2nd stage.

S&O are proving a problem and this is now not helped by the fact the I'm all out of humanity.

Is Smough fire resistant as I'm not really getting much good out of pyromancy, or am I just not close enough?

Not close enough.

I did a lot of running away when I fought them, only attacking skinny when tons of fun was far away. I also upgraded my glove to Ascended +5 before I best them (but after failing a bunch of times). A lot of people recommend combustion, but I appreciated the range of Orbs and Fireballs.

Good luck!

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Not close enough.

I did a lot of running away when I fought them, only attacking skinny when tons of fun was far away. I also upgraded my glove to Ascended +5 before I best them (but after failing a bunch of times). A lot of people recommend combustion, but I appreciated the range of Orbs and Fireballs.

Good luck!

I had completely forgotten that you could ascend the pyromancy glove. Think I'll farm some humanity and grind up the souls to ascend the glove.

Using greater combustion, you can stagger Ornstein (I think it takes two casts) and kill him in two quick bursts of attacks, if you're lucky.

I think this is where I stop playing every time. I have never been able to beat S&O on NG+ and I can't do it this time either. I played the game for over two hours today doing nothing but S&O runs and I only killed one of them once. I may just start a new run. I was really enjoying this build, though.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

I think this is where I stop playing every time. I have never been able to beat S&O on NG+ and I can't do it this time either. I played the game for over two hours today doing nothing but S&O runs and I only killed one of them once. I may just start a new run. I was really enjoying this build, though.

Are you against using poison arrows? The fight can be very drawn out but if you are able to get whomever you're fighting stuck on a pillar for a little bit you can poison them and kite them around as they tick down.

O&S are particularly dangerous because they have very good range and devastating close range attacks. Ornstein tends to be much better to stick very close too with the exception of his AoE that he gets from Smough. For Smough I like to stay just outside of his range and jump in right after his first attack in a combo.

Those strategies may be quite a bit more difficult if you still aren't using a shield because the room for error is pretty narrow.

If you're not using a shield, your dodging should be reasonably honed... if you're naked, dodging either of them shouldn't be too hard. Are you wearing armor, or going it au naturel?

I'm still doing the Dark Knightess RP. So, +5 brass armor set and no shield. My +15 Estoc does little damage to O, but it's pretty good against Fat. I've tried summoning Sun Bro to help but he usually gets aggroed by the giants and comes in half dead. My main problem is that I have no health, and can get one shot by too many attacks.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

I'm still doing the Dark Knightess RP. So, +5 brass armor set and no shield. My +15 Estoc does little damage to O, but it's pretty good against Fat. I've tried summoning Sun Bro to help but he usually gets aggroed by the giants and comes in half dead. My main problem is that I have no health, and can get one shot by too many attacks.

Anytime I want Solaire for this, I clear those giants and then summon him.

You can get away with clearing just the 1st giant

Yeah, I've only had trouble with O&S really as SL1, because you can easily clear the giants. They're a much bigger hassle/flask drain is worth it at SL1.

Ok, I've had 5 serious attempts at O&S at SL1, I'm pretty sure I can get this if I summon Solaire. My last attempt I killed smough with 4 Greater combustions. I figure if i can kill one quickly enough that Solaire is still around to tank the 2nd phase I should be good.

I farmed 99 humanity so that should give plenty of attempts.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

I'm still doing the Dark Knightess RP. So, +5 brass armor set and no shield. My +15 Estoc does little damage to O, but it's pretty good against Fat. I've tried summoning Sun Bro to help but he usually gets aggroed by the giants and comes in half dead. My main problem is that I have no health, and can get one shot by too many attacks.

You're on PS3 or PC, right? I mean, you know I'm down to co-op on Xbox 360 anytime...

Fedaykin98 wrote:
EverythingsTentative wrote:

I'm still doing the Dark Knightess RP. So, +5 brass armor set and no shield. My +15 Estoc does little damage to O, but it's pretty good against Fat. I've tried summoning Sun Bro to help but he usually gets aggroed by the giants and comes in half dead. My main problem is that I have no health, and can get one shot by too many attacks.

You're on PS3 or PC, right? I mean, you know I'm down to co-op on Xbox 360 anytime... :D

I'm on PC right now. You know the game is super cheap on PC right now, right?

FOUR KINGS DOWN AT SOUL LEVEL ONE!

@ET: Yeah, but it would take a long time to level to where you are.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

FOUR KINGS DOWN AT SOUL LEVEL ONE!

@ET: Yeah, but it would take a long time to level to where you are.

Defeatist

W00t! O&S are down on SL1, I guess that would be attempt number 10. Ascended Pyromancy flame +1, Greater combustion and combustion.

Took out the big knights in the hall outside the fog gate so that I could safely summon Solaire (and without using Greater Combustion). During stage 1 I mostly tanked Smough so that Solaire could get some good hits on Ornstein, then once they were all close I finished off Ornstein with a couple of combustions. In phase 2 I switched to Greater combustion and stayed behind Smough and let Solaire draw all the agro, which allowed me to hit him with all of my greater combustion uses. Then all it took was 2 more combustions to seal the deal.

Congrats!

Fed, I forgot to say congrats... so well done!! those guys gave me more grief than O&S by far...

DanB, well done! Sounds like a strategy I would personally fear to try, I find I handle them better solo than with lightning boy.

How did you manage 4 Kings Fed? I can't remember how I did it on my no lvl run.

Gimpy_Butzke wrote:

How did you manage 4 Kings Fed? I can't remember how I did it on my no lvl run.

Full Havel, ate grass, used Greater Combustion followed by Combustion followed by Lightning Hand Axe +5. Used the Crest Shield in case of magic attacks.

I used my best spells first to try and avoid getting behind.