About to start pic related for the first time. What advice would you give me?
your primary focus should be STR VIG ADP
then DEX VIT ENDif you like magic go drink some cum
>>337627142
You should not play it and go play something actually good.
>>337627142
Play Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, or Bloodborne instead.
Get the drangleic shield or a greatshield and upgrade it when you can. Rolling and parrying don't work intuitively in this game. Play DeS and DS1 if you haven't first.
Play a better game.
>>337627142
If you absolutely must play it.
Miracles are shit, level adp to fight the retard hitboxes and tracking
>>337627142
I'd say wait until they fix poise. Game is unfinished right now. Half the armor is useless because of this.
>>337627142
Dont
Don't listen to /v/'s opinion of this game.
>>337627142
Level ADP and use strike damage weapons.
>>337627142
Level up ADP until you have at least 90 agility, especially if you've played other Souls before this and you're used to how invincible you are while rolling.
Don't listen to the pussy telling you to get a great shield, rolling is fine.
Raise ADP so agility around 100 or so for i-frames, although they're not necessary.
If you're a mage, you can infuse your weapon and use a weapon buff on top of it. This means double dipping on your respective element for loads of damage.
Don't assume you need to stay locked onto enemies. Many of the encounters are designed around weaving around enemies(you can also run while locked on) instead of just rolling through everything.
Always be careful. It's much easier to whiff and get punished for ridiculous damage here than any other Souls game for various reasons. Tanking isn't viable but poise does "activate" on weapon attack animations.
Lastly, get SotFS. It's not some huge upgrade like some make it out to be, but it's still noticeably better than the original DS2.
>>337629375
Even with 100 agility you still get chip damage if your roll even slightly off. Of course that doesn't really matter since you have effectively unlimited healing but it takes the sense of accomplishment out of the game. It becomes 'I beat that boss because I had 99 lifegems. Go me'.
>>337627142
dual wield weapons
do it faggot
it's fun
>>337627142
Stay away from /v/, most people would say go for it, however the vocal minority hate the game with a fiery passion.
It's not that bad, you'll find quickly soul memory is shit and everything feels a little wonky at first because the physics are different than the first game. Play blind for best experience, story holds no water so spoilers won't be an issue.
>>337629792
>You take damage if you fuck up a dodge.
No shit. 90 is fine and is literally one (1) frame less than the original Dark Souls.
>>337627142
I'M SORRY DARK SOULS 2!
>>337627142
Don't.
>>337630198
Where the fuck is that anon, if you're gonna do the same shit thread everyday at least be consistent
>>337630013
>Chip damage
In my opinion DS1's method of either a complete dodge or getting smacked was more rewarding. In DS2 you can fuck up a roll, backtrack and pop one of your 99 lifegems and be recovered entirely. You couldn't do that in DS1 because healing was limited by your ability to find humanity to kindle with. It's a more punishing system which means it's more rewarding when you do figure out a boss's patterns enough to not get hit 10 times.
>>337629973
>minority
>>337630798
>In my opinion DS1's method of either a complete dodge or getting smacked was more rewarding
That is exactly how it works in DS2.
>>337631236
It doesn't though. If you get hit at the beginning or end of a roll you take reduced damage.
They might have changed this since I haven't played recently but that's how I remember it from as recently as the SOTFS release.
>>337630798
nigga wat
you find ASS LOADS of humanity and it's super easy to boost firelink to +3, and then backtrack to load up there before going anywhere
>>337631369
It has never been that way, and even if it was the fact remains that the number of i-frames is the same between both games given the correct amount of ADP. Your complaint that 90 ADP leads to chip damage is incomprehensible when it's the exact same invincibility as DS1.
>>337631549
I'm talking from a blind first playthrough perspective. Your average player will not fight Pinwheel before Anor Londo and will likely lose a significant amount of humanity through deaths, while finding less in the first place because they are going in blind.
>>337627142
get 100 AGL (adp or att raise agl)
decide on a weapon, get stats for it and dump rest into vig (50@sl150) and the stamina stat, and then infuse the weapon dark. go play pvp and lose a fuckton, git gud and hf
>>337629139
wrong game buddyo
>>337631369
ITT: people who never played the game
>>337632318
I've played it to completion 5 times. It's a worse game than it's predecessor.
>>337627142
uninstall & refund befofe you put two hours into that piece of shit
I posted this in another thread but it's dead so I'm just gonna paste it.
So I am currently playing through dark souls 2 doing everything to avoid pvp and all of a sudden I get a message saying "being summoned as a Gray phantom" and I have to fight some fucking magic shitter for ten fucking minutes because all he does is spam lightning and hide.
Why the fuck did the game summon me into his game? I wasn't wearing a covenant ring, I wasn't even in a covenant.
>>337633076
Congratulations, you have also played the game. Your opinions are as valid as mine.
>>337627142
Prepare an apology.
>>337633070
Rat fucker covenant; it's great.
>>337627142
Refund it, I regret buying it, I'm about twenty hours in and it just gets worse.
/v/ loves to meme Dark Souls 2, but it's better than 3
My advice is to go with a strength build. Club is available super early and has A strength scaling. It fucking smashes everything. The great thing about 2 though is that most everything is at least viable, even poison builds.
Learn about power stancing too, it adds whole movesets. Double cestus is a fun way to play and it's also strength-built so you can try it out at the same time as clubs.
After the Pursuer you can jump down to get the Drangleic shield which most people used for 90% of their first playthrough. It's an early game 100% phys shield. Don't get reliant on it of course but if you need help for a boss, it's there.
The smaller soapstone signs are for temporary "gray spirits" who just help you kill a few enemies and then go on their merry way. You can summon them if you want help with the level but not the boss.
>>337629674
this is pretty good advice, would add lvl up vigor if you're going for any pvp at all and don't feel like getting one shotted. if offline do whatever the fuck you want
>>337633287
Wait so if they're in the rat covenant then I can be summoned to their game? That has to be bullshit
>>337633070
Royal rat covenant, you entered grave of saints or doors of pharros
Think of it as a reverse bellbong covenant
About to start it too. Is magic rendered useless at any points during the game? Talking about bosses, mobs, or magic resistant enemies.
>>337633497
Only in 2 zones and both of them are optional areas
You can skip Grave of Saints and the PvP area of Doors only leads to one boss fight
>>337627142
Your first 20 level go into adp
then you can just do whatever the fuck you want
>>337633497
In a whopping two areas the size of Majula, yes. It's why all the pharros contraptions are traps there.
>>337633287
>>337633497
>>337633513
That's so fucking strange but I guess that explains it, I was in Doors of Pharros at the time. Scared the shit out of me
>>337633516
No, magic remains pretty strong throughout. Miracles aren't great but magic in general does fine. Hexes are strong.
Some bosses like Darklurker have high resistances but even with the resistances you can pump through it, you get a million casts in DS2
>>337627142
Play literally any other game in the series instead.
>>337633708
Except 3 of course but that goes without saying
>>337633708
I agree; if you play Dark Souls 3 after playing 2 you'll only be disappointed.
>>337627142
Farm Sunlight Medals as early as you can. As soon as you pick up the covenant from Harvest Valley, start putting down your sign at every boss. The best place is the first bonfire at Iron Keep.
Do this before your soul memory gets too high.
>>337633516
If you play an omnimancer then you should only have trouble with some of the DLC bosses since they have more elemental resistance than pretty much anything else in the game. The enemies in the Shaded Ruins are annoying to fight with magic, but the area itself can be finished in 1 minute.
