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Comments
Yes, but bear in mind I'm using WASD movement controls here. That would be suicide.
Worst case scenario, you can just roll into the wall. But usually rolling forward works just fine.
Huh, I actually pulled off Ornstein and Smough in NG+, solo. Mind you, Ornstein glitched through the floor at about 30% health due to a poorly placed strike on Smough's part, but still. Took most of my Estus, too. The biggest problem is Smough's lightning butt smash, really. Everything else is meh, including the "shovel charge" attack I used to hate so much.
I only have two problems with Ornstein and Smough. The first is the camera, and the second is the shovel charge attack (though only when he spams it and I run out of room to back up into).
My current problems with it are that I'm SL1 on NG+ and that I want to get the Leo Ring. I think if I let myself kill Ornstein first it wouldn't be so bad, but since I need to kill him second it's pretty hard. At a normal SL I don't have any problems with the fight though.
^^ The tell for your dodge should be when Smough finds himself within distance and then rears his hammer for the upswing. I like to have my shield up as an "oh shit" measure against him, but conventional blocking is useless in that battle as a primary defensive technique. Once one of them is down, the whole battle is dodges and walk-outs.
I can dodge fine. The problem is when he uses nothing but that attack and backs me into a corner.
Break your lock, sprint to the side and jump-roll out of distance. But I guess the other thing is: don't get backed into a corner. It can be easy to find yourself out of room in that fight due to all the backing away you have to do, given how Ornstein and Smough (and their super forms) control mobility.
The other, risky thing to do is to dodge forward. Given that you have an invincibility window, a well-timed dodge will void damage no matter which direction you move in. If you can dodge forward or otherwise in a direction that moves the battle out of a corner, then you're free to sprint out and get back to the middle of the room. It should also be noted that Smough avoids using that attack when you're in close. As much as you want to avoid the lightning butt smash, it's got such a significant tell that staying in close is probably the lesser evil. Otherwise, Smough just uses moves that are incredibly easy to dodge, no matter which direction you move in.
Yeah, but that's less than 100%
Yeah, but that's way less than 100%
I try, but I think Smough's AI is specifically programmed to hate me.
Sometimes you can't afford to go with the option that theoretically gives you the 100% success rate, because it simply won't work. During those moments, you just have to hedge your bets with the next best thing -- even if it seems crazy.
Might just be crazy enough to work.
Like when I found out that my no-shield samurai character was actually a baller and became much better at this game because I played for hours on end with a character that had no 100% reliable method of defense.
Doubleposting for incredible justice:
I think I might have actually created a horrendously brilliant build.
Although chances are someone else has done it before, of course. The short version is that it's a pure dexterity build with Kirk's thorny armour, FaP ring and the Bloodbite ring (which multiplies bleed resistance by 4). The shield is the Bloodshield, which further increases bleed resistance by 50% (for a grand total of 450% multiplication on that). The weapons? The Lifehunt scythe, Priscilla's dagger and an uchigatana. What it lacks in raw damage, it makes up for with what it deals in bleed damage and its immunity to the weakness of the Lifehunt scythe.
It also has a decent 34 poise (enough to walk through a standard attack), over 2000 HP and... lacks somewhat in defense.
(as always, this is based on stuff I read, rather than experience, but...)
Bleed damage isn't very reliable, so it's not really worth basing a build on. It takes a lot of hits to actually cause bleed, and once you hit an opponent once, they're just going to backflip away from you until their bleed buildup goes back down to 0.
For PvE, most of the time you'll just kill enemies with your normal attacks before you even get them to bleed, so it makes the whole setup kind of pointless. Though Dark Souls PvE is easy enough anyway that your build doesn't really matter at all after your first playthrough (unless you're doing some kind of challenge run), so whatever.
The Lifehunt scythe does 50 bleed buildup per a strike, though. At 40 endurance, a full set of Giant's armour gives 212 bleed resistance, which means that five hits will cut off 50% of their HP -- and usually five, because the bleed reduction won't keep up with additional attacks at 50 buildup per strike. For comparison's sake, most bleed weapons deal 30 buildup per a strike, which means they'll require at least eight hits, but probably more given how much easier it is to recover from the lesser buildup.
I also tweaked it to provide better poise and defense, because as cool as Kirk's armour is with the build, it's kind of bad.
Alright, time for NG++. And beyond. At SL120. Wish me luck.
I am confused. Why would one do a SL1 run in NG+?
Because it's fun?
I am completely perplexed at the thought, to be honest. The fightiing would have to be completely fucking handicapped.
Also, there's no rule against upgrading items or pyromancy. So if you begin with a class that has at least one attunement slot, you can still pull out a powerful spell when you need it. And you can ascend a weapon to +15, then use a resin on it to give it some extra temporary power.
But, of course, you're at base level, so you can only use weapons that fall within the stats of your starting class. So I suppose the best way to do this is to go knight and use straight swords/smaller greatswords, plus your one attunement slot for a good pyromancy.
For SL1, your only choice is Pyromancer.
Which is convenient because you get two attunement slots, but inconvenient in that you have a godawful weapon selection (Battleaxe is pretty much your best choice).
You guys are monsters, I am ashamed to play the same game as you lot. A whole other level of play.
I didn't say I was actually doing well at it though. >.>
I can't even get past Ornstein and Smough, so once I get to the real hard part... I dunno. It'll be awful. Four Kings weren't too bad on NG, but on NG+ I won't be able to kill them fast enough to avoid fighting 2 or 3 or 4 at once.
I consider the term "SL1 run" to be convenient -- I really consider it the same as a base level run. While the numbers are theoretically more in your favour with a higher level starting class, the pyromancer's two attunement slots make it way easier than, say, the bandit equivalent of a base level run.
Also, hand axe > battleaxe. I think the two do the same poise damage, but the hand axe has much better flow between multiple attacks, so it staggers more easily and lets you chain better.
All I want to do is to get to the Platinum Trophy on the PS3.
Nope.
It's also weaker and most of the time I'm just hitting once and rolling away anyway, especially for O&S which is what I'm currently (as in, whenever I actually get around to playing again, which may be never) dealing with.
^ As in, the one for getting all the other trophies?
I still need to get the moonlight greatsword.
Among other things, but that's the one that actually requires effort.
^^ Mind you, I haven't done a SL1 run yet. Currently doing a samurai gimmick run (no shields; eastern armour, shadow armour and black leather armour only; katanas, spears and bows only) on and off, though. Stuck at the Four Kings. Damn them.
^ As far as I understand how poise damage works, all weapons of the same class deal the same poise damage. So the hand axe and battleaxe, both being axes, should deal equivalent poise damage. You can test this with a comparison between, say, the claymore and the man-serpent greatsword.
This isn't true. At the very least, the Moonlight Greatsword deals slightly more poise damage than other greatswords, I think, and I'm pretty sure it was determined that the hand axe deals less than other axes.
I had already gotten all Dragon weapons except for the bone fist but then the PS3 got a hard drive problem and all my progress was lost. At least I got the trophies I had already gotten. And the moment I first fought Seath (on the crystal cave, I mean) I got the Moonlight Greatsword, my favorite weapon of the game by far.
Why? They kind of suck.
But... why does that matter? Getting stuff is fun because it's fun to get stuff, not because you're actually going to use it.
Or, completionism.