thanks, didn't want to miss a chance on getting, what appears to be, one of the better rings in the game, along with all the awesome weapons Shiva sells

DWG Ring isn't as good as it was pre-patch. It was previously overpowered as it allowed anyone with <50% equip load to run, manouevre and have the stamina regen of a <25% equip. Now you only get the ninja flip if you have <25%.

Yeah I killed him, didn't know you could buy forgiveness. Oh well.

A) I never did kill that damn dragon. Tried fighting him a few times late in the game. He's hard as ****.

B) You're totally set up to fail on that one. You have to roll into the barrel to get him out. Bad game design imo.

I just beat the game and i have no idea what the wood grain ring is or who Shiva is. Guess i'll have to play again.

re: Beating the game. The credits just kinda started. wtf? Next thing i know i'm back in my cell with all my gear.

My guy was super awesome at the end. Crescent axe is an amazing weapon; does a ton of physical and magical damage AND scales with str, dex, and faith AND does 120 divine damage. Plus it staggers everyone. I just destroyed the last 4 invaders who tried me in Izalith.

Speaking of invaders, i restarted a new game with a pyromancer (figured it's about the opposite of my cleric). Wtf is with all these invaders in the low levels? I'm like level 8 with my starting gear on the way to the Taurus demon and i keep getting invaded by people with lightning weapons and high level pyromancy spells??

Where are you getting invaded at? Also just as an fyi anything that scales will have that represents how much it scales wrt that stat. The best you can get on scaling is an S. There's a bow that has an S scale w/Dexterity. That's the only one I ever found. It was honestly super beast though with using as a sniper in a tough spot to thin them.

Who you can invade or be invaded by is tied to your level (with some various covenant exceptions), and is independent of your equipment. Thus, many people play through the game keeping their soul level low but getting powerful equipment, with the intention of invading noob players and steamrolling them.

Remember that you can only be invaded when in human form, so if you didn't see any low level griefers on your first run, it's probably because you were hollow for the majority of the time.

I was invaded 3x in undead burg on the way to the Taurus demon. I won the first fight, literally parrying and backstabbing like 15 times with the lol longsword. The guy basically didn't take damage, his armor was sweet. The second guy killed me in 2 hits with a lightning weapon. The third guy also had a lightning weapon.

In the church i got invaded like 6 times just in the time it took to get off the lift and to the gargoyles. I started retreating out the side towards Andre and summoning phantoms to help. They were little help. The invaders would typically kill them in a hit or two just like they would to me. So the douches who invade as a noob hunt are way stronger than the nice guys who try to help noobs.

You're right that i was probably hollow the whole first game until later. In reading it looks like the fact that i started in Way of White probably helped too. I have no covenant in this game.

Randomly stumbled upon the butterfly boss, and beat him my first try. That was kind of a disappointing fight overall. Then I randomly ran into the Grey Wolf boss, and didn't even get on ehit in against him before he easily dispatched me. I think I'm not quite ready for him yet.

Butterfly was a super lame/easy boss fight. There's a great shield to make it that sif basically can't even hit you. It's the eagle shield in blighttown or anything with high stability should do it. Just make sure you've got enough stamina to take the blocks. I just chipped away with all my pyromancy then when I ran out of charges used my weapon obv.


Also @jaytee there's not really a reason to not have a covenant if I'm not mistaken. At the very least joining way of the white lets you get a miracle or two to start. You can always change to something better suited for your play. I found the chaos covenant and the shortcut helpful.

just finished off the depths and the hydra, on to blighttown. Feel like I'm making some progress. Only thing is I'm still using a drake sword. Haven't found any weapons better yet, or maybe I don't know that I've found better weapons. Used the great axe for a bit but realized it's too slow.

You can pretty much use any non dragon weapon all the way as long as you upgrade it. Finding the weapon with highest scaling and damage isnt really needed its more about finding a weapon with a move set you like. Also using buffs on the weapons and power within pyromancy and various rings that give you buffs is as important as having lots of weapon damage.

I used the drake sword all the way through blightown. It's fine imo. It'll feel pretty ****ty after blightown tho.

Good weapons are all around. Play around with new weapons fighting low level guys. When you find one with a moveset you like take it to the blacksmith to reinforce.

Have fun in Blightown btw. I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about that place.

yea, seems kinda meh to me, maybe it's really good for those that are able to maximize the ninja flips effectiveness, but for me it seems like there are better rings for nearly every situation, and it seems like you are more exposed to hits during the ninja flip, while they are quicker than normal flips

so I helped someone fight Manus and I felt all warm and fuzzy inside

I haven't summoned anyone (or left my summon stone) up to that point cause I thought the lack of communication would be annoying, and I didn't know the host using estus flasks healed everyone he summoned. Outside of the Chasm of the Abyss, are there any other areas where people still summon help for bosses (fairly common) ? This is one of those things that I think would have been fun to do around the time the game came out.

yea, I think Blighttown has to be the worst for first playthroughs, although Quelaag was one of the easiest bosses for me since I was a caster

still, funny to find out later that you can:

funny, I just helped someone else kill Manus, but this time I killed him right after the host died, I hope he doesn't get screwed out of Manus' soul, I did get 30k souls when I returned to my world

Tell me how to set up a live stream of me playing and you'll have that in a week. Bought it on amazon after constantly hearing about this game online. Have barely read this thread, avoided any posts once I started hearing about weapons and such. Anticipation is mounting

Fell to my death in the catacombs, landed next to a hole in the ground that was obviously something. Worked my way back down to the hole.

Also, my second character sucks and i'm thinking of restarting.

First character Cleric: self-healing sherman tank

Second character Pyromancer: A mess that isn't really good at much. Pyromancy kinda sucks.

Pyromancy doesn't suck imo. Just get some upgraded spells, level up your pyro glove (it goes up a bunch of levels if I remember correctly) and raise a few INT points along the way.

speaking of pyromancy, have any of you guys who have done/tried lvl 1 playthroughs tried it without pyromancy? also do you use pyromancy or magic weapons vs Four Kings? seems impossible without one of the two

Well, i mean, it's better than no spells but not as good as miracles imo.

Great combustion can be really nice but can be hard to use. The range on the fireballs is too short and casting is too slow. You can do good damage to slow enemies but they're not worth much against bosses/tough enemies/pvp. Firestorm sucks. Great damage and area coverage but you only get 1 good use and it takes FOREVER to cast.

Miracles typically weren't much help in combat but having heal and great heal and such was really nice for after combat. Allowed me to save all my flasks for combat use and to stay out much longer between bonfires. And i really miss my lightning spears :-(

Since this thread has been up forever I feel like giving this game a try. However I can only find 'dark souls prepare to die edition' on steam. Is this the correct game? Seems like a steal at only $20.

Prepare to Die Edition has the DLC included. No reason to not get this version as the DLC is fantastic.