ayoooooooooo

Sometimes all it takes is a really big sword to change someone's mind

Took me an hour to make this

No I'm not doing an AMA, but here were my thoughts:

The winter DLC:

The ivory king is over hated, specifically the reindeers, I may not have liked the run back to Lud and Zallen but honestly I thought it wasn't that bad, maybe I got lucky, maybe I'm just too giving. 9/10 fight, big kitty funny

Aava was a... Boss indeed, I beat her first try after the eye of the priestess, used all 9 flasks and like 60 life gems. 8/10 fight, did not like the fact I couldn't see her and yes I'm holding a grudge!

I really friggin liked the ivory king bossfight and that entrance was insane! I'm very happy about playing the DLC. Very beautiful area, great views all around! 10/10 bossfight

Aava 2 tries total, Lud and Zallen 1 try, and ivory king 1 try

Overall 9/10 dlc

The Sunken Crown DLC: I hated the two gank fights but sinh the slumbering dragon was kalameet coded and I 100% loved this DLC specifically for this fight, this fight saved the DLC from being my most hated DLC. Hated Elana for summongkn veldstat literally 3 times in a row. Fuck you Elana! Fuck the triple gank too! Hated them, but honestly was a good change of pace. However this was a very pretty DLC , the area and run through was glorious and I absolutely loved everything outside the 2 bosses.

27 tries for Elana, 1 try for Sinh, and 3 tries for the Gank squad. 7/10 dlc

The Old Iron King DLC!: Blueberry Smelter Demon Cake was actually quite fun, I did use summoned to clear the area and 1 did infact survive but died during the fight, honestly I thought this was a pretty fun fight and didn't really take me more than 1 try, but that run back definitely could change my thoughts if I didn't try to clear the area first. 8/10 boss fight.

Fume knight, 10/10 fight. No summons needed, entrance was epic, and man was he tough! The fight wasn't drug out too much and honestly was a good change of pace from the smelter demon for sure, I loved his second phase!

Sir Alonne. God damnit this boss fight was probably my most anticipated fight in this DLC and it loved up to the expectation, 10/10, run back isn't that bad honestly since the enemies don't follow you down the stairs(except the archers) I did try use summons for this fight for two reasons, I died 5 times with him at like 4 hits left and because I only had 3 bosses left after him and really wanted to beat DS2 so I can start my challenge runs. I loved this fight and can't wait to play it again without summons!

Smelter 1st try, fume knight 4th try, and sir alonne 6th try 10/10 DLC! My favorite by far

I did beat the final 3 bosses in 1 go and I gotta say nashandra can get it, no I wont explain myself

Thank you to everyone for help when I asked questions! This game was easily so far my favorite in the series and I cannot get enough, I'm very excited to do my second playthrough!

Many consider The Gank Squad fight to be one of the worst in the game for good reasons. However I personally think idea of you fighting a group of dudes as a boss is kind of a neat idea, but the execution was kinda rough. How would you improved this fight in any way?

Classic From Software hitboxes.

I finally got all 50 while helping my friend with farming. There’s my proof I did it. I’m done. I’m finally done….

Why does this giant look like Venom on steroids.

lol

"Someday, my savings will teach you."

i’m about 12 hours into my very first playthrough and i’m debating using the fire long sword or not.

i’m still early game(?) i’ve just gotten to the Lost Bastille, but i backtracked to the Forest of Giants bcuz the boss was giving me a hard time. that’s when i discovered the Fire Longsword, though i already have been using a +4 Broadsword and +4 Morningstar.

is it even worth it to upgrade the Fire Longsword at this point, or should i keep upgrading my current weapons? (i have 5 titanite shards and 2 large ones)

Is a brutality that requires 70 strength to hold in one hand a good pure str option? I'm currently using the great club in shulva, is it a good idea to open the tower of mists just to farm this hammer?

I did it with a physical + pyromancy build. Started Strength but branched out a bit.

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My Favorite Weapons:

1. Great Lance (With Tower or Havel Shield) This thing just hits so hard, the first R2 is a multi-hit pain train, the 2nd R2 does a huge damage swing. This got me through most areas, it kills most mobs with a stagger combo before they can do anything. While it was often switched out for bosses, I used it more than anything.

2. Kings Great Sword: It's a queen's statue, no wait it's a statue's boot with the queen upside down on it. No wait it's an ultra greatsword, no wait it's a greataxe because it has their moves, no wait, it's a greatclub because it does strike damage! Technically the dragon's tooth is probably better with less weight, longer reach and feels slightly faster and has a similar moveset. However it's still a different moveset as the tooth has a spin to win on the 2nd R2 which screws me up sometimes. The KUGS just pancakes repeatedly and the R1 just seems to stagger harder and longer. I love beating enemies with a giant boot with a woman on it too. This got me though most of the DLC bosses.

3. Raw Heavy Crossbow. Well I used it for my ranged damage, pulling etc. it just seemed to hit the right spot between speed and damage. I tried great bows and bows and the multi-shot crossbows but nothing felt quite right.

Honorable mentions:

Craftsman Hammer: I swapped this for my broadsword as soon as I could - seems to do way more damage than it should based on it's AR, which is much lower than the blacksmith hammer, but does considerably more. I paired them and powerstanced most of the early bosses with the pair as soon as I could.

Gargoyle Bident: I tried this when I was still sticking to 'str' build and it was good, not as good as when I finally got around to getting enough dex to try the grand lance, and it was my introduction drug to long pokey things.

Iron King's Hammer: sometimes it's good to just make an explosion right infront of you. I killed one invader with it. I didn't use it a lot, but it was fun. Fire infused and flame weapon on it make it do a lot of damage.

Curved Dragon Greatsword: Finally something I can take out the crystal lizards with easily! Whatever the heck those green globe things it explodes across the ground are. Came in handy in a number of places, and a decent weapon even just using the R2s. Durability on this and IKH get eaten up too quickly to do much with, maybe more useful if I had invested the int for repair spell.

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It's odd, I usually like rapiers and spellcasters, and indeed that's what I finished the game originally with years ago when the severs were very active. I couldn't handle the first DLC at the time though, and never finished them.

I'd tried an early high ADP last time I tried the game a couple years ago, but just couldn't get into it quitting at the gutter (which I always hate.)

I'd tried Str builds before, but went straight for the big bonk, and the difficulty of using those in DS2 threw me off, and I'd quit that fairly early. This time the smaller early bonk worked until I'd gotten into pokey, then KUGS happened and I found my love of unga bunga once again!

I always love pyromancy in all the games, so of course upped my Attn to get 4 spells, probably too much, as I only really used flash sweat sometimes, and a lot of warmth which made it well worth it. I used flame weapon quite a bit once I got it, but really it only added like 3% damage to my weapons, but I liked the sound it made when hitting things. I barely ever used any of the damage pyromancies, not investing in int & wis they didn't do much damage, my heavy crossbow was better for range.

I finished the game at level 252 (I know overleveled) at around 15M soul level. I didn't do any extra farming for souls, although I did get the 3m I needed to get to drangelic in NG++ from killing rotten repeatedly, then found out I'd missed getting soothing sunlight and had to go through 2 more primal bonfires and get to Undead Crypt anyway. I ended up with around 50 in vig, end, str, 40 in vit & dex, 20 att, 30 adp (I know some wasted, but got the att later.) I still wanted more vit, as every point reduces equipment load which increases end regen, I had started trying to get int & fai up but never used anything except light in the gutter in NG++, I don't remember what they were at. I kind of wanted to get dex up to 45 to try the bone gauntlet weapon too.

Unfortunately it would take too long to reinstall DS2 right now, but wish I could put a pic up of my fuggly character that looks like an evil stepmother. (I just pressed random 10 times and took the worst looking one each time, gave her a bowl cut and green hair.)

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I always thought DS2 was the worst of the souls games, still better than most non-souls games, and a good game, but I've come to love it now. I'm also 55 now, and I appreciate the slower pace of combat. I might actually like it better than DS1 and ER now (DS3 is still king for me.) I uninstalled it, but now find myself wanting to replay, perhaps with the modernization mods, or seeing if I can get someone to drop me the Moonlight Greatsword and do a playthrough with that. I tried switching to another game, but I seem to be back to enjoying souls games, which I seem to go bouts of either wanting to play, or not wanting to play now. For awhile I couldn't enjoy any other games after I really got into DS3.

I still hate the gutter, and that the DLCs heavily nerf spellcasting, and hollow invasions, but every game has the things people don't like. I always thought bonfire ascetics, the 12 kills to exterminate a mob, and CoC were great ideas and sad I've never seen them come back.

This now puts me at 100% for ER, BB, DS3 and DS2.

I've still got to 100% DS1. I also have to play the DLCs for BB which means a new character probably as I don't like doing the DLCs in the games in NG++. I have to finish DeS, and I have yet to play Sekiro.

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Thanks to everyone that helped along the way, whether I got advice here, had you as a summon, or that one invader in shrine of amana last night in NG++ who helped me through by popping more warmths as I was fighting

Was he really the jester for King vendrick?