Souls Multithread

2016-02-20 05:01:18 pm

I got that catalyst. Haven't used it though. Haven't really used any of them. I only have a couple of little sorceries I can do with them and I can't even tell what the difference is between the catalysts.

I just killed Artorias. That was a blast!

ryu

2016-02-20 05:03:52 pm

Great! Artorias can be pretty tough depending on your playstyle. It's one of the best fights in the series.

Opium

2016-02-20 05:08:00 pm

It took a long time. Lots of dodging, and holding back to size him up. You definitely can't just attack him. The only hits I could get in were right after a rolling dodge, and they hardly hurt him at all. I think I must have used at least 15 estus. He had a variety of attacks. Great fight for sure! My heart was pumping!

Opium

2016-02-20 05:09:49 pm

I was hoping I would get his armor, but all I got was his soul.

ryu

2016-02-20 05:11:28 pm

You can buy his armor from Zomnall

ryu

2016-02-20 05:11:39 pm

or whatever that guy is called

Serris

2016-02-20 05:13:51 pm

By the way, are your weapons stuck at +10 or something? You could've gotten the Very Large Ember from New Londo a long time ago. You should really do that before you continue, the DLC bosses have massive HP.

Opium

2016-02-20 05:16:52 pm

Yeah I don't have anything over +10. I used a +5 weapon on artorias because it was the only one that was long enough to hit him when I came out of my roll.

Serris

2016-02-20 05:17:41 pm

Well that explains the 80 chunks lol.

Opium

2016-02-20 05:19:24 pm

I was laughing when that mushroom started talking to me and said her name was Elizabeth. I was thinking, Oh I would have pegged you for an Elizabeth for sure.

tomatobob

2016-02-20 05:30:46 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Elizabeth is number 1 waifu.

tomatobob

2016-02-20 05:38:56 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Quote from Opium:

I got that catalyst. Haven't used it though. Haven't really used any of them. I only have a couple of little sorceries I can do with them and I can't even tell what the difference is between the catalysts.

That catalyst is really good for weapon buffing because it offers a high magic bonus independent of your INT. So you would get more of a boost out of Great Magic Weapon at 15 INT with he Oolacile Ivory than with any other catalyst in the game. it's also super light so you can just have it there in the second offhand slot instead of digging through your inventory anytime you want to buff or throw out a Cast Light or Fall Control. I've done silly amounts of damage to the first DLC boss with a +15 Halberd with a Great Magic Weapon from the Ivory Catalyst. The fact that you can get it so early also makes for some incredible INT build shenanigans.

Opium

Edit history:

Opium: 2016-02-20 08:51:36 pm

2016-02-20 08:51:23 pm

I don't have high enough stats to use any of those spells :( I have the regular magic weapon spell, so that I can use.

What about the sunlight talisman?

Opium

2016-02-20 08:52:24 pm

Quote from Serris:

By the way, are your weapons stuck at +10 or something? You could've gotten the Very Large Ember from New Londo a long time ago. You should really do that before you continue, the DLC bosses have massive HP.

I guess New Londo is my next stop.

tomatobob

2016-02-20 09:07:13 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Sunlight Talisman, I think, is just a high FTH scaling talisman good for a Miracle focused build and that's it. You can buy one that works like the Ivory Catalyst from the fat loser cleric in Firelink, think it's the Thorolund Talisman, but it sucks because low level miracles are bad.

Opium

2016-02-20 09:18:36 pm

I think I need to figure out how faith and int work with spells/miracles. I understand how it scales weapons, but I get confused about how they would affect sorcery and miracles that don't involve inflicting damage to enemies.

tomatobob

2016-02-20 10:11:42 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

They modify the casting tool's strength, which in turn increases the spells strength, but for some spells it's just a stat gate for casting. You need 15 INT to use Cast Light, higher stats don't affect it at all. With weapon buffs the tool's strength matters, it will always boost the damage once you can cast it, but the extent of the boost is greater if the catalyst is more powerful. Heal miracles work the same way, being more effective with a more powerful talisman, while utility miracles like Tranquil Walk of Peace works the same no matter how high over the requirement you go.

The Ivory Catalyst doesn't scale with INT it has a flat bonus to magic, the bonus is stronger than any other catalyst you're going to get until your INT hits ~30 which you only want if Sorcery is your primary form of damage. This is great for buffing because you aren't going past 25 INT at most, likely you're going 15 just to make Tomb of the Giants less annoying with the added bonus of a really good weapon buff. Making it really easy to fit enough INT into any character you're running to get some useful spells and make the weapon buffs highly effective with minimal investment.

tl;dr If it doesn't deal damage in some way or heal, INT/FTH are just stat requirements.

They modify the casting tool's strength, which in turn increases the spells strength, but for some spells it's just a stat gate for casting. You need 15 INT to use Cast Light, higher stats don't affect it at all. With weapon buffs the tool's strength matters, it will always boost the damage once you can cast it, but the extent of the boost is greater if the catalyst is more powerful. Heal miracles work the same way, being more effective with a more powerful talisman, while utility miracles like Tranquil Walk of Peace works the same no matter how high over the requirement you go.

The Ivory Catalyst doesn't scale with INT it has a flat bonus to magic, the bonus is stronger than any other catalyst you're going to get until your INT hits ~30 which you only want if Sorcery is your primary form of damage. This is great for buffing because you aren't going past 25 INT at most, likely you're going 15 just to make Tomb of the Giants less annoying with the added bonus of a really good weapon buff. Making it really easy to fit enough INT into any character you're running to get some useful spells and make the weapon buffs highly effective with minimal investment.

tl;dr If it doesn't deal damage in some way or heal, INT/FTH are just stat requirements.

Opium

2016-02-20 10:16:56 pm

Thanks.

My fai and int are at 12.

tomatobob

2016-02-20 10:26:58 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

At this point you're not going to get too much out of either one even if you start leveling them now. Since you don't have much game left you'd do better to focus on boosting VIT and END and getting your preferred weapon up to +15. Great Magic Weapon can still be nice to get good early damage in against the few remaining bosses but it doesn't need to be priority.

Opium

2016-02-20 10:35:02 pm

Agreed. There are a number of spells I could use if I leveled each to 15, but leveling is so costly at this point that it's not worth it. END has already hit soft cap of 40, so more focused on VIT STR & DEX now. I think VIT and STR are at 40, DEX is at 35

Opium

Edit history:

Opium: 2016-02-21 12:52:17 am

2016-02-21 12:51:46 am

A ghost killed me in New Londo. I was cursed but my weapons would not damage it. I tried occult club - also no damage. Had no problems with the many ghosts that came before this one. Made quadruple sure I was cursed, tried re-applying transient curse but got 'wtf' animation that happens when the action you're trying to do isn't available. I died while I was trying to quickly access the menu to try different weapons. I tried about ten of them before it finally killed me. Have no clue how to damage this ghost. It's appearance and attacks do not differ from previous ones.

ryu

2016-02-21 04:36:25 am

You an only have one buff active at one time. If you're using hidden body, fall control, hush, power within or something, you can't stack transient curse on top of it. Or maybe your transient curse was active while you were trying to consume another, and the effect faded shortly after while you were fighting that ghost.

ryu

2016-02-21 09:39:03 am

Clear!

attachments:

DarkSoulsWyndiaClear2.jpg

DarkSoulsWyndiaClear.jpg

ryu

2016-02-21 09:40:28 am

This turned out to be a real glass cannon build lol. Wasn't so great for bosses like Arhorias, Manus and Gwyn. They all took me multiple attempts and when i killed them it was always flawlessly in 3-4 hits from me w/o me getting hit more than once.

Opium

2016-02-21 12:29:33 pm

I can't be the only one who died because they weren't wearing the astorias ring when they jumped into the abyss, can I? I had to cheat and go online to figure out how to get to the boss.

The boss killed me the first time but now they're dead.