Souls Multithread

2018-06-26 06:19:57 pm

Well the drain is from the giant orange light that periodically flares up, and you're supposed to hide from it behind the rocks

Are you the guy who made them nerf the Ringed City angels >:(

tomatobob

2018-06-26 08:06:14 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

No because the Ringed City Angels were good. There were plenty of hiding places and you never had to deal with anything notable while in sight of one. The enemies in Mensis have a lot more health than the trash mobs you found in Ringed City's angel zones and also turn into shitty worms on death so you've got to move around a lot more making cover irrelevant. There's not enough of it in the opening area to make it reasonable to fight there but when you're trying to figure out where you're going you have to deal with them.

Once you know where you're going and run through it still sucks because you're taking unavoidable damage in a game where you heal through consumables.

It bad.

With the Angels you just waited for them to stop shooting, then ran to the next bit of cover, on the off chance you get clipped on the way there you have healing items that refill if you die or rest also potentially healing spells, regen equipment, and regen skills so who gives a shit.

It was good.

Serris

2018-06-26 08:53:04 pm

The orange light murders the enemies real good as well though

tomatobob

2018-06-28 06:15:53 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Quote from Serris:

The orange light murders the enemies real good as well though

They got like 3x my HP I ain't gonna fuck around and try to keep them in the hellzone.

On that note:
Micolash is an appropriately dogshit boss for dogshit Mensis. It sucks. He sucks. Chasing him around is boring, chasing him around twice is stupid. Getting one shot by this games Homing Crystal Soulmass equivalent and having to do it again is triple trash. Nightmare of Mensis is like a dumb Souls fangame zone, just bad ideas stacked up to the moon because lol Git Gud, Bitch. Abysmal.

Found the one (why?) Blood Rock in the main game, +10'd the Holy Blade, then went to Central Pthumeru to try out some more weapons. I was thinking the Amygdalan Arm would be a decent complement to the Holy Blade since I can make full use of its moveset and still have my gun ready for parries, but the Whirligig Saw is just too much of a damn hoot so I +9'd it and treated my self after putting up Mensis Trash Zone by going on a buzzsaw rampage through Central Pthumeru and the area around Cathedral Ward before capping things off by taking my new +10 Sword and smashing it directly into Ebritas's face until she died.

It was nice.

[quote="Serris"]The orange light murders the enemies real good as well though[/quote]
They got like 3x my HP I ain't gonna fuck around and try to keep them in the hellzone.

On that note:
Micolash is an appropriately dogshit boss for dogshit Mensis. It sucks. He sucks. Chasing him around is boring, chasing him around twice is stupid. Getting one shot by this games Homing Crystal Soulmass equivalent and having to do it again is triple trash. Nightmare of Mensis is like a dumb Souls fangame zone, just bad ideas stacked up to the moon because lol Git Gud, Bitch. Abysmal.

Found the one ([i]why?[/i]) Blood Rock in the main game, +10'd the Holy Blade, then went to Central Pthumeru to try out some more weapons. I was thinking the Amygdalan Arm would be a decent complement to the Holy Blade since I can make full use of its moveset and still have my gun ready for parries, but the Whirligig Saw is just too much of a damn hoot so I +9'd it and treated my self after putting up Mensis Trash Zone by going on a buzzsaw rampage through Central Pthumeru and the area around Cathedral Ward before capping things off by taking my new +10 Sword and smashing it directly into Ebritas's face until she died.

It was nice.

Da Dood

2018-06-28 06:52:03 am

Dood Trigger™

I like Mensis, but Micolash is one of the worst bosses in the series, for sure.

tomatobob

2018-06-28 07:29:29 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Quote from Da Dood:

I like Mensis

Why? This is not an attack or anything, I just genuinely can't think of anything I good about it. Maybe on a second run through it'll seem better, but man it just felt like every part of it was designed specifically to piss me off lol.

But yeah, like, what was up with Micolash? How did that happen? Was Witches of Hemwick not enough weird, tedious boss for them? I mean I'm all for the occasional weird boss, I like the Deacons in DS3, it's a fun change up! But The Witches and Micolash feel like busy work.

Da Dood

2018-06-28 08:13:27 am

Dood Trigger™

I like the visuals, the shortcuts and the climb :) Frenzy isn't that bad knowing where to go. I mean, I'd still rather not have it in the game, but now I'm familiar enough with the route that I can prepare for it.

Now that you're near the end of the game, a spoiler-y alert is in order:

This game goes straight to NG+ after the final boss. The thing is, the final boss is completely optional, so you might skip it unintentionally and be forced into the next cycle by accident. Make sure to REFUSE when a certain someone asks a question in a new part of the hub area.

Serris

Edit history:

Serris: 2018-06-28 01:39:14 pm

Serris: 2018-06-28 01:33:53 pm

2018-06-28 01:33:04 pm

I can't think of anything bad that stands out. Sure Micolash is lame but he's not a problem and finding ways to stop him from where he's intended to go was fun. His spell is bullshit but he doesn't use it if you stay close to him. He's a pretty good take on an "intentionally lame because lore" boss. I just assumed you were more taking the piss than actually having problems with the zone because it was all such minor or non-issues that you can find in any zone. 3x HP doesn't matter when they can die before they even get to you.

The "best" thing in the zone (getting to Mother Brain without pulling the lever) you seem to have skipped so now you're not allowed to complain because reasons

Also if you kill the beasts with fire they don't pop worms. Alternatively just run away when they pop worms because why not

tomatobob

2018-06-28 04:25:03 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Quote from Serris:

He's a pretty good take on an "intentionally lame because lore" boss.

Bad on purpose is still bad, my dude. If I wanted chase a doofus around for ten minutes I'd invade people.

Quote from Serris:

His spell is bullshit but he doesn't use it if you stay close to him.

I was directly up his ass when he did it the first time, which is why it one shot me. The second time he cast it immediately after he recovered from my plunging attack, but only one bolt hit me so I managed to get by with being only almost dead.

Quote from Serris:

3x HP doesn't matter when they can die before they even get to you.

This literally never happened. One of them died once due to the passive damage when I ran by to the right because they got caught on something. Every other time they were able to sprint right over to my hiding spot unscathed. The correct answer is not to bother with this shit. What fun.

It's not a hard zone, that's sort of the problem. The correct answer to every situation is to just not bother with it, Outdoor area? Fuck it run through. Spider Hell? Keep running. Hunter? Keep running. Next few rooms there's jack shit, then some assholes that are not worth fighting so keep running until you find that boss and chase him around for a while because that's all this zones is.

It's piss easy once you've identified the route through the zone, like any Souls area because you can just run through, but that doesn't mean it isn't trash. Running through cause I have places to be is one thing, but Mensis, like Yahargul, I was running through because playing the game felt incorrect. Just like Tomb of the Giants, Crystal Caves, and Izalith the holy trinity of shitty Souls levels until Bloodborne gave us this garbage. You can delete all the enemies and it would be functionally the same experience. It is a waste of time, the worst thing a game can be.

Quote from Da Dood:

Frenzy isn't that bad knowing where to go. I mean, I'd still rather not have it in the game, but now I'm familiar enough with the route that I can prepare for it.

It's really a shame Frenzy is such a bad mechanic because I would be all about those weird brain guys wandering around the upper floors. They are best kind of fucked up shit aside from being built around a dumb thing.

[quote="Serris"]He's a pretty good take on an "intentionally lame because lore" boss. [/quote]
Bad on purpose is still bad, my dude. If I wanted chase a doofus around for ten minutes I'd invade people.

[quote="Serris"] His spell is bullshit but he doesn't use it if you stay close to him.[/quote]
I was directly up his ass when he did it the first time, which is why it one shot me. The second time he cast it immediately after he recovered from my plunging attack, but only one bolt hit me so I managed to get by with being only almost dead.

[quote="Serris"]3x HP doesn't matter when they can die before they even get to you.[/quote]
This literally never happened. One of them died once due to the passive damage when I ran by to the right because they got caught on something. Every other time they were able to sprint right over to my hiding spot unscathed. The correct answer is not to bother with this shit. What fun.

It's not a hard zone, that's sort of the problem. The correct answer to every situation is to just not bother with it, Outdoor area? Fuck it run through. Spider Hell? Keep running. Hunter? Keep running. Next few rooms there's jack shit, then some assholes that are not worth fighting so keep running until you find that boss and chase him around for a while because that's all this zones is.

It's piss easy once you've identified the route through the zone, like any Souls area because you can just run through, but that doesn't mean it isn't trash. Running through cause I have places to be is one thing, but Mensis, like Yahargul, I was running through because playing the game felt incorrect. Just like Tomb of the Giants, Crystal Caves, and Izalith the holy trinity of shitty Souls levels until Bloodborne gave us this garbage. You can delete all the enemies and it would be functionally the same experience. It is a waste of time, the worst thing a game can be.

[quote="Da Dood"] Frenzy isn't that bad knowing where to go. I mean, I'd still rather not have it in the game, but now I'm familiar enough with the route that I can prepare for it.[/quote]
It's really a shame Frenzy is such a bad mechanic because I would be all about those weird brain guys wandering around the upper floors. They are best kind of fucked up shit aside from being built around a dumb thing.

Serris

2018-06-28 04:54:47 pm

You can be "bad" in interesting ways, my broski. You can only do King Allant so many times. Underestimating Nicolash Cage because of his cowardly behavior and dumb no-damage karate moves only to get 1-shot by a sudden spell is fun. HFV and Tomb are fundamentally unfun because of dumb gimmicky mechanics you'll have to deal with whether you want to or not. This is not the case for Mensis. There are loads of Souls zones I'd enjoy a whole lot less if it wasn't up to me how much of it I want to skip. "Fuck it just run" and "Run to deaggro and come back when things calmed down" has always been a part of Souls. I don't think this applies to Mensis, but designing a "you should probably just run" zone isn't inherently bad, especially as a climactic gauntlet before the endboss. Mensis has secrets that are easy to miss because the incentive to just run is so strong.

tomatobob

2018-06-29 06:17:03 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Quote from Serris:

You can be "bad" in interesting ways, my broski.

They should have tried that, then.

tomatobob

2018-07-02 06:47:59 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Ludwig's A Cool Boss.

Research Hall is obnoxious.

Living Failures sucks.

Da Dood

2018-07-04 05:07:45 pm

Dood Trigger™

Not playing anything for a few days at least, but I'm thinking about (finally) starting Dark Souls 3. Any non-spoiler-y things I should know? I own the Fire Fades Edition.

Serris

2018-07-04 05:34:14 pm

Not really? I guess if you only intend to play it once and want the "best" ending, you should use a guide for that quest as it's easily permanently missable

tomatobob

2018-07-04 05:34:20 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Hard to think of too much you wouldn't be ready for as someone who is familiar with the series at this point.

Fire Damage is pretty useful early on. Some shields have a skill that let you use your main hand weapon's special instead of a parry which ruins those shields completely for me. The overall value of Weapon skills in general is pretty iffy for me but mileage may vary. Raw Infusion is good, Faith hybrid builds are good, Zweihander is still the One True Lord and Savior. Try jumping, Good Luck Skeleton.

tomatobob

2018-07-05 05:18:58 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Lady Maria is cool but a few things:

1. I don't want to hear any complaints about DS2 enemies having bullshit tracking ever again. Maria's got some sick nasty, 180-270 degree instantaneous flatfooted pivots up her sleeves on top of the whackass trails on her attacks. And her amazing basic attack combo that lets her powerslide her a good six feet forward every swing. And the full speed immediate 90 degree turn she can whip out on her dash attack where she sticks her weapon out to the side first. I am not convinced that attack can, in fact, be avoided. That was some Ornstein ass shit.

2. The fight would be 100% cooler if healing and parrying weren't tied to consumables forcing me to stop fighting and go farm some more.

3. I am also unconvinced that the fire trails in her third phase follow any rules whatsoever. If the blood trail missed me, how did the fire trail that appeared to follow the same path hit me? A mystery.

4.

Friede's third Phase is better, her fire trails made sense, at least. Real shame about phase two, though.

I also feel compelled to further point out how terrible Blood Vials are as a mechanic in this game after yet another farming session because this is absurd. As they are finite, you can reasonably expect that the player will have to go farm vials/echoes at some point. So I have to wonder why in the everliving fuck you have to go through two loading screens to reset an area to continue farming. They made a tedious thing even more tedious. How is this a thing? They solved healing in Dark Souls. I will bitch about this trash mechanic until I die. It is so bad.

Maria is a really fun fight, though, literally the only good hunter fight in the game. And I'm glad her outfit is good statistically because you know I went and bought that shit asap so my hunter can get their style on.

Poked around the Fishing Hamlet a bit, ran into a large shark man with maybe more HP than is necessary and decided I wasn't really up to this atm and wandered around until I found the ladder to skip that shit and called it. I'll deal with Fish House another time.

Lady Maria is cool but a few things:

1. I don't want to hear any complaints about DS2 enemies having bullshit tracking ever again. Maria's got some sick nasty, 180-270 degree instantaneous flatfooted pivots up her sleeves on top of the whackass trails on her attacks. And her amazing basic attack combo that lets her powerslide her a good six feet forward every swing. And the full speed immediate 90 degree turn she can whip out on her dash attack where she sticks her weapon out to the side first. I am not convinced that attack can, in fact, be avoided. That was some Ornstein ass shit.

2. The fight would be 100% cooler if healing and parrying weren't tied to consumables forcing me to stop fighting and go farm some more.

3. I am also unconvinced that the fire trails in her third phase follow any rules whatsoever. If the blood trail missed me, how did the fire trail that appeared to follow the same path hit me? A mystery.

4. [hidden="sort of DS3 related so I will spoiler it for Da Dood"]Friede's third Phase is better, her fire trails made sense, at least. Real shame about phase two, though.[/hidden]

I also feel compelled to further point out how terrible Blood Vials are as a mechanic in this game after yet another farming session because this is absurd. As they are finite, you can reasonably expect that the player will have to go farm vials/echoes at some point. So I have to wonder why in the everliving fuck you have to go through two loading screens to reset an area to continue farming. They made a tedious thing [i]even more[/i] tedious. How is this a thing? They solved healing in Dark Souls. I will bitch about this trash mechanic until I die. It is so bad.

Maria is a really fun fight, though, literally the only good hunter fight in the game. And I'm glad her outfit is good statistically because [i]you know[/i] I went and bought that shit asap so my hunter can get their style on.

Poked around the Fishing Hamlet a bit, ran into a large shark man with maybe more HP than is necessary and decided I wasn't really up to this atm and wandered around until I found the ladder to skip that shit and called it. I'll deal with Fish House another time.

Da Dood

2018-07-05 07:10:11 am

Dood Trigger™

My general strategy for this game is to enter the boss, lock on and just try to gather as much information as I can about their patterns, with very little healing or none at all. Then when I'm familiar enough, I go back and start the "real" fight, where it turns out that healing isn't all that necessary (or at least I don't waste quite as much of it as going in blind).

Blood Vials should also be fairly cheap to buy at this point in the game, no?

Serris

2018-07-05 01:43:59 pm

While we know BB was developed alongside DS2, I'm convinced it was actually developed alongside DS1 by Miyazaki's evil brother who loved Demon's Souls a little too much and wanted nothing to do with Estus and other basic QoL nonsense.

tomatobob

2018-07-05 05:45:06 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Quote from Da Dood:

Blood Vials should also be fairly cheap to buy at this point in the game, no?

They're like 720 each or something like that. Which is a lot when you have no echoes because boss.

Quote from Serris:

While we know BB was developed alongside DS2, I'm convinced it was actually developed alongside DS1 by Miyazaki's evil brother who loved Demon's Souls a little too much and wanted nothing to do with Estus and other basic QoL nonsense.

This is the only possible explanation.

Serris

2018-07-05 06:25:10 pm

Also use Homeward Marks to reset areas without going to the Dream

Serris

2018-07-05 06:28:11 pm

Also I forgot to blame Bloodborne's bad stuff on the influence of B-Team and should've called the evil brother Biyazaki

I'm sorry for letting everyone down

tomatobob

2018-07-05 06:41:30 pm

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Quote from Serris:

Also use Homeward Marks to reset areas without going to the Dream

If I'm buying those I'm not buying Blood Vials. This is counter productive.

Serris

2018-07-05 07:15:10 pm

They really cut down the time so if you're farming enemies that drop loads of vials like the nightmare pigs you come out ahead

tomatobob

2018-07-06 05:18:59 am

One shall stand, one shall ball.

Ok the Fish Ogre things are the actual worst enemies of all time. Fuck this.

Da Dood

2018-07-06 07:47:51 am

Dood Trigger™

Okay, let's start this thing! Dark Souls 3, finarry.

From what I read, this game is super linear, right? Doesn't look like I have many route choices right now, anyway. Seems more streamlined than any other Souls game, including Bloodborne. But I'm enjoying it. It has an ash-y grey theme to everything, but it's a nice, epic fantasy looking kind of grey...? If that makes sense.

Just beat Vordt, my second boss after Snakehead Dude. Been using the Battle Axe while I don't find a better weapon. I'm going with STR, as I usually do when I first play these games. Nothing too difficult yet, it all feels familiar enough (and I can see they decided to ignore the tweaks DS2 made to stats, i-frames and such... approved!).

Interesting how certain enemies have a counter to circling behind them now. Lothric Knights (I think that's what they're called) shield bash every time I try to circle them. It was cool figuring out an alternative (what I did was, uh... bait combo and roll behind them).

I only tested the Battle Axe's skill, which is a temporary attack boost. Do skills get more powerful as you level up?

Okay, let's start this thing! [b]Dark Souls 3[/b], finarry.

From what I read, this game is super linear, right? Doesn't look like I have many route choices right now, anyway. Seems more streamlined than any other Souls game, including Bloodborne. But I'm enjoying it. It has an ash-y grey theme to everything, but it's a nice, epic fantasy looking kind of grey...? If that makes sense.

Just beat Vordt, my second boss after Snakehead Dude. Been using the Battle Axe while I don't find a better weapon. I'm going with STR, as I usually do when I first play these games. Nothing too difficult yet, it all feels familiar enough (and I can see they decided to ignore the tweaks DS2 made to stats, i-frames and such... approved!).

Interesting how certain enemies have a counter to circling behind them now. Lothric Knights (I think that's what they're called) shield bash every time I try to circle them. It was cool figuring out an alternative (what I did was, uh... bait combo and roll behind them).

I only tested the Battle Axe's skill, which is a temporary attack boost. Do skills get more powerful as you level up?