TLDR: my warrior fully upgraded their main weapon and now face a deficit of titanite chunks to upgrade other weapons, severely limiting my build in time when mages gain several new awesome spells as well as resources to upgrade their pyromancy flame and catalyst.
I’m replaying Dark Souls 2 (SotFS) after years of not touching the game and generally not spending much time with Souls-likes. I went for a warrior type, focusing on swords and crossbows. Despite not having access to any magic, I have a blast!
Yet, once the early game full of experimentations with weapons and drip fashion reached its’ end and I settled on a claymore +10 and a pretty looking “armor” set, my build became stale. I used up my titanite chunks on the claymore and I can’t gain more since the useless ore merchant can’t sell shit until you are 2 bosses away from winning. I have murakumo +7 and I switch to it sometimes but it’s hard to compete with a fully upgraded claymore.
The game throws twinkling titanite to me and I would love to use it on some cool weapon… but there are none! The only special weapon that could fit this build, Drangleic greatsword, is just worse than my claymore in terms of reach and moveset. Maybe it has a bit more damage when it’s fully upgraded but I’d still prefer the more convenient option.
Now, there are also boss weapons. Again, there’s only one that actually interests me - the flexile sentinel’s curved greatsword. It’s pretty similar to my murakumo except it weighs more and… that’s it? Stat scaling is a bit different but moveset seems identical. It looks cool though. But I dunno if it’s worth the investment. Are there other interesting boss weapons worth waiting for? I don’t really want to grind for petrified bones…
It’s especially aggravating because, when a mage reaches Drangleic castle, they get such a huge upgrade. Great combustion, several fire seeds, Soul greatsword, Firestorm, twinkling titanite for the best catalyst… it’s arguably the best part of the game for casters.
I can’t remember many RPGs where this is discouraged. Only the first two Dark Souls games but the first DS doesn’t have enough spells for it to actually change things so DS2 ends up being the only such game.
There’s actually one scripted invader in Tseldora who dual wields two avelyns. In a hell of a place too.
I’m not a huge fan of katanas because of their annoying diagonal attacks that miss small/moving targets a lot. I much prefer wide horizontal swings combined with either a thrust or a top-down crush as a strong attack.
That will be my next target then!
Aldia’s Keep is behind me now and the Crypt is cleared of its treasures. Souls of Gwyn and Nito are also on me but the other two proved to be a bit harder (Freya mostly thanks to the runback to it; the boss’s easy). I also ascended the Crypt bonfire as I want to get the best royal soldier ring. Almost killed Velstadt and then he one-shotted me with a lucky move. Twin Pursuers is another of my NG+ goals but that will be really hard haha.
Twin Pursuers… That was a fight that I did once, just to prove that I could, and I think I completely skipped past it every time after that. I have never found myself in dire enough need of an extra 15 AR to put myself through that again, lmao. It’s amazing the difficulty spike you get with two Pursuers versus one. Solo, they’re some of the easiest proper boss fights in the game. Duo, they’ll slap your shit silly.
Oh, I know you can dual wield them, I didn’t realize you could powerstance them. There is a difference. You can dual wield two of anything, but if you want to stance them, there are some conditions. Wield two of the same class of weapons and have 1.5x the required stats, and hold down your 2H swap button. You’ll get a unique paired moveset.
Again, it totally makes sense that you would be able to do this with crossbows, I just never thought to try. You can’t do it with bows or magic staves, so it just never crossed my mind that it could be a possibility.
Very fair and valid. The game has two dozen weapon types to choose from for just such a reason.
I once again recommend that you check into the Crypt Blacksword, if that’s what you like. I know you’re not big on two-handing your weapons this run, so maybe next time. But CBS’ two hand moveset is exactly that, and one hand is also quite good for an Ultra weapon. It stays one of my top 5 pieces of gear in the game, I love it dearly.
I killed the throne duo and the ore seller is STILL not selling unlimited chunks. I looked it up and she’ll start selling them once Nashandra is dead. I wasn’t in the mood for three bad boss fights (counting Vendrick) so I ended up not doing it today :D
After clearing the ancient dragon’s abode for the best dragon ring, I decided to finally go for the DLCs. There’s not that much left in the main game anyway: memories which I’m not fond of, three areas focused on covenants and a few bosses of which I only like one (Darklurker).
So, I went to Shulva instead. I love this DLC. I went into the DLC with a slow approach trying to explore everywhere and solve every puzzle I can see. It is a bit annoying having to switch between avelyn and a regular crossbow for puzzles tho. I think it’s also the first time I reached the second bonfire the intended way lol.
Surprisingly, the warriors here don’t lose poise even when I’m slicing them with my murakumo! I like the tension these corrosive bugs create. Not a particularly dangerous enemy but still quite effective. The ghost knights are a cool puzzle and that room with spikes and many buttons is just awesome.
I ended up getting the dragonblood sword and the puzzle sword to +5. But the most important is of course the onion head. Fashion Souls after all.
It’s interesting how all the bosses are located rather deep in the area. I haven’t even reached any of them today. I don’t think I will engage the graverobbers because they suck but I’m looking forward to fighting SInh!