Dark Souls + Demon's Souls + Bloodborne Megathread XIII. The Ringed City - Games

I knew i'd need my torch for some weird shit when i knew A. It was right at the start and B. I knew it wouldn't be very dark in general and i usually kept it on me anyway.

Well on my first playthrough and I saw that note, I took a torch out and just had it around. Eventually got status'd and saw what it did. You get noticeably covered in leeches when you get that status, so it's obvious that the note is referencing the torch to get rid of them.

[QUOTE=Katatonic717;52220364]Come to the painted world if you want an asswhoopin' from solaire and swolaire [t]https://puu.sh/vO7W7/c1fa67d0e6.png[/t][/QUOTE] I am the swolaire here and it's so goddamn funny to me I don't even know why. [thumb]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/835826562072990121/73A61B8B667CC69C4884FFE781771D3561198577/[/thumb]

I didn't even need the messages to tell me. It's the same logic you should have already learned at the Cathedral of the Deep.

[QUOTE=Nidhogg;52221866]I didn't even need the messages to tell me. It's the same logic you should have already learned at the Cathedral of the Deep.[/QUOTE] That's the church I was thinking of. Couldn't remember the name of the place.

[QUOTE=Nidhogg;52221866]I didn't even need the messages to tell me. It's the same logic you should have already learned at the Cathedral of the Deep.[/QUOTE] and in the dungeons, there are some maggot enemies there too torches and fire damage in general is p useful since many different enemies react to it, its pretty handy early game to get a torch and just pull it out every now and then to whack something to stun it

[QUOTE=DeVotchKa;52221781]I knew i'd need my torch for some weird shit when i knew A. It was right at the start and B. I knew it wouldn't be very dark in general and i usually kept it on me anyway.[/QUOTE][QUOTE=PotatoArmada;52221804]Well on my first playthrough and I saw that note, I took a torch out and just had it around. Eventually got status'd and saw what it did. You get noticeably covered in leeches when you get that status, so it's obvious that the note is referencing the torch to get rid of them.[/QUOTE][QUOTE=Nidhogg;52221866]I didn't even need the messages to tell me. It's the same logic you should have already learned at the Cathedral of the Deep.[/QUOTE] Good for you... *clap gesture* ...You figured out the obscure thing the developer was thinking. Glad you want to lorde it over me like I'm stupid and just asked why I couldn't use an UGS with a strength of 12. Is it honestly so hard to imagine it just wasn't a critical enough mechanic to hinder me, and that I've gotten along fine without it? Because I don't recall finding a torch in that area, and if I did, I'd generally just shrug and be a bit disappointed it was a weapon I'd never use, and was therefore worthless to me. I found out the leech monsters died fast to fire, and I had several direct methods of using fire at range, since I didn't want to really be wrestling the things close-up. I'd figure those messages meant "torch" in a figurative sense, as in "torch the bastard.. use [i]fire,[/i] dummy," and maybe the torch was an option to have a fire weapon without needing to infuse anything or apply resins. Because in a hostile area around my level, why would I put down my upgraded weapon for a base one on the off chance it does something special? No, I'm sticking with my trusty blade. That only leaves the offhand... which means setting down my shield on the off chance the torch does something. By my logic, that negligible chance isn't worth the risk, so instead I continue with my dominant strategy of using the equipment I built my character around. And look at that! It worked! Besides that, the logic of the mechanic itself escapes me, as does its "self-evident" nature. If I'm a pyromancer, and any nearby flame will get rid of the leeches... then why do they only respond to the torch sitting idly in my hand? Why not do that with my pyromancy flame too? And say you're besieged by the leeches after killing the flesh golem with your torch... wouldn't the leeches die the instant the status effect hit, since it was already out? How would you even know anything had happened if it cancelled the effect like that? Because otherwise, having it as an alternate weapon to switch to sounds like a long shot when you're thinking, "oh shit, my bleed meter is building, gotta do something about this! What curatives do I have?" Not ONCE does the thought "switch weapon and maybe the torch will get rid of them" EVER enter my mind. I'm sorry, my brain doesn't work like that. And I think you're taking its "obviousness" for granted just because you already know it.

Also, I figured it out because when I got leeched on my first playthrough, one of the nearby fire sconces scattered throughout the area unleeched me. In fact, my highest rated message is about the torches. "Bleeding? , try torch"

The status effect will blip for a second even if you have the torch out.

[QUOTE=Vigilante2470;52222010]Wall O' Dicks[/QUOTE] Sweet Jesus man, it's a game. If you're too inept to figure something out, look it up, no shame in that. Or Hell, read the messages like one of the posts above says, people actually do help each other in these games ya know.

[QUOTE=Daemon White;52222047]Also, I figured it out because when I got leeched on my first playthrough, one of the nearby fire sconces scattered throughout the area unleeched me. In fact, my highest rated message is about the torches. "Bleeding? , try torch"[/QUOTE] Well, after the initial unpleasant experience with it, I decided not to let that happen again... and guess what, it's pretty avoidable, so that didn't happen either. Also, seriously guys, fuck your dumb ratings. Are we four? Are you honestly so incapable of empathizing with another person's perspective or experience that you need to put a "fuck you, no reason given" in box form? [editline]12th May 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=The Terminator;52222085]Sweet Jesus man, it's a game. If you're too inept to figure something out, look it up, no shame in that.[/QUOTE] I really wanted to do DS3 mostly blind, since the first game I went into basically following a walkthrough and knew what was coming. I always felt kinda bad about that, same with using phantoms to beat certain bosses, which I've gone back to solo for my own piece of mind. And like I said, the leeches were never a big enough problem that I had to invoke the Googles.

[QUOTE=Vigilante2470;52222086]Also, seriously guys, fuck your dumb ratings. Are we four? Are you honestly so incapable of empathizing with another person's perspective or experience that you need to put a "fuck you, no reason given" in box form?[/QUOTE] I believe they've been dropping you boxes given you've titled vitriol as experience. Taking something that was at best a mild inconvenience and letting everyone know how awful it was. Such as right now with ratings. You would probably stop getting them if you ironically enough started empathizing with their perspective rather than taking everything purely from your own.

I learned of the torch trick from a sunbro at the cathedral when he did the L1 L1 L1 meme thing actually I learned a lot of the secret paths and items from sunbros and phantoms the only secret I figured out out of the game is the humanity puzzle because I was spoiled in this thread or smth even the angels I figured out with 'revenge ahead' orange soapstone

[QUOTE=BlueFlytrap;52222135]I believe they've been dropping you boxes given you've titled vitriol as experience. Taking something that was at best a mild inconvenience and letting everyone know how awful it was. Such as right now with ratings.[/quote] "Titled vitriol as experience"? What? I like to think of myself as a reviewer. If I find an experience negative, and I want to give my summation of it... what, are you telling me to pull my punches? To not mention something I don't have a hard-grievance with? I don't know what you're saying here. [QUOTE] You would probably stop getting them if you ironically enough started empathizing with their perspective rather than taking everything purely from your own.[/QUOTE] ...Except that it was entirely a question of, "how did you not get this, dumbass, everybody else did," so what am I supposed to do, if not explain WHY I missed those particular clues they're referring to, and might not agree that they're obvious as a result of my playstyle and tendencies. Is the correct answer to say, "yes you're right, I'm clearly too stupid to get it, I'll go die now,"? I... I just don't even...

I think we need to simmer down a tad.

I think you're getting boxes because you're sounding a whole lot like DSP complaining rather than learning from experience since the stuff you brought up are really minor gameplay obstacles [editline]13th May 2017[/editline] This is like Sen's fortress all over again

There's not too many puzzles to figure out. Like I mentioned before, torch was because the fire sconces helped even thought it still took me a bit to figure out why it helped, then fire = torch. Most illusory walls were obvious enough, or scattered with messages. The angels thing was because I saw an ugly thing and killed it then the angel died, which was useful.

To be fair Fromsoft really doesn't explain the torch thing themselves. Closest thing they made to an attempt is that you get the Follower Torch not far from the Ariandel Chapel, which was also already 2/3 a year after the vanilla game released.

[QUOTE=Vigilante2470;52222176]"Titled vitriol as experience"? What? I like to think of myself as a reviewer. If I find an experience negative, and I want to give my summation of it... what, are you telling me to pull my punches? To not mention something I don't have a hard-grievance with? I don't know what you're saying here.[/QUOTE] Taking something small like a small mechanic, rating, or reply and going to town on how awful it is. Hence vitriol. I'm not even telling you to not say it. Just to phrase it as anything other than bitter. [QUOTE=Vigilante2470;52222176]...Except that it was entirely a question of, "how did you not get this, dumbass, everybody else did," so what am I supposed to do, if not explain WHY I missed those particular clues they're referring to, and might not agree that they're obvious as a result of my playstyle and tendencies. Is the correct answer to say, "yes you're right, I'm clearly too stupid to get it, I'll go die now,"? I... I just don't even...[/QUOTE] I didn't clue in to the effects of the torch on leeches till my third playthrough. Aside from player messages your only clue that it would even be a solution would be the inherent weakness to fire the enemies who inflict it have. The passive debuff wasn't enough of an problem where I even needed to seek a solution and that's likely why I missed it. It was that much of a non-issue regardless of playstyle. Why I asked for you to empathize is so that you yourself realize that they all personally had a 'wait what? this works?' moment. They aren't disagreeing with you on it being unusually obscure. They're instead trying to figure out why every single tiny thing in this game that gives you trouble is worth a wall of text. [editline]12th May 2017[/editline] You're free to speak however you like about the judicators though when you get to them.

I mean, if we want to talk about "Dumb things with torches", nothing will ever Top DS2's Earthen Peak gimmick. "Try torch!" indeed. At least the maggots thing makes sense: The enemies themselves are super weak to fire, avoid brightly lit places and generally give off an "easy to burn" kind of vibe. It's not like we were being asked to tiptoe out onto a ledge and set fire to a giant [i]metal[/i] windmill or something.

I'm pretty sure 2/3 of all maggot infested creatures were at the cathedral and actually outside in the bright sun tho. Like the 2 maggot things chilling down in the sunlit crevasse.

Finished Ringed City a little while ago. That's every Dark Souls boss for me, just need to finish BB and play DeS somehow. I'm pretty okay with the series being done for now. [QUOTE=Ona;52213799]But for phase 3? Hell, dude. I don't know. This is essentially Lady Maria on fucking steroids and after two other phases, you're almost certainly going to be feeling the fatigue. Her only real weaknesses in this phase is that: 1) She can be staggered, parried and backstabbed, if you've the nerve for it. 2) Her attacks are wave-based, and there is a small window between the barrages where you can hit her. 3) You can summon Gael to enter the battle in phase 2, even if you're un-embered. And he can run interference on Friede for you during phase 3. [/QUOTE] I stayed at medium range and was way less aggressive than with the first phase. I only attacked after she did the big blackflame AOE and the invisibility combo. That way you're only dealing with telegraphed combos instead of trying to get risky openings between her normal attacks. [QUOTE=Sewer guy;52211244]That staircase of 8 Harald knights can fuck right off. I'd rather deal with the Ringed Knights more than them.[/QUOTE] Yeah that whole run from inner wall to the next area is pretty brutal. I was amazed that [sp]there wasn't a halfway shortcut to one of the alleys by the stairs.[/sp] I kept looking off to the sides and getting killed instead of going all the way to the bottom. I would try to wait until the first one goes to the top and parks in the little alcove and drop attack him, then pick the others off the same way with the bridges.

I was thinking, since the series is basically over (at least, as of now), how about we post lists on our very personal hardest and favorite bosses from all the three main games (DLCs included)? I'll give some mentions about the spin-offs (Demon's Souls and Bloodborne) as well. I'm listing them from hardest/best to hard-ish/liked. I'm not going to consider mini-bosses. [B]Hardest bosses[/B] 1) Ornstein and Smough (DS1) 2) Smelter Demon (DS2) 3) King of the Storm- The Nameless King (DS3) 4) Sister Friede - Father Ariandel (DS3) 5) Sir Alonne (DS2) 6) Pontiff Sulyvahn (DS3) (Demon's Souls honorable mentions: Flameluker, Maneater. Bloodborne's honorable mentions: Blood Starved Beast; Martyr Logarius; Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos; Rom, the Vacuous Spider) [B]My favorite bosses[/B] 1) Soul of Cinder (DS3) 2) Abyss Watchers (DS3) 3) Gwyn, Lord of Cinder (DS1) 4) Artorias the Abysswalker (DS1) 5) Lothric, Younger Prince (DS3) 6) Looking Glass Knight (DS2) 7) Iudex Gundyr (DS3) 8) Dancer of the Boreal Valley (DS3) 9) Old Dragonslayer (DS2) 10) Halflight, Spear of the Church (DS3) (Demon's Souls honorable mentions: Maiden Astraea, Old Monk. Bloodborne's honorable mentions: Father Gascoigne; Gehrman the First Hunter;The One Reborn; Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower; Ludwig, The Holy Blade)

My hardest would be: - Manus - Kalameet - I guess Gwyn Favorites: - Artorias - Gaping Dragon - Gwyn - Satan - Dancer [editline]13th May 2017[/editline] There are more but I don't really need to list nearly every boss in the games.

Hard 1) Fume Knight 2) Manus 3) Nameless King 4) Pope Sully (Old Monk because I usually got players who were both good mechanically and had like 50 million darkmoon grasses, Flamelurker; Orphan, Laurence, Ebrietas, DEFILED WATCHDOG :scream:) Love 1) Thot Friede and Daddy Ariandel 2) Soul of Cinder 3) Artorias 4) Alonne 5) Kalameet 6) O&S 7) Fume Knight 8) Slave Knight Gael 9) Abyss Watchers 10) Mirror Knight (Old Hero, False Allant, Flamelurker, Penetrator (:cat:); Maria, Gehrman, Ludwig, Martyr Logarius, Papa G, Cleric Beast, Ebrietas, Queen Yharnam, haha holy shit this list is already so long and I have like 6 more I can add so I'm just gonna cut it off here)

So I have't kept up with Souls for a while. The DS3 season pass is on sale on Humble for £10. I heard Ashes didn't really have enough content (PvE wise) to justify getting at full price. How does the Ringed City compare?

[QUOTE=X-Neon;52222845]So I have't kept up with Souls for a while. The DS3 season pass is on sale on Humble for £10. I heard Ashes didn't really have enough content (PvE wise) to justify getting at full price. How does the Ringed City compare?[/QUOTE] Ringed city is much better. Getting both for $10 is very much worth it.

Coming from Dark Souls and into Dark Souls 3, do any of the enemies abide to any sort of stamina system? It feels like they can instantly start wailing on you again the moment you're done dodging. That is, if they don't do a complete 180 to zone in on you and still proceed to hit you after you dodge behind them -- I find it alot more irritating to play than 1

[B]Hardest:[/B] 1) Ancient Dragon (DS2) - Still haven't beaten this bastard. 2)[sp]Darkeater Midir[/sp](DS3) - I had to spec a ranged max-power mage build and bring in help to kill this guy. 3)[sp]Slave Knight Gael[/sp](DS3) - A tough as hell fight simply due to how massive his HP bar is. 4) Father Ariendel & Sister Friede (DS3) - Phase 1 and 2 are manageable. Phase 3 is hell in a handbasket. 5) Fume Knight (DS2) - To date one of the toughest fights I've ever done. But probably the best DS2 boss IMO. 6) Graverobber, Varg and Cera (DS2) - Artificial difficulty at its purest. Made worse by the hellish run-up. 7) Nameless King (DS3) - Another wickedly cool fight. Phase 1 is alright, but Phase 2 consistently kicks my ass. 8) Dancer of the Boreal Valley (DS3) - Dripping with style (and booty) but very challenging, a great fight. 9) Elana, Squalid Queen (DS2) - Perhaps I just have terrible luck, but this damn boss [i]always[/i] summons Velstadt first time. 10) Royal Rat Authority (DS2) - Two words: Toxic Rats. Fuck this boss, worst example of artificial difficulty in vanilla DS2. [B]Honourable mentions:[/B] - Bed of Chaos (DS1), simply due to the clunky DS1 controls and the puzzle-boss nature. - Pontiff Sulyvahn (DS3) Those wild attack swings, crazy combos and camera controls gave me a lot of trouble before I got practiced with this guy. - Aldritch, Devourer of Gods (DS3) For that Phase 2 Arrow Storm attack. - Demon Firesage (DS1) For some reason this boss kicked my ass so hard... No idea why. - Sir Alonne (DS2) When I fought this guy, my hard'n'heavy attack style got me killed so often. Cool fight, though. [B]Favorites:[/B] 1) Twin Princes (DS3) - One of my favorite bosses, lore wise and design wise. Plus, that delicious Harry Lister Smith VO, Mmm-Mmm! 2) Crystal Sage (DS3) - Definitely an odd choice, I know. But I have a soft-spot for this boss. I don't know why, but the design, location and music hits me right in the feels. 3) Fume Knight (DS2) - To-date my favorite boss in Dark-Souls II. In my opinion, they absolutely nailed this boss's design. 4) Ivory King (DS2) - Another great DLC boss. This one wins out of sheer style points as well as lore. 5)[sp]Slave Knight Gael[/sp](DS3) - Harkening back to Artorias and a super fun and challenging fight. Great way to cap off the trilogy! 6) Knight Artorias (DS1) - One of the coolest fights in the O.G Dark-Souls. I didn't actually have too much trouble with this guy, but he's awesome as hell. 7) Nameless King (DS3) - Arguably one of the coolest damn fights in the series, especially during phase 1. 8) Dancer of the Boreal Valley (DS3) - [i]Dat booty tho.[/i] 9) Dark Sun Gwyndolin (DS1) - While the fight itself is pretty uninspired, I love me that pretty snake-feet boy. 10) Abyss Watchers (DS3) - Super stylish, amazing soundtrack and rad design. Shame he's so easy. [B]Honourable mentions:[/B] - Ludwig the Accursed (BB) Never played Bloodborne, sadly. But I absolutely [i]adore[/i] this boss's lore and music. - Gaping Dragon (DS1) Here purely for his massively cool design, and one of the best boss intros around. - Storm King (DS0) Again, haven't played Demon's Souls, but I think the King of Storms design and concept is fucking awesome. Thats all I can think of for this list, there's probably more that I'll think of later but, yeah. My listings.

[QUOTE=Vigilante2470;52222010]I found out the leech monsters died fast to fire, and I had several direct methods of using fire at range, since I didn't want to really be wrestling the things close-up. I'd figure those messages meant "torch" in a figurative sense, as in "torch the bastard.. use [i]fire,[/i] dummy," and maybe the torch was an option to have a fire weapon without needing to infuse anything or apply resins.[/QUOTE] I don't think you really need a note, you just needed to take that "died fast to fire" logic further. When you see hundreds of leeches that are causing you to quickly die, after getting attacked by an enemy that you already know is weak to fire, you're supposed to panic and try to figure out how to remove them. First you try rolling, then you try casting some fire spells, then you pull out your torch, and hey, presto. Or you don't, and that's fine too, it's just going to be a little more difficult. I actually don't think I knew about this before after I went through that area, but that just meant I had to be more careful and swat them out of the air when they come flying. I honestly don't understand your complaints, you might as well be complaining about any other part of any other Dark Souls game. Enemies that "gank" you? Enemies that do a lot of damage? Huge, resilient enemies? 'Vile imagery' and deadly status effects? None of this is new or different at all.