DARK SOULS: if you need me i'll be in an induced coma so mvrch comes tomorrow

ah yes of course you can get to the four kings without placing the lordvessel. alternate ending!

I think what you do or don't do with the Lordvessel only determines if you can join the Darkwraiths. What ending you get depends solely on your actions after the final boss.

you have to complete anor londo to access the boss. however, you need to go through new londo ruins to drain the water at some point anyway, and after that to reach the boss you are best starting at the bonfire between darkroot and valley of the drakes and just sprinting past the drakes.

― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, February 11, 2014 4:10 PM

nah u can warp from the abyss w/out lordvessel, only precursor to four kings is to kill sif

oh someone said that. also i find firelink to four kings shortcut (jumping down to darkwraith area near start of new londo) easier than running through drakes

just touched some "Dragon Remnants" and got invaded by a dragon guy who killed me. Assume it's a covenant thing. Anyone else seen that before?

Yeah, that's the summon sign for Dragon Covenant dudes. I don't think I've ever actually seen one.

okay, this fucking great hollow

don't bother with The Great Hollow until you have the Lordvessel.

well what the hell else can i do? Only avenue i see now is this spider queen on the hill.

she should be next on your list.

CURSED FUCK FUCK FUCK this is the worst

I messed around in the hollow but didn't go past the basilisks at the bottom, just got a bunch of swag swag. The cloranthy ring has been indispensable.

Heh didn't mean to write swag twice but it works.

now i'm trapped here and can't get out one way or the other with half hp. what the fuck

TOLD YOU.

first play through i went to The Great Hollow early on, got cursed, made it to the fire all the way at the bottom, realized it was next to impossible for me to kill the boss down there in that state, found out it's a dead end, then had to run all the way back up through that mess. don't fuck with it until you have the Lordvessel to warp yourself out. and a purging stone or two.

well, like Jordan said, it might be worth grabbing some loot in the upper areas, but don't push it.

ugh that's exactly what happened to me - made it to bottom of the Hollow cursed, found it was a dead end and it took forever to get back up again. Never again oh wait it's almost March ^_^

well, i escaped but it took a fuckin' hour. now i gotta raise 5k souls to go get that curse break as i still can't quite get to dude on the rooftop at half health.

i didn't find the bottom bonfire so it was a question of climbing back up outta blighttown and figuring out how to evade the three club wielding shit monsters up top

Ruuun. I invaded Lautrec and killed him with my dying swing. I'll take it but that's my worst habit in this game, going for broke when I think someone's almost dead and leaving myself open.

me too. that's how i lost to the spider queen. One hit away!
Now that i got the fire keeper's soul, the bonfire in firelink shrine is gone. Fuckin'... ahma kill that shithead knight.

you can use the firekeeper's soul on your flasks a couple other places (like the spider queen's sister if you find her nearby).

ornstein & smough down, but i only did by venturing into co-op for the first time (and then mostly staying out of the way). now i'm past the hydra and getting killed by giant kitty cats.

blog update: i had an easier time with sif than any boss so far, go figure. now i'm in ghostland...i made a cursed sword, which i don't have near the stats to wield but it seems to work just fine nonetheless (as far as killing the ghosts in one hit goes).

i beat the spider queen (with a summoned friend) and am now trying to determine if I should go back to that newly opened gate or instead go through the sewer system to the other half of blighttown. i think i may have to step away from this for a few weeks...

probably not worth sticking around in Blighttown, I'd get above ground and give Sen's Fortress a go...

I will when i have the time. quick straw poll: new thread for dark souls 2? anyone want to start it?

i vote new thread

seems superfluous, this one has less than 500 posts. but it is not 2003 and i am not ned so please start as many threads as you wish.

gonna go out on a limb and say this is going to get heavy traffic when the sequel drops so a new thread is sensible.

new thread would be a good idea imo.

four kings :(

load up on poise (havel's armor does the trick) and tank 'em. their sword swipes do less damage the closer you are. if you've messed with Pyromancy, Power Within helps. this is a boss where summoning generally makes it more difficult, so don't bother.

i somehow beat these guys no sweat on first attempt. gave me hell on NG+ tho.

Havel's Armour plus Havel's Ring is an excellent combo generally IMO

thanks, i'll give it a shot, though i'd have to lose my cloranthy ring. also not sure if i should use one of my lightning/fire/divine weapons that are all much weaker than my main black knight sword, it's hard to experiment when just getting to the boss is such a pain (i think i have my route down now though).

make sure you're two handing your weapon too.

i like putting on low-weight armor so can fast-roll dodge + crest shield then get up close and whack them

^my initial strategy

you can take their hits up close but gotta watch out for the grab and the aoe blast

oh yeah, Green Blossom is a big help here too. probably the time to use those if you have 'em.

btw i put some Dark Souls in this mix i made, s/o to this thread:
https://soundcloud.com/do-the-astral-plane/chants-mix-for-the-astral-plane

(7:00)

:) is that the moonlight butterfly

indeed

sweet

four kings went down on the first take last night, havel's armor + ring did the trick, thanks guyz. in the late game it seems like the having the right gear combination is way more important than before (which makes sense, because now i've acquired all this random shit that i would otherwise not have reason to use).

Havel's Armour is p much the best in the game, only problem is it can't get upgraded and is mad heavy. His greatshield requires strength of 50 to wield!

It does have the best weight to poise ratio in the game, I believe. Like some of the either BIG armors though (stone, smough, black iron, giant's, etc.), it also has a stamina regen penalty.

upgraded giants armor is the best overall

http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/220/b/e/giant_dad__by_alexmercer95-d6h77a8.gif

http://i.imgur.com/rQy05RI.jpg

was just gonna post that!