Dark Souls 3 - April 2016 : You Died, You Died, You Died

I just fought him a couple of times right now with a heavy shield and a funny hat, in my underwear. Clearly armor doesn't do shit in this game. I mean, I died both times, but at least I can roll, so that's a good sign.

You know what? Fuck this boss. Maybe if I didn't have to fight the stupid bird dragon first, maybe if I didn't have to sit through the cut scene over and over, maybe if I just entered the fog to fight the Nameless King ... I'd probably still say this fuck this boss, but maybe I'd have a shot. As it is, even leveled up the dude basically two shots me with relentless attacks, and dodging and shielding only seems to be so effective so far. So I think I'll move on and come back later.

Screaming aside (def turn your volume town), this is a good reminder of what a civilian learning this boss looks like (not a streamer who can do it sl1 + blindfolded + broken straight sword):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLS-mpwRM10

Stay close, only hit him once, otherwise you risk not having enough endurance to roll through his combos.

lol I've come really close to where he was toward the end, but the road there has been relentless, and replicating the results ... few and far between. Aside from dying, that is.

Nah fuck this boss and its bending space and time attacks. The sweeps are one thing, but you roll at an angle to his right when he's diving down to his left, 45 degrees away from where his spear is pointing, and he still somehow impales you. Again, maybe I could take it if I didn't have to fight the fucking bird and his strongest ally, the camera, again and again beforehand, but this seems like a (one-sided) war of attrition.

Just curious, what soul level are you at?

https://oyster.ignimgs.com/mediawiki/apis.ign.com/dark-souls-3/a/a3/Screen_Shot_2016-03-15_at_11.54.11_AM.jpg?width=1280

I think I'm at ... 107? Something like that. Pretty high, for a regular guy.

I can totally see how this all went down.

"How is that boss design coming along?"

"We have an angry dude on a flying dragon."

"Sounds good so far. How does it play?"

"Well, he's totally overpowered, and the camera is fucked. Also, it doesn't really matter how much you've leveled up, or what rings you have, or what weapons or shields or buffs you use. You might as well be naked, it's so unforgiving."

"Hmm. Does the environment at least look cool?"

"Just kind of nondescript white clouds. Oh, and there is no NPC summon, either."

"Oof. Well, I'm afraid we have to keep things the way they are, release day is tomorrow. Do you at least have a name for the boss?"

"About that ... "

There, I beat him. Obviously I'd seen a million posts and videos that proved he *could* be beat, but I was just not getting there. So I looked up how to cheese him, and even then there were only two options.

The first was to transpose the dragonarmour greatshield, which I did and tried, but he kept plowing through me, despite its high defenses. It was just taking too much strength to wield, and while I survived his first couple of hits I was usually so drained a third inevitably got me.

The second option I'd never considered: ranged attack. I'm playing as a knight, so a melee build, which means no casting fireballs or soulspears or whatever. But this one video demonstrated you can really take advantage of his dramatic slow approach by wearing him down ... with a crossbow. So I upgraded the heaviest crossbow I had, loaded up on heavy bolts, and then after taking out the dragon with the sword and getting to the Nameless King, just steadily walked backwards away from him as I fired my crossbow. Now, he still gets mad and attacks, so I had to stay relatively light and nimble and rolly-polly, and I kept my sword in my right hand. (I didn't bother with a shield, which seemed pretty useless in this fight). The secret was to use the crossbow to both wear him down and draw out his own ranged flying attack, which opened a couple of windows to swipe at him. And he still often connected; I ended with maybe two spare estus. Once you finally beat him down to those lightning bolt AOE attacks he's a lot easier to dodge, stagger and stab, which I did. Oh, and right before the second phase I popped the one ember I had left, which gave me a much needed health boost. (Fighting him before, I burned through maybe 35 embers.)

Am I embarrassed? Hell no. This game gives you enemies with infinite stamina, massive HP, multiple stages, one or two shot abilities and no obvious weaknesses that can still kill you in seconds, no matter your level. And then makes the Nameless King walk slowly toward you like a chump? It's an invitation to cheese, afaict, as blatant as "try plunging attack."

Anyway, I think this might be the most perverse level of the entire game so far. One bonfire is by a giant dragon boss you can one-shot with a plunging attack it tells you to use (har), another bonfire is by the infinitely generating NPC you can kill forever to farm souls, and the other is by the Nameless King, the biggest pain in the ass and most difficult boss so far. And an optional one, at that. Very funny, Dark Souls.

Congrats, way to persevere, can't wait until you get to the Ringed City. ;)

I know there are tough bosses to come. That seems to be the way of the DLC, plus I have the Lord of Cinder or whatever they call the main game Big Bad to take out. But in the meantime I took on the wolf and his pal in the snow, and after Nameless King it was very satisfying to kick their ass in seconds.

OK, I've fought Sister Friede a few times now, so far always with NPC help. The first time I came so close to beating her I thought I *had* beat her; I couldn't even tell that she had a sliver of health left, and that pause cost me (even though I had plenty of estus). Each other time I (we, me and Gael) have made it to the third stage, but I think I was so emboldened by that first attempt I've just played very aggressively and been taken out by my own sloppiness. Either way, I think it's a cool fight with a cool (long) cut scene, so I have no real concerns about beating her.

Took a few more times than I expected, and I needed to be embered and have help from Gael, but finally took her/them down. Without a doubt my favorite fight, never got frustrated or bored with it, not even the cut scene. The funny thing is, I thought it was the end of that DLC, so proceeded on to the Dreg Heap, where I let my guard down and immediately got my ass kicked.

Nice, that third phase can be brutal.

The next big boss fight is another of the few that I always end up summoning on.

Oh, wait, Dreg Heap is the start of Ringed City? I'm going to hold off until I beat the main game big bad (who I'd put off until after Ashes of Snowland).

I beat Soul of Cinder on my second attempt. I love how in this game and the first game, the two that I have played, the final boss is far from the hardest boss. Gives it all an additional sad air of tragedy.

Don't know why I'd been shying away from any giant swords. I've been using a fully upgraded black knight sword and fully upgraded claymore for much of the game, but using a fully upgraded lothric ultra greatsword has been awesome.

You know what else I love about this game? I followed up the nominal finale by traveling back to Archdragon Peak just to check something out, and I promptly got my ass kicked by snake people.

Something else I love about these games so far is that I've spent so much time, and done and fought so many things so many different ways ... and I've still never used magic or pyro or played online. And do the covenants ever do anything if you're offline? I think they were important once in DS1, but I forgot all about them after I joined them in this game, too.

Biggest regret was not really following or figuring out most of the quests. Esp. the dude in Firelink who I guess would have let me level up for free a lot, but who died before I figured that out.

so I've completed Witcher 3 and just started this last night. got nowhere. that first boss is about as tough as some of the harder bosses in Witcher!

So what can I expect from this game? how does it compare to Witcher? I'm not even really sure what I'm trying to achieve. The story feels a bit loose and cryptic. I take it there isn't so much in the way of dialogue and story, and that it's more about the combat mechanics etc?

the story is cryptic certainly and fragmentary. you’re finding things out through remnants. it’s a v different rhythm. v different game. it’s absolutely not open world, but it is intricately structured.

it is about combat mechanics, very much so - the crucial one being the trade-off between stamina and attacking. but it is also about environment - really i’d say that stories in the soulsborne games are told through environments - the landscapes and buildings - and objects.

Esp. the dude in Firelink who I guess would have let me level up for free a lot, but who died before I figured that out.

It's ok, you would have ended up looking like beef jerky.

lol I don't even know what my character looked like. She was/is female, but I usually have a helmet on.

As for stories, man, it's pretty obscure. Like, I know I got one of the three/four endings, but I have no real idea what happened, or why.

dark souls is not comparable to witcher at all other than being in a medieval setting. gameplay wise it's a challenging action game whereas witcher is a lenient rpg. story wise it's mostly environmental storytelling rather than dialogue based

At some point I'm planning to dive into the DLC (well, Ringed City), though having "finished" the game otherwise there seems to be ... less pressure? Souls don't really matter, progress doesn't really matter, it'll only be for fun, or as fun as these games ever are.

i restarted DS 2 but i think i'm realizing i bought all the DLC awhile back and never got around to it so maybe i should just go back here instead.

dark souls is the ultimate comfort food video game for me; it's always my fallback when i'm really truly distressed.

Ok, started Ringed City. Making slow progress, but it's fun!

Got to Ringed City proper. Demon Prince was dramatic but ultimately one of those filler bosses. As I understand it, the remaining two or three bosses are much tougher, and the generic enemies in this DLC seem tougher, too. I'm glad losing souls (which is to say, repeatedly dying) is not a big deal at this point, because that field with all the insta-kill phantom archers and other comically lethal obstacles killed me a lot.

those phantom archers were *absolute fuckers*.

JUST restarted. That first boss is already a pain! Gotta immerse after playing DS2 for several days to acclimate to control differences.

There has been a lot of fresh blood online, people clearly playing through the game for the first time with their friends, which is nice to see *devil emoji*. I've been dropping lots of embers for people (when they don't disconnect on me).

lol Ringed City is hilariously challenging. Curses, powerful enemies, powerful enemies in multiples. It's kind of neat, because it forces you to approach the game like a bunch of puzzles to solve, since brute force alone can rarely cut it in some of these scenarios.

Loving this. After I make significant progress I do look up to see what I've missed and whether it's worth going back for it. In this case, after I made it to the bonfire before the dragon on the bridge, I look back and ... come on, who in the world would know that you can use a branch to turn into a ghost (*if* you are standing in the swamp), and that you could then float back past the bonfire, go around the corner, and a magic ladder would lower? And that's how you get to the purging monument? That's like hidden wall X10, there is just no way anyone figured that out unless they made it their full time job and literally tried everything.

Oof, that dragon ...

It's super convoluted, but there is a message there that says "Show Your Humanity", so if you know from DS1 that you need to turn into a humanity sprite, and if you know that there are items and spells (Chameleon) in the game that change your shape into one of the elements found in the area, and if you notice that there are little humanities that attack you in the swamp...

But also because of the online element, they can be confident that someone will figure it out, and that the information will be passed along via the in-game messages people leave (and the internet obv)

Also I really can't wait until you fight that dragon :)

Oh, I fought the dragon. Three times, so far. The first time I maybe took out ... 15% of its health? The second time I died with no hits. The third time maybe 10%? Once I just fell down the ladder on the way there and died. It's a bad sign when it takes longer to get the stupid dragon than it does to die to it.

Tried a few more times and I think Midir might be the first boss I just skip. I dunno, there is just no getting the upper hand, and it can one shot you with some attacks, and more or less two shot you with others, so you (I) die real fast. Takes forever to get there, the camera (even not locked on) just doesn't do you any favors, which is an extra pain, since it has about a million HP but you have to hit the head to do the most damage, and even that is one or two hits at a time. Of course it's doable, and if I fight it enough I'll beat it, but lack of any clear progress is more boring than dispiriting.

summons?

I'm offline. And everything I've heard says summoning the in-game NPC assist is no real help, because they add even more HP to the dragon, and they tend to die fast, because NPCs can't (or don't) dodge.

Nooooo. I will say that even with real players, Midir is a summon-proof boss. Additional summons just mess up the AI and make him unpredictable, and this one is all about reading tells and figuring out a counter for each move, and when you can attack. And he already has so much hp, adding summons just makes him ridiculous (because bosses gain hp for each person you summon).

That said, figuring him out was my most memorable fight in all of DS3 (like Manus was for me in DS1).

Also I think locking on is a bad move here, I don't think I did it.

I also think I switched up my weapons just for this boss, because I need something with a long (but not too slow) vertical swing, to reach his head in the moments when you can counterattack.

And like many bosses in this game, there's a riposte opportunity midway through the fight, so it goes faster than you think it will (based on the damage you're doing initially)

(I won't pretend like I didn't watch a couple fights on Youtube to help learn his moveset)

Yeah, I can't figure out a weapon strategy. I was using a heavy lothric knight greatsword, which scales A with strength and has bonus lightning, plus reach, but it's heavy and you have to be judicious with swings. Then I went back to the heavy claymore+10, and you can swing it more, and it has OK reach, but the dragon rarely lets you hit it more than once or twice before moving, anyway. That's why I suspect beating it could ultimately prove boring. Hit once, dodge, wait, hit once, dodge, wait, heal, repeat. And any mistake can seriously set you back if not take you out instantly. My biggest frustration is just finding its head again after dodging. There are times I could have sworn I had a clear shot, but my sword just did not connect. Of course, clearly plenty of people have no problem with Midir, so there's that, too.

I had tons of trouble with Nameless King, too, but there seemed more incentive to do that one. He had some similar issues, though. Fighting the camera, plus a super boring arena. I wish the bonfire was right outside the Midir drop down.

It's definitely a fight where you're only going to get in one hit at a time, maaaaybe two (can't remember, but there's maybe only one or two moves of his where you're safe to keep swinging afterward).

If you can get the hang of controlling your camera without locking on, I think that helps (although you can always lock on once you're going in for a swing, and then unlock again).

I also had a big incentive to beat him, because that's the only way you get to BE the boss in another spot (instead of Halflight, who you probably already fought?).

Yeah, that was easy. Offline, at least.

Exanima - a broken rag doll physics Dark Souls - sounds like a fever dream and this video makes it seem like it plays like one too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAE9k33Qbag