☠ Souls Series Symposium ☠

[Segata]

Well, I am deep in the Tomb of the Giant.

The sooner I get out of here the better.

I may have to take a little break though. I have played a LOT of Dark Souls the past few days. Gotta come up for air.

Is this the one with the archers with big ass arrows in the cave? Been a while since I have seen a DS PT on YouTube.

[marlowe221]

Well, I am deep in the Tomb of the Giant.

The sooner I get out of here the better.

I may have to take a little break though. I have played a LOT of Dark Souls the past few days. Gotta come up for air.

Is this the one with the archers with big ass arrows in the cave? Been a while since I have seen a DS PT on YouTube.

That's the one!

[CFFJR]

So I was planning to play some other games for a while, but I haven't had the motivation start anything and I keep thinking about it, so...

I'm diving in to Dark Souls, because



I picked a Wanderer to start. No idea how much starting class matters in this one.

First thing I did when I got to Firelink Shrine was use a humanity to revive.

Second thing I did when I got to Firelink Shrine was get my ass killed by a skeleton. What a waste.

I went through the Undead Burg a bit. Found a big knight looking guy down below and chose to leave him alone (chicken). Also went and fought the bull demon up top, but he killed me twice. Climbing up a tower to do that drop attack on him seems a good start, but there's no room to maneuver on this bridge, so I might just stay up there and use it as an arena since he follows you anyway. In the second attempt he hit me once and I went flying off to my doom.

Started too late to play much though, so more tomorrow.

HLTB says DS is quite a bit longer than DeS. Would you guys say that's accurate?

[isiolia]

HLTB says DS is quite a bit longer than DeS. Would you guys say that's accurate?

I think DeS has the least amount of total content in the series. The caveat there is that it doesn't have any optional areas or much in the way of optional bosses. If you focus only on required bosses, then Bloodborne takes it (I think only like 8 are actually necessary).

Still, at least in my experience, it's a much shorter game. I think my DS1 runs so far have been ~55 hours, 30, 30 NG+, and 15 for sorcery (yay one-shotting the final boss). DeS were ~20 sorcery and 15 melee or thereabouts.


Starting class doesn't matter -that- much. Only really a big deal if you want to be casting right away or something.

[Xeogred]

Yup, Dark Souls is longer for sure. Hope you were prepared for that. Demon's and Bloodborne are the shortest ones.

Wanderer makes me cringe a little, that was my first shot at the game and I tried focusing on Katana's / Dex, but I failed with this character. This was back when it was new and I still wasn't too good at these games. The class itself doesn't really matter, but yeah Wanderer set I think pushes for a Dex build. I probably had no idea what I was doing though. Normal Dex weapons are probably great, katana's need more patience for the bleed effect to happen. I'd rather do more damage up front though.

I beat DS1 after beating Demon's and DS2, then went back in with a new character focusing purely on STR and greatswords. I did way better the second time around.

Be very wise with your stat spending in this one. It's not nearly as forgiving as Demon's, a few points can make or break things. Only focus on 3-4 stats. Armor is actually important and does things too. And parrying/backstabbing is more viable. That about sums up the major differences to me mechanically.

[isiolia]

I beat DS1 after beating Demon's and DS2, then went back in with a new character focusing purely on STR and greatswords. I did way better the second time around.

I think I did Wanderer on my first playthrough of DS1 as well, and I think even pushed DEX a bit (though I was largely using Quelaag's Furysword). I didn't do the DLC even for that run, which probably would have pushed it to 70-80 hours or more.

On my second and NG+ runs, I focused more on STR and used a Zweihander. That let me use most greatshields, which were quite helpful in some cases (I've yet to push STR to 50 for Havel's). I guess a DEX build lets you double dip more for bows or pyromancy (cast speed).

Starting class doesn't so much matter for that though. Practically speaking, the extra DEX Wanderer or whatnot gets just means covering some different equip stat requirements (longbow for instance).

I think a more focused build isn't as critical as all that with stats. You end up with more than enough to soft cap multiple stats and then some. So it's only really an issue if there's a complete lack of focus. Or if you change your mind about what you want to build toward.

[Gunstar Green]

In DS1 I went with pyromancer spells (because FIRE) and strength (because GIANT SWORDS) and it served me very well. I think I was in the 50-hours-ish range.

I honestly don't even remember what my starting class was since it becomes kind of irrelevant once you start leveling the stats you want to use whatever items you like. I found the game to be way more gear driven than anything else. Once you've got the stat you need for a piece of gear it's more worth it to focus on upgrading that gear than wasting those points on anything other than surviving better.

[Xeogred]

Yeah, that's a good point. Upgrade materials are hard to come by so you will want to make sure they count and you plan to stick with that armor or weapon for awhile. Once I got the Silver Knight set I stuck with that. Early on I would say try to hold off on upgrading armor much if you can, so you can keep pushing forward and get better stuff that will have better return in the long run.

Pyromancy is fun to use even if you are playing mostly melee, because it has little requirements. I think you might need a tiny bit of Int and Faith, but I can't remember (it changes between the games, but I think DS1 has the least amount of requirements). Fireball and Firestorm can be useful. Along with Iron Flesh / Sweat or whatever those two defensive ones are.

[isiolia]

In DS1 the strength of Pyromancy keys entirely on the Pyromancy Flame level. You do need Attunement for spell slots. Otherwise, DEX does slightly boost cast speed up to a point.

Pretty much the magic for everyone in that game, and almost always worth having for some of the buffs if nothing else.


DS2 maintains the zero requirement aspect of Pyromancy, but makes it scale on INT/FTH.

DS3 puts stats requirements on the spells (albeit fairly modest), along with the scaling.


Upgrade materials are really just a matter of where you are in the game. Any of the games in the Souls series only tend to allow for a handful of fully upgraded weapons per game cycle due to limited Titanite Slabs or similar. However, you can buy or farm the lower tier items pretty readily by mid game.

[MrPopo]

DS1 I went Knight and cranked strength. Havel's is amazing (both the shield and the armor) and you should seriously consider using armor in DS1. Then in DS2 it sucks again, and finally in DS3 it is worth using if you want to build for it but you aren't gimping yourself by not getting it.