☠ Souls Series Symposium ☠

[isiolia]

Also was FURIOUS to see the Firelink Firekeeper dead again. But...

I read doing the Anor Londo invasion and getting that soul is a way to revive her. In my last run I used this soul without knowing so never got her or Firelink back up again which sucked big time for the Four Kings run. Hopefully this goes smoothly this time and I can restore Firelink.

That's how to do it, yeah. Has to be that one too, you can't just use one of the other Firekeeper souls. The way to avoid it is to kill Lautrec earlier. If you exhaust his conversation options when he shows up in Firelink, he indicates he's going to do it. I'm doing a fat roll run for the experience, and was surprised to see that he'll kill her before both bells are rung.

[Xeogred]

That's how to do it, yeah. Has to be that one too, you can't just use one of the other Firekeeper souls. The way to avoid it is to kill Lautrec earlier. If you exhaust his conversation options when he shows up in Firelink, he indicates he's going to do it. I'm doing a fat roll run for the experience, and was surprised to see that he'll kill her before both bells are rung.

I think I'm going to backtrack and go through Darkroot, New Londo, and Undead Parish before finishing up Sen's Fortress.

I see Lautrec is locked up in Undead Parish and it's maybe recommended to kill him once freeing him? Does that lock anything else out?

EDIT: I'm mixing up Undead Parish with The Catacombs.

I could never do a fat roll character in these, it'd be harder than attempting a magic build haha. I'm even a little dissatisfied with the mid roll and how slow I am using the Claymore this time around. Still too used to the speed of all the other games haha, DS3 especially. But I feel like even Demon's and DS2 don't feel this chunky. Not a knock on it, but just a means to try to play differently. Going to keep pumping up Endurance and maybe stick with lighter equipment for a faster character.

[Gunstar Green]

I fat-rolled through an embarrassingly large amount of my first run in DS1 and since armor is so damn powerful in that game it's actually pretty viable. I didn't realize at the time that the rolls were based on the equipment weight percentage. I thought heavy armor just always gave you the crappy roll.

Lautrec is one of the most amazing assholes of any video game. He effectively TAKES YOUR MAIN HUB AWAY FROM YOU. That's madness. Thankfully I was desperate enough to get the Firelink fire back that I tried to revive the keeper instead of using the soul and it worked. Getting revenge on that jerk was so satisfying.

DS1 combat is definitely really chunky. It's one of the things I enjoyed about it even though I think DS3 probably plays better. There's something really immersive and special to me with how heavy everything feels in Dark Souls.

[isiolia]

I think I'm going to backtrack and go through Darkroot, New Londo, and Undead Parish before finishing up Sen's Fortress.

I see Lautrec is locked up in Undead Parish and it's maybe recommended to kill him once freeing him? Does that lock anything else out?

EDIT: I'm mixing up Undead Parish with The Catacombs.

I could never do a fat roll character in these, it'd be harder than attempting a magic build haha. I'm even a little dissatisfied with the mid roll and how slow I am using the Claymore this time around. Still too used to the speed of all the other games haha, DS3 especially. But I feel like even Demon's and DS2 don't feel this chunky. Not a knock on it, but just a means to try to play differently. Going to keep pumping up Endurance and maybe stick with lighter equipment for a faster character.

He's is locked up in the parish, he simply ends up free whether or not you're the one to do it. Pretty much, if you free him before you do Gargoyles, then you can summon him for that fight (in addition to Solaire). He'll also give you a sunlight medal back at Firelink. However, even if you don't free him, he'll show up back at Firelink after you beat Gargoyles.
I don't think it's necessarily recommended to kill him - it is common to see people knock him off the cliff in Firelink (easy way to kill him I guess), since that nets you the FAP ring and keeps Firelink usable. However, him killing the Firekeeper and you invading to kill him is his storyline (such as it is). His armor set will show up top of where you fight O&S if you do that, you don't get it if you just kill him earlier.

AFAIK the one where it's necessary to kill someone in Firelink is Rhea's storyline.

It's less of a drag than you'd think, and often not all that different most of the time since parries and backstabs and all still work very well. Main thing might be on bosses when iframing through an attack is a lot less something you'd want to do. Still, only a little past O&S on it (did Ash Lake/Painted World and some farming/upgrading), so maybe my opinion will change.

[Xeogred]

Lots of progress today. Made it up O&S. Almost got them my first try, but of course something went wrong.

Might bust out the fat armor for Lautrec, forgot how much of an asshole he is with 3 on 1. Gotta use those stairs to your advantage.

Still not sure what to do weapon wise. The Silver Knight Straight Sword looks awesome, but hopefully I won't have to grind too much for the drop if I want it. I noticed that Lightning does not scale off Faith in this one though... it's just Divine? And it's tempting to make my Claymore+10 infused with Lightning now, but I'm not sure. I loaded up my PS3 save and just used a Lightning Claymore+5 and Fire Bastard Sword+10. Something about figuring out the scaling seems weirder to figure out in this one going back to it now. More ambiguous?

I really need to try Dex and a Rapier build sometime in these, since those seem so fun to use. But I think I've already invested too much into Str to go back in this run.

I forget if you can warp back out of the DLC area at any time? I'm not sure if I'll do it this time. Manus is such a bitch and I think overall it's the weakest DLC across the games. Still highly recommended for new players, but I don't feel compelled to revisit it myself this time.

[MrPopo]

I vote you wait, do Anor Londo enough to get Havel's gear and then kick Lautric's ass with your hideous amounts of poise and club made out of a dragon's tooth (where made out of is defined as ripping it out of a dragon's mouth and stopping there).

[isiolia]

Might bust out the fat armor for Lautrec, forgot how much of an asshole he is with 3 on 1. Gotta use those stairs to your advantage.

You can cheese him with poison arrows if nothing else works

I forget if you can warp back out of the DLC area at any time? I'm not sure if I'll do it this time. Manus is such a bitch and I think overall it's the weakest DLC across the games. Still highly recommended for new players, but I don't feel compelled to revisit it myself this time.

You can. I think it actually lets you directly warp to all the bonfires there once you've tagged them, so you don't really lose anything if you decide to leave and come back later or something.

[Gunstar Green]

Manus is such a bitch and I think overall it's the weakest DLC across the games. Still highly recommended for new players, but I don't feel compelled to revisit it myself this time.

Now you're the one making me sad.

[Xeogred]

You haven't seen 2's yet though to compare... people knock on the first DLC for 3, but I loved it (sucker for snowy areas). And the Ringed City was just incredible, crazy difficulty too at least on my platinum character so I played the DLC fresh on like NG+++ or something. Bloodborne's DLC is really well rounded with some of the best bosses in the entire game, the whole laboratory tower area was amazing.

Dark Souls? ... let's see you get basically an expansion pack to Darkroot and some caves (with the weirdest and dumbest enemies too, like those ghost things looked legit tacky). I know it has some excellent story beats and the giant NPC guy was awesome, best dragon too. But area wise I just thought it was really bland.

Anyways, O&S are destroying the fuck out of me and I'm going crazy. Cleric class was a grave mistake since I went in assuming Faith would be good for Lightning weapons like the other games. So all those points in Faith from the start could have been in something else. I have a Lightning Bastard Sword+4 that's better than my Claymore+10 now. I'm level 55 or something so I'm just grinding in Anor Londo a bit to pump my HP and END a little more. I guess the Lightning Bastard Sword doesn't scale off any stats at all so it seems useless to touch STR and DEX for the moment. I even busted out some pieces of the Stone Knight armor which is helping a lot, but yeah. The lightning AOE butt stomp that both their final forms do is what's destroying me the most. Completely forgot about this move or how to even handle it. I've summoned Solaire of Astora a few times but am just draining humanity, also one time I summoned him and he just glitched out before the door something. Thanks a lot!!! And I must have forgotten what the "Secret Rite" was to kindle further beyond 10 Estus, so that was a waste of humanity too.

This is what I get for thinking I'd have an easier time going through Dark Souls 1 again.

[Xeogred]

Beat the motherfuckers.

Just had to rage, take a break, and channel all the zen in a comeback.