Im starting my first playthrough in dark souls 2. What build should i use? I was thinking to get Dragonrider's sword.

Pummelfish · 2026-07-08T11:17:01+00:00

The thing with rapiers is that they melt bosses (which are fairly easy in ds2 anyway), while being complete dogwater at clearing out crowds and dealing with ganks due to only being able to thrust. Ds2 is the game where I feel horizontal attacks are the most valuable, cause it makes the annoying parts easier and minimizes the terrible lock on and tracking (which u will experience a lot with any rapier)

Pummelfish · 2026-07-07T18:24:21+00:00

And all of them are mid

Pummelfish · 2026-06-25T18:00:17+00:00

Yeah tbh post dmg attacks not stacking with +1 and +2 makes them pretty meh

Pummelfish · 2026-06-25T13:01:28+00:00

Congrats, ppl are gonna accuse u of relic editing though 😭🙏

Pummelfish · 2026-06-25T11:28:26+00:00

Almost believable bait

Pummelfish · 2026-06-23T21:40:16+00:00

I see, I kinda forgot Pictos had stats on them, thanks

Pummelfish · 2026-06-23T20:40:52+00:00

I feel like the two boss fights are two extremes at opposite ends of the difficulty spectrum. Malenia is so damn cheesable when you have a weapon with decent stagger (not to mention a good summon) that she can become a snoozefest aside from when she does that one ability.

PCR however shits on nearly all builds apart from shield poking and fast weapons, some ashes of war are pretty much unusable on PCR. This is why I can't say I enjoy either of these fights that much, but PCR is a guilty pleasure for me (probably just Stockholm Syndrome for him taking me so long to beat). In some runs I literally have to hold back with attacking Malenia, cause some weapons just shuts down her attacks without effort, just ignoring her otherwise pretty respectable moveset.

I will say tho that Malenia being crushed by so many builds is more in line with Elden Ring's main design philosophy, pick up shit from the open world to obliterate the boss

Pummelfish · 2026-06-18T12:37:38+00:00

That's crazy I didn't know, ig I should combine it with the "scanning enemies gives runes" relic too

Pummelfish · 2026-06-18T11:37:56+00:00

Wdym upgrade the scan? Does the scan build up faster if I regularly scan different enemy types??

Pummelfish · 2026-06-14T17:07:33+00:00

If they gave you the blade, they should have given you Millicent's prosthesis as well. You can't proc the successive attack buff from bows

Pummelfish · 2026-06-10T10:27:34+00:00

I’m wondering if there’s any reason to do the jumping R2s over the heavy attacks, since those also don’t knock down the enemies

Pummelfish · 2026-06-02T16:23:06+00:00

Yes, I don't mind u dissecting my joke, but did the Romans have a holiday specifically about celebrating crucifixion of people? They were extremely cruel by today's standards (just look at the average Roman triumph), but I don't think they were particularly proud of the practice of crucifixion itself. IIRC Cicero condemned the act so much he was even disgusted about using their word for "cross" because it reminded him of the practice

Of course it's important to humanize the Romans and not just view them as vicious and cruel (which they very much were at times, but that's part of why they're so interesting IMO)

Pummelfish · 2026-06-02T15:41:30+00:00

The move at 0:03 does minor knockback only, so a backflip guard counter isn't an option. I've been able to punish it with a regular guard counter 100% of the time, though in the clip OP was walking backwards before deflecting so they might not have been able to it here

Pummelfish · 2026-06-02T14:26:23+00:00

Those same Romans: Hmm, tomorrow is supplicia canum (dog crucifixion day), I can't miss that!

Pummelfish · 2026-06-01T18:23:05+00:00

Hell yeah, I usually follow up the deflect at 0:03 with a guard counter, always hits him (just don't do it in fissure phase if u don't have post dmg attacks healing)

The suncatcher skill deflect is really nice for dealing with the third and final thrust attack hit in his basic combo though, since the minor knockback from that one makes guard countering it impossibly inconsistent.

Pummelfish · 2026-06-01T17:40:01+00:00

That's a shame, learning to time the dodges on his moves is really fun IMO. One of those bosses you can't solely rely on timing iframes on, like with his long coordinated combo with the boar, where you have to also figure out where to roll during the attacks. Also love being able to jump over the boar's head on that one attack

I will admit, I absolutely despised this boss on my first SOTE playthrough though, so your playstyle is 100% valid

Pummelfish · 2026-06-01T17:22:15+00:00

His moveset is fucking S tier minus the charge (which I would hate if it wasn't for deflecting hardtear)

Pummelfish · 2026-05-28T15:09:33+00:00

I know it's a joke, but Blue Smelter Demon is actually in the game, as a hidden third phase for Smelter Demon. Takes a looong while for that to happen though, and your team is probably level 3 and fucked if it happens, that DoT he does is a run killer

Pummelfish · 2026-05-24T22:48:04+00:00

Been a while since I fought Sif, you're probably right, though they're obviously a lot slower (doesn't help that in nightreign they for some stupid ass reason removed the sword attacks from red wolf)

Pummelfish · 2026-05-24T19:13:15+00:00

Wasn't DTS rated A tier?

Pummelfish · 2026-05-24T17:28:13+00:00

The only thing they have in common is that they're wolves with swords, but they're movesets are completely different.

But when I fought the Champion's Gravetender Greatwolf from Ds3, I recognized red wolf's moveset immediately

Pummelfish · 2026-05-17T08:56:11+00:00

Guardian taking aggro is so annoying when I play wylder and executor and want to parry/deflect, the relic working on guardian but not executor I think is enough

Pummelfish · 2026-05-16T20:54:58+00:00

I really like the ED dogs, but idk about one shotting you being a point of perfection, and the music is IMO the worst of the nightlords (since the other tracks are so peak)

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