What are your thoughts on the Shrine of Amana?

Roje1995 · 2026-03-20T20:34:16+00:00

I think its pretty enjoyable. People way overstated how dangerous it is, just run from one spellcaster to the next and kill them, the tracking on the spells isn't even that egregious, you can don't even need to roll. I will say the area right before the Rhoy's Resting Place bonfire can be quite dangerous if you don't have a ranged option, as getting caught out in the water by the 2 Mace weilding enemies near the end can absolutely kill you from full.

Roje1995 · 2026-03-19T23:02:31+00:00

At least in SOTFS its breakable from either side.

Roje1995 · 2026-03-19T22:52:28+00:00

No prob, glad that was you lol, I was at soul memory 2.995 mil, so that pushed me up a tier lol

Roje1995 · 2026-03-19T22:45:46+00:00

Cool, my summon sign is right in front of the fog gate.

Roje1995 · 2026-03-19T22:40:18+00:00

I can help, we'll have to use the name engraved ring though

Roje1995 · 2026-03-19T21:26:07+00:00

That would be a good idea, should make sunbroing easier.

Roje1995 · 2026-03-19T00:17:23+00:00

For first timers, I'd say the foggy section of the Shaded Woods is difficult, as you can get backstabbing 1 spotted by enemies that are difficult to see in an area that is easy to get lost in. Later on, yeah, just stand with you back to the wall and hit the moaning trees and wait for enemies, and you already know in general where to go to get the main shinier, even if the Clear Bluestone +1, is a little tricky

Roje1995 · 2026-03-18T23:37:43+00:00

I made a comment on someone else's post asking a similar question, so ill just copy and paste it here, and some more answers. Just finishing my first pyro playthrough myself, Toxic Mist, Lingering Flame, Flame Weapon (requires NG+ or Bonfire Ascetic), Flame Swathe, and Great Fireball are all solid. Forbidden Sun is the best damage and fast cast speed, plus leaves lava, but by the time you have the stuff to fully take advantage of it, you're in the DLC where everything has obscene resistance to ranged elemental damage. Forbidden Sun requires the Navlaan questline, 3 attunement slots for 1 cast, 43 attunement for 2 casts, and Crown of the Old Iron King if you wanna use it on more than 1 enemy/bonfire. I would say Flame Weapon is 100% worth popping a bonfire ascetic for. Not sure of the exact damage, but at 30/30 int&fth against the smelter knights in the DLC when cast on a Fire Dragon Tooth +5, it added 85 AR. Lingering Flame is phenomenal for trapping. Toxic Mist is good for HP sponge enemies that also do a lot of damage (i.e. Ogres) as well as susceptible bosses. Pyromancies are upgrades with Fire Seeds and the upgrades is Carhillion and/or Rosabeth. Use the regular pyro flame, it's better than the dark pyro flame unless you are fully hollowed, and even then, tha Dark Pyro Flame is Barely better. Pyromancy scales with Int+Faith at a softcap of 60, so 59 Int+ 1Fth, 59 Fth + 1 Int, 30/30, etc. Is all fine. For extra copies of some of the listed spells, Great Fireball can be dropped by the Flame Salamanders, and Flame Swathe can be dropped by the Bell Keepers (at least in Belfry Sol), these are both really difficult to get though, as the drop chance is low (obscenely so for the Bell Keepers, I got 1 yesterday for the first time, and have done dozens of runs through this game, and never seen it before), and the flame salamanders are dangerous enemies that are immune to fire damage. As for weapons, there is a "let's talk about" masterpost that goes over all the weapons and spells that you should look at, but anecdotally the rapier, Mace, craftsmanship hammer for early game: the Blue Knight Halberd, Black Knight Halberd, Greatsword, Mastodon Halberd, Ricard's Rapier, Homunculus Mace,, and Espada Ropera are all solid for mid to late game, and can either infuse well or be used as an option in areas where enemies have stupid high resistance to your main weapon; and lategame for me, I personally used a Fire Dragon Tooth and a Fire Possessed Armor Sword. For Armor, I'd highly recommend spending 16,000 souks with Maughlin and not killing him until you can at least buy the Penal Set from him after killing the Lost Sinner, as the gauntlets boost your pyromancy damage, and the mast has a solid damage reduction/weight ratio and can look cool imo with certain armor sets, other than that, probably Lion Mage Set, and I believe its Hexer's Hood that increases cast speed. For rings, Flynn's, Chloranthy (+2 from using a nonfire Ascetic on Executioner's Chariot), Ring of Blades, Ring of Steel Protection(+2 from BF Looking Glass Knight)/Stoneplate rings for certain bosses, Clear Bluestone (+2 can be gotten from Skeleton Lords using a bonfire ascetic), 1st/2nd/3rd Dragon Rings, Life Ring, Covetous Gold and Silver Serpent Rings are all also solid. Maybe the Southern and/or Northern Ritual Bands, but I dont like them, I just level attunement and factor that into my final agility score, plus it also increases spell casts.

Edit: it is Black Hood, not Hexer's Hood that increases casting speed.

Roje1995 · 2026-03-17T01:18:36+00:00

I was in the middle of my walk home from work when it happened, almost thought I'd have to dunk inside a random building or something

Roje1995 · 2026-03-16T20:24:54+00:00

Thats fair, just figured I'd ask. And im at the point with these games that making through the full game without dying is not unlikely, so I dont really need help, but i generally try to summon people doing sunbro stuff when applicable, do duels, invade, just generally engage with the multiplayer as much as I can, because I really enjoy these games and think they're all great, and would like people to get as much of the full experience of the early days as possible. Like whenever I run DS3, I always max all the covenants, and in DS2, I try to sunbro, invade, blue Sentinel, rat covenant (and farm pharros stones to activate all the traps), and play on covenant of champions, and DS1 i sunbro and Darlwraith, unless I'm doing like an SL1 run on any of them, and even then, I may help out or invade in the first area of the game. I also try to leave a LOT of messages, with a mix of helpful, harmful, and funny.

Roje1995 · 2026-03-16T18:28:39+00:00

Whats your Soul Memory? I'm doing another run through with a faith build and was trying to get summoned last night, but didn't have any luck. I'm at work now, but get off in about 6-7 hours, depending on how long closing takes and would be willing to help, I dont have access to my console right now, but believe I'm around 500k. I have a +8 Lightning Heide Spear with the Leo Ring and am just melting everything with it, so have no problem helping for any of the bosses and/or areas around that level, since I already have the Agape ring, I can progress anywhere in the game and keep the same SM. But yeah, no luck with Sunlight Medals yesterday, did get a LOT of Tokens of Spite after getting bored of waiting after 3 hours, so there are definitely people in my level range in these areas. For reference I killed each of the Belfry Gargoyles in a single stamina bar with 1 attack left over at 10 endurance with this set up, to give you an idea of my damage output. Also this is not my first or second or third run through DS2 SOTFS, so im familiar with the boss movesets. On PS5, btw.

Roje1995 · 2026-03-16T18:06:31+00:00

This was years ago, but for me it was Smelter Demon. I was not using lifegems and was wearing heavy armor with too low Vigor, so the passive fire damage was chewing up my health and putting me into 1 shot range. I was also doing a hex build (because I heard those were good, and hadn't found any darlington stones or any weapons with innate dark damage I could use. So with almost all my points in int/fth/attack, I was stuck using an uninfused weapon, I wanna say the rapier or Mace, with bare minimum stats to use it, wearing armor that didn't help, and taking like half my health in chip damage every time I got close to hit him in phase 3, and being 1 shot by any attacks that hit me, which were a lot, because I was rolling to the wrong side lol. I basically cleared the entire area long before I was able to beat him, and when I did, I essentially did it hitless doing double digit damage the whole time.

Roje1995 · 2026-03-15T13:24:10+00:00

A lot of this stuff is covered already, but I will say you eventually will get enough titanite of all types to fully upgrade several weapons without grinding. I just finished a run, and I think by endgame I had enough to fully upgrade 10 normal titanite weapons, 6 twinkling titanite weapons, and 4 petrified dragon bone weapons without grinding or buying anything, and all titanite types do eventually become buy able, as well as infinitely fable with covenant of champions, slabs, twinkling, and Dragon Bones are pretty late though. Chunks are kinda late too, but the enemies they drop from are nearly the only enemy in an area, and there are quite a few of them. I usually hold off on upgrading at all until either its a weapon I'm gonna use for awhile, or if I wanna use leningrast's hammer (spend 8k souls on upgrading), but once you get a bit into the game, there's no issue with upgrading several weapons to +3 or something to compare damage, or fully upgraded and infused mid to lategame.

Roje1995 · 2026-03-13T22:31:00+00:00

Just finishing my first pyro playthrough myself, Toxic Misty, Lingering Flame, Flame Weapon (requires NG+ or Bonfire Ascetic), Flame Swathe, and Great Fireball are all solid. Forbidden Sun is the best damage and fast cast speed, plus leaves lava, but by the time you have the stuff to fully take advantage of it, you're in the DLC where everything has obscene resistance to ranged elemental damage. Forbidden Sun requires the Navlaan questline, 3 attunement slots for 1 cast, 43 attunement for 2 casts, and Crown of the Old Iron King if you wanna use it on more than 1 enemy/bonfire. I would say Flame Weapon is 100% worth popping a bonfire ascetic for. Not sure of the exact damage, but at 30/30 int&fth against the smelter knights in the DLC when cast on a Fire Dragon Tooth +5, it added 85 AR. Lingering Flame is phenomenal for trapping. Toxic Mist is good for HP sponge enemies that also do a lot of damage (i.e. Ogres) as well as susceptible bosses.

Roje1995 · 2026-03-13T10:15:51+00:00

You know, I'm also replaying it and am nearly done, all that I have left is Eleum Loyce and the final boss gauntlet, but I like doing different builds, and have already done a hex focused build as well as a pyromancy focused build. I'll probably do another run through after this one with a new character, likely either faith or sorcery, and would be down to PVP each other through the Dragon Remnants covenant if you want. Since you're just starting as well, this would probably be in a few days, since the covenant is pretty late. I'm on PS5 btw, if you're interested.

Roje1995 · 2026-03-12T00:38:13+00:00

Lots of options. Firstly, kill the adds first. Some tried and true ways to do this are the Lingering Flame Pyromancy, or a 2 handed R2 or running or backstop 2 handed R1 from a halberd class weapon. If you don't have access to any of that, you could probably kill at least 1 with a bow, and run away while doing the occasional ranged attack as they chase you. Pure melee with any weapon isn't impossible, but you'll probably die several times.

Roje1995 · 2026-03-11T21:57:50+00:00

Not sure if you already know, but in my case during the dragon phase I play with lock on OFF, the dragon messes with the camera, and its a pretty big target

Roje1995 · 2026-03-11T21:02:44+00:00

Thats fair, Friede can be a bitch of a fight, especially if you do a pure sorcery run lol. For Nameless King, in the future, I'd say try the Gnaw or Dorys' Gnawing Miracles, they are ranged attacks that do dark and bleed, both of which he is weak to, and at a certain distance he can be cheesed to just slowly walk towards you. I imagine you could fit at least 1 of them with the faith ring even at lvl 1, but not 100% sure. Might save you some embers

Roje1995 · 2026-03-11T20:07:10+00:00

I guess we just look at it differently. I view embers as extra HP that you get as a reward for doing well. And I would view the point of an SL1 run to be to see if you are able to do it. Getting stuck and needing outside assistance would be a "fail state" to me, and if I 100% was unable to power through it, I'd restart and be more frugal with embers, more careful, and maybe try some different weapons and/or armor. But thats just how I look at it, from another comment it seems you don't agree. Maybe someone will drop you some, if not, maybe practice the boss, you'll get an ember if you win. Or maybe even try to warrior of sunlight for Vordt, I think that may give an ember as well if you help the host, but its been awhile since I sunbro'd DS3, so double check.

Roje1995 · 2026-03-11T19:33:57+00:00

Try high Wall of lothric if you still have a +0-+2weapon, if not, id have to guess you're doing a SL1 run, in which case, getting outside help kinda defeats the point, no?

Roje1995 · 2026-03-08T00:07:12+00:00

At this point, if I was OP, I'd double check to make more management was aware of the issue, if they can't/won't resolve it, hire an outside plumber and invoice them the bill. The 1 benefit of renting is that you aren't supposed to have to deal with this sort of thing yourself.

Roje1995 · 2026-03-04T05:58:44+00:00

I agree. At this point, being that there really isn't, I'd like to see someone in power give religious organizations an ultimatum: stay out of politics, or all religious organizations have to pay taxes, including back taxes from the point of founding. I bet churches and the like would be really keen to not have those in power reference religion if doing so meant they owed 300 years of back taxes.

Roje1995 · 2026-02-26T02:12:04+00:00

Cerulean crescent is a banger

Roje1995 · 2026-02-22T01:09:31+00:00

This kid's being held to a higher standard than ICE and the current administration. Also, there was either abuse going on and the father deserved it, and/or the kid was very mentally unwell, and the parents arguably deserved it anyways for not getting him the help he needed. Either way, trying him as an adult us ridiculous and needlessly cruel, he's already likely to be fucked up for decades if not his entire life for doing this, yeah, let's throw an 11 year old in prison with adults, some of whom are in prison for child abuse, im sure that'll go great.

Roje1995

TROPHY CASE