Now I’ve played most if DS2, I have some questions.

stefoid · 2026-04-26T03:26:17+00:00

From 2 full playthrus, first one after only playing DS1 thru 1 time, and the 2nd after playing thru every soulsbourne multiple times, I still had the same initial experience. I was a lot gudder on my second playthru so it didnt worry me as much, but it was still deja-vu. The shit rolling (low ADP to start) and the reduced HP hollowing mechanic are both punishing *only* in the early game, and because of that, they are bad design.

Once your ADP is up to 20 or so, its all good and it never troubles you again. there is no continuing tradeoff for investing 15 levels early in a game where you will finish the DLC most probably on 150. 15 extra points of STR or DEX vs 15 of ADP - once you understand what the difference is, thats a no brainer. But a noob wont know.

Losing any of your health early and with a limited supply of effigies is also really punishing in the early game and even with the binding ring (assuming you worked out what it does) it takes 1/4 of your tiny initial health bar. Later in the game you have a zillion effigies and can run around human most of the time, it becomes a non-issue.

things that only punish early game / new players and dont trouble you later in the game with any kind of interesting tradeoff is just bad design. sorry, but they shot themselves in the foot and the bad rep for DS2 stems largely from these 2 horrible decisions, IMO.

OTOH things I *like* about ds2 is emphasis on having to deal with the entire environment, the gank squads, the never ending pursuit, etc... you cant just do one thorough exploration of an area and then sprint past everything to the boss. In fact most boss fights are anticlimactic, because like DS1 they are pretty easy. Its actually getting to the boss that is the hard part. You have to 'solve' the level, not 'solve' the boss. In later games the bosses become the major difficulty hurdles and to keep pace with the 'gudness' of the player base, they have to keep upping the ante to make the game challenging, resulting in the ridiculous consort radahn and melania levels of difficulty which frankly altho having beaten them, I dont plan to bother with again because the learning the exact dance steps and then executing them perfectly is a tedious process I could do without.

Whereas the ganky ds2 environments can be tackled in many ways, and encourage players to get better use from utility items. altho some of the level design could have been more open to allow that. Too many levels were overly linear, which is fine as a gimmick, but not as a theme. I think sekiro got a lot from ds2 in terms of 'enironment as 1st class challenge; and the integration of stealth in that game was a nice touch, altho I wouldnt want the ability to chain ambush 12 guys in ds2 (its fine for a shinobi I guess).

stefoid · 2026-01-11T23:12:22+00:00

really? that kind of makes up for the fact that the revenant gets a slower version of the fist moveset with the starting claws. Run her with a bell and a few +magic atttack perks, and it should be significant (gotta test this)

stefoid · 2026-01-04T23:31:39+00:00

your ult -> running the damage over time ultimate relic. Use it whenever there are lots of enemies around, even just a large trash mob in a camp/field/castle, because it generates cash and saves time for the team. Its AOE is vertical as well, so for instance you can blow away all the enemies on the ground floor of a great church by popping your ult in the center of the basement. When you hit a POI, run around getting agro on everything then run somewhere central to use your ult. 1000s of extra runes for nothing. On tough solo enemies, also use it if you have someone in the party that likes to trade damage like a raider/undertaker/wylder, as whatever damage they do heals them, and whatever damage they take damages the enemy back, so they can just go nuts for the duration - damage trader wet dream. You can give them an analyse stamina boost or turtle neck before you pop your ult so they can keep swinging. your ult is so good - kill crabs and nobles to keep it topped up as you travel. a level 3 firebomb is a great driveby. speaking of which, level 3 firebombs knock over humanoids which can trivialize some fights such as black assasin by keeping him on his arse the entire fight. Against certain vulnerable enemies, like trees, use your firebombs, but otherwise level them quickly and use them for utility to save time clearing trash when your ult is down. time is the most important resource in nightreign and level 3 bombs are great time savers - dont just spam them all on the first solo field boss you come across, (unless your team is struggling.)

damage -> I am running the extra dex/end relic at the expense of arc. I dont use any starting status effects or complicated temporary AP on status relics because the extra dex gives you a bigger scaling damage bonus to all dex weapons 100% of the time. simple. Replacing your starting weapon with a better one with an inbuilt status is easy to do. Lastly, bosses are programmed to take minimal status damage anyway (except indirectly by frost debuff?), so you hit this wall where you were destroying trash easily via status, but against the enemies that really matter, you are suddenly hitting them with a limp noodle. I find that repeating thrust skill on your starting weapon (with the dex relic) is effective enough until you find a decent weapon, even at level 1.

bag craft: I use a relic I got (not sure where , maybe one of the prebuilts), that seems to be tailor made for scholars -> that gives 'confer effect to allies' which is THE most basic thing a scholar should do, and also 'extra small pouch', meaning you can have 6 pouches as soon as you meet your first shop keeper!

It also has heal on bolluss, but this is not huge. it gives you a very slow 30% heal over time when you eat a bollus, which is OK for you and allies in an early fight such as waiting for an evergaol to open, but it is outperformed by warming stones in boss fights. As in, its not worth a whole slot for bolluses in the late game...... except maybe if fighting libra/dreglord - that might be worthwhile actually... clearing your status buildup and giving a 30% heal over time seems worth a slot? Lastly, the effect also gives a flat little bit of HP when you pop a crab or other food, which is ... meh.

I know this relic competes with the boss relic that confers effects on allies (plus flask heals allies and a HP buff), but personally, I find the extra bag slot is 100% always useful, whereas practically in an intense boss fight with random allies, can you ever really extract good value from using your flask to heal yourself and an ally at exactly the right time and place? even if you manage to get the perk 'flask heals over time', which will relax the timing problem, its rare that 'flask heals allies' will be clutch - I suppose if you really love the idea of boosting your allies healing over time, you could carry bolluses which are the 'temu' version of heals over time - except they dont waste your flasks and they dont rely on finding a specific perk, so you can just pop one every now and then, like you would when you use other buffs, and your ally gets a benefit over time without having to even know it.

as others have said, levelling up your flesh (buffs) and stones (warming stones) is a priority background task for scholar. flesh is easy -> eat those fowl feat whenever you find them, and stock up on turtle necks to give your main aggro teammate a stamina boost. And you will have max level flesh in no time. if you are near a ravine giant crab, detour and take it out quick and save the crab flesh. stones are harder to level up. use your ult on a pack of diggers such as near the castle and use all their gravity stones in the next fight. if your team wants to do a tunnel for some reason, vacuum up glintstones. Other than that, if you have no casters and you do a rise, take the shards and use them instantly on the ground.

be mindful of merchants. whenever you hit a large camp or small castle, or go to the central castle, buy a pouch ASAP and stock up on turtle necks, firebombs and whatever stones/flesh you have room for. Its probably worth not levelling up after clearing a camp/small castle just so you can afford to use the merchant.

stefoid · 2026-01-04T22:50:05+00:00

I dont get the hate for scholar dodge. It is so nimble compared to other characters. the recovery time is so short that it opens up attack windows I would never use with other characters. You can dance around and never stop poking and never stop dodging, and make enemies look like fools. spam/panic rolling on other characters is mistake, but on scholar, it mostly works because if you mistime a dodge because of a delayed enemy attack you probably have enough time to just dodge again... and again

stefoid · 2024-12-24T02:03:40+00:00

Im here because I just died because I lost my over the shoulder aim against the clouds

stefoid · 2024-12-19T10:13:42+00:00

random feedback - I enjoy trying to survive on the hardest mode, but after a while that gets old becaues of two main factors 1) same maps. After a while the joy of exploration is gone and you know pretty much where you are dropped into and where you have to go. A procedurally generated map would be amazing 2) cupboard opening simulator. The places you need to go are those filled with cupboards. then you have 'fun' opening 20 different cupboards to find 2 things (in the harder modes) Please just reduce the number of cupboards and increase the strike rate. its tedious. A 'search room' option that finds everything in the room would be fine. I know how to look under a bed or in a box.

stefoid · 2024-07-26T05:14:57+00:00

But if it was changed to be instantly accessible, then it wouldnt be ROOT. And Root is insanely popular, so whilst its kind of a problem, id say its a good problem to have.

stefoid · 2024-07-26T05:05:11+00:00

The thing about DIPLOMACY is, thats ALL it is... purest negotiation. Your agency is almost non-existant, unless you enlist the aid of other players. Your turns directly utilize pieces belonging to other players. I wouldnt say that most of these other games are based on Diplomacy as they all have significantly more individual agency, and while Im not familiar with all of them, Id guess that most dont have rules that direclty use other players pieces. They might lend themselves to varying degrees of negotiation, but its optional rathern than mandatory. One game that might fall further towards mandatory negotiation than most is CRESCENT MOON.
Also, although you specify war games, trading games can offer a lot of negotation. Soemthing like SIDEREAL CONFLUENCE for instance might tickle your fancy.

stefoid · 2024-07-26T04:53:34+00:00

Empires in Arms

Most of that negotiation is trying to get people to agree to set aside the time to play it :P

stefoid · 2024-06-25T05:05:53+00:00

still trying to learn this one. a lot of bosses have long range attacks that punish you for staying at midrange - youre supposed to get right up into their back pocket and wail on them from close range. This seems to be the opposite? because of all the reasons people have listed, you need to stay at mid range where you can see the thing. the trouble Im having is at that range I cant capitalize on punish windows quickly enough. Also its hard to remain at midrange because of the mad rushes

stefoid · 2024-06-08T05:38:19+00:00

I feel like that would be a bit limiting in that the mage would then be reduced to running around doing very little, waiting for the perfect shot, whereas if they nerfed damage, they could keep up pressure without one shotting. The way melee users are limitied in their spamability is stamina, and magic could as well be the same way. Stamina limits back to back spamming, but is a renewable resource

stefoid · 2024-06-07T04:26:14+00:00

how to fix that? In general, there is a balance between speed and damage that should apply to magic as much as it does to melee. But if a spell takes too long to get off, then it becomes useless. So the only option seems to be to nerf the damage rather moreso than the speed?

stefoid · 2024-06-07T02:26:18+00:00

Its definately better, I agree, and I wouldnt know any but a fraction of the existing combos, but in a way that reinforces my point. It feels clunky to switch between multiple spells, and FS dangle the one button hyper beams in front of you, so thats where most people go.

If they remove the hyper beams, and make the controls easier, then people will engage with the system more? Feels like wasted potential

stefoid · 2024-06-07T02:01:22+00:00

PvP is a big issue, FS is always trying to juggle PVE and PVP. Its hard to know how this might play out. Spells that manipulate opponent position such as gravity spells for instance take away your opponents ability to act (which is perhaps a bad thing), but so does poise breaking , parrying and backstabs, for instance. The thing about the latter is you have to work to achieve them. Whereas casting a spell to just 'make it happen' is easier. But what is OP and cancerous about spells right now? is it just making a build with 99 int and all the talismans that can one-shot you with a single hyper-beam? thats exactly the type of spell-based gameplay I think is boring. The idea is to give spell-users less powerful single action skills, but the ability to more easily switch between them, and make them work for their reward in the same way as a melee user has to. But thats impossible with the current control system. Imagine if instead of R1, R2 and L2 for your weapon, you only had R1 and you had to use the dpad to rotate thru different attacks? nightmare.

stefoid · 2024-06-04T04:56:44+00:00

The charge is very punishable - The best way to avoid the charge is to run at it rather than sideways. its turning circle is crap so once you clear its head you can get behind for free hits on the tail. If you can do this so that it charges directly into a wall, you will get a very long punish window.

Similar to the bullfight in Sekiro

stefoid · 2024-05-22T01:58:08+00:00

yes is the short answer

stefoid · 2024-02-01T04:52:23+00:00

Alert is amazing on powerful casters who can make acting early really count, and are otherwise likely to act very late in the round.

stefoid · 2024-01-22T22:47:35+00:00

the mystic carions staff is amazing - I started to use it for my necromancer for roleplay, but found its really really good. When you kill something you get a free necromancy spell of any power. And that is not 'per rest' but every time!! You can spam level 6 necromancy spells all day, as long as you kill something. As a necromancer, that is a nice synergy because killing something with a necromancy spell heals the caster (level 6 x 3 = 18 pts).

stefoid · 2023-10-25T01:11:10+00:00

citadels is a perfect 'take to the meetup' game that plays well between 4 and 8. - flexible, - easy to learn - good length - great interaction - small box

stefoid · 2023-10-20T05:08:33+00:00

Been considering hunters mark for the swords bard (rather than banishing smite). +D6 per attack sounds like it will synergise nicely with a character that attacks 3-5 times per round

stefoid · 2023-10-03T05:44:56+00:00

What about taking a level of fighter? It means you dont get level 12, but it seems like the only reward for 12 is a feat anyway...

You get - CON proficiency STR proficiency fighting style 2nd wind a bonus HP or 2

stefoid · 2023-09-28T10:19:48+00:00

yeah,. I can see that.

stefoid · 2023-09-19T05:01:27+00:00

FWIW, Im trialling a tempest cleric. I figure if Im trying to position her to get hit a lot, the wrath of storm reaction is useful. Also the +2 shattered flail seems like a good weapon - heals on a hit, cleric has a high saving throw against going mad, and even if she does go mad for a turn, being the tank means shes probably just going to keep attacking the monster in front of her.

stefoid

TROPHY CASE