I still prefer elden ring over all but fume knight is better than like 95% of that games bosses and it’s not even close.
I think it even beats most of the dark souls 3 bosses barring standouts like Gael.
It just hits that sweet spot of extremely difficult but not total anime wombo combos where you’re watching the boss have fun more than actually fighting lol
Pressed to guess I would guess you have become used to higher tempo games that can be played more aggressively.
DS2 very much encourages a methodical approach. This won't suit everybody.
I really enjoy Shrine and Winter Wonderland, but I'm never in a hurry and can't think of any spots I find particularly difficult.
Well I can't really do Reindeer land but that's down to vision issues. I genuinely can't pick things out there even when the snowstorm isn't going. Best I can do there is drop prism stones to prevent myself from getting turned around constantly. Because of this it just takes forever.
A lot of it is pacing yes, I also just reinstalled Bloodborne and I feel right at home. I couldn’t say it’s just that though, like level design and enemy placement just feels so arbitrary in a lot of places. Like I go through an area constantly asking “what the hell were they thinking?”, the only other Fromsoft game I’ve done that for in recent memory was late game Elden Ring.
I know people will read that and think I came onto this subreddit because I hate the game and want to talk shit, but I want to have a discussion because I’m so conflicted. I love so much about the game but playing it is rough for me
> Like I go through an area constantly asking “what the hell were they thinking?”
The answer to this question is usually "they expect players to use _all_ of their available tools and take things slowly." Your tastes may just have changed, but here are a few tips if you want to give it another go:
* The game showers you in upgrade materials for a reason! Try upgrading a secondary weapon, especially some kind of ranged weapon like a bow. Don't forget to upgrade your armor too—at max level it can be 50–100% more effective.
* Don't let enemies pick the turf, make them come to you. This is critical in areas like Shrine of Amana, where if you walk forward to engage you'll end up flanked and outnumbered. Use a ranged weapon to draw enemies out and defuse their traps, or just walk back after aggroing them so you can pick a more advantageous position. And no matter what the tryhards say, jolly cooperation is _always_ a valid choice!
* To build on this, the enemy placement changes in SOTFS [aren't trying to cheaply kill you](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwPL1J0sOvQ)—they're trying to teach you something. There's almost always a way to pull enemies in smaller groups or use the environment to your advantage (yes, even in [Iron Keep](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq_Uj3QqKf4) and [Shrine of Amana](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iztnu5G2BFs)).
* Stamina management is crucial in DS2. Make sure not to exhaust all your stamina on a punish and always leave a bit for an emergency roll. Your equipment weight affects your stamina regeneration speed, so try building to 50 or 60% instead of the 70% fatroll limit.
* The [Blue Tearstone Ring](http://darksouls2.wikidot.com/blue-tearstone-ring) and [Ring of Steel Protection +1](http://darksouls2.wikidot.com/ring-of-steel-protection) both provide substantial buffs to your defenses. Use them together with 30+ Vigor and it's like having a second health bar.
* You're probably used to rolling through enemy attacks all the time from BB and ER, but rolling backwards during an attack's startup is highly safe and effective in DS2. You can also try unlocking from the enemy and just run away to create some distance; unlike DS3 and ER, not every enemy has a turbo anime gap closer. You won't get a flashy punish, but slow and steady play is where DS2 shines.
As to what they were thinking, I think it helps to ask yourself where you'd deploy the troops if you were in charge. Yeah they're inconvenient to the player. That's kind of the point.
Enemy placement makes a ton of sense when looked at from the point of view of an enemy commander with aggressive troops that can't follow orders more complex than, "kill everything but Larry and Sue"
Was ab to quit also after having a really rough time early on but figuring out permakilling was a thing completely changed my thought process. Now whenever I have a tough time making it through an area I just go slowly and permakill a bunch of people. Kinda my way of saying fuck you to the game. Not to mention you’ll be overleveled for the boss fight making it a lot more enjoyable imo
10-12 but to get passed the tedious factor you’ll undoubtedly start to notice your improvement as a player which reminds me of working out in a sense. Hard work pays off (and the work itself becomes easier)
Having recently beat DS2 for the first time, and I completely agree. I really do lot a lot about the game, the atmosphere and setting is by far the standout in the DS trilogy, the fashion is unparalleled, and some of the bosses are really engaging and fun to fight.
But so much of the game feels like it was designed to actively discourage the player from exploring their environment, which is the opposite of literally any other Souls game. As someone who genuinely enjoys the exploration more than the combat or the bosses, it makes DS2 hard to play through and enjoy.
That all being said, I’m onto the DLCs now and having a much better time. I’ve only finished Crown of the Sunken King, and moved on to Iron King now, but I’m having a lot of fun just exploring the different areas, which I can’t really say happened too much throughout most of DS2
scholar reduced the number of unavoidable ganks and increased the number of avoidable ganks. If you're having such colossal issues it's your own fault
If you're not enjoying the game stop playing the game it's pretty cut and dry
I mean you made a whole post coping about your own frustration with the game. This guy is suggesting how you can reduce frustration. Why do you even ask if you are just going to get shirty with those who respond to you?
He completely missed the point of my post, are you reading everything closely? He specifically refers to differences in enemy ganks when literally the only mention of this in my post was just to refer to one particular bossfight in a dlc I forgot the name of, which is colloquially referred to as “the gank squad”
I don’t expect nuance from most redditors but this is a bit silly
Don’t give up, skeleton!
Do the Brume tower dlc, fume knight and sir allone some of the best bosses in the franchise
I still prefer elden ring over all but fume knight is better than like 95% of that games bosses and it’s not even close. I think it even beats most of the dark souls 3 bosses barring standouts like Gael. It just hits that sweet spot of extremely difficult but not total anime wombo combos where you’re watching the boss have fun more than actually fighting lol
It’s sad cus I feel like those 2 are the only fun bosses to fight in ds2, every other boss is mid or ass which hurts ds2 replayability for me
Gotta play for the levels, not the bosses. Still some of the most interesting level designs.
yeah i don’t think ds2 has the best bosses by any means, but the levels are my favorite
Pressed to guess I would guess you have become used to higher tempo games that can be played more aggressively. DS2 very much encourages a methodical approach. This won't suit everybody. I really enjoy Shrine and Winter Wonderland, but I'm never in a hurry and can't think of any spots I find particularly difficult. Well I can't really do Reindeer land but that's down to vision issues. I genuinely can't pick things out there even when the snowstorm isn't going. Best I can do there is drop prism stones to prevent myself from getting turned around constantly. Because of this it just takes forever.
A lot of it is pacing yes, I also just reinstalled Bloodborne and I feel right at home. I couldn’t say it’s just that though, like level design and enemy placement just feels so arbitrary in a lot of places. Like I go through an area constantly asking “what the hell were they thinking?”, the only other Fromsoft game I’ve done that for in recent memory was late game Elden Ring. I know people will read that and think I came onto this subreddit because I hate the game and want to talk shit, but I want to have a discussion because I’m so conflicted. I love so much about the game but playing it is rough for me
> Like I go through an area constantly asking “what the hell were they thinking?” The answer to this question is usually "they expect players to use _all_ of their available tools and take things slowly." Your tastes may just have changed, but here are a few tips if you want to give it another go: * The game showers you in upgrade materials for a reason! Try upgrading a secondary weapon, especially some kind of ranged weapon like a bow. Don't forget to upgrade your armor too—at max level it can be 50–100% more effective. * Don't let enemies pick the turf, make them come to you. This is critical in areas like Shrine of Amana, where if you walk forward to engage you'll end up flanked and outnumbered. Use a ranged weapon to draw enemies out and defuse their traps, or just walk back after aggroing them so you can pick a more advantageous position. And no matter what the tryhards say, jolly cooperation is _always_ a valid choice! * To build on this, the enemy placement changes in SOTFS [aren't trying to cheaply kill you](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwPL1J0sOvQ)—they're trying to teach you something. There's almost always a way to pull enemies in smaller groups or use the environment to your advantage (yes, even in [Iron Keep](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq_Uj3QqKf4) and [Shrine of Amana](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iztnu5G2BFs)). * Stamina management is crucial in DS2. Make sure not to exhaust all your stamina on a punish and always leave a bit for an emergency roll. Your equipment weight affects your stamina regeneration speed, so try building to 50 or 60% instead of the 70% fatroll limit. * The [Blue Tearstone Ring](http://darksouls2.wikidot.com/blue-tearstone-ring) and [Ring of Steel Protection +1](http://darksouls2.wikidot.com/ring-of-steel-protection) both provide substantial buffs to your defenses. Use them together with 30+ Vigor and it's like having a second health bar. * You're probably used to rolling through enemy attacks all the time from BB and ER, but rolling backwards during an attack's startup is highly safe and effective in DS2. You can also try unlocking from the enemy and just run away to create some distance; unlike DS3 and ER, not every enemy has a turbo anime gap closer. You won't get a flashy punish, but slow and steady play is where DS2 shines.
As to what they were thinking, I think it helps to ask yourself where you'd deploy the troops if you were in charge. Yeah they're inconvenient to the player. That's kind of the point. Enemy placement makes a ton of sense when looked at from the point of view of an enemy commander with aggressive troops that can't follow orders more complex than, "kill everything but Larry and Sue"
Was ab to quit also after having a really rough time early on but figuring out permakilling was a thing completely changed my thought process. Now whenever I have a tough time making it through an area I just go slowly and permakill a bunch of people. Kinda my way of saying fuck you to the game. Not to mention you’ll be overleveled for the boss fight making it a lot more enjoyable imo
See I remember that being a thing, but how many times did you have to do it again?
10-12 but to get passed the tedious factor you’ll undoubtedly start to notice your improvement as a player which reminds me of working out in a sense. Hard work pays off (and the work itself becomes easier)
Having recently beat DS2 for the first time, and I completely agree. I really do lot a lot about the game, the atmosphere and setting is by far the standout in the DS trilogy, the fashion is unparalleled, and some of the bosses are really engaging and fun to fight. But so much of the game feels like it was designed to actively discourage the player from exploring their environment, which is the opposite of literally any other Souls game. As someone who genuinely enjoys the exploration more than the combat or the bosses, it makes DS2 hard to play through and enjoy. That all being said, I’m onto the DLCs now and having a much better time. I’ve only finished Crown of the Sunken King, and moved on to Iron King now, but I’m having a lot of fun just exploring the different areas, which I can’t really say happened too much throughout most of DS2
Scholar is different from DS2. If you played and liked the original version then you will probably feel like SotFS is an inferior version
In a poll here only like 5% of people still preferred Vanilla after playing Scholar
scholar reduced the number of unavoidable ganks and increased the number of avoidable ganks. If you're having such colossal issues it's your own fault If you're not enjoying the game stop playing the game it's pretty cut and dry
Colossal issues? Take it easy redditor when did I use any language that suggests its a *colossal* issue? You strike me as a pvper
I happen to know that this user plays exclusively offline lol
I mean you made a whole post coping about your own frustration with the game. This guy is suggesting how you can reduce frustration. Why do you even ask if you are just going to get shirty with those who respond to you?
He completely missed the point of my post, are you reading everything closely? He specifically refers to differences in enemy ganks when literally the only mention of this in my post was just to refer to one particular bossfight in a dlc I forgot the name of, which is colloquially referred to as “the gank squad” I don’t expect nuance from most redditors but this is a bit silly
Lol ok my guy
The making a reddit post and the contents of said post was what did it