DARK SOULS 2- Praise the sun

Played the beta. The game was pretty fun, fuck skeletons!

It's amazing how much stamina everything takes I found myself running low on stamina while surrounded way to many times. The push attack is kinda bad and I really hope it gets better.

Fought two bosses, one being the skeleton king and the other being the chariot. The skeleton lord is just a barrage of skeleton warriors coming after you. It was pretty hard but not overwhelming. The chariot was really easy and a bit of a disapointment. Considering this is still just a beta test I can't really say much as things are sure to change.
 
Juez said:
Considering this is still just a beta test I can't really say much as things are sure to change.
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this is pretty much the message i think every beta player should keep in mind. also remember that this was primarily a network test and while the gameplay is nice, it's the servers that they're testing.
 
Went ahead and started a new character last night and fought through the two bosses available (there may have been one more, I'm not certain). Couldn't find or get everything, but I managed to pick up a few treasures. The Crescent Axe worked out really nicely.

I also decided to test out the stats, I pumped up resilience and strength, and with just a few points I was taking only one damage from a majority of the monsters in the beta. Even with the D rank on scaling for the Faraam armor, have a 20 in Res and Str was enough to allow me to plow through most of the monsters. Even the big guys weren't hurting me to much, so its a definite improvement over DS1. Once the hard mode was enabled, though, I went to taking a lot more damage, so its not too overpowering. I suspect that leveling will dull the early areas and newer areas that open up will end up dealing more damage. Likewise certain bosses still seem to dish out percentage-based damage. Resilience had little to no effect on reducing magic damage; so even if you could boost your resilience to levels where you only take 1 damage, it will do nothing against magic.

I also boosted agility but saw no visible improvement, so the point-for-point upgrades on Agility are much smaller than the ones for Resilience.

Likewise, boosting stamina only boosts the number by one point, hardly noticeable when it requires more than 50% of stamina to dispatch a single monster with a 5 hit combo.

All of this suggests that certain stats won't have the same weight as DS1 where, for example, stamina became more valuable due to its returns.

I did find it interesting that certain equipment now scale with magic-oriented stats like Faith (a mace). This may lead to more streamlined builds for cleric-types where they don't need to focus too much on a wealth of stats and just concentrate on a smaller number stats to focus on.

All of this course, assumes there's no bugs in the stat calculations and damage formulas. Since we're working with the same build as the one in October, we don't really have any idea if later builds have fine-tuned certain elements or radically altered things.

Now that that's said; I couldn't find the hidden armors in the beta. There were at least two treasures I couldn't access, one beneath the bridge to the Executioner's Chariot boss (kept messing that one up) and one behind the gate in the same area. There's was also one or two treasures inside the stone prison-huts I couldn't find entry to. But I did manage to beat all the phantoms in beta this time, including the sickle-carrying phantoms on the cliffside.
 
Windstar said:
I did find it interesting that certain equipment now scale with magic-oriented stats like Faith (a mace). This may lead to more streamlined builds for cleric-types where they don't need to focus too much on a wealth of stats and just concentrate on a smaller number stats to focus on.
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This has been a thing for a while. Dark souls has Divine weapons that scale with faith and magic weapons that scale with Int. Are you talking about armor?
 
covenant stuff from their FB:

"Let's talk about the "Covenant" system in Dark Souls II.

Already existing in Dark Souls, they come back in Dark Souls II and provide a much deeper layer role-play dimension for both solo and multiplayer.
The game has various covenants, nearly as much as there is play styles...

What is a covenant?
It's a group that players can join under a certain condition. Depending on the sort of joined covenant, the online play style widens and various situation can be experienced.

Main Covenants introduction:
-Way of Blue: Covenant with divine protection of gods of Blue. When apostles of Blue are invaded by dark spirits, they can receive assistance from other Way of Blue members.
-Blue Sentinels: Covenant to protect the blue apostles from the merciless beings. Let players be automatically summoned in the worlds of Blue apostles who have been invaded by dark spirits.
-Brotherhood of Blood: Covenant of immortals haunted by blood. Its purpose is to sacrifice blood for Nahr Alma, god of war. through repeated invasion to many player's world.
-Heirs to the Sun: Worship of the sun, now a lost belief, was once widespread amongst great warriors. Its purpose to help other players.
-Bell Keepers: The twin bells symbolize the bond between two lovers who could never be united. The bell keepers are their eternal guardians.

There are many other Covenants...Searching for them can be one of goal of your journey. Will you unveil all their secrets? You will know soon in Dark Souls II!"
 
Interesting that the Sunbro cov is long-lost, to me it seems to confirm that this game is a prequel AND a sequel to DkS, which considering "time" is a theme, I'm not too surprised at.

But yeah Bell Keepers sound p.cool, though I reckon I might just Sunbro it up. Sentinels might be fun too though.
 
CappuccinoJak said:
covenant stuff from their FB:

"Let's talk about the "Covenant" system in Dark Souls II.

Already existing in Dark Souls, they come back in Dark Souls II and provide a much deeper layer role-play dimension for both solo and multiplayer.
The game has various covenants, nearly as much as there is play styles...

What is a covenant?
It's a group that players can join under a certain condition. Depending on the sort of joined covenant, the online play style widens and various situation can be experienced.

Main Covenants introduction:
-Way of Blue: Covenant with divine protection of gods of Blue. When apostles of Blue are invaded by dark spirits, they can receive assistance from other Way of Blue members.
-Blue Sentinels: Covenant to protect the blue apostles from the merciless beings. Let players be automatically summoned in the worlds of Blue apostles who have been invaded by dark spirits.
-Brotherhood of Blood: Covenant of immortals haunted by blood. Its purpose is to sacrifice blood for Nahr Alma, god of war. through repeated invasion to many player's world.
-Heirs to the Sun: Worship of the sun, now a lost belief, was once widespread amongst great warriors. Its purpose to help other players.
-Bell Keepers: The twin bells symbolize the bond between two lovers who could never be united. The bell keepers are their eternal guardians.

There are many other Covenants...Searching for them can be one of goal of your journey. Will you unveil all their secrets? You will know soon in Dark Souls II!"
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I hope they add some version of the Gravelords and the Dragonbros, but revamped, to give people a reason to join them.
 
iMesmerise said:
I hope they add some version of the Gravelords and the Dragonbros, but revamped, to give people a reason to join them.
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Yeah, the Gravelord covenant was a really cool idea, but it didn't work as well as it could have. More eyes was not a good reward seeing as it was easier to farm them from salamanders than to get them through the covenant and you had to spend them again to try to get more anyway. The spell was similarly cool-looking-but-disappointing, only needed to fill out the trophy.
 
PANDA said:
Should I get DS2 if I didn't play DS1?
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Get DS1 first so you understand the game fully, and for story-line purposes I'd say... =] I get OCD when I'm going to get a new Assassin's Creed so I still need to beat #3 before I play #4 so I don't get spoilers.
 
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There are nine covenants this time.

Abysmal, Sanguinary, Meek (think White), Rodent or Gnawing (new grave lords?), Protector, Fittest, Ancient (dragon), Clangorous, and a most brilliant covenant (sun).

The old Abyss magic like dark beads, etc is now Hexes and follows faith like Miracles. Pyromanccy is back as an Intelligence group with Sorcery.

Some achievements leaked and we're looking a bunch new stuff now.
 
Windstar said:
There are nine covenants this time.

Abysmal, Sanguinary, Meek (think White), Rodent or Gnawing (new grave lords?), Protector, Fittest, Ancient (dragon), Clangorous, and a most brilliant covenant (sun).

The old Abyss magic like dark beads, etc is now Hexes and follows faith like Miracles. Pyromanccy is back as an Intelligence group with Sorcery.

Some achievements leaked and we're looking a bunch new stuff now.
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What's your source on this? Pretty hype though. Abysmal could make sense, considering one of the lines in the new trailer.
 
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