Ludendorkk
(he/him)
Dark Sword is still pretty good, as is the Estoc despite multiple nerfs. Any of the dual-wield weapons are pretty fun
Welcome to Talking Time's third iteration! If you would like to register for an account, or have already registered but have not yet been confirmed, please read the following:
Once you have completed these steps, Moderation Staff will be able to get your account approved.
It is, but as already said it's definitely weaker overall to encourage the weapon arts. The big thing is that you get more Estus charges faster than in DS2, 15 in total split between the two types. Another difference is that killing enemies that use magic has a chance to refill a charge of the Ashen flask.Is magic in this game worthwhile at all? I actually restarted as a Knight once I realized you have to split up Estus between health and magic, which feels like a system that's all downside for magic users unless it's incredibly OP. I think this is the first time I've ever done a pure melee build in one of these games...
The skills called Perseverance and Stomp mostly found on a bunch of 2-handed weapons (also notably on the Cestus) is where the Poise mechanic went. People ages ago "found out" that poise is turned off by default in the game files but were very reluctant to acknowledge these are two of the things in the game that flip the switch to turn poise on during the skill. It's functionally very similar to how some heavy weapon attacks in Dark 2 had hyperarmor.
DS III is where From got too cute with the boss difficulty. I will contend that Shadows of Yharnam gave me legit trauma, but at least there I could see that I jyst had a hump I needed to get over. With Dark Souls III they kept the speedy, aggressive bosses but forgot the quick moveset from Bloodborne that kept those fights balanced. And shields in DS3 suck on toast.
The huge userbase is the only reason I got through the final boss.
I gave up on both final bosses in the last DLC. I just wasn’t having fun. I didn’t have trouble with the ones in the base game though, and I generally thought they were a highlight of the game. The DLC just pushed the difficulty a bit too far for me.The final DLC boss (the Dragon, though Gael is also good) in DS3 nearly gave me a heart attack though, for what it's worth.
They're extremely worse for like, half the game where you're stuck with a thick leather plate on your arm as your best option (unless you start as a knight iirc) before you start getting good shields, and even the best shields were tuned down to have lower defenses/stability than in Dark 1. And good lord the parrying in Dark 2 was awful. HOWEVER. Dark 2 gave us the Orma and Reeve greatshields so you can slam interlocking shields together as your primary weapon. It doesn't have the shock factor the Dark 1 Bonewheel hit us with, but it is very satisfying.(I forget what DS2's were like).
I need to play DS2 again, but only if I can use the Orma and Reeve shields for my build.They're extremely worse for like, half the game where you're stuck with a thick leather plate on your arm as your best option (unless you start as a knight iirc) before you start getting good shields, and even the best shields were tuned down to have lower defenses/stability than in Dark 1. And good lord the parrying in Dark 2 was awful. HOWEVER. Dark 2 gave us the Orma and Reeve greatshields so you can slam interlocking shields together as your primary weapon. It doesn't have the shock factor the Dark 1 Bonewheel hit us with, but it is very satisfying.
-edit- though thinking more I think I forgot about two early 100% physical defense shields? One is very early, the other isn't quite as early and is far too heavy for most builds that early.
Yeah, sorry.
Magic is pretty busted, as always.
The first two phases of Sister Freide aren't that bad, but I feel like you have to be pretty slow and careful in the second phase to stay back and only take safe hits since it's 2 on 1, so it makes it kind of tedious to learn the third.
Just to elaborate on this a bit, poise in Dark Souls 3 is only active during certain attacks. It's actually a lot more common than just Stomp and Perseverance; hammers, greatswords, and non-spear pole weapons use poise during their 2 handed attacks, while pretty much any of the "heavy" weapons (ultra greatswords and the like) use poise even 1 handed. Certain weapon arts also use poise, like the R2 Stance attack on most straight swords.
Without getting too deep into the details, poise reduces the amount of "stagger" damage you take from enemy attacks when making attacks of your own. If an enemy's attacks outdamage the "stagger threshold" of your weapon, your attack is interrupted. Generally, the heavier the weapon or the stronger the attack, the higher this threshold is.