Dark Souls

Oh you've got to revisit souls. The first playthrough is only to help you decide what you're doing for your next playthrough.

I've wrung all the enjoyment out of the series that I possibly can, but I still occasionally get a build idea I want to take into PvP. Yesterday it was a poison build with Toxic Mist and the Rotten Ghru Curved Sword for DS3, and call it Auntie Vax.

I'm thinking of complementing my DEX bandit with Oolacile magic because why the hell not. I went pyro with strength on my first ever run, never done a full faith or sorcery build. I suspect if I tried to do a full magic build I'd probably end up with a huge sword and shield anyway - just like always doing a stealth archer in Skyrim.

Nah Sorc builds work really well - unfortunately you still pretty much need a +14/15 physical weapon for the DLC (to get Dark Bead), but a +15 Rapier or Balder Straight Sword, about 20 Dex and a heavy dose of patience work well enough

Humperfunk The benefits of dex for spellcasting aren't worth leveling up dex for alone. If you're putting points in a stat it should either be giving you damage or survivability, and dex does neither if you're not using dex weapons.

Also, spells cannot be upgraded, but you can purchase stronger version of certain spells. These have the drawback that you can cast them fewer times and take longer to cast; you can also just make your spells stronger by leveling the relevant stat.

Pyromancy is the exception given that it gains strength by the level of your pyromancy flame, not your stats. That means you can slap pyromancy on any build you like and it'll keep pace with you damage-wise as long as you invest the souls to upgrade it.

Hah, same! I always think of trying new stuff with skyrim but always end up stealth archer with illusion every damn time! Too much fun

It's a tense experience isn't it, doing it all the way through. Still puts me on edge going from top to bottom in one careful run

Spider shield is good for blocking the toxic darts. Thank god they don't respawn

Sen's Fortress is the next place on the critical path after you've rung both the bells (you get there from a path near Andre the blacksmith)

Ah nice yes of course, the one with the snakehead guards that Siegmeyer was sat outside.

Having said that, I'm now realising I skipped the Forest Hunters, so I'll probably go back and do that first - or at least get the dark wood grain ring. My favourite chaotic PvP tactic at one point was equipping a massive heavy weapon and approaching slowly, then going "psych!" and flipping around with it at <25% encumbrance*

*tactic did not actually work that well, but I like to imagine I surprised some people before they slaughtered me with their quicker weapons

That boss was rough for me. Caught it in some kind of loop to finally bleed it to death. Also get the thing that lets you do the thing in A Londo while you’re there

*Stray Demon

That's the guy you fight on the bridge in Dark Souls 3 then. Yeah, I can see that

You can do runs of the undead parish killing the balder knights to get the 20k. Takes a little while, but it's relatively safe and you're never far from bonfire (can just use firelink and go up the lift each time, take out the guys in the parish itself, go out the front door, turn left, kill a few more goons, and then back to the side entrance of the parish where you first encounter the non-respawning black knight guarding the firekeeper soul)

Or if you have a couple of boss souls and look up what they create - if you're not interested in using the soul for the weapon it creates, just consume it when you've got the require remaining souls from the balder knights.