^ If you are having trouble with normal mobs, then they must be super-tough. I'm curious to see that part now!
They're not hard per se, it's that they spawn in pairs so it was time consuming and annoying. Much more hilarious seeing them roll off the bridge instead. BTW, I'm like level 110 now with zero points spent on VGR and it's rare that I get one shot by anything, even while 2H stance. If I do, it's because I'm being bad.
That rat covenant is griefer central. I got summoned twice while making my way to the boss and all nerds in there do is throw the item degrade pots at you while running away towards their traps. I got bored with them and just killed myself to get out. Not wasting my time on worthless pvp lol. I think it bugged my game too because I was reading a black phantom should have spawned towards the entrance to the boss yet one never did for me. Seriously, if I need to play their game offline just to get content to spawn without it glitching because bads want to troll, then I will.
I also got legitimately stuck on the smelter boss for two hours because of glitches and bad RNG. While dodge rolling his forward thrust attack (not downward swing), you can not get hit but still collide with his sword model so that you're pushed backward towards the wall. I got stuck in the wall because of this about ten times over the course of my wipes on him and once you're stuck, you're dead; nothing you can do to get out. And the only reason I was dying repeatedly was partially learning the timing on his attacks but mostly that the arena is too small. Greatsword enemies are especially difficult to dodge properly as melee and circle strafing while dodging is the ONLY way to do it, but when he would get close to a wall I'd need to bait him back towards the middle. In doing so, I open myself up to making dodging harder as I close the gap and his ranged attack, that since the distance from him to me is variable, changes the timing of dodging. I died a lot to that just because of timing it perfectly was constantly changing speeds. Did I mention I was 2H stance for every attempt and not using the flame ring or any spells for fire resist? :lol:
That said, easily my favorite fight so far since it actually wasn't rollface. They need more fights that force you to not rely on shields and percentage based phases. Learning that fight was the most fun I've had all game. I just wish the arena were more open because once I had him in the rhythm of being toe-to-toe, I'm a dodge master.
Lastly, my gear is Drangleic Greatsword +2 (raw infused: boosted the attack nearly 25 points over scaling for now), Drangleic shield (for the 100% physical mitigation; haven't needed to swap to silver black shield for the high magic resist yet), Merchant hat (for the item increase), full Drangleic suit (no upgrades), silver covetous ring (10% increased souls; works on bosses), ring of binding (required for effective health since I'm fully hollowed 100% of the time), ring of blades (+20 base attack on weapon), and I swap the cloranthy ring (I maxed my stamina at 120 before diminishing returns set in for only 1 stamina per point of endurance) for the cat ring when needed. My stats are 12 VGR (starting value), 20 END (this gets you 120 stamina before diminishing returns), 21 VIT (enough that I can swap rings without going over 70% weight threshold), 13 ATT (such a worthless stat; this should have been baked into INT/FAITH for spell slots), 30 STR (was experimenting with greatshields, this will be dropped after a respec), 25 DEX (to use dragon rider bow I think), 10 ADP (until I see people with some math on this for roll cap breaks, not bothering), 18 INT (was speccing for moonlight GS before I knew about respecs heh), 18 FAITH (for homeward and slightly more healing from heal).
I'm almost to shady forest and finally the area I've been wanting since the start of the game is after that. I plan to beat that place and use a NG+ bonfire item so I can get the pale soul I need to buy moonlight greatsword. Then it'll be time to respec and rape in pvp.