Backlash

Man Frisky, can't believe you're still doing all this work.  Cheapy should be paying you!  Really appreciate you keeping the list up to date.  If only Beat Saber would go on sale...

Debating on if I want to do Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen as my next game.

 

I was playing Watch Dogs but I am about to rage quit that game due to Ubi's normal bad game design choices.

I really enjoyed DD:DA.  It took me a little while to get into it, but once I did I ended up putting over 100 hours in, I think.  I really hope they make a sequel.

How come the Sly game isnt free yet? Thought PS+ was making all 6 games available at once every month.

Starting in July.

Best to your mom Plasma.  I have always found that portable video games are great ways to pass time at the hospital.  Maybe you should introduce Mom to a 3DS or Vita, depending on what she plays.  May she get better fast.

For sure.  When my wife was on bedrest during pregnancy with our first kid, I got her a DS and it really improved her quality of life

And i can finally open the CE guide i bought during launch! I put down almost 150 hrs on the 1st one and then stop all together. Ill be rusty for sure.

Do yourself a huge favor and don't open the guide until you finish your first playthrough.  You only get one first playthrough to explore and not know what's coming...

I've been using the DragonRider bow for most of the game.  If you use bows a lot (like I do) I think it's pretty sweet, especially when you shoot magic arrows with it.   I've actually skipped out on leveling my guy up just to load up on magic arrows, iron arrows, and poison arrows - I like to keep several hundred on hand.

I've made a few other boss soul weapons but haven't used any other ones.  Most seem to have pretty high STR and/or DEX requirements, and petrified dragon bone is so uncommon.

I usually try to stay somewhere in the low to mid-50s, but it depends on the area.  I swap out my main armor pretty frequently, and have 1 or 2 helms and gloves that I'll swap out.  I have been wearing the Bone King Skirt ever since I bought it and I love that thing.  Have it at +2 so far and I never take it off (it's so light, gives good elemental protection and decent physical protection for the weight).

I like that they don't have hard break points for rolling/stamina regen/etc, but it does tempt me to be heavier than I'm used to.

Dwarfman - I think one of the biggest differences between Demon's and the Dark Souls games is that Demon's had easier bosses but harder (and cooler) levels, whereas the Dark Souls games have easier levels but harder bosses (in general).

I must be missing a lot of NPC storylines, because I keep seeing "liar" messages and such in front of empty spaces, ha ha.  After I finish my first [mostly] blind playthrough, I'll look at some guides or something to see what I missed for my second time around.

 

Endurance is a waste to gain more stagger resistance as it were. 

Just for that, yes.  But I like having more Endurance to allow more dodges and more weapon swings as well.  I just find having more Endurance in general very helpful - nothing kills you more quickly in Dark Souls than running out of endurance.

Well said.  We can always say things like "just don't use the lifegems if they make it too easy" but of course if it's in the game that's hard to do.  But - that's where challenge runs come in.  After I played Dark Souls quite a bit and felt like I needed something new to do, I did a Soul Level 1 run (which later because incredibly common anyway).

In Dark Souls 2, you can make up your own challenge (I've heard of several people doing bows only or crazy crap like that), but they also built 2 major challenge runs right into the game, and give you tangible rewards for them.  Beat it without dying and you get one ring.  Beat it without using a bonfire and you get a different ring, both of which are only useful for PvP.

Never tried alluring skull, but in the Gutter they're

The ones in the Bastille seem to get stun-locked after the first hit (or even die on the first hit - maybe they have less health), but in the gutter I can swing once and then they're exploding all over me, often knocking me off.  

 

At what ATN stat do you get your first actual slot?

 

since as a Bandit my Faith is already somewhat okay I might as well toss a heal in there or something.

 

EDIT- Googled it, it is level 10.

 

I am thinking of making a spellcaster on my next run. That or start as Deprived and just do literally but nothing other than strength and whatever else to equip a weapon.

Yeah  I'm in the same boat.  1 INT, 2 ATN, and 8 FAITH.  So no spells, not even pyro.  I'll probably just make a spellcaster on my second play-through.  Honestly, I did spellcaster for Demon's and Dark Souls for my first play-throughs, and it seems like easy mode compared to just sword and board.  So I'm trying to stick to a fighter for my first run this time.  With so many stats to upgrade, it is kind of freeing not to worry about raising those 3, at least.

More often than not, people heal(from what I've seen anyway). Only way it's really going to work is if From disables the use of flasks in pvp.

That's what Lloyd's Talisman's are for!

Here's the Reddit thread about ADP I referred to: http://www.reddit.co...eo_showing_the/

Edit: And another thread about ADP, though mostly opinion/anecdotal: http://www.reddit.co...is_it_worth_it/

And of course Jodou is an elitist Souls player.  That's been obvious for awhile :p

There was a pretty good thread on Reddit about ADP with side by side video testing.  The videos actually made it seem like it wasn't too worth it, even though shield raising, estus drinking, etc were faster.  However, they also didn't take into account iFrames.  

Personally, I started at 3 (Bandit) and raised mine to 21 (I think?) so far, and it seems to have made a big difference to me.  However, it might just be that I'm getting used to the changed control mechanics from Dark Souls.  I am certainly having more success dodging and rolling.

Last night wasn't a great play session for me.  Took me way too long to get down the well - didn't realize you have to be full human and I tried lots of times as a hollow.  Than I died many many times in the Upper Gutter.  Those pink dog things are bullshit with their hit box and attack range.  They hit all the time even when nowhere near you or facing the other way.  Ah, well.