- Finish upgrading Pyromancy flame to +5 COMPLETE
- Get the drops from Undead Asylum COMPLETE
- ring COMPLETE
- shield COMPLETE
- slab COMPLETE
- Gravelord the Depths COMPLETE
- If I have a bad experience gravelording the depths, Either A. kill [Sif,] the 4 kings, and join the Darkwraithes or B. Join the Forest Covenant. COMPLETE
- Make a better evaluation of where to freeze my level. ONGOING
- Decide if Gravelord Sword is worth leveling for. ONGOING
- Figure out proper Endurance levels (aka equipment load) ONGOING
- Figure out the location and retrieve "ninja flip" ring COMPLETE
- Find "Large Flame Ember" and take my +5 fire claymore to +9 INCOMPLETE
- NOTE: I should try and locate as many "embers" as I can tonight. DRAW
- Try co-op at different bosses I have not defeated before opting to level any skill. ONGOING
Pyromancy Flame +5
FINALLY got enough souls down to Blightown to upgrade my Pyromancy Flame to max level. I haven't had great success with pyromancy as of yet, but I'm not counting it out yet. It's an interesting change up in animation regardless of its effect and comes with some pretty neat buffs. I'm going to continue to experiment with pyromancy... especially now that it'll do max damage.
Undead Asylum
This went extraordinarily well. Stray Demon only hit me once on the way to his grave. Oscar aggroed way further than I remembered, but I was able to stagger him with my +4 lightening great scythe and put him down. Picked up the Rusted Iron Ring, Crest Shield, Titanite Slab, and Peculiar Doll. Was in and out in under a half hour.
Gravelord-ery and Ninja Flipping
Level 22 is not the point where I should be gravelording. I tried in multiple places and only saw one blue spirit. I didn't get a chance to fight him because I was dealing with a darkwraith at the time, but it made it clear that low level PVP isn't for the Gravelords. It did, however, make it seem like a good idea on one of my NG+ characters. It's a very different form of PvP with its own strengths and weaknesses. Stocking up on "Eyes of Death" is easy enough in the Depths (along with the humanity required to use the eye of death), but it doesn't provide enough action for the time invested. I did get my gravelord sword (which is cool) and that makes it worth joining and bailing on regardless of what benefits it gives.
From here I went over to Oswald to have my sins forgiven so I could go back to the forest and join the Forest Covenant. I put on the ring and went about my business. Nothing. I also wasn't too excited to be lured into trap after trap, so I made this a temporary home. Why temporary? Because I wanted to try the Murakomo and wear the Dark Wood Grain Ring (aka the "ninja flip" ring). The only way to get these two is to murder a couple Forest Bros and take them off their corpses. [NOTE: The second target goes home if you don't kill them both at the same time] I didn't feel bad about this one because I was still holding a grudge on Alvina for her uppity rudeness when I DARED say I don't mind "knocking for nothing." Now I'll farm her buddies when I need souls... how do you like THEM apples, Kitty Cat? Oh, I almost forgot... I used my status in the Forest Covenant to make my trip to Sif easy-peasy. Sif is by far my least favorite boss fight due to the lore and I hobbled him before finishing the fight. It always gives me a lousy feeling when the fight goes like that and this time was no different.
The Four Kings fight ended up well, but it took me a long time to figure out exactly how I was going to go about fighting. I also learned that transient curse blocks Power Within. Who knew? Once I had everything set and ready to go it was an easy fight. Enter Kaathe. Join Darkwraithes at SL40. PvP available everywhere. Rejoice.
Get a better idea of where to park my SL
This is where my adventure took a turn for the worse. At some point I leveled Dexterity to 22 thinking I needed 22 Dex for one of the "favorite" dex weapons. No Dex weapon requires 22 dex. In fact, if I wanted to stay with a katana I'd only need 14 dex. Doesn't sound like a big deal, right? Well, I learned that it actually IS a big deal. It's the BIGGEST deal. At low Soul Levels, every single point you spend is critical. I planned on staying as low as possible which meant I was upgrading my weapons to elemental damage. Upgrading to elemental weapons takes away all scaling of the weapons. Let's say a weapon does 100 points of damage when you meet the requirements and scales off of your Dexterity. If you add a point of Dex you'll do 110 points of damage. If you make that weapon a fire weapon it will do 200 points of damage but lose scaling, so even if you add 99 points of Dex, it will still do 200 damage.
So, to make it perfectly clear, if you plan on using an elemental weapon, do not skill up past the requirements.
Why? Because the people you will meet PvPing won't have wasted those points. If I invaded a smarter version of myself he would have spent the 8 points I WASTED on things like endurance or vitality. That would give him a leg up for sure. Eight more points of endurance gives a ton of equipment load and stamina. He could move faster than me with more gear, swing an extra time or two, and be more mobile than I am. Eight points of vitality would give him a great deal more health, especially if he pairs that with a Ring of Favor and Protection, a Mask of The Mother, or both. But, Kenobi, those bonuses seem small, and still does not make it totally lopsided right? Well, what about the new max level range I'm able to be invaded by? I learned how bad a mistake I made when a seasoned Darkwraith invaded with his Dragon King Great Axe and basically made a monkey out of me. I sat back and tried to figure out how he could have possibly been so powerful and realized that at level 22 I had the stats of a well optimized 12 or 13 but was matched with people in their mid 30s... who also have perfectly optimized their builds. So, by spending points that have no bearing on my damage or survivability I've opened myself up to people who have optimized themselves perfectly at HIGHER levels than I'm at while not being well optimized myself.
This took away the whole "I'll work harder, prepare myself, and go the extra mile to make up for the fact that I'm not a great pvp-er yet" idea I had in my head when I started trying to minimize my level. It made me realize that the "pvp hot spots" of Soul Levels are arbitrary. People spread their "preferred PvP levels" and people start theory crafting builds at those levels to maximize their potential. The whole idea of staying "low level" is to pick the gear you want to use, get that gear, level to their exact requirements, throw in a splash of Vitality and Endurance so you can do the things you want to do and go in there and scrap. When you waste a SINGLE POINT you're gone. Now, you might as well just pick one of the pvp friendly levels and stop leveling there because you've lost your advantage.
This is where I am at right now. I'm a level 45 Darkwraith and I'm getting a ton of PvP in, but I'm all over the map in success rate. I have 28 strength and 22 dexterity, but I opt for a lightening great scythe. I have something like 10 weapons I want to put through their paces before I rank up for any one of them. Between the 3 katanas, the halberds, spears, Zwei, claymore, shotel, the curved great swords, the gravelord sword, and a host of other nifty trinkets I've picked up along the way... I just have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA which will be my favorite. So, for the time being the plan is to try them all out. Spend all my souls at the blacksmith and pvp my heart out until I'm sure I've picked the one weapon that I'm most comfortable with...
...and then do it all over again with a clear plan. Every soul will be spent meticulously to end up in exactly the place I planned. I'll hit that level, put on my gear that I knew I'd put on ahead of time, and wield the weapon I planned on wielding. The Four Kings fall... and then I'm off to pvp exactly the way I want to... not out of theory and speculation... but out of research and practice. The next "PVPpyrodex" I roll will not be a mistake... he will be a machine. Am I ready to re-roll right now? Absolutely not. I have a lot to do and a lot to learn. I have to try out a ton of weapons in pure upgrades, elemental, pvp, pve, and eventually make a clear decision instead of just fumbling around with weapons I hear are good. For now I can get plenty of PvP in as a Darkwraith and until that changes I don't see any reason to consider this time "wasted." At the very least I'll learn a ton about how the different weapon/armor combinations work in this style build and have way more to offer on my next character.
So, I mark this goal "ongoing" as I'm learning a ton, but won't end up with what I originally wanted. I also learned that I shouldn't try and minimize SL on a build I've never tried before. It only ends in disappointment. I need to know exactly what my favorite weapon/armor combo is before I decide to make it the heart of my character. Only then can I be confident that I've made the right choice. Only then can I evaluate the choices I've made.
Anyone who uses a trainer aside, the next time you get invaded by a well geared and skilled Darkwraith be very wary of calling it BS. It takes so much work, patience, research, trial and error, and love of the game to get to the point where you can make a build work at low levels. Most Darkwraiths you see at low levels won't be annoying jerks who have no idea what's what... they will be students of the game who have crafted a character for the exact reason you don't want to see them.
I can say with perfect confidence that trying to do this the right way has given me a new respect for Darkwraiths that are effective at low SL. It's really not an easy task. For how frustrating it can be to see a very well geared and disciplined Darkwraith when all you want is a sunbro there are hundreds of hours and a long line of failed experiments behind that character that have tempered him into what you see before you... not just some jerk...
...but I guess he could still be a jerk... loving Dark Souls and being a jerk are not mutually exclusive...
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