Dark Souls: How to Lose Souls and Backstab People

Siegward is really bad. He’s there to capitalize on the player’s memories of Siegmeyer in Dark Souls, but he’s got a story that’s nowhere near as subtle, interesting or nuanced.

It’s a bit frustrating, because they could have done something interesting with him, playing with expectations. When you first meet him, he ends up saving you, and it turns out he’s actually really competent in a fight. If they’d continued that theme, they could have made a storyline that’s an inverse of Siegmeyer’s: he’d be too helpful, and you eventually have to tell him to stop helping you because you’re relying too much on him.

Instead what we got was him doing the same stuff Siegmeyer did, getting stuck in odd locations, until you finally find out that he’s Yhorm’s friend and has an identical copy of a weapon that used to be unique and used for a specific purpose in a specific area. And the description of that item lies to you.

He ends up as a frustrating overlap of two things, one from Dark Souls and one from Demon’s Souls, that were unique and special in their own games and got turned into nostalgia bait in Dark Souls 3.

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You mean the description lying to you about there being two Storm Rulers? Because it tells you there are exactly two in existence, one given to those who doubted him (the guy who probably came to kill him and failed, which is the one we pick up) and another one he gave to a dear friend (old Siggy)..

I actually liked Siegward as a whole. His only failing is that he’s wearing the Onion Knight set as well has having Siegmeyer’s voice actor, but I seem to be awfully good at looking past that.

No, it lies about being useful against giants. It isn’t, it’s only useful against Yhorm. There’s plenty of other giants in the game and it doesn’t work against them.

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Welcome my friend. Welcome to axe life.


:heart_eyes::heart:


:eyepop: :vince:

FromSoft, don’t make me choose!
…wait the twin axe just takes up one equipment slot.
…You can wield both. I can wield both.

https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=KXP5czmY1HE
Yes! Yes! Yes!
…finally someone that understands me.

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This is the first series to make me love the axes this much, I can’t wait to try the Winged Knight Axes. God I hope the next dlc gives another one. I need more!

Hot take, there are never not enough axes. Another game series where axes are great? Fire Emblem. Speaking of which, here’s a summary of a conversation I recently had with my niece regarding axe life:
Me: Axes are so pure and good. So silly and fun. Axe love. :heartpulse:
Her: Long swords ftw.
Me: :neutral_face: You don’t deserve axes.
Her: Swords > Axes :tongue:
Me: :cry: How could you say such things. ALTERNATIVE FACTS!
Her: :laughing: Fire Emblem knows what’s up.
Me: :astonished: You dare to bring the weapon triangle into this?! Real Fire Emblem players know that a million swordsmen are nothing compared to a lovingly raised Gonzales or Largo. They would bench a dozen Ziharks and Stefans to chase the Marty dream. No amount of weapon triangle advantage is going to stop Hector from axeing you in the face.
Her: Who would win in a fight, Hector or Ike?
Me: Oh gosh, oh gee. That’s really hard.
Her: :imp:
Me: Ike. But he uses an axe!
Her: !!! Damn!

Preaching the axe gospel over here.

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Hey, is it alright if people talking about non-mechanics-related content in games specify at the top of their post which game they’re talking about? I’m doing my best to still avoid information about Dark Souls 3 before I get to play it myself.

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A possibly weird question: is there some big downside of just shoving a Raw Gem in a high damage weapon? I know it removes damage scaling, but it doesn’t seem to have hurt my ability to slay foes at all so far.

Figured I’d ask as I went straight from Bloodborne (which I still need to finish the last leg of, I changed up after I got stuck on one of the DLC bosses) to Dark Souls 3, and only ever watched LPs of 1 and 2.

It’d only affect you late game, where(if youve pumped the dex and/or strength stats enough) the difference between raw and scaling damage is a gigantic leap, sometimes in 100s(i think). Raw is still useable, just not its full potential at that point.

Raw is mainly good in the early game or for int/fth builds that still want a physical damage weapon (recommended)

Some weapons lend themselves better to infusions, including Raw. One weapon that is all-around good for that stuff is the Astora Straight Sword for instance.

If you use a DEX or STR build, though, sharp or heavy will be the way to go at first. It’s always worth it checking how refined adds up by comparison because it overtakes sharp and heavy rather quickly.

Thanks for the replies. It seems like I’ll decide to either end up swapping out Gems once I start seeing a positive difference in scaling or stop being a shitty pyromancer, then.

EDIT: And by “shitty pyromancer” I mean I picked Pyromancer at the start and then ended up buying higher Strength and Dexterity than Intelligence and Faith anyway.

Minimum stats for whatever pyromancy you wanna use is perfectly fine. It won’t be as effective, of course, but the damage spells will still have their use. There’s also some good utility spells you can get. The most unequestionably useful one probably being Carthus Flame Arc, which just gives your weapon a fire buff.

Rapport is one I’ve never used but by all accounts works really well and can trivialize a lot of the encounters.

Of course, you’ll get the most out of pyromancy if you use it on the side when going for an INT of FTH build because this time around the scaling is actually substantial (though, again, don’t get hung up on it)

In Dark Souls II the scaling was there, but not that important, and in Dark Souls it had no scaling whatsoever and was also completely overpowered.

I just want Power Within to be good again, it was my favorite Pyromancy in Dark Souls. Nothing says “I’m serious” like slowly murdering yourself to take down an opponent. It’d be okay if they just doubled the time it’s active,

The best damaging pyromancy I ever found (Great Chaos Fire Orb) doesn’t require any Int or Faith. (Which is a really neat story/gameplay intersection beat but anyway)


:heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart::heart::heart::heart:

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Finally finished up in time for The Ringed City. I’m so excited, this is the first Dark Souls thing i’ve avoided footage and screens for. Only thing that’s been spoiled are the double greatswords, which look fucking rad.

The Ringed City will be unlocked in three hours and I figure this means that I will not go to bed at a reasonable time today.

The Ringed City more like Lapp the Badass

I finished the DLC now. It’s very good. The only two parts I didn’t like was a bonus boss.

Points of note

-Pilgrims turning into Angels confirmed
-Earthen Peak shows up, although it’s in ruins
-Patches makes a glorious return
-The Demon Prince boss room is Firelink Shrine from Dark Souls
-The Ringed City is gorgeous and vast
-There’s a dragon roasting a bridge (the dragon sucks, though)
-The Old Monk boss gimmick from Demon’s Souls returns.
-The Ringed Knight weapons kick ass
-the final fight against My Uncle, The Monster, Gael Cueto is really cool
-In terms of difficulty it has some of the toughest areas, but the bosses aren’t as tough. To me Friede is still the hardest
-Probably more, only finished it once. Gotta play through it at least one or two more times before I’ll record stuff for my LP.

Regarding bosses:

Demon Prince kicks serious ass.

Spear of the Church sucks because I panic during PVP

Gael is very cool

Haven’t gotten to the other one, but I know of him.