Has anyone played any good video games lately?

[Shjade]

I don't like the huge weight of the better greatswords, or the slow swings. But I do like having a shield. Basically my setup is R: sword/bow, L: sword/shield, and I switch to the ones I need for the current situation.

The real problem is everything in DS2 having such low durability and breaking down so fast. Dual wielding helps a little since it's basically spreading the wear and tear across two weapons instead of focusing it all on one, but it's still rough going long stretches without a bonfire. This was originally going to be a no bonfire run for the exalted ring but I quickly decided that was going to make things a hell of a lot more trouble than a silly gimmick ring was worth.

Regarding stat investment: I suspect they did that because endurance was way, WAY too good in DS1 just on a per-point basis, same reason they split stamina and weight load into separate stats. On the plus side the way weight class for rolling works now means you don't need huge weight load just to roll normally, so you can afford to spend more in stamina and less in vitality if need be.

[Hemingway]

Mastodon Greatsword is not an Ultra Greatsword. Which is a bit weird. Still, I find it's the perfect balance between speed and power. A bit light on stunning power, but I guess that's what I get for not using my Greatsword ( I find it very weird that the 'Greatsword' is an Ultra Greatsword ).

[Shjade]

It's only 10 power higher (300 vs 290) than a Claymore at the expense of being twice as heavy. I think I'd rather dual-wield Bastard sword and Claymore for almost double the mastodon's damage for roughly the same weight at the expense of not having a shield. >.>

Edit: Mastodon does scale better with strength, though, so its total AR is probably +30-50 over the claymore. Definitely better for a single weapon, but ~450 damage per swing vs ~800 damage per swing? I dunno...

[Hemingway]

Yeah, I was going to point that out. I'm not sure how well I'd notice the difference, but weight isn't an issue for me with my current build, using a Greatshield and Alva's armor ( because a good, heavy shield and light armor means you can have it both ways! ).

Also, does weight not come into stunning opponents? Or is that just weapon class?

My favorite weapon from Dark Souls ( as it was the favorite weapon of so many others! ) is the Black Knight Sword, so I wanted something to mimic its moveset. I don't know if anything else is closer, but the Mastodon Greatsword is just a nice sword overall.

One thing I always found curious about Dark Souls is that the boss soul weapons often are not very good at all. Often they're gimmicky, but get outperformed by other weapons in most ways. I can only think of a few weapons I've tried myself, like the Dragonslayer Spear has the second longest reach of any weapon in Dark Souls, and I'm pretty sure it's more powerful than the Demon's Spear with the right build. In Dark Souls 2, the Pursuer's Greatsword is quite nice, but the moveset blows ( R1 does not get a sweeping attack on the first attack, so actually hitting can be problematic ). I haven't bothered with trying most weapons.

Still want to do a build using Artorias' greatsword in Dark Souls. Artorias' greatsword, Lord's Blade armor ... mm. That'd be sweet.

[Shjade]

Also, does weight not come into stunning opponents? Or is that just weapon class?

My favorite weapon from Dark Souls ( as it was the favorite weapon of so many others! ) is the Black Knight Sword, so I wanted something to mimic its moveset. I don't know if anything else is closer, but the Mastodon Greatsword is just a nice sword overall.

Still want to do a build using Artorias' greatsword in Dark Souls. Artorias' greatsword, Lord's Blade armor ... mm. That'd be sweet.

You can see how much stunning power a weapon has in its stats. It's the number below critical damage, the icon looks like a human torso being stabbed. What's unclear is exactly how poise interacts, since you can be wearing, say, 80 poise in armor and still get stunned by fairly light attacks sometimes. It's less clear than it was in DS1, at least so far. The claymore's poise damage stat is 35, so I'd imagine the Mastodon Greatsword is probably 35-45.

If you want a weapon in DS2 that mimics the Black Knight Greatsword's moveset, you might want to try...the Black Knight Greatsword. Which you can get. It has different stat requirements than DS1's (28 str, 20 dex, 12 int, 12 faith) and is a fire weapon, and your mastodon likely will do more damage since it scales better. BKGS has base stats pretty much identical to the Drangleic greatsword, just with a fire modifier on top of that, meaning in the endgame areas its damage is sorta lacking (maxes out at 280 phys with something like 100ish bonus fire damage, only C/E str/dex scaling).

And...yeah, I did an Artorias build once. It made me sad how ineffective it was compared to a build that focused more on effectiveness than aesthetics. The Artorias sword's moveset is just...bad. :|

[Hemingway]

You can see how much stunning power a weapon has in its stats. It's the number below critical damage, the icon looks like a human torso being stabbed. What's unclear is exactly how poise interacts, since you can be wearing, say, 80 poise in armor and still get stunned by fairly light attacks sometimes. It's less clear than it was in DS1, at least so far. The claymore's poise damage stat is 35, so I'd imagine the Mastodon Greatsword is probably 35-45.

If you want a weapon in DS2 that mimics the Black Knight Greatsword's moveset, you might want to try...the Black Knight Greatsword. Which you can get. It has different stat requirements than DS1's (28 str, 20 dex, 12 int, 12 faith) and is a fire weapon, and your mastodon likely will do more damage since it scales better. BKGS has base stats pretty much identical to the Drangleic greatsword, just with a fire modifier on top of that, meaning in the endgame areas its damage is sorta lacking (maxes out at 280 phys with something like 100ish bonus fire damage, only C/E str/dex scaling).

And...yeah, I did an Artorias build once. It made me sad how ineffective it was compared to a build that focused more on effectiveness than aesthetics. The Artorias sword's moveset is just...bad. :|

I was not aware that was in the game! I also wonder why it felt like, in Dark Souls, the Black Knight Sword was incredibly good, while my Mastodon Greatsword feels ... eh, good, but not anything out of the ordinary. Mastodon is almost certainly better, though, I see that.

I'm guessing it was also better in Dark Souls because of how many enemies were demons. I don't know how many enemies in Dark Souls 2 are demons, but it doesn't look like a whole lot.

[Shjade]

I can think of a few reasons, depending on how early you got the BKS:

- it has extremely high base damage but not great scaling, so if you get it early enough it wrecks pretty much everything you come across.

- most "normal" enemies in Dark Souls are, all things considered, pretty frail. Even the mini-boss type things only tend to have maybe 600 or so hp until much later on in the game.

- comparatively, anything above fodder/mook-level enemies in Dark Souls 2 tends to have at least 1k hp and a lot of them have fairly high resistances to various kinds of damage as well.

Basically DS2 has much more robust enemies in general. I bet the Mastodon would seem much more impressive if you were using it in DS1. In fact, let's do a quick comparison...

+10 Mastodon GS in DS2: 300 base AR, A/E str/dex scaling.
+15 Zweihander in DS1: 325 base AR, C/D str/dex scaling.

So in DS1, the Mastodon would've been better (with high strength for scaling bonuses) than Zweihander, albeit only by a little, putting it on par with ultra greatswords. The DS1 Claymore, by comparison, was only 257 base AR with C/C scaling at +15, so its DS2 version is actually buffed a bit (as is the DS2 Zwei, which now has it at 350 base with B/C scaling).

So yeah, the weapons are still as strong as ever. It's the enemies that are tougher to kill that make them seem weaker than DS1 weapons.

[Hemingway]

Yeah, maybe you're right. I'm just disappointed that not all enemies go down in two swings, basically. Sometimes it takes three!

I decided I wanted a new playthrough. Dex this time. Ricard's Rapier, hoo! I suck at it. I'm a competent dodger, but my ripostes blow.

[Inkidu]

Yeah, maybe you're right. I'm just disappointed that not all enemies go down in two swings, basically. Sometimes it takes three!

I decided I wanted a new playthrough. Dex this time. Ricard's Rapier, hoo! I suck at it. I'm a competent dodger, but my ripostes blow.

It wouldn't surprise to find out that ripostes and parrying in general got nerfed after the incident with DS1's final boss. :P

[Xedralya]

Path of Exile continues to be my game of choice!  Has anyone else tried it out?

[Inkidu]

Path of Exile continues to be my game of choice!  Has anyone else tried it out?

It's supposed to be one of the better Diablo clones?

[Sel Nar]

Tried it; PoE has promise, but it's always-online, and has a bad habit of instability on some machines; It's been the only game in 4 years to actually make my computer BSOD.

[Xedralya]

It's supposed to be one of the better Diablo clones?

I've played D3, and I find Path of Exile to have much more depth and satisfaction if you like being creative in game systems.  It really does take from the best of a lot of different ideas and bring them together in one package.  The way that active skills work in particular is so much fun - it's all itemized.  Think Materia from Final Fantasy VII, and the passive skill system works like the sphere grid from Final Fantasy X.

Tried it; PoE has promise, but it's always-online, and has a bad habit of instability on some machines; It's been the only game in 4 years to actually make my computer BSOD.

It is always-online, but that's never bothered me.  It also has the most responsive and awesome group of developers I've ever seen in all my time playing games.

I've also never had it crash my computer, and I've been playing it for a total of about 18 months or so.  I've done almost all of that solo.

[Hemingway]

Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls! It's good fun.

[Tsenta]

Managed to get a few quests done on DDO, thank goodness for downtime. X_X

[Shjade]

Yeah, maybe you're right. I'm just disappointed that not all enemies go down in two swings, basically. Sometimes it takes three!

For what it's worth, I eventually transitioned out of dual-wielding swords into a +10 large club with a Gyrm greatshield. Late game the bosses just get too hard to beat with dodge only and hit too hard to block effectively with little shields, so I went whole hog on tanking. Large Club isn't really a moveset I like either, but holy hell the damage. PANCAKIN' FOO'S.

[Drake Valentine]

Dark Souls II. I am running out beating everything to pulp with dual Catesusus(sp?) The fist weapons. With dex and str currently softcap to 40, I will max them after softcapping few other stats. (Mostly the Agility and... Endurance ones and health and maybe Vigor was it to increase weight?)

That stun lock on those weapons is amaaaaazing. Killed several invading red phantom players with them. ;) Powerstance rips things apart and I lol at people turtling behind their shield after I break their guards.

I also like the twinblade and maybe will max it later after I max fist weapons. It has nice/flashy attack animations but damn it eats through stamina.

[Shjade]

That stun lock on those weapons is amaaaaazing. Killed several invading red phantom players with them. ;) Powerstance rips things apart and I lol at people turtling behind their shield after I break their guards.

Stunlock on basically everything is amazing with current poise mechanics. Downside of fist weapons is range. The last time a guy came at me with dual caestus I survived his stunlock (he just ran out of stamina punching me), backed up while he recharged, waited for him to come in again and pancaked him on the approach. ;p

[Hemingway]

Havel's set + fist weapons? :'D

By the way, I figured it might be a good idea to have a Dark Souls 2 thread, to avoid spamming this one.

[Revelation]

A friend of mine was really amped about Dominions 4 and talking to me about a 4chan /vg/ Dominions 4 play by email he was in a few weeks ago. I've always been interested in the game, but I didn't quite have the funds to get it... So he gifted it to me. It's a fantasy turn based strategy game that's akin to civilization with Heroes of Might and Magic... And is way, way, way deeper than either. The game book for this thing is 500+ pages, there are seventy five factions spread across 3 different eras with widely varied play styles and things each age, and huge collections of stuff. Like over 1,000 different units, the manual claims about 500-600 spells... And no tutorial in game, just in the manual. Man, this thing is gonna either be amazing or way too complex for me. Anyone have any familiarity with the Dominions series?

[Drake Valentine]

Infamous Second Son.

Yep, fits good game entirely because that is what it is. A good game, not a great game, but a good game. Actually weighing it in comparison to the first Infamous I am disappointed in the game and the moral choices. Maybe 'good' game would be too much, probably average game fits it better. If  you aren't someone that played former Infamous games, then this may be more enjoyable for you. For me there seems to be too many things lacking. Yea multiple powers are cool and all, but they also were missing a polish to them. Gameplay, I actually beat it in two days, probably shorter if I main rush the story than wandering off and doing side things; but this too was also because I put plenty of hours in it having nothing more to do during my weekend off from work. Maybe one can beat it twenty hours tops if they choose to complete everything on whichever route. 

I beat evil route and wasn't impress with the story and the ending for it. Then again this is also me weighing it to the first Infamous I played.

[SinfulAngel]

Not sure if anyone had mentioned this game this far,  Warframe is pretty awesome.  Free to play still in beta game.  It's a third person shooter game, 4 person co-op missions and has an mmo like grind.

[Inkidu]

mmo like grind.

That's a good thing?

[Chris Brady]

That's a good thing?

Only if you like or are used to Korean style MMOs.  I like Warframe for it's promise.  Promise that seems to be slow in delivering, but it IS delivering.  In inches.

[Shjade]

Warframe's biggest problem is lack of diversity: in maps, in enemy types, in missions, etc. They're gradually varying it up over time, but I've kinda already burned out on it by now.