My sword took off about 3/4 of the butterflys health when it went down for me to attack it. however I was having such a hard time dodging the scattershot attack. seemd like when i would dodge it it was more luck than anything else. I just needed the bow to give me that little extra push of damage so I could kill it with melee the 1st time it went down.

I feel like I have reached a point where the controls/mechanics are 2nd nature now. I am past the learning curve. I actively switch from 1 to 2 handed as need be, I block and dodge equal amounts depending on how the enemy is attacking. I even take advantage of invulnerability frames from some of the animations. and this is all because I have died hundreds and hundreds of times (most likely) It has given me the chance to try a bunch of various things and see how they each work out, and how to mix them together.

Also I am only level 22. I hit level 20 what I feel like is very early on. but then I havent really leveled up at all. I have been upgrading my gear. got +5 sword, +5 torso armor, and +2/+3 all the other armor. (it is needing other types of tittanite shards, ones I cant buy)

It seems like the Capra Demon is just more intimidating than anything else. You walk through and he immediately attacks you with this huge wide attack that does tons of damage, he also has other enemies in there with him. but his attacks are very projected and easy to avoid. I only tried fighting him twice. Right now the bigger issue is dealing with the thieves on the way to him. I think I need to use the neutral B on them instead of rolling away, since for some reason you can get backstabbed while rolling away

What you were saying about the Capra Demon was my biggest issue, took me about 4 tries to down him and my winning attempt was actually the first time I got past just his initial attack, I went right instead of left and it worked wonders.

the 1st time I didnt react in time to dodge him, but i did react with a block. He didnt quite kill me, but almost did. dog finished me off. the 2nd time I rolled past his attack, but trying to deal with those dogs, and a combination of the dogs hit stunning me and him hitting me was what got me the 2nd time. im about to boot it up and try again

Capra Demon isn't too bad once you know the strategy which took me a few retries to get.
I had some trouble in Anor Londo, especially it's boss, there is a bit of a difficulty spike around there, you are still a good few hours away from that though.

well I killed him on my very next attempt and I did get attacked during his opening attack. Finished off the dogs, ran up the stairs to heal, then I dropped down and hit him with a drop attack. Then ran up the stairs and did a drop attack. did that 4 times to kill him. Super easy

EDIT: Also I am thinking of investing in a little bit of magic. Just enough to do some basic spells. (like the magic shield, the decoy, and the reduced fall damage) I have the sorcery guy in firelink that I can go to to buy spells from. But my intelligence is at 11 and I need 14 or 15 for most of them. and i am level 26. it will cost me about 4500 souls for the next level. so probably about 30,000 to get my intelligence up. then there is the cost of the spells themselves. plus (and I dont really know how this works so I am only guessing) I only have 1 attunement slot which means I can only have 1 spell equipped at a time, and increasing that means putting even more souls into leveling this time for attunement. and im not even sure how many times I will need to level that just to get 1 or 2 more slots. All of that just to be able to use some basic spells. I dont really want to be a strong caster. I would much rather go the route that I am on which is fast agile dexterity attacker. so taking that small detour to cast some basic spells my not even be worth it. (your thoughts?)

You've got magic mostly right.
You can only equip one spell per attunement slot. But each spell you equip has so many castings per copy equipped. For example, Fire Orb (which is a pyromancy, actually, not a spell, but all magics work the same) will allow you, I think, six casts per one equipped.
And to cast a spell, you also need an appropriate catalyst equipped. All Magic spells use any Catalyst, Miracles require a Talisman, and Pyromancies require a Pyromancy Flame. They're all equipped like weapons, and for Catalysts and Talismans they scale with the appropriate stat. The scaling effect is for your spells though, not their damage which is always pathetic.

Now then.
What I would recommend for your character is Pyromancy. Pyromancy's damage and such depends on exactly one thing: your Pyromancy Flame. So, Pyromancy is like the non-magician's magic. Anyone can use it regardless of their character type. The only investment required is a bit of Attunement. Having 2 or 3 slots is more than enough.
You're close to being able to get a glove of your own. You just have to rescue someone early in the Depths level. MAKE SURE TO ROLL at them, not attack. You'll know what I mean when you see it. Get back to Firelink and you'll get your flame.
From there you'll be able to buy pyromancy spells and pay souls to increase your flame's level.
Pyromancies are mostly damage spells, but there are some very useful ones like Iron Flesh and Flash Sweat.

I was mostly looking to use magic for the non damage related applications.

Also do you need to be at a bon fire to equip spells?

Yes, and to refresh them.

Unless your character is a mage, it's probably not worth it. There's just not enough utility in the base magics to justify it.

Oh, a little known fact; having a high Dex will actually decrease your cast time on any spells, miracles, or pyromancies. You have to get up to 46 Dex, I think, for it to really show though. The effect isn't huge, but it is noticeable.

Still suggest looking at Pyromancy though. Sometimes nothing is more effective than a Fireball, and if you're trying to mostly go without a shield, then there are times you might want Iron Flesh. I'll kill your movement, but greatly lessen the damage you take.

Killing my speed kinda ruins it. Sounds like that spell is more for bulldozing your way through your problems.

Right now I am fighting the ghost swordsman in the sealed part of the forest. he is giving me a good amount of trouble. Though I dont think the mage will be that hard once I kill the swordsman

EDIT: HAHAHA! the swordsman killed me then rolled off the cliff....HAHA!

I was a pyromancer and got my flame to +14, iron flesh helped a ton with the final boss and the combustion/fireball attacks were great for some of the other bosses/ normal enemies, I would recommend it as an alternative form of attack.

Nice job with the Capra Demon, you were pretty lucky though, very hard to get hit by his initial attack and go on to win, every time that happened to me, the dogs mauled me and I couldn't attack due to being stunlocked and trapped in a corner.

Interested to know what you think of the depths and it's subsequent area, I think they are both thematically well designed.

It does kill your speed, but for the amount of protection it provides that doesn't matter. Sometimes you just can't dodge. Homing attacks, narrow corridors, etc. For those times, if you don't have a good shield, it's the best option.

Mitchell wrote:

I was a pyromancer and got my flame to +14, iron flesh helped a ton with the final boss and the combustion/fireball attacks were great for some of the other bosses/ normal enemies, I would recommend it as an alternative form of attack.

Nice job with the Capra Demon, you were pretty lucky though, very hard to get hit by his initial attack and go on to win, every time that happened to me, the dogs mauled me and I couldn't attack due to being stunlocked and trapped in a corner.

Interested to know what you think of the depths and it's subsequent area, I think they are both thematically well designed.

not sure if these are the depths you are talking about but I went down to where the butchers are. fought and killed 2 of them so far.

I just want some original environments/enemies. So far everything has been rather cliche dungeon crawler esque. The ice/crystal enemies I fought seemed really cool. would like to see more of that type stuff.

CobaltMonkey wrote:

It does kill your speed, but for the amount of protection it provides that doesn't matter. Sometimes you just can't dodge. Homing attacks, narrow corridors, etc. For those times, if you don't have a good shield, it's the best option.

Homing attacks can be dodged, just need to time it right and take the direction it is coming at into consideration with the direction to roll. in narrow corridors you can still dodge back. plus there is luring them into a better less crowded area. Also I do use a shield. I use the Grass Crest Shield. since it gives me a boost to stamnina regernation. In general it is a pretty good shield.

Also so far I have given the blacksmith 2 different embers (I can make raw, or divine versions) and whats the difference between going into more +s on my weapon or going raw? I notice raw is a much higher stat boost, but I also assume going +6 etc probably lets it wventually get to the same spot with enough upgrades. and would i be correct in assuming that keep going up in numbers doesnt stop me from being able to switch over to divine raw etc? but im guessing once I do go down raw or divine I am stuck down that path, so maybe its best to keep going up in numbers as far as I can,

Some if not all of that is probably covered in that big post you did earlier. In which case can you either repost it or let me know what page it is on?

Also can you point me in the right direction to get Large Titanite/Green shards

I'm not going to push Iron Flesh on you. I'll just say that not all homing attacks are the same, and also very large sweeping attacks can be equally difficult to fully dodge. They don't come up that often, but when they do it's good to have a counter.

A weapon can only be taken down one path. Some paths split, for example if you take a weapon down the Divine path to a Divine +5 weapon you can take it to either Divine +10 or Occult +5. But you'll never be able to get a Divine Raw weapon or anything like that.
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The full post was on page 27.

The best place to farm Large and Green Titanite shards is down from some slug creatures at the bottom of Blighttown. It's after the Depths.

thanks...and off to the depths I go.

Also how does armor rating effect my damage taken? and is the number in parenthesis the number if I had no armor?

I believe so. The parenthesis number is your base without any equipment or effects.

As for exactly how armor works...I'm actually not completely sure.
The higher the number, the less damage you take is the short of it though.
However, the armors that offer the most protection are also really heavy. Also, it doesn't tell you anywhere, but most of the heavy armors have a Stamina Regen penalty. The heavier the armor, the more slowly it comes back. There's no indicator for this prior to putting the armor on though, so you'd have to just wear whatever and see the effect on your bar.

I pretty much just tanked with Havel's armor set for the second half of the game, managed to keep equipment load under 50% . The stamina regen was annoying, enemies were breaking through my defences quite often.

HAHA! well I rolled. would of been interesting to see how I would of handled that situation if you hadnt said anything though

ive been sticking to really light armor. still using wanders armor. (I didnt equip leather armor because it was too heavy) my load is at 18.1/56 thats why I wanted to know about how the armor worked exactly. So I can determine if it is worth going for a heavier load for the extra protection.

Also in regards to the iron skin (which I forgot to respond to) I meant that I am sure it has its uses and is very good. but it is used to cut corners. You use that and the armor protection it gives you to muscle your way through a problem instead of learning how to deal with the problem unscathed. and learning to get through a problem unscathed is the best part of dark souls (for me at least). honestly I can see myself mostly using iron skin when I am trying to get back to my souls and I want to make sure I get there.

EDIT: i went all down through the depths (think its called the depths) but ended up going in a circle back to where I started (dropped down the hidden hole where the gaint rat was and ended up out where the guy in a barrel was.) So did I just miss a turn somewhere?

Also just upgraded my sword to a +6 but now I cant get it to upgrade to a +7 dont even see it anywhere on the upgtrade list, what happened?

You actually can attack to break him out, but the risk of hitting him is quite high.

FYI, if you do happen to attack an NPC by mistake, you don't have to kill them. Run away and go back to see the guy atop the church where you rang the bell. It's very expensive, but you can buy forgiveness as long as they're alive.

If that's your view, that's fine. To each his own.
You're really going to have fun in the New Londo Ruins though.

The Depths is easy enough once you've been through it a few times, but on your first go it's a maze. I do advise you to run around in Human form if you can because there's an NPC invasion that happens there. Invasions can only happen while you're Human and the area boss is still alive.
There are other places to go. Just keep exploring and you'll find them.

Not sure what's going on with your weapon. Could be not appearing if you don't have any of the required upgrade materials.

you mean the area with the ghosts? was just down there. Didnt have the item so I could curse them. btw how long does that item last for anyways?

WTF are those creatures that look like a cross between a bat, a rat, a frog and a lizard, and has boobs for eyes, and spits a cloud of poison? really easy to kill though. and found an awesome ring right past them.

and I did find the boss. got him down to about half health, only had 3 flasks on me too. his grab attack is what killed me.

I could see the weapon before i had the right stuff to upgrade it, after i did it was removed from the list even though I still had more stuff to upgrade it with.

Be careful of the basilisks, they curse you which is a real pain. It happened to me and is the worst part of the depths. Having a higher humanity counter heightens your defense against the effect.

I found the gaping dragon super easy, took no damage at all and had no summons either, just keep your distance and you're sweet.

Yup, those are basilisks. Mitch is right too. They're easy enough to kill, but don't hang around in any breath clouds. That's not poison. If your curse meter fills, you're dead and Cursed. Did you see any of what looked like grey rough crystal statues of people? Yeah, those are other players that have been cursed.

Are you sure your weapon is +6? Whenever you try to upgrade a weapon from +5 to +6 it has to be Ascended at an appropriate Blacksmith. You can't do it yourself.
If your weapon is at +6 and not +5, then I don't know.

Are you just continuing down the Normal upgrade path?

havent had any issues with that yet. they are super easy to kill. even with my divine Uchigatana. (the damn divine thing really killed its damage output) they dont have much health, have very obvious attacks, with lots of wind up, are easily interrupted.

why would I want to be invaded? I get that I get souls hunanty or w/e for invading, and I probably get the same sort of stuff for successfully defending, but wouldnt it be easier to just invade them instead of being invaded? plus im not really a fan of PVP in rpgs.

how did I end up with 11 Estus Flasks?

NPC invaders drop unique weapons and armors, or sometimes become available for summoning later.
Being invaded by actual people is just for the fun and challenge. You get souls and Humanity too and all, but that's just a bonus. If you haven't experienced Dark Souls PvP you should give it a try sometime. Whole other animal.

If you're in an area with a bonfire that you have kindled and someone else connected to you kindles it as well you'll get an extra flask.

CobaltMonkey wrote:

Yup, those are basilisks. Mitch is right too. They're easy enough to kill, but don't hang around in any breath clouds. That's not poison. If your curse meter fills, you're dead and Cursed.

Are you sure your weapon is +6? Whenever you try to upgrade a weapon from +5 to +6 it has to be Ascended at an appropriate Blacksmith. You can't do it yourself.
If your weapon is at +6 and not +5, then I don't know.

Are you just continuing down the Normal upgrade path?

its 6. I went to +6 via ascension.....ah, I see once I ascend I have to go back into reienforce. and damn it i just spent all my extra large titanite on my armor since I had a ton and saw no use for it at the time....well off to go farm some more.

and yea I am continuing down the normal path. I went divine but its a lot weaker. I assume it is much better vs certain types, but i got murdered by rats because of the reduced damage to them. I really like having a really powerful all use weapon.

also I bought a crystal straight sword. but it doesnt seem to be upgradable. is it not? if so that really sucks because I upgraded my strength 2 levels just for that.

Also dishonored DLC came out today (and the DLC has a really high replay value) and im headed over to my friends wed-thursday so i probably wont be playing much dark souls til friday

CobaltMonkey wrote:

NPC invaders drop unique weapons and armors, or sometimes become available for summoning later.
Being invaded by actual people is just for the fun and challenge. You get souls and Humanity too and all, but that's just a bonus. If you haven't experienced Dark Souls PvP you should give it a try sometime. Whole other animal.

If you're in an area with a bonfire that you have kindled and someone else connected to you kindles it as well you'll get an extra flask.

I am not a fan of PVP. I did fight 1 person though. Lost. might of win if I wasnt using the stupid divine weapon


well i havent kindled any fire, and I wasnt in firelink shrine.