I did find a pretty cool looking colossal weapon that looks like a circular saw blade on a weed whacker. It’s got a very high bleed stat so I’m wondering if I should give that a shot. It needs the somber stones though and I’m reluctant to burn them on a weapon I may not grow into.
Also the sword the lion boss drops is pretty cool looking. Can’t remember what it’s called but it looks like 100 steak knives all stuck together.
Yeah I have that one. I haven’t tried using it. I’m generally finding the bigger weapons to be too slow for my play-style. Of course, as you upgrade a few favourite weapons you use them more, upgrade them more, use them more etc until your options for experimentation become a bit limited. I have the Nightrider Flail as a backup for enemies that are weak to strike damage.
Heh, those are my two go-to weapons for boss fights or large opponents (knights, giants, etc). The sword is nice because it sweeps and seems to go a better job of striking opponents off balance but the bleed on the wheel is pretty killer. I have enough Strength to wield them one-handed.
For just running around the maps, I use some garden variety katana (leveled up, of course) or the named morning star (somethin’ somethin’ Stars) I looted out of a caravan. The colossal weapons are cool up until three dancing dogs or rats kick my ass while I’m slowly swinging them around.
I do not know your build but the video below suggests many people ignore Vigor when improving their stats. He claims this can be a big mistake. Vigor may not be as sexy as some other improvements but it matters. (I mention it because you say you are getting two-shotted)
Yeah, if your vigor is low enough that you’re getting one shotted then you need perfect play to defeat an enemy. If it’s high enough to withstand one hit then you at least have time to get away and heal, but you’re still limited by your number of health flasks. My vigor is too low as well, higher than 16 though.
Right now I’m at 25/21/34 for Vigor/Endurance/Strength respectively. 18 dex.
I finished the game using purely a big stick and a greatshield, and I had a similar experience with the Briar Knight early on. The trick is to stay close to him; he won’t use his flying sword gimmick as much.
You might want look for the Greatshield talisman around the Erdtree-Gazing Hill grace. Combine this with the Barricade Shield ash of war, and you should be able to reach 100 guard boost easily, then blocking won’t consume stamina anymore. Makes the end-game a lot easier, I can tell you!
Love to see that weapon in the game - the whirligig saw lives. Damn I stacked some bodies with that thing in Bloodborne. I did a brief strength re-spec just to try it, though I’m back on the dex / arc build.
You’ll get a very good heavy armour set naturally on a normal playthrough, the veterans set, but it’s quite late game. The two best heavy armours are npc quest-related.
A lot of folk seem unhappy with the ultras / colossal weapons in the game - they don’t sound like the boss-slayers they are in previous games. I’ve not tried them on anything hard but it sounds like the damage (phys and poise) is a bit stingy to make up for their slow movesets. Bleed and magic continues to shred.
I’m at the final boss on NG+ and fair to say I’ve given the game a good airing - done everything more or less. My plan to run it quick second time through didn’t quite materialise as I ended up collecting all talismans and (nearly) all spirits just to explore, don’t have all the ashes though.
The one exception is crafting - don’t recall crafting a single thing in two playthroughs. I guess that aspect of the game didn’t really connect for me.
The only things I ever crafted are status effect arrows and status recovery items.
The stamina regen one is likely good - they usually are. I should craft a stack really as my build is bare min end for melee, it’s low 20s on a 125 char, enough to notice here and there.
Scarlet rot boluses seem nice - I used a few from merchants but mainly just healed it out to a grace or died very quickly with it. Quite a punishing status (and popular to dish out in pvp).
I defeated him tonight and found his armor set to be rather disappointing. Probably better if you stay at Medium or under and want to use the dodge/roll attack. As heavy armor (i.e. for Defense), it’s markedly inferior to the Banished Knight set.
Do people intentionally choose a heavy equipment load? It’s punished pretty harshly.
Is it the choice between a block and a dodge-roll?
My timing for dodging is pretty shit so it’s less a question of “dodge or not” and more “How much damage will I take when invariably hit”
With a heavy load you do a “fat roll” which is slow and cumbersome. With a medium load you do a normal roll which is fine for dodging most attacks. There’s an item you can equip that increases your load carrying ability. I wouldn’t have thought the benefits of heavy shield and armour would make up for the down side of doing a fat roll. A good roll will avoid all damage. Standing and taking the hits will eventually result in damage and possibly a broken stance leading to more damage. I just go for the beefiest setup I can while staying at a medium load.
All that aside, the Briar Knight armor is, at best, a defense side-grade to the starter Vagabond armor. Little better stats in some, little worse in others and heavier all around. About the only thing it has going for it is fresh armor smell and the ability to hurt enemies by rolling into them.
Poise is the third option - if you have enough to not get staggered you can trade the hit which is a big deal, especially if you then stagger your enemy back. Stacking max poise with heavy armour whilst retaining mid roll is a common build strat - you’ll beat a lot of humanoid bosses like this.
It’s especially powerful in this game because the weapon arts are savage - the hardcore pvp crowd have currently banned 100+ poise for duels as it just leads to low skill fights, players standing there trading massive bleed moves.
To be clear when I say “heavy armor” I’m not saying “heavy equipment load”. I still keep my equip load medium. I gotta man up and give up the shield and 2H a weapon but old habits/crutches.
I switched to magic for the time being. When I started the game, I went with Astrologer but got bored spamming Glintstone Pebble all the time and, after 30-40ish levels, the only upgrade was Rock Fling. Plus I had a pile of medium/heavy armor and weapons but was still running around in my starter wizard clothes. So I started a new character and now noticed I had a big pile of magic garb and staffs and weapons and access to a bunch of spells. So a visit to Rennala or whoever to shuffle my stats and I’m where I wanted to be the first time.
One thing that didn’t change: I have a bunch of named robes and stuff from beating bosses and my best clothes are just some “Noble’s Robe/Pants/Gloves” instead of the boss wizard gear.
I was able to farm the Banished Knight armor. Feel a little more durable.
I took a crack at Radan this afternoon. Wow this is seriously annoying. I like that you can summon the NPCs over and over but it doesn’t look like I’m able to summon any spirit ashes. If I just rely on the summons to beat him it’s going to take 45min and one misstep will result in a restart. I also like the general scale of the battle but its very tedious because of how spread out it is.