Is anyone else just accepting fat rolling? How viable do the pro-elites consider it? (ignore PvP)

[Arndell]

The armour system feels strange, it's not about the actual defence numbers you see on the screen, it just seems about reaching a specific milestone in stats over the attacker.

For example, if your physical defence rating says 26 (Vagabond starter gear) the godrick knights kill you in 4 hits (2 if power attacks)

But if you put on super heavy banished knight armour, get a defence of 35, they only hit for tiny amounts and it takes 10-15 hits to kill you.


Now I have no idea what the logic behind that is, +9 defence points quadruples your effect.
I assume it's using the same hard cap / soft cap logic behind player level ups.

Except with the armour rating, it's not universal because the exact same enemy type, but higher level, Radahn knights vs Godrick knights in this case, despite them using the same weapon types, your defence it back to being killed in 4 hits, unless you put levels into something to raise your natural defence rating past a certain point, even with same gear on.


TL:DR - Armour rating works very illogically with levels of enemies, so it just seems best to put on the heaviest stuff you can without being overloaded if you don't want to rely purely on i-frames alone.

Ignoring PvP metas completely, how many people are successfully fat rolling through the game? I just got to Altus with it and it seems fine.

[Sparhawk 59]

Keep it to mid load. I sacrifice armour until I can get a better weight load ratio

[Hiphoptimus Rhyme]

... what? Different enemies have different attack values so your armor stats will be impacted by them differently. Fat rolling isn't a good plan on general since your defensive strategy is focused mainly on dodging.

Just put on whatever you think looks best and learn to play around it. The defensive value it provides will plateau more the farther you get in the game.

[Chopper]

Untill you get 2 specific talismans that increase heavy load you have to sacrifice armor for rolling.
After that however behold the complete lionel set with the dragons greatshield and dragonlord cragblade. Just block and poke. like an armoured turtle!

[Drake_NotFamous]

I wear a bug hat -5 all defenses I originally wore it for the smexy look but It's making me better at the game so I'm keeping it on keep on fat rolling you beaut

[Arndell]

Originally posted by Sparhawk 56:

Keep it to mid load. I sacrifice armour until I can get a better weight load ratio

There are thresholds based on enemy stats though, sacrificing armour to keep mid rolls can work, but there comes a point where you may as well not wear any armour at all if you are below a defence barrier for the type / level of attackers.

If you get killed in 2 hits of 90% hp then 10%, what difference does it make it you wear "some" armor and gets you killed in 2 hits of 60% of hp and 40%, the end result is the enemy still 2 shots you.

If you want to use armour at all, it seems better to just get a feel for where the enemy level is putting your defence and put all all the armor you can.

Then the hypothetical enemies i'm mentioning who 2 shot you in 60% and 40% of hp hits, might then hit you for 30% and you get 4 total "hit points" over 2.

Of course a universal solution in dark souls games is to just i frame through it all, hence why naked builds are so common, but meh, i don't want to do that.

[GrandTickler]

fat rolling is unacceptable in my book :P

[KruxSmash]

I'm fat IRL, so I'm fat in game. The only logical choice.

[Arndell]

Originally posted by Hiphoptimus Rhyme:

... what? Different enemies have different attack values so your armor stats will be impacted by them differently. Fat rolling isn't a good plan on general since your defensive strategy is focused mainly on dodging.

Just put on whatever you think looks best and learn to play around it. The defensive value it provides will plateau more the farther you get in the game.

Yeah but how bad does that get? Is the game designed in such a way that armour is purely cosmetic and you may as well consider the player character have 1 or 2 total hitpoints and ignore defence completely?

Right now I can raise defence through leveling certain areas until enemies suddenly stop doing massive damage, the strange thing is, that could only mean an extra 5 points in defence between being 2 shot and 10 shot killed.

Do late game areas actually scale so high it's impossible to get the defence values to survive more than 2 hits anyway?

[Aldain]

Honestly I've found armor to be basically useless at keeping me alive so overall mid rolls are all I basically do.

The only reason why I don't go for light rolls is because honestly light rolls feel not much better than mid rolls and having to drop a bunch of weight from my weapons and status resistances is a deal breaker.

[Rob'sEvilTwin]

Originally posted by onlymygamerules:

Untill you get 2 specific talismans that increase heavy load you have to sacrifice armor for rolling.
After that however behold the complete lionel set with the dragons greatshield and dragonlord cragblade. Just block and poke. like an armoured turtle!

Or wear the heaviest armour you like and use Bloodhound Step :P

[Rob'sEvilTwin]

Originally posted by Arndell:

Originally posted by Sparhawk 56:

Keep it to mid load. I sacrifice armour until I can get a better weight load ratio

Of course a universal solution in dark souls games is to just i frame through it all, hence why naked builds are so common, but meh, i don't want to do that.

I go with this approach myself, which is why I love Bloodhound Step so much.

Originally posted by Arndell:

Do late game areas actually scale so high it's impossible to get the defence values to survive more than 2 hits anyway?

By end game armour seemed to be doing sweet ♥♥♥♥ all, so I focused on evasion rather than mitigation. Would be interested to know if someone found a viable way to soak endgame damage?

[Arndell]

Originally posted by Rob'sEvilTwin:

Originally posted by onlymygamerules:

Untill you get 2 specific talismans that increase heavy load you have to sacrifice armor for rolling.
After that however behold the complete lionel set with the dragons greatshield and dragonlord cragblade. Just block and poke. like an armoured turtle!

Or wear the heaviest armour you like and use Bloodhound Step :P

relying on FP to dodge just feels so wrong.

It's like this whole rune arc mechanic, or using arteria leaves to crafst those super buff potions.

In a game where you fail dozens of times on every obstacle through trial and error to learn move sets then you win once muscle memory sinks in, having limited use consumables seems so pointless.

If you already know exactly what to do, you can ration your limited use FP dodges and win, but if you're already that used to the encounters, you don't need the extra tools to win anyway.


So much of the same vibes as "If you're good enough to unlock the weapon, you don't need the weapon" like Breath of the Wild and fully unlocking the master sword.

[Elizabeth]

There is still a noticeable difference between the 'tiers' of armor, it's just not a drastic one once you get to mid and late game. It's definitely not worth the price of fat rolling to squeeze out that one extra hit worth of mitigation, since you'll be eating hits way more often and having a harder time getting clear enough to heal. Mid roll is the place to be if you don't trust your dodging skills enough to rely solely on them.

[Arndell]

Well damn, I was hoping to hear this playstyle im liking atm actually could work xD

Pretty universal opinions so far though.

"Nah, armour is basically cosmetic only and you need to just use the i frame mechanic alone"

Paraphrased of course but it's kind of a shame the game is designed that way.

[Kain]

It's fat shaming, so it's unacceptable.

/s