Combat tips for a ds1 veteran, please

[Hello darkness]

I'm playing ds2 for the first time and i'm strugling a bit with the combat. I think i'm too accustumed to the way it is in ds1 and have problems to get used to ds2.

Everything seems a bit slower and you have less stamina, you move and attack slower and rolling or blocking can't always save you from taking damage. The step back seems shorter, but it apear to be more important here, as it doesn't get you out of the action as the roll does (i'm not sure how to hit an enemy after rolling, i always end facing the wrong direction). I notice that be aware of the distance is crucial as attacking too close can sometimes make you get some hits, as enemies are more agressive, Moreover, you really have to learn how to fight great packs of enemies, what is the best strategy to fight against 3 or 4 foes?

And... which are the best weapon to do combos? I really liked the broadsword in ds1, but here i feel sad each time i try to do an r1 after an r2...

And one more thing, what is the best way to use the guard breaker? The move that replace the good old nutskick.

[Zeimaster]

use guardbreak one blocking humanoid enemies, if it hits and their stamina is low they do this stun animation and you can use a riposte similiar to a parry

[pasieking]

finish game once I mean and do some pvp, you will get the hang of it, still feels like ♥♥♥♥ sometimes ...

[pasieking]

why ♥♥♥♥? because the lag is worse than in ds1 5x times and the invisible ranges - the ♥♥♥♥? atleast thank god for 100& elemental shields ...

[Tokebec]

If you're a dks1 veteran then you shouldnt have any problems here.......im a veteran of DeS and dks1 when i started dks2 it felt the same..yeah kicking is gone and stuff like that but still....same techniques...sames fights....you can admit you're new to the serie it's ok some of us are here to help just dont listen to angry teens that trolls around :) For the combo..well scimitar always gets combos and btw broadsword cab still take you to the end of game...with a hammer for blunt dmg ....

[Sin]

if you angle your role you should have enough time to backstab or atleast hit almost all enemys in the game.. if you roll in a streight line "through" them ( more or less a 180° position swap) you will only be able to hit the very slow ones.
To ease dodging I highly recommend reading about adaptability (putting it on 20 never hurt anybody..) it is responsible for your i - frames during dodges / animations like backstab door opening cehst opening and also speeds up you *get the shild up* animation.
Taking a step back is rarely usefull and you will need a realy good sense of reach, which is difficult concearning the ghostrange of many weapons. (more range // wider hitbox than the weapon would suggest). You are better of dodging or if you train it (a lot) parrying the enemy.

To fight a single enemy in PvE it is usualy the best idea to go balls out and strike him down, or if he has to much HP (like bosses, heavy mobs) glue your face against him and rub your body on his rotten skin / armor while moving >RIGHT< around him. Very little enemys are easier to dodge if you do circle left..right is usually the best idea... Wait for them to atack, dodge -> strike -> repeat until you get the souls.

Multiple enemies:
Largely depends on your playstile. Dualwield with everything a normal person could maybe doual wield (yes..not demon greathammers..no greatswords...) Go into powerstance (150% requirements on all stats the 2 weapons you want to powerstance need as well as 2 weapons that are remotely close in type [sword + curved sword yes ; Sword and Axe no] and press and hold the *hold with 2 hands* button until your character raises his weapons.
Than kill one or 2 in your first atack and dodge roll back, wait for the next opening or if you oneshot them just go right back in after your stamina recovered.

Dualwield anime style: (Overgrown weapons) more or less the same, but you want to make sure that your first strike hits as many of the mas you can. The windup is terrible slow and if you are swarmed by 5 you may want to go for a sideways sweep instead of an overhead pancake.

2-handing a large weapon: Sideways sweeping + back rolling all the way.

2-handing a small weapon: backpaddel a little until there is a clear "lead" in the flok -> strike it one or 2 times (depending on your weapon speed) -> roll back -> repeat

1-handing a large weapon + schild: Again, sideways sweeping followed up by rolling, the shild will do you almost no good against multiple enemys since it drains your stamina fast and you probably have not much left after atacking with your enourmos weapon.

1 -handing a normal weapon + shild: like 2-handing a small weapon, but feel free to bring your shild up as long as you are sure that you won't be hit by 4+ enemys at once.

r1+r2 combos tend to be bad against multiple enemys unless you are wielding something large. Depending on the weapon you will get a single strike followed by a pancake, a sideways sweep with a pancake or just 2 very awkwards strikes. Chaining r1 +r2 of a singlehanded weapon usually is not worth it as far as I can tell, but I rarely play with just 1 weapon so I could be mistaken.
Dualwielding makes r1 r2 obsolete for normal weapons since the powerstance atack is much more effektive against normal enemys. Against bosses it might be better to try two quick r1 and start circling again. For large weapons it is dependend on the 150% stat trashhold for powerstancing .. do you have it? use it. You don't? see above.
Since I realy dislike the fashion of anime style giant weapons I usualy go for 2 swords / curved swords /rapiers ..had a fun build with claws that I had to switch to katanas (sadly) since I ended up doing not enough damage after drangelic castle (I still use the claws, but sometimes the enemys demand a more cutting experience) and I have found not a single one where r1+r2 was advisable. It could be a problem with my playstile so please test it for yourself by shadowboxing.

Overall, groups of enemys are the bane of this game existence since the combat system is clearly not build for it ..at least not build for it with you beeing a single guy in mind. I don't know if you have entered the bellfrey in the lost bastile yet, but you will experience an awfull fight that tears new players apart like nothing else... (well maybe the ruined sentinels in the same area :D ) but since you are a ds 1 veteran you should be used to it and keep trying until you get the hang of it.

Good luck and don't forget to Praise the Sun ! (it's in the game..wait for it :p)

[pasieking]

İlk olarak Ozz3605 tarafından gönderildi:

If you're a dks1 veteran then you shouldnt have any problems here.......im a veteran of DeS and dks1 when i started dks2 it felt the same..yeah kicking is gone and stuff like that but still....same techniques...sames fights....you can admit you're new to the serie it's ok some of us are here to help just dont listen to angry teens that trolls around :) For the combo..well scimitar always gets combos and btw broadsword cab still take you to the end of game...with a hammer for blunt dmg ....

I am 24, and I did tell him to finish the game, he would get the hang of it either way ...

[Hello darkness]

İlk olarak Ozz3605 tarafından gönderildi:

If you're a dks1 veteran then you shouldnt have any problems here.......im a veteran of DeS and dks1 when i started dks2 it felt the same..yeah kicking is gone and stuff like that but still....same techniques...sames fights....you can admit you're new to the serie it's ok some of us are here to help just dont listen to angry teens that trolls around :) For the combo..well scimitar always gets combos and btw broadsword cab still take you to the end of game...with a hammer for blunt dmg ....

i never say i was playing bad, in fact, i think i'm doing pretty good. The point is i wanna get better. It could sound silly, but i wan feel like a true knight when swinging my sword, and prepare myself to pvp.

I spent 300 hours in ds1. I know there are people out there who spent more but 300 is a lot for me, and i practiced till i become a pretty decent fighter and stand a chance in pvp. However i'm not a hardcore player yet. Still, ds2 is just the second souls game i played, after ds1, so you could say i'm a bit new to the series in general.

[Hello darkness]

İlk olarak gvidzix tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Ozz3605 tarafından gönderildi:

If you're a dks1 veteran then you shouldnt have any problems here.......im a veteran of DeS and dks1 when i started dks2 it felt the same..yeah kicking is gone and stuff like that but still....same techniques...sames fights....you can admit you're new to the serie it's ok some of us are here to help just dont listen to angry teens that trolls around :) For the combo..well scimitar always gets combos and btw broadsword cab still take you to the end of game...with a hammer for blunt dmg ....

I am 24, and I did tell him to finish the game, he would get the hang of it either way ...

I am 24 too. Are you two asuming i'm younger for some reason? xD

[Hello darkness]

@Sinthoras Thank you, a lot, really. I'm gonna copy your text an reread it if i feel stuck. It's weird because the game feels harder and easier at the same time. There are a lot of bigs mobs, but you can summon a bunch of guys and just watch them crushing your enemies.

I was a quaility guy in ds1 so i'm trying to be the same here. I know it's not a good option for pvp, but i wanna try weapons of all kind and decide which suit me better before going for something specific. For now i really like te reapier, the hand-axe, the battle axe and the morning star, and i know those aren't str-dex weapons, it's really weird to me that i feel so confortable with them here xD

[CloudSeeker]

People love going ice rapier because its broken as hell with phantom range, infact all piercing are broken because they can hit you from the otherside of the room. You should only use them if you want to destroy the pvp experience for everyone apart from you, if use the ice rapier and a hacker comes in and destroy your gamefile you deserve every part of it.

This is a example of how broken it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a5LmU1xayg

[Hello darkness]

İlk olarak CloudSeeker tarafından gönderildi:

People love going ice rapier because its broken as hell with phantom range, infact all piercing are broken because they can hit you from the otherside of the room. You should only use them if you want to destroy the pvp experience for everyone apart from you, if use the ice rapier and a hacker comes in and destroy your gamefile you deserve every part of it.

This is a example of how broken it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a5LmU1xayg

Sorry, but i'm gonna use the weapon i want to use. Thanks for the information anyway, i don't want to feel falsely good at pvp, nor having too easy fights... and i guess i had to learn how to fight those ice rapiers, it's good to see it coming.

Is there any sign of a future patch for that kind of things?

[ZCore]

İlk olarak Sinthoras tarafından gönderildi:

Go into powerstance (150% requirements on all stats the 2 weapons you want to powerstance need as well as 2 weapons that are remotely close in type [sword + curved sword yes ; Sword and Axe no] and press and hold the *hold with 2 hands* button until your character raises his weapons.
Than kill one or 2 in your first atack and dodge roll back, wait for the next opening or if you oneshot them just go right back in after your stamina recovered.

its 150% of the highest stat and you can power stance swords and axes. It is the damage that that needs to be the same (thrust, slash etc.)

[Kalil]

Combat tips for a DS1 veteran?

Chill out lol :)

[Sin]

İlk olarak NoDefence tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Sinthoras tarafından gönderildi:

Go into powerstance (150% requirements on all stats the 2 weapons you want to powerstance need as well as 2 weapons that are remotely close in type [sword + curved sword yes ; Sword and Axe no] and press and hold the *hold with 2 hands* button until your character raises his weapons.
Than kill one or 2 in your first atack and dodge roll back, wait for the next opening or if you oneshot them just go right back in after your stamina recovered.

its 150% of the highest stat and you can power stance swords and axes. It is the damage that that needs to be the same (thrust, slash etc.)

Thanks for clarifying :)

[Rajiin Terra]

Actually surprised that it feels slower paced to you, DS1 veteran myself had mountains of fun with it and I came to DS2 on launch, back when you could invade things betwixt (Oh how I loved that.) But to me everything feels that bit tighter, the only thing slower would be the 'kick' being replaced with a guard break, I wish I could kick still but I like the guard break a bit too much now to want kick back. Also Do not listen to people telling you that DS2's PvP is worse it's mountains better than DS1's, yes latency is still an issue and the net code isn't perfect but it's a damn sight better than it used to be, at the very least I've never heard anyone being so laggy in DS2 that the host has been killed before the 'Invaded by' message even showed up (♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hilarious as that was)

As for soemthing more to point..... Don't use the tricks you learned in DS1, dead angling isn't a useful strategy any more for an example, I won't get as into a decent explenation as Sinthoras did since his was pretty comprehensive. Mind you as a DS1 vet you should be fine, just play the same way you did back in DS1 in PvE, don't get overconfident and play smart, PvP you will probably have a blast with, the only two isues I really have is matchmaking based on PvP (Which by the by, generally meta is SL150 Sm 1,500,000-3,000,000, if'n you wish to play with that.) and that Armor while still good for negating damage, poise is practically useless, occasionally you might survive a hit with decent poise without being poise broken but normally a hit means a brief stagger. Pretty much the games PvE is fun but doesn't have the level design of DS1 and it's slightly less depressing story wise, but damn there's mountains of fun to have in it, kinda ignore the forums for this, just play the game and see how you like it, personally I had a bit more fun in DS2 than I did in DS1 but maybe that's just because you don't have to kill Sif in it.

Anyway Have fun in your Darksouls 2 play through, I wish you the best luck and the best of times~