Four failed no-death runs. I am running out of names for my characters. And I still haven't beaten the Sentry or Pursuer. This is not going well.
I'm not sure I actually want shields or huge weapons. I struggled against the Dragonrider last time with both. Dragonrider. Most deaths comes from getting ganked (or surprised) so shields might not be a huge help.
Meanwhile, huge weapons mean huge recovery times.
I'll try archery out. Low stat requirements (so I can invest in defensive stats), and range.
Or pyromancy?
The best per-hit damage I've got out of bows is with the Dragonrider Bow. 40 STR/DEX and +5 upgraded it puts out 400-something attack power, which is better than you can get out of quite a lot of melee weapons. You could probably go in with minimum stat investments and it'd still be pretty good. It's
slow to fire though, so I don't imagine it great for anything but sniping and trying it on bosses would just be pain. Probably your best bet is Hunter's Blackbow, just pump DEX (STR requirement is negligible) to get some fast, reliable single-element damage and you can put everything else into durability.
Of course, you get that well into the game (Drangleic Castle) and you'll have to rely on the shortbow until then. Shortbow you can't even get until unlocking Lenigrast's shop! Would advise against making any of them elemental, anyway--I spent a chunk of yesterday knocking out some odds and ends on my various files to set them up for NG+ whenever that happens, and during way too much time spent sniping through Shrine of Amana to pick up missed items it became painfully apparent just how inferior elemental bows are to regular ones even with 55 INT or FTH to jack up the scaling. My original character can shoot down the priestesses from a million miles away before they attack. Everyone else has to play hide and seek. Ugh.
Pyro damage is honestly pretty uninspiring outside of the top-tier spells. Even with no investment in mental stats you can explode stuff pretty effectively with Flame Swathe/Lingering Flame/Firestorm, but charges are very limited and you're not getting most of that stuff until after the Sentinels.
~
Sorc run complete. Dynamic duo exploded with gratifying ease. Ended up running a mix of high-end pyromancies for max destructive power and sorceries for gunning down mooks. Worked out pretty well by the end but for the occasional confusion of shuffling through like eight different spells.
Brought my melee girl back to Freja's room to check out mystery rock and yeah, it is another memory zone. Not much there but a corpse though! And 1x Ancient Dragon Soul. Makes a sword that would look pretty cool if I actually had the materials to upgrade it. Anyway I still don't get why mystery rock appeared in my original game but no others.
Also finally remembered to clear out the salamander room in the Forest. So
that's where the Hawk Ring was hiding all the fucking game! And man those have gotta be the most irritating enemies in the game right there. At least I can one-shot 'splosion zombies.
Man why is Vendrick's soul hiding in an obscure corner of a zone you cleared hours before finding him.
Dual-wieldy mode now engaged, ran up just far enough to dump a bunch of levels into DEX and actually access power stance. It's actually pretty satisfying so far! I'm running dual falchions, dumped all the immediately available titanite into making them both +3 and the damage output is actually very impressive for earlygame. And perhaps more importantly, it looks cool. Not sure what weapon setup I'm looking at long-term. Warped Sword seems pretty cool, but more investment into STR than I'd like. OH WAIT maybe I want to dual-wield the great scythe just because seriously you guys. Also apparently ADP isn't the stat that boosts poison effectiveness, that's just all DEX? Whatever, I'll probably jack it up to 40 anyway just because I don't care about levels once DEX is optimized.
Had a host for an early summoning run for the Pursuer fight right outside the Cardinal Tower bonfire. Shockingly, all three of us survived. 17,000 souls is very nice to have right out of the gate. And his Darth Vader breathing is actually kind of creepy without any music playing.
I'm just now noticing that Lenigrast hangs around all forlorn outside his shop until you unlock it. I always thought he just kind of appeared out of the ether, like he had some mystical smith sense that told him a shop had been opened somewhere!
