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Gaming / Re: Dark Souls Impressions Thread: Update #7.0 - Slack Knight (p. 33)
« on: April 14, 2016, 02:34:31 AM »
And the best advice I can give you is to play a bit more strategically and creatively, Verb. Sure, you can poke your spear at a knight from behind your shield for a whopping 13 damage a hit and eventually wear him down while losing a fair bit of estus yourself. But it's always worth looking at what else can you do.
For one, you should always consider the type of enemy you're fighting. Dark Souls is very realistic in this aspect. Enemies with exposed flesh are generally weak to things like fire and slashing / thrusting attacks, while heavily armored enemies typically suffer more from blunt strike damage and lightning. Two handing a blunt weapon like a mace is likely to do a lot more damage to a knight than your spear is. And because you're currently still in the stage of the game where your weapons aren't really upgraded yet, it's easy to switch them out and use the ones you have interchangeably.
Secondly, the environment can often really help you out too. For example, the knight you're fighting can easily be made to follow you a little so you can plunge attack down on him from a higher ledge for good damage. Or, you'll notice that he's close to a deep drop himself. This black knight has a bunch of moves that will send him flying forward or leaping backwards. It's entirely possible to trick him into falling off the ledge to his death without much effort (which is what speedrunners of the game used to do).
Finally and most importantly, you might want to consider rolling more. It's true that rolling is a lot harder than blocking. It takes time getting used to and it's not easy to get the perfect timing down. Especially for new players, it can be very daunting to let go of that "safe" L1 block button. But it really does pay off in a lot of situations and you'll almost definitely need it later on unless you're going full tank. Depending on your shield, there are many attacks (elemental damage like fire, magic or lightning is only going to become more common as you progress) that will still do damage even if you block, while you won't take any damage with a successful roll. Blocking also takes away more stamina than rolling does, especially when it comes to heavy or combo attacks. And while blocking will leave you entirely stationary and often stunned, rolling can put you in very advantageous positions to deal damage a lot faster and from a safer angle than you could've if you had blocked.
Fighting this knight, for example, rolling would've been the better solution in most cases. The halberd knight has a few very obvious and longwinded attacks that leave him very vulnerable. But that vulnerability is not something you can advantage of when you just block his attacks and end up sitting there stunned yourself while he recovers as quickly as you do. For instance, his wide overhead swing or spin attack. Instead of blocking it, try rolling through it. Not backwards or to the left or right, but straight at him or aimed at one of his sides. You'll graciously duck right through his swing and by the time he's recovered from missing his attack, you'll be standing right next to or even behind him for a perfect follow-up backstab.
Anyways, you play the you want to. It's one of the beatiful things about Dark Souls that you really can make pretty much every single build, playstyle, weapon choice or stat attunement work effectively. But my advice is that rolling is much better than blocking in most scenarios and that learning how to become comfortable with it and getting the timing down will help you a lot. It's worth practicing on enemies close to a bonfire to gain some confidence and experience.
For one, you should always consider the type of enemy you're fighting. Dark Souls is very realistic in this aspect. Enemies with exposed flesh are generally weak to things like fire and slashing / thrusting attacks, while heavily armored enemies typically suffer more from blunt strike damage and lightning. Two handing a blunt weapon like a mace is likely to do a lot more damage to a knight than your spear is. And because you're currently still in the stage of the game where your weapons aren't really upgraded yet, it's easy to switch them out and use the ones you have interchangeably.
Secondly, the environment can often really help you out too. For example, the knight you're fighting can easily be made to follow you a little so you can plunge attack down on him from a higher ledge for good damage. Or, you'll notice that he's close to a deep drop himself. This black knight has a bunch of moves that will send him flying forward or leaping backwards. It's entirely possible to trick him into falling off the ledge to his death without much effort (which is what speedrunners of the game used to do).
Finally and most importantly, you might want to consider rolling more. It's true that rolling is a lot harder than blocking. It takes time getting used to and it's not easy to get the perfect timing down. Especially for new players, it can be very daunting to let go of that "safe" L1 block button. But it really does pay off in a lot of situations and you'll almost definitely need it later on unless you're going full tank. Depending on your shield, there are many attacks (elemental damage like fire, magic or lightning is only going to become more common as you progress) that will still do damage even if you block, while you won't take any damage with a successful roll. Blocking also takes away more stamina than rolling does, especially when it comes to heavy or combo attacks. And while blocking will leave you entirely stationary and often stunned, rolling can put you in very advantageous positions to deal damage a lot faster and from a safer angle than you could've if you had blocked.
Fighting this knight, for example, rolling would've been the better solution in most cases. The halberd knight has a few very obvious and longwinded attacks that leave him very vulnerable. But that vulnerability is not something you can advantage of when you just block his attacks and end up sitting there stunned yourself while he recovers as quickly as you do. For instance, his wide overhead swing or spin attack. Instead of blocking it, try rolling through it. Not backwards or to the left or right, but straight at him or aimed at one of his sides. You'll graciously duck right through his swing and by the time he's recovered from missing his attack, you'll be standing right next to or even behind him for a perfect follow-up backstab.
Anyways, you play the you want to. It's one of the beatiful things about Dark Souls that you really can make pretty much every single build, playstyle, weapon choice or stat attunement work effectively. But my advice is that rolling is much better than blocking in most scenarios and that learning how to become comfortable with it and getting the timing down will help you a lot. It's worth practicing on enemies close to a bonfire to gain some confidence and experience.
