Dark Souls: The Soul Log

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Dark Souls Bosses:Asylum Demon

The Asylum Demon is basically the tutorial boss for Dark Souls. He has low health and a horrible moveset. He can do good damage to a new player however.

How He Plays: The Asylum Demon isn't really that difficult once you get past him and into the other parts of the game. He appears intimidating to new players. He has horrible attacks and can be annihilated in seconds by the two-handing your starting weapon. The plunging attack is really helpful for staggering him at the beginning of the fight. He won't use the flying butt slam as much as his two brothers you fight later on. (Stray Demon and Demon Firesage) He can be annoying with his horizontal swings. That's about the extent of his difficulty.

How He Stands In Dark Souls Lore: He is really interesting when you think about it.He is guarding the exit to the Undead Asylum.  The reason this is interesting is that the Undead Asylum is a prison that doesn't care if you escape, yet has not one but TWO demons guarding the exits(if you count Stray). Maybe it is a planted test for the Chosen Undead.  The Asylum Demon is also strange because he is able to mortally wound Oscar of Astora, who has a Astora Straight Sword, Elite Knight Armor, and the Crest Shield,yet is demolished by  a weak Undead who was just freed.

Outro: To be honest there is much to say about him. I don't think you would have found my blog if you can't get past him, to be completely honest.

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Dark Souls Weapon Spotlight: Uchigatana

The Uchigatana is one of my favorite weapons in Dark Souls,. It has a really good hit time to damage ratio. By hit time, I mean, the length of time it  takes to hit an enemy. Damage speaks for itself. It causes Bleed which definitely makes up for it's low Damage output midway through the game. It has really good scaling for an early game weapon. Due to it's scaling and bleed, if I were to wall off the Undead Burg Bonfire and Undead Parish Bonfire, the Uchigatana would be the best weapon excluding boss or mini-boss drops. That means that I think it beats the Claymore.  Using the Uchigatana is only really a struggle when you fight Havel at Darkroot Basin.It does have some disadvantages. It is not as effective against enemies that flip around a lot. (Artorias, Sanctuary Guardian,etc.) This is because it  is unable to cause bleed against bosses that keep moving. I try to fix this problem by buffing it and getting more Dex onto a build. Getting a +15 Uchigatana gives it a A scaling, which is undeniably useful. You can get it from Shiva of the East, or by killing the Undead  Male Merchant. This is how I acquired the Uchigatana. The Moveset is pretty good. Speedy slashes make up the weapons R1 attacks ( 1 or 2 handed.) It has a thrust\lunge as it's one handed attack and a overhead horizontal slash as it's two handed strong attack.

 Upgrade Path:

Uchigatana +15 does 225 damage with an A scaling.

A Raw Uchigatana+5 does 208 damage and only has a C scaling.

A Crystal Uchigatana+5 does 243 damage has an A scaling, but cannot be repaired.

A Magic Uchigatana+5 does 170 Phys. damage, and 182 magic damage and has a D dex scaling and a C scaling with Int.

An enchanted Uchigatana+5 has an E scaling with Dex and A scaling with Int. with 163 Phys. Damage, and 167 Magic damage.

A Divine Uchigatana+10 does 152 Phys. damage and 185 magic damage with a D dex scaling and a C Faith scaling.

An Occult Uchigatana+5 does161 Phys. and 170 Magic Damage with a D Dex scaling and a B Faith scaling.

A Fire Uchigatana+10 only does 216 Phys., as well as 216 Fire Damage.No scaling.

A Chaos Uchigatana+5 does 195 Physical damage and 225 Fire damage.It has absolutely no scaling. Literally.

A Lightning Uchigatana+5 does an even 225 Physical Damage and 225 Lightning Damage. No scaling, like Fire and Chaos.

Pros.

1.Decent Base Damage

2.Bleed

3,A B and possible A scaling with Dex

4.Can work with Leo Ring(in theory)

5.Acquirable early in game.

6,Buffable

7.Good moveset

8.Looks Cool

9.Respected Weapon among the community

Cons

0.5. It has low durablity, but can be repaired.

(The reason I put 0.5 is that any player that is smart enough to see the pros of using the Uchigatana will likely be responsible enough to repair it frequently.)

[homing-soul-thief]

WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL BETTER WHEN YOU ARE IN A BAD MOOD?

Thinking about all the positives of being in a bad mood.

[homing-soul-thief]

Dark Souls Bosses: Seath The Scaleless

 Seath is a surprisingly easy boss if you know what your doing. He uses curses mostly, but is slow moving and doesn't really have a moveset per say.

How He Plays: Seath requires either good curse resistance or fast rolling. If you fight him right(by constantly circle-strafing), he will be rotating most of the fight, trying to catch you. I used my Uchigatana +15 with charcoal resin. I used poison resin too. As long as you can move semi-fast and avoid being cursed, you can crush Seath. To be honest, I don't know his moveset that well. He mostly fires Magic Crystal breath that causes Curse Crystals to rise around and below you. He also will occasionally do sweeping attacks with his tentacle type things. They are really annoying, but he does it so rarely that it's not really a major problem. Just try not to get cursed and you will be fine.

How He Stands In Dark Souls Lore: He is a crazed,blind, dragon who was given a piece of a Lord Soul because he assisted Gwyn in the war against the Everlasting Dragons. He is a rare albino dragon. He controls the Duke's Archives and the Crystal Cave. 

[homing-soul-thief]

Dark Souls Bosses: Knight Artorias (AoA DLC)

 Artorias is one of the most interesting bosses in Dark Souls in my opinion. He has the best moveset in the game by far, has more lore behing him than most bosses and is notoriously difficult to some players. Here is my experience with him.

How He Plays: Artorias is another one of the bosses that can cause more problems for one build than the other. A Dex build will find him difficult, but he is much more challenging for a strength build.The key to beating him is learning and dodging his attacks.  A player using Smough's Hammer and a full set of Havel's will be in big trouble. He has 8 basic attacks. A sword slam that is pretty easy to dodge,two slash attacks, a spinning swipe attack and two leaps. The other two are just a charging thrust, and a very,very,very rare slash followed by a flip off the wall beside him. My advice is really just to dodge if you can. If you can't dodge because for some reason you want to try and tank him, block and sidestep often. His leaping attacks are exploitable, as is his charging thrust. His slashes are tricky, but once you learn when to dodge they become no problem.  He is a boss that is hard to give advice on, as he is very different to each person. I used a +15 Uchigatana with strong magic weapon. Anything less than however damage that is  will make the fight much more difficult. Also, don't try blocking for the whole fight. He will just overwhelm your endurance.

How He Stands In Dark Souls Lore: He is arguably the most powerful of  Gwyn's Knights. He went to Oolacile to stop t the Abyss after Hawkeye Gough failed. He failed and was instead consumed by it. His ring, the Convenant of Artorias allows you to traverse the Abyss.

Outro:  Artorias is a difficult boss. Especially for Strength builds. But, once you learn how to beat him, you will always enjoy the fight. He has a ton of health, and does insane damage. But, he is beatable. Trust me.

[homing-soul-thief]

Dark Souls Bosses:Four Kings

I fought the Four Kings today. One thing about the Four Kings is that they are weird in a lot of ways. They are underrated lore wise, and overrated as far as being a boss goes. They have a lot of annoying moves and a solid moveset ,even though it is a rather basic one. 

How They Play: The Four Kings difficulty depends on damage output,Vitality and Endurance. When I defeated them, it took 10-15 tries. They were hard to reach at first because I got lost in New Londo. I used a +13 Uchigatana with Strong Magic Weapon. I also had my stamina buffed with Green Blossom. As far as weapons you need a pretty good one. Dex weapons might be a bit better here actually though this is just my opinion.Shields are almost optional unless you have  really good magic defense on one. I couldn't block any of their attacks.You often have to just roll and pray that they screw up.(Heater Shield +11 so I don't know if this is always the case) They like to do 360 degree slashes and a vertical slash that is pretty easy to dodge. I just stayed behind them and got within cuddling range when they used their 360 slash. I wouldn't recommend cuddling with them though. They might might actually enjoy it. They also use this weird thrusting attack that had surprisingly good tracking. As far as magic goes, they do the ultimate jerk move by throwing a homing wall thingy that follows you around until it hits you, causing big damage and it staggers you as well. They also rarely will use a weaker version of this attack by firing six orbs that have bad tracking for a homing attack. They will occasionally  use a AoE magic attack that is very dangerous as well. This attack threw off my rhythm many times resulting in deaths. 

How They Stand in Dark Souls Lore: The Four Kings    were four leaders of New Londo to whom Lord Gwynn gave a piece of a Lord Soul. They  are strange in that they seem to be one of the few lore bits written only to be a boss. I do wish the game contained more on the Four Kings though as they are rather interesting. They feel unnecessary at the same time though. However, if any boss belonged in New Londo, it was this one. They also do well in introducing  the concept of the Abyss to the game. 

Outro: Overall The Four Kings are a semi challenging boss fight that can be very annoying at times. They have little lore significance besides the fact they have like a sixth of a Lord Soul each or something. That wraps it up on the Four Kings.

[homing-soul-thief]

About my Thief build

I also have a Thief character in Dark Souls. He is meant to be a Dex style fighter who wears slightly heavier armor. I am using Knight armor,Hard Leather Leggings, Elite Knight Gauntlets, and the Thief Mask. I like the Ring of Favor and Protection on this character as well as the Wolf Ring which really is working well. As far as weapons go, I am using an Uchigatana +10 and a Heater Shield +10. It may sound like a dumb build, but it is quite effective. Especially since I have added a bit of Sorcery to my arsenal. 

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New Hunter Build!!!!!

Started a new Hunter build. As they are considered to be the worst class in the game, I decided to try them out.There were some hiccups here and there, but overall, I was pretty impressed with the Hunter. They have really good balance between Dex and Strength(Slightly favoring Dex, of course), Sorcery, Pyromancy , and Miracles aren't that hard to acquire either. Vitality and Endurance are both even at 11 each. That's really awesome, I think. I was planning on using a Longsword, not sure about the upgrade path. Maybe Lightning or just basic +15. I also acquired ring of Favor and Protection by killing Lautrec at Firelink. I have high Vit,End,and equal Dex and Strength. I am using the Longbow and Hollow Soldier Shield. I might change shields soon.  I am preparing to do the Depths right now. However, I have killed Havel and the Hydra, as well as the Moonlight butterfly. I plan on using Havel's Ring, so that I can use heavy armor, and Greatshields. I don't know if anyone has tried this before with the Hunter.