My SL150 Hexing character is just reaching NG++, and it is an insanely fun way to play the game, so I decided to share my knowledge concerning building an awesome, dark-honing, melee hexer.

How to build a melee hex character in Dark Souls 2

Hexes in Dark Souls 2 are basically the same as Dark Magic in the original Dark Souls; however, instead of scaling on Intellect, hexes scale on the lowest stat between Intellect and Faith. This hefty point investment is not without reward as your Dark modifier will rise quickly, and hexes are extremely powerful spells. The first step to becoming a hexer is deciding where you are going to spend your points.

Spending your points

If you want your main damage source to be a melee weapon and use hexes mostly to facilitate your melee close combat capabilities then this is the guide for you. As a melee hexer you shall not invest all your points into strength and dexterity like normal melee builds. Instead you want to only hit the requirements of the weapons you are planning to use. After that you should be looking to increase both your intellect and faith to a minimum of 30 because that is where the Dark modifier stops scaling well. If you want access to any spells that require higher stats, consider using spices. The rest of your points should be dumped into Vigor, Vitality, and Endurance which will give you more longevity on the battlefield.

Weapon Choices

First off, the Dark Weapon, or Resonant Weapon hexes give us a static damage increase but also a 30% or 50% damage on dark damage dealt by your weapon. This is why we want to infuse our weapon with Dark instead of Raw, or any other element for that matter.

Secondly, weapons that originally come with a dark scaling will do a lot better when infused with Dark, despite of what the letter ranking says. Taken from my guide on weapon scalings; “The Dark Silverblack Sickle receives +136 additional Dark damage from its B scaling on Dark; however, the Dark Great Scythe receives only +48 additional damage from its B scaling on Dark. They have the same letter scaling rank, yet the damage differs immensely. This is due to the fact that Dark scaling was already present on the Silverblack Sickle before infusing it with Dark, but not on the original Great Scythe. Noteworthy is that the Dark Roaring Halberd that also originally had dark scaling receives +104 additional dark damage with just a C scaling on dark.”

A list of weapons that scale well with Dark.

Dark Silverback Sickle.

You can farm these off the Crypt Guards in the Undead Crypts

Notes

• Awesome choice as this item will scale with a B in Dark when upgraded
• Fast reaper-type weapon
• Decent attack speed and low stamina consumption, which are favorable traits on buff builds.

Dark Crypt Blacksword.

You can trade a Old One’s Soul with Ornifex the blacksmith. Old One’s Soul drops of the Rotten in NG+

Notes

• This weapon has insane AR
• mostly vertical moveset which is not desirable in Ultragreatswords.
• Very good for boss fights in PvE where you can only get 1-2 hits in between their attacks.
• Investing 20 or 40 Strength is unfavorable as we are already committing a lot of points to Intellect and Faith.

Sacred Chime Hammer.

You can trade the Soul of Veldstadt with Ornifex

Notes

• Greathammer type weapon
• Similar to the Dark Crypt Blacksword, the stat investment is hefty, but the damage is solid.
• The R2 attack is a mini-affinity attack with a very long cast time

Silverblack Spear

Drops of the Crypt Guards in the Undead Crypts

Notes

• Spear-type weapon
• Relatively low damage, as spears in Dark Souls 2 aren’t really that strong right now

Roaring Halberd

You can trade the Soul of The Skeleton Lords with Straid

• Halberd type weapon
• The C-scaling is not amazing but the damage is reasonable.
• The multi-hit attacks on R2 and running attack with Resonant weapon are bordering on overpowered.

Scythe of Nahr Alma

You can buy this from the Merchant hag after you killed the Blood covenant leader

• Slower Reaper-type weapon
• Excellent moveset
• Low damage if you cannot hit your target with the blade of the Scythe

Black Witch Staff

Drops of Leydia witches in the Undead Crypts

• This will be your go-to staff as it allows you to cast from all schools of magic

Other weapons worth looking at

The Chaos Blade

The Chaos Blade is often seen in hexing melee builds because of its B scaling in Dark when upgraded; however, because it did not originally come with a Dark scaling, infusing it will absolute demolish the additional damage given from scaling.

The math

A dark infused Chaos Blade has 185/185 in base damage.

The B-scaling in Dark and Dex grants us an additional 47 dark and physical damage.

Resulting in a 232/232 weapon.

You will buff your weapon with Resonant weapon to increase the dark damage on the weapon by a flat 50 and a 50% increase.

Thus, (232+50)x1.5 = 423

In the end we end up with a Chaos Blade that does 232/423 damage. Total AR is: 655

Now let’s compare that with a Dark Blacksilver Sickle

A dark infused Blacksilver Sickle has 90/189 in base damage.

The B-scaling in Dark grants us an additional 136 dark damage.

The C/D scaling in Strength and Dexterity grants us an additional 19 physical damage

Resulting in a 109/325 weapon.

You will buff your weapon with Resonant weapon to increase the dark damage on the weapon by a flat 50 and a 50% increase.

Thus, (325+50)x1.5 = 562

In the end we end up with a Dark Blacksilver Sickle that deals 109/562 damage. Total AR is: 671

Conclusion

The damage difference is negligible, but the real advantage for the Blacksilver Sickle lies in the fact that it deals mostly 1 type of damage, coincidentally most enemies in this game (including players) do not have much dark defense, so this ends up being really good. Another downside to the Chaos Blade is the 25 point investment into Dexterity to wield it, while the Sickle only needs a modest 10 Dexterity and 15 Str to wield. The Chaos Blade is also heavier by 2 units, and lastly, the Blacksilver Sickle can hit through shields which makes a lot PvE encounters easier (Syan Knights), but is also really useful in PvP.

Does this mean you should not get the Chaos Blade? No, it does not. The Chaos Blade has an amazing move set, superior range, and substantially larger critical damage bonus. You can easily make this weapon work in a hexer build; you just have to make a slightly larger investment in Dexterity.

The Moonlight Greatsword

This weapon is simply overpowered, and will fit any build that involves intellect.

The Math

A +5 Moonlight Greatsword with 30 intellect deals 380+107 magic damage for a total of 487 magic damage.

To gain its full potential you will need the Crystal Magic Weapon, which adds 50 flat magic damage and increases total damage by 30%.

Thus, (487+50)*1.3 = 698 total magic damage AR when buffed with Crystal Magic Weapon

Alternatively, infusing the Moonlight Greatsword with Dark and 30 intellect/faith will split its damage 190+75/190+54

Resonant weapon will increase the dark damage dealt by 50 and total dark damage by 50%.

Thus, (190+54+50)*1.5 = 441 dark damage

In the end we end up with a Moonlight Greatsword that deals 265/441 damage, so a total resonant weapon buffed AR of 706

Conclusion

As you can see the attack rating difference between infusing dark or keeping normal is only 8 points, now you need to consider that the dark damage is split, which means that the not infused version actually does more damage against an enemy with resistances. There is no saying this weapon is a bad pick, but if you are planning a  melee play style and going with an Intellect scaling weapon, why even invest the points in faith? Put 50 points in intellect and infuse the weapon with magic for an AR of 539 add crystal magic weapon to that and see this number raise to 765. So yeah the weapon is amazing, but should we really go full on hex/dark mode only to not use the Dark part of it?

Spells

Similar to the weapons, the spells you use as a melee hexer are completely up to your own preference; however, I’ve taken the liberty of listing the most useful spells for a dedicated melee build.

Hexes

Dark Hail

Can be bought off Magerold of Lanafir at the beginning of the Huntsman Copse.

• This hex drains stamina and poise when hit, which can be highly effective against anything because every move in the game costs stamina
• Superfast cast time making it viable in melee combat
• You setup attacks by forcing a roll with this spell

Dark Fog

Can be bought off Magerold of Lanafir at the beginning of the Huntsman Copse.

• This hex creates a cloud of a very potent poison (stronger than regular poison).
• This spell gives you control of the area you are fighting in, forcing your opponent to stop attacking and step out, or stay in and risk getting poisoneed

Dark Weapon

Can be bought off Magerold of Lanafir at the beginning of the Huntsman Copse

• This hex enchants your current weapon with Dark damage. (50 flat increase and 30% extra Dark damage, thus favoring dark damage dealing weapons)
• This is your bread and butter Hex as it significantly increases your melee damage output

Whisper of Despair

Can be found in the Grave of Saints over the draw bridge near the first bonfire

• This hex lowers enemies defense rating by 100
• Not very strong as you deal mostly Dark damage with your weapon
• Useful in scenarios where you have an ally phantom in your world

Repel

Can be bought of Straid in The Old Bastille

• This hex makes you invulnerable for a brief amount of time
• It requires 35 Int so you will have to use spices to make it available
• Could be useful for beating stamina heavy attacks in PvP, or hard to dodge attacks in boss fights

Twisted Barricade

Can be found in the Doors of Pharros

• This hex allows you to reflect spells
• It requires 38 Int so you will have to use spices to make it available
• Very high risk, high reward move in pvp, especially with latency

Numbness

• This hex allows you reduce all incoming damage by 35% for 20 seconds
• Requires 42 Int so again spices are needed
• It makes about 50% of the screen black, leaving you an oval window in the middle

Resonant Flesh

• This hex increases your maximum health with 20% for 60 seconds at the cost of 2000 souls
• Can be useful for those quick, intense PvP, or boss fights
• Does not heal you when you are already damage, so you need to cast this before fighting

Resonant Weapon

• This hex enchants your weapon to deal 50 more flat damage, and 50% more Dark damage
• This is your bread and butter when you are rich because it costs 2000 souls

Lifedrain Patch

Given when you reach rank 3 in the Dark Pilgrim Covenant

• This hex deals area of effect damage on the place it is cast for 3000 souls
• Similar to the poison cloud this gives you area control, forcing your opponent to stop attacking you and move out or receive damage
• This hex requires 35 Faith, so spices or Ring of Prayer will be needed to meet that requirement

Miracles

Great Magic Barrier

You can purchase this miracle fom Chancellor Wellager greeting you in the Drangleic Castle

• This is a must have miracle in PvP against the many sorcerers you will come across
• In PvE I would not bother with this one, except for in the Shrine of Amana

Replenishment

You can purchase this miracle from Licia of Lindelt in the Heide’s Tower of Flame or Majula

• A surprisingly good miracle as it will slowly heal you over 120 seconds, so you can cast it before a battle and have it tick over the course of an entire fight

Resplendent Life

You can purchase this miracle from Licia of Lindelt in the Heide’s Tower of Flame or Majula

• Heals you for 840 health over 60 seconds
• Very strong miracle to cast just before an encounter as it effectively adds 840 points to your health, assuming you’re getting hit

Bountiful Sunlight

You can purchase this miracle from Chancellor Wellager in ng++, or you can attain rank 3 in the Blue Sentinel covenant

• Heals you and your allies for 840 health over 60 seconds
• Amazing utility if you an allied phantom in your world (Lucatiel anyone?)
• Requires 38 Faith to cast, so you might have to use some Skeptic’s Spice to lower it

Caressing Prayer

You can purchase this miracle from Licia of Lindelt in the Heide’s Tower of Flame or Majula

• Removes poison and poison build up
• Useful in certain areas of the game like The Harvest Mills, Earthen Peak, and The Gutter
• Can be used in PvP against poison based Dexterity builds

Wrath of The Gods

You can purchase this miracle from Chancellor Wellager in ng++, or you can attain rank 2 in the Blue Sentinel covenant

• Does a ridiculous amount of damage in a bubble around you
• Mostly useful in PvP or against bosses with smaller enemies around it (Magus, Freja, Skeleton Lords, etc)
• Seen as a dishonorable spell in PvP

Sacred Oath

You can trade the soul of Velstadt with Straid of Olaphis to gain this miracle

• Increases physical attack damage by 50, and physical defense by 75 for you and your allies for 60 seconds.
• Insanely strong miracle, especially with a white or gold phantom around, but it requires 4 spell slots

Sorceries

Strong Magic Shield

Can be bought of Navlaan in Aldia Keep, or found in Drangleic Castle

• Enchants your shield to have 100% block against everything and increases its stability by 30
• Insanely useful for those who prefer blocking over rolling

Hush

You can get this spell by reaching rank 2 in the Way of The Blue covenant, or you can find it in the Old Bastille behind an illusion wall in the Ruin Sentinels boss room

• Silences your footsteps
• Can be useful when dealing with invaders as sound plays a huge part in detecting other players

Chameleon

You can find this spell in the poison mist in Harvest Valley

• Transforms you into a common object found in your environment
• This spell is fun when ambushing people in PvP; however, it is also pretty strong in mid fight because it removes the enemies lock-on

Soul Greatsword

Can be found in Drangleic Castle

• Swing a sword made out of souls in a horizontal sweep to damage the enemies in front of you
• Very strong because the hyper armor during the initial frames
• Instantly does damage during the start up if the enemy stands close enough, so its usable in melee range

Pyromancies

Flash Sweat

Can be bought from Rosabeth in Majula

• Reduces damage taken from fire by 30%
• Useful in the Iron Keep and against Pyromancers in PvP

Immolation

Found in Belfry Sol

• Set yourself on fire to deal damage to nearby enemies and yourself
• Standing close to enemies while immolated forces them to attack you to ensure you die before them, which is great for baiting parries

These are the bulk of the spells that you will be using in your adventure as a melee hexer; however, sometimes it might be beneficial to make use of your ranged capabilities. In those cases it can be nice to carry some Great Resonant Soul, Resonant Soul, or Dark Orb hexes with you. These hexes can all be purchased at Magerold of Lanafir at the entrance to Huntsman Copse. He is the guy sitting on a chair staring at the wall while mumbling something about the dark.

Leveling as a hex build character

It is easiest to level as a melee character at the start because sorcery is quite weak early on. Find and upgrade a melee weapon like the Falchion to +3, then level Dexterity and Strength to 16. After that, level Intellect to 10 and Faith to 12. Travel to the Huntsman Copse and visit Magerold Lanafir to buy the Dark Orb hex and a staff. Make sure to level Intellect to 16 and Faith to 14 as soon as possible for the Dark Weapon hex which is also sold by Magerold. Dark Souls 2 does not have a strict linear path you should follow, so after getting the Dark Weapon hex and the Dark Orbs hex, you can do whatever you want; however, I would suggest unpetrifying Straid in The Old Bastille asap because he can sell you another copy of Dark Orbs.

 Example Hex Builds

There are so many fun builds that involve hexes that I am not even going to try to list them all here, but I will leave you with some examples to spark your own creativity. Both builds are with the same stats.

Stats

30 Vigor

30 Endurance

16 Vitality

20 Attunement

16 Strength

16 Dexterity

15 Adaptability

30 Intellect

30 Faith

Build 1: The Tank

Rings: Third Dragon Ring, Ring of Giants +2, Royal Soldier’s Ring +2, Old Sun Ring (personal preference).

Hexes: Numbness or Great Magic Barrier, Dark Weapon, Resonant Flesh

Armor: Full Looking Glass armor with the Drakekeeper armor chest piece

Right Hand: Dark Silverblack Sickle

Left Hand: Black Witch’s Staff

The Plan

This build will be just below 70% equipment, thus allowing you to fast roll. If you do not think this is needed, you can take out the Royal Soldier’s Ring and put on the Looking Glass chest piece. The tactic is to try trading aggressively with your opponent as you will always come out ahead due to having 1k armor, 134 poise, 30% damage reduction from Numbness, The damage from the Old Sun Ring, and 20% more health from Resonant Flesh. Also it might be important to note that the Dark Silverblack Sickle is a great stunlocking weapon that can ignore shields against people who are trying to turtle your buffs out.

Build 2: The 3 strike killer

Rings: Third Dragon, Southern Ritual Band, Ring of Blades, Cloranthy Ring+2 (personal preference)

Spells: Resonant Weapon, Whisper of Despair, Sacred Oath

Armor: Fashion Souls

Right Hand: Dark Roaring Halberd

Left Hand: Black Witch’s Staff, (shield if wanted)

The Plan

You start the fight by casting the two buffs on yourself and then try to get a Whisper of Despair of on your opponent to decrease their physical defense. Ring of Blades + Sacred Oath give a solid damage buff to your Roaring Halberd, and with Resonant Weapon on top of that your running attacks should be hitting for crazy numbers. This strategy also works well with the Chaos Blade as it has a higher physical base damage, than the original dark weapons.

If you think I forgot to mention something important, or any other criticism, questions, or suggestions feel free to leave a comment and I will get back to you.

The post Dark Souls 2 Melee Hexing Guide: Join The Dark Side appeared first on GamersHeroes.

The Attributes in Dark Souls 2

Vigor

This attribute determines the amount of hit points or health your character has.

• Grants 30 Health per point invested until 20
• Grants 20 Health per point invested until 50
• Grants 5   Health per point invested until 100

Having a lot of health is nice because Dark Souls 2 is a hard game and you will get a hit a lot. With enough Vigor you will be able to get hit a bit more before you die. Now I must note that most bosses hit so ridiculously hard that relying on your health pool over preventing damage is simply foolish. Therefor, I would advise not investing heavily in Vigor.

Endurance

This attribute determines the amount of Stamina your character has

• Grants 2 Stamina per point invested until 20
• Grants 1 Stamina per point invested until 100

Stamina is allows you to roll, attack, block, cast spells, and shoot arrows, so leveling this to at least 20 would be a good idea. Leveling Stamina post 20 might only be reserved for the ones who wield heavier weapons and armor because a Greatsword will deplete your Stamina bar in just a few swings.

Vitality

This attribute determines the amount of equipment load your character can carry

• Grants 1.5 equipment load until 29
• Grants 1 equipment load until 49
• Grants 0.5 equipment load until 99
• Having an equipment load under 70% of your maximum will allow to fast roll
• There are several rings in the game that can increase your equipment load

The amount of points you decide to invest in Vitality purely depends on what kind of equipment do you want to carry and what  speed you wish to roll at. Make sure that you only invest points in Vitality up until 69% or 99% of your chosen equipment. You will not get any bonuses running around with 25% equipment load.

Attunement

This attribute determines the amount of spell slots or attunement slots you can equip.

• Attunement raises casting speed
• Attunement raises agility
• Attunement yields an extra spellslot at 10, 13, 16, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 75

Strength

This attribute determines how much extra damage you can deal with Strength scaling weapons. Sometimes a certain number of Strength is required to even wield certain weapons or equip certain armor pieces.

• Strength also increases your physical defense
• Strength has a softcap of 40
• 2handing your weapon effectively doubles your Strength
• Dexterity and Strength are not equal as Dexterity scalings on weapons receive a lesser amount of bonus damage than the strength scalings on weapons

If you wish to wield weapons that scale well on Strength (C+), than investing 40 points in Strength is a good idea; however, if you taken a liking to Dexterity based weapons you might wish to level Strength only to the required stats (For example a katana scales with S on Dexterity, but requires 14 Strength to wield).

Dexterity

This attribute determines the extra damage dealt with Dexterity, Bleed, and poison scaling weapons.

• Dexterity’s softcap is at 40
• Dexterity and Strength are not equal as Dexterity scalings on weapons receive a lesser amount of bonus damage than the strength scalings on weapons

Similar to Strength only level this stat up if you chosen a weapon that scales on Dexterity or requires a minimum level of Dexterity to wield. There is no reason to level Dexterity up passed 40 as the return per level becomes awful; although bleed and poison scalings are still decent.

Adaptability

This attribute determines your agility which determines the speed of rolling, using items, raising shields, and it increases the parry window.

• The soft cap for adaptibility is 40
• Adaptibility also increases poison, petrify, curse, and bleed resistances

Adaptability really shines when you are struggling through poison based zones like The Gutter, The Harvest Mills, and The Earthen Spire. Not only because of the poison resistance, but the ability to heal or cure yourself quickly in certain boss fights is priceless. To be honest I have not noticed a big increase in my roll speed, so I usually do not level it up for PvP Characters. (BECAUSE USING AN ESTUS FLASK IN PVP IS DISHONORABLE!!!).

EDIT:  Agility increase to your iframes while rolling.

Intelligence

This attribute will raise your magic bonus, which in turn will raise your fire bonuses and resistances

• Intelligence softcaps at 40, and hardcaps at 50
• Most spells require a certain amount of intellect to cast
• Having more intelligence will make spells stronger not only through scalings, but by adding more missiles as well
• Requirements for spells can be lowered with spices
• Dark magic scales on the lower between your Int or Faith, the tooltip is currently bugged.

Intellect is mostly only leveled on mage characters; however, I do like investing 10, 16, or 18 intellect on certain Dexterity builds as well for the weapon enchants.

Faith

This attribute will raise your Miracle, Bleed and Lightning scalings.

• Faith grants Dark, Bleed, Lightning resistances
• Softcap for faith is 40
• Requirements for miracles can be lowered with spices
• Dark magic scales on the lower between your Int or Faith, the tooltip is currently bugged.

Faith can be a nice addition to any build because it grants heals, hexes, weapon enchants, and some quality of life spells, just remember to not spread yourself out to thin.

Building your character in Dark Souls 2

These were all the attributes you can choose from when leveling up your character. Now to actually build you character you need to decide what kind of character you wish to play with. It is not a good idea to be a jack of all trades in Dark Souls 2 as this will make it harder for you to find online play. (You get matched with people around your own soullevel).

The first thing you need to ask yourself is what kind of weapons do I enjoy and level according to that. Let’s take a Katana for example. It requires 14 Strength to wield and scales on Dex, so what we do is level up our Strength to 14 and our Dexterity to 40. Now along the way we want to pick up some health and endurance of course.

This would be the skeleton of your build, now you can choose to add a weapon enchant from Intellect or Faith, or maybe you want some more adaptability because the roll-speed is important to you. Maybe you want to wear heavier armor or carry a great-shield, so you will have to invest in Vitality some more. At this point it is all about making the character comfortable for you. You can even level up Vigor to 50 and Vitality to 29 to make a fast rolling, katana wielding, hyper tank.

If you do not yet know what kind of weapons you like I would suggest making a quality build champion. Quality means making the most out of each weapon, so investing points in both Strength and Dexterity.

The post Dark Souls 2 Character Leveling Guide appeared first on GamersHeroes.

Upgrading Weapons

Standard weapons

For every level you upgrade a standard weapon in Dark Souls 2 your weapon will gain 10% of the original base damage per level.

Example:

The shortsword has 100 base damage. 10% of 100 base damage is 10 damage per level.

+1 Shortsword: 110 base damage

+2:Shortsword 120 base damage

+3 Shortsword: 130 base damage

+4 Shortsword: 140 base damage

+5 Shortsword: 150 base damage

+6 Shortsword: 160 base damage

+7 Shortsword: 170 base damage

+8 Shortsword: 180 base damage

+9 Shortsword: 190 base damage

+10 Shortsword: 200 base damage

If a weapon has an innate elemental stat the rule still applies to the physical damage, but an unique-per-weapon-percentage is added to the elemental damage of the weapon per level.

Twinkling Titanite weapons

Some weapons only go up to +5 and are upgraded with Twinkling Titanite. These weapons follow the same rules as the +10 weapons, but get cut-off earlier. This is why unupgraded +5 weapons have higher base damage, than unupgraded weapons that go up to +10.

Example:

The Drangleic Sword has 186 base damage. 10% of 186 base damage is 18.6 damage per level

+1 Drangleic Sword: 204 base damage

+2 Drangleic Sword: 222 base damage

+3 Drangleic Sword: 240 base damage

+4 Drangleic Sword: 258 base damage

+5 Drangleic Sword: 280 base damage (It makes a higher jump here, because the game did not factor in the 0.6 for the other levels).

Boss weapons

Boss weapons are weapons made from boss souls and they are upgraded with Petrified Dragonbones.

For every level you upgrade a boss weapon in Dark Souls 2 your weapon will gain 30% of the original base damage per level.

Example:

The Pursuers Ultra Greatsword  has 156 base damage. 30% of 156 base damage is 46.8 damage per level.

+1 Pursuers Ultra Greatsword: 202 base damage

+2:Pursuers Ultra Greatsword  249 base damage

+3 Pursuers Ultra Greatsword: 296 base damage

+4 Pursuers Ultra Greatsword: 343 base damage

+5 Pursuers Ultra Greatsword: 390 base damage

If a boss weapon has an innate elemental stat the rule still applies to the physical damage, but an unique-per-weapon-percentage is added to the elemental damage of the weapon per level.

Infusing Weapons

When you infuse a weapon you allow the weapon to deal another source of damage or status effect. The first thing that will happen is the base damage already available on the weapon will be lowered to 70% of its original value, and an elemental stat will be added that is also equal to 70% of the original base damage.

For example, the shortsword has 100 physical base damage unupgraded.

We decide to infuse the shortsword with lightning, which will lower the physical base damage to 70%. 100*0.7= 70 physical damage

To determine how much fire base damage we will receive we take 70% of the base damage originally present on the weapon before infusing. 100*0.7= 70 fire damage

So we end up with a Fire Shortsword with 70/70

Infusion Scalings

The aditional damage gained from stat scaling is reduced when you infuse a weapon, and not just loss of the scaling letter grade rank.(S/A/B/C/D/E)

Example 1.

The +10 Blacksteel Katana has an S scaling on Dexterity which nets it +160 aditional physical damage at 40 Dexterity.

The +10 Fire Blacksteel Katana has an S scaling on Dexterity which nets it +82 additional physical damage at 40 Dexterity

Example 2.

The Dark Silverblack Sickle receives +136 additional Dark damage from its B scaling on Dark with 30 intellect and faith;

The Dark Great Scythe receives +48 additional damage from its B scaling on Dark with 30 intellect and faith.

As you can see in the examples the weapons have the exact same letter grade in scaling, yet the bonus damage gained from your stats differs immensely. This leads me to believe that infusing a weapon with a new element causes a percentage based penalty to aditional damage from stat scalings.

Noteworthy is that the Dark Roaring Halberd that also came with an original dark scaling has a +104 additional dark damage with just a C scaling, which is lower than the B scaling on a Dark Scythe, yet seems to yield more damage from the Dark BNS.

Does this mean you should always infuse an element present on the weapon? No. You can play around with Mundane by leveling everything equally, you can hit just base requirements and go raw, or you can upgrade your Blacksteel Katana to Fire and use the Pyromancy weapon buff. Although resins cannot be used on infused weapons, spell buffs can.

The post Dark Souls 2 Weapon Scalings and Infusion Calculations appeared first on GamersHeroes.

The post Dark Souls 2 Newbie Q&A Tips & Tricks appeared first on GamersHeroes.

Like I’ve said there are a lot of options and opportunities to invade other champions, but most of them are through these Covenants.

Heirs of The Sun

These guys are all about the White Sign Soap Stone and helping other players out through the difficult boss fights, although you do not need to be a member to put down a White Sign Soap Stone.

The Way of The Blue

Dark Souls 2 does not have a safe mode that will protect you from invades, so if you are not keen on player vs. player combat you might want to opt to join this Covenant. The Way of The Blue will help players in need by sending them a Blue phantom which is also a player to fight off your invader. This way you can either gang up on the poor invader, or you can sit back and watch the PvP minded players duke it out.

The Blue Sentinels

If you join this covenant you can be summoned to help the players who are in need of protection against nasty invaders. You will probably have the advantage in most fights because your host can opt to join the fight against the red phantoms.

The Bell Keepers

This Covenant is dedicated to protect certain areas of the game. When you join The Bell Keepers you will be granted a ring, if you choose to wear this ring you can be summoned at any time to fend off tresspassers. A nice perk for joining The Bell Keepers is that there will be non-stop action because PvP minded people will purposefully tresspass.A second perk of joining is the fact that every time you defeat a foe you will gain a Titanite Chunk. This is why I recommend joining the Bell Keepers first if you are into PvP to upgrade all your weapons and armor.

The Rat Covenant

Upon joining this covenant all of the enemies in the Doors of Pharros area will be non-hostile towards you. If you equip the ring given to you by the Rat King you will periodically force other players into your world as grey spirits. All the NPC’s in your world will be able to attack them, which puts you at a really big advantage. Now the fun part of this all is that every time you defeat a grey spirit you will receive a Pharrus stone, and these stones can be used to activate more traps, or add more mobs to the area, making it your own little fun house of death.

The Brotherhood of Blood

As might expect this is the covenant that is mostly focused on invading and killing players. You may use Cracked Red-Eye Orbs to invade players in any zone that allows PvP. To restock up on these orbs you can opt to fight in the arena against fellow members of The Brother of Blood.

Soap Stones

Another way into the world of someone else (besides covenants) is to put down a Soap Sign. There are two different kind of Signs, a red one that will summon a player with intend to kill you, or a white one that will summon a player with intent to help you. Choose wisely.

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You can remove the statues that are blocking your way in Dark Souls 2 by use of The Fragrant Brand of Yore. This is an item you can use once to bring a statue to life to either kill it or sometimes interact with it in other ways.

Fragrant Brand Of Yore Locations

The Harvest Mills

• In the first mist pool you come across you can kill the big beast Dark Orb hurling beast to find a small cave behind him containing a Fragrant Brand of Yore. This Brand is the easiest to attain.

• At the Mines bone fire take a left into the open space and then take a left again, you will see one of those big Dark Orb hurling beasts, but before you reach him you should take a right. You will find yourself in a small area with four Crescent wielding Butchers. Dispose of them and knock down the wood on all the little enclaves. You will find a path leading to a Fragrant Brand of Yore on the second upper enclave from the right.

Sinners’ Rise

• Defeat the Sinner and find it in a chest on your way to a primal bonfire

Shaded Woods

• If you walk straight away from the Shaded Ruins bonfire and go up, then take a right you will find a Lion statue, use a Fragrant Brand of Yore to turn him back alive. The chest he was guarding will contain a Fragrant Brand of Yore and some other loot.

• If you purchased the Ring of Whispers from the catlady, you may speak to the Scorpion man in The Shaded Ruins and after exhausting his dialoque he will grant you a Fragrant Branch of Yore, a new gesture and a very potent ring.

Brightstone Cove Tseldora

• After defeating the Spider Boss

Iron Keep

• You can buy a Fragrant Branch of Yore from a vendor that is located in a room to the right as soon as you enter the Iron Keep.

The Gutter

• You will find a Branch of Yore as you enter The Gutter behind the heart shaped vases.

Blocking Statue Locations

Mejula

• This statue will block the way to the Shaded Woods and can be found by going left immediately upon entering Mejula. Once unpetrified she will be able to teach you Pyromancy.

The Lost Bastille

• Just before you make it to Sinner’s retreat you will find a bonfire blocked off by a statue of a mage trainer who can also trade your boss souls in for unique weapons.

Shaded Woods

• If you walk straight away from the Shaded Ruins bonfire and go up, then take a right you will find a Lion statue

• If you jump down one of the windows from the Shaded Ruins bonfire you will be able to see another stone lion. You may choose to unpetrify him, but this one is not mandatory as you can get to both sides of him without wasting a Fragrant Branch of Yore.

• If you managed to escape the basilisk pit trap in the Shaded Ruins you will encounter another Lion statue. Kill him to retrieve a Fang Key, that you may use to open the door in the basilisk pit.

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Upgrading your weapon in Dark Souls 2 is done through the blacksmith in Majula. The old hag sells you his key for 1000 souls in the Forest of Giants if his shop is still closed. For a small fee and the materials required he will upgrade your weapon anywhere from +1 to +10. No Embers needed.

Here you can find a quick run-down of all materials used in upgrading your weapons. Remember that the Stone-trader initially found in the Harvest Valley will at some point sell all the materials you need. (A limited supply of Twinkling Titanite, Petrified Dragonbones, and Titanite slabs though). If you want to learn about scalings and base damage increases when infusing or upgrading a weapon I would recommend checking out the Dark Souls 2 Weapon Scalings and Infusion Calculations post.

Titanite Shard

Used for ascending weapons from unupgraded to +3

Locations

• Armor Salesman home in Mejula
• 3 of them can be found together in the Manor’s second floor in Mejula
• 2x gemlizard near room near elevator near first boss
• Treasure chest at beginning of No-man’s Wharf
• Farmable by killing the Green Ogres in The Mines

Large Titanite

Used for ascending weapons from +3 to +6

Locations

Found in several chests hidden in The Lost Bastille, or The Mines in Harvest Valley
Farmable by killing Dwarfs in Gyrm’s Respite

Titanite Chunk

Used for ascending weapons from +6 to +9

Locations

• Found in several chests in high level areas.
• You can join or fight the Bell Keepers to earn Titanite Chunks

Titanite Slab

Used for ascending weapon to +10

Locations

• Found in a chest near the bonfire in the Shaded Ruins
• Found in a chest in The Forest of Giants near Patey the Mild-Mannered
• Found on the Stone Pikemen in Drangleic Castle

Petrified dragonbone

Used for upgrading Boss Soul weapons

Locations

• Found in a chest near the bonfire in the Shaded Ruins
• Looted from giant Basilisks and other mini-bosses
• Dragons in Dragon Aerie

Twinkling Titanite

Used for upgrading weapons that can not be normally upgraded

Locations

• Mostly high-level areas or Gem Lizards.

Infusing Your Weapon in Dark Souls 2

In Dark Souls 2 you can now imbue your weapon on top of the normal Titanite upgrades. This means that you can turn your +10 Greatsword in a +10 Lightning Greatsword. You will need to visit McDuff the blacksmith in The Lost Bastille and give him a Dull Ember. After you have given him the Ember he will allow you to turn certain Stones into enchantments for your weapons.

The Blacksmith Stones

Bolt stone
Used for infusing a weapon to deal extra Lightning damage; however, this will decrease all the stat modifiers currently on the weapon, but it will add a Lightning modifier.

Pale stone
You can use the Pale Stone to restore an item by removing its enchantments.
Found on Basilisk in the Shaded Ruins

Raw stone
Used for infusing a weapon to deal extra physical damage; however, this will decrease the stat modifiers.

Firedrake Stone
Used for infusing a weapon to deal extra Fire damage; however, this will decrease all the stat modifiers currently on the weapon, but it will add a Fire modifier.

Poison Stone
Used for infusing a weapon to deal extra Poison damage; however, this will decrease the stat modifiers.

Darknight Stone
Used for infusing a weapon to deal extra Dark damage; however, this will decrease all the stat modifiers currently on the weapon, but it will add a Dark modifier.

Faintstone
Used for infusing a weapon to deal extra Magic damage; however, this will decrease all the stat modifiers currently on the weapon, but it will add an intellect modifier as well.

Bleed Stone
Used for infusing a weapon to apply the bleeding effect; however, this will decrease all the stat modifiers currently on the weapon.

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In order to strengthen your Flask in Dark Souls 2 you will need to find Flask Shards and Sublime Bone Dust. They are scattered throughout the world and without them you will have a hard time with the game. This guide will help you find everything as you go along. Let’s get started.

Estus Flask Shards

Estus Flask Shard 1 – This one is very early in the game in the town of Majula. Head over to the giant hole in the middle of the area and past that you can see a well. Hit the rock down the well and the shard will come up on a body.

Estus Flask Shard 2 – You will need to beat the Last Giant in order to get the Soldier’s key for the room this shard is in. Once you have the key warp to the Cardinal Tower bonfire in the forest. With the key you can open the door upstairs and in the room past that you can find a chest with the flask shard inside.

Estus Shard 3 – This shard is found in No-man’s Warf. When you are leaving the area with the houses and going towards the ship you can find a house with a chest inside. The house basically looks like it was built into the wall and inside there are two bandits inside with some vases. Try to avoid rolling through the vases because they have poison inside of them. Open the chest after you take care of the bandits and inside you will find the shard. If you make it to the docks heading towards the ship then you have gone to far.

Estus Flask Shard 4 – Once you make it to the Holding cells in the Lost Bastille, keep going until you make it outside and have to fight a couple dogs and a guy with a giant pole arm. Once you kill them look for a huge broken slab of wall that you can go behind to gain access to a chest. Open that chest to get the shard.

Estus Flask Shard 5 – In the basement of the manor. You can retrieve the key to the house from Cale the Explorer in The Forest of Giants.

Estus Flask Shard 6 – In the Shaded Forest, across from the last Bonfire.

Estus Flask Shard 7 – At the Shaded Ruins in the basilisk pit there is a door that is unlockable with the Fang Key. Behind that door there is a chest containing an Estus Shard.

Estus Flask Shard 8 – In Bastille, at the first bonfire. Go down at where the Heilde Knight is. Fight the monsters, now continue on along the left side of the wall and at the end there will be a chest with Estus shard and a Large Titanite

Sublime Bone Dust

Sublime Bone Dust 1 – The first Bone Dust can be found at Heide’s Tower Of Flame, near the Heide’s ruin bonfire. Once there you will have a giant with a sword and shield waiting for you to pass. Kill him so he doesn’t get in the way in a bit. After you kill him you should see one with a two handed mace, this one has the bone dust so you have to kill him. After you kill him you will have to go to the first bonfire in order to strengthen the Flask.

Sublime Bone Dust 2 – Next head to Sinners’ Rise, the Saltfort bonfire and head down large elevator at the bottom of the tower near the fire. At the bottom of the elevator go into the water and wait for the monster to come to you. Once he comes to you kill him so you can move through the water easier. In the water look left and you can see the dust on a body.

Sublime Bone Dust 3 – After defeating the Great Iron King you may find a Sublime Bone Dust in a chest in the gutter.

Sublime Bone Dust 4 – In the boss room, you will have to jump after hot stones.

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Like the original Dark Souls in Dark Souls 2 you get to choose a starter item when you make your character. Each one has a different use and you can only choose one. This guide will help you make the right choice right off the bat. Let’s get started.

Starter Items

There is the option for nothing but that doesn’t give any benefits so you might as well pick something.

Life Ring – The life ring gives you a very small boost to hp. Honestly you can barely even tell when you equip it, I think it is 10 hp.

Human Effigy – This is the item that makes you become human again. You can take it if you want but you will find tons throughout the game.

Healing Wares – A ton of minor healing items that can really helpful early in the game. You get 10 Lifegems, 3 Radiant Lifegems, 1 Old Radiant Lifegem and 5 Poison moss. Outside of the Poison moss the healing items are very helpful early game.

Homeward Bone – Like the previous Dark Souls this just returns you to a bonfire, you only get one.

Seed of a Tree of Giants – I have not used this item yet but when you burn it at a fire it turns enemies on any black phantoms that are in your world. I have not tested it yet so I am not 100% sure how it works.

Bonfire Ascetic – Using this in a bonfire will increase the strength of enemies around. Harder enemies means more souls.

Petrified Something – Just a lump of something that has no immediate use. I took this item but it still hasn’t turned into anything yet so I will update when I find out.

That will end the Dark Souls 2 starter item guide, check back soon for more Dark Souls 2 Guides!

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Once you arrive in Majula you can find the blacksmith outside a house sitting on the floor. Talk to him and he will ask you to help him find his key so he can get back to work. This guide will help you find the key so you can upgrade your weapons and armor! Let’s get started.

Dark Souls 2 Blacksmith Key

The key is found in the Forest of Fallen Giants at the Bonfire in the Cardinal tower. Once you arrive there is an old women selling various items and one of them if the key to the blacksmith’s shop. It will cost you 1000 souls and once you have it return to Majula and open the door for the blacksmith. It will take a little bit for him to set up so you will have to come back later, don’t forget the chest inside for a free bow.

Once he is up and running he sells a few weapons and can repair any of the broken equipment you have. He can also of course upgrade weapons and armor which is what you will use him the most for. If you need some Titanite shards, he has 10 for sale but once you buy them all he is out until your next play through.

I haven’t killed him so I don’t know if he drops anything or not. You can bring some NPCs back from the dead with a certain amount of souls but I don’t know if the blacksmith is one of them.

Now that you have the blacksmith unlocked you can move on with the game much easier. Check back soon for more Dark Souls 2 guides!

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