Style Over Utility? / Backup-Equip?

Hey guys/girls,

A while ago down in Blighttown, I found my new favourite murder instrument to accompany my trusted Bandit's Knife when I'm forced to melee combat: The Falchion.

My long-time offhand weapon being the Rapier, which I mainly used to parry and sometimes to just keep foes at bay, I had never used a curved sword before, and I have to say: Wow! Even though guides state the parry window is essentially the same, I find it so incredibly less difficult to knock enemy blades skyhigh in any given situation. I was even quite confident when it came to parries with the Rapier already, but now with the Falchion, it works like 90% of the time.

There's just of course one major difference: It's Slash-only. I found out the hard way what I was lacking now, when facing Ricard The Archer near the end in Sen's Fortress. Facing him with my preferred bow became too much of a material war, and quite dangerous too, since he has that insane nocking speed. Melee was even more of a suicide then, though, since he exclusively uses rapid thrusting strikes, while I kept carving the bricks to my left and right.
Lesson learned: If you have to have a one-sided loadout, at least bring a spare weapon.

How do you approach this? How important is the "coolness" opposed to functionality of equipment to you? Do you have weapons / armor parts that you put on for any possible situation, or do you stick to that version of your character and just roll with its downsides?

I'm really just curious, and maybe we'll even have an interesting discussion!


P.S.: I know what the rational answer to this question would, but despite all the required seriousness when it comes to combat and tactics, it's still a fantasy video game, is it not?

P.P.S.: And yes, I'm still haven't beat the game of course, so my own opinion will change, too. Or not - who knows? So far my favourite part about this game still is that it always let me do my thing, if only I'm remotely smart about it.

I always have more than 1 weapon, i usually have a few backups. For tight area's like that, i stay away from swinging weapons, go back to the rapier. Another example for me is later you'll bump enemies with high res against particular types of damage, there's one area where they've high magic res which pretty much nerfs my mage, i'll switch from my magic based weapon to a chaos one when going through it. Another example I won't use a spear or halberd on some of the larger enemies as they've a habit of going between legs and do sfa damage.

I'm not big into cosplay so am not pushed about what i wear or use as long as its not the crimson set. that's just fugly or the hollow solider waishcloth, that one shoe thing drives me crazy.

Nowadays all my builds are so specialized that I have to quit out and pick a different character if I want changes to my load-out... (._. )

Parry Ricard an laugh maniacally. It soothes the soul.

Right now I have 2 loud outs all built around weight and poise. High poise is me throwing on the Steel Helm and wolf ring, but using Ricards Rapier or the BSS with no shield. My alt is thief hood with either Chaos Blade & Parry dagger (nothing else cause that **** heavy) or Ricards with BBow and Bloodshield with Parry dagger.

So in short my priorities are
-Fast rolling > Defense
-Parrying > Blocking
-Fast Rolling > Heavy hits

The weapons I use based on those factors (all +14)
-Spiked Whip
-BB of Pharis
-BSS
-Ricards Rapier
-Chaos Blade (+5)

All do over 300 but less than 400 except Chaos Blade which is at 450.
However, I really want to try dual Gold Tracers. Does anyone else think that would be amazing? That DPS.

My builds are specialized too. But, I choose function over form. With 2 exceptions. I won't wear the MoF or Hollow Warrior Waistcloth.

That waistcloth is so OP xP
I wont use the claymore or lightning weapons in general. Chaos, Crystal or +14 for me.

As long as I can at least mid roll, then I wear whatever combination of weapons/armour I enjoy looking at. I've found that what I'm wearing isn't really that important as long as I can avoid getting hit too much. Fast roll is preferable of course and as for a weapon... well I usually take a weapon I enjoy and buff it to however I need it. I have three a Divine, Fire, and Lightning Gargoyles Halberd at the moment O_o

I can't mid roll. I need to fast roll. The one exception to this is as a catbro. Poise is very important when you are being gang-banged. So, I often mid roll there to allow me to stack poise.

The only thing I switch is Logans Catalyst vs Tiny Crystal Catalyst: for PvP and Bosses it's the TCC, for everything else LC. Though it might be that I switch to LC when I'm PvPing in the forrest or when two player coordinate well against me so I don't run out of spells. As for armor I always wear the same and it's a utility not style choice: crown, crimson waist and legs, painted world gloves (for PvP and PvE). It really doesn't matter to me who I encounter in PvP. I love especially to be gangbanged in the township and spoil their play, 3 dark pursuers with the TCC and most of them are finished. So for me movement is key, most PvP fights don't take longer than 15 sec (either I die or them).

There's one exception: a funny guy in the township casted chaos firestorm while I was invading timed in a way that I would immediatly die when I spawn, no chance to run out of it. I tried several armors to withstand him (he did this the whole evening) but failed, so I decided to leave the place and go to the forrest. That's why I don't see the point to change anything on my setup, either I rock or someone cheats his way through the fight, which only costs me nerves, armor switch wouldn't change much.

Note: this is true now that I'm @SL170ish, before SL100 I used to switch gear a lot according to circumstance (higher fire def, magic def, poise whatever was needed).

Thief wrote:Hey guys/girls,

A while ago down in Blighttown, I found my new favourite murder instrument to accompany my trusted Bandit's Knife when I'm forced to melee combat: The Falchion.

My long-time offhand weapon being the Rapier, which I mainly used to parry and sometimes to just keep foes at bay, I had never used a curved sword before, and I have to say: Wow! Even though guides state the parry window is essentially the same, I find it so incredibly less difficult to knock enemy blades skyhigh in any given situation. I was even quite confident when it came to parries with the Rapier already, but now with the Falchion, it works like 90% of the time.

There's just of course one major difference: It's Slash-only. I found out the hard way what I was lacking now, when facing Ricard The Archer near the end in Sen's Fortress. Facing him with my preferred bow became too much of a material war, and quite dangerous too, since he has that insane nocking speed. Melee was even more of a suicide then, though, since he exclusively uses rapid thrusting strikes, while I kept carving the bricks to my left and right.
Lesson learned: If you have to have a one-sided loadout, at least bring a spare weapon.

How do you approach this? How important is the "coolness" opposed to functionality of equipment to you? Do you have weapons / armor parts that you put on for any possible situation, or do you stick to that version of your character and just roll with its downsides?

I'm really just curious, and maybe we'll even have an interesting discussion!


P.S.: I know what the rational answer to this question would, but despite all the required seriousness when it comes to combat and tactics, it's still a fantasy video game, is it not?

P.P.S.: And yes, I'm still haven't beat the game of course, so my own opinion will change, too. Or not - who knows? So far my favourite part about this game still is that it always let me do my thing, if only I'm remotely smart about it.

I always choose a single setup of equipment (often not involving any secondary weapon) and stick with it for the whole playthrough, otherwise I find playing through PvE incredibly boring (as I have completed the game an absurd amount of times). It is indeed a handicap but I do not mind, as the different weapons having different pros and cons keep the PvE game fresh to me.

In the specific case of Ricard, he can be easily parried. Even if you have a bad shield, he does very low stamina and chip damage as he uses a rapier class weapon, and the r2 combo he does has an obvious tell that leads to an easy parry. Observe him for a little while and you'll find that opening.

I always have at least 3 weps i use, switching them when needed or just because im bored of using repeatdly one wep. This is why all my builds are kinda plain, i like changing setups.