A few questions

Hello fellow human, undead, or hollow... er... hopefully not hollow...

Anyways, I'm somewhat new to this game and I was hoping someone can answer a few questions for me. I'm sorry if this is the wrong place to post this. I know there's a section with "player help" in the title, but that looked more like it's for in-game help (like... white phantom help). I think what I'm looking for fits better as "game mechanics discussion".

Okay here we go...

1. I'm currently using an Astora's Straight Sword +3. It claims to have 104+43 physical dmg and 104+17 magic dmg. Equipping this leaves me at 268 dmg for R.Weapon.1. I also have a Longsword +10, which claims to have 160+73 physical dmg. Equippting this leaves me at 233 dmg for R.Weapon.1. Why do I hit harder on Sif with the Longsword +10?

2. Sometimes I would see a white ring on the ground. It's a 2D circle not a 3D floor tile. It looks like the symbol for divine property. I've seen this in the hallway outside of the bond fire in the depths, and I saw another one just now in the undead church next to Andre's bond fire. Walking into it doesn't do anything and I can't hit it. It seems to disappear on its own after awhile. What's up with this?

3. I want a Heater Shield because it seems to be the lightest shield that blocks 100% physical dmg. However, I killed that male undead merchant. I accidentally hit him because I forgot about the guy that hides behind that shelf. I killed him after he remained aggressive even though I rested at a bond fire because I didn't know about the creepy atonement priest. Is there anyway for me to get this item before starting a NG+?

4. This glowing crab thing shot me in the back and instantly killed me. The wiki seems to call it an evil vagrant. It wasn't there anymore when I came back to... well... exact revenge on it. Did it just... kill me and disappear completely?

Anyways thanks to anyone who took the time to read this. If you do take the trouble of answering any of my questions, I hope you can give more than a "yes" or "no" answer. If that's really all you're willing to give, please at least say which question it's for.

Thanks again. =)

Greetings.

1. Pure AR weapons (ie. Normal) usually deal more damage than split AR weapons (ie. Lightning) even if the split AR total is higher than the pure AR. By AR I mean Attack Rating which is not the same as damage, it's the number that appears at the main menu. For a split AR weapon to inflict more damage than a pure AR it normally has to be +200 AR difference.


2. Those are miracle resonance rings, they affect the power of miracles and usually appear when a player from another world uses a miracle. It's broken for PS3 because people rarely see them.

3. There's no other way to get a Heater Shield, so get another shield. I recommend Grass Crest Shield and Silver Knight Shield.

4. If the vagrant killed you I don't think it'll appear again, they're extremely rare.

Thanks man, you answered all of them. There are 2 things I still want to ask though.

1. Do you happen to know why split AR weapons do less damage? I know it probably doesn't matter but I'm curious.

2. I just thought of this. There seems to be trading in this game. Is there a way for me to... say... make a new character, buy a Heater Shield, and somehow trade it across to my old character?

1. This is a long read but very interesting and explains why split AR does less damage. I actually tested myself on a naked player, I fired an Avelyn +15 vs a lightning Avelyn and the normal did more damage (naked toons have minimum defense). https://soulswiki.forumotion.com/t4295-attack-rating-vs-real-damage-analysis-of-defense

2. You can ask at the player help section for someone to give you a Heater Shield. More easy.

Thank you very much. You, sir, are awesome!

You have my eternal envy for being lucky enough to see a vagrant that early into the game, you should try your hand at farming enemy darkwraiths in new londo, you might just find all the slab everyone else is missing

AzureCrow wrote:You have my eternal envy for being lucky enough to see a vagrant that early into the game, you should try your hand at farming enemy darkwraiths in new londo, you might just find all the slab everyone else is missing

Which system are you playing on? This is actually the 3rd Vagrant I found. The other two were in Blight Town and did not kill me. It looks like I am really early in the game because I spend a TON of time wandering back and forth through early areas while trying to figure out what to do next.

If you really want to find some Vagrants, maybe camping an area helps. I been practicing parry on the Balders in the undead church and practicing my bow aim on mosquitoes in Blight Town. I think I have spend more time around these areas more than I have actually progressing the game.

As for Dark Wraiths, I can't wait to be able to access that area but I am currently completely stuck at Sen's Fortress. The stupid Man Serpents can kill me with 2 hits and they swing up to 3 times in a single combo...

it seems you are getting a lot of vagrants i rarely get one i only seen 6 and was alredy when i was around150 hrs in the game, as for sen's fortress try asking someone for help 2 are always better than 1

Vagrants from my understanding invade when someone leaves unclaimed loot lying around.

I have never seen one after 123 hours... then again I never left a single item not picked up...

I did Sens after Blighttown, Quelaag, The Great Hollow and Ash Lake. One thing I would say is you need high endurance to block their attacks.

Make sure you are not wasting points on Vitality and instead investing in endurance. Vitality is only a good stat for PvP, I'm level 103 with 10 vit and I just tank and spank...

I'm on xbox and believe me I've tried everything from camping out hard areas to actually dropping stacks of rare items in other worlds after the host dies. What covenant are you in? I always seem to be in pvp based ones and I tend to level quickly so my local players are more skilled thus less bloodstains to make vagrants for me
I've been playing around with the idea of doing a low level way of white run to see if that makes for more local players likely to die.

WyrmHero wrote:1. This is a long read but very interesting and explains why split AR does less damage. I actually tested myself on a naked player, I fired an Avelyn +15 vs a lightning Avelyn and the normal did more damage (naked toons have minimum defense). https://soulswiki.forumotion.com/t4295-attack-rating-vs-real-damage-analysis-of-defense

A long read?! I tried to make it concise! I originally wrote it for more advanced players, but you made me realize that it can be interesting for players of any experience level. I didn't want to edit the original post, but for new players I added a definition of AR in the second post.

If anyone would like more definitions, please let me know either here or in the thread, and I'll add them to the second post as well.