A Newbies Tale

True Tolvo, but there is a lot of physical damaging attacks in the area as well, a balance is probably wise, as some of the better lightning defense shields also have lower physical defense, unless Undead Lee uses a greatshield.

I was thinking the Eagle Shield, which I thought earlier he said he had. But, I could be wrong. The enemies here are great for ripostes, but not everyone is exactly good at those one their first playthrough so a Greatshield might be a better option. Also, don't let the females melee attack you. You'll think you can take a flurry of attacks, and you're right. Until the bleed activates, as their weapons do cause bleed.

Right, they also have a tendency to pick you up and throw you, so its just generally not a good idea to be in front of them at all if possible.

They have a grapple attack? I have three toons at SL 120, I've beaten the game and gone on Countless NG's, and I've never even seen that. I need to check out enemy animations more often, there's so much in this game that can be missed.

Yup. check the PM I sent you

Yes I have an Eagle Shield - I used it with brilliant results for the Black Knights on my return to the Asylum (less recoil).
Thursday night is MY night so i'll let you know how i get on -- Cheers.....

Well over the weekend i managed to "complete" Sens Fortress and got myself to Anor Londo - - but what a let down another yellow fog gate blocked my way (same as in the Demon Ruins) so my efforts were short lived... killed all the big guys, opened all the chests and killed the gargoyle but now i dont know where to go. I even filled time by collecting 60,000 souls in the forest and bought the decent spells from Big Hat and then found out I cannot use them anyway because my stats aren't high enough.
Any suggestions guys?
Later today I'll scan though the wiki for enlightenment..

Anor Londo is indeed the way to go, but the path is very well disguised, the gargoyle area is key, as it holds a path which shall lead you up to a new area (I can be infinitely less vague if you want me to )

This is a case where I think we should tell him where to go, as this is almost secretive in nature. If you go down to the gargoyle area to your left you'll see a strut going from the platform your on up. Walk on that, carefully. And follow it till the end then drop on the balcony.

This is a great read Lee... I'm also on my first play through and just a bit ahead of you... The only reason I was able to find the path there is because someone had written a message on it... Working on new Londo ruins now... Those ghosts are killer

Quick tip Lived, you can hit the ghosts as they rise from the ground (such as those at the start after you go up the stairs. You can use this to get some free hits in .

Welcome to the forums

If you have a cursed Great Sword of Artorias, or any of the Ghost Blades you also don't need to be cursed to hit them, but just with the weapon not all of your spells and abilities.

Thanks for the tips and the welcome... My two biggest problems seem to be ghosts hanging Out inside walls or under floors where they can hit me but I can't hit them... Or me not noticing that my transient curse has worn off until its too late haha... Hopefully I'll have time to attempt to tackle them again today

One trick to get them out of walls is just running away. They'll get up higher or lower, as they move towards you they move towards your level.

Great... Thanks again

A trick that was pretty useful to me when I reached that maze of a house in the Ruins was to run towards the small tower you see further on, located at the left of the house. I just ran, getting as many phantoms as I could, and started killing them there. As long as you got enough health, it's actually doable.
If not, just keep going and get into the roof of the house, drop through the windows and climb the ladder inside the fireplace; there should be only a few ghosts in there. Just make sure to hurry.

For transient curses, leave it as your selected item because it will darken out when you use it. So if you see something bright flick up in the corner of your eye at the bottom of your screen, it'll be your transient curse item becoming active again, meaning it has worn off.

Edit: Welcome to the forums Azran

Tolvo wrote:If you have a cursed Great Sword of Artorias, or any of the Ghost Blades you also don't need to be cursed to hit them, but just with the weapon not all of your spells and abilities.

The only thing I'd add here though is that you can only HIT the ghosts with one of these weapons, you cannot BLOCK the ghosts attacks with your shield etc. A transient curse is by far the better option because then you can block them or whatever else. Plus the ghost blades are pretty terrible and difficult to get, so only really useful as a backup option.

Can you 2H block the Ghosts with the CGSoA?

Well over the weekend i managed to fight myway through Anor Londo and obtain the Lord Vessel.
The only issue i have now is that i used up about 8 humanities whilst trying to defeat Ornstein and Smough and that was with the help of "exterminator1234" and the NPC.
Warped back to the firelink shrine and and opened the yellow fog gates .
So I think now I should go to the depths and farm some Humanity - just in case....
I see Livedlime2 has then proceeded to the New Londo Ruins, I may take the same path.
One thing that got me annoyed --- the Giant blacksmith in Anor Londo, when I found him I thought I'd be able to upgrade my weapons --- NO.......
Well disappointed........
None of my weapons are greater than +5 - None are divine weapons (so Catacombs are out of the question) and twinkling titanite is as rare as rocking horse ........ so my armour is standard grade -- currently running around in Havel's set, offset with Havels ring.
I have all BigHat Logans spells although i cannot use the "good" stuff 'cos my stats aren't high enough and I've been advised that my level is / was alittle high for the Anor Londo (SL40).
MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmm --- I'll have a think about what to do next........

If you are looking for a Divine weapon, there's the Occult Club a Mimic drops in Anor Londo; it's reaaaaally useful for the Catacombs; you just gotta downgrade it to a +5 Divine Club with the help of a blacksmith. I used it on my first run through that place.
Also, if you were going to improve weapons, you need the respective embers. The large and very large embers allow weapons to go past the +5 and +10 upgrades, respectively. You can also just buy titanite shards from the Giant, or Twinkling in case you are using a unique set or weapon.

I think I may have missed the possible purchase of twinkling from the giant blacksmith --- i'll take a look tonight.
Cheers.

OK - so after I obtained the lord vessel and opened up the yellow fog gates i found that i had no idea where to go.
First - I tried to follow the dust path from Anor Londo through the "once" fog gate past the metal hogs only to find the crystal undeads rock hard !!!!
Second - New Londo Ruins -- fustrating as hell.....
Third - Catacombs - got my divine club and off i went -- great times were had by all - faceless demon dead and down to the pinwheel guys. This is where i have a question -
He multiplies, are the others deadly illusions and if I kill THE guy then all are dead - i got really close..... I was using the weapon obtained from the faceless demon, not a great hit rate but seemed to do the job.
Its going to be Thursday now before I face them again but i'm sure they're dead meat quiet quickly.
I'm a level 40 --- do i need to be higher for the areas that face me next - I seem under powered - or am i just rubbish..

Congrats on your progress. When you say "faceless demon", who are you referring to?

First of all, I left the Duke's Archives for the very end - I had 40 VIT and the Paladin Set fully maxed out, and those archers in there were still taking 2 bars off my health bar with every shot.

New Londo Ruins; I end up doing speedruns to the gate contraption and from then on I can avoid all but two ghosts on my way to the Four Kings (you can drop down once you drained the water by the right side of the zone where you find the first two ghosts, by the stairs).

Glad to hear you had a nice time in the Catacombs. Just wait until you face Skeleton Dogs. Yes, the illusion can damage you, and if the original dies, the others dissapear. It's quite straightforward; switch to your best weapon and go straight towards him and start smacking. I killed him in 6 hits of a Lightning Uchigatana +5, it is not that hard if you keep focusing on him. Didn't try the Club on him.

To add to Azran's comments on Pinwheel. I always charge right into this battle, no dancing around with him. Run up and start hacking away. If you need to flask there is typically enough time between his attacks to do so. I believe he is also weak against fire, so if you have pyromancy or fire weapons/resins you can try those. As soon as you beat the original pinwheel the others vanish. Good Luck!