by Hugh_G_Johnson Fri Feb 22, 2013 12:39 amSentiel wrote:GMB has about the same casting time as Pursuers.Hugh_G_Johnson wrote:Magic barrier requires that you have plenty of time to cast it and identify your opponent as a mage (or cast it anyway and not be able to use a blossom). Even then it doesn't last very long. Havel's great shield is a build killer and great magic shield means you need to have your catalyst in your main hand assuming you are a mage. Dodging pursuers in the forest is easy enough, but in a duel in the burg when you go from bowing to dodging there's no time to hit him with an arrow (and what would that do anyway?). Getting hit with the first cast is not a problem. Like I said; the problem is you're on the defensive from the start and have to battle just to get back on even footing tactically.
Identifying your opponent as a caster is easy. Wings on head.
The best way is to aproach everybody as a caster. With 16 Int requirement, anyone can cast Dark Bead. Not to mention Pyromancies.
Havel's is an option for Str builds.
Rearrange your inventory and switch to a Catalyst to cast Strong Magic Shield just as you see Pursuers being casted. Alternatively, you can cast Hidden Body and Pursuers won't activate on you. Although this gives you a 30 second time limit to kill the caster, or you're screwed.
Bow withand do it as the invader is on stairs, or when he has some distance to you, that way your animation will end before they can do anything.
When in Burg, back up against a wall, wait for Pursuers to be very close and roll away. Purusers will hit the wall and destroy thmeselves.
Alternatively, you can go to the small room leading to the balcony with Wooden Shield and interact with the door. You're invulnerable while opening/closing doors.
Headshot with an arrow stops the casting if done in time and it will stagger any opponent regardless of their Poise. Even if not headshot, it will still do around 200 damage. While it's not enough and can't even be compared to the damage Pursuers may cause to you, if the caster has low Poise it will stagger him/her, thus interrupting the casting and it the worst case scenario, you will at least do some damage to them, so their cast isn't completely free.
There's no problem to be on the defence as long as you're not one of those overly aggresive players. You should learn to adapt your playstyle and perhaps your gear to your current situation.Not having the DLC might be the biggest issue, because imo the best way to learn a techniques weakness is to use it yourself.Hugh_G_Johnson wrote:I don't have the DLC, but I've heard from more than one person that using it is like back-stabbing yourself.
I do have the crest shield on most of my builds, but I'm not worried about the moonlight greatsword -- I actually like to see people using that. I was just making the point that they are able to keep you on defensive. I have no problem using theagainst people I know are going to pull some kinda crap or if I don't like what I see. I haven't thought of using it while I'm being chased by pursuers, though.
If you're on defensive and your opponent rushes you with melee, disregard their spells and backstab them. They mostly won't expect it, it will provide you with invulnerability, which will take care of Pursuers and it will do serious damage to your opponents HP, turning the tides and making them go to the defensive.
The best overall strategy is to wait for the caster to run out of casts. DB has 6 and Pursuers has 3 casts per Spell. The usual caster uses 12 DB, 3 Pursuers and if he's clever, he's got HCM, or CSS as backup, with are easy to evade and since they're with us from the beggining I won't cover those at all.
Using
...so you think it's cheap, too?
Anything that will kill you in one shot for making one small mistake or getting a little bit of lag must be cheap. If the only way around that is to make a very specific build, with a specific setup and attunement... I would consider that to be cheap. Unless the designers were trying to force people to get the DLC to make more money, I think that dark magic's power surely exceeds its design.*
As you said, just about anyone can cast dark bead so indentifying a caster is not easy. 'Havel's is a build killer' is another way of saying 'Havel's is an option for strength builds' to me. It forces you to compromise, armor, weapons and ring selection. Having 50 strength pretty much forces you to use a strength weapon; further burdening you and ensuring you either become a pure BS fisher or leave yourself open for repeated back-stabs. Of course, you could use elementals, pyro and dark bead... but at that point you might as well not use strength and just make animals' hate mail build.
*I'm very cynical, but I don't think they would try to do that because it would just mean they're forcing everyone to have the same build. It would ruin the game, or at least take an extremely deep game and make it shallow. Maybe I'm completely wrong and that's why the int requirement is only 16. That way everyone can pretend they have a unique build while having a dark bead shootout.
BTW -- I was joking about implying I was going to try to BC while pursuers were chasing me.
