Another build, another "I need Artorias advice" topic.

So, I figured that after practicing and practicing and totally smashing him in my last build I wouldn't need any more help... Well, I was wrong.

I get two safe openings for Spells, which he dodges half the time, I only have 4 casts of the one that deals decent damage... My melee weapon of choice doesn't have enough range to hit him after most of his openings, and gets me hit if he decides to do his fast-poke...

My Great Soul Arrows and Enchanted Broadsword only deal 50 damage a hit, and everything is too damn slow to knock him out of his charge up reliably (I sometimes do it, but it's less than half the time).

My current build:
http://mmdks.com/1rol

Man-Serpent and Grass Crest are +10, Enchanted Broadsword is +0, armor hasn't been upgraded at all.

Is there any decent strategy I can use with my gear, or am I just gonna have to come back later for my Dark Sorceries?


Also, I don't have Xbox Live, so summoning or being dropped gear isn't an option.

Get at least Great Magic weapon from anor londo (Crystal would be better but you might not want to go clear dukes out) Buff your sword. 2H it, dodge. The easiest attacks to punish are the mid range lunge and the long range jump stab. So Float around those ranges instead of being up close and personal.

When he starts to charge up you should have no problem staggering him out of it with 2-3 hits from a greatsword, I just tried with a Scythe and it was no problem and they do less poise damage than greatswords.

Poise will not help you. Equip the bellowing dragoncrest ring so that your great soul arrows do closer to 120 damage a hit, and peg him with those. Only cast soul spear while he is powering up. 2 spears and you'll knock him out of it. In my experience he only starts powering up at 80%.

just keep pegging him with soul arrows, and avoid letting him hit you.

Okay~ So, I'll try with Greater Magic Weapon first (Since I don't think I've grabbed a Bellowing yet), but then I'll give that a go if I still can't do it with GMW.

Also, a question~ I swapped from Dusk Crown to the Darksun Helm because I wasn't sure if his Abyssgunk counted as "Magic" or not so if anyone knows for sure, that'd be great~ If it's not "Magic" I'll go back to Dusk Crown for the extra damage increase for this fight~

it's physical only.

Excellent! Then if my GMW attempt fails, I'll go grab a Bellowing and I'll use the Dusk Crown and magic his face off~ And if that fails... I'll have to go finish Dukes, get some Crystal Magic and some more levels.

Artorias is one of those guys where you only use the GCS against him

Shields are useless against him, you're better off rolling.

Personally I'd take off armor to fast roll. After that just remember to be patient.

If I got one-shotted I'd take off my armor, but as it is I can just survive a single attack from his juiced-up form, so I'll stick with Mid-rolling since it gives me a bit more range to screw up.


Yeah, I rarely actually block, only against one attack I'm not comfortable dodging. I mainly just have my shield out for the Stamina Regen.

What attack is it? I probably know the solution, I've fought Artorias so many times I can usually roll out of the way of anything.

But yeah, mid-rolling is okay. That's what I did when I first fought him without a shield. Fast rolling is obviously better though, and the Ninja Flip obviously wrecks him.

His half-spin horizontal swing. I can dodge it on occasion, but I'm not real comfortable dodging it so I usually block, and roll backwards since he seems to follow it up often with an overhead swing, which gives me a chance to shoot off a spell or two.

That one?

Just roll to the side, your i-frames should save you.

He usually does it while you're a considerable range away from him, rolling backwards also work.

Yeah, trouble is I don't recognize the tell for it, it's only because I have my shield up whenever I'm not attacking that I block it at all, otherwise I'd just be rolling and praying

You have to pay attention to the little things to dodge him.

There are a lot of moves that give you a lot of time to react but that one is the one that's kinda hard to predict.

Bait him into using his longer attacks like the moving stab, and the high jump. If you can dodge those, just bait them at long range and make use of a counter.

Thanks a lot for all the advice, Artorias is once more dead~ Ended up magicing him, since GMW only lasted for 2-3 hits.

2x Soul Spear didn't knock him out of his charge up either, though it's possible the second connected after it had finished charging, either way I had to dodge like I'd never dodged before...

Buuuut he's dead, as is Ciaran, and a bunch of Oolacile citizens, and I now own Dark Bead! Hurrah!

Edit:
Question! Does Dark Magic do decent damage to Manus? Or is he like super immune to it? Wondering if I should do him next so I can make the Catalyst, or if I should come back after getting some Crystal spells.

Already opened the shortcut, so it makes no difference~

Magic is terrible against Manus. A 50 int css does like 200 damage or less, and he has a crap ton of health.

Ah, that's disheartening... Luckily I do have some melee skills to back up my build~ I suppose I'll go do Duke's before I come kill Manus then, a while before I need his catalyst anyway.

Actually, I think I'll go visit the Depths bonfire so I can warp there and farm some humanity, used my last ones buffing up the DLC fires.