How to play DS the easy way

I've read some posts on the web (not here) about how the sorcerer is the most difficult class to play NG+ and beyond. I don't know if people here agree with that, I certainly don't. Frankly I think the sorcerer is overpowered to a point where the game becomes a joke - on NG+ and beyond that is.

For Bossfights:
INT @50, 7-8 Attunement slots filled with 10 Crystal Soulmasses, as many (Crystal) Soulspears you have and Power Within. Grass Shield and TCC as weapons, Crown on the head, light armor (I use the crimson set +5 and the Painted World Guard Gloves +5) and bellowing dragoncrest as Ring. Cast PW before entering the bossgate. After entering the gate cast a soulmass if you have the time, otherwise kite & spam crystal souls spears and when they are out, continue with soulspears. If dodging is required (Artorias) be sure to have Dark Wood Grain Ring on (if you've enough endurance for it). Don't forget to heal when the boss is down, PW continues to run.

Iron golem took me less than 20 sec on NG+, 15 sec for Ornstein, about the same for Smogh, less than 20 sec for seath (including destroying the healpost), about 30 sec for Artorias and less than a minute for Manus. The only exception to this routine was the Capra Demon, Strong Magic Shield, 1SM + 2CSP did the trick without even moving away from the door, just evading the initial blow.

For travelling the world:
No PW instead more (Crystal) Soulmasses plus Ring of Fog in addition to Bellowing and use Logans Catalyst. Just keep the soulmasses up (may need 30 from one bonfire to the next) and soulspear enemies in the far or from behind. Did Anor Londo and the whole Duke Archives without dying once (granted, by now I know where every enemy is, which helps a lot too ).

This is pretty much brain-off breezing through, I don't have the quickest reaction and I don't think I'm a particular skilled player -the sorcerer is just OP. NG was far more difficult for lack of enough soulspears, equippment and attunement slots, I had quite some troubles from time to time, especially with O&S. But NG+ after I've freed Logan from Seth's became almost too easy, the damage output on a crystal soulspeer with PW, TCC, Crown and Bellowing is just insane - and you have 4 of them after Seath in NG+ and 8 SS (with TCC). The only common enemies that survive longer than 2 seconds are the Snakes from Seth's and Dukes if they come up front at you (being good kids they always keep their shield up;)).

Hope that helps everyone who has troubles with his sorc, I don't think there's an easier way to play DS

Sorceror isn't that hard, but really many builds aren't as long as you have enough damage. STR builds can abuse greatshields that remove all need to dodge the vast majority of attacks. Pyros have PW + GC + CoD + Bellowing just like sorceror. Faith gets sunlight blade + PW for absurd damage on a scaled weapon of choice.

Even just a pure melee fighter can still take advantage of easy PW for damage output and dish out enough damage, though at least they have it harder than NG+ mages.

It's really a matter of what enemy patterns you know. Most areas you can just run through anyway (even more so with fog ring, which isn't even needed!), straight to the boss, so only the bosses are serious road blocks.

TheMeInTeam wrote:Sorceror isn't that hard, but really many builds aren't as long as you have enough damage.

Yes but the Sorc has one major advantage: distance. Most enemies and Bosses don't even reach me to do damage. I died much more often with my Pyro than with the Sorc in places like New Londo Ruins, Blighttown (Blowdart & Flies), Painted World, Demon Runins and on bosses with a good DMG output Like Smough, Nito, Artorias or Manus, where getting hit once got me into serious troubles.

TheMeInTeam wrote:
Most areas you can just run through anyway (even more so with fog ring, which isn't even needed!), straight to the boss, so only the bosses are serious road blocks.

On SL100 and beyond leveling gets quite expensive so in most places I try to clear everything until I reach the boss, which yields me another 1 or 2 LevelUps at least. The Fog just helpes in certain areas to not have to deal with too much enemies at once (especially Dukes and Seth's). Skipping enemies would mean I'm less prepared for the next NG. Though when I've maxed out all stats I need (vita, int, end, att, dex) I might go for speed runs for the extra kick

Playing a Sorc in my eyes is pretty much the same as playing a sniper in a shooter: you stand out of the danger zone and deal an insane amount of damage. And compared to the Pyro (which is the only comparison I have on NG+) the Sorc needs far less casts to down a boss.That's why I believe it to be the easiest class for NG+.

Yes but the Sorc has one major advantage: distance. Most enemies and Bosses don't even reach me to do damage. I died much more often with my Pyro than with the Sorc in places like New Londo Ruins, Blighttown (Blowdart & Flies), Painted World, Demon Runins and on bosses with a good DMG output Like Smough, Nito, Artorias or Manus, where getting hit once got me into serious troubles.

It's a tradeoff. You do more damage in bursts at a given level at range, but generally tank less effectively. The most challenging bosses in the game are O&S and 4kings. Sorcery helps vs O&S, though if you kill O first you can pillar-trap smough and kill him with basically anything. Sorcery is actually not so amazing, though still viable, vs 4kings, as they're actually weakest up close (swings do less damage and are easy to dodge or tank).

Random enemies can be trashed by a bow or xbow generally, but it's not worth it and most aren't too challenging on any NG anyway as long as you avoid getting yourself swarmed.

On SL100 and beyond leveling gets quite expensive so in most places I try to clear everything until I reach the boss, which yields me another 1 or 2 LevelUps at least. The Fog just helpes in certain areas to not have to deal with too much enemies at once (especially Dukes and Seth's). Skipping enemies would mean I'm less prepared for the next NG. Though when I've maxed out all stats I need (vita, int, end, att, dex) I might go for speed runs for the extra kick winking

It's not efficient to kill enemies en route to bosses. You only do it for fun. If you want souls, a very simple solution is to slap on silver serpent ring + symbol of avarice and farm the phalanx in painted world or the forest hunters (phalanx is better if you have any AoE type attacks, but any build can make the FH fall to their deaths alternatively).

You can get into the millions of souls pretty quickly on phalanx fire tempest runs on NG+, but it's usually not worth it anyway since after a while SL stops mattering.

I admit sorc is probably (somewhat) easier than pyro for NG+, but I'm not sure it's easier than packing a GSoA and havel's shield for example (picking which based on enemy), where almost every random enemy can just be blocked + backstabed/poked and even on NG +++ the poise damage is the same vs shields and the chip damage through them is so marginal. Things like Nito's AoE blast literally do like 1/10th of hp bar if blocked by something like havel's shield even in NG+ iterations, especially if you have magic resistant items.

Buff builds are gross too, though just slightly harder (you have to get closer, but have less casting time where you're rooted in place).

The 4 Kings are a joke too, amongst the easiest bosses in the game. Just run towards them with a CSM charged, roll when he slashes and answer with a CSP, then wait. But the long waiting period (15-20 sec, didn't stop the time) until the next king appears is realy annoying because when the 4th King arrived my PW just ran out - though he went down as quick as the others too...

With such damage I don't need to block anything, just evade one or two attacks and every boss is done after 3-4 casts with the Sorc. But yes I don't know how easy (or hard) a true meele with heavy armor is to play as I only have a Pyro @190 and the Sorc getting there (@135 at the moment). Right now I cannot imagine any easier way to fight the game with every boss down in under a minte, most within 30 sec. The videos I've watched from Meele classes fighting bosses took way longer and timing seemed much more crutial. But when I get bored with the Sorc, a true Juggernaut will definitly be the next class I try, I like the style of the big swords.

As for farming, I don't like it and only do it when I immediatly need some souls. After all I want to play the game hence why not take some souls with me on the way? Until I've maxed my stats I feel no rush to get to NG+7. With the exception of getting to Sif I use the Ring of Fog only to get closer to my enemies but they still will fall. Call me a Ninja Sorcerer lol, but I have fun this way and die way less often. I do have the Silver Serpent ring on most of the time though when I'm travelling the world, the Bellowing is only needed for boss fights.

I'm not there yet where I play the game technical and as efficient as it gets like I used to farm D3 with my monk on MP10, I'm still taken in by the story, the characters, the environment and feel like I'm on a long dark journey. Though this might change the more NG+ I play through and I certainly come revisit this thread then to see if I still feel the Sorc being the easiest or quickest class to get through DS.

Alright, going to finish Bed of Chaos now (hardest boss in the game by far for me, certainly the one which takes the most time), have some fun in the Painted world and then Gwyn may lead me to NG++

99 int + dusk crown + bellowing + dark bead from manus cat one shots most bosses.

i agree........ the game is way to easy with a sorcerer. i have gotten to the point where i can run through 5 or more playthroughs within a few days and not die a single time.

Magic is extremely powerful in dark souls. The only reason it's not considered OP is because it's quite easy to dodge in PvP. In PvE it just wrecks havoc on the game however. It's much too powerful for it's own good really.

FromSoft did a better Job on balancing Pyro in PvE, it's powerfull but still a challenge. I am coming to the conclusion that the Sorc is ment as an entry class. But it still escapes me why there are posts on gamefaq of people saying that the Sorc is impossible to play on NG+. Guess they started NG+ @SL30 or so, I don't see any other explaination^^

FromSoft did a better Job on balancing Pyro in PvE, it's powerfull but still a challenge. I am coming to the conclusion that the Sorc is ment as an entry class. But it still escapes me why there are posts on gamefaq of people saying that the Sorc is impossible to play on NG+. Guess they started NG+ @SL30 or so, I don't see any other explaination^^

i believe the reason they're saying that is because they mean base level runs. as in: no leveling up your character AT ALL. You can only use what your base sl can use. Which means, no fancy schmancy Dark Bead to rip bosses apart (need 16 int to use it), you pretty much just have great heavy soul arrow and very little melee combat proficiency.