I am here to say that PvP in the Darkroot Garden is NOT dead.

For the passed two days/nights I've been playing Host in the Darkroot Garden, having completely given up on Invading after being 2v1 ganked far too many times for my liking, and much to my surprise it's been bloody brilliant. Aside from the odd lag-back-stabbing Hunter, and the occasional Hunter jumping into an ongoing fight without so much as a hello, the vast majority of my match-ups have been straight-up tests of skill.

I've even started to improve as a result of it (well I could hardly get any worse :roll: ), and this mornings session ended with me having my first ever three-in-a-row win streak, with a final tally of 5 wins and 8 loses, as opposed to my previous record of 1 win every blue moon or so!

All of which has given me an idea, if you're looking to rid the Garden of the Gankers (and why wouldn't you?), or at the very least greatly reduce their number, start to Host more regularly by entering the area as a Human, as this will give all of the legitimate Hunters, Wraiths, and Darkmoons, much more opportunity for a straight-up PvP experience in what is arguably one of the best PvP Arenas that the game has to offer.

Umbasa!

sadly sif is dead in my current pvp file, but im a dw so i'll see about invading though i haven't been able to find anyone there for 2 days now.. whereas the area just outside with the bonfire is really active at 120 and has lots of red soapstone signs..

PSN or Xbox?

If you're PSN my tag is- Gazman0169, I won't be on again tonight (as I'm working), but on Weds and Thurs I should be on from around 8pm GMT, Friday from around 09:30 and then again from 11pm GMT, and over the Weekend whenever I can collar the TV from my misses and the girls. Just drop your red near the bonfire, and we should be able to tie-up.

Excellent! I'm glad you are having fun in the forest and things are working out for you. I find hosting forest PvP to be tons of fun.

yea last night i was invading a kind host repeatedly, he was with a phantom but didnt 2vs1.
at the end i was just invading him to pratice fighting strategies and parries

yes im psn gazman, my id is Fisticuffs_9, currently doing a dex tank and deciding whether i want to flip or not.

Now there's a tantalizing prospect, your dext tank against my dext Demon Hunter.

What's your preferred weapon of choice?

Mines a buffed Balder Side Sword, and I have an immense soft spot for my buffed Ricard's as well, but have no fear I'm a long way off from being a TMNT, even with my beloved DWGR!

This morning I decided to have a little PvP stint before getting myself ready for work, and so at around 03:30 GMT I rolled up to the Garden.

Invader 1- Very respectful, bowed upon seeing me bow, waited for me buff what-have-ya, and then went and spoiled it all by going straight for a one-hit lag-back-stab.

Invader 2- Not waiting for me to finish my bow went straight for the kill, but I managed to roll out of the ambush without a scratch. We then engaged, and after getting his HP down to a nats nuts whisker he finishes me off with yet another one-hit lag-back-stab. So much for originality, never mind.

Invader 3- Again very respectful, bows in return of my own, and throughout the fight does not resort to any underhanded techniques. Eventually both our HP bars are brought down to the point where the a waft from a butterfly wing would end either of us, and to the Invaders credit he rolls away from my heavy attack and immediately counters to take home the win. Maybe things are not going to be that bad after all?

Invader 4- Much the same as Invader 3, but this time he manages to stun-lock me, resulting in a straight three-hit kill. No worries, at least the fight was fair.

Invader 5- The return of Invader 2, but this time every time I knock his HP bar down some, he backs off to flask. No problem, as I can sense it's only a matter of time before I finish him off, but then Invader 6 comes into my world to throw a bloody great big spanner in the works. Oh great I thought, as I caught sight of his dragonhead, but luckily he wasn't a glitcher, or at least he wasn't in a glitching mood. Anyway, the two of them proceed to gang up on me, and to my credit I for once actually managed to hold my own, well sort of, but in the end both Invader 5 and me ended up dieing at the exact same time.

So I ended up being 0-5 this morning, and whilst I did not manage to bring home a single win, well not one that I survived long enough to celebrate , at least I got to participate in two very good fights and one not quite as good one.

All in all it wasn't a too shabby way to begin the day.

Umbasa!

You sir need to try being an invader. Doing the whole Darkwraith thing is a lot of fun as you never know what you're gonna come up against, however that bowing stuff has got to go.

I can't help it, it's the Englishman in me. Good manners, and all that! I bow, right before offering them a mug of weak as p*** tea, and a greasy fry-up!

All joking aside, I am making my way up to being a Wraith, but have got a ways to go yet, and so hosting in the Garden is the next best thing.

Gazman0169 wrote:I can't help it, it's the Englishman in me. Good manners, and all that! I bow, right before offering them a mug of weak as p*** tea, and a greasy fry-up!

All joking aside, I am making my way up to being a Wraith, but have got a ways to go yet, and so hosting in the Garden is the next best thing.

You sir would fit in perfectly in the SL 120 Fight Club. Check out the stickied thread up top.

The PvP was never dead, it's just sadly as a host on your own, many forest hunters choose to employ tactics suiting a 3v1.. You can't blame them seeing as what they usually put up with but does annoy you.

Though it's good to see you can get people who are cool hosting like that.

So i was Darkmooing in the forest fighting gankers as i often do...Killed a few got killed by a few...got revenge on the ones that killed me. Then i vade this one dude.

I fought his phantom and killed him the host stood there as we fought. I thought hey a non douchbag host in the forest how cool. Then he does a bunch of gestures and summons someone then gets out of the way...the ganker attacked be quickly but to his dismay the host did nothing to help him...i dispatched him rather quickly. The host runs up and does prostration as the phantom fades. He summons another...this goes till i kill about 7 would be gankers...as i was fighting one a FH vades and sees me having a one on one with the phantom the host gestures at him and he seems to get the idea...

He summons more and more for us. We didnt gank any of them. We didnt need to..lol gankers cant one on one for anything. Each one he summons the FH and i run up and do Praise the Sun!! Then one of us kills them.

The host summons a guy with BKGA and he kills the FH rather quickly..This guy was actually pretty good. I let him heal then we fight a close match. I won. Host summons a few more that i dispatch. When what do ya know its BKGA guy again...he didnt seem to want to fight this time.

The host summons like 2 more. I kill them. 1 FH vades and BKGA guy kills him. Then...nothing. No more gankers to summon and no more FH vade for quite some time. BKGA the host and i spent some time boxing. I got bored Dropped some humanity for the host which he was happy to receive bowed and took my leave.

Every single fight was one on one and I killed ALOT of would be gankers.

It was alot of fun.

I am a forest hunter/wraith for life but since I screwed up my pyro on my sl8O and had to go into NG+ and I was already a darkwraith I decided to kill sif alive and host the forest solo with him!

I have had so much fun hosting and I get to see the other side for once...sadly there is a lot of hunters that TRY to gank me with little luck lol...but I run into a lot of hunters that wait there turn!

Luckily I am rocking full kirks armor so I get some respect from the darkwraith some duel me then back off when a hunter comes....I had a red lastnight stick around and we protected the hill leaving a pile of hunters in our wake!!

One word of advice from someone who has spent 100's of hrs in the forest...please never bow unless they are already bowing then do it at the same time and at a distance and let the hunters run away and heal NEVER go chase them that's what they want....I'm in NG+ and my NPC's do crazy dmg to me lol!

Continue hosting solo and thanks for helping me bring some honour to the forest!!

Edit what lvl are you hosting?

hello again gaz, responding to your weapons post... my current weapon range from a winged spear, painting guardian sword, estoc, server or great scythe, i;ve had the most succsess with the sword and spear.

Lol its funny you say that Sparkly my 80 host only uses the chaos blade and the silver knight spear....stange lol very effective for sure!!

actually ive been seeing many honnest host in the garden nowadays

Morning DarkW17 (at least I think that's your tag, my eyes are giving me right ol gip this morning. Too much DkS, and not enough sleep, don't ya know! ), in answer to your question I'm currently at SL113 (or thereabouts), making my way up to SL120.

Morning Sparkly. Out of all those I consider the PGS to have the sweetest moveset, and I've been toying with upgrading the two I have to see how well I fair two-handing them over my current BKSh+5/BSS+10 set-up.

For me yesterday evening Hosting in the Garden was a momentous occasion, as I finally managed a 2v1 victory, with me being the 1 I might add. In all the time I've been playing both DS and DkS I have never onced managed to do this, mainly because most of my time has been invested in PvE gameplay, and so I'm well chuffed that I've finally managed to pull one off.

dianaduh wrote:actually ive been seeing many honnest host in the garden nowadays

Yea I've seen a lot of them too recently. And many of the invaders stand back as the host and the other invader are having a duel. It's nice when that happens. A fresh change. But still, it's mostly just gankers. But I like it either way.

Also, congrats Gaz!

Congrats on the 1V2 victory that's awesome before you know it you'll have a 1V3 under your belt!!

I invade the forest a lot on my 120's I am sure ill run into you my psn is Glatts17!

I just finished hosting on my 80 and tonight was a fun night the hunters were good at not trying to gank me for the most part lol!!

Was you on yesterday evening at around 4pm GMT?

Because if you were I'm pretty sure we've already met up, on the count that I was Invaded by a thorny critter, who promptly handed my butt to me on a silver platter! :oops:

Lol I was in the forest yest evening and did some invading it may have been me...I always use the armor of thorns and havels combo..now if this thorny critter was wielding a katana then I am guilty as charged

You sod! Just you wait until we next meet!

Sorry surely I bowed and did hornets BS you at least That's to funny that we met what are the odds!

If ya add me on psn I can drop a red sign and we can have some 2V2 madness

Who knows, but we'd definitely get a good return if either of us had laid money on it!

I'm in the Painted World at the mo, having just picked up my Red Soapstone. I just want to have a go at the Old Monk wannabe before I leave (I'm planning on leaving Priscilla alive, to keep PvP there likewise), and so I should be in the lower Blighttown PvP arena at around 12am GMT, or thereabouts. Hopefully, we'll meet up there, and I can then get to dish out some degree of payback on your spiney butt!