A big shoutout to the following damage calculator that helped me out when I was stuck: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13Ba-cbzZG_EMnkuO_8MO53sidBna1hsztrCa_7LQ63E/edit#gid=1019910224
I wouldnt be surprised if lightning resonance was cut and great lightning spear and sunlight spear were added at roughly the same time, with the upgraded spears replacing the mechanic, which would explain why they dont scale with it
Yeah that’s how I usually do that fight, makes it a lot easier. Unfortunately the dps drops down considerably as the R1 attacks are a fair bit weaker with a halberd, so it was a bit of a slog this go around
Great video! This is unironically my favourite souls game (I love the atmosphere) - also, did I blink or does this video not show footage of you fighting Giant Lord in the memory? I’m curious what your DPS strat is there as I’m grinding him for max stats (which is taking a long, long time)
Nope! I must’ve lost my footage somewhere unfortunately. Tends to happen with how I record (I just do the boss fights, and I had to redo him multiple times so must have deleted it when I was purging extra video files that weren’t gonna be included). Too bad to, as I had to dodge hits in between setting up buffs and debuffs as the run back takes like 30 seconds so doing them before the fog wall isn’t the best strategy.
@@trevthedev6134 my go-to has been just using dark weapon buff, +10 rusted iron twin blade (dark infusion) with rtsr & dark clutch rings. Once I pass the rolling statue head, I stand by one of the fires before the boss trigger to bring me into rtsr range, buff as my health chips down, then run in. I’m at +99 bonfire ascetic and he typically goes down within 9-12 R1 hits. I’m hesitant to use any of the resonant spells since I’m grinding for souls, but so far what I’ve found is that using red iron twinblade with all dark is the most effective.
I think when I did my platinum run I would use sorcery to grind levels. It’s been a while but soul spear / crystal soul spear seemed to be pretty good to whittle him down and then finish him off with hexes. I think I finished at roughly level 250 when all was said and done, can’t imagine going to max level!
havent seen this mentioned but flynns ring gets its damage buff off of your max equip load, not your equip load ratio, meaning to get optimal damage, you have to just avoid levelling vitality ( i think it caps out at like max load 60 or lower)
Heyyy, can't wait to use the information I learned in this video to do a "how hard is DS2 with the highest possible DPS" video that isn't actually the highest DPS because I forgot one random buff! awesome! Seriously though, I love these videos. I'd love to see the format in DeS, if that's even possible given the tools available for it.
Oh man, I wish I knew this was being made cuz I woulda loved to give you proper formulas and tools. I'll go chronologically but like, I completely understand trusting the sources you used. I do think about editing the wikis at times but there's just so much work to be done there. Your work on this is actually really respectable but it just suffers from the foundational level. I am going to avoid critiquing loadouts and stuff, your dedication to timing attacks is impressive and I think you put a lot of work into this, I really do respect it. I will try to focus purely on data communicated the first time it is communicated. I'm gonna go chronologically for each correction here: 1:36 The damage formula displayed is reasonable here, however it's suffering from notation errors and somewhat out of date info. (this is also specifically for pve numbers) -The handedness multiplier being on both the top and bottom halves of the first formula would effectively negate any value change it could offer. -You're missing the opener to the first parenthesis, which is understandable but does add confusion to reading it. -RTSR in DS2 actually applies on the first 6x multiplier (thus it influences how much a character's Def will reduce damage, same thing with BTSR but that one does the second 6x). -Some moves actually add AR to the attack itself, which makes for another variable that is easily missed. -Giving Counter Damage just a passing mention is a mistake imo, you can consistently get counter hits in this game because the enemies are big and slow and are in a counter hit state a loooot of the time. Old Leo Ring also adding another 12.5% damage after that really makes it a force to consider. I think you based this off of the numbers Radai published a while back (which sadly, the og docs are lost media) www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/q7xv9l/dark_souls_ii_damage_calculation_formula_final/ They're pretty close to what we know to be true now but I did make some corrections when making the Damage Calculator and his help was greatly appreciated www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/17z4gym/indepth_automated_character_planner_damage/ 3:19 You got the hands backwards here, which is understandable 3:50 Weapon buff formulas you used seem to be based on the same Document, however there's some stuff left out that's actually really important -The AR it considers is based off of what the AR of the element would be if it were enabled while having some consideration for the affinity the weapon has for the current buff. In practice this can be higher or lower than what the weapon actually has. (plus the AR the buff adds) -This is then multiplied by the values you listed (tho x0.3 when it says x1.3 and similarly -1 for the rest) -You also get bonus damage if your weapon actually has AR of the corresponding type The resulting buff formula ends up working really interestingly www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/1b6hgmh/the_balancing_of_dark_souls_2_weapon_buffs/ 6:33 I think this is a misunderstanding of how infusing works -A lot of weapons actually do have Base AR multipliers that match what you're listing here, the issue is you're presenting them as damage multipliers. Weapons and attacks are actually completely consistent with how they work no matter the infusion. (this doesn't account for the rest of the corrections the infusions apply tho) -In your speech you compare Dragonrider's 400 Phys Def as being more noteworthy than the >50 Ele Def. The issue here is that you haven't presented the fact that Phys Def is a flat reduciton and Ele Def is percentage based, which gives the wrong impression on how it works. 12:00 Nitpick but the ogre is resistant to Slash and weak to Thrust so R2s woulda been faster, especially considering the 20% damage reduction from CoC 13:05 Whisper of Despair is hard to find numbers on but you got it right (nice) Will take this moment to point out spell buffs/debuffs scale duration with stats, WoD for example starts at 20s and gains 10 more at 14/24/34/44 INT 14:03 I have gone over most things that will be on these DPS screens so I'll just point out new stuff as it comes up -RTSR in DS2 actually applies to all damage types, not just Phys. Phys just gain the most due to it also reducing the effectiveness of defenses. (Spells don't get RTSR damage tho and Radai's document did say it was phys only, which is probably why you thought that) 16:06 Pine resins in general do have a really high additive AR, but not enough to where it woulda been more AR than GMW, however Najka is weak to the element and this is the only way to apply it, as such, still solid choice of buff. (mentioning this because elemental weaknesses haven't been mentioned so far) 16:50 Ring of blades actually adds 20 before infusion corrections, so here it's actually doing 10 14:41 2 things -Note that Flynn's Ring cares about Max Equip Load, saying it cares about Equip Load can be a bit confusing to new players. -Flynn's Ring doesn't actually care about infusions are anything, the 50 AR applies evenly to everything, even Staffs and stuff, unlike Blades (props for mentioning the correction here, I understand not wanting to find the right numbers for each weapon in each case) (If anyone was wondering, the easiest way to farm most Infusion Stones early game is by killing Basilisks in Things Betwixt or trading stones with the crows) 21:25 Engraved Gauntlets have a 10% chance of activating, I usually wouldn't say they're better or worse based on weapon speed but considering you're trying to kill in a few hits, it makes sense to say they're better on weapons that will hit more (theoretically it should give a 5% DPS boost) 24:35 I might have skipped over a Clutch Ring in a previous screen but I'll note here, Clutch Rings work the same as Blades and have their AR bonus altered by infusions. 24:50 I really don't understand where the idea that you need 2M souls for the Dark Clutch comes from, Shrine of winter, which is probably the gate you're considering only requires 1M Soul Memory on the first playthrough (and +1 for each cycle that you collected within that cycle) tho I doubt you had that at this point, even considering the awestone farming at the start 28:30 Good job clarifying Sacred Oath works the same as Ring of Blades +2, it also does a % based pve damage reduction, which I know isn't important in the run but felt like mentioning it here 32:20 DLC enemies actually have Melee Defenses in line with the Base Game enemies, the DLC damage reduction is specifically another layer of defense all enemies have that most base game enemies don't use that further reduces Ranged Damage (which applies to all "Bullets", including the drakewing special projectile, Smelter Sword's Explosion and other stuff) Congrats on hitless alonne, it's a real fun animation 34:00 the toes take standard damage, it really is that much of a damage sponge (you don't actually need to alternate toes on AD, you just need to learn when to walk into the toes and when to stand still) 34:40 the best boss in the game is actually Dark Lurker, no I will not take differing opinions (woulda been nice to see how high you got your DPS by hitting them on both bodies at once) Nice video, I reallllly wish I coulda given you the right info while in production, it woulda been such a fun resource to have in my back pocket. Ty if you got to the end of this, big love <3
Commenting this before the video starts: As someone who grinded for the blue slab for about a week to get the platinum trophy on PS3, the goal of this video is a very bad idea...
It’s on the docket! Just a casually 300+ weapons to compare, most with swappable ashes! 😅 (ok maybe a touch facetious but certainly a lot of work to figure out routing and stuff! Probably soonish after the dlc depending on how that shakes out?)
Really good work, but I’m pretty sure you can deal more dps (with or without spells) you surely know ray dhimitri, he made some crazy builds that seems destroy bosses faster, especially the early ones. However, if cheating is allowed, you can use parrywalk to reach endgame places early. Thank you for this colossal work, have a nice day
Yah I did watch some of his oneshot stuff when I did my video on ds2! I know a lot of his older stuff was back before they nerfed rtsr to only work with physical damage sadly
he actually used a document that LordRadai made for all the damage numbers without crediting. I made a comment about all the ways the numbers were misinterpreted with more up to date resources and he simply changed the description to say he actually used those resources the entire time actually. it actually sucks because Radai doesn't have much of a following but has made huge ds2 resources, like a hitbox viewer and the animation editor
I know the mastodon halberd is pretty strong, but I’m surprised the ice rapier and red iron winblade didn’t make it. I thought even santier’s spear might show up at one point.
Iirc the red iron twinblade was consistently up there as far as dps. Just not quite as good as the mastodon halberd in most cases. Still a great weapon for a play through!
Dark Souls 1 will always be my favorite because it was my first but my rating of the souls games would be: Elden Ring (it is truly a masterpiece) > Dark Souls 1 > Dark Souls 2 > Demons Souls > Bloodborne (I don't like it as much but it was doing its own thing which) > Dark Souls 3 (i think it pandered to mass appeal the most which is not in the spirit of FromSoftware) I really like DS2 because of how weird and experimental it was and I see a lot of DS2 coming out in Elden Ring but done well with a proper budget and timeline Big thing to note is that I like chunkboi big armor strats the most which colors my view of the games. Bloodborne purposely eschewed this which I can acknowledge as a design choice. DS3 just treated heavy armor and weapons as an option poorly which I did not appreciate
