I remember wanting to quit against Cleric Beast and Father G my first playthrough. With Father G, I turned the game off, woke up the next morning, took four tries and utterly destroyed him.
In my 3rd play through just now before I sold my game, I beat both Cleric Beast and Father G with a Saw Cleaver my first try, running straight to the boss. I have come a long way from when I first started this game and the soul series.
[I started playing dark souls after I beat bloodborne and right now, I just got cursed in the sewers and it sucks!
I agree, one of the best designed boss fights in terms of the environment, lore and music. Thereās a comment thread on youtube I agree with regarding the boss fight Iām going to put in spoilers below.
[details=Spoiler] McNotAllThatFreaky
Do you guys realize how significant this boss battle is? This man, Ludwig, by seeing his light in the dark, reversed his own beastly madness. He became the superhuman that the Pthumerians tried so hard to become, complete with the strength of a beast but the mind and ambition of mortal man.
Local Fan
+McNotAllThatFreaky
The fact that Ludwigās transformation into beast is so horrible makes also so much sense when you keep in mind Miyazakiās interview and what he said about beasts and transformation: the more one resists the urges and tries to stay human the stronger and more horrible the transformation will be; this is why clerics become all horrible beasts (like Amelia and Laurence himself) and why Ludwig must have been, without a doubt, the most noble and untarnished hunter ever.
Blklee 5G
+McNotAllThatFreaky Its sad because Ludwig was never corrupt by greed or desires. He would only close his eyes to see the ālittle lightsā that would guide him through battle whenever he felt that it was absolutely necessary. Unleashing the full power of the Moonlight Blade He was content with this. He didnāt want to know any secrets, or anything.
In the end he was still susceptible to the Beast Curse like everyone else because of the sin that the original hunters had committed. So he eventually became a beast after being dragged into the Hunterās Nightmare. Meaning Simon (Harrowed Hunter) is right. Modern Hunters are being punished for what their forefathers did, and its wrong.
That is why Ludwigās Rune āGuidanceā reveals a beastās claw reaching for a light. Because it shows that despite becoming a horrible monster Ludwig still continued to seek guidance from the tiny lights i.e the Moonlight Blade. We see this during the cutscene. He is being beaten, and in a pinch, he looks to his Moonlight Blade. In that moment his former composure (self) returns, and he unleashes the bladeās fury
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Itās not a bad way for me to go out. At that point, a victory wouldnāt have meant much to me after spending an hour trying to beat it.
I die more to bullshit camera angles in boss fights more than anything elseā¦that and being too greedy and running out of stamina.
I still wanna know how to go about making an all arc build with that Ludwig so I can go ham with magic items too, but I am not sure if that is a viable strat since you only have so many qs bullets to fuel those hunter tools.
Iām doing an arc build right now. The trick is to make a bee line for the Tonitris, as its trick mode does tons of damage with a decent arcane stat. This way you can do decent damage without using your bullets. Later you can pick up a different weapon with arcane scaling if you so desire. There are only three problems Iāve encountered with this build.
#1) You need to get gud. You need to be able to beat the first few main bosses and the blood starved beast before you even have a chance to touch this weapon. Resist the urge to dump all your echos into strength, at least not early game. Molotovs and fire paper help with this, but itās still not something I suggest for beginners.
#2) Durability. Like, seriously. It only has 100, and it drops faster when buffed.
3#) The trick mode buff only lasts like seven seconds. If you use it at the wrong time, your damage will drop off substantially.
Soā¦ Beat the first boss at Level 41 NG with a +6 weapon and a small health bar. He has 3 attacks that could end me in one shot even at full health. Kind of proud of it. Basically I went straight to this boss from the beginning of the game because Iām trying to get one of the DLC weapons early to beat the rest of the game with.
The video below is like attempt 50 or so? I lost count, BUT I FUCKIN DID IT
That shark guy that stands to the right of the skull fireball lady is an asshole. Pok Gai motherfucker. Heās actually not that hard, but I want to get the timing down on the parry and the window seems a bit wonky even though I was doing it fine to the guy at the bottom of the well.
Rakuyo is alright. No where as good as when itās wielded by Best Waifu Lady Maria. I have now a +9 Reiterpallasch but honestly I donāt think other weapons donāt quite match up to the Pimp Cane except maybe Ludwigās Holy Blade.
I think some people get too caught up in the stat game and forget that you can beat any enemy if you just get gud. I was actually holding off on trying the DLC with my arc character because I figured I should be level 70-100, but after watching your video I decided to try it at level 55. I didnāt beat him, but I got to him, which was a lot better than I thought I could do! Iāll have to see if I can beat him later.
I highly recommend the Threaded Cane actually. It has pretty good scaling and already has a super great moveset for PvE. Additionally you can get a fire bloodgem in Old Yharnam IIRC. And yeah if you ONLY level up ARC and VIT, your Molotovs will do crazy high damage early on. The make Cleric, Gascoigne, and BSB really quick. And for the latter you can even use fire papers to really melt him. Threaded Cane is just a great ARC build weapon in general, from beginning to end lol.
Granted this is advice for a pure ARC build. Iām working on one of these myself and thinking of skipping other stats that arenāt HP and ARC completely. But the requirements for Tonitrus arenāt that expensive either, so still considering that.
I agree itās not something to do on your first run. Especially since you really need to get good with counter shots so you can generate more bullets with the Oedon Writhe rune
To be honest, when I first arrived in DLC land, I couldnāt make a dent in those whip hunter guys. I did this area on a different character previously, so I knew where to goā¦ I had to actually just run to second lamp. When I got there though, I kind of did the entire area in reverse. It was fun sneaking around everything.
@Gasaraki : Didnāt realize threaded cane was a decent arc weapon. My highest character is a strength user, so Iām only really familiar with the strength weapons. For my arc build character I picked troubled child, so threaded cane probably would have saved me the two points I had to put into strength. Not a horrible cost however. The X1.7 ARC scaling in trick mode makes the Tonitrus a pretty good option for pure damage. Iām not a fan of the threaded cane, but it will be more appealing to players who donāt like micromanaging trick mode or getting so close to their opponent. I suppose itās whatever you feel more comfortable using.
@Rugalitarian : Yea, DLC land is a beast. I let my brother convince me to hold off on entering until I was in NG+ on my main. It was a fun challenge, but there were timesā¦ there were timesā¦
@āTekno Virusā Rakuyo is great because of itās versatility. It has crowd control, wide attacks, thrust attacks, a charge attack that reaches as far as Ludwigās twohanded charge, etc.
In trick mode, itās R1 combo has good horizontal range and the 3rd attack has good power as they slash with both blades. Itās R2 combo is actually not power attacks but thrust attacks that are actually faster than the R1s and take as much stamina as those.
The L2 actually has 3 forms. Regular L2 that has one followup and is amazing for groups, L2 after R1 which is a slow power slash with great range, and L2 after R2 which is a double thrust.
Honestly I think itās only real weakness is ājust okā quickstep/roll attacks
@DeeQue True enough, either option can definitely be good
Iāve been working on my pure Arcane build, actually. Currently working on unlocking all Chalice Dungeons, but I at least have Lost Holy Moonlight Sword now. Playing the game up to getting HMS was actually not that bad at all. For stats, I prioritized vitality > strength (up to 20) > endurance in that order before I got HMS. I used Saw Cleaver (started with Hunter Axe, didnāt like it, despite it being my first weapon ever in BB) up until I beat Vicar Amelia, at which point I immediately jumped into the DLC and skipped all the enemies to go and grab the Whirligig Saw. Whirligig carried me for the rest of the game with just a casual 20 strength until I came back to kill the first DLC boss at around level 70 or so. You donāt need to use a weapon like Tonitrus if youāre going a full Arcane build. That weapon is kind of wack anyways (poor moveset, lack of range, scales poorly with arcane).
In regards to Bloodstarved Beast, that fight is hilarious if you know the optimal strat. Blood Cocktails, Fire Paper, and Beast Blood Pellets. Throw a cocktail at a wall, pop your fire paper and beast blood pellet, and just wail on him. Throw another cocktail after about ten seconds to keep him busy. With the Saw Cleaver that fight should be over in less than 30 seconds. :lol:
Itās not really a pure ARC build with 20 STR IMO. I mean pure ARC as in hunter tools and items being the main source of damage. Like, Iām going for 50/99 in VIT/ARC
To be fair, this is as pure as you can get without going too high in levels. Iāve capped myself a t 115 for PvP reasons, so 50 arc is as high as Iām going to go.
I just double checked and youāre right, 50/99 is over the meta at 135 so Iām probably going to leave ARC at 89 then as 120-125 is very common(though you can find PvP anywhere form 100 to 150). Point is, itās not really āpureā ARC if youāre going to bring any other stat up past weapon equip requirements AND ARC tools arenāt your main source of damage. 20/50 is definitely a hybrid type.
Edit: Also, keep in mind when I say pure ARC, I mean hunter tools are the main source of damage, and hunter tools continue to scale well PAST 50 ARC unlike weapons using ARC scaling. Thereās also the fact that they buffed scaling gems, especially for STR and ARC, so if you get good cold gems it can help out your melee weapon damage a bit even when going beyond 50.
I see. Either way, my point is that having a decent weapon goes a long way while leveling up an Arc build. Even having minimal stats for Whirligig was good enough to carry me through the majority of the game. Donāt need to level up Arcane until later. Iām not sure how you maintain bullets in a pure Arcane build though.
Tonitrus in trick mode has deceptively high Arc scaling, despite not looking like it on paper. (In trick mode, +40 Bolt Attack; 1.4x Arcane scaling; 1.7x Bolt Attack. guess I was confusing bolt attack and arc scaling, but itās still crazy damage!) You can look at the wiki if you need a breakdown. All of the enemies in the game that annoy me are weak to bolt, so thereās that too. Iāll agree that itās not a great option for the entire game, and probably works better with a str/arc setup, but I cleared nightmare frontier easy enough.
About recouping bullets, you need a rune that gives bullets on visceral attacks.
