I beat Placidusex first try and didn't get to fight Lichdragon, so I didn't include my opinions on them here because I feel like I can't form a good one. I don't think Placidusex is even that easy, I just got lucky/played well - so I'll make sure to do it again on another playthrough.
I just don't think the pathing should just teleport me to lategame areas for no apparent purpose whatsoever.
Like the one in Four Belfries that takes you to Farum Azula has literally nothing. You teleport on top of a floating platform with nothing but Two Beastman monsters and 1 shitty talisman. They could've had the same effect if you just get put in a room with a chest.
And yeah I don't think they should dedicate any resources to balancing the game better or anything, I have no problems with anyone using whatever build they like. I do however think it's cool that they're releasing balance updates, just to make it harder for people to ruin the experience for themselves by using Mimic Tear or Hoarfrost and demolish the whole game. Some stuff is better off nerfed for everyone.
might be the first game where you can legit use a pretty tanky build with the counter mechanic added and the absorption rings. im sure end game stuff still cuts through it pretty well and the toughest fight malenia makes blocking pointless and parrying super difficult
I definitely want to try a run where I use a shield more, but it feels like you won't even be able to get past the first big boss (Margit) with a shield lol, you'll just end up taking too much damage through it because you don't have the block rating.
i was using some medium heater or kite shield and still mostly rolled but there are some attacks you can get away with blocking (you seem to lose less stam attacking/blocking in this game compared to others at least early on) and set yourself up to get an easy hit in
so many of the bosses aren't viable to parry though which is a bummer. i thought i could pull it off against malenia but so many of her moves float her backwards which makes it near impossible to get the riposte off
i mostly agreed with people saying to leave people using summons alone but then my friend showed me mimic+10 and it does kind of turn the game into story mode difficulty which is a waste of this game imo
well this was the hypest fromsoft release so lots of new blood came in and logically used everything at their disposal especially considering margit is the first fucking mandatory boss lol. the summons seem fine as an aid except for mimic (we've all been there stuck on dancer or some dumb shit for hours/days) and the people who claim you aren't really playing dark souls until your monitor is off while you put your dick through a cheese grater are hella weird
agreed as someone who grates in all fromsoft games.
this game will just end up being remember as "that dark souls game with mimic tear" though which is just funny
i will be starting this game this weekend and have never played a dark souls games before. can someone tell me what builds and strategies are allowed and legitimate and which ones are cheating?
This is a pretty good evaluation, it does not really take into account individual weapons, and not all int builds are super easy I'm sure. But who knows