Dark Souls 2: Twinblade +10. Too late to go back.
I had forgotten just how much the game shovers you with souls. I'm like halfway through! I already have super high stats and a maxed weapon!
Let's stack dex up to 50 and make a bleed twinblade. Huge number of hits per attack + magic weapon to mitigate the damage loss = I know have the perfect build. Dark Souls 2 is already over, I'll finish the game in 30 seconds then make a PvP video about this build (with dubstep).
(I tried this against one enemy and now already regret it deeply)
I quite like all the changes so far. Maybe it's just me but the bosses seem super tame now.
Edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Th96wgegHw
Edit2: HEY EL CID! Can you check if HeinekenSouls is still a thing?
I can't waste these Pharros Stones damn it
-Yeah, DS2 is pretty much set up so that the amount of souls you'll get during the course of killing the Old Ones is pretty much exactly what you need to open the door anyway (and easily enough to have at least 2/3 of your build filled out before you head to the castle). And getting a maxed weapon is even easier than it was before with the ember sitting in McDuff's own attic. This is why I don't understand my brother deliberately despawning entire zones. Dude, it's Dark Souls 2, it's balanced pretty well, you don't have to farm souls ever really. Just nom nom some boss souls if you need a quick fix.
-The bosses do seem mostly pushovers* at this point, but we've also played the game way too fucking much. It shouldn't be much surprise that the normal mobs give us a little trouble because they've been changed whereas the bosses don't because they're completely the same (well, I think Skeleton Lords had the death spawns altered a little, but that's it). Now that I think about it, I don't think I've even had a boss death yet in Scholar. Did I mention I've played this game too much?
(*especially after Bloodborne's)-Wow how did I never notice how goofy those guys walk.
-Heineken...Souls? I honestly don't know what you're talking about. Oh wait, are you talking about Santier's Spear? (Just guessing because Pharros Stones.) I can go look for it tomorrow if you want.
~
Finished up with the clericness. Eleum Loyce aspires to radiate Keep Out on a level approaching Boletaria castle but probably doesn't quite make it. That is a fuckofalot of wall, though. Ivory King almost got blitzed down before he could even power up. Didn't know that could happen but guess it shouldn't be a surprise considering I've seen Fume Knight get smashed before he can go all rage mode (not by me solo, full group). Skipped Iron Passage and Frigid Outskirts because fuck both of those places.
Took the chaos rapier into Shulva to get ring + hat earlier than is practically advisable. I thought this would be problematic, and it was, but for reasons somewhat other than expected. Yeah, there was a pretty traumatic bit where the phantoms knocked me off the ladder leading to the third bonfire three times in a row and I ran out of estus before finally making it up there safely, but the really shitshitshit part is that I genocided the priestesses without getting their hat. Goddammit, game. You had sixty chances to give me the one thing I needed. No I don't need more Crimson Water, fuck off. I could burn an ascetic in there but I think I'd have to kill Elana first, so fffft. (At the moment I can barely take that place NG anyway.) So no hat drop for Quelaag. Fenrir if you get the ridiculous handlebar hat,
you must give me the ridiculous handlebar hat, otherwise I guess will just have to settle for the wicked goat skull instead.
Also I hadn't died yet and I was all set to go you guys, pyromancy is magic, I just can't die with it, but then naturally I rolled right off a cliff vs the first hollow in Shulva. Gravity remains my hated foe.
I'm also gradually working through a punchysouls file, keeping pace with my brother on this one (who moves slowly because he actually has a life and also feels a bizarre need to grind the fuck out of these games). Spent some time bellbroing it up to get twin +10 caestuses. This is harder than it used to be because a good 50% of the time the host has Glencour with them and that fucker is always harshing my kills at the least opportune moment and you really cannot beat him, he must have at least 10,000 HP. Gawd why did they have to put an NPC summon in Belfry Luna. Anyway, covenant appears to drop other stuff now? I got some twinklies and a slab from victories while trying to farm out chunks, which really was not welcome because frankly chunks are a more welcome find in DS2 than are slabs (because you need six times as many of them).