Brings a tear to this old knight's eye :*)

[♠Ace♠]

For people who do not play or enjoy Dark Souls, you may not care, so you've been warned.

I'm playing Dark Souls again and for shits and giggles I keep invading people's worlds just to pal around with them and give them items and weapons and shit I don't need. Apparently, this is called being a Gift Wraith, in other words, an invading player who shows up to aid someone, rather than kill them.

Now, many of the players outright try to shank me, which is understandable, I wouldn't trust any random invader phantom, I've learned too well the harsh lessons of Dark Souls' online mode. Sometimes, however, I'll get the ones who notice I sheathed my weapons, and I'll wave at them, and we'll just have fun, with me rooting them on as they kill the enemies in the castle leading to Ornstein and Smough, me dropping a few souls as congratulations before they head through the fog gate and I am sent back to my own world.

Well, I invaded this world and came across something I hadn't expected; a newbie, this late in the game's life, obviously unlearned, sporting a set of heavy knightwear that made him painfully slow, and sporting a Scimitar (a weapon that scales with Dexterity, which is, like, the opposite of heavy armor like the knight set he had on) and shield, obviously not knowing that strong armor doesn't make up at all for practice and skill, a lesson most players will realize by the time they reach the Bell Gargoyles at the Undead Church.

So, I'm following him around in the undead church, watching him suck and fail trying to melee fight the huge knight and rolling away to burn through Estus every five seconds (his armor is so fucking heavy on his build that his roll is total shit, and he can't dodge the swings of the knight in time) and so I finally run outside and throw down a Chaos Fireball to get the kid's attention, then waving at him to come over to me. He's reluctant and shit, and runs up to me to backstab. However, with his Dex being such shit and with only a starter Scimitar, and him being what I can only imagine is...level negative seven or some shit, he barely scratches my health. I slug him in the face and then pull out my Lightning Zweihander and just stand there, and he begins backing away in fear across the rickety wooden bridge outside the church...RIGHT TOWARD THE FUCKING BALDUR KNIGHT!

So I choose some random fucking gesture, I think it was despair? The one where your guy falls over on his hands and knees and droops his head? And he stops. I wave, and he waves back, and then I do the Joy gesture, and he comes over to me. I drop him a +4 Baldur Sword that I'm not gonna fucking use, because Lightning Zweihander for life, nigga, as well as a +3 Grass Crest Shield (because with his dopey build right now, he probably burns through Stamina like nobody's fucking business, so that stamina regen enchant will help him a lot at lower levels). The kid freaks out and his character is all jittering around, and I watch him equip the weapon and shield. Then I lead him back over to the church and show him that he needs to stay at the edge of the knight's attack, run in, stab once, and then retreat to the edge of his attack range again.

I watch for about four minutes as he lather, rinse, repeats what I was doing before the fucking big bastard finally goes down, him only ever being clubbed once, me rooting him on with the HURRAH! gesture each time he gets in a good hit.

He stands there and looks at me, as if he can't believe I helped him. So, I wave, drop a minor soul for him, and leave.

Reminds me of when I was a newb. I had no idea about scaling either, though not as bad as him. I wonder if he's managed to kill the Gargoyle's yet.

Wonder if he'll remember that random Zweihander wielding phantom.

[Herzinth]

[Esper]

For people who do not play or enjoy Dark Souls, you may not care, so you've been warned.

I'm playing Dark Souls again and for shits and giggles I keep invading people's worlds just to pal around with them and give them items and weapons and shit I don't need. Apparently, this is called being a Gift Wraith, in other words, an invading player who shows up to aid someone, rather than kill them.

Now, many of the players outright try to shank me, which is understandable, I wouldn't trust any random invader phantom, I've learned too well the harsh lessons of Dark Souls' online mode. Sometimes, however, I'll get the ones who notice I sheathed my weapons, and I'll wave at them, and we'll just have fun, with me rooting them on as they kill the enemies in the castle leading to Ornstein and Smough, me dropping a few souls as congratulations before they head through the fog gate and I am sent back to my own world.

Well, I invaded this world and came across something I hadn't expected; a newbie, this late in the game's life, obviously unlearned, sporting a set of heavy knightwear that made him painfully slow, and sporting a Scimitar (a weapon that scales with Dexterity, which is, like, the opposite of heavy armor like the knight set he had on) and shield, obviously not knowing that strong armor doesn't make up at all for practice and skill, a lesson most players will realize by the time they reach the Bell Gargoyles at the Undead Church.

So, I'm following him around in the undead church, watching him suck and fail trying to melee fight the huge knight and rolling away to burn through Estus every five seconds (his armor is so fucking heavy on his build that his roll is total shit, and he can't dodge the swings of the knight in time) and so I finally run outside and throw down a Chaos Fireball to get the kid's attention, then waving at him to come over to me. He's reluctant and shit, and runs up to me to backstab. However, with his Dex being such shit and with only a starter Scimitar, and him being what I can only imagine is...level negative seven or some shit, he barely scratches my health. I slug him in the face and then pull out my Lightning Zweihander and just stand there, and he begins backing away in fear across the rickety wooden bridge outside the church...RIGHT TOWARD THE FUCKING BALDUR KNIGHT!

So I choose some random fucking gesture, I think it was despair? The one where your guy falls over on his hands and knees and droops his head? And he stops. I wave, and he waves back, and then I do the Joy gesture, and he comes over to me. I drop him a +4 Baldur Sword that I'm not gonna fucking use, because Lightning Zweihander for life, nigga, as well as a +3 Grass Crest Shield (because with his dopey build right now, he probably burns through Stamina like nobody's fucking business, so that stamina regen enchant will help him a lot at lower levels). The kid freaks out and his character is all jittering around, and I watch him equip the weapon and shield. Then I lead him back over to the church and show him that he needs to stay at the edge of the knight's attack, run in, stab once, and then retreat to the edge of his attack range again.

I watch for about four minutes as he lather, rinse, repeats what I was doing before the fucking big bastard finally goes down, him only ever being clubbed once, me rooting him on with the HURRAH! gesture each time he gets in a good hit.

He stands there and looks at me, as if he can't believe I helped him. So, I wave, drop a minor soul for him, and leave.

Reminds me of when I was a newb. I had no idea about scaling either, though not as bad as him. I wonder if he's managed to kill the Gargoyle's yet.

Wonder if he'll remember that random Zweihander wielding phantom.

That was beautiful. T.T

[Alphakoka]

I really should get Dark Soul if only to play it solo without any connection online whatsoever.

[Herzinth]

Wait, the chapel is a high level zone? I thought it was considered pretty low-level.

[AngelKitten]

I have no idea about this game other than what you've described, but this made me smile.

[PaladinFoster]

I can honestly say that I would probably have made the same mistakes in the noob's position. I don't know what a Dark Soul is, or even own a PlayStation.

[Card VII]

I can honestly say that I would probably have made the same mistakes in the noob's position. I don't know what a Dark Soul is, or even own a PlayStation.

It's on PC now. Hardcore RPG fans would love it to pieces, if that's your thing.

[♠Ace♠]

I really should get Dark Soul if only to play it solo without any connection online whatsoever.

Did that on my first character, but that character was so horrible stat-wise since I didn't know about scaling that I deleted him when I hit up Duke's Archives.

On my main, I played online for the hell of it. Invasions aren't as bad as expected, though human players are far more of a grievance than the NPC invaders. though, I'm also able to summon a phantom player long before anyone invades me, usually.

Wait, the chapel is a high level zone? I thought it was considered pretty low-level.

Low soul level character.

Like I said, I often invade for shits and giggles. In one instance I swore that to fight one player I'd only use Kicks and a broken sword hilt. I died eventually, but it was an amusing ten-minute struggle, the guy couldn't comprehend what the fuck was going on.

I had just enough STR to wield the Zweihander properly, which is like 16-18 or something, making my character no more than 20-25, which would put this kid anywhere between level 10-20. I don't really level him up, though I do grind against enemies for amusement, and tend to blow souls on shit like Titanites and weapons, upgrade them, and then dump them off on other players. On that character I had grabbed the sword, ran through the Valley of Drakes, took the lift to Darkroot Basin, and backtracked my way quickly past the Black Knight and Titanite Demon and got right up to the Blacksmith. You can reach him fairly easily.

Most of the souls I drop are the shit I pick up from random wandering. The character wears no armor so I can run and dodge quickly. I've already run through Blighttown with him as well just to pick up weapons and souls and other items. One lucky person recieved a +4 Uchigatana, another got a Gargoyle Tail Axe, and another received a +2 Claymore.

[Esper]

I can honestly say that I would probably have made the same mistakes in the noob's position. I don't know what a Dark Soul is, or even own a PlayStation.

Common sense and knowledge of weaponry will go a long way in Dark Souls.

Scimitars were made for mounted warfare. Their light blade allowed for efficient slicing without the drawback of Longswords. Considering they developed in a hotter region the weapons were not made for people who used heavy armor, but rather those who could attack quickly and accurately. That is why it scales with Dexterity as opposed to strength. Longswords due to the way the blade was built required more muscle to manage to hold it properly thanks to thickness and length. The momentum favors swings and thrusts, but required more control due to the blade being straight as opposed to the short curved structure of the scimitar.

-shrug-