by gmwdim Wed Apr 10, 2013 10:13 pmAs I mentioned in a couple other threads, I'm doing an SL 1 run for the challenge. I already got most of the necessary gear: ascended pyromancy +5, lightning reinforced club +5, balder shield +14, etc. Now, in a typical playthrough I'll co-op Anor Londo for the humanity required to open the Izalith shortcut and kindle a few bonfires, but obviously that won't work at SL 1. Rather than farm the rats, I decided I'd get my humanity from a combination of co-op and invasions in the Burg.
Knowing how unfair the Burg fights would be, I decided to farm a bunch of white and blue titanite chunks, along with green and large shards, to drop for hosts for their trouble. I considered it a fair exchange for the griefing. Anyways, here's where it gets funny: most of the players are so clueless they don't even know to pick the titanite up. And in addition, they do all kinds of other hilarious stuff. I can group my invasions into four broad categories:
1. I spawn, bow, wave to the host, and drop some titanite. Host freaks out, ignores the drop, and tries to run to the bonfire room, only to find the fog impenetrable. He then turns to me and starts spamming his R1 button, forgetting everything he's learned so far about the importance of managing your stamina. Thanks to the Balder Shield's stability and the weakness of starting weapons, I can stand there all day without having my guard broken. I try to give this guy a chance to just run to the boss, but he doesn't realize going through the boss fog sends the invader home. Usually I end the fight by running into a group of enemies who swarm the host and kill him because he's still too busy mashing R1 to block.
2. I spawn, bow, wave to the host, and drop some titanite. This host knows to bow back and pick up the titanite, but thinks he's clever to attack me while I'm either bowing a second time or dropping the second piece of titanite. His backstab with an un-upgraded starting weapon inflicts a whopping 70 points of damage, and when my crossbow bolt hits him for 250, he panics and tries to flee. At this point, I'll usually hunt him down for my own backstab kill since he took the titanite (and attacked me while I wasn't engaged).
3. I spawn, bow, wave to the host, and drop some titanite. This host ignores the titanite, and also ignores me. In fact, he proceeds to clear the level as if there's no invader present. This is (unintentionally) the smartest strategy, as I usually wait for the host to attack first (for the exception to this rule, see #4). Sometimes the host will try to summon phantoms for help even when I'm standing right next to him. I've followed the host all the way to the boss fog a couple times, but quite a lot of the time he ends up getting himself killed by enemies along the way. If he challenges the black knight or Havel, I'll block the escape route which usually results in the host's death.
4. I spawn and before I get a chance to bow, I notice I'm surrounded by three campers. Sometimes one of the phantoms will have gear similar to my own, in which case it's a tough challenge. But in most cases it's just three guys with basic gear who have no idea what they're getting themselves into. There's almost always exactly one sorcerer in the group. Sometimes I'll kill the two phantoms first, and then the host reverts to situation #1 or 2.
Of course, there's also a pretty high frequency of:
5. I spawn into the world of a host wielding a black knight weapon or TCC, who turns out to be SL 200. I did manage to kill one guy who dropped 34k souls.
Knowing how unfair the Burg fights would be, I decided to farm a bunch of white and blue titanite chunks, along with green and large shards, to drop for hosts for their trouble. I considered it a fair exchange for the griefing. Anyways, here's where it gets funny: most of the players are so clueless they don't even know to pick the titanite up. And in addition, they do all kinds of other hilarious stuff. I can group my invasions into four broad categories:
1. I spawn, bow, wave to the host, and drop some titanite. Host freaks out, ignores the drop, and tries to run to the bonfire room, only to find the fog impenetrable. He then turns to me and starts spamming his R1 button, forgetting everything he's learned so far about the importance of managing your stamina. Thanks to the Balder Shield's stability and the weakness of starting weapons, I can stand there all day without having my guard broken. I try to give this guy a chance to just run to the boss, but he doesn't realize going through the boss fog sends the invader home. Usually I end the fight by running into a group of enemies who swarm the host and kill him because he's still too busy mashing R1 to block.
2. I spawn, bow, wave to the host, and drop some titanite. This host knows to bow back and pick up the titanite, but thinks he's clever to attack me while I'm either bowing a second time or dropping the second piece of titanite. His backstab with an un-upgraded starting weapon inflicts a whopping 70 points of damage, and when my crossbow bolt hits him for 250, he panics and tries to flee. At this point, I'll usually hunt him down for my own backstab kill since he took the titanite (and attacked me while I wasn't engaged).
3. I spawn, bow, wave to the host, and drop some titanite. This host ignores the titanite, and also ignores me. In fact, he proceeds to clear the level as if there's no invader present. This is (unintentionally) the smartest strategy, as I usually wait for the host to attack first (for the exception to this rule, see #4). Sometimes the host will try to summon phantoms for help even when I'm standing right next to him. I've followed the host all the way to the boss fog a couple times, but quite a lot of the time he ends up getting himself killed by enemies along the way. If he challenges the black knight or Havel, I'll block the escape route which usually results in the host's death.
4. I spawn and before I get a chance to bow, I notice I'm surrounded by three campers. Sometimes one of the phantoms will have gear similar to my own, in which case it's a tough challenge. But in most cases it's just three guys with basic gear who have no idea what they're getting themselves into. There's almost always exactly one sorcerer in the group. Sometimes I'll kill the two phantoms first, and then the host reverts to situation #1 or 2.
Of course, there's also a pretty high frequency of:
5. I spawn into the world of a host wielding a black knight weapon or TCC, who turns out to be SL 200. I did manage to kill one guy who dropped 34k souls.
