Darkmoon Blade buff frustration.

So I have been having a lot of fun with my blade of the Darkmoon build, http://mmdks.com/2oh1

However I have to say I am rather frustrated by the darkmoon blade buff. First, finding time to buff is often problematic and has gotten me killed on several occasions. There are those in common pvp areas that will just not let you buff and attack as soon as you spawn. If I am hunting outside of those areas I often have to go searching for the host, meaning I cant buff before I find them and by the time I see them it may be to late to buff depending on how aggressive they are.

Second, it just does not last very long. I am very much a defensive player, I keep my enemies at a distance with the spear and move around a lot frustrating them into making a mistake and striking at the right time. This means that its entirely possible for the first minute of a fight not to see any strikes landed. So now I am left with an unbuffed spear and I need to menu switch to my elemental spear to keep the fight going, and of course fumbling with equipment is always dangerous.

Finally I have a composite bow in my right hand that i like to often use during fights, the only problem is darkmmon blade on my spear disappears if I switch to the bow. This means I can not use it until the buff wears off.

So in short for all these reasons I have lately been opting to just go in with my elemental spear and spare myself all this trouble. I feel much more confident knowing I can engage in battle at the drop of a hat, pull my bow at any time and not have to worry about menu swaps, not to mention the attunment slot I will be freeing up if i forgo the buff.

But on the other hand i feels like a waste to be a a blade of the darkmoon and not put the most powerful buff in game to use, especially since I have the faith to use it. After all it does have more then 150 dmg on my regular elemental spears.

So I guess I am not sure what to do, do you guys think I should forgo the buff or just learn to use it more effectively?

Try buffing a more aggressive weapon than the spear. The Falchion is popular for this, so is the Shotel (as it can help against people who will try to turtle your buff time) The buff will make any weapon you can hold do decent damage, so try other things out.

If you're having problems with people attacking you as soon as you spawn, there isn't much you can do about it besides try to roll or WoG and hope you're winning the trades.

If you have to go looking for the host, In my experience you can usually use clues like dead/alive enemies and open/closed doors to get a good idea where they are about and you can safely buff before you end up engaging them.

Learn to be like me. Be as obnoxiously and overtly aggressive as possible. You have the spear, you have the buff, you are the one that should be controlling the battle field. Hell, your even a darkmoon invader, so you have less to lose if you die. So go bash away at these fools before they have a chance to outlast your buff. You have the poise and armor to tank a few hits, and if you level up(which you should since you invade down) then you can become even more tanky and be more aggressive. Plus, you have a spear. Kiting around them, poking them to death with a buffed spear is going to slaughter people. As for getting into battle and not being able to buff, you should find time. Do what dibs said and run around obstacles, and if you get hit, it doesn't matter much as you are going to have a much more powerful weapon then them with the buff. And at the level you are at, you shouldn't use elemental weapons much, as others will have weapons that can do more damage due to the split-damage that elemental weapons have.

Buff the Shotel and spam R2 ^^

Try to be unpredictable. Try to use the buff when other people do not expect, or when they´re healing. I prefer to not use the Buff at all, usually buffing in the beginning to an invasion if I do not suspect it will be hard.

SirArchmage wrote:And at the level you are at, you shouldn't use elemental weapons much, as others will have weapons that can do more damage due to the split-damage that elemental weapons have.

Do buffed weapons not share this weakness with dmg split between physical and magic?

On that same note what do you guys think would be a good secondary spar to use after the buff wears off. Currently I am using lightning spear, but I am considering chaos, or even divine once I pump a few points into dex.

kozak wrote:

SirArchmage wrote:And at the level you are at, you shouldn't use elemental weapons much, as others will have weapons that can do more damage due to the split-damage that elemental weapons have.

Do buffed weapons not share this weakness with dmg split between physical and magic?

On that same note what do you guys think would be a good secondary spar to use after the buff wears off. Currently I am using lightning spear, but I am considering chaos, or even divine once I pump a few points into dex.

It is still split damage, technically, though the buff is going to make it do a lot more damage then other elemental weapons, and if you up your dexterity, without the buff your spear will still do more damage then elementals. So stat-scaling plus buffs equal domination.

Teh Kitten´s Cat wrote:Buff the Shotel and spam R2 ^^

Try to be unpredictable. Try to use the buff when other people do not expect, or when they´re healing. I prefer to not use the Buff at all, usually buffing in the beginning to an invasion if I do not suspect it will be hard.

I wouldn't recommend this. It's like asking to get parried and if you will go for unlocked, you won't hit a tree, cos it's so slow.
Typical Falchion R1 spam is enough. Most people won't be able to parry it and it does decent Stamina and chip damage, so blocking it isn't really an option.

The Shotel R2 isn't so slow you can't hit people with it. I honestly prefer buffing the shotel to the falchion, it's only a hair shorter and lower ar, but the ability to R1R1R2R1R2 or R2R1R1 or R2R2 or whatever you end up doing, throws off people's parry timing as the R1 and R2 have very similar animations. Truth be told I think the shotel is one of the best weapons to buff in pvp period.

as for spears to use when your buff wears off. It depends on how you develop your stats, if you keep investing in Dex than a regular winged spear +15 or the Silver Knight Spear would be great. If you invest in more dex and more str you could use the Dragon Slayer Spear. Or the Demon's Spear. You can use it with base stats but it wont do very much, it has C/C scaling so as you pump str/dex it will get stronger, but if you just pump dex SKS or Winged will do better. If you keep pumping up your Faith (up to 40 or 50) An Occult Winged Spear can do decent damage

If they're blocking with anything other than a great shield, be sure to kick them once or twice then r1 spam them after that. They don't have the stamina to block much after that and they will often get only 1 parry attempt if you double-kick them. Perhaps just as importantly, if you kick their shield twice they can't trade well even with a good weapon because they won't have the stamina for a ton of swings.

Also, the kick itself will cause them to stagger if they try to parry you, so it's a great change-up on a buffed shotel. You might just r1 spam them, but you also might hit through the shield or kick. It adds a big risk factor to trying to parry any "predictable" weapon that hits fast enough to take advantage of the stagger.

With a buff on, you want to put a lot of pressure on people.

You can always do formal matches in the Burg and buff after you bow. Unless the person is butthurt because he's been destroyed by buffs so much that he doesn't let you buff, most people will wait for you to buff, eat your grass, and then start the match. You will have an occasional gank, occasional BS fisher, and occasional big crystal weapon hornet ringer, but for the most part the Burg is formal matches.

Soris Ice Goldwing wrote:No the Burg is not a good idea for formal duels. Really people tend to go harder if they see the DMB so trying a duel area and buff after a bow may be a good idea.

Really? I still find the Burg as the most consistent dueling hotspot (probably 80% of invasions, and tons of red signs), and moonpit is great for duels as well if there is activity there, which is not always the case

I like to gravelord there (for blue phantoms) summon red phantoms, and use dried finger to be invaded. Over and over again. I can't believe people don't like it there. That's my favorite place. Everyone bows, eats grass then fights. Most honorable place for PVP hands down. Forest for when i feel like merkin gank squads. Kiln isn't bad when you don't get gank squads. Never really tried the moonpit. It's crazy how many people don't like the Burg. Match after match all day is nothing but formal matches.

kozak wrote:I am very much a defensive player

Do not use buffs.

Soris Ice Goldwing wrote:TooLeet part of the reason I hate the burg is the gankers, hackers, annoy trolls, trolls who think they are griefing and the general host there. It has a bad reputation.

I don't have that problem there. Every once and awhile yeah but for the most part it's alot of fun. Better than the township. Better than anywhere really imo. I'll give you some formal matches

Xbox TooLeet can't do that.

On the buff if you want to use it you need to be more aggressive and try things that people will not expect from you.

Ive made more than my fair share of buff builds so i know a trick or two for making them that makes them both original and viable

One thing I always do is make sure the weopon I intend to buff is a fast weapon. Reach is not as importat as you think so long as you can time a running attack properly. Some weapon types to consider are rapiers, daggers, shortswords, curved swords, and Fist weapons. The dps on a buffed weapon stacks with each hit so you want to get a fast weapon more than one that hits hard. Getting weapons with secondary effects like bleed or poison is also a good idea because it makes your weapon viable even after the buff wears out. As such the claw is a very good weapon to buff. Dragon Bone Fist is GREAT for a strength/ faith combo. In terms of rapiers be aware that while the Estoc has the best reach it also attacks slower. The Ricards Rapier R2 is the best attack in the game when buffed. In order to get out of the **** storm of damage it deals you pretty much HAVE to dodge. The chip damage alone makes dodging a bad idea. If your gonna use a dagger, i recommend using the Bandit Dagger because of the bleed and high crit

Blargh, of course now that I say something good about the Burg I get a full Havel SLB Estoc poker, sheesh haha

You will definitely find more consistent honor duels in the Moonpit

You're buffing a spear with DMB. That is one of the most powerful tactics in the game so don't complain.

divinebeanpole wrote:Blargh, of course now that I say something good about the Burg I get a full Havel SLB Estoc poker, sheesh haha

You will definitely find more consistent honor duels in the Moonpit

When i was on Xbox there was a lot more gankers. The PVP experience between Xbox and Ps3 is a whole different ball game. I remember being on Xbox and not being able to find people to summon for bosses. It was frustrating. I bought a Ps3 and haven't looked back. A lot more formal matches and less gankers. More hackers though but oh well.

luvz2fight wrote:Ive made more than my fair share of buff builds so i know a trick or two for making them that makes them both original and viable

One thing I always do is make sure the weopon I intend to buff is a fast weapon. Reach is not as importat as you think so long as you can time a running attack properly. Some weapon types to consider are rapiers, daggers, shortswords, curved swords, and Fist weapons. The dps on a buffed weapon stacks with each hit so you want to get a fast weapon more than one that hits hard. Getting weapons with secondary effects like bleed or poison is also a good idea because it makes your weapon viable even after the buff wears out. As such the claw is a very good weapon to buff. Dragon Bone Fist is GREAT for a strength/ faith combo. In terms of rapiers be aware that while the Estoc has the best reach it also attacks slower. The Ricards Rapier R2 is the best attack in the game when buffed. In order to get out of the **** storm of damage it deals you pretty much HAVE to dodge. The chip damage alone makes dodging a bad idea. If your gonna use a dagger, i recommend using the Bandit Dagger because of the bleed and high crit

I dissagree. A dmb zweihander will deal 750 damage with an r1, deadangles and stunlocks, not to mention the hitstun bs. Without the hornet ring, 1 hit+hit stun bs with a dgm or zweih is 2250 damage, which is more than enough to kill most any build.

I agree. It's a lot easier to hit someone with a katana etc. than a zwei. Buffs only last so long. I'd rather be able to do insane damage as fast as i can instead of waiting around for the right time to swing my big *** sword with the possibility of missing and getting BS'd or just as easily parried.