by befowler Mon Mar 05, 2012 2:53 pm
I hated getting avelyn until I learned the stairway trick. All you do is run down the stairs and stand on the ledge overlooking that area, with avelyn's bookcase below you. Stand there long enough (10+ seconds) for your character to "set" there (i.e., if you were to die, your bloodstain would appear right there), then sprint up the stairway and rotate it. Once it has fully rotated, quit and reload. You will appear back on the ledge where you "set", but with the stairway now rotated the other way, enabling you to fall forward onto the top of the bookcase where the staircase once was. Don't roll off, but do make sure you jump off a bit forward, as if you simply fall straight down you may slip off the side of the bookcase. Once you land on the bookcase, be very careful because if the archers on the main stairs down there are alive you will face 2 archers and possibly the Channeler shooting at you. It can be easy to die from the arrows in the back while opening avelyn's chest.
Some may consider this tactic cheesy, but after numerous deaths trying to time jumping off the end of the rotating stair I found it to work great. It's basically the same idea as having a summon rotate the stairs away from you while you're on the ledge, 'cept you don't need to annoy phantoms by possibly dying in the effort.