NG+ SL1 4K w/o DWGR

I haven't really been getting enough damage output from my usual build (DWGR, lightning battle axe +5), so I decided to try something a bit different. The emphasis here is on boosting my magic as high as possible to try to kill them faster and reduce the time with multiple kings on the screen.

http://tinyurl.com/7np65gc

I'm interested in comparing the two, and if there's any way I can improve. My observations:

The pyro flame when adding the stacked damage does 625 damage, much more than the battle axe. I have 16 great combustion uses, which should be enough to kill ~3 kings.

Crown of dusk reduces magic defense, but for SL1 this is basically meaningless (i.e. 65 -> 51).

I no longer have mask of the child for stamina regen, but attacking with the pyro flame doesn't use stamina anyway. This allows me to save it all for flips. I haven't noticed any increased difficult in avoiding their attacks using the regular fast flip vs. the DWGR ninja flip.

Armor is reduced of course to stay below 25%, but I'm still either taking low damage with my shield, or getting one-shot.



I've still never gotten farther than the second king either way. One of my biggest annoyances is when the slow moving magic attack is used, but it sort of stays with the king instead of going at me right away. By the time I can deflect it the second king has almost arrived.

go light armor with crown of dusr and dragon ring with rtsr and you should be good.

RantFromRant wrote:go light armor with crown of dusr and dragon ring with rtsr and you should be good.

sorry, what's rtsr?

and is there a better armor setup (i.e. better magic def) that will keep me under 25%?

rtsr is the red tearstone ring. (I'm assuming he meant swap the bellowing ring for rtsr... I don't think he forgot that you can only use 1 ring against the 4 kings. )

For the weight, it'd be hard to beat this magic defense: http://tinyurl.com/6t8xqk5

yeah, either black sorcerer, painting guardian or dingy set. or mix and match to get the highest magic res.

BLA1NE wrote:rtsr is the red tearstone ring. (I'm assuming he meant swap the bellowing ring for rtsr... I don't think he forgot that you can only use 1 ring against the 4 kings. )

For the weight, it'd be hard to beat this magic defense: http://tinyurl.com/6t8xqk5

Alright, I just picked up the sorcerer set so I'll try that.

Do you really think hyper mode is worth the risk? With my current setup I can survive a couple hilt hits, giving me time to heal. I'd have to be perfect at flipping to not get killed using RTSR (obviously not the case, or I'd have beaten them already).

I'll certainly give it a try though, as I can just use the staircase to get my health low enough.

its easy once you get used to their attacks, specially with fast roll.

RantFromRant wrote:its easy once you get used to their attacks, specially with fast roll.

haha, easy. I in ng maybe, not + or beyond.
op, if you havent beaten them yet when I get home tonight ill post my method. too hard to do on my phone.

RantFromRant wrote:its easy once you get used to their attacks, specially with fast roll.

have you done this fight on SL1 NG+? It's absolutely not "easy."

^That really depends on your damage output. If you can deal enough damage to kill each king before the next spawns (let alone more than 2 kings at once...), then not using the rtsr is easier. But, and this is probably the case in SL1 NG+, if you can't deal enough damage with your current setup and you always end up getting ganged on by multiple kings, then that would actually end up being harder than the rtsr method and perfect rolling.

I think you'll end up having to go the rtsr way. And I believe it's not "easy"! I've never tried it myself, despite all the things I've accomplished in this game (low level runs just aren't my thing). At the same time, though, if it allows you to keep the number of Kings to 1 at a time, then it definitely can't be that hard. It's probably your best bet, and probably also the easier option--but I could be wrong.

i didnt mean its gonna be easy, i meant easier than the method youre doing it right now. like blaine said if what youre doing right now is not working maybe rtsr will work better, dodgin their attack is actually really easy, the hard part is not making a single mistake but they will go daon fast dude, i havevent done a sl1 playthrough but i have an sl 10 in ng++ and i did 4kings solo with rtsr.

Okay, so a problem with hyper mode that I fully expected - with my HP that low, two magic attacks (the one that just kind of moves slowly towards you in a straight line) kill me even when blocked with a fully upgraded crest shield. I have like 86 HP, and each takes away about 60 or so.

this might help https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjlGcxU0C4U&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL53F89FAC474D3429

Use 2 casts of Fire Surge, it's got the highest DPS of all pyromancies, and 160 is enough to finish off all of them.
Please remember to swing your AXE at them while they are "fading", as your axe (but not the pyromancy) will still take chunks out of the health bar, thusforth letting you waste less time on killing the fourth king when he spawns.

RantFromRant wrote:this might help https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjlGcxU0C4U&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL53F89FAC474D3429

So do I need a shield with a certain % magic reduction to get that to work? Obviously that would also be affected by my armor.

The other advantage to using the dragon ring is that I can get two pyros off in a row, and not worry about him clipping me at the end of the second (it will only take off about 40% of my health).

I'm definitely making progress - getting onto the third king, but I got hugged to death. Is the best away to avoid that to flip backwards or to the side?

I'm still using the dragon ring, and I actually killed the first two before the next one showed up!

Gotta love explosion, then magic beams (blocked quickly so I was up close) then immediate hug which is completely unavoidable when you are that close.

just keep trying dude, the more you learn their patterns the more bearable it will be.

Oh I know, it's a learning process

it is, it took me forever to down them in ng++ with my sl10, sadly i had to delete it since i got bored of it, it was fun summoning solaire and lautrac in the church to own vaders.

sjackson12 wrote:Oh I know, it's a learning process

if only. its also luck. sometimes you are doomed from the start when that first king goes all evasive. even worse when a later king does that during an otherwise good run.

callipygias wrote:

sjackson12 wrote:Oh I know, it's a learning process

if only. its also luck. sometimes you are doomed from the start when that first king goes all evasive. even worse when a later king does that during an otherwise good run.

Yeah, on my last attempt the first did a couple magic attacks right away which delayed my attacks. No way to kill the first before the second shows up in that case.

I'm still not sure how to deal with the hug attack when I'm up close. Didn't have enough time to avoid it.

If there's not enough time to roll back, try rolling toward the king, just to his side. Pretty tricky, but I'm almost certain I've seen it done.

Home at last.

I got through +++ Kings at sl6 (10 vitality, same as you) without using the Red Tearstone Ring, so you don't have to use it if you aren't comfortable with it. I used the Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring and the Crown of Dusk, pretty much I did what you're doing.

Since damage is decided before the fight starts there are only two things I worry about in-fight: stamina and timing. I'm sure you're using Green Blossoms for Stamina. The big thing for me was to train myself to hit ONE R2 ATTACK per opportunity. Sometimes I'll still think I can squeeze in a 2nd, and sometimes it hits, but it will leave you with zero stamina, and that's Deadsville. As hard as it is sometimes you have to wait.

As for Timing I mean when the Kings spawn. The biggest gap is between Kings 2 and 3, so I found out that spending all my Great Combustion early was hurting me. Use melee as much as you can early. If you have a breather between Kings then you used too much GC. This way you'll have plenty of spells for the last half of the fight. It also helps for those runs when things are going well and one of the bastards starts spamming magic. Once he's done you can catch up with your pyro.

That methond wouldn't get me through ++++ Kings though, so I started using the Red Tearstone. Since we have basically the same stats this should work for you as well.

If you're as impatient as I am regarding the run back to the boss equip the mimic hat until you get to the shortcut drop down. The drop will help take off a little more health, then lock on to the DW and pivot around him (he'll hit your shield which will help take off a little health), then inside the fog you should only have to drop down one level to activate the ring. Nice and quick.

For the fight try the Grasscrest Shield first. If the first Kings shoots magic flask up; at ++++ it does just enough damage to activate the ring. If it doesn't work for you try another shield, I guess. Remember to flask up for each new King if they shoot.

To escape the grab you can roll to the side, but only if there's some distance already (which I'm sure there won't be). Roll back once and then to the side--not too early or he'll track. If you're anything like me you'll think it's the perfect time to sneak in TWO attacks as he recovers, just remember it'll leave you out of stamina. (Don't try rolling toward the King if you're locked on! Better yet, don't try rolling toward the King at all.)

Thanks, though I'm still not comfortable with hyper mode. I actually got to the fourth king for the first time using my strategy, but of course there was no grab attack used this time. It does look like (as you mention) you need to flip back once before going to the side, or else he grabs you out of the air as he did with me.

I certainly don't have the mimic hat, even if I was considering hyper mode again. That's a very rare drop.