Part 2: Forest of Fallen Giants Pt. 2
Call me an idiot but I missed the Emerald Herald the first time around despite looking around the area and talking to everyone else as well as collecting everything that could be found. She IS a little bit out of the way but now, looking back, I have no idea how I missed her.--------------------------
We're finally gonna fight our first boss. To avoid spoilers I recommend not actually scrolling any further down until you've watched the video.
This time our New Game++ hero is donning the Tseldora set. With a twist! Instead of the not so fashionable hat Maughlin is wearing with the set we are using the Chaos Hood. It may be hard to see that way but damn if it doesn't look good. The Tseldora set has the added bonus of increasing the amount of souls we get from enemies when we kill them. So it's err... okay looking AND functional. A dream come true.
Whenever there's bosses or other interesting stuff I'll give some extra info in the update posts. If you don't want to read them that's fine, I'll mention the most important stuff in the videos the post is supplementing or in a later one if it's more relevant then. So don't worry about missing out on anything essential
The Last Giant:
Being the first boss he is rather easy. Not sure if I'd say he's easier than the first boss of the first game but it definitely feels like a much slower fight. This is in part thanks to the Giant's size and age. Of course, we don't know just how long he's been in that room. Long enough for his brethren to turn into "trees" at least
The easiest strategy is to just get really close and hug his feet until you notice he's about to stomp, in that case get the hell away. They actually nerfed his stomp because it used to be able to one-shot you. Now it's just a nuisance. Of course there was some outrage from "core" gamers but considering that this may be a newcomers first Dark Souls boss I welcome the nerf. Plus, despite it being easy to dodge I tend to get hit by it occasionally. Also: Be aware that he will sometimes get mad and stomp three times in a row, alternating his feet.
His other attacks are mostly various attacks with his arm. He's got a close ranged one that hits the ground in front of him and a really wide sweep depending on how far away and at what angle we are. Once at half health he tears his motherfucking arm right off and uses it to beat us to death. Well, all it does is increase the range of his attacks and it can only become problematic if you want to fight him with a ranged strategy. If you want to you can chop his arm off before he does that to keep his range shorter. Hard to do at that stage of the game, you'll have to attack the arm somehow. Mostly with ranged attacks or when it's down on the ground.
The easiest way to get rid of the arm is probably to wait for the Giant to use his rarest attack: Tripping over to fall on you. This will most likely kill you instantly if it hits you. But once he's down he'll be there for a bit and you can wail on him like no tomorrow. Good opportunity to get rid of his arm.
Boss Weapons:
In this LP I'd like to showcase the boss weapons as they come up. Not because they are exceptionally good. Most of them aren't. But because they are interesting and always shed a little bit of extra light on the story of the boss or even the lore of the area we just beat (which isn't to say other item descriptions don't do that, because they do). Making boss weapons is much easier than in the previous games this time around. Instead of having to upgrade a weapon of the same type to a certain level we and then have a blacksmith infuse that weapon with the Boss' soul we just go to one of two NPCs and they will just make the weapon out of the soul. Those two NPCs are called Straid and Ornifex. We'll be meeting them later on in the LP. Below you'll find the weapon we can make from the Last Giant's Soul as well as some important stats regarding the weapon. From time to time I might chime in with additional thoughts concerning the lore and utility. Much like the rest of this and future posts important bits will be mentioned in the videos themselves, so don't worry about missing anything if you don't want to read.
Soul of the Last Giant:
Soul of the surviving giant, who was bound below the Forest of Giants.
Many seasons had come and gone, and the giant prepared for his final rest. But his soul remained magnificent, testimony to his former strength.
Give the Last Giant's Soul to Straid to make...
The Giant Stone Axe:
Moveset/Weapon Class: Greataxe
Physical Damage (+0/+5): 160 / 400
Scales with: STR D/C (Bad)
Requirements: 45 STR, 8 DEX
Damage Type: Slash
In-Game Description:
Greataxe forged from the Last Giant's soul.
This weapon resembles a primitive stone tool, but is quite powerful owing to its immense size.
The Giants were eventually defeated by an unnamed hero, but alas, victory came all too late.
Personal thoughts:
The weapons description confirms that Drangleics Army won the battle against the Giants but it was a pyrrhic victory.
Where the Giants came from exactly and why they attacked is still unknown to us at this point. And the identity of that unnamed Hero is just as nebulous. It's not uncommon for Souls games to throw details like that at us expecting us to think they are important just to never expand on them. But who knows? Maybe we will learn more about that eventually.
As a weapon it has really high base damage but not very good scaling. Normally those weapons are useful for builds that only get the bare essential stats to wield a weapon but this one's requirements are very high with 45 Strength. The soft cap for scaling is at 40 so you're better off using a different weapon of the same weapon class seeing as weapons of the same class often have very similar movesets.