Slower, more methodical combat, Parry frames that actual work accounting for latency, a back step that has I-frames, being able to invade a solo player. Good times.
@@Sohelanthropus let's be realistic here though mate... DS2 did have ice rapier R1 spam. That was pretty cancer. Difference is that in DS2, skill actually matters. You don't have to work as hard to beat someone mindlessly spamming because good play matters a more than the crutches available. DS3 rolls fucked the whole thing up. They're spammy and require way more effort to beat than they do to spam. They're fast and long enough that R2's became too slow to be a viable timing mixup - they'd be too far away. DS3 has ass fundamentals. DS2 has good fundamentals, even if there's unbalanced stuff! That's the difference.
That’s it! I’ve been trying to figure out why the pvp in this game is so definitely the best. You nailed it. Specifically the slow, methodical combat makes latency predictable and thus much less of a problem.
Oro, this really reminds me of back in 2014 or so. I was 16 or so and I watched your videos RELIGIOUSLY. I still do. But you're mainly the person who made me the PVPer/content creator I am today. It's wild. I've got a weird nostalgic attachment to your videos and this throws me WAY back my dude. I feel like a kid again. I'm 26 and dusty af now.
It's nostalgic and eery how little things have changed. When I gave it a go, Murakumo running/rolling R1 into superparry works just as well in the year of our Marika's tits 2023 as it did in 2014, and my first arena fight was against a Havel spamming Warmth and Acid Surge. We really have made zero progress as a species, huh?
Had to double check the upload date! Quite literally played this throughout the Christmas holidays while I had the time off. For me it's the best Dark Souls. It had so many innovations DS3 lacked and it's no coincidence they brought some of it back, like powerstancing. The fact you could infuse boss weapons and even buff them made builds so much more fun.
Just play it on Steam PC. It's still active as hell. I play it on high soul memory and there are people in the pvp arenas. Even invasions work sometimes let alone co-op. Co-op is best in the dlc boss areas though. By the way, Dark Souls II is still the only souls game I ever played and I'm proud because it's the best. From looking at Dark Souls III and Elden Ring and Bloodborne it just looks like a failed Dark Souls 1 copy especially DS3 looks like that. The fast running and rolling, spamming R1 it just looks so bad and probably has horrible gameplay. Dark Souls 2 was the best of the series and after that it died. I don't even want to play Elden Ring. Gonna wait for Dark Souls 2 Episode 2 lol.
@@sorenvc You say all this yet you've only played DS2...? You're that type of person, huh. That happens to be the game YOU tried, so it's automatically the best one and there's no point in trying any others. Not even DS1? At least try them first.
Boy does this take me back. The endless hours of dueling in the bridge and arenas, the chaotic belfry invasions, the hordes of meta-tryhards running moon scimitars, ice rapiers, washing poles, red iron twinblades with dark weapon, etc, only to get fucked by a naked man with a buckler shield and a dagger. So many good memories, thank you Oro.
the best thing was to find a host hiding in a closed room and then close the door, the despair the host feels when he sees that he is stuck in that room with you is priceless.
cliff racer/foxy here, the DS2 hacking community kinda went our seperate ways after this game. just wasn't the same going forward when a lot of the cool shit you could do for flavor would go back to being clientside only. glad you enjoyed our shenanigans though.
If you ask me its in general the best, even PVE although the bosses were bad the game makes up with its mechanics and content. Dark Souls 3 was for me terrible in every aspect cause even PVE was plain boring cause all you did was spamm R1 for perma stunlock on enemies cause nobody had poise, ugh. I renember on the last DLC the cathedral boss that you could become which was a fun part but no no no they had to nerf it, after DS2 the franchise died to me. Glad Elden Ring brought alot of good things back but I have to rate the PVP there yet.
@@PuellaMagiHomuraAkemi I've tried so hard to get into Elden Ring but I just can't the PvP feels so wrong DS2 is considered the worst souls game but nothing has ever matched the fun I had in that game.
@@thegangster3366 Yeah by the casuals its considered the worst but not by experienced players who actually play the games. I keep returning to DS2 here and there and just having fun PVP times where I actually know it was me playing bad when I loose, not the enemy chugging 500 estus and I failed to instakill them. Why does Elden Ring PVP feels wrong? I use Reshade and uncapped FPS to make use of my 144HZ monitor so I cant PVP in it for now I've played all there is of the Souls series except for Bloodborne cause I dont own said console. To me by far 3 was the absolute worst they ever made. It was entirely casual and had so little content or variety it was an incredible boring experience, sure bosses were fancy but whats the fun if PVP is unplayable, PVE is "okay" cause mechanics are barely there and on top of that a DLC gives you OP weapons in every category.
@@PuellaMagiHomuraAkemi The PvP has been the worst I've seen in the series attacks have no momentum and it just devolves into weapon art spam I've tried various build but I haven't really enjoyed any of them not to mention they brought back the horrible DS3 invasion system. There isn't one weapon I enjoyed since most have very lack luster move sets. I'd take DS3 PvP any day over ER at least DS3 PvP worked.
@@thegangster3366 Oh god, the "weapon art spamm" was already horrible in DS3, especially with the DLC weapons. So you mean if you invade everyone can still heal and you have to always deal with multiple people? I mean what you describe sounds like exactly DS3 xD There the DLC also added a weapon with superb weapon art for each category literally, its bold to call DS3 PVP working considering you could never even punish anyone even if they missed with whatever weapon
Seeing this game's PvP is so refreshing every time. Somehow, it still feels like the most balanced and well-paced duel combat in the series while Elden Ring provides quite great PvE experience but I swear, invading and dueling there is such a suffocating jump attack/ashes of war spam fest.
I remember being so excited to PVP in DS3 because it was my first PC Dark Souls game with 60fps and a gaming monitor, and I had massively improved my internet since DS2 on PS3. I remember the EPIC duels on the lava bridge with the back and forth momentum of battle and careful spacing and stamina management. I won ~70% of my duels using just a claymore and a parry buckler. In DS3, I got fucking destroyed in almost every duel and could not beat an invader to save my life. It always felt like I was getting one shotted, stun locked, or cheesed with OP shit. I honestly thought that the skill gap had just passed me by or something. Turns out DS2 PVP was just really balanced and fair for pretty much any build, and the soul memory mechanic everyone hated did a good job filtering cancerous players from most matchmaking.
NGL I unironically loved DS2 PvP the most. The choices of viable weapons, builds, and magic seemed so much broader than the rest of the series. The slower pace made it feel more chess like.
Brings me back to our duels on the bridge, years and years ago, you were doing caestus or bone fists at the time and I was using the curved dragon GS... good, fond memories.
@@unsubme2157 its like a 2% every time you attack that it will do an exponential damage bonus based on WEAPON.... ie, the bsk has a different modifier to the chaos blade.... its such a complicated math.... they also have some serious durability weardown every time you swing/crit
Damn. This just flooded me with so many memories. The best Souls for PvP and invasions by far. The arena when it was active really was the place to be. You were going to see all kinds of crazy ass shit. Oro you are a legend man and we love you.
Yes this is awesome, this is what I’ve been looking for. The others just didn’t hit the same maybe, because I felt you were making super strong builds and just running through people with no care. But here you have item switching, guard breaking and backing stabbing; I love it. There’s just so much more to the combat.
Thank you for uploading this! I was literally thinking about going back to DS2 PvP like 3 days ago, I've got a SM200 using the blacksteel katana (inspired by your video) and loyce greatsword with 50 faith that I wanna have some fun with again. I probably will boot the game back up, immediately after finishing this video.
try using like, ice rapier with melu cimitarr dual wielded LOL , and a uchigatana with a spear to dual wield too LOL, remember that the same type of weapon can be dual wielded with other ; )
@@Naim11443 power stance and dual wielding are two different things. And for dual wielding, Twinblade + Great Lance and Great Lance + Gargoyle Bident are the best, most ridiculous ones.
Dark souls 2 - cool covenants, arena, great pvp system, nice parry, nice player movements, rewarding hits that feel soo good, no stunlock like ds1 but still poise matters. Great times. Oh and almost forgot - auras for winning arena fights!!
@@Tokumastu1I'd have to agree with 3 being the worst. It gave every enemy a lunge and multi-hit attacks because bloodborne, even though that wasn't really nearly as bad or at all in bloodborne. It also made them faster while keeping the player the same speed. The progression also was tight enough to be considered torture.
@@asdergold1 For me it's that and the level design felt bland. Good art direction, but playing through them didn't feel interesting or as intricate as DS 1&2.
From a pvp perspective id say the only bad entry is Elden Ring tbh. Everything else is tolerable at worst for ds1-3. Things have counterplay other than pull something else out that’s even more broken. The hardcore fans of each game like to shit on the other games because they’re different and take different skill sets and knowledge to play at a higher level. Elden ring throws all of that out the window by being the most unbalanced shitshow I’ve personally played. As for PvE, I find ds2 to be the worst simply because I see the amount of enemy placements as artificial difficulty, but I’m also most accustomed to ds1 where ganks aren’t super common and you can more easily get control of groups
He used to get shit for it back in the day from the elitists Barehand parry and buckler have the same animation but barehand has a fraction of the parry frames the buckler does The sweatys would just use barehand to parry and complain about his lack of skill for using the no bonfire ring buckler
the combat was tactical and had weight behind it because of the poise difference of armor and sweet balance heavy vs light armor builds created and low stamina so you cannot spam roll the attack animations were perfect and parrying required skill .. the movement was slow which made positioning crucial it also helped the immersion of playing as a heavy knight or a swift swordsman which far more grounded in reality.. unlike ds3 and elden ring which feels more like anime power rangers...even the visuals fit better in ds2..the grim and dirty color palet ... this vid takes me 10 years back watching some of yoyr videos and speedrunning ds2
did a quick coop session with a friend when the servers first came back and only got invaded once at the warf and once at aerie. had some fun and it brought back some great memories
I may be speaking from nostalgia, but this was peak Fromsoft post-DeS. Miyazaki did good bringing Tanimura back up front with Elden Ring. I feel like he knows what makes games "fun".
No doesn't know shit. If he knew we would have gotten dark souls 2.5 without soul memory instead of a ridiculous ds1 copy with better graphics that is ds3 and unbalanced elden ring pvp.
Obobobo!!! So good to see you back in these lands, of all the soul brand i faced you and peeve were the only ones i didn't get to fight :( . Much love bud you're videos from back in the day inspired me to push and i certainly put in my fair share of hours
I would love to see a compilation of your toughest DS2 invasions, times where you've invaded people who really know what they're doing and gave you a run for your money or made you work for it.
DS 2 is probably the game I spent the most time in due to being late for D's 1, and had ds3 on PS4 without plus, but could never get a hang of the parries, minus the time when the curved sword parry was a thing. I mean I'm not super great at parries in the other but decent, but I can count my DS2 parries on 1 hand.
9:26 man seeing Dark Dance is such a surprise. even in the heyday of DS2 pvp, I remember it was such a rare thing since it wasn't the most useful for the investment (needs 2 slots and 60 FTH!!). I think most people wanting a quick close-range AoE like it were just slotting Soul Flash (which actually has a knockdown) or biting the bullet and using WotG. also a side note, but how come the left-hand illusory ring is making your shield invisible, but not your chime?
Best souls game by a long shot. Gameplay is worth 60% of a game. 20% story 20% design. It ticks all areas. Soul Memory is bad but you can just make a new character which it was designed for, so people can always invade characters. It's not like you were supposed to have one SL150 character with all weapons unlocked. I made a SL838 character farming giant lord with all items possible and the rest of the characters I've planned to be SL150, pvp focus only.
Similar to how the parry bait works consistently, I was enough of a pro angler with heavy weapon follow ups, that I got bored with DS2 pvp after getting as many as fifty consecutive wins at a time. Many heavy weapons, my favorite being the Mastodon Halberd, had huge lingering input windows on their R1’s, leaving an opportunity for near instant follow up attacks. My follow up button press could start after I could visually see their attack frames start, and I would still have frame advantage on the follow up. If the bait landed and got them on the reel, then one more swing on stun was usually all it took to get them in the boat. Given the nature of fighting different people every time, nobody ever anticipated or adapted to the intentional whiffs/feints, counter fishing. Has always bugged me how heavy weapons in future games do not have massively delayed follow up input windows to support this unique playstyle.
You know what's the most ironic thing? The combat in ds2 is a raw improvement over ds1's combat. They both (actually all "old souls", which are des, ds1 and ds2) keep the same methodical combat system, but in ds2 it's more severe, such as more dodging stamina usage (with beginning stamina you can dodge 3-4 times in a row, in ds1 you can do it like 6 times, and in ds3 you can do it like 12 times or so), more attack stamina usage, and generally getting punished more for your mistakes (such as max HP penalty upon death). Other than just being more severe, it also fixed several things that were outright bullshit in ds1's combat: instant parry and backstabbing. You're not getting teleported into backstabs in ds2 anymore (other than because of lag), while in ds1 backstabbing was so incredibly broken that it literally became the meta. Just run around the enemy trying to backstab them...
I been playing ds2 sotfs for the first time ever recently, And in my honest opinion as hard as it is sometimes. It's a Very enjoyable game. I get that pumped feeling when playing it like it's one of the best games I've ever played. I just best ivory king and my God was it sad but badass. Ds2 is underrated
My favorite part of DS2 combat is that your turn rate is limited by weapon and attack. You can't have a spear, R1 in one direction, then instantly snap 180 degrees behind you for your next R1 like DS3. You can actually roll behind a pike and not have it somehow turn its tip at the speed of light. If you want a weapon that can turn, use a curved sword, axe, or a slow weapon. It really helped create diverse zoning tactics for every weapon and discouraged R1 spam. Of course, the questionable netcode severely diminishes this with even moderate lag, but it's there, and also gives extra depth in PVE.
It’s kinda crazy that with the amount of items and build possibilities in Elden Ring that DS2 still offers a more balanced and diverse range of builds. I miss DS2 PvP.
Why you all saying good old times as if dark souls 2 is dead? You can still play it on steam pc it is very active. Elden Ring and Dark Souls 3 for instance are horrible games and people still play them. Just stick to Dark Souls 2 if you want fun.
Sin cenizas de guerras o artes de armas demasiado rotas eso creaba un equilibrio bastante considerable en las build, últimamente cualquier manco con una rios de sangre te podía hacer trisas, en DS2 no pasaba, solo eras tu, tu habilidad y tu set de movimientos básicos del arma.
Slower, more methodical combat, Parry frames that actual work accounting for latency, a back step that has I-frames, being able to invade a solo player. Good times.
Also... just way less toxicity! I mean there's still some, but noticeably much less than DS3/ER.
Damn right, and actually balanced stuff with no free win buttons
@@Sohelanthropus let's be realistic here though mate...
DS2 did have ice rapier R1 spam. That was pretty cancer.
Difference is that in DS2, skill actually matters. You don't have to work as hard to beat someone mindlessly spamming because good play matters a more than the crutches available.
DS3 rolls fucked the whole thing up. They're spammy and require way more effort to beat than they do to spam. They're fast and long enough that R2's became too slow to be a viable timing mixup - they'd be too far away.
DS3 has ass fundamentals. DS2 has good fundamentals, even if there's unbalanced stuff! That's the difference.
@@monsieurdorgat6864 literally what I said
That’s it! I’ve been trying to figure out why the pvp in this game is so definitely the best. You nailed it. Specifically the slow, methodical combat makes latency predictable and thus much less of a problem.
DS2 had the best gestures in the entire series, I wish From brought back "Decapitation" or "No way" to Elden Ring with the new DLC or something.
Hand swinging one is my favourite lol
War cry!!!!!
Ngl Decapitation is so edgy that i cringe everytime i see it
I just want the "pumped up" emote to make a return.
@@bllover1684 that's the best part. It's so ludicrously edgy and cringey
Oro, this really reminds me of back in 2014 or so. I was 16 or so and I watched your videos RELIGIOUSLY. I still do. But you're mainly the person who made me the PVPer/content creator I am today. It's wild. I've got a weird nostalgic attachment to your videos and this throws me WAY back my dude. I feel like a kid again. I'm 26 and dusty af now.
26 is still a kid
Same on all counts bro
@Drunk_Souls same and now I’m 22 watching YOUR videos lol !
There was just something about DS2 that was so aesthetic. Even the way you 2-hand a sword looks way cooler than the other games.
The two hand appearance was based off real HEMA so that’s why it looked cool
demons' has the same two handing grip style i believe, and it was always something i appreciated
Yeah, it looks "practical" rather than have it looking upwards all weird like in DS3 and ER
The way you hold and use weapons in darksouls 2 is more realistic then all the other souls games.
I'll never stop missing my DS2 Partizan. Movesets in that game were so good for pvp.
It's nostalgic and eery how little things have changed. When I gave it a go, Murakumo running/rolling R1 into superparry works just as well in the year of our Marika's tits 2023 as it did in 2014, and my first arena fight was against a Havel spamming Warmth and Acid Surge.
We really have made zero progress as a species, huh?
If anything we've gone backwards in 10 years
Protip: the old stone knight armor and weapons actually work, albeit barely, when broken.
@@asdergold1laborate on “barely”?
"the year of our Marikas tits" dude, that made me laugh so fucking hard
@@asdergold1 wouldn't it be better to just use santier spear?
Man, I miss some of the DS2 fashion so badly. There were some seriously peak armor sets in that game. This also might be my favorite Oro
I wish I knew what armor he was using, this is some fine drip
@@BenOtterson throne watcher chest, dragon acolyte mask, engraved gauntlets, and the legs are kinda hard to identify
@@lred1383 I may be 6 months late, but the legs are from the wanderer set.
Don't you just love seeing that DS3 instinct to heal turning against them in the slower games? I sure do.
and the instinct to panic roll. Gets you murdered in ds2
Back when everyone wasn't an Estus addicted Sonic. Good times
Fancy seeing you here
@Mota. No, everyone was/is addicted, we just time it different since we are al slower.
@@LGreymark Seriously, DS3 is such a spammy, casual game. DS2 really forced you to be precise to defend properly.
Had to double check the upload date! Quite literally played this throughout the Christmas holidays while I had the time off. For me it's the best Dark Souls. It had so many innovations DS3 lacked and it's no coincidence they brought some of it back, like powerstancing. The fact you could infuse boss weapons and even buff them made builds so much more fun.
I miss DS2 days so much
Just play it on Steam PC. It's still active as hell. I play it on high soul memory and there are people in the pvp arenas. Even invasions work sometimes let alone co-op. Co-op is best in the dlc boss areas though.
By the way, Dark Souls II is still the only souls game I ever played and I'm proud because it's the best. From looking at Dark Souls III and Elden Ring and Bloodborne it just looks like a failed Dark Souls 1 copy especially DS3 looks like that. The fast running and rolling, spamming R1 it just looks so bad and probably has horrible gameplay.
Dark Souls 2 was the best of the series and after that it died. I don't even want to play Elden Ring. Gonna wait for Dark Souls 2 Episode 2 lol.
@@sorenvc You say all this yet you've only played DS2...? You're that type of person, huh. That happens to be the game YOU tried, so it's automatically the best one and there's no point in trying any others. Not even DS1? At least try them first.
@@JakeGittes84 most people haven't ever really tried DS2 PvP when they played it. I can see ds3 and elden ring sux.
@@sorenvc And DS2 is considered the weakest game in the series by most people, so.. Maybe give another game a go?
Boy does this take me back. The endless hours of dueling in the bridge and arenas, the chaotic belfry invasions, the hordes of meta-tryhards running moon scimitars, ice rapiers, washing poles, red iron twinblades with dark weapon, etc, only to get fucked by a naked man with a buckler shield and a dagger.
So many good memories, thank you Oro.
Man that nostalgia trip. God I love the bridge
Bino speed glitch,mundane daggers ,monastery scimitar,crazy casting speed for hexes ,Santier’a spear ,Avelyn ,stackable body buff.God It was so good
The “Buhbye..!!” plus Dark Souls 2 is hitting the right nostalgia buttons
the best thing was to find a host hiding in a closed room and then close the door, the despair the host feels when he sees that he is stuck in that room with you is priceless.
I love that oro sticks up for DS2 its just a hell of a good time
F
dark souls 2 always had the best PVP. the variety, pacing were on another level
A return to the best dark souls game. A tale of salt and sourpuss eternally retold.
We need more of this! Bring back Santa and Friends.
Santa is dead 🎅💀
cliff racer/foxy here, the DS2 hacking community kinda went our seperate ways after this game. just wasn't the same going forward when a lot of the cool shit you could do for flavor would go back to being clientside only. glad you enjoyed our shenanigans though.
@@Nephutis thank you for always making the fun times that much more fun
This particular souls game will always have a special place in my heart, no matter how many years pass.
Ah, Dark Souls 2, the game where dual-wielding done right.
I love seeing DS2 still being recognized after all those years. Easily the most fun pvp out of all the souls games
If you ask me its in general the best, even PVE although the bosses were bad the game makes up with its mechanics and content. Dark Souls 3 was for me terrible in every aspect cause even PVE was plain boring cause all you did was spamm R1 for perma stunlock on enemies cause nobody had poise, ugh.
I renember on the last DLC the cathedral boss that you could become which was a fun part but no no no they had to nerf it, after DS2 the franchise died to me. Glad Elden Ring brought alot of good things back but I have to rate the PVP there yet.
@@PuellaMagiHomuraAkemi I've tried so hard to get into Elden Ring but I just can't the PvP feels so wrong DS2 is considered the worst souls game but nothing has ever matched the fun I had in that game.
@@thegangster3366
Yeah by the casuals its considered the worst but not by experienced players who actually play the games. I keep returning to DS2 here and there and just having fun PVP times where I actually know it was me playing bad when I loose, not the enemy chugging 500 estus and I failed to instakill them. Why does Elden Ring PVP feels wrong? I use Reshade and uncapped FPS to make use of my 144HZ monitor so I cant PVP in it for now
I've played all there is of the Souls series except for Bloodborne cause I dont own said console.
To me by far 3 was the absolute worst they ever made. It was entirely casual and had so little content or variety it was an incredible boring experience, sure bosses were fancy but whats the fun if PVP is unplayable, PVE is "okay" cause mechanics are barely there and on top of that a DLC gives you OP weapons in every category.
@@PuellaMagiHomuraAkemi The PvP has been the worst I've seen in the series attacks have no momentum and it just devolves into weapon art spam I've tried various build but I haven't really enjoyed any of them not to mention they brought back the horrible DS3 invasion system. There isn't one weapon I enjoyed since most have very lack luster move sets. I'd take DS3 PvP any day over ER at least DS3 PvP worked.
@@thegangster3366
Oh god, the "weapon art spamm" was already horrible in DS3, especially with the DLC weapons.
So you mean if you invade everyone can still heal and you have to always deal with multiple people?
I mean what you describe sounds like exactly DS3 xD There the DLC also added a weapon with superb weapon art for each category literally, its bold to call DS3 PVP working considering you could never even punish anyone even if they missed with whatever weapon
Seeing this game's PvP is so refreshing every time. Somehow, it still feels like the most balanced and well-paced duel combat in the series while Elden Ring provides quite great PvE experience but I swear, invading and dueling there is such a suffocating jump attack/ashes of war spam fest.
Corvus is a boss dude. Drops in all scary like, puts on a show
I remember being so excited to PVP in DS3 because it was my first PC Dark Souls game with 60fps and a gaming monitor, and I had massively improved my internet since DS2 on PS3. I remember the EPIC duels on the lava bridge with the back and forth momentum of battle and careful spacing and stamina management. I won ~70% of my duels using just a claymore and a parry buckler. In DS3, I got fucking destroyed in almost every duel and could not beat an invader to save my life. It always felt like I was getting one shotted, stun locked, or cheesed with OP shit. I honestly thought that the skill gap had just passed me by or something. Turns out DS2 PVP was just really balanced and fair for pretty much any build, and the soul memory mechanic everyone hated did a good job filtering cancerous players from most matchmaking.
NGL I unironically loved DS2 PvP the most. The choices of viable weapons, builds, and magic seemed so much broader than the rest of the series. The slower pace made it feel more chess like.
Best PvP indeed. Ghatdamned, I missed this game.
Worst invasions
@@weaponizedautism3269 No, this was in a time when fighting 3 players at once wasn't a requirement of an invader.
@@patigelstarberry4302 No heals and red eye orb
The slow flask heal is what I think did it. The ER poise is ok but the real problem with DS2 pvp was the pary fall on ass animation.
@@weaponizedautism3269 Phantoms don't get healing either while there's an invader. Only the host can.
Brings me back to our duels on the bridge, years and years ago, you were doing caestus or bone fists at the time and I was using the curved dragon GS... good, fond memories.
Was recently marathoning all of your old DS2 videos and now you upload this
I am so glad that you uploaded a DS2 video; it really in a league of its own when it comes to PVP! Thank you.
not only was that first invasion/kill/parry, but it also rolled the Engraved Critical hit effect to boot... amazing as always orobobo
Is that how those things work? They just kick in sometimes? Good to know i never really knew
@@unsubme2157 its like a 2% every time you attack that it will do an exponential damage bonus based on WEAPON.... ie, the bsk has a different modifier to the chaos blade....
its such a complicated math.... they also have some serious durability weardown every time you swing/crit
Clocked about 600 hours into ds2 pvp. Good memories. Ds2 name: Kukeduen, maybe I've met someone here.
Damn. This just flooded me with so many memories. The best Souls for PvP and invasions by far. The arena when it was active really was the place to be. You were going to see all kinds of crazy ass shit. Oro you are a legend man and we love you.
the flare and gracefulness put into the praise the sun emote on ds2 is WHY I PLAY THIS GAME
Your ds 2 vids feels more enjoyable after many years like a wine. Thank you Oro!
The awkward movement and turning in ds2 pvp always makes me laugh. I love this game
God this is so nostalgic, I love to see it!!
Yes this is awesome, this is what I’ve been looking for. The others just didn’t hit the same maybe, because I felt you were making super strong builds and just running through people with no care. But here you have item switching, guard breaking and backing stabbing; I love it. There’s just so much more to the combat.
Does anyone else feel like Dark Souls 2 had the best variety in fashion for the Souls series as a whole?
Yes there were so many awesome sets in ds2
Thank you for uploading this! I was literally thinking about going back to DS2 PvP like 3 days ago, I've got a SM200 using the blacksteel katana (inspired by your video) and loyce greatsword with 50 faith that I wanna have some fun with again. I probably will boot the game back up, immediately after finishing this video.
try using like, ice rapier with melu cimitarr dual wielded LOL , and a uchigatana with a spear to dual wield too LOL, remember that the same type of weapon can be dual wielded with other ; )
@@Naim11443 power stance and dual wielding are two different things.
And for dual wielding, Twinblade + Great Lance and Great Lance + Gargoyle Bident are the best, most ridiculous ones.
@@asdergold1 lol true, i will try your combo tho
Dark souls 2 - cool covenants, arena, great pvp system, nice parry, nice player movements, rewarding hits that feel soo good, no stunlock like ds1 but still poise matters. Great times. Oh and almost forgot - auras for winning arena fights!!
Replayed Ds2 front to back recently and man is it still fun. If anything I feel it's gotten better with age.
The complaints are over blown but it’s definitely the worst soulsbourne game overall
@@JanoyCresva1 nah it's not the worst. I feel that goes to DS3.
@@Tokumastu1I'd have to agree with 3 being the worst. It gave every enemy a lunge and multi-hit attacks because bloodborne, even though that wasn't really nearly as bad or at all in bloodborne.
It also made them faster while keeping the player the same speed. The progression also was tight enough to be considered torture.
@@asdergold1 For me it's that and the level design felt bland. Good art direction, but playing through them didn't feel interesting or as intricate as DS 1&2.
From a pvp perspective id say the only bad entry is Elden Ring tbh. Everything else is tolerable at worst for ds1-3. Things have counterplay other than pull something else out that’s even more broken. The hardcore fans of each game like to shit on the other games because they’re different and take different skill sets and knowledge to play at a higher level.
Elden ring throws all of that out the window by being the most unbalanced shitshow I’ve personally played.
As for PvE, I find ds2 to be the worst simply because I see the amount of enemy placements as artificial difficulty, but I’m also most accustomed to ds1 where ganks aren’t super common and you can more easily get control of groups
using the left hand cloak ring to hide your bucker is genius.
He used to get shit for it back in the day from the elitists
Barehand parry and buckler have the same animation but barehand has a fraction of the parry frames the buckler does
The sweatys would just use barehand to parry and complain about his lack of skill for using the no bonfire ring buckler
Damn, this brings me back when I watched your DS1 - DS2 videos, good times
Ds2: oh shit we got two
Elden ring: oh nice, only two, was expecting 3
9:40
A Thymesia reference in Dark Souls 2. Absolutely based.
I finished else ring yesterday and went back to Dark Souls 2 Sotfs and now I know how true happiness feels like!.
the combat was tactical and had weight behind it because of the poise difference of armor and sweet balance heavy vs light armor builds created and low stamina so you cannot spam roll the attack animations were perfect and parrying required skill .. the movement was slow which made positioning crucial it also helped the immersion of playing as a heavy knight or a swift swordsman which far more grounded in reality.. unlike ds3 and elden ring which feels more like anime power rangers...even the visuals fit better in ds2..the grim and dirty color palet ... this vid takes me 10 years back watching some of yoyr videos and speedrunning ds2
"I'm gonna call somebody a clown when they're gonna drink Estus, and after that I'm gonna use this here healing miracle twice in a row."
did a quick coop session with a friend when the servers first came back and only got invaded once at the warf and once at aerie. had some fun and it brought back some great memories
I love your enthusiasm with dark souls pvp lol
I do find it funny how the biggest threat was magic spam in *shrine of amana*
I may be speaking from nostalgia, but this was peak Fromsoft post-DeS. Miyazaki did good bringing Tanimura back up front with Elden Ring. I feel like he knows what makes games "fun".
No doesn't know shit. If he knew we would have gotten dark souls 2.5 without soul memory instead of a ridiculous ds1 copy with better graphics that is ds3 and unbalanced elden ring pvp.
The original "Winners don't use Hexes"-PSA video may have been lost to time, but at least Oro is still out there spreading the word.
Heh.
Winners don't spam hexes and also don't use the soul consuming ones. That's for certain.
But those dlc hexes were slick as hell lol
Mad respect for those role catches
Man, hearing back the no no no brought back some memories, it raelly has been almost 10 years
Obobobo!!! So good to see you back in these lands, of all the soul brand i faced you and peeve were the only ones i didn't get to fight :( . Much love bud you're videos from back in the day inspired me to push and i certainly put in my fair share of hours
Man I remember watching your DS2 vids so many years ago. Electric Feel music video was goated.
2:50 CLASSIC
I would love to see a compilation of your toughest DS2 invasions, times where you've invaded people who really know what they're doing and gave you a run for your money or made you work for it.
DS 2 is probably the game I spent the most time in due to being late for D's 1, and had ds3 on PS4 without plus, but could never get a hang of the parries, minus the time when the curved sword parry was a thing. I mean I'm not super great at parries in the other but decent, but I can count my DS2 parries on 1 hand.
9:26 man seeing Dark Dance is such a surprise. even in the heyday of DS2 pvp, I remember it was such a rare thing since it wasn't the most useful for the investment (needs 2 slots and 60 FTH!!). I think most people wanting a quick close-range AoE like it were just slotting Soul Flash (which actually has a knockdown) or biting the bullet and using WotG.
also a side note, but how come the left-hand illusory ring is making your shield invisible, but not your chime?
I modded the buckler model out of the game because it's ugly 🥲
@@Oroboro LOL! I totally get it. and unfortunately the target shield isn't much of a looker either...
seems like every time I look up your channel there's a new return to ds2 vid and it always makes me so happy
Best souls PvP by a long shot
Best souls game by a long shot. Gameplay is worth 60% of a game. 20% story 20% design. It ticks all areas. Soul Memory is bad but you can just make a new character which it was designed for, so people can always invade characters.
It's not like you were supposed to have one SL150 character with all weapons unlocked. I made a SL838 character farming giant lord with all items possible and the rest of the characters I've planned to be SL150, pvp focus only.
God the fit on that build is so good. god DAMN I love Dark Souls 2
Similar to how the parry bait works consistently, I was enough of a pro angler with heavy weapon follow ups, that I got bored with DS2 pvp after getting as many as fifty consecutive wins at a time.
Many heavy weapons, my favorite being the Mastodon Halberd, had huge lingering input windows on their R1’s, leaving an opportunity for near instant follow up attacks. My follow up button press could start after I could visually see their attack frames start, and I would still have frame advantage on the follow up. If the bait landed and got them on the reel, then one more swing on stun was usually all it took to get them in the boat.
Given the nature of fighting different people every time, nobody ever anticipated or adapted to the intentional whiffs/feints, counter fishing.
Has always bugged me how heavy weapons in future games do not have massively delayed follow up input windows to support this unique playstyle.
Missed ur pfp vids! Love ya oro. I’m pretty sure u and yukas were my first 2 RUclipsrs i discovered when first playing these
fantastic video, no wonder hidetaka miyazaki himself tipped you 5 bucks at the end
Backsteps that are useable in combat, ACTUAL power stancing, SUPER PARRIES.
I always like how you two handed katanas in DS2. It looks way cooler than in DS3 and Elden Ring.
Having lots of fun invading yesterday and today in DS2
You know what's the most ironic thing? The combat in ds2 is a raw improvement over ds1's combat. They both (actually all "old souls", which are des, ds1 and ds2) keep the same methodical combat system, but in ds2 it's more severe, such as more dodging stamina usage (with beginning stamina you can dodge 3-4 times in a row, in ds1 you can do it like 6 times, and in ds3 you can do it like 12 times or so), more attack stamina usage, and generally getting punished more for your mistakes (such as max HP penalty upon death).
Other than just being more severe, it also fixed several things that were outright bullshit in ds1's combat: instant parry and backstabbing. You're not getting teleported into backstabs in ds2 anymore (other than because of lag), while in ds1 backstabbing was so incredibly broken that it literally became the meta. Just run around the enemy trying to backstab them...
I been playing ds2 sotfs for the first time ever recently, And in my honest opinion as hard as it is sometimes. It's a Very enjoyable game. I get that pumped feeling when playing it like it's one of the best games I've ever played. I just best ivory king and my God was it sad but badass. Ds2 is underrated
This just turned my nostalgia meter up to 11
My favorite part of DS2 combat is that your turn rate is limited by weapon and attack. You can't have a spear, R1 in one direction, then instantly snap 180 degrees behind you for your next R1 like DS3. You can actually roll behind a pike and not have it somehow turn its tip at the speed of light. If you want a weapon that can turn, use a curved sword, axe, or a slow weapon. It really helped create diverse zoning tactics for every weapon and discouraged R1 spam. Of course, the questionable netcode severely diminishes this with even moderate lag, but it's there, and also gives extra depth in PVE.
It's crazy how good DS2's PVP is even to this day.
I will never not miss the insane damage ripostes could do in this game, hornet ring? Counter damage? Fuck that.
It's been so long since I played Dark Souls II PvP that I was legit wondering why Oro wasn't just healing with Estus.
Hey, how is the heide knight sword? It’s my favorite weapon atm, and I buff it with either lightning or dark blade (hex build atm)
Holy shit, I remember the first Black steel Katana vid. Gooooood times
It’s kinda crazy that with the amount of items and build possibilities in Elden Ring that DS2 still offers a more balanced and diverse range of builds.
I miss DS2 PvP.
I played the heck of of DS2 back in the day, but I can't say that I remember a finisher that looked like that.
Definitely cool though.
omg plz upload more ds2 oro! If you can find invasions that is, idk how quickly you got these invasions but I've missed your DS2 oro's arsenal series
I can't believe Oro invaded every DS2 player in one video
Bro haven’t seen you play since the mid 2000s like 2010 holy cow lol glad your back
You are easily my favorite PvP content creator of all time, and you're always such a badass.
Glad to see you back in DS2!!
This game seems to just continue to age well over the years. It's the most flexible Souls game imaginable.
Ahh the good ol days Ds2 arena was bloody fye🔥🔥 especially that bridge map
Still running the Blacksteel Katana. RIP PraiseTheSun
Those parrys. My God son
Feels weird watching an Oro DS2 video where the mic doesn’t clip super hard. Glad to see you back lol
I can't believe this game is still active. I miss backstep parrys
this looks so good honestly, came in on that DS3 wave and never turned back
Hit me right in the nostalgia with the "buh byeeeeee haha"
Ah yes, the good old times when parries and backstabs were actually usable and viable.
Why you all saying good old times as if dark souls 2 is dead? You can still play it on steam pc it is very active.
Elden Ring and Dark Souls 3 for instance are horrible games and people still play them. Just stick to Dark Souls 2 if you want fun.
Sin cenizas de guerras o artes de armas demasiado rotas eso creaba un equilibrio bastante considerable en las build, últimamente cualquier manco con una rios de sangre te podía hacer trisas, en DS2 no pasaba, solo eras tu, tu habilidad y tu set de movimientos básicos del arma.
Why is the buckler invisible? Is it because of the "make your weapon invisible" ring?
I'm using a mod that deletes the buckler model so other people can see it but I can't 🥲
2:49 I played so little pvp in these games, I would've absolutely fallen for it
Oh god I just realized he had the illusory ring
I miss Ds2 pvp, back when you couldn’t just chug estus right next to the opponent.
Friend of mine played through this game for the 1st time. Was good to journey with him (except frigid outskirts).
This has been fun lately. Some days I kick ass and some days I get murdered over and over but DK2 is always fun