When it comes to good early weapons I forgot some others like the Grand Lance In Vanilla you get it in late game in one of the Giant Memories, but in Scholar you get it right after defeating the Last Giant. There's just so much more good stuff available early in Scholar.
"in Vanilla they made the early areas easier to better prepare you for the harder endgame levels" also sounds like a conflicting argument. Wouldn't hard early levels better prepare you for even harder endgame levels?
I am almost sure that you just need use the torch in the thing that you can light up and Mcduff will move and you will be able to get the hammer Or i am crazy and this was just a thing from my head
Does he? I thought he only does it after you've given him the Ember. Should have tested it But okay in this case you can get the Hammer early in Vanilla as well, but in Scholar you still have much earlier access to unlimited Large Titanite Shards for +6 weapon upgrades and infusions. And much earlier access to Twinkling Titanite.
@@Domo3000 yes,those unlimiteds large titanites and early upgrade materials is one of the reasons that i really want play scholar version,soo many builds early
@@davi21575especially Pyromancer. In Vanilla you don't get a Fragrant Branch until you either defeat Lost Sinner, make it all the way up to Earthen Peak or all the way down to Black Gulch. It takes hours of progress before you can unpetrify Rosbeth. In Scholar you can buy one from Melentia, pick one up in No Man's Wharf or Lost Bastille. In 15 minutes you can start your Pyromancer journey.
@@Domo3000 Yes, i was confused when you made this part. If you use the torch on the light, McDuff will get off the chest once you reload the area. So you still get the Hammer at that point in vanilla. The early ember is new tho
No domo, just lighting up the fire near to Mcdonald duff will have him come over to anvil and the chest with the Craftsman hammer will be available at the early game in vanila aswell.
4:36 I've finished this game 29 times and I had no idea this door was supposed to be a shortcut I always thought that it existed just to troll you How am I still learning new things about this game?
Scholar also made enemies better placed. Like sayian knights protecting important places and flexile sentry protecting keys to prisons or prisons. Or how dragon riders protect very important places.
The people complaining about the random enemy placement in Scholar annoy me so much. It's like they assume that anything that's different than Vanilla just breaks the lore, without even considering if it's more lore accurate. A Royal Swordsman in the Forest? They accuse him of being randomly placed and not fitting in lore wise, even though they are part of the Kings army and the King fought the Giants here. It's weirder without them here. The Flexile Sentry in Vanilla Shrine of Winter is randomly placed, but the one in Scholar Sinner's Rise is like you say much better placement as they are related to prisons. And also how the Dragonrider in Shrine of Amana makes you notice the bridge and locked door more.
@@Domo3000 not fully convinced by the royal swordsman part, we dont see any royal swordman in the giant memories, they seem more like guards you have on your castle than pawns you send to war. Not like i mind the placement, the earlier i can get that sweet sallet helmet the better my fashion gets
@@abrahamrangel2326do we see Ironclad Soldiers in the memories? Only one, and that's roughly where most of them still show up To me it was always like we just see the same areas in the past, but we don't see the part with the Royal Swordsmen in the past because we aren't on that stairset We defeat the Giant Lord from the front, but they were approaching him from the stairs to his back. That's my head canon.
Their armor set states that they were indeed fighting the Giants: "Armor of a royal swordsman. Its shape provides defense while allowing great mobility. Stripped of ornamentation, this particular helm/armor is designed strictly for battle. King Vendrick supplied his bravest men with the best armor available to face the great giants, but very few returned alive"
@@Domo3000 I remember some of it like getting spammed from almost everywhere on the map by that lightning priest who blends in so well its hard to see him. And that breakable chest right nest to a Knight when you go up the stairs and that priest spamming you still. Having to pull enemies with the bow on the stars up to the Ancient dragon so i don't aggro everything the slog back if I die. I remember alot of that crap. Oh an'd i remember that priest is extremely hard to hit from the bottom because alot of the times he pokes his Chime above his head while attacking so his body isn't exposed from his freaking snipe tower.
At this point i am guessing the next big cope will be to say that Scholar made DS2 too easy and that all these changes actually made a perfectly balanced hard game too easy
Honestly vanilla is the “Dark Souls” of Dark Souls 2. Much harder and takes longer for your class to get online with a harder to reach dull ember and less summons and straight up more powerful bosses and tougher run backs
@@JellyJman It is objectively easier, but I think that doesn't say enough. For instance: DS2 bosses aren't hard at all by any means once you have enough ADP and you know how to just avoid shit by just moving around it, no matter the version. And sure, getting ganked by 5 enemies who all attack at once making it incredibly hard to kite them and funnel them into advantageous spots properly is also difficult to deal with. But it's also difficult to play Ninja Gaiden and never get hit. As a self imposed challenge it would be fine, but it's also straight up unfair and not all that fun to learn first time. All of the difficulty in the original DS2 is quite artificial with its bad stat balance and other stuff. The difficulty in Scholar comes from you learning the layouts of enemies and then executing a plan, what with the different group aggro rules and such. The difficulty in the original comes from just dealing with bullshit and outbullshitting it.
I like both versions of the game, but I actually do think that Scholar went too far in making parts easier. I don't mind things like earlier access to various weapons or upgrade materials, but I like how often enemies gang up on you in the original game.
The chest that mcduff is sitting is availabe at the same time in each game btw. Lightinh the torch will cause mcduff to move. But tbf if tou dont play with a torch a new player will most likely not bother lighting it. Great vid as always.
Yeah another user also pointed this out. And for me the torch in Vanilla just exists with very few uses but only in Scholar it actually became an actual useful tool with lots of applications that I use a lot.
Invisible hollows and hidden moths as well. There's also more rubble, barrels and other stuff lying around making the map feel less empty while exploring.
Really glad i found you and your videos. I just recently got into ds2 (i think I am nearing the end. ) and I didn't understand the hate with SOTFS. Besides a few things that annoyed me I really like SOTFS and I am glad to see someone defending it. I hope you get more views for this!
Yeah I never understood the hate against Scholar either. There's hundreds of clear improvements that make the game better and fairer than Vanilla, but Scholar haters always whine how unfair it is that the path to the optional Red Smelter Demon side boss became a bit more challenging. In several polls on Reddit over 90% of people that played both versions stated that they prefer Scholar, but based on RUclips videos and comments you would assume that over 90% absolutely hate it. The small minority of haters really want to convince everyone that the game is unfair instead of accepting that they are incredibly bad at Souls games.
@@Domo3000 I have learned in recent years to not trust many RUclipsrs when it comes to games. Especially those whose whole thing is talking about how inferior one game is to another. Better to make my own opinion on something than listen to someone trying to sound smart and completely miss the point of the game they are criticizing. Makes it easier to enjoy the games I play lol.
I’ve been a VERY avid scholar hater for about 6 years now. I tried playing it dozens of times before playing the life out of vanilla, and couldn’t get through my head how people preferred this over the first version. However, after 1000+ hours in vanilla, and watching all of your vids up to this point, I think it’s time I swallow my pride and switch to scholar. I feel I have no reason left anymore to play it when the QoL changes of scholar are too much to pass up. It’ll take some getting used to when adjusting my routes, but overall it’s for the better. You win. 😢
If you want to try it again you could try to do a Pyromancer build. This is one build where Scholar really shines. You could just sprint to No Man's Wharf by doing the 7 step trick to easily defeat the Dragonrider and pick up an early Fragrant Branch (or defeat Last Giant and buy one from Melentia). You can then unpetrify Rosabeth and be a Pyromancer from the very start, unlike Vanilla where you would have to progress as another class for a few hours first. And with the early Twinkling Titanite you can grab the Black Knight Halberd from Shaded Woods once you've got 26 dexterity and immediately upgrade it a couple of times. (you don't have to, but I like to use weapons with innate fire to stay on theme)
I was weirdly hateful of Scholar back then too. Years later, I can safely say it's way better than DS3 and Elden Dung. ER just has too many poor intentional design decisions that are direct follow-ups from DS3, and I utterly despise that engine.
I played Vanilla a lot on Xbox 360, and Scholar a bit later on PC. I don't know what people are talking about when they complain about Scholar. It seems to be an improvement in every way. I thought the new enemy placements were weird when I first switched, but never thought that the game was more difficult. Now I that I'm used to it, the enemy placements seem far better than in Vanilla.
All his obvious lies have been unchallenged for way too long. The damage has already been done and a lot of people that have never even played either of the versions are convinced that Scholar is just a ganky hard mode, even though in reality it's way more balanced and fairer than Vanilla.
One of the hundreds of better enemy placements that Scholar haters just completely ignore in favor of whining how unfair it is that the path to the optional Red Smelter Demon became a bit more challenging
Thank you for these videos. Dark Souls 2 slander is sickening. When I played through it for the first time I thought it was going to be miserable but now i’m addicted to the game. Best souls and scholar is the funnest version imo
The dk2 > SotFS discourse so prevalent that I just finished a full replay of vanilla specifically so I can properly discuss the topic. My conclusion; sotfs is just significantly better overall but I did like the item placements in vanilla more. 'ganks' are shuffled around in different areas of the game, but the fact that SotFS has NOTICABLY reduced group aggression and aggro range in any encounter renders most complaints about enemy amount in any given area moot.
I never really had any big issues with ganks in either version but that’s because I’m the most patient player alive and I always had a bow to draw agro and would funnel enemies down tight spaces where I could fight em one on one. I don’t think I ever just rushed to a boss and I would just de-spawn enemies I found annoying before moving on to anything else
I've played Scholar so much and I never knew about the barrel you could shoot or the jump down near the gold pine resin in Lost Bastille! Feels nice to learn something new about a game I've played so much. Nice work!
This is actually a very well thought out video. The points you mention are pretty strong and shows how scholar made significant improvements to early game pathing and accessibility to make the game a lot easier compared to vanilla.
Well, it wasn't hard making better arguments than his "starting with Scholar was harder than starting with Vanilla after I've already beaten Scholar several times and got used to the enemies and gameplay" and not thinking about how any of the changes actually affect the difficulty, leveling and progression
A couple weeks ago, I saw you in the comments section of *checks history* I guess zitiboi's DS2 bad video, because of course the algorithm keeps bothering me with them. And I always take a look anyway. They are never good. Anyhow, looked at your videos, subscribed and earlier this week I got notified of new uploads. Another day, another Domo video. Glad to see you're still doing the thing. I do wonder if Feeble King in particular is worth the time and effort, though. When I came across his video, I recognized the voice, looked up the channel and realized that yes, this is indeed the guy who does the most basic hyperbolic trendchaser videos and basically throws up when considering that people might do things that are not running straight against a wall, so I knew what it was going to be like. There really is a strange mix of, err, "skill issue" and disingenuity going on in DS2 criticism in particular. But maybe that's not even the point. The guy is a bit of a tool, but the whole issue seems to be a RUclips thing. I've rarely seen an interest in actual discourse rather than simple hyperbole. It's the best ever or the worst ever. Pick a side, do a RUclips. So while maybe it's indeed time for a meta video analyzing "critical" behavior (I've certainly thought about how to go about it every now and then...), I doubt many people are genuinely interested to hear it. I can see it amongst your comment sections as well, with the same hate repeated despite your efforts. It's not about having a reason to hate, it's about wanting to hate. Much like I have a feeling that the trend of "Vanilla good Scholar bad" might be an expression of people actually wanting to like the game, while still having a deep need to hate it nonetheless, because the hive mind tells them to. And basically nobody actually buys and compares two versions back to back, so the self-fulfilling prophecy comes true yet again. I've fallen into this mode of thinking as well: I certainly can't be bothered to buy vanilla on a whim when I'm 95% certain it's just a "worse" game. What I will do though is point to your channel whenever claims are made that are better disproven with detailed footage. Übrigens: das Fühl, wenn random deutscher Text.
Really not much, no. He's just whining how unfair Scholar without presenting any fair comparisons and falsely accusing areas that are actually gankier in Vanilla of being worse in Scholar
How can someone pretend to this day that Scholar is worse than Vanilla? Sure, certain things were better in vanilla, but overall, Scholar was an improvement.
Anyone that complains about the difficulty of Scholars somehow being 'harder than vanilla' would literally shit their pants if they had to experience 1.0 Vanilla 😹 It really is funny too considering people typically cry about Souls games being 'casualized' and got mad when bosses in Elden Ring got 'nerfed'.... And Scholars technically did nerf everything, but people 'criticize' that its too hard ...... Huh 🤣
@@JellyJmanYeah, and I would get the argument of 'scholar made it too easy' I guess.... But for whatever reason, people seemed to just follow this meme of 'scholars is harder cus it invented ganks'.. it never made sense to me, since I played OG DS2 launch and followed the patch history of just how much Vanilla needed to be neutered and re-balanced.
@vj7248 yeah, besides saying that "ds2 invented ganks" is also disingenuous because there were and are FAR more annoying ganks in ds1, just take the early graveyard encounter, or the endless respawning skeletons in the catacombs, the bone wheels surprise attack, undead burg with hollows on the roof sniping you while fighting on ground, especially with the Taurus Demon boss fight. The mosquito's and blow dart dudes in blight town, the gaint skeletons in TOTG, the Capra Demon and his dogs. There are alot of examples
@@YEY0806 The claim back then was, DS1 poise made the ganks in that game fair. In which there was an argument to be made at the launch of DS2. Because poise worked completely different and everyone claimed ADP was 'pointless like resistance' that the way of handling ganks was much more frustrating compared to DS1's ganks. .. Of course, now that people know how Poise works & what ADP actually does it's much less of an argument. Or, that's what I thought until I kept seeing people cry about Scholars being a 'gankfest' for some reason.
@@YEY0806 I mean... Isn't that the point? They're supposed to be strong because they guard the entrance to an area you shouldn't go to? But if you want the loot you can easily slip past them to grab it without having to fight them at all
@@An_Entire_Lime nah, I'm not complaining, just pointing out an additional thing. Besides it shows the hypocrisy of DS2 haters who whine about "early hard encounters" like the optional ogre who has a vision range of a stick or Heides Tower when they serve the same purpose as the graveyard from DS1
@@YEY0806 I remember when I first played Vanilla years ago, not long before DS3 came out, I kept dying at Heide's over and over again because I missed the entrance to the Forest of Fallen Giants. I just thought the game was impossible lol. I had to use a guide to figure out that I was completely skipping over the beginner area in the game.
I still have my 360 ds2 save with some of those event weapons. Really sad you can't get those in scholar without save file editing. The blue murakumo is my favorite
Yeah I falsely assumed that he needs the Ember before he moves. Should have tested it. But on the other hand the point with better equipment early on in Scholar still holds up, with earlier access to things like the Grand Lance, Shaded Woods and Twinkling Titanite
@@Domo3000yeah when it comes to accessibility, availability, variety and freedom in approach: ds2 beats all the other souls game by a large margin. It’s not even close. Extremely freeing playing ds2 after playing lots of the other souls games and actually being allowed to go places whenever I want and start builds so quickly with less restrictions.
I just played and finished sotfs for the first time and while I wasn't a fan of it, I was very nervous about which version to buy and went with my friends recommendation. These videos prove that i made the correct decision
1:03 - 1:10 what the fuck are you even saying bro the tts got so mixed up, whatever though compared to vanilla heide's is clearly harder than vanilla, the heide knights being there and waking up after you kill dragonrider and the dragon before dragonslayer, that area is much easier in vanilla 7:10 while you're right that the pursuers are great in scholar (their existence really helped my weapon and souls gave me so many levels) them being there also makes the game harder, especially for new players who are not so used to fighting them 10:10 kind of a tainted point since you did the one thing people always call out on ds2 haters, you ran past enemies just to prove a point 11:28 easier still is farming in heide's and it's less tedious 13:08 disingenuous point while sure you fight them alone, you literally get invaded from behind so you'll have to fight a knight and an invader all at once, and if you run or make noise you'll attract another knight that's up the stairs closer to the vendor npc
At least Scholar isn't as stingy as Vanilla. In Scholar if you want to access Shaded Woods to start your Pyromancer build, pick up the Chloranty Ring +1 or anything else from that path you can do that 15 minutes after starting the game. You can unpetrify Straid way earlier as well. In Vanilla the first Fragrant Branches show up much later, so it just takes much more time before you get the same freedom. Like in Scholar even if you open the relatively unnecessary Statues in the tutorial and in the tunnel to No Man's Wharf, and the one for the Ruin Sentinels that just puts you back to needing the same branches as in Vanilla to be able to unpetrify Rosabeth or Straid. So the worst case scenario in Scholar is the same as Vanilla, but otherwise you just get access to Shaded Woods way earlier.
@Domo3000 yea that I agree with I was watching feeble King an hes ranting bout the ruin sentinels and said their required yet their optional. I honestly don't like petrified statues but I understand their importance and they r placed in good locations that r optional
Is it worthy buying the scholar? I've played the vanilla a lot, i thinking about taking the scholar version, but i'm not sure if it Will be worth the money, the experience is really that diferent?
Im not sure but i think you could get the craftsman hammer in vanilla too very early just by using a torch to make a fire at the other side of the room causing him to move away from the box in his normal position
12:30 I was trying to show my friend the group aggression mechanic but wasn't able to replicate it. I wasn't using g a shield, though so maybe that was the problem. I was using a dual-wield dex build and was strafing around them.
If you strafe you probably run into the "attack now" melee range of some. Try it somewhere with more space, like the Skeleton Lords fight for example if you only have the basic skeletons left
@@Domo3000 I tried again in the same spot while blocking with a shield and still wasn't able to get the behavior in the video. They still were all attacking at once like in Vanilla. I think you might be right about the Skeleton Lords, though. I remember it being a lot easier in Scholar than in Vanilla. It's kinda hard to say definitively based on "I remember it being," though.
The enemy placements in Scholar is certainly an improvement, though, even without the AI behavior change. Also the addition of explosive barrels. I really have to intentionally pick up each of the knights in the Bastille to aggro them all.
i do thing there might be an argument to be made that the game doenst really communicate well why one area suddenly is spllit into two difficulty wise, when design wise it stays the same. so the game is a bit obtuse here and I think that caught a loy of people off guard
Ds2 early game is harder if you choose Deprived class because the game doesn't give you any weapon. For me, ds2 has the hardest early game compared to ds1 and ds3.
d-do u know about the m-morning star in m-majula? oh u mean the tutorial? yeah the tutorial is so hard those basic undead r s-so s-strong l-lol ........
Maybe feebleking is lying through his teeth about Scholar ruining Dark Souls 2 because he's adhered to the "standard" that Dark Souls is supposed to be hard. There, I cracked the code
I only played Scholar but I ever heard that Vanilla ist the better version... I even watched a video "DS2 is a good game and Scholar ruined it", so I thought, Vanilla must be better. Which is the better version now??
@@Domo3000 Yes. But it's just one video of many others that explained why Vanilla ist better. Even a gaming podcast I used to listen noted this. Now I saw your video and this is relatable why Scholar must be better. But why is the general opinion of Scholar worse than Vanilla? I'm not the biggest DS2 fan and I always thought, it has to be the reason I only played Scholar
@@CasadySoul the general opinion is that Scholar is better. In every poll here and on Reddit over 90% of people that played both versions state that they prefer the improved Scholar version, and most threads are filled with people arguing in favor of Scholar. Even that Scholar RUINED DS2 video mentions that he was misled by all the people that kept telling him that Scholar is better. Only very few people prefer the Vanilla version, but those people are very vocal and determined.
I mean, I’ll always prefer the OG over SotFS because of certain, minute details, but I don’t find one to be distinctly better than the other. I do like in the original that I don’t have to go and tediously pick up the DLC keys every NG lol
And yet in forest of fallen giants, a point I see you fail to bring up is when, in the forest of fallen giants, THE FIRST AREA OF THE GAME, Scholar decides that instead of three enemies and an optional hide knight to fight, a WHOLE ASS ARMY was a better idea that you have to slowly kite around and tediously kill. That's better?
You mean the sleeping hollows who only get up when you approach them that you can easily back stab? Unless you were running a marathon around the area purposefully waking up all the enemies, there is no way to get ganked
Vanilla Forest starts with a gank against 3-4 hollows and an archer shooting at you, while Scholar starts with you fighting them one vs one. When you climb up the ladder Vanilla again throws 3 hollows at you while an archer is shooting at you, but in Scholar you can fight the sleeping hollows one vs one. And there's no reason to fight the whole army. You can just safely ignore most of them. Scholar haters like Feeble King always wake up every sleeping hollow at the same time to disingenuously make it look gankier than Vanilla: ruclips.net/video/8FdMy30_f98/видео.htmlsi=xP0hnPZRXoXab43O
I always have it equipped while filming. Often I'm just doing something without any plan to continue forward, like if I want to film the path, the runback, shooting the explosive barrel with an arrow, etc I need to reset it back to show the area again filled with enemies
Dude he is presenting information, the video just exists as a visual help. Despite, what's this supposed to mean? That a good run is invalid if you attempt and fail until you get it right?
Did you miss the Miyazaki interview from last month where he praised DS2 as a great project, that without the creativity behind DS2 they would have never made Elden Ring and where he said that he will step down as director and will let the DS2 director do the next games?
@@abrahamrangel2326 I honestly don't understand why people put so much effort into hating the game. Like this game like every game in existence has problems but like all good games it's overshadowed by the good stuff.
@@YEY0806 I honestly don't understand why people put much effort into defending this game. Like this game like any other in existence has its problems but it has so many problems and people need so much attention that their father doesn't give them that they will do anything to prove anyone else wrong
When it comes to good early weapons I forgot some others like the Grand Lance
In Vanilla you get it in late game in one of the Giant Memories, but in Scholar you get it right after defeating the Last Giant.
There's just so much more good stuff available early in Scholar.
Grand lance, my love...! ❤
"vanilla is easier so people cat learn how to win at multifights"
same dude: ds2 teachs you to skip enemies and run to the boss
???
"in Vanilla they made the early areas easier to better prepare you for the harder endgame levels" also sounds like a conflicting argument.
Wouldn't hard early levels better prepare you for even harder endgame levels?
I am almost sure that you just need use the torch in the thing that you can light up and Mcduff will move and you will be able to get the hammer
Or i am crazy and this was just a thing from my head
Does he? I thought he only does it after you've given him the Ember. Should have tested it
But okay in this case you can get the Hammer early in Vanilla as well, but in Scholar you still have much earlier access to unlimited Large Titanite Shards for +6 weapon upgrades and infusions. And much earlier access to Twinkling Titanite.
@@Domo3000 yes,those unlimiteds large titanites and early upgrade materials is one of the reasons that i really want play scholar version,soo many builds early
@@davi21575especially Pyromancer. In Vanilla you don't get a Fragrant Branch until you either defeat Lost Sinner, make it all the way up to Earthen Peak or all the way down to Black Gulch. It takes hours of progress before you can unpetrify Rosbeth.
In Scholar you can buy one from Melentia, pick one up in No Man's Wharf or Lost Bastille. In 15 minutes you can start your Pyromancer journey.
You just need light it.
@@Domo3000 Yes, i was confused when you made this part. If you use the torch on the light, McDuff will get off the chest once you reload the area. So you still get the Hammer at that point in vanilla. The early ember is new tho
No domo, just lighting up the fire near to Mcdonald duff will have him come over to anvil and the chest with the Craftsman hammer will be available at the early game in vanila aswell.
Heide tower of flame:
4:36 I've finished this game 29 times and I had no idea this door was supposed to be a shortcut
I always thought that it existed just to troll you
How am I still learning new things about this game?
Scholar also made enemies better placed. Like sayian knights protecting important places and flexile sentry protecting keys to prisons or prisons. Or how dragon riders protect very important places.
The people complaining about the random enemy placement in Scholar annoy me so much. It's like they assume that anything that's different than Vanilla just breaks the lore, without even considering if it's more lore accurate.
A Royal Swordsman in the Forest? They accuse him of being randomly placed and not fitting in lore wise, even though they are part of the Kings army and the King fought the Giants here. It's weirder without them here.
The Flexile Sentry in Vanilla Shrine of Winter is randomly placed, but the one in Scholar Sinner's Rise is like you say much better placement as they are related to prisons.
And also how the Dragonrider in Shrine of Amana makes you notice the bridge and locked door more.
@@Domo3000 not fully convinced by the royal swordsman part, we dont see any royal swordman in the giant memories, they seem more like guards you have on your castle than pawns you send to war. Not like i mind the placement, the earlier i can get that sweet sallet helmet the better my fashion gets
I forgot there was a Flexile Sentry in the Shrine of Winter, that's so stupid
@@abrahamrangel2326do we see Ironclad Soldiers in the memories? Only one, and that's roughly where most of them still show up
To me it was always like we just see the same areas in the past, but we don't see the part with the Royal Swordsmen in the past because we aren't on that stairset
We defeat the Giant Lord from the front, but they were approaching him from the stairs to his back.
That's my head canon.
Their armor set states that they were indeed fighting the Giants: "Armor of a royal swordsman. Its shape provides defense while allowing great mobility. Stripped of ornamentation, this particular helm/armor is designed strictly for battle. King Vendrick supplied his bravest men with the best armor available to face the great giants, but very few returned alive"
these videos made me delete Vanilla off my pc and just stick with Scholar lol.
Should have tried to fight your way up to the Ancient Dragon one last time to really see how bad Vanilla enemy placement is for one last time
@@Domo3000 I remember some of it like getting spammed from almost everywhere on the map by that lightning priest who blends in so well its hard to see him. And that breakable chest right nest to a Knight when you go up the stairs and that priest spamming you still. Having to pull enemies with the bow on the stars up to the Ancient dragon so i don't aggro everything the slog back if I die. I remember alot of that crap. Oh an'd i remember that priest is extremely hard to hit from the bottom because alot of the times he pokes his Chime above his head while attacking so his body isn't exposed from his freaking snipe tower.
Really? I want a mod that combines both of them.
@@skithness That's the worst, most horrible fucking thing I have ever read in my entire life.
Long live Best Souls 2!
At this point i am guessing the next big cope will be to say that Scholar made DS2 too easy and that all these changes actually made a perfectly balanced hard game too easy
Honestly vanilla is the “Dark Souls” of Dark Souls 2. Much harder and takes longer for your class to get online with a harder to reach dull ember and less summons and straight up more powerful bosses and tougher run backs
@@JellyJman It is objectively easier, but I think that doesn't say enough. For instance: DS2 bosses aren't hard at all by any means once you have enough ADP and you know how to just avoid shit by just moving around it, no matter the version. And sure, getting ganked by 5 enemies who all attack at once making it incredibly hard to kite them and funnel them into advantageous spots properly is also difficult to deal with. But it's also difficult to play Ninja Gaiden and never get hit. As a self imposed challenge it would be fine, but it's also straight up unfair and not all that fun to learn first time. All of the difficulty in the original DS2 is quite artificial with its bad stat balance and other stuff. The difficulty in Scholar comes from you learning the layouts of enemies and then executing a plan, what with the different group aggro rules and such. The difficulty in the original comes from just dealing with bullshit and outbullshitting it.
it's easy for someone who played the original. probably not so much for a new player.
I like both versions of the game, but I actually do think that Scholar went too far in making parts easier. I don't mind things like earlier access to various weapons or upgrade materials, but I like how often enemies gang up on you in the original game.
The chest that mcduff is sitting is availabe at the same time in each game btw. Lightinh the torch will cause mcduff to move. But tbf if tou dont play with a torch a new player will most likely not bother lighting it. Great vid as always.
Yeah another user also pointed this out.
And for me the torch in Vanilla just exists with very few uses but only in Scholar it actually became an actual useful tool with lots of applications that I use a lot.
Scholar has more items right? From chests and around the map. It makes exploring more rewarding.
Invisible hollows and hidden moths as well.
There's also more rubble, barrels and other stuff lying around making the map feel less empty while exploring.
Really glad i found you and your videos. I just recently got into ds2 (i think I am nearing the end. ) and I didn't understand the hate with SOTFS. Besides a few things that annoyed me I really like SOTFS and I am glad to see someone defending it. I hope you get more views for this!
Yeah I never understood the hate against Scholar either. There's hundreds of clear improvements that make the game better and fairer than Vanilla, but Scholar haters always whine how unfair it is that the path to the optional Red Smelter Demon side boss became a bit more challenging.
In several polls on Reddit over 90% of people that played both versions stated that they prefer Scholar, but based on RUclips videos and comments you would assume that over 90% absolutely hate it.
The small minority of haters really want to convince everyone that the game is unfair instead of accepting that they are incredibly bad at Souls games.
@@Domo3000 I have learned in recent years to not trust many RUclipsrs when it comes to games. Especially those whose whole thing is talking about how inferior one game is to another. Better to make my own opinion on something than listen to someone trying to sound smart and completely miss the point of the game they are criticizing. Makes it easier to enjoy the games I play lol.
I’ve been a VERY avid scholar hater for about 6 years now. I tried playing it dozens of times before playing the life out of vanilla, and couldn’t get through my head how people preferred this over the first version. However, after 1000+ hours in vanilla, and watching all of your vids up to this point, I think it’s time I swallow my pride and switch to scholar. I feel I have no reason left anymore to play it when the QoL changes of scholar are too much to pass up. It’ll take some getting used to when adjusting my routes, but overall it’s for the better.
You win. 😢
If you want to try it again you could try to do a Pyromancer build.
This is one build where Scholar really shines. You could just sprint to No Man's Wharf by doing the 7 step trick to easily defeat the Dragonrider and pick up an early Fragrant Branch (or defeat Last Giant and buy one from Melentia). You can then unpetrify Rosabeth and be a Pyromancer from the very start, unlike Vanilla where you would have to progress as another class for a few hours first.
And with the early Twinkling Titanite you can grab the Black Knight Halberd from Shaded Woods once you've got 26 dexterity and immediately upgrade it a couple of times. (you don't have to, but I like to use weapons with innate fire to stay on theme)
I was weirdly hateful of Scholar back then too.
Years later, I can safely say it's way better than DS3 and Elden Dung. ER just has too many poor intentional design decisions that are direct follow-ups from DS3, and I utterly despise that engine.
@@asdergold1 Finally, someone said it. Exactly my thoughts dude
@@asdergold1 EL2den Ring, more like it.
Man we really went from Scholar is better than vanilla to Scholar is better than all souls games lol ?!
I played Vanilla a lot on Xbox 360, and Scholar a bit later on PC. I don't know what people are talking about when they complain about Scholar. It seems to be an improvement in every way. I thought the new enemy placements were weird when I first switched, but never thought that the game was more difficult. Now I that I'm used to it, the enemy placements seem far better than in Vanilla.
doing god's work
All his obvious lies have been unchallenged for way too long.
The damage has already been done and a lot of people that have never even played either of the versions are convinced that Scholar is just a ganky hard mode, even though in reality it's way more balanced and fairer than Vanilla.
@Domo3000, but hey, at least that will lead to a rude awakening when Feeble King fans try out Vanilla only to find out how bullshit his critique was.
14:56 Those damn Sinner's Rise Crossbowmen... I remember farming them out of existence years ago. May they forever ROT in the Aeonian Swamp!
One of the hundreds of better enemy placements that Scholar haters just completely ignore in favor of whining how unfair it is that the path to the optional Red Smelter Demon became a bit more challenging
The only bad thing is how because of that we dont get shoot anymore when we cross the bridge
I actually like those dudes, the vanilla placement in that spot is better imo.
@@Kamawan0 agree they only had to make them not see the player near the bonfire, not straight up remove them
@@abrahamrangel2326 Even that made for some funny moments, but yes. It was mainly inconvenient to have them so alert lmfao.
I never even CONSIDERED using that door to nowhere (4:53) as a shortcut...
It was a door to nowhere, that somehow leaded to somewhere
honest to god, I've beaten scholar and vanilla dozens of times and the fact I'm still learning things like that makes me happy.
Thank you for these videos. Dark Souls 2 slander is sickening. When I played through it for the first time I thought it was going to be miserable but now i’m addicted to the game. Best souls and scholar is the funnest version imo
That door at the bottom of the Ruin Sentinel tower that leads to nowhere IS A SHORTCUT?!?
wow, you learn something new everyday.
Og dark souls 2 was like from soft decided ever single area needed to feel like fighting the caprea demon
The dk2 > SotFS discourse so prevalent that I just finished a full replay of vanilla specifically so I can properly discuss the topic. My conclusion; sotfs is just significantly better overall but I did like the item placements in vanilla more. 'ganks' are shuffled around in different areas of the game, but the fact that SotFS has NOTICABLY reduced group aggression and aggro range in any encounter renders most complaints about enemy amount in any given area moot.
Also, as an aside, you can move mcduff over to the anvil early by just lightning his brazier in both games.
I never really had any big issues with ganks in either version but that’s because I’m the most patient player alive and I always had a bow to draw agro and would funnel enemies down tight spaces where I could fight em one on one. I don’t think I ever just rushed to a boss and I would just de-spawn enemies I found annoying before moving on to anything else
scholar > vanilla
we all know that
i love watching these videos because they are the only videos that emphasise enemy weaknesses
I've played Scholar so much and I never knew about the barrel you could shoot or the jump down near the gold pine resin in Lost Bastille! Feels nice to learn something new about a game I've played so much. Nice work!
This is actually a very well thought out video. The points you mention are pretty strong and shows how scholar made significant improvements to early game pathing and accessibility to make the game a lot easier compared to vanilla.
Well, it wasn't hard making better arguments than his "starting with Scholar was harder than starting with Vanilla after I've already beaten Scholar several times and got used to the enemies and gameplay" and not thinking about how any of the changes actually affect the difficulty, leveling and progression
A couple weeks ago, I saw you in the comments section of *checks history* I guess zitiboi's DS2 bad video, because of course the algorithm keeps bothering me with them. And I always take a look anyway. They are never good. Anyhow, looked at your videos, subscribed and earlier this week I got notified of new uploads. Another day, another Domo video. Glad to see you're still doing the thing.
I do wonder if Feeble King in particular is worth the time and effort, though. When I came across his video, I recognized the voice, looked up the channel and realized that yes, this is indeed the guy who does the most basic hyperbolic trendchaser videos and basically throws up when considering that people might do things that are not running straight against a wall, so I knew what it was going to be like. There really is a strange mix of, err, "skill issue" and disingenuity going on in DS2 criticism in particular.
But maybe that's not even the point. The guy is a bit of a tool, but the whole issue seems to be a RUclips thing. I've rarely seen an interest in actual discourse rather than simple hyperbole. It's the best ever or the worst ever. Pick a side, do a RUclips. So while maybe it's indeed time for a meta video analyzing "critical" behavior (I've certainly thought about how to go about it every now and then...), I doubt many people are genuinely interested to hear it. I can see it amongst your comment sections as well, with the same hate repeated despite your efforts. It's not about having a reason to hate, it's about wanting to hate. Much like I have a feeling that the trend of "Vanilla good Scholar bad" might be an expression of people actually wanting to like the game, while still having a deep need to hate it nonetheless, because the hive mind tells them to. And basically nobody actually buys and compares two versions back to back, so the self-fulfilling prophecy comes true yet again. I've fallen into this mode of thinking as well: I certainly can't be bothered to buy vanilla on a whim when I'm 95% certain it's just a "worse" game.
What I will do though is point to your channel whenever claims are made that are better disproven with detailed footage.
Übrigens: das Fühl, wenn random deutscher Text.
Ngl i still hate the layout and the agro range in iron keep😅
The aggro range is pretty crazy
Is there anything that's true about the other video? LoL
Really not much, no. He's just whining how unfair Scholar without presenting any fair comparisons and falsely accusing areas that are actually gankier in Vanilla of being worse in Scholar
yes, heide knights do morbillion damage in scholar, you can clearly see it in the video !!!!11!!11one!11!!!
How can someone pretend to this day that Scholar is worse than Vanilla?
Sure, certain things were better in vanilla, but overall, Scholar was an improvement.
Anyone that complains about the difficulty of Scholars somehow being 'harder than vanilla' would literally shit their pants if they had to experience 1.0 Vanilla 😹
It really is funny too considering people typically cry about Souls games being 'casualized' and got mad when bosses in Elden Ring got 'nerfed'.... And Scholars technically did nerf everything, but people 'criticize' that its too hard ...... Huh 🤣
Honestly scholar is much easier, more summons, faster infusions, better weapons available earlier, nerfed boss damage.
@@JellyJmanYeah, and I would get the argument of 'scholar made it too easy' I guess.... But for whatever reason, people seemed to just follow this meme of 'scholars is harder cus it invented ganks'..
it never made sense to me, since I played OG DS2 launch and followed the patch history of just how much Vanilla needed to be neutered and re-balanced.
@vj7248 yeah, besides saying that "ds2 invented ganks" is also disingenuous because there were and are FAR more annoying ganks in ds1, just take the early graveyard encounter, or the endless respawning skeletons in the catacombs, the bone wheels surprise attack, undead burg with hollows on the roof sniping you while fighting on ground, especially with the Taurus Demon boss fight. The mosquito's and blow dart dudes in blight town, the gaint skeletons in TOTG, the Capra Demon and his dogs. There are alot of examples
@@YEY0806
The claim back then was, DS1 poise made the ganks in that game fair.
In which there was an argument to be made at the launch of DS2. Because poise worked completely different and everyone claimed ADP was 'pointless like resistance' that the way of handling ganks was much more frustrating compared to DS1's ganks.
.. Of course, now that people know how Poise works & what ADP actually does it's much less of an argument. Or, that's what I thought until I kept seeing people cry about Scholars being a 'gankfest' for some reason.
@@vj7248dude I prefer any gank in DS2 over going through the jailer gank in Irrthyil Dungeon in DS3
If he is gonna talk about early game gank zones lets not forget undeadburg. Not being careful you can have 2-4 hollows on you
Or the graveyard near firelink that has a whole gank of skeletons to mess up a new player just for getting items near the hub
@@YEY0806
I mean... Isn't that the point?
They're supposed to be strong because they guard the entrance to an area you shouldn't go to?
But if you want the loot you can easily slip past them to grab it without having to fight them at all
@@An_Entire_Lime nah, I'm not complaining, just pointing out an additional thing. Besides it shows the hypocrisy of DS2 haters who whine about "early hard encounters" like the optional ogre who has a vision range of a stick or Heides Tower when they serve the same purpose as the graveyard from DS1
@@YEY0806 I remember when I first played Vanilla years ago, not long before DS3 came out, I kept dying at Heide's over and over again because I missed the entrance to the Forest of Fallen Giants. I just thought the game was impossible lol. I had to use a guide to figure out that I was completely skipping over the beginner area in the game.
I still have my 360 ds2 save with some of those event weapons. Really sad you can't get those in scholar without save file editing. The blue murakumo is my favorite
It would be cool to see a compilation that has all these videos stitched together into one if you plan to go through the whole game.
I'd love if you covered a mod list for ds2 to improve it.
all u need is LightingEngine
Great vid! FYI, getting the craftsmans hammer is not dependent on the ember. Just light the torch, rest at bonfire, McDuff will move off the chest.
Yeah I falsely assumed that he needs the Ember before he moves. Should have tested it.
But on the other hand the point with better equipment early on in Scholar still holds up, with earlier access to things like the Grand Lance, Shaded Woods and Twinkling Titanite
@@Domo3000 Oh definitely true there, yeah. Early ember is a freaking godsend in Scholar.
@@Domo3000yeah when it comes to accessibility, availability, variety and freedom in approach: ds2 beats all the other souls game by a large margin. It’s not even close. Extremely freeing playing ds2 after playing lots of the other souls games and actually being allowed to go places whenever I want and start builds so quickly with less restrictions.
been watchin a few of your vids, and i have to say i really appreciate not only your topics, but your cosplay is on point
straight fax
A+++ video thank you for the content, from a fellow Scholar enjoyer
I just played and finished sotfs for the first time and while I wasn't a fan of it, I was very nervous about which version to buy and went with my friends recommendation. These videos prove that i made the correct decision
You can still get invaded while AFK'ing at a bonfire, so only a few of them are actually safe.
Ds2 the best
1:03 - 1:10 what the fuck are you even saying bro the tts got so mixed up, whatever though compared to vanilla heide's is clearly harder than vanilla, the heide knights being there and waking up after you kill dragonrider and the dragon before dragonslayer, that area is much easier in vanilla
7:10 while you're right that the pursuers are great in scholar (their existence really helped my weapon and souls gave me so many levels) them being there also makes the game harder, especially for new players who are not so used to fighting them
10:10 kind of a tainted point since you did the one thing people always call out on ds2 haters, you ran past enemies just to prove a point
11:28 easier still is farming in heide's and it's less tedious
13:08 disingenuous point while sure you fight them alone, you literally get invaded from behind so you'll have to fight a knight and an invader all at once, and if you run or make noise you'll attract another knight that's up the stairs closer to the vendor npc
Honestly just dislike that it feels like I never have enough fragrent branches of yore. Just wish they carried over into ng+ yk
They really should had let you carry them over
At least Scholar isn't as stingy as Vanilla.
In Scholar if you want to access Shaded Woods to start your Pyromancer build, pick up the Chloranty Ring +1 or anything else from that path you can do that 15 minutes after starting the game. You can unpetrify Straid way earlier as well.
In Vanilla the first Fragrant Branches show up much later, so it just takes much more time before you get the same freedom.
Like in Scholar even if you open the relatively unnecessary Statues in the tutorial and in the tunnel to No Man's Wharf, and the one for the Ruin Sentinels that just puts you back to needing the same branches as in Vanilla to be able to unpetrify Rosabeth or Straid. So the worst case scenario in Scholar is the same as Vanilla, but otherwise you just get access to Shaded Woods way earlier.
@Domo3000 yea that I agree with I was watching feeble King an hes ranting bout the ruin sentinels and said their required yet their optional. I honestly don't like petrified statues but I understand their importance and they r placed in good locations that r optional
to finish the game u need a single branch of yore. why r u so anxious ?
@@AtreyusNinja anxious? Wat
Is it worthy buying the scholar? I've played the vanilla a lot, i thinking about taking the scholar version, but i'm not sure if it Will be worth the money, the experience is really that diferent?
Im not sure but i think you could get the craftsman hammer in vanilla too very early just by using a torch to make a fire at the other side of the room causing him to move away from the box in his normal position
I love vanila ds2 lmao
12:30 I was trying to show my friend the group aggression mechanic but wasn't able to replicate it. I wasn't using g a shield, though so maybe that was the problem. I was using a dual-wield dex build and was strafing around them.
If you strafe you probably run into the "attack now" melee range of some. Try it somewhere with more space, like the Skeleton Lords fight for example if you only have the basic skeletons left
@@Domo3000 I tried again in the same spot while blocking with a shield and still wasn't able to get the behavior in the video. They still were all attacking at once like in Vanilla. I think you might be right about the Skeleton Lords, though. I remember it being a lot easier in Scholar than in Vanilla. It's kinda hard to say definitively based on "I remember it being," though.
The enemy placements in Scholar is certainly an improvement, though, even without the AI behavior change. Also the addition of explosive barrels. I really have to intentionally pick up each of the knights in the Bastille to aggro them all.
I'm seeing a couple of them back away every once in a while, but most are still just swinging away.
i do thing there might be an argument to be made that the game doenst really communicate well why one area suddenly is spllit into two difficulty wise, when design wise it stays the same. so the game is a bit obtuse here and I think that caught a loy of people off guard
Ds2 early game is harder if you choose Deprived class because the game doesn't give you any weapon. For me, ds2 has the hardest early game compared to ds1 and ds3.
In the tutorial you get a free dragger and a Morning Star in Majula. And then two Broken Straight Swords in the Forest that you can powerstance at SL1
d-do u know about the m-morning star in m-majula?
oh u mean the tutorial? yeah the tutorial is so hard those basic undead r s-so s-strong l-lol ........
In conclusion…I’ll stick with ds1 and ds3
😂😂😂
Maybe feebleking is lying through his teeth about Scholar ruining Dark Souls 2 because he's adhered to the "standard" that Dark Souls is supposed to be hard. There, I cracked the code
I only played Scholar but I ever heard that Vanilla ist the better version... I even watched a video "DS2 is a good game and Scholar ruined it", so I thought, Vanilla must be better. Which is the better version now??
Isn't that the video I'm debunking in this series of videos?
@@Domo3000 Yes. But it's just one video of many others that explained why Vanilla ist better. Even a gaming podcast I used to listen noted this. Now I saw your video and this is relatable why Scholar must be better. But why is the general opinion of Scholar worse than Vanilla? I'm not the biggest DS2 fan and I always thought, it has to be the reason I only played Scholar
@@CasadySoul the general opinion is that Scholar is better. In every poll here and on Reddit over 90% of people that played both versions state that they prefer the improved Scholar version, and most threads are filled with people arguing in favor of Scholar.
Even that Scholar RUINED DS2 video mentions that he was misled by all the people that kept telling him that Scholar is better.
Only very few people prefer the Vanilla version, but those people are very vocal and determined.
@@Domo3000 Well, I think I'll have to play vanilla too to find out which version is better for me personally
I mean, I’ll always prefer the OG over SotFS because of certain, minute details, but I don’t find one to be distinctly better than the other. I do like in the original that I don’t have to go and tediously pick up the DLC keys every NG lol
ла.
And yet in forest of fallen giants, a point I see you fail to bring up is when, in the forest of fallen giants, THE FIRST AREA OF THE GAME, Scholar decides that instead of three enemies and an optional hide knight to fight, a WHOLE ASS ARMY was a better idea that you have to slowly kite around and tediously kill. That's better?
This RUclips channel actually has a video about this exact encounter. I'd recommend watching that.
@@ZaBeasto-ug5hf ...whelp, I guess I have to play DS2 again...Strength faith shall once again be my go to.
You mean the sleeping hollows who only get up when you approach them that you can easily back stab? Unless you were running a marathon around the area purposefully waking up all the enemies, there is no way to get ganked
Vanilla Forest starts with a gank against 3-4 hollows and an archer shooting at you, while Scholar starts with you fighting them one vs one. When you climb up the ladder Vanilla again throws 3 hollows at you while an archer is shooting at you, but in Scholar you can fight the sleeping hollows one vs one.
And there's no reason to fight the whole army. You can just safely ignore most of them.
Scholar haters like Feeble King always wake up every sleeping hollow at the same time to disingenuously make it look gankier than Vanilla: ruclips.net/video/8FdMy30_f98/видео.htmlsi=xP0hnPZRXoXab43O
2:12 You have the Darksign equipped? Are you doing these Runs over and over again until you're happy with the footage?
I always have it equipped while filming. Often I'm just doing something without any plan to continue forward, like if I want to film the path, the runback, shooting the explosive barrel with an arrow, etc I need to reset it back to show the area again filled with enemies
Dude he is presenting information, the video just exists as a visual help.
Despite, what's this supposed to mean? That a good run is invalid if you attempt and fail until you get it right?
blud keeps defending this shitty ass game which obviously cared so much to from soft and therefore is clearly the best of the trilogy sure
Did you miss the Miyazaki interview from last month where he praised DS2 as a great project, that without the creativity behind DS2 they would have never made Elden Ring and where he said that he will step down as director and will let the DS2 director do the next games?
@@Domo3000 as always sarcasm is the best way to avoid being humbled
Bro thought he was cooking and got roasted with facts, another ds2 hater put in the garbage can
@@abrahamrangel2326 I honestly don't understand why people put so much effort into hating the game. Like this game like every game in existence has problems but like all good games it's overshadowed by the good stuff.
@@YEY0806 I honestly don't understand why people put much effort into defending this game. Like this game like any other in existence has its problems but it has so many problems and people need so much attention that their father doesn't give them that they will do anything to prove anyone else wrong