Soul Memory

One of the most hotly debated aspects of Dark Souls 2. Let's talk about why it's good and/or bad.

For me, I think it's working just fine. I've had a really easy time finding co-op partners. I've also had some really good PvP battles.

What do you like or don't like about soul memory?

:)

 

Dark Souls 2 - Invasions not working?

Every soul you've ever gained is added to your "soul memory" The higher your soul memory, the higher levelled you connect to. I read somewhere that a level 120 connected with a level 150 because of soul memory.

In other words, it's a pain in the balls for twinks, anti-twinks, and people who enjoy helping low levels.

 

Looking For 1 or 2 Co-op Partner(s)?

Whats your soul memory?

 

First, thanks for moving the discussion here where it should be.

Let me ask you a question. What is your soul memory and soul level, or what have they been when you've had good PvP matches? Have you tried keeping a lower level character? Have you tried the arenas for the Sentinels or BoB?

Secondly, my complaints aren't about the ability to find matches or co-op play. The fact that you can quickly find online play is due to the dedicated servers that FromSoft instituted for doing just that (although their netcode sucks so bad that once you
connect, you're guaranteed lag). Soul memory doesn't really impact that aspect at all.

The problem I have is that it matches up people who may be vastly different levels and it destroys the PvP community adopted practices. It's a big middle finger to the PvP community of the franchise.

Personally, I have a sl 140 that's a blue sentinel (which feels high to me, but I decided I had to put more points into ADP) with soul memory in the 13 million range. I go into the arena and 90% or more of my matches are against people who are about 200
levels or more above me. This did not happen in Dark Souls. You could get some matches with people who are much higher level, but not with so much frequency. And, I win some of them, but it's a lot harder to win them in DS2 because of the changed gameplay
mechanics. IOW, they made a system where you get matched up with higher level characters and made it easier to win as a higher level character. Most of these matches involve me having to hit the other player 20 times or so to win, while they only need to
hit me 4 to 5 times to win (and the obligatory taunt after they beat someone who is clearly much lower level).

 

No problem R3d! I thought it was better to have the discussion here. ...and I've been waiting to hear from you on this!

The main character I'm playing with right now is SL180 and SM 7mil+.

To be fair - I don't have a ton of experience with PvP in DS2. I've been mostly concentrating on my SP games and getting the achievements. Perhaps my opinions will change once I've finished up those goals and get more experience with PvP.

I've been doing PvP little by little throughout my 2 play throughs so far. Most of it recently in the bell keepers convenant just hanging around the bell tower getting invaded and invading others. I have tried a few matches in the arenas for the Blood Brothers
convenant. In all instances there were times where I got slaughtered but most matches seemed pretty even. I haven't done a ton of PvP but what I have done doesn't feel that much different than DS1 to me.

I guess my stance is that, if you want to do PvP with random people, then you'll just need to conform to the communities thinking on an ever-increasing soul level. I understand your argument that higher soul levels aren't as much fun (since you can basically
fit ever play style into a single character) but it's still an even fight since everyone plays under the same parameters.

To me, that's just playing the game. If you want to play DS1 style - then go play DS1. I don't want game developers making the same game over and over. I enjoy that things change and that those changes force me, as a player, to find ways to adapt. To me,
that's part of the fun of gaming.

If you're looking to do organized PvP (fight clubs, etc...) then there is nothing stopping anyone from maintaining a specific soul level for these clubs. For most people, the club fighting won't start until the player has gone through at least one playthrough
(to collect the specific items for their build) and, at that point, soul memory ranges are wide enough that hooking up in a PvP battle should not be an issue.

FWIW - I think your SL140 character is pretty comparable to the standard SL120 characters from DS1. In DS2 - you have to account for the fact that they've added another player attribute so I think that the standard SL120 PvP level most people agreed on in
DS1 should be just a bit higher in DS2 (135-140).

 

Yes, the way it is set up, I need to conform if I want to be viable. I need to put points into Int and/or Fth, have a elemental weapon that is buffed, wear heavy armor, have a high enough vitality to fast roll, have at least 40 ADP, and use numbness, great
magic barrier, sacred oath, etc. And, that is the problem.

I liked the fact that many different builds could be viable in DS1. No one was invincible (except for hackers.) Now, you end up getting battles of 2 Havel monsters hacking away at each other with buffs and hexes with very little skill involved (especially
because if you hit once, you hit the second time pretty much 100% of the time as long as you follow up with the same kind of attack). Keeping a soul level cap (which came from the community, meaning that I'm following the community's thinking) would force
people to be more creative in their builds, to learn the mechanics of the game better, and learn how to do more things than stand there in heavy armor and trade blows (which isn't actually accurate, I guess, since you can fast roll in heavy armor now, ugh).

I also see some drawbacks with co-op as well. You can summon people who are well outside of your level range (lower or higher) into you game that have no business being there. I'd say it's a bigger problem for people much higher level coming into someone's
game and one-shotting everything for the host, but it can be a problem the other way as well. Admittedly, this could also happen in DS1, only not with level but with gear differences, but only in the starting areas where people could have advanced through
the game with a low level character and then gone back to be summoned in the Parish or Burg.

 

R3d P01nt would you like it if we went back to this
http://mmdks.com/6h9p You could flip at 50% equip load and you could not lock on to the fog ring When the game first come out.. Thank fully both got patched over the course of the game.

 

Why would I want to go back to that? In fact, that's kinda what I've been saying. I don't understand what point you are trying to make.