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.
The slow rolling and slow healing was 👌 Its so annoying how people just roll like 30 times in a roll, and chug quick af and HP goes all the way up just for you to do it all over again. If you were good in DS2 PvP you were a god in DS3/ER PvP just cause you know all the roll catching animations and whatnot.
idk if you knew this but there is technically a one shot hex build with the spell Climax, bloody bastards would use it on host of fight clubs a lot back in the day… good times
@@nuttynut8134 true but at least you had to farm for souls n shit to use it effectively and if you missed the first cast of it there's no comparable second chance in the same invasion/summon
@@nuttynut8134 i would have max buffed pyros and cast a few warmths and one lingering flame. Once the host got close theyd blow up. Only did that when i was heading to bed though, and was gonna leave the fight club any way lol (some would go on for an hour or 2)
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.
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
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.
@@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
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.
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.
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!!
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.
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
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.
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.
@@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
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.
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...
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
for everybody that are on pc, DS2 is so alive right now thx to the Blue Acolyte, it literally ask me 1 sec to invade and 0.5 sec to find in arena, just try it rq, don't u think that DS2 is ded, cuz it is not.
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.
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 fucking miss super parry with my blue kumo....literally my favourite weapon in any game to date, not just souls, of ALL time. In DS2, it was SO easy to punish bad players, in DS3 and Elden Ring, you could have terrible players just use some abusable BS that you had to respect and they could just end up obliterating you, but in DS2? i could dance circles around those fools any day of the week, i had an answer for everything. This game had the most poorly designed PVE out of all of the games, but the invasions specifically? holy shit...absolutely golden.
I'm pretty sure you killed me, a few weeks ago. I was chatting with my mate, and said something along the lines of, "As if Oro would invade DS2 when ER Arena just came out." Same outfit, same build, eating my words.
@@Oroboro Turns out it was just a few days before this video, and I have a bad sense of time. Hahaha. Checked my recently played with, and it was indeed you. GG, mate!
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
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?
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
@oroboro I got a question for you! Out of the dark souls series from demon souls to elden ring present day which of the game would you rather play against pvp and which would you enjoy for PVE and which would you enjoy with friends?
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.
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.
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.
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?
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
I love that oro sticks up for DS2 its just a hell of a good time
F
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.
Ah, Dark Souls 2, the game where dual-wielding done right.
This particular souls game will always have a special place in my heart, no matter how many years pass.
I miss DS2 PVP so much, way more fun than just one shot build after one shot build on ER
Yessir
The slow rolling and slow healing was 👌 Its so annoying how people just roll like 30 times in a roll, and chug quick af and HP goes all the way up just for you to do it all over again. If you were good in DS2 PvP you were a god in DS3/ER PvP just cause you know all the roll catching animations and whatnot.
idk if you knew this but there is technically a one shot hex build with the spell Climax, bloody bastards would use it on host of fight clubs a lot back in the day… good times
@@nuttynut8134 true but at least you had to farm for souls n shit to use it effectively and if you missed the first cast of it there's no comparable second chance in the same invasion/summon
@@nuttynut8134 i would have max buffed pyros and cast a few warmths and one lingering flame. Once the host got close theyd blow up. Only did that when i was heading to bed though, and was gonna leave the fight club any way lol (some would go on for an hour or 2)
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
Clocked about 600 hours into ds2 pvp. Good memories. Ds2 name: Kukeduen, maybe I've met someone here.
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.
Was recently marathoning all of your old DS2 videos and now you upload this
The awkward movement and turning in ds2 pvp always makes me laugh. I love this game
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!!
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.
Your ds 2 vids feels more enjoyable after many years like a wine. Thank you Oro!
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
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.
God this is so nostalgic, I love to see it!!
the flare and gracefulness put into the praise the sun emote on ds2 is WHY I PLAY THIS GAME
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
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
I do find it funny how the biggest threat was magic spam in *shrine of amana*
9:40
A Thymesia reference in Dark Souls 2. Absolutely based.
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.
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...
Ds2: oh shit we got two
Elden ring: oh nice, only two, was expecting 3
I finished else ring yesterday and went back to Dark Souls 2 Sotfs and now I know how true happiness feels like!.
It's crazy how good DS2's PVP is even to this day.
I always like how you two handed katanas in DS2. It looks way cooler than in DS3 and Elden Ring.
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.
I love your enthusiasm with dark souls pvp lol
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
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
for everybody that are on pc, DS2 is so alive right now thx to the Blue Acolyte, it literally ask me 1 sec to invade and 0.5 sec to find in arena, just try it rq, don't u think that DS2 is ded, cuz it is not.
Mad respect for those role catches
I miss Ds2 pvp, back when you couldn’t just chug estus right next to the opponent.
Damn, this brings me back when I watched your DS1 - DS2 videos, good times
This game seems to just continue to age well over the years. It's the most flexible Souls game imaginable.
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.
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 fucking miss super parry with my blue kumo....literally my favourite weapon in any game to date, not just souls, of ALL time.
In DS2, it was SO easy to punish bad players, in DS3 and Elden Ring, you could have terrible players just use some abusable BS that you had to respect and they could just end up obliterating you, but in DS2? i could dance circles around those fools any day of the week, i had an answer for everything.
This game had the most poorly designed PVE out of all of the games, but the invasions specifically? holy shit...absolutely golden.
Still running the Blacksteel Katana. RIP PraiseTheSun
Backsteps that are useable in combat, ACTUAL power stancing, SUPER PARRIES.
fantastic video, no wonder hidetaka miyazaki himself tipped you 5 bucks at the end
Having lots of fun invading yesterday and today in DS2
I'm pretty sure you killed me, a few weeks ago. I was chatting with my mate, and said something along the lines of, "As if Oro would invade DS2 when ER Arena just came out." Same outfit, same build, eating my words.
I haven't played Dark Souls 2 in months so that wasn't me lol-but that's hilarious!
@@Oroboro Turns out it was just a few days before this video, and I have a bad sense of time. Hahaha. Checked my recently played with, and it was indeed you. GG, mate!
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.
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.
I can't believe Oro invaded every DS2 player in one video
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 will never not miss the insane damage ripostes could do in this game, hornet ring? Counter damage? Fuck that.
this looks so good honestly, came in on that DS3 wave and never turned back
Dark souls 3? Elden ring? Covid? Honey you were sleeping it’s 2015 time to play ds2 you gotta get that lvl3 red aura on your 3rd character
The BEST Riposte, Backstab and Guard Break animations in fromsoft history. When elden ring didn't even have a hornet it bummed me out hard.
You are easily my favorite PvP content creator of all time, and you're always such a badass.
God the fit on that build is so good. god DAMN I love Dark Souls 2
I really miss some of the fashion in this game! ❤ And why is this the only game that understood duel wielding:(
Jesus man. Don't just give me a nostalgia hart atack whit that outfit
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...
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
@oroboro I got a question for you!
Out of the dark souls series from demon souls to elden ring present day which of the game would you rather play against pvp and which would you enjoy for PVE and which would you enjoy with friends?
Holy shit, I remember the first Black steel Katana vid. Gooooood times
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.
A good day is when Oroboro returns to DS2.
That jump attack bait is top tier
2:49 I played so little pvp in these games, I would've absolutely fallen for it
seems like every time I look up your channel there's a new return to ds2 vid and it always makes me so happy
Glad to see you back in DS2!!
Ah, the best DS pvp. So much freedom in the mechanics. Imagine if Elden Ring had backstep i-frames or roll animation cancels
Bro haven’t seen you play since the mid 2000s like 2010 holy cow lol glad your back
Considering Elden Ring was my first souls experience, it's weird seeing how the fights are so long
Ahh, how I miss the days of stamina actually mattering, and being able to make reads based off your opponents stamina usage.
This just turned my nostalgia meter up to 11
2:50 CLASSIC
It truly is the best Souls PvP
Feels weird watching an Oro DS2 video where the mic doesn’t clip super hard. Glad to see you back lol