Las I checked Darksouls is far from balanced, especially when magic enters the picture.

Try dodging an ultrasword guy and a wizard who has many many homing spells and greatsoul mass as well as dumb lightning bolts

In PVP when I get lag hit by soulmass and it leaves me with like 50 health out of 1500 then I run and heal but the OP Mage thinks it's completely unfair saying I just have to dodge and rush, hahaha, though I'm sure they're excellent dodgers and my stamina doesn't cut it as well as trading with a Mage for damage is the dumbest thing ever, my shield does like 660 damage to armorless players by it's slow as fuck and drains stamina big time.

Mages are playing Easy mode, PVE is easy, and PVP is easy as you don't get punished as harsh for missing a dodge, while us Melee players are dodging as hard as we can and we fuck up once and nearly die. Balance

They also say just hit them once and they're done. They're health isn't 500 it's like 2000

magic is for losers and dex is for losers str master race

Yep the most amount of skill goes into strength, poison builds though... I met a guy and fuck... He knows whats up even though I'm like a 5 percenter who uses shields so it's quite devasting.
Also overall I leveled my character how Guts is built. He's beyond 150
With ultra greatsword and dex with max adaptiviblity with maximum iframes

Wtf are you retarded? Why do you only have 1500 hp for starters?

Secondly with all the shit tons of lag problems I have NEVER been hit by ANY spell. I never even knew it was possible to be hit by one. It's also extremely hard to hit someone with a spell. All mage spells have HUGE telegraphs, and soulmass is so easily baitable - hell even with 5000ms ping you can EASILY dodge it by just walking forward and rolling at the right distance, wow so hard.

Damage output from melee is usually higher than magic, plus it's easier to hit, bigger AoE and FASTER with LESS TELEGRAPH.

Mage have it easy in PvE? wtf are you kidding me? Have you tried killing a boss when you have 3 casts of a strong spell, and 60 casts of some week ass heavy great soul arrow? It is so fucking slow and weak. Killing a boss as str or dex? Ez just use your weapon wow hard. Not that anyone has any problems with bosses PvE is weak shit.

The worst part about mage though is goddamn those unique huge telegraphs coupled with very limited spell pool. There's much more variety and flexibility even in pyromancy!


Guide to beat a mage, for scrubs:
1. Run forward and roll to bait out the homing soul mass. If you see him turn then he might be saving the soulmass so roll again.
2. If you see him casting a spell with his catalyst raised up high, move left or right and get ready to roll. If you are close run in and backstab him.
3. If you see him cast a spell with his catalyst to the side, run close and get ready to roll, greatsword is super easy to dodge and is super slow with a long backswing.
4. If you are close and they start casting any spell, just hit them. Even the slowest weapons are fast enough to interupt. If they are tanking your hits use stone ring or fish backstabs.


Pure mage is the easiest class to beat IMO.

Only setup I've ever lost to is dex/str and at the moment I think all pure casting is just terrible.

I destroyed PVE with little amount of health. Didnt need it and still don't. My stamina is pretty high though.

Also I don't know what mages you're fighting. They sound like morons if they don't combo spell an strike you once with a buffed weapon. Again rolling won't do you any good IF they can also roll just as well if not better and run around corners and cast an area spell, but I suppose your gunna tell me roll out of the way or block something I can't see.

These people sometimes have like 6 different characters so they are good at dodging and and not some of those idiots who stand in one place shooting one spell at a time.

Have you buffed a weapon as a Mage... and struck someone with it, it puts in dumb animation and you can't roll for 2 or 3 strikes.

A real Mage wouldn't let you rush and would strike with multiple spells at once most likely ending with an area spell so when you do get close you get knocked back or use the rest of your stamina.
Catalyst paired with homing spell. I see you dodging the first lightning bolt, then he shoots 3 homing balls the instant he through the bolt then he still has two and as your closing the distance he shoots the remaining 2 and rolls passed you and starts back peddling like a real Mage who has next to no poise. While you regain your stamina and he achieves his distance.

Real Mage users don't shoot individual spells, they have a buffed weapon that most will likely match yours in ATK power,

Those tips are like how to destroy beginner mages, I've beaten many mages because they try casting at such a close range its stupid and makes no sense. Maybe if cast time is really high, they shoot lightning faster than I can string and shoot a great arrow

PvE and PvP builds are different. Obviously you dont need to level your hp at all for PvE you just pump pure damage...


Of course they combo spells but they spell part is so easy to dodge that it's just the same as fighting a pure melee except they can't attack as often because of stam... You can just look at the way they are casting and see the telegraph of what spell they are using and you can easily avoid AoE... Or tank it and get a free backstab if you have good poise...

wtf has number of characters got to do with rolling...

Yes I have buffed weapons but I have no idea wtf you are talking about. You can't roll for 2 or 3 strikes? Are you talking about stunlock? That is just poise not a buff...

You have to bait the soulmass safely don't do it when you don't have enough room. In that situation it's easy to see what to do, dodge the bolt sideways, bait all the mass at once by charging, throw down a combo with an aoe weapon and catch him between rolls (even at 120 agi you can catch between by using a weapon with a long damage period or short frontswing)...

Also he won't have enough time to recast homing soulmass anyway because you just run up to him... I've never seen someone be able to recast soulmass without getting backstabbed, it's way too long...

If you are seriously panicking over soulmass and lighting (which are considered the easiest spells in the game to deal with) then you are going to have real trouble at higher SL where everyone has enough to use all spells/combos with good damage...


By the way telegraphs are the same, and even with full cast speed set it's not so fast that you can't abuse the telegraph. Just watch your distance and if they are using a melee weapon fight them like you normally would... It's really not hard. Magic isn't op.

Whats that bullshit spell that shoots a massive black poison cloud disrupting vision. Paire wig homing mass and lightning bolts, if you're that good, good for you, but reaching a Mage for a single strike is a he'll of a lot harder than combining spells for near one hit KOs. Balance

I had a free for all with 3 others and The Havel Mage was a tank. It literally made all of my throwables pointless because they did under 100 dmg and my great arrows did like 200 and my shitty sword did 150 while my Havels shield did 300. He blew apart the 2 others with poison clouds, homing soul mass, lightning bolts buffed washing pole and an area spell. These Melee people weren't scrubs they dodged well then They traded dmg with the Havel Mage a few times which is pointless and makes fishing for backstabs pointless too unless you like trading 500 dmg with 700 or something, they always do more dmg during a trade. then the Havel Mage proceeded to pull an already electric washin pole and just finished them because they couldn't block the magic with a shield that blocks physical attacks

I turned nonhostile when the two Melee characters turned face to the big Mage and I stood by to see what would happen, it was a cool fight but those guys got Rekd an eventually I did too with well placed spells and sword strikes a spell could be casted faster than you can drink an estus and chances are they are in Jester shirt with gowers ring.

Sure this guy was probably a vitality build, Which would leave him less points for magic, but wasn't the case, those two got fucked after a mistake was made and they couldn't recover.

More characters more experience. This Havel Mage isn't this guys first and only character, he's probably played the game several times with several different builds.

They're supposed to cast an area spell before they cast homing mass again, sounds like your fighting scrubby mages that can't time and use their spells properly.

Pyromancy is the easiest to deal with by FAR I've never been hit, or well I have but I blocked it and it does shitty stamina dmg so it was no problem. You don't block a homing and a lightning bolt or they blow right through our stamina.

Stunlock animation still appears when I wear Havels gauntlets, ancient boots, vengarls cuirass or whatever and Syans helmet with Stone Ring and Ring Of Giants +2. My poise is also pretty high but doesn't stop stunlock from buffed weapons, and resins don't even compare to actual magic users weapons. It makes sense when I get riposted which is never, but getting hit once with one of these gaurantees another hit.

lol mage can't 1 hit KO unless you are playing a pve build in pvp. Biggest magic hit I've ever seen is still only 800 where as melee can hit over 1200. Homing mass has an audible telegraph, so does lightning, you shouldn't die from mist -> mass/lightning...

havel mages are very high sl and at that sl everyone else has everything too so it's moot to talk about build balance... havel mage is a trading build so if you play in to their hand then obviously they will come out on top.

Sounds like you got wrecked by one good player...

If someone casts an aoe in to mass how can you not just beat the shit out of them? I don't understand, do you just back off and say "well played" and wait for them to buff up? Who even cares about homing mass, just dodge it seriously.

stone ring does nothing for your poise mate. What's your base poise? Are you seriously running a pve build?

Pyro has the most flexibility, I know you think homing mass is omg so op forces me to die, but things like swathe and lingering force opponent way harder, and sun hits the hardest. It sounds like you just learnt to deal with pyromancy and then never learnt to deal with magic, you will get better so don't worry, if you can deal with pyro then you can certainly deal with the much less flexible magic. Just get gud.

You're are mostly right, But I've seen magic go or 1300 dmg.

I've been getting better at killing mages, though the ones I've been fighting are hardly that good compared the others I've fought.

Also I've charged a few times when an aoe spell was being castes, it didn't work out to well, but I'm more a Melee build, I have Res in Poison curse petrification and stuff, so I may be running around in a PVE build.

Forgot my base poise, it isnt low that's for sure.

when you spot the aoe cast telegraph just fire some arrows at them. mundane avelyn is standard but you can go throwing knives or a bow or your own spell. I usually punish aoe with either dark orb, pursues or by rebuffing. You can also just use it to regain stam or pop a quick heal (inb4estus, no not estus...)

Usually a mage will only pop an aoe if u r fishing for melee too hard and they are confident that you will try to backstab or attack during cast. That's when I use them at least, they are too slow to use offensively after all. The only ways for mage to punish that behavior is really lingering flame, or an aoe.

The thing is since dks is classless you can't rely on a mage having less poise, less hp or less armor. So you need to be just as flexible as them. I think you've got that much anyway.

1300 dmg on magic is very high, that sounds like an exceptional situation.

Another thing you can do for melee is to run 4x shields with dark/magic/lighting/fire at 100% respectively (imo ditch the lighting since bolt is really easy to dodge). Then just switch to what you scout them using and you are basically invincible. Probably dark and magic are the two which would cause you most problems anyway.



I wish they would fix lag tho... It doesn't matter if your shield is 100% or you can scout the frontswing 100% of the time if they can just dead angle you or their attack hits before the animation starts...