I mean, I guess it doesnt have to be said, but this ruleset really did the Sorcerer dirty. He really isnt meant to work with just his starting equipment, unlike martial classes which can utilize any weapons to their max effect
@@Soapy-chan yes, but they're not meant to do so. Like, you could compare weapons on how much damage they deal in one attack, but obviously there's other factors in play
The answer for DS2 Deprived run would be the Vanquisher seal. Obtained by giving Awestones to the Champion covernant. There is a trick to farm those, There is a inviter who respawns at the place where the small rat boss is. The ring gives you the ability to duel wield your fists and gives you +200atk
The most fun I had in DS2 was the beginning as a deprived, looking as every weapon as something to build to. The least fun I had was not realizing what ADP did.
@@sirbill_greebi3811 The most fun i had was with The Boxer build Two Caestus, Power Stance and beating the everloving snot out of heavily armored knights never felt so good. Genuinely a good time and not much of a challenge run as i thought initially. Turns out blunt damage resistance is pretty rare in enemies in DS2
For the cleric, I think something that myself and others screw up with is focusing completely on faith at first so we can throw lightning instead of being a good melee character who can shoot lightning.
Hell, you run a good chance of never finding the altar in DS1. I wanted to focus on miracles/paladin style on my first character and I missed the altar entirely and Rhea's questline, I don't think I got emit force either (if you answer sieg wrong or don't talk to him before he moves.) So I basically had heal, great heal, and great heal excerpt and divine weapons. The heal spells are invaluable for a new player, letting you save estus for boss fights. That every single offensive miracle and most miracles period in the game can be missed and pretty easily really added to that early dark souls reputation. Though, back in 1.00, homeward bones were excruciatingly, painfully rare, so Homeward was a legit feature of miracles.
😅yeah, thing is, the dex stat is low, so the spear is veeeeery slow, however! The Mace is one of the best weapons, you can boost str to 27, and you’re pretty much golden, and after a while, boost faith in order to use sunlight/darkmoon blade.
Gwyn: "Why are you smiling?" Wanderer: "Because I know something you do not know. I am not left handed." (this is a Princess Bride reference, and I REALLY hope it's not going unrecognised, or I'm getting really old.)
@@allgreatfictions I've seen that movie. Granted, it was only once. Well, half-once. How can it only be half-once? Because I forgot the rest of this quote, that's how.
@@sirbill_greebi3811 I'm sorry but this quote is dead dead which is different from mostly dead mostly dead there's a chance but your quote is dead dead
I think that being able to level up weapons all the way but not allowing better spells/pyromancies/Miracles kind of artificially makes those classes worse. I think if your not gonna get better spells you should also stop weapon reinforcements at +5
I would disagree with the ascended pyromancy flame, here. Simply because it's not really an item change more of an item level up depicting the increased power that Qualana, can give you as one of the first pyromancers.
personally I feel these rules are a bit unfair toward sorcerer. spells aren't really equipment, they are more like, arrows to your bow. and specially considering that in DS1 you can't upgrade catalysts, I'd arguee than more than that, getting better spells for your catalist is like getting upgrades for your weapon will admit is a bit of a subjective point though, since different spells can do actually different stuff, as oposed to regular upgrading from a weapon where all it does is increase damage, is hard to reach a balance
@@connorburris4846 Yes, but because he started with the basic soul arrow he was allowed to buy more of the same because it was a duplicate. The issue, is that by the time Artorius rolled around each of those Soul arrows was only doing 12 damage.
This would have been a lot more interesting at starting level for all classes, and all items required to be used. With levels and unequipping it largely comes down to which class has the best weapon, rather than which one has the best overall loadout.
I wonder if an interesting stipulation to help keep the class' identities rather than have all of them turn into str/dex/quality builds would be to have them all preserve the initial order of highest to lowest stats e.g. the dark souls 2 knight would have to have Vigor be its highest stat, followed by strength, then adaptability, dexterity, etc. In the case of stats that start tied, you get to choose what order you put those tied stats in, since it's not super feasible to always level up all of such stats at once (cough, deprived, endcough). If you did things this way, I feel like it's fair to let classes add new spells as well as new rings, since otherwise classes like sorcerer are left with a choice between shitty split scaling on top of a shitty low damage weapon, or an uninfused dagger when they can't just pump dex and all their points in int are wasted, on top of the fact that it would let spellcaster classes actually do something with the attunement they're forced to level. Of course, for Dark Souls 2 this matters less as infusions are at their best, and I'm not necessarily suggesting you change the nature of these runs part way through the series, it's more just that this is an idea inspired by your video.
Kyle, if you plan to do DS2, don't forget about the vanquisher's seal, it absolutely melts bosses when using only fists, you could say its the only way to beat the game with Deprived
One thing you may not know, is the spider shield gives very high poison resistance. It's possible to block multiple toxic darts in Blighttown and not become toxic
The knight has special place in my heart sense it's the class i started with in my first playthrough and it kinda carried me through some bosses and places like the capra demon and the sewers. Great video btw and ithink the most dropped mask is the mother this thing huntes me to this day
I recently finished the game with only Hunter´s equipment it was a breeze. I think you are underestimating the bow´s power at +15. You can just lure most enemies, cheese Manus, cheese Sif... Cheese ingward, kill the hydras easy mode... using a bow makes dark souls so, so easy.
Just finishing the intro, based on the rules laid out, I'm going to predict that the sorcerer ended up as the most challenging class due to the limited number of spells that it can use, and being locked into only having the basic Soul Arrow. 28:20 Huh, the AOE2 music actually fits really well for this. 28:50 and it looks like my prediction was right. Wasn't expecting the Thief to be here too though.
there's this guy out there called TrevTheDev that has been doing videos about mathematically optimized damage in Dark Souls and, in a lot of the run he done with the mathematically optimized damaged he used the Hand Axe from the Pyromancer and I was surprised on how good that weapon is, it's definitely a slept on weapon that can do a lot of damage, it's nearly like some secret curved sword. anyways, as someone that always picks the Wanderer as my starting class (since I always build DEX and maybe INT sometimes, which is basically almost DEX in this game if you wanna have good casting speed) excellent video! I think the same concept would be interesting in Elden Ring (predicting the Thief and the Knife will still suck lol)
The Bandit in Elden Ring would actually probably be the second best other than the samurai, because the starting weapon does bleed damage and it's a dex arcane stat load out.
@@robertwye9463Truthfully Prophet is better for dex arc, no int, passable str to wield, and you can boost faith either by some small levels, or tear +godrick rune/two finger talisman, as 31 faith is more than enough for the communion seal, this allows you to be both a caster with fast casting speed thanks to dex, or melee if the situation requires it
In terms of its r1 attacks the hand axe is literally a curved sword, with its r2's being regular axe r1's The best part of the hand axe is something that only works in pvp - kick to r1 is a true combo(like with katanas). You have the infinite stunlock power of a curved sword with the kick combo starter of a katana
Realistically, if I were doing these runs (which I'm not going to, so take my comments with a grain of salt) - I think limiting yourself to the starting gear only kind of misses the point. The game is an RPG - the classes are roles. They don't "matter" because you can choose whatever role you want your character to take in the game, so I'd imagine playing as the starting classes as simply sticking to the thematic of that original role. A sorcerer that doesn't level attunement to cast a million spells doesn't feel like a proper sorcerer. A pyromancer who can't discover the ancient chaos techniques doesn't feel like a proper pyromancer (and not being able to ascend the flame, despite it in game having the same name, feels unfair when you're allowed to use the large and very large ember). A Bandit that can't use all of the axes at his disposal doesn't really how I envision them. The Cleric has one of the worst starting spells in the game, specifically because the Cleric is expected to expand their spell arsenal the soonest, with the only vendor available at the start of Firelink Shrine. The Deprived is meant to make you feel like you're starting from nothing and winning through sheer willpower. A Knight that switches from the broadsword to another regular sword is unequivocally still the knight. Similarly, limiting yourself to the wolf ring gave greater advantages to the classes with more melees focus than magic focus. That's like saying "who would win in a gunfight, a sniper, or a boxer who's never held a firearm before?". If nothing else, classes should have been allowed to use the ring that benefits their specialization. That - or rings should have been banned so the playing field remains equal. Good video all around, and this is just a nitpick. But I feel like if the goal ISN'T, to quote yourself, to make a challenge run, but instead test the effectiveness of the class archetypes, you shot all of them in the foot - some unfairly worse than others. I can see potentially not wanting to dilute the theming of the characters by making them too similar to a boss or NPC copycat build - so banning boss weapons and enemy drops, only allowing weapons and spells from vendors and items on the ground, would be a interesting middle ground to me.
Found you thanks to Lemon and between you PressA, and JK Leads I have been bindging dark souls runs for the last bit, Yall are all amazing and are making me want to try my first dark souls run on PC! Keep up the great work!!!
I like the idea, but aren't fully lore accurated, at least for how i see it. The thing is that each class has died in the dark souls maps already, to understand this is that every set of armor can be found in the game, for example the bandit armor can be found in the bridge in the valley of drakes. So according that, the wanderer can use the Falchion since all his set can be found within that sword in blighttown there and the thief can use the mail breaker since it's found in the Lower Undead Burg.
Small correction here: The Leather Shield from the wanderer has the 2nd best defenses of any small shield, only surpased by the Effigy Shiled, which has the highest lightning resistance in the game but weighs 3 units. The Leather Shield, when upgraded through the normal path up to +14, has a stability on par with a +5 Heater or Grass Crest Shield or an unupgraded one at +5, which is pretty solid for a shield with fast parry and low weight if you ask me. PS: There is also a very fun and rarely talked about pair of spells in DS1 called Magic Shield and Strong Magic Shield which not only reduce the stamina cost for blocking but also increase the shields stats and have a very low INT requirement at 15. If you use the strong version found in the Duke's Archives it raises all the shields resistances to %100 and cuts the stamina cost of blocking by more than half, esentially turning any Small Shield into a Great Shield with a fraction of the weight and stat requirements for the duration of the buff while retaining the ability to parry. Pretty neat if you ask me.
Another really solid point of the bandit, battle axe has both vertical and horizontal attacks (and good move sets overall, not garbage ones). Might sound like nothing, but there are some scenarios where having both makes your life so much easier compared to being stuck with one or the other.
My sleepy brain really thought you had said "scented pyromancy flame" and I thought maybe I had missed something in my gazillion playthroughs XD love the channel, love your work, thank you for a great bedtime story ❤❤❤
Note that AR is misleading for 2-handing your weapon - even after the 50% strength, your attack gets extra damage (can be seen on the Moonlight Greatsword since it has no strength scaling)
I am pretty sure the scimitar can parry while being two handed as well, negating the need for weapon swapping. I am sure you have put that together, but something something engagement, so I guess I will comment anyway.
I love doing this type of run. Started doing them back several years ago and come back to do them again every now and then. My personal restriction is to only use the same class of equipment throughout and loosely following the class' initial stat spread proportions.
I think your rules (copies of the starting class items allowed) would have allowed you a second, off-hand, scimitar for the wanderer. So you could do the parry + riposte without menuing. And roleplay Drizzt 😎
It's a bit unfair to not allow a mage his magic. I guess if I would do this it would be more theme centric to the class, meaning I would be able to use what I think fits for the class. Like sorcerers would use magic. Pyromancers use pyromancy Bandits would be allowed to use great axes and hammers Hunter would be allowed the bows. Also I'll probably give restrictions for each class, like knights aren't allowed rolling for combat purposes. Mages aren't allowed to use heavy armor. Things like those.
fun fact the hand axe is ds1 is actually one of the highest dps weapons the game! its essentially a curved sword with much higher base stats and is capable of pushing the high hundreds in AR optimized completely.
I did the opposite and guessed the mask that would drop the least. AND I WAS EXACT ON THE MONEY. When you hear the Yoshikage Kira theme, ALWAYS expect hijinks.
This was highly enjoyable, something slightly different to the normal challenge runs, but not too far it's unfamiliar. Looking forward to if you're continuing the series. DS2 will be wild I think
I've wanted to do this for like years. Glad to see someone did. Great job. Although i don't know about allowing rings and consumables outside of starting gift and estus and well as copies of starting equipment. I would probably make that stricter for myself. Excluding required pickups such as abyss ring.
You can actually use the Cloranthy ring for four kings AND still have the Favor&Protection ring afterwards, you just need to trade the Xanthous crown to Snuggly/Hawk girl
I'm so glad the wanderer did that well. by far one of my favorite classes for the fashion souls alone. replace the hood and gloves with elite knight armor and it looks insane.
This was a fun video and it would be neat to see you do this with the other Souls games too! Although personally, I would have allowed additional spells on sorcerer, cleric, and pyromancer. Sort of feels like kneecapping their whole gimmick, you're already locked to the worst casting tools anyway, and your other rule prevents upgrading to ascended pyro flame too. It would be like saying the hunter can only use the arrows they start with and you can't buy more. Also I wonder if thief would have ranked higher if you banned starting gifts. Having exclusive access to the master key would have likely jumped it a few places I'd reckon for its unique routing capabilities.
Spells are more of an ammo alternative than an actual main weapon. The way this challenge is set up it ends up almost completely ignoring spell usage outside of just cheesing enemies which is a shame. If you plan to do a similar challenge for the other games in the series (please do, these are super entertaining) maybe look into some basic spells to allow.
If you are still thinking of doing this for ds2, there is a ring in that game which gives you decent damage with your fists, and they can be upgraded with str and dex I think, so it isnt entirely hopeless
I'd be really interested to know how you'd change these rankings if you allowed upgrades that made sense. So still no boss weapons, for example, but upgrading to any weapon in the same weapon type, for example, might make the thief way more viable. It's been ages since I played Dark Souls, so I barely remember most of the options you'd even have, but allowing specific weapon upgrades because they make sense for a class would be a fun change, especially since I wasn't sure at the start if you were doing this as a no-level up challenge.
if you do do the DS2 starting class run, for the Deprived, you could probably farm Awestones for that ring you get from the Covenant of Champions to increase your punching power. That'd be allowed if you're going by the same ruleset as this game.
Would be cool to see a more extreme version of this where you can only level up the equipment and not the character stats, also you can't take off your armor (so you're stuck with the fat roll in some classes) but you can use any magic, pyro, etc, as long as the starting stats allow it
My first playthrough was a Wanderer, with a halberd, bow, and enough faith for lightning spear. Dex/Faith for the win! It's been the basis for every other blind playthrough that I've done.
I had to consider this when i did my bonfireless run. I ended up going pyro since you cant go wrong with setting stuff on fire & can skip most of Izalith by joing chaos servants
Holly molly, just got the wanderer and the scimitar (plus power within). I beat capra and ornstein and smough first try, two things i've never done before. Just melted 4 kings and seath. This weapon is light, quick and with high damage output. My new favourite now! Actually the only boss I didn't first try was the iron golem, but that's because I went to him with only a +5 Scimitar (and almost got the W). Well I got to +10, I evaporated him.
what about the green blossom, doesn´t that increase your stamina regeneration as well? like the grass crest shield and the ring? did you forget to mention/count them as well when listing your options to generate stamina back?
If you plan on doing this with DS2, don't worry about Deprived not having any weapons as the damage scaling to fists is actually really good and covenant of champions gives a ring that increases the damage of your fists.
@@pocketinfinity6733 I don't think that magic is better than a buff build or pyro. Especially without power within and considering prices. In the end of the day it doesn't matter. He is trying to rank classes. So it's only natural that strong classes should be in top spot. And they are at the bottom only thanks to horrible rule
I kinda have a problem with disallowing the sorcerer to upgrade the soul arrow spell. The game clearly intends you to go from regular to great soul arrows. Limiting that kinda feels like forbidding upgrading your weapon to +15.
If you do this challenge for the other games, make it so classes can use the upgraded forms of the spells. (Soul Arrow could be evolved through all it's forms then maybe you could make it evolve to soul spear too. Heal could evolve to great heal.) In the case of Elden Ring, maybe just have the classes that start with some spell gradually evolve within that spell type too (Glintstone Pebble evolving into Comet, Heal evolving into Erdtree heal) Prisoner's may not have an evolution but it is already strong enough by default and they start with an estoc so they'll be fine.
I mean, I guess it doesnt have to be said, but this ruleset really did the Sorcerer dirty. He really isnt meant to work with just his starting equipment, unlike martial classes which can utilize any weapons to their max effect
but the point was to see how well the classes would perform compared to each other in the same condition
@@Soapy-chan yes, but they're not meant to do so. Like, you could compare weapons on how much damage they deal in one attack, but obviously there's other factors in play
@@fpteamkvitka6223 there's a lot of things that are not meant to be certain ways but yet we do compare stuff or do challenge runs and so on.
@@fpteamkvitka6223none of them are meant to do so lol
It doesn’t help he upgraded Dex so the sorcery didn’t even get a chance to scale higher.
10:43 Happy to see that made it into the video 😁
And my return 26:27 XD
Me coming out of my hole after kyle uploads his bi-yearly upload
Kidboy don't worry about how often another man posts content. Little clown
Bi-annual*
Coming out of your WHAT?
Does that mean twice a year or once every two years
@jaesjmes5498 bi- means twice, so bi-yearly/bi-annual is twice a year.
The answer for DS2 Deprived run would be the Vanquisher seal. Obtained by giving Awestones to the Champion covernant. There is a trick to farm those, There is a inviter who respawns at the place where the small rat boss is. The ring gives you the ability to duel wield your fists and gives you +200atk
Naked and bringing these hands
I forgot to say that the inviter can be cheesed with gravity. LobosJr once did a run with this ring only.
I did this runs in ds2 aswell... For deprived i just decided to go with the Club. Farming the stones or consumable only sounds awefull for me
The most fun I had in DS2 was the beginning as a deprived, looking as every weapon as something to build to.
The least fun I had was not realizing what ADP did.
@@sirbill_greebi3811 The most fun i had was with The Boxer build
Two Caestus, Power Stance and beating the everloving snot out of heavily armored knights never felt so good.
Genuinely a good time and not much of a challenge run as i thought initially.
Turns out blunt damage resistance is pretty rare in enemies in DS2
For the cleric, I think something that myself and others screw up with is focusing completely on faith at first so we can throw lightning instead of being a good melee character who can shoot lightning.
Hell, you run a good chance of never finding the altar in DS1. I wanted to focus on miracles/paladin style on my first character and I missed the altar entirely and Rhea's questline, I don't think I got emit force either (if you answer sieg wrong or don't talk to him before he moves.) So I basically had heal, great heal, and great heal excerpt and divine weapons. The heal spells are invaluable for a new player, letting you save estus for boss fights.
That every single offensive miracle and most miracles period in the game can be missed and pretty easily really added to that early dark souls reputation. Though, back in 1.00, homeward bones were excruciatingly, painfully rare, so Homeward was a legit feature of miracles.
😅yeah, thing is, the dex stat is low, so the spear is veeeeery slow, however! The Mace is one of the best weapons, you can boost str to 27, and you’re pretty much golden, and after a while, boost faith in order to use sunlight/darkmoon blade.
13:49 is MAX STYLE.
*Parries
*Tosses sword to other hand behind back
*Stabs in chest
I wouldn't even be mad if did this to me in PVP
Gwyn: "Why are you smiling?"
Wanderer: "Because I know something you do not know. I am not left handed."
(this is a Princess Bride reference, and I REALLY hope it's not going unrecognised, or I'm getting really old.)
@@allgreatfictions I've seen that movie. Granted, it was only once.
Well, half-once.
How can it only be half-once?
Because I forgot the rest of this quote, that's how.
@@sirbill_greebi3811 I'm sorry but this quote is dead dead which is different from mostly dead mostly dead there's a chance but your quote is dead dead
Would you be mad if I parried and then reposted within 3 frames?
@@allgreatfictionsGOD it's been forever
I think that being able to level up weapons all the way but not allowing better spells/pyromancies/Miracles kind of artificially makes those classes worse. I think if your not gonna get better spells you should also stop weapon reinforcements at +5
25:26 "this thing never ceases to disappoint"
I believe that ain't it, chief 🤣
That cut at 32:53 was just perfect.
I would disagree with the ascended pyromancy flame, here. Simply because it's not really an item change more of an item level up depicting the increased power that Qualana, can give you as one of the first pyromancers.
personally I feel these rules are a bit unfair toward sorcerer. spells aren't really equipment, they are more like, arrows to your bow. and specially considering that in DS1 you can't upgrade catalysts, I'd arguee than more than that, getting better spells for your catalist is like getting upgrades for your weapon
will admit is a bit of a subjective point though, since different spells can do actually different stuff, as oposed to regular upgrading from a weapon where all it does is increase damage, is hard to reach a balance
just give sorcerer great soul arrow, and it immediately becomes busted
He did buy more soul arrow casts, as he was up to 120 by artorias.
@@connorburris4846 Yes, but because he started with the basic soul arrow he was allowed to buy more of the same because it was a duplicate. The issue, is that by the time Artorius rolled around each of those Soul arrows was only doing 12 damage.
Personally I think great and crystal soul arrow should be fair game, as they are basically the exact same spell except for increased damage
This would have been a lot more interesting at starting level for all classes, and all items required to be used. With levels and unequipping it largely comes down to which class has the best weapon, rather than which one has the best overall loadout.
Agreed. Would have been nice to see some shieldplay over stripping for that vaunted fast roll.
I wonder if an interesting stipulation to help keep the class' identities rather than have all of them turn into str/dex/quality builds would be to have them all preserve the initial order of highest to lowest stats e.g. the dark souls 2 knight would have to have Vigor be its highest stat, followed by strength, then adaptability, dexterity, etc. In the case of stats that start tied, you get to choose what order you put those tied stats in, since it's not super feasible to always level up all of such stats at once (cough, deprived, endcough).
If you did things this way, I feel like it's fair to let classes add new spells as well as new rings, since otherwise classes like sorcerer are left with a choice between shitty split scaling on top of a shitty low damage weapon, or an uninfused dagger when they can't just pump dex and all their points in int are wasted, on top of the fact that it would let spellcaster classes actually do something with the attunement they're forced to level. Of course, for Dark Souls 2 this matters less as infusions are at their best, and I'm not necessarily suggesting you change the nature of these runs part way through the series, it's more just that this is an idea inspired by your video.
Kyle, if you plan to do DS2, don't forget about the vanquisher's seal, it absolutely melts bosses when using only fists, you could say its the only way to beat the game with Deprived
Kid you think you're teaching anything? It doesn't "melt" anything clown
One thing you may not know, is the spider shield gives very high poison resistance. It's possible to block multiple toxic darts in Blighttown and not become toxic
I’m sorry but why isn’t the Transition at 32:55 getting more love?
Because it was so clean I didn't even notice it.. holy shit.
8:20 Bofuri Vibes. Eating an Undead Dragon. Poison for Seasoning. Somehow I'm not making that up.
The knight has special place in my heart sense it's the class i started with in my first playthrough and it kinda carried me through some bosses and places like the capra demon and the sewers.
Great video btw and ithink the most dropped mask is the mother this thing huntes me to this day
Can we appreciate the cut from parrying Gwyn on, cleric to wander at 32:51
I saw that too
I recently finished the game with only Hunter´s equipment it was a breeze. I think you are underestimating the bow´s power at +15. You can just lure most enemies, cheese Manus, cheese Sif... Cheese ingward, kill the hydras easy mode... using a bow makes dark souls so, so easy.
Just finishing the intro, based on the rules laid out, I'm going to predict that the sorcerer ended up as the most challenging class due to the limited number of spells that it can use, and being locked into only having the basic Soul Arrow.
28:20 Huh, the AOE2 music actually fits really well for this.
28:50 and it looks like my prediction was right. Wasn't expecting the Thief to be here too though.
favorite stream series i've seen so far and i'm glad i was able to make it to a few of these
there's this guy out there called TrevTheDev that has been doing videos about mathematically optimized damage in Dark Souls and, in a lot of the run he done with the mathematically optimized damaged he used the Hand Axe from the Pyromancer and I was surprised on how good that weapon is, it's definitely a slept on weapon that can do a lot of damage, it's nearly like some secret curved sword.
anyways, as someone that always picks the Wanderer as my starting class (since I always build DEX and maybe INT sometimes, which is basically almost DEX in this game if you wanna have good casting speed) excellent video! I think the same concept would be interesting in Elden Ring (predicting the Thief and the Knife will still suck lol)
The Bandit in Elden Ring would actually probably be the second best other than the samurai, because the starting weapon does bleed damage and it's a dex arcane stat load out.
@@robertwye9463Truthfully Prophet is better for dex arc, no int, passable str to wield, and you can boost faith either by some small levels, or tear +godrick rune/two finger talisman, as 31 faith is more than enough for the communion seal, this allows you to be both a caster with fast casting speed thanks to dex, or melee if the situation requires it
In terms of its r1 attacks the hand axe is literally a curved sword, with its r2's being regular axe r1's
The best part of the hand axe is something that only works in pvp - kick to r1 is a true combo(like with katanas). You have the infinite stunlock power of a curved sword with the kick combo starter of a katana
Man these were so much fun to catch live! Hope I get to catch the other class streams
Realistically, if I were doing these runs (which I'm not going to, so take my comments with a grain of salt) - I think limiting yourself to the starting gear only kind of misses the point. The game is an RPG - the classes are roles. They don't "matter" because you can choose whatever role you want your character to take in the game, so I'd imagine playing as the starting classes as simply sticking to the thematic of that original role. A sorcerer that doesn't level attunement to cast a million spells doesn't feel like a proper sorcerer. A pyromancer who can't discover the ancient chaos techniques doesn't feel like a proper pyromancer (and not being able to ascend the flame, despite it in game having the same name, feels unfair when you're allowed to use the large and very large ember). A Bandit that can't use all of the axes at his disposal doesn't really how I envision them. The Cleric has one of the worst starting spells in the game, specifically because the Cleric is expected to expand their spell arsenal the soonest, with the only vendor available at the start of Firelink Shrine. The Deprived is meant to make you feel like you're starting from nothing and winning through sheer willpower. A Knight that switches from the broadsword to another regular sword is unequivocally still the knight. Similarly, limiting yourself to the wolf ring gave greater advantages to the classes with more melees focus than magic focus. That's like saying "who would win in a gunfight, a sniper, or a boxer who's never held a firearm before?". If nothing else, classes should have been allowed to use the ring that benefits their specialization. That - or rings should have been banned so the playing field remains equal.
Good video all around, and this is just a nitpick. But I feel like if the goal ISN'T, to quote yourself, to make a challenge run, but instead test the effectiveness of the class archetypes, you shot all of them in the foot - some unfairly worse than others. I can see potentially not wanting to dilute the theming of the characters by making them too similar to a boss or NPC copycat build - so banning boss weapons and enemy drops, only allowing weapons and spells from vendors and items on the ground, would be a interesting middle ground to me.
32:48
Damn that transition is smooth
Great video! And thank you for keeping the video under an hour 😅
I look forward to checking out the streams some day.
I heard "Salutations exiles" and got excited, not what I expected but pretty fun video to watch. Thanks!
Found you thanks to Lemon and between you PressA, and JK Leads I have been bindging dark souls runs for the last bit, Yall are all amazing and are making me want to try my first dark souls run on PC! Keep up the great work!!!
23:24 I mean, with enough patience deprived could get Vanquishers seal. (Might take a bit tho) but the defences.. yikes.
I was fortunate to catch a few streams here and there while I was at work!
Thank you for the great content, GW.
Great Job Kyle, well done on this video after all those streams!
What a fantastic content creator is Kyle ❤
OML I NEED THESE TYPE OF VIDEO FOR ALL OF THE SOULSBORN GAMES!!!
Great vid, cant wait for the other starting class runs.
I guessed Mask of Father because legend never dies. Lucky me.
I love starting a new game in the soulsbourne game and experimenting with the classes. Please make a series out of this🙏🏻
"If i wasn't as practiced at Manus"
*violent flashbacks to one-shot run*
I like the idea, but aren't fully lore accurated, at least for how i see it. The thing is that each class has died in the dark souls maps already, to understand this is that every set of armor can be found in the game, for example the bandit armor can be found in the bridge in the valley of drakes. So according that, the wanderer can use the Falchion since all his set can be found within that sword in blighttown there and the thief can use the mail breaker since it's found in the Lower Undead Burg.
and the sorcerer should be able to do every sorcery.
It's the little things in life. Happy to see your content mate.
Small correction here: The Leather Shield from the wanderer has the 2nd best defenses of any small shield, only surpased by the Effigy Shiled, which has the highest lightning resistance in the game but weighs 3 units. The Leather Shield, when upgraded through the normal path up to +14, has a stability on par with a +5 Heater or Grass Crest Shield or an unupgraded one at +5, which is pretty solid for a shield with fast parry and low weight if you ask me.
PS: There is also a very fun and rarely talked about pair of spells in DS1 called Magic Shield and Strong Magic Shield which not only reduce the stamina cost for blocking but also increase the shields stats and have a very low INT requirement at 15. If you use the strong version found in the Duke's Archives it raises all the shields resistances to %100 and cuts the stamina cost of blocking by more than half, esentially turning any Small Shield into a Great Shield with a fraction of the weight and stat requirements for the duration of the buff while retaining the ability to parry. Pretty neat if you ask me.
I CANT WAIT FOR THE OTHER SOULS CLASS VIDEOS, I LOVED THIS
Another really solid point of the bandit, battle axe has both vertical and horizontal attacks (and good move sets overall, not garbage ones). Might sound like nothing, but there are some scenarios where having both makes your life so much easier compared to being stuck with one or the other.
for monk, i always rush 25 faith then go 50 strength for sanctus and paladin leeroys hammer
I knew sorcerer was gonna be trash while you were explaining the challenge
My sleepy brain really thought you had said "scented pyromancy flame" and I thought maybe I had missed something in my gazillion playthroughs XD love the channel, love your work, thank you for a great bedtime story ❤❤❤
Note that AR is misleading for 2-handing your weapon - even after the 50% strength, your attack gets extra damage (can be seen on the Moonlight Greatsword since it has no strength scaling)
I am pretty sure the scimitar can parry while being two handed as well, negating the need for weapon swapping.
I am sure you have put that together, but something something engagement, so I guess I will comment anyway.
I bet on the Mask of the Mother... damn, no bragging rights for me
I love doing this type of run. Started doing them back several years ago and come back to do them again every now and then. My personal restriction is to only use the same class of equipment throughout and loosely following the class' initial stat spread proportions.
This was a wonderful video. Can't wait to see the streams and videos to follow. Also bonus kitty footage was much appreciated.
Is Press becoming "He who shall not be named"? Hahaha
I think your rules (copies of the starting class items allowed) would have allowed you a second, off-hand, scimitar for the wanderer. So you could do the parry + riposte without menuing. And roleplay Drizzt 😎
Yeah that wolf ring is crazy amazing. Just completed a melee only run and it just stayed on.
It's a bit unfair to not allow a mage his magic.
I guess if I would do this it would be more theme centric to the class, meaning I would be able to use what I think fits for the class.
Like sorcerers would use magic.
Pyromancers use pyromancy
Bandits would be allowed to use great axes and hammers
Hunter would be allowed the bows.
Also I'll probably give restrictions for each class, like knights aren't allowed rolling for combat purposes.
Mages aren't allowed to use heavy armor.
Things like those.
fun fact the hand axe is ds1 is actually one of the highest dps weapons the game! its essentially a curved sword with much higher base stats and is capable of pushing the high hundreds in AR optimized completely.
Thanks for the info on calculating attack.
Oddly the two classes I struggle to use the most are in S tier if I recall correctly.
I did the opposite and guessed the mask that would drop the least.
AND I WAS EXACT ON THE MONEY.
When you hear the Yoshikage Kira theme, ALWAYS expect hijinks.
34:22 mask of the mother
35:21 doesn't look good for me lol
36:02 oh... Think I'm outta chances by now...
36:20 damn, well; I tried...
This was highly enjoyable, something slightly different to the normal challenge runs, but not too far it's unfamiliar.
Looking forward to if you're continuing the series. DS2 will be wild I think
I've wanted to do this for like years. Glad to see someone did. Great job. Although i don't know about allowing rings and consumables outside of starting gift and estus and well as copies of starting equipment. I would probably make that stricter for myself. Excluding required pickups such as abyss ring.
Seeing the wanderer as S tier is so funny because I dont think I have ever seen anyone even consider picking it as their starting class
Lmao that wanderer swapparry on final boss :D
Mask of the father, maybe?
Thank you for the great time. Watch all the videos and seen 3 live. Always a great time, and I didn’t see anything with Pinwheel.
You can actually use the Cloranthy ring for four kings AND still have the Favor&Protection ring afterwards, you just need to trade the Xanthous crown to Snuggly/Hawk girl
32:54 THAT TRANSITION THO
I'm so glad the wanderer did that well. by far one of my favorite classes for the fashion souls alone. replace the hood and gloves with elite knight armor and it looks insane.
This was really cool! I’ve never used a magic class in Dark Souls 1 but that’s what I want to try next.
I think an extremely important mention for the AR discussion is motion values. Its what makes the op weapons op
Awesome Runs and Summary, well done :)
This was a fun video and it would be neat to see you do this with the other Souls games too! Although personally, I would have allowed additional spells on sorcerer, cleric, and pyromancer. Sort of feels like kneecapping their whole gimmick, you're already locked to the worst casting tools anyway, and your other rule prevents upgrading to ascended pyro flame too. It would be like saying the hunter can only use the arrows they start with and you can't buy more. Also I wonder if thief would have ranked higher if you banned starting gifts. Having exclusive access to the master key would have likely jumped it a few places I'd reckon for its unique routing capabilities.
NEW KYLE UPLOAD 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 (it will take 7 years before a new one)
Spells are more of an ammo alternative than an actual main weapon. The way this challenge is set up it ends up almost completely ignoring spell usage outside of just cheesing enemies which is a shame. If you plan to do a similar challenge for the other games in the series (please do, these are super entertaining) maybe look into some basic spells to allow.
I knew Wanderer would be high, but I'm surprised to see Cleric there too
If you are still thinking of doing this for ds2, there is a ring in that game which gives you decent damage with your fists, and they can be upgraded with str and dex I think, so it isnt entirely hopeless
I'd be really interested to know how you'd change these rankings if you allowed upgrades that made sense. So still no boss weapons, for example, but upgrading to any weapon in the same weapon type, for example, might make the thief way more viable. It's been ages since I played Dark Souls, so I barely remember most of the options you'd even have, but allowing specific weapon upgrades because they make sense for a class would be a fun change, especially since I wasn't sure at the start if you were doing this as a no-level up challenge.
if you do do the DS2 starting class run, for the Deprived, you could probably farm Awestones for that ring you get from the Covenant of Champions to increase your punching power. That'd be allowed if you're going by the same ruleset as this game.
Theif my beloved.
(Live/Scripted mix of commentary was excellent.)
Would be cool to see a more extreme version of this where you can only level up the equipment and not the character stats,
also you can't take off your armor (so you're stuck with the fat roll in some classes) but you can use any magic, pyro, etc, as long as the starting stats allow it
Dang~, no wonder this video took a while. Quite the marathon, well done!
14:11 That was rude.
My first playthrough was a Wanderer, with a halberd, bow, and enough faith for lightning spear. Dex/Faith for the win! It's been the basis for every other blind playthrough that I've done.
14:19 Two-handing the dagger is not ideal. You get a worse+slower moveset, higher stamina drain per attack and shorter reach for a minor AR gain.
I had to consider this when i did my bonfireless run. I ended up going pyro since you cant go wrong with setting stuff on fire & can skip most of Izalith by joing chaos servants
Can we all respect how much dedication these challenges take it's insane!
Damn the Transition at 32:55 was smooth!
I had no idea that the scimitar could parry. And the parry animation is swaggy. Wooow.
Holly molly, just got the wanderer and the scimitar (plus power within). I beat capra and ornstein and smough first try, two things i've never done before. Just melted 4 kings and seath. This weapon is light, quick and with high damage output. My new favourite now! Actually the only boss I didn't first try was the iron golem, but that's because I went to him with only a +5 Scimitar (and almost got the W). Well I got to +10, I evaporated him.
This is exactly what I was looking for.
I don't know if it's because It's been a while since I watched a video of yours, but that mic sounds so good
I subbed to ya because of this video. Never knew cleric was such a demon of melee
what about the green blossom, doesn´t that increase your stamina regeneration as well? like the grass crest shield and the ring? did you forget to mention/count them as well when listing your options to generate stamina back?
I did deprived a while ago, guess I have to give the other classes a shot soon
If you plan on doing this with DS2, don't worry about Deprived not having any weapons as the damage scaling to fists is actually really good and covenant of champions gives a ring that increases the damage of your fists.
'Let's set the rules which degrade all magic builds to a melee builds with wasted stats' - good start
thats how it goes when doing class specific runs, magic is stupid without the restrictions
@@pocketinfinity6733 I don't think that magic is better than a buff build or pyro. Especially without power within and considering prices.
In the end of the day it doesn't matter. He is trying to rank classes. So it's only natural that strong classes should be in top spot. And they are at the bottom only thanks to horrible rule
He did spell only runs. Look at those if you want to see magic. Weird thing to complain about
I feel like I’m watching a “How it’s made” episode when I watch these
I kinda have a problem with disallowing the sorcerer to upgrade the soul arrow spell. The game clearly intends you to go from regular to great soul arrows. Limiting that kinda feels like forbidding upgrading your weapon to +15.
Ten runs, TEN back to back, all-bosses run in Dark Souls 2, that sounds like some divine punishment for some awful blasphemy...
always nice to see a new upload from ya, you should do somethin on lies of p sometime
If you do this challenge for the other games, make it so classes can use the upgraded forms of the spells. (Soul Arrow could be evolved through all it's forms then maybe you could make it evolve to soul spear too. Heal could evolve to great heal.)
In the case of Elden Ring, maybe just have the classes that start with some spell gradually evolve within that spell type too (Glintstone Pebble evolving into Comet, Heal evolving into Erdtree heal)
Prisoner's may not have an evolution but it is already strong enough by default and they start with an estoc so they'll be fine.