... so play Quake + Quoth mod... that would satisfy your query ;) 

<Shambler> holy shitting fuck
<Shambler> when you pop out onto dat view of the boreal valley city
<Shambler> DAT VIEW! 

I find invasions add a great deal extra variety to the overall experience, such as one encounter which had me and a friend laughing our arses off.

I was helping him via coop and we not long reached a particular night-time location, He gets invaded and we both proceeded to fight the guy. He's a squirmy one that's for sure. Friend's covenant kicks in and a Blue Sentinel comes to our aid. The invader knows he's outmatched, especially having Lloyd Talismans thrown in his face. Screw this he must have thought and retreated further ahead to mingle with some nasty enemies to take advantage of them. The invaded expected us to come to him.

We had a better idea.

Seed of the Giant. The invader gets slashed in the back by one of those enemies and then stun-locked into its deadly combo, dying soon after. That was perhaps the funniest encounter in a Souls game I've personally experienced in a while. 

Just trying to comfort poor ol' Bal last night who despite probably having 850% more experience and skill in games like this is totally noobing it up, possibly because he has chosen a Pyromancer build.

I've read in a couple of places that a magic build (ranged or otherwise?) is pretty weak in this?? I can imagine that being so, partly because of the need to lock on to enemies are close range thus encouraging them to smash your head in, and partly because of managing mana as well as health/stamina. Is that true??

What builds are people rocking, and what builds are feasible??

I've gone for uber-boring knight, partly because it was recommended as a good starter build, partly because I like having some good honest H2H combat in these sort of fantasy games (I get my ranged weapon fix elsewhere). I've stuck with sword and shield and kept my weight low and my weapon single handed so I can block, then dodge, then still land a decent flurry of blows.

I can imagine "adjacent" builds to this working well, e.g. a rogue-ish build with light armour and maximum daggers for speed, or a barbarian-ish build with massive weapon aiming for just one good hit per encounter.

Discuss etc etc 

That allowed me to totally clown Ludex Gundyr on the first try, and gave me some safety distance for some of the more annoying parts of high wall. Then I picked up some sorceries and a staff in the settlement and ditched pyromancy because lol it's shit.

Found a straightsword fairly early in the high wall and I've got that at +8 now with a heavy gem and I'm pretty much using that for everything, with soul arrow to plink away at stuff from safety. 

Was my starter class as I prefer faith builds. Extra heals are handy and I just got sunlight sword.
Faith feels very weak compared to previous games. 

Dark Souls III is my first introduction to the series. I did attempt the first Dark Souls awhile back, but I was not fond of it, and quit before even getting to the first boss. I suppose I gave the third game a more faithful attempt because it has a proper PC version, and they've had 3 games to iron out all the little bugs and annoyances that might have plagued the previous titles.

Right from the start though, from my brief experience with the first game, that I knew I had to plan all my actions very carefully, I was going in completely blind.

ludex Gundyr took about 7 tries before I could finally beat him, that gave me a good insight to what I would be up against in the future.I have always believed in the theory of slow and steady wins the race, and I applied that to my pace in Dark Souls 3. I never rush through a new area, or even an area I am only somewhat familiar with. I will explore every nook and cranny as I can before facing the boss, and I am not against grinding a bit to level up, making sure I am well prepared for what may lie ahead.

By following through those procedures, I have become much more proficient then since I first started. It took only 3 tries to defeat Vordt of the Boreal Valley, and I managed to defeat the Cursed Rotted Greatwood on the first attempt. I have begun my journey onto the road of sacrifices.

I wasn't sure if I felt I made the right choice giving Dark Souls 3 a buy, not knowing if I would enjoy it. I see now I made the right choice, as I am enjoying every moment. Its certainly unlike any game I have played, and its very refreshing. But you have to be willing to commit time to it, or it won't be as pleasurable. 

... during my first playthrough.

I had an absolute blast playing a Cleric-build for my second character in DS2 I wanted to try that again. Rapier in my left hand, Mace in my right. And miracles...

Besides healing and lightning blade, everything else was too slow and useless in both PVE and PVP encounters. I had better luck using bombs/urns or throwing daggers for ranged combat. Lightning spear/stake just plinked mere speckles of health regardless of a 40 faith total with both Ring of Prayer + Ring of the Sun's First Born equipped. Switched to Knight's Ring instead. Lightning Blade cast on a +10 Heavy Mace was simply insane in comparison. Very disappointed with faith in DS3.

Think I had more success with offensive miracles during DS2. Heavenly Thunder in the first Bell Tower was a nice bait tactic versus Shades. Good miracles to acquire early on in that game unlike DS3.

The mace was a great weapon though overall, especially for shield guard-breaking. Rapier mostly for a quick stun/finish or parry.

Beat the final boss a few days ago. My build by the end of it:
Status Equipment FashionSouls 

Spot on post that. Very similar experience to me (6 attempts on Grundr, 2 on Vordt, 2 on Greatwood - almost the same totals!). 

Okay so this is the DS experience I've been waiting for *rolls eyes*.

Things wot make this fight near impossible:
> Pontiff Fuckturd moves at the speed of sound.
> Pontiff Cuntface seems to have a vast reservoir of near instantaneously recoverable stamina.
> Those fucking flailing fire and magic swords swirl so much shitty sparkly effects around that at any given point I can only see 10% of the screen and that 10% is my rapidly diminishing health bar.
> The 2nd phase Pontiff Twatstench phantom hides behind the original so there's no way to see the fucking attacks coming.

Things wot don't have much bearing on this fight:
> Player skill.

Basically it's like trying to deathmatch against another character with twice as much health as the total of your own health plus every estus flask you own, with the infinite stamina cheat on, in a rave with some cunt sticking fire and magic glowsticks up your nose, until the 2nd phase where it's like that except it's two fucking players and one is partially invisible. FML. 

please describe every boss from now on, it's fucking gold :D

But yeah, he sounds hard. I am not sure cos me and Scampie JOLLY COOPED his arse in 2 or 3 attempts :P 

I tried to solo him once.
Said "fuck that", went to the dungeon instead, came back 15 levels stronger, summoned two phantoms, stunlocked his scrawny ass in a corner. 

When you play offline like shmabrel, do you also lose the ability to summon (and be invaded) by offline bots? 

Just like Daz's anus. 

WHERE IS THE SUMMon outside?? I couldn't find it after czg said in IRC. I have been summoned by an NPC once and found a summon but it's nowhere near there. 

is between the entrance and the platform you can drop down to grab the ring.

You need to be in "ember" form for it to work.

Another thing to note is that poise has been broken for a couple of days meaning the game has suddenly got exponentially harder for those relying on heavy armour for increased stability.

Also note that you can set a password for summons and summon your friends. Me and one of my friends have played about 25% of the game together and had a laugh riot, this still invites phantoms but you're more likely to succeed against those asshats as a pair. 

And there's one NPC summon sign in front of each statue in the area before the fog door. 

pontiff can be parried. multiple times. he is also vulnerable to bleed. he is much like dark souls 1 final boss - really hard as long as you're clueless about parrying. he's not the only boss with the exact same weakness, btw.

honestly though, the enemy design is pretty irritating in this game. the amount of infinite stamina mobs with 30-hit combos is above enjoyable level, not unlike dark souls 2.

weapon balance is a joke as well. get a straightsword (any will work), invest in physical scaling stats and good infusion, mash attack button like a madman - works on enemies, bosses, pvp players. 

http://www.healthytyping.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/21.jpg 

Did him in under ten attempts, admittedly by using 11 Estus Flasks at +8, full HP potion, Siegward Brew and an Ember and finishing on about 6 HP. But I fucking did it unlike these cooping asssniffers.

On the other hand Yhorm who gets his own cameo in the intro, went down first go with only 5 Estus used, and that can't all be down to the wonderful Onion Bro lending a hand.

weapon balance is a joke as well. get a straightsword (any will work), invest in physical scaling stats and good infusion, mash attack button like a madman - works on enemies, bosses, pvp players.

Works for me! Love it! 

...I tried him with a weapon infused with bleed and it didn't seem to do much more??

One thing that was useful was realising that the 2nd phase isn't that bad as the jump attack is fairly predictable.

What's parrying btw - blocking and then attacking when the enemy rebounds? 

Yhorm is a dumb fight. If you followed Siegward's quest, Siegward solos him for you with some random magical giant killing sword.

If you didn't, you have to realize that you have to run past Yhorm to his throne, pick up and equip the copy of the weapon that Siegward would be using which has no fucking use except that it has a weapon art that kills Yhorm in like 4 hits.

Or you can try and fight him properly and it takes fucking forever because he has a billion HP and isn't even that interesting to fight. 

https://youtu.be/1hrh94Dc-h0 <- that video is a good introduction to parries. although it's about dark souls 1, it's still relevant for dks3 in most aspects. some things work different, but the main idea is still the same 

is a disappointment for sure. but it's a fanservice, as it mirrors one of the demon's souls bosses. too bad they put that gimmick into a mandatory lord boss fight rather than into some optional boss encounter. 

I wish Yhorm had been more dramatic. Having Onion Bro around is always a morally uplifting experience, but I'd have been happy to have to put a bit more effort and tension in.

So far I think my favourite boss has been the Greatwood. Properly fucking bonkers and not that difficult.