First get his attention and kite him all the way back upstairs beyond the door you originally unlocked to reach him. Make sure he follows all the way up then back up to the door out of the tower back into undead berg until he starts to leash. He’ll back away slowly with his shield up but won’t actually block effectively. You can take a cheap shot with a ranged skill of your choice or a single melee blow then roll back. He’ll get mad again, swing around at air while you back safely out of range then inevitably get leashed again. Rinse and repeat.

Occasionally he’ll pull back just out of the doorway onto the top of the stairs outside but usually leashes in the room. Just keep your shield up and make sure to pull him back until he starts to retreat back down to his cellar and you’ll soon have the sweet vengeance you desire.

Long time fan, first time writing in. I’m GMing for the first time now, I’ve had one full session with my group, which they all say they enjoyed (thank goodness). But while playing I’ll be in the middle of setting a tone, acting out an NPC or describing the setting, and I sometimes get stuff from them like “Ok, we all agree on doing shit. Can we get to the fighting part?”

I’m determined to focus on what’s fun for them, but I’ll also be heartbroken if they could care less about NPCs or story or… y’know ROLE PLAYING. It’s been one session. I’ve cut and pasted 75% of my original ideas already to try and give them a place to shine or feel accomplished.

Thinking on my toes I get, but I’m terrified that they won’t be interested in NPCs or heroes or plot. How much plot can I push on them and how much of my original plot/ideas do I toss out the window to keep them happy? Can I do that and still keep some sort of progressive unified plot rolling along?

1. Haval’d
2. Haval’d 2: Haval Hits Harder
3. Death by Hollows near the shortcut to Lower Burg (with the dogs), you read it right, I got so frustrated with myself that I allowed myself to be beaten by Hollows I can kill in one hit.
4. Haval’d with a Vengeance
5. Decided to go through the Lower Burg and FELL OFF THE STAIRS for the shortcut.

Each time I was Haval’d I managed to reclaim my souls, then lost around 8-10K due to those Hollows being reckless. And 2K when I fell off the stairs.

Haval is my nemesis, he has been since I found him by accident before fighting the Taurus Demon. It is never a quick death, I chip away at his health, try not to be greedy, and know my pyromancy is too slow and too few in damage (he is a Dragon Killer so it makes sense he has strong Fire Res), but then I roll too early, he turns during the swing and BAMF!

Now he has had my number so many times it is a psychological issue, I decided to walk off to the Depths and clear my head. Along the way I realised the Giant Rat is still alive, how is that possible? Well anything is possible when you detour after beating the Depths Channeler and accidentally fall down a hole right into the Basilisk chamber like I did. That leads back to the area below the major aquaduct the Giant Rat resides in, so I ended up going through to the Gaping Dragon avoiding that whole rat fight.

I would not recommend my action though as where I landed was Basilisk City. Survival by running blind and falling on top of the Ring of the Evil Eye, a lovely little unit that recoups health for kills.

Anyway, I went the Capra way through the Depths because the place you meet the Butcher has barrels with a hole behind them (Joey avoided this originally because you had no idea what was below), it is a very short drop lands you on the ledge overlooking the Giant Rat room. There is a Spider Shield on a corpse you can reach by walking around the ledge.

This is the perfect place to snipe (or in my case explode) the sub-boss as it has no ranged capacity, I don’t know about arrows, but my fire caused huge damage with the rat not reacting at all. It was laughable really.

I cleared out the Depths again just for souls and leveled up before saving. I bullied my way through a boss to feel good about myself, just as I’m sure Haval is putting his feet up, glad he smashed me so hard I turned into dust.

I made good progress in hunting down the last bosses and now just have Gwyn to beat to finish the game. I’ve been spending some time upgrading my equipment ready for NG+ where everything is meant to be around 3 times stronger… I’ve still got a lot of work ahead if I want to 100% the game.

Major Tasks

* Leave the Asylum
* Ring the First Bell
* Ring the Second Bell
* Survive Sen’s Fortress
* Return to the Asylum
* Enter the Painted World
* Defeat Gwyn
* Aquire Souls of: Moonlight Butterfly, Quelaag, Iron Golem,

Gwendolyn, Smough, Sif and Gywn for Boss Soul Weapons
* Start New Game ++
* Aquire third Soul of Sif for final Boss Soul Weapon to

complete achievements

Major Bosses

* Asylum Demon
* Taurus Demon
* Bell Gargoyle
* Capra Demon
* Moonlight Butterfly
* Gaping Dragon
* Chaos Witch Quelaag
* Ceaseless Discharge
* Centipede Demon
* Stray Demon
* Great Grey Wolf Sif
* Pinwheel
* Iron Golem
* Crossbreed Priscilla
* Ornstein and Smough
* Dark Sun Gwyndolin
* Four Kings
* Demon Firesage
* The Bed of Chaos
* Seath The Scaleless
* Nito
* Gwyn Lord of Cinder

Mini Bosses

* Armored Boar
* Black Hydra
* Black Phantom(Kirk Knight of Thorns, Maneater Mildred, Xanthous King Jeremiah)
* Butcher (2 of 2)
* Giant Cat (3 of 3)
* Giant Rat
* Golden Crystal Golem (2 of 2)
* Havel The Rock
* Hydra
* Parasitic Wall Hugger
* Ricard the Archer
* The Black Knight (7 of 7)
* The Bridge Wyvern
* The Channeler (3 of 3)
* The Tower Knight
* Titanite Demon
* Undead Dragon (2 of 2)