Dark Souls 2 - (PC, 360, PS3, XBO, PS4)

[Jed]

I'm still slogging my way through Crown of the Sunken King, and I'm about to call it fucking quits. Those three bastards you have to fight all at once are pissing me the hell off, I've gone through close to 30 human effigy's just to summon those two phantoms to help. It wouldn't be so bad if the Cave of the Dead wasn't such a tough stretch between the bonfire and the fog door, and the two NPC's are such weaklings I always lose one before the boss fight. Ugh.

[Pineapple]

If you're running low on effigies you could try using the rings that let you keep your souls when you die, it also allows you to keep your humanity. And those two NPCs are just about entirely worthless, see if you can summon a couple of real people to help as that will probably work much better, even if the person you summon is terrible.

Not to turn you away from it but the 2nd DLC's bosses are even harder, imo.

[Jed]

Ah, I wasn't aware it allowed you to keep your humanity, that should help for sure. I don't know what the deal is with summoning lately but I almost never see summon signs anymore, and if I put one down I can sit there for nearly an hour before getting summoned.

[Pineapple]

You may be over or under leveled for the area, you can only summon people and be summoned by people who are within so many levels of you (like 10 I think), and also who are on the same playthrough as you. If you're level 100 on your first NG you cannot assist or be assisted by someone who is level 100 on NG+.

I just started over tonight so I can do an all bosses run on the first NG, I haven't figured out a way to beat the bosses in the new DLC on intensity 3 yet and it was becoming hyper frustrating.

[Dunlap]

I'm still at the three bastards, haven't had the time to play much this month.
There have been no real players around when I've tried to get them, so I was summoning the NPCs to at least give the guys a distraction.
My last few attempts have been solo, though, trying to conserve my effigies. I think I'm making more progress doing it solo than with the NPCs.

[Pineapple]

I was unable to beat them solo, but watched a guy do it on twitch. He basically ran to the left to begin (instead of going straight at them like I had been doing each time), which funnels all 3 guys into one area where you can take a few stabs and then retreat. Basically he would hit once or twice, turn around and run back towards the initial fog gate, then drop off the middle platform to the left side and come back up the little choke point from behind. At that point the 3 guys had spread out as they tried to follow him, and he was able to repeat the process 3 or 4 times and do serious damage to one of them at a time, until he made the fight look so easy you'd wonder why you ever had trouble. Probably sounds a lot easier than it is to actually do, but it looked like a super solid strategy. Just have some base weapon at +10 and use some Aromatic Ooze (can be bought from Laddersmith Gilligan) for super damage and they should go down pretty quickly.

[Dunlap]

That's pretty much what I got to doing, I head left to force the two to come at me at the same time, then I can bait them more easily and run around the corner for enough time to chug estus. I got one of the guys most of the way down, I have a feeling once I've got one then the other two will become a lot easier. Right now they just swarm me and it's hard to get a clear shot without taking a hit. My giant club doesn't help with that, either, but I just love this club.. With lesser foes I can pancake them on the first hit, so if I'm first to swing I'm good, but I have to hit twice to pancake Havel even with the stone ring. I'm going to try beefing up by armor and just give up mobility for a couple rounds and see if that works out any better.

[Pineapple]

If that still gives you trouble, I'd try something like a rapier and use the two handed R2 strike, which pokes from pretty good distance and if the weapon has that ooze does a good deal of damage, also it's pretty fast and light so it leaves more room for heavy armor. You have the right idea with the stone ring, though, you definitely want to be able to interrupt Haveldude's attacks before that Dragon's Tooth ends up pancaking you!

[Dunlap]

Going alone I saw I was doing twice as much damage as with the companions, so I kept at it alone.
I finally was able to start getting some distance and an idea of the layout of the arena, and was able to take down them down.
My club broke with one hit to go, and I didn't have a secondary, so I had to resort to my fists, but I did it!

[Jed]

I've completely given up on the three bastards for the moment and moved on to the Crown of the Old Iron King. I'm having a MUCH easier time with this DLC than the last one. Probably because I'm playing through it with my Swordsman and all the bonfire intensities are still at 1. I'd like to try Sunken King with my Swordsman but the thought of slogging all the way through Black Gulch again kind of gives me a headache. Worst level in the series BY FAR.