YOU DEFEATED!
Man, "You defeated" really was awesome. It should be up in the pantheon of ridiculous winning messages, along with "A winner is you!", and "You're winner!".Here we are, part two. I left off being killed 18 times by the Gargoyles, feeling helpless. Strangely enough, it wasn't until I started fighting The Lost Sinner (yeah, fuck him. More on him in a later post) that I figured out how I would beat the Gargoyles. Up until this point, I had been using my halbred +4, which I've said a few times already is awesome. It IS awesome: it's pretty powerful, and it has a crazy reach. But you know what it doesn't have? Speed! And the attacks take too much stamina. Enter the boring old longsword. I had one, and decided the moveset was good, and while it wasn't as powerful as my halbred, I could afford to sacrifice some power for the speed I so desperately needed. So I upgraded the longsword to +4 (I really need to get more titanite to upgrade my equipment past +4), and tried the Sinner again. Well, he killed me a bunch more. But then I got the brilliant idea to use it on the Gargoyles. Lo and behold, it was exactly what I needed!
Firstly, I tried twice on the night of 3/21 (a very late night gaming session, which started at 11PM and ended a little after 3AM. I don't regret a thing!). I got killed twice, and I was still using the halbred. The second attempt I got them down to about half health, but I was still running into the same problem as before. I was too slow, and they were ganging up on me. I did put a summon sign down, and I helped a guy take them out, with the help of an old friend named crazy lag. It was entirely in our favor, and we took them out easily. Aah, good ol' Souls online lag.
After those two attempts, I left and decided I'd level up a bit and try later. I played for a while after. The following night, with my newly upgraded longsword, I decided I wasn't going to bed until either these assholes or the Lost Sinner were dead. I started with the Gargoyles, and in quite a glorious, tense, scary battle, I took them out (on my first try with the longsword, no less)! It took all six of my Estus Flasks (puts your nerves on edge when you have to dash to the other end of the roof and use a flask, just HOPING they don't get to you and kill you first), and one or two Radiant Lifegems, but I did it. Solo, just like I wanted to. It turned out the longsword did almost as much damage as the halbred, but was so much faster, with so much less stamina needed. I could swing it and attack THREE times and still have the stamina to either roll out, or put up my shield. I was also able to keep them at bay, and I don't think I had more than three to deal with at a time. I speculated in the first part of the post about the amount of Gargoyles that can show up. Well, in being summoned and helping the guy I referred to above, there must have been six Gargoyles flying (read, flying = being frozen and transporting. Lag!) around at the mid-point of that battle. Back to my solo battle, I took out one of the first two Gargoyles shortly after the third one joined in, so it was very manageable. My basic strategy was to dash in, get a few hits (when I was sure the other Gargoyles had already attacked) off, then get out. I always kept them in front of me, and I strafed around a lot. Also had to just run straight past them at times, to avoid getting caught in a mob (I did get caught once, can't believe I got out of it). When one started breathing fire, I would try to finish him off quickly. They generally stay behind the others when they breathe fire, and you can get a free hit or two because of this.
Even through all the deaths, the frustration, all that running from bonfire to fog gate, I ended up enjoying this battle. It was quite difficult, but it never made me wanna break my controller. That moment came basically immediately after (I won't go into it, but let's just say a long ladder, a pack of AT LEAST ten dogs, and an NPC black Phantom by the name of Vorgel the Sinner make for an INCREDIBLY RAGE INDUCING TIME). Beating the Gargoyles was such a great moment of triumph, it made me feel like a god or something. It's still the best thing the Souls games have going for them. Almost no other games give you that incredible feeling. I love you Dark Souls II.
PS: In browsing through the names of Boss soul weapons, I found out the name of the Belfry Gargoyles' weapons that I had a tough time describing in the first post. They are bidents (like trident, but only two prongs). Makes sense to me!
Times I died: 21
Difficulty: 8.5/10
Overall rating: 8/10
I currently am not sure what's next. I'm hoping I can kill Lost Sinner tonight. That death count is at a nice 15 so far.
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BOSS SOUL DESCRIPTION: "The elaborate stone statue on the belfry mysteriously came to life."
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| Gargoyle Bident |
Gargoyle Bident: "Gargoyles are said to guard castles and forts from ill fortune, and they have appeared in many forms in all the great lands throughout history. Some of them are so meticulously crafted that they look as if they might come to life."
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