Let's Talk About 5 Changes In Dark Souls II

No story spoilers here! Just a quick discussion of some shifts from Dark Souls to Dark Souls II. Fire your opinions away in the comments!

[Mister_G]

I didn't like the whole 'Max HP goes down when you die' thing, but I've learned to live with it. Ring of Binding helps a lot, very similar to the Cling Ring from Demons Souls.

[LAWSON72]

All the things I heard about human effigies being hard to come by is kind of BS IMO. I played my whole first playthrough with out running out. Hell I wasted like 5-6 of them on the smelter demon and used them in every new area I found. I probably used 30+ and when I only had two left I found a merchant and bought 13 of the ones he had in stock. The only time I got my health down low was when I was experimenting with jumps to treasures. Perhaps most have had a different experience then I but I did not even use the ring of binding.

I think it sounds worse than what it actually is. IMO the way it was in DeS was worse.

Also *****SPOILERS late game you can get humanity from a shrine when you have no effigies left, and to my kmowledge it is free, but I am not sure because as I said I never ran out.

[Master-H]

Yea, smelter was an A-hole, without proper dodging you won't get far with him, unless you summon player phantoms. I think he's the toughest boss i fought so far , am close to the end game now.

[Master-H]

ALso try the life protection ring if you dont want to turn hollow at all, it's only 3k to repair.

[LAWSON72]

The only thing about the Smelter Demon that sucked was I did 19 damage and needed some help to actually lower his health. I think his weakness was blunt weapons so my schimmy and heidi's sword did nothing. His attacks were easily avoidable, but with the occasional human error throughout 10 or so minutes I would die. The problem was every time I summoned someone for help they died when he did the shockwave thing. By the time I beat him I think I yelled at my TV saying "Are you people fn stupid when his sword is in the ground you dont attack" 10 or so times, too bad they could not hear me, lol.

At least when I finally beat him my rolling skills improved greatly.

[JJShredder]

Smelter Demon ticked me right off for awhile until I went and ran across the Gyrm Greatshield. If you have the strength for it (32 I think), it makes him quite manageable since it blocks %100 fire damage.

[joab777]

Im not a big fan of enemies dying after awhile. At the very least, they should reappear once u reach the next bonfire. But I guess u wouldnt be able to use an aesthetic if it did.

I wonder how many ppl totally screwed themselves with these aesthetics? Using them over and over until it was so damn difficult and irreversible.

[Saints94]

Very useful for getting new game+ items though. Moonlight Greatsword and Crystal soul spear is very useful in pvp.

[Veneno]

All of the new systems aren't a bother when you learn how to work around them and even exploit them. What bothered me the most was the lackluster level design. The previous 2 games had so much more character to them. Part of the Souls experience is the dreary atmosphere and environmental hazards which I felt DS2 is lacking.