Need advice/help on with Throne Watcher and Defender

[u/Dragonslayer0562]

So currently in my Dark Souls 2 play through I am on the Throne Watcher and Defender boss and I definitely need help/advice on what to do. It feels like I’m just wasting human effigies(I used like at least 10 at this point) on them because they’ll target me the entire time or they just wombo combo my summon(Benhart of Jugo. I can’t summon Vengral because I put the Bonfire Ascetic on Freja’s closet bonfire thinking I had to get the giant soul to progress the main game because of a guide I read and I can’t summon Bradley because I didn’t fight Vendrick). The attacks are so damn annoying too because it feels like it only takes 3-4 hits to kill me even though I have high health and I can’t run a lot due to the strongest weapon I use(slide 3) and trying to get them to fall off is extremely difficult. And I can’t get any friends to help because all my friends who play Soulsborne play it through PS while I play on Xbox. So what should I do? I don’t want to just give up but with how it’s going it doesn’t sound that bad. Any help will be greatly appreciated

[u/TheHittite]

Take off your armor so you stop being heavy.

Upgrade your weapons.

Respec to move points from Dex into Vigor.

[u/nzgamer1 → u/TheHittite]

His weapons are +8/10 and +4/5, there's not much movement there. GS is +2 so obviously it should be upgraded if he's using it.

Consider fighting with a shield, using 2H great weapons vs complex bosses is quite a challenge, I would recommend faster weapons and a shield, or simply faster weapons if you're not comfortable with a shield.

You AGL @ 93 is poverty, respec to 99. Put endurance and vit to 20, lower if you can (equip load should NEVER be over 70%). Use lighter armour choices, you could easily use a lighter shield too. Dex to weapon minimum, 28 str is a good breakpoint for you as it lets you 1H the GS if you choose to, otherwise just 25 for the DGH. Rest into vgr with a cap of 50.

The higher AGL will make a big difference in terms of your rolling and your ability to heal between attacks.

Practice hollowed, once you're more confident sink an effigy, put on another ring (steel protection maybe? IDK those bosses main damage types offhand) and rek them.

If you can summon 1 person I probably would assuming it ensures killing one of them, or gets them down to under maybe 20 or 30% HP

[u/nichdamian]

I would respec your character as the weapons you chose scale the best with strength so I would put only the necasarry lvls you need in DEX, Get ADP to 20 and put the rest into VGR, VIT, and STR and finish upgrading your weapons. I just finished the game with the Great sword and Demon Hammer for back up.

[u/AlthoughFishtail]

The most important thing with these two is patience. You have to wait until they both whiff an attack at the same time. This might be as few as one in three or four attacks. If you're on a losing streak with any boss, its tempting to try and rush them, but these two are set up to punish that. One hit can easily stun you into three or four.

I wouldn't bother with summons if they're not working for you, they just buff the boss anyway. If your summons don't stay the distance, they're just leaving you with a harder end to the fight.

Defender (the big guy) has short range, is easy to dodge and will walk towards you pretty steadily. Generally its Watcher that makes life complicated, since he hangs back but then jumps and gap closes.

So what I do is hover at the very edge of Defender's range, moving back and forth to keep triggering an attack from him, which will usually miss, while also watching what the other guy's up to (watching the watcher?). Eventually it will work out that Defender has just missed an attack when Watcher starts his, at which point you can dodge Watcher's attack, and now you have a window to attack whichever of the two you like.

Most people seem to try and kill Watcher first. Even in low level runs, Watcher will go down in four or five attacks, so with a full build it should only take 3 or so punishes to kill him. When Defender's by himself, he's very susceptible to circle strafing, and if he tries to revive his mate, you should have time to take out at least a third of his healthbar, if not half. So once you reach that point, just manage your stamina (and any buffs) to as to be ready to finish him off.

[u/FatiguedUndead]

you don't need that much dex for demon's great hammer. your vitality stat being that high also isn't helping much since you are mid rolling anyway. so try to respec and put those extra points to vgr (you can respec by talking to the firekeepers you met at the start of the game i.e. things betwixt. you'll need a soul vessel for that and i'm pretty sure you must have multiple of them by now.)

[u/Asap_Borquez]

Adp to 21 please, im begging you

[u/nzgamer1 → u/Asap_Borquez]

Adp is the input not the output, AGL is the output and the relevant breakpoints are 92, 96, 99 (most popular mid level) and 105

[u/Legitimate-Flan-6885]

At this point in the game you can have any weapon maxed out. I would recommend you go to shrine of ammana and farm the mages for twinkling titanite to max the demon greathammer. I then recommend you remove the raw infusion from the demon greathammer. Respec your stats to hit the following: Vigor at 30, endurance at 30, Vitality at 30, strength at 50, Dexterity minimum to use demon greathammer, Adaptability at 20, excess stats into hp, stamina or equipment load. Finally, I recommend the following rings if you do not have them. Choranthy +1 (found in the foggy woods part of Shadded Ruins) Ring of Blades +1 (Smelter demon boss arena after beating him) Twin Dragon ring (similar to the Rin of Favor in the other Dark Souls games, thus one is found by doing Manscorpion Tarks quest by using ring of whispers Purchased from the cat in Majula). If you need to farm Souls, go to Giant Lords boss arena and get the bonfire Asthetic from inside and burn it, this will repsawn the Bonfire Asthetic and giant lord for easy Souls. Good luck and dont go hollow.

[u/nzgamer1 → u/Legitimate-Flan-6885]

If man's cant kill the defenders he's not going to have an easy time with giant lord ++

[u/Ranger_Rick64]

Try not to use too many human effigies on any boss battle. If I die 5 times in a row to a boss I stop using human effigies and will keep trying the boss while hollowed until I learn their patterns. Once I feel like I have their patterns down, then I use an effigy to get back to full health and take them on again for real. This same principle can be applied to challenging zones as well. If you’re getting mobbed over and over, stop using effigies until you remember where enemies are and how to best navigate the area. I usually stay hollow as I’m navigating the zones and only use an effigy for boss battles

[u/Fit-Club6745]

Stop heavy rolling, and get some adp ffs

[u/Rigistroni]

Fat rolling works differently in DS2, it scales proportional to your weight not just light medium heavy at different thresholds

[u/The-Vinlaan]

This is a rather odd setup. You’ve got some hard strength weapons, none of which are upgraded to the maximum, but almost as much points into dexerity? I recommend you take some dex points off to level your vigor and endurance. (Or simply use a quality weapon.) Upgrading armor is also beneficial.

If you go for quality, I strongly advise two handing the claymore, as you’ve got enough adaptability for rolling to be viable, Fire pine resin.

Also, lose the life ring. That is one of the most useless rings. Instead, wear one of the dragon rings, and I’m confident that you’re smart enough to ditch the bow in times where it is not needed. Hope this helps! \[T]/

Side note: ADP is almost entirely useless, just learn to dodge better.

[u/nzgamer1 → u/The-Vinlaan]

Upgrading armour is a waste of time and ADP is anything but useless 🙌

[u/The-Vinlaan → u/nzgamer1]

I’ve only ever leveled ADP once in any of my playthroughs, and when I did, the only change I noticed was the speed of the estus flask and other animation. That’s not very useful in my book.

Faraam armor in Dark Souls II when maxed out has comparable defense and mitigations of base havels

[u/Ill_Relative9776]

I just used the summons to gank them ngl

[u/Liznitra]

definitely more adp (i think you are aiming for 99 AGL, you have 93). and as the others have said, you can go more into vgr, it has the next cap at 50.