NEW PATCH/UPDATE (v.1.04) FOR DARK SOULS!! - ***READ***

WOW! Well i just got back from my weekend away and found out some very exciting news - theres a new patch coming to dark souls which will resolve a number of issues such as balancing, drop rates, weapon damage; but perhaps most importantly of all - MULTIPLAYER!!

Update v.1.04 has been released in Japan already and will be coming to Europe and the USA "soon" according to a number of leading game sites. I've posted the full list of changes below, highlighted what i believe to be some major changes and written comments afterwards summing them up and how i think they will affect the game.


"Translated by Brett (twitch.tv/thebrett)

Taken from in-game testing / jp wiki notes (http://w.livedoor.jp/project_dark)


Magic Changes:

1. Pyro Glove nerfed from 270 to 230. - Oh well not too much of a big deal, only a slight change in power which can be made up for by improving your pyro glove at a trainer such as Quelana. 
2. You can see resonance signs now.
3. Vow of Silence range increased.
4. Homing Soul Mass and other pursuit style spells nerfed. - Not sure how much they will be nerfed by as it didn't give specific details but this kinda sucks as i was about to begin putting some serious hours into my sorcery character. Oh well, i guess the homing was kinda overpowered, let's hope its not too much of a big change! 
5. Magic Shield and Strong Magic Shield duration lowered.
6. Tranquil Walk of Peace and other Slow duration reduced to ~10 secs. Effect supposedly changed from 100% encumbrance to 50%.
7. Iron Flesh effectiveness nerfed. - Oh well, didn't use it much anyway but i did hear one of the major strategies for defeating the final boss entailed using this pyromancy spell... To be honest it slows you down SO much that i found it pretty useless.

Status Changes:

1. Initial weight increased
2. Humanity Item drop rate increased from 10 to 210 - WTF!!??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME??! Well i knew humanity was a pretty rare drop from enemies but sheesh! this is gunna be crazy - its been multiplied by 21 times!!! This is a big change and will mean using humanity won't be nearly as much of a big deal. Brilliant change in my opinion, finally we'll be able to use some humanity to increase our item discovery rates whilst running around, and take part in the online community a bit more.
3. Medium roll recovery faster? (unclear and unconfirmed)

Equipment Changes:

1. Reported some weapon scaling gets improved at higher normal upgrades (+15 uchi dex scaling goes to A)
2. Some scaling reported as changing from A to S with higher upgrades
3. Normal upgrade path buffed by ~10%
4. Lightning path nerfed slightly (~5%) - Not enough of a nerf in my opinion, lightning weapons in this game are totally unscaled, their stats are far beyond that of all the other elements, essentially rendering things like fire or crystal useless. Meh.
5. Grant scaling changed?
6. Gold-hemmed nerfed, still un-upgraded
7. Dust skirt nerfed hard
8. Silver Knights, Sun, Hollow Soldier’s Shield and other medium shield stability nerfed to ~70 at max upgrades to improve Great Shield viability.
9. Crystal Ring Shield scaling drastically nerfed. Does around ~200 +-50 - OH SNAP! I was just getting used to my 700s with the Captain America shield! Oh well, it had to be coming, that thing was a total weapon of mass destruction and definitely unscaled. Will still be useful but you'll have to do a bit more close quarters fighting too now... not much of a big deal really (?).
10. Dragon Greatsword buffed from 360 to 390.

Combat Changes:

1. Lock-on acquisition range increased.
2. Lock-on changing/switching got easier.
3. Ring of Fog users can now be locked on. - HAHA! suck it noobs. No more invaders who are invisible and can't be locked on. They'll take their punishment now.

PVE Changes:

1. Damage reduced on some mobs?
2. HP lowered on some mobs?
3. Bosses drop Humanity and Homeward Bones
4. Ghosts and Skeletons give souls now. - sweet!
5. Twinkling Titanite drop rate improved. - sweeter!
6. Some mobs may have added drops (Pyromancer dropping Lantern? Unconfirmed).

Online Changes:

1. You can see resonance signs.
2. Some invasion restrictions possibly changed? Darkwraith upperlimit confirmed as unchanged.
3. Amount of souls the Master of the game gains changed.
4. Cracked Eye Orbs no longer get consumed on failure. Confirmed

Other Changes:

1. Official Guide nerfed.
2. Lowered requirements for Sunbro covenenant (requirements moved from 50 to 25. 3/4 assists should do the trick) - MASSIVE CHANGE! finally its viable to join the warrior of sunlight covenant without having to have a ridiculously high faith stat of 50! This means that with the minimum starting faith stat of 8, you can help only a few people online as a white phantom to defeat their area boss and solaire will let you in!! This is excellent news for people looking to get that achievement(/trophy), and also getting all the miracle spells. Note that you'll still need to donate 10 medals of sunlight to get all the miracles from this covenant though AND the soul of the final boss (thats right new game + unfortunately).
3. Fixed some freeze issues.
4. Lvl up screen displays souls needed properly now.
5. Dragon-head glitch, snuggly, and magic shield glitches fixed. - suck it noobs! no more soul glitching to reach level 1,000,000. Didn't know there was a snuggly glitch but whatever! fixing any glitches has to be a good thing, and forces those mugs to go through the same pain as the rest of us hard working dark soulers!!
6. Fixed a bug where your inputs come out 1 second later. - Not sure if you guys noticed this during combat but i certainly did! This could definitely provide you with an extra edge during a close fight!
7. Fixed a bug where the second solaire event wont progress.
8. Fixed a bug where feeding frampt a titanite stone then going over 99 resulted in having zero.
9. Fixed some specific map areas where you’d get stuck or be unable to progress.
10. Changed some english subtitles on the overseas port.

Merchant stock updates:

1. Male Undead Merchant: Also sells bottomless box.
2. Female Undead Merchant: Sells Arrows / Crossbolts.
3. Andrei: Sells Arrows / Crossbolts.
4. Domnhal of Xena: Sells Arrows / Crossbolts, Master Key - WOW! no longer do you have to start the game with the master key as a perk!!! its now available to everyone (for a price no doubt) from Xena, in case you didn't know this is the Welsh merchant who can first be found in front of the door in the depths to blighttown, OR later near firelink shrine sitting next to the skeleton which had the ring of sacrafice on it at the bottom of the aquaduct that leads to undead burg.
5. iant Blacksmith (Fapsmith): Sells Arrows / Crossbolts, Small Titanite Shards, Large Tit Shards, Twinkling (8000 per, inf amount), Green Shards, Repair box, upgrade boxes - Sweet Jesus this is good news!! i spent hours farming for this stuff!! Although its 8k each thats not such a big deal, i dont mind paying that amount as the clam farming methods took a LOT longer. This means we can finally upgrade our gear which requires twinkling titanite without too much concern.
6. amos: Arrows / Crossbolts, Small Tit, Large tit, Repair box / upgrade boxes.
7. Ingwood: Sells Transient Curses."

(Source: http://trendygamers.com/2011/11/02/dark-souls-patch-1-04-information/)


As you can see this is quite a substantial update and will bring some significant changes to the offline and online game. Although not all of the multiplayer improvements have been listed here there are undoubtedly a number of background changes they will be making. More specifically - we shouldn't experience so much difficulty in finding a world to invade or summoning players to help defeat area bosses (or vice versa).


Thanks for reading everyone as always and i'd like to say thanks to Lee for recently filling me in on some of the storyline i previously didn't understand, as some of you may know i have been playing the game for around 110 hours now and am still learning some of the basics haha!


Peace.