Back to Dark Souls 2 for a little bit.
Dark Souls 2: Shrine of AmanaSo. In Dark Souls 2, farming off an area is done by killing every enemy enough times to make it stop respawning. Made much easier with something like a homeward bone, this lets you walk around the area and get to the boss fog much easier. If done properly, you also farm it off little by little so you get to keep all of the souls involved in farming off the area and each spot is relatively simple.
So...... against my better judgment, because I hate doing this, in order to beat this area I am probably going to use said tactic at some point when I have more time available.
I've spent about 30 minutes playing this area. I've died twice. And... well let's describe it shall we?
So. A few things you might want while trying to come in here. Well, for starters you may want a ranged way to deal with things. Not extreme long range but at least a way to deal with things so they are not straight in your face. I would frankly suggest Dark Orb and at as many copies as you've got if that's an option. Otherwise, well... a good bow and a lot of arrows.
Second, you are going to want some sort of light source. Now I know what some of you are thinking. And it is not THAT bad. But there are quite a few water areas where a light source makes them easier to not um... fall to your death if you don't have the path memorized. That being said, Cast Light is infinitely better than a torch here as you won't aggro the Amana abominations with Cast Light the way you would with a torch.
Third, you are going to want a decent sword if you can get one. There are some enemies here best dealt with by stunning them into oblivion with melee.
Now that that is all out of the way, shall we begin?
So, you begin at the Shrine of Amana bonfire. And the path down is a tower. You take this path down and you will reach your first landing. The door out here will take you to a chest with a Skeptic's Spice, guarded by a single poison enemy that is ... well kind of negligible at this point in the game.
Once you get to the bottom of the tower, it is time to go into the water. And this is where the game first starts to be mean. So your goal is that first hut. You don't need a light source for this part. On your way to the hut some knights will attack you. They do enough damage and wreck enough of your stamina that I would say to employ Dark Orb if you have it or dodging or ranged tactics if you don't. Now, once they are all out of the way, look around before approaching the hut. You see those little lumps in the water that have an orangish glowing bug cloud thing above them? These are the abominations of the area. They can inflict bleed. And while they are not terribly dangerous they will aggro in groups if you have a lit torch and THAT is very dangerous. Use some sort of ranged tactic to kill all of these in this area before moving to the hut. They are lulled (until first damage) by the lady singing in the hut, and if you approach it she will..... well stop singing.
Once you get to the hut, talk to the first Milafinato (singing ladies honestly). If you talk to her A LOT you will get a smooth and silky stone. Out the other side of the hut is more watery paths. At some point here a third enemy will show up. Basically put, there are mages in this area that will spam heavy homing soul arrow and nothing else, and they are on islands on the water. There are two ways to deal with them relatively harmlessly.
1) Extreme long range attacks.
2) Learn to roll. Then use a light source and rolling to approach them and stunsmack them into oblivion. I unfortunately have to do this one, but fortunately I am very good at rolling.
So. This level is effectively just moving from watery path to dry land and back, with the occassional real need for some sort of light source for some water areas, until you get to the last area before the 2nd bonfire of the level. This area is particularly difficult because two mages and two knights will all aggro and attack you at about the same time, making it extremely hard to deal with any of them.
Also, be warned, there is an ogre hippopotamus cyclops before the second hut. It will not follow you if you retreat far enough down the path or go into the hut, and it walks very slowly. But it WILL kill you if you try to do anything to it at melee range, and it's best to just leave this thing alone.
Also let it be known that you will eventually come across aberrations where noone is singing, and that WILL cause you problems if you don't take it slowly.
Also let it be known that there are some REALLY dangerous side paths, that are obviously side paths, that I would recommend not going down in order to keep your stress levels low, at least until you've beaten the boss and exploring is at least somewhat more stress free-ish.
Finally, let it be known that there is no bonfire here other than the first
And...... well this part with the 4 enemies is about where I died the second time so there's not much more to say. I will go into great detail about the boss once I can get there reliably enough to know more than just the basics of the fight. But I need to get to the 2nd bonfire first.