Talk:Dragon Slayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough/@comment-30677170-20161204173126/@comment-90.145.11.77-20161218153703

That sounds about right. I've fought these guys 5 times now (4 times on NGs, once on NG+), and won 4 times (I died on the first attempt on my 3rd NG, where I tried a tank build for the first time but still tried playing as if I was going for a fast-rolling build). They're genuinely not hard if you use the most common sense tactic for fighting multiple enemies in Dark Souls: shield as much as possible and only attack if your opponents are separated.

The one time I died, I died to Electrosmough (i.e. Orstein was already dead) because I forgot that A. shielding in this game, especially with a greatshield, is ridiciulously effective, even against pure lightning damage (i.e. sparky buttstomp) and B. Smough is a chump if you stick very close to him, lightning powers or not.

Coincidentally, levels don't matter that much in this game. I was level 50 on my first NG when facing them (I had already beaten Sif, but spent a lot of souls on titanite shards); even assuming you stuck an extra 8 levels in VIT (the most immediately useful stat) only, that might have given you 200 extra HP and a few extra defense. Given that (with light armour) most of these guys' attacks do like 300 damage, that will let you survive at most one extra attack. Hardly the difference between a hard and an easy fight.