To make any progress at all in Dark Souls 2 you need to know how to fight (regardless of what character class you pick). Every swing and every running step uses up valuable stamina and once this is gone you can’t attack again until it’s replenished itself. Leaving you completely open to attack (clearly not a good thing).

There’s numerous ways to fight your way to glory and these can be broken down into two main areas:

• Melee Combat (Swords/Shields etc)
• Ranged Combat (Magic Spells/Arrows etc)

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Melee versus Ranged combat. Both have distinct pros and cons.

Whilst certain classes are heavily tailored towards one or the other; you can still choose to build someone who’s fairly competent in both. But unless you understand the core combat mechanics it doesn’t matter what class you ultimately choose.

So over the coming pages we’re going to go from the very basics (essential for people new to the Souls series), intermediate tactics such as ‘kiting/baiting’ and more advanced stuff like parries, guard breaks, ripostes and backstabs. So let’s take a look at the differences between melee and ranged combat in Dark Souls 2.