|OT| Elden Ring - Foul Tarnished, in search of the Elden Ring

Joe Spangle

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Man I've completely neglected vigor. Think I'm at about 20 points in it. Overall about level 60 so i guess i need to pump some levels into it.
 
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kio

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I'm really not loving the late game areas. I have around 55 Vigor, and I feel that it's still too low. I'm dying way, WAY more than anytime aside from the very early game. The problem is that it's so boring to level Vigor. It's much more fun to level things that make your attacks stronger. Or something interesting like Arcane for more pickups. But here I am with 100k runes, and yet again leveling Vigor. Meh. I also can't level my weapon any further until I progress to where I can get more level 8 smithing stones, which is why I have to keep pushing forward. I'm mostly out of optional areas at this point. This is my main complaint after 100+ hours, so not so bad.
There's a clear point after the capital where I feel the whole balance was thrown out the window. Enemies hit way too hard, even the basic ones, and have way too much hp. You also get a ridiculous amount of runes per enemy, 1k+ per basic version & 5k+ per harder versions, not to mention getting 300k, 400k, 500k per boss. At the same point your power spike is too limited, you're bound to have hit at least one soft cap in your stats, or even a hard one, it's hard to upgrade your weapon and even when you do there's a limit to how much dps you can output. I'm also finding armor to be more and more meaningless, you can die in 3 hits wearing light armor or survive with 5% hp while wearing heavy armor, which makes no sense. And while on this subject can someone explain how is it possible to be constantly staggered while wearing the heaviest armor in the game with the highest poise value?
It feels almost like the end-game was developed in separation from the rest of the game or even by a different team. They clearly need to nerf the enemy's stats and the rewards you get from the later areas.
 

Gamall Wednesday Ida

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I found it difficult to do that strategy in a reproducible way, so I just killed the nearby enemies on the sloping hill as fast as I could. The strategy that you mention is probably good if you can't deliver solid DPS, though, while the enemies I talk about will be problematic if you can't kill them fast.
I had trouble with it at first, but killing the bird can be done with about 95% consistency in about 10 seconds (subjective, I haven't timed it), with the right spot and rhythm.

Immediately after resting, move to the closest spot on the ledge. The bird is moving towards you.

Immediately click to shoot an arrow, before even aiming, and aim during the 2 sec it takes for the bow to actually fire.

Aim through the tree, in the biggest opening between the branches (there are three, top to bottom right). The arrow will hit the bird. Wait until it starts falling before moving to rest. (If you feel the arrow might miss, immediately fire another one in the third, bottom-right opening in the tree; the second opening has invisible branches, and is not suitable)

Most boring farm ever, but it works.

The Albinaurics on the ledge might be more efficient to farm if you have massive AOE attacks that one-shot them.
 
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LEANIJA

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<difficulty spike>
<bird farm>

Yep, that farm is really effective if you get into the rhythm, also boring as hell, but it really helped.

This difficulty spike I also experienced became much less of an issue with that level boost.

Although as I mentioned, there's still some enemies that can wreck you very quickly if youre not careful. Its almost always easier to do bosses because you can bring ashes along (and let me tell you, the Mimic is an awesome companion :D )
 

Gamall Wednesday Ida

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Its almost always easier to do bosses because you can bring ashes along (and let me tell you, the Mimic is an awesome companion :D )
Yes, the Ashes are awesome and creative,... but I hate that they exist.

In DS3, the bosses where tuned for solo play, and you could summon NPCs for easy mode --- limited by embers.

In ER (140h in) the bosses tend to be hyper-aggressive and relentless, obviously tuned for Ashes; you're supposed to use them, and if you don't use them as a distraction, you are in for challenge mode.

My favourite DS3 boss is Dancer, and she spends half her time walking menacingly. The tension comes from those quiet moments, the temptation of greed. In ER, there is no quiet moment, no contrast, no rhythm. Boss fights feel like low-grade heavy metal, constant aggression, constant noise, and I don't enjoy that. Keep the concepts and moves, nerf the aggression, and make Ashes a limited resource; that would make things much more to my liking.

The levels and map are great, though. But where DS3 bosses were a highly anticipated highlight, here they feel simultaneously like a chore and a speedbump, simultaneously utter bullshit and too easy.
 

fearthedawn

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There's a clear point after the capital where I feel the whole balance was thrown out the window. Enemies hit way too hard, even the basic ones, and have way too much hp. You also get a ridiculous amount of runes per enemy, 1k+ per basic version & 5k+ per harder versions, not to mention getting 300k, 400k, 500k per boss. At the same point your power spike is too limited, you're bound to have hit at least one soft cap in your stats, or even a hard one, it's hard to upgrade your weapon and even when you do there's a limit to how much dps you can output. I'm also finding armor to be more and more meaningless, you can die in 3 hits wearing light armor or survive with 5% hp while wearing heavy armor, which makes no sense. And while on this subject can someone explain how is it possible to be constantly staggered while wearing the heaviest armor in the game with the highest poise value?
It feels almost like the end-game was developed in separation from the rest of the game or even by a different team. They clearly need to nerf the enemy's stats and the rewards you get from the later areas.
Maybe they tried to make something that would be challenging even for the "broken" builds because they just gave up on properly balancing everything (or didn't have the time) or maybe they wanted to give veterans something to test themselves against... either way it didn't work, the strong builds easily clear everything anyway and veterans have to restrict their options if they want a challenge regardless (even Malenia is pretty easy if you allow yourself to use summons or certain abilities).

Dare i say difficulty options would've been a solution?
 
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After the capital I started abusing ashes mostly the broken Mimic tear in reality is as broken as your build is. Before that I soloed every boss
 

LEANIJA

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I see this is a bit of an expert discussions regarding balancing... for me as a novice (mostly) to those games, the bosses mostly were enjoyable and most of all doable.
The ones that were too hard I simply let stand, outlevelled them, came back later. And used the summons whenever I could.

I feel like people can make those challenges for themselves if they wish with these systems in place

Anyway, I wonder, what did you mean by calling the Mimic broken, curi0usBystander ? Or builds? (Genuinely asking as someone who hasnt playing FromSoft games before: Ive seen this before but Im unsure what people mean when they write it)
 

kio

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Maybe they tried to make something that would be challenging even for the "broken" builds because they just gave up on properly balancing everything (or didn't have the time) or maybe they wanted to give veterans something to test themselves against... either way it didn't work, the strong builds easily clear everything anyway and veterans have to restrict their options if they want a challenge regardless (even Malenia is pretty easy if you allow yourself to use summons or certain abilities).

Dare i say difficulty options would've been a solution?
This might be a smartass answer but the game already has difficulty options, that's what NPC summons, player summons, pet summons, magic, melee combat, ranged combat, ashes of war and all the other mechanics are. You have the option to engage with any or all of them and doing so makes your life easier or harder.
If you're talking about having an easy/normal/hard scalling option for combat/exploration/etc... I don't agree.
 
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xinek

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@vigor: i know what you mean, xinek ... that's why i just did rune farming for that. Repetitive and boring, but gives you a substance boost.
Now I can even take a hit from a chariot ;)
Yes, I ended up going to co-op on some boss fights. Which was super fun, since I haven't done that as much as in the other games. It was a blast, especially seeing repeat fellow cooperators get summoned along with me.

There's a clear point after the capital where I feel the whole balance was thrown out the window. Enemies hit way too hard, even the basic ones, and have way too much hp. You also get a ridiculous amount of runes per enemy, 1k+ per basic version & 5k+ per harder versions, not to mention getting 300k, 400k, 500k per boss. At the same point your power spike is too limited, you're bound to have hit at least one soft cap in your stats, or even a hard one, it's hard to upgrade your weapon and even when you do there's a limit to how much dps you can output. I'm also finding armor to be more and more meaningless, you can die in 3 hits wearing light armor or survive with 5% hp while wearing heavy armor, which makes no sense. And while on this subject can someone explain how is it possible to be constantly staggered while wearing the heaviest armor in the game with the highest poise value?
It feels almost like the end-game was developed in separation from the rest of the game or even by a different team. They clearly need to nerf the enemy's stats and the rewards you get from the later areas.
This is exactly it, how you've described it, especially the enemies' health -- there are places that I don't think I could clear myself in a reasonable number of tries, and ashes aren' t available. Instead, I summoned or just ran past. Armor being useless is actually kind of good, because of fashion souls.

Regarding runes, there was also more than one time where I lost 150k+ runes and just shrugged it off, because the amount you get is totally ridiculous. That helps make the area feel like less of a grind.
 
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Anyway, I wonder, what did you mean by calling the Mimic broken, @curi0usBystander ?
The Mimic will copy your entire equipment. So for example I was dual-weilding katanas (each with different status effects) so in practice is like we were attacking with 4 swords meaning my status effects build up faster meaning it was easier to inflict it and faster.
I believe the mimic has unlimited FP (unless they patched that) so if you have a magic build with very powerful spells it can spam them indefinitely.
 
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fearthedawn

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This might be a smartass answer but the game already has difficulty options, that's what NPC summons, player summons, pet summons, magic, melee combat, ranged combat, ashes of war and all the other mechanics are. You have the option to engage with any or all of them and doing so makes your life easier or harder.
If you're talking about having an easy/normal/hard scalling option for combat/exploration/etc... I don't agree.
Fine to see it that way and i really like the aspect that everybody is essentially playing the same game so we're all talking about the same thing, but then i don't understand why you were calling for nerfs to the late game enemies when you have all the tools at your disposal to adjust the difficulty to your liking? Go for one of the strong builds, use all the available buffs with 60 vigor and have a laugh.

Personally i've been in the "no difficulty options" crowd but i think i'm slowly switching sides given the huge variety of expectations people have for the games
 

LEANIJA

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The Mimic will copy your entire equipment. So for example I was dual-weilding katanas (each with different status effects) so in practice is like we were attacking with 4 swords meaning my status effects build up faster meaning it was easier to inflict it and faster.
I believe the mimic has unlimited FP (unless they patched that) so if you have a magic build with very powerful spells it can spam them indefinitely.
Ah ok, thanks for clarifying :)

I hope they don't fix it, i need it ;)
 
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kio

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Fine to see it that way and i really like the aspect that everybody is essentially playing the same game so we're all talking about the same thing, but then i don't understand why you were calling for nerfs to the late game enemies when you have all the tools at your disposal to adjust the difficulty to your liking? Go for one of the strong builds, use all the available buffs with 60 vigor and have a laugh.

Personally i've been in the "no difficulty options" crowd but i think i'm slowly switching sides given the huge variety of expectations people have for the games
The nerfs I mentioned where an attempt to balance the game and make it a bit more consistent. In my eyes it makes no sense that for 80% of the game zombies die in 1-2 hits and give you a pitiful amount of runes then all of the suddenly they take 3-4 hits and give you 2k/unit. After dealing with a small group of 3 or 4 you get more runes than killing a boss in the early-to-mid game or killing every single enemy in an early dungeon, like the stormveil castle for instance. The way things are "tuned" the first 80% of the game almost feel meaningless, you can just power farm the equivalent of all the runes you got throughout the game in a matter of a couple of hours.
At the same time they could apply the same consistency to the hp and attack values and make the whole thing a lot more coherent.

The runes/hp/attack/defence/... graph should be something like this (the a gradient represents the scalling)


instead of something like this - linear, almost stagnant, growth throughout most of the game and then suddenly an exponential growth


This is a topic for another time but it's clearly a problem cause by the scale of the game. In order to keep it interesting and challenging they felt the need to bump the stats in the later portions of the game, which imo wasn't needed or at least not in such an extreme manner.
 

fearthedawn

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There is certainly a big step up at that point and way bigger than any other in the game except for going straight to margit or directly into caelid (which might be even bigger but you can just go somewhere else). And while we'd probably come up with different solutions (maybe another time in a different thread) I'd also agree that there is no need for a forced jump like this and it could be done "smoother/better".
 
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Durante

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I'm not sure if there's as simple a solution to the after-capital "issue" as some people think.

In my opinion, it's very clearly just an instantiation of the same problem which exists in every open world RPG ever, and which no one has really solved in 30 years of game design. When you make an open world RPG, you can basically either add level scaling (and hopefully I don't have to explain how that is a terrible option) or you live with an "imbalanced" game progression, where people run into larger or smaller challenges depending on what they choose to tackle first, and how much optional content they do.

Now that I've progressed past the capital it's clear what's going on here: basically, design-wise, this is the one point in the game where there is a clear progress gate, and you can divide everything into a pre-capital and a post-capital part. So that's also the one point where they can change the scaling of everything fundamentally, from a design perspective.

Now I'm not saying they've done that perfectly -- but what I'm saying is that it's an instance of an age-old unsolved problem in game design, and that I don't think it could ever go away completely, or that an open world game like Elden Ring could ever have a relatively smooth difficulty curve comparable to a far more linear game like DS3.
 

kio

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I met Melenia, Blade of something

She's not very nice
All you need to do is run away to 10 zip codes away when she jumps and pray to the rng gods you're not near her when she decides to jump.

I'm not sure if there's as simple a solution to the after-capital "issue" as some people think.

In my opinion, it's very clearly just an instantiation of the same problem which exists in every open world RPG ever, and which no one has really solved in 30 years of game design. When you make an open world RPG, you can basically either add level scaling (and hopefully I don't have to explain how that is a terrible option) or you live with an "imbalanced" game progression, where people run into larger or smaller challenges depending on what they choose to tackle first, and how much optional content they do.

Now that I've progressed past the capital it's clear what's going on here: basically, design-wise, this is the one point in the game where there is a clear progress gate, and you can divide everything into a pre-capital and a post-capital part. So that's also the one point where they can change the scaling of everything fundamentally, from a design perspective.

Now I'm not saying they've done that perfectly -- but what I'm saying is that it's an instance of an age-old unsolved problem in game design, and that I don't think it could ever go away completely, or that an open world game like Elden Ring could ever have a relatively smooth difficulty curve comparable to a far more linear game like DS3.
I agree that this is a fundamental game design issue of open games, not just open world, but at the same time we have examples of this same developer being able to tackle it in a graceful way. In DS2 the game starts up open, you can tackle any of the 4 great souls in any order, although there's an optimal route, and the transition to the 2nd half of the game is seemless. There's a noticeable bump, sure, but it isn't something as drastic as ER. The same weapons and armor you've been using are still useful even though enemies hit a bit harder, have a bit more health and come in greater numbers, in contrast in ER it almost feels like you start fighting with a cardboard sword and wearing tissue paper after a certain point. I'm not really sure how magic users feel about it as I never use(d) magic so perhaps the bump might not be as noticeable for them, but if the point is to force pure melee players to invest a bit in magic that's bad game design.

Let's look at a practical example, those big bears you find in practically every location. Are they ever easy? Not really, a bit annoying and unpredictable, hit hard and have a decently sized hp pool but still perfectly manageable, a tough but fair fight. Those same bears in the Consacrated Snowfield are a nightmare, either you deal half the damage you dealt to the same enemy type in the previous zone, meaning their armor/resistance doubled, or their hp bar doubled and their attacks deal twice as much damage now for some reason.

The same happens with world bosses. Compare the dragon in Altus with the one in the mountains, or the bird in Altus with the one in the snowfield or the night cavalry in altus or anywhere with the one in the snowfield. This last example is especially egregious since they literally doubled the bosses... From the capital to the zone immediately after the bump is unlike anything ever done in their previous games.

Bosses aren't comparable 1:1 but it's also very noticeable the differences between what they were able to do up until the capital and what they are able to do after it. They used to be good at one thing and bad at others which provided opening to evade/heal/attack but after the capital they can do everything, they are fast and strong and have almost 1-hit kill attacks/combos and have AoE and have gap closure and physical damage and magic damage... For god sake Malenia heals if you 100% block her damage... in what world does that make sense?

I would understand feeling underpowered if I rushed the game and skipped most or all the side content/areas/dungeons/bosses/etc, but I did it all. I explored every inch of the map and followed every quest. I'm pretty confident I did over 90% of the side content the game has to offer and still I feel like a ragdoll being tossed around by the most random enemies, not to mention the bosses.

Despite going on and on about it I want to emphasize that I love this game and I believe it's one of the best games ever made but that fact only makes this "flaw" even more frustrating.
 
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Durante

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I think it's understandable that the "bump" is more pronounced since the game before the gate is much more expansive.

What they failed to account for, to some extent, in my opinion, is increasing the (effective) scaling limit on stats to an extent that fits the increase in enemy stats. The scaling obviously goes higher than it did in previous Souls games, but the limits did not increase to the same extent that would be necessary to fit with the increase in top-end level most people will reach (and which seems to be assumed by late-game enemy design).

I.e. INT stops scaling effectively at ~80 and I assume the same is true for strength and other primary attack stats. I wonder how much of the problem would be mitigated by moving this effective scaling limit to, say, 100.
Of course this would mean that people who play very extensively / min-max a lot might outscale pre-gate content even more than what's currently the case, but I don't think that's all that terrible really.
 

Avern

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Managed to defeat Mohg, Lord of Blood, and it was a fantastic fight. Ultra greatswords seem kind of awful against him, since there are lots of obvious attack opportunities that you just barely can't use. I had to really learn his patterns to stand a chance. He's got really interesting ones though. He has like, 3 different ways he can finish most of his attack strings, and I felt like I had wandered back into fighting games with how much I kept getting mixed by them. Then the way he zones you out with blood in the second phase is so good. I usually hate this type of mechanic, since it feels so easy to get boxed in, but his moves don't last overly long and with the right moves, it feels possible to consistently dodge all of the bloodflame.

Honestly, I'm not sure I can agree that the post-capital difficulty bump is even a problem. I'm loving this part of the game even more than the earlier areas, at least so far (I haven't met Malenia yet). The challenge hasn't felt insurmountable or unfair, just tough enough that I'm not getting my wins for free (which is honestly what most of the game felt like, pre-capital).
 

LEANIJA

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Just finished the game ....

I loved it


and hated it

but then loved it again

and subsequentely hated it some more

... etc :p

its really really good, and i went to do all the achivements as well.

just a note on the final boss difficulty: that boss is an asshole. and a huge difficulty spike in my opinion.
 

Panda Pedinte

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About the final boss

I had more issues with the first phase of the fight than against the Elden Beast. Once I understood it's patterns I managed to defeat it.
 
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QFNS

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About the final boss

I had more issues with the first phase of the fight than against the Elden Beast. Once I understood it's patterns I managed to defeat it.
More about the final boss

The thing that sucks about Elden Beast is just how much it runs away CONSTANTLY. If you are trying to melee it, you are literally running for minutes between swings. It's horrible. Like they planned to let you have the horse for the fight or something and then didn't enable it.
 

Panda Pedinte

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More about the final boss

The thing that sucks about Elden Beast is just how much it runs away CONSTANTLY. If you are trying to melee it, you are literally running for minutes between swings. It's horrible. Like they planned to let you have the horse for the fight or something and then didn't enable it.
yeah I can see how it's is annoying to follow it through the arena. My first character was a STR/FTH so I had some ranged spells to use in parts of the fight. I'm curious if I'll dislike the fight as a Quality build now.
 
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Gamall Wednesday Ida

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Finished Elden Ring, Age of Stars ending. Huzzah ! Like Miyazaki promised, it took around 30h.. huh wait... nope, 155h.

Well, "finished". The next step is obviously to hunt for whatever trinkets escaped me, stock up on smithing shards, and go into NG+. Still 5 endings to go :)

The last stretch (Haligtree, Crumbling Azula etc) was done on Linux, where the game runs impeccably, once I solved a package conflict --- EAC even starts faster.

Crumbling Farum Azula is probably my favourite area of all times; visually stunning, and the eviscerated buildings make figuring out the paths so much fun: you can pretty much see half the level at any point.

I love pretty much everything about the game. The one exception being the bosses' mechanics --- often kinda trivial with Spirit Ashes, SL1-level bullshit without --- which I've already ranted about. Deleting them with bullshit of my own (Mimic + Magic-boosting Physik + Terra Magica + Ranni's Dark Moon + Mass Graven Talisman + Godrey Icon + charged Stars of Ruin spam = how Malenia knew swift defeat, and I'm not ashamed) is kinda fun but I'd much prefer more sedate, solo fights, that make for more meaningful victories.

I'm so glad I was able to go all the way without much in the way of spoilers, despite occasionally using the wiki to find the locations of some specific items. I had no idea what to expect for most of the game, and some things -- surprise second phases, final boss -- genuinely floored me.

I still have so many questions about the lore...
 

LEANIJA

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I hate Fire Giant
Took me a while as well, looked at strategies online. Staying close to him (and behind) worked, using the horse whenever I he ran away + an Ash, of course
(when he does the shield attack, dismounting the horse in the right moment can save your life)

~

Regarding the final boss:

indeed, the constant running away was super annoying. Took me many many tries! Especially annoying since Radagon is already hard to do because of his attacks being so hard to time.
I eventually started cheesing Radagon and Im not ashamed of it ;) When you run to him right away, and stop right next to him, he will not attack you, and then you can kill him with the Carian Slicer easily, saving you precious flasks and the Mimic for the Elden Beast.


~

oh and I did various different endings with save game backups. I missed a few, because I missed obscure side-quests but will probably do them in NG+

close to being done I looked at achievements and collected all the legendary stuff, but there was one weapon I was missing, did that in NG+ right afterwards. Speaking of NG+, its kinda amazing how I already forgotten how to do some stuff, like getting into the Academy. No clue anymore ;)
 

Avern

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So uh, I'm really enjoying the Haligtree. This area is brilliant. The initial descent with the bubble attacks is fantastic. The ones in the capital were meh, but toss a bunch of narrow paths in and they become interesting threats. Later on you get that great bit where you can jump out a window onto a tree branch to slip past the mages guarding the boss arena. It's a fine start to the area.

But then From turns things up to 11 with Elphael. It's so beautiful, and the combat encounters have been fantastic. You've got that amazing bit where you cross over to avoid the ballistae and prompt get jumped by cleanrot knights (that was such a good trap). There's the spot deeper down where you keep getting jumped by royal revenants. The absurd fight with the rotten avatar and a pair of juiced up knights near the grace (and the hidden path past them). It's just one awesome encounter after another.

Now granted, I am staring at another Scarlet Rot swamp now, so maybe my opinion will change after that, but so far, this is one of my favorite levels in any Fromsoft game.
 

LEANIJA

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I've put ~90 hrs into Elden Ring with a strength build using colossal weapons (and the mimic tear summon when I need the help).

And now I've reached
Malenia
Blade of Miquella
HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO BEAT HER?
I'll put this in subsequent spoilers:
There is a weapon thats extremely effective against her
Rivers of Blood
You get it from the NPC invader Okina in the Church of Repose, Mountaintops of the Giants
Its special attack applies bleed and works super well against her.





So uh, I'm really enjoying the Haligtree. This area is brilliant. The initial descent with the bubble attacks is fantastic. The ones in the capital were meh, but toss a bunch of narrow paths in and they become interesting threats. Later on you get that great bit where you can jump out a window onto a tree branch to slip past the mages guarding the boss arena. It's a fine start to the area.

But then From turns things up to 11 with Elphael. It's so beautiful, and the combat encounters have been fantastic. You've got that amazing bit where you cross over to avoid the ballistae and prompt get jumped by cleanrot knights (that was such a good trap). There's the spot deeper down where you keep getting jumped by royal revenants. The absurd fight with the rotten avatar and a pair of juiced up knights near the grace (and the hidden path past them). It's just one awesome encounter after another.

Now granted, I am staring at another Scarlet Rot swamp now, so maybe my opinion will change after that, but so far, this is one of my favorite levels in any Fromsoft game.
Hehehe, while I thought the area was very beautiful, the encounters were a bit of a bullshit-best of ;) all the enemies I never enjoyed, all together to fuck me over :p but its good that you enjoy it!


~

meanwhile I'm doing NG+ so I dont suffer the post-finished game void :p
 

Avern

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Malenia down! Anime has been defeated!

That fight was messed up. Waterfowl dance is ridiculous. I tried Royal Knight's Resolve to force extra damage, but gave up on that in favor of Bloodhound's Step. I genuinely don't understand how you're supposed to dodge Waterfowl otherwise. It has so many active frames, and the way the camera whips around for the final flurry of attacks makes it hard to know what direction to dodge in. Even spamming Bloodhound's step I couldn't avoid all the damage.

Still, I'm really happy with the win. Managed to do it with just my Greatsword and no ashes or summons. Feels good to make it through without having to compromise much on what I had been doing up to that point.

I've put ~90 hrs into Elden Ring with a strength build using colossal weapons (and the mimic tear summon when I need the help).

And now I've reached
Malenia
Blade of Miquella
HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO BEAT HER?
Bloodhound's Step! Don't give up, skeleton!
 

Gamall Wednesday Ida

Just a loon, apparently.
Dec 4, 2020
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The results of my NG+ prep are:
  • I spent far too many ancient smithing stones on rapiers and estocs for dual wielding purposes, in an attempt to recapture the glory that was the rapier in DS2. (Thanks to Wave of Gold and the Palace-View Albinauric community for sponsoring me regarding the lesser stones. I respec'd from pure INT to pure FTH for this...). Antspur seems pretty good, even infused.
  • I had missed a chill guy called "Placidulax", which is especially funny to me considering "placid" means "calm, chill". And you meet him by taking a nap in a grave, and interrupting his own, eternal nap.
  • I had missed a few talismans and cookbooks and, it turns out, a bunch of caves. Leading me to those caves is probably the one use most of these cookbooks will ever have. I'm only interested in two crafting items: rainbow stones, and Gold Pickled Feet (but I found just enough material to make 7 of those in 155h, so...)
  • Chasing a random larval tear I had missed, I discovered I had actually overlooked a significant chunk of Caelid, including ruins, caves, and a couple of unique weapons. Since it's bloody Caelid, I'm not surprised. Who in their right mind lingers there longer than necessary?
  • There seems to be exactly one (1, un, uno, eins, S[0]) offensive miracle worth its weight in beans, and that's the usual lightning spear. And that one is very good.
  • It seems there is no penalty for killing all the unnamed nomadic merchants, taking their bell bearings, and doing all one's shopping at home, Amazon style. Kale's dialogue seemed to imply that attacking one would anger them all, but no. For the ethical aspects of this strategy, see "Amazon".
 

Avern

MetaMember
May 14, 2020
370
1,239
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:steam_pigblanket:

90 hours of hitting things very hard with big sword. I want to hop back in and start up a new character, maybe check out magic this time, but I'm pretty sure playing this has slowed the recovery of my thumb's tendonitis, so I probably need to wait on that. :crying-face:

I don't have a whole lot to say except that I loved it. Between the improved combat mechanics, killer legacy dungeons, and the design of the open world, I think it sits easily above the rest of From's catalog.
 

xinek

日本語が苦手
Apr 17, 2019
738
1,346
93
Finished this today after 144 hours. The last 2 bosses as a quality build were brutal. Not much new to say, because what can you really say about this game? It is up there with the greats of all time. Everything I play going forward will be compared to this. Not just the gameplay or whatever, but the entire experience as a whole. I'm not sure if I've ever put that many hours into a single player game, and I can't wait to go into NG+. I need my life back, however.
 

Stevey

Gromlintroid
Dec 8, 2018
2,695
8,253
113
41
WTF, thought I was getting close to wrapping this up, now I've just discovered Subterranean Shunning Grounds and Deeproot Depths, the Haligtree loooks massive, and I'm at Godskin Duo in Crumbling Azula

How big is this fucking game?
 

kio

MetaMember
Apr 19, 2019
1,447
4,656
113
WTF, thought I was getting close to wrapping this up, now I've just discovered Subterranean Shunning Grounds and Deeproot Depths, the Haligtree loooks massive, and I'm at Goddskin Duo in Crumbling Azula

How big is this fucking game?
After biggie and smalls it's a pretty short treck to the finish line, only 3 more bosses.
 

Gamall Wednesday Ida

Just a loon, apparently.
Dec 4, 2020
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Dash it all, that's the second time I kill Rykard out of carelessness and distraction.

I killed him early in NG, and missed out on the whole Manor and Rya quests. Me explore, me find boss, me smash boss. That was stupid in retrospect (I could have guessed killing the local pet demigod would not sit too well with Tanith), but heh, I was going in blind, it's only NG, live and learn, right.

So this time (NG+) I was careful; I'm holding off on killing bosses because who knows what doors that closes. Morgott, for instance, I avoided so far, and therefore I postponed the third assassination since it's in Snowland, which is gated behind Morgott.

A few questlines later, I remember about Rya; eee she's such a wee snaky cutie ! 🐍 snek 💕 I get distracted by the cuteness and want to know how it ends; I read on the wiki that the last step is killing Rykard, and my brain opines "I see no downside to that".

The literal instant Rykard dies, my brain wakes up and I realise that I locked myself out of the quest again. Why are you like that, brain ?

Fortunately it seems there was not much left to it.

Bonus points: the more I think about it, the more I believe there is actually no quest that is broken by killing Morgott, so I held off for nothing. But I bet the instant I kill him I'll remember that actually....
 

Gamall Wednesday Ida

Just a loon, apparently.
Dec 4, 2020
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A new patch is out. It seems to fix a lot of stuff about impractical STR weapons and incantations.

I also had problems with dual-wielding estocs that look like they might be resolved.


Major changes included in the latest update:

Additional Elements Added
  • Added an option to turn camera auto rotate function ON/OFF.
  • Added some event phases for the NPC “Patches”

Balance adjustments
  • Increased Colossal Swords/Colossal weapons attack speed and lowered their recovery time. Jump attack not included.
  • Increased the two-handed attack damage of Colossal Swords/Colossal Weapons. Jump attack not included.
  • Increased physical block rate and guard boost of the Colossal Sword, Colossal Weapons, Great Sword, Great Hammer, Great Axe, Great Spear, and Halberd weapon classes.
  • Increased the damage of Grafted Blade Greatsword.
  • Increased the damage of Devourer’s Scepter.
  • Decreased the scaling of status effect build-up from spells and incantations of Albinauric Staff and Dragon Communion Seal.
  • Decreased the effect of Greatshield Talisman for weapons with high block rate.
  • Shortened the length of the madness afflicted animation.
  • Lowered the speed of madness buildup recovery.
  • Slightly increased FP and Stamina growth rate at lower levels*
    *Players will need to perform any of the following actions for the changes to be reflected. This is required only once. New characters created after this update will not require this action.
  • Level up.
  • Activate Godrick’s Great Rune.
  • Re-equipping any equipment (armor, talisman) which grants bonus stat to either Strength, Dexterity, Vigor, Endurance, Intelligence, Faith or Arcane.
  • Other enemy and weapon balance changes.

Sorcery/Incantation
Upward adjustments

  • Crystal Barrage - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
  • Gavel of Haima - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Allows caster to more easily withstand enemies’ attack while casting.
  • Shatter Earth - Increased cast speed and decrease recovery time. Allows caster to more easily withstand enemies’ attack while casting.
  • Rock Blaster - Decreased recovery time. Allows caster to more easily withstand enemies’ attack while casting.
  • Thop’s Barrier - Increased area of effect and slightly increase effect duration.
  • Rennala’s Full Moon - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
  • Ranni’s Dark Moon - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
  • Carian Greatsword - Increased cast speed at lower dexterity.
  • Magma Shot - Decreased FP cost and increased cast speed.
  • Roiling Magma - Increased cast speed and decreased time until magma explodes.
  • Gelmir’s Fury - Slightly decreased the random nature of projectile’s range and increased the damage of lava pool. Increased the hitbox.
  • Rykard’s Rancor - Decreased FP cost.
  • Oracle Bubbles - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
  • Great Oracular Bubble - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
  • Briars of Sin - Decreased recovery time. Increased blood loss buildup on enemy.
  • Briars of Punishment - Decreased recovery time. Increased blood loss buildup on enemy.
  • Explosive Ghostflame - Decreased FP cost and recovery time.
  • Tibia’s Summon - Increased damage and cast speed.
  • Aspects of the Crucible: Tail - Decreased FP and Stamina cost.
  • Aspects of the Crucible: Horns - Decreased FP and Stamina cost, Increase cast speed. Increased the distance traveled when not charged and made it easier to cause enemies to flinch when charged.
  • Elden Stars - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
  • Black Blade - Decreased Stamina consumption and decreased recovery time.
  • Discus of Light - Decreased FP cost. Increased damage and cast speed.
  • Triple Rings of Light - Increased damage.
  • Radagon’s Rings of Light - Decreased FP cost. Increased damage and cast speed. Decreased recovery time.
  • Lightning Strike - Decreased Stamina cost. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
  • Honed Bolt - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
  • Ancient Dragons’ Lightning Spear - Decreased FP and Stamina cost. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Allows caster to more easily withstand enemy attacks while casting.
  • Ancient Dragons’ Lightning Strike - Decreased recovery time.
  • Lansseax’s Glaive - Decreased FP and Stamina cost. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Allows caster to more easily withstand enemy’ attacks while casting.
  • Fortissax's Lightning Spear - Decreased FP and Stamina cost. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Allows caster to withstand enemy attack while casting more easily.
  • Frozen Lightning Spear - Decreased Stamina cost. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Allows caster to more easily withstand enemy attack while casting.
  • Death Lightning - Decreased FP cost, Increased the duration of death-accumulating smoke.
  • O, Flame! - Increased damage.
  • Giantsflame Take Thee - Decreased Stamina Cost.
  • Flame of the Fell God - Decreased FP cost and increased damage.
  • Whirl, O Flame! - Increased damage, decreased recovery time.
  • Burn, O Flame! - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
  • Black Flame - Increase damage and the spell can break enemy’s guard more easily.
  • Scouring Black Flame - Decreased FP cost and recovery time. Increased attack range and area of effect.
  • Black Flame Ritual - Reduced FP cost and increased damage.
  • Gurranq's Beast Claw - Increased damage and decreased recovery time.
  • Bloodflame Talons - Decreased FP cost and increased cast speed. Decreased recovery time.
  • Bloodboon - Increased damage. Increased cast speed and decreased effect start-up time, decreased recovery time.
  • Pest Threads - Decreased Stamina cost.
  • Scarlet Aeonia - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Allows caster to more easily withstand enemy attacks while casting.
  • Unendurable Frenzy - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Decreased the random nature of projectile’s range and increased Madness buildup on enemies.
  • Inescapable Frenzy - Increased cast speed.
  • Placidusax's Ruin - Decreased FP, Stamina cost and recovery time.
  • Dragonclaw - Decreased FP, Stamina cost and recovery time and made it easier to cause enemies to flinch when charged.
  • Dragonmaw - Decreased FP, stamina cost, recovery time and increased cast speed and made it easier to cause enemies to flinch when charged.
  • Greyoll's Roar - Decreased FP, Stamina cost and recovery time.

Upward and downward adjustments

  • Adula's Moonblade - Decreased the power of single cast and improved performance so that the blades and frost hit more consistently and continuously. Increased cast speed at lower dexterity.
  • Flame, Fall Upon Them - Decreased the damage of single cast and improved the performance so that it hits the enemy multiple times. Decreased FP cost.
  • Howl of Shabriri - Decreased the madness buildup on the enemy. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.

Downward adjustments

  • Swarm of Flies - Decreased blood loss buildup on enemy.
  • The Flame of Frenzy - Decreased madness buildup on enemy.
  • Frenzied Burst - Decreased madness buildup on enemy.

Weapon Skill
Upward adjustments

  • Lion's Claw - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
  • Kick - Increased cast speed.
  • Hoarah Loux's Earthshaker - Increased cast speed. Increased cast speed on follow up input, decreased recovery time.
  • Troll’s Roar - Decreased Stamina Cost. Increased cast speed on follow up input, increased distance traveled.
  • Giant Hunt - Decreased recovery time.
  • Storm Assault - Decreased recovery time.
  • Carian Greatsword - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Increased the damage when charged and made it easier to cause enemies to flinch.
  • Carian Grandeur - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Increased the damage when charge and made it easier to cause enemies to flinch.
  • Gravitas - Increased cast speed.
  • Flaming Strike - Increased the travel distance of a stepping cleave in a strong attack.
  • Black Flame Tornado - Added hitbox to weapon when spinning, and added a window to roll during the attack to cancel the animation.
  • Lightning Slash - Increased cast speed. Added a hitbox to the stomp animation.
  • Sacred Blade - Increased cast speed.
  • Sacred Ring of Light - Increased cast speed.
  • Poisonous Mist - Increased cast speed.
  • Poison Moth Flight - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
  • Ice Spear - Added a hitbox to the weapon’s spinning animation.
  • Chilling Mist - Increased cast speed.
  • Assassin's Gambit - Increased cast speed.
  • Shield Bash - Increased cast speed.
  • Shield Crash - Decreased Stamina cost. Increased cast speed.
  • Blade of Gold - Decreased Stamina cost. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
  • Blade of Death - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
  • Golden Tempering - Decreased FP cost and increased cast speed. Increased effect duration.
  • Last Rites - Increased cast speed.
  • Mists of Slumber - Increased cast speed.
  • Eochaid's Dancing Blade - Increased travel distance, added a window to roll during the attack to cancel the animation.
  • Unblockable Blade - Increased cast speed with the weapon Coded Sword.
  • Alabaster Lords' Pull - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Added a window to roll during the attack to cancel the animation.
  • Establish Order - Decreased recovery time and increased cast speed on follow up input. Increased damage. Made it easier to cause enemies to flinch.
  • Moonlight Greatsword - Decreased FP cost. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Increased the frost buildup effect during the skill duration.
  • Wave of Gold - Decreased FP cost. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
  • Wolf’s Assault - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
  • The Queen’s Black Flame - Increased cast speed. Added a window to roll during the attack to cancel the animation.
  • Dynast's Finesse - Decreased Stamina cost.
  • Flowing Form - Decreased Stamina cost.
  • Death Flare - Increased cast speed.
  • Onyx Lord's Repulsion - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Added a window to roll during the attack to cancel the animation.
  • Magma Guillotine - Decreased Stamina cost, Increased cast speed. Decreased recovery time on follow up input.
  • Cursed-Blood Slice - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
  • Ice Lightning Sword - Increased cast speed. Added a hitbox to the stomp animation.
  • Rosus’ Summons - Decreased recovery time.
  • I Command Thee, Kneel! - Increased cast speed including follow up input. Added a window to roll during the attack to cancel the animation.
  • Gold Breaker - Decreased FP cost. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.
  • Familial Rancor - Added a window to roll during the attack to cancel the animation.
  • Nebula - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time with the weapon Bastard's Stars.
  • Regal Beastclaw - Increased cast speed.
  • Devourer of Worlds - Increased cast speed.
  • Regal Roar - Decreased recovery time.
  • Spearcall Ritual - Decreased recovery time.
  • Ancient Lightning Spear - Decreased FP cost and increased cast speed. Allows player to more easily withstand enemies’ attacks while casting.
  • Great-Serpent Hunt - Decreased recovery time and increased damage. Allows player to more easily withstand attacks from enemies.
  • Frenzyflame Thrust - Decreased FP cost, decreased recovery time. Decreased madness buildup on self.
  • Bloodboon Ritual - Increased cast speed.
  • Miquella's Ring of Light - Increased cast speed.
  • Sea of Magma - Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time. Added a window to roll during the attack to cancel the animation.
  • Flame Dance - Decreased Stamina cost, decreased recovery time. Added a window to roll during the attack to cancel the animation.
  • Storm Kick - Decreased Stamina cost.
  • Bear Witness! - Increased cast speed.

Upward and downward adjustments

  • Thundercloud Form - Decreased damage when not charged. Decreased FP cost. Increased cast speed and decreased recovery time.

Bug Fixes
  • Fixed a bug where the damage of Inescapable Frenzy was affected by right hand weapon.
  • Fixed a bug where the damage of the weapon arts "Carian retaliation" was increased by weapon and status, and the effect was not displayed correctly during online multiplay.
  • Fixed a bug where the animation when inflicted with blood loss and frostbite was bigger than originally planned.
  • Fixed a bug during character appearance change menu in which some parameter changes were sometime not reflected.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented a dialog from appearing when executing "Leave" on some items.
  • Fixed a bug that allowed unauthorized items to be passed to other players.
  • Fixed a bug in multiplayer that prevented grace to be registered on the map if it was found just before the player is summoned.
  • Fixed a bug that sometime prevented the mechanic of Rennala Queen Of The Full Moon fight from working properly during cooperative multiplayer.
  • Fixed a bug that sometime prevented the player from entering the boss area after defeating Morgott, the Omen King.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented "Edgar the Revenger" and "Festering Fingerprint Vyke" from invading after defeating all the bosses in Liurnia of the Lake.
  • The item Tonic of Forgetfulness can now be obtained at the Volcano Manor if the player wasn’t able to obtain it due to quest progression.
  • Fixed a bug that caused the reduction of runes due to NPC "Gostoc" when player died in "Stormveil Castle" to occur at an unintended timing.
  • Added a protective barrier to Millicent after helping her at Miquella’s Haligtree so she cannot be unintentionally killed.
  • Fixed a bug that sometime prevented the player from obtaining the reward after defeating the Dung Eater.
  • Fixed a bug that sometime prevented the player from progress Diallos’ questline.
  • Fixed a bug that sometime prevented player from duplicating remembrance at the Walking Mausoleum.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented player from inputting consecutive attacks when dual wielding thrusting sword.
  • Fixed a bug that causes scythe to lose blood loss effect if poison affinity is applied to the weapon.
  • Fixed a bug where the damage of the Iron Greatsword was lower than expected when an affinity is applied.
  • Fixed a bug that caused FP consumption to increase when the player cast Night Comet with charge.
  • Fixed a bug that causes he default key setting on keyboard for weapon skill (Left Ctrl) to not be set (on PC only).
  • Fixed a bug in the Steam version where the history of players who played multiplayer was not displayed correctly under certain circumstances.
  • Increased online multiplayer stability.
  • Fixed a bug that caused incorrect sounds to be played under certain circumstances.
  • Fixed a bug that caused some places on the map to have incorrect visual and hitbox.
  • Fixed a bug that causes some enemies to have incorrect visual and behavior.
  • Fixed a bug that causes some armor to have incorrect stats.
  • Text fix.
  • Other performance improvements and bug fixes.


The version number of this update shown at the lower right corner of the Title Screen will be as follows:

App Ver. 1.04 - Regulation Ver. 1.04.1