Elden ring!

[MFB]

One thing I also didn't realize until I leveled my weapon to +25, is that not all weapons get up to an S rank for scaling; my axe only got up to a B on STR scaling, while I'm sure there's other regular weapons that get up to A (although every build I've looked up says all the best scaling weapons are either Great/Colossal which I don't care for the trade off of speed vs. power)

 

[wankerness]

I wish you could stack Talismans, not really sure why they said no to that, maybe they thought it'd nerf too much of the fights? Not sure how much a +1 and +2 together would really change some of them in the endgame.

Probably just to force variety, it's been like that in all the dark souls games with + variants of rings. It made more sense in DS when there were + variants of the ones that increased soul drops and weapon damage, would have been ridiculous to just stack +5, +10, +15% attack damage, probably no one would have ever used anything else. Here it would mainly be useful for negating damage from things like Elden Beast (you can REALLY dent the damage he does with holy resist talismans and resistance spells).

One thing I also didn't realize until I leveled my weapon to +25, is that not all weapons get up to an S rank for scaling; my axe only got up to a B on STR scaling, while I'm sure there's other regular weapons that get up to A (although every build I've looked up says all the best scaling weapons are either Great/Colossal which I don't care for the trade off of speed vs. power)

Yeah, that's normal with these games too. That's one thing the wiki's good for, seeing what things have for scaling at max level. I think basically no unique melee weapon is S scaling for anything other than a couple weird gimmick weapons like those weightless faith fists.

 

[Mathemagician]

Oh ok I’m not there yet. I gotta climb the snow fort. That rather unique pathway to the star spell in the mountains was a challenge, lol. But didn’t die!

 

[wankerness]

Oh ok I’m not there yet. I gotta climb the snow fort. That rather unique pathway to the star spell in the mountains was a challenge, lol. But didn’t die!

Gotta say that path is a LOT more forgiving than the awful ones in crystal caves in Dark Souls 1. Not only is it three times wider, but you can actually see the outline in the weather when it starts curving clearly. Also you can use hoarfrost stomp and that only shows up where it's safe to walk. I died on that section once on all my playthroughs and it was cause I was stomping to the left and stomped myself right off the ledge.

 

[Mathemagician]

Man, I’ve never played the previous games in this series (is it a series?) but all the talk about it has me interested-

I’m fucking lost reading these posts.

I’m assuming there’s a lot of crafting in this game with the goal to have specific builds to conquer certain levels/bosses?

I’m trying to decide if I want to get it or not. Everything about the way it looks in screenshots looks like it’d be up my alley, but I don’t always fair so well when crafting comes into play. Like with God Of War I just kept maxing out my armor/strength as much as possible and muscled my way through the game, I never changed armor or runes for specific things, I’d probably have to keep a notebook in front of me to keep track of everything.

Is this kind of like D&D where you’re summoning shit? I don’t think I’ll have to be talked into it too hard, just kind of want to know what I’m getting myself into before I drop $70 on it, get an hour or two into it and say “Fuck this”

Have you played Zelda BOTW? It’s an open world RPG similar but it’s got NES level difficulty due to a few mechanics. Namely when you dodge you are invincible briefly.

But it’s not like a devil may cry game where your character is super fast like a ninja. In ER your character is kind of weighty. They move more like a character in older monster Hunter games where attacks have to be deliberate because you are stuck in your attack animation until it ends.

Lots of people try to play it at first like an action game. Nah, 2-4 hits and you’re dead. Early bosses can one-shot you due to low hp.

But if you boost your your health and endurance you can both take more hits and wear heavier armor, thereby scaling the games difficulty.

It’s a long-winded way of saying that if you like exploring dungeons and little hand-holding it scratches that itch. But it’s not a super-fast game relative to like something by platinum games.

It’s not really “hard” it’s just slower paced combat than some people expect. IE you get off like 1 spell and then have to roll away and set up again.

 

[wankerness]

Have you played Zelda BOTW? It’s an open world RPG similar but it’s got NES level difficulty due to a few mechanics. Namely when you dodge you are invincible briefly.

But it’s not like a devil may cry game where your character is super fast like a ninja. In ER your character is kind of weighty. They move more like a character in older monster Hunter games where attacks have to be deliberate because you are stuck in your attack animation until it ends.

Lots of people try to play it at first like an action game. Nah, 2-4 hits and you’re dead. Early bosses can one-shot you due to low hp.

But if you boost your your health and endurance you can both take more hits and wear heavier armor, thereby scaling the games difficulty.

It’s a long-winded way of saying that if you like exploring dungeons and little hand-holding it scratches that itch. But it’s not a super-fast game relative to like something by platinum games.

It’s not really “hard” it’s just slower paced combat than some people expect. IE you get off like 1 spell and then have to roll away and set up again.

I would be REALLY curious to see footage of that guy who popped into the thread the other day to say he tried it, died like 40 times, and gave up without getting anywhere. What are they doing?! Trying to man-mode in swinging in big enemy groups over and over?

 

[Mathemagician]

Basically what happens. They pick a cool/big weapon and start swinging. Well with low stamina you only get 2-3 swings and a single roll. Meanwhile the enemy just circled around you while you hit the air. One or two snacks from a skeleton with a broken sword and your character goes tits up.

New players likely don’t know/use the lock-on as action games don’t have it. So they run in and spam attacks and then get 2 shot by a level 1 enemy. Or they walk right TF off the edge of the level. Then blame the game for not having invisible walls.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

It’s not really “hard” it’s just slower paced combat than some people expect.

Pretty much. I'd even argue go as far as say it's meditative. Souls games teach you to be more calculating and tactical rather than just bum rush in Kratos style. You have to fight smart, constantly watch yourself and your actions. And as a result, the slow pace actually feels meditative to me.

Elden Ring may be the most pronounced example. Right off the bat the game teases you with a horseback boss you think you can take on if you're a newcomer. It actually reminded me back when I was playing Ultima Underword Stygian Abyss, since that game also made me rethink my gameplay style in a similar way. I also died a lot in that game too.

 

[Mathemagician]

Oh yeah, no one tells you that early on if you see a boss or really hard enemies - just go another way, lol.

Still the best Zelda game I’ve ever played.

 

[narad]

started NG+, wound up running through stormveil and defeating all those guys, and going to the redmayne castle thinking I'd get to fight radahn but the scenario was different this time through and the castle was full of enemies and a boss. But it's crazy doing this in a single sitting when that was like 2-3 weeks of my first playthrough. I died once and that's when I fell off a cliff. I love running through these guys with all the new tricks, especially bloodhound step and the relic sword maxed out. I'm not sure what that art scales with but it was pretty strong right-out with my faith-based build, then taking it up to +10 made it insane. I wonder when it's going to stop being like full-on easy mode.

But at the same time, besides kicking ass, not much to do since the runes required to level are super high and I already have all the cool gear. Basically only thing I ever get that I appreciate are sacred tears, and maybe memory stones if those are also adding onto my current set of memorable spells.

 

[destroyerdogs]

Fia (i know the lichdragon is locked behind her quest, maybe the fia's champions too, plus there are some good items if you do the interlocking D quest)

Lichdragon isn't actually locked behind her quest. I didn't do her quest and couldn't find her in the boss arena after killing Fia's Champions. But she was there so I could trigger the Lichdragon fight when I came back on a whim later in the game.

 

[Leviathus]

Spent a good chunk of the evening collecting all the legendary achievement items. So much easier when you don't have to do covenant stuff or get to the end of ng+2. Just need the chaos ending and the plat's mine.

 

[RevDrucifer]

Have you played Zelda BOTW? It’s an open world RPG similar but it’s got NES level difficulty due to a few mechanics. Namely when you dodge you are invincible briefly.

But it’s not like a devil may cry game where your character is super fast like a ninja. In ER your character is kind of weighty. They move more like a character in older monster Hunter games where attacks have to be deliberate because you are stuck in your attack animation until it ends.

Lots of people try to play it at first like an action game. Nah, 2-4 hits and you’re dead. Early bosses can one-shot you due to low hp.

But if you boost your your health and endurance you can both take more hits and wear heavier armor, thereby scaling the games difficulty.

It’s a long-winded way of saying that if you like exploring dungeons and little hand-holding it scratches that itch. But it’s not a super-fast game relative to like something by platinum games.

It’s not really “hard” it’s just slower paced combat than some people expect. IE you get off like 1 spell and then have to roll away and set up again.

I haven’t played BOTW, though I do have a huge love for the original NES Zelda!

Checking out some other reviews it mentions a lot about exploring and discovering, which is something I definitely dig about games, especially if they’re in a more mystical/ancient ruins kind of setting. That’s easily my favorite aspect of God of War, or Myst, back in the day.

I’ll probably give this a go tonight, as if I need anything else to distract me from working in the studio.

 

[wankerness]

Back to this, finishing off my 5th character. Died to Melania more than on my other four playthroughs combined! Jesus. I guess I got really lucky with my first dual-katana kill. This time, it was just death after death. Either she'd keep dodging and weaving across the room every time I tried to hit her, resulting in the mimic tear dying before phase 2, or she'd target me with waterfowl dance and that was GG since I didn't have a bloodhound step setup. I tried about half my attempts with Tiche (who would randomly just start floating around by herself in the corner and not doing shit to Melania other than shooting the ranged attack at her from far away and missing every time), which was a big mistake despite Tiche having much better evasion abilities than the mimic. The damage on this fight combined with how impossible it is to dodge waterfowl dance unless you back out and start running before she even gives the tell that she's going to cast it really is out of control. I mean, it still only took me like 45 minutes, but I died upwards of 20 times in those 45 minutes!! And man, I LOATHE the bosses in this game that spam huge poison clouds (or rot clouds, even worse) that not only inflict the status on you but do damage to you with every tick, staggering you. Remove at least one of those three effects, IMO. Especially on the gargoyle boss.

I think I might play NG+ on my int character cause that one might have been the most fun, plus I want to get the dung eater and nepheli summons on one character. Dung Eater is supposedly the best one besides Mimic Tear as far as aggro/survivability goes. Though my suspicion is every NG cycle makes summons more and more useless since they cap out on stat increases on NG while boss damage and health just keep on scaling. Guessing they pretty much just die instantly by NG+7.

 

[Wc707]

Went from Brass Shield, Heavy Uchi and Crucible Armor, to right hand Blasphemous Blade and left hand Ordovis's Greatsword rocking Malikeths armor.
Holy shit talk about taking everyone to pound town! Wish I'd played around with these two earlier.

 

[Leviathus]

Started a new playthrough and have been hitting the yellow wishbone and helping folks with bosses in Liurnia. Still getting so many connection errors, hope they patch in some MP stability soon.

 

[cwhitey2]

I'm lvl 94 with 130ish hours in and I'm kinda stuck

I went with a strength vitality build and kinda regret it. Some enemies/bosses I destroy like nothing, then I get certain ones and can't do shit against them (Ancient Dragon Lansseax)

I feel like I'm only half way through the game too, as I have not entered Leyndell yet.

I'm enjoy the game and my progress, I'm losing patients hahah. Especially when I read things about people on NG+7 :lol

 

[wankerness]

I'm lvl 94 with 130ish hours in and I'm kinda stuck

I went with a strength vitality build and kinda regret it. Some enemies/bosses I destroy like nothing, then I get certain ones and can't do shit against them (Ancient Dragon Lansseax)

I feel like I'm only half way through the game too, as I have not entered Leyndell yet.

I'm enjoy the game and my progress, I'm losing patients hahah. Especially when I read things about people on NG+7 :lol

My first playthrough where I barely used any guides until I started going for the last trophies I got the platinum at around 130 hours, and was about level 175 at that point (the end of one playthrough - on subsequent ones it's usually more like 50 hours/level 150). Are you dying a whole lot, or are you grinding enemies that don't give many runes, or are you really poking into every corner of the map carefully, or what?

What weapons are you using? You're not yet to the point where the game gets really silly hard, that comes after you finish Leyndell. If you're having trouble I'm guessing you've got problems either with your build or your weapon choices. What kind of stats do you have, and what weapon(s)? I think you'd want 30 vigor at the absolute minimum before going into Leyndell (I've aimed for 40 on all subsequent playthroughs since I had a bad time with 30 on first playthrough even though I did make it through), and probably something like 40-50 strength and 25-30 endurance. Endurance is good if you're trying to carry around two huge weapons, but armor's kind of a diminishing returns thing here, too - it does reduce damage, but at some point the incoming damage is such that you'll still get 2-shot by everything even if you're in heavy armor unless you also levelled vigor really high, so armor becomes kind of useless except in PVP for the poise (though poise only works against wimpy weapons).

I'm doing a second strength playthrough, going to avoid cheesing with the fallingstar beast jaw this time. The early strength weapons are kind of terrible, their range is so bad. Used the brick hammer for a while again, then started using the bloodhound's fang for the wider swings, but thinking I might go back to my fav from DS1/3 and use the Claymore.

Bleed is stupid overpowered so using a strength weapon either that comes with bleed (ex Great Stars) or that you can infuse with bleed (or frost) helps with a ton of enemies. I started seeing really diminishing returns on non-bleed damage at some point around Leyndell.

 

[Mathemagician]

I need to hurry up and beat this game at least once man, lol.

I’m like a billion hour in, level 155 or so on my first character and just running around cleaning up minor dungeons before doing whatever happens at the forge. I got to the Haligtree and just….did not have the patience to inch ever forward so I turned it off. The Mohg area is trying my patience too. I’m about to start looking up some broken ass builds. Well, more broken than Boss Delete Hadoken, mimic and Moonveil I currently use.

But I also want to beat every boss and double as many items at the Turtle Towers as I can, and beat every single minor dungeon and unlock everything and do every side quest and and and.

Fuck bro. I absolutely SWORE I wouldn’t do this. Look what I have become.

 

[wankerness]

I need to hurry up and beat this game at least once man, lol.

I’m like a billion hour in, level 155 or so on my first character and just running around cleaning up minor dungeons before doing whatever happens at the forge. I got to the Haligtree and just….did not have the patience to inch ever forward so I turned it off. The Mohg area is trying my patience too. I’m about to start looking up some broken ass builds. Well, more broken than Boss Delete Hadoken, mimic and Moonveil I currently use.

But I also want to beat every boss and double as many items at the Turtle Towers as I can, and beat every single minor dungeon and unlock everything and do every side quest and and and.

Fuck bro. I absolutely SWORE I wouldn’t do this. Look what I have become.

Man, you have a bunch left.

Haligtree’s worst section is the branches at the very beginning. There are some horrible bullshit enemies in the level, but you can skip most of them.