Elden Ring (DLC Announced!)

[Espio]

Spoiler

Not a spoiler, just a screenshot in a starting area. But I really love the atmosphere. This game is beautiful.

I love her braid it reminds me of someone I know.

 

[C-Sword]

Can no longer spam R2 with the Tree Sentinel's shield and Fire Deadly Sin, that helped me killed so many bosses. I just started the snowy area.

 

[Trustful_Whale]

Can no longer spam R2 with the Tree Sentinel's shield and Fire Deadly Sin, that helped me killed so many bosses. I just started the snowy area.

Can still use bleed if you wanna melt things.

 

[C-Sword]

Can still use bleed if you wanna melt things.

I went with a strength/int build. I only have 7 points on arcane. I'll have to respec and take points from somewhere else. Currently using a +17 heavy bastard sword, strength is at 51 and intelligence at 40

 

[Trustful_Whale]

In that case I'd try putting Cold on your sword, since it's B STR scaling and will also make use of your INT stat while building frostbite on things.
I have no idea how effective Cold builds are in the snow region, however, but worth a shot.

That said, Bleed would also have B STR scaling for your weapon, so still an option.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

Need help with the wolf guy. I hear him howling, I didn't know what to do, the internet says to go talk to the merchant and he gives you the gesture to summon wolf guy, but I hear the howling, can even see the wolf on the tower, but the merchant doesn't give me any new prompts. I dont know what to do.

 

[Juggs]

Did some more testing, I think Hoarfrost Stomp is only gonna be used in super specific builds, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But it’s nowhere even close to as good as it was, both in PvE and PvP. Which again, not a bad thing, it was absolutely OP and needed to be nerfed.

In other news, finally beat the Night Calvary that drops the Bloodhound Step. Definitely was underleveled for that fight, it was one of the more difficult boss fights I’ve had in a long while. Ended up cheesing it with a bow & arrow to get it down to 40% or so health, then finished it on the ground. I will very very rarely do any cheese on any boss on my first playthrough, but it was clear I wasn’t supposed to be fighting him at my current level with my current gear, and I really wanted that Ash. Also, I’m not really a fan of fighting bosses on my horse, even tho in bosses like this it’s probably what you may are supposed to do. Anyway, now just need to get more of those items that can dupe Ashes of War, because Bloodhound Step is definitely gonna be a staple in PvP and needed for a few weapons imo.

 

[Juggs]

With the vastness of Elden Ring, and all the side quests, optional NPC questlines, and just all the optional stuff you can do in general, idk how people are beating the game in under 60-80 hours or so. Only explanation is that people aren’t doing a lot of these optional stuff, not really exploring and just rushing to the next main area and bosses, and probably aren’t engaging in any PvP. (For reference, I’m 65+ ish hrs into the game, and I’ve technically only beaten two of the huge main bosses, aka ones that are either mandatory or are apart of the main storyline that give you a great rune, which includes the respec boss). I just feel like you miss so much of this game when you rush through it. But I also think summoning other players to help you, even if they’re NPC’s, drastically cheapen the experience as well. This isn’t some “git gud” elitist opinion. I genuinely want people to feel that same type of gratification and sense of accomplishment when you die to a boss a lot, study it, analyze why you lost, make adjustments, improve, and ultimately become victorious. That feeling is literally nonexistent unless it’s a pure 1v1, you’re not cheesing it, AND you’re not using super OP stuff like the super strong spirit ashes.

Ah well, I want people to play how they want, of course. I just also want to people to enjoy certain aspects of this game that they might be missing out on. ¯\(ツ)/¯

 

[Saboteur-6]

With the vastness of Elden Ring, and all the side quests, optional NPC questlines, and just all the optional stuff you can do in general, idk how people are beating the game in under 60-80 hours or so. Only explanation is that people aren’t doing a lot of these optional stuff, not really exploring and just rushing to the next main area and bosses, and probably aren’t engaging in any PvP. (For reference, I’m 65+ ish hrs into the game, and I’ve technically only beaten two of the huge main bosses, aka ones that are either mandatory or are apart of the main storyline that give you a great rune, which includes the respec boss). I just feel like you miss so much of this game when you rush through it. But I also think summoning other players to help you, even if they’re NPC’s, drastically cheapen the experience as well. This isn’t some “git gud” elitist opinion. I genuinely want people to feel that same type of gratification and sense of accomplishment when you die to a boss a lot, study it, analyze why you lost, make adjustments, improve, and ultimately become victorious. That feeling is literally nonexistent unless it’s a pure 1v1, you’re not cheesing it, AND you’re not using super OP stuff like the super strong spirit ashes.

Ah well, I want people to play how they want, of course. I just also want to people to enjoy certain aspects of this game that they might be missing out on. ¯\(ツ)/¯

I'm actually enjoying this less than Sekiro which has been my favorite Fromsoft game to date. I've stopped hitting every side thing that I come across because I'm wanting to push the story along. That said, I've definitely spent a fair amount of time doing optional stuff because I just recently got access to the snowy Giant region.

It took me several hours cumulative to beat Commander Niall because my spirit summons are massively underleved and I didn't feel like grinding for upgrades or switching my playstyle (Str + dual wield greatswords + jump attack emphasis). Basically just had to master all phases of the fight, learn my punish windows, time all my dodge rolls + bloodhound steps, and at the end of the day I'm just glad it's over with lol. I respect the desire to keep it moving because too much deviation undermines any sort of dramatic momentum that the story builds.

I'll say it now though, I wish Elden Ring was more Skeiro than Dark Souls. Kinda bums me out.

 

[Arqwart]

Need help with the wolf guy. I hear him howling, I didn't know what to do, the internet says to go talk to the merchant and he gives you the gesture to summon wolf guy, but I hear the howling, can even see the wolf on the tower, but the merchant doesn't give me any new prompts. I dont know what to do.

Spoiler: Wolf boy instructions

Did Kále give you the Beckon emote? You need to go do it by the ruin that Blaidd is standing on after he howls.

 

[Juggs]

I'm actually enjoying this less than Sekiro which has been my favorite Fromsoft game to date. I've stopped hitting every side thing that I come across because I'm wanting to push the story along. That said, I've definitely spent a fair amount of time doing optional stuff because I just recently got access to the snowy Giant region.

It took me several hours cumulative to beat Commander Niall because my spirit summons are massively underleved and I didn't feel like grinding for upgrades or switching my playstyle (Str + dual wield greatswords + jump attack emphasis). Basically just had to master all phases of the fight, learn my punish windows, time all my dodge rolls + bloodhound steps, and at the end of the day I'm just glad it's over with lol. I respect the desire to keep it moving because too much deviation undermines any sort of dramatic momentum that the story builds.

I'll say it now though, I wish Elden Ring was more Skeiro than Dark Souls. Kinda bums me out.

That’s wild to me. Elden Ring is probably my favorite game of all time, and I haven’t even beaten it yet, lol. It’s everything I’ve always wanted in a game. And even though Sekiro was a great game, I MUCH prefer being able to make my own character and build. Gives the game actual replayability, where as with Sekiro I only played through it once. Plus there’s no PvP in Sekiro, which is another aspect in the Souls games I love and adds to the replayability. But, to each their own I suppose. ¯\(ツ)/¯

I stopped using the spirit ashes because they’re too good and they’re essentially like just summoning a player or an NPC, which I never do at least on my first playthrough. Especially the super good ones that upgrade with the ghost material instead of the grave materials, those spirit ashes are in general much stronger with also more health and everything.

But yeah, I had extremely high expectations for this game, and they have completely blew them out of the water and surpassed them, didn’t even think that was possible. But I understand that not everyone enjoys the same things that I do, but then again, I haven’t really heard anything truly negative about the game. And every reviewer gave it a 10/10, 5/5, 5 stars, etc. Don’t think I’ve ever seen any video game be that unanimously rated as a “10/10” before, and it’s actually well deserved. Definitely will be GOTY, even though there’s a lot of good games that have come out or that are coming out this year, Elden Ring is absolutely gonna win that shit, lol

 

[Saboteur-6]

That’s wild to me. Elden Ring is probably my favorite game of all time, and I haven’t even beaten it yet, lol. It’s everything I’ve always wanted in a game. And even though Sekiro was a great game, I MUCH prefer being able to make my own character and build. Gives the game actual replayability, where as with Sekiro I only played through it once. Plus there’s no PvP in Sekiro, which is another aspect in the Souls games I love and adds to the replayability. But, to each their own I suppose. ¯\(ツ)/¯

I stopped using the spirit ashes because they’re too good and they’re essentially like just summoning a player or an NPC, which I never do at least on my first playthrough. Especially the super good ones that upgrade with the ghost material instead of the grave materials, those spirit ashes are in general much stronger with also more health and everything.

But yeah, I had extremely high expectations for this game, and they have completely blew them out of the water and surpassed them, didn’t even think that was possible. But I understand that not everyone enjoys the same things that I do, but then again, I haven’t really heard anything truly negative about the game. And every reviewer gave it a 10/10, 5/5, 5 stars, etc. Don’t think I’ve ever seen any video game be that unanimously rated as a “10/10” before, and it’s actually well deserved. Definitely will be GOTY, even though there’s a lot of good games that have come out or that are coming out this year, Elden Ring is absolutely gonna win that shit, lol

Yeah I hear you. Definitely boils down to a preference thing. Technically objectively speaking I can acknowledge that this game is a masterpiece but when it comes to my personal enjoyment, I know what I like most about RPGs and From games generally don't quite 'check all the boxes' for me.

My favorite modern RPG game series is probably Mass Effect if that gives you frame of reference.

 

[Juggs]

Yeah I hear you. Definitely boils down to a preference thing. Technically objectively speaking I can acknowledge that this game is a masterpiece but when it comes to my personal enjoyment, I know what I like most about RPGs and From games generally don't quite 'check all the boxes' for me.

My favorite modern RPG game series is probably Mass Effect if that gives you frame of reference.

Never played ME, but I get where you’re coming from for sure.

 

[Juggs]

The amount of Moonveil users you see in PvP is actually insane. Which wouldn’t bother me if it wasn’t super fkn good, especially in ganks. It’s quick, super quick cast speed, tons of damage, great range, and it’s attached to a good quick weapon… a katana. I definitely see it being a weapon that gets nerfed in the next balance patch.

There’s of course several other super broken stuff, but I don’t like it when every single invasion consists of me facing at least one Moonveil user. Shit is OD

 

[Trustful_Whale]

Hooo boy you're gonna welcome Moonveil back with open arms after you run into a bunch of Rivers of Blood players, haha.
Which everyone will be moving to shortly once they notice Moonveil got slightly nerfed a bit, and RoB scaling got fixed, so prepare yourself.

 

[Juggs]

Hooo boy you're gonna welcome Moonveil back with open arms after you run into a bunch of Rivers of Blood players, haha.
Which everyone will be moving to shortly once they notice Moonveil got slightly nerfed a bit, and RoB scaling got fixed, so prepare yourself.

Nah I’ve ran into those players as well, which is why I said “there’s ofc a bunch of other broken stuff” just not nearly as much as Moonveil users. Like I said, Literally every invasion there’s at LEAST one Moonveil user. It’s not that Moonveil is the best PvP weapon or build or anything, just that the fact that it is overused AND really good.

 

[Trustful_Whale]

And I'm sayin that number is gonna grow, a lot. The age of RoB is upon us.
Honestly surprised you aren't already drowning in them tbh, they're everywhere rn.
Also was just tryin to make a giggle.

 

[Juggs]

And I'm sayin that number is gonna grow, a lot. The age of RoB is upon us.
Honestly surprised you aren't already drowning in them tbh, they're everywhere rn.
Also was just tryin to make a giggle.

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that you can rush in and get the Moonveil Katana relatively early, where as it takes waaaay longer to get the Rivers of Blood Katana. So yeah, once I level up to around 130 (which is gonna be my level cap), I’ll probably see the RoB builds way more.

I’ve also seen videos of some insane Blood builds that weren’t working properly pre-patch, but now are absolutely devastating.

And there’s this one weapon I want to get that seems super OP but I have no idea where or when I’ll get it, seems like a super late game weapon…

 

[Espio]

With the vastness of Elden Ring, and all the side quests, optional NPC questlines, and just all the optional stuff you can do in general, idk how people are beating the game in under 60-80 hours or so. Only explanation is that people aren’t doing a lot of these optional stuff, not really exploring and just rushing to the next main area and bosses, and probably aren’t engaging in any PvP. (For reference, I’m 65+ ish hrs into the game, and I’ve technically only beaten two of the huge main bosses, aka ones that are either mandatory or are apart of the main storyline that give you a great rune, which includes the respec boss). I just feel like you miss so much of this game when you rush through it. But I also think summoning other players to help you, even if they’re NPC’s, drastically cheapen the experience as well. This isn’t some “git gud” elitist opinion. I genuinely want people to feel that same type of gratification and sense of accomplishment when you die to a boss a lot, study it, analyze why you lost, make adjustments, improve, and ultimately become victorious. That feeling is literally nonexistent unless it’s a pure 1v1, you’re not cheesing it, AND you’re not using super OP stuff like the super strong spirit ashes.

Ah well, I want people to play how they want, of course. I just also want to people to enjoy certain aspects of this game that they might be missing out on. ¯\(ツ)/¯

I mean people get immense joy out of their own unique experience and don't find a lot of joy in having to repeat the same boss battle 30 or more times. So far in my time I have primarily used pretty base stat weaponry and I've beaten every boss on my own with no summons and I have not added any ashes of war to my starter class yet but I think I finally will since I have been at it for 50 hours finally. It has been challenging keeping stuff lower level.

Truth be told though, others get a lot of joy out of tackling bosses with their friends and are just here for the main bosses and story. I think that is equally as fulfilling to trying to make things as soul crushingly hard as possible. The game is nice to look at and some of the main bosses like Rennala, Godrick etc have a lot of grandness and flare/personality that you don't get from fighting the optional dragons or Erdtree avatars multiple times. After you encounter the repetitive bosses more than once, you're getting the ability to level up with more runes and sometimes items but you're not really getting a profoundly richer experience. If I did not fight four or so Erdtree Avatars my time with the game would not be LESS enriching for me lol.

I've been exploring a lot and truthfully a lot of optional stuff is very repetitive and even if it wasn't someone getting 40+ hours out of their playthrough easily got their money's worth especially if they are going to do second playthroughs.

Also let's be real, just like with any action adventure game.....even if you like a challenge you still wanna be doing fantastical, cool looking shit to kill your enemies so I don't blame anyone for looking for the strongest items early on so they can enjoy the story at their pace and rock people. The game is set up for various passions to reign for a reason. Magic or melee...those that wanna put over 100 hours into a playthrough or those that wanna get their 50-60 hours in and move on to their huge list of other games. Thankfully FromSoftware understands that while their games do not handhold that they can still provide great experiences to players regardless of being story driven or trying to see everything and do everything.

 

[Juggs]

I mean people get immense joy out of their own unique experience and don't find a lot of joy in having to repeat the same boss battle 30 or more times. So far in my time I have primarily used pretty base stat weaponry and I've beaten every boss on my own with no summons and I have not added any ashes of war to my starter class yet but I think I finally will since I have been at it for 50 hours finally. It has been challenging keeping stuff lower level.

Truth be told though, others get a lot of joy out of tackling bosses with their friends and are just here for the main bosses and story. I think that is equally as fulfilling to trying to make things as soul crushingly hard as possible. The game is nice to look at and some of the main bosses like Rennala, Godrick etc have a lot of grandness and flare/personality that you don't get from fighting the optional dragons or Erdtree avatars multiple times. After you encounter the repetitive bosses more than once, you're getting the ability to level up with more runes and sometimes items but you're not really getting a profoundly richer experience. If I did not fight four or so Erdtree Avatars my time with the game would not be LESS enriching for me lol.

I've been exploring a lot and truthfully a lot of optional stuff is very repetitive and even if it wasn't someone getting 40+ hours out of their playthrough easily got their money's worth especially if they are going to do second playthroughs.

Also let's be real, just like with any action adventure game.....even if you like a challenge you still wanna be doing fantastical, cool looking shit to kill your enemies so I don't blame anyone for looking for the strongest items early on so they can enjoy the story at their pace and rock people. The game is set up for various passions to reign for a reason. Magic or melee...those that wanna put over 100 hours into a playthrough or those that wanna get their 50-60 hours in and move on to their huge list of other games. Thankfully FromSoftware understands that while their games do not handhold that they can still provide great experiences to players regardless of being story driven or trying to see everything and do everything.

Yah… re-read my last 2 sentences in that post.

 

[Dankster Morgan]

I only have like 8 hrs in the game because I didn't get it at release, but all I've done is just fuck around and look at stuff and explore. Even with no direction it's been very fun. I know just from memes about early game big bosses like Margit, but I had no interest in going into the castle just yet because I keep getting sidetracked. It's a fun game, but I definitely want my guy to do cool stuff like at least some magic (right now just throwing fireballs), because it looks cool.

 

[Sutter Pain]

I think Moonveil katana is pretty nasty but to be fair a lot of the people complaining have shit vig combined with radagon talisman. It is most def overused and I use it myself but I think the nasty damage should be for the people that invested heavily in int.

 

[Espio]

Yah… re-read my last 2 sentences in that post.

I don't need to reread it, I read it correctly the first time and my response made sense and was appropriate for what was stated by you. They are not missing out on anything unless they feel they are missing out on something.

 

[Sutter Pain]

This is what I see in my head whenever someone ends their post with a emoji.

 

[Juggs]

They are not missing out on anything unless they feel they are missing out on something.

That’s not how that works, lol.