Elden Ring - February 2022 (PC, PS4, PS5, XBOX ONE, XBOX SERIES S/X)

[Blitzkrug]

Finally bought the game a couple weeks ago. Been having a blast outside of a few bosses. Astel in the Tunnel can go screw itself. I'm at the very end. I only have Placidusax ( awesome fight ) , Malenia ( this is going to take a minute ) ,and the end boss.

I just bought the DLC so I'm going to mess around with that tonight.

I thought the game kinda fell off hard after Caleid.

Up until then, the game felt "hard, but fair." It was my first soulsborne and once you get past the initial hump of understanding what the game expects of you, it was amazing. Margit, Godrick and most of the bosses you find in Limgrave and Liurnia.

After Caleid, it feels like a switch flips. The bosses go from challenging, well designed dances to absolute messes. Or really lazy since the answer to fights in some cases late game is either "eh idk here's two pain in the asses instead of one." or reusing the same shit over and over. Shout out to the Tree Sentinel and his 47 siblings

A friend of mine is a soulsborne fiend and he basically explained fromsoft has run out of ways to actually challenge the player (since as it turns out, telling your community to git gud for 15 years lead them to in fact, git gud) so they rely on these spastic bosses that have 40 hit combos where you're lucky to get a single stab in between cooldowns that flip and fly around the arena constantly.

That's not to say the entire back half of the game sucks. There's some standout fights. Godfrey in both projection form and then fighting him/Horah Loux for real. Palciduax, Morgott, Mohg, Melania.

 

[SwordsgoneWild]

That DLC is going to mess around with you, pal

Haha it's been a blast so far but truth be told I've just been exploring. I just got to the Jagged Peak. Looks foreboding as hell with all of this red lightning.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Haha it's been a blast so far but truth be told I've just been exploring. I just got to the Jagged Peak. Looks foreboding as hell with all of this red lightning.

Awesome ass fight waiting at the top of that. Probably the standout of the DLC.

The one time where summoning is recommended just for the NPC's dialogue

 

[aleshemsky83]

Awesome ass fight waiting at the top of that. Probably the standout of the DLC.

The one time where summoning is recommended just for the NPC's dialogue

It also doesn’t increase the bosses health, which is nice. Neither the Messmer nor Bayle NPC summons do because they’re inside the boss room.

 

[aleshemsky83]

I’ve recently been doing a couple replays of of Elden Ring some conclusions I’ve come too.

Bloodhound Fang is S tier. Great damage, does blood loss, and its unique skill for some reason does ridiculous damage.

Katanas are incredible especially the uchigata but anything you can put unsheathe on, I never got the unsheathe love but I didn’t realize that it breaks the guard of almost every boss in usually 2 but at most 3 hits.

I thought straight swords were trash because they didn’t really have the DPS or range they did in dark souls 3, but I didn’t realize that the square off skill was so much better than it was in DS3. Staggers bosses just as well as unsheathed, does counter damage cause it’s a thrusting attack, hardly uses FP, has really good poise, and does really good damage. I really overlooked this.

Sword of Night and Flame. I won’t say this is bad, it’s really good, but starting a playthrough with it requires pretty sizeable stat investment, like 20 levels regardless of class, which is gonna leave you in one shot territory. I think I’m having more fun with the other weapons because I can just equip them and level vigor. It got nerfed yes but it still does respectable damage.


Tried the caestus, it’s not bad, extremely useful for golems, clay men, skeletons, imps, etc, surprisingly it doesn’t get the damage bonus to the falling star beasts, whatevs.

Need to try the “real” fist weapons though. Star fist and iron ball. I’ve heard they’re OP.

 

[x Tame Impala]

I’ve recently been doing a couple replays of of Elden Ring some conclusions I’ve come too.

Bloodhound Fang is S tier. Great damage, does blood loss, and its unique skill for some reason does ridiculous damage.

Katanas are incredible especially the uchigata but anything you can put unsheathe on, I never got the unsheathe love but I didn’t realize that it breaks the guard of almost every boss in usually 2 but at most 3 hits.

I thought straight swords were trash because they didn’t really have the DPS or range they did in dark souls 3, but I didn’t realize that the square off skill was so much better than it was in DS3. Staggers bosses just as well as unsheathed, does counter damage cause it’s a thrusting attack, hardly uses FP, has really good poise, and does really good damage. I really overlooked this.

Sword of Night and Flame. I won’t say this is bad, it’s really good, but starting a playthrough with it requires pretty sizeable stat investment, like 20 levels regardless of class, which is gonna leave you in one shot territory. I think I’m having more fun with the other weapons because I can just equip them and level vigor. It got nerfed yes but it still does respectable damage.


Tried the caestus, it’s not bad, extremely useful for golems, clay men, skeletons, imps, etc, surprisingly it doesn’t get the damage bonus to the falling star beasts, whatevs.

Need to try the “real” fist weapons though. Star fist and iron ball. I’ve heard they’re OP.

Square Off is a ton of fun and I wish it was useable on more weapons. It costs like 3 FP as well on top of looking really cool.

The Bloodhound fang is really all you need to beat most of the game. Once it levels up it does crazy damage too. I’ve had to force myself not to use it on new playthroughs.

 

[HanSolo]

Just got this after all this time. It's my first from software game. I did play Dark Souls 2 with a friend once but man does this game knock my teeth in. But damn if it doesn't look amazing. I'm not sure if the aesthetic is what keeps me engaged alone but I've played the shit out of it.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Just got this after all this time. It's my first from software game. I did play Dark Souls 2 with a friend once but man does this game knock my teeth in. But damn if it doesn't look amazing. I'm not sure if the aesthetic is what keeps me engaged alone but I've played the shit out of it.

It's awesome when everything finally "clicks". Don't touch the DLC yet, it's pretty hard. Just don't finish the game before you start the DLC and you'll be fine

 

[HanSolo]

It's awesome when everything finally "clicks". Don't touch the DLC yet, it's pretty hard. Just don't finish the game before you start the DLC and you'll be fine

It's just been rough trying to nail the timing of everything and having a good sense of where I should be going. I did end up getting the sword being talked about above, the Bloodhound fang just cause I saw I happened to get the boss fight quest.

Is there some way to store runes? Losing all your money on death seems brutal. The only way I've thought that can work is holding onto many stacks of golden runes to sell later.

 

[x Tame Impala]

It's just been rough trying to nail the timing of everything and having a good sense of where I should be going. I did end up getting the sword being talked about above, the Bloodhound fang just cause I saw I happened to get the boss fight quest.

Is there some way to store runes? Losing all your money on death seems brutal. The only way I've thought that can work is holding onto many stacks of golden runes to sell later.

Nope. It's pretty unforgiving. You can find a "Sacrificial Twig" which is an item that gets destroyed upon death instead of losing your runes but it's only good for one use.

Only use the runes in your inventory when you're close to leveling up. You think it's bad now??? Wait until you lose 100k + runes like it's nothing

You're a puny little bug in a world where everything wants to kill you. Survive and become Elden Lord! It's awesome in the long run, best of luck to you homie

 

[HanSolo]

Nope. It's pretty unforgiving. You can find a "Sacrificial Twig" which is an item that gets destroyed upon death instead of losing your runes but it's only good for one use.

Only use the runes in your inventory when you're close to leveling up. You think it's bad now??? Wait until you lose 100k + runes like it's nothing

You're a puny little bug in a world where everything wants to kill you. Survive and become Elden Lord! It's awesome in the long run, best of luck to you homie

I mean considering I have no concept of the right time to dodge roll jump or block, that's gonna take me a good minute. See you next year

 

[John Price]

 

[SwordsgoneWild]

Finally committed to beating it but wtf is up with this final boss in the DLC? This is a nightmare Haha. I will beat it today though as I finally have some free time.

The DLC as a whole has been a fun experience. Outside of a certain hidden boss in Rauh Ruins where the developers decided to reuse a certain boss and give it an extra bullshit phase ontop. That was my only rage inducing moment.

 

[aleshemsky83]

I beat this game 5 times and had no idea how weak radagon was to strike damage. He basically takes double damage. Smdh.

Finally committed to beating it but wtf is up with this final boss in the DLC? This is a nightmare Haha. I will beat it today though as I finally have some free time.

The DLC as a whole has been a fun experience. Outside of a certain hidden boss in Rauh Ruins where the developers decided to reuse a certain boss and give it an extra bullshit phase ontop. That was my only rage inducing moment.

I thought that boss was a lot easier than the first time but maybe cause I had so many scadutree blessings

 

[SwordsgoneWild]

I beat this game 5 times and had no idea how weak radagon was to strike damage. He basically takes double damage. Smdh.


I thought that boss was a lot easier than the first time but maybe cause I had so many scadutree blessings

That's good to know. He's up next for me.

Oh it was fun fight until it started spewing death blight and summoned basilisks. Why? Just why lol.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Ive got like 300 hours in the game and just now realized you can level your character at the roundtable hold by resting at the table. Was this added in a patch or has it been that way since launch

 

[x Tame Impala]

Ive got like 300 hours in the game and just now realized you can level your character at the roundtable hold by resting at the table. Was this added in a patch or has it been that way since launch

From the beginning

I was all the way to Crumbling Farum Azula when I figured it out. You’re not alone.

 

[pistolpete11]

A friend of mine is a soulsborne fiend and he basically explained fromsoft has run out of ways to actually challenge the player (since as it turns out, telling your community to git gud for 15 years lead them to in fact, git gud) so they rely on these spastic bosses that have 40 hit combos where you're lucky to get a single stab in between cooldowns that flip and fly around the arena constantly.

I think this is true to a large extent and why I want them to come up with something new (like Sekiro was) instead of Dark Souls 5 (if Elden Ring was Dark Souls 4). I don't know what that could be exactly, but I've often wondered what they could do with guns, bows, or maybe a game built around ranged magic.