The Shattered Elden Ring Thread: Tarnished Edition - (Shadow of the Erdtree p. 85)

Chupathingy

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Finished it and loved it. The open world aspect needs more work, and I could go for fewer combo-spammy bosses (and don't fucking reuse story bosses in dungeons! That's silly), but it otherwise felt like a nice addition to the Souls style. Having weapon arts and power stancing together was great, I liked most of the NPCs and their stories, the legacy dungeons mostly felt amazing to explore and get lost in, especially Stormveil, Leyndell, Volcano Manor, and Nokron/Nokstella, the background of a divine civil war was cool, and most importantly there were plenty of Fashion Souls options.

Looking forward to seeing what From does next.
 
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sXeth

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Beat game. Janky. Not even the barest hint of game balance lol. Still probably falls in my usual Souls-barometer of good but so overblown.

I think time may be less kind to impressios this one. After everyone gets over the OMGerd Open World 100 hour Souls Game and starts looking at the cracks. A ton of filler, re-used bosses (some of which are already reused from prior games. No points for Gargoyles, but we'll alot you some if you can name the reskinned Asylum and Capra demons).


Then by the end game you're just dealing with ludicrous HP bloats, 8000hp rats and shit. Its like a trip back to DS1 when I didn't know upgrading weapons and spent 50 minutes killing the Sewer Dragon. Patterns learned but just exhausting.


The story is.... well, 95% the same as any Sous game. Flip a few names around. As expected. Whatever Martin gave them as "a backbone over a couple days" doesn't seem to have done much. Maybe explained why some of the human civilization has a bit of depth beyond being a vague name of somewhere far away.


From the specific first playthrough perspective. Faith build SUCKS. All the Faith weapons show up late to endgame. The spells are a mess of being so incredibly slow and half them are dice roll on even hitting. Even your spells and baseline gear don't show up til around 50% in (Leyndell). And no Faith spell does stagger damage (Except via blood loss ticks on one) so good luck with anything like the Tower Knights (another copyover) that is built around that mechanic. (Boulder might, but it was so late in the game to get that many Deathroots I'd just gotten used to melee by then)

PVP has been strange because my go to farming spot requires me to complete a pvp invasion quest where i have to invade three people. The quest is easy because I don't have to win, I just have to invade so there is no pressure. But you cannot invade solo players so I've always faced groups. And I have won a shocking number of times. To the point where I genuinely don't understand why or how they didn't just merc me. But my bleed swords also will kill someone if I hit them two or three times outright so...even the dude powerstancing greatswords just couldn't keep out of my way and melted.

PVP in ER is pointless tbh, becuase it's so unfair to the invader (in theory) and the builds in this game are not designed for pvp in mind, Arts will pretty much instantly kill anyone they hit so it just becomes a duel of who gets hit first.

Eh you can get to that bloody place "legitimately" via a portal (although at that point, you should be like, maybe 3 bosses from the end of the game and the runes are about the same everywhere, though that ones the least risk).


PvP is either one shot griefing or just annoying everytime I've dealt with it. They went all in on actually adding so many diverse and viable mechanics/spells/arts that it's almost impossible to balance. And the PvE would suffer hard if they took that out (if not outright need to be totally rebalanced).


The bizarre decision to make using co-op the opt-in for PvP.... is... baffling. The people who are explicitly the ones who are playing the reverse experience get invaded. Its basically a guarantee to generate toxicity. But after like a week and increasing, Elden Ring has much like any other souls game, devolved into invasions either being someone brand new who dies immediately, or hardcore smurf characters loaded up with X-ferred endgame gear.


And Invaders still have all the advantages. They aren't downscaled, at all. Seem to be able to invade at a massive level gap (cause I've been invaded on level 1 Wretch in Limgrave by a dude non-fat rolling in Radahns armour and using the 70 int moon spell).And they have one objective, bum rush and kill the host. The host has to contend with the entire level of enemies before and after the invader (and during, since many invaders still are the non-engagers who just hide amidst the enemies and flee immediately if the NPCs go down).
 

sXeth

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@sXeth, how have you been? Haven't seen a post from you in a long time.

Had a generally long break from the internet, and some upticks in work keeping me busy. And the pandemic (currently I'm on day 2 of being positive, sigh).

Also a dearth in games coming out to discuss lol. I've mostly been banging about in Warframe, Dauntless and Deep Rock prior to ER (though Salt and Sacrifice is coming out soon too)
 

Silvanus

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Over a hundred hours in now. Beaten Godrick, Radahn, Rennala, Rykard and Morgott; finished Ranni's questline; Beaten the Fire Giant and (just yesterday) the Godskin Duo.

Most big deal main story bosses I've not summoned for (either people or ashes), but the Godskin Duo, fuck those guys. Already beaten apostles and nobles individually and sequentially. So summoned Bernahl and a +10 Ash summon just for those two twats. Was satisfying to just let loose.

Also made it up to Mohg and Malenia. Not beaten either yet. Got a plan for dealing with Mohg's blood loss bullshit. Hope it works.
 

sXeth

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Over a hundred hours in now. Beaten Godrick, Radahn, Rennala, Rykard and Morgott; finished Ranni's questline; Beaten the Fire Giant and (just yesterday) the Godskin Duo.

Most big deal main story bosses I've not summoned for (either people or ashes), but the Godskin Duo, fuck those guys. Already beaten apostles and nobles individually and sequentially. So summoned Bernahl and a +10 Ash summon just for those two twats. Was satisfying to just let loose.

Also made it up to Mohg and Malenia. Not beaten either yet. Got a plan for dealing with Mohg's blood loss bullshit. Hope it works.

Theres basically two items to help out with Mohg. The Purifying Crystal Tear (from Yuras quest) actually negates that marking ring garbage he does to you (or at least stops it being a timed instakill). He also has a shackle item you can find that will knock him on his backside twice during the fight for you.
 

Brokencontroller

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Theres basically two items to help out with Mohg. The Purifying Crystal Tear (from Yuras quest) actually negates that marking ring garbage he does to you (or at least stops it being a timed instakill). He also has a shackle item you can find that will knock him on his backside twice during the fight for you.
I ended up summoning a guy to help with mohg because his second phase was frustrating me. The guy i summoned destroyed him while he was doing the "NIHL!!!". But i dont care i hated that boss.
 

Chupathingy

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Most big deal main story bosses I've not summoned for (either people or ashes), but the Godskin Duo, fuck those guys. Already beaten apostles and nobles individually and sequentially. So summoned Bernahl and a +10 Ash summon just for those two twats. Was satisfying to just let loose.
Fun fact: both of them are highly susceptible to sleep, which makes the fight a cakewalk.
 
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Silvanus

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Theres basically two items to help out with Mohg. The Purifying Crystal Tear (from Yuras quest) actually negates that marking ring garbage he does to you (or at least stops it being a timed instakill). He also has a shackle item you can find that will knock him on his backside twice during the fight for you.
Beat Mohg today after a good dozen tries. Used the purifying tear, but not that shackle thing and still didn't summon.

What worked for me was getting him frostbitten just as he's going into phase 2. Slowed him down enough to struggle through the last chunk of his health.

Also, bloodhound's finesse is a damn good skill.
 

Chupathingy

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How do you get Sleep stuff? I've barely seen any of it in the game, though maybe it's in some of the cookbooks.
Yeah, the grease and throwing pot both require two different cookbooks. There's also a weapon that inflicts sleep in its weapon art.
 

EvilRoy

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Yeah, the grease and throwing pot both require two different cookbooks. There's also a weapon that inflicts sleep in its weapon art.
Theres also a special torch in the consecrated snowfields which I preferred typically. Has a sort of spray attack so you don't have to aim much.
 

wings012

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I finally got to Radhan and bonked him on my first try. I was probably incredibly overleveled, and I didn't even notice that you could summon an army to take him on. I saw him charging something up, got on my horse and started dashing in. Then it was UNGA-BUNGA WILD STRIKES.

Then I did the Capital of Leyndell, got incredibly lost, beaten and bruised and had to call in a friend to help me navigate the place and get me to graces. And after getting pounded a few times by Margot, I ended up summoning my friend to help me with him. I then also provided my services to others with mixed results. He's a lot easier if you got a groupie to distract him while others attack. But he's quite overbearing and relentless in his second form and I found it hard to get any openings to attack him, especially since I was using a slow STR build with a fat heavy weapon and no ranged/magic options.
 

sXeth

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I finally got to Radhan and bonked him on my first try. I was probably incredibly overleveled, and I didn't even notice that you could summon an army to take him on. I saw him charging something up, got on my horse and started dashing in. Then it was UNGA-BUNGA WILD STRIKES.

Then I did the Capital of Leyndell, got incredibly lost, beaten and bruised and had to call in a friend to help me navigate the place and get me to graces. And after getting pounded a few times by Margot, I ended up summoning my friend to help me with him. I then also provided my services to others with mixed results. He's a lot easier if you got a groupie to distract him while others attack. But he's quite overbearing and relentless in his second form and I found it hard to get any openings to attack him, especially since I was using a slow STR build with a fat heavy weapon and no ranged/magic options.
I can't recommend Freezing Pots enough as an addon to melee play lol. Ranged damage, and it makes them weaker to your big smacky hits (which also consequently makes them stagger more). The recipe books in Carian manor which is fairly early on and generally simple to make too.


I kind of pointed this out to someone on reddit too. You'd finish Souls games at like, level 70 and not usually have a multi-faceted build. IF you're exploring ER to an extent, you'll end up somewhere between 150-200, and STR stops being a solild pure investment at like 50-55. The game expects you to be interacting with other stats and even mixing in summons/arts/consumables. Particularly "theres no openings" stands out as there's no ash summons being used (tbf, the ash summons also sometimes bug out and don't let you use them in areas they should)
 
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Brokencontroller

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I can't recommend Freezing Pots enough as an addon to melee play lol. Ranged damage, and it makes them weaker to your big smacky hits (which also consequently makes them stagger more). The recipe books in Carian manor which is fairly early on and generally simple to make too.


I kind of pointed this out to someone on reddit too. You'd finish Souls games at like, level 70 and not usually have a multi-faceted build. IF you're exploring ER to an extent, you'll end up somewhere between 150-200, and STR stops being a solild pure investment at like 50-55. The game expects you to be interacting with other stats and even mixing in summons/arts/consumables. Particularly "theres no openings" stands out as there's no ash summons being used (tbf, the ash summons also sometimes bug out and don't let you use them in areas they should)
The big cap to any stat is 60 anything after 60 is meager. The high level you get from basic exploring is why so many weapons scale off three stats because they know youll have a high level and theyve kind of balanced the game around it.

Additionally i believe the game expects you to use ash summon regularly by design and not using them is a self imposed challenge mode. So many bosses are relentless that you have to be a dodging god to avoid getting destroyed.

If you dont want to use summons then fine, but it feels like such an important thing with the ceremony and big deal the game makes of getting the bell and the collection of ashes, that i cant believe they arent expecting players to use them in some fashion.

That also might explain why weapon arts are so gross and why the bosses are furiously fast. ER is not dark souls technically. And all this shit is in the game to balance it out i believe. So all those youtube vids telling you how op builds are, that stuff is there on purpose. The bosses are crazy because they expect the player to have a build capable of destroying things. The bosses melt you but you also should be melting them.
 
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hanselthecaretaker

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I can't recommend Freezing Pots enough as an addon to melee play lol. Ranged damage, and it makes them weaker to your big smacky hits (which also consequently makes them stagger more). The recipe books in Carian manor which is fairly early on and generally simple to make too.


I kind of pointed this out to someone on reddit too. You'd finish Souls games at like, level 70 and not usually have a multi-faceted build. IF you're exploring ER to an extent, you'll end up somewhere between 150-200, and STR stops being a solild pure investment at like 50-55. The game expects you to be interacting with other stats and even mixing in summons/arts/consumables. Particularly "theres no openings" stands out as there's no ash summons being used (tbf, the ash summons also sometimes bug out and don't let you use them in areas they should)

A good example as to why there’s crafting in the game. It all depends on build type. Even in general I’ve found the fire pots do excellent damage to most of the enemies in places like Morne Castle or the plants in swamps. Poison daggers are also good to use on a lot of the annoying flying enemies too as they’re often out of melee range and too quick against arrows or bolts.
 
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EvilRoy

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A good example as to why there’s crafting in the game. It all depends on build type. Even in general I’ve found the fire pots do excellent damage to most of the enemies in places like Morne Castle or the plants in swamps. Poison daggers are also good to use on a lot of the annoying flying enemies too as they’re often out of melee range and too quick against arrows or bolts.
I've absolutely loved the pure utility of being able to make stuff on the fly as needed. Crafting materials being generally very available and stackable to 999 really helps too.

My only complaint is the perplexing insistence that stuff like atreina leaves, or whatever they're called, are somehow noteworthy or worth being made rare. Like. First of all they're farmable, second of all they are only used to give you a fairly low damage boost for a brief period of time. That's not super useful unless you're trying to make a glass cannon and even then there are better ways to get the buffs you need to nuke a boss.
 
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