From Software Games

[FLips]

Finally finished Elden Ring this morning after 93 hours at Level 175 and I never even did half the hidden stuff. Never bothered with the Haligtree or Malenia, never went into the apparently massive sewers under Leyndell, and skipped nearly all of the Mountaintops/Snowfield as I didn't enjoy what I played while I was there.

The last few bosses of the game are a joke and I had to summon other players in to help me on all 3 which I didn't have to do for any other boss. A completely unbalanced difficulty spike.

Overall a brilliant game and the best open world game I've played. Made the open worlds in the likes of Breath of The Wild, Horizon, Witcher III and pretty much anything else look like shit. Some major balance issues and honestly for a game with so many build options it was sad that for the majority of player it boiled down to either having to cheese glintstone magic or use a katana to get by. I ended up trying to use whips but even the strongest one in the game was so ineffective compared to the Bloundhound Sword I got from a really early boss that the endgame wasn't viable with them.

The NPC missions could be clearer as well as by the time I burned the Erdtree I inadvertently killed half the NPCs and/or soft locked myself out of doing their missions. It's fun having nothing explained to you but when that means that an NPC might randomly die or you might lock  yourself out of quests and large sections of the game without warning then it's pretty rubbish.

Cannot fathom still how massive and full that world is though. Even after 93 hours I feel I only scratched the surface.

[Mr_Danger]

That’s a high level for hours played. I’m a little better than one level an hour but to be fair I’ve spent loads on upgrades and consumables so maybe I’m below the curve.

I’m struggling to upgrade mimic tear and any weapon that requires somber smith stones past level 6 but that’s likely to me hanging around areas I’m OP in and being rewarded accordingly. I’ve breached the walls of Leyndell, had a mad dash but was overwhelmed so went and ticked off the rest of Caelid. That Godskin Apostle is a twat, even tried amending my build to allow for using rot breath. In the end it was the trusty +5 Bloodhound Curved Sword that I always go back to. 

I want to finish of Ranni’s quest line seeing as I optioned to fight the most unfair boss fight I’ve ever faced whilst in Nokron (they haven’t nerfed the cheese on the Gargoyles so maybe not that unfair) and tick off the other Elden lords before I start kicking in to end game mode. Probably another 20-30 hours at the rate I’m playing.

My only complaint is that some boss fights are a fucking joke and cheap as hell and so many times my hours of exploration is rewarded with weapons I’ll never use. In that respect the game seems to be geared for intelligence builds.

[FLips]

20 minutes ago, Mr_Danger said:

That’s a high level for hours played. I’m a little better than one level an hour but to be fair I’ve spent loads on upgrades and consumables so maybe I’m below the curve.

I’m struggling to upgrade mimic tear and any weapon that requires somber smith stones past level 6 but that’s likely to me hanging around areas I’m OP in and being rewarded accordingly. I’ve breached the walls of Leyndell, had a mad dash but was overwhelmed so went and ticked off the rest of Caelid. That Godskin Apostle is a twat, even tried amending my build to allow for using rot breath. In the end it was the trusty +5 Bloodhound Curved Sword that I always go back to. 

I want to finish of Ranni’s quest line seeing as I optioned to fight the most unfair boss fight I’ve ever faced whilst in Nokron (they haven’t nerfed the cheese on the Gargoyles so maybe not that unfair) and tick off the other Elden lords before I start kicking in to end game mode. Probably another 20-30 hours at the rate I’m playing.

My only complaint is that some boss fights are a fucking joke and cheap as hell and so many times my hours of exploration is rewarded with weapons I’ll never use. In that respect the game seems to be geared for intelligence builds.

There's an area in the underground you can farm a bird with a bow for 11k runes a pop. I'd say around 30 of my levels came from that and another 10 during the last stretch of the game where enemies and bosses drop a daft amount of runes.

I finished the Ranni stuff and went with her ending. Hardest bosses for me during the entire thing not including the final 3 would be the Bell Bearing Hunters who never seem to get easier, and Alecto Black Knife Ringleader and the Godskin Apostles. Fire Giant seemed like it would be a nightmare until I figured his attacks out.

[Merzbow]

Fucking Alecto, I went back later and stunned the shit out of him with swipes of Adula's Moonblade.  I found that one spell would destroy most humanoid enemies and bosses when mixed in with my Wing of Astel and it's Nebula weapon art. Ended up being a close range Sorcerer and managed to never use the Comet Azur cheese!

Edited April 17, 2022 by Merzbow

[FLips]

2 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

Fucking Alecto, I went back later and stunned the shit out of him with swipes of Adula's Moonblade.  I found that one spell would destroy most humanoid enemies and bosses when mixed in with my Wing of Astel and it's Nebula weapon art. Ended up being a close range Sorcerer and managed to never use the Comet Azur cheese!

I used the cheese where you trap them behind the rock to the left which isn't foolproof as they jump out all the bloody time. Still took a dozen goes.

[Merzbow]

He's worth beating though for anyone else still having trouble, he drops the best summon ashes in the game. Black Knife Tiche has an attack that reduces an enemies max HP and she just doesn't stop attacking while tanking more than the Mimic Tear.

Edited April 17, 2022 by Merzbow

[Merzbow]

A big patch just dropped (Cerulean Tear was damaged, it'll be fixed soon).

Colossal Swords and other Colossal weapons have all been buffed with speed, and recovery so now I can finally go make my Guts build.

Edit: oh fuck, many Incantations are now also buffed like crazy so I might have to do a Holy build.

Edited April 19, 2022 by Merzbow

[Mr_Danger]

Black Blade Kindred, Putrid Tree Spirit, Rykard, Astel, Glintstone Dragon Adula. Feel my fully upgraded Bloodhound Sword and Mimic tear you bastards! Maybe it was the upgrade spree I went on through the subterranean hellscapes, maybe it was the latest patch or maybe I’m an Elden Mother Fucking Lord bitches! 

I can go back to leisurely exploring now and avoiding progress, like the game was meant to be played. Not bad for an evenings work.

Oh, and RIP 

Spoiler

My best boy Blaidd

 

Edited April 20, 2022 by Mr_Danger

[Mr_Danger]

Think I’m on the last boss after avoiding it for the last couple of weeks. As if you go through all those amazingly designed bastards to face off against ….

Spoiler

Denver the last Dinosaur 

Weird.

I think I’ll go kill Miquella, do Mohgwyn Palace and bang my head against the Dragonlord Placidusax a bit more before I finish the game. Does the game let you go to these places after killing the final boss? 

[Merzbow]

That feeling when you start a second playthrough and kill Margit first time with a huge fuck off greatsword, staggered the twat a few times with jump attacks and it was over.

[Mr_Danger]

1 hour ago, Merzbow said:

That feeling when you start a second playthrough and kill Margit first time with a huge fuck off greatsword, staggered the twat a few times with jump attacks and it was over.

Nice, this was the story of my end game bar Elden Beast, Dragonlord Placidusax and Malenia, the latter two I still haven’t beaten. I didn’t realise how big Haligtree was, it’s a great spot for multi player too.

What you playing as for your second play through? I’m thinking of going blood build for my NG+ but I really want to make use of that Moonlight Sword. The plan is to get my build ready before starting and playing up to Leyndell as quick as possible and sticking to multiplayer around the city. 

I’ve also gotten in to Elden Ring shithousing by invading games at the final boss door. Poor bastards never see me coming.

[Merzbow]

1 hour ago, Mr_Danger said:

Nice, this was the story of my end game bar Elden Beast, Dragonlord Placidusax and Malenia, the latter two I still haven’t beaten. I didn’t realise how big Haligtree was, it’s a great spot for multi player too.

What you playing as for your second play through? I’m thinking of going blood build for my NG+ but I really want to make use of that Moonlight Sword. The plan is to get my build ready before starting and playing up to Leyndell as quick as possible and sticking to multiplayer around the city. 

I’ve also gotten in to Elden Ring shithousing by invading games at the final boss door. Poor bastards never see me coming.

I'm going pure strength with maybe enough stats to spit rot with one of the Dragon Incantations. Radahn won't know what hit him.

This is all on a fresh save as I don't like NG+ much, it's far too easy at the start and by the end everything is just a HP sponge.

[Merzbow]

As expected, Radahn was merked by Rotten Breath. It makes sense as he's full of it and fighting to stop it killing him, you're pushing him over his limit.

Malenia was good for one thing at least.

[Mr_Danger]

Finally beat Malenia and Dragonlord Placidusax after the stupid fucking dragon respawned on me but never killed me and let me go full swing on his last few iotas of health.  I pretty much went full cuck on Malenia and assisted two far better players who did the heavy lifting for me. I still ran in for the final blow though. As penance for my gaming cowardice I am now dedicating myself to assisting others but like me, most people get fucking wrecked by her crazy sword attack. That attack really puts a dampener on an otherwise excellent boss fight.

My bloodbuild is becoming a bit ridiculous and I look forward to melting bosses on my NG+. I have one more great enemy that I might be locked out of and a couple of trophies to hunt first.

[Mr_Danger]

Just completed the Platinum. Arc/Dex blood build is ridiculous and absolutely melts bosses. What it doesn’t do is make the Subteranean Shunning Grounds any better to navigate. After two play throughs of going there I’ll never go in again.

That sacred relic sword really comes in handy at that bird farming spot, 100k a go round, if you can’t get good you might as well get op.