From Software Elden Ring - From Software's new game with writing by GRRM

[Ventidius]

Just beat Godrick, definitely a solid boss, but I don't think he's as well-designed as Margit. The two bosses that have impressed me the most so far have been Margit and the Tree Sentinel, and those are the ones that I found the hardest to beat as well. It felt good to take them down, though. The optional bosses in the dungeons like the Stonedigger Troll and the werewolf guy were certainly on the easier side, but they did have a couple interesting things going on.

The most challenging fight so far for me was definitely Margit, but that was likely due to my insistence on beating in the "old-school" style: no ash summons, no NPC co-operators, no mount. Even though that made beating him more satisfying, I do think that that's not how they tuned him to be beaten. Unlike the other Soulsbornes, you are really supposed to use the tools at your disposal and the "purist" playstyle seems to be actively discouraged. Perhaps they are going for something more akin to the topsy-turvy nature of Dragon's Dogma combat than that of traditional Soulsbornes. Another aspect (apart from their approach to overworld design) in which they seem to have moved closer to the former game, interestingly enough.

It's also quite obvious that Margit is indeed a gatekeeper boss and you are supposed to explore as much as possible, and grow strong in the process, before facing him.

I have to say though, they have been relying way too much on the DS3 boss design template for my liking. Like, give it a rest guys. The only thing that seems to have changed is that now bosses have shockwaves. Lots and lots of shockwaves. Big ones too. Not sure of how I feel about that. In any case, gimmick bosses are not the answer and I'm not too keen to see them return, but I really do hope they shake things up on this front. Bloodborne showed you could have a lot of boss variety with minimal gimmickry.

Also, Stormveil Castle is not only a paradigmatic Soulsborne-style dungeon, but one of the best in the series, period. I was wondering if they thrown some of those into the mix to go with the overworld. I'm glad they did.

 

[Shrimp]

this boss rocks

Gonna quote your post since I've been meaning to vent and ramble about this boss's reward and this is the perfect opportunity for it. Up to you if you actually want to read it so I'll spoiler it just in case

Spoiler

I killed this dude and the other crucible knight in Stormveil castle and saw both of them dropped the incantations they use when you fight them. Both of them came with a hefty 27 FTH requirement (I'd consider that to be quite high considering how early in the game you can get them) so I decided to try to commit to FTH spellcasting and levelled it up.
Unfortunately it turns out that their damage is pretty underwhelming. I didn't calculate the exact numbers but I'm fairly sure that throwing regular fireballs will deal somewhere around the same amount of damage on top of having a lower FP cost and being something you can cast at range.
I can definitely see some niche uses for them though - for instance the tail swipe spell seems like it's made for wiping out a large group of mooks, but when I went to some ruins to try it out it failed to actually deal any killing blows to the generic enemies there. At that point I might as well just have swung a two-handed sword twice and achieved the same result without having spent valuable FP. FP management is another issue spellcasters face since they not only have to allocate additional levels into the stat if they want to increase their FP pool, they also have to reduce the amount of healing flasks they carry around. The dual estus system from DS3 was one of the additions I didn't like back then and I'm not really a fan of it in Elden Ring either. It's not a dealbreaker but personally I'd have preferred a static amount of casts like in DS1 and 2.

Based on some of the comments I've seen in this thread it seems that INT spellcasting has a similar issue where the most basic starter spell (pebbles?) is the best spell by far. It's a bit of a disappointment to me since I feel like all the runes I sunk into FTH didn't really bring me anything new. Most of the high level spells seem to be style over substance.

With that being said, I've actually found some uses for some of the generic utility type spells. I don't know how effective the magic/fire damage reducing buffs are, but I feel like I've taken some magic salvos that most likely would've killed me otherwise. It's also nice that the FTH school gets the spell that removes sound effects when walking. I've been using that to sneak around in areas without getting detected in a lot of places.

Maybe I'm just approaching FTH spellcasting the wrong way, but I'm just a bit disappointed that the offensive spells aren't as strong as I had hoped.

hmm bummer do u have a good/upgraded seal for casting? I'm planning on putting points into faith so I can throw fireballs between twinblade hits hope they didn't make casting too weak

I'm using a +6 Finger Seal since it's the catalyst my class started. I've picked up some other seals along the way as well, but I haven't upgraded those or looked into whether or not they'd be better than the one I'm currently using. Some of them have descriptions indicating they are better for certain types of incantations, but so far I haven't found any of the incantations that match that description.

 

[Tyranicon]

Faith bros, there's a miracle that's like a

Spoiler

semi-automatic orbital laser

which wrecks the shit out of lone enemies. Goodish damage, but the real advantage is you can spam that shit after the initial casting time and stunlock some enemies. FP cost 12.

You'll find the prayerbook it's in after beating some wandering knight in Liurnia near the artist shack.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Spoiler

I killed this dude and the other crucible knight in Stormveil castle and saw both of them dropped the incantations they use when you fight them. Both of them came with a hefty 27 FTH requirement (I'd consider that to be quite high considering how early in the game you can get them) so I decided to try to commit to FTH spellcasting and levelled it up.
Unfortunately it turns out that their damage is pretty underwhelming. I didn't calculate the exact numbers but I'm fairly sure that throwing regular fireballs will deal somewhere around the same amount of damage on top of having a lower FP cost and being something you can cast at range.
I can definitely see some niche uses for them though - for instance the tail swipe spell seems like it's made for wiping out a large group of mooks, but when I went to some ruins to try it out it failed to actually deal any killing blows to the generic enemies there. At that point I might as well just have swung a two-handed sword twice and achieved the same result without having spent valuable FP. FP management is another issue spellcasters face since they not only have to allocate additional levels into the stat if they want to increase their FP pool, they also have to reduce the amount of healing flasks they carry around. The dual estus system from DS3 was one of the additions I didn't like back then and I'm not really a fan of it in Elden Ring either. It's not a dealbreaker but personally I'd have preferred a static amount of casts like in DS1 and 2.

Based on some of the comments I've seen in this thread it seems that INT spellcasting has a similar issue where the most basic starter spell (pebbles?) is the best spell by far. It's a bit of a disappointment to me since I feel like all the runes I sunk into FTH didn't really bring me anything new. Most of the high level spells seem to be style over substance.

With that being said, I've actually found some uses for some of the generic utility type spells. I don't know how effective the magic/fire damage reducing buffs are, but I feel like I've taken some magic salvos that most likely would've killed me otherwise. It's also nice that the FTH school gets the spell that removes sound effects when walking. I've been using that to sneak around in areas without getting detected in a lot of places.

Maybe I'm just approaching FTH spellcasting the wrong way, but I'm just a bit disappointed that the offensive spells aren't as strong as I had hoped.

Honestly, your gripes about magic sound like the exact same problems that the (Souls) series has had since day one. Most of the spells you get are too gimmicky and underpowered to have any practical combat utility.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Is there a way to stop the continuous respawing of enemies when you cleared the map? The game is a boring slog in this way, mitigated only with the fast travel that became a necessary evil. Respawing enemy & fast travel is popamole. They should have added respawing only in few specific locations, where it make sense.

 

[Lutte]

Just beat Godrick, definitely a solid boss, but I don't think he's as well-designed as Margit.

I felt he was somewhat reminescent of Gael, with the way many of his moves chain, level of agression, close the gap, and the lingering effects of some moves that require absolute perfect timing of dodges and annihilate any possibility of using positioning to your advantage.

I enjoyed Gael a lot, so normally I should also praise Godrick but... his character model I found rather difficult to read in movement and I was very thankful that he didn't have the amount of HP Gael has or I would have ragequit.

 

[Shrimp]

Honestly, your gripes about magic sound like the exact same problems that the (Souls) series has had since day one. Most of the spells you get are too gimmicky and underpowered to have any practical combat utility.

More or less, yeah. I had hoped things would be different this time but so far it seems a lot of the classic problems still persist. On the bright side at least I don't have to level Attunement since that's now tied to some items rather than a stat.

 

[Matador]

I've managed to upgrade the Wandering Nobles to +5. They aren't that powerful but they are getting quite good at soaking up damage and letting me pick off stragglers while the main mob of enemies deals with them. Too bad area of effect attacks wipes them out pretty quickly.

I think this kind of summon is the reason why From made most bosses do 360 level shit and it's pretty unfortunate.
Because it would make summons too op to live long and distract the bosses, they had no choice but to also make most attacks be 360 and in turn it removes positioning as an element of strategy in fights. Summons compromise boss design. The gaol stuff, where you can't summon stuff, was incidentally better designed than the bosses of say, the catacombs I've seen so far. (that cat dog fucker.. worst garbage From ever put out)

You are absolutely right about this

 

[Shrimp]

I tried testing out some different catalysts and incantation combinations and I noticed the numbers some times were different.
I think the weather might actually affect the damage your spells inflict, my fireballs (both flame sling and black flame) appeared to do something in the vicinity of 10% less damage during rainy weather.
I didn't check if the rainy weather somehow affected lightning based spells though, so I have no clue if the weather actually has an effect on spell damage or if it's just because enemies and PCs become wet during rain. Previous souls games have had a wet debuff from rolling through water jugs etc. so while that's probably the more likely explanation I do think it'd be neat if the weather has an effect on your spells.

 

[fork]

[...] Is this another "it takes 40 hours for the game to become good"?

No, this is open world cancer on top of dozens of other design problems.
Worst Fromsoft game I played and pretty sure they're done. AAA trash now.

 

[Kruno]

Anyone see this yet?

Pardon the weird looking image, I am using HDR so screenshots look like crap. I am also still wearing the armour piece from the beginning area of the game.

I wish I knew where to get good armour.

 

[Funposter]

Pardon the weird looking image, I am using HDR so screenshots look like crap. I am also still wearing the armour piece from the beginning area of the game.

I wish I knew where to get good armour.

So far the best (or at least heaviest) armour I've found has been pieces of the Banished Knight set dropped by the knights in Stormveil Castle. I also got an altered chestpiece from the set by killing a wandering knight at the Dragon Church in Caelid, which I was exploring while MASSIVELY underlevelled.

 

[Tacgnol]

I wish I knew where to get good armour.

If you're after good heavy armour then farm the knights in Stormveil castle. They drop a good set.

Edit: Funposter beat me to it.

 

[Ryzer]

FFS put every picture / videos about Elden Ring under spoiler for those who haven't played it.

 

[Tacgnol]

I'm actually super short on the low tier smithing stones that let you go up to +3 right now. Sort of annoying as I like to experiment with different weapons.

I've got mountains of the higher tier ones.

 

[017]

Reminder that From Software games are literally the FIFAs of their respective genre.

 

[Tacgnol]

I'm actually super short on the low tier smithing stones that let you go up to +3 right now. Sort of annoying as I like to experiment with different weapons.

There are 2 locations in Limgrave and the Peninsula which have quite a few basic upgrading materials

Spoiler

Check the map, they're marked by a little red circle if you look closely. In Limgrave it is to the north of the lake.

I've cleared the Limgrave one, but I'll have to check the Peninsula again. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[HumanTotemPole]

The mechanics and systems are a big step up from Rollspam 3, and the actual major levels and legacy dungeons are on par with the rest of the series. But the mini dungeons and open world content is getting quite samey...The mines have had some variance but overall the mini dungeons are very repetitive and linear, often with repeating boss fights. Every open world game I've played has had this issue (which is why games have garbage like level scaling and random loot, so you can skip half of the copy pasted content,) but it's still lame. I guess I can't expect anything else from an open world game though.

This is where I'm at with it as well. A real curate's egg.

Because it's FromSoft the combat mechanics are light years ahead of any newish open-world game I've played. Same with the level design of any discrete major location I've encountered so far. The aesthetic presentation can feel a little phoned in at times. The music is BSB. Some lazily reused enemy models, animations etc.

The open world and minor dungeon content are where it really starts to unravel. Just off the top of my head:

• Art assets, enemies etc. that might have been unique to a single location are plastered all over huge, flat areas. Or, even worse, reused over and over for tiny side dungeons. 1 to 3 rooms then boss fog, every time.
  
• I'm grinding birds and sheep for crafting materials in a Soulslike, what the fuck.
• The horse trivialises most overworld encounters. It’s too easy to either to cheese enemies with mounted combat or run away.

The open world mechanics really adulterate the sense of adventure as well. As an example:

Spoiler

The transporter trap in the Dragon-Burnt Ruins got me. I ended up in the crystal tunnel, barely escaped with my life and ended up outside in the Caelid swamp area. Pretty cool moment until you realise you could teleport back to the starting area with no penalty. I made my way back to Limgrave manually which was still boring as it's so easy to YOLO your way across the overworld on horseback. Wasted potential for a cool divergent path.

I mean I'm still enjoying the moment to moment combat and the main locations. But, as ever, the open world is little more than water in the wine for me.

Is this what MMOs feel like? Bland overworlds with better instanced content? I don’t know because I’ve never played one. I'm a fucking moron, I've played Warframe. Definitely some broad similarities in open world design (specifically to Cetus or Fortuna) allowing for the different genre in each case.

 

[Funposter]

I'm having a hard time determining when it's safe to jump off a ledge and when it will kill me. It feels like some jumps are survivable without taking any damage while others that somehow aren't as high will simply kill you.
Has anyone else figured out a good way of determining when it's safe to jump?

Rainbow Stones will shatter if you throw them off a ledge where the drop would kill you. This has been a feature of the games for over a decade.

 

[Kruno]

So far the best (or at least heaviest) armour I've found has been pieces of the Banished Knight set dropped by the knights in Stormveil Castle. I also got an altered chestpiece from the set by killing a wandering knight at the Dragon Church in Caelid, which I was exploring while MASSIVELY underlevelled.

If you're after good heavy armour then farm the knights in Stormveil castle. They drop a good set.

I just found some armour in the dungeon. It is really nice. That dungeon is in an end game area. I picked up a spell (Comet) that requires 60 int.

 

[NJClaw]

If I have a weapon that I want at a certain infusion I might have to give it an Ash I don't like and if I have an Ash I do end up liking, I degrade my weapon's scaling. Still, I have to play around with them more and maybe they get more interesting later on.

There's a key (completely missable) item that allows you to choose which infusion to "equip" with each ash. The location is not a big spoiler, but still:

location

It's in the Stormveil Castle behind a Stonesword door.

Anyway, I dropped by just to restate that, at least in the first area, the various dungeons/catacombs are the lowest point of the entire series. Even worse than Bloodborne's chalice dungeons. I think I've explored at least ten of them and, so far, only one had a unique gimmick. The others were just worthless copy-pasted content.

 

[Lyre Mors]

I get the complaints about the mini dungeons, but am really having a difficult time understanding where these issues with content in exploration or a lack of a sense of purpose is coming from. In 30 hours of play, there has hardly been a moment where I haven't been discovering something new and intriguing, often times getting distracted and taken on a big adventure, only to remember hours later what my initial goal had been when I set out. The lowest points have been said mini dungeons, which were quickly completed and I've only found a few.

I'm not really defending the game or anything - as it clearly doesn't need to be defended - but I am just genuinely confused when I see some of these complaints. The shear volume of meaningful exploration, adventure, and discovery I am experiencing moment to moment has been staggering.

 

[Silentstorm]

Honestly, don't mind Mini Dungeons if they offer some variety, but it's nice just getting a more challenging foe fast, as for the game, yeah, it's Dark Souls 4 but on a bigger map, you find some cool stuff but it really feels like you depend more on your equipment for a while before changing.

Or sometimes you don't want to change, like, i am playing as a Samurai and the first Katana you get as the Unsheathe ability which is just cool, i love roleplaying as the kind of Samurai just waiting for the right moment to draw his sword and it deals decent damage, and i did get to use it for a while...but then i had to use another sword and ashes of war.

Also, in case anyone is wondering and hasn't played the game yet, underground bosses are the hardest so far, they don't let you summon ashes and you can't just ride your horse, because, damn, the horse is a boss killer, pretty sure Tree Sentinel and that dragon right at the start of the game would have required grinding a bit more to beat on foot but with the horse...oh boy.

 

[hackncrazy]

About Castle Morne:

Spoiler

Just finished the area and there are no demigods there, so I take this is completely optional. So, you're just saying me that fucking from software made the whole southern part of the map that took me at least 8 hours to explore in total just "for fun"?

I'd really like to suck Miyazaki's colossal dick right now.

 

[Shrimp]

I'm having a hard time determining when it's safe to jump off a ledge and when it will kill me. It feels like some jumps are survivable without taking any damage while others that somehow aren't as high will simply kill you.
Has anyone else figured out a good way of determining when it's safe to jump?

Rainbow Stones will shatter if you throw them off a ledge where the drop would kill you. This has been a feature of the games for over a decade.

And in that decade not a single soul has actually used those for their intended purpose outside of the DS1 crystal cave