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

[Anonona]

I agree 100% with what Vibalist says, specially for the first run. Is easier to just focus on one stat than to split. If you need a lot of Strenght for the weapon you want to use, you can change the Finger Seal for the Clawmark Seal, it scales your spells with STR rather than Faith, so you only need to get as much Faith as you need for the spells you want and the invest the rest on increasing STR. Otherwise get just enough stats to wield the weapon you want and invest all in Faith.

Shield: is Brass shield +2. Not sure if the +2 even does anything. I don't attack with it. Probably a waste of stones.

Increasing the level of shields also increases their balance, reducing the amount of stamina you consume when blocking. Is actually quite helpful if you block a lot. Also Ashes of war like shield Rampart can practically make it so you can block anything at the cost of a few FP. Also even if they are heavy, Greatshields are amazing for blocking. You can pair them with a spear or thrusting sword to attack while blocking too.

Vigor 30 (I want more. But if I take more when will I ever see my build realized? Level 300?)

I'll recommend reaching at least 40, damage goes pretty fucking high later on.

Seals: Green turtle talisman (+ Stamina recovery), Arsenal charm (Needed to stay medium) + the health charm I started with (mistake, should have got a golden seed).

There are talismans that increase your physcial defense. I recommend to try and get them ASAP. If you are going for a armored build that can take hits and not die it would help you quite a lot. 10% to 17% may not look like much, but the effect is actually quite dramatic, specially if coupled with other items like Boiled Praw/Boiled Crab. If you are having problems don't be afraid to look a wiki or something to find one of these https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Dragoncrest+Shield+Talisman

Do not be afraid of using consumables, they can make your life much more easier. Also if an enemy is resilient to holy damage you can change your Ashes of War temporary to an element that works. If I'm not mistaken, Flame scales with Faith (do not confuse it with Fire, which scales with Strenght). Also Summoning Spirits can make your life much easier too.

Nah I think I'm done with this. I'm going to give myself a fucking stroke. I just had another few goes at that fucking crucible knight. Absolute bullshit. Very pretty game but not worth the aggravation. I think I'll just start another cRPG instead. Fuck the souls genre.

I love the polish, aesthetics and style but playing this is like crawling up a mountain of shit covered razor blades and sliding back down two feet for every three feet of progress. It's a slog. I can play it. I've eventually beaten most of the bosses I've encountered, including story bosses. But nobody is paying me to so why the fuck would I? I'm not going to buy more of these games to train me to play this one. I'll just do the sane thing and move on with my life. Play something turn-based.

Fair enough, if you are not enjoying it then it just not worthy it.

 

[Monstrous Bat]

I think a lot the frustration with Elden Ring came from people who bought into the "anything other than rolling/R1 is cheating" meme.

Here's my story with the Crucible Knight in Limgrave. I tried to do the evergaol pretty early on with just the bloodhound's fang and a shield and got my ass kicked quite hard; couldn't even get him below 50% hp. After a few tries I stopped to take a look at my inventory. Rogier's Rapier quickly caught my attention: it came with +8 enchantment and a weapon art that summons some magical swords that after a short delay home into my enemy. I immediately came up with a plan - I'm going to dance around the Crucible Knight in circles until I can put enough space between us, then use the weapon art. Then I'll go closer to him to bait him into attacking, so that the magical swords don't end up blocked by his shield. Once the swords connected I would roll away - I wielded the rapier in the right hand and a shield in the left, so even if I failed a roll I could still block his attack with my shield. It took me a few more tries as I wasn't familiar with his second form, but I beat him with relatively little trouble.

Now, I'm pretty sure this is one of the dumber ways to deal with this enemy, as I didn't really look very hard. But you get the point. Use your brain. You wouldn't keep reloading to get better rolls if some enemy in cRPG was giving you trouble.

 

[Efe]

Get some crab meat from marauder at least.
You should get base minimum stats for your weapon, reach vigor 40 then build whatever stat you want.
15 faith gets you flame cleanse me, cure poison and flame grant me strength. you really dont need more spells than this.

I think you should get those smithing stone bells and level up a couple different weapons. try the zweihander or a shield+spear.
you certainly dont need heaviest armors if you are going to be blocking.

and if you dont likehow armor looks, try wearing smething lighter and swapping arsenal talisman with one of armor talismans perhaps?

 

[Child of Malkav]

It sucks because it's too hard and that makes it not enjoyable to play. It's not poorly made, it's just difficult to the point of being stupid. Difficult for the sake of being difficult.

It sucks because almost every boss has attacks that many, myself included, consider to be cheap. I detailed them in an older post but that's the issue. The bosses are not more difficult than the ones in Dark Souls 3 but they do have tons and I mean tons of cheapness added to them in order to make the fights harder, but it fails as it only makes them simply frustrating. An initially good design from Bloodborne badly applied to Dark Souls. And this is the direction they'll be going in because they have to live up to their reputation of their games being hard. Malenia, Maliketh and others are tame compared to what's coming.
This is the first From game in which I despise all the boss fights (there are 4 exceptions), a shock to me. And a reminder to stay away from their products in the future. Unless they make Sekiro 2.

 

[Kjaska]

lv67 is a bit lower for 100 hours.
did you lose runes a lot?
there are dark/red/dark red spots on map which denote mines. try going there you should get first tiers of smithing stone bells relatively easy

Damn right I lose runes a lot. This is my first souls game and I'm struggling hard to adjust. I'm not sure if my build is shit or I just need more practice but I still die so much. I'll look for those mines.

I sympathize. I think Elden Ring would suck balls as your first Soulsborne game and I really like it.

What are your stats? Have you levelled vigor much?
How far into the game have you made it? What areas have you done so far?

Don't listen to Porky, he sucks.

Vigor 30 (I want more. But if I take more when will I ever see my build realized? Level 300?)
Mind 14
Endurance 25
Strength 21
Dex 16
Int 10
Faith 18
Arcane 10

I want more STR and END so I can wear my gear. More vigor, more fucking everything really. Just can't seem to get there. I either do monotonous grinding in an area I know or I explore and usually lose runes to a boss or some other bullshit.

Starting class was Wretch. The plan is to become a paladin who wears the heaviest armour and has a tower shield and colossal sword. The idea is I put the minimum STR and Endurance I need to do that then level Faith for the remainder of the game. The problem with this is I drastically underestimated how much vigor and strength I would need to even wield my gear so it's going to take forever. Plus I thought I'd be able to find heavy armour and I can't really. So far just a helm and pants.

Gear is:
Weapon: +14 Claymore (just upgraded it from +12). Uses the sacred blade ash of war. Damage is 206 physical and 235 holy. Seems like most things feel it when I hit them. If I hit them.
Secondary weapon: Crepus's Black-Key Crossbow +4. I use this to draw enemies away from the pack so I don't have to fight them all at once. I don't fight with it. The damage is shit.
Finger seal +5
Shield: is Brass shield +2. Not sure if the +2 even does anything. I don't attack with it. Probably a waste of stones.
Helm: Greathelm (I have banished knight greathelm but it makes me heavy)
Armor: Godrick knight armour (So sick of this. I found it ages ago and I don't like how it looks. But it's got better stats than anything else I've found)
Gloves: Knight gauntlets (Still haven't found anything with better stats. I've had these longer than the armor)
Greaves: Banished knight greaves (thought I would eventually get a whole set of this stuff. Don't know how many thousands of hours that would actually take).
Seals: Green turtle talisman (+ Stamina recovery), Arsenal charm (Needed to stay medium) + the health charm I started with (mistake, should have got a golden seed).
Spells: I have them. Don't use them much. I want to, but it will be a long time before I get my required stats for gear. If ever.

As far as exploration goes It looks like I've explored maybe 3/4 of the map. I haven't beaten all the bosses I've found. I can't beat the two pumpkin head guys. I can't beat the crucible knight in redmane castle. I can't beat the lava dragon in Gael tunnel. Most other things I eventually beat using tactics similar to what Porky described. There's more to it than he says though. You have to manage when you drop your shield and you do need to roll out of the way a lot. Also need to figure out what direction to move in while blocking for a given enemy. Staying still is usually death, even with a shield. It's a playstyle that seems to suit me, given that I can't usually follow the chaotic and endless combos bosses put out.

But sometimes it's just like nothing works because a single mistake so often leads to death. Aggressive bosses make it so damn hard to recover. Once you're staggered or downed you're all too often fucked with no chance to even heal. I've spent my entire Saturday trying to beat the crucible knight. Best I've done is get him to half health. It was a horrible way to waste a day off and I only get one more.

I'm at the point where I think I will give up soon. I don't have time for things I don't enjoy. I spend my whole week doing something I don't enjoy. This is supposed to be what I look forward to and it fucking sucks. Elden Ring sucks. It sucks because it's too hard and that makes it not enjoyable to play. It's not poorly made, it's just difficult to the point of being stupid. Difficult for the sake of being difficult. I don't know what the FUCK everyone is talking about. Every goddamn asshole on the internet loves this stupid game.

It has a lot going for it: Great aesthetics, good sized open world with creative, hand crafted areas. Atmosphere, style, functional RPG mechanics that seem relatively resistant to minmax shenanigans.

It lacks: Decent UI, journal, story, real quests and fun combat. I like challenging combat but this is fucking ridiculous.

IMO don't feel bad for not enjoying ER. The appeal is definitely not universal and the difficulty is all over the place. Also you have to tune the difficulty yourself in this game, because a game difficulty slider in the options is taboo. Ways to make it easier in order of magnitude:
- start reading/watching guides and wiki
- start using summons (Mimic > Black Knife Tiche > rest)
- start using a Greatshield, preferrably Fingerprint Shield with the Greatshield Talisman
- overlevel using bird/albinaurics in Mohg's domain, there is a guide on how to get there early, but if you have unlocked Consecrated Snowfields you can get there easy (alternatively just use Cheat Engine to skip this process. It is a very boring grind)
- use a weapon that can attack while blocking (spears, rapiers) in conjunction with your Greatshield
- use weapons that require Somber Smithing Stones to upgrade, since those are easier to max out early
- use weapons that apply bleed

 

[Bloodeyes]

I'm going to give it one more chance. I can't think of much else in life that has made me as angry as this game. Certain events from bad relationships. Political things that have happened recently in my country. Perhaps. But I think the game tops even these.

Certain games just pull me in and make me want to master them. This is one of those. I'd have walked away a lot sooner were it not. I fucking detest this game. I'll probably end up putting hundreds more hours into it TBH.

I could respec but I'm going to start fresh. I'm sick of my character. I get angry whenever I think of his stupid, useless face. Fuck you Mustache Man.

I'm going all in with straight swords and sorcery this time. I'll try to find a straight sword that scales off INT. I had good luck with the Lordsworn's straight sword in the early game with Mustache man. Should have just kept levelling that and this time I will.

 

[Wunderbar]

Bloodeyes you fucked yourself over by buying a new hyped-up game instead of making a research and trying previous titles from the same devs.

 

[Bloodeyes]

Bloodeyes you fucked yourself over by buying a new hyped-up game instead of making a research and trying previous titles from the same devs.

It's not just Internet hype. IRL friends wouldn't give me peace until I played it. They're souls obsessed.

 

[Kjaska]

I can't think of much else in life that has made me as angry as this game. Certain events from bad relationships.

I had a very similar train of thoughts while playing. This game hooks you, but not in a good way. It's a toxic relationship. Which is why I will forever advocate for breaking it and cheesing it as much as possible, because it doesn't deserve any better in my eyes.

 

[Lim-Dûl]

Ugh, ran into the Fire Giant. Another horribly designed boss. I mean it looks good, that's probably the only shit From Software cares about, but the fight itself is high end retardation. The camera angle is so bad, it prevents you from seeing his attacks coming, AND they get around the shield regardless. If that wasn't annoying enough, he has fire diarrhea all around. And of course once you get him down to half health, the fucker turns into phase 2, where he rips out his own leg and sticks it up his ass, but somehow that makes him stronger. Logic has never been a strong point for FS, has it...

Sounds like you need to get good honestly
Fighting ankles is an old tradition at this point

 

[Bloodeyes]

I can't think of much else in life that has made me as angry as this game. Certain events from bad relationships.

I had a very similar train of thoughts while playing. This game hooks you, but not in a good way. It's a toxic relationship. Which is why I will forever advocate for breaking it and cheesing it as much as possible, because it doesn't deserve any better in my eyes.

Cheesing you say? New character: Lenny the Rat. Backstabbing sneak, summoner and sorcerer. I'll do more crafting this time too. Given how frequently I end up risking my life for things like insects flowers and offal. Maybe I'll even find out why the hell my character keeps picking up land octopus ovaries. I always just figured that's why he ended up in Hell. He was a sicko in life, died and woke up in Elden Ring.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Vigor 30 (I want more. But if I take more when will I ever see my build realized? Level 300?)
Mind 14
Endurance 25
Strength 21
Dex 16
Int 10
Faith 18
Arcane 10

General stat advice:

Take vigor to at least 40 like someone else said. All my characters have gone to 40 vigor, but some people play with as much as 60. 30 is low after the early game and you will get one shot at that level after a certain point.

If you focus first on vigor 20 to give you good survivability in the early game, then just getting the stats needed to wield a weapon you want (something moderate, not a strength 50 colossal or anything) and then take vigor to 40, you should have good survivability and the ability to eat some mistakes at least until mid game. After that if you're still having trouble or would like a larger margin for error, take vigor to 60.
Once you've gotten that, build up your stats to wield the late game weapon you want if it's not what you've been using already.
Throughout, you can build endurance up to carry your gear and medium roll and to do more moves before getting tired. I usually go to around 15 early on, then 20, then 25, and stop at 25. Though I did have a heavier character that went to 30. Feel free to go as high as you want, but I definitely wouldn't go beyond 25 until you've got your vigor and damaging stats sorted out.
Damage stats can scale well up to around 80, depending on your weapon. For a hybrid, try to get to around 40-50 in each. The scaling isn't linear, so you often see the largest returns between 40-50 and 50-60, depending on your weapon's scaling.
Mind can be left relatively low. I like to have around 20, but it can be put off as long as you want and just put to wherever you're happy with how many weapon arts or spells you can use before you need to chug.


General leveling/pathing advice:

Don't worry about your rune level, it only matters for multiplayer or e-peening and this game chucks runes at you like crazy. Level up as high as you need to be comfortable and have fun.

The main path is generally much easier than anything optional and if you're struggling, there's usually an easier place to go to get some equipment/materials/runes in order to have an easier time with whatever you're trying to do. For instance, early on, you can bum around Limgrave and then go clear out the Weeping Peninsula before worrying about Stormveil Castle.

The Limgrave Crucible Knight in the evergaol is by far the hardest thing in the early game imo unless you're good at parrying. But you don't really need anything from him, so feel free to skip it and keep playing. Go back later if you want to get some revenge and see how much better you've gotten at the game.


General technique advice:

If you like, watch some Youtube videos from someone good at the game to get an idea of strategies or timing for blocking, rolling, etc. You have to drop your shield in order to properly regenerate stamina. If you keep it up too much, you will get guard broken and eat a ton of damage.
Try using the turtle talisman or pickled turtle necks to regenerate stamina more quickly. You will later also find a physick tear that boosts stamina regen for 3 minutes if you prefer to do it that way.


General gear advice:

You might take this with a grain of salt since I tend to play shieldless, however... Generally, if you're thorough, you'll find enough mats to comfortably develop at least 2-3 weapons of each type (smithing stones and somber smithing stones). You'll definitely want to focus on one of each and then use extras to do a back up weapon and/or shield though. Note that this includes your seals or staves. I don't advise playing a primary caster, so you'll want to primarily develop a sword or hammer or something and then whatever else floats your boat.

Imo, improving shields is almost a waste of time and should be done last since they don't improve all that much and it often takes multiple upgrade levels to see any difference at all. However, someone who plays more with shields like NJClaw can probably give you better advice here. Personally, I'd leave shields until everything else was where I wanted it, but then, I also tend to not bother with them unless tooling around for a specific reason or trying (and failing) to be a parry master and getting myself killed again.


Final thoughts:

Games should be fun and this one can be, once you crack the code so to speak. All Souls games have parts that can make you grind your teeth a bit, but they also tend to feel rewarding once you solve it and what used to be a brick wall of difficulty becomes somewhat trivial. Don't worry about all the git gud type talk, that's generally just shitposting, sometimes even in good humour.

 

[Bloodeyes]

Useful effortpost

Thanks for taking the time to write this. I'll take it on board. I think I do need to restart. A clean slate so to speak. So I'll take your advice about what to level.

Yes I do know to drop my shield to regen stamina. I find a common problem with experienced players of this game is they sometimes don't seem to understand how hard it is and assume you must simply not be aware of how the gameplay basics work. I told my friend who insisted I buy this that I was struggling and he asked if I knew about the dodge roll and lock on mechanics! Like yeah dude I did play the tutorial...

Once I'm better at the game I would like to make a character with a giant shield and sword like I wanted. Until then I need to use fast weapons and ranged magic. Be as cheap as I possibly can.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Useful effortpost

Thanks for taking the time to write this. I'll take it on board. I think I do need to restart. A clean slate so to speak. So I'll take your advice about what to level.

Yes I do know to drop my shield to regen stamina. I find a common problem with experienced players of this game is they someone don't seem to understand how hard it is. I told my friend who insisted I buy this that I was struggling and he asked if I knew about the dodge roll and lock on mechanics! Like yeah dude I did play the tutorial...

Once I'm better at the game I would like to make a character with a giant shield and sword like I wanted. Until then I need to use fast weapons and ranged magic. Be as cheap as I possibly can.

Faster weapons generally make things easier, just don't use anything super short since the shorter the weapon, the more risk you have of whiffing and the more you have to expose yourself to hit anything. Don't hesitate to use ash summons for fights, the bosses won't increase in health like with a player or NPC summon but they will split aggro even if the summon is otherwise ineffective.

 

[Bloodeyes]

Useful effortpost

Thanks for taking the time to write this. I'll take it on board. I think I do need to restart. A clean slate so to speak. So I'll take your advice about what to level.

Yes I do know to drop my shield to regen stamina. I find a common problem with experienced players of this game is they someone don't seem to understand how hard it is. I told my friend who insisted I buy this that I was struggling and he asked if I knew about the dodge roll and lock on mechanics! Like yeah dude I did play the tutorial...

Once I'm better at the game I would like to make a character with a giant shield and sword like I wanted. Until then I need to use fast weapons and ranged magic. Be as cheap as I possibly can.

Faster weapons generally make things easier, just don't use anything super short since the shorter the weapon, the more risk you have of whiffing and the more you have to expose yourself to hit anything. Don't hesitate to use ash summons for fights, the bosses won't increase in health like with a player or NPC summon but they will split aggro even if the summon is otherwise ineffective.

Yeah I've been using the jellyfish. Jellyfish plus the fireball cleric spell got me through quite a few tough early game encounters, like the big angry ent thing at the lesser Erdtree. I found other summons but found the jelly stayed up longer so I just kept using that. I have it bound to triangle + up and summon it as soon as I enter any boss room. It helps.

 

[Andnjord]

Bloodeyes, I would fully back what NJClaw said and leave this one in the backburner for a while and instead play Dark Souls 1. If you enjoy the aesthetics and style of this game then Dark Souls 1 offers this in spades and in a far more focused and elegant way whilst requiring half the twitch skills on Elden Ring. Your friends are idiots if they told you to play ER without playing Dark Souls first, one is the thinly crusted, perfectly balanced margherita pizza from Pizza Fantasy in Via Enrico Fermi in Rome, the other is your local Domino pizza with chicken, speck, bacon, five different cheese, nutella and pineapple all at the same time on a thick crust and 16" diameter. You eat the later because it's huge, you can add any topping you want, and you really like pizza, but in the back of your mind you still dream of that perfect pizza in Rome.



Otherwise, if you insist on playing ER then follow Mediocrepoet advice. Level up vitality ASAP and let the weapon upgrades drive your damage up until you've reached minimum 30 vigor if not 40. It completely transforms the early to mid game for the better. Going from 30 to 40 vigor is a 50% increasee in your total HP while a corresponding ten points in you weapons stats might give you a 10% damage increase at early weapon upgrade levels.

And really, do not be afraid to use Spirit Summons. There's an entire dungeon type dedicated to finding the upgrade materials for them (the catacombs), just like there's another type dedicated to weapon upgrade materials, so it's clear From Soft views spirit summons as an integral part of your arsenal on the same level as your weapons. It's only fools like me or Porky and co that have been hardcoded by prievious Souls game to view summons of any kind as a form of defeat that pathologically refuse to use them. You don't have that emotional baggage, use them freely and leave solo runs for later when you're more comfortable with the game.


But really, play Dark Souls 1 if not now then later, it's good.

 

[Bloodeyes]

But really, play Dark Souls 1 if not now then later, it's good.

Buying a game to train me to play a game I suck at. This feels like the sunk costs fallacy. But I've grabbed Dark Souls remastered from the playstation store. I'll see how it goes.

 

[Andnjord]

But really, play Dark Souls 1 if not now then later, it's good.

Buying a game to train me to play a game I suck at. This feels like the sunk costs fallacy. But I've grabbed Dark Souls remastered from the playstation store. I'll see how it goes.

There's no training here, just a better, leaner and tighter experience than Elden Ring. We're only recomending it because you seem to enjoy from ER what Dark Souls 1 excels at, so we think you might enjoy it more.

 

[mediocrepoet]

But really, play Dark Souls 1 if not now then later, it's good.

Buying a game to train me to play a game I suck at. This feels like the sunk costs fallacy. But I've grabbed Dark Souls remastered from the playstation store. I'll see how it goes.

There's no training here, just a better, leaner and tighter experience than Elden Ring. We're only recomending it because you seem to enjoy from ER what Dark Souls 1 excels at, so we think you might enjoy it more.

For "training" for ER, I'd actually have said DS2 or 3 since they have 8 way movement instead of DS1's 4 way. Either way though, DS1 is MUCH slower than the following games. They basically each get faster and introduce more bullshit in order to screw people in some way. Elden Ring is the first game where I felt that some of it was actually retarded though (not really unfair, just dumb looking just to screw the player more even though it wasn't worth the trade off).

Definitely though, if you don't enjoy DS1 on its own merits, you're not likely to enjoy any of these games.

 

[Andnjord]

The only factually wrong piece of advice you guys gave him is to go play Dark Souls 1 first. He should go play Demon's Souls.

We're a PC master race here sir

Spoiler

Plz port Demon Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro to PC, Myazaky-san, there's starting to be enough games that I might have to falter and taint my living room with a PlayStation

 

[mediocrepoet]

Spoiler

Plz port Demon Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro to PC, Myazaky-san

Kind of a combo YES! and Not sure if serious on this one. Check your spoiler for a clue.

 

[Andnjord]

Kind of a combo YES! and Not sure if serious on this one. Check your spoiler for a clue.

...

...wut...

....

...I...

...you're saying.....



...I mean...

...

*checks Steam*



...

Spoiler

I genuinely was 100% adamantly certain that Sekiro was PS only, no idea why. Welp, it's also -50% off on Steam right now

Thaaaaaaank you kind sir

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

I use a shield and a claymore. The idea is to eventually get the stats to use a shield and a colossal sword. The problem comes when I either drop my sword or have my guard broken. I can take some very big hits from very big enemies on my shield, but when an enemy does an endless combo or I'm stupid enough to actually try to hit back I get hit. Sometimes I recover from that and can dodge roll away and drink a pot. Oftentimes I don't recover. I get smashed to the ground and finished while standing back up.

I'm fine against the ones that do big attacks with long pauses, but the pressure fighters take a lot of tries for me to beat. Eventually I have to drop the shield, if only to get stamina back. I think I have 45 poise and something like 25 endurance so I can tank quite a bit. But eventually I need to hit back and that usually means getting punished.

Have you seen my videos earlier in this thread (with boss fights)? Some advice based on my playthrough:

1. Do not use a claymore, or any other greatsword/collosal weapon/hammer. People were making fun of me earlier for using a longsword with the greatshield, but the reason I am doing that is because the attack animations and recovery frames for large weapons are super slow in ER. That's ok if you using some kind of a poise/poise-breaking build, but if you are using a shield blocking build like me, you want quick attacks so you can get back to blocking asap. So get and upgrade a longsword or another similar quick one-handed weapon, and you will see a huge difference in responsiveness regarding attacks and blocking.

2. Pay attention to the Guard Boost stat, on your greatshield and/or talismans. This is basically the % deducted from enemy attack stamina drain when hitting the shield or weapon you are blocking with. The higher the Guard Boost, the less stamina you will lose when blocking. Not all greatshields have the same guard boost. Try getting the Gilded Greatshield that drops off Godrick Knights in Limgrave, it has a starting Guard Boost of 69 which is great. Golden Greatshield from Lleyndell Knights has a starting GB of 70. The high end stuff is Fingerprint Greatshield with 81 starting GB, and Fire Giant Greatshield (75), but those look like utter shit, so I am not using them.

Once you get a greatshield with high GB, upgrade it also, that will get another few points of Guard Boosting, and use the Guardshield Talisman for another 1.1% multiplier to GB.

Once your Guard Boost is around 75 or so, you will be able to tank most attack sequences with ease.

You can also use a thrusting weapon (rapier, spear, etc), and attack while your shield block is up, but to me this is cheese, and kills the fun of combat completely.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

+18

 

[Bigg Boss]

I've spent my entire Saturday trying to beat the crucible knight. Best I've done is get him to half health. It was a horrible way to waste a day off and I only get one more.

If you have a very limited amount of free time and don't enjoy beating your head against a wall over and over until it cracks, this might not be the best idea for a first introduction to souls. Play the other games first. Most of them are better (and easier), and they'll teach you many things that will greatly help with ER. Having played Dark Souls 3, ER basically feels like a giant expansion, where everything you learned in the rest of the series still applies 1:1.

Better yet don't spend an entire day fighting worthless boss fights just go beat the fucking game and get it over with.