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

[toro]

 

[Strange Fellow]

Fuck you farum azula gank squads FUCK YOUUUUUUU

Imagine complaining about farum azula gank squads when there are haligtree gank squads


FUCK
YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Spoiler

Everytime he says Malenia my brain goes blade of miquella LOL

 

[Bloodeyes]

Weapon arts (and jump attacks, weirdly) are so much better than any other attacks that it feels stupid to even touch the front bumpers of the controller. This leads to extremely degenerate gameplay where the optimal strategy is to keep using the same attack over and over again instead of making use of all the moves available, which ironically makes combat less varied than previous Souls games even though the weapons in those have fewer attacks.

I've found different setups have different best moves. Some more situational than others. The fast "I win button" weapon arts like square off, giant hunt, lion's claw, bloody slash, unsheath and transient moonlight are obviously your most optimal move if you're running those. Slower, more devastating moves like chilling mist need setup to use unpunished so you find yourself using your whole moveset more. It's ludicrously strong, but not one you can really spam. I love it. Royal Knight's Resolve is also extremely powerful if you want to drive manual without feeling like you're sacrificing efficacy. There's also seppuku which I haven't tried but which is widely regarded as extremely overpowered even though it's just a buff, so you'd be pressing all your buttons with that one.

You also use your ash a lot less if you use colossal weapons. If you've got the reach for it (Zweihander or guts), charged heavies and guard counters become not just viable but actually good. Plus there's both a tear and a talisman that buff them. Just pick up a Zweihander and try not to make every second attack an R2. You can't do it, that stab is just too satisfying. Cold scale a watchdog's greatsword or troll's golden sword and try not to running R1 into mixed R1 and R2 attack chain every damn thing you see. Physically impossible not to. It's too effective and fun watching how the frost just knackers them in a couple hits. Running attacks also do similar damage to (unbuffed) jump attacks with less recovery so they're worth mixing in.

Not that ashes aren't OP. They're OP as fuck. But you can do a varity of strong strong builds that don't overly rely on their ash. I also find that the more I play the more varied my moves become. A lot of punish windows are too small for an ash but will fit an r1. That shortens fights and cuts down on trading even when your main damage dealer is your ash.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I've been playing this nonstop for the last fucking month. I've got 250 hours in at this point. I haven't even beat it yet, just been going around getting shit and fucking around. At first I started with a pure strength build, and I have 80 str, 50 vit, and 50 in endurance. My main weapon to be used against bosses was at first the Bloodhound Fang, but since getting Great Mace it's been my go to, with Lion Claw and Heavy.

Currently fucking around with a str bleed build with two greatswords - Sword of Milos and Lordsworn Greatsword with Blood. Upped my dex to 25 and now gonna get my arcane up. I think my level is like 186 or something. Just got to consecrated snowfield, and I have a preference for the heavier armors, going from a full banished knight set (altered) to Bull Goat to Tree Guardian to either Omen Set or Lionel's armor depending on the fight.

WTF is wrong with me. I'm addicted to this game.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Also my mind is only 10.

 

[Caim]

Good start. 50 Endurance is the soft cap for Stamina gains, with 60 being the soft cap for equip load (which should bump yours up by 15, and with how encumberance works means you should be able to carry a bit over 10 extra weight, which might help you out when switching gear). Two big swords for big bonk attacks are some of the best damage output in the game, and though Strength isn't the best way to get Bleed it should work against bigger targets.

Also Mind 10 is enough if you don't spam Ashes of either kind.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I go full mimic tear with either the heavy great mace with lions claw or fire executioner axe with eruption. And with a golden greatshield.

Fucking poise damage is insane.

Also I'm kind of avoiding colossal weapons and such.

Disappointed though in the waves of darkness. I guess its mostly intelligence scaling.

 

[Caim]

Yeah, gravity-based ashes of war scale off of Intelligence, and if it's not very high it won't do a lot of damage.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Weapon arts (and jump attacks, weirdly) are so much better than any other attacks that it feels stupid to even touch the front bumpers of the controller. This leads to extremely degenerate gameplay where the optimal strategy is to keep using the same attack over and over again instead of making use of all the moves available, which ironically makes combat less varied than previous Souls games even though the weapons in those have fewer attacks.

I've found different setups have different best moves. Some more situational than others. The fast "I win button" weapon arts like square off, giant hunt, lion's claw, bloody slash, unsheath and transient moonlight are obviously your most optimal move if you're running those. Slower, more devastating moves like chilling mist need setup to use unpunished so you find yourself using your whole moveset more. It's ludicrously strong, but not one you can really spam. I love it. Royal Knight's Resolve is also extremely powerful if you want to drive manual without feeling like you're sacrificing efficacy. There's also seppuku which I haven't tried but which is widely regarded as extremely overpowered even though it's just a buff, so you'd be pressing all your buttons with that one.

You also use your ash a lot less if you use colossal weapons. If you've got the reach for it (Zweihander or guts), charged heavies and guard counters become not just viable but actually good. Plus there's both a tear and a talisman that buff them. Just pick up a Zweihander and try not to make every second attack an R2. You can't do it, that stab is just too satisfying. Cold scale a watchdog's greatsword or troll's golden sword and try not to running R1 into mixed R1 and R2 attack chain every damn thing you see. Physically impossible not to. It's too effective and fun watching how the frost just knackers them in a couple hits. Running attacks also do similar damage to (unbuffed) jump attacks with less recovery so they're worth mixing in.

Not that ashes aren't OP. They're OP as fuck. But you can do a varity of strong strong builds that don't overly rely on their ash. I also find that the more I play the more varied my moves become. A lot of punish windows are too small for an ash but will fit an r1. That shortens fights and cuts down on trading even when your main damage dealer is your ash.

I don't doubt that this is true with regards to ashes of war, and I was mainly talking about those two specific weapons, although I've tried out quite a few other ashes and none have felt as powerful and versatile as those. Jump attacks I'm less sure about. I still feel like jump attacks deliver way more than any other attack for their cost, both in terms of stamina consumption and the time it takes to perform the attack. And it's not the damage, but the poise damage that's the real killer. Nothing short of a fully charged R2, which takes forever, can even approach the staggering potential of jump attacks, and that's where I feel the balance is most out of whack. This goes for every weapon I've tried, even the daggers I'm currently using. Maybe regular attacks come out marginally faster on certain weapons, and do more damage with the proper configuration (then again, regular attacks don't have a talisman specifically dedicated to them like jump attacks do), but they don't ensure that you won't get hit back anywhere near as often, and won't stagger bigger enemies anywhere near as reliably.

Anyway, speaking of daggers, my enthusiasm for them has cooled somewhat. Having shit range on my weapons is a trade-off I was prepared to make, but it's clear that not enough consideration has been given to dagger-users when designing enemies. There are too many occasions where it's nearly impossible to get a hit off because the enemy model doesn't allow you to physically get close enough to it. Maliketh is a good example. He fights hunched over on all fours. If you attack him from the front, his chin will prevent you from getting close enough to the body to connect with the daggers, and you'll simply flail at thin air. If you attack from the rear, his back legs will do the same thing. Don't even get me started on properly gigantic enemies. Daggers are very good against humanoid enemies, but against bigger ones, or oddly shaped ones, it's a crapshoot.

The second big problem of daggers is the non-existant poise damage. Enemies will stagger when they bleed, but against relentless enemies who also pack a minimum of poise it's hard to get enough hits off for that to happen, and they won't flinch at anything else (except possibly jump attacks, see above). Shielded dudes are also a bitch. In a way it's quite refreshing, since enemies that were previously pushovers are now a challenge, and vice versa, but on the whole it's just another strike against daggers. They're fun, but I can't quite shake the feeling that I'm gimping myself by not just switching to katanas or something.


Edit: Forgot to reply to guard counters. That's a fair shout, and guard counters are a great addition to the combat system, probably the single best mechanical innovation in the game. They're very powerful but appropriately risky since you have to let yourself get hit first, and they let shield users be more proactive than before. Good stuff.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Hmm. Zweihander and tower shield, just countering like a fucker. Might be pretty good.

 

[Ivan]

I've got 250 hours in at this point. I haven't even beat it yet

 

[Bloodeyes]

I still feel like jump attacks deliver way more than any other attack for their cost, both in terms of stamina consumption and the time it takes to perform the attack. And it's not the damage, but the poise damage that's the real killer. Nothing short of a fully charged R2, which takes forever, can even approach the staggering potential of jump attacks, and that's where I feel the balance is most out of whack. This goes for every weapon I've tried, even the daggers I'm currently using. Maybe regular attacks come out marginally faster on certain weapons, and do more damage with the proper configuration (then again, regular attacks don't have a talisman specifically dedicated to them like jump attacks do), but they don't ensure that you won't get hit back anywhere near as often, and won't stagger bigger enemies anywhere near as reliably.

Jump attacks are good. I use them a lot and have played a character that specialized in them, using all the usual stacking buffs (Raptor's feathers, royal knight's resolve, golden vow, FGMS, claw talisman). Whatever weapon I use I do quite a few jump attacks. On colossal swords however, the recovery on a jumping heavy is roughly 10,000 years. It's still good situationally, but other attacks work better in more situations. Jumping lights are fine, but running attacks have less commitment. This isn't a problem at all if you're using something like a katana or doing powerstance jump attacks with curved swords or something. If you're doing that you'd be mad not to be running at least the claw talisman, if not the raptor's feathers as well. My only real criticism of jump attacks is that they suck against things downhill from you. It gets old jumping over the enemy's head. There are other options that are good too, is all I'm saying, especially with the big weapons.

On big weapons charged R2s are excellent, especially the guts and Zweihander. Because R2s are slow they need reach to be more generally usable, though they are an option for stance breaking with small weapons if you're conserving FP or something. Fully charged R2s also get buffed by both the axe talisman and the spiked cracked tear (which stack). I absolutely fell in love with my R2 on my zweihander run. I had to stop pressing that button again now that I'm using a flamberge. It gets punished too much. I mostly do jump attacks with this character. One handed jumping lights though, so stance breaks are rare. R1 and L2 are the buttons for a greatsword IMO. Unless its a claymore which mine is not.

Also don't forget your crouch poke. That's lethal on the guts and Zwei both. Everyone also forgets the backtep R1, even me. It's frequently better than a dodge roll do dodge and punish because it's instant, no recovery time before the attack. Or one can just have a bunch of different weapons with different ashes and press nothing but L2 the entire game. That works very well also.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I am pissed zweihander scales with dex more than strength though.

I mean, I get it you need one colossal sword to do that.

But why that one of all blades? It's my favorite looking one.

 

[HumanTotemPole]

Hmm. Zweihander and tower shield, just countering like a fucker. Might be pretty good.

Great Epee's a top pick for a guard counter STR build. Mad poise damage and A scales with Heavy.

 

[Bloodeyes]

I am pissed zweihander scales with dex more than strength though.

I mean, I get it you need one colossal sword to do that.

But why that one of all blades? It's my favorite looking one.

The Zwei is fine with STR. I ran through almost the whole game with a heavy Zwei and loved it. I swapped to a heavy guts at the end but I still used to the zwei sometimes for its moveset. Its damage is shit at lower levels of scaling with any affinity (compared to the other colossals) but once you get to high upgrade and stat levels it more than gets the job done. If you like how a weapon looks just use it. Honestly don't get too hung up on minmaxing your scaling. Its not a big deal. Just pick the weapon your prefer and use the affinity you prefer and go with it. It's not even a DEX loving sword, it's DEX quality so its only ever so slightly better with DEX, and that's only true one handed. If you want to two hand sometimes its better with STR. You should two hand sometimes as well, when enemies do anything that glows put that fucking shield away and two hand that colossal, you'll block unblockable shit if you keep a shield in hand at these times. Heavy zweihander is actually best zweihander anyway IMO.

More generally speaking any build in this game is good as long as it has lots of health and meets its weapon requirements. Throw in a couple stacking AR buffs from physick and talismans and it becomes great. So build for looks and character concept and you'll like your character more. A heavy zwei with a greatshield, high vigor and STR, 12 faith for curatives and protectives, medium high endurance, green turtle and/or greatshield talisman + AOW shield bash/crash and cold or blood scale your shield. You could absolutely kick ass with that (shield bash optional). If you like it just use it. It'll work.

Also, your primary criteria in choosing armour should be looks. So long as you have 40 vigor by the mid game and 50 - 60 by endgame your build is good and you can just have fun with everything else. Experiment. Try every ash you find.

Edit:

I've never gone all in on guard counters because they miss a bit. But if I were going to I might do something like this. Of course you'll prefer to make your own build, but this is an extremely basic STR, guard counters Zweihander build. Adjust to your preferences.

Spoiler

Other things you could use would be axe talisman if you find yourself charging up your heavy a lot or claw talisman if you find yourself doing jump attacks (which are easy to land with a big weapon like the zwei, especially the jumping light. Great jar's arsenal would allow more leeway in equip load for a secondary fast weapon (good to use with a colossal).

 

[toroid]

Neato. They introduced separate damage scaling for pvp. This potentially solves the issue of balancing the entire game around pvp at the expense of pve. I wish they had thought of this three games ago... Oh wait, I still don't want to play Elden Ring.

 

[ferratilis]

Colossal weapons got a buff to damage and recovery time. Now I can brag about bonking Malenia to death pre-buff and look at newfags seethe.

Spoiler

 

[randir14]

 

[HumanTotemPole]

Seppuku AND Rotten Breath get the shank. Status effects been getting a paddlin' lately esp with RoB getting a nerf last time.

Excellent idea to split PvP and PvE balancing too.

 

[Caim]

The full list of patch changes:

Warning, long like a lore recap

Additional features

• Added separate damage scaling for PvP.

This feature allows separate damage scaling for Weapons, Skills, Spells, and Incantations when playing against other players.
In the future, this feature may be used to balance weapons, Art, Spell, and Incantation in invading/PvP mode.
Balance adjustments made within this feature will not impact single-player and cooperative play.

PvP Exclusive balance adjustments
The adjustments in this section do not affect single-player or cooperative play.

• Increased stamina attack power in PvP for all attacks against guarded foes, except for long-ranged weapons.
• Improved poise damage in PvP for every weapon’s normal attack, except for Skills and long-ranged weapons.
• With a few exceptions, the power of Ashes of War in PvP has been lowered across the board.
• The power of the following incantations in PvP has been decreased:
• Dragonfire / Agheel's Flame / Glintstone Breath / Smarag's Glintstone Breath / Rotten Breath / Ekzykes's Decay / Dragonice / Borealis's Mist / Unendurable Frenzy

General balance adjustments
The adjustments in this section affect both PvE and PvP aspects of the game.

• Increased poise damage when using two-handed normal attacks.
• Increased the speed of some Colossal Sword attacks.
• The speed and hit detection of Colossal Sword crouching and rolling attacks have been decreased.
• Increased the speed of some Colossal Weapon attacks.
• Decreased recovery time for Colossal Swords and Colossal Weapons, except for jump attacks, dual wielded attacks, and attacks while riding.
• Increased poise damage of Hammers, Great Hammers and some Colossal Weapons.

• Increased guard penetration for the following weapons:

Celebrant's Sickle / Nox Flowing Sword / Shotel / Eclipse Shotel / Vulgar Militia Shotel / Scythe / Grave Scythe / Halo Scythe / Winged Scythe

• The poise rating of some attacks has been increased for the following weapons:

Greatswords / Colossal Swords / Curved Greatswords / Greataxes / Great Hammers / Great Spears / Halberds

• With some exceptions, poise of all armor has been increased.
• The effects of the Greatshield Talisman and Hammer Talisman have been increased.
• Some effects of the spell Scholar's Shield, the Barricade Shield skill and the Shield Grease item have been adjusted as follows.

The effects on shields with low guard boost have been adjusted upward.
The effects on shields with high guard boost have been adjusted downward.

• The guard strength of the Fingerprint Stone Shield has been decreased.
• Decreased the status buildup done by dual wielded weapons.

Balance adjustments for Magic and Incantations
Upward adjustments

Glintstone Pebble / Shard Spiral

• Increased attack power.

Lightning Spear / Flame Sling

• Increased attack power when charged.

Rejection / Wrath of Gold / Black Flame

• Increased stamina attack power against guarded enemies.

Crystal Burst / Triple Rings of Light

• Increased casting speed.

Assassin's Approach / Law of Causality

• Extended effect time.

Glintstone Icecrag / Freezing Mist / Frozen Armament

• Increased frostbite status buildup.

Poison Mist / Poison Armament

• Increased poison status buildup.

Glintstone Arc / Glintblade Phalanx / Carian Phalanx / Greatblade Phalanx / Magic Downpour / Loretta's Greatbow / Loretta's Mastery / Rennala's Full Moon / Ranni's Dark Moon / Ambush Shard / Night Shard / Unseen Blade / Roiling Magma / Rykard's Rancor / Darkness / Elden Stars / Lightning Strike / Lansseax's Glaive / Death Lightning / Giantsflame Take Thee / Bloodflame Talons / Unendurable Frenzy / Greyoll's Roar

• Decreased FP consumption.

Glintstone Stars / Magma Shot / Bloodboon

• Decreased FP consumption and increased attack power.

Aspects of the Crucible: Tail / Aspects of the Crucible: Horn / Ancient Dragons' Lightning Spear / Fortissax's Lightning Spear / Flame, Fall Upon Them

• Decreased FP consumption and increased stamina attack power against guarded enemies.

Glintstone Cometshard / Comet / Cannon of Haima / Carian Greatsword

• Decreased FP consumption, increased attack power and stamina attack power against guarded enemies.

Rancorcall / Ancient Death Rancor

• Decreased FP consumption and extended the lifespan of all vengeful spirits.

Briars of Sin / Briars of Punishment

• Decreased the FP consumption and increased the blood loss status buildup on enemies.
• Increased casting speed.

Gavel of Haima

• Reduced FP and stamina consumption, increased stamina attack power against guards and the power of the hammer portion of the attack.

Shatter Earth

• Reduced FP consumption, increased poise damage and stamina attack power against guards.
• Increased certain portions of the spell’s hitbox and shortened recovery time.

Rock Blaster

• Reduced FP consumption, increased poise damage and stamina attack power against guards.
• Increased certain portions of the spell’s hitbox.

Starlight

• Reduced FP consumption and extended the duration of effect.

Stars of Ruin

• Reduced FP and stamina consumption.
• Increased power when charged.

Founding Rain of Stars

• Reduced FP and stamina consumption.
• Shortened time before damage is dealt.
• Extended the range of the star rain.

Magic Glintblade

• Increased poise damage, attack power, and stamina attack power against guarded enemies when charged.

Carian Piercer

• Reduced FP consumption, increased attack power, and stamina attack power against guarded enemies.
• Shortened the recovery time.

Adula's Moonblade

Reduced FP consumption, and increased stamina attack power, and frostbite status buildup against guarded enemies with the sword's slash portion.

Gelmir's Fury

• Reduced FP consumption and increased attack power.
• Increased casting speed and shortened recovery time.
• Adjusted the direction of the lava projectiles to make it easier to hit enemies located in front of the spell.
• Increased the damage dealt by the first part of the spell, and greatly increased the ability to stagger enemies.

Zamor Ice Storm

• Increased attack power and frostbite status buildup.
• Increased casting speed and shortened recovery time.

Shattering Crystal

• Reduced FP and stamina consumption.
• Increased poise damage and stamina attack power against guarding enemies.
• Increased power when charged.
• Increased casting speed.

Crystal Release

• Reduced FP consumption, increased poise damage and stamina attack power against guarded enemies.
• Increased casting speed and shortened the recovery time.
• Increased attack range.
• Adjusted the poise increase timing during activation.

Oracle Bubbles

• Can now be used while in motion.
• Streamlined attack range and increased attack power when charged.
• Extended the time it takes for the bubble to burst when not charged.
• Damage hitbox has been adjusted to be larger against players.
• Reduced the number of projectiles that can appear at the same time.

Great Oracular Bubble

• Can now be used while in motion.
• Increased attack power.
• Increased tracking performance.
• Increased stamina attack power against guarded enemies.

Explosive Ghostflame

• Increased attack power and stamina attack power against guarding enemies.
• Increased frostbite status buildup of the explosion.
• Range of the residual flame has been slightly increased, damage detection time has been reduced.

Tibia's Summons

• Reduced FP consumption and increased attack power.
• Increased casting speed, reduced recovery time.

Discus of Light

• Reduced FP and stamina consumption.
• Increased the range, speed, and duration of the halo.
• Increased casting speed.

Radagon's Rings of Light

• Reduced FP consumption and recovery time.

Frozen Lightning Spear

• Reduced FP consumption and increased the frostbite status buildup.

Flame of the Fell God

• Reduced FP consumption, increased stamina attack power against guarded enemies.
• Increased attack power when charged.
• Shortened damage detection time of residual fire.

Whirl, O Flame!

• Reduced FP consumption.
• Increased stamina attack power against guarding enemies.
• Increased ability to stagger enemies.

Burn, O Flame!

• Reduced FP consumption.
• Shortened the time it takes for a flame pillar to be generated.

Scouring Black Flame

• Increased stamina attack power against guarding enemies and increased poise damage when charged.

Noble Presence

• Increased stamina consumption and increased stamina attack power against guarded enemies.
• Shortened recovery time.

Beast Claw

• Increased the range of the shockwave.

Gurranq's Beast Claw

• Added a hitbox to the first part of the spell.
• Increased attack power when charged.

Stone of Gurranq

• Reduced stamina consumption.
• Increased attack power and stamina attack power against guarding enemies.
• Extended the impact area of projectiles.

Scarlet Aeonia

• Reduced FP consumption.
• Increased attack power, poise damage and stamina attack power against guarding enemies.
• Landing attack range has been increased and its recovery time decreased.
• Adjusted the poise increase timing during activation.

Frenzied Burst

• Increased poise damage and attack power when charged.

Howl of Shabriri

• Extended the duration of the effect that increases attack power and lowers defensive power.

Inescapable Frenzy

• Reduced FP and stamina consumption.
• Shortened recovery time.
• Increased grapple range.

Dragonclaw

• Reduced FP consumption.
• Increased stamina attack power against guarding enemies.
• Improved directional control.

Dragonmaw

• Reduced FP consumption.
• Increased stamina attack power against guarding enemies.
• The hitbox around dragon's neck area has been enlarged to make it easier to hit enemies at close range.

Upward and downward adjustments

Black Blade

• Reduced stamina consumption.
• Improved turning performance and shortened recovery time.
• The sword and the wave attack have been changed so that they hit at the same time.
• Attack power, stamina attack power and poise damage of each part have been decreased.
• Decreased the number of times the wave part hits large enemies.

Bestial Sling

• Reduced the stone fragment scatter randomness.
• Increased stamina attack power against guarding enemies.
• Reduced between two hits and adjusted the detection so that two hits are always made at close range.
• Decreased poise damage.

Downward adjustments

Rotten Breath / Ekzykes's Decay

• Reduced Scarlet Rot status effect buildup.

Balance adjustment of Skills
Upward adjustments

Glintstone Pebble / Surge of Faith / Gold Breaker / Regal Beastclaw / Nebula / Sacred Phalanx

• Increased attack power.

Sword Dance / Vow of the Indomitable / Eochaid's Dancing Blade

• Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.

Sacred Order / Shared Order / Soul Stifler / Knowledge Above All / Barricade Shield

• Extended effect time

Taker's Flames / Miquella's Ring of Light

• Added damage detection to the weapon part.

Prayerful Strike / Great-Serpent Hunt

• Increased power and poise damage

Wild Strikes / Spinning Strikes

• Shortened the time between various actions and the activation of skills
• Slightly increased attack power.

Ground Slam / Golden Slam / Erdtree Slam

• Reduced the time between using the skill and being able to roll.
• Increased attack power.

Stamp (Upward Cut) / Stamp (Sweep)

• Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
• Increased attack power.
• Reduced the timing between the end of the skill and performing actions other than the strong attack.

Impaling Thrust

• Increased motion speed and attack power.
• Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill
• Reduced the timing between the end of the skill and being able to attack and to roll.

Piercing Fang

• Increased motion speed, attack power and poise damage.
• Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
• Reduced the timing between the end of the skill and being able to attack and to roll.

Spinning Slash

• Increased poise damage against enemies when used with the following weapons: Greatsword, Curved Greatsword, Twinblade, Greataxe, Spear, Great Spear, Halberd, and Reaper.

Charge Forth

• Increased directional control and motion speed.
• Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.

Blood Tax

• Increased motion speed and attack power.
• Increased HP deprivation effect.
• Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.

Repeating Thrust

• Increased motion speed. Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.

Giant Hunt

• Increased poise damage.
• Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.

Loretta's Slash

• Increased poise damage for the first attack.
• Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.

Poison Moth Flight

• Increased poison status buildup and its power against poisoned enemies.
• Increased the duration and damage of poison.
• Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.

Stormcaller

• Increased motion speed, attack power and poise damage.
• Increased skill size and poise damage.

Sacred Blade

• Increased motion speed and range of the blade.
• Added damage detection to the weapon part.
• Increased effect duration and attack power that gives the weapon holy power.

Bloody Slash

• Increased status buildup and attack power.
• Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.

Lifesteal Fist

• Increased motion speed and attack power.
• Increased attack range against other players.
• Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.

Eruption

• Increased the range and duration of lava.
• Added a hitbox to the part of the attack where the weapon is slammed.
• Fixed the timing of the poise increase during activation.

Gravitas

• Increased poise during casting.

Storm Blade

• Increased motion speed and range of the blade.
• Added damage detection to the weapon part.
• Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.

Flaming Strike

• Increased attack power.
• Increased duration and attack power that grants the weapon a fire attribute.
• Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.

Lightning Slash

• Increased duration and attack power that grants the weapon a lightning attribute.
• Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
• Reduced the delay between using the skill and being able to attack.

Vacuum Slice

• Increased motion speed and range of the blade.
• Reduced FP consumption
• Added damage detection to the weapon part.

Sacred Ring of Light

• Increased range and speed of the projectile halo have been increased.
• Added damage detection to the weapon part.

Blood Blade

• Increased power.
• Added damage detection to the weapon part.
• Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.

Phantom Slash

• Improved directional control.
• Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.

Spectral Lance

• Increased attack power.
• Reduced long range damage falloff.

Chilling Mist

• Increased motion speed.
• Increased the duration of the weapon's frostbite effect.

Poisonous Mist

• Increased motion speed.
• Increased the duration of the weapon's poison effect.

Shield Bash

• Increased stamina attack power against guarded enemies.

Enchanted Shot

• Increased arrow speed.

Kick

• Increased poise damage and stamina attack power against guarding enemies.

Cragblade

• Extended effect duration.
• Increased attack power, poise damage and stamina attack power against guarding enemies.

War Cry

• Extended effect duration.
• Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
• The power of strong attacks during the duration of the effect has been increased when using the following weapons:

Straight Sword / Curved Sword / Katana / Axe / Hammer / Flail / Spear / Great Spear / Halberd / Reaper / Fist (one-handed) / Claw (one-handed)


Troll's Roar

• Increased attack power.
• Fixed the timing of the poise increase during activation.

Braggart's Roar

• Extended the duration of the effect.
• Increased attack power, defense, and stamina recovery speed.

Endure

• Extended effect duration.
• Added an effect that prevents staggers caused by blood loss and frostbite status effects.
• Extended effect duration.
• Reduced the time between skill activation and being able to perform actions other than attacking.

Holy Ground

• Increased HP recovery amount.

Raptor of the Mists

• Reduced FP consumption.

Flame Spit

• Improved projectile range.

Tongues of Fire

• Reduced stamina consumption.

Great Oracular Bubble

• Extended the amount of time that the large bubble stays in place.
• Tracking performance and range of the large bubble have been improved.

Viper Bite

• Increased attack power and poison status buildup.
• Extended poison effect duration and increased damage caused by poison.

Moonlight Greatsword

• Reduced stamina consumption for strong and charged attacks.
• Added damage detection to the weapon part.

Siluria's Woe

• Increased motion speed, attack power and poise during activation.
• Added damage detection to the weapon part.
• The projectile now penetrates enemies and some objects when charged.

Reduvia Blood Blade

• Increased attack power.
• Added damage detection to the weapon part.

Glintstone Dart

• Increased range, speed and attack power of magic attacks.
• Magic attacks now penetrate enemies when not charged.

Night-and-Flame Stance

• Increased attack power.
• The attack direction may now be adjusted up and down when using a normal attack.
• Added damage detection to the weapon part.

Ruinous Ghostflame

• Increased the duration, attack power and poise damage of the effect that gives the weapon a magic attribute.
• Shortened the time between various actions and the activation of the skill.
• Reduced time between the skill activation and being able to perform actions.

Spearcall Ritual

• Increased attack power.
• Reduced damage detection time.

Wolf's Assault

• Increased poise during casting.

Thundercloud Form

• Increased directional control.

Regal Roar

• Extended effect duration.
• Reduced the time between strong attacks while under the effect.
• Reduced time between the skill activation and being able to perform actions.

Blade of Death

• Increased effect duration that reduces maximum HP.

Destined Death

• Increased motion speed
• Extended the duration of the effect that reduces maximum HP.

Alabaster Lords' Pull

• Increased attack power.
• Increased poise during casting.

Onyx Lords' Repulsion

• Increased repelling effect power.
• Increased poise during casting.

Oath of Vengeance

• Extended effect
• Added an effect that prevents staggers caused by blood loss and frostbite status effects.

Ice Lightning Sword

• Increased weapon attack power.
• Increased the duration and attack power of the effect that grants the weapon a lightning attribute.
• Reduced time between the skill activation and being able to perform actions.

Claw Flick

• Increased attack power.
• Increased poise damage of the finger expansion.

Golden Tempering

• Added a timing for interrupting the attack during a series of strong attacks while under the effect.
• Increased strong attack motion speed, poise damage, and stamina attack power against guarding enemies during the effect.
• Increased the duration and attack power of the effect that grants the weapon a holy attribute.
• Reduced time between the skill activation and being able to perform actions.

Last Rites

• Increased effect duration.
• Increased attack power.
• Effect against Those Who Live in Death has been revised upward.

Unblockable Blade

• Reduced FP consumption.
• Increased motion speed.

Loretta's Slash (Loretta's War Sickle Ash of War)

• Increased attack power.
• Increased damage of the first attack
• Increased poise damage.

Corpse Wax Cutter

• Reduced FP consumption.
• Increased motion speed, range and speed of the blade.
• Added damage detection to the weapon part.

Zamor Ice Storm

• Increased attack power.
• Increased attack power to the weapon part.

Dynast's Finesse

• The directional control of the follow up strong attack has been improved.

Death Flare

• Increased the duration and attack power of the effect that grants the weapon a holy attribute.

Magma Guillotine

• Increased poise damage and stamina attack power against guarding enemies for the first attack.

Corpse Piler

• Slightly increased attack power.

Bloodblade Dance

• Added damage detection immediately after activating the skill.

Devourer of Worlds

• Increased poise damage.

Familial Rancor

• Increased range of the vengeful spirits that chase down foes.

Rosus's Summons

• Increased motion speed.

Thunderstorm

• Increased motion speed.
• Increased the duration and attack power of the effect that grants the weapon a lightning attribute.

Unblockable Blade

• Increased attack power.
• Reduced time between the skill activation and being able to perform actions.

Ordovis's Vortex

• Increased attack power, motion speed and poise damage.
• Increased poise during casting.
• Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.

Upward and downward adjustments

Barbaric Roar

• Extended effect duration.
• Reduced the time between using the skill and performing various actions.
• Increased strong attack power when used with Claw or Fist weapons during the effect.
• Reduced strong attack power when used with Twinblade weapons during the effect.

Downward adjustments

Shield Crash

• Reduced the amount of status buildup when used with weapons that have status effects.

Seppuku

• Increased damage taken upon activation.
• Reduced the bleed status buildup effect granted to weapons.

Bloodboon Ritual

• Reduced the range of the damage animation trigger on other players. Damage is unchanged.

Bug Fixes

• Added a process to remove the Ash of War from weapons that cannot normally be combined with certain Ashes of War.
• Fixed a bug that prevented users from obtaining items such as Great Runes, Crystal Tears, Cracked Pots, and Ritual Pots when the number of items in the inventory and the storage had reached the maximum limit.
• Fixed a bug that prevented users from obtaining Crystal Tear. If you fail to obtain a Crystal Tear, the item will be added to your inventory when moving within the vicinity of the place where you should have obtained it.
• Adjusted player character control when under certain damage animations.
• Fixed a bug that prevented charging some Incantations while casting them with a left-handed Sacred Seal in mid-air.
• Fixed a bug that prevented performing a normal attack from a dash immediately after landing from a jump when the weapon is two-handed.
• Fixed a bug where various action inputs were ignored when changing weapons while moving.
• Corrected the description of the Colossal Sword’s physical attack attribute.
• Fixed a bug where the timing to change the attack direction was narrower than expected for some attacks with Greataxes.
• Fixed a bug where the attack direction could not be changed when performing a charged attack with the Ruins Greatsword weapon.
• Fixed a bug where the Highland Axe’s effect was not applied to the skill Shriek of Milos.
• Fixed a bug where the effects of the Warrior Jar Shard and the Shard of Alexander were not applied to the skill Sorcery of the Crozier.
• Fixed a bug where the effect of the Roar Medallion was not applied to the Regal Roar Ash of War.
• Fixed a bug where the skill Viper Bite could inflict poison instead of deadly poison.
• Fixed a bug where the range of one of the three rocks was longer than expected when casting the Spell Rock Sling with a left-hand staff.
• Fixed a bug where recovery time after casting Beast Claw could not be shortened by magic or incantations.
• Fixed a bug where when attacking an enemy who cannot be grabbed by the incantation Inescapable Frenzy, the attack will be repelled if the enemy is holding a shield.
• Fixed a bug where HP or FP could be recovered when changing equipment to certain types of armor under certain circumstances.
• Fixed a bug that could cause death and result in the player becoming stuck in some locations.
• Fixed some terrain bugs that allowed users to reach unexpected locations with certain procedures.
• Fixed a bug where the rendering and collision detection of some maps were different from expected.
• Fixed a bug where bolts fired with the Hand Ballista weapon missed the lock-on target when the game was running at a frame rate below a certain level.
• Fixed a bug that could prevent online multiplayer from working properly on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions.
• Several other performance improvements and bug fixes.

 

[NJClaw]

Shield Crash

• Reduced the amount of status buildup when used with weapons that have status effects.

literally unplayable

 

[Bloodeyes]

They have buffed recovery time for basically everything. I don't know if I was just tired after work but when I was playing yesterday the timing on everything felt subtly different in a way that really fucked with me. I'm not perceptive enough to actually notice the specific changes but I just found all my timings were off and I was playing really badly. I think it is more responsive, but that's probably what's fucking with me. I was used to how it was.

The nerfs to shields don't make a noticeable difference in PVE though, which is nice. Also nice to see that basically every sorcery got a buff, right as I'm playing my first sorcerer. The game seems fine, but then I thought it was fine before.

Edit: Nobody is mentioning that they datamined the patch already and it has added DLC content. As in hairstyles with "DLC" in their filenames. So its confirmed DLC is on the horizon. Everyone expected it but I was starting to have my doubts, given how large the game is already and how long its been out with no announcement.

Wild strikes is much, much better now. It combines hyper armor, repeated attacks and a "one big hit" move that you can do immediately if you want. Not sure if that change was this patch or the last but I used to find that ash quite shit and its really good now.

 

[Bloodeyes]

I just had my first taste of PVP. A friend and I played co-op for an hour or so in NG+ with our ridiculously over levelled characters. My character was level 181 from having killed every living thing in NG at least once. His character was 190 something from grinding Mogwyn Dynasty Mausoleum. We slaughtered a couple of early game bosses and he handily dispatched a crafty invaded who baited me into an ambush with great arrows then nearly killed me with glintstone sorcery.

Then we fought a duel. Him with ROB, me with the guts greatsword. I absolutely fucking dumpstered him. Like, killed him in seconds. He complained about me using the guts so I grabbed a couple random straight swords from my inventory and duel wielded them. Forgot to change my talismans or physick, just jumped in and fought. Don't know what ashes they had, I didn't use them. This time the fight lasted probably 25 seconds. He hit me a bunch with that WA and procced bleed for half my health, but I still won pretty convincingly.

I asked him how much vigor he had "45". I have 60. I also explained I had mad damage negation from armor, physick and my boiled crab. He aked how much HP I had. "2134" I told him. He was mad and said he had to log off because his wife will be home soon.

This dude isn't a casual. He's played and beaten every Fromsoft game. I won my first duel!

 

[Dadd]

You can be casual and beat every Souls game.