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

[Bloodeyes]

Also, my gamepad skills are abysmal.

Go sorcery then, you'll thank me later.

Just be aware that in order to respec. your character you'll have to beat a boss that has heavy sorcery resistance. I ended up having to beat her down with a short sword as my sorceries were basically useless.

Rock Sling deals physical damage.

 

[Dadd]

Do you think Miyazaki makes magic gear look dumb as fuck to remind magic users what scrubs they are?

 

[AwesomeButton]

Also, my gamepad skills are abysmal.

Go sorcery then, you'll thank me later.

I know, but I don't want to

 

[Bloodeyes]

I've tried multiple sorcerors, never stuck with one all the way. I think they're overrated for PVE. Ranged damage isn't as useful as you'd think. Things tend to get in your face a lot so unless you like doing a lot of running you're going to mostly melee anyway. Melee is just a better strat too TBH. Ashes do a lot more damage than spells and cost less FP. Lower time to kill means you deal with groups better and have shorter fights against bosses, which means you're less likely to fuck everything up and die. Less FP usage means less mind (so more points to spend on more useful things like vigor, equip load or AR) and fewer blue flasks (so more red flasks). Sorcery is perfectly viable if that's the archetype you enjoy playing. Its fine. But the "sorcery is easy mode" meme is utter horseshit perpetuated by casuals. Its both untrue and kind of disrespectful to people who play sorcs. Its not easier at all.

The build that I've found most effective in the most situations is a high vigor strength build with 12 faith and the minimum endurance needed to mid roll with your heaviest weapon and chosen armor. 12 faith gives all the fortification body buffs, heal which is useful against a certain enemy (but shit for healing), bestial vitality which spins out your red flasks in long dungeons and flame cleanse me which cures poison and scarlet rot. You can also put on two fingers heirloom and gain access to the flame of frenzy (good aoe fire damage, excellent in PVP against cautious opponents and for resetting frostbite procs while causing madness procs) and lightning spear which comes out quick, deals extra damage when in water or when its raining and certain cunty enemies are weak to it. Ranged damage isn't that important but in many situations its nice to have and casting this with clawmark seal gives you a solid ranged option.

For melee this build gets access to some great damage types and playstyles. Want to be light with a thrusting sword or dual curved swords? You have strength preferring weapons that do that . Want to bonk? Great mace or great stars. Straight swords and great swords? You've got the Iron Greatsword and the Broadsword. Heavy thrusting sword? Yep, those do great with heavy. You don't need to respec to change your "build". Just swap weapon and talismans. And of course there's my personal favorite, the Guts Greatsword. Basically, you've got the highest AR examples of any smithing stone weapon type available to you (except katanas and maybe spears I don't know). Anything with "Iron" in the name eats strength and shits out damage.

You also get fire scaling which is kryptonite to certain enemies and stronger than heavy in the early game. You get cold cold scaling which causes frostbite, a solid, easy to apply status when used on a big weapon or 2 little weapons that doesn't hurt your base damage much at all. Late game when resistances get higher, you can switch to heavy so you don't have split damage (lower total AR, more actual damage). There's also physical striking damage from greathammers. Very, very handy to have. You're just so versatile and powerful at whatever you choose to do. You can hyper armor trade with a colossal or play nimble with dual straight swords. You're a master of all trades. You can dominate every situation in PVE and PVP with one build. Just change gear as needed, focus your main weapon for upgrades and keep all your alternates at bell bearing level.

Playing a sorc is like this:

"Oh fuck a gargoyle. I wish I had a greathammer right now."
"Oh fuck an abductor virgin. I wish I had lightning damage right now."
"Oh great more giant hands. I wish my weapon dealt fire damage. Time to put on a talisman and change my physick tear again so I can use fire scaling. I swear I'm spending more time imitating a STR build than actually playing my build."
" Oh fuck the boss deals massive fire/lightning/holy or magic damgage. I wish I had a fortification buff to negate 40% of that damage"
"Oh fuck the enemy is resistant to magic. Well that negates all my best abilities and most of my weapon damage."
"Oh shit I'm poisoned/rotted again. Time to eat a bolus. I'd better do some farming later or I'll run out or preserving boluses. Man the crafting is tedious, why can't I just buy these?"
"Oh fuck a Royal Revenant. I guess I'll just d... yep I'm dead."
"Man I'm so bored going bing bong all day long. I want to actually fight something. I paid good money for this game."

I've never wanted for anything as a STR/FTH build. Int doesn't give you the best tool for any situation. Its viable and the weapons are cool but easy mode it is not.

 

[Anonona]

I don't know, I saw my friend one-shot like 90% percent of the bosses with Comet Azur, as in literally entering the boss' room, gulping down the physick flask with the tears that give you infinite FP, and killing the boss before it could even attack. There were exceptions like Melina, but he used ambush shard which was surprisingly damaging, she wouldn't dodge at all, and then once the second phase starts and she does her lengthy dive attack, it was Comet Azur time again, one shooting her. Any boss resilient to magic was dealt instead with Rock Sling. The only ones that gave issue were the last boss, which forced him to respect to a STR build. And I will argue that he didn't play his character at its full potential, he rarely used Terra Magica and/or the Moon spells nor inflicted frostbite consistently, which would had contributed greatly to increasing his damage.

I agree that maybe magic isn't as good with groups of regular enemies, but there are a few spells that truly seem to trivialize most of the bosses.

 

[Bloodeyes]

I don't know, I saw my friend one-shot like 90% percent of the bosses with Comet Azur, as in literally entering the boss' room, gulping down the physick flask with the tears that give you infinite FP, and killing the boss before it could even attack. There were exceptions like Melina, but he used ambush shard which was surprisingly damaging, she wouldn't dodge at all, and then once the second phase starts and she does her lengthy dive attack, it was Comet Azur time again, one shooting her. Any boss resilient to magic was dealt instead with Rock Sling. The only ones that gave issue were the last boss, which forced him to respect to a STR build. And I will argue that he didn't play his character at its full potential, he rarely used Terra Magica and/or the Moon spells nor inflicted frostbite consistently, which would had contributed greatly to increasing his damage.

I agree that maybe magic isn't as good with groups of regular enemies, but there are a few spells that truly seem to trivialize most of the bosses.

I mean yes, comet Azur is famously broken. I've never used it because I banned myself from doing that before I even tried it. Even as a wizard I just didn't want to play like that. My judgement of sorcery does presume (perhaps incorrectly) that one actually wants to play the game. Rock sling is ok. I used it on Rennala with my sorcs.

If what one wants to do is cheese bosses though (pretty lame but if one wants to), ashes are still equally broken as comet Azur. A level 1 wretch with a +0 dagger with flame of the Redmanes can stance break anything. A second dagger with chilling mist will frostbite it when its down. It can then be stancebroken again (before recovering enough to attack) and the frostbite resets from the fire. Your character can be a lump and you can no-hit bosses without any effort. Shit like that shouldn't be in the game.

Rotten breath, while admittedly not as OP as Azur is situationally, is also a win button and is usable in a wider variety of situations. Combining the two, one can stance break with redmanes then full cast rotten breath in complete safety while they're down, then hit with frostbite on the next stance break. Works equally well on bosses and regular enemies, no once per rest physick required. Just a 17 in mind and a few blue flasks. If you want to cheese you can cheese the entire game like that, not just the bosses.

Edit: Case in point. I just killed the Godskin Apostle with Redmanes at level 25 because I wanted the get in my build early and it uses the Godslayer's Greatsword. I guess I'm a hypocrite for talking about cheesing bosses but the sword is amazing and I have no regrets.

 

[lametta]

ENB struggled because he was forcing a dagger run and he constantly tests what weird stuff you can do with the mechanics.

not to mention that he would just deactivate the gui not seeing hp bars and chugging estus by feel and wasting lot of estus/hp...

 

[Bloodeyes]

I spent the day cutting a swathe through Limgrave with the Godslayer's greatsword. For a change I stopped taking the game so seriously and trying to improve my skills and got intentionally OP as early as I could. Radagon's Soreseal + two fingers Heirloom on a vagabond got me the sword at level 25. Now I've killed everying in the greater Limgrave area and finally got around to killing Godrick at around level 55.

I'm soft swapping between Godslayer's Greatsword and Death's Poker, proccing, resetting and just generally ash spamming. I've never used the Godslayer's before and it is exceptional. Both the ash and the normal moveset are fantastic. It staggers like a colossal, swings like a greathammer, and its ash gets hyper armor and does good damage. What's not to like?

I also spent a rather tedious hour grinding out the armor set from the blackflame monk. So my character looks really cool too. Its nice to be going a casual playthrough again. I like my restricted level get good challenges, but one can get burned out on them.

 

[Wunderbar]

 

[fork]

I tried to give this another chance, but it's just awful.
What a piece of shit this game is, holy fuck.

 

[cruel]

But what exactly is it you don't like that much? Most people are pretty happy with this game based on what I see. If the open world is boring for you (valid complaint), you may focus on important stuff only and do pretty OK. Legacy dungeons in this game are one of the best From has created, and even if you hate the game, it's a big waste to not experience Stormveil Castle, Leyndell Sewers or Volcano Manor. Some of the bosses are also really worth experiencing.
If the game annoys you for no obvious reason, sometimes switching characters does wonders. Maybe current play style is just not a good fit?

Sent from my KB2005 using Tapatalk

 

[fork]

The open world is beyond boring, but you have to explore it all in order to find some key items (depending on your build), most 'legacy dungeons' are shit (none of them come even close to Blighttown, Sen's or some other favourites), and even the good ones with tons of secrets, like Stormveil Castle, are just boring, everything is epic, but all of it lacks density, atmosphere. The ambience is annoying. The side bosses are utterly forgettable and boring, caves, tunnels, catacombs, evergaols, churches, minor erdtrees repetitive, and many of the main bosses are unfair.
Not to mention how forgettable the NPCs and overall story are.

They just lost their way. Where I'd have described Fromsoft titles before as 'quality over quantity' and 'more than the sum of their parts', I'd describe Elden Ring as 'style over substance'.

 

[Bloodeyes]

The Godslayer's greatsword is a really mixed bag. Its ash is quite powerful and its moveset is excellent. But to balance that out its normal attack damage is mediocre and the hyper armor on the ash isn't nearly what I thought it was. So its balanced. Op as fuck, but only situationally useful.

I'm still enjoying the weapon though. I'm going to stick with it long enough to see how it performs in the late game, after I max it out and give it some dex to work with. Right now its somber 5 and just at requirements on all stats (with the help of a soreseal and heirloom charm, this is a demanding weapon to build for). It's decent but not great on a mid level character. S tier style, moveset and ash damage potential, if you can land the whole thing. Rennala didn't last very long.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

With my maxed out strength I got a bit bored in terms of damage output.

So I said fuck it and slapped blood enhancement on my Giant Crusher with Lions Claw. And now I'm really brutalized enemies. Getting over 1500 Attack Rating is just fucking nuts

 

[Bloodeyes]

With my maxed out strength I got a bit bored in terms of damage output.

So I said fuck it and slapped blood enhancement on my Giant Crusher with Lions Claw. And now I'm really brutalized enemies. Getting over 1500 Attack Rating is just fucking nuts

Do you mean 1500 damage? Because I was so amazed checked and the AR on a 2 handed blood giant crusher is 986. That's still very good. But if you want to see really big damage numbers you can push it further than that. Claw talisman + ritual sword talisman. Make giant crusher heavy. Two hand it. Wear raptor's black feathers. Put ash of war royal knight's resolve on the GC. Cast golden vow and FGMS before the fight.

This is the most damage I have ever done in a single hit, other than riposte damage. I was getting north of 3k with 80 STR on the Guts greatsword (less AR than giant crusher) and I didn't have ritual sword. But you're in NG+ so you can take it even further. You can powerstance giant crushers and buff both with RKR if you're quick enough.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Giant Crusher with bleed, blood talisman (+% with bleed), flame grant me str, golden vow, 99 str, 48 arcane (40 base plus the mimic helm).

2 hand it.

By the second hit I've already made most opponents bleed. Additionally I've already demolished their fucking poise using lions claw. I'm gonna try this combo against Malenia.

 

[Mauman]

This one always gave me a chuckle.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

That's fucking amazing.

Edit: hey does the Black Blade incantation work on the Elden Beast? I know it's Holy damage, and the beast basically blocks 80% of that. But I figure it might be a good opener to sap like 10% of his hp immediately.

Though with the proper physical setup you can do that in a few moves anyway. The biggest pain the the Beast was always just how he moves across the screen constantly away from you.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Funny thing, I'm playing "le open world game", then when I enter a dungeon or cave, everything is so bare, linear and cookie cutter that it's like a game from the late 1990s.

 

[Bloodeyes]

That's fucking amazing.

Edit: hey does the Black Blade incantation work on the Elden Beast? I know it's Holy damage, and the beast basically blocks 80% of that. But I figure it might be a good opener to sap like 10% of his hp immediately.

Though with the proper physical setup you can do that in a few moves anyway. The biggest pain the the Beast was always just how he moves across the screen constantly away from you.

I've never tried the incant but Black Knife Tiche melts Elden Beast. So both the debuff and lingering percentage based damage should work. Apparently you can stack the incant with the blade of death weapon art or destined death but not both.

 

[Bloodeyes]

This is a video from the streamed playthrough I'm doing at the moment. I'm sharing it here because I figure not many people will watch that (I'm going to continue it anyway) but this is a cool, standalone story. It shows the process of beating a tough boss, from completely sucking and getting demolished, to experimenting with different strats, to practice and ultimately success.

I try a few quite different strats here. It was quite the rollercoaster and I sure didn't anticipate ever using the strat I did use to ultimately win. It just sort of emerged during the fight as the obvious choice, and now it's part of that character's permanent arsenal.

I've linked the start of the fight, no need to watch from the beginning. Its just me doing a respec and platforming down the tower:

 

[Bloodeyes]

I tried an invasion with the character I made for the LP. It went pretty well! This is a 6 minute standalone video, not included in the LP. I respecced into my invasion setup to test it out. I like it a lot. The fashion and the playstyle fit me perfectly.

 

[Aeschylus]

Playing a sorc is like this:

"Oh fuck a gargoyle. I wish I had a greathammer right now."
"Oh fuck an abductor virgin. I wish I had lightning damage right now."
"Oh great more giant hands. I wish my weapon dealt fire damage. Time to put on a talisman and change my physick tear again so I can use fire scaling. I swear I'm spending more time imitating a STR build than actually playing my build."
" Oh fuck the boss deals massive fire/lightning/holy or magic damgage. I wish I had a fortification buff to negate 40% of that damage"
"Oh fuck the enemy is resistant to magic. Well that negates all my best abilities and most of my weapon damage."
"Oh shit I'm poisoned/rotted again. Time to eat a bolus. I'd better do some farming later or I'll run out or preserving boluses. Man the crafting is tedious, why can't I just buy these?"
"Oh fuck a Royal Revenant. I guess I'll just d... yep I'm dead."
"Man I'm so bored going bing bong all day long. I want to actually fight something. I paid good money for this game."

I mean, with 12 faith many of those complaints are removed. Royal Revenants are easy for an int build if you don't suck (yes, even the ones in the Haligtree). Gargoyles are melted by Glintstone Spiral. You can easily pick up some fire sorceries, but even without them the hands aren't that bad. Magic resistant = rock sling or meteor, etc. etc. For the most part all enemy types and bosses have some sorcery that counters them, though some can be a bit annoying to get. The only thing you don't really have an effective counter for is large groups of fast aggressive enemies, like e.g. the final fight in the Millicent quest line. If you want to fight things you can just use the glintblade + carian sorceries/moonblade which are quite effective.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I tried an invasion with the character I made for the LP. It went pretty well! This is a 6 minute standalone video, not included in the LP. I respecced into my invasion setup to test it out. I like it a lot. The fashion and the playstyle fit me perfectly.

But the guy didn't fight at all.

 

[Dadd]

I tried an invasion with the character I made for the LP. It went pretty well! This is a 6 minute standalone video, not included in the LP. I respecced into my invasion setup to test it out. I like it a lot. The fashion and the playstyle fit me perfectly.

Cool fashion other than the face.