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

[Anonona]

O, Flame!
Surge, O Flame!
Whirl, O Flame!
Flame, Protect Me
Flame, You're Kinda Fine
Give Me a Kiss, O Flame!
I Want You So Bad, O Flame!
Oh, Yes, Flame, Yes, Right There
Flame, Cleanse Me

I think I know now who they hired to name the fire spells

Spoiler

 

[Stoned Ape]

O, Flame!
Surge, O Flame!
Whirl, O Flame!
Flame, Protect Me
Flame, You're Kinda Fine
Give Me a Kiss, O Flame!
I Want You So Bad, O Flame!
Oh, Yes, Flame, Yes, Right There
Flame, Cleanse Me

I think I know now who they hired to name the fire spells

Spoiler

Seems legit.

 

[General Disarray]

Golden Vow is found right by the main path on the climb to Mt. Gelmir, basically impossible to miss. Howl of Shabriri is at the very conspicuous tower with a giant eyeball of fire at the frenzied flame village in Liurnia. Amost every physik tear is dropped by a miniboss in front of a Minor Erdtree (which are all literally illustrated at the in-game map).

Why are some people here acting like these are super obscure items that most "normal players" wouldn't know about? Besides, most "normal players" probably consult locations of items after or even by the end of the first playthrough, when they already have a general build in mind but don't want to scout the whole map and clear every minor dungeon again. You have a weird view of most of the playerbase if you think only a minority of tryhards do this.

When the game launched I completely skipped both items and it took me until I almost finished Liurnia to find Selene. The game is absolutely huge and without a guide it is absolutely a given that you will skip stacks of items. And here is the thing even if I found both of those buffs back in the first run I would never use them because I was doing a DEX build(Samurai starting class) that only later pivoted into INT. So these faith buffs would be completely useless to me.

Faith builds in general were not particularly great in the base game because it took them too long to get the basic bits and pieces of their kit. Hell the basic lightning spell is a drop from some wandering knight in a some corner of Liurnia. So there is very little incentive to focus on faith in the early game and even that requires either luck or wikis. Point being that for the vast majority of players anything faith related is most likely not going to be a part of their base kit because the very much discourages it early on.

Tell me about it...

I saw the prophet, and having read all the originally Dune books immediately picked that class and named him Muad'dib and went Faith / Dex. The winged anti heal meme weapon has been my main... Atleast I could use madness spells. Haven't played the game sense it launched, beat the Giant in the ice. Than got feed up with the teleporting gps open world take and went back to Outward. But the first 60 hours were very enjoyable as first played experience, the next 40 not so much.

 

[FugueLah]

https://www.pushsquare.com/features/poll-what-elden-ring-starting-class-will-you-choose

According to a poll of 10,421 players, the top 3 choices of classes are

1) Samurai (24% votes)
2) Astrologer and Vagabond (15% votes both, so I included them in the same spot)
3) Wretch (12% votes)

Rest are between 4-9%, with bandit being the less popular (4%)

People who vote on website polls are not representative of the overall population. 12% wretch is all you need to know to confirm this. Also, that website is Playstation centric, so I imagine the poll has a higher proportion of weebs. I have no doubt the most chosen starting class actually is vagabond.

 

[Anonona]

People who vote on website polls are not representative of the overall population. 12% wretch is all you need to know to confirm this. Also, that website is Playstation centric, so I imagine the poll has a higher proportion of weebs. I have no doubt the most chosen starting class actually is vagabond.

Maybe, there isn't a lot of data around, or at least that I could find.

Still, it is quite a sample. 10.470 is nothing to scoff at. Also I don't know about Playstation being a weeb centric console anymore. Maybe when it was the PS3 generation, but Sony had been very harsh censoring weeb games, changed their headquarters to America, Japan pretty much hates Sony now, and they focus mostly on western movie games and open world like nuGod of War, Last of Us, Horizon Dawn, Ghost of Tsushima (though this last one is a bit funny, western developed but japanese inspired) and the like. They have few japanese exclusives nowadays, it is very, very far from the weeb console it used to be. Now the Switch is the one with more JRPGs and other assortment of weeb games.

So until I find a more significant source of info, I'll think this is the closest we get to have a palpable and objective idea of what the most popular classes are.

ps: Ironically enough, I have just found a Famitsu survey of when the game released, so it was exclusively japanese players, 1000+ I think. And their most chosen class was Vagabond! 427 Vagabonds followed by 424 Samurai. Smaller sample and very specific population, but interesting nonetheless.

https://www.frontlinejp.net/2022/05/14/elden-ring-player-survey-results/

Mainly japanese Playstation players. Which doesn't surprise me because Playstation is very western friendly. Is more for westaboos than weebs nowadays.

 

[Hell Swarm]

https://www.pushsquare.com/features/poll-what-elden-ring-starting-class-will-you-choose

According to a poll of 10,421 players, the top 3 choices of classes are

1) Samurai (24% votes)
2) Astrologer and Vagabond (15% votes both, so I included them in the same spot)
3) Wretch (12% votes)

Rest are between 4-9%, with bandit being the less popular (4%)

People who vote on website polls are not representative of the overall population. 12% wretch is all you need to know to confirm this. Also, that website is Playstation centric, so I imagine the poll has a higher proportion of weebs. I have no doubt the most chosen starting class actually is vagabond.

Ps5 completely dominated Xbox this generation (and both didn't do well). So the average person Is on a PS5 or PC. You're just coping at this point.

 

[Anonona]

Old data related to the topic, may be different now, but it seems most of the playerbase is actually on console, specifically, Playstation which explain the big sample size of that poll. Also it means they may actually be most of the playerbase, which is kind of funny, didn't expect that to be honest.

https://www.dexerto.com/elden-ring/...n-ring-player-count-after-huge-sales-1775853/

"According to stats from Bandai Namco, Elden Ring’s notched up 13.4 million sales as of March 31, outperforming the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. Thanks to stats from GamesIndustry.biz we also know that out of all of the copies bought, 41% were on PlayStation, 29% were on Xbox, and 30% were on PC.

This means there are well over nine-million players who own Elden Ring on console, on top of at least four million who have PC versions. However, the game will likely see a surge in sales throughout the year, particularly over the holiday period, so there are plenty more copies to be sold."

I think it may be because Demon's Souls and Bloodborne were PS exclusives and kind of when the fanbase started, similar at how Final Fantasy was closely tied to Playstation for many years due the popularity of FF7-9, despite the saga being originally in Nintendo's consoles.

But is kind of old info, things may have changed. I'll look around more just in case and update this post.

ps: I think this one is more recent, from 2023. Similar conclusions. It also says that 11.4% of players platinum the game on Playstation versus the 7.7% that got all achivement in Steam, which does make sense considering that most of the playerbase seems to play on Playstation, presumedly. I may check out the sources later on to see if I can gleam anything myself.

https://levvvel.com/elden-ring-statistics/

"At 41%, most of the total Elden Ring sales were for the PS4 and PS5.​

(Source: GSD)

• 29% of the total Elden Ring sales were for PC.
• 30% of the total Elden Rings sales were for the Xbox.

When analyzing the Elden Ring sales by platform data, we can see from these statistics that the hype around Elden Ring was majorly tied to consoles. This is only natural, as PC sales were a bit lower due to performance issues such as lag and stuttering. Thankfully, the game has since been patched, and those issues are mostly resolved at the time of writing."

This would also explain why the playstation centric webpage has the biggest sample size. But I'll still look for even more recent data, though maybe we will have to wait a bit to get data about the effects on the playerbase after the DLC release.

The dominance of console players may also be tied to the fact that, since it became mainstream, more casual players that haven't played any other souls are joining in, and this is just a personal observation, so it may be totally wrong, but I think most casual players prefer console.

ps2: Ah, perhaps the closest we have regarding the current population distribution is that the DLC peaked at 730.000+ concurrent players on Steam, while supposedly, it sold 5M+ copies. If the data is right, we could assume most of the playerbase is on console still. What percentage, can't say, and is not hard data, so take it with a grain of salt.

 

[Crayll]

What is your favourite main game boss?

Radagon. Shame about Elden Beast.

Favourite DLC boss?

Midra. Great atmosphere, great buildup, great OST. Attack patterns are unique enough to be more interesting than a regular sword-guy, but still very readable.

What was your most used weapon for the base game and did you switch for the DLC?

Banished Knight's Halberd in the base game.
First DLC playthrough was with Milady, enjoyed it well enough. Second playthrough though was with the Ancient Meteoric Ore Greatsword and it's now my favorite From weapon. Best ultra-greatsword moveset (Zweihander with the horizontal swipe light attacks and thrust heavy), cool weapon art that has multiple uses, scales with Arcane instead of gayass INT.

 

[Raghar]

https://www.pushsquare.com/features/poll-what-elden-ring-starting-class-will-you-choose

According to a poll of 10,421 players, the top 3 choices of classes are

1) Samurai (24% votes)
2) Astrologer and Vagabond (15% votes both, so I included them in the same spot)
3) Wretch (12% votes)

Rest are between 4-9%, with bandit being the less popular (4%)

People who vote on website polls are not representative of the overall population. 12% wretch is all you need to know to confirm this. Also, that website is Playstation centric, so I imagine the poll has a higher proportion of weebs. I have no doubt the most chosen starting class actually is vagabond.

Katana has bleed and it has fast moves. It's kinda kickass for DEX characters. So basically Samurai has strong starting equipment that allows roam without danger in first areas.
Astrologer means they can play as mage.
And Vagabond means they can have decent sword and shield early.
Wretch is simply nearly as kickass as was Deprived in Dark Souls I.

 

[Anonona]

Wretch is simply nearly as kickass as was Deprived in Dark Souls I.

It also helps that it is completely balanced on all stats, so if a player still doesn't know what build to make it may be a good choice. It also gives the strongest "hobo phase" vibe, very satisfiying to go from going naked to wearing shit gear to finally decent one, specially in ER with its open world and freedom to explore. At least those two were the reasons I choose the class first time.

 

[Lyric Suite]

The hobo phase of the Wretch is great, but i gotta say most classes have their own unique starting phase because the gear they are wearing often cannot be found for a long time. If you like the look of the Vagabond armor you might as well start as one since by the time you find it in the game you'll probably be settled with something else.

Dark Souls 1 still has the best SL1 character because of the knewl pyro deal. You are a hobo because instead of pouring souls on yourself you are focusing on your flame it's a very neat concept.

 

[General Disarray]

Faith has been a stat since Demon's Souls and two starting classes in ER begin with faith spells, but somehow you can't expect normal players to use it.
Arcane is a new stat in ER and no starting class begins with arcane spells or weapons with arcane scaling, but apparently it is the choice stat for normal players.

You people are really grasping at straws here.

And it has been a fairly difficult spec to get into on your first playthrough since DS1.
In DS1 you had to do Solaires rather not so straightforward quest to get the lightning spell(the only good offensive spell for FAITH builds for the majority of the game).
In DS2 it was OK but as far as I remember the core offensive spells took a while to get(although I could be entirely wrong on that one)
DS3 Faith is just straight so garbage that not even memetubers could dress it up to even look viable.
Bloodborne does not have it, neither does Sekiro.

Demon's Souls is the only game where I would say its good without reservation but that is mostly because the level of healing it provides is kind of busted when you farm up enough grass to have infinite mana. God's Wrath is cool but I would never pick it over soul ray if I had to.

Hahahahahaha
Imagine calling Lightning Arrow a non viable spell in DS3 . Jesus Christ xD. I ran an undead champ/ fight club pyro hybrid attunement build is ds3 with Lightning arrow, Black Flame, fire surge, deep soul, great soul dregs, great farron darts, old moonlight. Topped of with Carthus curved greatsword one handed (one of the few weapon classes that gains poise on a r1 attack) Witch's Lock. But people running only faith and Lightning arrow atleast had a good success rate in match ups. Not to mention the meme heal projected heal and ofcourse Warmth if you want to be more fair.

https://soulsplanner.com/darksouls3/47938

 

[Hell Swarm]

Imagine calling Lightning Arrow a non viable spell in DS3 . Jesus Christ xD.

Despite being a very strong spell it is non viable in the discussion we're having. We're not talking about twinked out PvP builds here. We're discussing how viable it is for an average player to play a faith character. Beating the last boss or a very difficult DLC boss to get your spells means it's not a viable option. Faith builds have strong options in the end game but a lot of their early options suck. Unless a player values healing spells there's not a lot going on for early Faith builds. While magic has at least soul arrow which does insane damage for it's range and mana usage. It will carry you to better spells while a basic heal isn't cutting it.

In Elden ring's case there is also the problem that the best faith weapon (pre nerf) was the medium bubble horn. It staggered enemies with a single blow and completely melted their health but it wasn't picked up until half way through the game and it had to be farmed. So faith builds didn't have an easy drop like rivers of blood or the other weapons that all took major nerfs.

 

[Old Hans]

The hobo phase of the Wretch is great

thats my favorite part. elden ring SL1 feels just like dark souls up until the end of Lindell. then it turns into absolute dog shit

 

[FugueLah]

Ps5 completely dominated Xbox this generation (and both didn't do well). So the average person Is on a PS5 or PC. You're just coping at this point.

That poll is representative of hyped and invested Souls and Playstation fans. For someone who has written thousands of words about what the average player is and isn't, you sure don't seem to understand how this poll is cannot be representative of them. And 12% wretch says it all. Joe Shmoe is not picking wretch 12% of the time, 1.2% more like. I may have overestimated the number weebs, but I do think it would be higher than the general playerbase. Vagabond makes the most sense.

 

[Hell Swarm]

Ps5 completely dominated Xbox this generation (and both didn't do well). So the average person Is on a PS5 or PC. You're just coping at this point.

That poll is representative of hyped and invested Souls and Playstation fans. For someone who has written thousands of words about what the average player is and isn't, you sure don't seem to understand how this poll is cannot be representative of them. And 12% wretch says it all. Joe Shmoe is not picking wretch 12% of the time, 1.2% more like. I may have overestimated the number weebs, but I do think it would be higher than the general playerbase. Vagabond makes the most sense.

The poll is not exclusively average players though is it? Many of them are souls vets or want a clean slate. The important number isn't the wretch. It's the popularity of samurai is way higher than every other class which is what I stated. 1/4 people playing samurai is a big fucking number when there's 10 million people playing.

 

[FugueLah]

The poll is not exclusively average players though is it? Many of them are souls vets or want a clean slate.

That is exactly my point. The general playerbase is not picking samurai 25% of the time.

 

[Hell Swarm]

The poll is not exclusively average players though is it? Many of them are souls vets or want a clean slate.

That is exactly my point. The general playerbase is not picking samurai 25% of the time.

But it is. It's incredibly popular because it has a fucking katana and decent armour/stats. It's the stand out option.

 

[FugueLah]

But it is. It's incredibly popular because it has a fucking katana and decent armour/stats. It's the stand out option.

For some people (me included) that is a negative. Regardless, you are still talking about vets and meta slaves, not the general playerbase. The same playerbase who 28% of PC players did not kill Margit.

 

[Silverfish]

Imagine calling Lightning Arrow a non viable spell in DS3 .

That's actually pretty damning. Faith users need to play 87% of the game to become viable. Which wouldn't be so bad, except that every other archetype has great stuff dumped on them within a few minutes of finishing the tutorial.

 

[Hell Swarm]

But it is. It's incredibly popular because it has a fucking katana and decent armour/stats. It's the stand out option.

For some people (me included) that is a negative. Regardless, you are still talking about vets and meta slaves, not the general playerbase. The same playerbase who 28% of PC players did not kill Margit.

I never mentioned meta slaves or vets picking Samurai. I mentioned that Katanas are cool and he's wearing the obvious heavy armour people liked in previous games. Why are you so resistant to accepting people like poorly made japanese swords and obvious armoured dudes?

 

[FugueLah]

Katanas are lame, and the armor is gay and out of place. Vagabond is the quintessential souls knight. It's also the first class to pick from. We'd need additional data to know for sure, but that poll is similar to polling 10k people in San Fransisco and concluding Biden will win the next election.

 

[Hell Swarm]

Why do Americans always want to bring their shitty modern politics into everything? There's 10k self selected people on the most popular platform.

 

[FugueLah]

Why do Americans always want to bring their shitty modern politics into everything? There's 10k self selected people on the most popular platform.

Self selected is not a randomized sample, it's quite the opposite. Playstation is also 41%, so excludes up to 59% of players.

 

[Reinhardt]

Ps5 completely dominated Xbox this generation (and both didn't do well). So the average person Is on a PS5 or PC. You're just coping at this point.

That poll is representative of hyped and invested Souls and Playstation fans. For someone who has written thousands of words about what the average player is and isn't, you sure don't seem to understand how this poll is cannot be representative of them. And 12% wretch says it all. Joe Shmoe is not picking wretch 12% of the time, 1.2% more like. I may have overestimated the number weebs, but I do think it would be higher than the general playerbase. Vagabond makes the most sense.

i literally picked hobo because he doesn't have extra points in dress wearing from the start and i can fully ignore magic. and it's my first fs game since first dark souls.