Elden Ring (George RR Martin and From Software)

noodler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118855019#Comment_118855019

Of the three main bosses I've beat, Margit being the first, just thrown you summon sign down.

I find it so useful to practice that way

Stone Deaf 4evr

for the crystilians, morning star with jumping attacks absolutely wrecks them, you'll likely break their poise on the second hit, and its very easy to make short work of them from there.

seraphimvc

Been just going through everything i can do in Limgrave, Liurna, Caelid and half of Atlus Plateau - i think i have come to a point that i must enter Capital next, or, go play at Mohg palace... Like I dont want to proceed further in Volcano manor before i finished the assassin quests (ye i skipped it last time because it requires access to mountaintops of giant to finish it).

So ya i am having so much fun exploring so much in second playthrough - the difference is that I have concluded that I am just a melee str person lol.

Full int (paper cannon) build just doesn't work because I literally need to dodge everything - is nothing like I imagine pew pew long range ezpz (whats the fun in that?), and ya in practice anything touches me = death, or anything moves fast or fights in small space = death. The whole early game is running and keeping distance from everything - repeat rock sling or pebble - I had more flasks in my blue bottle than red bottle lmao. There is truly not many options of viable spells (most are not FP efficient) and if i didnt get meteorite staff and rock sling (and i knew the bosses movement beforehand) - oh god i cannot imagine lol.

Switched to sword night and flame became mid range/melee battle mage pumped up my Vigor after lvl30/40 - game starts to make sense and honestly I am comfy and feel fun when i could take few hits from bosses. Finished Radhan at ~lvl75 (rip the insane previous version) and finished Ranni quest - have been rolling with Ranni Moon+Terra Magica+Azula moonblade now as this lvl120 battle mage build. Still rock sling here and there - the range is just amazing. Didn't even use azule comet much (got it around same time finishing Ranni quest) because my Moon+Moonblade combo is stronger (melee range though).

So ya, would not recommend for first time player on the so called 'int build' - because it actually requires you to have good understanding of the game (enemies, areas, bosses) and equipments-spells combo, and ya you have to mixed it with other stats to make it work. I only looked up sword night and flame and meteorite staff/rock sling, i cant imagine if i didnt lol. It does trivialize some parts of the game - like i spam rock slings to Godrick and he is dead, but ye i knew his moves beforehand but still. So definitely I prefer melee build and i think playing melee helps me to understand the bosses moves better also. Mage build can be fun (if you enjoyed dodging 24/7 for early game lol) for second run etc, but ya dont expect to be ezpz (as I thought previously lol) - is just different playstyle (fragile glass cannon vs tanky melee ).

seraphimvc

and oh ya i completely missed the side quest of the Loretta (albaneurin) last time:

Spoiler Warning

oh no why did she kill herself in order to travel with me lol I could carry her and yes i know her legs dont work

so many lore stuff i realized this time around like:

Lake of rot is directly under Liurna: it was mentioned in item description that the lake is sinking - so ya the buildings etc are half sinked (into lake of rot). And also the rotting speed is intense in Lake of rot compared to other areas with rot effect - there may be good reasons behind that...

Those broken buildings all around Limgrave: I never think the possibility that they fell from sky...

J. Marston

After watching Castlevania I've decided my next build is either gonna be Belmont with a whip or Sypha with sorcery (and a rapier because you need some kind of weapon).

Retr0gamer

The sleep pots are insanely powerful in this. Pity I used them all up when I found this out. I'll have to hunt more materials down for them.

F1ngers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118855047#Comment_118855047

I think Black Knife Tiche is way better than Mimic Tear.

Pretty much melts most enemies.

Vicxas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118857780#Comment_118857780

Too bad you need to beat Alecto first

F1ngers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118857799#Comment_118857799

Took quite a few goes, worth it in the end though.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118857780#Comment_118857780

I tried it against Malenia for a few attempts (fully levelled up). My main gripe with it was it feels like it doesn't have the HP of Mimic, and because it's very good at being a bit more hit and run, it also doesn't pull aggro as much.

But I've definitely seen it mentioned as being the top replacement for the Mimic, and maybe just using it against Malenia isn't a full fair comparison.

johnny_ultimate

I tried an upgraded Tiche against Malenia as well and she definitely seems at least a match for Mimic in that fight thanks to the great bleed damage. Although honestly another player is the only summon that really works against Malenia as they actually understand what’s going on in that fight and get the hell out of the way 😅

Zero-Cool

Feck Niall, kept exploring, just got rivers of blood katana. I loved the look and feel of it so much, i rerolled my character pumping into dex instead of str. Also equipped a silver tear mask i had to have me plus 10 arc, just needed another 2 levels of arc to wield it. Leveled it up to +9 with all the stones i already had, need to go looking for more to get it higher. Haven't tested it yet but looking forward to giving it a lash later.

Anyone point me in the direction of arc boosting talismans i should look for?

Edit: also does having 20 Arc mean i get access to any spells or ranged projectiles? No idea what arc does.

Penn

There are definitely a good few incantations that have Arcane requirements, I think even a few of the dragon ones.

There is a talisman I know of that raises arcane and a few other stats, but I don't think you can get it until after you beat Niall, so that's not much help.

Arcane in general increases vitality (mostly means resistance to deathblight), increases item drops and rare items from enemies, and after that is mostly a stat requirement for weapons/spells that do bleed damage or dark kind of magic.

Kiith

Arcane buffs bleed damage, among other things. Not sure if any spells need it to a certain level.

J. Marston

Are the pot consumables any good? I presume they're powerful given how rare the actual pots themselves are to find.

Zero-Cool

Oh i remember getting a class dragon weapon but didn't have the stats, must go through what i have to see what i can use. Had it in my head it was for magic but guess that's intelligence/faith.

So it looks like I'll mostly be getting bleed status from it, hhmm this could be an interesting build or really shyte but looking forward to trying it. My Str uchi wasn't cutting it anymore anyway.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118856294#Comment_118856294

I know you are still early days vs some of us but sleep builds are a thing and they can wreck PvE + PvP

Sword of St. Trina!!!!!

_CreeD_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118854732#Comment_118854732

While I know a lot on here love BoTW (and I found it incredibly boring and poorly produced) to be clear in comparison you think a game with weak visuals, poor audio and no voice acting beyond random baby noises is superior to something visually gorgeous, with an amazing soundtrack and voice acting by the likes of Carrie Ann Moss/Angela Bassett /Lance Reddick and a host of top tier gaming focused voice talent. That's not because I think aesthetics are everything but a big part of these games is storytelling and having key story points delivered by brilliantly rendered and voice acted characters is a lot more impactful than a block of text with 'whouurr'/'whoooaaah' piping through my speakers :) . In terms of gameplay a combat system designed for tactical skill based acquisition of key quest and upgrade materials vs. them just being a flat target. I will give that HzFW is evolutionary and not revolutionary but BoTW? Link - Check, Princess - Check, some form of Ganon - Check... Rinse/Repeat. Similarly while Elden Ring is great fun (certainly much better imho than BoTW) it's also evolutionary. From have been modifying and updating their DS formula over many existing titles. There's a point to be made that they're all 'Safe' in that regard. TBH I'm tired of still hearing every new open world title compared to BoTW, year after year in every remotely related thread it's brought up as some undisputable de-facto gold standard. It's not, it's maybe a game you love and that's fine but that record is well and truly broken.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118859388#Comment_118859388

But does story really matter when in the case of Horizon you are listening to talented actors spouting lines that seem to be written by a poundland joss whedon. I find the story detrimental to the experience of Horizon. BotW is a game about enjoying the open world and that's all it has to do and it does it well.

I'll put it another way, imagine if the Horizon team was given their massive budget and instead of making a very pretty highly polished but rote and safe game that copied every other ubisoft open world game and instead made something like Elden Ring or BotW where the open world was amazing to explore and not just a checklist of repetitive tasks and this open world had systems, physics and AI that all complimented each other and made for very dynamic situations and combat. That's the kind of game Horizon should be and I'll continue holding game developers to this higher standard until they make something manages to even step a little bit out of it's comfort zone and not take it's game design cues from something as old as Farcry 3. I'll do this because frankly until developers start making open world games like BotW and Elden Ring then frankly I don't need to buy them. I mean even Ubisoft are taking cues from these games, Fenyx Rising was a step in the right direction for them.

I'm not saying Horizon is a bad game either. What I played was fine and the combat is good. It's just that in the current gaming landscape fine and safe doesn't cut it anymore when you have so many incredible games to play that don't rely on skinner box mechanics to keep you engaged for extended periods.

CptMonkey

Finally beat Radahn last night. I’d say it took me about 5hours in total to get past him. Can’t imagine how hard he was pre patch. Got him to one hit a few goes and then he used to go on mad mode and just destroy me. Delighted to have him sorted now.

felt great with my self after beating him and was going away from the castle and got stomped on by this crows 😭

Retr0gamer

Took out Radahn last night and find him easy enough. Think I'm overlevelled though. Was pretty epic. I'm now wondering what he was like pre-nerf.

J. Marston

It's probably because he was nerfed but I found Radahn to be more of a setpiece than a boss.

I died once and then beat him. The charge across the wasteland while summoning was cool but 4 or 5 summons distracting made it straightforward enough.

If you do it solo I imagine it's a pain but it felt like it was designed for summoning.

Penn

ALEXANDJAR! THEY SHOULD HAVE CALLED HIM ALEXANDJAR!

johnny_ultimate

It's clearly a 'gimmick' boss where you're meant to summon all the others - that's fine and makes for a fun spectacle for sure! But it was really the homing asteroids he had that turned the fight into a slog for me. I could get to phase two reliably, and then I'd almost inevitably be one-shotted by the super-accurate homing asteroids no matter how close or far I was when they fired off. The only way I could reliably avoid them was to have hilly terrain between me and him (easier said than done when the asteroids take their damn time to fire off).

I believe his damage output and homing accuracy has been nerfed (much needed), and that the summons' damage output has been notably increased too. Seem like fair changes in theory, but consensus definitely seems to be he was significantly more difficult pre-patch.

Penn

I beat him just before the patch and it was only because we managed to do so much damage in phase 1, phase 2 was short enough that he never had time to get the meteor attack off.

Retr0gamer

I died once to him as I was having fun summoning but the second time my bleed damage absolutely wrecked him. The homing asteroids attack I saw twice and it's very easy to dodge now by just sprinting with torrent.

By the time he arrived down for phase 2 he was only about 4 hits away from death because my bleed damage was so effective in round 1.

Markitron

Radahn's difficulty is massively affected by character class. Ranged characters will have a much easier time of it than melee, having 20+ vitality really helps too.

Cordell

I beat Radahn before the patch that nerfed him and Melania after the patch that nerfed the mimic is my new badge of honour.

Zero-Cool

The rivers of blood katana, the skill is wrecking people. Fire Giant "let me stop you right there" :(

Epic boss, got him down to a sliver of health but he's so dangerous.

With this bleed build, I'm not sure if i should focus on dex, arc or mind as the skill flies through the fp.

Interested Observer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118860511#Comment_118860511

I beat Radahn before the nerf as well, but I just ran around reviving the summons as he killed them, I didn't do a single point of damage myself 😁