Elden Ring (George RR Martin and From Software)

johnny_ultimate

Is Swarm the sort of ‘blood cloud’ that follows an enemy? That move seemed super effective against Malenia based on my experience of summoning other players during that fight.

J. Marston

I'm such a slut...

Zero-Cool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118894037#Comment_118894037

Yupp, it seemed to only do between 1 and 10 damage at first and i was like wtf is this Bollox. Then boom, about a tenth of his health disappeared. Just kept spamming them and drinking blue flasks, was dead in under a minute.

Zero-Cool

Malenia.....holy shyte. my swarm of flies riddles her but once my ash summon is down and she focuses on me, it's game over. Will definitely be summoning another player for her.

Edit:

Spoiler Warning

Phase 2 fuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Zero-Cool

Malenia is infuriating. When my mimic tear is using flies, we hammer her but they he decides to run at her for a punch up and queue her taking back all the health we previously took from her. Can get her to 2nd phase no problem but she becomes so dangerous then. I tried summoning real people but it kept falling and then my ash summons wouldn't work for some reason. Thing is, i was actually doing well against her solo as i was blocking her attacks with a great shield so she wasn't getting much health back but one bad combo and I'm gone.

I just remembered i have my lord of blood exultation talisman active but as i don't have a weapon equipped, it's going to waste. Will have to put back on Rivers of Blood so at least Mimic can stop punching and i can mix in the sword.

Thinking of respeccing again to boost arcane for blood loss.

gimli2112

I think I'm going to have to stop reading this thread. it's just causing me anxiety. Every boss room I'm walking into in a cave now I'm thinking "Is this Astel?" now I'm starting to seriously worry about Malenia.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118895610#Comment_118895610

Once you engage in multiplayer your ash summons are locked out until you die or end the fight.

Daxve

Beat Malenia this evening (2nd last trophy needed) spent ages on her with Mimic Tear but she just restores health to easy against the Mimic swapped to Black Knife Tiche (maxed out) and got her in about 4 tries - BKT is much more mobile so Malenia struggles to land hits while taking them in return, I respecced to magic heavy and just hit her with rock sling from a distance while BKT got up close and kept her busy. Had enough FoCT for the 2nd phase to take a few hits while repeating the rock sling/BKT combo. I should add I'm at level 139. Took me another hour to get the last talisman I needed for the platinum trophy.

All in great game but hated it for first 6 hours or so and then it just clicked when I stopped trying to force it and just went with it and leveled up gradually. 101 hours in and done for now, this and HFW back to back - I need a break for a while.

J. Marston

I am crippled by indecision in the Capital. I feel like there is half a dozen different paths I can go on.

johnny_ultimate

Nerfed Mimic is all but useless against Malenia. Tiche or summoned player is definitely the way to go, although neither is easy street. One unlucky Water Fowl Dance in phase two and it really feels like you’re back to square one.

You kind of have to be super lucky with the summoning pool as well, especially as you basically just need to summon from whatever sign pops up.

You can see the ghosts running around looking for summons that disappear as soon as they are put down in a lot of places.

I spent the last hour as a hunter snitching on people trying to AFK rune farm at the first step. The messages were hilarious.

ahnowbrowncow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118896181#Comment_118896181

It depends on your build, I beat her using the nerfed mimic. A big pro for the mimic is that it can use items. My mimic was using healing stones and perfumes that increased both of our attack and defense and it used the weapon art frequently so we were able to stun lock Malenia a number of times.

I found that summoning players was more miss than hit for the difficult bosses, they'd often die quickly to the big hits and leave me with a boss with increased HP (50% increase per summon I think) without being able to use my ashes.

One bad thing about Elden Ring's world being so big, it'll be a lot more difficult to find players to summon at the more obscure boss locations as player numbers fall. It was great playing at launch and being able to summon and get summoned quickly, even in remote caves with bosses behind hidden walls.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118896316#Comment_118896316

I played Dark Souls 2 remaster on Xbox last year and had no shortage of response from LFG posts help with bosses for the DLC which I didn't play on the original release. So the community does seem to support these for a really long time.

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118896316#Comment_118896316

Yeah it’s definitely true that Malenia and the final boss particularly become really damage spongey when you summon - there’s a lot of HP to grind down. But I think the advantage with Malenia - at least with some builds - is that players will at least try (and sometimes succeed 😅) in getting out of the way. In phase two the Mimic just stood there for me, giving Malenia free heals.

That said the big problem with summoning in those two busy spots is it takes bloody ages just to get a player summoned. I did a few rounds on the final boss last night just to pay forward the help I got, and you can see all the failed summon messages the host gets if you’re the first one there. And it’s even more maddening when you are the host!

Zero-Cool

For the black knife tiche summon, i read it takes a 172 fp. That's level 32 mind. Is there any way around this like my physik bottle doesn't consume fp for a short period so would it work if i popped that she tried to summon with my current 70fp?

Penn

Black Knife Tiche is 132FP, which is about 26 Mind. I think the Physick that means you don't use FP should work (but not sure as since you dont have 132FP to use in the first place it might block it), or you could temporarily equip talismans that increase Mind and then quickly change them out.

gimli2112

it's 132 fp but still high. There is a tear you can put in the physik bottle that will give you a work around, you get it from beating one of the later tree bosses

gimli2112

hellsing101

For Malenia I used Rivers Of Blood on my mimic while I stayed at range spamming Swarm of Flies and she goes down very quick, Swarm of Flies almost stun locks her while having a bleed weapon on your mimic will mean you are procing bleed very quickly. The only thing to watch for is if your mimic goes down you are buggered but if you are spamming swarm of flies quick enough she wont get much damage off against the mimic, just watch your mimic has enough health to survive her big flower attack as they will just run directly into it as the AI doesn't know what to do there.

Zero-Cool

I did a little test, used curulean hidden tear in my mixrd flask that eliminates fp consumption and then tried summon an ash costing 100+ fp and worked a treat. I'm off to get the black Knight tiche now :)

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118897316#Comment_118897316

Good luck. The fight to get him is tough if you don't want to cheese the AI.

Mickeroo

I finally beat her last night mainly using the spinning attack ash of war skill on a +25 Cold Uchigatana and mimic tear doing the same (moonveil +10 in off hand). The strat is basically just stay on top of her and keep her staggered with the spinning attack, you are relying on RNG so she doesn't do the waterfowl dance move on you.

gimli2112

Briar Armour for the black knife ringleader*taps nose

seraphimvc

Yes, Alecto is the hardest jail in the game for me, i gave up as lvl80 mage, came back lvl120 and just won very closely, i have to have near perfect timings or i am dead if i made 1 mistake. Good luck and she is so much fun to fight!

Malenia - i just whacked her with pre-nerfed mimic and thought she was an ok boss lol (melee str build). For mage run I activated Haligtree grace last night and I will likely to go do other stuffs first and come back (currently at lvl143 mage), tempted to try her now but i can wait ha. I will go finish Mohg palace+dung eater sewer and Fia first.

2nd Astel (consecrated snow area) - yup i missed this in previous playthrough and goddamn this is so much stronger than the naturalborn one. funny once i realized melee moonblade doesn't work well and then i go rock sling - worked like a charm as it actually stunned it so easily and then ya done after 3 tries (i used mimic ash). definitely a bit of joke to see this monstrosity at the location lol.

The game is truly huge once i realized how many dungeons i missed previously aha.

Random fact on Ofnir (spoiler if you havent finished his 'quest'):

Spoiler Warning

I just found out last night if you dont speak to Ofnir after you defeated a big boss/shardbearer, he wont have the bosses attacks lolol (although it doesnt matter much anyway since he uses weaker versions but was cool) - so ya it is possible to have him only with his defaults 2 attacks heh. I wont talk to him from now on aha

Zero-Cool

Yeeeaaaa Tiche is tough. Getting him down to near death but he can be deadly. I have briars shield, must check if i have the armour.

J. Marston

You can cheese Alecto. Stand near the cliff edge. Messes with the AI and stops most of their movement. Just don't roll off the edge yourself.

seraphimvc

And oh lore wise, I was thinking Alecto is Tiche's father (big man figure like) - and then I learned that all black knives are women so ringleader Alecto is Tiche's mother - so we killed her to get her daughter to kill for us :S

are we the bad guy all along lol

And supposedly they are numen race (hint from same race as Marika) which explains why black knives are slender/tall figures, like when Tiche standing beside me it feels 'safe' as I know she will protect me ha

Retr0gamer

Speaking of lore, I've been playing this blind and don't have a clue what is happening.

seraphimvc

Same in my first playthrough, second run i actually spent time to read items descriptions and checking the map from fextralife.

all I remembered was killing dragons and then get murdered by dogs crows hands and of course

Spoiler Warning

something something fingers but hole O you dont have the right O you dont have the right aha.

Zero-Cool

I'm waiting to finish it first and then watch a Vaati video on. People complain about From storytelling but it's kind of special when you have no idea what's going on but still super intrigued about all the characters and locations.