Elden Ring (George RR Martin and From Software)

I never actually got Tiche. I remember getting wrecked by her and saying I'd come back later and completely forgot. Must make a note of that. Mimic can be dodgy but it's both doing bloodboone ritual is devastating to enemies.

I must be the exception then as I’ve always found Tiche meh

My favourite build was Dex/Arcane. Bosses getting slaughtered and bloodied by a tag team with mimic

Oh yes that was very tough. Spent a few hours on that

Tried out the Spear of the Impaler. You can throw the spear from a far distance and it packs a big punch. If you are a Dex build it gives amazing flexibility as you now have long and short distance covered

Cool will keep an eye out thanks. I got the dry leaf gloves for martial arts today but I'm hesitant on respeccing for it. I feel like it will be something to try end game or ng+.

I could have done without knowing what's in the jars 😩

Think I'll try take on the final area and boss this evening. Have completed/accessed most of the areas and side dungeons etc. I'm sure there's still a bunch of stuff I've missed, but want to see how I'll fare against the main boss. Have gotten myself to Blessing Lvl 15 and Spirits to 7, so have most of the upgrades.

Yeah I've found myself switching back to the WoA a bit more than I'd have thought. That's the worst thing about Dex-type builds; you need to get more hits in with your weapon, but then you have less strength/equip load and therefore less poise and get knocked out of your chain of attacks.

I have a line on another Katana which sounds cool so might see what it's like. Might try out Messmer's spear too. Can get them both to +9 anyway and see what they're like.

That's the benefit of playing on PS5. My controller battery dies so quickly that I can watch something while it charges.

There has to be some sort of trait where people enjoy really stressful things 😂

I'm not sure how to describe current progress but I'm in the central plains. Headed south, east and then north west unlocking 2 more maps. Cleared out a few dungeons and sitting on +5 Scad blessing. Headed to Shadow Keep and saw the broken ruin message and then fought the same boss as you just did. Dead in seconds on first go and then got him on second go with my greatshield soldiers who bombarded him from every side. Still very very tough. I went into next few rooms and I feel this area might be beyond my level. I legged it through a few of the places I was exploring like the north west, feck that place.

What Scad blessing level have people had when tackling Shadow Keep?

I think I might have been +6 or +7, but it's definitely a tough area. There might be other areas you could still explore to get more scadutree fragments, but the first part of Shadow Keep should be manageable enough for you at +5.

For me it is a huge difficulty spike, probably because anticipating that it will be a huge difficulty spike I spent some good hours farming and leveling up and collecting items I missed so I became overpowered as f in the base game. Then the DLC showed me what's what.

My biggest complaint so far is the lack of motivation to use new weapons. Weapons i picked up have been useless so I'd have to upgrade them to near max (in fairness, the dlc does throw smithing stones at you) and i just forget about them and go back to my old trusty. I know that's on me to put in the effort to try some new weapons.

I kind of wish you started the dlc with no equipment and had to make do with what you find.

Also, way too many cook books. I get to a really cool location and past a tough section only to be rewarded by a cookbook. I'm sure if you craft, you could make some really cool things but for be, the loot is very underwhelming.

I’ll be attempting it again soon. I was +10 when I tried it first so had missed a significant amount of fragments.

My biggest complaint and it was also a problem with the base game is how much of a pushover the dungeon bosses are. The balance should be a lot better between main bosses and the optional ones

I think it's probably improved, but ultimately the seamless co-op is a mod and so there are likely to be issues. I think they're still working on getting it compatible with the DLC as well. Story things should trigger for the person who invited the others into their world, but the others might not be able to talk to NPCs etc. I think it can also affect what items can be picked up, interacted with etc. Still seems better than the constant drop-in, drop-out, put your symbol down, where is it etc of the normal co-op.

If you hate the Black Knights, wait until you get to the Storehouse area and meet the Fire Knights. I hate them. I hate them so goddamn much….