Elden Ring (George RR Martin and From Software)

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get to the lower eastern parts of the map, until I eventually made my way down to Bonny village. But even that wasn't enough, I still couldn't access the very visible ruins in the river. Spent ages trying to get down to it but I eventually gave up and googled it. So many areas hidden away that you can easily miss, even when specifically searching for them.

Oh look, a huge empty arena. I might as well just stick that katana through myself now and get it out of the way.

I met a guy who sounded like he got 10 kicks to the balls and i got a cook book, couldn't see any summon sign though, might have missed it? Bale is incredibly hard, actually similar to final boss with how quick he is on you.

Oh i keep hearing about how good is a character he is. Cool, I'll go back to him and then try the fight again, thanks!

Speaking of Jagged Peak is absolutely class, the tense atmosphere is amazing for an optional area.

Think i need to take a bit of a break, the final boss is mind numbingly hard.

This is very accurate.

Oh god enthusiasm is class, sounds like he's going to wage absolute war in him to turn around and miss 4 arrow shots in a row 😂

Yeah Rellana's not too bad. I actually used Tiche for aggro and went magic to beat her. Once you know how to avoid the moons she's relatively simple.

Few days behind everyone, just got to Messimer who promptly annihilated me. The Shadow Keep in general I found okay with a strength build, my poise is high enough to make light work of most of those knights.

That f*cking hippo though. The moveset would be fine if the space wasn’t so cramped, pretty much all deaths were due to the camera or lock releasing after getting hit.

All in all it’s great to be back!

Looking at videos the shield is definitely the best strategy for that boss. I went through both the base and DLC without a shield though.

Right, sat down to go get the finger print shield. Google, where is it?.... Aw feck thaaaaaaaat 😩

Just got the fingerprint shield, i would NEVER have found that without a guide. Takes 48 strength to wield it and even though i always have high strength, but not that high, so I'm off to respec, then to get the greatshield talisman and ban to the final boss. Good to hear your tank strategy worked!

Grabbed the blacksteel shield instead and got the greatshield talisman. Huge difference, went from getting him to about 90% health left to now 25%. Actually defending the 2nd phase easier with the holy protection but the grab is a killer and not being able to get many hits in between his long ass combos. I'm still icky 16 tree blessing and 7 ash blessing so still probably under leveled. Progress none the less.

I'm looking forward to NG+, the main game will probably be a breeze after the DLC. But I'll probably take a break before another play through as I've now logged over 350 hours across three characters.

You have to play BG3 soon, it surpassed Elden Ring as the GOAT for me, but I suppose it depends on what you're in the mood for as it scratches a different kind of itch.

He got my black steel shield to +25 giving 77 guard boost which is the default for finger print shield which has me 2nd guessing, maybe should have gone with that. Anyway, beat the scadtree avatar because of the reward that will help. Hilariously, i died on my first attempt but mimic tear hit a blow as i was turning to dust killing him. Damn, i love that guy.

I have shield grease but also a spell to buff shield guard boost. Trying to use the spell, it is a slightly dark icon and my guy tries to use the seal but nothing happens. I have to check how much fp is needed for that spell and maybe not enough fp when full to even use it. One yi get that figured out, I'm ready for the final boss again.

Damn, end boss kicking my ass. My shield is blocking everything, no issue with that, i only get hit when trying to attack and when i do land, it's not taking off much. The 2nd phase, I'm just not getting any hits in as the combos are too long and when there is a gap, my 1 little spear jab isn't cutting it. Then mimic dies and it's a matter of time before i join him. I just know there's a better setup i could be using to make the most out of my attacks. I can consistently bet him down to 25% so getting there.

And he's done. Jesus, don't know how many hours i spent on the final boss but I went through multiple rebuilds to test a few different things, nothing worked. Went back to my original with a couple of talisman tweaks that basically ramped up my stamina and hp to allow me to guard and spear without taking damage and then it was all about managing my stamina. Only took 2 and a half minutes in the end, absolutely epic.

I got Mesmer last evening on my second try, but I'm lvl ~220 and blessing lvl 12(or 14, need to check) so probably I'm quite overpowered because certainly I'm not that good.

Started the game up. As I said I was gifted it a long time ago and never really got into it.

However I notice my FPS in it has totally tanked. The game settings and the PC haven't changed. I wonder did the DLC or some patches before the DLC tank anything that anyone has heard of?

First run many months ago gave me really smooth high FPS on max. Now I am getting 25 to 35 and occasional hard stutters.

Dropped the Quality settings from "max" to "high" expecting at least some impact. Literally nothing. Not a 1FPS difference in the average. Updated all my graphics drivers and monitor driver and nothing also.

Mostly it's playable but I tried out that zombie who turns into a Rune Bear near the starting area and got serious stutters every time he charged. So I imagine boss fights would be worse if I played that far.

I've only a 3070OC so maybe I was only getting good FPS at Max due to the base game being light. I am sure all kinds of patches and DLC have been installed since then. Probably screwed something up. 99.99% sure nothing else has changed between then and now.

But yes RT was on. I will turn it off and give it awhile and see if anything changes.