I think Ranni did some fucked up things as well. It's been revealed she organized the night of the black knives, and she is completely aware of what Seluvis has going on in his BDSM dungeon. Also, I haven't confirmed this by crawling thru any lore vids, but I'm pretty sure Blaidd is a weird clone that she made with sorcery that eventually goes mad. I also have reason to believe she has made more than one.
When you first encounter her, there are wolves hanging outside her tower. Just chilling. Seems weird. Secondly, on one of the towers in the area, you can find a "replica" blaidd head piece, claiming it was an assassin. The description says the head bears a "striking resemblance." It's probably more than just a resemblance. This is probably the flimsiest point of this theory, but I think it's backed up by two other facts.
One: You kill an invader version of blaidd at a certain point in her questline. When Ranni sends you to do this she implies there could be more than one. I also was under the impression she had done this type of thing before.
Two: Blaidd himself goes mad when you go back to the tower after 'marrying' Ranni.
Just my head-canon at the moment but I could be wrong.
Blaidd is a creation of the Two Fingers to serve Ranni the way Maliketh serves Marika, with a killswitch for if she openly goes rogue like she eventually did. It’s why he goes insane and gets locked in an evergoal. He’s trying to keep himself from killing her. The mask is from an assassin impersonating Blaidd.
I'm toying around with an early dex build and I'm gonna be honest, I'm loving the Guardian's Swordspear. A bit slow, but I don't hate the original Ash of War and it has A scaling when keen. It also does well with Piercing Thrust from what I can tell. Hopefully it retains its more unique moveset when dual wielded as well, but I doubt it.
I played a faith build and most of my incantions didn't have a lot of range, I believe I did try rot via the dragon incantations but had little luck with that and bows: I was either too far away to be able to hit him consistently or too close to the point his melee attacks hit me defeating the purpose of using ranged attacks.
Get the harp bow and use its weapon art (it's the quick shot) and rot/bleed arrows if you didn't use them. I didn't have trouble aiming at him at all, if you didn't already know you can aim at his chest as well as his legs, it should let you be able to target that body part when you're at the correct distance.
edit: I don't get why more people don't keep bows as a sidearm unless they legitimately forget they exist or passionately hate bow combat in these games, most builds above a certain level can use at least one.
"shadow" that was given to Ranni by the Two Fingers very early on in their life, every Empyrean is given one, and they grew up together, this is directly from their dialogue or item descriptions. Queen Marika, also an Empyrean, had one as well and that's one of the bosses in Farum Azula who also looks like wolfish. That's probably just their nature to look like be beastmen so with the additional invader who looks like Blaidd that suggests they're not unique but that's not because he's a creation of Ranni. The reason he goes mad in the end is inferred by Iji who basically explains that, while Blaidd is Ranni's shadow, every shadow has a kill switch in them in case their Empyrean goes rogue (like Ranni did) against the Two Fingers/Greater Will. To me, it was clear the way he was acting at the end before becoming hostile was because he was trying to fight his true innate purpose to kill her when he's been close to her for their entire lives (insert Blaidd simps then gets cucked by you memes here).
You do get the Moonblade spell in the area which is like the weapon art of the MSG, and really good. Also Ranni's Moon Spell is nasty if you can get it to hit, 30% reduction to magic resistance is not too shabby if you can get the frostbite to trigger.
Cool magic fact from your friendly neighborhood PvPer, there are several spells for both sorceries and incantations where you can cast a very quick spell in order to either make a much stronger attack come out faster, or skip to the second part of a spell if it has a follow-up attack.
For sorceries, casting Swift Glintstone Shard or using Carian Slicer allows you to instantly skip to the second attack of Adula's Moonblade, making it not only come out faster but also letting you instantly access the wider range of Adula's second strike. Other good spells to use with this are things like Comet.
For incantations, Catch Flame and Bestial Sling are both fast enough to perform this technique. Combo either of these moves to make attacks such as Honed Bolt or the Dragonbreath attacks come out faster, or skip phases of certain incants like Black Blade.
Its generally known as quickcasting, but theres another form that is bugged; glitchcasting is when you do either of these techniques but you are sprinting or jumping when performing them. Glitchcasting can make some attacks come out even faster, and also eliminates the actual animation for the attack or otherwise makes it invisible. If you're an asshole invader then this is some great fun to whip out against an annoying red phantom or a group of gankers, but using it in a duel will make people think you're a fag.
Experiment with quickcasting, it really improves the caster experience.
Get the harp bow and use its weapon art (it's the quick shot) and rot/bleed arrows if you didn't use them. I didn't have trouble aiming at him at all, if you didn't already know you can aim at his chest as well as his legs, it should let you be able to target that body part when you're at the correct distance.
edit: I don't get why more people don't keep bows as a sidearm unless they legitimately forget they exist or passionately hate bow combat in these games, most builds above a certain level can use at least one.
"shadow" that was given to Ranni by the Two Fingers very early on in their life, every Empyrean is given one, and they grew up together, this is directly from their dialogue or item descriptions. Queen Marika, also an Empyrean, had one as well and that's one of the bosses in Farum Azula who also looks like wolfish. That's probably just their nature to look like be beastmen so with the additional invader who looks like Blaidd that suggests they're not unique but that's not because he's a creation of Ranni. The reason he goes mad in the end is inferred by Iji who basically explains that, while Blaidd is Ranni's shadow, every shadow has a kill switch in them in case their Empyrean goes rogue (like Ranni did) against the Two Fingers/Greater Will. To me, it was clear the way he was acting at the end before becoming hostile was because he was trying to fight his true innate purpose to kill her when he's been close to her for their entire lives (insert Blaidd simps then gets cucked by you memes here).
I did keep a bow just in case in my first character, mainly used it for some bosses I fought on horseback (since my melee weapons were dogshit for that kind of thing) and to snipe annoying enemies. If anything I feel bows are the best they have been in the series thanks to a combination of torrent, jumping and the open world
I mean Blaidd was breaking the condition until you came along. He smelled mini-Ranni on you and the GloboHomo Will assumed control again. You just had to bring your Fumo with you.
Also, inside the BlackBlade's Boss room is a statue of the old Erdtree prior to the Golden Order and a statue of a girl with three wolves. Marika was Torrent's old master it seems. Old Elden Ring also had a double helix shape.
My guess would be from the fact that Ranni gives us the spirit calling bell and the spirit wolf ashes and says that the bell belonged to Torrent's former master.
My guess would be from the fact that Ranni gives us the spirit calling bell and the spirit wolf ashes and says that the bell belonged to Torrent's former master.
If Marika is supposed to be the statue of the girl with the 3 wolves, why would Farum Azula, a former enemy of the Haligtree, display her? The old Elden Ring is something the "Higher Will" would rather wanna hide and burry, or not?
I don't get why people are complaining that the game is so fucking hard, are you doing any shit at all before moving on?
If anything I'd say it's the easiest soulsborne game so far, no need to actually farm shit as long as you clear the shit there is to clear. I've rarely died more than like, 2 or 3 times to bosses and often I fucking steamroll them on first try. If anything they made it too easy.
