Elden Ring

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BlazikenLover said:
Second playthrough, now as a melee character and I can see why people struggled on Niall, his two knights can kick your ass and Niall's jump attack has a delay, in the end I got the timing for that down but I kept getting hit by the followup. I did remember the miquella's branch bit people mentioned in this thread so I tried it, it feels good to turn the summons against the boss but charming them to begin with was a pain since the animation is so long that I keep getting knocked out of it.
On top of all Niall can inflict frostbite and the arena where you fight is rather small plus no torrent.

One criticism now that I am not exploring everything like in my first playthrough: getting upgrade materials is a pain in the ass, I really hate how I can have a dozen smithing stones/groveworts 1, 2, 5 and 6 but next to no 3 and 4s.
I feel this isn't as big of an issue with Somber stones since you only need one of the appropiate level and you are done. So stumbling onto a single stone while exploring a side path is enough to keep upgrading your weapon, meanwhile with regular stones you might need as many as six for a single level so you NEED to go to a mine dungeon (and also consult the wiki to see if it actually has the stone level you actually need)
Groveworts require a single one to level your ashes so they aren't as annoying.
I can't understand why they felt the need to make regular weapons go to +25, it feels like you really need to go out of your way to get the needed stones for it. I am aware "special" weapons always capped out lower than normal weapons when it came to upgrades in the souls games, but this time it is just stupid, should have made them cap at 15 or maaaybe 20.
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I don't think this is a fair criticism for the Souls-like game where its easier than ever before to upgrade your weapons, hell at least you don't have to upgrade your armor now too. If you go explore you can pretty easily have +13 weapon (or +5/6 Somber weapon) before Godrick. Plus as you mention in you post, you can purchase literally every level of smithing stone. If you aren't going out to get stones, that's on you.

Compare that to dark souls one where if you wanted to max out a weapon, even at end game it would take a couple of hours of farming Darkwraiths. Meanwhile in Elden Ring, you can shoot a few birds in Mohg's area for 15 minutes (which is easily accessible early through White Face's questline), port back to Roundtable and max out any summon or weapon you want.

I will say I miss being able to use humanity and Serpent Ring to increase drop rate. Instead in Elden Ring, you actually have to commit to an Arcane build to increase Item Discovery - though I guess since you can reroll through Renalla, you wouldn't necessarily have to commit but you know what I mean, it's probably not worth respecc'ing just to farm.
 
katonic said:
I don't think this is a fair criticism for the Souls-like game where its easier than ever before to upgrade your weapons, hell at least you don't have to upgrade your armor now too. If you go explore you can pretty easily have +13 weapon (or +5/6 Somber weapon) before Godrick. Plus as you mention in you post, you can purchase literally every level of smithing stone. If you aren't going out to get stones, that's on you.

Compare that to dark souls one where if you wanted to max out a weapon, even at end game it would take a couple of hours of farming Darkwraiths. Meanwhile in Elden Ring, you can shoot a few birds in Mohg's area for 15 minutes (which is easily accessible early through White Face's questline), port back to Roundtable and max out any summon or weapon you want.

I will say I miss being able to use humanity and Serpent Ring to increase drop rate. Instead in Elden Ring, you actually have to commit to an Arcane build to increase Item Discovery - though I guess since you can reroll through Renalla, you wouldn't necessarily have to commit but you know what I mean, it's probably not worth respecc'ing just to farm.
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This is just cope.

You might have a point in Dark Souls 1 where you had to level up a weapon to +10 and then you can get a boss weapon and then level that up. That aspect, getting boss weapons, was a pain in the ass but levelling up weapons in general was relatively easy and it got easier in Souls 2 and 3. Blacksmith's sold the materials to upgrade your shit, it usually didn't take too long or cost too much souls to upgrade your shit to max. In Elden Ring, you have to find the materials and if you don't have enough then fuck you, go look up a Crypt, beat the boss, then go back to the maiden have the privilege of getting enough materials, then do it again and again for the next few tiers of smithing stones. Then there's the cost of getting the materials and levelling up a weapon to +25. Assuming you don't have enough Smithing Stones, especially at levels 6, 7, and 8. It's going to cost you about 100K or more in souls in order to upgrade your shit to max.

The whole process of getting materials and upgrading your shit wasn't nearly as tedious in the previous games.
 
BrunoMattei said:
This is just cope.

You might have a point in Dark Souls 1 where you had to level up a weapon to +10 and then you can get a boss weapon and then level that up. That aspect, getting boss weapons, was a pain in the ass but levelling up weapons in general was relatively easy and it got easier in Souls 2 and 3. Blacksmith's sold the materials to upgrade your shit, it usually didn't take too long or cost too much souls to upgrade your shit to max. In Elden Ring, you have to find the materials and if you don't have enough then fuck you, go look up a Crypt, beat the boss, then go back to the maiden have the privilege of getting enough materials, then do it again and again for the next few tiers of smithing stones. Then there's the cost of getting the materials and levelling up a weapon to +25. Assuming you don't have enough Smithing Stones, especially at levels 6, 7, and 8. It's going to cost you about 100K or more in souls in order to upgrade your shit to max.

The whole process of getting materials and upgrading your shit wasn't nearly as tedious in the previous games.
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This is just seethe.

I'm not sure why you are complaining about the cost. 100k souls isn't shit in Elden Ring and I can get that pretty easily in a few minutes. In Dark Souls 1 you couldn't even buy the materials to max out your weapons you had to literally farm them from rare drops off of either Darkwraiths or Chaos Eaters.

I do agree it's annoying that there are so many tiers for regular weapons, but it's not as bad as previous games, certainly not worse.
 
BrunoMattei said:
This is just cope.

You might have a point in Dark Souls 1 where you had to level up a weapon to +10 and then you can get a boss weapon and then level that up. That aspect, getting boss weapons, was a pain in the ass but levelling up weapons in general was relatively easy and it got easier in Souls 2 and 3. Blacksmith's sold the materials to upgrade your shit, it usually didn't take too long or cost too much souls to upgrade your shit to max. In Elden Ring, you have to find the materials and if you don't have enough then fuck you, go look up a Crypt, beat the boss, then go back to the maiden have the privilege of getting enough materials, then do it again and again for the next few tiers of smithing stones. Then there's the cost of getting the materials and levelling up a weapon to +25. Assuming you don't have enough Smithing Stones, especially at levels 6, 7, and 8. It's going to cost you about 100K or more in souls in order to upgrade your shit to max.

The whole process of getting materials and upgrading your shit wasn't nearly as tedious in the previous games.
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Not to mention that the bell bearings that allow you to buy stones don't carry over to NG+ either and are a bitch of a time to find in the first place. As much as I love this game, I will not deny it has certain flaws compared to previous souls games.
 
I literally never had an issue with getting upgrade materials, particularly sombers. However, that's also in part because I did just about everything and plucked every one off of the walls in the mines. I did look up where the bell-bearings were dropped, though again doing everything I'd have gotten them eventually anyways.

I suppose the tradeoff is that if you know what weapons you want and you skip everything else, you won't be using upgrade mats to dick around on weapons you won't be using. It's not really a formula that plays well with the open-world. I remember in Bloodborne having just enough bloodstone to upgrade one or two items at-level with the option to try to farm more if I really wanted, and as I approached the endgame, I could buy whatever type of stone I wanted other than the 3? rocks in the game. And I had no real need to anyways, because that game didn't have retarded amounts of weapon bloat.
 
FunPosting101 said:
Not to mention that the bell bearings that allow you to buy stones don't carry over to NG+ either and are a bitch of a time to find in the first place. As much as I love this game, I will not deny it has certain flaws compared to previous souls games.
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I know this is a crazy idea but maybe, farm to get a stack of upgrade stuff so you won't care about the Bells in NG+? You had to do it in Dark Souls 3 since the ashes didn't carry over, so just spend a little time and prepare for what you plan to do in NG+.

The thing is Dark Souls 3 you could buy all the stuff when you got the Dragon Chaser ashes which was near the Nameless King. The thing is the Titanite Chunks cost 13k with you needing 12 before needing a Slab. The Twinkling ones cost 15k and the Scales cost 20k with both needing 15 before needing a Slab.

Elden Ring you can buy the Generic Stones 8 for 3600 but needing 12 also. The Somber Stone 8 is 25k but only need 1, granted the Somber Stones alone needing just 1 is better than Dark Souls.

Also have to take into account how the Rune Farms in Elden Ring are 1000% better than anything in Dark Souls, barring the DS1 Computer trick. So yea sucks you have to go looking for 8 Bells, not counting the Godskin Duo one since its a mandatory fight, rather do that than farming souls in Dark Souls.
 
I’m halfway through and for some reason, I’m just not as attached to the lore this time around. It’s really disappointing, because that’s what I always look forward to in a “Souls” game. There’s no Gwyn & Legacy , or Yharnamite medley, or Artorias’s for me yet.

I only really like Blaidd and Radahn for the most part, but they’re small parts so far. The overarching characters are either too weird in a try hard way, or boring to me.
 
I'm getting better.

I killed one of those big troll things that pull out a sword when they're halfway dead. I know, big deal, but I stink at these games.

It took me two tries only because my first try I had his ass beat, but then I rolled right off a cliff.

The second time I fought him on the horse and he didn't even touch me. I'm gonna do it again on foot and watch out for cliffs because that was more fun than on horseback.

I already killed the big things with the gold hats but I don't consider that as impressive because I got him halfway dead with arrows first.
 
Caesare said:
I'm getting better.

I killed one of those big troll things that pull out a sword when they're halfway dead. I know, big deal, but I stink at these games.

It took me two tries only because my first try I had his ass beat, but then I rolled right off a cliff.

The second time I fought him on the horse and he didn't even touch me. I'm gonna do it again on foot and watch out for cliffs because that was more fun than on horseback.

I already killed the big things with the gold hats but I don't consider that as impressive because I got him halfway dead with arrows first.
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Good job.

For future reference if they ever give you trouble again, I believe they’re pretty weak to bleed. They’re good to farm from the stormhill shack in the field to the side of it. There’s also some resins right there to keep crafting blood grease.
 
I get that it's a hallmark of the series but I honestly think Souls games would be better off as solo experiences. There'd be less dumb arbitrary nerfs and balancing based solely off whining PVPers and less buggy since the overwhelming majority of bugs seem to be tied to multiplayer.
 
On the topic of weapon upgrades:
Yes I am aware that if you explore, upgrade mats aren't an issue, which is what I did on my first playthrough: I explored almost every cave, tunnel and tomb.
My issues come from my second playthrough, where I am not scouring the whole map and sticking mostly to the main content, it feels like I never have enough mats to upgrade a single normal weapon (and zero groveworts if I don't go on dungeons) to the appropiate level.
Sure I could open the wiki and check since it's my second playthrough and check which tunnels have the stones I need. What I find truly tedius is "oh the smithing stone x I need is found on this one dungeon waaaay out of the way in this area"
In dark souls 1, 2 and 3 I never felt like I had to farm mats since the game kept enough of them in the main path or at least nearby. Why couldn't they do the same in ER? In fact it feels like they do this already with somber stones, in part maybe due to special weapons taking just ONE stone per upgrade. Yet with special weapons you are in general locked out of ashes of war (and sometimes greases/spell buffs) so you still WANT a normal weapon.
It is even more irritating when you take into account this expectation the game has of players having side weapons to deal with certain enemies
"Whoops my +15 sword deals fuckall damage to this armored enemy, better switch to my morning star, oh it is only +4 better upgrade it... Wait"
It is also a problem if you want to power stance.

It wouldn't be as much of a problem if they did one of these
-Upgrades didn't take as many smithing stones
-Weapons capped at +15 or +20
-The game put more smithing stones in legacy dungeons
Urbanmech said:
Yea the fact you need 12 Stone to just get +3 added to your weapon is a little PITA if you dont explore. Granted you can just buy the stones from the Twin Maidens eventually but the final set is after Godskin Duo which is an even bigger PITA. Also there is the issue of do you want to do Redmane Castle or not to get the 3/4 Mining Bell.
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Yeah sucks that the ability to purchase the last set of stones is locked behind the last dungeon you get access to. By the way what do you mean about redmane castle?
 
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BlazikenLover said:
On the topic of weapon upgrades:
Yes I am aware that if you explore, upgrade mats aren't an issue, which is what I did on my first playthrough: I explored almost every cave, tunnel and tomb.
My issues come from my second playthrough, where I am not scouring the whole map and sticking mostly to the main content, it feels like I never have enough mats to upgrade a single normal weapon (and zero groveworts if I don't go on dungeons) to the appropiate level.
Sure I could open the wiki and check since it's my second playthrough and check which tunnels have the stones I need. What I find truly tedius is "oh the smithing stone x I need is found on this one dungeon waaaay out of the way in this area"
In dark souls 1, 2 and 3 I never felt like I had to farm mats since the game kept enough of them in the main path or at least nearby. Why couldn't they do the same in ER? In fact it feels like they do this already with somber stones, in part maybe due to special weapons taking just ONE stone per upgrade. Yet with special weapons you are in general locked out of ashes of war (and sometimes greases/spell buffs) so you still WANT a normal weapon.
It is even more irritating when you take into account this expectation the game has of players having side weapons to deal with certain enemies
"Whoops my +15 sword deals fuckall damage to this armored enemy, better switch to my morning star, oh it is only +4 better upgrade it... Wait"
It is also a problem if you want to power stance.

It wouldn't be as much of a problem if they did one of these
-Upgrades didn't take as many smithing stones
-Weapons capped at +15 or +20
-The game put more smithing stones in legacy dungeons

Yeah sucks that the ability to purchase the last set of stones is locked behind the last dungeon you get access to. By the way what do you mean about redmane castle?
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Why didn't you just upgrade every weapon you would possible want to use before NG+ it doesn't take very long? Or are you just surprised that when you start playing a game again that you might have to do the same things again?
 
katonic said:
Why didn't you just upgrade every weapon you would possible want to use before NG+ it doesn't take very long? Or are you just surprised that when you start playing a game again that you might have to do the same things again?
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Because I am not playing NG+, I started a new character and no, I am not surprised I have to do the same things again, I simply noticed how tedious it can be to upgrade weapons/ashes if you don't go exploring every optional dungeon (something I did in my first character and am not doing this time around)
 
Not having upgrade materials in legacy dungeons is just retarded since they also give you a rough estimate of whether you are strong enough to be in the current place (though I remember that some times I did find upgrade materials in dungeons only for them to be laughably low level compared to the enemies).
But the biggest bullshit is how lazy the naming convention became.
 
BlazikenLover said:
On the topic of weapon upgrades:
Yes I am aware that if you explore, upgrade mats aren't an issue, which is what I did on my first playthrough: I explored almost every cave, tunnel and tomb.
My issues come from my second playthrough, where I am not scouring the whole map and sticking mostly to the main content, it feels like I never have enough mats to upgrade a single normal weapon (and zero groveworts if I don't go on dungeons) to the appropiate level.
Sure I could open the wiki and check since it's my second playthrough and check which tunnels have the stones I need. What I find truly tedius is "oh the smithing stone x I need is found on this one dungeon waaaay out of the way in this area"
In dark souls 1, 2 and 3 I never felt like I had to farm mats since the game kept enough of them in the main path or at least nearby. Why couldn't they do the same in ER? In fact it feels like they do this already with somber stones, in part maybe due to special weapons taking just ONE stone per upgrade. Yet with special weapons you are in general locked out of ashes of war (and sometimes greases/spell buffs) so you still WANT a normal weapon.
It is even more irritating when you take into account this expectation the game has of players having side weapons to deal with certain enemies
"Whoops my +15 sword deals fuckall damage to this armored enemy, better switch to my morning star, oh it is only +4 better upgrade it... Wait"
It is also a problem if you want to power stance.

It wouldn't be as much of a problem if they did one of these
-Upgrades didn't take as many smithing stones
-Weapons capped at +15 or +20
-The game put more smithing stones in legacy dungeons

Yeah sucks that the ability to purchase the last set of stones is locked behind the last dungeon you get access to. By the way what do you mean about redmane castle?
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Redmane Castle has two states, active and inert. It will remain active till you either use an Altus Site of Grace or get Ranni's quest to the point you need to find Nokron. Once one of those conditions are met the Castle shuts down and everyone leaves except the two Lions. Also all the doors shut and can't be open and you have to wait till later to fight the Crucible Knight and Misbegotten Warrior. Also lose access to the Red-Hot Whetblade and the Flamberge.
 
Ruin said:
I get that it's a hallmark of the series but I honestly think Souls games would be better off as solo experiences. There'd be less dumb arbitrary nerfs and balancing based solely off whining PVPers and less buggy since the overwhelming majority of bugs seem to be tied to multiplayer.
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I got a better idea. Remove the PvP aspect, but still allow drop in co-op that actually allows four players to play through the game, from start to finish, not just through certain parts.
 
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