Elden Ring

[Spirelord: Downfall]

Finally managed to start my Elden Ring playthrough again; working on a lifesteal 2h tank build like you guys recommended, and it's been fun so far. Currently planning on grabbing the Great Stars, but I was wondering; should I swap to the Blasphemous Blade or Greathorn Hammer later on down the line, or no?

I'd say have a heavy Greathorn Hammer as a mobbing weapon. I've seen others talking trash but using it on my quality build makes me wish I got it earlier. Damage isn't amazing but against most things in legacy dungeons it'll work. I'd say go Blasphemous if you want faith for buffs and thus want more mind or if you prefer pressing L2 to R1/R2, keep the Great Stars if you want blunt damage and staggers with more passive healing vs healing on weapon art. If you want pure weapon quality then go with BB because its weapon art is one of if not the best in the game and fire resistance isn't too common. I'd also look into greatshields or colossal swords/weapons if you want to try out guard counters, they're pretty alright if you have the stamina to spare and know when to use them.

 

[VasonJoorhees]

You should get the nightriders flail, dropped by the black knight calvary in limgrave at night. It's like the normal flail but has better scaling and the ash of war can be changed, basically just a direct upgrade

I gotta correct this, it's dropped by the Nights Cavalry in the weeping peninsula actually.

Also, they apparently buffed daggers and they're supposed to be really good - if that's the case why do they still feel bad? I was using Reduvia with a normal dagger and scaling arcane and dex and the shit does no damage lol. A full light attack dual wield combo does maybe a quarter of a Limgrave knights HP. Reduvias ash of war takes forever to go off when you use it.

 

[Sniperwoof]

I gotta correct this, it's dropped by the Nights Cavalry in the weeping peninsula actually.

Also, they apparently buffed daggers and they're supposed to be really good - if that's the case why do they still feel bad? I was using Reduvia with a normal dagger and scaling arcane and dex and the shit does no damage lol. A full light attack dual wield combo does maybe a quarter of a Limgrave knights HP. Reduvias ash of war takes forever to go off when you use it.

Reduvia in general is absolute ass. If you want to see daggers shine pump faith and use the black knife dagger, that shit melts bosses.

 

[VasonJoorhees]

Reduvia in general is absolute ass. If you want to see daggers shine pump faith and use the black knife dagger, that shit melts bosses.

I upgraded it to +2 along with another dagger, powerstancing, and it still takes a full powerstance combo to kill a Limgrave foot soldier. It's fuckin pathetic lol

Yeah I've seen that weapon, gonna look up where I can find it later and get my hands on that instead.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole 2]

I had a good time with reduvia and a big knife until I got to a point where I felt that being able to stagger some enemies was more important than anything else. So I two handed the Bloodhound's Fang until I got my strength up. Bloodhound's Finesse can be a really, really good move, it trivializes the groups of mudmen in the underground world.

 

[VasonJoorhees]

I had a good time with reduvia and a big knife until I got to a point where I felt that being able to stagger some enemies was more important than anything else. So I two handed the Bloodhound's Fang until I got my strength up. Bloodhound's Finesse can be a really, really good move, it trivializes the groups of mudmen in the underground world.

The bloodhound fang is an amazing weapon that can carry into NG+ easily tbh.

Another great weapon is bloody helice, the great thrusting sword. Basically give you bloodhound step with a counter instant heavy thrust - and has bleed build up. I wanna do a build with it.

However it is stamina hungry so endgame you'd wanna have 40+ endurance, the dodge uses a lot of stamina. This will make you pretty much untouchable though and allows you to wear whatever armor you want

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole 2]

The bloodhound fang is an amazing weapon that can carry into NG+ easily tbh.

Another great weapon is bloody helice, the great thrusting sword. Basically give you bloodhound step with a counter instant heavy thrust - and has bleed build up. I wanna do a build with it.

However it is stamina hungry so endgame you'd wanna have 40+ endurance, the dodge uses a lot of stamina. This will make you pretty much untouchable though and allows you to wear whatever armor you want

Interesting. I might have that sword, just looked it up and it looks like an area that I have cleared.
Don't remember what my stats were but my stamina meter was faaar longer than my health bar for the early game. I beat Margit as a bandit without putting anything into health/vigor, sometime after that I realized I was fucking retarded and started putting points into health.

 

[VasonJoorhees]

Interesting. I might have that sword, just looked it up and it looks like an area that I have cleared.
Don't remember what my stats were but my stamina meter was faaar longer than my health bar for the early game. I beat Margit as a bandit without putting anything into health/vigor, sometime after that I realized I was fucking retarded and started putting points into health.

Good idea, you pretty much HAVE to have at least 40 vigor by the time you go to the royal capital or else most things will near one shot you

 

[Spirelord: Downfall]

Good idea, you pretty much HAVE to have at least 40 vigor by the time you go to the royal capital or else most things will near one shot you

Nah I've done a playthrough that only ended at 35 because I wanted to survive one of Plasidusax's lightning strikes (which didn't even matter in the final run) and only leveled my vigor to 25 in mountaintops because it was about there that the knights in Castle Sol barely two shot on a glancing sword swipe. Farum Azula and beyond are hell if you don't level up to at least 35 though, that seems to be about the best number with appropriate trinkets if you REALLY don't like leveling vig.

Also on the topic of Reduvia, dual wield status build up got nerfed a few patches ago so the best use of Reduvia is point blank weapon art or R1 spam. Its damage scales with arcane but it is primarily a bleed weapon, think of it like a less horrible Varre's Bouquet. It's a bad weapon unless you want single target DPS due to the status build up because of the nature of bleed, and being a dagger means bigger targets can be hit twice before having to dodge because of the speed of the single dagger's moveset. Also Erdsteel Dagger is better in my opinion than Black Knife because you can choose flame or holy infusion and get bonus physical damage instead of using the WA for 10% health damage and swapping to a better weapon.

 

[Caesare]

If you need help with any particular bosses, PM me for my Steam and I'll join for whoever you're fighting

You wanna help me fight the godskin wearing faggots some time? I kill them and they respawn. I just read today that there's a Bernahl summon somewhere for that fight so I'll try that first, but I can tell they're going to be a problem after fighting them about 3x.

I was really cruising through the game for a long time before I got to them. Quit a few months ago before I got to that fight, but started playing a few days ago and got to them and I can tell they're gonna give me problems.

 

[ForTheHoard]

You wanna help me fight the godskin wearing faggots some time? I kill them and they respawn. I just read today that there's a Bernahl summon somewhere for that fight so I'll try that first, but I can tell they're going to be a problem after fighting them about 3x.

I was really cruising through the game for a long time before I got to them. Quit a few months ago before I got to that fight, but started playing a few days ago and got to them and I can tell they're gonna give me problems.

They're not immune to the sleep condition. Throw 2-3 sleep pots at the start of the fight and another after they resurrect. Their wake up animation takes a long time so you can unload on them while they're getting up.

 

[Caesare]

They're not immune to the sleep condition. Throw 2-3 sleep pots at the start of the fight and another after they resurrect. Their wake up animation takes a long time so you can unload on them while they're getting up.

Yeah I did that one time and it worked very well. But I'm out of pots now. I only had 2 or 3, I'll have to make more.

 

[VasonJoorhees]

You wanna help me fight the godskin wearing faggots some time? I kill them and they respawn. I just read today that there's a Bernahl summon somewhere for that fight so I'll try that first, but I can tell they're going to be a problem after fighting them about 3x.

I was really cruising through the game for a long time before I got to them. Quit a few months ago before I got to that fight, but started playing a few days ago and got to them and I can tell they're gonna give me problems.

Sure! My Discord is xmishax#8845, my steam is the same username - xmishax. I'm down to help with whatever else/vidya game with you in general, none of my buddies got into elden ring like I did so it's a lonesome road lol.

These fuckers took me a few tries but on like my 4th attempt for some reason they both respawned and then just got nuked from half health to death instantly and it was over, not sure how I did that.

 

[Jerri's Kid]

I didn't have too much trouble on my no summons run with the Godskins until I encountered their spirit versions in the Spiritcaller Cave. These were immune to the bleeds I was using and I couldn't get them to stagger, and though they don't appear at the same time I did too little damage so they would beat me by attrition. There also aren't any pillars to abuse, either, so I had to learn to roll in sync to the fat one's rolls. It also sucks to have to run through all those annoying wolves, snails, and the katana guy every time you die just to get to them. Eventually I got tired doing it the "fair" way and just fired sleep darts at them which made the fight a lot easier.

 

[VasonJoorhees]

I didn't have too much trouble on my no summons run with the Godskins until I encountered their spirit versions in the Spiritcaller Cave. These were immune to the bleeds I was using and I couldn't get them to stagger, and though they don't appear at the same time I did too little damage so they would beat me by attrition. There also aren't any pillars to abuse, either, so I had to learn to roll in sync to the fat one's rolls. It also sucks to have to run through all those annoying wolves, snails, and the katana guy every time you die just to get to them. Eventually I got tired doing it the "fair" way and just fired sleep darts at them which made the fight a lot easier.

A tip for the skinny Godskin: Stay close. When he does that thing where he turns into Mr Fantastic and stretches out he literally cannot hit you if you're point blank. Once I figured out this strat I always kill the skinny ones first try. What weapon are you using?

On the run to the boss the best way to get in unscathed is to crouch walk through the bushes and rush the snails. You'll usually kill everything in the room without taking much damage.

Also there's a corpse carrying the White Reeds armor set here, I'd recommend picking that up as it's a direct upgrade from the default Land of Reeds armor.

 

[Jerri's Kid]

A tip for the skinny Godskin: Stay close. When he does that thing where he turns into Mr Fantastic and stretches out he literally cannot hit you if you're point blank. Once I figured out this strat I always kill the skinny ones first try. What weapon are you using?

On the run to the boss the best way to get in unscathed is to crouch walk through the bushes and rush the snails. You'll usually kill everything in the room without taking much damage.

Also there's a corpse carrying the White Reeds armor set here, I'd recommend picking that up as it's a direct upgrade from the default Land of Reeds armor.

Thanks for the tips. I believe I was using Eleonora's Poleblade and the Godskin Peeler at the time, though I might have switched to dual Bandit's curved swords because they are immune to bleeds in spirit form. I fought them last year. The fat guy is usually the one I have trouble with if I don't have a pillar to protect myself from his rolls. I think I have most of the armor in the game except for some rare drops, so I probably have the White Reeds armor since it's in that cave and I explored it twice.

 

[K!w!Fartz]

I cant wait for the DLC where the erd tree is a boss. I cant wait for them to reveal the cutsence where the erd tree slowly turns around to reveal a face and then processeds to swing it's branches to hit us while we run for cover between caves.
the way you win the fight would be by climbing onto one of the branches while its on the ground and jumping off to land in its nose so you can crawl up into its brain like a bug god of war style.

 

[ForTheHoard]

I cant wait for the DLC where the erd tree is a boss. I cant wait for them to reveal the cutsence where the erd tree slowly turns around to reveal a face and then processeds to swing it's branches to hit us while we run for cover between caves.
the way you win the fight would be by climbing onto one of the branches while its on the ground and jumping off to land in its nose so you can crawl up into its brain like a bug god of war style.

Is there any talk about adding additional endings to the main storyline?

 

[Spirelord: Downfall]

I cant wait for the DLC where the erd tree is a boss. I cant wait for them to reveal the cutsence where the erd tree slowly turns around to reveal a face and then processeds to swing it's branches to hit us while we run for cover between caves.
the way you win the fight would be by climbing onto one of the branches while its on the ground and jumping off to land in its nose so you can crawl up into its brain like a bug god of war style.

I wouldn't mind Dragon God 2.0 as long as the boss fight after climbing inside is clearing out a tree themed cave dungeon with a health bar, dumb as that may sound. They never did try to bring back that standing/crawling Bed of Chaos design in tree form though, closest we have is Lawrence the First Vicar. If a giant tree boss happens I can see them making it a field boss you'd run around and climb on the dragging roots as its branches try to skewer you before you enter from some hole near its 'head' or in its 'back', and if they're copying wholesale maybe you'd use something like a massive ballista to cripple it after it begins walking around.

 

[Mega Black]

I kept getting completely fucked by fire giant on my first run on the horse but only managed to beat him when I mixed up riding and on foot combat. I dunno if that's intended or whatever but sometimes I feel like bosses meant to be fought with Torrent are way too hard on him, and some bosses where you can't use him were really designed with him in mind.