Elden Ring

[Raging Capybara]

This DLC is so well made the recipes they give you are worse than the reciprocals in the base game.

Example:

https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Holyproof+Pickled+Liver

Temporarily grants large boost to holy damage negation
+25% Holy Negation

https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Holyproof+Dried+Liver

Temporarily boosts holy damage negation
Holy Damage Negation +35%


And no. the Fextra is correct, everyone in the comment sections reaffirms these numbers.

 

[Lurkerish Kandor]

I downloaded a thing called SotE Backdoor and Rebalancing which allows you to play the DLC alongside the main campaign, rebalances the DLC's regions so that they start out at "Post-Limgrave" and end at being on-par with the Malenia fight, and makes Scadutree Fragments completely optional and just a flat 1% boost to power for each Blessing upgrade you get. I don't really want to send traffic towards NexusMods, but I don't know where else you could get it, so I guess that's where the link has to direct to.

I haven't thoroughly tested it out because I only got it and confirmed the mod was working properly last night on a new character, but if you're like me and think the whole Scadutree/Revered Ashes Blessings things were a stupid idea, and would like to get some of the new stuff in the DLC while you still have shit to do to get some mileage out of it all, might be worth looking into.

If it's the only mod you're loading, you can apply the mod very easily using ModEngine2 using the regulations.bin file in the mod, but if you want to load it alongside other mods, you need a program called SmithBox to merge the .csv files with other mods into your own regulations.bin, which is a thing I have no experience with.

 

[LoTex]

I’ve been fighting Consort Radahn the whole day and it’s punishing. Every hit does about 45% to 60% of my health and that’s just his first phase. Switching my build to arcane to deal some status effects.

I think a lot of people forgot that the Dark Souls/ Dark Souls really aren’t hard. Once you are aware of enemy placement and get the hang of parrying/ spacing then it’s pretty easy.

This comment sums it up perfectly:

Dark Souls remake made by 2024 From Software:
>go to the rooftop to fight the gargoyles
›rooftop is now a big circular arena
›first gargoyle comes flying across the arena at mach 12 while spinning like a beyblade for 37 continuous seconds
>any time you try to take an action at the end of the spinbo it extends another 11 rotations
>somehow whittle his health down to half
> "zanzigoyle forgive me"
›other gargoyle flies down
> "ah together once again!"
>now there are two gargoyles spinning endlessly spinning except with huge fire aoes that also explode covering the whole arena

Just finished the DLC and honestly thought it was okay but was many times disappointing. Only offensive moment was me missing Thiollier's quest because there are no signs to go to Cerulean Coast before you burn the barrier tree.

The main problem with From dlcs imo is that they are essentially standalone campaigns, nothing you do on the main game affects them or nothing you do on them affects the main game, for a RPG this is really bad, after all, it is literally in the name of the genre, roleplaying. Are you going to be the Dark Lord in DS1? Well too bad! You need to help the forces of the Gods defeat Manus all the same. You can yourself be the New Lord of Chaos touched by the Three fingers himself and it still won't change nothing of your meeting with Midra. You are facing Midra, who is also a Lord of Chaos and embodiment of the Frenzy Flame, and there will be no reaction, no difference or extra dialogue, it is like your main game choices don't exist in the DLC.

The only exceptions to that is in DSII where the crows you obtain in the DLCs allows you to obtain a new ending and in the Ashes of Ariande expansion where Sister Friede will have different dialogue if you are the Lord of Hollows and even give you a ring out of respect for your position, since Friede is also a member of the church of londor. The Souls series is at its worst when From forgets that it is a RPG series first and foremost and instead leans solely on the difficulty and combat.

Eldenring really wants the player to stance break and stagger like in Sekiro so something like Rally on a Riposte/Backstab, might work, although if that was added I think reducing flask charges to 10 would probably be needed to reduce the player's healing.

The problem with that the stance break is better done with a strength build because strength weapons do more poise damage but the game incentives the use of Dex builds because how strong and versatile dex is. Dex/Int for magic damage, Dex/Arcane for status build-up builds and Dex/Faith for incantation-centric builds. They are focusing on a way to beat the boss that is only really suitable to strength builds.

In truth, From is in an arms race against it's top players because they want to keep the reputation of making very hard games and the average player is the one that suffers because of it. It is because of that we won't get the more fun DS1 style combat back ever again.

 

[Shek$il]

I have a hard time believing you even looked at youtube guides since most of them tell you to go for strength builds and the only people who aren't are the people who go fully naked styling on bossess with dual katanas due to how insanely skilled they are at the game, even though that's just a worse option.

Dual katana

Dual katana

Dual katana

Dual katanas are a staple of youtube guides and remain one of the most pushed builds to ever exist predating Elden Ring itself. FROM has always been known as Japanese weebs. Particularly, Rivers Of Blood and bleed builds still trivialize even the toughest, most poise-heavy bosses of ER.

 

[HodgePodgeRogerDodger]

I’m kind of upset they didn’t actually put in durability now that I remember the crystal captain kangaroos.

I actually liked how those niggers filtered katana users and long sword users. It was a neat way of simulating someone in big fuck off armor, but they only used it for that gimmick. I imagine that the system for that wouldn’t be hard to just tweak against say like a ice golem that with enough fire damage or blunt they break into chunks.

 

[Lizard Machine Bugs]

This comment sums it up perfectly:

Huge poison aoes actually, but honestly the duo fights in ER are ass and were obviously not designed to be fought together, both of the Godskins and the gargoyles are fine on their own but together they're cancer.

The problem with that the stance break is better done with a strength build because strength weapons do more poise damage but the game incentives the use of Dex builds because how strong and versatile dex is. Dex/Int for magic damage, Dex/Arcane for status build-up builds and Dex/Faith for incantation-centric builds. They are focusing on a way to beat the boss that is only really suitable to strength builds.

In truth, From is in an arms race against it's top players because they want to keep the reputation of making very hard games and the average player is the one that suffers because of it. It is because of that we won't get the more fun DS1 style combat back ever again.

Versatility is kind of a silly argument when strength builds can out tank and damage them, sure DEX is versatile but Strength has raw strength and can power through shit without having to change much, and honestly Radhan can be beaten with DEX just like Melania can be beaten by a strength build, even if it's not optimal. So 90% of all content can be beaten by either DEX of Strength focus except for outliers that favor one or the other.
But yeah, ER combat is messy and combines a lot of things from previous games, but that happens when From was aiming for versatility and then they crank the difficulty up showing the combat's weak points.

Dual katanas are a staple of youtube guides and remain one of the most pushed builds to ever exist predating Elden Ring itself. FROM has always been known as Japanese weebs. Particularly, Rivers Of Blood and bleed builds still trivialize even the toughest, most poise-heavy bosses of ER.

This is true, but them being really good doesn't negate the fact that strength god tanking is better in most situations, heck in the new DLC strength got two really good bleed weapons. They're straight forward and strong, only really weak against bosses like Melania who heal off of damage done, also if you search for them all the strength builds have a way easier time, even for bleed Blood Fiend's arm is probably better.
Also power stancing RoB is a late game NG+, of course it's cracked. Strength being shit is a meme when it's straightforward and strong, but in DS DEX was obviously more broken and in ER you can use most of what you want 90% of the time, just because DEX is the meme choice doesn't make it optimal.

 

[AntiSchwuletteAktion]

Change your build. Change your character. Respec to play the game. Follow what FROM wants you to do. This is the epitome of Role-Playing! To do what the company deemed the correct way to play. Get that DEX up, you're going to need that dual Rivers Of Blood to play the game correctly as Katanas are... freaking epic.

You suck bro, they even let you modify the scaling on almost any weapon in the game. If you're having a bad time and think it's because you leveled strength or int or faith or arcane you're wrong. You might be having a bad time because your vigor or endurance are too low, but if you can't find a fun and powerful build with any of the 5 damage attributes there's an IQ problem involved

 

[Lurkerish Kandor]

I imagine that the system for that wouldn’t be hard to just tweak against say like a ice golem that with enough fire damage or blunt they break into chunks.

It's a crime of game design that Crystalians were the ONLY enemy where FromSoft applied interesting shit to do with poisebreaking an enemy permanently fucking with them or changing how they work, especially since poisebreaking is a thing they seem to want you to lean super heavily into the whole game.

I remember when Elden Ring first released, people were bragging about how the game 'makes you not rely on a single style - some enemies punish dodging, some enemies punish not having a Blunt weapon, some require greatshields for 100% physical resist' etc etc.

Not only is that a bad idea because in a way it's saying no build is truly viable - and also the item to respec at Rennala is limited so you can't just infinitely respec to find out 'what you're supposed to use' against each serious enemy through experimentation - but also the crystal ayy lmaos and the stonediggers were the only times that I can think of that that idea is technically true, because fighting them without a Strike/Blunt weapon is a pain.

 

[Lizard Machine Bugs]

I remember when Elden Ring first released, people were bragging about how the game 'makes you not rely on a single style - some enemies punish dodging, some enemies punish not having a Blunt weapon, some require greatshields for 100% physical resist' etc etc.

Not only is that a bad idea because in a way it's saying no build is truly viable - and also the item to respec at Rennala is limited so you can't just infinitely respec to find out 'what you're supposed to use' against each serious enemy through experimentation - but also the crystal ayy lmaos and the stonediggers were the only times that I can think of that that idea is technically true, because fighting them without a Strike/Blunt weapon is a pain.

Those people sound like they're talking shit, basically any build can breeze through the game, sans-certain optional fights and the DLC, and while it's true some enemies punish certain things you're given plenty of tools to deal with them if you don't want to re-spec.
Although I agree there should be a way to get unlimited Larval Tears, even if I don't think you need one.
Even the Crystalians can have their damage resistances negated through staggering them once, the spear variant is very weak to parries as well, I'd say bleed builds have a hard time with them but Unseath and Bloodhound's Fang exist so that's clearly not the case, even sorcerers have rock fling and gavel.
The point being you have a lot of tools to deal with a situation and rarely do you even need a re-spec, rarely do fights have a 'right way' to win, and the only people who insist of such are the same type that think any other build than the most conventional strength builds is cheating of some sort, or buy fully into the difficulty memes.
Speaking from personal experience, I had a lot of trouble with the Godskin Apostle, but then i picked up a small shield and put Carian Retaliation on it and I beat it in three attempts, only hampered by it's bullshit aoe attack.

 

[LoTex]

I remember when Elden Ring first released, people were bragging about how the game 'makes you not rely on a single style - some enemies punish dodging, some enemies punish not having a Blunt weapon, some require greatshields for 100% physical resist' etc etc.

This goes against the very idea of RPG builds, yeah, you are suppose to roleplay a role/caracther changing your build ruins that. The respec mechanic is a bad idea to have because it allow devs to be complacent when designing enemies and bosses because you don't have to account for certain playstyles as well their viability against such enemies and allows for players to be complacent and unfocused in their leveling and build without proper punishment

 

[Lizard Machine Bugs]

This goes against the very idea of RPG builds, yeah, you are suppose to roleplay a role/caracther changing your build ruins that. The respec mechanic is a bad idea to have because it allow devs to be complacent when designing enemies and bosses because you don't have to account for certain playstyles as well their viability against such enemies and allows for players to be complacent and unfocused in their leveling and build without proper punishment

I don't understand where you're getting this notion that some bossess(excluding DLC Radahn) totally fuck you over if you have the wrong build.
My first playthrough all I did was spam Bloodhound's Fang and use a shield with Carian Retaliation to Parry some annoying spells with, literally the only time I had to respec was when i took that first character to the DLC and got to Radahn. Furthermore, every build is always going to have a weakness, and that's not a bad thing, most of the game's content you can just clear with whatever and come back with upgraded weapons and a higher level if you can't beat it immediately.

 

[LoTex]

I don't understand where you're getting this notion that some bossess(excluding DLC Radahn) totally fuck you over if you have the wrong build.
My first playthrough all I did was spam Bloodhound's Fang and use a shield with Carian Retaliation to Parry some annoying spells with, literally the only time I had to respec was when i took that first character to the DLC and got to Radahn. Furthermore, every build is always going to have a weakness, and that's not a bad thing, most of the game's content you can just clear with whatever and come back with upgraded weapons and a higher level if you can't beat it immediately.

Of the main game, only Malenia and the Dragons are a true bother for certain builds particularly if you are doing a slower build or shield centric build because how fast they move and how the dragons fly all the time but what I am talking about specifically is the DLC, not the main game. I have seen quite a few streamers having to respect because they hit a wall with a a dlc boss or another. It is quite clear from watching people play that you need a higher skill level to be able to make certain builds viable in the DLC.

 

[Gondolindrim]

In truth, From is in an arms race against it's top players because they want to keep the reputation of making very hard games and the average player is the one that suffers because of it. It is because of that we won't get the more fun DS1 style combat back ever again.

Reminds me of Destiny. Bungie is constantly upping the "difficulty" because the streamers (who are the only people they listen too now) are convinced they're playing a Souls game and everything needs to be hard. But they're idiots, so all they can do is make beefier enemies and more add in more convoluted raid mechanics.

 

[VeteranOfTheRetardWars]

I've juggled some stats on my bleed twinblade build to add in Dryleaf Arts and it just smokes everything. I'm lvl 200-something, it's NG+ let's go.
Just beating everything up is so much fun, probably the most enjoyable weapon in the DLC I've found so far. I'm just going Occult for now because that's what they build I minmaxed was, but I might play around with other builds.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Pardon me but, While I agree that the final fight should have been easier and that it feels bullshit with all the aoe spam and that not a lot of builds are viable for it, I don't get DEX whining.
Sure DEX has annoying options in PvP, but pure Strength, Vigor, and Endurance while not leveling anything else has always been one of the best ways to play any Souls game.
Defenses scale of off strength, Endurance gives you the equipment load for the best weapon type(colossal), and Vigor is more health. Even in Darksouls one of DEX's biggest strengths is that since enemies have such simple movesets and were so bad at punishing, you didn't need to tank shit when you could dodge roll or go naked and use one of the busted shields.
Heck all the easiest methods to deal with Radhan, before and after the recent patch, involve strength builds.

I disagree, bosses in the DLC sperg around so fucking much and do too much damage that slower builds has even less time to punish attacks and will likely lose half their health in the counterattack (and that's when they don't miss because of the camera). The only solution that people keep suggesting is using the 1% of ingame items that don't absolutely suck, which really shows how shit th balancing is.

 

[BlazikenLover]

I disagree, bosses in the DLC sperg around so fucking much and do too much damage that slower builds has even less time to punish attacks and will likely lose half their health in the counterattack (and that's when they don't miss because of the camera). The only solution that people keep suggesting is using the 1% of ingame items that don't absolutely suck, which really shows how shit th balancing is.

I don't get where people are coming from with STR being OP since I played the base game a few months back with a colossal build and some bosses were pure suffering because of how much they moved and how small their windows were, sure your big weapon will stance break the boss but good luck getting those hits in with such a slow weapon (which may or may not have good reach) without eating shit. At times I had to rely on spirit ashes to get targetted by the boss to even hit it without trading or waiting for the combo to end. This is also why i despise anyone who whines about spirit ashes being cheap or cheating since the game is very clearly balanced around them.

 

[YumeNoHero]

I disagree, bosses in the DLC sperg around so fucking much and do too much damage that slower builds has even less time to punish attacks and will likely lose half their health in the counterattack (and that's when they don't miss because of the camera). The only solution that people keep suggesting is using the 1% of ingame items that don't absolutely suck, which really shows how shit th balancing is.

That's the thing with most DLC bosses, they are just way too spastic with their movements, plus lock-on position and camera issue doesn't help at all to tell what the fuck they are going to do next. The reliable way to observe a boss' move is to bait one out then sprint away to observe what they do since the camera and lock-on is the most stable, but with how much jumping around they do and more frequent gap closing attacks, you are not going to learn much about those. This is why shield poking is the best tactic overall regardless of build in this DLC because you either can't see shit or they have 15 hits combo with different rhythm each hit that you can't reliably dodge all of them.

 

[LoTex]

That's the thing with most DLC bosses, they are just way too spastic with their movements, plus lock-on position and camera issue doesn't help at all to tell what the fuck they are going to do next. The reliable way to observe a boss' move is to bait one out then sprint away to observe what they do since the camera and lock-on is the most stable, but with how much jumping around they do and more frequent gap closing attacks, you are not going to learn much about those. This is why shield poking is the best tactic overall regardless of build in this DLC because you either can't see shit or they have 15 hits combo with different rhythm each hit that you can't reliably dodge all of them.

I mean tbf, Main Game and DLC items seem to favor an specific type of Strength build, the "wall" build. It can be absolutely broken in so far as damage reduction goes.

The problem is that it forces people play an specific type of build and to minimax, which is pretty disappointing for an RPG as you should be able to have a huge amount of ways to build a viable build

 

[Manimal House]

I got 160 hours out of Elden Ring. 100 for main game, 60 for DLC. Sixty-two and a half cents per hour, pretty good deal if you ask me.

I had more fun with the DLC than I did with the main game because it seems like everything was brought closer together and I was rewarded for exploring. In the main game, I found myself venturing off and getting pissed because the spoils were dogshit sometimes, felt like I wasted my time. This was much easier to wrap up, the only thing getting in my way of actual progression was being strong enough to actually beat the boss. Things got tedious to find once a lot of the map got covered, but by that point you're pretty much ready to kill the last boss anyways so I can't complain about that.

Solid 8 of a game, it was frustrating but not nearly as frustrating as Sekiro was. I have never gone back to that game after beating it because there's no way I'd have the patience to learn the timing for counters all over again.

 

[Lurkerish Kandor]

Speaking from personal experience, I had a lot of trouble with the Godskin Apostle, but then i picked up a small shield and put Carian Retaliation on it and I beat it in three attempts, only hampered by it's bullshit aoe attack.

Honestly never even occurred to me, because I haven't touched Parrying outside DS1+2. Might try it with this new modded character I'm rolling because I was considering doing a blue mage again.

you are suppose to roleplay a role/caracther changing your build ruins that.

I have to give Elden Ring credit - it's one of the only RPGs I've ever enjoyed so much that I've sunk 1000 hours into it and actually started roleplaying my characters, instead of just making them "basically myself but I use [type of weapon] this time" in every RPG I play. Finally having 'roleplaying' properly click for me made playing WH40K Rogue Trader way more fun for the 10-ish hours I put into it, and even better, the game rewarded me for accurate RP.
The most fun I've had with ER was with the characters I started making after the 5th: deciding what the "class" of the character should be by the end and then having an emergent character story come out of that. They don't have to explore every inch of the world, they can just go after the things they specifically would "care" about, and then mop up later as they get close to endgame. That's how I ended up using Blood and Frenzy spells with my most recent guy that finished the base game, and had a fucking blast using these new spells and weapons I hadn't touched before.

Which leads me to another criticism of the DLC, in that the Scat Fragments made me feel like there's almost a specific order you're supposed to explore in rather than explore freely. I know that's not literally true, I've seen people getting shitloads of frags without touching a boss, but that's it's own hyper-linear path through the game. And again, it means I can't do what my character would do, I need to game the fucking system.

without eating shit

I just have to appreciate this nomenclature - I'm currently making a Dark Souls II video, and in my 70 hours worth of notes, every death is written down as "ate shit to [x]".