Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree Expansion Announced

[Hexx]

It becomes unobtainable at a certain point 😛

[kensei]

They nerfed Barricade Shield too. From, never change.

 

They could do with tweaking the Colossal Swords a bit. They are all about stunlock, poise break and maximising your chances but they are exceedingly slow in this compar d to some very fast enemies. That leads to situations where you've read the move correctly but your response or even guard counter is too slow to hit before the enemy starts a new attack. Not another hit in a combo, a whole new attack string.

 

Plus there is a bunch where your attack neither breaks poise nor has enough poise to tank the hit and trade. To be comparable to say DS, they need sped up a hair or have a touch more poise.

 

Maybe they assume you'll rely on ashes to distract, which is certainly what I'm doing.

[Number 28]

Added new quest phases for...Gatekeeper Gostoc? Ah...

 

There was a bug after the boss in the north?

Spoiler

I beat the fire giant and wandered to a site of grace on the rim of a giant cauldron then turned back...was something supposed to happen?

 

[Majora]

Wait, they've added NPC icons to the map? That's pretty funny considering everyone was banging on about how amazing it was you had to make notes in a pad to remember where any of them were.

[PeteJ]

32 minutes ago, Ste Pickford said:

Had one of those disappointing sessions last night where I didn't feel I'd made any progress.  Killed two mini-bosses and pottered around the lakes a bit but didn't get anything proper done.  The best bit though was a message popped up saying someone in the password group had 'become a lord'.  I presume that means they completed the game?  Well, if that was you, last night, on PS5 'rllmuk' group, then I cheered for you!

I'm finding my sessions this week all like this, and I'm also exploring the Lakes (though I've not been there long). I am achieving things but it's a lot less satisfying than what came before. 

 

Something about the Lakes area I'm finding rather uninteresting, and my journey feels like it's suddenly lacking focus. Ok I can see that massive castle-lile structure but I'm trying to do other things first. Maybe that's my mistake. 

 

Maybe ER fatigue? I've played it every day for around an hour since release, more than any game in the past 5 years. Or maybe the Lakes area just isn't as interesting.  Or maybe both. 

[kensei]

They also reduced smithing stone cost and drop rate.

 

Anyways current death ratio

 

1% ran out of estus and took a hit

3% one shotted

8% tried to heal and took a hit

8% Crucible Knight

87% rolled, jumped, slipped turning my horse or otherwise went off a cliff.

[Girth Certificate]

gah, proper classic Dark Souls 'stupid prick you got greedy' death against the gargoyles. You hate to see it.

[JPL]

I’m not even far enough in to have tested out any of things they’ve nerfed, but I was looking forward to cheesing my way through the bosses. Ah well.

[Hawklord]

Nooooooooooo. They've nerfed my toys!!!!!

 

LOL, it was getting ridiculously easy in some places. I'm sure I'll cope

 

 

[Anne Summers]

2 hours ago, Triple A said:

Ha the way I wrote that was a bit baity!

There’s a fort to the northwest of the manor, with a quite a lot to do pre and post getting there.

You may have done it already if you know where I’m talking about now, but let me know if not and I’ll include directions how to get there as a spoiler.

Sure, please send directions ! Think I have seen it on the map but not headed that way yet. 

[Hexx]

12 minutes ago, Majora said:

Wait, they've added NPC icons to the map? That's pretty funny considering everyone was banging on about how amazing it was you had to make notes in a pad to remember where any of them were.

 

They might as well have not - they're tiny

[Hexx]

14 minutes ago, Number 28 said:

Added new quest phases for...Gatekeeper Gostoc? Ah...

 

There was a bug after the boss in the north?

  Hide contents

I beat the fire giant and wandered to a site of grace on the rim of a giant cauldron then turned back...was something supposed to happen?

 

 

Spoiler

Um...if you rest there you should have an option to talk to Melania or similar.

It happens a lot of places where she has lore related stuff to say

 

 

[K]

12 minutes ago, Majora said:

Wait, they've added NPC icons to the map? That's pretty funny considering everyone was banging on about how amazing it was you had to make notes in a pad to remember where any of them were.

 

They haven't done a Ubisoft and added NPCs to the map as icons, I think they've just added a new kind of map marker that you have to manually place yourself - i.e. one that is explicitly for NPCs.

[kensei]

Well, time to dual weld Colossal Swords

 

[Anne Summers]

5 hours ago, Moz said:

They’ve just nerfed it in a new patch. It was definitely broken!

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Notice of Update Distribution

We are distributing an update to improve the stability of gameplay and to adjust balance.
We apologize for the inconvenience, but please apply the latest update before you enjoy the game.

Targeted platforms:

PlayStation 4

PlayStation 5

Xbox One

Xbox Series X|S

Steam

Major Changes Included in the Latest Update

Additional Elements Added

Added a function to record an icon and the name of an NPC on the map when you encounter that NPC.

Added NPC Jar-Bairn.

Added new quest phases for the following NPCs: Diallos/ Nepheli Loux/ Kenneth Haight/ Gatekeeper Gostoc.

Added some summonable NPCs in multiple situations.

Increased the number of patterns of objects player can imitate when using Mimic’s Veil.

Added night background music for some open field area.

Bug Fixed

Fixed a bug that prevented summoned NPCs from taking damage in some boss battles.

Fixed a bug that sometime prevented the player from obtaining item after boss battle.

Fixed a bug that causes dialogue to be skipped when talking to NPCs and using custom key configurations.

Fixed a bug that causes the player to freeze when riding.

Fixed a bug that causes arcane to scale incorrectly for some weapons.

In situation where the player cannot obtain more than 2 talisman pouches, added talisman pouch to Twin Maiden Husks shop line up.

Fixed a bug that prevented the user from warping to sites of grace from the map at the end of the game.

Fixed a bug that prevented the player from moving to the next area after the battle with the Fire Giant.

Fixed a bug which causes some weapons to have incorrect scaling after strengthening.

Fixed a bug which causes some weapons to not use stat scaling.

Fixed hang-ups in certain occasions.

Fixed a bug which incorrectly displays multiplayer area boundary when playing online.

Fixed a bug that allows player to activate Erdtree Greatshield’s weapon skill without absorbing an attack using a special combination of item and incantation.

Fixed a bug which causes Fire’s Deadly Sin incantation to have different effect.

Fixed a bug with the Ash of War, Determination and Royal Knight's Resolve, where the damage buff will also apply to other weapons without that skill.

Adjusted the visual effect of Unseen Form spell.

Deleted the Ragged armor set from the game which was mistakenly obtainable in previous patch.

Fixed a bug that causes some hostile NPCs to drop Furlcalling Finger Remedy.

Fixed a bug that causes incorrect sound effect to play in some situations.

Fixed a bug which causes visual animation and hitboxes to not be displayed correctly on some maps.

Fixed bugs which causes incorrect visual and behavior for some enemies.

Fixed a bug that causes incorrect stat parameter for some armor.

Text fixes.

Other performance improvement and bug fixes.

Balance Changes

Increased the drop rate of Smithing Stone for some enemies.

Added Smithing Stone to some early game shop line up.

Increased shield’s effectiveness.

Increased the damage for all offensive cracked pot items.

Increased the damage for the following items: Spark Aromatic/Poison Spraymist.

Increased the effect duration for the following items: Uplifting Aromatic/ Ironjar Aromatic.

Increased HP healing for Torrent when using the following items: Rowa Raisin/ Sweet Raisin/ Frozen Raisin

Reduced FP consumption and increased the damage of the following sorceries: Glintstone Cometshard/ Comet/ Night Comet

Increased the damage of the following sorceries: Gravity Well/ Collapsing Stars/ Crystal Barrage

Decreased FP consumption of the following sorceries: Star Shower/ Rock Blaster/ Gavel of Haima/ Founding Rain of Stars/ Stars of Ruin/Greatblade Phalanx/Magic Downpour/ Loretta’s Greatbow/ Loretta’s Mastery/ Carian Greatsword/ Carian Piercer/ Shard Spiral

Raised projectile speed and range of Great Glintstone Shard

Decreased Ash of War, Hoarfrost Stomp's damage and increase cast time.

Increased Ash of War, Bloody Slash's self-inflict damage while slightly lowering the damage and increasing the cast time.

Decreased weapon skill, Sword of Night and Flame’s damage.

Increased FP consumption and lower duration of Ash of War, Barricade Shield.

Changed FP consumption timing of Ash of War, Prelate’s Charge.

Decreased the damage of spirit summoned when using the item Mimic Tear Ash and changed the spirit’s behavior pattern.

Other enemy and weapon balance changes

The version number of this update shown at the lower right corner of the Title Screen will be as follows:

App Ver. 1.03

Regulation Ver. 1.03.1

Online play requires the player to apply this update.

We will continue to provide improvement update in the future so you can enjoy "ELDEN RING" more comfortably. Please stay tune for more news

 

That is a fat list of changes. I don't remember From being anything like as pro-active as this in the old days - eg the glitch that let you very easily duplicate items and effectively get infinite souls was never fixed in DS1, as far as I know! (was certainly there 5+ years after the game was released, and pretty sure it was carried over into the remaster as well!)

 

New NPCs and quests in a patch less than a month after release is certainly unheard of, right?  Adding NPC names to the map is distinctly un-Fromlike, but I guess they have acknowledged they are going to be a bit more lenient with the QOL stuff in this game compared to DS. Having a map in the first place is a pretty big QOL jump I guess. 

 

Slightly gutted about Hoarfrost Stomp as, even though I haven't managed to kill Radagahn (or whatever he's called) with it yet, I was getting far closer than I ever managed without it. Perhaps will stay offline till I've given this another go. Without it I can barely scratch him so far. On the other hand the nerf did need doing as it has made a number of other mini-bosses far too trivial even for me, a pretty unskilled player. The last two bosses in the capital

Spoiler

(which includes a Big Boss who drops a great shard)

were a pushover, for example. 

 

 

[jonny_rat]

10 minutes ago, K said:

 

They haven't done a Ubisoft and added NPCs to the map as icons, I think they've just added a new kind of map marker that you have to manually place yourself - i.e. one that is explicitly for NPCs.

 

It looks like a bit more than that - you also get the NPC name, and I'm not sure how you would go about adding that manually. Also 'doing a ubisoft' is exactly how I expect to see The Discourse turn out today.

[Curtis]

Fantastic patch/update with fixes and nerfs in all the right places.

 

Now i can finally try out an Arcane build. 

[Majora]

10 minutes ago, K said:

 

They haven't done a Ubisoft and added NPCs to the map as icons, I think they've just added a new kind of map marker that you have to manually place yourself - i.e. one that is explicitly for NPCs.

 

Nah, I I've booted it up to check. Any NPC I've previously met is now marked on the map. It even gives you their name and tells you if they're a merchant or not. The luxury. Loads I've forgotten about or didn't use a marker for.

 

Well actually there's a couple I did mark with markers that From don't seem to have marked so I'm not sure if it's because I've ballsed up the questline and they've disappeared or if there's still some they won't mark. Eg near Caelid

 

Spoiler

I've left that giant friendly jar stuck in some mines and he hasn't been marked on the map.

 

[Number 28]

18 minutes ago, Hexx said:

 

  Hide contents

Um...if you rest there you should have an option to talk to Melania or similar.

It happens a lot of places where she has lore related stuff to say

 

 

Ah right, I'll try it later thanks.

 

I thought that part of the Ranni quest was a bit silly tbh, where you have to

Spoiler

pick 'talk to Ranni' at a particular site of grace. I had rested there previously and not even noticed the option.

There's definitely been some bugs (or maybe sloppiness) with speech options in my game as well. A list of multiple choices would appear that seemed utterly random and once I had the same option twice. I think that was talking to Iji.

 

Do speedrunners generally forgo all updates and stick with the first release?

[Strafe]

Quote

Mimic tear

 

[Uncle Nasty]

None of the nerfs particularly affect my current build, but it seems unfair to anyone who invested in upgrades to have their gear downgraded. There must be a less punitive way of adjusting the balance without ruining people's characters. Having your main weapons and items downgraded is a real downer. I feel bad for anyone waking up to that today.

[K]

2 minutes ago, Majora said:

 

Nah, I I've booted it up to check. Any NPC I've previously met is now marked on the map. It even gives you their name and tells you if they're a merchant or not. The luxury. Loads I've forgotten about or didn't use a marker for.

 

Well actually there's a couple I did mark with markers that From don't seem to have marked so I'm not sure if it's because I've ballsed up the questline and they've disappeared or if there's still some they won't mark. Eg near Caelid

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I've left that giant friendly jar stuck in some mines and he hasn't been marked on the map.

 

 

Oh wow, I didn't expect that. The Eurogamer article made it sound like they'd just added a new map marker. It's not very From, but I'm interested to see how many NPCs I've forgotten about already.

[kensei]

1 minute ago, Strafe said:

 

 

They've nerfed damage output but he's apparently still a tank and will still spam equipped items. Survivability is probably the most important thing for a summon for me. 

 

Probably moves it to be being more in line with other Ashes. The biggest advantage for a Melee build is that it uses health rather than FP, unlike other strong summons.

[K]

7 minutes ago, jonny_rat said:

 

It looks like a bit more than that - you also get the NPC name, and I'm not sure how you would go about adding that manually. Also 'doing a ubisoft' is exactly how I expect to see The Discourse turn out today.

 

*smashes home-made Godrick cosplay outfit to pieces in a fit of rage*

[Davros sock drawer]

40 minutes ago, PeteJ said:

I'm finding my sessions this week all like this, and I'm also exploring the Lakes (though I've not been there long). I am achieving things but it's a lot less satisfying than what came before. 

 

Something about the Lakes area I'm finding rather uninteresting, and my journey feels like it's suddenly lacking focus. Ok I can see that massive castle-lile structure but I'm trying to do other things first. Maybe that's my mistake. 

 

Maybe ER fatigue? I've played it every day for around an hour since release, more than any game in the past 5 years. Or maybe the Lakes area just isn't as interesting.  Or maybe both. 

 

The lakes is my favourite area so far! It's just so rich and huge and scary and misty and full of lobsters and...oh I love it so much. Still so much to do in that area.

 

Contrary to this post and @Ste Pickford's above I had a really nice, almost relaxing session last night where I feel like I just trundled about in the world, but I also found things I'd missed (an encampment in Limgrave with a weapon in a chest for example) and generally made modest progression. Beat a boss in a cave which gave me my first Bell Bearing and also found lots of the Smithing Stones I needed en route. My Zwei is now at +12. I also downed a walking Mausoleum by different means to the ones I'd seen before, and did some more NPC stuff, which is now available to me again after my visit to the church of vows. Fell out with a big Clergyman, and then made friends again after I made him see my point. Glad that got straightened out. Then finally hit a wall with a pair of bosses that hit incredibly hard and I wasn't up for that, so I stopped. At 1am. Having started at 8pm. Again.

 

I do think you can have sessions like the ones described above though. Take a break is my rather patronising and un-needed advice. I'm taking my time with this game, it'll be over too soon and you can never discover it again.

[Hexx]

Well that's all the Legendary stuff for Trophies mopped up.

Already had a lot of them or the rest were in locations I'd marked to go back to. Nothing hidden particularly out the way.

 

Which makes the fact 1 of them (out of about 30) can be missed forever with no warning. Between that and needing a trophy from 3 play throughs (unless you save shenannaggin, which I didn't so at least 2 play throughs) a couple of the trophies feel really out of kilter with the rest.

[Ste Pickford]

Will these new NPC map markers show you where NPCS have moved to, when they seem to randomly disappear?  That feels like it's taking away a bit of the mystery of the games if they do.

[Davros sock drawer]

29 minutes ago, kensei said:

Well, time to dual weld Colossal Swords

 

 

This...was a 100% physical def shield before right? Hence my using it!

 

[danbot]

I've just been enjoying rinsing Fort Faroth with my collection of Ash buddies.

My two militia men are my get things done back up. But the others offer fun (if not entirely reliable) new ways to take those runes. 

[Girth Certificate]

If they do there will be a lot of turning up at a marker only to find a corpse