Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree Expansion Announced

[Number 28]

@df0

Spoiler

Before you reach the deadend with the invasion there's a ladder where the iron maidens are. It's as easy to spot as a smithing stone (8).

 

I'm over 100 hours in and I'd still appreciate a huge sign in the Roundtable Hold like this;

[Dark Soldier]

1 minute ago, Number 28 said:

@df0

  Hide contents

Before you reach the deadend with the invasion there's a ladder where the iron maidens are. It's as easy to spot as a smithing stone (8).

 

I'm over 100 hours in and I'd still appreciate a huge sign in the Roundtable Hold like this;

When you spawn in jump on table and run to the entrance opposite. That's the blacksmith. Its my technique anyway.

[spanx]

Oh dear. Five day break thanks to Covid and I’ve tried picking this up again and my mojo, or what there was of it, is gone

 

I think maybe I should get better before trying to play this again

[robdood]

RE Magma Wyrm, if the weaknesses in ER are the same as they always are in Souls games, Lightning/faith magic usually good against scaled enemies, as is Pierce damage type. 

[jonamok]

Gutted they nerfed Bloody Slash. Spent hours last night throwing myself at the golden Godfrey ghost boss in Lleyndal, and that was the only thing getting me close, even with+7 Wolves, and a +18 Claymore. Got him within one swing at one point. Also Hoarfrost got me past the Draconic Tree Sentinel, and was going to help me with Radahn I assume. Now they’re gone, I’ll just be cooping everything and sitting back doing fuck all. Yayyyy, GG From!!

[Dark Soldier]

Just now, jonamok said:

Gutted they nerfed Bloody Slash. Spent hours last night throwing myself at the golden Godfrey ghost boss in Lleyndal, and that was the only thing getting me close, even with+7 Wolves, and a +18 Claymore. Got him within one swing at one point. Also Hoarfrost got me past the Draconic Tree Sentinel, and was going to help me with Radahn I assume. Now they’re gone, I’ll just be cooping everything and sitting back doing fuck all. Yayyyy, GG From!!

Bloody Slash DMG isn't actually nerfed. According to test vids its seemingly slightly stronger. Its just like a 40% longer animation and its a touch more health from you each time.

[jonamok]

The windup was already about 5 seconds, and only viable with summons distracting him, so likely a lot less useful now anyway.

[spanx]

Do I need to beat…

 

Spoiler

Draconic Tree Sentinel to get in to the city

 

He seems like a massive cunt

 

[Vulgar Monkey]

My initial reaction to makar was to shit myself as I'd bumped into another magma wyrm early game and got my arse handed to me, so I was a bit 'oh fuck off another!? And this one has a NAME!'

Turns out hitting him a lot with my sword killed him fairly easily though. I found positioning was key, always going for sidehits around his hindquarters, then backing off as soon as he made his lava-trail dash, giving him space to run around and only going in where there was space to stand, if not waiting for him to come back around for another run.

 

In other news, Ghost Godfrey down. Fun little fight once I'd found all his tells. The main event following looks hard though, so I'm taking a side diversion to find the little underground bit I missed yesterday.

Spoiler

It's the part coming off the underground roadside behind the other set of doors. Also, I spotted an item from where you enter the area via ladder, near a manhole. Hitting it with a blue map marker tells me it is in fact the big golden drainage seal in the middle of the highstreet. Hmmmm.

 

Also, anything I need to know about stat soft-caps? Im at STR 54.

[kensei]

In fairness to From, any time they add new damage types the balance tends to be off. Lightening damage was notably broken in early Dark Souls patches along with several weapons and the Dark Wood Grain ring allow flipping in full Havel's Armour. It's really nothing new.

 

Was hoping I'd get another couple of weeks to get through the game though!

[therearerules]

1 hour ago, Alan Stock said:

I beat a boss I thought was an impassable roadblock last night, and I want to hear how you lot got on with it. On the way to the plateau.

 

  Hide contents

The Magma Wyrm guarding the top of the cliffside route next to the Great Lift. For reaching the Plateau I needed the other half of the pendant for the lift, but have only scratched the surface of Caelid - and that area seemed a bit too hard for my level/build so I followed advice from someone here and explored the tunnel route.

 

So got to the Wyrm and was able to summon 2 NPCs for it - the Blackguard and some big chunky guy with a giant hammer. Took them into the fight and used my Glinstone Sorcerer summon as well. I was only doing tiny amounts of damage to the boss (like around 138 dmg per hit) using my best weapons, and unfortunately I only have about 2 Strike weapons neither of which I can level up because of having no Smithing Stones +1.

 

The boss could one-shot me with any of phase 1 melee attacks, and most of the fire attacks would almost one-shot me. The worst was the spin he does which is poorly telegraphed and has a huge reach. So I kept dying in phase 1. My summons were quite survivable and doing decent damage but it took a long time, and they'd eventually die at around the bosses half HP. The fight is even more annoying because you have to wait each attempt to summon the NPCS and can only do so one at a time (why?!).

 

Getting fed up of dying I went off exploring and did a side area, but came back last night to try again. This time I tried out weapon spell buffs, with lightning making a slight improvement on my damage output but still neglibile. I finally noticed some of the tells for his melee attacks and was able to help out a tiny bit with damage in the windows where he was doing fire attacks or after his melee attacks before running away. Still, the summons were doing the huge bulk of the damage. With me now helping with attacks we were actually getting him to a stagger in phase 1 where he falls over for a critical hit. 

 

After many tries we got him down past half HP and into phase 2 where he pulls out his fire sword. Although his attacks are still very deadly, its actually less random and more predicatable than phase 1. The main problem here is that any summons still alive will die in a hit or two, leaving me with my puny damage and having to take all the aggro. The camera's also terrible here because you can hardly see his attack animations when you are up close unless you point the camera directly up.

 

Anyway, it took a few hours but I did eventually persevere, whittling away at his health bar in phase 2, though it was phase 1 where I died the most. I breathed a sigh of relief.

 

But what I'm curious about is how you folks got on with the Wyrm. For me, with my current stats/equipment, there's no way I could have managed phase 1 without all the NPC backup. It seems like its a fight designed for summons/co-op. Also my damage was so poor, but do Strike weapons fare a lot better? Has anyone here soloed the Wyrm and if so what kind of build/level were you? I am around level 48 now with very low Vit and End otherwise spread-out stats across the board. Did I maybe get past this boss too early and I should have explored Caelid and the dragonlands beyond first? I stopped after the Wyrm so I can always go back east now without seeing the plateau. Let me know!

 

Honestly, I was around level 60 when I beat him, and it was just me vs him dancing around until he died. Also just pumped points into END VIG and STR. I didn't realise that's where I was heading, and was actually trying to find a way to the ridge up in the middle of the lakes with the broken road, not realising you can literally walk up there from the lakes.

[Steven]

9 minutes ago, jonamok said:

Gutted they nerfed Bloody Slash. Spent hours last night throwing myself at the golden Godfrey ghost boss in Lleyndal, and that was the only thing getting me close, even with+7 Wolves, and a +18 Claymore. Got him within one swing at one point. Also Hoarfrost got me past the Draconic Tree Sentinel, and was going to help me with Radahn I assume. Now they’re gone, I’ll just be cooping everything and sitting back doing fuck all. Yayyyy, GG From!!

 

Can't you just cancel/pause the update when you switch on? I think I'll be doing that later on.

[therearerules]

Had an amazing time with this yesterday, yet another "quick play which turns into a past midnight session". First, Sage Cave in the Altus Plains

Spoiler

I helped a bunch of people out here with the boss, without having even met her myself. They all turned into the most random panicy sword waving encounters ever, every time only just killing her. Absolutely thought I was going to die, so made sure to run through with no souls (after running through opening all 20 chests in that cave). Only to get lost and face the other boss instead. I was so confused by this small man running up to me I almost died straight away, and the bastard hits hard, but in the end I crushed him for 0 runes! Then I found the actual boss, steeled myself, and entered. I'd souped up the dogs for this fight, ready to unleash them, but forgot to equip them, so released my 3 person army instead. And the first thing they did was throw a smoke bomb at her, making her visible for the entire fight. Absolute piece of piss after that, incredible scenes. Love that small army.

 

Then after a lot of prevarication, and an encounter with a perfumer, up the Altus Planes train graveyard to the rest of the level.

Spoiler

Bloody jumped a mile when the dragon landed. Then again when I went to kill the boatman and a giant skeleton appeared. Nice and easy those fights though. Saw the lady from the lakes who whisked me away to Volcano Manor.

Volcano Manor

Spoiler

It's Bloodborne! Really tempted to use that weapon even though I'm not really specced for it at all. Went through the passageway. Saw Patches the bastard (why did I believe his lie about the Iron Maiden in the Academy? Apparently I never learn. Then rode out the door past whatever that thing was for the map. And killed the zombie by the fire. Holy fuck. This game is full of jaw dropping moments, but this part of the game is fucking terrifying. Bloodborning again. Died, learnt my lesson, ignored him, and instead ran into the Erdtree Rot or whatever that thing was. Another amazing and terrifying boss. Killed it quite handily though (my 3 person army again). Kept on going killed another invader and noped out at the multiple iron maidens ahead.

Just a whole bunch of unique locations still, terrifying encounters and great play. Also I've discovered my greatshield is superb for NPC invasions, they can't seem to cope, instead always bouncing off for a guard counter.

[Alask]

After finding a new found respect for shields, upping my strength so I can equip a great shield is my new goal. I’ve got 3 at the moment but all beyond my meagre strength.

[Curtis]

42 minutes ago, Dark Soldier said:

When you spawn in jump on table and run to the entrance opposite. That's the blacksmith. Its my technique anyway.

I had to train my brain to remember "left of the fireplace".

[NexivRed]

2 hours ago, Alan Stock said:

I beat a boss I thought was an impassable roadblock last night, and I want to hear how you lot got on with it. On the way to the plateau.

 

  Hide contents

The Magma Wyrm guarding the top of the cliffside route next to the Great Lift. For reaching the Plateau I needed the other half of the pendant for the lift, but have only scratched the surface of Caelid - and that area seemed a bit too hard for my level/build so I followed advice from someone here and explored the tunnel route.

 

So got to the Wyrm and was able to summon 2 NPCs for it - the Blackguard and some big chunky guy with a giant hammer. Took them into the fight and used my Glinstone Sorcerer summon as well. I was only doing tiny amounts of damage to the boss (like around 138 dmg per hit) using my best weapons, and unfortunately I only have about 2 Strike weapons neither of which I can level up because of having no Smithing Stones +1.

 

The boss could one-shot me with any of phase 1 melee attacks, and most of the fire attacks would almost one-shot me. The worst was the spin he does which is poorly telegraphed and has a huge reach. So I kept dying in phase 1. My summons were quite survivable and doing decent damage but it took a long time, and they'd eventually die at around the bosses half HP. The fight is even more annoying because you have to wait each attempt to summon the NPCS and can only do so one at a time (why?!).

 

Getting fed up of dying I went off exploring and did a side area, but came back last night to try again. This time I tried out weapon spell buffs, with lightning making a slight improvement on my damage output but still neglibile. I finally noticed some of the tells for his melee attacks and was able to help out a tiny bit with damage in the windows where he was doing fire attacks or after his melee attacks before running away. Still, the summons were doing the huge bulk of the damage. With me now helping with attacks we were actually getting him to a stagger in phase 1 where he falls over for a critical hit. 

 

After many tries we got him down past half HP and into phase 2 where he pulls out his fire sword. Although his attacks are still very deadly, its actually less random and more predicatable than phase 1. The main problem here is that any summons still alive will die in a hit or two, leaving me with my puny damage and having to take all the aggro. The camera's also terrible here because you can hardly see his attack animations when you are up close unless you point the camera directly up.

 

Anyway, it took a few hours but I did eventually persevere, whittling away at his health bar in phase 2, though it was phase 1 where I died the most. I breathed a sigh of relief.

 

But what I'm curious about is how you folks got on with the Wyrm. For me, with my current stats/equipment, there's no way I could have managed phase 1 without all the NPC backup. It seems like its a fight designed for summons/co-op. Also my damage was so poor, but do Strike weapons fare a lot better? Has anyone here soloed the Wyrm and if so what kind of build/level were you? I am around level 48 now with very low Vit and End otherwise spread-out stats across the board. Did I maybe get past this boss too early and I should have explored Caelid and the dragonlands beyond first? I stopped after the Wyrm so I can always go back east now without seeing the plateau. Let me know!

 

 

1 hour ago, Kryptonian said:

@NexivRed

 

What was your situation? I had one go around lvl 50 or so I think and died horribly

 

I was around level 60 and got him in the second go with my melee/no shield. So I think you were doing it fairly underlevelled. The area you get to is not for the 40s or 50s I’d say. Good job!

[Cosmic_Guru]

@Alan Stock

 

I found this boss relatively easy, even did it solo, because the area is large and there is a very helpful pillar.  Another unnamed specimen of this species is causing me much more grief.

 

Discovered Volcano Manor!

[joemul]

4 hours ago, Sun Tze said:

Can you give me a hint regarding the thiefs location (north, south of the telescope)? I spent ages going round in circles in the area but only encountered a boss fight (which looked to be an unrelated night time event i stumbled into). 

Spoiler

North north west. Look in the telescope and you’ll see a single run down shack on its own. 

 

[kensei]

I feel the servant girl warping me directly to Volcano Manor misled me somewhat as to their manifesto, which is much clearer if you take the trek up the mountain. 

[Benny]

Whoever is responsible for Auriza Hero's Grave should be in prison.

 

In an iron maiden.

 

At the bottom of a volcano.

[robdood]

I really don't get the complaints about bloody slash and hoarsfrost nerfs, they still seem just as good to me! Makes sense that you actually lose a noticeable chunk of damage for bloody slash, the animation speed doesn't feel too different to me, anyway! Still twatting things through Caelid as hard as I was yesterday! 

 

Performance definitely feels better on my old pc since the patch, really smooth! 

[Number 28]

Yeah, I've been using mimic and hoarfrost today and they seem as powerful as ever. Maybe I've just been up against enemies that stagger super easy. Someone said the mimic mostly sticks to melée now, but mine was spamming hoarfrost and various spells like crazy.

 

I find it strange that they didn't remove the farming exploit with the bird enemy because it trivialises all further rune collection.

 

I'm at the point where you can 'do a thing' in the north, but I'm not sure I want to because

Spoiler

apparently it prevents you completing NPC quests? I've only managed to finish two quests, Ranni and Boc, and I fucked up Boc and he died. I'm not sure I can even do any other quests. I'd quite like to get the required items for Dung Eater, but I think one item is gone/locked off now so I can't do it. Sucks.

 

[kempstar]

1 hour ago, spanx said:

Do I need to beat…

 

  Hide contents

Draconic Tree Sentinel to get in to the city

 

He seems like a massive cunt

 

Yes.

 

I found him not too bad in the end. I fought him on foot.

[Ry]

I still can't beat this boss with these stats. I have a maxed out greatsword , Heavy Giants Crusher and the big Red axe which are the 3 most powerful strength weapons. 

 

 

 

I beat the other optional boss which is supposedly the hardest boss in the game. 

Spoiler

Melania

 

At my wit's end here lol

[Vulgar Monkey]

So I found the missing bit from my last post. As usual, it turned out to be one intersection I'd missed, which then led on to a whole other section, with a boss at the end. This game, jesus.

[MikeF]

Ploughing through the game on PS4 and just started NG+ on PS5, after updating my Bleed build now that arcane is properly working

[MikeF]

15 minutes ago, Ry said:

I still can't beat this boss with these stats. I have a maxed out greatsword , Heavy Giants Crusher and the big Red axe which are the 3 most powerful strength weapons. 

 

I beat the other optional boss which is supposedly the hardest boss in the game. 

  Reveal hidden contents

Melania

 

At my wit's end here lol

 

Try using Mimc Ash, hug its right or left hand side and there is a chance that the AI will break and keep the boss from moving or attacking, cheap way to do it but needs must

 

I've seen the AI break plenty of times using this method so worth a shot if you want to finish the game

[Ry]

23 minutes ago, MikeF said:

 

Try using Mimc Ash, hug its right or left hand side and there is a chance that the AI will break and keep the boss from moving or attacking, cheap way to do it but needs must

 

I've seen the AI break plenty of times using this method so worth a shot if you want to finish the game

 

Yeah tried that a few times. Never worked for me. Have my mimic fully upgraded but the boss just fucks off to the other side of the arena. Then it feels like about 5 mins to get close again for a hit. 

 

 

 

[MikeF]

4 minutes ago, Ry said:

 

Yeah tried that a few times. Never worked for me. Have my mimic fully upgraded but the boss just fucks off to the other side of the arena. Then it feels like about 5 mins to get close again for a hit. 

 

 

 

 

Respec?

 

Sorcery can nuke boss's

[5R7]

48 minutes ago, Ry said:

I still can't beat this boss with these stats. I have a maxed out greatsword , Heavy Giants Crusher and the big Red axe which are the 3 most powerful strength weapons. 

 

I beat the other optional boss which is supposedly the hardest boss in the game. 

  Reveal hidden contents

Melania

 

At my wit's end here lol

post your character stats