Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree Expansion Announced

[robdood]

9 hours ago, Hawklord said:

 

 

Funny enough I done him tonight also. Found him a few days ago and he destroyed me, got the hang of him tonight though after about a dozen attempts. The platforming afterwards made me switch off in disgust lol.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

You do know there's another area down there after you beat him?

 

WHAT. 

 

Is there a clue to that I've missed?  Will go hunting. 

[Minion]

I wouldn't want to defeat the final boss with a glass cannon build, tanking damage was key to victory as even if you do really well in the first phase the 2nd phase has many attacks that are incredibly hard to dodge totally. I had 52 vigor, 40 end and I was using the +2 stamina increase talisman too so that I could roll/block/attack as much as possible.

[robdood]

10 hours ago, Jamie John said:

As such, I want to rinse it for all its worth first time through and get all the achievements,

This is such a weird way to play games, to me!  I'd much rather just experience it naturally.  Achievements are so arbitrary, man.  I don't even think I've looked at the list once. 

[Captain Kelsten]

5 minutes ago, robdood said:

WHAT. 

 

Is there a clue to that I've missed?  Will go hunting. 

Well you’ve missed an entire section so yes; I’d say you missed a clue

 

Spoiler

Give the altar behind him a whack 

 

[robdood]

1 minute ago, Doctor Shark said:

Well you’ve missed an entire section so yes; I’d say you missed a clue

 

  Hide contents

Give the altar behind him a whack 

 

No I mean, is there a clue for hitting the thing you've just mentioned?

 

 

[Anne Summers]

On 28/03/2022 at 20:43, Blunted said:

On the opposite end of the scale, I love the music in general.

 

I think the tension from the background drone stuff is perfect. The gentle flute stuff in the capital is superb too.

 

There are some really nice pieces of spot music, for example a violin/string piece that plays while you are dropping down the (spoilers for capital underground)

Spoiler

Well shaft with all the dead nomadic merchants, after the sewers boss fight

 

That I don't think you hear anywhere else. 

 

 

On 29/03/2022 at 09:37, K said:

I cant believe I didn't know that. What a doofus! I’ve played all of the previous Souls games with strength builds. 

Me too. Always just thought it buffed shield attack so never bothered until endgame situations where I had upgrade materials to burn. 

[Davros sock drawer]

No game is exempt from criticism but I’m seeing a lot of comments in here that I honestly think can be filed under “salt”.

 

The respec thing for example - how would you like it if you couldn’t respec?! Like in, you know - Dark Souls? You’d be stuck with your stats and you’d then have to either git gud (fuck that) or use any of the other plentiful ways the game offers help (online and offline summons, in particular).

 

It just seems to me that a few people are aggrieved that solutions are being offered, as if it’s designed so that you can’t finish the game without said help (meanwhile many folk are finishing the game just fine). What did you want, to be hopelessly stuck forever?! Surely the ability to respec is an optional blessing?

I’m a strength build so maybe that will change if I hit a serious roadblock but I haven’t felt the need to respec at all, other than that I’m very tempted by all the cool looking spells I can’t use.

[Ste Pickford]

A couple more journal pages. I've not even entered Stormveil yet, on paper.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Rayn]

Got to the final boss last night. I must admit I'm not a huge fan of the boss, especially the 2nd phase which is super annoying, it feels like a game of tag but the atomic snail just outruns me at all times. Got it down to about 20-25% on the best attempt so it's doable but there really isn't any room for many missteps in either phase as the slightest roll in the wrong direction can result in an instant wipe. 

 

I've noticed a lot of people on here complaining that it's too easy to get the platinum trophy but I'm going to assume some of these people have used guides? I've seen different endings mentioned but as I'm still playing blind I've got no clue wether I'm on the proper ending or an alternative one? I've assumed that I'd need to replay the game to get any other ending. 

[Majora]

I respecced so I could use the Sword of Night and Flame. If that weapon got nerfed in the patch I can't imagine what it was like before. The ashes are still silly powerful. On Mt Gelmir I was just sneaking up on groups of Knights and killing them all on one go with the fire attack.

 

I'm a bit mixed on what this respec has done in terms of my spell usage though. Before I was INT focussed but I've had to split my levels between faith and INT to wield this sword. In one way this is good since I can use both spells and incantations. On the other it's annoying since I am now juggling a sword, staff and seal and it's not always clear to me which spells require a staff and which ones a seal. 

 

The offensive incantations I have access to seem a little rubbish at this level. There is one where you use HP to summon thorns around you or something. But it's so short range and takes so long to cast I can't imagine any scenario in which it would be useful. You'd have to time it nearly perfectly. I also have access to about three different fire spells now but they all seem slower and less powerful than just using the fire attack on my sword.

 

Admittedly I never bought any incantations before since I focusing on INT and there are a ton of absolutely useless sorceries too. In fact that's probably one of my main complaints about spells in this game. Far too many of them are just outclassed in terms of speed/FP use/power by a pebble you practically start the game with.

[df0]

45 minutes ago, Davros sock drawer said:

The respec thing for example - how would you like it if you couldn’t respec?! Like in, you know - Dark Souls? You’d be stuck with your stats and you’d then have to either git gud (fuck that) or use any of the other plentiful ways the game offers help (online and offline summons, in particular).

 

It just seems to me that a few people are aggrieved that solutions are being offered, as if it’s designed so that you can’t finish the game without said help (meanwhile many folk are finishing the game just fine). What did you want, to be hopelessly stuck forever?! Surely the ability to respec is an optional blessing?

On the flip side, this comment to me comes across as written by an apologist. Especially when in combination with a quote such as "hopelessly stuck". Hear me out, how about the game was (better) balanced so you would not get stuck in the first place. Like Demon's and Dark 1 through 3 (include Bloodborne and Sekiro if you wish). Why offer a solution to a problem they themselves invented/created? And why praise it like it is something good?

[Alan Stock]

8 hours ago, Timmo said:

 

You need to up your vigor, at that point it should be at least 30.

 

Yeah I've deliberately been keeping it low. Everything one or two shots me and I've been enjoying the challenge. However it is starting to get a bit tiresome getting stuck for hours on even dungeon bosses so I might start pumping it. My damage output is the problem right now though.

[Qazimod]

12 hours ago, Nate Dogg III said:

Great Runes should be passives. You equip one, you get its bonus. None of this ‘use a consumable that is annoyingly expensive to buy and increasingly hard to get in co-op later on because apparently no one can reliably dodge Godfrey’s fire blast’ nonsense. 

It’s poison for the compulsive hoarder. “What, use a Rune Arc? What if I need it for something later?”

[Minion]

3 minutes ago, Alan Stock said:

 

Yeah I've deliberately been keeping it low. Everything one or two shots me and I've been enjoying the challenge. However it is starting to get a bit tiresome getting stuck for hours on even dungeon bosses so I might start pumping it. My damage output is the problem right now though.

 

Aside from the Vigor being too low which you know I think you;re stats are spread too thinly for the mid to late game. What are you're favourite weapons/style of play. It would be worth investing mostly in one stat with a secondary stat you can add to as you go, for example I did Dex and then added arcane, I had at least 40 dex by the time I got to the capital with my weapons infused to keen.

[Melon_Bread]

1 hour ago, robdood said:

This is such a weird way to play games, to me!  I'd much rather just experience it naturally.  Achievements are so arbitrary, man.  I don't even think I've looked at the list once. 

 

I hardly ever bother with Achievements but you might as well as this games trophies sort of happen organically, the only other Platinum I have is the PS5 Astro Bot. I wasn't going for the Plat but when I had a quick peak at the trophies and saw how close I was I just went for it. Did plenty of natural exploring as well.

[Davros sock drawer]

22 minutes ago, df0 said:

On the flip side, this comment to me comes across as written by an apologist. Especially when in combination with a quote such as "hopelessly stuck". Hear me out, how about the game was (better) balanced so you would not get stuck in the first place. Like Demon's and Dark 1 through 3 (include Bloodborne and Sekiro if you wish). Why offer a solution to a problem they themselves invented/created? And why praise it like it is something good?

Because in my opinion it is good. 
 

This is how they balanced the game. How would you have done it? There is no “Just right” for this bowl of porridge, surely? 
 

Edit: “The problem they created” - what, a vast open world in which you can pretty much tackle any enemy or boss in any order? A world which has kept most of us up until 2am every day since release because it’s so addictive, and in which even people who profess to not liking it (yeah right!) are on their third playthrough?
 

Fromsoft plz fix this problem you created!  

[Uzi]

I respeced for two reasons

 

1: To be ultra efficient with my specs which took away the upgrade anxiety earlier on when I found things like soreseals and found I overspecced in dex/str to use a certain weapon. My first 2-3 respecs were to get rid of "wasted levels"

 

2: After I had finished the game, I respeced because I wanted to try a faith build and doing it at end game before new game plus was the perfect time to do it since I had already gathered a lot of the incantations (not intentionally, just through exploring) boss souls for some weapons/spells/, weapons and most importantly infinite access to stones up to +9

 

I didn't feel a respec was necessary once for main game but if you had ignored vig you would have just been stuck farming instead. People didn't feel the pinch with lack of respec in Dark Souls 1 as much because you could just farm/cheese souls in places like the forest to spec yourself out as required if you were short on something and specs weren't as much of a barrier in that game as map and enemy knowledge were.

[df0]

They balanced it by giving you limited options (13 items IIRC) to respec unless you create back-up saves. That does not sound like balanced to me.

 

How I would have done it? I am not a game developer. I am however someone like many of us here very familiar with FROMs output over the year which is why I am so salty about his half-baked respec option. FROM has done better. Did I use the respec? 100%. I had base VIG and everything killed me in one hit. I am nowhere near good enough to dodge everything so I had to* respec.

 

Each to their own of course. I'm the last person to tell anybody else they are wrong or incorrect. I just like the conversation and the different opinions, no harm meant

 

* had to is not fair to use, because the game did not force me. There's evidence of players killing difficult bosses as a level 1 so hey... I suck.

[Davros sock drawer]

You had base vig?! 
 
I mean…that sounds like you almost wilfully made the game harder for yourself. No points in Vigor?! None?! 
 

No wonder you had to flippin’ respec! It was either that or farm millions of runes to put points into vigor late game 

 

Frankly I think you should praise the existence of Larval Tears! 

[Uncle Nasty]

Respec feels like such a betrayal to your character. All those adventures, those experiences, the highs and the lows you shared together. Does the bond, the loyalty, the suffering mean nothing to you? All of that just erased on a whim? I thought I'd heard it all when someone suggested murdering merchants, but this is worse. Some of you are cold.

 

 

[Ste Pickford]

Having base vig while knowing that you're not good enough to dodge everything seems like a perverse way to play a game like this.  But, if you've beaten Dark Souls and other FROM games in this way, then fair enough. It appears it's not really possible in Elden Ring, so they put in a workaround (respeccing) for people who've approached the game based on their experience in previous games, rather than based on the clues they're being given by this game during play.

Seems like a pretty reasonable / smart, user friendly feature.

[Uzi]

I think people are seeing all the tools available in the game and seeing them as some kind of "well the game was built around these so they're kind of necessary". I don't think so personally. In previous souls games everyone said summoning was easy mode and that was kind of it. Summon or just deal with the game and its tools as is.

 

Now you have the following which I felt were not necessary (because some I didn't touch) but definitely made the game easier

 

1 - The ability to craft a zillion types of items including offensive consumables for essentially "free" no rune cost by just running around the landscape as you usually would. 

2 - Bell summons and the ability to upgrade them meaning you are no longer reliant on the skills of other players. With the mimic tear it is basically the "create your own summon" mode with all the freedom they give you to overpower your mimic

3- Great runes essentially give you such a huge boost in some specs (one in the main area where people are struggling HP!) with plenty of rune arcs to use at them. I again felt this was not necessary because by end game I had 50ish unused and I am not good at the game. 

4 - Insane weapon arts which essentially give non casters the ability to have ranged and other spell effect type options with suitable damage to boot and other things like bleed/frost build up etc as viable effects 

 

That's just off the top of my head. If you took advantage of everything you could make the game significantly easier. If you hit a wall and then use one of the options or so to then get out of it, it might feel like "oh they didn't balance this well because I had to use it!". Not really, its like using summons in Dark Souls 1. You didn't need to but you could. But you can use about 5 different things now to do that same thing summoning did, its easily the most forgiving and open souls game which means you don't just need to roll and git gud. You do several other things than git gud! It's awesome! I killed malenia by hiding from her and setting up my mimic, I suck but I beat her!

[Uzi]

5 minutes ago, Uncle Nasty said:

Respec feels like such a betrayal to your character. All those adventures, those experiences, the highs and the lows you shared together. Does the bond, the loyalty, the suffering mean nothing to you? All of that just erased on a whim? I thought I'd heard it all when someone suggested murdering merchants, but this is worse. Some of you are cold.

 

 

That's harsh. I saw a friend on linkedin had a huge career change. I'll ask them this! 

[df0]

6 minutes ago, Davros sock drawer said:

You had base vig?! 
 
I mean…that sounds like you almost wilfully made the game harder for yourself. No points in Vigor?! None?! 
 

No wonder you had to flippin’ respec! It was either that or farm millions of runes to put points into vigor late game 

 

Frankly I think you should praise the existence of Larval Tears! 

Base for Astrologer is 9. So bloody low.

[Qazimod]

To follow up on @df0’s confession - I’m pretty sure I haven’t dropped a point into the FP stat (Mind?) I’ve been attempting this final boss gauntlet and trying out some of these weapon skills but juggling my flasks to compensate for how much of my FP bar gets used. And I have a feeling that certain Ashes are outright unavailable because my maximum FP is less than the requirement to summon.

 

So when I next start the game I’ll respec: probably take some points out of Vig/End/Str (all around 60 right now?) and see what I can do.

[Eighthours]

This may have been shared already as I don't follow this thread that regularly due to spoilers, but (spoilers for Stormveil Castle):

 

https://kotaku.com/damn-elden-ring-doesnt-even-let-you-die-in-peace-1848715641

Spoiler

When I finally did kill Godrick, Gostoc surprised me and came out, only to start stomping on the grafted madman’s head. A bit jealous watching this unfold, I lamented that the game doesn’t give you some bespoke “fuck you” moment after major wins, just for extra gratification. Ah well, good for him, I thought. Usually, this is the point where I start making my way back through a dungeon to clear out things that I missed, and double-check for secrets. Eventually, during my triple-check, it’s wiki time. With a game that hides as many secrets as Elden Ring, you can never be too careful.

I don’t quite know how I arrived at the page, but I looked up Gostoc’s page and sat in horror as I realized: It had been him. All along, this guy was scamming me. As the wiki explains, Gostoc steals from you every single time you die in the castle, apparently pocketing about 30% of the hard-won earnings you leave on the floor.

Actually, it’s even more messed up than that. Gostoc kinda goes out of his way to steal from you at least once by putting you in a dangerous situation. There’s a point, for example, where you get locked in a room in Stormveil Castle with a very tough knight. When you experience it, you think–oh, this is just typical Souls brutality. Bosses and mini-bosses find some way to trap you, usually behind fog, so this felt like the game pulling its usual tricks.

But fans have found evidence of Gostoc skulking suspiciously at various points in the castle, seemingly having teleported there from his initial starting point. While he’s not outright trailing behind you, the fact he’s there at all–and that he seems so shifty in the first place–gives the illusion that he’s been following you. So, the theory goes, perhaps Gostoc is the reason you got trapped in the first place? The Wiki claims you can hear his laugh, but I don’t quite recall if I heard that at the time. There’s certainly footage of him sneaking around, and if you go up to him during these moments, he seems weirdly guilty about something. That’s why he’ll offer you an item out of nowhere. He’s pocketing way more valuable stuff.

 

THE ACTUAL FUCK?! This game is the best of all time. No doubt.

[Alan Stock]

34 minutes ago, Minion said:

 

Aside from the Vigor being too low which you know I think you;re stats are spread too thinly for the mid to late game. What are you're favourite weapons/style of play. It would be worth investing mostly in one stat with a secondary stat you can add to as you go, for example I did Dex and then added arcane, I had at least 40 dex by the time I got to the capital with my weapons infused to keen.

 

Edit, here's my full character stats:

Spoiler

Vigour 18

Mind 22

Endurance 14

Strength 16

Dexterity 26

Intelligence 9

Faith 28

Arcane 17

 

Thanks, yeah I've got Dex at 26, Faith at 28 and Arcane at 17, and using weapons which compliment them. So here are the main weapons I'm using and their base scaling:

 

Winged Scythe +6  -  Str D, Dex D, Faith C (Holy)

Banished Knights Halberd +13  - Str D, Dex D

Treespear +14  -  Str D, Dex D, Faith D (Holy)

Bloody Helice +6  -  Str E, Dex D, Arcane C (Bleed)

Nightrider Flail +13 -  Str D, Dex C (Bleed)

Uchigitana +12  -  Str D, Dex C (Bleed)

 

I usually use the longer weapons for mounted/pokey combat, especially bosses. I'm not that arsed about proccing bleed on my bleed weapons, its just a bonus if I do, its more that bleed weapons tend to be focussed on dex and Arcane. Because of my low Vit and no shield I tend to only get a few hits into enemies now and then between all the dodging, so the harder hitting weapons are better (or getting in a charged attack for the small weapons).

 

In terms of playstyle I use a few buff incantations like regen spells and Golden Vow, but that's it for bosses. I mostly boosted my Arcane to get Dragon spells and a few weapons, but honestly I've barely used them. Maybe I should respec and pull points from Arcane. The problem with Faith and Dex is I want high of both to use my Winged Scythe and Treespear and also cast the odd miracle. Not sure, any suggestions? I don't really want to go full on bleed build as I find bleed to make things too easy if its proccing all the time

 

 

 

[df0]

3 minutes ago, Qazimod said:

To follow up on @df0’s confession - I’m pretty sure I haven’t dropped a point into the FP stat (Mind?) I’ve been attempting this final boss gauntlet and trying out some of these weapon skills but juggling my flasks to compensate for how much of my FP bar gets used. And I’m pretty sure that certain Ashes are outright unavailable because my maximum FP is less than the requirement to summon.

 

So when I next start the game I’ll respec: probably take some points out of Vig/End/Str (all around 60 right now?) and see what I can do.

I bet the best Ashes are unavailable to you. As far as I know, only Mimic uses VIG (HP), everything else is MND (FP).

[Ste Pickford]

5 minutes ago, Eighthours said:

This may have been shared already as I don't follow this thread that regularly due to spoilers, but (spoilers for Stormveil Castle):

 

https://kotaku.com/damn-elden-ring-doesnt-even-let-you-die-in-peace-1848715641

  Hide contents

When I finally did kill Godrick, Gostoc surprised me and came out, only to start stomping on the grafted madman’s head. A bit jealous watching this unfold, I lamented that the game doesn’t give you some bespoke “fuck you” moment after major wins, just for extra gratification. Ah well, good for him, I thought. Usually, this is the point where I start making my way back through a dungeon to clear out things that I missed, and double-check for secrets. Eventually, during my triple-check, it’s wiki time. With a game that hides as many secrets as Elden Ring, you can never be too careful.

I don’t quite know how I arrived at the page, but I looked up Gostoc’s page and sat in horror as I realized: It had been him. All along, this guy was scamming me. As the wiki explains, Gostoc steals from you every single time you die in the castle, apparently pocketing about 30% of the hard-won earnings you leave on the floor.

Actually, it’s even more messed up than that. Gostoc kinda goes out of his way to steal from you at least once by putting you in a dangerous situation. There’s a point, for example, where you get locked in a room in Stormveil Castle with a very tough knight. When you experience it, you think–oh, this is just typical Souls brutality. Bosses and mini-bosses find some way to trap you, usually behind fog, so this felt like the game pulling its usual tricks.

But fans have found evidence of Gostoc skulking suspiciously at various points in the castle, seemingly having teleported there from his initial starting point. While he’s not outright trailing behind you, the fact he’s there at all–and that he seems so shifty in the first place–gives the illusion that he’s been following you. So, the theory goes, perhaps Gostoc is the reason you got trapped in the first place? The Wiki claims you can hear his laugh, but I don’t quite recall if I heard that at the time. There’s certainly footage of him sneaking around, and if you go up to him during these moments, he seems weirdly guilty about something. That’s why he’ll offer you an item out of nowhere. He’s pocketing way more valuable stuff.

 

THE ACTUAL FUCK?! This game is the best of all time. No doubt.

 

I definitely heard a laugh when I got locked in the room, but didn't twig it was him.  I also met him skulking around as well.  This is definitely going in the journal...

[Minion]

1 minute ago, Alan Stock said:

 

Thanks, yeah I've got Dex at 26, Faith at 28 and Arcane at 17, and using weapons which compliment them. So here are the main weapons I'm using and their base scaling:

 

Winged Scythe +6  -  Str D, Dex D, Faith C (Holy)

Banished Knights Halberd +13  - Str D, Dex D

Treespear +14  -  Str D, Dex D, Faith D (Holy)

Bloody Helice +6  -  Str E, Dex D, Arcane C (Bleed)

Nightrider Flail +13 -  Str D, Dex C (Bleed)

Uchigitana +12  -  Str D, Dex C (Bleed)

 

I usually use the longer weapons for mounted/pokey combat, especially bosses. I'm not that arsed about proccing bleed on my bleed weapons, its just a bonus if I do, its more that bleed weapons tend to be focussed on dex and Arcane. Because of my low Vit and no shield I tend to only get a few hits into enemies now and then between all the dodging, so the harder hitting weapons are better (or getting in a charged attack for the small weapons).

 

In terms of playstyle I use a few buff incantations like regen spells and Golden Vow, but that's it for bosses. I mostly boosted my Arcane to get Dragon spells and a few weapons, but honestly I've barely used them. Maybe I should respec and pull points from Arcane. The problem with Faith and Dex is I want high of both to use my Winged Scythe and Treespear and also cast the odd miracle. Not sure, any suggestions? I don't really want to go full on bleed build as I find bleed to make things too easy if its proccing all the time

 

 

 

 

Yeah I would lose the points from arcane (you can add them back later if you want to use bleed, the final areas throw loads of runes at you) and put them into Dex and infuse that Uchi as keen with whatever weapon skill you prefer, the base Unsheath is immense it killed the last boss for me, you need to find the ash at agheel lake to infuse the Uchi to keen with it though, but you can use whatever skill you like but try the Uchi keen with higher dex and you should hopefully find that the tree sentinel goes down easier. For horse combat which I used to beat that twat I found the claymore really really good on horseback but the uchi will do and obviously use the relevant talisman to improve horseback attacks. I know some people have said they find the fight with the sentinel easier on foot but you can move so swiftly with the horse and also double jump that once you get over the janky hit and run and jump gameplay he shouldn't be much harder than one of those nights calvary. I hope that helps!