Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree Expansion Announced

[Qazimod]

Intro: “ooh, 2000 runes now; better be careful”

 

Final boss prep: “well I was only carrying 37k; I can barely level up once with that.”

[Davros sock drawer]

I’m not at the final boss yet*, but it costs me over 120k to level up now! 
 

* Possibly will be today 

[robdood]

10 hours ago, Doctor Shark said:

"guess I'll roll one more time and die" more like! 

[Girth Certificate]

I hate those fuckers who tease and delay attacks to get you to dodge early. its mean

 

Is there anyway to tell if you've been summoned into a NG+(++). Godfrey was comically tough in some games yesterday. 

[Broker]

56 minutes ago, Davros sock drawer said:

I’m not at the final boss yet*, but it costs me over 120k to level up now! 
 

* Possibly will be today 

I think I’m at 210k per level on my current character and still not quite at the end. There’s just so many things I want to level. I need 50 VIG because I’ve got no shield. More stamina never hurts, especially when I’m rolling more, better take that to 40. I need dex and arcane for a katana build with bleed affinity, took them both to 50. Need 20 strength for a weapon, and 18 int. im eyeing up mind now because that’s still at base level and I could do with being able to use corpse piler more than twice. 

[robdood]

3 minutes ago, Broker said:

im eyeing up mind now because that’s still at base level and I could do with being able to use corpse piler more than twice. 

There's that talisman that reduces skill FP use which makes a massive difference for things like Corpse Plier. 

[Captain Kelsten]

51 minutes ago, Girth Certificate said:

I hate those fuckers who tease and delay attacks to get you to dodge early. its mean

 

Is there anyway to tell if you've been summoned into a NG+(++). Godfrey was comically tough in some games yesterday. 

You can only be summoned within a certain level range when playing with randoms, and it will squish your stats, level and even estus flasks to be more aligned so you can’t just stomp stuff. 

[John0]

15 hours ago, Mike S said:

This is how I’m playing the game and it is a lot of fun, albeit sometimes very hard work.  But overcoming is a huge reward.

 

That said I do sometimes use the Jellyfish on overworld enemies that I have beaten many times just to hurry things on.

 

Honestly it's not really a super strict rule for me. I've summoned them for bosses where I'm outnumbered, or just bosses that I don't really enjoy or have annoying runs to. I'd have used them more in the overworld as well like you said but I keep forgetting .

Summons can turn it into a bit of a free for all where (and I realise this may sound ridiculous but) it feels unfair on the boss! I really, really hate fighting outnumbered in these games. I hated the Bell Gargoyles. I hated the Abyss Watchers. I hated the Shadows of Yharnam. So it's nice to now have the option to even the numbers a bit whilst being able to control the power, type and style of help I get.

But subjecting all of these lone bosses to a type of fight I hate so much seems a step too far a lot of the time! I think it changes the fight too much into something that I don't feel is particularly satisfying or fulfilling for me. The way I like to play is very defensive and trying to avoid everything and kind of whittling the boss down bit by bit. But with summons it often comes down to just overwhelming the boss with 2x the attack power. Or hitting them from behind when they're preoccupied.

 

I reached a late game boss Maliketh last night and I tried summoning in the second phase on my first attempt, and it was down to about 10% HP when I died - and this was without knowing *anything* about his moveset or what he does and basically just fighting completely blind. Didn't feel particularly good (though I may just go for it because of mild late-game tough boss fatigue).

I'd have loved to see more support summons that don't really do any damage in this game, like the Jellyfish. Maybe even one that just buffs you so you do extra damage, or take less damage throughout the fight without aggroing at all. But the Jellyfish and the Healer lady seem like the only options on that front. Whereas there's like 20-30 different offensive summons.

[Ste Pickford]

9 minutes ago, John0 said:

I'd have loved to see more support summons that don't really do any damage in this game, like the Jellyfish. Maybe even one that just buffs you so you do extra damage, or take less damage throughout the fight without aggroing at all. But the Jellyfish and the Healer lady seem like the only options on that front. Whereas there's like 20-30 different offensive summons.

 

The shield boys are pretty good and not that offensive, although they are essentially distracting the boss so you can attack him from behind rather than leaving you in a one-on-one fight.

[Davros sock drawer]

1 hour ago, Broker said:

I could do with being able to use corpse piler more than twice. 

 

It's very addictive. I've allocated some flasks to FP so I can spam it even more, but there's a Tear for the Mixed Physick that removes FP cost now I think of it.

 

 

[Benny]

I've tried using that tear and it seems to just not work? Unless it's only for skills not spells.

 

Edit: ah it's 15 seconds duration, that explains it.

[K]

I got to Altus Plateau and the capital outskirts the other night, and the sheer size of the area is a bit overwhelming. You really have to shift gears with Elden Ring, as with previous Souls games, you had to fight for every inch of progress, whereas in this the normal process for entering a new area is to bomb around it on your horse for ages, usually finding 2 - 3 grace points, catacombs, and ruined churches, and sometimes finding another massive area. It almost feels like cheating, because you can go anywhere with little in the way of friction.

[viewtiful jim]

25 minutes ago, Davros sock drawer said:

 

It's very addictive. I've allocated some flasks to FP so I can spam it even more, but there's a Tear for the Mixed Physick that removes FP cost now I think of it.

 

 

There’s also Carian Filigreed crest talisman for reduced FP costs.

Also equipping Sacrificial Axe in the off-hand might help as the innate skill restores a bit of FP upon enemy kill.

That’s if you don’t want to spare a talisman slot for Ancestral Spirit’s Horn which works the same way. Though I’m not sure if both the FP gain stack.

[Davros sock drawer]

I don’t think I have that! The Carian Filigreed one I mean 

[Davros sock drawer]

I only just got the silver scarab as well. Insanely hard to find without messages I imagine, although there is a visual clue. I saw it on a YouTube vid though. Never would have gone back there, so I feel no guilt.

[Capwn]

I'm about 22hrs in now, level 29. I think I could drop it now and have a general understanding of what this game is, I feel like I've experienced it to some degree. I'm still enjoying it, so will continue but I'm expecting to hit major walls at any moment. What I don't get is that everyone says each enemy/boss has patterns and once you learn the patterns it's fine. I have battled Godrick about 10 times now, using jellyfish summon and the woman npc summon. My tactic is to wait till he's distracted and go in, hit a couple of times, run away and repeat. As soon as the summons are killed there seems to be no logic at all to the battle. I'm sure there is but I just can't see it or I stress that I need magic or something (I keep leveling up vigor)

 

 

 

[Davros sock drawer]

There’s always some sort of tell or pattern you can learn, and different attacks are usually triggered by how close you are to a boss. 
 

There are many, many ways to skin the boss cats in this game. I just watched a video of somebody killing a late game optional boss with a bow. There are lots of other tactics to try if your current one isn’t working, or you can go explore and level up. 
 

You're at a very early stage still after 22 hours btw. Up to you, but the area after this boss is still my favourite bit of the game, and if you’re really struggling, you don’t even need to beat this boss to get there.

 

Spoiler

There’s a path around the castle

 

[ChewMagma]

Every boss only does a limited set of moves, although the order they do them will vary. All their moves will have a tell either an animation or a sound or both and your job is to work out the tells so you can avoid their attacks. It really isn't more complicated than that.

[Broker]

Battered some duo bosses on my own. It feels like crowd control is less key in most of these than with O&S, though the Godskin Duo are close. 
 

Tree Sentinels: Keeping one of them to the side so the other doesn’t activate kinda trivialises this. 
 

Spoiler

 

Valiant Gargoyles: The second one here doesn’t activate for ages and stays at a distance. Super simple.

 

Spoiler

 

Godskin Duo: This one took a few attempts. Maximum aggression is the key. Shame that the roll attack wasn’t blocked by the pillar so I just took these and ate it like an idiot.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[John0]

27 minutes ago, Capwn said:

I'm about 22hrs in now, level 29. I think I could drop it now and have a general understanding of what this game is, I feel like I've experienced it to some degree. I'm still enjoying it, so will continue but I'm expecting to hit major walls at any moment. What I don't get is that everyone says each enemy/boss has patterns and once you learn the patterns it's fine. I have battled Godrick about 10 times now, using jellyfish summon and the woman npc summon. My tactic is to wait till he's distracted and go in, hit a couple of times, run away and repeat. As soon as the summons are killed there seems to be no logic at all to the battle. I'm sure there is but I just can't see it or I stress that I need magic or something (I keep leveling up vigor)

 

Godrick is very pattern-y but maybe the summons are making it hard to spot and learn? You could try summoning during phase 2 and just concentrate purely on him in phase 1? That was my strategy. Phase 2 can be a bit chaotic with all the fire everywhere, and it's largely about avoiding that. So it's about getting close enough to not get caught in the fire.. but not too close that he grabs you.

Here's my Godrick fight if it helps  : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWt-HSJJZo0

I was not doing very much damage at this point but you could easily be level 35-40 with a +3 weapon just from Limgrave I think before taking him on. Doing more exploring and levelling up more if a boss is too hard is a good general strategy for the whole game to be honest, up until the end. I didn't learn this until after Stormveil.

A lot of his moves have big wind ups. There's one especially where he does a roll and then a huge leap and slam with a long cooldown afterwards that's a big window to get damage in. Also his slams that quake the ground can be rolled through or jumped over, which is also another good opportunity. He does a huge lunge with his right hand that can easily be walked or rolled past. And he does a 5 swipe combo that you can just hang back for and then roll through the last one or two and get some damage in afterwards (or if you're feeling daring you can get behind him and follow him from behind for the whole thing). Just pick the ones you feel comfortable with and go in and punish him after them. Don't give up, skeleton!

[Padaxes]

1 hour ago, Broker said:

Valiant Gargoyles: The second one here doesn’t activate for ages and stays at a distance. Super simple.

 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

This gave me a great deal of difficulty , I ended up going off and finding the Mimic Ash to help me and cracked it this morning, mainly by spamming rock spells at them.

Look at your health bar! How much is that!? They were one shotting me something rotten if i messed up and I was finding it hard to take down the first one before getting tag teamed by the second.

[Broker]

54 minutes ago, Padaxes said:

 

This gave me a great deal of difficulty , I ended up going off and finsing the Mimic Ash to help me and cracked it this morning, mainly by spamming rock spells at them.

Look at your health bar! How much is that!? They were one shotting me something rotten if i messed up and I was finding it hard to take down the first one before getting tag teamed by the second.

40 I think? Pumped it up to give me some room to breathe when I’m learning patterns. 

[cassidy]

Fire gaint fucking prick fell just now. On my second attempt today. 

 

Finally I can progress. 

[Minion]

4 minutes ago, Broker said:

40 I think? Pumped it up to give me some room to breathe when I’m learning patterns. 

 

Is this NG or above? I also struggled with them in my first playthrough and I was using a similar set up to you so good job, in fact I ended up only doing it with my mimic and (summon spooiler)

Spoiler

D

 

[Minion]

Radhan's nerfed then is he? Still one shots me?

[Alan Stock]

I've never been a fan of getting double-teamed in boss fights, especially since the Demon Princes in Dark Souls 3.

 

But Elden Ring has plenty of them, and without using summons its been a very punishing yet somehow rewarding experience fighting these duos. It requires a lot of identifying safe attack windows, figuring out boss behaviour patterns, camera manipulation and even turning off target-lock at times.

 

Here's some videos of the ones I have had a great deal of difficulty with!  Each video is in a sub-spoiler, in case you haven't ran into them yet.

Spoiler

 

Tricia and the Misbegotten Warrior

Spoiler

You might think that going for Tricia first is the logical choice in this fight - but whenever I tried that I just couldn't track the movements of the Warrior and would get one or two-shot from his leaps and huge swings. Although it was a much longer fight I had to keep target lock on the Warrior and take potshots at Tricia where I could.  This was a rough fight, especially as I didn't get as many openings on Tricia as I usually did!

 

 

Kindreds of Rot

Spoiler

These were massive bastards because I had to keep both in sight at all times. They try to get behind you and their ranged attack one-shot me if all of it connected, so it was vital for me to see when they were firing it. So I had to learn to fight without target lock!

 

 

Beastmen of Farum

Spoiler

This was a bugger because the ranged guy did about half HP damage with each ranged attack and the projectiles home in on you. I had to return to it with a better weapon after about an hour of failed attempts. The tactic was to chase down the ranged guy first and then deal with the scary beefy boy!

 

  

Nox Priests (I've posted it before but will include for the sake of completeness)

Spoiler

This was one of the hardest fights in the game for me, as its so hard to find windows where you won't get attacked by the second boss when you are going for the first. The range on the whip boss is also insane and the timing is tricky for dodges as the whip stuns you.

 

 

Pumpkin Heads

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

[Uzi]

7 minutes ago, Minion said:

Radhan's nerfed then is he? Still one shots me?

1: They reversed it

2: Up your damn VIG! 😛

[Benny]

3 minutes ago, Alan Stock said:

I've never been a fan of getting double-teamed in boss fights, especially since the Demon Princes in Dark Souls 3.

 

But Elden Ring has plenty of them, and without using summons its been a very punishing yet somehow rewarding experience fighting these duos. It requires a lot of identifying safe attack windows, figuring out boss behaviour patterns, camera manipulation and even turning off target-lock at times.

 

Here's some videos of the ones I have had a great deal of difficulty with!  Each video is in a sub-spoiler, in case you haven't ran into them yet.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Pumpkin Heads

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Kindreds of Rot

  Reveal hidden contents

These were massive bastards because I had to keep both in sight at all times. They try to get behind you and their ranged attack one-shot me if all of it connected, so it was vital for me to see when they were firing it. So I had to learn to fight without target lock!

 

 

Nox Priests (I've posted it before but will include for the sake of completeness)

  Reveal hidden contents

This was one of the hardest fights in the game for me, as its so hard to find windows where you won't get attacked by the second boss when you are going for the first. The range on the whip boss is also insane and the timing is tricky for dodges as the whip stuns you.

 

 

Beastmen of Farum

  Reveal hidden contents

This was a bugger because the ranged guy did about half HP damage with each ranged attack and the projectiles home in on you. I had to return to it with a better weapon after about an hour of failed attempts. The tactic was to chase down the ranged guy first and then deal with the scary beefy boy!

 

 

Tricia and the Misbegotten Warrior

  Reveal hidden contents

You might think that going for Tricia first is the logical choice in this fight - but whenever I tried that I just couldn't track the movements of the Warrior and would get one or two-shot from his leaps and huge swings. Although it was a much longer fight I had to keep target lock on the Warrior and take potshots at Tricia where I could. This was a rough fight!

 

 

 

 

I'm sure I must have been over levelled for a lot of the above fights as I barely remember them. Lobbing fireballs got me through so many fights....

[Qazimod]

2 hours ago, ChewMagma said:

Every boss only does a limited set of moves, although the order they do them will vary. All their moves will have a tell either an animation or a sound or both and your job is to work out the tells so you can avoid their attacks. It really isn't more complicated than that.

 

And sometimes they'll use an attack to end a string with a pause as they return to the neutral stance, but later use the same attack in what seems like a longer continued string. It's why one of the crucial things I picked up with MtFE at the start was "don't always assume he's finished a combo".

[Minion]

4 minutes ago, Uzi said:

1: They reversed it

2: Up your damn VIG! 😛

 

Finally got him took 6 attempts and it was bloody close I was down to millimeters of health several times in the end, 0 health flasks, proper heart pounding stuff to finish him. I'm not a fan of the fight but it is a great spectacle. And this character has 28 vigor level 62 I assumed that was enough haha.