Elden Ring

[aceluby]

8 hours ago, Fez said:

Did a bunch of exploration of the Atlus plateau last night. Killed a few minor bosses and found a ton of loot; most of which I'll never use (has anyone actually been crafting a lot?). Definitely feels like the right area to be in after Liurina in terms of difficulty.

I craft things occasionally, but not a lot. Darts, arrows, soap, rot/poison/madness cures - but I would be crafting a lot more with a melee build - especially bombs and grease

[briantw]

1 hour ago, aceluby said:

I craft things occasionally, but not a lot. Darts, arrows, soap, rot/poison/madness cures - but I would be crafting a lot more with a melee build - especially bombs and grease

Yeah, as a magic user, it seems less useful in general.  

I did have a pretty epic fight in Stormveil where I was out of mana and had no health flasks left and the only enemy (that I knew of, and I didn't want to risk going a different path and getting ambushed) between me and a door leading to a site of grace was a big boy.  Given that one hit from him would send me packing, I crafted a bunch of fire pots and kept baiting him to a door I knew he was too big to fit through and would hit him with pots, let him retreat so I could craft more, and repeat until he was dead. 

So crafting can at least be useful in a last resort scenario.

[Fez]

I used another spell from outside the usual rotation, so that was fun. There was a boss that was mostly invisible, so I just kept casting Glintblade Phalanx to hit him whenever he got close. I would've lost if it weren't for my summon. But it was fun to think outside the box.

I also did craft for once. I ended up in a puzzle dungeon that was a bit of labyrinth and started making rainbow stones so I could keep track of where I'd ben. But in general, yeah, as a magic user crafting just hasn't seemed worthwhile.

Cleared several more optional areas in Atlus, and as much of Ainser River as I could access. I tried fighting the Draconic Tree Sentinel a few times as well, who seems to lead to another area if I can beat him. But he literally one shots me right now, so maybe I should come back later. I got a lot of options as to where to after finishing what's in Atlus, but I'm not sure which is the best (Sofria, Caelid, Dragonbarrow, and the volcano).

[RumHam]

Made a new character last night to play with a buddy. The game is tons of fun in multiplayer. Once he got off I helped maybe six people kill Magrit.

On my main guy I got to aceluby's farming spot. I've got to be near the end of the game at this point but the Fire Giant boss was giving me trouble. 

[Fez]

Ha, beat the draconic tree sentinel on my first new try today. Guess I had him hyped too much in my head. I've started exploring the royal capital now. I haven't found a new bonfire beyond the first two in a while though, so I keep running through that same area of rolling white balls again and again each time I die. Feeling a lot like old From games all of a sudden; even more than previous legacy dungeons. I really like the area though and how open it feels even though I keep getting lost and dying.

[aceluby]

Made some good progress last night. Found enough seeds for 13 flasks, took out 2 versions of an undead reindeer boss, the mimic of my character (where I learned two handing your weapon can change your skill slightly), and the classic souls double gargoyles boss. Not sure where I’ll go next, maybe explore the plateau 

[briantw]

I'm definitely behind you lot.  I spent the past few days exploring the rest of the Weeping Peninsula, as all I'd done prior was beeline to Castle Morne and complete the side quest you get from the girl down the road from the entrance.  And then I did a deeper exploration of Limgrave and Stormhill in an attempt to find as many fast travel points as possible and to locate some caves to explore later.

Tonight I went back to Raya Lucaria (I'd previously gotten to the first site of grace inside before doing some exploring elsewhere and getting sidetracked).  Overall, it wasn't too bad.  I've recently invested a few points in health, and I had Godrick's rune activated for a good chunk of the dungeon, so I was able to withstand a few more hits than the last time I was there.

I had one frustrating moment when I rolled into a corner and two of those marionette enemies trapped me there and were basically free to just fucking wail on me and I couldn't respond because they were hitting me too fast for me to do anything, and rolling wasn't working either because there was no room between them and the wall for me to slip through.  The second time through I just ran past them and climbed the ladder behind them, then easily picked them off when they got off the ladder behind me.

I didn't find the boss to be super challenging.  I died once during the second phase when she caught me with that beam blast move when I was at low health, but one more rock sling or two more pebbles would have won the fight.  The second time around, I was more prepared in the first half and was able to dodge that damn tombstone barrage that hit me at least three times during the first try.  Thus, I was in much better shape for round two and was also a bit more ready for the dodge timing on that beam of hers.

What I hated about that fight was the lock on.  There were so many enemies around that it was difficult at times to lock onto the right one, which had me taking more damage than I should have.  Worse, whenever I broke Renala's shield and she floated to the ground, I found myself unable to effectively lock onto her at range, which is where I usually am as a mage.  It took me six phases the first go because of this before I just ran up to her and stabbed the shit out of her with my sword and got it done in four rounds the second time, and in the fourth she had the tiniest sliver of health left.  That ended up being ideal, because I used the opportunity to summon help for the second half instead of wasting it in the first.

That Carian Knight before her was a pain in the ass too.  Took me three tries for him.  I finally found the optimal way to deal damage on him with my build, as his shield was blocking damage from most of my frontal attacks, or he was dodging.  I figured out that, if I let him get close and cast rock sling, I might take a hit when he rolled toward me, but his roll put him in front of my three rocks, which would proceed to slam into his back and interrupt his combo, giving me time to roll away before he could land the second blow.  Once he switched to a staff in his off hand, I swapped to ambush shard, because letting him get close was no longer an option with the magical sword attacks he has that dealt big damage.

Where would you guys recommend going after Raya Lucaria?  Carian Manor?  I talked to that giant blacksmith outside the ruins near the manor who warned me not to go there, but I haven't made the approach yet.

[RumHam]

9 minutes ago, briantw said:

Where would you guys recommend going after Raya Lucaria?  Carian Manor?  I talked to that giant blacksmith outside the ruins near the manor who warned me not to go there, but I haven't made the approach yet.

I wouldn't unless you want to get beat up and develop a new phobia. 

You could do the caves in limgrave. Catacombs are nice for getting the upgrade materials for the summon ashes. There's one up the river that goes north from the lake with the dragon.

If you haven't already you could try going back to the crystal tunnel that most of us got warped too when we were way under powered. You might be able to actually fight those guys now. 

[briantw]

9 minutes ago, RumHam said:

I wouldn't unless you want to get beat up and develop a new phobia. 

At what point is Carian Manor viable?  Is it that much tougher than Raya Lucaria?

[Mexal]

1 minute ago, briantw said:

At what point is Carian Manor viable?  Is it that much tougher than Raya Lucaria?

Those hands are so damn annoying. It's not so bad if you run through a lot of it. I found the main boss to be pretty easy with the Lhutel summons.

[briantw]

 

 

[Fez]

I surprisingly finished the royal capital. Or at least, I beat both bosses; I know I missed a ton of optional content. I should go back and keep exploring. I also have a TON of extra story/lore questions now.

And I have no idea how to reach the next area that I was told to go to. But I figure at this point I should start going back to the areas I haven't done yet before advancing things any further.

[mcbigski]

I finished both Rivers and underground cities.  Huge amount of progress because I've not only be rounding out my build to make me less fragile, I also finally got +6 thru 9 somber stones.  So I have graduated from the Meteor Staff finally.  I went with Azur's Glintstone.  A little less powerful than the Crystal staff, but Azur is supposed to give faster casting time.

After finishing everything in the Lake of Rot but the mini bosses you need to catch scarlet rot in order to trigger (I'll come back later assuming I'll have higher resistance, or a bigger supply of the appropriate bolus), I've just been bouncing around the map cleaning up stuff that had me stuck before.  Knocking the markers off my map that I put down to come back to later.  And that Crucible Knight in the Stormland Evergaol, only 2100 runes?  He killed me so many times.  

Lhutel at +10 is a big help.  Might go take another crack at the 2 gargoyles myself tomorrow.  And now that the shack guy told me what to do in Sellia, probably there next. 

Haven't tried the capitol yet.  Sounds like if I run past that dragon in the Altus Plateau I'll find my way there eventually.  Still haven't found the second half of the amulet to the Dectus lift, just know that it's in Fort Something far to the east, which I assume means the upper bit of Caelum somewhere.  Sprinted past the dragon on the bridge and cruised around looking for bonfires, managed to loot a sliver of meat from the middle of a pond before I got killed.  Sweet.

Or there's the dragons after you come up from the Lake of Rot, but those guys are killing me good right now too.  Put a dent in the Glintstone one, maybe go back at him again since I picked up 5 or 6 levels since then.  Any tips for the Glintstone dragon?  I was sniping it from behind a rock ridge while Lhutel went full frontal assault, but it's hard to see the big sweep attack coming from there, and that one goes through rock.

[sifth]

Things have been a bit slow with this game for me and my group. Unlike Borderlands, me and my friends have to fight each boss 4 times when we play together; much like with the other Dark Souls games we've played. We beat Godrick earlier in the week and spent most of last night exploring Liurnia of the Lakes. Got some great gear and leveled up a lot. Still I imagine at this rate, we'll be playing the game for most of the year, since we have to do nearly every boss 4 times each and I've heard there are 83 of them. My one friend is rather insistent on doing as many as we can together.

[briantw]

Made it to the Altus Plateau.  I found out by looking online that the second half of the medallion was in a small castle in Caelid, so I rode around for a while and eventually found the right place behind the biggest fucking dragon I've ever seen.  I stopped to gawk and she roared, which led to a bunch of smaller dragons flying in to presumably wreck my shit, so I nope'd the fuck out of there and rode around her, and the castle in question ended up being near the tip of her tail.

Those mountains off in the distance certainly look ominous.

[mcbigski]

Sellia helped all of my stuck points.  Access the dragon barrow, high magic resistance item, and the limiting crafting item for curing scarlet rot.  Been trying to get into the area below the erdtree.  Died way too often on the way down and got curb stomped when I fianally made it down the first tine.

[Fez]

Made to the Volcano Manor at the peak of Mt. Gelimer. By far the hardest region to navigate yet, likely because you can't get the map until you're at the peak. But it was a satisfying journey up, and I got the Comet Azur that I'd heard so much about (plus the free FP for 10 sec flask tear). It seems like a hard spell combo to pull off, but I'll likely use it to cheese at least one boss at some point. Anyway, I've now started exploring Volcano Manor.

I also cleared a few more open world spots that I'd been putting off. I still haven't gone back to Caelid though I know I should after this. I don't really want to try finding the way to the Land of the Giants until I've cleared all regions I have already have to access.

Has anyone figured out a use of the paintings you can collect that go in the inventory tab with the tutorial messages for some reason?

[briantw]

5 minutes ago, Fez said:

Has anyone figured out a use of the paintings you can collect that go in the inventory tab with the tutorial messages for some reason?

Pretty sure you have to find where it was painted.

[mcbigski]

Yes.  Go to the spot the painting is painted from and a ghost shows up and drops a reward.

[Fez]

That seems hard to figure out, the pictures are so small in the inventory; even after pressing X to slightly enlarge. Am I missing some way too make them full screen to examine?

Anyway, made lots more progress today. I got to the end boss of Volcano Manor, but only tried him once so far. I also went back and beat Radahn after several attempts, and made my way through the Forbidden Lands to the Mountaintop of the Giants. I am starting to feel pretty fatigued of the game though. It's been great, but I'm ready to just beat it at this point. But I'm almost 60 hours in and have no idea how much is left (I'd guess I have at least 10 hours left in content I've already discovered but haven't done, and no idea how much I haven't found yet). I don't want to put the game down though because I know I'd have a ton of trouble jumping back into it in the future.