Elden Ring

[sifth]

Some highlights, from when we took on Godrick last week.

[Mexal]

Finally beat Radahn. Took me a bit of time to get the timing right on everything but managed to kill him. Only takes a few minutes if you do it right but I was too slow most of the time to knock him to the next phase. Got a bunch of stuff to do, was trying to do the Sellen quest line and Ranni quest line. I've made it to Mt. Gelmir but haven't gone into the Volcano Manor yet. The game is definitely tiring. There was a point where I just farmed from level 60-90 just to move on in the zones. There are still some things to do but I do want to continue moving on and sitting in the same place with the same gear and the same spells doing the same moves over and over just got boring. 

Onwards to Nekon!

[mcbigski]

10 minutes ago, Mexal said:

Onwards to Nekon!

The underground city?  I forget the actual name, but that's not quite it.  Both of the underground cities I found helpful as far as making progress goes. Was stuck for about 30 levels with the same Meteor Staff and +5 Moonveil.  Finishing them and Selia really helped in a non grinding way.

Trying to get used to the Dark Moon Greatsword, not sure I like it better than Moonveil.  At +8 it hits about 100 points harder for me than +9 moonveil, but I think it's slower, and I'm also not comfortable with the attacks yet.  And I hardly ever use the skills.   Had a Carian shield with the magic parry buff that gives glintstone arrows when you parry, and that seems like it has broader utility since it can also still regular parry.  IDK what do you guys think?

Seems like a lot of us are running INT builds.  Want to start another game, with online enabled now that the servers are I assume all working.  I've almost always played Souls as a light flippy roll everywhere character.  Thinking about either a high STR/END or high DEX/END build.  Possibly better for PvP as well, though I prefer co-op.  But it's got to be a radically different game with a great shield and the fat roll.  Or even overloaded but on horseback...  

And let's talk favorite weapons.  Moonveil is fantastic for my build, but if INT is your dump stat, what do you guys like?

[Fez]

1 hour ago, mcbigski said:

The underground city?  I forget the actual name, but that's not quite it.  Both of the underground cities I found helpful as far as making progress goes. Was stuck for about 30 levels with the same Meteor Staff and +5 Moonveil.  Finishing them and Selia really helped in a non grinding way.

Trying to get used to the Dark Moon Greatsword, not sure I like it better than Moonveil.  At +8 it hits about 100 points harder for me than +9 moonveil, but I think it's slower, and I'm also not comfortable with the attacks yet.  And I hardly ever use the skills.   Had a Carian shield with the magic parry buff that gives glintstone arrows when you parry, and that seems like it has broader utility since it can also still regular parry.  IDK what do you guys think?

Seems like a lot of us are running INT builds.  Want to start another game, with online enabled now that the servers are I assume all working.  I've almost always played Souls as a light flippy roll everywhere character.  Thinking about either a high STR/END or high DEX/END build.  Possibly better for PvP as well, though I prefer co-op.  But it's got to be a radically different game with a great shield and the fat roll.  Or even overloaded but on horseback...  

And let's talk favorite weapons.  Moonveil is fantastic for my build, but if INT is your dump stat, what do you guys like?

I've been using Moonveil and the Meteor Staff for almost 50 levels now, not sure I'll ever find something better; though it would be nice to. I'm up to 70 INT and am almost entirely using ranged magic; unfortunately that's still Swift Glintstone, Rock Sling, and sometimes Loretta's Bow about 95% of the time. But every other magic I've found has been lacking except for some really niche situations. And every other weapon I've found that I can use hasn't hit as hard as Moonveil. Maybe if I invested in upgrading enough something would be slightly stronger (same goes for trying to upgrade a staff), but just dumping those runes into leveling up seems a better use of them. Anyway though, point being that, at least for me, if I'm actually using Moonveil something has gone wrong. 

 

I actually beat Nokron tonight myself, including finding the way to the Aqueduct and the teleport beyond the boss there. Haven't explored that new area though yet since I decided to first advance Ranni's questline more. 

 

[mcbigski]

1 hour ago, Fez said:

I've been using Moonveil and the Meteor Staff for almost 50 levels now, not sure I'll ever find something better; though it would be nice to. I'm up to 70 INT and am almost entirely using ranged magic; unfortunately that's still Swift Glintstone, Rock Sling, and sometimes Loretta's Bow about 95% of the time. But every other magic I've found has been lacking except for some really niche situations. And every other weapon I've found that I can use hasn't hit as hard as Moonveil. Maybe if I invested in upgrading enough something would be slightly stronger (same goes for trying to upgrade a staff), but just dumping those runes into leveling up seems a better use of them. Anyway though, point being that, at least for me, if I'm actually using Moonveil something has gone wrong. 

 

I actually beat Nokron tonight myself, including finding the way to the Aqueduct and the teleport beyond the boss there. Haven't explored that new area though yet since I decided to first advance Ranni's questline more. 

 

There are at least three staves besides Meteor that have S scaling once they hit +6 or so.  Azur's, I think, boosts damage for everything, at a FP premium.  The Crystal staff boosts crystal only, and I'm using whatever glinstone staff gives faster casting time.  But at +7 or so, each better than Meteor, except maybe for the gravity spell boost with rock sling.  Assuming you have the somber stones sitting around, going to +9 is going to cost something less than a level.  Havent actually found a dragon stone yet, so +9 is where I'm maxed on those.

Not sure if I have Loretta's bow or not.  If it's a spell I probably have it, but if its a weapon, I've been using the horn bow.  Though now that I've found an ash that gives magic to a bow, a regular long bow with INT scaling added is probably better.  Going to have to look at the ashes and pulley bow next time I play.

There were a couple of spots in the other underground city where you could start really satisfying chain reactions.  Probably not the worst place to farm either, depending on your level.  

Spoiler

Though when I get to within 12k or of a level, I go to the cloister below the sea of rot and pick up 13k or so basically risk free and not that long.

 

[RumHam]

8 minutes ago, mcbigski said:

There are at least three staves besides Meteor that have S scaling once they hit +6 or so.  Azur's, I think, boosts damage for everything, at a FP premium.  The Crystal staff boosts crystal only, and I'm using whatever glinstone staff gives faster casting time.  But at +7 or so, each better than Meteor, except maybe for the gravity spell boost with rock sling.  Assuming you have the somber stones sitting around, going to +9 is going to cost something less than a level.  Havent actually found a dragon stone yet, so +9 is where I'm maxed on those.

Not sure if I have Loretta's bow or not.  If it's a spell I probably have it, but if its a weapon, I've been using the horn bow.  Though now that I've found an ash that gives magic to a bow, a regular long bow with INT scaling added is probably better.  Going to have to look at the ashes and pulley bow next time I play.

There were a couple of spots in the other underground city where you could start really satisfying chain reactions.  Probably not the worst place to farm either, depending on your level.  

  Reveal hidden contents

Though when I get to within 12k or of a level, I go to the cloister below the sea of rot and pick up 13k or so basically risk free and not that long.

 

Azur's is the one that reduces the cast time. Lustat's is the one that boosts damage. The FP cost increase really hurts if you don't have enough mind points though. 

I believe you can hold the meteorite staff in your other hand and still get its bonus to rock sling. But then you'll be heavier.  

[Fez]

30 minutes ago, mcbigski said:

There are at least three staves besides Meteor that have S scaling once they hit +6 or so.  Azur's, I think, boosts damage for everything, at a FP premium.  The Crystal staff boosts crystal only, and I'm using whatever glinstone staff gives faster casting time.  But at +7 or so, each better than Meteor, except maybe for the gravity spell boost with rock sling.  Assuming you have the somber stones sitting around, going to +9 is going to cost something less than a level.  Havent actually found a dragon stone yet, so +9 is where I'm maxed on those.

Not sure if I have Loretta's bow or not.  If it's a spell I probably have it, but if its a weapon, I've been using the horn bow.  Though now that I've found an ash that gives magic to a bow, a regular long bow with INT scaling added is probably better.  Going to have to look at the ashes and pulley bow next time I play.

There were a couple of spots in the other underground city where you could start really satisfying chain reactions.  Probably not the worst place to farm either, depending on your level.  

  Reveal hidden contents

Though when I get to within 12k or of a level, I go to the cloister below the sea of rot and pick up 13k or so basically risk free and not that long.

 

Good to know.

Loretta's Bow is a spell. It is too slow and costs too much FP. But it does good damage per hit and, crucially, has a crazy long range. At least double the various glintstone spells. So it's perfect for cheesing tough fights in the open world; especially for attacking from ledges far above. Worthless in boss fights though.

[mcbigski]

20 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Azur's is the one that reduces the cast time. Lustat's is the one that boosts damage. The FP cost increase really hurts if you don't have enough mind points though. 

I believe you can hold the meteorite staff in your other hand and still get its bonus to rock sling. But then you'll be heavier.  

That's it.  I'm running Azur +9 and only found Lusat's recently.

Spoiler

IIRC, it was behind a door in Selia

Heard that about the meteor staff, that you still get the bonus off hand.  Even went with that plan fighting the road dragon in Caelid, since I was on horseback the whole time and shield didnt much matter.  Should probably test it out on the giants dragging the wagons.  Why they can't have draft horses or oxen makes me wonder.  Maybe the previous eden wasn't all that great for the little people.

[RumHam]

I've seen "Seek three wise beasts" a few times and thought like "ok I'll probably meet these beasts later in the story." But no it's a riddle you can solve anytime by 

Spoiler

finding three nearby ghost turtles and killing them.

So now I have to find all those towers again.

I agree with some of you that the game is maybe overlong. Or maybe the later areas are somehow less fun? I know I found myself running past enemies in the capitol. As I said I started a new character to play with my friend, I haven't been back to my first character since. Though part of that is because of how poorly co-op is implemented.

I like the summon for help system, but there should be a way to just start a co-op campaign. As it is I have to sorta pre-play every area and dungeon we intend to do so that in the limited time my friend has he can summon me there. Then we kill a boss and I'm sent back to my world and we can seemingly no longer play co-op together in that area. it's really a pain, but the game is so much more fun co-op.

[Fez]

3 minutes ago, RumHam said:

I agree with some of you that the game is maybe overlong. Or maybe the later areas are somehow less fun? I know I found myself running past enemies in the capitol. As I said I started a new character to play with my friend, I haven't been back to my first character since. Though part of that is because of how poorly co-op is implemented.

I do think Limgrave is the best designed open world area I've been to, so I still wonder if it was made first. It's packed with an absurd amount of side content, but it all flows together naturally. I don't know if it's because of that or simply because I hadn't adjusted to the open world yet, but it's the one area where I killed every enemy I came across. For instance, to get that first map, I slowly killed every soldier in the camp, carefully making sure to not aggro others; as if I was in a dungeon. But I've long since switched to just blowing past everyone on the horse to just pick-up whatever loot is in any given place.

Even in the dungeons I've switched to just running past enemies that don't need to be fought; and, more recently, I've started skipping optional areas in the legacy dungeons (like the whole dust area in the capital, as well as the sewers). For those I do mark them on the map, as a reminder to go back later; which I sometimes do. But it's not a great sign when I want to skip content rather than engage in it. 

Don't get me wrong, it's an incredible game. But at 60+ hours in and no end in sight yet I'm really feeling fatigued. I kinda wish the game ended at the capital, maybe requiring you to get all 4 known great runes rather than just 2 to get in; instead of having this whole new phase to the game open up after you finish there.

[aceluby]

I've been loving pretty much everything about this game and am nowhere near getting tired of the gameplay loop.  Just cleared a hidden cave dungeon (the one with Lusat) with 3 crystal bosses and cheesed them pretty hard w/ the spell mist + a +10 mimic tear doing the same.  I don't feel guilty at all because those dudes are ridiculous AND all of their hits cause scarlet rot.  I'm just entering the lake of rot, so I should have my staff to a +9 shortly to go along with my +10 moonveil. 

I really like that I can do different things depending on how I feel.  Sometimes I just want some old school souls and do some dungeon crawling or hit up a main quest.  Sometimes I want to explore some of the side content and work to progress story lines.  Other times I just explore around and look for more stuff to do later with my trusty steed.  Right now I have the manor, capital, 2 different underground areas, and at least 1 (maybe 2?) legacy dungeons, and most of the plateau to explore.  At the same time I'm just putting points into health and END to survive some of the end-game content before I start pumping DEX

[RumHam]

4 minutes ago, aceluby said:

I've been loving pretty much everything about this game and am nowhere near getting tired of the gameplay loop.  Just cleared a hidden cave dungeon (the one with Lusat) with 3 crystal bosses and cheesed them pretty hard w/ the spell mist + a +10 mimic tear doing the same.  I don't feel guilty at all because those dudes are ridiculous AND all of their hits cause scarlet rot.  

I get summoned to fight those guys more than anything else. There are at least three encounters agauinst them with an added one each time. One of only two times I've changed my weapon for a fight*. You really need strike weapons like a club or hammer or mace to break their armor, then they start taking damage normally.

*The other time was the Volcano Manor boss.

Spoiler

So much easier if you use the weapon the game tells you to use for that fight. I upgraded it with some somber stones and fight became trivial. 

 

[aceluby]

6 minutes ago, RumHam said:

I get summoned to fight those guys more than anything else. There are at least three encounters agauinst them with an added one each time. One of only two times I've changed my weapon for a fight*. You really need strike weapons like a club or hammer or mace to break their armor, then they start taking damage normally.

*The other time was the Volcano Manor boss.

  Hide contents

So much easier if you use the weapon the game tells you to use for that fight. I upgraded it with some somber stones and fight became trivial. 

 

You can also cast the mist spell and they just take damage as you run around.  I don't think I hit any of them once in this last go 'round

[Fez]

Okay yeah, I upgraded the Carian Regal Scepter to +7 and switched from the Meteroite Staff to it and have noticed an immediate jump in spell damage. I've also started using Rennala's Moon spell now that my INT is above 70. It actually is a good spell. Slow to cast, but if a summon is tanking a boss it's great to get one of these off at the start (since it reduces magic negation on top of the big damage).

I finished out (I think) Ranni's questline tonight; at least I got the mountaintop in southeast Liurnia and spoke to her there. The Lake of Rot really sucked. I think I understand some of the lore I'm finding to; at least, I'm understanding that it sounds cool. I also did the poison castle mini-dungeon in Atlus. At this point, I've got 3 big things left on my to-do list: kill the boss of Mt. Gelmier, explore the Deeproot Depths, and explore the Mountaintop of the Giants. I've still got various caves/tombs/evergaol/rises that I haven't done (about 15 total) but I think I'll be too burned out if I try doing them all. At this point I just want to make sure I hit all the major beats of the game.

[aceluby]

You can talk to Ranni again in her room, there’s a new grace point after the lake of rot plot. Tonight I think I’ll finish off some bosses I missed in Radahns castle, explore some more of the plateau, then take on the capital.

[mcbigski]

1 hour ago, aceluby said:

You can talk to Ranni again in her room, there’s a new grace point after the lake of rot plot. Tonight I think I’ll finish off some bosses I missed in Radahns castle, explore some more of the plateau, then take on the capital.

In her tower too or just on the plateau?  

Im going to finish the manor then the Capitol.

Though radahns castle was way amticlimactic.  Ended up there first time from a teleported and got stomped.  Came back for my runes and left for a long time.  When I came back after prompting from the Ranni quests there was basically no one defending the place,no mini bosses, and a bunch of locked doors.

[RumHam]

43 minutes ago, mcbigski said:

In her tower too or just on the plateau?  

Im going to finish the manor then the Capitol.

Though radahns castle was way amticlimactic.  Ended up there first time from a teleported and got stomped.  Came back for my runes and left for a long time.  When I came back after prompting from the Ranni quests there was basically no one defending the place,no mini bosses, and a bunch of locked doors.

The doors unlock after you beat Radahn. 

[mcbigski]

6 minutes ago, RumHam said:

The doors unlock after you beat Radahn. 

I ll look again I guess but didn't happen for me.  I m probably 30-40 levels past that so pulling my hair out for a smithing stone 5, some beast bones, and a golden rune 4 probably isn't worth it anyway.  95% sure I went back to try to loot the corpses on the upper walls but still no joy.

[Fez]

46 minutes ago, mcbigski said:

I ll look again I guess but didn't happen for me.  I m probably 30-40 levels past that so pulling my hair out for a smithing stone 5, some beast bones, and a golden rune 4 probably isn't worth it anyway.  95% sure I went back to try to loot the corpses on the upper walls but still no joy.

It took going back to the castle 3 times for me. First time, everything was the same but the announcer guy had new dialog. Second time there was a boss in the end area where the announcer had been. And third time the whole time was packed with enemies and the doors were unlocked. I can't recall finding anything particularly valuable though.

 

I finished Deeproot Depths tonight and started exploring the Mountaintop. It seems to be yet another difficulty spike to overcome, which feels kinda excessive since I'm already level 105. But there are elite (non-boss) enemies taking almost as many hits to kill as the last boss of Deeproot Depths did.

[mcbigski]

10 minutes ago, Fez said:

It took going back to the castle 3 times for me. First time, everything was the same but the announcer guy had new dialog. Second time there was a boss in the end area where the announcer had been. And third time the whole time was packed with enemies and the doors were unlocked. I can't recall finding anything particularly valuable though.

 

I finished Deeproot Depths tonight and started exploring the Mountaintop. It seems to be yet another difficulty spike to overcome, which feels kinda excessive since I'm already level 105. But there are elite (non-boss) enemies taking almost as many hits to kill as the last boss of Deeproot Depths did.

OK, I probably won't look back there.  Haven't found Deeproot Depths yet either.

That corrupted tree spirit in the war dead catacombs far to the north after beating radahn has been fucking me up.  I think it's the same as the guy in the cloister, but you get to have a summons instead of scarlet rot.  Still getting spanked.

I expect that they have balanced the bosses based on possible builds, but I do think I need to get better at close up stuff and dodging.  Unless blocking is actually feasible?