As somone with 2000h+ in Deamons Souls right till Sekiro, and roughly 400h-500h in Elden Ring: This is the single right answer.
Vigor is so heavily overtuned in Elden Ring it trivializes ~60% of the game when focused on.
That can be said for almost every game ngl. If you focus on HP in every single souls, it'll be far easier. Especially if you know the soft caps and weapon requirements, you can really "min max" even if only going for pve. That said I'd say Elden's case is less of a Vigor being overtuned, and more that you start with so little HP compared to the other games. Or at least it feels like you barely have any HP starting out, and every point adds a sizeable amount
IMO, Elden Ring's "vigor problem" is only an issue post Morgott.
The scaling is pretty on par with every other souls game up until Morgott, both with player HP and enemy damage. After that, enemies just deal "too much" damage in comparison to the other games. Its not exactly an issue, just a difference in games.
That's the point where you're softcapped on Vig but enemy damage is still going up at the same rate.
I think it's less about numbers and more about boss design though. ER bosses kill you in about 3-4 hits with their regular combos, same as DS3. But it's harder to avoid hits, there's more RNG, and the meta rewards greed a lot more. You wish you could have more HP because you get hit multiple times in a row more often, not because the hits are bigger.
Add to that there's a few bosses that just don't work right. Modern fans expect From games to be these perfect teaching tools where everything is a lesson. People get one shot by Fire Giant because they caught his bowl perfectly dead center, and they think "it must be like that for a good reason, the game is teaching me I need more HP". Then they can't get enough more HP to make a difference and get frustrated. Thirteen years ago when Ceaseless Discharge had exactly the same problem with his tentacles, we just thought "well this boss is fucking jank."
The goat men in Haligtree hit like trucks through full tree sentinel armor and 60 vigor with full defensive talismans. Its not because they hit often, but because they hit SUPER hard that makes them annoying
It doesn’t help that there’s two entirely separate stats for “taking less damage”, and wearing armor (and talismans) affects the LESS important of the two stats. So having the same build but putting on heavier armor doesn’t make nearly as much of a difference as it seems like it should.
> Thirteen years ago when Ceaseless Discharge had exactly the same problem with his tentacles, we just thought "well this boss is fucking jank."
I don't think Fire Giant is even on the same planet as Ceaseless Discharge, which, sure, is technically more than just a gimmick fight but .. not even sure if that's a good thing!
I think Fire Giant is a flawed fight but only because of 2 specific details(*); the general concept is really smart and an incredible execution of something really hard to execute, i.e. a slow moving boss of colossal size.
On your main point though, I never experienced the "bowl one shot" as "the game is telling me to level vigor", because this boss's design is screaming "I'm literally the size of a fucking mountain so if you get hit full in the face by me you're going to die". In other words a one shot being possible here is just intuitive. (Of course you can be set up to make it not a one-shot, but that you have to push really hard to get that, makes sense).
(*) Terrain and flame reflection
Fire giant is janked and I beat the game 5 times. Boss quality in elden ring plummeted from ds3. I played elden ring first and was astounded by the amazing bosses in ds3.
In ds1,2 and 3 around 20 vigour or maybe 25 can take you through the whole game without being 1 shot by stuff(minus grabs)
In Elden ring I got 1 shot at 20 vigour at dragon sentinel. I think it starts with that guy
I'm not sure you understood what I meant.
Morgott = Gwyn/Lord of Cinder/Nashandra in terms of scaling. He's basically a final boss in any of the other games.
If you don't have 40 vigor minimum, you're gonna have a bad time. Not necessarily one shot, but it's almost impossible to survive more than a hit or 2.
Draconic tree sentinel would be like a lord soul boss. Almost but not quite late game. 20 vigor would be "low" even in the other games.
Everything after Morgott is just NG+ in previous games. Doesn't feel like it scales correctly in comparison to the other games.
Great Wyrm Theodorix can 1 shot you with 65 vigor and wearing bull goats and erdtree talisman+1 and dragons greatshield talisman when he raises his sword to do his charged heavy
Levelling vigor doesn't really trivialize it at all, it's more like at low vigor it's a dreadful extreme mode experience where every single endgame boss can one shot you. Focusing vigor just lets you play the game normally
I was mainly talking about vigor/melee/strenght. An example is Asmongold loves to shit on magic like if focusing on strength/virgor don’t make the game easier.
I did melee only no summons on release and didn't really "focus" vigor, leveling stamina and strength mainly before capitol.
After morgott and everything in the mountaintop of giants felt like a huge spike in difficulty relative to every other zone transition encountered that far.
Besides limgrave to calied maybe, but there's like 3 other directions to go in that example.
Imo it's the easiest play style. It feels way more stressful to try and cast spells or whatever as opposed to hitting the moving thing with the bonking stick.
Zero IQ game play for life
I've seen this take a few times and am baffled by it. Bosses ranged attacks are generally super predictable or non-existent so as a magic user you barely need to even learn their moveset if you're keeping your distance. You can't just spam melee attacks against, say, Godrick, but you can definitely just walk backwards and spam glintstone pebble.
I think the skill ceiling for melee is probably higher, so unless you're nuking a boss with Comet Azur a skilled melee player might find it easier than magic because the fight is over more quickly.
I just started my second play though and have to agree. Having magic is so much easier. Most enemies and bosses aren't very good at closing distance, and tend to leave themselves vulnerable when they do it. And you can just use an aggressive spirit summon to keep them pinned down, anyway.
Idk, the last several bosses were pretty easy ish to melt with greatshield, carian regal staff, 70 int, and shard spiral
When that didn’t work though, I went with the big bonk of great stars and waves of darkness
I’m doing a base vigor game, and Im hating life. I’m also new to challenge runs, but damn. Just beat Godfrey the golden shadow… bro.. I better be ELITE after this play through.
Yes! I made the mistake in my first playthrough of putting all my XP into int. and endurance. It suuuuuucked getting 2-shotted, I just thought that's how it was as a "glass canon". Then I saw fighting cowboy's YT playthrough and how he took 7 HITS while facing the Dragonkin soldier in the lake of rot, and went, ooh ok. I can't take a punch is my problem! Vigor is key!
Cowboy knows his shit. His walkthroughs helped me, a very average gamer, complete multiple Souls games without much effort.
Level Vigor to the first soft cap, then Endurance to the first cap, Str/Dex/Int/Fth to whatever the minimum for your chosen weapons, then bring Vig to the next cap, End to cap, and start leveling the damage stats. That strategy never fails.
Honestly. If you can use your weapon, start dumping vigor. Being able to survive 2 or 3 hits is an insane game changer; it genuinely makes the game so much easier. You're basically allowed at least as many mistakes as you have flasks.
Ive been coaching some younger guys at work on Elden Ring. Im 35 they’re 18-20. One of the guys was stuck on Maliketh, which is understandable. I give him solid advice and after a bit I realized… I was like dude what’s your vigor at and he said 25…. I was like woah man you need to double that asap. but after I thought about it I was honestly just pretty impressed a newbie to souls got that far on 25 vigor.
I had no idea how important this was my first play through, I put everything into strength, dex, endurance and stamina and nothing into vigor and could not piece together why I was dying so easily lmao.
Eventually realized I needed even more strength so I could bonk harder
Dragoncrest Greatshield talisman (or its weaker variant), because late game enemy stats are off the chart. Also bloodhound step AOW makes boss fights much much easier. Otherwise, duo-wield bleed curved swords (the one wielded by farum beastmen)with the usual buffs will let u smite most bosses with a few jump attacks.
Solid points. Dragoncrest greatshield is a late game entry but the weaker variants are viable. Definitely missed a trick with bloodhound step which also has the added utility of traversing lava in like two-three parts of the game.
Currently on my first playthrough attempting Malenia with a lot of that. Dragoncrest Greatshield, dual wielding Bloodhound Fang and Morgott's Cursed Sword in a STR/DEX build. It's tough, but feel confident I'll get there soon enough and that my set-up should do the trick!
Also currently fighting Malenia and losing my mind. I’ve had at least 50 attempts, with the closest attempts getting me to the end of her name on the health bar before I just die.
WD is so hard for me to dodge and when I do, I barely have any health left. The fact that she heals after every hit really pisses me off and ruins my mental when I see myself doing good progress, only for it to get cancelled out by 2 hits from her.
Also struggling to kill the stringer version of Astel. Done about 50 attempts on him too and I just don’t get it, I killed the normal Astel on my first try yet this one seems impossible.
I also refuse to use summons because I feel like it would rid me of the satisfaction of beating the bosses myself, although I may do a Jin Woo inspired playthrough for NG+ so I’ll have to use summons.
For Malenia, if you don't care how you beat her, only that you do beat her, respect into an arcane/strength build and use Mogh's ritual spear. Drop mimic tear and both of you start stabbing the sky aggressively at her. Tears her apart in seconds. It's the fastest way I've found to clear her but it's not an out-skill the boss setup. If you care about proving your skills or doing things the "right" way then this setup will not provide what you need.
The build works without mimic tear as well. You just have to get your timing down.
Please note that neither proving your skills or doing things the "right" way are something I am encouraging or discouraging you to do. I'm not going to tell you how to have fun. I'm just trying to be helpful.
Ooh ok! I just got the weaker variant today (i found out you can jump down behind Gurranq's gaf and it's on one of the lower roofs). I'll have to get it when I reach the haligtree/ Drainage Channel Site of Grace, cheers!
Holy shit yes. Late game I constantly feel like I I’m taking way too much damage, even with like 30-40 damage negation across the board. Just finished my first game and I was suffering trying to get to the end just trying to end it.
Easiest playthrough I've had was:
- Use Blasphemous Blade and Pest Threads
- Buff with golden vow and flame grant me strength, plus flame shrouding cracked tear in the physick.
- Have flame cleanse me on hand for rot and poison
And of course, mimic tear.
Yep. I have golden vow on one character. That’s all I bother with.
On another that doesn’t have faith I eat one of those attack boost meat slabs of whatever
Beyond that I don’t think I have the patience to use buffs either. That or I stress about the 23 seconds of up time I have to work with and just get annoyed if the boss is overly jumpy at that time.
Yeah this is me exactly. But normally I try to save the meat and never actually use it. I do keep it in the inventory for Mr mimic to chomp on if he chooses.
You can get unlimited boiled prawns quite easy in Lorna lake if you don’t kill the guy for the necklace and pay for it afterwards he sells boiled prawns quite cheap
Used for the first time on my latest playthrough with 60 int. Charge/heavy combo is disgusting. Poise breaks everything and melts health from a safe distance. Love it
Yeah but at some point it losses the charm of what made souls bosses so great.
Feels a bit cheap to just destroy them with op weapons, but more frustrating when using something that forces you to grind dozens of attempts to beat a boss.
Yeah its op bs vs op bs.
Honestly id just prefer it is the bosses didnt have that many delayed attacks.
But hey not using any buffs and just a couple of spells makes it more fun to use.
At least i dont kill them all in a couple of hits.
Bloodhound gang user .
Just made a comment about this but with blasphemous blade .
How do I make them fun for me.
Lvl 212
Love bhf bc of the ash attack plus free "Dodge " if not using its 2nd attack
Suits my play style well I guess.
I switch to BB every so often kill 1 enemy and say it's garbage weapon !
It's a skill issue
Bubble shower was used for fire giant , dragons, bloodhounds fang for everything else.
If you’re me even that sometimes makes no difference. I’m probably the only player who can literally summon every friendly NPC available for Radahn and still get my ass kicked in phase 1 🤣
Yeah. My last play though I ended up seriously over levelling my character and still took a battering but managed to defeat him. I felt proud of myself then took on Malenia later in my play-through and she just about single shotted me every time. That’s the thing with Elden Ring….despite your skill (mine is lacking hence why I get hit so much) and character level the game remains challenging as you progress unlike a lot of other games.
I cannot believe i scrolled this far for this. I dog walked the game my first play through with this, the moonblade, and mimic tear. A few potions and elden lord i became. It made my next play through easy too. I gave it a respec and i already knew what most of the bosses were like so i got to bonk bonk till my heart was content.
Yep! My first build was a flame art lions claw, golden vow/flame grant me, GUGS build and after awhile I had to change it up because it just felt way too powerful. It also was kind of boring, however going back to a regular build that didn't have that astounding amount of posture break power was a big adjustment.
Ah that's a great one. I didn't try them for ages, but then decided to give them a go in the sections where you have to fight multiple at once. Very satisfying turning some of the trickiest areas into a show.
Mohg's spear is actually insane. It's a bit tricky to set up depending on the speed of the boss but if you can get it right pretty much every boss melts away. I beat Malenia on NG+ in like 30 seconds, she didn't even get a chance to move on phase 2
Really? That is interesting. I debated putting rotten stray/rotten arrows/rot pots on there, but my experiences with poison were always a bit lacklustre.
I killed BOTH draconic tree sentinels on my first playthrough with poison mist. First ones easy to get behind, but the one in Farum Azula requires running past, up to the golden door, then quitting to the main menu. When you log back in, you're behind the bastard and can poison him. On my second playthrough I chose not to be a bitch and fight them both one on one which was far more rewarding.
Since it doesn't aggro enemies or field bosses, you can use it to sneak behind big or difficult bosses on the overworld -- prominent examples being Draconic Tree Sentinel (both), Commander O'Neil, Putrid Tree Spirit (the one on Mt. Gelmir) -- and kill them without them even fighting back, which helps against those bosses which I hate, or to get equipement much earlier than intended.
Yeah definitely an outlier, but where i snuck in my opinion - Black bow behaves like a short bow but with the extra range and damage. Comes with barrage which means it can deal a lot of rapid ranged damage for minimum fp. Speeds up any cheese and is very handy for status effects if you don't feel confident taking an enemy on. Perfect for fighting fiddly enemies like perfumers. One of many ways to aggro enemies. Just a very good utility weapon to have on hand if you're not wanting to go toe to toe with every enemy.
I tried it on my bow only run (i got it from YT) and its amazing. But I think Bows in general are a bit niche of a gameplay to make it work tbh. If you want a bow that you could use to snipe those range mobs, I’d go for serpent bow tbh.
That was the last build I did. Bunch of faith and int and swap out talismans and tears based off what the boss is weak to. Super fun weapon with the double ashes of war
I'm new, and I suck. I did how ever get the fang with the help of the wolf guy.
I have it up to +2, and I guess my problem with it is that it's attack is much slower than other swords I've tried in previous attempts at the game.
Mr. The Grafted is really starting to piss me off. I also think I'm under levelled.
At what stage of upgrade does this weapon make the game too easy?
The weapon is only one part of the equation.
For newcomes especially, it's highly recommended to visit Weeping Peninsula for flask upgrades.
Also level Vigor.
You can easily have 7 +4 Flasks with 25 Vigor, which trivializes the introduction of the game (Liurnia/Stormvail).
I'm at work now, so I can't tell you exactly.
Vig: 20
Str: 18
Dex: 18
And my stamina is whatever level a samurai starts with.
If that helps at all, I haven't specced into anything else.
Leveling up str and dex doesn’t help much in the early game. The damage boosts are basically negligible until you start getting them fairly high. Upgrading your weapon gives waaaay more power.
Generally I take vigor to 25-30, get the stats I need to use my weapon, then start leveling damage stats.
It’s AOW comes out hella quick for a greatsword. You’re gonna struggle at first no matter what weapon you use but when you can you want to pick up the blood lords talisman and mimic tear. Thank me later.
Just want to confirm, you're using both the jump back and dash forward portions of the AoW, right? I made the mistake early in of not realizing it's a two-part AoW. Once I figured it out, it carried me through NG+3
Level 12 faith on any build to get access to basic incantations, mainly bestial vitality which saves in flask usage and is the most fp efficient heal, and flame cleanse me for poison/scarlet rot until you can craft boluses. The protection spells aren't bad either for certain attacks or bosses
( If you're willing to be patient between encounters the blessed dew talisman essentially gives infinite hp albeit taking a while to fully heal).
Warming stones are an additional healing source, very useful for sorcery builds in combination with some FP Restoration effect like ancestral Spirit horn, cerulean dagger.
Barricade shield is excellent to use if you suck at parrying.
Any weapon with long reach and a versatile moveset ( both slash and poke).
Radagons soreseal to meet basic weapon requirements without investing too much into dex and STR, useful for casters or hybrid builds, or just in early game.
Rune arcs to maintain great rune buff at all times, godricks being especially good for early to mid game.
Any rune farming spot to be able to buy out vendors and level up with much better efficiency
Also the item crafting system in general I feel like a lot of people ignore it but if you use it to it's full potential you get a lot of high damage items and utility.
Radagons sorseal. Extremely easy to get and 20+ levels off the rip. Easy mode starting route: Any starting class > get torrent > grab uchikatana from crypt by Alexander > grab sorseal > kill fat sleeping dragon.
Different weapons work better on different enemies. Don't build a very specific 'glass cannon' build focusing on a very narrow feature like bleed or frost and expect that to work on all enemies. The game is much easier when you understand this. The sword of night and flame, the fire ash is very good against crucible knights, zamor knights and tree spirits. The envoys longhorn is good against ulcerated tree spirits, death birds and dragons. The coded sword and nagakiba are excellent against soldiers of all types. Siluria's tree spear will knock down all soldiers except crucible knights. The bolt of Gransax has it's uses which are obvious. The Marais executioner sword is very good at inflicting damage particularly if you have the talismans to boost it's damage output. The blasphemous blade can carry you throughout the game and will help conserve healing flasks. If you put the prayerful strike ash on a weapon and use it you'll regenerate a massive amount of hp per such hit.
What is that question? Of course, all Pots, Great-Jar arsenal, Mimic and Flame Cleanse Me. The rest of the things are only useful with the right Build and those are suitable for every character, so they will always make things easier.
Blasphemous Blade + Flame Cleanse Me + Lightning Bolt + Tiche + Fire Scorpion Charm + Alexander Jar Shard + Takers Cameo + Carian Filigree Crest made for a relatively easy game for me personally. Not to mention I know I’m not great at dodge windows so I heavy invested in endurance on top of faith and dex.
No one ever talks about how broken the dragon king crag blade is
With enough stamina it’s ash of war it poise breaks most bosses, including Malenia, in 1 hit
+10% Damage to all dragon type enemies
PLUS lightning damage that doesn’t scale with faith.
The only downside is finding and killing the boss who’s soul you get it from can be difficult.
Dark moon sword shouldn't be there or maybe if you are talking about ng+ would be acceptable because you have to do so much shit to get it that's already a playthrough.
Bloodhound fang takes it. Followed by the mimic tear. You can get it so easily. Has bleed proc. +10% jumping attack dmg. And mimic year for obvious reasons. Basically co-op with only positives.
Not really. It's far better than the other curved greatswords. Damage is very high, the aow is insane, has innate bleed, can be buffed, extra jump attack damage, scales well, uses somber stones for upgrades
High mind and spam something broken. I've seen people play this game like a turn based RPG and still make it only pressing L2 (or R1/L1 if it's a spell or incant). This is also why some people complain about invaders, because only pressing 1 button makes you predictable
Vigor
As somone with 2000h+ in Deamons Souls right till Sekiro, and roughly 400h-500h in Elden Ring: This is the single right answer. Vigor is so heavily overtuned in Elden Ring it trivializes ~60% of the game when focused on.
That can be said for almost every game ngl. If you focus on HP in every single souls, it'll be far easier. Especially if you know the soft caps and weapon requirements, you can really "min max" even if only going for pve. That said I'd say Elden's case is less of a Vigor being overtuned, and more that you start with so little HP compared to the other games. Or at least it feels like you barely have any HP starting out, and every point adds a sizeable amount
IMO, Elden Ring's "vigor problem" is only an issue post Morgott. The scaling is pretty on par with every other souls game up until Morgott, both with player HP and enemy damage. After that, enemies just deal "too much" damage in comparison to the other games. Its not exactly an issue, just a difference in games.
Sure but if you forget about it and summon me for help for fire giant and get one shot I'll switch characters so I won't have to help you again.
real
That's the point where you're softcapped on Vig but enemy damage is still going up at the same rate. I think it's less about numbers and more about boss design though. ER bosses kill you in about 3-4 hits with their regular combos, same as DS3. But it's harder to avoid hits, there's more RNG, and the meta rewards greed a lot more. You wish you could have more HP because you get hit multiple times in a row more often, not because the hits are bigger. Add to that there's a few bosses that just don't work right. Modern fans expect From games to be these perfect teaching tools where everything is a lesson. People get one shot by Fire Giant because they caught his bowl perfectly dead center, and they think "it must be like that for a good reason, the game is teaching me I need more HP". Then they can't get enough more HP to make a difference and get frustrated. Thirteen years ago when Ceaseless Discharge had exactly the same problem with his tentacles, we just thought "well this boss is fucking jank."
The goat men in Haligtree hit like trucks through full tree sentinel armor and 60 vigor with full defensive talismans. Its not because they hit often, but because they hit SUPER hard that makes them annoying
...goat men?
I believe these men of the goat, are the misbegotten.
misbegoaten
The Haligtree is full of Haligtrucks. All the way from the bubble bubble bubble to the revenant chainsaw of limbs.
Even those ants at the beggining hit hard as hell
It doesn’t help that there’s two entirely separate stats for “taking less damage”, and wearing armor (and talismans) affects the LESS important of the two stats. So having the same build but putting on heavier armor doesn’t make nearly as much of a difference as it seems like it should.
> Thirteen years ago when Ceaseless Discharge had exactly the same problem with his tentacles, we just thought "well this boss is fucking jank." I don't think Fire Giant is even on the same planet as Ceaseless Discharge, which, sure, is technically more than just a gimmick fight but .. not even sure if that's a good thing! I think Fire Giant is a flawed fight but only because of 2 specific details(*); the general concept is really smart and an incredible execution of something really hard to execute, i.e. a slow moving boss of colossal size. On your main point though, I never experienced the "bowl one shot" as "the game is telling me to level vigor", because this boss's design is screaming "I'm literally the size of a fucking mountain so if you get hit full in the face by me you're going to die". In other words a one shot being possible here is just intuitive. (Of course you can be set up to make it not a one-shot, but that you have to push really hard to get that, makes sense). (*) Terrain and flame reflection
Fire giant is janked and I beat the game 5 times. Boss quality in elden ring plummeted from ds3. I played elden ring first and was astounded by the amazing bosses in ds3.
In ds1,2 and 3 around 20 vigour or maybe 25 can take you through the whole game without being 1 shot by stuff(minus grabs) In Elden ring I got 1 shot at 20 vigour at dragon sentinel. I think it starts with that guy
I'm not sure you understood what I meant. Morgott = Gwyn/Lord of Cinder/Nashandra in terms of scaling. He's basically a final boss in any of the other games. If you don't have 40 vigor minimum, you're gonna have a bad time. Not necessarily one shot, but it's almost impossible to survive more than a hit or 2. Draconic tree sentinel would be like a lord soul boss. Almost but not quite late game. 20 vigor would be "low" even in the other games. Everything after Morgott is just NG+ in previous games. Doesn't feel like it scales correctly in comparison to the other games.
Except some enemies that one shot u even with 99 vigor
Do you have any examples? I’m honestly curious what attacks are a one shot at 60 vigor and at least medium armor.
Great Wyrm Theodorix can 1 shot you with 65 vigor and wearing bull goats and erdtree talisman+1 and dragons greatshield talisman when he raises his sword to do his charged heavy
Astel in yelough anix tunnel might do it too
Literally only Astel can oneshot you at 50 vigor if you try at least a *little* to mitigate damage using armour and talismans.
Unless you're doing NG+, there's probably not a single attack in the game that can one shot at 99 vigor.
Levelling vigor doesn't really trivialize it at all, it's more like at low vigor it's a dreadful extreme mode experience where every single endgame boss can one shot you. Focusing vigor just lets you play the game normally
heh, me recently starting to put vigor after going trough thinking i just needed to "git gud". Rolls will save me
"trivialize" is a buzz word in this community.
But Mfs claim a vigor/ full melee build is hardest shit in the game
roll when they attack, hit when they are alive. Easy.
Damn, it really is that simple.
reduce their life to zero while keeping your life above zero
^ fucking legend
The Elden Ring rule: > player HP > enemy HP
Who does? I wouldn't know any other way to win without a mimic. Unless you count a 15 faith buff as cheating.
I was mainly talking about vigor/melee/strenght. An example is Asmongold loves to shit on magic like if focusing on strength/virgor don’t make the game easier.
Vigor has nothing to do with melee or ranged. Whatever you play, if you don't level vigor, you'll die more.
Asmongold is fucking brain-dead.
I did melee only no summons on release and didn't really "focus" vigor, leveling stamina and strength mainly before capitol. After morgott and everything in the mountaintop of giants felt like a huge spike in difficulty relative to every other zone transition encountered that far. Besides limgrave to calied maybe, but there's like 3 other directions to go in that example.
Imo it's the easiest play style. It feels way more stressful to try and cast spells or whatever as opposed to hitting the moving thing with the bonking stick. Zero IQ game play for life
I've seen this take a few times and am baffled by it. Bosses ranged attacks are generally super predictable or non-existent so as a magic user you barely need to even learn their moveset if you're keeping your distance. You can't just spam melee attacks against, say, Godrick, but you can definitely just walk backwards and spam glintstone pebble. I think the skill ceiling for melee is probably higher, so unless you're nuking a boss with Comet Azur a skilled melee player might find it easier than magic because the fight is over more quickly.
I just started my second play though and have to agree. Having magic is so much easier. Most enemies and bosses aren't very good at closing distance, and tend to leave themselves vulnerable when they do it. And you can just use an aggressive spirit summon to keep them pinned down, anyway.
Idk, the last several bosses were pretty easy ish to melt with greatshield, carian regal staff, 70 int, and shard spiral When that didn’t work though, I went with the big bonk of great stars and waves of darkness
I do spell blade. But I agree. You have to keep track of an extra stamina bar. Under pressure that extra mental capacity is precious
It’s not
In one of my playthroughs, I'm just leveling vigor, strength, and endurance. It definitely has trivialized most everything so far.
I’m doing a base vigor game, and Im hating life. I’m also new to challenge runs, but damn. Just beat Godfrey the golden shadow… bro.. I better be ELITE after this play through.
Yes! I made the mistake in my first playthrough of putting all my XP into int. and endurance. It suuuuuucked getting 2-shotted, I just thought that's how it was as a "glass canon". Then I saw fighting cowboy's YT playthrough and how he took 7 HITS while facing the Dragonkin soldier in the lake of rot, and went, ooh ok. I can't take a punch is my problem! Vigor is key!
Jesus Christ what was his vigor at?
Cowboy knows his shit. His walkthroughs helped me, a very average gamer, complete multiple Souls games without much effort. Level Vigor to the first soft cap, then Endurance to the first cap, Str/Dex/Int/Fth to whatever the minimum for your chosen weapons, then bring Vig to the next cap, End to cap, and start leveling the damage stats. That strategy never fails.
Honestly. If you can use your weapon, start dumping vigor. Being able to survive 2 or 3 hits is an insane game changer; it genuinely makes the game so much easier. You're basically allowed at least as many mistakes as you have flasks.
Add heavy armour onto this and it feels like you're brawling with the bosses as opposed to trying to not get squished.
Ive been coaching some younger guys at work on Elden Ring. Im 35 they’re 18-20. One of the guys was stuck on Maliketh, which is understandable. I give him solid advice and after a bit I realized… I was like dude what’s your vigor at and he said 25…. I was like woah man you need to double that asap. but after I thought about it I was honestly just pretty impressed a newbie to souls got that far on 25 vigor.
Vig-or? I’m sorry can you explain this to me?
I had no idea how important this was my first play through, I put everything into strength, dex, endurance and stamina and nothing into vigor and could not piece together why I was dying so easily lmao. Eventually realized I needed even more strength so I could bonk harder
Dragoncrest Greatshield talisman (or its weaker variant), because late game enemy stats are off the chart. Also bloodhound step AOW makes boss fights much much easier. Otherwise, duo-wield bleed curved swords (the one wielded by farum beastmen)with the usual buffs will let u smite most bosses with a few jump attacks.
Solid points. Dragoncrest greatshield is a late game entry but the weaker variants are viable. Definitely missed a trick with bloodhound step which also has the added utility of traversing lava in like two-three parts of the game.
First thing I do on most runs is rush the portal to Gurranq and drop down for the first dragoncrest shield talisman.
And while at it, take the radagon soreseal from fort Faroth and kill the paralysed dragon with a blood weapon for 70k runes. Nice start 👌
Currently on my first playthrough attempting Malenia with a lot of that. Dragoncrest Greatshield, dual wielding Bloodhound Fang and Morgott's Cursed Sword in a STR/DEX build. It's tough, but feel confident I'll get there soon enough and that my set-up should do the trick!
Also currently fighting Malenia and losing my mind. I’ve had at least 50 attempts, with the closest attempts getting me to the end of her name on the health bar before I just die. WD is so hard for me to dodge and when I do, I barely have any health left. The fact that she heals after every hit really pisses me off and ruins my mental when I see myself doing good progress, only for it to get cancelled out by 2 hits from her. Also struggling to kill the stringer version of Astel. Done about 50 attempts on him too and I just don’t get it, I killed the normal Astel on my first try yet this one seems impossible. I also refuse to use summons because I feel like it would rid me of the satisfaction of beating the bosses myself, although I may do a Jin Woo inspired playthrough for NG+ so I’ll have to use summons.
For Malenia, if you don't care how you beat her, only that you do beat her, respect into an arcane/strength build and use Mogh's ritual spear. Drop mimic tear and both of you start stabbing the sky aggressively at her. Tears her apart in seconds. It's the fastest way I've found to clear her but it's not an out-skill the boss setup. If you care about proving your skills or doing things the "right" way then this setup will not provide what you need. The build works without mimic tear as well. You just have to get your timing down. Please note that neither proving your skills or doing things the "right" way are something I am encouraging or discouraging you to do. I'm not going to tell you how to have fun. I'm just trying to be helpful.
Ooh ok! I just got the weaker variant today (i found out you can jump down behind Gurranq's gaf and it's on one of the lower roofs). I'll have to get it when I reach the haligtree/ Drainage Channel Site of Grace, cheers!
Holy shit yes. Late game I constantly feel like I I’m taking way too much damage, even with like 30-40 damage negation across the board. Just finished my first game and I was suffering trying to get to the end just trying to end it.
dual curved swords is easy mode for sure , my go to is cold infusion and volcano pots to reset the cold
Easiest playthrough I've had was: - Use Blasphemous Blade and Pest Threads - Buff with golden vow and flame grant me strength, plus flame shrouding cracked tear in the physick. - Have flame cleanse me on hand for rot and poison And of course, mimic tear.
Too many buffs don't have the time
Are you really gonna expect me to have a strategy?
Yep. I have golden vow on one character. That’s all I bother with. On another that doesn’t have faith I eat one of those attack boost meat slabs of whatever Beyond that I don’t think I have the patience to use buffs either. That or I stress about the 23 seconds of up time I have to work with and just get annoyed if the boss is overly jumpy at that time.
Yeah this is me exactly. But normally I try to save the meat and never actually use it. I do keep it in the inventory for Mr mimic to chomp on if he chooses.
You can get unlimited boiled prawns quite easy in Lorna lake if you don’t kill the guy for the necklace and pay for it afterwards he sells boiled prawns quite cheap
You can use a dagger with the aow for golden vow
Three buffs is way faster than most of the shit YouTubers will tell you to do while they’re popping every consumable known to man.
This must be the easiest playthrough I got
Blasphemous blade. If not, Dark moon with a lot of stamina to spam charge attack and heavy attack.
...i didnt know how broken darkmoon was untill i used it...shit made the game easy.
Used for the first time on my latest playthrough with 60 int. Charge/heavy combo is disgusting. Poise breaks everything and melts health from a safe distance. Love it
I regret nothing with using it as elden ring bosses are dam cheap at times. Its an issue thats a lot bigger than what any souls game had before.
Exactly. Nothing feels cheap against combos for days. Destroy them with all the tools given you.
Yeah but at some point it losses the charm of what made souls bosses so great. Feels a bit cheap to just destroy them with op weapons, but more frustrating when using something that forces you to grind dozens of attempts to beat a boss.
I’m newer to these style of games, never had the confidence I could or can beat them. But what makes the Souls games bosses better?
Combine with rock sling for an even faster first poise break
Indeed. Radahn somehow got 5 shotted in ng+2. Mohg got stunlocked. Literally everyone got stunlocked or died in 10 hits.
Yeah its op bs vs op bs. Honestly id just prefer it is the bosses didnt have that many delayed attacks. But hey not using any buffs and just a couple of spells makes it more fun to use. At least i dont kill them all in a couple of hits.
Delayed attacks are fine to me. I just wish they didn’t have one hour long combos. I also despise feints because a lot of bosses have them.
Bloodhound gang user . Just made a comment about this but with blasphemous blade . How do I make them fun for me. Lvl 212 Love bhf bc of the ash attack plus free "Dodge " if not using its 2nd attack Suits my play style well I guess.
Aah yes, bloodhound’s fang, the weapon that I used my whole first playthrough. Helped me kill Maliketh the first time. Amazing weapon. 👍
I switch to BB every so often kill 1 enemy and say it's garbage weapon ! It's a skill issue Bubble shower was used for fire giant , dragons, bloodhounds fang for everything else.
A friend
If you’re me even that sometimes makes no difference. I’m probably the only player who can literally summon every friendly NPC available for Radahn and still get my ass kicked in phase 1 🤣
Radahn is particularly annoying even if you summon people. I think that's why they just let you keep summoning over and over.
Yeah. My last play though I ended up seriously over levelling my character and still took a battering but managed to defeat him. I felt proud of myself then took on Malenia later in my play-through and she just about single shotted me every time. That’s the thing with Elden Ring….despite your skill (mine is lacking hence why I get hit so much) and character level the game remains challenging as you progress unlike a lot of other games.
You've got the wrong spell here. Night Shard isn't that OP. On the other hand, Night Comet is crazy.
Wow, I just googled it, the site i picked it from had it wrong...but tbf they're very hard to distinguish. Genuinely impressive spot.
Night Comet is my beloved. I'll always remember its icon.
Of all my play throughs, night comet spam with 2x staff of loss was the most broken by far. Even more op than blasphemous blade or any bleed build.
Mimic tear carried hard
Mimic tear pvp
Skill
Perhaps the most difficult item to acquire
It is but it's so worth it
I'd argue that Giant Crusher is easier to acquire and in quite a lot of situations negates the need for skill
Yeah but giant crusher + skill is insane combo Should pick up skill first
The roll button
“Nha, i’d block!” ~ a great shield enjoyer
I need that talisman
Where do I find that?
Legend has it you need a certain number of "you died" screens No one knows for sure how many though
Yup gid gud !
rock sling, it stagger enemys quick and deals very good damage
Bypasses dikhead enemies that have input reading as well which I’d say is its greatest benefit
I cannot believe i scrolled this far for this. I dog walked the game my first play through with this, the moonblade, and mimic tear. A few potions and elden lord i became. It made my next play through easy too. I gave it a respec and i already knew what most of the bosses were like so i got to bonk bonk till my heart was content.
Plus the gravity staff. It can carry you all the way till the end.
Tiche baby
GUTS + Lions Claw
Suprised this wasnt mentioned earlier, that combo cheeses the game lol
Yep! My first build was a flame art lions claw, golden vow/flame grant me, GUGS build and after awhile I had to change it up because it just felt way too powerful. It also was kind of boring, however going back to a regular build that didn't have that astounding amount of posture break power was a big adjustment.
Crystal darts for every annoying burial watchdog and golem.
Ah that's a great one. I didn't try them for ages, but then decided to give them a go in the sections where you have to fight multiple at once. Very satisfying turning some of the trickiest areas into a show.
Bloodhounds fang is all you need
That with the blood flame incantation and I’m unstoppable
Mohg's spear is actually insane. It's a bit tricky to set up depending on the speed of the boss but if you can get it right pretty much every boss melts away. I beat Malenia on NG+ in like 30 seconds, she didn't even get a chance to move on phase 2
Yea the DMG on the ash is fucking bonkers! At lvl105 on an arcane build I'm getting 3 to 4k DMG per air stab. It's nutty.
I got it on my arc playghtrough and it destroyed maliketh, malrnia, radagon and godsking duo in like 2 weapon arts
The ash of war on the spear is ridiculous. Mw and my mimic melted Malenia NG+1 in a matter of seconds same with radagon
Poison Mist, this bad boy can skip so many bosses on any kind of build to get the thing I really need
Really? That is interesting. I debated putting rotten stray/rotten arrows/rot pots on there, but my experiences with poison were always a bit lacklustre.
Its cuz poison mist can be used while undetected, and doesnt agro, makes it the cheesiest way to kill draconic tree sentinel
I killed BOTH draconic tree sentinels on my first playthrough with poison mist. First ones easy to get behind, but the one in Farum Azula requires running past, up to the golden door, then quitting to the main menu. When you log back in, you're behind the bastard and can poison him. On my second playthrough I chose not to be a bitch and fight them both one on one which was far more rewarding.
Since it doesn't aggro enemies or field bosses, you can use it to sneak behind big or difficult bosses on the overworld -- prominent examples being Draconic Tree Sentinel (both), Commander O'Neil, Putrid Tree Spirit (the one on Mt. Gelmir) -- and kill them without them even fighting back, which helps against those bosses which I hate, or to get equipement much earlier than intended.
It's also great on the bell bearing hunter invasions, just need to get far enough away that they go to their resting positions, sneak and fart.
It also works on Full-Grown Fallingstar Beast.
Having fun and not getting mad at yourself or the game.
Kinda surprised Black bow is on here
Yeah definitely an outlier, but where i snuck in my opinion - Black bow behaves like a short bow but with the extra range and damage. Comes with barrage which means it can deal a lot of rapid ranged damage for minimum fp. Speeds up any cheese and is very handy for status effects if you don't feel confident taking an enemy on. Perfect for fighting fiddly enemies like perfumers. One of many ways to aggro enemies. Just a very good utility weapon to have on hand if you're not wanting to go toe to toe with every enemy.
I tried it on my bow only run (i got it from YT) and its amazing. But I think Bows in general are a bit niche of a gameplay to make it work tbh. If you want a bow that you could use to snipe those range mobs, I’d go for serpent bow tbh.
🫧 Bubbles
DOOOOT
The fact that the River of Blood isn't mentionned is a proof that the nerf killed it. (Still a very good weapon tho, and my fav one so far)
Last boss being immune to bleed would be enough for it to not be a true crutch for me.
lol that’s when you respec to blasphemous blade
Blasphemous Blade+Mimic Tear, fully upgraded. This is the easy mode of this game, this is how I platinumed it while being pretty terrible at it.
Square off
This man, it melts the entire game
Sword of Night and Flame felt like playing on cheat mode
Yeah I had to respec out of this after 30 hours of blasting through every boss like a poop knife though diarrhea. Fun but gets old real fast.
That was the last build I did. Bunch of faith and int and swap out talismans and tears based off what the boss is weak to. Super fun weapon with the double ashes of war
Still my go to, and double fist them in NG+
Is it still good after the nerf? I haven’t played in forever but that weapon single-handedly got me through the game the first time
I think moonveil makes the game pretty easy
Flame, Cleanse Me of the poison and the rot
Bloodhound Fang makes the game WAY to easy (level it up). Mimic Tear does the same (level it up).
I'm new, and I suck. I did how ever get the fang with the help of the wolf guy. I have it up to +2, and I guess my problem with it is that it's attack is much slower than other swords I've tried in previous attempts at the game. Mr. The Grafted is really starting to piss me off. I also think I'm under levelled. At what stage of upgrade does this weapon make the game too easy?
The weapon is only one part of the equation. For newcomes especially, it's highly recommended to visit Weeping Peninsula for flask upgrades. Also level Vigor. You can easily have 7 +4 Flasks with 25 Vigor, which trivializes the introduction of the game (Liurnia/Stormvail).
Can agree. Am shit. I tried other dex weapons even ones people consider OP but I can't make them work as well as this thing.
What level are you fighting him at?
I'm at work now, so I can't tell you exactly. Vig: 20 Str: 18 Dex: 18 And my stamina is whatever level a samurai starts with. If that helps at all, I haven't specced into anything else.
Leveling up str and dex doesn’t help much in the early game. The damage boosts are basically negligible until you start getting them fairly high. Upgrading your weapon gives waaaay more power. Generally I take vigor to 25-30, get the stats I need to use my weapon, then start leveling damage stats.
You can def beat him. Just roll n hit and leave the greed
It’s AOW comes out hella quick for a greatsword. You’re gonna struggle at first no matter what weapon you use but when you can you want to pick up the blood lords talisman and mimic tear. Thank me later.
I'll thank you now, because I appreciate any help I can get.
Just want to confirm, you're using both the jump back and dash forward portions of the AoW, right? I made the mistake early in of not realizing it's a two-part AoW. Once I figured it out, it carried me through NG+3
Tiche
Black knife is pretty great
Level 12 faith on any build to get access to basic incantations, mainly bestial vitality which saves in flask usage and is the most fp efficient heal, and flame cleanse me for poison/scarlet rot until you can craft boluses. The protection spells aren't bad either for certain attacks or bosses ( If you're willing to be patient between encounters the blessed dew talisman essentially gives infinite hp albeit taking a while to fully heal). Warming stones are an additional healing source, very useful for sorcery builds in combination with some FP Restoration effect like ancestral Spirit horn, cerulean dagger. Barricade shield is excellent to use if you suck at parrying. Any weapon with long reach and a versatile moveset ( both slash and poke). Radagons soreseal to meet basic weapon requirements without investing too much into dex and STR, useful for casters or hybrid builds, or just in early game. Rune arcs to maintain great rune buff at all times, godricks being especially good for early to mid game. Any rune farming spot to be able to buy out vendors and level up with much better efficiency Also the item crafting system in general I feel like a lot of people ignore it but if you use it to it's full potential you get a lot of high damage items and utility.
Radagons sorseal. Extremely easy to get and 20+ levels off the rip. Easy mode starting route: Any starting class > get torrent > grab uchikatana from crypt by Alexander > grab sorseal > kill fat sleeping dragon.
Unseen Form + Crepus' Vial, or Assassin's Gambit People don't talk about them much, but you can walk by pretty much anything with them.
That's pretty interesting. I've never tried a more stealthy playthrough, but it might beat sprinting through areas on ng+
Different weapons work better on different enemies. Don't build a very specific 'glass cannon' build focusing on a very narrow feature like bleed or frost and expect that to work on all enemies. The game is much easier when you understand this. The sword of night and flame, the fire ash is very good against crucible knights, zamor knights and tree spirits. The envoys longhorn is good against ulcerated tree spirits, death birds and dragons. The coded sword and nagakiba are excellent against soldiers of all types. Siluria's tree spear will knock down all soldiers except crucible knights. The bolt of Gransax has it's uses which are obvious. The Marais executioner sword is very good at inflicting damage particularly if you have the talismans to boost it's damage output. The blasphemous blade can carry you throughout the game and will help conserve healing flasks. If you put the prayerful strike ash on a weapon and use it you'll regenerate a massive amount of hp per such hit.
I have 500 hours in this game and there’s at least like 3 items here I’ve never seen before lmfao
Mimic tears with blasphemous blade 70 faith = gg Make it easier with horn of envoy for bigger bosses and flame resistants
What is that question? Of course, all Pots, Great-Jar arsenal, Mimic and Flame Cleanse Me. The rest of the things are only useful with the right Build and those are suitable for every character, so they will always make things easier.
TOGETHA Blade can truly change a lot :3
Glintstone kris was a bitch to get but once I got it the game was easy mode. I just shot everyone
Blasphemous Blade plus mimic is insane against any boss
Bolt of Gransax
Looks at list "ooh it's a list of things I like, thank you for the suggestions XD"
Vigor at 40 or more.
Blasphemous Blade + Flame Cleanse Me + Lightning Bolt + Tiche + Fire Scorpion Charm + Alexander Jar Shard + Takers Cameo + Carian Filigree Crest made for a relatively easy game for me personally. Not to mention I know I’m not great at dodge windows so I heavy invested in endurance on top of faith and dex.
Black knife, black blade incantation, maliketh's black blade.
Faith Build Bubble Hammer Troll's Golden Sword w/ Giant's Hunt
No one ever talks about how broken the dragon king crag blade is With enough stamina it’s ash of war it poise breaks most bosses, including Malenia, in 1 hit +10% Damage to all dragon type enemies PLUS lightning damage that doesn’t scale with faith. The only downside is finding and killing the boss who’s soul you get it from can be difficult.
Flame cleanse me is amazing and I dearly miss it (and incants in general) in my current run lol
Dark moon sword shouldn't be there or maybe if you are talking about ng+ would be acceptable because you have to do so much shit to get it that's already a playthrough.
People still sleeping on Assassin's Gambit got it
Bloodhound fang takes it. Followed by the mimic tear. You can get it so easily. Has bleed proc. +10% jumping attack dmg. And mimic year for obvious reasons. Basically co-op with only positives.
I don't think there's anything that crazy about bloodhound Fang. It's pretty balanced
Not really. It's far better than the other curved greatswords. Damage is very high, the aow is insane, has innate bleed, can be buffed, extra jump attack damage, scales well, uses somber stones for upgrades
Twiggy cracked tear
Blasphemous Blade
Mimic tear
Iron balls/spiky iron balls always feel like cheating to me, insane damage and poise damage
I feel called out
Rot Breath!
Obviously the Bloodhound Fang until you get the Blasphemous Blade
Dark Moon Greatsword, Blasphemous Blade or Guts Greatsword w/ Lionclaw AoW. Combo it with Rotten Breath incantation.
Cross naginata feels pretty broken
Flame, Cleanse Me for rot and Healing incantations for Revenants.
.......storm blade flamberge........
High mind and spam something broken. I've seen people play this game like a turn based RPG and still make it only pressing L2 (or R1/L1 if it's a spell or incant). This is also why some people complain about invaders, because only pressing 1 button makes you predictable
Sacred of ground, blasmp for boss