Elden ring!

[pahulkster]

I don't think it's any harder and I'm pretty shit overall. Never could beat most of the main game without summons. You absolutely need the Shadow Realm Blessings up as high as you can get them. Some of the materials are easy to miss. Only one boss made me flip a little but that was expected, and I'm pretty far into it. NG+ character started around level 200. I just use a quality build with power stance katanas and another big weapon if needed (usually Great Stars).

 

[wankerness]

Y'know, it's funny because I was thinking to myself last night, this does remind me a LOT of jumping into the Ringed City DLC where the Hollow Knights can just wreck your shit if you're not careful (or even if you are!) and it's a bit unrelenting in that you move from one area to the next expecting maybe some relief for a second, but nope, just different frustration. I noticed in Belurat there was dudes who were EXACTLY like the Turtle-casters who could hit you with ranged attacks even if you weren't in line of sight, nice to see of all the features they could bring back, THAT was their choice?

I've heard people defending the criticisms that it's hard, but it feels like a different level of hard compared to previous entries including the base game. As you said, you're getting two-shots from bosses, and I've experienced it myself, and it's like, at this level there shouldn't be an entry level boss that's doing that; since they are, it means that they're more powerful than the endgame bosses of the base, and realistically, we should be leveled up much higher than we are. But, that's not possible really as there's a point of diminishing returns due to soft/hard caps on stats, and once you get into NG+ then you're now adding a damage/health modifier onto enemies for your own health pool that'll also continue to go up. So what's the solution? Well, they did give us the Scardutree Blessing and Sacred Ash Blessing, but both of those seem scarce in the beginning (having now beaten two full bosses, and one mini-boss and only found two) so it doesn't seem like they felt the difficult was all that ramped up to begin with, and it's still possible to have that same thing happen even with those buffs. Summons? People are already doing that and still getting wiped.

I'm curious if we'll see nerfs in the next week or two, at a minimum hopefully we can get some patches just for performance issues as if the later enemies are as bad as Dancing Lion was, I'm gonna be fighting the console as much as the enemies themselves

My problem with a lot of the defense I'm reading is that it's from people that have only fought main bosses Lion #1 and Rellana or whatever her name is, had few problems, and then use that lack of problems to call anyone complaining about late bosses whiners that want nerfs and saying they're not having a problem so the problem is the player. It doesn't get absurd until considerably later on. I think those first two are more than fine if you're using summons, and I think that the black gaol knight or whatever that first boss was that killed me 20+ times is totally fine since he has fair attack patterns/openings and a non-broken camera.

I haven't yet gotten to the two bosses that everyone is bitching about cause they literally charge you with an 80%+ damage move the second you zone into their area. And I'm not even close to the final boss, who I'm seeing universal hatred for from the most veteran players imaginable - apparently it's so bad that most people are saying they will play all the DLC right up to the point of that boss and then quit on all subsequent characters. Like, it's just bizarre the knee-jerk defense this DLC is getting from some people. One guy on Steam posted a video of himself no-hitting Melania on NG+17 to prove he's not some terrible player and then in detail in his lukewarm review discussed the bosses he thought were unfair and badly balanced and in need of nerfs, and everyone just responded to him with hatred like "GIT GUD SCRUB THIS IS OBVIOUSLY A SKILL ISSUE!!!" There is an actual tuning problem with some of this.

Like, PAHulkster, what boss are you on? I have a very hard time believing that you don't think it's any harder than the base game if you're to Mesmer or whatever (and he's second of four main bosses, apparently). But, it does sound like you have an ideal build at least.

 

[pahulkster]

Spoiler

I beat Messmer, Rellana and several other remembrance bosses. Messmer is basically all I can handle and equal to Malenia for me. I would never beat either without the mimic. Pretty sure I have all the map unlocked

60 vig, 20 mind, 33 endurance, 80 dex/strength at the moment. Think I started about fifteen levels down from where I'm at now. Currently I think my Shadow Blessing is 10 and the Ash one is 7. I use Malaketh's armor with a headband because it looks cool. Maxed quality Nagakiba and Hand Of Malenia. Maxed quality Great Stars. Been using Great Stars much more on the DLC. Talismans idk names but they just buff stats and lower damage. I beat the base game three times. Overall I can play but I would not say I'm good. I can't/don't parry anything and Crucible Knights kill me ten times usually. Elden Beast is like twenty attempts. For reference I couldn't beat Jedi Survivor without going to easy. I initially couldn't beat the final boss on Dark Souls 3 but recently went back in with my sort of Elden Ring skills and did it. Still extremely hard and just about harder than anything in Elden Ring.

Game is absolutely hard and shit kills me all the time. Two stupid dogs is a nightmare and three is 100% dead.

 

[pahulkster]

DLC is amazing though. Don't really know what else you'd want from it. It's huge and has a ton of new stuff. It's not without faults but neither is the main game. Don't know how many times I've died to get some cookbook with one recipe in it I'll never use. Navigation is a huge pain in the ass sometimes when there is never a way down to the part you want to get to. The only thing I've looked up is just how to get to this one place on the map that I couldn't figure out. The stagger you get from some enemies is absurd (could be my poise idk) and my guy drinks as slow as possible. The camera definitely sucks at times and the lock on can kill you easier than the bosses.

 

[Moongrum]

Game is absolutely hard and shit kills me all the time. Two stupid dogs is a nightmare and three is 100% dead.

I try to keep stormcaller equipped for this specific reason, and even then chances of survival aren't guaranteed

 

[wankerness]

Another thing I've heard about this DLC besides the Sekiro tear being really good is that the "Raptor of the Mists" AOW is incredibly good for dealing with boss bullshit. I've never actually used it, I might stick it on a weapon to see what happens.

 

[MFB]

The stagger you get from some enemies is absurd (could be my poise idk) and my guy drinks as slow as possible.

This is why I farmed the bird in Mohgwyn Palace to up my eqpt load so I could use the Solitary Knight set and get 125 poise, beats the fuck out of the 96 I had before.

 

[BlackMastodon]

I should've clarified: it's not because I'm following the hate that it's getting from some people, it's just that I've only scratched the surface of the base game and am not gud enough to want to get into the new stuff and get crushed,not anytime soon anyway. It sounds like there's a ton of additional content and it's way more than just a DLC pack, which I think is really cool for the hardcore fans who have been playing since release.

 

[MFB]

I should've clarified: it's not because I'm following the hate that it's getting from some people, it's just that I've only scratched the surface of the base game and am not gud enough to want to get into the new stuff and get crushed,not anytime soon anyway. It sounds like there's a ton of additional content and it's way more than just a DLC pack, which I think is really cool for the hardcore fans who have been playing since release.

If memory serves, this I believe was content that was originally intended to be included in the game, and once they saw the scope of how much they were planning, they knew they couldn't fit it in and it was basically worked on almost concurrently to the main game. I'm sure they pulled people as needed off of it to work on getting the game done once it was determined when the print date was, but given how much is here, they definitely hit the ground running with it which I'm sure made it that much easier for everyone.

 

[Moongrum]

Another thing I've heard about this DLC besides the Sekiro tear being really good is that the "Raptor of the Mists" AOW is incredibly good for dealing with boss bullshit. I've never actually used it, I might stick it on a weapon to see what happens.

Interesting.... I never found a use for Raptor, I'm going to try it when I get off work.

 

[wankerness]

I should've clarified: it's not because I'm following the hate that it's getting from some people, it's just that I've only scratched the surface of the base game and am not gud enough to want to get into the new stuff and get crushed,not anytime soon anyway. It sounds like there's a ton of additional content and it's way more than just a DLC pack, which I think is really cool for the hardcore fans who have been playing since release.

Yeah, I think you should definitely clear the base game including infamous optional hard boss Malenia before even thinking about this. I think some of these bosses are about on par with her already in terms of huge attack flurries that can kill you instantly if you don't learn all the weird, stuttered timing and directions (this was a shocking, new mechanic with her - a lot of early strats to beat her involved praying she didn't cast that one attack or stunlocking her cause barely anyone could figure out how to avoid it for months) and I'm only halfway through.

Mesmer's combo stuff is definitely a lot like Waterfowl dance, and I never even really got a chance to figure out what the heck to do in phase 2. Beating him felt about like beating her the first time - practically luck!! I'm guessing it will be easier on repeat playthroughs, especially when not a magic build.

 

[MFB]

Made it thru Belurat Goal and all those god damn living jars, wasn't as long as some said but it did FEEL longer than it really was; I had I think 8 heals left by the time I got to the end, and got interrupted casting mimic so for a second I thought I was done for. Then I got to actually summon him and while he formed, I got some damage in and realized it was a waste, so I let him solo the little dude.

Avoided the dragon and made my way to Castle Ensis, kind of wish the game directed you here instead of having you go up to Shadow Keep just to stand at the gate like the end of thr main game and realize you can't proceed. So far the main part of the map you start at doesn't really have much going on for it, lots of open land to cross but it's like, oh cool, more transparent tombstones.

I also now have PS+ and I have no idea how y'all deal with all this extra visual clutter; I mean, bloodstains, shit messages that are never funny or phishing for praise, phantoms of other players, just get it all the fuck OFF my screen.

 

[narad]

Are they doing some sort of promotion? I never tried to sign up for PS+ and I didn't get any email saying I did, but I moved apartments, and now I also have all that visual clutter. It's helped a couple times finding a rare item though.

 

[MFB]

Are they doing some sort of promotion? I never tried to sign up for PS+ and I didn't get any email saying I did, but I moved apartments, and now I also have all that visual clutter. It's helped a couple times finding a rare item though.

Maybe, I got it for $80 for a year but I opted in since I wanted to play some shooters online and finally bit the bullet. I did have one day where my Bloodborne was connected online, pretty sure it was the event day, and had the same thoughts of, "why am I suddenly seeing all of this against my will?"

 

[pahulkster]

I only play this offline because of all the garbage on the screen otherwise. I don't really get why anyone would want all that crap on and random phantoms running in front of you all the time.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

lmao

 

[narad]

Just made it to/past Rosalina or whatever, the bug rider person. Cheesy fight and I'm glad it didn't take too many attempts to basically just get lucky with it, but I'm again wowed by the character design and animation. That was really cool. I think all the bigger 3 bosses I've done so far have all been a real step up in terms of the design and movements.

 

[TedEH]

Killed the dragon at the start area in the water. And the cave nearby with the jars. Went on an adventure-y detour and ended up in the river below everything, did some caves down there. Cleared most of the Castle Ensis and saved just before the boss door. I dunno if I'm far enough in to be allowed to have an opinion, but I'm not finding anything too ridiculous in terms of difficulty still. Some annoying enemy types, like the invisible guys, but it's a From game, so I dunno what people expected.

shit messages that are never funny or phishing for praise

I find them funny, and helpful, since they tend to warn about ambushes or things you might have missed. Also, you get healed when someone appraises your own messages. IMO they feel core to the souls-type experience.

 

[wankerness]

The messages are great. I only really use PS+ because of how they enhance the experience. DS2 and Elden Ring have the best messages IMO, though they're also incredibly helpful in DS1 because of things like the invisible bridges where the helpful player messages are by far the easiest way to see them. They're very frequently helpful or funny. I mean, 2/3 of them at least are useless, pointless, or unfunny, but they just add so much to the experience for me, and there are still tons of them that either make me chuckle or actually help in terms of knowing which corners are worth exploring or not, or warning about enemy ambushes, etc. It makes you feel like you aren't playing the game alone. Plus there have been a couple really major illusionary walls (like, the kind that unlock whole secret areas/dungeons) that I only found because of messages on the ground.

I have no idea what this bug rider boss is, I must not have gone that path. I just beat Mesmer and then had to look up how to access the whole east part of Shadow Keep, so now I'm doing that - that will be a project for tonight. I figure once (if) I beat the rest of the main story bosses I'll look up a guide for all bosses cause I know there are like 30 of them.

 

[p0ke]

I've never played any Souls game online because I don't wanna pay for the Xbox service, but in Sekiro it went online without the subscription (not a clue why it works there and not in DS/ER) and it was annoyingly cluttered with all the whatever they're called in that game. Maybe the whole subscription thing changed recently...