Elden ring!

[MFB]

Killed Gaius, took I think 5 tries total, tried using summons quick but he spawns so close to tbe entrance that it's tricky to get off the bell without tanking the first hit; I actually ended up switching to torrent after the second attempt and it worked better than anything else.

Eventually summon Mimic and kept close enough with moving on torrent that mimic would attack while I drew aggro in a role reversal. Torrent got killed pretty quickly but he was into Phase 2 and we just closed it out.

 

[MFB]

Should note I'm also at like ...11 MAYBE 12 Scadutree blessing and I think my Spirit Ash one is still low, at like, 5 MAYBE 6 but that doesn't sound right, so probs 5. I actually tried using Findlay before Mimic, since I'm a little conscience of always using the same summon, but the one time I did, Gaius charged her and literally drove her into a wall and one-shot; I would have laughed harder if I wasn't so shocked he could do that.

 

[TedEH]

I'm falling a bit behind because I've been doing general exploring instead of the main dungeon-y parts. Ran into a bug where a door got opened, but when I died it was closed again and I had to re-do a whole section because the shortcut didn't stay open. I found another one of those coffins, which made me think both "neat" and "didn't we already do this in the base game" at the same time. Saved just as I reached the Storehouse, so I guess I'm doing that next.

 

[wankerness]

I'm falling a bit behind because I've been doing general exploring instead of the main dungeon-y parts. Ran into a bug where a door got opened, but when I died it was closed again and I had to re-do a whole section because the shortcut didn't stay open. I found another one of those coffins, which made me think both "neat" and "didn't we already do this in the base game" at the same time. Saved just as I reached the Storehouse, so I guess I'm doing that next.

The coffins are practically an in-joke with those games. They've had them since at least dark souls 1 (can't remember if there was one in demon's souls) for transitioning between areas. Dark Souls 2 was where it became outright comic, with one coffin you'd get into then abruptly skidding down a long snow hill into a new area like a morbid toboggan. And Elden Ring continued that trend with the ones that would go down waterfalls!

There's a LOT of bosses in this expansion that you can only find through thorough exploration, including multiple "remembrance" major bosses (the ones that drop a remembrance you can trade for a weapon and/or spell). Plus, you can only increase your blessings through thorough exploration, so it should be your primary goal.

There's only four "required" bosses in the expansion while I think there's 30 total and 10 of those are remembrance bosses.

Storehouse has the second of four major bosses at the end of it.

 

[wankerness]

Should note I'm also at like ...11 MAYBE 12 Scadutree blessing and I think my Spirit Ash one is still low, at like, 5 MAYBE 6 but that doesn't sound right, so probs 5. I actually tried using Findlay before Mimic, since I'm a little conscience of always using the same summon, but the one time I did, Gaius charged her and literally drove her into a wall and one-shot; I would have laughed harder if I wasn't so shocked he could do that.

5 attempts on Gaius is really good. As mentioned before I think it took me 30+. I beat even the infamous final boss in less than 5 (albeit with a cheap bleed/greatshield build) and same with all the other major bosses (didn't respec for any of them). But boy did I die a TON on Gaius and two of the early Gaol bosses.

 

[MFB]

I almost switched my main weapon for Gaius's sword lance but Warped Axe has taken me thus far, and I can't drop him now, especially for a dmg differential of ~20-25 pts. I'm definitely over-leveled as fuck, since I'm rocking 99 STR and just hit 80 VIG last night, and rockin' 56 END this whole time. Took down the Tree Sentinel "duo" since you can easily bait the first one out before the second one sees you, I took a total of three hits between them, and one of those hits was the torch and not even his lance, that was a pretty good feeling just absolutely dominating those shits. Surprised to find there was nothing in the Finger Ruins in the north part of the map, like, genuinely no boss, just hit the horn and get the reward which was odd for how much space it covers.

 

[wankerness]

I almost switched my main weapon for Gaius's sword lance but Warped Axe has taken me thus far, and I can't drop him now, especially for a dmg differential of ~20-25 pts. I'm definitely over-leveled as fuck, since I'm rocking 99 STR and just hit 80 VIG last night, and rockin' 56 END this whole time. Took down the Tree Sentinel "duo" since you can easily bait the first one out before the second one sees you, I took a total of three hits between them, and one of those hits was the torch and not even his lance, that was a pretty good feeling just absolutely dominating those shits. Surprised to find there was nothing in the Finger Ruins in the north part of the map, like, genuinely no boss, just hit the horn and get the reward which was odd for how much space it covers.

FYI vigor is a waste of points after 60 unless you get literally no benefit from any other stat. The amount of health you get per point of vigor plummets by over 50% after 60 and just keeps declining after that. All damage stats (str, dex, int, faith) are the same deal after 80. Here's a decent article with an overview of it, but you can see charts on Fextralife that show the exact amounts for every level.

What are Elden Ring’s soft caps for all stats in 2024?

Mind the cap for runes and stats

www.polygon.com

Mind up to 40 I think is a good aim for any build since AOW run off FP and that's the amount that a flask will fully recharge. You still get lots more FP per level up to 50, but it always bugged me when a flask wouldn't fully recharge the bar. Endurance is the other stat I'd highly recommend for any build, especially in this DLC - I had to start pumping it so I could equip armor that would prevent me from getting one-shot.

Int, Dex, Faith are all good even if you're a STR build just to be able to use utility spells here and there, or use weird weapons like the fallingstar beast jaw or Radahn's swords that are mostly str but have a semi-high int requirement. Arcane's great for some of the bullshit weapons that have been mentioned in recent posts like Mogh's spear, and it massively increases your bleed damage if you're going to mess around with those weapons.

 

[MFB]

FYI vigor is a waste of points after 60 unless you get literally no benefit from any other stat. The amount of health you get per point of vigor plummets by over 50% after 60 and just keeps declining after that. All damage stats (str, dex, int, faith) are the same deal after 80. Here's a decent article with an overview of it, but you can see charts on Fextralife that show the exact amounts for every level.

What are Elden Ring’s soft caps for all stats in 2024?

Mind the cap for runes and stats

www.polygon.com

Mind up to 40 I think is a good aim for any build since AOW run off FP and that's the amount that a flask will fully recharge. You still get lots more FP per level up to 50, but it always bugged me when a flask wouldn't fully recharge the bar. Endurance is the other stat I'd highly recommend for any build, especially in this DLC - I had to start pumping it so I could equip armor that would prevent me from getting one-shot.

Int, Dex, Faith are all good even if you're a STR build just to be able to use utility spells here and there, or use weird weapons like the fallingstar beast jaw or Radahn's swords that are mostly str but have a semi-high int requirement. Arcane's great for some of the bullshit weapons that have been mentioned in recent posts like Mogh's spear, and it massively increases your bleed damage if you're going to mess around with those weapons.

Right now my stats are:

VIG - 80
MIND - ...I forgot, but my total is 131
END - 56
STR - 99

I'm only leveling up after defeating a boss or if I clear huge chunks of an area and farm up to the 400K needed, and when I go the actual level up screen my END has stopped increasing stamina and I'm almost at the hardcap for equipment load before requiring talismans (which I don't need anyways since i'm running Solitary set on medium load). I might respec some of that vigor to mind just so I can go back to one Cerulean flask and pop it at the halfway mark, but it's not a huge deal either way. I really only stopped mind because similarly, I hated knowing my flask won't give me a full bar at this point, and I can also run a talisman to reduce AOW costs since I have a free slot to play with if I need it.

The reason I havent upgraded int/faith to allow for spells/incantations is my dumb fuck mimic cant be trusted to spawn with a seal equipped, or else it's just going to spam healing spells on itself and not do any damage while it draws aggro; and I'm too lazy to hard equip one during battles AFTER I summon him, since in the DLC, every boss means you're about to get your lunch packed and send you home.

 

[wankerness]

Right now my stats are:

VIG - 80
MIND - ...I forgot, but my total is 131
END - 56
STR - 99

I'm only leveling up after defeating a boss or if I clear huge chunks of an area and farm up to the 400K needed, and when I go the actual level up screen my END has stopped increasing stamina and I'm almost at the hardcap for equipment load before requiring talismans (which I don't need anyways since i'm running Solitary set on medium load). I might respec some of that vigor to mind just so I can go back to one Cerulean flask and pop it at the halfway mark, but it's not a huge deal either way. I really only stopped mind because similarly, I hated knowing my flask won't give me a full bar at this point, and I can also run a talisman to reduce AOW costs since I have a free slot to play with if I need it.

The reason I havent upgraded int/faith to allow for spells/incantations is my dumb fuck mimic cant be trusted to spawn with a seal equipped, or else it's just going to spam healing spells on itself and not do any damage while it draws aggro; and I'm too lazy to hard equip one during battles AFTER I summon him, since in the DLC, every boss means you're about to get your lunch packed and send you home.

The way the mimic works with weapons/offhands is it keeps whatever you had currently out and usable when you summoned it. So like, with my build I had a staff and a sword for right handed weapons, and a shield in the left hand. I'd summon the mimic in with the melee weapon equipped, and then it would ONLY melee attack. If I accidentally summoned it when I had the staff equipped, then it would ONLY cast spells, and it would be a gigantic moron about it, too, just casting random shit that usually missed. Spell mimics are garbage unless you only have one spell equipped, in which case they can be very good. But yeah, the mimic will not switch weapons so there's no concern about having a seal equipped, as long as it isn't out when you summon the mimic it won't use it. I know a lot of people keep the catalyst in their left hand and have it simultaneously with a right hand weapon - in that case I'd also make sure you put it away when you summon the mimic or else it's going to be an idiot that alternates between random spells and melee attacks haphazardly.

EDIT: The other thing that mimic will do is randomly use any item you have in the item slots. So you could see some weird behavior if you have more than just your flasks set to the square button. On some characters I used to equip that perfume that puts a damage absorption shield on, cause the mimic can use it infinitely and it won't use up your consumables, and that particular ability works on both the caster and anyone within like 15 yds so it would help both of your survivability. Similarly in this DLC I put marika's blessing on with some fights, every once in a while the mimic would be smart enough to use it at a good moment for a free extra full heal on itself.

 

[MFB]

Managed to kill Romina and the Scadutree Avatar, also found the Scadutree Chalice or whatever it is, so now my blessing is up to 14. Still trying to find out how to navigate to the entire southern portion without going past Bayle, as I've yet to fight some bosses that seem to be way above ones I've already defeated for the order.

I also opened up Ener-Ilim and don't want to go there yet as I know that's part of the best end portion.

 

[TedEH]

I made it to Messmer yesterday, and this is the first boss where I'm having legitimate trouble. Doing all the stuff - summon horn guy, mimic tear, and I'm tank-y enough to survive most attacks, but he's just so aggressive.

 

[Moongrum]

I made it to Messmer yesterday, and this is the first boss where I'm having legitimate trouble. Doing all the stuff - summon horn guy, mimic tear, and I'm tank-y enough to survive most attacks, but he's just so aggressive.

I was having a hard time, too. I finally caved and used Bloodfiend's Arm and charged R2 his ass into oblivion.. I was able to pretty much loop him into getting staggered and kept using Endure ash of war to tank hits while R2-ing him. Felt cheesey. I think this DLC really favors STR/ARC builds or strength in general. Bosses barely give you openings so you want to make the most of your damage/poise in those small openings imo.

 

[MFB]

I made it to Messmer yesterday, and this is the first boss where I'm having legitimate trouble. Doing all the stuff - summon horn guy, mimic tear, and I'm tank-y enough to survive most attacks, but he's just so aggressive.

If you get both hornsent and mimic in there, the aggro should be off of you, so you can just hit for damage along with one other guy; I'd take a look at what you're running for talismans.

There's a +3 Flame talisman that takes damage down much better than the other one, along with dried livers, it really reduces it to like 1/3 of what he normally hits for; plus then you can stack a +3 Pearldrake on top of that for even more Fire negation, or Dragoncrest for physical. I'd also maybe look into your physick mix, I straight up had to use Opaline Hardtear which saved me the first 3 or so hits entirely, just so I could summon in the beginning.

 

[TedEH]

I've got a bad habit of trying to generalize and not touch my gear + talismans, etc. It woks in a lot of games, but sometimes fails me pretty bad in this one. I've got the physical damage and the non-physical damage talismans, as well as two that boost equip load so that I can use the heaviest armour I've got without landing in the heavy category. In a lot of places it means I can tank quite a bit before I'm done for, but it's not fool proof.

 

[MFB]

I personally hated losing slots just to increase my armor load, which is why I beef to up stamina in any game I can, plus the obvious benefit of extra stamina, so depending on how much weight you need to add maybe farm some levels just to free that up; or look at the Bull Goat Talisman that adds 30 poise, so you get that tank benefit without any other cost.

 

[TedEH]

Yeah, I might go farm some levels or go explore some other places until I Git Good (tm).
I'm still really enjoying the Blind Spot ash though - it's gotten me out of some tight spots.

 

[wankerness]

Yeah, I might go farm some levels or go explore some other places until I Git Good (tm).
I'm still really enjoying the Blind Spot ash though - it's gotten me out of some tight spots.

Farming some levels is the opposite of gitting gud, you only are gitting gud if you refuse to use any ash, don't apply any scadutree blessings, and preferably don't even use any weapons besides a broken dagger.

Actual levels are pretty irrelevant to this DLC, it's all about the scadutree fragments. It seems like people at level 300 with low blessings were having as much trouble as people at level 100 with low blessings, the damage on bosses seems entirely tuned around you finding all those things. Certainly levels can help in terms of like, having a lot of endurance or a lot of mana to wear heavier armor and cast more spells, but the damage increase from stats vs getting those fragments is negligible at best, and as I was seeing early in the DLC even hitting the vigor cap of 60 is not enough to prevent you getting 1-shot if you don't take all the other measures!

Fromsoft actually got annoyed at the data they were seeing with people throwing themselves against walls with low blessing levels and released a guide blatantly showing the locations of a bunch of them. The reddit forum is loaded with people swearing off coop after being repeatedly summoned in to late DLC bosses by people with sub 5 scadutree blessing who then get 1-shot instantaneously. Cause in coop, if you get summoned into a world, you're given the blessing level of the host!

 

[TedEH]

Farming some levels is the opposite of gitting gud

I know, but as you say, it still helps in terms of the character build. I'm trying to raise my equip load slowly so that I can stop relying on the talismans to carry heavier stuff. I'm at SkiDoo Tree level 10, and 7 or 8 for the other blessing thing. I've also sometimes gone into rune farming mode just to upgrade weapons, and the number of smithing stones that get dropped everywhere makes it seem like it's intended to really quickly max out new weapons.

I took down Commander Gaius yesterday - must have been a dozen attempts, but it didn't seem nearly as impenetrable as Messmer, who I haven't reattempted yet.

 

[MFB]

Fromsoft actually got annoyed at the data they were seeing with people throwing themselves against walls with low blessing levels and released a guide blatantly showing the locations of a bunch of them. The reddit forum is loaded with people swearing off coop after being repeatedly summoned in to late DLC bosses by people with sub 5 scadutree blessing who then get 1-shot instantaneously. Cause in coop, if you get summoned into a world, you're given the blessing level of the host!

Yeah, it's funny hearing stories of people who have made it infinitely harder for themselves by going thru this thing tooth and nail refusing to collect the items that the devs intended for them to use, or those who refused to level themselves properly for it with their build, and are getting one-shotted by bosses throughout and wondering why it's going so wrong; like, oh sorry you only have 1000HP, maybe you'd realize that's NOT. ENOUGH. after the first dozen boss attempts that killed you with a two-shot?

 

[wankerness]

I know, but as you say, it still helps in terms of the character build. I'm trying to raise my equip load slowly so that I can stop relying on the talismans to carry heavier stuff. I'm at SkiDoo Tree level 10, and 7 or 8 for the other blessing thing. I've also sometimes gone into rune farming mode just to upgrade weapons, and the number of smithing stones that get dropped everywhere makes it seem like it's intended to really quickly max out new weapons.

I took down Commander Gaius yesterday - must have been a dozen attempts, but it didn't seem nearly as impenetrable as Messmer, who I haven't reattempted yet.

I only needed like 30 endurance or something to get rid of the greatjar's talisman - the "Night" armor you get early in the DLC has pretty high armor level and isn't very heavy. Though as a caster I was using the brass shield and just a staff/fairly light melee weapon. I needed to put back on an equip load talisman when I tried using that one colossal int weapon that I had. I also think I almost always had erdtree blessing +2 on cause that gives you a fair amount of health and stamina apart from the equip load increase so maybe you'd need higher if you were trying to get rid of that one, too.

The dragoncrest greatshield talisman and some of the new higher level spell damage resist talismans were very useful depending on boss. It sounds like you are already using those.