Elden ring!

[Moongrum]

So finished the dlc, and now I'm back to where I was, I've beaten every boss solo, but Malenia.
Are there any tips for beating Malenia solo that skip having to learn her moveset? lol Her life steal and waterfowl feel like such bullshit. I usually rage summon my mimic out of frustration and beat her into the ground, but am trying to avoid that this playthrough.

 

[pahulkster]

Started the DLC with my other character. Going in at level 130 instead of 230 and NG+ and I haven't really noticed a difference so far but only played a few hours. Think my scadu level like 2 or 3 after beating the dancing lion. Took out the Solitude armor knight with the great stars again. Great stars just staggers and annihilates him (and mostly everyone else tbh).

Mainly playing because I want to try a build based around damage over time using the Antspur rapier and coil shield. Put it together for a bit on my first playthrough but had no arcane for the effects and it was still pretty lethal. You can do rot, poison, and bleed without much effort at all. Very different attack windows and like half the range of my first playthrough so it takes some adjusting. I'll work through the dlc again over a few weeks and see how it goes.

 

[TedEH]

He even dunks on you if you ring the other one first since it doesn't match the map he provides

I very much think I'm doing things in a mostly unintended order. I did the bit yesterday where you burn the little tree. Then immediately bailed from there because I wasn't done exploring some other areas. Then did the tree-base avatar things. Then realized I forgot to go explore a random building on the right of the map - turns out that's where you get this first map piece, but I have no idea what it's for yet because it doesn't resemble anything I've encountered yet. Either that or I haven't looked very closely. I haven't gone very far into the cerulean area yet, and don't have the map for that area yet. I also haven't encountered this supposed hidden area opened with the ring gesture. Some earlier comments made it sound like I should have found that by now, but I either haven't made it there yet, or just completely walked past it.

 

[MFB]

turns out that's where you get this first map piece, but I have no idea what it's for yet because it doesn't resemble anything I've encountered yet. Either that or I haven't looked very closely. I haven't gone very far into the cerulean area yet, and don't have the map for that area yet.

L O L, you did it exactly as I did, where you (probably) have the second finger ruins part uncovered on the map, but the FIRST map piece that you've received is actually covered because the part to get there LOOKS inaccessible, and other plays will ALSO tell you not to try it, which is why you don't recognize the buildings on it; and to be honest they REALLY don't look like what you'll discover them to be, nor are they as close as the map would lead you to think.

 

[TedEH]

Oh no - I just realized I'm missing two map pieces, not one. I'm missing the lower one, aaaaand one on the far right of the map.

 

[wankerness]

That's the thing, I don't think he really did either; I don't recall seeing a health bar for him even pop up (although with NPC summons it might just stay above their head and not display like mimic) and I know myself and mimic took a decent amount of hits/dodging, so I really have no idea how long he survived.

How many times did you try it WITHOUT igon? Every time I tried it and didn't get his summon off it was pretty much me getting annihilated by Bayle and being completely on the defensive. Him pulling aggro makes a HUGE difference even to just you and mimic. That guy is so aggressive that I can't even comprehend fighting him with no summon of any sort, though I know obviously blah blah people did it at SL1 with no upgrades and no summons.

 

[wankerness]

I very much think I'm doing things in a mostly unintended order. I did the bit yesterday where you burn the little tree. Then immediately bailed from there because I wasn't done exploring some other areas. Then did the tree-base avatar things. Then realized I forgot to go explore a random building on the right of the map - turns out that's where you get this first map piece, but I have no idea what it's for yet because it doesn't resemble anything I've encountered yet. Either that or I haven't looked very closely. I haven't gone very far into the cerulean area yet, and don't have the map for that area yet. I also haven't encountered this supposed hidden area opened with the ring gesture. Some earlier comments made it sound like I should have found that by now, but I either haven't made it there yet, or just completely walked past it.

Burn the little tree? You mean the quest progression after beating mesmer?

That locks out a lot of stuff, it's like burning the erdtree in the base game. Well, not that bad, it just instafails almost all the quests, it doesn't cover an entire huge dungeon in ash.

 

[TedEH]

it just instafails almost all the quests

Lol. Oops? Was I not supposed to? It seemed like I was meant to in order to get into the tower thingie that it unlocks. It was not signposted at all that this was a point of no return, but I guess that sort of explains why a lot of the NPCs are missing.

 

[MFB]

Killed Midra last night, his manse was much smaller than I expected and the enemies besides the one two horned warriors are insignificant; he had much larger AOE attacks than I expected, and like every other boss in this god damn expansion, he's got an attack that's multiple swings one after another that just drain stamina like nothing. It was a neat concept when it was one boss like Malenia with Waterfowl Dance where you had a dodge/dodge pause dodge rhythm thing but now it's EVERYWHERE, and it's exhausting; and similarly, he's another boss who opens with an immediate attack so if you'd like to summon, you need to tank it with physick, since you won't get much of an opening during the fight itself.

 

[wankerness]

Lol. Oops? Was I not supposed to? It seemed like I was meant to in order to get into the tower thingie that it unlocks. It was not signposted at all that this was a point of no return, but I guess that sort of explains why a lot of the NPCs are missing.

Well, if you did the quests you were supposed to. If not, they get automatically ended, which makes a lot of sense when you see what the next boss fight is. But yeah I think the intended design is "do everything possible and THEN burn that thing" partly cause that last area is super difficult.

Those lion knight things that spam ice magic are the single most difficult enemy in the game. Fortunately I was a caster so I could usually take off half their health with rock sling before they got close. Occasionally I'd hit one with a ranged attack and they'd jump off a cliff too.

 

[TedEH]

I think I figured out what that first map thing points to. I assume it's telling me to go into the big spiral finger nightmare in the map that I can see two of, but can only reach one so far.

 

[wankerness]

I think I figured out what that first map thing points to. I assume it's telling me to go into the big spiral finger nightmare in the map that I can see two of, but can only reach one so far.

I had to look up where to get the last map fragment, it's really, really illogical and requires a bizarre path I never would have guessed. The first finger ruin was revealed by that fragment, I think. I found the second one first too.

Those sniper enemies are INCREDIBLY annoying. Automatic dismount off the horse from infinite range (if you don't LOS the projectile)? AWESOME! At least they only would actually attack me after I'd been dismounted like 25% of the time, and they only actually grabbed me before I got up like once or twice.

 

[MFB]

I had to look up where to get the last map fragment, it's really, really illogical and requires a bizarre path I never would have guessed. The first finger ruin was revealed by that fragment, I think. I found the second one first too.

Those sniper enemies are INCREDIBLY annoying. Automatic dismount off the horse from infinite range (if you don't LOS the projectile)? AWESOME! At least they only would actually attack me after I'd been dismounted like 25% of the time, and they only actually grabbed me before I got up like once or twice.

The ones at the first ruins (Riah?), south of the Great Altar of Dragon Communion weren't NEARLY as bad as the ones at the one on the north side (Dheo), for whatever reason the others are just absolute fucking sharpshooters with their grav attack that auto dismounts you whereas that other projectile spell seemed to always bounce around me and miss 90% of the time.

 

[TedEH]

I actually don't mind the laser snipers I've run into so far. They're very intimidating from a distance, but easy enough to dodge, and once you're close enough they can't target you anymore. To me that's good design - tough but intuitive and if you make a mistake, it's mostly your own mistake

 

[wankerness]

So finished the dlc, and now I'm back to where I was, I've beaten every boss solo, but Malenia.
Are there any tips for beating Malenia solo that skip having to learn her moveset? lol Her life steal and waterfowl feel like such bullshit. I usually rage summon my mimic out of frustration and beat her into the ground, but am trying to avoid that this playthrough.

This kind of seems like a "one or the other." Either you summon, or you learn the moveset!

You should watch a video on how to dodge waterfowl, it's VERY weird how to actually do it and seems completely non-intuitive, but it works. Just you'll probably die to it 50 times while learning to do it in that relaxed manner instead of panic rolling and doing what it looks like should work.

The only way to "cheese" waterfowl I'm aware of is if you hit her with a frost pot RIGHT as she does the jump up it will proc and knock her out of it, at least if you're wearing the jar helm and the companion jar talisman. But I think her frost resist goes up as the fight goes on so that won't save you if she does it too many times.

Other than waterfowl I don't think she's generally considered that hard. Parrying works quite well on her.

 

[MFB]

Did some exploring in Ruah Base tonight, cleared out one of the red runebear bosses they added, along with one of the catacombs that's in there (Scorpion something Catacombs) which had a LOVELY surprise as you can straight walk through one of the walls and right out of the map, losing all your runes; and the best part is that to advance through that catacomb, you have to deal with death-blight basilisks!

Luckily I was able to get my 350K I lost back quick enough, and then made my way down to the boss and killed my first Death Knight, got a nice surprise the first time when he healed via grab technique. There's one more of those according to the list i have, no idea if I'll hunt him down or not, not like he's required or anything but I've got nothing better to do honestly. I opened up Stone Rock Fissure or something at the bottom of Cerulean Coast, so now I guess I'll just keep pressing thru there to gain some easy XP as I seem to be two-hitting everything without much trouble. I also need to hunt down the remaining Blessed Ash things to get it to 10 since i'm sitting at 7 and have the entire map unveiled, so unless they're all in Elin-Imir or whatever, it should be doable.

 

[arasys]

So.. I began about 3 weeks ago and now I am level 79. I killed Radahn after few attempts few hours ago; thinking it was going to be one of the most difficult bosses in the game (yes, I am a noob). Then I enter a dungeon nearby called War-Dead Catacombs, thinking "yaay I just killed a badass in 8 attempts this must be an easy loot dungeon as a reward!".. It reminded me of old school Game Boy games made to just piss people off so I died more times than I could count to finally get to the boss.

and then tf do I see? Putrid Tree Spirit, the worst fing design for a boss. It's literally as big as the room, wtaf???

I have Carian Regal Scepter +5 as main hand, Meteorite Staff for off hand and the creepy twin Burger King helmet along with almost all of the spells except for the beam one that melts bosses. I can't dodge or jump around to do anything as vigor / int build mage. It destroys the pillars, I might use meteorite spell next time; but should I skip this boss till I reach 120 - 130? Dungeon was already a nightmare, but I can see how people can farm runes for leveling up fast at the entrance!

oh crap it's 2:22 am yay!

 

[TedEH]

I finally figured out how to get into the area with the last map piece. Did two of the nightmare finger bell dungeon thingies. I can't figure out how I'm supposed to reach the big dead dragon thingie on a mountain but it seems like I should be able to get there. Maybe it's part of the last map area I don't have yet. I think I've explored most of the cerulean area now, which seems like a pretty small area. I find the ambient noise in that area annoying because it has that high-pitched jingle-y noise kind of like when those beetle things are nearby.

 

[MFB]

I finally figured out how to get into the area with the last map piece. Did two of the nightmare finger bell dungeon thingies. I can't figure out how I'm supposed to reach the big dead dragon thingie on a mountain but it seems like I should be able to get there. Maybe it's part of the last map area I don't have yet. I think I've explored most of the cerulean area now, which seems like a pretty small area. I find the ambient noise in that area annoying because it has that high-pitched jingle-y noise kind of like when those beetle things are nearby.

If you exit from the dragon pit terminus grace, and walk down to the pond/lake, whatever it is, hang to the right and you'll see a path that goes south - follow that and it takes you to that dragon corpse; there's really not much there honestly, but one more place to know you explored.

 

[TedEH]

dragon pit terminus grace

I have a feeling I missed this. Google puts that in an area I've already been to, so I must have just gone right by it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯