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12 minutes ago, A.M.B. said:

Yeah he’s probably just worth coming back to, I think I spammed him with rotten breath too. Godskin noble (or whoever the fat one is) is possibly my least favorite of the reoccurring bosses, his rolling attack is the absolute worst to dodge and usually traps me in a corner. And unfortunately from what I remember Godrick’s rune is pretty much the best one you’ll get all game and I didn’t use anything else.
 

A big revelation in my second playthrough was using map markers too, maybe I’m just dumb but I never used them my first playthrough and missed so much, especially bosses I wanted to come back to.

My first (and so far only) playthrough I only used markers for two things - where the walking mausoleums were and bosses I wanted to circle back to that kicked my ass. I am sure I could have used them better but that was all I came up with.

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I'm big on using map markers from Breath of the Wild and then Horizon. I'm probably not as diligent about using them in Elden Ring, but I try to use them when I'm keeping track of NPC quests since that's not even a feature in the game, and when I spot something interesting looking on the map that I want to go visit or if I'm already somewhere on the map that I want to circle back to when I'm a bit stronger. I tend to not use them for treasures or whatever.

Regarding Walking Mausoleums, I actually just had my first experience with taking one down. Didn't know what I was doing, except I kept knocking bits of stone off of its feet. And then it fell on me. So that was fun.

By the way, and this is the furthest I've gotten on one character so I guess this is my first play through even though I've messed around with other classes, but are there any challenging Evergaol's left? I swear every one I go to now is ridiculously easy. Left trigger with Bloodfang Sword, then right trigger, then left trigger, stun them, hit a critical hit, left trigger, right trigger, etc. I used to seek them out because they were a fun little distraction to fight a cool looking boss and now they're all easy as hell. For reference, I'm level 61. I'm sure there are still some tough ones out there, but I haven't found one in days.

Also, the crazy amount of pop-in textures in Caelid really wants to make me take a break on the PS5 and go and play my Samurai run on my PC some more. The PS5 hasn't really struggled with the game until Caelid and it's just pop-in city. I'm playing on the enhanced graphics mode so that probably has something to do with it.

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3 hours ago, Craig H said:

I'm big on using map markers from Breath of the Wild and then Horizon. I'm probably not as diligent about using them in Elden Ring, but I try to use them when I'm keeping track of NPC quests since that's not even a feature in the game, and when I spot something interesting looking on the map that I want to go visit or if I'm already somewhere on the map that I want to circle back to when I'm a bit stronger. I tend to not use them for treasures or whatever.

Regarding Walking Mausoleums, I actually just had my first experience with taking one down. Didn't know what I was doing, except I kept knocking bits of stone off of its feet. And then it fell on me. So that was fun.

By the way, and this is the furthest I've gotten on one character so I guess this is my first play through even though I've messed around with other classes, but are there any challenging Evergaol's left? I swear every one I go to now is ridiculously easy. Left trigger with Bloodfang Sword, then right trigger, then left trigger, stun them, hit a critical hit, left trigger, right trigger, etc. I used to seek them out because they were a fun little distraction to fight a cool looking boss and now they're all easy as hell. For reference, I'm level 61. I'm sure there are still some tough ones out there, but I haven't found one in days.

Also, the crazy amount of pop-in textures in Caelid really wants to make me take a break on the PS5 and go and play my Samurai run on my PC some more. The PS5 hasn't really struggled with the game until Caelid and it's just pop-in city. I'm playing on the enhanced graphics mode so that probably has something to do with it.

You're enough of an Elden Ring player by now to know that the minute you think things are too easy, something will come along and kick your ass ? But yes there are at least three particularly hard Evergaols (to me/my build) later in the game. 

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At what level do you need to be at before everything stops kicking your ass? I'm over level 60 and I go up against bosses that say I should be at level 40 at and they wipe the floor with me. I have pretty good gear and all that but if I make one mistake, I'm dead. It's probably just a me problem as I think I just suck at this game and maybe need a break from it but I gotta say this game has gotten out of the "difficult but fun" stage for me and into the "I'm tired of this shit" stage. I just feel like leveling up has little to no effect on the game play.

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Since I have no idea what your build is or stats are, or what you're currently going up against, I'm going to have to make some assumptions. It sounds like the expectation is that once you hit a certain level it's smooth sailing for the duration of the game. I'm sorry to say that that's not really how these games work. There's not like a level you reach where suddenly things stop doing damage and you can take twenty hits in a boss fight. Every fight requires constant attention, and especially every boss fight. I will also say that the arc of what leveling does to your character is a lot more subtle than the effects of upgrading your weapons. In your post you say you have pretty good gear, which I'm interpreting to mean that the stats on your armor are good, and that can help for sure. I would make sure your weapons are staying as upgraded as possible. That can even be a higher priority than stats on occasion.

In general the advice for Elden Ring is that, whenever you hit a wall, go explore and do something else and come back later. There's multiple ways around situations. Maybe the boss you're trying to do right now isn't necessary to clear the game. Like, I'm going to pick a name out of a hat here, but judging from talking about how the recommended level for clearing the boss you're struggling with is 40, I'm going to guess the boss you're stuck on is Radahn. The good news is, you do not necessarily need to beat Radahn to progress in the game! Now, if you're hoping to complete a specific sidequest, then yeah, Radahn's gotta go down. But Radahn can wait until as late as you like.

So yeah. Without knowing what may or may not be going wrong with your gear or build or any synergies between the two, and the pure guesswork of thinking you're stuck at Radahn- an extremely common roadblock btw- I would suggest you just go explore and check out something else. Every other FromSoft game- be it souls or kings field or sekiro or bloodborne- are games where you're on a Quest. Think of Elden Ring instead as an Adventure.

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I was level 120 and things were still kicking my ass, the ass kicking never stops. Having a good build helps, I didn't read any guides and just winged it but there are plenty of recommended builds online if you want to compare and contrast. Good armor doesn't help too much in Elden Ring, I mean if something is going to kill you its going to kill you, upgrading your weapon as much as possible is the key gear thing. I think all the major bosses have a NPC that will help, so if you don't see one available, look around a bit more as some bosses I only beat because I had a happy helper.

I'm of the thought that its better to get help online than get so frustrated that the game isn't fun anymore, especially with FromSoft. So before you reach that level of 'fuck it' I'd recommend just watching a youtube video of the boss you're stuck at (ideally with a similar character build) and get some ideas. Maybe there is a better summon to use, or a better weapon/spell they are weak to. But unless you've cleared the bottom half of the map, no harm either in just taking a mental break and exploring a new area to get more practice in, maybe find a better weapon/upgrade stones, and take a breather (except Caelid, fuck that place).

But I've also had games I played for awhile and at some point realized I just wasn't having fun and it wasn't for me, and I just noped on to something else. Life is short. But if you are enjoying the game otherwise and just hit this wall, do what you gotta do to start enjoying the game again, whether its skipping the boss entirely (if possible) or doing some film study so you can get back to having fun again.

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I started off Vagabond class. Been using the Royal Remains set or the Carian Knight set recently. I've been stuck on Rennala. Her first phase is easy enough but it's the second phase I'm struggling with. I felt like the Carian Knight set would be good for her as it has good magic resistance but if I get caught by one blast or get hit by her stupid summons a couple of times, I'm dead and that's what's frustrating me. I'm using the Bloodhound's Tooth Great Sword +4 or a Bloody Longsword +8 because she's weak to bleeding (or so it says online). I'm also using the Lone Wolf summons and got them upgraded to +4. You can dodge and dodge all you want but one or two slip ups and that's it. I'm just not used to having to pitch the proverbial perfect game to fight every boss in a game. I'm guessing the answer is kinda to just "git gud" but damn it just feels like beating my head against the wall when I level up and level up and the amount of damage I can take doesn't feel like it changes.

Current stats

Vigor--29
Mind--16
Endurance--21
Strength--30
Dexterity--20
Intelligence--12
Faith--11
Arcane--8

Edited by cwoy2j
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37 minutes ago, cwoy2j said:

I started off Vagabond class. Been using the Royal Remains set or the Carian Knight set recently. I've been stuck on Rennala. Her first phase is easy enough but it's the second phase I'm struggling with. I felt like the Carian Knight set would be good for her as it has good magic resistance but if I get caught by one blast or get hit by her stupid summons a couple of times, I'm dead and that's what's frustrating me. I'm using the Bloodhound's Tooth Great Sword +4 or a Bloody Longsword +8 because she's weak to bleeding (or so it says online). I'm also using the Lone Wolf summons and got them upgraded to +4. You can dodge and dodge all you want but one or two slip ups and that's it. I'm just not used to having to pitch the proverbial perfect game to fight every boss in a game. I'm guessing the answer is kinda to just "git gud" but damn it just feels like beating my head against the wall when I level up and level up and the amount of damage I can take doesn't feel like it changes.

Current stats

Vigor--29
Mind--16
Endurance--21
Strength--30
Dexterity--20
Intelligence--12
Faith--11
Arcane--8

My build was similar to yours, probably higher endurance but ratios not too different, the main thing I think for Rennala is I had the most luck with the three wolves summon, but saving it until Part 2. They survive pretty well against magic damage and since there are three of them, they take a lot of the attention. Also, with the summons taking some of the attacks, that gave me a chance to be really aggressive to try to get that bonus bleed damage. But the last phase of Part 2 is tricky regardless and can take a few tries even under ideal conditions.

This guy had a similar theory that I did and explains what he is doing as he is, if you aren't adverse to watching a live guide:

Spoiler

 

 

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7 hours ago, cwoy2j said:

I started off Vagabond class. Been using the Royal Remains set or the Carian Knight set recently. I've been stuck on Rennala. Her first phase is easy enough but it's the second phase I'm struggling with. I felt like the Carian Knight set would be good for her as it has good magic resistance but if I get caught by one blast or get hit by her stupid summons a couple of times, I'm dead and that's what's frustrating me. I'm using the Bloodhound's Tooth Great Sword +4 or a Bloody Longsword +8 because she's weak to bleeding (or so it says online). I'm also using the Lone Wolf summons and got them upgraded to +4. You can dodge and dodge all you want but one or two slip ups and that's it. I'm just not used to having to pitch the proverbial perfect game to fight every boss in a game. I'm guessing the answer is kinda to just "git gud" but damn it just feels like beating my head against the wall when I level up and level up and the amount of damage I can take doesn't feel like it changes.

Current stats

Vigor--29
Mind--16
Endurance--21
Strength--30
Dexterity--20
Intelligence--12
Faith--11
Arcane--8

Well there's nothing that springs out as egregious in the build, though I should say that when a guide like fextralife says an enemy is weak to something like bleed, that only counts when the effect fires and not towards overall damage done. If they're weak to something more elemental like fire or holy, then every swing is extra damage. I would second waiting to summon until phase 2, because the main things the wolves will do in phase one are hit the wrong targets and get crushed by the chandeliers, so it's not really worth it.

and yeah there's just a few spells where if you get hit you get zonked, and that'll be true for every boss pretty much for the duration of the game. The way to think about leveling up is that so when you're in some big fucked up late game cave, you can still die in like three hits but if you don't level vigor it'll be one or two. I would also say that this is a game that really rewards rolling towards your opponent as a common solution to attacks. For instance, with Rennala, the homing glintstone would do me in until I started just rolling into them instead of to the side. Every boss has attacks where rolling towards them is the better solution, even if it's completely counter intuitive.

And who knows, maybe this boss just has a mental block on you. That happens too. During my first playthrough, I genuinely thought I wasn't going to beat it entirely because of the Godskin Duo. I died something like 47 times to them alone. I cried about it once or twice. So it could be that it's just time for you to be in the trenches now, and by the time you get to some other boss that lives in people's nightmares you'll just be like "what was the big deal about this fight" and get it on your first or second try.

Regardless: keep at it, you'll get there, and remember, there is no such thing as cheesing bosses.

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18 hours ago, Kevin Wilson said:

My build was similar to yours, probably higher endurance but ratios not too different, the main thing I think for Rennala is I had the most luck with the three wolves summon, but saving it until Part 2. They survive pretty well against magic damage and since there are three of them, they take a lot of the attention. Also, with the summons taking some of the attacks, that gave me a chance to be really aggressive to try to get that bonus bleed damage. But the last phase of Part 2 is tricky regardless and can take a few tries even under ideal conditions.

This guy had a similar theory that I did and explains what he is doing as he is, if you aren't adverse to watching a live guide:

  Hide contents

 

 

Thanks! I'd actually seen that video before and tried the aggressive approach and she killed me a bunch. For whatever reason, I went back to it this morning and my spirit wolves actually did their jobs and kept her attention so I could dart in and Bloody Slash her to death. Also, beforehand, I was summoning the wolves right out of the gate in phase 2 and doing that makes it 50/50 whether you dodge her initial magic blast. This time I just concentrated on dodging that first blast and then doing the summons. Now on to the next boss that'll murder me 100 times, make me get frustrated and bitch more before I figure it out lol. ?

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This game rocks so hard. The neat thing is that as far as I’m at in the game, my daughter is uncovering shit I haven’t even seen yet and she’s 20 levels behind me. 

And I tend to almost look at Elden Ring as something like Shadow of the Colossus. I’m always looking for a boss to fight, except for that godskin apostle. He sucks. Oh, and Renalla sucks too because she’s maybe the easiest boss in the entire game. I’ve fought knights tougher than her. It’s so weird because you have so many other mini boss and main boss fights that are hard as hell. And then Renalla dies so easily.

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I didn't even find the basic sorcery trainer that is literally in the starting area of the game until my second playthrough lmao

I started a new character today and I'm instantly reminded how much I love the world design where you can just wander about, free of time pressure or a quest log, and do whatever seems worth doing. Also this is true of all Fromsoft games but especially this one, the more you play the more you realize the devs honestly do want you to succeed. There's always items and materials stashed about specicifically helpful for making sure you have what you need for the area, it's just a matter of finding them. The scale of this game means it rewards that exploration far more than any other game they've done.

I still think in terms of pure combat that the Sekiro system might be their best game, but still... Elden Ring is probably the closest thing to my dream video game that has ever existed. I could come back to it once a year for the rest of my life and be cool with it. And I know for a fact there's still a ton of stuff I've never seen or done.

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I have the Bloodflame Sword incantation and I always thought I grabbed it off of a mini boss. My daughter wanted it too so we're just going through and finding all of these different bosses until I looked it up.

I forgot I found it off of a random scarab in the swamp in Liurnia. It's like one of the most powerful melee spells in the game and I found it on a dumb random scarab. That's why I like Elden Ring.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I like to buy art of my favorite video games (especially if they are pretty) but prefer to get officially licensed prints if I can. A site I use sometimes, Cook and Becker, finally got a deal with Elden Ring and added ten prints today. Limited numbers. I don't LOVE any of them as they aren't of my personal favorite locations or characters, but I did find two I liked. Just in case anyone else was interested:  https://www.cookandbecker.com/en/artgallery/3002/elden-ring-fine-art-print-collection.html

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Woah. Those prices are too salty for me, but pretty cool nonetheless.

And every time I think I've hitting a point where I don't know what to do and where to go, I find a path forward. This time it was making it to the city of Leyndell. Holy shit. That area is HUGE! I probably spent something like 10 hours there and I bet I still didn't find everything. In fact. I know I didn't. Even after my fight with Morgott I was still seeing places I didn't explore yet, but figured I'd try to move on, which was a little weird. I basically stumbled into fighting Morgott and that only took me two tries. My first try I summoned my mimic tear and Morgott immediately hit me before I could heal back up. Second try I felt like I just made it through because he had killed my mimic and Melina wasn't doing much of anything.

At that point I had to look up a YouTube video to see where to go. That's all I wanted to know though. I didn't want any strategies or anything like that. So I'm in this snowy, foggy area, come up to another one of those giant gargoyle bosses, and that motherfucker has kicked my ass up and down at least 20 times. I think maybe 4 or 5 times I had him down to one hit and every time I would go to hit him he'd bounce away or one shot me. I think what I'm just going to do if I get him down that low again is be cheap, hop on Torrent, and ride far away, come back, hit him, ride away, and repeat until he's dead. So sick of this stupid ass fight.

BTW, and someone can spoiler this answer for me, but before I even got to Leyndell I was briefly in Volcano Manor and met with a woman there who asked me to join them to burn down the Erdtree. That sounded like joining up with the bad guys so I declined. Now I'm wondering though, should I have accepted? Is it necessary that I join them to proceed in the game? I always play these games as a good guy and I don't want to do something that's going to make me evil at the end. Or is there just one ending to the game and I'm overthinking it?

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28 minutes ago, Craig H said:

BTW, and someone can spoiler this answer for me, but before I even got to Leyndell I was briefly in Volcano Manor and met with a woman there who asked me to join them to burn down the Erdtree. That sounded like joining up with the bad guys so I declined. Now I'm wondering though, should I have accepted? Is it necessary that I join them to proceed in the game? I always play these games as a good guy and I don't want to do something that's going to make me evil at the end. Or is there just one ending to the game and I'm overthinking it?

As non-spoilery as possible but still a bit spoiler-y:

Spoiler

Volcano Manor is a very unique (and to me, fun!) side mission/area but its not required to beat the game. Joining them doesn't automatically put you on the bad path or give you a bad ending, but if you decline then you'll just miss out on that side quest and a cool weapon or two. No serious harm done.

 

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Ah ok. And I heard others say that Volcano Manor is one of the best parts of the game so I think I'm going to try warping back over there then because I feel like where I'm headed now is too OP for me even if I'm level 85 or so. I was traveling up that one boss and those tiny little goblin dudes were kicking the shit out of me. Made it seem like, yeah, I probably should actually start exploring somewhere else or, ack, just go do more in Caelid and I fucking hate Caelid.

In fact, I think Caelid is my biggest complaint with the game. That whole main boss fight there is awesome and one of the coolest things I've done in a video game, but I got to do that boss fight without having to go through a bunch of bullshit others went through because I got there purely from doing Ranni's quest. Just fighting dragons in this game is a pain in the butt, those huge crows are annoying, the giant dogs are annoying, there's rot everywhere, it's just all super ugly, and there's too many of those marionette bastards in that area. Like, I'm on a boss that I've died 20 or more times on now and wouldn't say that's "unfun." Caelid is not remotely fun to me.

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Actually beat General Radhan without too much trouble. Just let the summons do the work and Rotten Breathed him a few times. Only took me two tries. This game swings from wildly frustrating to fairly easy a lot.

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I'm going to catch some flack for this, but Rotten Breath is too op and should probably get nerfed. I've only used it twice and once was on the Godskin Disciple in the Divine Tower in Caelid. It melted him.

I also realized that even at level 95, I'm in WAY over my head in the snow region. Holy crap. What's funny is that there is stuff in Caelid like the dragons or the dogs that are as powerful. Anyway, I stuck around in snow region long enough to fall backwards into getting the Rivers of Blood katana. That thing RULES. Fighting to get it was really tricky. I've only been using the Bloodhound's Fang where the left trigger does a big upward swipe along with a backflip that sends you pretty far back and then you can combo that with the right trigger which kind leaps/teleports you forward to do a big downward swipe. I eventually figured out the bloody finger's pattern and stopped doing the right trigger part to kill him. Fun and scary fight.

Immediately pumped that sucker up to +8, did some stuff in the Volcano Manor which is indeed really cool and fun, and then though, hey, I'm going to give Astel another shot because I think I need to kill it to finish Ranni's questline. 

Astel fucking SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS. It's by far the cheapest boss in the game. This is the other boss I've used Rotten Breath on. It starts melting it and I start running as far away as possible to avoid all of it's huge AOE attacks. That basically leaves me to dodging all of the meteors it throws at me. I also noticed that when I run far, far away from it that it can't teleport to me...until it's nearly dead. There's been so many times where all Rotten Breath had to do was tick down 2 or 3 more times and Astel would be dead. Instead, somehow, someway, it teleports behind me even though it couldn't before, and dodging or avoid it's grab, which is a one hit kill, is impossible. Fuck this stupid boss. This is the most bullshit thing I've fought in this game and it's not even fun. 

That said, I'm going to kill that son of a bitch even if it takes me 50 more tries.

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1 hour ago, Craig H said:

It only took me a few more tries. And I think I finished the Volcano Manor and the surrounding area. That area is pretty cool. 

Yea its a good time, the "boss" of Volcano Manor can be tricky but the story is fun. Elden Ring has so many weird entertaining optional side missions, even though I put 100 hours into the game I know I missed quite a bit.

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Just finished my second full play through. First time took about 70 hours missing a lot of stuff, this time I pretty much did everything in 90 hours, only thing I really missed is Corwyn’s quest. Still not the biggest fan of the end game. Maliketh just makes me dizzy. Malenia basically came down to hoping the RNG wouldn’t do waterfowl dance too much. Hora Loux was a joke after Maliketh. Elden Beast gave me some issues but feels nerfed from when I first beat him. Being familiar with some of the levels actually helped my enjoyment though, I was kinda overwhelmed in my first play through, second time I was able to fully explore things. I still think DS3 bosses are the peak of the series though, IMO nothing in this game comes close to fights like Lorian/Lothric to me. Level design has too much repetition for me with the catacombs and whatnot, but the legacy dungeons, specifically Stormveil, Raya Lucaria, and Leyndell are the best of the best. But I’ll be going back again. Build variety is insane here and that’s my favorite part. Pretty much every Souls game I’ve beat multiple times since going through then with a different build feels like a whole new game. I’ve done an int build and arc/faith with some dex, maybe I’ll just go pure strength next time.

 

Also doing an SL1 run in Dark Souls right now, beating O&S was an incredible rush. The DLC is daunting though. It’s very weird, these games always seemed so stressful to me as a more casual gamer who likes RPGs and Stardew Valley-like games where I could just turn my brain off. But now the entire series are my comfort games I keep going back to.

Edited by A.M.B.
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Once I beat this, I can’t imagine going back and putting in another 90+ hours to do it all again.

Ran into a couple disappointments. The prison town that surrounds Volcano Manor seemed like it would be cool or lead somewhere and where it leads to is…right back to the start of prison town. I figured there would be something cool there given the unique look and some of the unique enemies there, but there’s really nothing.

Same thing with the shaded castle except the shaded castle doesn’t look nearly as cool.

So I guess I pretty much have all of that area of the map cleared out including Leyndell. Leyndell is another place that is pretty cool and one of the main bosses is there, but I almost wish that city actually were a city with NPCs or normal tarnished folks living under the rule of someone else. Instead for how huge and intricate it is it’s a little empty.

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