Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

The Haligtree never posed a problem for me as a platforming area, but I found the bubble blowers extremely difficult to deal with. That trench run down the scarlet rot branch toward the trio of shitheads is nightmarish.

Elphail in comparison is prob my favourite single FromSoft area, perhaps tied with the entirety of 1-X in Demon's Souls and/or Undead Burg circuit in DS1

I'm running as an int/dex character in NG+2 currently (my only character, and the one I'll be using for the DLC), and attempted Ordina again dreading it. This time around, I retraced the steps to each candle and honestly I only really needed the Sentry Torch to off the black knife assassin for the first candle.

The other three I just needed to find the right path to, and for the last one, was able to block and then confront the archers enough to push them off the roof to get to the last candle. Only died twice in the process and it was much smoother. Didn't need to consult a guide.

For the Haligtree, which I have mostly cleared with the exception of Malenia (still need to beat her, took a break after like 20 attempts), I loved playing the first part as a magic user. Was able to mostly shoot down all the envoys and ants and get all the important items for once. Easily one of my favorite areas in the entire game - from the branches to the roots!

Malenia is such a pain though, she's extra challenging against a magic user I feel. Almost tempted to respec super bonk style (dual Great Stars, perhaps?) or back to my blood priest build of my first playthrough to off her.

If the DLC has at least one or two legacy dungeons on the level of the Haligtree or Farum Azula, it'll be legendary indeed.

this reminds me - didn’t i see an interview where they said they were tweaking the open world / legacy dungeon design approach? it wasn’t this one but this is something similar to what i saw. sounds like it will be v structured and maybe a bit less open.

“"Obviously it being exactly the same, but smaller, wouldn't quite cut it, so we wanted to approach from a sense of granularity, is the word we're using," he said. "How dense this map is, and the ratio of legacy dungeon to open field areas, and how they intertwine. This is something we wanted to explore anew in the DLC: In terms of recapturing that sense of scale but in a slightly different way with a slightly different granularity."”

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/hidetaka-miyazaki-erdtree-size-sense-of-discovery/

Yeah I'm guessing there's multiple "legacy dungeon" areas, but they'll be more integrated into the surrounding environs. So rather than Stormveil Castle being self contained, having it more integrated into Limgrave or something. If anything, I would be willing to bet we'll get something like Leyndell and Stormveil type areas somewhat closer together, with interconnecting passageways between each.

On another note, I'm super torn because the weather is so nice right now the last thing I want to do is mad binge video games, but that's precisely what I'll likely be doing next weekend.

Fr, why can't these games come out during winter.

right. sun’s come out for the first time in years in the UK.

Listened to a review on youtube (didn't want to watch visual spoilers) and it basically went so far as to say it's a whole game length addition. Between 40-120 hours of gameplay depending on how good or how complete you explore it. Nearly 100 new weapons and 4 legacy dungeons (to the main game's 6). JFC. SotET is essentially larger than Dark Souls 3. Then you have replay value with being able to use the weapons from the DLC in the main game on a new play through and alternate options in some NPC quest lines that have yet to be really sussed out yet.

XPs this really is a lousy time for this game to come out, but I'm booking Friday off anyway

Hey, you like revenants? You'll LOVE Elphael Brace of the Haligtree

I try and avoid that part

Farrrrk I need to git more gud, or I'll never be able to manage the DLC :(

I try and avoid that part

― octobeard, Wednesday, 19 June 2024 01:57 (eleven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'm trying to be a bit more thorough about parts I skipped over first time round. It does mean dying a lot though.
I mean, the Royal Revenants are just the start. There are ulcerated tree spirits and also putrid avatars that can fire multiple continuous two-shot homing-missiles at you from far away. I've always semi-cheesed the latter; never worked out quite how you're supposed to fight them properly.

My faithy knighty person would always cast heal on the revenants

What are these putrid avatars? I don’t recall anything with two-shot homing capability

I watched the IGN review of Erdtree and have elected to not break my gaming fast for this DLC. Looks fun! But I’m not gonna do it

Putrid avatars are those big lumbering tree Guardian minibosses. There are two in succession soon after the start of the Brace - one walking along a catwalk, another waiting for you further along the route, flanked by crossbow snipers. Both a severe pain

Yeah I learned the heal trick on the revenant only recently. They're so fast though, they sometimes reach me before I can cast. Plus there are ao many of them. I find I'm coming to the end if my FP flasks by the end, and then I have Cleanrot Knights and Crystallians to deal with straight after

Re: putrid avatars, oh right!

I think I spent four months of my life just running and re-running through Elphael. Cleanrot and Haligtree Knights made excellent dummies to test new builds and weapon choices and so on. Generally I found I was able to fight-back against most of the comers in that zone: wield a bonk for the Crystallians, heal the Revenants, learn the patterns of the Avatars. Aside from the trio of Crystallians guarding the Rotted Crystal Spear (I think?), those three guys I had to suss out one at a time, real danger zone there.

But the absolute hellbeast I never figured out an easy pattern are the Ulcerated Tree Spirits. Fuck those guys.

The putrid avatar on the Elphael bridge is the toughest one imo, between the poison and the confined space. I did better last time, the whole game is recognizing when they're going to do the homing missile as soon as possible and getting enough distance (normally circle strafing works, but not on the bridge).

I've got a soft spot for that second one because iirc I ran past and made it to the grace immediately beyond him before taking him on. Took the pressure off.

& it had been a bastard stretch of you died to get there

Oh yeah I think cheesing that one from the grace is the only way to go, lol.

thank you I'll have those runes back now let's go again

Oh I always had far more difficulty with the avatar guarding grace #2. I’d sneak through the Cleanrot dark room, deal with the crossbowfuckers, climb up the branch to the Halighelm room, save to grace, and bait the Halig Knights to come in before attempting that avatar

Best Mohg guide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dN7HCjqfxc

Oh my god, using Glintstone blades to kill the invisible scarabs is good -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDhoDThUIHc

How much do you all use shields in this game? Me, barely, apart from maybe right at the start...

But in DS2 I've got my shield up pretty much all the time.

Another difference is that in DS2 I'm basically rolling naked with no armour and the highest strength weapons and shield I can wear

i’m just always walking around with my shield up basically and relying on the very dodgy and not at all universally useful idea that i can get a guard counter in. also one of my builds is a tank so…

but i had covid last week and fancied a dex build play in limgrave, getting used to parrying etc. it takes some getting used to.

bloodborne was my entry to soulsborne and i completed with a dex build so i’m used to rapid sidestep as part of dancing round the enemy (ie zero shield usage). the sidestep weapon art isn’t close enough to do that reliably or responsively enough to make it useful.

Not at all except for parrying (especially Carian retaliation), but shields are still super good. It lets you pressure and do mix-ups, but I still have dumb biases against shields from my Dark Souls 1 days.

I did my very first playthrough as many do, with the biggest shield I could find (tower) and the highest damage weapon I could wield one-handed. Never really learned to roll properly, was scared of everything, just blocked and then counterattacked. Then I started watching youtube vids of people playing with two-handed katanas + no armor + dodging everything and I never really went back to shields. In DS3 it was always left-hand weapons or caestus parries for me. And I don't really like the uncertainty of not knowing whether an attack is going to break my guard, especially in pvp. I also try to minimize the number of things I need to think about, so would rather just focus on dodging rather than deciding whether to block or dodge. So while I do think there are advantages to not using shields (your left hand is free for spells or other weapons), a good player with a shield can be scary.

These Revenants! They kill me before I can even use that healing spell, every time!

the guts sword is one of the better shields in the game so all the time i guess

Best Mohg guide

I just watched my partner summon her Mimic and smash Mohg with repeated blasts of Comet Azure fueled by the Cerulean Hidden Tear before he even "nihiled". What other strategy do you need? Just get a couple larval tears and make quick work of him.

I remember spending an entire afternoon guide digging to get his shackle and the Purifying Crystal Tear to even get to his 2nd phase.

Spending an hour+ repetitively learning a boss's moveset so that my reflexes can respond to their cues on a subconscious level is how I get my kicks I guess

First playthrough I was drawn to dual wield, roll at random, hit the buggers more than they hit you and make them bleed. Sort of didn't believe that shields actually protected you against big things and guard breaks/staggers made me nervous. NG+, with a lot of stamina, learned to stand my ground and counterhit & came to love my no skill brass shield +25.

Also experimented with carian parry - a lot of fun but never really got consistent. Keep it on a back-up shield tho.

I never had any issue killing reveants with a heal spell, maybe it depends on the spell? Or maybe Ive only tested it on the easy ones in Liurnia haha. I didn't know about that trick in areas where it wouldve really helped like that poison castle.

xxp Jordan I see you like to git gud. Some of us have lazy days, or are magic users.

Tonight! So excited!

(As if I haven't been playing ER every evening this week)

Jealous! Hopefully I get some time to dig in this weekend, gonna try and avoid spoilers in the meantime.

I did only co-op last night during my stationary bike + Elden Ring session, just to get runes for pre-dlc smithing stones. It was pretty silly - I'd say 90% of hosts died during the first ten seconds. I think they wanted their phantoms to beat the boss, but didn't want to seem like they weren't contributing so they just threw themselves into the meat grinder instead? I saw hosts continuing to spam Radagon with holy spells, Rivers of Blood, and Waterfowl Dance despite the fact that they were doing zero damage to him (and he would poise through and destroy them). I felt bad for the person who put on three buffs and promptly ran off the ledge at the entrance to Maliketh's arena though, lol. We did manage to beat Maliketh another time though, I think that was the only win. I was surprised to never get a Mohg summon.

Wow, you can use the horse in the Elden Beast fight now! Also lots of nice quality of life additions (new items are flagged, you can see how much FP different skills consume in the menu, roll out of gestures sooner, etc).

https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/elden-ring/news/elden-ring-patch-notes-version-112

Decreased the effect that increases the power of spells of Terra Magica.

Decreased the effect duration of the Cerulean Hidden Tear.

How dare you nerf my magic user cheese!

Increased the speed of some attacks of the following weapon types:

Axes / Greataxes / Hammers / Flails / Reapers

Increased the damage of charged attacks of the following weapon types:

Axes / Greataxes / Some Colossal Weapons

Okay - definitely time to respec to my dual great stars bonk build

Heh I'm curious how the changes to spinning slash affect my dragon halberd build. It's probably a good time to nerf the strong builds (power-stanced weapons etc) to get people to try the new dlc weapons.

They done nerfed the Blasphemous Blade just as I was getting to Malenia. DAAAARRRGHHG

Thinking I might livestream my first play of the DLC in about 30 minutes

Miyazaki interview in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/jun/21/hidetaka-miyazaki-fromsoftware-elden-ring-shadow-erdtree

Only a couple of hours in. Been more or less poking my nose around the opening area, mostly seeing what there is to see, dying, then going some other place.

It is gobsmacking. Two things that really strike me are in the architectural aesthetics, which truly give the base game a rub for its money. Use of music and general sound effects also feel like a huge step up.

It's so weird starting this after having familiarised myself so thoroughly with Elden Ring over the last two years. To suddenly be unbridled by a lack of orientation is such a thrill, and they've done well to give that sense of "Okay this feels new". The game is screaming at me to stop relying on my old build and try new techniques.

Thanks for the reminder to turn my music back on! I disable it sometimes for boss fights (to stay calm) and always forget to turn it back on.

Woke up at 6am and thought "hmm, why not explore the shadow realm before work?" Loving it so far.

The first boss I found is a real dang doozy, incredible design though. Can't decide if I'm going to keep throwing myself at him (I've gotten him down to half health so far and have been making progress, but he can kill me in three hits) or come back later. It also crashed my game spectacularly at least once (no big deal, the save file was fine and I'm sure they'll patch everything soon).

(he also

Also loving the new 'recent items' tab, although it's a bit silly that your flask keeps rotating to the top every time you use it.

gave it quick go round after returning from some travel. enjoying the desolation. some nice jump scare SHRIEKS in the woods, killed a gargoyle, got mauled to death YOU DIED by some spectral dogs that i didn’t think would be a problem.

A+ would YOU DIED again. (and will when i go back to retrieve my runes i imagine)

Yeah the recent items tab is a great addition. I'm loving my somewhat over-leveled NG+2 character going into this. Retains the challenge of mid-late game of my first run, but with a bit more damage. Dying frequently but making some decent progress. Killed the first big boss after about 20-30 go rounds and with the help of the given summons. I've been getting more items to strengthen spirit ashes vs my character proper and I kinda feel the game is telling me "yeah it's okay, use your spirit ashes"