Elden Ring (DLC hype room)

[languid tiger]

i'm so sad ER doesn't have more dedicated pyro/hex support

the dearth of int/fth weapons saddens me

[proven horizon]

it has pretty good pyro support

[old brook]

I want Profound Still

[obtuse halo]

I only ever played ds1 and 2 offline, and the servers were down when i played 3 😔

[languid tiger]

it has good pure faith pyro support

that's not pyromancy

that's heresy

[obtuse halo]

Lol

[old brook]

( but a contrivance )

[proven horizon]

There's magma, too

[obtuse halo]

It is in fact heresy!

Against the Erdtree!

[languid tiger]

the magma spells never really wowed me

except for magma shot

[stone cove]

Elden Ring often feels like it has a bit of a idenity crisis with regards to whati t wants different stats to be able to do.

[languid tiger]

but that does not a system make

[obtuse halo]

Magma shot is a banger

[stone cove]

Arcane is all over the fucking place

Faith kinda does everything

[languid tiger]

faith does everything, including the things int did in previous games

(pure nonphysical damage, stealth body buffs)

int hits you with blue

a lot of blue

most of it very strong

[old brook]

Bring Climax back, I want to see people accidentally throw 200k souls into a well

[obtuse halo]

Faith does stealth?

[proven horizon]

and some purple!

[stone cove]

Faith does stealth.

[obtuse halo]

Pretty sure unseen body is a sorcery

[proven horizon]

Climax was so funny lol

[languid tiger]

yeah, faith picked up the unseen body stuff

[stone cove]

What else are my level 200 characters who have way too many souls i'll never use going to do?

[proven horizon]

Will you dodge roll this? Or die?

[languid tiger]

with assassin's approach

and darkness

[golden pond]

Shadow Wizard Mimic Gang
We love casting moons

[obtuse halo]

Having just cast unseen body a couple dozen times two days ago, i am certain it is a sorcery lol

Not that I don’t agree faith is crazy versatile in ER

[languid tiger]

https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Darkness

https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Assassin's+Approach

[modest berry]

i was so happy they added a shadowizard moneygang/ finalfantasy black mage hat in this expansion

[languid tiger]

faith also has it

[obtuse halo]

I guess those do technically exist

[stone cove]

I do wish a bunch of stuff was well... more understanble. Like the crazy fucking scaling on various weapon arts

that's competley opaque.

I really like this game, but gods, every time i' play it i';m reminded why i call it the Best Worst game i've played

[modest berry]

secret red and blue scaling within scaling is so funny

[stone cove]

Because it is An Experience

and sometimes that experience is wanting to dropslam From Software out a ten story window

[obtuse halo]

Yeah WA scaling is actual occult mystery

Some seem clear enough, others are “bwuh” territory

[stone cove]

I think the funiest is like, THunderbolt or similar

[modest berry]

i love this goddamn hat

[stone cove]

where it turns out it just scales hard with dex.

[obtuse halo]

Lightning is dex. I don’t make the rules!

[stone cove]

And so if your weapon has really good dex scaling you can wave it in the air

and nuke people off the map

[proven horizon]

Even weapon scaling is kinda iffy with the shifting softcaps on different weapons

[languid tiger]

it's one of my favorite things to come out of the dlc

[obtuse halo]

Also D and C are incredibly wide ranges

[languid tiger]

not even that

letter grades are liars

[stone cove]

Letter grades are so dumb.

[languid tiger]

the numerical scaling of a weapon does not necessarily correlate to its letter grade

there are weapons with like

[stone cove]

I wish they'd just expose the thing

[languid tiger]

170 scale

[proven horizon]

this weapon softcaps at 47
this one goes all the way to 80

[languid tiger]

that are labeled B or A

[dusty kraken]

Hmm...I do think that something I am a bit sad about with Elden Ring Invasions vs older Dark Souls Invasions - Elden Ring is really good about giving you a lot of grace spots, so there's very rarely travel time between one and a boss fight. So there's never much of a 'I am making a run for this boss, an invader could actively fuck with my attempt'. If you're invading someone they're either just Hanging About or Idly Exploring 99% of the time. So there's a lot less 'I can make their life harder by helping the enemies take them out on their quest'.

If that remotely makes sense?

[languid tiger]

and weapons with 120 at S

[proven horizon]

I just wish my cop ring procced more

[obtuse halo]

Yeah most invasions in practice are in legacy dungeons or field bosses

[proven horizon]

I only got a single (successful) cop ring proc in my dlc playthrough

[old brook]

The hell is a cop ring

[opaque canopy]

https://x.com/Personfaces/status/1807510277573005542?t=hnB_9cRNjfJlAeNfks-smA&s=19

Witnesstheabsurd (@Personfaces) on X

New Elden Ring DLC 2 trailer

NARRATOR: What do you know... of the four toes......
(Shot of Ansbach loading a gun in a car driving through LA)
FINGER MAIDEN: its the Elden Ring.... its back... and it means business
(Pan shot of castle made entirely of fingers)

Twitter · Jun 30, 2024, 8:23 PM

[proven horizon]

It was admittedly quite fun, got a guy with my snake shield

[obtuse halo]

Presumably blue summons

[golden pond]

Acab includes blue summons

[obtuse halo]

Hunters

[old brook]

I forgot those were extant in this game

[proven horizon]

lmao

[obtuse halo]

Yeah i forget too until one actually shows up

[proven horizon]

You have you buy a cop ring from the double finger maiden, and a copee ring from them if you want to get copped

[glossy stag]

pvp in souls games always felt bad to me because it's always been laggy

it all felt far too random

[obtuse halo]

My understanding is you’re more likely to get summoned by an afk farmer than anyone actually in need of assistance

As a blue

[opaque canopy]

strolling through limgrave on an invasion when this jackass hunter comes sprinting through the treeline at me screaming about being the 'thin blue line'

[dusty kraken]

Even dungeons tend to go 'the boss is by the entrance/grace, you only need to run through to open up the door'.

Which is a pity, as I don't enjoy duels in Elden Ring. I enjoy being a skirmisher and fucking with the other guy, draining his resources. My favourite thing in Dark Souls was to find a good place with the enemies to swoop in and backstab or status effect the player. Or to snipe them with a greatbow while they were Doing Enviromental Stuff.

Yes, I did spend a lot of time being an Extra Anor Londo Archer 😛

[obtuse halo]

You monster lmao

[old brook]

Obscuring Ring + Greatbow, they must always Be Aware

[stone cove]

Okay, hefty fly pots are hilarious

[obtuse halo]

The Wall meme here

[stone cove]

The aoe on them is gigantic

so you just turn up and yell BEEEEES

[obtuse halo]

Oh god

[modest berry]

i do think that is a shame yeah, however, i think the nixing of boss runs to an extent is net positive

[glossy stag]

I wish elden ring had some kind of reward for being summoned other than what you get from beating the boss

Summoned in lake of rot

Well what do I do now

[opaque canopy]

rot

[obtuse halo]

Sunlight Medals would be nice

[glossy stag]

fair

I liked ds2 system of getting reward for killing enough with the host

[dusty kraken]

I think it would be nice if there was specific places designed for Boss Runs. So players would walk in, knowing it's a specific sorta place where it might not have the hardest boss but it's more of a resource management place.

[obtuse halo]

There are a couple real boss runs left. Renalla comes to mind

[modest berry]

maybe lik, extra stuf you can only get liimited of in ur game, larva tears or ancient dragon/ great ghost stuff, i think that would be a big incentive to help others beyond it just being fun

[dusty kraken]

Dark Souls 2 had that tower where you basicly invaded to play Takeshi's Castle with the other guy. XD

I loved that place

[obtuse halo]

Renalla’s such a weird exception, it fascinates me

[proven horizon]

Rat zone anti invasions

[languid tiger]

Rennala or Rellana?

[obtuse halo]

You can shortcut it to some degree but there’s always enemies or jumps in the way

Renalla

[old brook]

the most cursed naming convention of all time

[dusty kraken]

I spent so long in it with Loviatar, my witch. Like full witch get up, pointy hat and everything. Everyone expected her to be a pure spellsinger but her main thing was popping up out of a prop with her Mace and just beating the shit out of people without warning in that tower. XD

[languid tiger]

TWINS

[obtuse halo]

The previous grace is debate parlor, where the red wolf fight was

[languid tiger]

oh

[dusty kraken]

(Like, she was a dark sorcery mage but maces were really easy to be good at)

[languid tiger]

i've never really noticed

[obtuse halo]

Red Wolf also has a real boss run, incidentally

[languid tiger]

i don't think i've ever died to rennala

[old brook]

God, Dancing Lion phase 2 might be some of my favorite Souls OST ever

[languid tiger]

it's pretty incredible, yeah

[proven horizon]

Rellana Rennala Malenia Melina Ranni Renna Margit Morgott Godrick Godfrey

[dusty kraken]

I've died once to Rennala.

[old brook]

I like that Morg and Ranni are both bad at coming up with cover names

[dusty kraken]

Because I don't like to read guides before I've tried a boss.

...I lost to her first phase.

[languid tiger]

i mean most of these aren't that bad, it's mostly Rennala and Rellana, and then Malenia and Melina

[opaque canopy]

i died a ton my first go at her because i was underleveled as fuck and still sucked

[languid tiger]

no, no, Renna was a real person

just

[obtuse halo]

I’ve only died to Rennala when very very underleveled

[languid tiger]

not Ranni

[dusty kraken]

Because the child holding up her spell was behind one of the little walls.

[old brook]

oh right she borrowed the name

[languid tiger]

yeah, Renna was her master

[proven horizon]

One of my friends did that lol

[dusty kraken]

So I spent the entire time going 'HOW THE FUCK DO I GET YOU OFF THE ROOF?'

[languid tiger]

who we know basically nothing else about

[proven horizon]

He kept standing under the chandeliers

[steel scroll]

my hc on the absolutely garbage cover names is that the R, M, G thing filtered into the greater nobility's naming conventions, and it's basically like being named John

[dusty kraken]

It took me like a full 20 mins to die but it was embarassing XD

[old brook]

I lost to Ren a few times, she has some Gotcha moves

I didn't know what Comet Azur was when I walked in but then you learn

[dusty kraken]

Just constantly being bopped with books.

[languid tiger]

i think the G thing is just Godfrey's line

[opaque canopy]

her summons ghost me the most honestly. the dragon usually

[languid tiger]

can't think of any other characters that aren't the Godlings

[proven horizon]

I quite liked the Rennala style fight in the DLC, beat it in one try but it was fun nonetheless

[dusty kraken]

I also do think that more boss fights in Elden Ring should have adds.

Like duels are fun but so few bosses bring Friends.

[modest berry]

bold take

[dusty kraken]

I love fights where there's like 4 or 5 guys all charging me and I want to manuver to handle them.

Like unironically, that grace right near the start where there's like a full dozen Godrick Soldiers?

I love getting there every game and setting off the alarm

[obtuse halo]

Do you mean ||Lamenter|| or am I blanking on one?

[languid tiger]

i wish that one had more hp

and bulk

so its gimmick could be displayed more

because it has like

[obtuse halo]

Gimmick?

[languid tiger]

wet paper bag stats

so it dies instantly

[obtuse halo]

I rolled it lol

[dusty kraken]

As you've suddenly got a dozen guys all trying to jump you from various directions. That is one of my favorite non-boss fights in the entire game.

[modest berry]

i didnt even understand the gimmick the first time because|| if you find the real one and hit it enough it skips the gimmick, they all die||

[dusty kraken]

Which I know is a bit silly but...I really like dancing with mutliple partners.

[languid tiger]

yeah, its ||clones have a gimmick where if you don't kill them all after a clone phase, each living clone that despawns manually will mark you||

||and if you get like 8 or so marks you die instantly||

||so it's supposed to be a kind of management task||

[obtuse halo]

Incredible lol

[languid tiger]

unfortunately

5 hp

0 negations

[frozen olive]

you can also uh

[obtuse halo]

I should try this one bow only

[frozen olive]

||just hit the real one enough and it despawns the clones||

[languid tiger]

yeah

it needs to not have that part

[frozen olive]

some effects will also just

[languid tiger]

to force some more interesting engagement

[frozen olive]

linger on the real one

so you can pretty much just mark is and ignore the entire gimmick

[dusty kraken]

Also: Gimme another Sen's Castle Fromsoft.

Sen's Castle is great and they've never really replicated it in later games.

You get a hair of it in the Elden Ring Dungeons but it's only ever like 'one trap in a hallway'

[glossy stag]

Did we get any info on Marika is Radagon in the dlc?
I've seen someone mostly just theorize that it's because ||she got "jarred up" with someone|| but that's entirely speculation

[modest berry]

gwynsen and hiis castle one my fav bosses and they could do some weird evil wipeout shit with the new jumping

[languid tiger]

we got some information on a possibility

[stone cove]

There;s some dlc ones that are pretty great, honestly

Like several of them are very trap heavy in fun ways

[languid tiger]

||marika is a shaman, and the shamans apparently had a power to "shape flesh"||

[obtuse halo]

They did in DS1, but that was bed of chaos

[languid tiger]

||which implies that she physically merged herself with Radagon using her people's innate power||

||as opposed to an It Was Always There thing||

[opaque canopy]

look we should let them try another big tree boss its been awhile i think Miyazaki has done his penance for BoC

[languid tiger]

sunflower

[frozen olive]

i would love a boss rush mode or some way to re-fight bosses

[glossy stag]

Not that big

[stone cove]

Suynflower was really fun

[opaque canopy]

sekiro having one added as dlc made me hopeful they'd add one but ig not

[modest berry]

pleaseee we solved this in sekiro and ac6,,, we had this back in shadow of the colossus on the ps2 why not here

[opaque canopy]

like

[frozen olive]

i killed it with ||Midra's frenzied flame actually||

as it turns out ||it does fucking big stacks of damage||

[opaque canopy]

just add a big evergaol arena that lets you summon the essences of defeated enemies/bosses. boom. done.

[frozen olive]

i killed the first phase with a single cast :)

[stone cove]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/elden-ring-shadow-of-the-erdtree-has-a-hidden-item-that-lets-torrent-headbutt-your-enemies

[modest berry]

the sunflower got me way more than it should have (like 3) it was embarassing,|| i genuinely got got by the, respawn every time when i put the controller down lol||

[languid tiger]

yeah that boss has like

-50 fire negation

holy builds kill it instantly

[frozen olive]

it was really funny running in and just pulling out ||Midra's Frenzied Flame|| and nothing else and just killing it

[old brook]

Why does it take so fucking long for NPC summons to arrive are they trying to make them feel more like finding people online

[obtuse halo]

Hell, imagine if Remembrances were literal

[obtuse halo]

Unironically yes

[obtuse halo]

Reminds me of the first time I encountered Friede’s last phase

I’d picked up my coffee cup and halfway left the room to refill it when she started talking again

Giving you a titanite slab after phase 2 is such a troll move lol

[old brook]

Love how i have to do it twice to fight this boss

[obtuse halo]

Fun fact, ||you can crit it during its fake death animations to damage the next phase||

[old brook]

aright

i'm not fighting this until it's nerfed

[obtuse halo]

Final boss?

[old brook]

eyup

[proper vortex]

||i have kill a random bug and the dlc marchant invaded||

[obtuse halo]

Fwiw both summons makes it harder

Imo

[old brook]

The summons are the only reason I want to do the fight

[frozen olive]

||That was a forager, one of Moores family that you murdered in cold blood||

[old brook]

I don't give a damn about anything the boss gives me

[frozen olive]

the summons iirc 2x the bosses health bar if you summon both

[obtuse halo]

It’s already hard but +100% hp is…aaagh

[frozen olive]

and it's an enormous healthbar to begin with

[old brook]

Do they still complete their questlines if I don't summon them

[proper vortex]

||yay and also all of the other insect men i saw tried to kill me||

[frozen olive]

yes

[old brook]

That's

Stupid

[obtuse halo]

I used one summon

[old brook]

but thanks

'Ahh-... now I can unrelatedly die. Thank you, wanderer..'

[frozen olive]

(post boss spoilers)||the rest of their quests involve them being dead in the arena||

[modest berry]

wait thats the only way to get the gear 😂 wahhhhhhhhh

[obtuse halo]

Still helpful for splitting aggro, smaller increase to boss health/damage

[frozen olive]

||whether you summon them or not, they will lie dead in the arena and their gear will drop||

[obtuse halo]

||Average elden ring quest end||

[frozen olive]

||don't you mean average fromsoft quest end?||

[old brook]

Thops learned too hard and died

[frozen olive]

||i remember all of my friends in ds3 dying horrible deaths||

[obtuse halo]

Actually it fit for me because ||they both died whenever I summoned them anyway. Lore friendly!||

[frozen olive]

||i remember having to butcher my friends in AC6||

[old brook]

Everyone in AC6 secretly ejected

[steel scroll]

ac6 ending ||the burn ending is so grim but god the ayre fight is SO GOOD||

[trail sail]

||Does literally any From NPC quest end in them being alive??||

[modest berry]

everyone except for ||swinburne|| hes just dead

[old brook]

Hornsent Grandam hasn't gone down yet

[frozen olive]

Hornsent Grandma unironically

[steel scroll]

firekeepers tend to get away in the end iirc

[old brook]

She must remain, to be a hater

[modest berry]

rya just disappears

[obtuse halo]

Sure. Kenneth Haight and Nepheli Loux are doing pretty well

[frozen olive]

ironically the only person ||who lives in the DLC is just the random hater grandma you find in Belurat||

[old brook]

I am so baffled by Kenneth but guess he's making it happen

[trail sail]

Oh yeah, true

[frozen olive]

he's got the schmoves

[stone cove]

Neph also makes it out

[old brook]

He has such big 'killed by wild dogs' energy though

[steel scroll]

ive not beaten the final boss yet but do ||thollier and ansbach leave corpses behind? or just gear||

[obtuse halo]

||corpses||

[stone cove]

Kenneth makes it out by being weirdly decent, basicalyl going "Shit, yeah, i am NOT the right king. Barbarian lady thouygh? Damn, she's a good king. I vote f or her."

The two npcs you summon for the final boss have unique dialouge when killed by said boss

[obtuse halo]

||the implication is you faced Miquella together, but only you survived||

[stone cove]

which basically estalbsiehs that canoically they go down swinging to help you out

[steel scroll]

imagine ||that guy you promised to knight shows up with the elden ring in one arm and the last remaining royal in the other. you knight him, and then they fuck off into the sky||

[frozen olive]

||this pretty much, the lore accurate read is they both go in with you and perish in the fight||

[stone cove]

Kenneth, turning to Neph: "SO, about your wine cellar". Neph: "...Yeah. Let's go get piss drunk"

(Gostroc is not invited for being a creepy werido)

[steel scroll]

||then you go down to the wine cellar and see godwyn staring back up at you through the floorboards||

[stone cove]

Weridly, there;s a whole fisher king thing going on with Stormveil

so it's possible thjat'll get purged just by Neph existing

it's implied the thorns everywhere are basically a result of Godrick being shit

[obtuse halo]

Sellen’s quest seems like it might have a good ending for her until it suddenly doesn’t

Jerren seems fine (if you side with him)

[stone cove]

Boc has a good ending, if you do things right

[obtuse halo]

Yeah!

[frozen olive]

Boc my beloved

[obtuse halo]

Boc’s a good boy

[frozen olive]

my favourite base game NPC 😌

[obtuse halo]

Though Age of Stars ending has you abandon him 😔

[stone cove]

I admitedly odnt like boc a lot, but i have trouble liking the "cant stand u pfor themsevles" npcs

[frozen olive]

unfortunately, not much to be done about it

[obtuse halo]

Yeah

[frozen olive]

i like to think i brought my royal seamster with me

just me Ranni and Boc

[stone cove]

I mean, who else is gonna make ranni hyper fancy dresses?

[obtuse halo]

Procession of Stars indeed

[stone cove]

Tarnished can't sew.

[old brook]

nah this fight's still stupid

[obtuse halo]

Not without 500 souls

[frozen olive]

who else is going to tailor all that armor i don't wear

[stone cove]

The final boss is A Lot.

[frozen olive]

unironically whenever i see boc i tailor some armor with him even if i know i won't use it

[stone cove]

I didn't like it too. It's just too visually noisy

[obtuse halo]

Based

[old brook]

I also hate it conceptually so it's really not giving me drive

[frozen olive]

he's just like, the best ever and i don't want him to feel left out or abandoned

[obtuse halo]

Yeah i beat it but I’m not hyped about it

[stone cove]

and it's badly c ommunciated that you can jump, parry and otherwise do a bunch of stuff that's not rolling to evade

[frozen olive]

how come?

[stone cove]

and in fact, it seems to be set up to punish rolling a lot

which sucks

just roll catches everywhere

[modest berry]

boc should learn to add capes to things that dont have capes

[atomic plinth]

...running out of stuff to do in the DLC

It's starting to come to a close but I don't want it to

[old brook]

I don't want to whinge about the final boss again

[frozen olive]

fair enough

[stone cove]

I would also prefer this ,because the argument on it gets pretty ciruclar.

You either like the narrative choices or you dont, and i think it's a fair argument to say the dlc fumbles the storytelling either way because from's approahc leaves too mcuh to interpation

[golden pond]

I really don't like this in any boss ngl, and all the bosses have so many roll catches

[stone cove]

so if you had a specific vision of the npcs, it can clash very badly

[modest berry]

some bosses in this dlc are so roll catch overtuned ive just stood totally still and not gotten hit

[stone cove]

It is, again, down to the game having a defence system built around the player being reactive instead of proactive, and the roll beign ridiclously strong, so everything has to be setup to punish your rolls not being perfect.

[golden pond]

I had my mimic side step ||dragon pit|| boss

[golden pond]

no i get that but like

[stone cove]

It sucks?

[golden pond]

They basically built an entire franchise around rolling
and then it's hard to guess which things you can jump or not

[stone cove]

I was agreeing that it's a bad thing, it just feels unfun.

[frozen olive]

i honestly disagree but that's again a thing with opinions so we don't need to get into it

[stone cove]

I mean, i like the narrative choice etc, i just think from's being vague bit them in the arse here.

[golden pond]

like i don't think there's anything in the game that says "you can dodge floor aoe by jumping" to my knowledge

[stone cove]

Oh, yeah, the game's communcation on knoweldge is shit

[old brook]

Also 'this was a floor AoE that had spikes so that doesn't work.'

[obtuse halo]

I once went AFK in the final boss fight because dad called me out of the room and when i came back the phase 2 cutscene was playing

[golden pond]

mfw on final boss you can dodge a screen nuke by jumping
despite it having a high reach visually

[stone cove]

"You can jump this attack which is a thrust. but this thrust angles up a bit, so no good"

[stone cove]

i'm sorry, what. the finall boss of the dlc?

[golden pond]

i fucking loved elden ring reforged remade cave of knowledge

[obtuse halo]

Yes

[stone cove]

...what did he even do?

[obtuse halo]

I think ||Thioller|| went ultra instinct

[stone cove]

I'll also take a moment to just once again, grumble that elden ring's camera is really, really bad.

[modest berry]

reminds me, i had the messmer fight play me the whole second phase cutscene and then kill me, not realizing i had died in phase one

[obtuse halo]

But it was still very funny

[stone cove]

And i would like them to do serious work on their camera system >.>

[frozen olive]

that happened to me too lol

[golden pond]

like i don't mind that moving and jumping is a valid dodge thing
i just wish it was easier to tell when they're valid

boss slamming floor with a magic hammer? you can dodge that
slamming with a normal sword? no because spike come out

[obtuse halo]

Wow lmao

That’s so funny in context

[stone cove]

Yup. It's communcation is bad. "You can land safely in this mass of flames. But dont you dare roll it!"

[obtuse halo]

“Wait, you mean i damned myself for nothing?”

[golden pond]

roll timings? that's fine cause at least i know roll is gonna work for it

fuck if i know what's gonna work for the 3 floor slams, 2 pokes and then a spin combo

[stone cove]

From the nearby rtoom a ytell of "Hang on, just recrafting"

[golden pond]

oh, they're also randomly delayed

boss is getting a call

[old brook]

Also Aftershocks that are more threatening than the swing itself

Fucking exhaust

'the ground was wiggly, die'

[golden pond]

no but deadass

i hate the whole "I SWING, THERE'S AFTER EFFECT"

and the move looks the same as the guy that swings with no after effect

mfw the best way for me to fight all the trash red knights in shadowkeep is to just move away and chuck moons at them because otherwise i'm stuck in a fucking Midi file combo

[modest berry]

||midra had me mald a time or two, with that. dodging the swing but getting madnessed by the floor and instakilled by the followup|| tragedy incarnate

[golden pond]

unironicaly 2 bosses i actually enjoyed fighting because they never felt super bullshit

||Twink the Impaler and Twink the Mad||

||Clear comms on what's a spin move and dangerous, delays between slamming into you and making a 50 feet explosion (except the mad twink, never used that move for me so idk)||

[obtuse halo]

These guys gave me a lot of trouble too tbh

[steel scroll]

this is outside my experience and mostly unrelated but is ||messmer a twink or is he just... long.||

[golden pond]

the fucking infinite poise backstep into fire fan throw

like what the fuck are oyu doing

you're taking a 500 pound hammer to hte face

what poise mf

[old brook]

wow cool the ||ARENA WIDE PULL AOE|| has a combo followup in phase 2 cool

[modest berry]

||midra was one of my favorites in the dlc maybe more than messmer actually even if i got hit by some bull it felt honest overall||

[golden pond]

do the funny and walk away and roll bakc right before it starts

[old brook]

I've loved every fight except this

[golden pond]

||in my experience, it moved me away from him 😭 ||

[steel scroll]

i loved ||messmer|| honestly. like the camera is still fucky but i felt just the right amount of pressure from his ||snakemageddon shit in phase 2||

[old brook]

what do you mean walk away

it hits everywhere

[golden pond]

it never felt like they had to pull a dagger out of their ass to poke you so you get roll caught dodging hte 7 hit combo

[obtuse halo]

Yeah sometimes it just throws you on a tangent vector lmao

[golden pond]

fromsoft saw pontiff and mr red cape and decided to just make every boss a delay combo spam roll catcher

oh, boss is doing 2 pokes
but now he's got 4 different moves he can do and htey all end in 2 ways

[frozen olive]

the last boss does not have any arena wide AoE moves

[modest berry]

yeahhhhh

[obtuse halo]

The ||gravitas|| effect is huge, if not literally arena-wide

I don’t think I’ve ever been clear of it

[frozen olive]

i have

[modest berry]

the height of honesty from fromsoft i think is ishinn for me, he goes, do this and dont do this and your winning hinges on that

[frozen olive]

if not then you can also roll it

[obtuse halo]

Yeah I learned to roll it

Or at least minimize suffering on the followup

[frozen olive]

it's pretty difficult to get clear of all of the bosses attacks but that one in particular you can actually roll to good effect if you get the timing down

[golden pond]

like idk

i liked initial difficulty
then i got to blessing 12 and most bosses folded to a moon being thrown at them and getting beaten by running away

[obtuse halo]

I was really feeling my 10 END that fight

[golden pond]

either that or they stuck on my ass like a mosquito and spammed spin combos with roll catches

[obtuse halo]

More stamina is, uh. Good.

[frozen olive]

i got a lot of stamina

actually a side effect of what i actually wanted

which was carryweight

[modest berry]

ive had fun overall in retrospect but i was going "this is bullshit" during a lot of the fights in this dlc even when i was winning first or 2nd try

[golden pond]

i one tried World's #1 Most Hated Mountain Dweller at blessing 4, that was fun

[frozen olive]

||CURSE YOU BAYLE!||

[golden pond]

i had some fun so it wasn't a complete waste of moeny

world looks cool

overall a big meh

ringed city still peak

[old brook]

DLC is like a 9.9 out of 10 for me

if this boss was literally anything else

[frozen olive]

I really enjoyed Shadow of the Erdtree

[steel scroll]

royal rat authority

[old brook]

Yeah

I'm for it

I summoned Large Rats most of this playthrough

[steel scroll]

not even reskinned, straight up dark souls 2 poo textures.

[obtuse halo]

...okay I would laugh until I cried if I walked through the Climactic Fog Gate and the fucking Royal Rat Authority was waiting there for me.

[steel scroll]

||you walk through the divine gate to meet the great will's true vassal: PINWHEEL||

[golden pond]

||radahn dead on the floor being eaten by madness rats||

[frozen olive]

Royal rat authority but with the damage and health of the final boss

[obtuse halo]

oh no.

[old brook]

The health is absolutely not a problem

[frozen olive]

Honestly

[old brook]

I melt his ass just there's never opportunity to do so

[frozen olive]

The health was my only problem

[golden pond]

https://tenor.com/view/rats-rat-brimstone-brawlers-brimstone-brawlers-gif-21746944

[obtuse halo]

the damage is, RRA has infamously janky hitboxes

[frozen olive]

If i could do more damage the fight wouldn't be so bad at all

[obtuse halo]

RRA is basically if Great Grey Wolf Sif were bad

[golden pond]

sif is mid

[old brook]

final boss is mid sorry to the fans

[obtuse halo]

There is nothing wrong with Sif, how dare you

[golden pond]

if i wanted a depressed dog waiting for it's owner to come back

I got Hachiko

[old brook]

actively made my enjoyment of other parts of the story worse

[frozen olive]

¯_(ツ)_/¯

[golden pond]

mid boss carried by an edgy one handed sword man lore

[frozen olive]

thankfully i do not have this problem so it's perfectly fine

[obtuse halo]

okay so I have a confession to make

I never actually played the DS1 dlc

Just didn't own it

[golden pond]

you want peak companion that will follow you into the abyss?

[obtuse halo]

and never went back to do it later

[steel scroll]

i cant find it now but there was that post about how if sif was in elden ring, he wouldn't limp at 50% hp, he'd start exploding with shadow energy and doing sick flips

[golden pond]

cw: fleshy bits
Peak companion

[frozen olive]

i have played DS3 and Elden Ring and a little bit of Sekiro

DS3 is one of my all time favourite games

Elden Ring in its totality is a solid 9.5/10

[stone cove]

"Throw at enemies to cause a large buildup of madness. The flame of frenzy burns the eyes, but tranquility follows in its wake. May this pot bring salvation to those it strikes."

[frozen olive]

Sekiro i would solidly rate at like

[stone cove]

Ah yes, the salvation of having a giant frenzy flame pot biffed int oyour face

[frozen olive]

5/10 with what i experienced

[golden pond]

cough

[old brook]

( this is wild )

[stone cove]

"Shibiri SAVES!" slam

[frozen olive]

the only fun part of the game to the point i got was GYOBU MASATAKA ONIWA

everything else was kinda just obnoxious which is why i uninstalled it

[stone cove]

Sekiro needs to g o on a reasonble sale already

[old brook]

honestly with Shabriri showed up again in the DLC, acts the same regardless of if you've talked to him before

i just love that fucked up VA work

like he's Trying So Hard to be Human

[stone cove]

by which i mean actually stop being 50 dollars NZD even when it's half off

[golden pond]

🏴‍☠️

[stone cove]

I have played it through other, dark means. But i'dl ike to own it legit

and give it another go

i got through most ofi t but never finsiehd the final boss becuase i just kinda got very tired of it

[golden pond]

i got to the horse boss and never bothered to go past it

combat didn't vibe with me

[frozen olive]

i've reinstalled sekiro since to give it two more tries since that's how many i gave DS3

[old brook]

But he's so cool unless you mean Demon Friend

[frozen olive]

DS3 ended up being one of my top games of all time so i want to give Sekiro a fair shake before i decide to simply never complete it

[steel scroll]

sekiro is kind of like bloodborne in that it requires a big shift in expected playstyle over the souls games. not surprised people bounce off it easily.
on the other hand it's so god damn tight that went it clicks, it clicks.

[junior spade]

Its the best game I'll never replay

I loved Sekiro's story and I enjoyed the tightness of combat with the limited pool of resources. I also loathe parrying with all my soul

[atomic plinth]

...what the fuck?

OH, wait, this is where it's supposed to be

I thought it dropped somewhere else for a moment and got weirded out

[obtuse halo]

Yep! There's a random surcoat in Rykard's Boss room

[dusty kraken]

Yeah, since he ate all his soldiers, you find the big snake man minion items various places

[obtuse halo]

it's inside one of the piles that he usually breaks during the fight

the fun part is that's not one of his minion's items.

It's one of Gideon's Minions' items.

It in fact belongs to Sir Henricus, the Recusant who will invade you outside the Limgrave Colisseum early on.

Gideon tries to merc you so many times it's genuinely pretty funny

and denies all knowledge of it up until the end

[old brook]

It makes grabbing him and unleashing 10k damage worth of frenzy into his brain really satisfying

[frozen olive]

coping and seething until the end

i killed him with the frenzy spell

[old brook]

For Lobo, you smug prick

[frozen olive]

cause fuck him

absolute loser

"no tarnished can become king" watch this you fucking baby

[old brook]

Also does his Silent Minion there have connection to the ||Death Knights||? Black/Gold, Lifesteal Grab, Skull Head

[limpid peak]

I don't actually know what Ensha's deal is

[dusty kraken]

He's shadow the edgehog

[old brook]

Just a weird dude

[obtuse halo]

Edge, Lord

[limpid peak]

oh

it's definitely connected

(from the Royal Remains armour set)

it's not 100%, especially with the name, but it'd be a weird coincidence

[obtuse halo]

Worn by the unspeaking adherent of Sir Gideon the All-Knowing.

Slowly replenishes HP when HP is reduced.

It is said that the bones belong to an ancient lord - the soulless king. The lord of the lost and desperate, who was known as Ensha.```
```Horrific weapon made of a hardened skeletal arm. Wielded by Ensha of the Royal Remains.

Fitted by placing one's hands into the fists' grips until they dig in.
""O clinging creature. A king relinquishes not the hand.""```
Ensha's Gear

(dlc gear)
||```Golden armor of the Death Knights, adorned with an antiquated depiction of the Erdtree. Enhances skills and incantations of the capital's ancient dragon cult. These knights, once Godwyn's personal guard, quested to find their transfigured master's cadaver surrogate—for the coming age of the Duskborn.```
```Golden helm of the Death Knights, whose own death masks served as the visards of their armor. Enhances skills and incantations of the capital's ancient dragon cult. The decayed golden wheel that adorns it represents their unbroken loyalty to Godwyn, he who became Prince of Death.```
```A long-hafted golden axe wielded by the Death Knight. Bears a representation of a decayed golden ring. Crackles with lightning, the power of the capital's ancient dragon cult. The knight, once the personal guard of Godwyn, was also the protector of the Prince of Death's cadaver surrogate.```
Death Knight Gear (individual pieces vary a little but the flavor text beyond the immediate description of the object is mostly the same)
||

there's definitely a visual resemblance (mostly the helmet) but only the skeletal element and being in black and gold really

[old brook]

Lifesteal Fist tho, but really it's just that they're both references to Dark Knights in DS1

[obtuse halo]

there might be a connection, but I'm not seeing a clear thread.

Speaking of which, ||it was so fucking funny going into the church district and it's just fucking New Londo||

[steel scroll]

||after all ths time i still think 'new londo water park opens todaaaay~!" when i see it mentioned||

[obtuse halo]

Fun fact, if you die to Ensha, the game basically just pretends it didn't happen and puts you back in the Village of the Albinaurics.

I've only had it happen once, on Bow-only (fighting tarnished always sucks on bow-only)

[old brook]

I think he got me the first time 'cause I fully just went to get water

[obtuse halo]

it's genuinely so funny to me like "oh, do-over"

I don't think I even lost my souls

[stone cove]

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2530541916756818807/C502889B38214143B639A43C141AF5F8B7A5031B/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Guys. Guys

are well okay?

guys?

I've done this bit before etc, i'm just a bit "huh" at the sheer # of bloodstians here

[obtuse halo]

I'm sure everything is fine

[limpid peak]

bloodstain ahead. try skill

[obtuse halo]

maybe they're all like me and playing deranged challenge runs. They're very skilled and just getting destroyed by virtue of having made things much harder for themselves 😛

[old brook]

I wonder how many are just missing that horrid elevator

[obtuse halo]

honestly I wouldn't be surprised if that were a goodly number

anywhere you can fall to your death will have bloodstains

this number goes up drastically if there's a fight nearby

goes up more if it's an ambush that prompts panic rolls 😛

[old brook]

||The Climb up the Tower|| with those ||birdmen||, drenched with blood

[stone cove]

I went and watched a bunch of them. Mostly they were all dying to fights. my faovurtie was the one who obviously cast taker's flames

and still died.

[obtuse halo]

lol

[stone cove]

Me, meanwhile, walking into the boss room, boss being all I AM SPOOK- gets ripped apart by beast claws in seconds

[obtuse halo]

Which one is that? Bonny Gaol?

I was almost worried when the boss ||hid in the shadows|| except I had the fire mode of Sword of Night and Flame. It's pretty hard to miss with that wide sweep. 😛

[golden pond]

i saw the best bloodstain personally

bird farming spot

Bolt of Gransax

homie used weapon art to hit the bird
and dove into the abyss

[obtuse halo]

That's hysterical

[opaque canopy]

I saw a bloodstain last night in ||Stone Coffin Fissure|| where someone used a twinblade art to take out a bird, overshot, and went flying over the edge

Goofy yell ass moment.

[golden pond]

Weapon art ones are the best

Alongside bloodstains otuside of boss gates that are just the death animation

those are the ones where the guy died in boss
alt f4'd

and hten logged back on

[stone cove]

Yuip.

[stone cove]

I just hope people found my many bloodstains from when i was praciticng The Poisoingf Flower BLooms Twice

and rider kicekd myself off the cliff

also oh, no that's hilarious

[golden pond]

https://tenor.com/view/jake-sully-avatar-mcdonald's-gif-134904246642352

[stone cove]

Savage Claws for whatever reason has a really high poise damage modifier

So those poor, poor Fire Knights everyone hates?

They just stand there and get *annhilated8

[obtuse halo]

I really need to try beast claws sometime, don't I?

[stone cove]

They are a very werid weapon

but they're a lot of fun once you put the time in

Ten second,s i had a write up on optimizing them

TLDR: YOu probably wnat strength?

[stone cove]

So, this is interesting, but possibly only if you're a weird stat optimizer like i am.

So, Occult Beast Claws (can) actually out damage Heavy Beast Claws.

Not intially - at 80 STR/10 Arcane, Heavy are ahead by 20 ar. Which is not nothing with their attack speed. (499 vs 479 for 13 str/80 arcane).

However, Occult Beast Claws have D (.33) and E (.18) scaling in Str/Dex. Heavy Beast Claws only have A (1.4 str) scaling, and because they're a paired weapon, they dont get the 50% str boost that normal str weapons do. So the moment you start putting any into str and dex, they start rapidly pulling ahead on Heavy Beast Claws.

... Then it starts getting fucky here because Heavy Beast Claws can be Greased, or most notably, Bloodflame'd. Which adds 40 bleed over 2s on every single hit - and the beast claws can do a lot of hits, and bloodflame stacks.

Occult meanwhile just has 85 build bleed up native, and no bloodflame effect. So it's burst bleed is higher, and it doesnt need buffs, but it's effective bleed is potentially lower as it can't get a bloodflame effect (Which stops the bleed meter from draining).

...so technically if you want to use BEast Claws as a bleed weapon, i think you're better off going a str route with them? which is wild. For any Level 150 build, Heavy is absolutely the way to go. Quality is semi-relevant to mention here, as it starts pulling ahead at 60/60 Str/Dex (at 50/50 it's ten less ar than Heavy, and it's even at 50/60 either way. at 80/80 it's the clear winner, but also, lol, that's only relevant for crazy high level builds).

There's some side considerations, of course. Namely Occult pulls right ahead from a spell casting perspective, able to throw out monstrous dragon communion spells. Str can do pretty decently with the clawmark seal, and depending on stat allocation, might be able to throw out some good beast spells, but it's not gonna be dragonmawing, dragonclawing or what have you. Occult further pulls ahead here as you can invest in Dex for the faster casting speed and still get an AR boost out of it, which str can't do

Otoh, Str gets a pile of free physical resistance. And at 80, it's at least another 10% damage reduction, which is chunky

[obtuse halo]

I am a weird stat optimizer!

My brain is broken!

[stone cove]

TLDR:

For 150 builds, Heavy Beast Claws buffed with bloodflame are probably the best option, and also give you the flexability of various greases.

Occult builds have a better toolkit in casting for them, and have better burst bleed, but worse sustain bleed

just because of how bloodflame works

also you dont have to manage buffing with bloodflame all the time, which may or may not be a big deal to you.

[obtuse halo]

iffy, I can do a little buffing but I don't like doing it just to go through zones

it's one thing before walking through a fog gate, it's another to maintain it at all times

[stone cove]

for very high level builds, Quality Beast Claws are probably the strongest option, letting you grease and get very high ar.

the nice thing with beast claws is because thewir stat requirments are so low, sinking 80 into arcane for the very good ar returns and high bleed feels just fine

[obtuse halo]

fascinating

[stone cove]

They love Rotten winged, Godskin, Milcent'

as you'd expect

[obtuse halo]

I haven't really done an arcane build since my first playthrough tbh, where I was running a bleed antspur build and did not know what I was doing at all

[stone cove]

Raging Beast Claw sounds great as a WA but sucks in practice

[obtuse halo]

Well. That's a lie. I have an arcane madness build and a bubble mage

[stone cove]

it has iframes, but it's animation is super long and as cool as "Flip throgu hteh air and razor punch someone's head" is

it's just not good

[obtuse halo]

but those are a bit different from what's being proposed here

[stone cove]

Savage Beast Claws on the otehr hand is hilarious, it comes out stupid fast

and is a six? hit combo that does immense damage, like on my occult beast claws it usually procs a bleed just by itself.

and it hits so fast it'll actually trigger Godskin twice.

[obtuse halo]

That's...fascinating, actually

effective heal on weapon-art is not to be underestimated

[stone cove]

For context, 80 arcane Occutl beast claws with otherwise minium stats get 478 AR, 85 bleed

heavy with minium gets 499, but only 45 bleed

(Bloodflame is an extra 40 bleed)

[obtuse halo]

two triggers at 60 vigor is apparently in the ballpark of 170 hp, which isn't going to obviate other healing sources but absolutely isn't nothing

especially if you're able to use this often

[stone cove]

It 's onyl 13 FP

so... yes. Yes you can.

teh real issue is it gulps stamina like no tomorrow, like that's probably the biggest thing with the claws, you can run out of stamina incredibly fast.

Their jumping attacks suck, but their running attacks are really good, most of their standing attacks start with lunges

they have very werid startup where they're actually greatsword slow

but then the hits come in multiples and they have basically no recovery time

so once they start beating on a target, they keep beating.

Heavy can be canceleld with an evade while cahrging, and does a backflip slash

[obtuse halo]

I get that. I'm playing archery-only. Archery played effectively chews through stamina because you need to be jumping or rolling for every attack or you'll lock yourself into an animation and probably die standing there like an idiot

[stone cove]

I feel like Savage Beastclaw is basically the shining reason to play them, though i hear Red Bear's Claw WA is very good too

(REd Bear is unique thoguh and is locked to strength)

[steel scroll]

random thought on the dlc: the npc cast was really really strong. i think this is the first time they've thrown so many npc storylines in a dlc. i really hope it's an indicator for their next project.

[stone cove]

So if you are going to strength build your claws, you should strong consider just puttingh on Red Bear's Claw.

[obtuse halo]

yeah I actually really like what they were doing with the followers of Miquella

it's still a set of interconnected elden ring questlines so it's kind of tricky to not break at least one quest without a guide but like

it's neat!

it's neat what they did

[stone cove]

@obtuse halo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrwWQQkTp-4 this guy is a bit droney and reptivie, but he does really deep dives on stuff

and it's decently short

[obtuse halo]

Fascinating! One of my old saves is a level 125 clawmark str/faith user so I might dust off that save and look into a respec. The original build is pretty nonfunctional now anyway since Flame of the Redmanes got nerfed into the ground

[stone cove]

Yeah, they'll be very happy to just go "hey, i have 25 faith, i cast golden vow and bloodflame and goto town on something"

Probably the nicest thing is they're light as hell - only 3 weight

so you can comfortably wear some very heavy armor while you rip things apart and still medium roll

and even consider light rolls in still 51 poise armor

[obtuse halo]

That's always a plus.

I like lightrolling so I'm always loath to go too heavy

[stone cove]

Yeah, weight 3 is well

...very light

[obtuse halo]

I also like going helmetless or with one of a narrow selection of helmets that still shows a character's face/hair 😛

but I tend to armor for fashion more than stats anyway

unless I actually for-real need the stats

[stone cove]

Well, i've never seen Taht happen before

i killed a miltiatina man mid grab

so he grabbed me, cut my throat, hopepd off

and then died.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2530541916757152834/9B88905EEE41C8C788EDBB1435154BD6AFFDB84A/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

As drip goes, this is pretty nice

[golden pond]

||mom said it's my turn on the bear communion||

[stone cove]

@obtuse halo If you're light rolling already, it might be worth consdierng the Talisman of All Crucibles - iframes on your backstep and better dodge roll iframes

(At cost of +30% damage taken, but hey)

Oh, apprently it's minus 45% for that one,

WHOOPS

just wear the crucible feather and give up on backsteps then XD

[obtuse halo]

LMAO

yeah I saw that one when exploring, 45% more damage is hysterical

I'm pretty good at dodging but not that good 😛

I'm genuinely shocked I did this one first try

took an embarrassing number of hits, but still a clear win

the second bow talisman is a godsend honestly

I'm still not doing good damage but I am doing damage

which is more than I'm used to bows doing 😛

[golden pond]

really wish i could like this sword ngl

but it's weapon art locks you in hard and this shit does not get a good int scaling

[obtuse halo]

rip

we talking Alabaster Lord Sword territory, where it has E int scaling on its like 12 base magic damage?

[dusty kraken]

Hmm...trying to find some gloves that look good with the dancer's dress other than the default bracer but most gloves look kinda bad with the uncovered arms.

[obtuse halo]

um, I dunno about the dancer's dress specifically but I've been using Traveler's Manchettes for my archer as a passable archery bracer, and it goes decently well with red at least

admittedly a much less rich red

(I have yet to find anything better I like for the waistcloth)

[dusty kraken]

That could be pretty cool. What's the tube top your character is using? XD

[obtuse halo]

It's the Altered Rotten Gravekeeper Cloak

it also comes in Beige but you'll have to grind gladiators for that one

I was actually just testing out a look with dane's hat

and took these two screenshots for comparison

lol

[dusty kraken]

Very fun

[obtuse halo]

note that the altered gravekeeper cloak and its rotten variant both have a Shabriri's Woe enchantment

this is actually good for me - archers are terrible at pulling aggro by default, and this lets me pull an enemy off of a summon when I want to

I can dodge for shit, while most summons cannot 😛

[dusty kraken]

Makes sense.

Right now I'm wearing commoner circlet (altered), dancer dress and armbands and scaled boots as a more armoured dancer outfit (Still light enough to let me fastroll)

[obtuse halo]

❤️ the altered commoner circlet. That's usually what I slap on characters when I want to see their face and don't have anything more specific in mind.

It's unobtrusive but adds just a little decoration

[dusty kraken]

Yep. Kinda wish there was more other 'let them see the face'.

My unarmed brawler has the Fancy Horns though, as she's based off an old RPG character of mind who had horns. XD

[obtuse halo]

nice

there's a fair number that at least mostly show the face, but almost everything hides hair. It's kind of ridiculous

including things that wouldn't even clip for most hairstyles

like, it's ridiculous that Alberich's witch hat makes a ponytail disappear

[dusty kraken]

Yeah. I'd have stuck with full dancer if hair showed under it

[obtuse halo]

also it's weird how many boss gear helmets come with the hair of the person who wore it previously but that's neither here nor there

[dusty kraken]

I do not feel comfortable scalping so many bosses

[obtuse halo]

verily

Though ||you can alter Messmer's to remove the hair. Which is nice.||

[obtuse halo]

mmm I'm not sure about this one now. The colors do match better and the hat is super cool, but I feel like I'd miss the half-cape.

[stone cove]

This is why I like the bandit mask. Shows most of the face, doesn't mess with hair, still looks good

[opaque canopy]

Me: Man, it's weird that I'm only seeing normal sized bears in the Shadow lands. Huh, guess From decided not to reuse the Rune Bears.
Me: (Goes exploring in the area around ||Rauh Base and Temple Ruins||, pro wrestling entrance music starts playing while I'm riding through the forest)

[obtuse halo]

Yeah I use Bandit mask on my invader

[stone cove]

Extra runic bear

[modest trellis]

I was really bummed out at the amount of bears

||I wanted like 3 bear incantations||

[golden pond]

really need "invisible" sets in fromsoft games

[modest trellis]

||I was really really hoping for "Aspect of the Crucible:Bear"||

[golden pond]

||Bear of the Bear: Bear||

[opaque canopy]

||Fist of the Bearington: Ursine Vortex||

[vestal night]

DS2 did that

[golden pond]

PEAK GAME ONCE AGAIN

[mellow silo]

Lightning Perfume really is that powerful, isn't it

I just saw someone absolutely obliterate Putrescent Knight with that thing

Literally two hits

I am scared

[golden pond]

30k if you build it right

but god forbid the fth scaling lightning sword scales with fth and not dex

[old brook]

Seems like a real.. efficient and unexciting way to get through the game

[golden pond]

it's bugged to hit too many times probably

[opaque canopy]

that's my guess

[golden pond]

personally

[opaque canopy]

I saw a video on twitter where if you point the camera at the ground and pull the trigger on the AOW, you get a ton of damage all in one area

[golden pond]

next souls game needs galvanized square steel

[mellow silo]

Oh it's Dex/Faith

Need to grab it

Probably not going to optimize it, but it'll be a cool addition to my big bag of tricks

[obtuse halo]

It’s the Rolling Sparks ash, it’s supposed to be a large aoe composed of smaller aoes, but if you point it at the ground they stack up on the same spot and hit a bazillion times

[golden pond]

like i said, hitting too many times

[obtuse halo]

And you can stack lightning buffs which gets gross quick lol

I assume that’s the first thing getting the nerfbat

Not as sure why specifically lightning over like fire though, so there must be a second element to the combo

[old brook]

tbf it's also just a fire-resistant DLC

o7 holding up the fort as always, Black Flame

but might be a code thing with that specific bottle

fire ain't got the bug

[obtuse halo]

Is it? I found fire to do pretty good damage to a lot of stuff compared to magic

[old brook]

oh i haven't tried magic-magic

[obtuse halo]

Particularly early on

[old brook]

thinkin too much about Messmer maybe but also ||Midra||, and maybe just placebo on the last boss but it feels less chunky

[obtuse halo]

Admittedly I wouldn’t be shocked to learn Messmer was highly resistant though, yeah.

[old brook]

The various Knights, too

[obtuse halo]

Proooobably ||mitra|| too

[old brook]

||Bayle|| didn't get a dang

which i mean; yeah

[obtuse halo]

Also fair.

[old brook]

I was surprised lightning worked

He's like a weird midpoint between Ancient Dragon and not

[obtuse halo]

Come to think of it, the final boss ||is in mogh’s reshaped body, which was 80% fire resistant||

[golden pond]

i chucked moons at stuff

it's not that bad

[obtuse halo]

Yeah but i was using sword of night and flame with equal int and faith :p

[golden pond]

there's your problem

[obtuse halo]

I got to make a lot of direct comparisons

[old brook]

It feels rude to ||Scarlet Rot Radahn again|| but he sure is weak to it - final boss spoiler

[obtuse halo]

Since the modes scale the same

[obtuse halo]

||I straight up used Scarlet Aeonia lmao||

[old brook]

Same

[golden pond]

can't wait for my gf to get to him

so she can use land squirts

[obtuse halo]

Make it personal

[golden pond]

||personal would be rolling up in malenia fit||

[obtuse halo]

Oh true

[old brook]

Land squirts may face obliteration

Big ol moves

[golden pond]

they got Twink the Impaler and a ||Death Knight|| so far

she went afk for the DK's last 10s of life to tkae a screenshot 😭

[old brook]

Gahd I love the Messmer fight

[obtuse halo]

Yeah the only summons I saw that lasted too long were ||Dung Eater and Mimic Tear||

Both very very tanky!

[old brook]

I might have to begrudgingly mimic tear this'n

[obtuse halo]

The others I tried just melted

[old brook]

||Taylew|| gets ate by multihits

[golden pond]

not using summons is weak behaviour

[old brook]

I just don't like mimic

[golden pond]

use jarwright

[old brook]

I'm me, not them >:[

[golden pond]

put on a different fit before summon lul

[old brook]

Pretend ||Moore|| makes it to the last fight

[golden pond]

i mean

||he is just chilling in front of the castle||

[old brook]

Oh mine left and is now not alive due to my actions

[obtuse halo]

Yeah I used Dung Eater as my preferred summon avoiding mimic for most of the DLC

[old brook]

I cycle through some but this is just so much damage

[obtuse halo]

I absolutely said "fuck it" and pulled out Mimic for that final fight though

[old brook]

I'm stoked for Torrent with Elden Beast, haven't given a go yet

But don't want to leave DLC land until I've settled it

[frozen olive]

Dung Eater is a serious MVP

[old brook]

Sadly I had to murder him early to preserve my friend Crabman and also he has a cool sword and I wanted it

[frozen olive]

Dung Eater draws aggro like no other

[old brook]

What did Shabriri do to be the most beloathed man when ol' Dungy exists

[obtuse halo]

yeah he's just shockingly one of the best summons

[frozen olive]

Some Frenzy shit presumably

[obtuse halo]

we actually know this - he spread falsehoods about the nomadic merchants that led to a pogrom and burying nearly all of them alive deep below Leyndell

[frozen olive]

Dung Eater is grade A insane but at least he has no interest in scorching the world out of existence

[obtuse halo]

It is said that the man, named Shabriri, had his eyes gouged out as punishment for the crime of slander, and, with time, the blight of the flame of frenzy came to dwell in the empty sockets.

[frozen olive]

Isn't it implied the song they play was given to them by St.Trina or something to that effect to calm the frenzy that started dwelling within them

Might have been some cut content shit

[old brook]

Yeah I think that's in the cut content but like it's utterly on brand

[frozen olive]

St.Trina 🙏

[obtuse halo]

anyway yeah dung eater puppet is just a banger summon

really tanky, high poise, spams omen bairn (which actually does okay damage and draws aggro like nothing else), uses Shriek of Milos to debuff, and also applies bleed cuz why not

[frozen olive]

He genuinely is such a good summon

It's wild

[obtuse halo]

I honestly don't think I ever saw him die until the DLC, though admittedly I didn't use him against Malenia

he tanked Placidusax with zero issues

[frozen olive]

I like to think the reason he aggro's so well in base game is because people know and hate him so much

[golden pond]

It's probably cause he stinks

We at least get to jump into a few waterfalls
Guy lives in poop

[obtuse halo]

he aggros just fine in the dlc too, it just gets him killed more often 😛

[frozen olive]

true

[obtuse halo]

honestly he mostly did fine in the dlc too, I only really saw him melt against the harder bosses

like if you want a summon for the DLC, highly recommend trying out dung eater puppet if you have him

[old brook]

I just cain't do that questline

My heart isn't in it

[obtuse halo]

well, you don't have to do dung eater questline for it. It actually breaks Dung Eater's Questline to get it lol

[old brook]

You have to do a good portion I thought

[obtuse halo]

you have to progress him to the point where he ties himself to a chair (I.E. open his cell, kill him in the moat) and then feed him Seluvis' Potion

[real shadow]

Another way to save Boggart is to simply not buy prawns from him when he's in Boilprawn Shack, as this prompts him to move to his second location in Leyndell. Instead, you can finish Dung Eater's questline and then go back to him. Buy at least one prawn and then go find him at the moat and now he will stay alive and safe from Dung Eater.

[grave plinth]

Personally i think Shabriri is the sculptor who did the Radagon/Marika statue

[obtuse halo]

wait. Hefty Rot Pots use materials that aren't cancerous????

Fly Mold is buyable via a bell bearing and Scarlet Buds respawn

[old brook]

Oh that's big news those are brutal

[obtuse halo]

compared to Aeonian Butterflies that's enormous yeah

[kind garden]

Humongous, holy shit

[obtuse halo]

pretty relevant for builds that might want to apply rot to certain bosses and don't have Scarlet Aeonia or Rot Breath on tap 😛

at least if you're like me and nervous about the risk of wasting precious limited resources like Aeonian Butterflies

[golden pond]

Jarwright peak

[obtuse halo]

I have a friend who tried to do a jars only run but couldn’t beat fire giant (not a skill problem as much as a limited pots problem)

I bet it’s winnable now

[golden pond]

Sounds to me like a weak friend

[obtuse halo]

I don’t know if he beat mohg tho

My bow build couldn’t do radagon but could beat mohg, so I can explore the lands of shadow to find a potential victory condition:P

[opaque canopy]

I'm sorry a ||tooth whip||?

[grave plinth]

God I'm still debating whether or not I should start/finish Farum Azula before ganking Mohg and starting the DLC

[frail sky]

I don’t think burning down the erdtree affects the dlc but I could be wrong

[opaque canopy]

it doesn't

I'm using the a that was past that point and it didn't do anything for me in the DLC that I can tell

[grave plinth]

I'm also afraid that I missed something in Leyndell

[glossy delta]

Yeah the DLC and base game are for better or worse different dimensions outside of the two bosses you need to kill to get in

[opaque canopy]

sewer?

[grave plinth]

I did the sewer

I'm worried about the surface getting covered in ash

[opaque canopy]

bolt of gransax is the big missable thing I can think of other than that

[grave plinth]

Ah

I'll be sure to get that first then

[golden pond]

Holy whetblade

[opaque canopy]

if you really wanna be sure there's lists up all over the internet nowadays of pre-tree burn cutoffs. but yeah, gransax is the thing a lot of people missed on first playthrough

ah yeah

[golden pond]

locked out if you kill maliketh

Also, ngl

If you miss something cause tree
ce

[opaque canopy]

honestly yeah there's a whole lot of stuff beyond leyndell that cuts off when you burn the tree

[old brook]

There's also Lord's Divine Fortification, or.. one of the other High tier defense spells

Absolute gamechangers

[golden pond]

Buy it from twin fingers lady

[frail sky]

I guess there’s also the duelist armor and weapons

[old brook]

Oh that transfers? that's nice

[golden pond]

Yeah, all the spells the douche would gibe you move to twin ladies

[frail sky]

And the full bloom version of the guardian armor

[golden pond]

But yeah, check list

Use one

[old brook]

Oh no this one just drops from a random fuckin Knight

or.. it might be a beetle near the knight

or that's another thing..

there's a lot

[frail sky]

It’s the beetle yeah

[golden pond]

Main thing is go grab all the bell bearings for smiting stones and gloveworts

[frail sky]

In the same area as the radagon is marika puzzle

[opaque canopy]

every like new new weapon I find in this DLC never fails to make me stop and giggle out loud for a second

[signal harness]

I like the giant fucking hammer which makes golden explosions when you block-counter with it

[kind garden]

It's real good

[opaque canopy]

I just found a ||Literal Cannon||

[signal harness]

the explosions do like no damage but they cause stagger pretty well ime

[kind garden]

I'm personally a fan of beating people to death with vegetables

[atomic plinth]

Is the dual light greatsword moveset any good?

[kind garden]

It's alright

[atomic plinth]

Kinda considering getting a duplicate of Renalla's Twin Greatswords and dual wielding the greatswords

Rather than having a greatsword and a longsword

[opaque canopy]

Incredibly wonky setup I got going right now of my primary being the Anvil Hammer, my secondary being Red Bear's Claw, and my ranged being A Godsdamned Cannon

terminal STR enjoyer brain

[vestal night]

I like how it looks, unsure how good it actually is

[frail sky]

Oh I don’t think it works like that, I know if you powerstance it with milady it’ll use the longsword when its in the offhand

[past shard]

Locked to each hand essentially

[obtuse halo]

I look forward to the inevitable glitch for early access to the land of shadow lol

[vivid spire]

My mother “oh Elden Ring is that a tv show”

[mellow silo]

I WISH lmao. Could you imagine an Elden Ring show

[golden pond]

Aragorn is a greatsword user
Gandalf is a holy faith build
Frodo and his Big G Sam Wise are peak shortsword users

Legolas is bow only until he runs out then dual curved swords

[frail sky]

Really wish it wasn’t locked behind Mohg and Radahn, it sucks how you have to either trade or use cheat engine to get any of the new weapon types
At least the bloodborne dlc let you get like half of them early on

[vivid spire]

They’re being so annoying lol

Sees me dying all the time lol

“Damn some godkiller you are”

[golden pond]

Godslayer title btw

[junior spade]

its a shame too since i traded martial arts to a level 1 character and im having a BLAST going through the game with it

might be my new favorite weapon of all time

[old brook]

I'm dual wielding the martial arts and it's fun, got Poison/Bleed and double the weapon arts

[glossy delta]

They still kind of have the 'dual daggers' problem for me
Where I can't reliably predict when I'll stagger heavier enemies so I have a hard time playin with them
Cuz with heavier weapons like greatswords I can go 'alright, I hit em with a jump heavy, my next heavy attack will stagger so make it a big one'

[junior spade]

its been helping me get better at weaving/dodging and varying my patterns

its my first no shield run 😭 its so weird

[steep wing]

I don't wanna use a guide, but I can't find anything anymore. Whole map is open, but where IS everything

Do I have to do a 15-step FromSoft quest including emoting to a certain tree in the woods and exhaust dialog of every turtle

[frail sky]

…I mean you’re on the right track

But I don’t think the emote is in a forest

[real shadow]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxy20EpQGB4

[frail sky]

Pfft

[golden pond]

2 guys in a suit is always peak design

[junior spade]

No, generally for the DLC the npcs / quest items you get tell you where to go, as far as the main path is concerned

for the extra goodies theres some FromSoft Map Fuckery yeah

[frail sky]

ngl I felt bad killing that boss, like I might’ve just killed the last few people who actually knew the lion dance and I wiped out an important part of hornsent culture

[atomic plinth]

Ngl I kinda wanna try my hand at writing a Blood & Thunder parody with Bayle instead of the white whale

[frozen olive]

||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOyP6BAPbrM||

[atomic jetty]

redoing all the bosses with the cheat engine script that lets you resummon them
and man, lvl 20 blessing + lvl 191, im beating them without the cheese of shield and spear poking

[steel scroll]

i saw two seperate comments on twitter saying (messmer spoilers) ||marika obviously didnt love messmer cus he took one of his eyes. like. buddy. did you see what happened when he took the seal out?||

[atomic jetty]

final boss spoiler
||yeah so i second tried radahn without a spear and shield, and its not like i had hundreds of attempts on him before, i spend like an hour on him the first time around||

[frail sky]

Ymir: ||huh, neat||

[junior spade]

||have they read the Blessing item description? ||

[frail sky]

||Wait you were a puppet||

[old brook]

Ymir is so damn interesting

[vivid spire]

Ymir trans metaphor

[old brook]

But also not.. quite sure what the plan is

[frail sky]

||What the fuck is that||

[atomic jetty]

||try finger||

[languid tiger]

||hi yes did you know bloodborne exists?||

||YOU DO NOW||

||maybe canon, stay tuned, seek the Abyss!||

[frail sky]

||I feel like if I use ancient dragon lightning strike she’ll die almost instantly||

[languid tiger]

||probably, bosses definitely die to miracles in this dlc||

[wild sierra]

it worked for me!

did take more than one 😅

[frail sky]

||I assume the lasers are magic damage?||

[vivid spire]

Yep

[frail sky]

She does not have a lot of openings for it

[old brook]

The side-crawl is mean

[frail sky]

Also: the death knight's longhafted axe fucks

[steel scroll]

IVE BEEN SAYING THIS!!!!!!!

[old brook]

Might devote enough dex in my death magic build for it >:Tc

[steel scroll]

I don't know about tiers or anything but what I do know is that I go whoosh, BOOM!

[frail sky]

It doesn’t even need dex!

[golden pond]

Is it lightning?

[old brook]

I thought it scaled with because- ye

[golden pond]

Cause then it needs dex

[old brook]

Oh seems Faith

[frail sky]

It inexplicably actually scales with faith

[old brook]

Whole game is tricks

[frail sky]

Unlike the twin axes 😵‍💫

[old brook]

Bamboozlement

[golden pond]

I'm still like 70% sure it's better to go dex

[old brook]

23 strength though hmm

[golden pond]

2 hand

[old brook]

Internet people are saying faith! They got numbers n such

[golden pond]

Idfk

Ds3 had it figured out

[old brook]

Also I need 1/2 hand to be options not enforced I'm dumb

[modest trellis]

I think the plan was ||to raise his little hand guy lovingly and not abandon it so it grows up healthy and not messed up like the two fingers? Idk why he gets mad when you kill the mother though||

[old brook]

Well also used to games where not enough stats meant you swung things like a baby

[old brook]

But he's saying ||new life for his dead son||, like. Is this a thing the ||Fingers|| do

[opaque canopy]

[GARDENING DONE]

I beat ||The Sunflower|| yaaay

[old brook]

I loved that boss tbh

Sort of gimmicky but fun

And just so unique lookin'

[opaque canopy]

it was such a challenge for me cause i kept getting to last phase and biting it

but i finally did the thing

good boss imo. great design

[old brook]

It really didn't like Giantsflame Take Them with 355 scaling

I feel guilty not using more dragon spells with the dragon seal though

They're just not awfully exciting, though Maw is a maimer

[frail sky]

||And she is dead! I’m sure nothing bad is going to happen in the cathedral because of this, the bloodstains are just for show||

||So with her remembrance I can get either the finger hammer (big) or the most versatile staff in the game||

[frozen olive]

||me when the staff that casts incantations and spells||

[frail sky]

Ymir quest end: ||...oh god not again||

[real shadow]

Either choice is fine but ||Grace|| gets you ||a summon that can be upgraded into a two-person ash|| whereas ||the other gets you Sword of Night||

[frail sky]

Hmm
||Well unlike the last person I could do this to Jolan hasn’t really done anything wrong so grace is probably better for her?||

[real shadow]

||That was how I viewed it, yeah.||

[frail sky]

||...well fuck||

[real shadow]

If you do want to upgrade it ||you gotta get to Rabbath's Rise, but specifically the attic area. This is to the east of the Shaman Village, down a bunch of platforms. Not difficult to spot once you find it and leads you right to it.||

[frail sky]

Yeh

||I found Anna earlier||

[real shadow]

||Ah then you know the drill.||

||I stumbled upon Anna afterwards and entirely on accident so that was fun.||

[languid tiger]

||yeah, I'm pretty sure the "good" path for each of them is grace on quelaag queelign and occultation on jolan||

||didn't do occ on either though, so I don't know for sure||

[frail sky]

||Ah yes, left their hearts frail and||

[languid tiger]

funniest item description in the dlc

[junior spade]

so i looked that up, datamined the last word is "pliant"

[languid tiger]

because it's 100% those "edgy long-winded backstory that overflows off the page" memes

but fully serious and earnest

[frail sky]

What else do I have to do before what may be the final area… oh right the ||sunflower||

[languid tiger]

did you get clash of clans

[junior spade]

||from my testing, they have average durability but they're my favorite multiple-summons now, very aggressive and inflicts bleed||

[old brook]

Final Boss Spoilers ||I hope every life you lead is a rotten, festering hell, Radahn, I hope your horse finds another lover||

[languid tiger]

||radahn deserved a horse missile||

||like putrescent knight and hog rider||

[old brook]

||I'm glad he had to eat his own people, I hope his next existence is worse||

||And his fit fucking sucks||

[frail sky]

||Also wait, did Ymir turn Anna into a puppet doll? Why would he do that||

[languid tiger]

I'm glad someone at least is malding about the final boss

he's extremely cool

deserves to have people lose their minds

[old brook]

I also just don't see how it's cool, thought so the moment I walked through the door, but shan't get into it again

[languid tiger]

you said that you were predisposed against it, I think

[old brook]

Predisposed? Idk, just don't care for it

[real shadow]

||He's a weirdo freak, mostly.||

[junior spade]

Replaying base game, stumbled into an item that made the full dlc story make sense to me

[frail sky]

Scadutree boss: ||okay wasn't expecting the great rune||

[opaque canopy]

Got to the ||Hinterlands|| and Tree Sentinels feel so.. quaint to fight now. Given how fast I make them crumple.

[languid tiger]

yeah these ones aren't even like

scaled harder

they're just regular elite enemies that happen to have boss bars

[frail sky]

The bosses in that area feel like “remember having trouble with these guys in the early game? Look at you now”

[languid tiger]

and then there's the giant fingercreepers