itself derived from gelmir's magma hexes
#Elden Ring (DLC hype room)
proven cloak
it can be cold, it can be eternally burning, it can be warm, it can be powered by the Elden Ring
languid tiger
not even, placidusax and all of his line do fire in their own way as well
placidusax's dragonbreath is even a laser of fire
proven cloak
the Elden Beast, too (though its pure holy damage?)
languid tiger
directly referenced as being Gold
gray leaf
placidusax's dragonbreath is even a laser of fire
Right. I forgot about that.
languid tiger
These are the dying wails of the Dragonlord who once dwelled eternal beyond time.```"golden breath" is extremely fascinating in the context
proven cloak
it could be fire is a weird offshoot of star-energy
languid tiger
of him being the Lord of an old Order
and then of course
with the DLC
we have messmer's living fire
although i'm unclear on whether that's affiliated with messmer-as-a-serpent or with something else
rykard and the godeating serpent lead me to assume it's the former
proven cloak
it doesnt seem to work like our fire, for sure
languid tiger
yeah it definitely seems to be intentionally depicted as like
proven cloak
its interesting in a setting that likes riffing off modern science so much that fire isnt really associated with stars
languid tiger
fundamentally different from all the other fire
proven cloak
but as a more earthly thing
languid tiger
in a truly bizarre and inscrutable way
gray leaf
part of it is that it was eaten away at by the Base Serpent, I think?
languid tiger
yeah but that doesn't really change the question of "fire?????"
it being a result of the Base Serpent's influence would explain part of the origin
for the strangeness
but not the incomprehensible nature of the fire's mechanics
covert schooner
On the ||Is Radhaan mind controlled|| question
I think it suits the story better if he is
So that’s what I’ll choose to believe
:3
proven cloak
real and true
||but in reverse for me||
thats also where I'm at with interpretations that strip too much agency from Marika, or too much humanity from Radagon
also ||Mohg being Fucked Up before charming. Its just more interesting to have his general thrust contrasting with his brother than 'Miquella made him do all that'||
grave plinth
I think the Blood Cult stuff is all on Mohg
languid tiger
i think that he was always weird about it and also a guild of axe murderers
but previously like
less creepy
axe murderers but not weird about that part
gray leaf
I think... okay, this is going to sound like a weirdly semantic quibble but I think it's useful for the sake of understanding: ||I think calling Miquella's enchantment "mind control" isn't quite right, because by all indications it "just" makes them loyal followers. It makes them not attack each other, notably... but, otherwise, it doesn't seem to change anything about their thoughts or personality or behavior, other than making them his loyal supporters.||
||And I think the "personality" part is most noteworthy. I'm not defending him, so much as I'm saying that describing Radahn as a brainwashed zombie feels wrong because that's not how Miquella's enchantment works. Likewise, it wouldn't change Mohg's willingness to do or not do things to achieve his goals, just what his goals were.||
grave plinth
||And I think the "personality" part is most noteworthy. I'm not defending him,...
||To be fair, the Radahn Golem is quite a bit different from all the other Followers||
gray leaf
||Yeah, but that's very strange, and very strange in very noteworthy ways, implying either that Radahn was just kind of Like That when he wasn't losing his mind to the Scarlet Rot, or something really fundamentally different is involved in being a Lord. It's probably the second part.||
I still think that ||becoming a god necessitates a God, a Lord, and a vessel, and figuring out who Godfrey's vessel was will crack a whole bunch of stuff open.|| At the very least, exploration of that general subject seems important.
proven cloak
I think... okay, this is going to sound like a weirdly semantic quibble but I th...
I also agree with this, broadly
||Mind control isn't wrong in some cases - Ansbach legitimately seems to have impacted memory from the charm - but its a farcry from direct puppeteering, and in some cases just seems to smooth out emotions||
proven cloak
he's so happy :)
grave plinth
||Yeah, but that's *very strange*, and very strange in very noteworthy ways, imp...
||Or hey he’s actually a parodic simulacrum of Radahn made from a dead omen and a questionably intact soul made by a dude who excised the part of himself that lets him comprehend emotion||
||all our accounts of Radahn paint him as being fairly boisterous when alive.||
proven cloak
that is ||if Miquella's divestment of Love refers to his ability to feel love, and not Love as in 'person I love'||
which is unclear
theres ||also the weird talisman of lord's bestowal, which talks about how legendarily stoic Godfrey was - someone Radahn idolized greatly||
atomic marsh
that is ||if Miquella's divestment of Love refers to his ability to feel love, a...
||If you read it that way it'd mean that he loved St. Trina, though wouldn't it?||
proven cloak
||If you read it that way it'd mean that he loved St. Trina, though wouldn't it?...
yeah, I don't think its too far fetched ||given Radagon and Marika's relationship||, and how cut content + promos refer to ||R+M's relationship(?) as an 'inseperable fate', and St. Trina as Miquella's 'Fate'||
I'm not gonna claim its 100% one or the other, Idk what read is intended
||the npcs definitely don't seem to act like the worst thing miquella did there was divest his emotions, though.||
||The ghost + Ansbach are more concerned about him casting off his 'adoring other half', or how he can save everyone if he abandons someone so close, over him becoming an emotionless robot||
Leda says ||"St. Trina’s love for Kind Miquella is boundless. She is, after all, his other half. Or perhaps her feelings go beyond even that. Even if she was left behind, I doubt her heart would waver."||, ||Miquella's death animation involves him gently cradling Radahn's head as they fade. - not the actions of someone without any affection.||
I'm open to either read
atomic marsh
I mean ||Miquella is obssessively in love with Radahn, but Radahn didn't really seem to consent to the whole deal.||
||That's the big thing.||
proven cloak
yeah, ||but if he's cast aside his "love" as in ability to feel tenderness, wouldn't you expect him to not act in a loving manner towards anybody? Or any npc - even the ones who are opposed to him - to ever mention this as an outcome of his divestment?||
||he does divest other emotions, so love could be included, but even beyond that its not the reason the game portrays his actions as foolish imo||
atomic marsh
I think ||his ability to feel love is more to do with his ability to feel compassion and mercy, the two main ideals that he is striving for.||
proven cloak
I like how that read ||connects to her reason for wanting him dead - mercy for Miquella imprisoning himself in Godhood||
sure, I'll adopt that
atomic marsh
Yeah ||I think the great tragedy of Miquella is that he sacrifices the thing he needs to get what he wants in order to get what he wants||
proven cloak
||I dont think his godhood would've ever ended up well, no matter what he did. To me, his tragedy was locked in the moment he decided to try and fix the world, and left the Haligtree.||
gray leaf
||I think it is impossible for anyone to attain godhood while being a good candidate for godhood in Elden Ring. I think they're just mutually exclusive.||
proven cloak
||Yeah, even the best of all the demigods, with the kindest intentions, going back as far as he can to try and break the cycle - can't. He ends up mirroring his mom near exactly. If he can't, nobody can.||
thats the tragedy for me, or I guess "no duh" if you like Ranni's ending
||its sad he felt the need to seek Godhood, instead of accepting things outside his control.||
frozen olive
theres ||also the weird talisman of lord's bestowal, which talks about how legen...
||I feel like him being stoic is definitely related to the fact he had Serosh on his back dialing him down, we know for a fact that Hoarah Loux was basically like 90% violence by volume so it makes sense he's end up stoic as shit if you put a big pause on that violence like Marika did by putting Serosh on his back to make him Godfrey.||
||Also fits with my headcanon that Serosh is generally channeling Godfreys emotion through himself, which lead to Serosh roaring when Godfrey meets Morgott again due to the intense emotion Godfrey feels upon seeing his dying son||
atomic marsh
||I think it is impossible for anyone to attain godhood while being a good candi...
My wife Ranni, who I love unconditionally, has never done anything wrong once in her entire life.
frozen olive
I wouldn't go that far
atomic marsh
I would did and will.
kind garden
and continue to do so
proven cloak
me but with my wife (Gideon Ofnir)
atomic marsh
laughed so hard I coughed
atomic marsh
more explorin
what Scadutree level are ye?
outer flint
13, so it's probably a good idea to go look for some more fragments (and bosses!)
outer flint
best i got was 45%
got a sidequest... but no idea how to get to the next area of it
oh wait
there's an area i skipped a bunch of
proven cloak
seek fingers...
outer flint
trying!
another fragment..
no idea for fingies 
but i'll play another time
final boss spoilies: ||having some trouble with the clones, once they did about 0 damage and another time they did about 15 each% (maybe my holy incantation ran out (they look kinda holy)). considering just trying to block em but I might run out of stam idk idk, I'll experiment when I go back. other than that it's just learning where the holy followups spawn on the attacks, and seeing the attacks through the holy pillars (IMPOSSIBLE)||
warped quest
5 fragments are behind the boar boss if you havent fought him
outer flint
I got him today, he got me from 11 to 13
and I just got one, so that puts me at most 13 2/3
maybe 13 1/3
outer flint
:O
spring marlin
outer flint
also honestly look up a guide for how to get down there it's horseshit obtuse
oh, will do
vivid spire
also honestly look up a guide for how to get down there it's horseshit obtuse
Holy shit yeah
old brook
I mean it has one kind of obscure step that they've used plenty of times before
outer flint
i don't actually remember if I've been to the rivers yet
proven cloak
I mean it has one kind of obscure step that they've used plenty of times before
honestly ||dropping down the cliff|| was the most questionable part for me
||the ladder is semi-hard to miss imo, its like the only thing in that area||
obtuse halo
||the ladder is pretty easy to find, but I missed the secret wall in the painting room my first time through. I eventually came back after a long time trying to find a way down to the center-right part of the map until I gave up and looked at a guide lol||
old brook
||I missed the ladder and thought the painting room involved a weird jump. Second time through wondered if I was completely blind||
stone cove
||I missed the ladder and thought the painting room involved a weird jump. Secon...
I missed ||The ladder|| but was like "Oh, that's obviously a pathway dwon there, i'll just jump down!" and then i was off to the races
covert schooner
I think the DLC was definitely meant for like
Veterans of the entire franchise
Thus why there’s extremely difficult encounters, NPC progression that relies on doing as much before the main plot as possible, and fairly difficult to find areas
vivid spire
I hope they revisit a fantasy setting for the next game
I love ac6 and er equally
But fantasy has grasped me a lot more
Also
How’s the Messmer Soldier Torchspear?
outer flint
it's been nice playing the DLC close ish to release, even with how popular the game is, I've been able to mostly play blind 
i really enjoyed that with ds3 (played it earlier this year but didn't know anything at all) and it's great having the same kind of experience
light bridge
Hey, IDK if any of you can lend me a hand, but I was planning some late game pvp build and I don't have the items yet, so IDK how would they look. Could someone try Royal Remains Helm, Kaiden armor and Solitude legs and gauntlets and let me know how well does it fit?
vivid spire
proven cloak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIam-SzUrsM
I still wonder ||if a similar sort of 'embodiment' is the takeaway for Radagon, and what'd he be if so||
||Duty? Loyalty? Humanity / 'curses', the part of her that isn't godly? The manifestation of Marika's edicts as a person? Attachment?||
||It'd be an explanation for the crusade occuring so late, and Marika's use of the Tarnished, her Shadow, and sealing of her son. Marika's got a dual sort of overattachment and neglect.||
median rock
Hey, IDK if any of you can lend me a hand, but I was planning some late game pvp...
2 hours later lol
light bridge
SO THAT FUCKS
median rock
my left hand is just dragon communion seal bc i was too lazy to unequip it
light bridge
Thank you very much
median rock
which weapons are you plannign on using
light bridge
One of the great katanas, still not sure which, but probably the normal one
To run antishields on it
median rock
my suggestion is actually night cav gauntlets over solitude, they're a little bit less angular
light bridge
Could work
Will use Ansbach bow to support
Today I saw a very good pvp great katana montage and was like
"I need to test this"
light bridge
The ash ignores shields
And when you are not using heavy weapons
It's the best way to deal with a tanky phantom
outer flint
i see...
light bridge
Will be a nice change of pace for me
Because I've been playing the whole game as a deathknight
warped quest
i thought about doing sir alonne
obtuse halo
Piercing Fang is very good
both because it beats shields and because it's pierce damage even when on a non-pierce weapon
and pierce is, generally speaking, probably the most consistently good phys damage type
warped quest
yeah i think its main downside is the movepool is more limited on average
frail sky
It’s basically the powerstanced thrusting sword moveset but in one weapon
outer flint
outer flint
i want to do a sword/lance/whatever and board next run, it looks so comfy
light bridge
TBH, the counterattack thing made shields go from meh to very good
vivid spire
I like it but I’m used to my scaling dealing a lot more damage
outer flint
guard counters do a ton of poise damage right?
maybe 45% guard counter damage and visceral talismans could be the way to go
vivid spire
What’s a guard counter again?
signal harness
attack immediately after blocking a hit
obtuse halo
After blocking, following up with a heavy attack will play a metallic clang and perform a unique attack
There’s a pretty generous window for it
And this attack does boosted damage/poise
Some enemies can use it against you too with the same sound cue, though it’s usually easy to dodge
vivid spire
I never knew that!
proven cloak
the poise damage is hugely boosted, too
for some weapons its actually more than a fully charged heavy
kind garden
The Black Iron Greathammer is wack with the Curved GS Talisman
You just guard counter and everything explodes
obtuse halo
Basically any weapon can guard counter, curved greatsword talisman doesn’t care about weapon type, just boosts all gcs
vivid spire
Oh!
obtuse halo
Same way lance talisman works with any weapon on horseback and hammer talisman boosts all stam damage against blockers
light bridge
And quite satisfying to hear
mighty warren
|| Beat radahn again on NG+3, ironically i won via bleed again||
outer flint
BSG?
outer flint
The Black Iron Greathammer is wack with the Curved GS Talisman
ooooh
mighty warren
Post DLC spoilers
||Left moore alive this time||
outer flint
i never ended up using great eepy, maybe I'll make that the main weapon of my guard counter build
glossy stag
Post DLC spoilers
||Left moore alive this time||
You can ||leave moora alive?||
proven cloak
You can ||leave moora alive?||
yes, its ||when you tell him “idk” and never choose one of the other answers||
glossy stag
huh
mighty warren
You can ||leave moora alive?||
|| it's not a super great option, he's still functionally alone but there is a chance for it to get better, hopefully||
proven cloak
I ||give him the respect to go down swinging with the rest of the gang.||
||Unfortunate, but its like Ansbach says - thats lordship||
atomic marsh
I will say
||Peak comedy is Moore having the most heart wrenching dialogue in the entire fromsoft catalogue and then immediately beaning you in the fucking head with a pot the size of you||
proven cloak
ooo
||I like how Elden Ring literalizes the power of ideology as springing from people (willing or unwilling) by using actual corpses||
fleet bronze
I guess my question would have to be whether the intent is for it just to be a design choice of Mohg's or if it's literally actually people somehow turned in to metal
proven cloak
it has to be symbolic, right? they're too teeny
but like the comments talk about, interesting that it has that design on a weapon used for communion with a god
Rykard's arena, Farum Azula, Nokron + Nokstella, The Erdtree, ||Enir Illm|| - lotta bodies fused with architecture too, relating to the divine or creation of gods
ties into the ambition theme really well imo, and the focus on people looking to greater forces to guide them
societies and faiths literally made of their supporters
leaders drawing actual magical power from those whos bodies they 'control'
its a very visceral metaphor
enough people put their whole being behind an idea, and it shapes the world more
(or you can use it to represent how power is built on violence)
vivid spire
||https://youtube.com/shorts/rp1ayPIRA7M?si=_JvH38yAAtkq6dkW|| final boss glitch, will try later
grave plinth
interestingly, a lot of the bones we see in Farum Azula are from horse burials
Unless the Beastmen used to have a big equestrian culture, there's a whole 'nother aspect of Farum Azula that we no longer have access to
They might be the steeds of deceased Dragon Communion Knights
light bridge
Horse burials have historically been related to important people, so perhaps
vivid spire
People are saying shadow of the Erdtree feels unfinished
And ngl
There are a few small parts?
Like finger ruins could have a little more
But overall? Nah
real shadow
Complaints about it being unfinished could be leveraged against the base game, and often were. It's no more or less unfinished than any other Fromsoft game.
obtuse halo
Honestly I think the DLC feels more polished and "finished" than the base game. I can't think of any areas that feel like Flame Peak or most of the Snowfield
languid tiger
demon ruins/izalith trauma
obtuse halo
God, yeah, Izalith was roooough.
warped quest
ever think about how people bring up poison swamps but not fire/lava zones
languid tiger
imo it's because lava zones are like
more archetypically "traditional" in RPGs
you've got a volcano fortress or a lava lake in every jrpg and their mother
obtuse halo
I really like Iron Keep as a twist on that. It's not a lava level, that's all molten metal. You're in a terminator 2 setpiece, good luck
languid tiger
same, yeah
warped quest
im just thinking that volcano manor is probally the best fire zone of their games
obtuse halo
Oh, Volcano Manor is a fantastic dungeon
languid tiger
I quite like the conceptuals of most of the ds2 areas, and desperately wish we'd gotten their monstrously overambitious versions
obtuse halo
It's a sick as hell bond villain lair
warped quest
but izalith 1 and 3, and ironkeep(mainly SOTFS) arent great
languid tiger
ye
obtuse halo
I remembered Iron Keep being hard but mostly because it's trying to bait you into moving incautiously with the greatbow snipers
languid tiger
you've got a volcano fortress or a lava lake in every jrpg and their mother
also, Evil Volcanoes are a classic in fantasy in general, starting with Lord of the Rings
and on top of all that, you've got burning villages left and right
mighty warren
i just no hitted commander niall without even thinking about it
like i went in there with zero actual processing power and just hit em with the "lol, lmao"
languid tiger
so there's this massive cultural touchstone of "hostile fiery zone, usually volcanic in nature"
obtuse halo
Iron Keep has really grown on me over the years
languid tiger
which is why the presence of all of those in From games doesn't really clock
but poison swamps, while not unheard of by any means, are a lot rarer
obtuse halo
I used to think it was a bullshit difficulty spike but it's actually a lot of fun if you play on its terms and use the traps to your advantage, it's secretly a very hot Sen's Fortress
languid tiger
and more than that, ever since DeS and DaS1, from's poison swamps have been long
merciless, grueling slogs with punishing mechanics and mean enemy placements
warped quest
i do think theres a good process that makes iron keep not diffcult
obtuse halo
I'm pretty sure there are spots in Harvest Valley I've never actually set foot in to this day
warped quest
focus on the left side kill the knight near the ladder after killing the first geat bow
obtuse halo
stupid poison fog
languid tiger
so it's a very notable shock to the system for players that aren't primed for that specific axis of Angry Level Design That Hates You
warped quest
ive run around there in the poison a few tim esfor stuff
languid tiger
and they all have quite literally oppressive atmospheres
even for the people that are used to them
warped quest
one thhing that i do always do in use the guillitine on one of the iron turtles
obtuse halo
one thhing that i do always do in use the guillitine on one of the iron turtles
Yeah the one in that tight space is a nightmare to fight fair
languid tiger
imo iron keep is the peak of "fair" level bastardry in ds2
warped quest
one ring i used a bunch in my preivous run
languid tiger
it's gleefully mean, but offers a bunch of ways for you to exploit the enemies with the environment just like they're exploiting it against you
warped quest
was stone ring
languid tiger
and has a bunch of bonfires
warped quest
i knew it could be good but in powerstancing its even stronger
vestal night
Iron Keep is manageable
but I do think the enemy placement in it is much worse in Scholar
warped quest
extra poise damage
obtuse halo
it's gleefully mean, but offers a bunch of ways for you to exploit the enemies w...
Yeah, like I said, Iron Keep is one that's grown on me over the years. It's the epitome of "play smarter not harder"
The "git gud" line has done so much damage over the years tbh
languid tiger
I think scholar is what makes it actually a real area
it's pretty tame in basegame
not really much of note
obtuse halo
people who just think the game is intended to be played beating your face against the wall until your reflexes are perfect
vestal night
the smelter room sucks in Scholar IMO, and mostly just encourages kiting the knights out of it
obtuse halo
which is a legitimate way to play, but isn't always the most efficient or fun way to play unless you're looking for that challenge
vestal night
and/or running around opening up the bridges before you do anything
obtuse halo
and I've really only tried a couple of builds
obtuse halo
(sorcerer and a dex spear build, the latter of which I didn't actually finish the game with)
languid tiger
and powerstanced smelter swords are almost as fun as powerstanced crypt blackswords or greataxes
obtuse halo
I've never even done the DLCs
languid tiger
oh, you should
obtuse halo
because I didn't have them when I did the full playthrough
languid tiger
I quite like all of them for different reasons
vestal night
the DLCs are very good
languid tiger
except frigid outskirts
vestal night
I don't like the opening of Sunken as much, but Iron and Ivory are both great
languid tiger
frigid outskirts needs to die in a fire, it sucks ass even once you know its gimmick and are familiar with its pranks on you
it's just not a fun area
even if the boss is good
warped quest
all of the passage areas suck
warped quest
aged smelter
vestal night
it's second Smelter
languid tiger
OH RIGHT
vestal night
the blue one
vestal night
Sunken is the Graverobber trio
languid tiger
yeah once you said smelter I remembered that the gank squad exists
vestal night
but yeah I basically just ignore the passages
languid tiger
but I always forget them
vestal night
they're supposed to be done in multi, and I can't be bothered
light bridge
and powerstanced smelter swords are almost as fun as powerstanced crypt blackswo...
The double eplosion
Peak
obtuse halo
I really do respect some of the wild choices DS2 makes with buildcraft too
light bridge
It's the game with the most viable number of builds of the saga
IDK if I structured that sentence right
obtuse halo
even stuff like Skeptic's and Simpleton's spice, to let you cherrypick higher-level spells that you can use without getting your stat all the way up there
languid tiger
ye
vestal night
spices are cool yeah
languid tiger
1 int mage my beloved
warped quest
id say elden ring has more but less percent
light bridge
As weird as it is, it's probably the one I've enjoyed the most overall of the three
light bridge
id say elden ring has more but less percent
Very fair actually
languid tiger
ds2 is absolutely my favorite of the three souls games, yeah
light bridge
My favourite is 3, but because it has IMO the best bossfights and OSTs of the saga
languid tiger
1 int mage my beloved
it's also real as fuck that ds2 lets you start with 1 int
light bridge
Playing just as me irl
languid tiger
i wish its deprived started at 1 in everything
"this is my son, he has every disease"
warped quest
that would be really rough
grave plinth
im just thinking that volcano manor is probally the best fire zone of their game...
Volcano Manor is great and i wish the Fire Monks had something comparable
vestal night
starting with a low Int class, and Carillion doesn't talk to you because you're too stupid
warped quest
it being you wouldnt be able to equip anything
median rock
ever think about how people bring up poison swamps but not fire/lava zones
responding to backscroll - i'm much more ok with "this is not a place you're supposed to walk without being careful / a specific item" than "what if consistent damage :(". orange charred ring on lava definitely felt like more of an item to let you pass with a minor damage for flavor than some of the poison swamps in places like blighttown, which is an annoying level of damage
warped quest
until at least level 3
languid tiger
starting with a low Int class, and Carillion doesn't talk to you because you're ...
yeah i love that all of the int instructors actively don't fucking talk to you if you're stupid
light bridge
Volcano Manor is great and i wish the Fire Monks had something comparable
Volcano mannor is fantastic
light bridge
In my last playthrough I finally decided to get every single talisman and singular item in the game and went to get the dagger talisman in the manor
And holy fuck
languid tiger
and carhillion calls you an inept dingus
light bridge
It feels amazing to explore and discover
My top 3 dungeons as of now is probably The Spire, The capital and Stormveil
But the manor? Just after
Genuinely funny, my only complaint is the presence of the fucking abductor virgins
obtuse halo
it being you wouldnt be able to equip anything
this is just that ymfah dark souls in 0 boss video where they use character creation skip and then can't equip anything
languid tiger
oh my god it is
light bridge
||https://x.com/RellanasThrone/status/1824907618223046768|| somewhat accurate Marika
vivid spire
glossy delta
frail sky
https://youtu.be/KnaDBiMIjqE?si=FI-SgrTicVHeyW1x
I'm always bewildered whenever Zullie gets a sponsorship
light bridge
In another server, someone discovered a funny interaction if you invade while the Divine beast dancing lion boss has not been activated yet
real shadow
lmao
atomic plinth
Why was there a banished knight
median rock
https://youtu.be/KnaDBiMIjqE?si=FI-SgrTicVHeyW1x
first funny manscaped ad ive ever seen
tomatoangus tried i think but even him
proven cloak
no shot Lamenter is that homophobic
Same with the curseblades
Meeras at least a woman, and ig its not clear what Labirith is but I just assumed lesbians
stone cove
Gonna be honest, this is an immensly werid topic to be dicussing
proven cloak
true….
It is critical to morgotts character that hes metaphorically closeted though
like the dude in ultrakill
its not canon, but the wise understand it to be real
the rest are just being sillay
vivid spire
Hmmm
I went back to black knife
Ah well
I’m getting better and more into melee combat but messmer soldiers can still fuck me up easy
atomic marsh
Twitter
vivid spire
What's a good scadutree level for messmer?
obtuse halo
I think I did it at 10ish my first time through and that seemed comfortable, though still challenging
I went higher for bow-only but that was bow-only
mighty warren
I think 10-12~ is what most folk go for? mostly depends on how comfortable you feel with his dance
light bridge
Eepy area
proven cloak
the goop
obtuse halo
try holy
for bow-only I actually went and bought a stack of Golden Arrows from capital outskirts lol
vivid spire
Wait what
light bridge
It's almost impossible to dodge the fire by rolling, just jump it and it's easy
warped quest
halo scyh legit beat the boss for m in under 20 seconds
vivid spire
(well a C isn't too bad)
vivid spire
Spoilers sorry
mighty warren
It's almost impossible to dodge the fire by rolling, just jump it and it's easy
wait you can jump it?
i just rolled through it
Noted for future playthroughs
vivid spire
Oh my fucking god ngl
I have died three times with his healthbar a sliver
I jumped over the fire but it still got me every time
I'm dealing good chunks of damage but it's still ):
mighty warren
Oooft
if you need a little help ||you can get thiollier to join in the fight, he's an in arena summon so he doesnt boost the knight's health||
|| gotta kill messmer and then tell him about the fissure though||
vivid spire
GOT HIM
mighty warren
GOOD JOB SCRIBLE
mighty warren
Getting better
mighty warren
Fair, a good few fights in the DLC benefit from shield usage
Also, dlc final boss spoilers but
|| I was finally able to block radahn's meteor attack fully with a shield last night, shit is EXHILIRATING to pull off||
mighty warren
nap time?
light bridge
Eeepy
mighty warren
|| make sure to visit trina post dlc, trust me.||
vivid spire
kind garden
hey, zuko here
vivid spire
Zuko died a minute after this
light bridge
Aight you convinced me to try and finish my build
outer flint
finally able to charge my laptop so I'm elden ringing tonight baybee
proven cloak
gray leaf
- Why, in the final boss fight, ||is Miquella missing an arm||?
- Why is it that, outside of the aforementioned detail, ||he looks like Ranni — or, rather, like Ranni's enigmatic, unseen teacher||?
These are the questions that dwell upon my mind.
mighty warren
yeah fuck it i love this sword
Though
hrm, torn
on one hand, funny bleed procs, on the other
you're gonna burn alright.
Fuck it
magma time
alright tyranny is
not it, christ
gray leaf
Is it still bugged?
mighty warren
Bugged or not it just
did not feel worth the two slots, maybe im spoiled by black blade but just
eugh
proven cloak
1. Why, in the final boss fight, ||is Miquella missing an arm||?
2. Why is it th...
||If it was his other arm I'd say "ah, he left one in the cocoon: of course" - but its not||
gray leaf
that was my exact thought
frozen olive
||If it was his other arm I'd say "ah, he left one in the cocoon: of course" - b...
It's a ||bonafide mystery, and it definitely has to be like that for a reason||
glossy stag
1. Why, in the final boss fight, ||is Miquella missing an arm||?
2. Why is it th...
||I kind of assumed that her teacher wasn't multihanded so it's just the rest of doll body looks like her, and partially deific spirits have multiple arms just cuz?||
gray leaf
or maybe the opposite, that ||he didn't have it because it wasn't in the cocoon, but hanging outside||... but it's not that.
proven cloak
my friend a while back mentioned ||on his playthrough in the haligtree many of his statues present his left arm, which is the one thats missing?||
||like, the intro art - haligtree-roots miq, the Miq and Malenia statues: all left arms||
gray leaf
||I kind of assumed that her teacher wasn't multihanded so it's just the rest of...
maybe, but ||Ranni very aggressively does not want to be partially deific. There's a whole big Deal about that. And Miquella clearly wasn't beforehand, and Marika isn't. Also, Miquella isn't "partially deific" at that point; he's a god, full stop.||
||The abandonment of his arms is specifically called out, but that's both of them, equally.||
proven cloak
||I do think Ranni becomes a god by her ending (if through unconventional means), given how much she matches the others we see||
||Needs a lord to bring an age, brings an Age, still follows the "dark path of the Empyrean", mirrors Miquella in her speech||
||idk if she has the power Miquella or Marika possessed, but shes taking up the role.||
I know a lot of people (re: arms) ||like to think of the left arm as Saint Trina||
gray leaf
||I suppose, but at the same time... she didn't go through the Gate of Divinity. She did abandon her flesh, but... I feel like what she did, while certainly involved, was much less obtuse than what Miquella did.||
||And if a relatively-simpler solution like that existed, Miquella probably wouldn't have had to break into the Land of Shadow in the first place. Unless Ranni's sort of inheirited the Elden Ring and thus divinity, whereas Miquella wishes to be an entirely new divinity?||
gray leaf
I know a lot of people (re: arms) ||like to think of the left arm as Saint Trina...
Sure, but ||he specifically abandons his left arm, and not in the same place where he abandons his love. I don't even think they're particularly close to each other.||
glossy stag
||I do think Ranni becomes a god by her ending (if through unconventional means)...
||I mostly meant her being radagon's daughter who is confusingly marika||
gray leaf
Maybe, but ||Miquella is the only other person to look like that in the whole extended family, and he only looks like that after ascending to divinity... or after becoming a spirit? Two of his arms are very ethereal. ...does the ghost half of Ranni have four arms (or, rather, two arms on each side)? I don't remember.||
glossy stag
||I was going to say maybe Trina has the missing arm but she got two||
||But who knows maybe her two amount to micky's one||
proven cloak
||I suppose, but at the same time... she didn't go through the Gate of Divinity....
||Neither did the God of Placidusax, tbf. I dont think the gate is required for godhood, just a path - the fingers in the base game who selected the Empyreans to succeed Marika certainly didn't mention it||
proven cloak
||And if a relatively-simpler solution like that existed, Miquella probably woul...
this part is it, imo
||he wants to reject the Original Sin / Karmic Causality of the world - he's trying to go to the source and make it 'pure'.||
||If Marika's Order was flawed from the start, Miquella's solution is to (from his perspective) radically reject her goals and methods: Embrace all of it, remove all the tainted elements of the Erdtree.||
it follows ||his approach towards fundementalism, than towards the Haligtree. He couldn't get GO Fundementalism how he wanted - so he took a step back, tried to make a new Erdtree. That didn't work, so he went back a step - where did Marika gain her divinity, and the Erdtree born?||
gray leaf
I’m still half-convinced that ||the Haligtree wasn’t actually a failure; it was a way to return from the Land of Shadow, and it would be divine as he was.||
proven cloak
well, it can be both
||I think it failed because he watered it with his unaging blood + didn't have that divine juice - no wonder it 'failed to grow'.||
||but I think if he came back, he could've made it flourish - he had that JUICE.||
||I dont think Miquella is cursed to failure, either - metatextually thats what a lot of his story is about, but its not like. an in-universe thing. But the Haligtree's inability to grow beyond being a sapling (it still has a tree brace) seems directly connected to it growing from the body of someone cursed to be young forever, imo.||
proven cloak
Maybe, but ||Miquella is the *only* other person to look like that in the whole ...
||ghost half doesnt seem to be visible around the arms, so its got 0||
I'm just happy the last vaati video joined the "Greater Will is the prime mover / cosmic creative force, and source of life" train pretty unambigiously
orderheads..... we won.........
real shadow
https://x.com/aYaKi_blade/status/1825274380265676991 https://fixupx.com/aYaKi_blade/status/1825274441489879355
Twitter
outer flint
I'll come back tmrw
might change my strat up to do quad status rapiers or dual wield moonveil and a cold uchi instead of milady-moonveil switching
hrmm
outer flint
https://x.com/aYaKi_blade/status/1825274380265676991 https://fixupx.com/aYaKi_bl...
LOL
light bridge
https://fixupx.com/Zazan969/status/1825328586250666078
DIDN'T SEE THAT
Actually cute
vivid spire
https://fixupx.com/Zazan969/status/1825328586250666078
Ohawwww
mighty warren
Man i adore the scalesword's skill, magma gulliotine is stupid fun
signal harness
Yeah its a ton of fun
warm wharf
Just beat the ||Saint of the Bud|| and goddamn if I have no idea what rune level/scad level I’m supposed to be on. She was a delightful fight, very fun, clear attacks and punish windows with a solid pseudo-gimmic, and only took maybe a dozen tries at RL 139 and SL 5. However, that means that she was… dramatically easier than any boss before her except for the ||porcupine hippo I guess||? idk what’s going on at this point I’m just along for the ride
(Also the ||ancient forge greatsword|| is a super fun weapon, thank you again to those who recommended it to me)
languid tiger
Just beat the ||Saint of the Bud|| and goddamn if I have no idea what rune level...
yeah i felt pretty similar, she was a super flaccid boss
and RL 139/SB5 is like
super low for that late in the DLC, too
i one-shot her at RL150 + SB~10, i think
warm wharf
That makes sense, other than some disjointed hitboxes and a slightly counterintuitive stagger area she’s pretty easy
warm wharf
i one-shot her at RL150 + SB~10, i think
Damn
languid tiger
it's a shame, because the design is super cool
and she's got some great looking attacks
warm wharf
Idk where I’m supposed to be because things swing from very easy to nearly impossible pretty frequently, and it feels like there’s a lot that would be trivialized if I were stronger
languid tiger
but they were really easy to dodge and her health bar was pretty small for just how much attack uptime you have against her
warm wharf
Like, going in required beating Mogh, and that only takes RL ~100 for me, and then the open world mobs were mostly easy, and then there’s a knight in a tomb who beat my ass for hours
warm wharf
but they were really easy to dodge and her health bar was pretty small for just ...
Aye, for sure. She has one combo that you dodge away, dodge into, and then the next attack goes over your head while you can get off a greatsword charged heavy and then a light
Ah well, it be that way sometimes, and really it’s just needed to keep my morale up until I can circle back around to ||Rellana|| lmao
languid tiger
on my first playthrough i accidentally one-shot her as well, because a friend that i was playing with and i were trading some items back and forth right in front of her arena
and we just walked in and kicked her shit in
took me a lot longer the second go around when i remembered not to summon, though
warm wharf
This is my first proper playthrough without summoning anything of any kind, so that is very much a contributing factor
I will also give in and pick up a golden vow knife sometime
vivid spire
Oh I fought her at rl6
I beat ||Rellana ||through sheer luck and sped to the rest of the dlc
warm wharf
Oh I fought her at rl6
Goddamn, nice work! What were you doing, serpent hunter hijinks, parrying, something else?
vivid spire
Goddamn, nice work! What were you doing, serpent hunter hijinks, parrying, somet...
I died 65 times lmao
warm wharf
Real of you
vivid spire
I went back after getting 14 fragments and won
warm wharf
I am not that good, I almost certainly died more and haven't beat her yet
Ah yeah that's a good chunk of fragments, fair enough
Still, getting that many at RL6 is crazy! Did you beat the ||boar guy||, or just get everything else?
proven cloak
yeah i felt pretty similar, she was a super flaccid boss
I found her pretty early so she was fun enough
imo the easiest part is that I think she might have the least moves of any dlc boss?
Certainly felt that way
proven cloak
Just beat the ||Saint of the Bud|| and goddamn if I have no idea what rune level...
But I also gotta admit that ||porcupine hippo|| geniunely killed me more than most bosses
which was a little embarrassing lmao
I think the bosses I beat with the least trouble were ||Midra, who I fought pretty late|| and ||Putrescent Knight||
warm wharf
But I also gotta admit that ||porcupine hippo|| geniunely killed me more than mo...
The thing about the ||hippo|| is that it isn’t a hard boss, it’s a stupid boss. Its hitboxes are a mess, its arena sucks for its size, it does weird damage that can vary wildly by attack, and it has hurtboxes that persist longer than most i-frame buffers. However, it also doesn’t really have that much health, and so my runs against it were literally just rolling the dice until it didn’t do anything and then it died.
Also, if you don’t lock on and just walk in any direction other than away from it or towards it then it misses a lot of the time
proven cloak
I got hit by its grab on repeat like 6 times on fight start
warm wharf
Yeah that attack is extremely hard to dodge but if you run to either side it usually misses
proven cloak
when that patch fixed it’s hit boxes I was not surprised
warm wharf
If you dodge to either side it’ll get you though
Oh fr? That would make sense, it was a mess when I did it
I am now fighting Mesmer, and what a guy he is. I can tell already that this will either be a lot of fun or an unmitigated pain in the ass.
Also fucking ||Mogh beating the allegations and his alleged plan with Miquella being essentially projection|| is cracking me up
proven cloak
Also fucking ||Mogh beating the allegations and his alleged plan with Miquella b...
like ||a week before the dlc I was defending mohg in a vc and getting so much shit for it|| so its been funny
languid tiger
proven cloak
||tbh I didn't even say "Miquella mind controlled him" either lmao, I was just saying "listen the memes are funny but theres more interesting themes in his character than just 'the Moghlester"||
warm wharf
lmao ||Mogh defense before the dlc dropped sounds absolutely insane, but you have been vindicated||
frozen olive
||tbh I didn't even say "Miquella mind controlled him" either lmao, I was just s...
cooking...
proven cloak
I think its kinda awesome how horrible mohg was
the fact that he's Like This is 100% the fault of the Golden Order - and more specifically, Marika
vivid spire
Oh I used to be a chronic miquella simp
I made my own walkthrough for a dlc ending and everything
Now we’ll
I still dislike mohg but I mean
He tried
proven cloak
I got reminded of a discussion I had pre-dlc a couple days ago
old brook
He tried what though. Look at the Dynasty.
proven cloak
*He tried what though. Look at the Dynasty.*
one of the few places that accepting of Albinaurics
solid drip
I mean thats 2/2 I dont see an issue
Volcano manor only got 1
proven cloak
Oh I used to be a chronic miquella simp
I still like Miquella tbh
vivid spire
I made my own walkthrough for a dlc ending and everything
For your information it had item spawns and everything
It influenced the base game too!
proven cloak
In that I think he was geniunely pretty well-intentioned
proven cloak
rip....
vivid spire
I also found YURI
proven cloak
there is Yuri everywhere for those with the eyes to see
vivid spire
MESSMER GOT
light bridge
Emo snake boy...
kind garden
TWINK OBLITERATED
vivid spire
Twink obliterated
Debating
Do I use the concoction on the dragon priestess
Or nah
grave plinth
Nah
vivid spire
Why not?
frozen olive
cause it's pretty sketchy
vivid spire
Ohh yeah true
frozen olive
you drug her, destroy her connection to her god, then influence her to follow you instead
obtuse halo
mechanically, depends whether you'd rather ||have a transformation item and an arcane weapon, or if you want a spirit ash and a usable but not amazing spell||
vivid spire
you drug her, destroy her connection to her god, then influence her to follow yo...
Yeah that’s icky
frozen olive
it is!
gray leaf
...in retrospect, ||what Miquella did and what Ranni did aren't actually completely different. Miquella went through some extra difficulties, but he was trying to outright become a new divinity. However, both of them jumped through a good number of hoops to shed their Empyrean flesh (which they hated, although to very different extents). Ranni also killed Godwyn as part of her ritual, whereas Miquella... didn't. He also shed his flesh in pieces rather than all at once, and didn't have some alternate vessel to transfer to, instead seeming to basically just reconstruct himself from the Gate of Divinity (?) which is... different.||
They're just similar enough to compare, but there's also a lot of crucial differences which I don't fully understand.
grave plinth
Ranni Wife. Wife Good.
gray leaf
||Ranni also wanted to shed her Empyrean flesh because she doesn't want to be an Empyrean, whereas for Miquella, it seems to have moreso a case of having to sacrifice it to achieve his aims.||
frozen olive
They're just similar enough to compare, but there's also a lot of crucial differ...
||personally i tend to get stuck on the whole mindfucking people thing, and the fact that Miquella made his own soldiers into fucking suicide bombers without telling them||
grave plinth
I have killed in Ranni’s name and I will kill again
gray leaf
||personally i tend to get stuck on the whole mindfucking people thing, and the ...
I'm not talking about morality, just the one specific physical process.
frozen olive
just like me fr fr
ah
well i think the main thing is ||Miquella didn't keep his spirit intact either as far as we know||
gray leaf
I personally think ||Miquella genuinely wants to minimize harm to others, but, ultimately, he views his aims as more important than any harm he might cause in the short term.||
frozen olive
||Ranni killed her empyrean flesh sure, but her method of divesting herself of her fate was WAAAAAAAYYYYY less involved and mutilating than Miquellas||
signal harness
Miquella’s problem is that he didn’t ask the tarnished to be consort and picked a boss
grave plinth
I need to kill him to clear the way for my exquisite lady of the dark moon
gray leaf
||Like every other god, he is, ultimately, human, with all the accompanying hypocrisy and self-justification that entails.||
frozen olive
||getting the genuinely just most powerful fucking dude in the country to be your guy when you should have picked the random fuckshit nobody who is gunning for the throne||
gray leaf
||Ranni killed her empyrean flesh sure, but her method of divesting herself of h...
So what I'm wondering is basically ||why Miquella had to go through all those steps and Ranni didn't.||
grave plinth
All potential threats to The Lunar Princess must be annihilated
frozen olive
So what I'm wondering is basically ||*why* Miquella had to go through all those ...
||Miquella wanted to||
grave plinth
So what I'm wondering is basically ||*why* Miquella had to go through all those ...
||Miquella wants to be a god on earth, Ranni wants to fuck off to space||
signal harness
So what I'm wondering is basically ||*why* Miquella had to go through all those ...
I think ||Ranni’s method was basically an any% glitch involving destined death||
“If you die at the same frame as another empyrean…”
frozen olive
||i genuinely think that aside from not using the same method as Ranni with killing the flesh, Miquella WANTED to divest themselves of all that stuff||
grave plinth
Yeah he takes after Radagon. He needs to be perfect
frozen olive
||Miquella hates themselves for being part of Marikas golden lineage and i think part of distancing themselves from that is just cutting out shit||
||in a very unfortunately fucking literal sense||
signal harness
||Is it because of being part of the lineage? I figured it was because of his cursed flesh||
frozen olive
||Ranni trúly doesn't give a fuck about Marika and doesn't have those hangups that lead Miquella to failure and despair, she just kinda goes the girlboss route and does shit||
gray leaf
Honestly, every possible ending is morally ambiguous and that does include Ranni; not even counting the damage she had to cause to achieve her goal, her goal is a situation where, arguably, either or both of the following are true:
- The people of the Lands Between are freed from external divine influence.
- The people of the Lands Between are abandoned by their god, and their most fervent prayers will all go unheard.
All because Ranni wanted the people of the Lands Between to be free, and/or because Ranni wanted herself, personally, to be free of the obligations of being an Empyrean.
frozen olive
||Is it because of being part of the lineage? I figured it was because of his cu...
||iirc Miquella specifically hates Marika and just, hates the fact that he is related to her||
||it's mentioned by one of the ghost dudes that Miquellas folly is that he was too set on that hatred that he didn't realize he was like, retreading her steps||
signal harness
Huh ok
gray leaf
||Is it because of being part of the lineage? I figured it was because of his cu...
||I think it's both? Note that Ranni also made a whole big deal about wanting to abandon her cursed flesh also, because she seemed to view just being an Empyrean as a curse or burden.||
frozen olive
||i mean i don't particularly think Miquella loves being cursed but the divesting shit going overboard is definitely Marika related||
frozen olive
||it's mentioned by one of the ghost dudes that Miquellas folly is that he was t...
might actually have been mentioned in ||some items like the Miquella Great Rune||
||All in an effort to bury the original sin. To embrace the whole of it, and be reborn as a new god.||
i swear i remember someone specifically talking about it but i just can't remember who
obtuse halo
LORE
vivid spire
Before it just said Godwyn, he who was friend of the Dragons
Now it says For the Coming ages of the Duskborn instead
That’s new
Legit fia simp set
It’s like his own bodyguards.. changed course?
vivid spire
The axes all note how they used to be “protectors and also speakers of the ancient dragon cult”
obtuse halo
Fortissax also fought hard to save his friend and was corrupted for the trouble
vivid spire
Can you take the Blinkbolt ashes off of the axes?
And is there a better long hafted axe in the game that scales with dex?
vivid spire
not much to guard really...
It’s just interesting how they changed course
Most of the loyal knights in ER don’t switch ideals so easily
And like—why change course for something so many others saw as evil?
frozen olive
well, ostensibly Fia wants to help Godwyn with the whole duskborn thing
so it's not really pivoting course entirely
just kinda, switching up priorities a little
proven cloak
...in retrospect, ||what Miquella did and what Ranni did aren't actually *comple...
100%
vivid spire
well, ostensibly Fia wants to help Godwyn with the whole duskborn thing
That’s surprisingly level headed lol
proven cloak
They're just similar enough to compare, but there's also a lot of crucial differ...
the difference is less in their approaches, and more in their end result
frozen olive
That’s surprisingly level headed lol
how do you mean?
proven cloak
Ranni believes the issue with the GO is its immanence, the problem with the world is people can see Order with their own eyes. Her solution is to obscure it, to leave people alone in the dark, without a guide, to move forward on their own.
Miquella believes the issue with the GO is its cruelty, ||and, eventually in the dlc, that this cruelty is built into the cycles of the gods||. His solution is to embrace all, provide "love for the unloved", and serve as the guiding light for the world.
its not a coincidence that seeking guidance from a divinity and seeking comfort from a mother are both such large themes
frozen olive
it's almost as if the from writers know what they are doing, almost
atomic plinth
Perish the thought
Everyone knows FromSoft can't write, it's not as if they have some of the most touching and thoughtful narratives to date
proven cloak
when Moore talks about being abandoned and left behind by [the brood's] mother, he's seeking reassurance
Miquella thinks he should be comforted
Ranni thinks there shouldn't be a god to respond to him
light bridge
Very "find our own way through suffering" vs "comfort and guide everyone through suffering"
proven cloak
thats why her ending is one of "doubt and loneliness", and why those aren't bad in the context of what she's doing
and also why her ending isn't mistranslated
yeah exactly
which is the right answer? up to you
but those are their positions
frozen olive
the unfortunate truth of the situation is that ||Miquella loses sight of the situation by the time he becomes as one with his promised consort, a god and a lord||
proven cloak
||I think narratively Miquella is framed as repeating the issues Marika ran into, at least on a personal level (becoming trapped) if not a worldwide one, so the game kind of sides more with Ranni over them||
light bridge
Yeah
I find Miquella's theme as a whole to be the classic ||intending to break the cycle just to become part of it||
proven cloak
mhm
which is sad because a lot of the community discussion about him misses that ime
to instead just be "why is he stupid? is he dumb?"
I think a large drive for him, given the DLC, is definitely guilt
or an overriding moral obligation
proven cloak
this also contrasts with Ranni "I did it all" and "thy struggle compels me not a jot"
(shes so funny)
light bridge
I bet her spirit side sometimes puffs her cheecks
proven cloak
||i genuinely think that aside from not using the same method as Ranni with kill...
also yeah this is it 100%
||He wanted to undo all the tragedy of what came before, which means he didn't want any of the legacy of the Erdtree / Marika's divinity, going so far as to make his own circlet at the Gate of Divnity over seeking the Elden Ring||
mighty warren
Can you take the Blinkbolt ashes off of the axes?
there IS an blinkbolt ash of war but its only the dash, no followup
proven cloak
Yeah he takes after Radagon. He *needs* to be *perfect*
and unlike his fathers perfection coming from binding things together
Miquella has always been about purity-seeking, even in the base game
Unalloyed Gold, Gold without the stain of the worldly
vivid spire
there IS an blinkbolt ash of war but its only the dash, no followup
Oh…
Could the axe still do good with my dex build?
I have 60 dex surely that’s gotta have ok scaling
mighty warren
Probably not? the longhaft keeps an E dex the entire time
light bridge
The longhaft scales a bit better than the dual axes do with dex, but they are still almost fully str weapons
obtuse halo
nice to see a lightning weapon for non dex characters though
mighty warren
The longhaft scales a bit better than the dual axes do with dex, but they are st...
I think you mixed that up respectfully?
light bridge
Perhaps
mighty warren
since longhaft has an E and twins have a d
proven cloak
the Blinkbolt ash isnt too bad
light bridge
I know the one I like scales better
mighty warren
the Blinkbolt ash isnt too bad
Its pure evade admittely is its only fault, i wish it atleast imbued the weapon with lightning
well i say "fault"
but point is i just wish it atleast imbued
light bridge
I think you mixed that up respectfully?
Just checked, and you are absolutely correct
mighty warren
It happens, i know these weapons well cause im someone who HEAVILY benefits from the fact we have lightning weapons for a str build
light bridge
Longhaft has been my main lighting weapon for my fth quality build
It's fantastic
I dislike twins tho
mighty warren
Twins seem more eh
pvp inclined? of the two, not my cup of tea either way
light bridge
I do play pvp and while twins allow for a very fast in
I think longhaft moveset is just to good
mighty warren
I adore its heavies
light bridge
It's fantastic
mighty warren
one of the only reasons i dont use it much anymore is cause it doesnt flow with the look aswell
Used to have a different fit it looked great with
kinda miss it
light bridge
mighty warren
Oh that is
hilarious
nah i gotta show you the old look, one sec
we are fuckin brothers man
light bridge
LMAO
frozen olive
||He wanted to undo all the tragedy of what came before, which means he didn't w...
i still think it's HILARIOUS ||that Miq went to all that effort to distance themselves from Marika and then ended up at the fucking Gate of Divinity anyway||
🤡
light bridge
birds of a feather n all that
"Sometimes you just need TWO FAITH BUILDS"
mighty warren
I should sit down and hit some fashion ideas again, thought i need to go get something specific for that
which means, ugh
time to farm a divine beast warrior
light bridge
Hate the sculpted guardians
Bitches were the second hardest boss in the dlc and they weren't even a boss
mighty warren
One of the only complaints i have with the dlc is these guys
light bridge
I've been running a new fashion with a different build now
Quality with bits of arcane and faith for Ansbachs's blade
It's 180 so I have more than enough to spare
obtuse halo
sculpted guardians...are we talking about the divine beast/bird warriors? I'm not sure which enemy is being referred to
the horned warriors? some supertype of the above?
light bridge
The hornsent warriors with smaller divine lion heads
obtuse halo
okay yeah the divine beast warriors then
yeah they're pretty tough
I had a devil of a time getting through Enir-Ilim on bow-only
light bridge
Now that's dedication
languid tiger
that small divine lion head is real good drip, ngl
fits onto armor way easier than the bird head or the dumbass big one
light bridge
I just run skulls
languid tiger
although the big one is funny too
obtuse halo
I love the bird head
languid tiger
and losing out on a single point of dex over the bird head is fine
proven cloak
i still think it's HILARIOUS ||that Miq went to all that effort to distance them...
I like it as a way to underline the inescability of consequence / incompatibility of his goals
proven cloak
||even if you go back as far as possible, even without Marika or outside influence or anything, Godhood is still kind of fucked||
mighty warren
that small divine lion head is real good drip, ngl
Im trying for its chestpiece
cant wait to find out it wont work for me
proven cloak
even with the best intentions, with nothing else causing it to go wrong
but I get why he did it
||like - if he remained at the Haligtree and made it a semi-nice sanctuary, his sister would still be rotting. Is the takeaway that he should've accepted her rotting, her death / blooming? That she should've?||
||Is it enough to make a promised land, when most of the group you want to provide for dies before ever seeing it? When people brutalize their villages on suspicion of having a lead to reach you?||
these are the questions Miquella's story is asking
light bridge
And how much damage does
frozen olive
Going to throw rocks at god until they fuck off
mighty warren
And how much damage does
Iunno, i just throw rocks
proven cloak
D did his bullshit
(iirc ||she actually dies regardless of if he shows up or not, looks like making a Mending Rune involves death||)
||if I was gonna speculate, probably because runes carry vital energy / experiences? The mending runes are literally that persons entire life + worldview pressed into a rune?||
light bridge
Yeah
mighty warren
2 helmet drops in a row
fun.
Oh good, lucky kill number 7
well it was worth a try.
not feeling it though
atomic plinth
Looks pretty good with Dane's Hat
vivid spire
Edit
Romina is hard
SL 13
GOT HER
SECOND TRY
Rotten Butterflies or Poleblade?
obtuse halo
yeah unfortunately they have a long animation and no hyperarmor
they're a lot like pre-patch Scarlet Aeonia
before Scarlet Aeonia was good
it's really pretty but just not a good spell
The poleblade isn't incredible either but it's more functional
mighty warren
Looks pretty good with Dane's Hat
i (respectfully) dont wanna see my character's face
proven cloak
before Scarlet Aeonia was good
oh is it good now?
I havent really tried it since launch
obtuse halo
It's fucking fantastic
Massive Hyperarmor on the charge (it's nearly unstaggerable) and hits for nuclear amounts
It's still very expensive at 3 slots but it's actually worth its salt now
I used it against the DLC final boss to great effect
mighty warren
I love things that show my character's face and hair
I came to wear full body armour
and by god
you are not seeing a lick of skin on me.
obtuse halo
In PVP I feel like anyone smart probably gets the heck away but it's also brutal if you can land it there
obtuse halo
Massive Hyperarmor on the charge (it's nearly unstaggerable) and hits for nuclea...
It also onetaps Rot against most things (including the DLC final boss, though its rot resistance increases such that it will require two casts in phase 2) and its version of rot does considerably more damage than most other rot sources
proven cloak
ooo
gray leaf
Thoughts: there is a strong correlation between divinity and motherhood in the DLC. My two branching thoughts off of this are:
- ||Is this why Marika is referred to as a "strumpet"? I mean, it isn't the literal reason, but if we're hanging onto that connection it makes sense.||
- ||Does this mean that Ymir's desire to become a Mother of Fingers is in some sense equivalent to a desire to become a god? (Probably, yes, but it's interesting to see the connection from this direction.)||
proven cloak
for 2., I see it less ||as a desire to become like a god, and more that his opening point - we are all children of the Greater Will, but few grasp the import - is about how we are already equal to, or have the ability to match, any star already. Theres no intrinsic difference between Metyr, or the Elden Beast, or us, in Ymir's worldview||
||which could still be god-like, tbf. But I'm using god the way Marika and Miquella are gods.||
I do think ||his desire to care for Yuri can be paralleled in the way Marika and Miquella sought to care for their people / order.||
gray leaf
They're definitely not literally the same. but I'm wondering if they're thematically equivalent, or at least parallel.
proven cloak
||and the way he wants to upend Metyr but is doomed to also recieve no guidance is similar to how godhood to establish order would repeat the mistakes||
Its like how Marika stopped having good relationships with her kids, and stopped wanting to be a god
and Radagon had a great relationship with Miquella, and tried to hold onto godhood
Parents and gods are both bound in duty
I've been thinking about how the DLC talks about abandonment, and how that ties into Ranni's ending, recently
gray leaf
...if we're treating godhood and motherhood as metaphorically connected, or as metaphors for each other, what does that mean when Melina says something like "is this what it means to be born of a mother" about Boq?
proven cloak
would her age act like a balm to people like Metyr, allowing them to move forward? Or would it leave more people floundering for meaning in a dark universe, that refuses to answer their calls?
gray leaf
Yeah. The DLC really kind of pointed out the potential issues with Ranni's ending, really sharply.
...in the DLC, ||there are two people you can give the Iris of Grace or Iris of Occultation to. One of them treats the Grace as salvation, and dies feeling abandoned if you use the Iris of Occultation. The other is described as being overwhelmed by the Grace, and the Occultation feels more... familiar to her.||
proven cloak
on the other hand, was it Marika's abandonment of Messmer that caused the shadowlands to stagnate in horror - or was it Messmer's inability to work beyond and away from his mother's directives?
grave plinth
Has Marika ever had a good relationship with her kids?
proven cloak
she made Divine Blessings for Messmer when he was young
and theres that statue in his room of her(?) cradling him gently - the only depiction of Marika ever smiling
grave plinth
See i think the statue is for Messmer’s benefit
proven cloak
...if we're treating godhood and motherhood as metaphorically connected, or as m...
oh also the Hornsent Grandam refers to you, as someone whos born of Erdtree society, as her progeny
grave plinth
He either commissioned it himself or he was gifted it as a means of control
grave plinth
Because if Marika really loved him she never would have exiled him
She’d have sent someone like Morgott
proven cloak
the fucked up thing is that it could've been both
grave plinth
She also like plucked out his eye in infancy
gray leaf
Or she would have let him come back. That also could've happened.
proven cloak
It seems like Godfrey and her cared about each other, but that didnt matter either
She had to exile Messmer, because trapping him there was about removing the abyssal serpent
gray leaf
...you know what just occurred to me?
proven cloak
she seems to have had strong emotional reactions to stuff in her youth though
grave plinth
I mean there’s no indication of romantic love between Godfrey and Marika
If anything it seems to have been a transactional relationship
proven cloak
||Marika at once point did seem to care heavily about what happened to her family, and even removed their deaths from the Elden Ring. But she still was a bad mother in the end.||
you can pretty easily tie that to godhood
proven cloak
I mean there’s no indication of romantic love between Godfrey and Marika
If any...
I just don't read early Marika as particularly loveless
later Marika, maybe
perhaps she cast aside her love in Radagon
(who definitely seems overly attached as a flaw)
grave plinth
||I think pretty much everybody Marika actually cared about died with the Shaman Village||
||The rest are just tools from then on||
gray leaf
We know that Messmer was exiled because Marika was afraid. It's implied she was afraid of the Base Serpent. But, then, ||Messmer held a dream of burning. And, given that she was implied to have warred against the giants in part because their giantsflame was capable of burning the Erdtree... did she exile Messmer because she was afraid of the Base Serpent, or because she was afraid of Messmer himself?||
grave plinth
||Like Hewg is implied to be somewhat of a father figure to her in her youth but she shackled him in the Roundtable Hold and put a geas on him that eventually hollowed out his soul||
gray leaf
Or is this a thing about me misremembering, or a translation thing?
proven cloak
I think her ||Outer Wall dialogue is a well-intentioned warning to her children: "Hear me, Demigods. My children beloved. Make of thyselves that which ye desire. Be it a Lord. Be it a God. But should ye fail to become aught at all, ye will be forsaken. Amounting only to sacrifices..."|| given the dlc
proven cloak
||Like Hewg is implied to be somewhat of a father figure to her in her youth but...
shes definitely selfish towards the end
grave plinth
I think her ||Outer Wall dialogue is a well-intentioned warning to her children:...
||See i read that as a “perform or die” implicit threat||
proven cloak
(she literally shatters the Elden Ring for personal desire!)
||Not that I can really blame her for desiring an end to godhood||
I see it as both
it is a preform or die
grave plinth
|| you can either be useful, or you can be fertilizer||
gray leaf
I think ||she could have genuinely loved them, but... not enough. Whenever she had to choose between herself and them, she ended up choosing herself.||
proven cloak
but she probably wanted them to perform - its just
if they dont
the Tarnished will kill them
gray leaf
||Maybe she felt bad about it. Maybe she didn't care. In the end... does it even really matter?||
grave plinth
the Tarnished *will* kill them
||Yeah but the Tarnished only show up because Marika brings them back. They’re Plan B||
proven cloak
yeah
I think they're plan B because she did not want her children to not be murdered by them
but by the time you return, her grace guides you to them to kill
grave plinth
||its like “guess my whelps weren’t good enough, time to give the second placers another chance”||
proven cloak
its a pretty fucked up situation
the Tarnished themselves are even tools to her
Hewg, Godfrey, all her children she fucked up
grave plinth
Marika has a recurring habit of using people up then discarding them when she’s done
gray leaf
A whole lot of characters in Elden Ring are very selfishly pragmatic. Frequently they believe their goals are truly noble, and will either help them, or make the world a better place, or both. And to achieve those goals, they betray those who trust them, and use the people around them just as stepping stones for their own advancement, until they're barely better than what they're trying to replace.
proven cloak
her society too, given how the Crucible Knights, Trolls (& Hornsent?) ended up
gray leaf
everyone's a hypocrite and then comes up with elaborate excuses and masks (literal and figurative) to justify it.
grave plinth
As far as we know interestingly, Marika’s goal was never any pie in the sky ideal
|| it was revenge||
proven cloak
I think she was earnest in having an ideal
||She describes the Age of the Erdtree as one of "glistening life" to her warriors in the Mountaintops||
grave plinth
||and the hierarchical Golden Order was the thing she had to give The Fingers in order to actually get what she wanted||
proven cloak
||At one point, her world-tree was a geniunely warming presence that handed out blessings like candy||
||Her removal of Destined Death matches her own hangups with people close to her being sacrificed for "the cycle of rebirth" by a ruling institution more than something the Fingers wanted, imo, given that the fingers also at one point chose an Empyrean bound up with Rune of Death worship.||
I'm not even sure The Fingers are a unified group
grave plinth
||Its implied they’re receivers for Metyr. And the GEQ implicitly rebelled against The Fingers and Marika||
proven cloak
even in base game they seemingly picked different Empyreans / causes to back, dlc showing ||their mother as someone who ignores them to stare at a ball|| didn't really make me think they're all on the same page
I actually think its pretty likely the Fingers seek out gods as surrogate mothers
and that ||Fleeting Microcosm's description is one of the arc-themes of Elden Ring||
||"The broken and discarded are fully willing to cling to fleeting simulacra, earning them some modicum of sympathy."||
gray leaf
even in base game they seemingly picked different Empyreans / causes to back, dl...
...seeing that quote, and particularly the second half, I partially thought you were talking about ||Queen Rennala|| because uh. That's also an accurate description of her situation.
||Except that, of course, Rellana's ball in question is a child figure, and on top of that she already has actual children.||
||On the other hand... the Rune of Rebirth is in a sense a message or gift from Marika, who (in her aspect as Radagon) Rennala is perpetually awaiting the return of, meaning that there's more similarities there after all? Maybe?||
proven cloak
the only Two Fingers we see in the base game don't seem on the same page
ones busy playing assassin-games with Ranni, the other sits in Roundtable hold and yells at Tarnished to go get Great Runes
the second one doesn't react to anything that happens to the first
proven cloak
||On the other hand... the Rune of Rebirth is in a sense a message or gift from ...
I've thought about how both Radagon and Ranni leave their loved ones behind in pursuit of an Order, yeah
gray leaf
...a whole lot of people interpret people as having enigmatic or inscrutable plans, when in fact those people don't really have plans at all. They're improvising, or they've already failed their plans, or they've simply washed their hands of the whole situation and left.
grave plinth
Though its debatable if Radagon truly loved Rennala
I believe he was playing her from the start
gray leaf
That's an open question, and, honestly, I like it as an open question.
grave plinth
Like there’s an indication that she was a stepping stone of sorts
Get sorcery to continue the quest of self perfection
outer flint
I used it against the DLC final boss to great effect
👀
gray leaf
There's a lot of characters who do horrible things to their family, because they "have to".
proven cloak
I think the Amber Egg was left as a geniune gift
obtuse halo
I also think that
proven cloak
and I like the interpretation of the dectus lift Echo of Marika as being from Marika to Radagon
obtuse halo
or at least left behind without malice; he didn't need it anymore and so didn't keep it.
proven cloak
because most of the others are from Marika to Godfrey or Marika to Radagon or Marika to her kids (or from Radagon?), so it'd be odd for this one to just be a random quote from Marika to randos
"The choice is yours: Become one with the Order, or wallow at its fringes, a powerless upstart."
I could also see it as just what Marika / Radagon said when declaring war on the Carians twice
I find it pretty hard to figure out if Marika and Radagons relationship was ever positive / loving, tbh
more than the other couples
in the dlc, ||Leda at least treats St. Trina's love for Micky as boundless because she's his other half.||
||Was Marika shattering the Elden Ring a final betrayal against her loved ones? Was Radagons attempt to repair it not just an action to try and preserve his life, and the order he dedicated it to, but also someone he cared deeply about?||
its up to interpretation
why'd she banish Godfrey and call his ass back specifically, a 'mere' champion?
grave plinth
I mean she called him back cuz Tarnished
proven cloak
even though its not the usual take, I think it does make sense to assume these people did care for each other
not calling back Godfrey, mb
vivid spire
Hmmm
proven cloak
why, of everyone, did she have Radagon as Elden Lord, if you assume she always hated him?
or they were always at odds?
vivid spire
I had an idea for the connection between Thiollier’s devotion and Ranni and Blaidd
But I forgot it
proven cloak
It doesn't seem like a series of decisions Marika made where she wasn't in control
the Fingers certainly didn't ask her to remove Godfrey, and Marika would know she'd require a lord.
grave plinth
Generally i read the Godfrey Marika pairing as two people putting up a facade of being something they’re not
Marika is pretending to be a radiant god queen, and Hoarah Loux is pretending to be a dignified lord
Godfrey does the dirty work, gets some sort of reward (my guess is strength if my read of the Lord’s Bestowal talisman is right)
Marika reaps the spoils and preserves her image as the nurturing one
After all, it was Godfrey who did the killing
Hoarah Loux probably knew he was being used and probably didn’t care
He got to fight
outer flint
he just like me fr
proven cloak
Hoarah Loux / Godfrey's interesting
I dont know if HL is a good enough actor to pretend, lmao
grave plinth
That’s what Serosh is for
grave plinth
Like the facade is enabled by magic
Its something he accepted when becoming Marika’s killstick
proven cloak
something more dignified than a Highland berserker
even if its built on the same violence
grave plinth
Yeah Godfrey doesn’t seem really attached to that air of dignity
The lesson of his fight, the lesson he says as he dismembers you with his bare hands, is that all authority is dependent on strength
Doesn’t matter what type of strength, be strong or be food for those who are strong
proven cloak
that sort of thing is why I was very unsurprised to see the dlc's jar-rituals
grave plinth
Lordliness, honor, rituals of faith and rulership, all that just greases the wheels a little
Marika’s reign is built on a million corpses and the labors of beasts like him. If you wanna do something about it you gotta out-violence him and put him in the ground for good
proven cloak
and many of the endings involve commiting new or different violence to get that specific outcome
grave plinth
Yeah he’s the final test. Lord of the Old Order verses Lord of the New Order. Radagon’s Order was a failure so the options are either the past or the future.
Radagon’s just a broken husk that ends up turned into a sword
His unfitness and that of what he represents is plain for all to see
So the only alternatives are a retreat into the days of old, or something new and untested
And the conflict between those two is embodied in the Godfrey fight
You want to put a new order in place? Then prove you can defend it, kill grandpa.
mighty warren
Gramps is still one of my favorite fights in the game, felt like a good nod to the boss category of 'human that acts more like a beast in the second phase or vice versa'