Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

Nice fight Jordan. You are taking so so so much more damage than me, I don’t know why, but a hit from that guy would bring me down 1/4 health, not 1/2. Amazing playing!

I hate that third stage unblockable flash, it’s so dumb

i really need to get better at guarding/parrying. i just don't really do it. probably because i don't usually wear a shield and i've usually got some sort of casting tool in my left hand and an ash of war on my right, but watching others play it seems the DLC is really trying to encourage a return to this kind of play which has kind of been optional since Bloodborne

(Sekiro excepted ofc)

Thanks dl & fgti! Guessing the damage difference is down to scadutree blessings? Can't remember what mine is at, 6 I think. I just watched someone else's video and it looks like you can roll through those big phase 3 flashes, I wasn't sure about the timing though so just tried to get distance and panic roll.

DL, I'm playing the PS4 version on PS5, that's always worked well for me. For some reason the PS5 version was borderline unplayable for me, super choppy frame rate (and I'm not someone who cares about that usually).

I know I've said this before but I do think it's great how flexible they made this in terms of play style, like you can approach a boss as if it were Dark Souls or Sekiro but you totally don't have to. I've avoided learning about the last boss so far but a friend was complaining about it being unfair, that you don't have a chance to get spells off and need to change your build, etc. I'm sure that's not the case but look forward to finding out, lol.

xp

Yeah I really need to try that deflecting hardtear, I imagine their thinking was along the lines of "ok, so nobody is using our guard counter mechanic, so what if we made it unspeakably powerful?"

I've totally lost the instinct for blocking but do love a parry, I keep a shield on all my builds for that.

I’m no good at parrying in Elden Ring. I’ve tried! I’m bad.

I do like deflecting tear. Didn’t notice any crazy wild damage boosts when I did the perfect block, but I did notice a huge reduction in damage/stamina usage when I did it.

Blocking when two-handing is worth it for small pokes, sometimes.

@ Jordan, ah I see, I’m Scadu 12 now and was Scadu 10 when I fought the sunflower. I beat him second try! Sliver of health and no flasks at the end, wasn’t expecting the flash AoEs and he nearly murdered me. Full disclosure: I read a “try fire” message going in and tossed on the Blasphemous and the fight wasn’t so bad as a result

Despite my Greatshield/Greatsword predilection, I really wanted something else. I want a rolly build so I can actually feel like I’m playing, not just tanking.

I didn’t respec, I just did some research. Running a two-handed great katana user now, heavy with faith buffs, bleed emphasis (but not reliance), and playing with storm ashes— stomp, assault, blade and caller— all buffed with the divine beast talisman

It’s nice to be kitted out poise and damage-reduction-wise without the great jar. Greatshields are heavy!

Interesting, I've seen some people demoing crazy damage with the deflecting tear, but the biggest benefit might be in pvp where you can block and counter with a weapon that people wouldn't normally expect (like a katana or straight sword).

I was also reminded that even without the tear you can do a perfectly timed block and it will use much less stamina, which apparently has been in the games since Demon's Souls.

Finished Midra's Manse tonight. The whole Abyssal Woods bit was fairly unsettling, was glad to be out of there, never going back.

I then spent an hour going back and finding any revered spirit ashes I had missed. Took a while and I had to use the internet but the last boss seems so hard based on my the couple of attempts I had that I wanted to max myself out. I had only missed like two or three but now I am ready. After that, however, I am too tired now to expend the energy on a few attempts at beating last boss, so I turned it off.

And I am now max scadu 20 also, lol.

Ok, I broke my own rule and summoned the Hornsent for the hippo fight. I thought that because the npc summon signs were appearing even when you hadn't used a furlcalling finger, that they might be necessary for the quests? But then he died before the fight was over anyway, and I always mess up the npc quests, so whatever. That hippo needed to calm down.

I went into Shadow Keep through the church district entrance, and I'm not sure if the whole point of that area is the Scadutree Avatar fight, or if I'm missing some connection back to the main keep (if so, I couldn't find it, I gave up and went around to the front entrance).

There is a connection, I believe. Essentially the Specimen Storehouse (which is humungous and very difficult to navigate and contains an important quest item and a convoluted NPC back-and-forth that is ridiculously easy to screw up) is the interim between the two entrances.

You can either go via the main gate, fight the hippo, then fight your way up some rickety stairs (there's also a courtyard with a really tough black knight you can fight), then get an elevator up to the Storehouse (there's also a big door shortcut I hadn't noticed till yesterday that skips the rickety stairs).

Or, you can go through the Church District entrance that takes you over the roofs, dropping you down into the Shadow Keep and leading to a lever that drains all the water. There's also an elevator that takes you to (I think) the back entrance of the Storehouse.

I kind of pincer-manoeuvred it, kind of whittling away alternately at both ends until I was like "Aha! That's where it leads".

Be aware that there are also several exits leading out of Shadow Keep to other areas too. Plus two major bosses who are fairly well hidden. I didn't realise there were quite so many floors to the Storehouse.

Hmmm I drained the water but haven't found the storehouse I guess, thanks!

You don’t need to drain the water in the church district to get to the storehouse, just do some jumping to get onto a roof with a hole in it and drop down onto some beams and you’re in

You can't miss it one way or another, it sort of weaves its way around the final third of the game.

No progress without meeting the fire knights who love tall wooden structures with needlessly complex rafters

Ok maybe stone walls but wooden floors, they’re still fire hazard knights

I keep playing-without-a-walkthrough and ending up someplace I shouldn't be. Saw Messmer way early. Saw Bayle way early. I fight a fight (and die) and then realise "oops I shouldn't be here right now anyway"

On the fire knights, a thing I like/fear in this game is the way some of the robed characters like this seem to move in sort of haughty way that suggests disdain or hatred for you. See also this large headed bearded sorcerer guys. Sort of swishing around acting class status 20 then they see you and change to a really murderous physicality.

Maybe one for my therapist

I got to the Thiollier/St Trina quest today, beat the Putrescent Knight first go and Thiollier first go too, but my god did I HATE that bit with the snipey stoney wormbois leading up to it

I'm now at a stage in the game where I've explored and pushed outward until I've hit something like 3 or 4 bosses, including Boarman, Snakeyman, Treeman, maybe a couple of others, but haven't spent much time on any of them as they're all kind of intimidating.

I've not managed to take down any of the Furnace Golems yet, but I did get one down to about half with some difficulty. I saw you're meant to get up high and throw furnace pots into them, but I haven't been able to find a good vantage point

I haven't been able to beat Blackguard Gaol Knight dude yet, or any of the other mausoleum mini bosses

But then bosses aren't my favourite thing about these games really. I'm not brilliant at fighting, but I love exploring and finding hidden passages and learning about the lore and figuring out tactical ways to get from one place to another. Unless the boss is a particularly spectacular fight like the dancing lion or Rykard, I can take or leave them

Xp LocalGuarda otm about those fire Knight red wizard dudes. Maybe it's how slowly they move towards you, or the fact you can spot them far off. It's very intimidating, even once you've pretty much figured out how to beat them quite easily

Most of the furnace golems you just need to hit the legs until they fall down. The ones with the armored legs are the only ones you need the pots for. I think only 2 or 3 require pots.

On my 2nd dlc playthrough trying for an intelligence build but so far the new weapons and spells have been underwhelming. Faith seems to get all the good stuff!

Most of the furnace golems you just need to hit the legs until they fall down. The ones with the armored legs are the only ones you need the pots for. I think only 2 or 3 require pots.

― ColinO, Wednesday, 17 July 2024 12:59 (forty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Easy for you to say - I was whacking its legs for ages and it did fall down eventually, right when I was at the end of my health. Died shortly after

I do think a partial function of the DLC was to get the die-hard committed players to admit that they actually aren't shit in PvE. Some of these bosses, wow, I cannot imagine beating them without a truckload of buffs, and yes I am summoning for a few of them

I don't remember where I read it (probably Reddit) but I can't stop thinking about a guy who, while bothering a PvP victor over PSN chat, kept saying "you use summons" as an insult. "Whatever, you use summons". I always think about that line.

The challenge of these games is a factor in my enjoyment, but it's very low down the rankings of reasons I enjoy them or think they're remarkable. Of course I'm going to summon

I think it's a very old school Demon's/Dark Souls mentality, where the reputation of the games was 'hard and unforgiving', among other things. Except they're not really that hard, they just stood out from other games at the time that were heavy on tutorials and making sure you saw all of their expensively-produced content no matter what.

That said of course the challenge and pvp IS most of the appeal for me, which is why it's great that you can choose to summon, buff, 'cheese', or go solo at rune level 1 if you want. The difference between a boss having their attention on you the entire time vs only some of the time is huge, although in some cases I feel like that actually makes it harder! Meaning when you have summons and you're attacking a boss from behind, it's way less predictable when they're going to swing around and smash you.

And personally I feel like I've cheated myself out of the full experience of a boss if I don't figure out how to beat them on my own by learning all their moves. But also some bosses don't feel compelling enough to put in that time (like the hippo).

Btw I went back to the church district and sure enough, that one hallway I remember not going down before draining the water was indeed the entrance to the Specimen Storehouse. So now I've accessed it from the front and back entrances, and I'm working on going up and up and up and up. Loving the Grand Archives feel of the area, and I feel bad whacking the shadow dudes who are just trying to read their books.

Haha yeah I defo felt bad killing those poor fellas. I did a small grind just to get to a new level near Moorth Ruins recently and felt bad just hacking down all those groaning shades.

On the difficulty stuff, I like to just experience the game, this was my first Souls game and my big fear was I'd have wasted money if it was too hard. I'm not very good at games really, generally.

Been surprised how much I've taken to some of the difficulty. I love the fact some of the fights take a lot of efforts and you do get a good rush when you beat a difficult one.

That said I'm prob like DL here really, I just love how big it is and exploring the world. Sad I'm almost near the end of this expansion.

Those Shades in the Storeroom are annoying in that only some of them are aggressive, but you kind of have to kill all of them to be sure. Plus so many of them end up getting aggroed through collateral damage anyway

Ok Commander Gaius, damn

Yeah he's a dick

He feels p broken tbh, like every third or fourth attempt he'll just kill you in the first three hits.

Don't think dodging really works for him and I have spent the entire game and DLC dodging. Got him first go using a greatshield. IME impossible if your summons die before him too.

I must have done it about thirty times where my summon died with him on about 30% of his health, the exact same amount each time, then he just killed me in two shots or with that horrendous huge field of stones thing he does.

Also I saw people saying you can dodge his initial charge but I never managed to dodge it once and when I tried it often did even more damage.

i'm so far behind. ;_; just been happy wandering around the cerulean coast, going bonk-bonk on a few things, killing a few glinstone dragons and furnace golems. Got killed by some red prawns. Been up a few steps, killed a few initial mobs in the Shadow Keep. I'm happy. I don't ever need to even meet Commander Gaius. Dick name imo.

I'm still away from home so haven't played in a minute, but I am happy there's a whole other area to explore so I can procrastinate on fighting him until I have to. I feel he might be the kind of boss you need to stay closer to and avoid running from to beat.

I still haven't killed any of the golems. Might give that a go soon.

re: Storehouse / Grand Archives - I love these uncanny "seems familiar" moments where there'll be moment of almost deja vu from a previous game. Some might say it's FromSoft rehashing old ideas. I see it as a feature and an asset

I had a momentary revelation when I realized that you can use the horse during the Gaius fight, and thought 'Aha, they finally made a jousting match!' But unfortunately that made it even harder (well, I could jump over his initial charge, but couldn't fight him on horseback very well after that).

That charge is indeed frustrating, I can dodge it but the window is super tight and it's maddeningly inconsistent. Tried all directions, jumping, etc. So I started using the deflecting hardtear to block it and otherwise try to stay close (but not behind him!), and I can see a path to victory.

If you're using summons, multiples are better against him than mimic. The greatshield soldiers work p well. I think also using a shield just is far more effective, the area of his attacks is unsociable. I think that's why I found him so hard, as I dodge and never block as a style throughout this game, and you can't block most of his attacks.

Haha, autocorrect changed that to "unsociable". His behaviour is anti-social in the extreme! Commander Rude more like.

fuckit im going to go into the shadow keep to meet some unsociable characters.

ok specimen storehouse is amazing.

Commander Dingus

I haven’t seen him yet (I don’t think?) I don’t know what I’m doing any more. There’s too much map below map.

Isn't there a buff that gives you more attack power when a summon dies? So you can summon the skeleton ashes (which can come back to life) and every time they die you get more and more OP?

I'm closing in on Gaius, I've decided that the fight is all about positioning, and I keep singing POSITION (to the tune of 'Tradition') to myself. You need to get on his side no matter what - any other position (front, distant, behind for sure) triggers attacks that I do not want. It's tempting to attack when you dodge and end up behind him, but far better to reposition to his flank.

@ dog latin isn’t there a new talisman that does this?

Oh I beat Gaius last night. He's weak to Holy! I died three times and beat him the fourth time. Greatshield and sacred great mace took him down. I love fighting Tree Sentinels though so it was very up my alley

Wow, I have died a hundred deaths, for anyone who is under the impression that I'm good at this game (I think my scadutree blessing is still relatively low though?). Greatshield does seem like it would work a treat on him, although I tried blocking some attacks with my giant anvil and it seemed very inconsistent (sometimes the angle of his attacks seemed to just ignore the block).