Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

Oh well in that case you might want to try some other methods first. He's really not that bad, aside from the meteors. :) And it comes with summoning included.

Ooh i saw a youtube wth a good trick for the metor bit. I wonder if i can make it work.

Radahn got nerfed in the last big patch, much less of a major roadblock than he was. I got him in a few tries with my second character. Was definitely not a few tries the first time around.

Just hauling around on Torrent and hitting every summon sign did most of the work.

Radahn got nerfed in the last big patch, much less of a major roadblock than he was. I got him in a few tries with my second character. Was definitely not a few tries the first time around.

Trayce, I only recently did the Manor / Rennna thing you're trying to do and had no probs. I haven't even found Radahn yet. That's so odd. I don't know why it's so easy to break a quest. Can you get into the other towers in that area?

oh i messed up the renna quest. apparently if you’ve already entered redmayne castle she disappears from the rise until you’ve killed radahn. if you haven’t already entered the castle she’ll be there.

Ah, I don't know where Redmayne Castle is, so maybe it's that. I don't know where Radahn even is - assumed he's a later stage boss

I'm surprised to hear so many people go looking for Radahn before attempting Liurnia / Altus Plateau - the game strongly suggests you do the latter first and Caelid is intimidating enough to put me off from hacking through too much of it early on

I helped people co-op Radahn a lot after beating him. You really need a way of doing the damage, whether it's "I've upped my faith and arcane (artificially is fine) and intend to inflict scarlet rot on him, twice" or "rock sling" or "my melee is totally viable at this point thanks"

But in general I wouldn't advise co-oping the guy. Torrent is too useful in this fight to make co-op viable, that arrow rain is just too difficult to avoid otherwise

I only beat him pre-patch before he was nerfed, I didn't attempt him in NG+ and haven't gotten to him in my current less-obsessive PS4 battlemage playthrough

I've banked six hours on this playthrough and I'm already at level 50 (I killed the lazy dragon with a silver foot activated). Godrick is dead, crucible knights are still the bane

One thing I've picked up on from a design perspective that I really like is the distinction between availability/usability of somber smithing stones vs. normal smithing stones. The availability, and scarcity (and one-per-upgrade) nature of somber stones kinda locks you in, early-to-mid game, into upgrading max three different special weapons, which are tailored toward a build... it's like the game is forcing you to somewhat commit to an approach. Meanwhile, the vast availability (and 12-per-3-upgrades) nature of normal smithing stones lets you keep a whole arsenal of viable weapons on hand to swap out ashes of war and Try New Things. Special weapons reward commitment while normal weapons offer flexibility

It's such a far cry from the weapon upgrade methodology of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1 where "your weapon upgrade plan" resembled applying to a college, enrolling in a program, selecting your courses and doing your homework

but then he got buffed again in the last small one!

oh man, didn't know that, i got in under the wire the second run! honestly, it did feel they went too hard in the other direction with the nerf, he's supposed to be kind of a badass linchpin boss.

He was def the hardest boss in the game, for me, pre-nerf (I used Tiche’s help with Malenia)

Spoilers for Rykard: I really didn't like that fight with the Serpent Hunter weapon, it felt like I was just in a dps race with him spamming R1 and healing every so often. Maybe I didn't do it as intended, in phase 2 I just stayed underneath him to avoid the flying red skulls, so I couldn't see what was going on anyway.

Maybe it would be better if R1s didn't have the super long-range serpent hunter attack too, and you had to charge up the skill to use it (like the Storm Ruler fights in Demon's Souls or DS3). That way you'd have to use it more judiciously so that you wouldn't be stunned out of the attack.

Did y'all go back to the boss arena after beating him though? Gruesome.

Damn I keep messing up that hidden text (apparently doesn't work for multiple paragraphs).

apparently if you’ve already entered redmayne castle she disappears from the rise until you’ve killed radahn.
This is what I did. Not intentionally. I hadn't DONE anything in Redmane or Caelid, just run around real fast, which apparently was enough. Heck Ive even ducked into Leyndell, and Ive done none of the other quests - I just managed to find the other tower where the 2nd crest was kept, and was quick enough to distract the mobs guarding it and grab it.

Apparetly sneaking-in-without-passing-the-bouncer is Not the Way.

Anywho, so last night was a fucking comedy of errors as a result. Enraged at this pickle I was in after beating Loretta, and too over-focussed on Ranni, I thought "fuckit I will just try Radaghan anyway". Completely forgetting I'd just won 10k runes and not spent them.

I promptly lost those, didn't I?

Then, in an effort to farm some replacements I managed to eat my last 2 gold pickled fowl foots one after another, effectively wasting one.

And I'm at a point where I'm Level 60, but my INT is only 23, and I need it to be WAY higher to use some of the decent glintblade sourceries. But levelling up is around the 20k mark now and I just dont have the patience to monotonously spend 30 mins farming, it'll give me bad dreams.

Mutter.

you've beaten rennala right? why not re-spec?

I meant fight Radan above btw not Radagan what the shit is with these names.

LOL no i havent beat Rennala. I thought it was Ranni who did the respeccing. God.

lol i low key love the way you can fuck up your “life” in souls games. obv it gives you a number of outs and safety nets but ultimately, if you miss something it’s missed until you play again.

also i really like the fact that there are entire dimensions to the game that you can miss - it doesn’t promote them despite the enormous amount of work that will have gone into them. they have to be found often by quite recondite or serendipitous routes. this is charming in a person and, i think, in a game.

Ohhh Trayce beat Rennala. Satisfying fight and easily co-op’d.

I have casually been poking around a battlemage build and it is concerning at how basically all “non-bleed builds based on stats” only flower around level 90-100. My spells are a joke

I fought Moongrum yesterday and was so delighted by his armour and fighting style that I decided to cosplay as him for a bit.

wondering whether to respec my STR build with some minimum requirements for INT and FAI into a hardcore STR and ARC bleed build.

bored w my dragon puke/bleed build, considering STR/INT dark moon greatsword and wild sorcery approach. suggestions welcome. level 89 rn.

Fire guy build looks pretty fun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3fgZxZvB8E

it does! i gotta make my way to the mountaintop for some of that, long term goals. in the meantime maybe i'll hop on the moonveil rocket

I have a new build I'm planning on being a mostly fire-based Faith/dex build, fire spells/bleed swords. Surprised at how much easier a new guy feels now, maybe because after 100 hours I get how this game works more. I'm not sure wether to keep my prisoner glintstone build going - hes at Lv60ish and Ive done all of stormveil but I am SO stuck on Radan/Renalla, and Ive broken the Ranni/Blaidd line a bit, so I dont know. Levelling up's becoming a chore at this level, maybe I'm not taking on enough bigger mobs/bosses.

But one think I like about staffs vs incantations - the staffs seem to have a much further hit distance than my flame sling does? Maybe I'm imaginging it I dunno.

Rennala is definitely more challenging as a caster, but if you beat her and get your hands on a Larval Tear you can always re-spec that character if you’re unhappy with the build.

Actually I think I already have one or 2 larval tear from elsewhere but yeah without beating her, no dice. I'll keep plugging away.

summon two people for rennala, i did it by accident for that fight and it was a piece of cake

yeah Ive not tried any co op/online yet. All the stories Im hearing about aggro invasions, and me not being a great player, is putting me off.

Invasions aren’t really a big deal tbh. Especially if you’re summoning for a boss fight cuz you’re generally right next to a boss door and invaders can’t enter your world when a boss encounter begins. And if they happen to be in your world they’re immediately sent home.

New players shouldn’t be afraid of summoning! It’s a core mechanic and it will make your life a lot easier for most bosses.

yeah, i’ve summoned a fair bit just to keep the game moving. i can’t have it swallow my *whole* life. like c1916 says, there’s no window for invasion on the big mist bound bosses.

rennala i found oddly easy, or maybe i was just a bit OP.

Continued the Ranni quest yesterday - after a good while of struggling with the main quest and other things in Liurnia, I felt surprisingly overleveled for Nokron and then VERY surprised to bet Radahn in just three or four tries! Now just moving through Nokstrella, which feels like much more of a challenge

My PS4 playthrough is now at a casual level 55, +9 +5 upgrades and I'm LOVING invasions. (Mostly because I'm enjoy to p*rry)

i had fun learning to parry a crucible knight in an evergaol a little while back. only took 11 successful parries to take him down lol. it's a fun mechanic in controlled situations.

Still need to wrap my head around parrying. If my shield has a skill on it, is it still the same mechanic as parrying but with fancy fireworks? Should I be using L1 and then R2 or is it L2 and R2?

I might be using the wrong vernacular - is parrying the same as a Guard Counter?

No, parrying is a perfectly timed block using L2 which causes an immediate stunned state for a riposte.

Guard counter is a sort of watered down version of that for for tanks with fat unwieldy shields, but it's so efficaceous I'm rarely tempted to risk a parry

One of the soldiers in the tutorial hole is set up for you to practice parries iirc

Only certain shields have the Parry skill too btw. Also can apply it to shields w/out that via the Parry Ash of War.

And yeah, it's a super risky move that is generally not advisable for everyday usage.

Fgti, I truly do love to see it! It's addictive.

I know invasions are a weird mechanic to people not used to From games, but that shouldn't discourage people from summoning help for boss fights. If you go through a whole level with summoned phantoms, then yes, you may get invaded. The idea is to balance out the difficulty, since the game is clearly easier when you have multiple people on your side. The worst that can happen is you'll die, which we should all be used to at this point. :)

Ummm, I did accidentally invade into someone's Fire Giant boss fight yesterday, but that's a rare glitch and I felt bad about it.

My big Elden Ring moment over the weekend was finally beating Mohg, after many many attempts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NguHB1fcf5M

Then the Fire Giant went down in a couple tries.

I also clipped the Niall fight, since apparently people have been having trouble with it. Speaking of parries, that was the key to taking out the shield knight for me, since otherwise I didn't have a great way of dealing with him quickly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T78ub0afbKw

Great short video on boss mechanics/enemy a.i.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAScBR7Lovo

@ dog latin, small and medium shields (and some daggers, some fists, some claws)) can all parry. With a parry ash of war equipped on your shield, (or just the buckler on its own), you press R2 some 10 frames before an attack is about to make contact and you deflect it and the enemy is immediately staggered, and you can perform a critical.

As far as I can recall there are three parry ashes (maybe more?) Basic parry, then Carian Retaliation (which can parry magic attacks and then gives a phalanx response, and the phalanx hits way harder than normal casts of it), then Golden Parry (which uses FP when you use it but has a very broad range).

Different shields, ashes, and whatever give you shorter or longer grace windows where a parry will work. For example, a buckler offers 12 viable parry-window frames whereas a Caestus offers only 6. (Don't quote me on those numbers, I watched the video a couple days ago).

If you want to experiment with it, try getting Carian Retaliation (my preferred) and put it on a medium shield (one with 100% physical damage reduction). You can still use L1 for guard counter, but L2 becomes your parry. Carian Retaliation doesn't use FP for normal parries (it only uses them when you parry magic attacks). Try it out and see if you like it.

Ironically, certain Tank enemies become rather easy when you're parrying (Crucible Knight isn't "easy" but is much more manageable, and every other big area knight is a pushover). But random flailing soldiers, with their inconsistent attack patterns, they're the ones who start landing hits ha

Considering how frequently invaders/invadees rely upon magic attacks, and how insanely powerful a successful Carian Retaliation phalanx response is, I've upped my success rate on invasions, from "I die 4 out of 5 times" to "I die 3 out of 5 times"

Dumn question - does parrying deflect the attacker's spell/hit back on them or just stun them? I'm thinking a la guardian laser parrying in botw.

If you use carian retaliation on a spell, it effectively sends their spell at them and does damage.

If you use the shield to parry a physical attack, it stuns them and you can do a critical attack with a weapon.

They really need to fix carian retaliation btw - it's so fun and useful, but aside from doing crazy damage (based on how high your shield is upgraded), sometimes the other player can't actually see the blades fire. So they get hit and probably die, but the blades are still hovering over the head of the person who did the spell parry.

Thanks for explaining, fgti

Sounds like Carian Retaliation on my Beast Heater shield is The Way.