Elden Ring: YOU DIED on a horse

I was pleased to read about the Varre quest patch - I ended up skipping (and I think breaking?) that quest on play #1, my recent new game I'll have to give it another go.

The only thing is this fucking covid has dragged on so long, and I just cant deal with a game like ER in this state, the brain fog is too much and my reflexes are shot to shit. So Ive not played it in weeks.

Aww sorry Trace. :(

This was the most fun invasi-duel I've had in a long time, because it was so long and evenly matched:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aURQ1_nhw6Y

In general the pvp has been a dream since the latest patch, so much more fun to engage in.

I've never played online. When people do invasions/duels, do you pick places with no other enemies around? Or if there are enemies, do they get involved/get in the way of the fight, too? I've watched clips, and I could have sworn I sometimes see game enemies get involved, but other times they don't seem to engage.

For the invader/summoned duelist, enemies don't aggro or cause you damage. Unless they're really big, then there's friendly fire (fire-breathing dragons, etc).

So it can be a bit of psychological game for invasions -- of course the host would prefer to fight in an area without enemies, and the invader can't expect to just run into a mob and have the host give chase. But if the host and friends feel confident, or you can make them think you're close to death (maybe pretend to be out of healing items), then you can retreat to an area with enemies and use that to your advantage.

Duels on the other hand are almost always conducted in an area without enemies.

Also, if it seems unfair that the invader has enemies on their side, keep in mind that the host and their summoned phantoms don't have friendly fire, so they can just stay in a clump and mash attacks at you if they want.

https://www.thegamer.com/elden-ring-official-manga-comedy/

https://comic-walker.com/viewer/?tw=2&dlcl=en&cid=KDCW_MF09203324020001_68

There's an unofficial comedic series on YouTube as well (if you can get past the art style) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSyRf8rAjTs

(if you can get past the art style)

uuuugh, yeah, this flash animation style has become one of the most recognizable things of the 21st century

I do like those Carbot ones; they nail a lot of what's funny and frustrating about the game. I think much of the Manga seems lost in translation though

Ok that lil series got me laughing pretty good. Well observed.

Pvp feels pretty great after the most recent couple of patches, I've settled into my daily workout routine of level 40 invasions at this point :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFfNuHYl2tU

Fun. I've pretty much only ever played these games as melee builds, so it's fascinating to watch all the different ways people fight PVP.

Related, I've got a bit of anxiety right now, because I've saved my Elden Ring file for when the DLC eventually shows up, but I'm worried by the time that happens that I will have totally forgotten how to play or what all my stuff does. If the game weren't so huge I'd consider playing it again in the lead up to whenever it is announced, but as of yet I've never done a second playthrough of anything ever.

I'd play more PVP and Collab, but it seems to take forever for me to ever get summoned. Is there a knack to it?

Listening to the Bonfireside Chat podcast this week, they seem to say there's an abundance of Larval Tears to allow respecing throughout the game. I don't remember getting more than a handful though. And I did Nokron!

DL, what level are you? For pvp, the new "invade nearby/far" mechanic helps a ton, I keep spamming the finger and get pretty much constant activity at mid/low levels. At least on evenings and weekends. In the max level bracket it might be slower, since you'll only get people going through ng+ or dedicated gankers. You could try dueling at the Raya Lucaria gate, that's the accepted spot and good way to get your feet wet. But dueling without healing is very different from invading, and you'll also encounter a lot of frustrating builds.

Taunter's Tongue hosting seems to take longer, haven't been doing that very much. Not sure about offering help either, I'm sure that's very dependent on level and area.

LOL I'm still yet to finish my first run! Life gets in the way a bit. I'm up to Fire Giant and I'm pretty high levelled at this point so its just a matter of persistance. Cmdr Niall was one of the toughest ones imo so far! I had to use all the tools I had - charm twigs to set em on each other, +10 mimic, loads of spells and jars. I dont think I even want to bother with Malenia haha.

XP I'm at about 250 now!

Back on my bullshit. I'm on my third playthrough and got up to Elden Beast tonight. Need to platinum this thing before God of War drops.

Been rather enjoying Dark Souls 1 (but got horribly stuck in Blight Town). Demon's Souls is wonderful too but hoo boy the difficulty of these games is tangible after having played Elden Ring for a long time

I run around with five of every pertinent weapon maxed out with my fave ashes employed, hard swapping when needed

I got ten (!) of my favourites (iron broadsword, lance, swordspear, Nightrider’s glaive)

Mostly do co-op and duels. This game hasn’t gotten boring to me (tho I am hungover from that first blush of wonderfulness)

I find it hard not to call it the best game ever made

I really need to play around more with the ashes, like fgti. It seems like that's where a lot of the fun and style is in pvp (not to mention being unpredictable), I'm just lazy when it comes to making builds and swapping.

This was another fun one, although it was mostly about waiting for the right moment to strike:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hje0OWXRv0w

Hardswapping the same weapon is fun. My RL 134 strength-build works great with Heavy Iron Broadsword so it's what I use, most of the time.

Another fun trick is that I keep a Misericorde as my secondary RH weapon. I used to do it for "good crits" but realised they could be used as carriers of auxiliary ashes. So: I have five of them, each with different ashes. BHS to get out of a sticky situation, Shared Order if I'm co-oping with a group, Hoarah Loux if I need access to an AoE, Lightning Strike if I need range, etc. I load up whichever dagger seems like it'll be appropriate.

8 months, 400 hours, level 250, three playthroughs, and I've Platinumed this absolutely marvellous piece of work.

I feel kind of sad now

Wow! Time to start a new character and try more multiplayer. :) Level 250 is not going to have much activity, it's higher than meta level (~150). I think you'll find more activity by going lower (30 - 150) or possibly even higher, since everything higher than level 300 is in its own bracket.

Did they ever tweak/patch this game's performance on the PS5? I'd heard that the "best" way to play it is the PS4 version on the PS5, rather than the native PS5 version, but that can't still be true, can it? I'd actually be more willing to start over if I played the PS5 version. I wonder if even a dope like me that takes forever and hasn't played it in a year would finish it a lot faster the second time around?

I have a character at RL 250, and there's lots of multiplayer happening... but def not as much as my "multiplayer character" (who remains at RL 134)

Whenever an invasion pulls me into Stormveil, I still discover new stuff in the level. A window that you can climb out of that leads to outdoor scaffolding, looking all the way down from the birds-with-swords-on-their-feet area to see the erdtree spirit in the basement, etc. Truly an insane level.

This one was a journey (I cut out the 5 minutes where I was looking for the host party and seeing all that stuff):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M2kxmW_A-Y

oh my GOD that was crazy!!!!

that was seriously amazing to watch. i really thought you were done for when the other player coated their sword with fire near the end you missed with a couple big attacks, had no more flasks. i would have given up so many times.

five bags of popcorn and a flask of coke

Makes me wonder what this game would be like if there were just people fighting each other all over the place all the time as you progressed.

that sounds like gta online to me, which, in my experience, was nothing but teenagers murdering me wherever i spawned with rocket launchers and helicopters while screaming with glee in a voice chat which could not be muted

Thanks Karl, I would much rather pull out an unlikely victory like this than stomp my opponents, that's the perfect invasion experience I'm always looking for.

(even/especially if it's due to my own mistakes!)

An even more unlikely win against one of those people who just hangs out in the Liurnia swamps with the Taunter's Tongue on -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z-hfqAlZUA

Man I am *really* struggling with the fire giant :( I try and stay under his feet but he keeps rolling away. I cant work out wether its better to use Alexander or not (as using him means no horse for one thing).

I'm not a glass cannon exactly but I'm more mage than ungabunga.

Hmm, that does seem like a tough boss to do with magic, this seems like a good approach?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6SfaDXcMj4

Ive respec'd to a strength build for late game and it's way more fun now than being a mage. I killed the fire giant with wild strikes on a great hammer

Trayce, I found the trick was to know when to use Torrent. You have to use him to get close, then dismount, hack away at one of the giant's feet, then know when to get back on the horse and back off. If you can use a mimic tear, do that!

Here's how I did it first time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2Im5XUW40M

Yeah Jordan I tried that guy's video but I cant get fucking comet azur to actually hit anything (and I know you have to switch off targeting). If I'm under his feet for phase one I couldnt work out how to the get at that distance when he flops over to shoot him in the face, I guess its just try and try again.

Also lol@ "twisted fire giant"

I'm pretty sure when I fought the fire giant, as a melee build, it glitched, or otherwise wasn't as hard as I'd heard. I got lucky.

I wonder if theres a way to lure him off the cliff. even if I died too...

Was the glitch the giant falling off a rock? I just found a cheese youtube where that happened but it said it was since patched.

I did not struggle with Fire Giant on my actual play through but I struggle extremely when helping others in co-op. It feels like nothing damages him, especially in the second stage, and his fiery furnaces are unpredictable and one-shot

I found hima pretty tough boss - toughest to fight up until that point and probably about third toughest in the game

xxpost No, the glitch was nothing dramatic at all, like falling off a cliff or anything (RIP, that one gargoyle, though). Like I said, wasn't even sure it was a glitch, but I'd been primed for a fight and iirc beat him the first or second try. We were fighting, I was dodging and weaving, doing stuff, and then ... he just lay down and died (or whatever it does). It was pretty weird. Maybe I was somehow OP, I can't remember. Maybe I mentioned it months ago upthread, lol.

Hmm, didn't see any old post of mine, it's possible I didn't mention it before because I was embarrassed to get past it so easily! If I did this game again I would definitely grind for runes early on, now that I know some spots. Btw, got a cheap copy of PS5 Demon's Souls waiting for me in the basement, think maybe I'll hit it after LOT2 or some other suitably grim winter epic.