Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree Expansion Announced

[Yiggy]

I’ve hit my first major wall with Rennala. 
 

Spoiler

The frustrating thing is the run to the boss is a little way and the first phase with books and the crawling fucks is easy but annoying then on the moon it’s 50/50 whether I take her down to under half health or I do fuck all. Her summoning can get to fuck. Was doing really well and suddenly I’m facing a dragon fuck AND some other monster fuck as well. 

Must have tried 70 times now. Fuck. 

 

Thing is I am doing enough damage and I’m determined to do it now I’ve started. I’m don’t want to head in another direction again. 

[Chindie]

Finally beat MBM.

 

That fight, that cunt of a boss, can go fuck itself. Never again. Never ever again. Ground out levels for 2hrs and cheesed it.

 

Thank fuck.

[Majora]

6 minutes ago, Yiggy said:

I’ve hit my first major wall with Rennala. 
 

  Hide contents

The frustrating thing is the run to the boss is a little way and the first phase with books and the crawling fucks is easy but annoying then on the moon it’s 50/50 whether I take her down to under half health or I do fuck all. Her summoning can get to fuck. Was doing really well and suddenly I’m facing a dragon fuck AND some other monster fuck as well. 

Must have tried 70 times now. Fuck. 

 

Thing is I am doing enough damage and I’m determined to do it now I’ve started. I’m don’t want to head in another direction again. 

 

Unleash a decently upgraded wolf pack or demi-human summon on her and she'll struggle to get many attacks off as they should end up stun-locking her for most of the fight.

 

Also I found just running around in a semi-circle around her was usually pretty effective at avoiding most of her attacks.

[Davros sock drawer]

1 hour ago, Blunted said:

 

You're close.

 

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Look for a well with a ladder leading down.

 

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Down the stairs from the balcony grace, head out the door them left and jump down.

 

 

Just got here myself. Was expecting just a room behind the door.

 

Spoiler

Not a whole area with its own title card! 

 

[Yiggy]

8 minutes ago, Majora said:

 

Unleash a decently upgraded wolf pack or demi-human summon on her and she'll struggle to get many attacks off as they should end up stun-locking her for most of the fight.

 

Also I found just running around in a semi-circle around her was usually pretty effective at avoiding most of her attacks.

Thanks. I’ve given up for the night but will try and smash her teeth in tomorrow. 
 

I find the targeting goes to shit a bit when her summoning starts. Just need to stay calm I guess. Level 3 wolf pack enough you think?

[Captain Kelsten]

7 minutes ago, Yiggy said:

Thanks. I’ve given up for the night but will try and smash her teeth in tomorrow. 
 

I find the targeting goes to shit a bit when her summoning starts. Just need to stay calm I guess. Level 3 wolf pack enough you think?

 

Rennala is a weird one. She only took me two attempts to kill, but there was a bit of RNG involved to be honest. In phase one

 

Spoiler

only focus on the glowing singing ones, ignore everything else until Rennala drops, then smash her a bit. With luck you shouldn't really get hurt at all.

 

In phase two:

 

Spoiler

So first time I fought her I got her to phase 2 and she was nuking me from orbit, summoning dragons and all sorts of shit. I almost got her, but there was just too much going on.

 

Went back in for round 2, and although she was still nuking me, it was all very easy to avoid now I knew what to look for. The weird thing, however, was that she didn't summon anything this time. Not a single thing. I killed her very quickly, but not so quick that she didn't have opportunity to summon - she just...didn't! That made the fight almost trivial and she went down quickly.

 

[El Spatula]

Concentrate entirely on her. Fuck her summons. She takes a lot of damage. The key is aggression.

 

[El Spatula]

Well that's the Capital boss down first try 😵

[Captain Kelsten]

6 hours ago, Ry said:

 

I totally understand your pain. Really soured me on the game. Was a nightmare withy melee build. 

 

The weirdest thing is how much disparity there is in approach here...with a full strength build, amazing upgraded weapons and talismans...it was a fucking nightmare. 

 

Go faith, stick on the prawn homing needle spell, the boss practically fell over and was laughably easy.

 

I didn't want to change the build or approach I'd used for the previous 100 hours just to beat the final boss, especially since it had served me so, so well up until that point, but it really felt like I had no other choice.

[NecroMorrius]

On 22/03/2022 at 00:57, Kryptonian said:

I don’t think any boss besides Radahn one shot me and I had 13 vigor at the time. That was his arrow at the start though.

That’s 455HP, plenty of bosses have attacks which hit for higher. And standard enemies! Speaking of Radahn, if you summon other players the timing on those arrows goes completely out the window. I can easily roll through them with a 100% success rate until there’s another player in my game and then it’s more like 50% at best. Maybe I got unlucky with a couple of laggy lads in a row. I doubt it’s my end. 
 

Anyway, much better session tonight. I dipped out of the volcano Manor and did a whirlwind tour of every NPC to advance some quest lines and pick up missed items. Went back to some previous areas and found some things I missed before. Did a few dungeons. Killed Miriam. Went to Nokron.

 

I figured out why I was ridiculously weak last night. I was mostly being an idiot, I had two talismans equipped simultaneously which were increasing my damage taken by 10% and 15%. I was switching between Marika and the two Radagon seals for a while and equipped Marika/Radagon at the same time I think. You can’t equip both Radagon seals. But I also had a helm which increases intelligence, which I forgot reduced my HP (by 15% I think). These three items don’t seem to play nicely together and apply their effects in the nastiest order possible. End result was that I could hit for over 1000 per swing but took insane amounts of damage to a tinier-than-it-seemed HP pool.

 

As far as keeping vigor in the low 20s, I’m playing the same way I’ve played every other From game for 1000s of collective hours so I don’t feel too foolish. I stumbled across a great video on this topic that might have already been posted (if I missed it I’m sorry, if you posted it thanks!) Half a million people have watched it and there are thousands of interesting comments with loads of people either perceiving the same issue as me, or people who have seen the light and are further breaking down why the old method of pumping damage doesn’t scale into lategame due to the increased length.

 

I’ve been upgrading vigor when I get the chance which has been helpful in combination with visiting lower level areas I haven’t hit yet (thanks Fextralife). I do think the game needs to better telegraph when an area is or isn’t for you. Somehow I did all of Siofra and most of Caelid before even setting foot in Liurnia for example. It’s great you can do that, but by indulging in harder areas for a more dark souls experience you’re making lower level areas you haven’t visited yet a cakewalk. The difficulty has rarely felt right, exacerbated by my Dark Souls style build. I haven’t respecced yet but all my points are going into vigor for a a good while. 
 

 

 

[imp]

I could not beat M,BoM with my tanky paladin build and had to respec to get the job done. I was using the Treespear+25 which scales with STR, DEX and FTH, so had a fairly even spread of those stats, all in the 35-45 range. The build basically allows you to turtle behind a big shield and poke enemies to death after casting some buffs and still have some fun using big lightning spells when the occasion arises. It was amazing for traversing the world, and most minor bosses, but against the late game bosses it just wasn't doing big enough damage to outlast each encounter. In fact, in the M,BoM fight

 

Spoiler

Standing around tanking hits doesn't work as she heals even when you block! Basically once the buffs wear off it's nigh on impossible as you just can't damage her quick enough that she doesn't recover. Especially if your mimic decides to just tank hits! She gets at least 20% of her health back when she does her crazy combo.

 

I ended up switching out the Treespear for the Dragon King's Cragblade, which is a thrusting sword that scales mainly with DEX, but also some STR. I thought this maintained the fundamental philosophy of the build - stand behind the big shield and poke bosses, but had the advantage of being able to do serious burst damage with the weapon skill. Also, when respeccing, I decided to bin all my fun late game spells, going down to 25 FTH (to cast Golden Vow for the attack/defence buff) and bumping dex up to about 65. I Here's the vid:

 

Spoiler

 

 

Very satisfying to figure that out, even if the basic strategy is very similar to the Moonblade clear!

[kensei]

Comically overleveled in Capital

 

Spoiler

Margot went done ludicrously quickly, with zero skill involved.

 

Mimic distracted him and dual weld Colossal Swords were taking off huge chunks.

 

Also finished Fia's questline

 

Spoiler

Lichdragon is one of those fights where the lock on freaks out, but with added disco lights everywhere. Boak

 

Ran most of this no lock, but then it's very difficult to hit as he moved about. Scraped it - one hit would have done me, though I needed one hit off him for ages

 

Harder than both

 

Spoiler

Three normal mages.

Hadoken! Hadoken! Hadoken! Hadoken! 

 

Mimic is going to get another nerf, I think. It'll use any items you equip meaning you can get very respectable damage output still and it will health and protect itself. It's a damage sponge par excellence too. 

[Number 28]

I just found the O&S style fight everyone hates in CFA. So it seems

Spoiler

I could've summoned an NPC for the fight, but once you've used the grace point beyond the fight room, you're locked out of it? I guess I could start at the previous grace and run through...what a pain.

Edit: Ok, they're down. Not too bad.

[kensei]

Also continued in the fine tradition of screwing up questlines. Poor boc.

Already screwed up Nephili.

[Davros sock drawer]

Esgar is really quite the little prick

[DeciderVT]

Women in the Windmill Village:

 

 

[Davros sock drawer]

Well the journey to this site of Grace was up there with any previous Souls game in terms of tension. The name is not a coincidence I suspect:

 

Spoiler

Forsaken Depths

I really must stop now.

[Broker]

Think I might give up on the trophies. I’ve done everything needed for the third ending, but I’m just not getting anywhere near killing the final boss. Finally summoned after 60ish attempts earlier and got someone shite who died immediately, leaving me with a boss with more HP who I couldn’t use spirit summons for. 
 

I’ve used all my larval tears respeccing, but DEX, STR and INT are all failing. The INT build I picked with the last one is so shit I can’t even get through the first phase anymore. Feels like the only choice would be to level up a bunch, and I can’t really be arsed to grind for runes and don’t have much else left to do. The few bosses I have left are crushing me, and I need 100k runes to level up, which isn’t an easy amount to come by quickly. I think I might just forget about the plat and go back to cyberpunk. Really sours the whole thing having a final boss that bad.

 

7 hours ago, Doctor Shark said:

Did they buff the last boss?

 

No but they nerfed all the stuff that made it easier. Mimic is weak and useless now, and Hoarfrost is crap. I don’t have that prawn thing you used or any of the things you use to cast incantations or any faith talismans or the one that reduces holy damage. It’s boring just fighting the same thing over and over without even improving. 

[El Spatula]

Dunno man my Mimic just soloed Morgott...

[Captain Kelsten]

4 hours ago, Broker said:

Think I might give up on the trophies. I’ve done everything needed for the third ending, but I’m just not getting anywhere near killing the final boss. Finally summoned after 60ish attempts earlier and got someone shite who died immediately, leaving me with a boss with more HP who I couldn’t use spirit summons for. 
 

I’ve used all my larval tears respeccing, but DEX, STR and INT are all failing. The INT build I picked with the last one is so shit I can’t even get through the first phase anymore. Feels like the only choice would be to level up a bunch, and I can’t really be arsed to grind for runes and don’t have much else left to do. The few bosses I have left are crushing me, and I need 100k runes to level up, which isn’t an easy amount to come by quickly. I think I might just forget about the plat and go back to cyberpunk. Really sours the whole thing having a final boss that bad.

 

 

No but they nerfed all the stuff that made it easier. Mimic is weak and useless now, and Hoarfrost is crap. I don’t have that prawn thing you used or any of the things you use to cast incantations or any faith talismans or the one that reduces holy damage. It’s boring just fighting the same thing over and over without even improving. 

You can get 100k runes fairly quickly if you’re able to get to 

 

Spoiler

Mohgwyn’s Palace

And then faith plus pest threads incantation just destroys the final boss. 

[Broker]

13 minutes ago, El Spatula said:

Dunno man my Mimic just soloed Morgott...

Maybe it’s just weak and shit because my INT build is

 

I foolishly thought a sorcerer might need a bit less VIT. 

 

1 minute ago, Doctor Shark said:

You can get 100k runes fairly quickly if you’re able to get to 

 

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Mohgwyn’s Palace

And then faith plus pest threads incantation just destroys the final boss. 

Where is it? The farming spot in the palace takes four runs for me to level up, and I’m able to get killed real quick by the rolling enemies if I’m not super careful so it’s not very quick. I need at least ten levels of VIT so 40 slow runs is sounding a bit shit. The boss of that area absolutely decimated me in its second form. 

[PeteJ]

Query about the Academy, which I've just about cleared plus the boss.  

 

Spoiler

I had a note or dialogue somewhere saying at the bottom of the academy there was a faulty Iron Maiden thing, and if you let it eat you you'll be transported elsewhere. 

I believe I found it - under the water wheel - but when it eats me nothing happens apart from losing health. 

I let it kill me - tried to let it eat me but one of the other attacks was the killer blow - and still nothing happens. 

 

Is this actually a thing? Do you need to be killed by being eaten for it to work?

Is it worth it?

 

The boss of the academy I did on my second try, found pure aggression was the best way. In the second phase she didn't even summon so her big wind up attacks were easily avoidable. My banished knight summon worked wonders too. Arena looked lovely too, similar to

Spoiler

that annoying Rom fight in Bloodborne

 

[Uzi]

Moved onto new game plus yesterday and its hilarious how everything feels flipped. 

 

Walking out to the first point of grace and seeing the fucker on the horse go down in about 8 seconds.

 

Then go to the first boss Mr Git and it was such a sloppy fight since I was trying out different incantations to see how it damages a NG plus boss but he still went down without even a whisper of a threat. I'm the fucking boss now. Did Godrick a few mins later on the steam deck half asleep in bed in about similar time lol

 

 

 

[Captain Kelsten]

2 minutes ago, Broker said:

Maybe it’s just weak and shit because my INT build is

 

I foolishly thought a sorcerer might need a bit less VIT. 

 

Where is it? The farming spot in the palace takes four runs for me to level up, and I’m able to get killed real quick by the rolling enemies if I’m not super careful so it’s not very quick. I need at least ten levels of VIT so 40 slow runs is sounding a bit shit. The boss of that area absolutely decimated me in its second form. 

You don’t even aggro the rolly pollys - just run to the cliff edge where you spawn at the grace and shoot the bird, reload and repeat. 
 

As for pest threads:

 

Spoiler

Kill Gowry in his shack just south of sellia village and give his bell bearing to the twins. They then sell pest threads for 7500 souls. 
 

My build for killing the last boss was 60 faith, an erdtree’s favour +10, blasphemous blade +10 and then whatever armour had the highest holy negation. 

Are you on Xbox or ps5?

[Captain Kelsten]

5 minutes ago, PeteJ said:

Query about the Academy, which I've just about cleared plus the boss.  

 

  Hide contents

I had a note or dialogue somewhere saying at the bottom of the academy there was a faulty Iron Maiden thing, and if you let it eat you you'll be transported elsewhere. 

I believe I found it - under the water wheel - but when it eats me nothing happens apart from losing health. 

I let it kill me - tried to let it eat me but one of the other attacks was the killer blow - and still nothing happens. 

 

Is this actually a thing? Do you need to be killed by being eaten for it to work?

Is it worth it?

 

The boss of the academy I did on my second try, found pure aggression was the best way. In the second phase she didn't even summon so her big wind up attacks were easily avoidable. My banished knight summon worked wonders too. Arena looked lovely too, similar to

  Reveal hidden contents

that annoying Rom fight in Bloodborne

 

You need to be killed via the grab attack. You get where it sends you later on anyway if you can’t get it to work. 

[Broker]

28 minutes ago, Doctor Shark said:

You don’t even aggro the rolly pollys - just run to the cliff edge where you spawn at the grace and shoot the bird, reload and repeat. 
 

As for pest threads:

 

  Hide contents

Kill Gowry in his shack just south of sellia village and give his bell bearing to the twins. They then sell pest threads for 7500 souls. 
 

My build for killing the last boss was 60 faith, an erdtree’s favour +10, blasphemous blade +10 and then whatever armour had the highest holy negation. 

Are you on Xbox or ps5?

PS5. I can’t get the bird to work, what do I need to do to get it to run off the edge? 
 

I’m sure I’ll be trying out other builds later

[Captain Kelsten]

Just now, Broker said:

PS5. I can’t get the bird to work, what do I need to do to get it to run off the edge? 
 

I’m sure I’ll be trying out other builds later

You just shoot it with an arrow or crossbow bolt. I use the free aim. When you hit it, it should just run off the cliff to its doom and give 11k souls. 

[FalconGR]

I couldn’t get the bird thing to work either - my arrows with a short bow didn’t seem to be capable of hitting it at that distance. Killing the sleeping enemies nearby though gives about 40k runes in two or three minutes, so even without the bird it’s a great spot. 

[Uzi]

If you have a good AOE attack, you can farm far far quicker there. For any faith builds who have done the end boss, the weapon art from the remembrance weapon (shown in my Margit video above) clears nearly the whole load of them in a single L2 attack.

[Flub]

11 minutes ago, FalconGR said:

I couldn’t get the bird thing to work either - my arrows with a short bow didn’t seem to be capable of hitting it at that distance. Killing the sleeping enemies nearby though gives about 40k runes in two or three minutes, so even without the bird it’s a great spot. 

 

Two things I do with the bird. First hit it from a point close to the grace. If you go down a bit further it tends to stop at the edge. Secondly I always use the scope attack. It seems to have a longer range than the direct attack.

 

Although to be honest if you can kill the sleeping dudes super quick it's probably quicker to skip the birds. If I need some runes these days I just hoarfrost stomp the lot and ignore the bird to save time. Even nerfed hoarfrost is pretty good on those things.