Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree Expansion Announced

[Alan Stock]

That's correct for the Moonveil, because it uses somber smithing stones to upgrade. Those kinds of weapons, which usually have a special affinity or effect, only go up to +10. The ones which upgrade using normal smithing stones can go up to +25. It doesn't mean the weapon is less good than a +25 'standard' one, just that it uses different stones to upgrade.

[Colonel Panic]

Fired this up for the first time in months having beaten Godrick in March. So I'm in Stormveil and I find a tree enemy thing who kicks my arse a LOT. I leave him for a bit and go northwest again and come up against a barrier with a clue about how to get past it but I don't recognise the area so I figure I'll fill in more map.

 

South to the Weeping Peninsula and I'm in another castle - Castle Morne. I'm back in my Souls comfort zone now, a castle to explore so let's see what happens.

 

19 hours and level 29 on my Dex/Int dude who's still in his starting gear plus an upgraded Estoc!

[Ste Pickford]

9 hours ago, Colonel Panic said:

19 hours and level 29 on my Dex/Int dude who's still in his starting gear plus an upgraded Estoc!

 

I didn't start coming across any alternate armour sets until midway through the Academy (second major dungeon, in the lakes).

[Colonel Panic]

@Ste Pickford - Is the Academy the tower to the North of Stormveil? 

[Ste Pickford]

Yeah, the one you can see in the distance, when you come out the back of Stormveil.

[Colonel Panic]

Great, I’ve got the path to there opened up so I’ll take a look!

[Alan Stock]

accidental post - full post coming in this spot shortly

[Alan Stock]

 It's over. Over 400 hours on the clock, now that's value!

 

Yesterday I beat the final boss and then spent a few hours on Malenia before finally beating her (more on that in spoilers below). Then I went to get revenge on the stupid rot Erdtree Avatar in Haligtree with its knight buddies, even then it was rough but I managed to kill it before succumbing to the knights (who out of spite I then gangbanged with summons afterwards!).

 

Moving onto the ending, I managed to mess up getting the one I wanted (more on that below too). Then I started reading through all my lore screenshots and videos I've been taking over the months to build up a more complete picture of the lore and the NPCs. This took hours! Finally, I started chasing up NPC questlines online to see what I had missed - a good resource for this is Fextralife where there's step by step guides here. This allowed me to finish off a few NPC questlines I'd been missing a conclusion to, like Blaidd and Nepheli.

 

Then today I've been watching Youtube videos and reading item descriptions of some of the stuff I missed. This is a good channel for seeing questlines and their dialogue, the video linked is some juicy lore I missed from the Brother Corhyn line. I'll carry on dipping into the lore online in the next few days. I won't be playing the game again any time soon, if at all, so having invested so much time already I want to get a better picture of the lore. Eventually I will watch vids from Souls loremaster Vaati Vidya but the problem with his videos is that he often doesn't cite the sources like items descriptions or NPC converstaion. This means you lose out on the fun of piecing things together and also how he reached those conclusions, so I prefer reading Reddit threads and wiki entries to see how the puzzle fits together.

 

My Ending:

Spoiler

I got the Frenzied Flame ending. Pretty cool but not what I was going for! Even though I'd gone through all the hassle of going through the Millicent questline and killing Malenia to prevent becoming consumed by the Frenzied Flame, annoyingly I missed the final step. Which is to revisit the Malenia boss room to collect the needle. I thought I just had to beat Malenia. After the ending, instead of going to NG+ you can return to the world, so I did. It's then I returned to Malenia's room and upgraded the needle, and figured out where to take it to 'activate' it. Unfortunately you can't re-do the final boss, effectively you are in purgatory until you activate NG+. So I watched all the endings on Youtube. Turns out Frenzied Flame is one of the most interesting endings, but very disappointing in that if you nullify it with the needle, you go through all that effort to save Malenia and pretty much get no extra lore or thanks for it in the end, at least from what I've seen so far. Maybe there's something I missed, I will have to search online.

 

Here's a summary of where all my NPC quests ended up.

I managed to see some of the NPC questlines to some sort of conclusion without help. The ones I struggled with were:

Spoiler

• Rogier - didn't keep him alive, turns out I missed clicking on a bloodstain in an area full of bloodstains!
• Millicent - had to use a guide to find her again after she buggers off from the hut, but after that I fought off her sisters and got the needle.
• Patches - turns out he has an extra step after leaving Volcano Manor, though its not major
• Dung Eater - amazingly has a whole rescue him sideline which leads to an alternate, but I killed him in the sewers instead
• Bloody Finger Hunter Yura - Missed the whole second part of the quest involving summon signs (although did find possessed Yura in Fire Mountain later)
• Brother Coryhn - I missed finding him after he left Roundtable hold, so missed out on all that lore. Even so, I wouldn't have had the stats to see the questline through.
• Varre - I needed a guide to get the step of taking the white cloth to the Finger Maiden, because I did his quest way late in the game. I did the rest of his quest without issue and happily murdered him at the end!
• Selivus - Selivus got murdered, no great loss there!

As for NPC lines I did see all the way through (you might see a pattern emerge...)

Spoiler

• Boc - poor old Boc, I thought I was helping him, but I ended up killing him out of kindness
• Thops - poor old Thops, I thought I was helping him, but I ended up killing him out of kindness
• Sellen - poor old Sellen, I thought I was helping her, but I ended up killing (or worse) her out of kindness  (this was the fight for Sellen ending)
• D and Fia - I saw both of these lines to conclusion, ending with D's bro slaying Fia.
• Gurranq - I got all but 1 deathroot for Gurranq, must have missed a dungeon somewhere.
• Hyetta - I fed her lovely 'grapes' and I found the 3 fingers, and made her my handmaiden, sooo... I ended up killing her out of kindness
• Kenneth Haight/Nepheli - They became lords of Stormveil, though I needed a guide to tell me to rest at the Stormveil grace to get the ending
• Ranni - I did all the Ranni stuff without help except two bits - the stupid 'talk to doll' prompt and finding Blaidd at the very end. Not sure what sends him over the edge, will have to read up on it.
• Alexander - I got him all the way to Farum Azula where we fought in our final battle. I ended up killing him out of kindness  (I did miss summoning him for the Fire Giant though. Doh.)
• Rya - I managed to find Rya hidden away after everyone left Volcano Manor, and gave her the forgetting potion, after which she left, so kind of a good ending? I contemplated killing her mother but decided that her mother had enough on her plate (geddit?!)
• Latenna - I got her to her big sister. Very odd.
• Diallos - I saw his redemption arc from murderer to pot saviour! What a bro.
• Bernhal - My brother in death helped me with the bastard Godskin Duo but then I had to kill him in Farum Azula (why was he there?).

 

So, Malenia. Hardest boss in all of Souls? If you fight her solo, perhaps. Instead, I wasn't having any nonsense, was generally fed up with bullshit bosses and so I brute forced her:

Spoiler

I had bounced off her phase 1 (playing solo) for hours, a few weeks ago. So I plugged away for a bit yesterday with limited success. The flurry attack is what makes the fight utterly bullshit, plus of course the self-healing. Although I could see myself eventually beating her in phase 1 if I played extremely well, and if I somehow could survive the flurries, I knew there was a phase 2 as well. No way I was getting to that, playing without summons, unless I seriously levelled up or spent weeks perfecting dodge roll timings.

 

So after another half an hour of getting one-shot by flurries or just generally getting slashed, I got fed up, and summoned my Mimic Tear+10. I was using my SwordSpear with ice ashes which does decent staggering, so together we were able to make some progress. What massively helped was my Tear took the aggro a lot of the time, and could survive her flurry attack. It was big battle of attrition though, because he kept giving her free vampire healing, being the punching bag. We did eventually corner her after some attempts and finally got to phase 2. Which of course killed me almost instantly.

 

The next few hours were spent constantly retrying her whilst modifying my build, trying different combinations of spells and weaponry to be the most effective for me and the Mimic. Initially I had a lot of success with black magic (especially Maliketh's blade spell, which fires a projectile like he uses in his boss fight). This is because it lowers Malenia's max HP and also drains it, at least preventing her from regaining full health. Managed to get to phase 2 a few more times, and started to learn the timings for dodging some of her attacks. Flurry though was still a big cause of death in either phase. It's really a complete bullshit move, and even looking online the advice is basically get perfect dodge rolls in the exact right position, or be lucky enough to be out of range. Or of course, hope she targets your summon!

 

I don't mind an attack you have to be perfect to dodge, I've had to deal with plenty of that in this playthrough. But when the fight is already so punishing, the flurry attack is so unreadable and missing a dodge literally means death, that's where I call bullshit. This is why I felt no remorse in going all out aggro with me and my Mimic just wailing on Malenia, which is what the most effective tactic became. Unrelenting aggression. Normally I don't use offensive magic or weapon abilities much, if at all. But for Malenia I pulled out all the stops. Maliketh's blade magic whenever I could. Magic buffs a-plenty. Staggering her where possible.

 

In the end I found that the Nagitana katana with fire ashes was quite good because of its long range, and fire being quite effective against Malenia. It would also proc bleed after a while. So me and my Mimic managed to get to phase 2 a bit more with this tactic. Eventually I added the blood bee swarm spell to our arsenal, which homes in on the target, causing bleed, and also helps with staggering. I could fire off a few bee swarms to help keep on the pressure. This turned out to be quite effective. My main problem now aside from the usual woes was that if my Mimic died in phase 2, which happened often, I usually died pretty quickly, and if she flurried in phase 2 it was usually game over.

 

Eventually we got the best run, we just outright battered her in phase 2 and the Mimic managed to survive long enough to take the aggro. It wasn't pretty, but it got the job done. We ganged up on her with bleed and fire, I unleashed bee swarms and black magic to help, and we made it. I feel no shame, even with the Mimics help and the cheesy tactics it still took hours. God help anyone who does her solo (like Let Me Solo Her). I supposed by using Rune Arcs, consumables, other spells, pots etc you can make her do-able solo. Maybe a shield can help you survive the flurry. But I dread to imagine how rough it is! Overall I like her moveset, its really just the flurry and the self healing that make it frustrating. Make the flurry fairer to avoid and reduce the self healing a bit and I think it would be a good fight. But I'm glad she's done!

 

I'll put up some of my boss videos later on. For now though I will continue trawling through the lore. I still feel that playing the bosses mostly solo did hurt my enjoyment towards the end of the game, where it does become a bit of a slog. I made it a bit more miserable for myself than I should have. Yes, the game has its issues and things I would improve, but overall I can't complain. What a great adventure, what a world, what a challenge. I don't know if I'll return, having sunk so much time into it. Is it my favourite Souls game? Tricky. I think so, although Bloodborne is very close and Bloodborne is a tighter experience overall. Even with my issues with the bosses in Elden Ring, the bosses in Bloodborne really spoiled the experience for me (I ended up using summons for a bunch of them). Bloodborne has a better story, atmosphere, tighter design and amazing level design. Elden Ring has a better world, more variety, more freedom, more scope, generally just more, in a good way. Both great games. I'm very happy this has been so successful, and I can't wait to see what they come up with next.  

[Alan Stock]

Also this made me laugh:

 

[JPL]

@Alan StockOut of interest, why did you decide to try and play it without summons? Since getting my Mimic up to +10, he joins me for every boss fight and it’s great.

[El Spatula]

I dropped mimic in seconds the moment I got my girl Tiche.

[squirtle]

What the fuck is a mimic in this?

[squirtle]

In other notes, I beat that Star guy down on the beach on his horse. Made my way through some poison castle and found Patches under the weather before the boss. I also found that woman eating something she shouldn't have been in the volcano, and killed the boss at the cellar of that tower in Caelid. Next up, the boss at the top of the capital. I nearly had him, but not quite...

[JPL]

1 hour ago, squirtle said:

What the fuck is a mimic in this?

It’s a spirit ash. I can’t remember where I got it now, but I think you’ll find it soon.

[Alan Stock]

3 hours ago, JPL said:

@Alan StockOut of interest, why did you decide to try and play it without summons? Since getting my Mimic up to +10, he joins me for every boss fight and it’s great.

 

For the challenge. I did use summons for some of the bosses here where it seemed appropriate, but most I did solo. Since Dark Souls 3 I have been doing Souls games mostly without summons and really got hooked on the satisfaction of learning the fights. The challenge of timing attacks, dodge rolls and figuring out healing windows. I also severely limited my Vigor and level until the endgame, where being underlevelled became too much to bear because I was getting one-shot so much it was fatiguing (for reference the last boss I fought was Malenia, at lvl 154 with Mimic). The fight that really sold me on this style of play was the final boss of the last Dark Souls 3 DLC, which is one of the best From Software fights and has great mechanics that are very tough but learnable.

 

Some of the fights in Elden Ring I think were much better and more satisfying by playing solo. But in some cases using summons actually spoiled the enjoyment of the fight because the summon took out the challenge. Others that I did solo, I wish I had used summons. The difficulty is all over the place with the bosses in this game because of how freeform the structure is, and your character's power level in comparison to the bosses. Some of the bosses definitely feel like they are designed with summons in mind, or are at least incredibly frustrating, or require huge amounts of patience without summons. There's a lot of bosses which have bullshit moves, or where you get double-teamed, where doing them solo is a nightmare. Using a shield probably would have helped a lot, but I did a heavy armour/shield build for the Demon Souls remake and wanted to return to dodge rolls for Elden Ring.

 

Its a love-hate relationship with this approach, although I do feel in Elden Ring it was a step too far for me to be so rigid. There are soo many bosses and especially at endgame its a serious grind, and some of the last bosses like the final boss and Malenia would have either taken me weeks or required stupid amounts of levelling up to beat solo. Although I feel I'm decent, I'm no Soul Level 1 rolling god. But it is incredibly satisfying to learn the 'good' fights inside out and pull off those victories. There are a bunch of memorable solo ones for me including:

Spoiler

Crucible Knight (Evergaol), Margit rematch outside the Capital, Red Wolf, Nox Priests, Dual Pumpkin heads and more.

 

Fights like these may have been blips on your playthroughs, but for me they were many hours or even full days of learning the fights. Getting to know every action and AI behaviour whilst only being able to survive one or two hits. Finally executing those fights solo without dying were huge achievements for me.

 

Because I also limited myself to mainly buff incantations and didn't experiment with many weapon skills or ranged attacks, I feel like I missed out on the fun factor of messing around with different playstyles. The summon and NPC ashes are good fun and I did enjoy using them when I did. Of course you can only once experience the game for the first time, so it was tough to decide whether to just go all out for fun or go for a more challenging vanilla type experience. In the end I think if they do another game like this, I will use all the tools at my disposal, limit my levelling if it gets to easy and just go to town enjoying everything the game has to offer. It may be satisfying and part of the Souls adrenaline rush to play the way I did - but does it make up for the frustration, the time investment, the tedium and missing out on a bunch of gameplay elements - I'm not sure it does. 

 

Something I find weird is that I bounced off Sekiro because of the bosses, even though I'm near the endgame of that I just find it a real slog facing off against them, and of course there are no summon options there. I guess I just find the Souls type combat better fun and more manageable over lots of attempts, with more windows for making mistakes than Sekiro which really leaves little room for error. I did of course die a lot in Elden Ring but generally felt I was making progress when repeating bosses, whereas in Sekiro it can feel like you're at a brick wall.

 

So there is my self analytical take on why I don't use summons, I guess this post is as much for my own benefit as anyone reading it

 

As a slight aside, I really feel that I got screwed over as a solo in the late game by having so many of my best weapons being Faith based. By that point in the game you really need status effects and a ton of the bosses simply shrug off Holy weapons. If I'd respecced I could have had tons of extra points in Dex and had far more efficiency. In the end I was using Dex weapons for maybe the last 8-10 bosses because they were better than the best Faith weapons because you could plug ashes of war into them, whereas all the Faith weapons have inbuilt Holy damage and locked abilities. By the end of the game I had about 6-8 really cool Faith weapons which were pretty much useless against the bosses compared to a basic Dex weapon with ashes! I guess you could use the Faith for offensive incantations but it annoys me how they screwed over Faith melee in this way.

[Alask]

Did you pickup the red-hot whetblade in your travels? I found that really opens up what you can use for a faith weapon as it lets you apply the flame art scaling to all the cool ashes of war which is pretty damn good. Really opens up your options as you're no longer forced to use the sacred scaling to get the benefit of your faith stat.

 

Also scales better off flame grant me strength too as that'll boost both the physical and fire damage on it, which makes for some nice hefty hits. Probably still not as good as just running a blasphemous blade in most cases, but what is?

 

[BitterToad]

I stopped playing this at the last boss and moved onto other things. Although it has been niggling away at me while I've been smashing through other, easier experiences. I want to go and have a proper go at the last boss but I also want to go in with a really solid chance of finishing it. After spending the entire game avoiding tips, build videos, maps, everything, I think it's time to admit defeat and ask...

 

What's considered the "strongest" build in Elden Ring? If I want to give myself the absolute best chance to spanking the Elden Beast (so to speak) what should I be going in with stats/weapons/talismans/flask wise? Is it still Rivers of Blood or has that been nerfed to high heaven?

[Kevvy Metal]

1 hour ago, BitterToad said:

I stopped playing this at the last boss and moved onto other things. Although it has been niggling away at me while I've been smashing through other, easier experiences. I want to go and have a proper go at the last boss but I also want to go in with a really solid chance of finishing it. After spending the entire game avoiding tips, build videos, maps, everything, I think it's time to admit defeat and ask...

 

What's considered the "strongest" build in Elden Ring? If I want to give myself the absolute best chance to spanking the Elden Beast (so to speak) what should I be going in with stats/weapons/talismans/flask wise? Is it still Rivers of Blood or has that been nerfed to high heaven?

I beat the game all the way to Journey 4 (NG+++) Using the Cat Statue Great sword, cranked to max level (+25) and it has S STR scaling so with my build, I cranked that mother to STR level 99 baby! I DOTH NOT CARE BOUT SOFT CAPS

[Alask]

I think I've said this somewhere back in the past, but specifically for fighting the Elden Beast I think faith melee is the easiest. Having killed it a few times, I find it the most reliable particularly if you're not all that good at the game. The healing and the mitigation makes it a lot more forgiving.

 

Stats: 60 Vigor, 22 Strength, 15 dex and then however much endurance and mind you like to have. Then everything else into faith. Lots of faith!

Talismans: Dragoncrest Greatshield (phy defence), Haligdrake Talisman +2 (holy defence), Carian Filigreed Crest (more damage), Shard of Alexander (cheaper skills)

Weapons: Blasphemous Blade - use Takers Flames as much as possible. It's really strong and crucially also heals you. It'll heal your mimic too when they use it.

Shield: I do like one, it's not really needed but I like to be able to block through Radagon's ground pound if get caught or through the beasts golden waves. Make sure to change the ash of war scaling on it to sacred to max it's holy resistance.

Armor: Whatever you can wear that has the most holy resistance and stay at Med. Load. 

Spells: Lord's Divine Fortification, A heal, Flame grant me strength, Golden Vow, Something damage like if you want it (Pest threads works pretty well).

 

Just with the talismans and Lord's Divine Fortification up you should be into the 65%+ damage reduction for holy damage, which massively reduces how dangerous the fight is. If you keep it up, drop the occasional heal when you're low on health or land Taker's Flames you can stay in the fight a long time. Your mimic will also survive a lot better, particularly if you manage to get a fortification on them during the second phase.

 

For the actual fight, play defensive when Radagon targets you then drop Takers Flames on him when he targets the mimic. He should die quickly. For the beast, don't panic. Keep Lord's Divine Fortification up and try to get behind it to hit it. Pest threads can work quite well, I'm not sure it's any better than Takers Flames though. I tend not to bother trying to maintain Golden Vow and Flame Grant me Strength, but I'm quite lazy.

 

Flasks I tend to go more mana than health given faith heals are more efficient than flasks and you tend to have time to drop a heal fighting the beast and you shouldn't need one vs radagon.

 

 

 

[Anne Summers]

Are there any silly overpowered weapons/ builds left in this game? I fancy trying out something that can one-shot bosses, for a laugh. I've found a few guides/ Youtube videos on the subject but none of the combos I've tried out have worked particularly well (still think my Moonveil katana is the best bang-for-buck out there) so I guess a lot of them have been nerfed. 

[Ste Pickford]

22 hours ago, Alask said:

I think I've said this somewhere back in the past, but specifically for fighting the Elden Beast I think faith melee is the easiest. Having killed it a few times, I find it the most reliable particularly if you're not all that good at the game. The healing and the mitigation makes it a lot more forgiving.

 

Stats: 60 Vigor, 22 Strength, 15 dex and then however much endurance and mind you like to have. Then everything else into faith. Lots of faith!

Talismans: Dragoncrest Greatshield (phy defence), Haligdrake Talisman +2 (holy defence), Carian Filigreed Crest (more damage), Shard of Alexander (cheaper skills)

Weapons: Blasphemous Blade - use Takers Flames as much as possible. It's really strong and crucially also heals you. It'll heal your mimic too when they use it.

Shield: I do like one, it's not really needed but I like to be able to block through Radagon's ground pound if get caught or through the beasts golden waves. Make sure to change the ash of war scaling on it to sacred to max it's holy resistance.

Armor: Whatever you can wear that has the most holy resistance and stay at Med. Load. 

Spells: Lord's Divine Fortification, A heal, Flame grant me strength, Golden Vow, Something damage like if you want it (Pest threads works pretty well).

 

Just with the talismans and Lord's Divine Fortification up you should be into the 65%+ damage reduction for holy damage, which massively reduces how dangerous the fight is. If you keep it up, drop the occasional heal when you're low on health or land Taker's Flames you can stay in the fight a long time. Your mimic will also survive a lot better, particularly if you manage to get a fortification on them during the second phase.

 

For the actual fight, play defensive when Radagon targets you then drop Takers Flames on him when he targets the mimic. He should die quickly. For the beast, don't panic. Keep Lord's Divine Fortification up and try to get behind it to hit it. Pest threads can work quite well, I'm not sure it's any better than Takers Flames though. I tend not to bother trying to maintain Golden Vow and Flame Grant me Strength, but I'm quite lazy.

 

Flasks I tend to go more mana than health given faith heals are more efficient than flasks and you tend to have time to drop a heal fighting the beast and you shouldn't need one vs radagon.

 

 

 

 

As someone who's pretty much never used a spell in the whole game, except the one to clear scarlet rot in the Lake of Rot, this sounds terrifyingly complicated!

[Alask]

1 hour ago, Ste Pickford said:

 

As someone who's pretty much never used a spell in the whole game, except the one to clear scarlet rot in the Lake of Rot, this sounds terrifyingly complicated!

 

I mean, I may have gone a bit overboard on the detail but BT did ask for it and I remember how frustrating I found it! The TLDR summary is basically:

  1. Equip Blasphemous Blade

  2. Use Lord's Divine Fortification.

  3. Spam L2.

 

If you haven't used any spells yet though I heartily recommend them. Sorcery can be pretty much summed up as, "variations on blue" but Incantations are awesome. I can't think of another game with as satisfying a lightning bolt as Elden Ring. It's like being Zeus.

[Anne Summers]

1 hour ago, Ste Pickford said:

 

As someone who's pretty much never used a spell in the whole game, except the one to clear scarlet rot in the Lake of Rot, this sounds terrifyingly complicated!

I use spells quite a lot and didn't even know there was one to clear scarlet rot!

[andygt]

4 hours ago, Anne Summers said:

Are there any silly overpowered weapons/ builds left in this game? I fancy trying out something that can one-shot bosses, for a laugh. I've found a few guides/ Youtube videos on the subject but none of the combos I've tried out have worked particularly well (still think my Moonveil katana is the best bang-for-buck out there) so I guess a lot of them have been nerfed. 

If you’ve levelled up faith enough then this can one shot bosses if you get close and fully charge the incantation, works the best on larger bosses.

This two shotted EB on NG+ with 70 faith:

 

Seal: Gravelstone Seal +25

Incantation: Ancient Dragon's Lightning Strike

Talismans: Lightning Scorpion Charm, Flock's Canvas Talisman, Godfrey Icon, Winged Sword Insignia

Physick: Lightning-Shrouding Cracked Tear/Spiked Cracked Tear 

 

 

[Sun Tze]

On 03/07/2022 at 17:27, Alan Stock said:

Yesterday I beat the final boss and then spent a few hours on Malenia before finally beating her (more on that in spoilers below). Then I went to get revenge on the stupid rot Erdtree Avatar in Haligtree with its knight buddies, even then it was rough but I managed to kill it before succumbing to the knights (who out of spite I then gangbanged with summons afterwards!).

Got kinda stuck there last night. Thought the Erdtree fella was the only way to get further in the Haligtree area... Good to know it isn't as the run up to the fight was causing me a nervous breakdown with all the clean rot knights taking way too much effort to take down. Is the Avatar summoning those knights or are they hidden somewhere? 

[Alan Stock]

They're sneakily hidden either side of him. Even on my victory run I only managed to kill one of them after the avatar was dead. I had to use Mimic to buy me time and even then still had to back out to the rear corridor to avoid getting ganged up on!

[JPL]

Has anyone got any tips for fire giant? He’s causing me no end of problems as a melee build.

[5R7]

14 minutes ago, JPL said:

Has anyone got any tips for fire giant? He’s causing me no end of problems as a melee build.

"try leg"

[Anne Summers]

On 05/07/2022 at 21:58, andygt said:

If you’ve levelled up faith enough then this can one shot bosses if you get close and fully charge the incantation, works the best on larger bosses.

This two shotted EB on NG+ with 70 faith:

 

Seal: Gravelstone Seal +25

Incantation: Ancient Dragon's Lightning Strike

Talismans: Lightning Scorpion Charm, Flock's Canvas Talisman, Godfrey Icon, Winged Sword Insignia

Physick: Lightning-Shrouding Cracked Tear/Spiked Cracked Tear 

 

 

Hmm, just tried this and it doesn't seem that OP ... tried it out on the Fire Giant and it didn't really scratch him - then tried on the Tibea Mariner near Castle Sol and it took about 6 blasts to kill him!

Does the armour I am using make a difference?

[Alan Stock]

2 hours ago, JPL said:

Has anyone got any tips for fire giant? He’s causing me no end of problems as a melee build.

 

Just run around on the horse. Here's my successful attempt for reference in the spoiler below, stats/equip shown at end. Note the fire resist talisman and fire resist armour which helps resist getting one-shot.

Spoiler