Elden Ring Discussion Thread

[glaman5266]

OK, so the game has been out for, what, a month now? Surely there's at least a few of you playing this game & perhaps have made some good progress. Let's have some Elden Ring-specific discussion.

I'm not super far into the main storyline yet, but I've been adventuring all over the gaffe, doing the mini dungeons, leveling up & acquiring gear. I've already pretty much cleared out the southern continent & most of central Limgrave, save a couple field bosses. I think I like simply wandering around & exploring more than chasing the main story. It's definitely a serious departure from the somewhat level-based design of Dark Souls 3.

I may be jumping the gun on this considering I've not yet beaten Stormveil Castle, but I've been busy looking for gear that can carry me through most of the game or perhaps even be endgame-worthy.

Which leads me to my conundrum- I'm playing as a pure strength character, much as I've played as in Dark Souls 1 & 3. I like to play bulky offense. Good pancaking power with a stout defense. I'm currently Lv.45 with major investment in vigor (24ish), endurance (24ish) & strength (30), with enough in dexterity to use a short bow (10 DEX req.) for pulling stuff. But it seems to me that a lot of the good high-level gear requires investment in multiple stats. More so than in previous games. I might just have to bite the bullet & boost another stat or two to really open up my weapon selection, as much as I really don't want to do it. I might just bump DEX to 14 & see what that does for me.

How are you playing? Are you enjoying it? Thoughts and/or criticisms? Discuss away.

[chrislognshot]

check youtube for strength build they will lead in right way. also if have to long of sword or weapon some place will not be able to swing but stab only

[BenoitOWN]

Yep it’s all about YouTube and finding what you need on the field >.>

pain being a mage … I tried not to do YouTube and wasn’t finding anything worthy … now it’s progressing and finally beated the first boss at stormveil.

but even if you don’t do your build right you can always reborn later on.

[glaman5266]

check youtube for strength build they will lead in right way. also if have to long of sword or weapon some place will not be able to swing but stab only

I'm finding that heavier weapons with the "heavy" prefix will swing through walls a bit more reliably. Currently running the Lordsworn's Greatsword with the heavy affinity & it's working well for now. But I know it's strength scaling won't get above a B, so I've been on the hunt for something to go to when this sword doesn't do it anymore.

The last patch increased Smithing Stone (1) drops, so I've been upgrading a few weapons to +3 to see how they work out for me. I'm liking the Rusted Anchor, as I'm accustomed to using clubs in Dark Souls, but it doesn't always hit multiple targets. Just trying stuff for now.

Yep it’s all about YouTube and finding what you need on the field >.>

pain being a mage … I tried not to do YouTube and wasn’t finding anything worthy … now it’s progressing and finally beated the first boss at stormveil.

but even if you don’t do your build right you can always reborn later on.

Maaaaaan, screw YouTube, lol.
I know, I know, you can find anything about the game on YouTube. But most of what I've seen is way beyond where I'm at in the game now, so it's not really relevant to my current situation.

I just beat Stormveil last night with my brother. I can do the mini-dungeons just fine, but the big bosses I usually need help with. I like co-op.

My bro also told me I can respec later on, so I dumped points into DEX to open up my weapon selection. We'll see how that goes. I do have the claymore, but everyone in every Dark Souls game uses the claymore at some point, lol. Also might switch out my bow for a crossbow since bow scaling isn't the greatest in this game. Depends on if you can put a heavy affinity on bows. i haven't figured that out yet. I'll also have to look at some more damage tables when I have time or when more become available.

[Clam-I-Am]

If you're focusing on a strength build I'd definitely recommend looking at the Axe of Godrick since you cleared Stormveil. The somber weapons are honestly pretty easy to upgrade and it carried me through the whole game on my first character. Jumping strong attacks for the win

[Clam-I-Am]

I did my first playthrough with a strength build that had a few points in other stats to use a variety of weapons, and pure big bonk in this game is definitely more difficult than in previous souls games. This game really does lean into multiple stats for a lot of the weapons, and for the most part it works out pretty well, but there is an odd number of colossal swords that scale with int and the like. Second playthrough I went for a dex/arc bleed build, and actually quite enjoyed the change of pace that powerstancing katanas and twinblades brings. The faster weapons also made some bosses a bit more manageable.

Overall, I absolutely loved the game. The world is incredibly dense and really fun to explore, since almost every little nook has some item or dungeon hiding in it, although the dungeons do get a bit repetitive after a while. What surprised me though was that one of the main weak points that the game has for me is some of the bosses. Elden Ring has some absolutely incredible bosses, but there are also some that are just straight up bad design, or some bosses have one or two moves that completely ruin the fight. I fought all but about three bosses solo on my second character, and that made me appreciate a lot of the bosses more than the first time through, but there are others that will always deserve the +10 Mimic Tear treatment.

Easily one of the best games I've ever played, and I'm really looking forward to doing some challenge runs in the future (aside from certain bosses).

[glaman5266]

and pure big bonk in this game is definitely more difficult than in previous souls games.

This game really does lean into multiple stats for a lot of the weapons, and for the most part it works out pretty well, but there is an odd number of colossal swords that scale with int and the like.

I'm seeing that, lol. You definitely need an element of speed to be consistently successful in what you do.

Yeah, this game seems to force players into adopting a multi-faceted character. I have mixed feelings about that, given my slower reflexes & lack of ability to remember everything I can do. But I'm trying to accept that & spread myself out a bit. I started dumping points into Faith to use the Golden Halberd. I generally don't like halberds, but it's standard attack moveset is similar to the Gargoyle's Halberd in DkS1 (one of my favorite weapons in that game) and it's strong attacks seem like they'd be good for really stomping stuff. And this opens up a few Incantations to use, which will help my survivability & get me more heals in co-op.

[Myrkul]

This is everything I know about elden ring.

[chrislognshot]

okay not sure you know this or not. but max level is 713 and all stats will be max 99 level.