Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
I've moved on to a new rune farm i found out about online. You basically shoot this bird thing with a bow from up high, it runs at you, off a ledge to its death, and you get 11K runes. You then go to the site of grace that's right there next to you to respawn the bird, repeat.
I'm not ashamed, I know I suck at these kinds of games, so being a cheeseball and overleveling myself is the only chance I have, since "git gud" is not an option for me.
And I'll still get my ass handed to me even with doing this.

Yeah, Darksouls type games have a "soft cap". The higher your attributes get, not only do they get more expensive to raise but you get less and less benefit from each additional point. By the time you start getting any attribute into the 40s or some such you are going to start seeing about half the benefit of any level before it. By the time you see an attribute at around 50 you are getting that same 50% gain every 2 levels with the odd number levels giving you exactly nothing.

Especially if you decide to do New Game + to see some other endings and such the enemies get tougher and tougher and you start needing to just be better. Your weapons stop improving, your stats arn't giving you the returns they used to. You just need to get better. feth I love these games.

I'm reaching burnout.
Traversing the overworld on Torrent is fine even if some of the verticality is annoying to navigate.
The underground is absolute cancer. Every zone has forks and backtracking to something you missed takes far too long. It is extremely tedious.

I feel like im the only person happy with a
+10 bastard sword ....

I somehow managed to pump a staff to +14. Not sure how I did it. But I did it.

Finished Ranni and Fia's questlines to unlock 2 ending options.
Killed one guy that locked out an ending because he's too evil for me.
Cleared to a certain door for another ending option.
Goldmask, Malenia, Mogh are the only optional content I have left.

Honestly, the game is too big for the content. Bosses in the beginning become standard enemies or you face stronger versions or pairs. The amount of dragons, Erdtree Avatars, nasty Tree Spirits, and even Magma Wyrms is absurd. At least two of the dragons stand out from the rest.

There's even a Runebearer boss fight that is a near duplicate of two previous boss fights.

It's all just very tedious and repetitive, " like butter scraped over too much bread." The world would have been better being condensed by about 25-50%. I can't even imagine ever doing another full clear. Even NG+ would just be the main questline if I ever do it...and only if a 7th ending is discovered.

It's a good game, real polished which seems to be a rare thing these days. But to me I don't like it as much as Bloodborne. I actually like the more linear and focused approach. Elden Ring is an evolution of the formula of fromsofts past games, but to me it suffers from bloat and I don't like the pvp as much as BB and DS3. I just don't know if I have the time and focus to see this game through to the end/or to completion. And so many bosses are thrown at you here and there the sense of meaningfulness seems to be diminished, as has been said some of the early bosses simply become regular foes at certain points.

Early bosses becoming regular foes has always been a thing in Darksouls. In DS2 there is that sentinel on the boat that is 2 torsos back to back on a pair of legs. By the end you are fighting 2 of him in a hallway.

 Lance845 wrote:
Early bosses becoming regular foes has always been a thing in Darksouls. In DS2 there is that sentinel on the boat that is 2 torsos back to back on a pair of legs. By the end you are fighting 2 of him in a hallway.

Yes, and that's the case in Sekiro as well, but it's egregious here. The number of unique bosses is around 10-12. Everything else is repeated.

trexmeyer wrote:
Finished Ranni and Fia's questlines to unlock 2 ending options.
Killed one guy that locked out an ending because he's too evil for me.
Cleared to a certain door for another ending option.
Goldmask, Malenia, Mogh are the only optional content I have left.

Honestly, the game is too big for the content. Bosses in the beginning become standard enemies or you face stronger versions or pairs. The amount of dragons, Erdtree Avatars, nasty Tree Spirits, and even Magma Wyrms is absurd. At least two of the dragons stand out from the rest.

There's even a Runebearer boss fight that is a near duplicate of two previous boss fights.

It's all just very tedious and repetitive, " like butter scraped over too much bread." The world would have been better being condensed by about 25-50%. I can't even imagine ever doing another full clear. Even NG+ would just be the main questline if I ever do it...and only if a 7th ending is discovered.

I admit I've only been watching a playthrough rather than playing, but I have to agree.

To answer some of the other posts about boss repetition being at an acceptable level - to me the worst is the dungeons. I can't count the number of times I've watched Fightincowboy fight that stupid stone cat. And sometimes it breathes fire, and sometimes lightning, and sometimes there's two of them in the same arena (real creative there) but it's the same boss over and over.

I like a lot of the ideas in this game, but I'm leaning towards not picking it up. Maybe if Fromsoft makes a second open world game and refines it a bit I'll be onboard for that.

Finished Latanna questline - strange ending.
Millicent's questline was the best so far.
Downed Malenia, she's "hard" even with a +10 Mimic Tear...sort of. Once I realized how to react to Scarlet Bloom it became doable. That stupid thing two-shot me a couple of times.
Used a glitch to kill Mohg, Lord of Blood because I honestly hadn't glitched anything yet and wanted to see if it would still work.

Switched from Int/Dex to Dex/Faith in order to use Malenia's Blade and her Scarlet Bloom spell. The Blade weapon art isn't as good as Moonveil for single target, but it does melt groups. I also started using a +9 Dragon Seal (max is 10) with the Dragon Scarlet Rot breath ability and it is nuts. It has a knockback/stagger effect, the direct damage is good, and it applies Scarlet Rot in an AoE. Also upped Blasphemous Blade to +8 since it is Str/Dex/Faith and the weapon art is hitting for 1400ish with 36 Faith/50 Dex/16 Str.

Moonveil becomes kind of cheap once you realize 99% of enemies, including bosses, are easily stagered by spamming its weapon art. I'm fine with it because feth this game is hard but it gets goofy the fights you can win just by drawing your sword over and over. The 1% are the enemies who get on you too fast to spam it XD

trexmeyer wrote:

 Lance845 wrote:
Early bosses becoming regular foes has always been a thing in Darksouls. In DS2 there is that sentinel on the boat that is 2 torsos back to back on a pair of legs. By the end you are fighting 2 of him in a hallway.

Yes, and that's the case in Sekiro as well, but it's egregious here. The number of unique bosses is around 10-12. Everything else is repeated.

THAT is a gross underrepresentation. There are repeated bosses. But there are over 200 uniquely named bosses. Some of those 200 have repeated places where they appear/spawn. Some of the others are uniquely named but repeat bosses maybe with some twists. But I would argue that if even HALF of that is a unique fight then this game has way more unique bosses than just about any other game you could name.

Let's list some I have fought already. The bosses on this list are unique from any other boss on this list.

Deathbird
Crucible Knight
Cemetery Shade
Demi Human Chief
Erdtree Burial Watchdog
ErdTree Avatar
Flying Dragon Agheel
Godrick the Grafted
Golem Archer
Grafted Scion
Grave Warden Duelist
Leonine Misbegotten
Lion Guardian
Mad Pumpkin Head
Margit, the Fell Omen
Miranda the Blighted Bloom
Night's Cavalry
Patches
Runebear
Stonedigger Troll
Tibia Mariner
Tree Sentinel
Ulcerated Tree Spirit
Omenkiller
Red Wolf of Radagon
Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon
Godskin Noble
Magma Wyrm Makar
Crystalian Ringblade
Adan, Thief of Fire
Nox Swordstress & Nox Priest
Starscourge Radahn
Ancient Hero of Zamor
Twinblade Gargoyle
Fallingstar Beast
Ancient Dragon Lansseax
God-Devouring Serpent / Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy
Ancestor Spirit
Dragonkin Soldier
Mohg, Lord of Blood
Mimic Tear
Astel, Naturalborn of the Void


Now... You might be seeing a bunch of repeats in the game. And thats fair. But I only have 3 great rune bearers in that list when there are 7 great runes in the game and I am not near the final bosses. Saying there are 10-12 unique bosses in the game is a misrepresentation like I have rarely seen.

Dude...just no. Out of that list nearly everything repeats as a boss, variant (i.e. Crucible Knight with Spear), or as a mob.

I trimmed it down to things that don't repeat constantly or are unique.

Godrick the Grafted - Technically his phase 1 appears again.
Margit, the Fell Omen - Repeats in Altus Plateau.
Patches - Calling him a boss is a stretch.
Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon - Unique.
Adan, Thief of Fire - I think he might actually be unique.
Starscourge Radahn - Unique.
Ancient Dragon Lansseax - Sadly, there is another that is basically the same.
God-Devouring Serpent / Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy - Unique.
Ancestor Spirit - There are two, but only two. Almost unique.
Mohg, Lord of Blood - Unique in that Mohg the Omen is only Mohg phase 1.
Mimic Tear - Pretty sure it is unique.
Astel, Naturalborn of the Void - Almost unique, but there is another.

trexmeyer wrote:
Dude...just no. Out of that list nearly everything repeats as a boss, variant (i.e. Crucible Knight with Spear), or as a mob.

I trimmed it down to things that don't repeat constantly or are unique.

Godrick the Grafted - Technically his phase 1 appears again.
Margit, the Fell Omen - Repeats in Altus Plateau.
Patches - Calling him a boss is a stretch.
Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon - Unique.
Adan, Thief of Fire - I think he might actually be unique.
Starscourge Radahn - Unique.
Ancient Dragon Lansseax - Sadly, there is another that is basically the same.
God-Devouring Serpent / Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy - Unique.
Ancestor Spirit - There are two, but only two. Almost unique.
Mohg, Lord of Blood - Unique in that Mohg the Omen is only Mohg phase 1.
Mimic Tear - Pretty sure it is unique.
Astel, Naturalborn of the Void - Almost unique, but there is another.

I didn't say you don't fight the boss again, I said each boss on that list is different from every other boss on that list. If you play a game that has 42 unique boss fights and then variants or higher level versions of them in other places you still have 42 different boss fights.

And that isn't the whole game. Name another game with 50 different bosses in it.

You're missing the point.
The amount of content is insufficient for the size of the world.
Depending on the order you do things, you reach zones where there either no unique boss fights or maybe one and everything else in the zone is a rehash.

I'm not sure any game has ever been knocked for having too much to do, even if a lot of that stuff is ultimately rehashed. There's definitely a lot more enemy variety in Elden Ring than is typical of any game.

Lets compare this to Skyrim. How many unique bosses are in Skyrim? How many are duplicates of other bosses? How many quests are go fetch a thing in a dungeon before you get sent to go fetch a thing in a very similar dungeon?

This world is bigger. The monster variety is vastly more diverse. The sheer volume of boss fights is better. Including variety of boss fights even when there are duplicates.

I am not saying there are not multiple dungeons with the same or similar bosses (which usually serves a story purpose btw. The cat statues are located in similar places because they have been installed as guardians of similar places. Nothing in a From Software game is anywhere randomly. It all serves a purpose in the narrative.).

So while I get that you don't like fighting a Avatar of the Erdtree at the base of almost every minor Erdtree I would argue that not only is it consistent with the narrative but hey, you have over 40 other boss fights to do that are different from them. Again, what other game has that?

LordofHats wrote:I'm not sure any game has ever been knocked for having too much to do

Off the top of my head DA:I, Skyrim, Oblivion, FO:4, AC:Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla, etc were all criticized for being bloated games with filler content.

Lance845 wrote:Lets compare this to Skyrim. How many unique bosses are in Skyrim? How many are duplicates of other bosses? How many quests are go fetch a thing in a dungeon before you get sent to go fetch a thing in a very similar dungeon?

Why are you comparing ER to an 11 year old game?
Why are you comparing a game studio that prides itself on combat/gameplay mechanics to a game studio that produces sandbox RPGs that clearly do not place the highest priority on combat?
They're open world fantasy "RPGs", but the similarities end there. Even if Skyrim was filled with both Radiant and non-Radiant fetch quests, it still has far more fleshed out quests than Elden Ring.

Edit: I don't think there is a game that Elden Ring is directly comparable to...maybe the last three AC games? The Horizon Zero series?

trexmeyer wrote:
I'm reaching burnout.
Traversing the overworld on Torrent is fine even if some of the verticality is annoying to navigate.
The underground is absolute cancer. Every zone has forks and backtracking to something you missed takes far too long. It is extremely tedious.

I mean the game has been out 2 weeks and it's a 100 hour+ game. It's not that shocking that you are reaching burnout if you are nearing completion of everything at this point.

 Sasori wrote:

trexmeyer wrote:
I'm reaching burnout.
Traversing the overworld on Torrent is fine even if some of the verticality is annoying to navigate.
The underground is absolute cancer. Every zone has forks and backtracking to something you missed takes far too long. It is extremely tedious.

I mean the game has been out 2 weeks and it's a 100 hour+ game. It's not that shocking that you are reaching burnout if you are nearing completion of everything at this point.

I have "only" 60 hours played. I'm still 1-2 shotting trash and the only boss fight that took more than 5 tries I think was Malenia. Most bosses are 1-2 attempts. I have a talisman that restores FP on kill so I can pretty much spam weapon art at this point against trash mobs.

Edit:
Godskin Duo was a one shot.
Malekith took two. He wrecked me at the start of phase two.

Running Hoarfrost Stomp - Offhand, Rot Breath with +9 Dragon Seal, and Malenia's Blade at +10 in Mainhead. +10 Mimic. It's complete cheese. Mimic killed the skinny Godskin on its own. Apply Rot Breath swap back to Hoarfrost Stomp. Just roll and stomp during openings. GG.

I’m about 35 hours in and I’ve not found a single illusionary wall. Am I blind? I’ve yet to leave ilmgrave. Or I did but... well... I went to Siofra River. If you want to explore for yourself then DO NOT look that name up. For you who have found it, what’s your opinion? Location and story spoilers below.


Since I’m not so far in the story that stuff may be wrong. But I am interested to learn about the world of Elden ring from what I find.

I've been there for a quest. Very scenic area but feth is it a death trap with those bs archers XD

trexmeyer wrote:

 Sasori wrote:

trexmeyer wrote:
I'm reaching burnout.
Traversing the overworld on Torrent is fine even if some of the verticality is annoying to navigate.
The underground is absolute cancer. Every zone has forks and backtracking to something you missed takes far too long. It is extremely tedious.

I mean the game has been out 2 weeks and it's a 100 hour+ game. It's not that shocking that you are reaching burnout if you are nearing completion of everything at this point.

I have "only" 60 hours played. I'm still 1-2 shotting trash and the only boss fight that took more than 5 tries I think was Malenia. Most bosses are 1-2 attempts. I have a talisman that restores FP on kill so I can pretty much spam weapon art at this point against trash mobs.

Edit:
Godskin Duo was a one shot.
Malekith took two. He wrecked me at the start of phase two.

Running Hoarfrost Stomp - Offhand, Rot Breath with +9 Dragon Seal, and Malenia's Blade at +10 in Mainhead. +10 Mimic. It's complete cheese. Mimic killed the skinny Godskin on its own. Apply Rot Breath swap back to Hoarfrost Stomp. Just roll and stomp during openings. GG.

Maybe if it is complete cheese and you aren't enjoying it, try a different build? Intentionally make the game harder for yourself?

Finding a cheese comp and then complaining the game isn't hard enough seems kinda silly.

Nerak wrote:I’m about 35 hours in and I’ve not found a single illusionary wall. Am I blind? I’ve yet to leave ilmgrave.

I don't recall a single illusionary wall in Limgrave. First one I found was in Liurnia.

Edit: Regarding Siofra. There's two bosses in the first section. Both are lore appropriate for the zone and IIRC unique to underground zones.

Dreadwinter wrote:

Maybe if it is complete cheese and you aren't enjoying it, try a different build? Intentionally make the game harder for yourself?

Finding a cheese comp and then complaining the game isn't hard enough seems kinda silly.

I literally made no comment on the difficulty of the game.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Final boss is beautiful and the best in the game in terms of atmosphere at the least. It's worth playing just to get here. They really managed to capture the a certain feeling in this moment. It's like something out of The Silmarillion. It is epic, but in the truest, classical sense. Beowulf vs Grendel, but on a greater, far more significant (at least to the setting) scale.

Edit: And it's over. Age of Stars because I screwed up and clicked the wrong thing. >.< Faith works really well for the end fight with Holy Damage reduction.

 Nerak wrote:
I’m about 35 hours in and I’ve not found a single illusionary wall. Am I blind? I’ve yet to leave ilmgrave. Or I did but... well... I went to Siofra River. If you want to explore for yourself then DO NOT look that name up. For you who have found it, what’s your opinion? Location and story spoilers below.

Spoiler:

I was blown away by how the boss had the same abilities as Torrent. With the double jump I mean. Also the secret within the secret concerning dragon kin. I was quite simply blown away by this location and the fact that it was so ridiculously easy to miss

Edit: I had to sit back and think “why is this even here?”. Clearly a lot of effort went into making this place. I haven’t pieced togheter it’s story relevance yet but I guess that:
1, something is VERY wrong with the eardtree. The ancestral spirits want nothing to do with it. They do however want a new eardtree to grow. I guess the corrupt tree spirit things found around the game add to that. I found two in limgrave anyway.
2 a huge dragon kin civilization sprawled underground but crumbled because they failed to achieve immortality.
3 there is an older pantheon. It appears more nature focused and was probably usurped by the eardtree. Apparently this religion either predated smithing or it revers bone to the point of only using bones as it’s crafting material. (Appart from wood that is.)

Since I’m not so far in the story that stuff may be wrong. But I am interested to learn about the world of Elden ring from what I find.

The whole area is so far my favorite in the game. I love exploring it and it really is a super pretty area. It's super thematic and it's cool as you open up more of it to explore as you progress in the game.

I could live without the snipers, but after I figured out the best places to approach from, they were not too bad.

What are some good spots to runefarm?
Currently farming dogs in cealid for 2k a piece but they 2 shot me which is kinda tedious.

This is what I was doing to farm runes if I needed to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb67kHBNH7M

Imma try this though:
https://newworld.video.tm/elden-ring-best-rune-farm-3-million-runes-per-hour-fastest-leveling-and-xp-farm-in-elden-ring

Finished the capital and boy what a twist.

Swapped my Moonveil for an Uchigatana with Unseath set to cold damage. Now I can do bleed and cold build-up at once! Though honestly the most work I've been getting is from the spell I started with, Glintstone Blade.

This spell is absurd. It's not the cheapest but it has one huge advantage over basically every other spell I've found.

The direction your facing when you cast it doesn't matter. The spell begins tracking a target the moment it forms and you can shoot it while running away or kiting supremely easily. On top of that it does decent damage. This spell has been doing the bulk of my work ever since I realized how it actually works.

If you're at the capitol you should be able to get the Erdtree Greatshield + Fire Deadly's Sin combo which might actually get nerfed because I don't think it's intended at all. It's not as broken as some things, but it is hilarious and I think it specifically melts undead.

Edit:
I started a new game going Str/Faith, but using Hoarfrost/Rotten Breath/Lightning Spear until I get Ruins Greatsword. Skipping a lot of stuff.
Melted Radahn at level 70. Did Godrick and Rennala earlier. Not sure how meteor hits people...just move.

I think Altus is generally better than Limgrave/Liurnia in terms of dungeons. Sage's Grave surprised me, I missed it the first time.

I ran into my second big problem with Elden ring. The first was graphical issues when I installed it. I’m still quite early in the game. I found a walking mausoleum. Learned what it does (duplicate rememberances). Earlier I made Gotrics dragon head thing. Thought it was pretty cool so I wanted one more on my other hand. So I duplicated his rememberance, went back to the finger maiden and... I can’t make it. The dragon head is apparently limited to one. Either it’s one per play through or just flat out one. I honestly felt annoyed. I burned my duplication for an item I can’t get. After putting souls into being able to wield it. I have a hard time thinking of a reason for this. It’s not like it’s overpowered. Lore wise I doubt it matters. I just want my double dragon heads!

Question: does this apply to all boss weapons? That they are limited to only being made once I mean.