Lurker > HeroDelTiempo17

All the vendors I've found selling them so far have been limited and fairly expensive (about 4k per rune arc). Others can feel free to correct me on that.

Doing co-op is "free" though apart from the time investment. Doing summon pools in areas you outlevel can maybe be an easy way to farm - I was getting summoned in Weeping Peninsula in the late 30s/early 40s range by players demolishing things, easy runes.

They also drop from rats which is maybe more efficient if you have an area with a bunch of those. Idk the drop rate though. You'll want drop rate and/or Arcane buffs.

Overall it's a lot higher risk/reward than past Humanity mechanics due to scarcity and cost but it's a pretty big reward.

Once you activate it with its tower quest, you can equip it at a Grace menu. Then you have to pop a Rune Arc to turn its buff on and it lasts until you die.

If it's working you should see its symbol on the square by your health bar which will glow when active.

Even as a swordmage I put my vigor to 25 lol. A bit of overkill, especially with the +5 from the Great Rune, but I was just so sick of getting 1 and 2 shot by everything in melee.

My level is in the mid 40s so it's a little bit of a misplay as I am getting slightly behind on damage and FP and sorely underestimated how crazy high the endgame INT requirements would be but oh well.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I never went hard on magic in other Souls, is this the first time they've gone out of their way to make Int/Fth viable? The entire subset of light magic seems based around it.

Hexes in DS2 were Int/Faith and were busted as all hell until they were nerfed into the ground

xp1337 posted...

It wasn't until 2014 when Crimea was invaded and stolen that public opinion in Ukraine finally shifted to wanting to join NATO, which led to another new government that once more wanted to join NATO, now with much more urgency for obvious reasons. So if Russia's objective was to stop NATO expansion they literally pushed Ukraine from moving away from the idea to moving to a full sprint back towards it. And the reason was the same kind of revanchism that they're showing now.

I think you have the order of events backwards here or are missing a key piece of context. A new government forms before Russia invaded Crimea. There was a revolution where the pro-Russian Ukrainian government was replaced with a pro-EU, pro-NATO one. This is much much more about the EU but the pro-west, anti-Russia factor here makes it worth pointing out. This prompted Russia to refuse to recognize the interim government and annex Crimea. After that, public opinion shifts and Ukraine does democratically form a new permanent government with popular support of the people (minus Crimea).

I think what you're saying is ultimately right anyways, I'd just caution against using public opinion alone because there is an important series of events in which it doesn't matter at all. Public support of the Euromaidan protests and revolution is pretty much 50/50, and then after the dust settles Russia has not only shifted public opinion by doing an imperialism, but also the sample population of "Ukraine" has just had a lot of the opposing votes removed.

I mean hey Breath of the Wild does that too! It's just a hot fish guy instead of a turtle pope. I haven't forgotten how when that game came out people lost their minds about how you could fuck off to the danger zone and get owned by a Lionel or whatever. People were calling it "the Dark Souls of Zelda" because we were still calling things "the Dark Souls of" everything else.

Truly, we have come full circle.

Xiahou Shake posted...

Will be interesting to see how the BotW discourse changes after more people play/finish Elden Ring since it's also very much a game about exploration and yet the structure and content of it's world is lightyears away (and IMO beyond) what BotW has on offer. At the same time actually moving through BotW's world is still a pretty much unbeatable experience, that's definitely where it shines the brightest.

My thing with BotW's movement is that I don't think climbing and gliding are particularly fun on their own but the exploration can be. Being able to climb everything is a gamechanger, but once the joy and novelty wear off it's just another system. I've played games where the movement is more fun but BotW has a more sculpted game environment which is the real draw. Like...Arkham Knight has more fun gliding than BotW but if I could do Batman dives that totally changes exploration. Ultimately I think moving through BotW's game world still is entirely down to how you enjoy the world itself.

Haven't spent as much time with Elden Ring as Zelda but it's operating on a different axis with the same exploration principles. Your only movement tool is the horse but there's a surprising amount of dynamicism with it, with some similar situations as trying to outrun Guardians on Epona. Instead of climbing up mountains you are going down into dungeons and trying to find hidden nooks and crannies in a massive and dangerous world. Honestly, I said trying to storm Hyrule Castle underprepared was my favorite part of BotW and Elden Ring is a whole game of that.

I think the Divine Beast dungeons are pretty good, albeit short, but if you're not enjoying it now then it's not going to improve enough to be worth it. Also the Zora dungeon is the weakest anyways.

I do recommend making a beeline for Hyrule Castle and trying to make your way through it. By far the coolest and most fun thing I ever did was head straight to Hyrule Castle as soon as I got a horse. Nothing else compares.

CaptainOfCrush posted...

Also, I'm far from an expert, but the second phase of the Radahn fight might be one of the most Souls things to ever Souls.

I can't speak to Radahn yet but imo the current standard for "Soulsiest Souls Boss" is Sister Freide from the DS3 DLC. That fight is basically Soulsbourne Greatest Hits. It consists of:

THREE PHASES:
1) Straightforward 1v1 duel with some tricks, an invisibility gimmick
2) Her summoning another boss for a 2v1, one big guy and one little guy
3) Little guy getting a buff when big guy dies. BONUS - she's just Lady Maria now.

In terms of series cliches, hard to top!

Bane_Of_Despair posted...

Running a Dex heavy build with some Strength added in for wep requirements, and then the rest in endurance and a little in vigor. Still rocking the Bloodhound's Fang, +2 about to be +3 and I might have enough for +4? I'd have to check

PSA that there is a somber stone vendor in northwest Liurnia on the road to a castle that has unlimited 1/2s and limited 3/4s, so upgrading unique weapons to +4 is almost free in terms of resources. So if you need somber stones or have been holding off, go nuts.

Also the bloodhound blade is so cool, I have been eyeing it since I got it very early on but I just don't have the stats. I can wield it with my Great Rune buff but I have very little endurance to make it work. But it's SO sick.

My stats are a mess, as a swordmage I want VIG/MIND/END/DEX/INT (or sub STR/FAI if you want) and it's just...too much to focus on! I'm still hovering around RL40 though, this build will be a late bloomer. For now I am using a unique crystal sword I got to +4. It deals magic damage and has high raw stats with poor scaling, but is pretty boring otherwise, so it's basically a better version of DS1's Drake Sword. And...I'm just realizing I found it by a boss that is a knockoff of Capra Demon lmao.

The good thing about waiting so long to clear out southern Limgrave is that so did other people, and they're still summoning despite being overleveled, so doing summon pools there is easy rune arcs.

Not true for Limgrave proper where the pools all seem to be people summoning for Tree Sentinel and the dragon and immediately eating shit.

30+ hours into the game, I am exploring the Weeping Peninsula.

Man.

Really should have done this a while ago.

scarletspeed7 posted...

This is such an asinine statement. The tone of the 80-year-run of Batman comics is always gothic in tone. Hence Gotham City. I do blame people for not realizing what the subgenre of comic is and expecting a narrative that isn't in keeping with the tone of the character. It's like complaining that a story with Plastic Man is a comedy or a story with the Guardians of the Galaxy is sci fi or complaining that a story with Barry Allen is boring. That's the genre, that's the tone.

While this is true I think you would be hard pressed to claim that the Burton and Shumaker films are "grimdark" despite being clearly gothic. Batman comics have a wide range of tone to play around with but the live action movies have been pretty self-serious since Nolan. I think that's more what thr complaint is actually about.

Like the obvious point of comparison here is how movies and public perception continuously nix the supporting cast to make Batman a brooding loner - this is just something that has not been true for decades in the comics. In the comics, Batman is the ultimate dad! He's a wife guy! He's adopted like a dozen troubled teens!

You can still be dark despite that and it works. If I'm hopeful for this movie it's because there's been a lot of focus on other characters in the promotional materials so they might have realized Batman needs a good supporting cast to shine.

you don't have the right O you don't have the right
by the way
you don't have the right O you don't have the right

Grand Kirby posted...

You seem to only be able to invade someone who uses your invasion sign. So no more harassing random players who are just going about their day.

These are the duel summon signs, which have existed for a while. But there's also a random invasion consumable, which I guess only applies to people who use an item on their end to let people in?

Opt-in invasions is kinda weird because I feel like the only thing the system has going for it is the unpredictability. Bloodborne had a similarly weird system that split the difference - trying to summon help would also open you up to invasions at the same time. Is that what this is? I don't think I've found anything that allows me to be invaded, just invade.

Grand Kirby posted...

You'll need to use the finger items to see player summon signs. You might also need to activate the summoning pool statues... I think. You can also just place your summon sign, or use an item to send your sign to any nearby summoning pool.

I know for a fact you need to activate the summoning pools if you want to be summoned from them. I'd been ignoring a bunch because there is no visual indicator what they did and spent some time last night activating the ones I missed. So if the concept of being summoned into random areas sounds appealing to you then make sure to poke every one you find.

Yeah I know he's a writing machine and I don't expect him to retire since he seems to genuinely love it. Though if he did decide to give up on his insanely ambitious shared universe that will require his entire life to complete, I would be frustrated and sad but I could not exactly blame him.

I was mainly thinking "unfortunate accident." I knew he worked with a big team but not that he was training an assistant for writing duty!

I recently had to link my Steam account to my SE account which was not a thing in the past. Now I think I can only log into the launcher with that service account from that steam profile. I assumed they were possibly moving towards having them be interchangably linked but now I'm not sure.

I don't know enough about the PC/SE store version - did they previously have this one copy = one account restriction? It seems weird.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

This game is absolutely setup for Faith to make an insane first impression but for Int to be the craziest coolest endgame shit.

Looking forward to it!

Unrelated: has anyone been invaded by another player yet? I haven't so far in 35 hours which seems weird. Do you have to have a Rune Arc active, or is it completely decoupled from that like co-op summoning?

Even if he were to actually retire (which I don't think this is), my reaction would basically be "good for him"

RaidenGarai posted...

So glad I started reading Sanderson and stopped paying attention to GRRM a decade ago.

On the other hand, I'm not usually one for superstition but every time I see a Sanderson comparison like this I feel like we are courting disaster.

I find blocking to be marginally useful on bosses with big combo strings. You will save yourself one or two hits but also the attacks will shred your stamina and probably break your guard. Also, like Margit his phase 2 attacks are part magic (holy?) and deal a significant amount of chip damage.

I did finally find the Uchi though and had enough stones to get it to +6. Been using the magic crystal sword so far which I've also upgraded a few times by now. But maybe I should swap to the Uchi - I hear bleed is strong.

mccheyne posted...

So I found that aforementioned boss by accident lol. Fought him like, 10-15 times, havent won yet, but got him under half. Im only SL 20 though, I assume I have to be a touch higher to kill him? I feel like I have most of his pattern down (though that stomp frontal AOE still gets me at times), but my damage is so small.

Yeah some bosses have a ton of HP in this game. Also you've probably seen it if you've gotten under half but this guy has a phase 2 that can output even more damage. I'm like SL 40 and been putting this guy off, but that's because I'm a squishy mage.

MoogleKupo141 posted...

I didnt notice him leave, but when I found the girl he was there too.
And then he was back at the hub.
And now hes gone out again.

Yeah, this is what happened for me. I have not gone to try and track him down past that.

Although, also regarding his plotline and another NPC's: debaring just selling him out to the wolf man because that guy is way cooler...except now I can't find him!

UshiromiyaEva posted...

The guy who wanted me to find his tomboy sister is gone hmmmmm

I can't remember for sure but he might have disappeared for me too until I found the servant.

I know that, I'm a dex/int build, it's negligible so far. And trust me there is no amount of dex scaling that is gonna make Rock Blaster faster than a Great Glintstone Shard lol. But anyways it isn't just the speed but the damage as well, unless spells have unique INT scaling. But that isn't what I've heard, what I have heard is that Pebble is an endgame spell.

I'm feeling a lot better about my build now that I have the meteorite staff but Im still hunting for spells that outdo the bread and butter ones.

Hey someone was asking about what all those buff/dubuff icons mean right? Well I don't have a specific answer of how to tell but I did just see this

https://kotaku.com/elden-ring-fromsoftware-fia-deathbed-companion-debuff-s-1848603291

I haven't noticed a huge difference between light and medium equip load in this game, am I dumb?

I also have 0 good light armor, until I pump endurance my light load armor is the prisoner starting shirt and nothing else <_<

Kenri posted...

I want to back this but the reward tiers seem really overpriced. $100 is the lowest tier with a physical copy of the game??

This isn't that abnormal. I assume it's a limited run thing.

I was getting overwhelmed in Lucaria. Place is massive and the swamp is disorienting. Found a lot of cool stuff though I just have to hope I didn't miss anything vital.

Souls NPC quest lines have always been esoteric but it feels more awkward in such a big world. I progressed a questioned by wandering into a patch of swamp that afaik there was no indication would be the next step. And there's a lot to track, I can see why some reviewers recommended keeping a journal. I don't think quest markers match the style of the game but I have seen solutions floated like a menu that records all NPC dialogue or at least the important bits like "captain asshole said he was going to the douchebag castle" which I think would be keeping in the spirit of what they're doing.

Godrick down. Way easier than Margit lmao

I found my first hidden passage pointed out by a message after 19 hours in. I made a note of it!

My typical loadout has been Greater Pebble / Glintstone Arc / Magic Weapon which are reliable enough but super basic. I think the sword-summoning spell is also supposed to be good so once I get enough STR for this magic sword I found I'll try that.

MoogleKupo141 posted...

weird, I feel like Ive been kicking ass with sorceries and I dont have that meteor staff (I have the demihuman mother staff or something))

it does feel like a bunch of the spells Ive acquired have been total garbage though. Crystal blast and Crystal something else both seem super weak.

but the homing spell I started with, glintstone pebble, and glintsone arc have been serving me well

I've still got the starting staff so maybe that's the problem! I've upgraded it to +3 but I don't want to waste stones taking it further. But the only other one I've found in 20 hours is what I assume is the starting staff for the pure mage which doesn't seem worth the investment either. Everything is good in Limgrave but venturing outside of it I'm getting absolutely wrecked.

Either way the low number of viable sorceries is just a bummer! It sucks to get stuff that looks cool but is worse than pebble!

ctesjbuvf posted...

Sorcery is very beginner friendly though. Especially if you get the Wolves before doing anything to serious.

The summons have nothing to do with sorcery, it's not like they scale so everyone can use them. It's beginner-friendly but the problem I've run into is that I used a lot of level-ups on INT to get better scaling and spells, but then the spells turned out to be worse, and the levels would have been better spent pumping HP.

LordoftheMorons posted...

Yeah Autumn Vale gives a ton of xp. I guess theyve changed things to put the xp on the bosses now instead of trash, but you also used to be able to get a pretty decent amount of extra experience if you let the baby morbols hatch (like 5k each instead of 200ish).

Well no one ever let you do this so I guess it's functionally an improvement!

ninkendo posted...

I went and picked up the Meteorite staff early on since it has S rank scaling with INT and have been dunking on most things so far with my VIG/INT character

yeah after looking up what others are saying about sorcery this is also the conclusion I've come to

It just seems weird that the solution is "look up where a very specific item is and go to a very specific corner of the map" in order to make sorcery viable. Not that I have any issue with wiki diving in a FromSoft game, I just didn't expect to have to do it so early and for the reason that sorcery seems barely functional otherwise?

Also this still doesn't really explain the problem where advanced sorceries you can find are straight up less powerful than the very basic ones?

So I found an item that allows a respec but I don't know where to go to use it. Anyone know?

I'm going to rough it out a bit more with my Dex/Int character, but Sorcery seems pretty bad which is a bummer. If things don't improve soonish respeccing is a real possibility. I've played over 20 hours so it's kind of too late to start a new character and kill all my momentum.

Xiahou Shake posted...

Well that shows what I know! I'm still very curious about the obvious overlap with Arceus here, unless Arceus wasn't done by the main team and they were just using it as a testbed for next gen stuff?

I think that's probably what's happening. Two dev teams, one working on an experimental game (Arceus) while the other one makes a more traditional mainline game. They say it's open world but I'm guessing it'll lean more towards the Wild Area than Arceus.

this isn't a love triangle anymore they're just in a happy three-person relationship

zack can come too why not

I've only met him once but that was enough. I assume the next time you meet him is the place he tells you he's going.

Gonna be sad when he dies horribly as is tradition for Soulsbourne NPCs.

I've noticed no one has posted about Alexander.

Alexander is great.

Grand Kirby posted...

I think you're much more expected to get runes by selling and collecting the items than in the other FS games.

But what if I need them later???

I fucked around in Lucaria for quite a while but honestly the level progression still feels pretty weird. Most bosses or strong enemies I run into can one or two shot me and yet most things are barely dropping any runes.

Lmao at the miniboss in Albinaurics Village that is straight up Capra Demon reskin in a bigger room.

This SHOULD be easy except he one shots me so. At the very least I gotta respect the meme.

I think my main issue with sorcery is that it seems to do way too little damage? I don't really understand. I saved up enough rumes to boost my int to 22 and buy Glintblade Phalanx, the homing soulmass equivalent because those are always fun. And it just straight up deals less damage, takes longer to cast, and uses more FP than just spamming Great Glinstone Shard. I got another one called Rock Blast that is a cool giga drill shockwave...that takes 500 years to come out and deals as much damage as GGS for 3x the FP. What gives!?

Maybe I just need to go bum around Raya Lucracia until I find something that makes this work.

GANON1025 posted...

Yeah I see stars... and glowing blue minotaur enemies.... ... I just wanted one more Smithing Stone [1]! Which I STILL havent found

Have you been to Limgrave Tunnels? It's at the northernmost point of the swamp, directly south of Gatefront Ruins. Lots of Smithing Stone [1] in there.

Well

You're probably under the rest of the map

masterplum posted...

Found a 16 str 16 Dex 24 Faith scythe

dont care if its good or not my paladin is going for it

Why is everything cool in this game faith

I feel so baited by Prisoner.

I found an area that probably has good things for sorcery builds but its in the red swamp and I hate it!

Oh my god what is this fuckery

I got owned by a trap in the swamp.

The trap teleported me into a dungeon full of nigh unkillable crystal centipede mans. Also, because it is a dungeon, I cannot warp back out.

This is bullshit of the highest order. It is kinda funny. But still bullshit.

Grand Kirby posted...

When I got there I was like, "I really don't think I'm supposed to be in the area". That feeling got confirmed when I barely scratching any of the enemies and got two-tapped by some lightning balls.

I thought the same but used the horse to fuck around a bit in that area and was suspecting maybe that was intended until I found a more open segment with more tough enemies and a map that goes UNDERNEATH the main one and that's when I realized I was truly out of my depth

Whoaaaaa Siofra River

If you know, you know

IMO the biggest tip if you're struggling on tougher enemies is to use the ash summons. They draw aggro and confuse enemies while letting you get hits in, and unlike player summons they don't increase enemy stats. It's great to know if I am ever struggling with a boss I can say fuck it and summon three wolves.