Poll of the Day > I'm replaying Elden Ring before the DLC releases

(+) Yeah! (+)

Zareth posted...

What's wrong with your weapon leveling along with you. Also, it's infinitely simpler than it used to be. Look at this chart.

Because by the end of the game you got like 100 of them and can only use like 1. You could easily fix this by getting rid of weapon upgrades and keeping enchantments. Using the same weapon for 50 hours is boring but it's kind of optimal with the amount of mats that you get. You can get more but only after you need them ex. after Godskin Duo you get the bell to buy more materials that you really could have used to experiment with solutions to the hardest boss in the game.

Perhaps something could drop that you could slot into your weapons like FF7 Materia to make them stronger. if you wanted to use a different weapon you could just make a materia loadout, maybe the Drake Sword would be more powerful but less materia slots.

Similarly, summons. You have to upgrade your summons or they are unusable and suck complete ass. So it's hard to keep multiple summons upgraded and that just railroads you into using the strongest all-purpose one over and over (mimic) again instead of a different one for each boss fight, as needed, since after all they have their own advantages.

I had this idea like 1 week after playing Elden Ring, but why not just have a summoning stat, if you level it you could use any summon at higher strength. If you want to play without summons you will be a little stronger to compensate.

I get that it's typical for RPGs to be one-direction just make a choice, make a build and live with it. But open world with so much loot it sucks that it's all useless.

did you just say godskin duo is the hardest boss

I should caveat, hardest non-optional boss and my most recent experience was a no summons melee build. which again was the most fun for me but this boss was the biggest pain in the ass.

Zareth posted...

Also, it's infinitely simpler than it used to be. Look at this chart.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/db388133.jpg

You beat me to it in that it's way less stupid than it used to be. Was worse than pre-Monster Hunter World monster hunter upgrade shit by far.

That said, as aces pointed out, it's still a rubbish system that doesn't actually allow you to experiment and keep multiple builds at the ready unless you grind yourself stupid, and even then it only becomes feasible when the game is nearly over and the point has vanished. It wants you to do it, teases you even (as with the summons), but doesn't allow itself to be done in a way that is practical or fun. It's bad game design, so so many aspects of the game and series.

"Game is bad because I have to commit to my decisions"

of all the legitimate faults with the game, the weapon system ain't it chief

https://twitter.com/ELDENRING/status/1792888227138769243

ConfusedTorchic posted...

of all the legitimate faults with the game, the weapon system ain't it chief

Do you have a legitimate counter to the accusations aside from "Nah"?

there isn't a need for a counter, the weapon system is fine because it just is

the idea that the game punishes you from experimenting due to stones being scarce is flat out not true, because you can literally just experiment. you don't know if you'll like this other weapon, so go to limgrave and fuckin use it lmao. you wasting stones upgrading something you don't even know if you'll like would be entirely your fault, not the games.

even if you didn't need bells and could just purchase them at will, it would still be completely pointless to spend the souls upgrading the weapon to end up not using it lmao

the game isn't preventing experimentation, your idea of experimentation is preventing you from experimenting.

ConfusedTorchic posted...

there isn't a need for a counter, the weapon system is fine because it just is

the idea that the game punishes you from experimenting due to stones being scarce is flat out not true, because you can literally just experiment. you don't know if you'll like this other weapon, so go to limgrave and fuckin use it lmao. you wasting stones upgrading something you don't even know if you'll like would be entirely your fault, not the games.

even if you didn't need bells and could just purchase them at will, it would still be completely pointless to spend the souls upgrading the weapon to end up not using it lmao

the game isn't preventing experimentation, your idea of experimentation is preventing you from experimenting.

Yikes, what a mess of a post.

And how exactly can one properly experiment without scaling the weapon in question to the one you are currently using? Especially with alt attack modes and all the variances that come with it? It's not just the feel, but the DPS as well.

Nah helly is right. You can equip any weapon regardless of your own stats. They may not work to their full effectiveness but you can still use them and get a feel for the movesets and shit. Not as difficult or as prohibitive as you think it is.

CyborgSage00x0 posted...

Yikes, what a mess of a post.

And how exactly can one properly experiment without scaling the weapon in question to the one you are currently using? Especially with alt attack modes and all the variances that come with it? It's not just the feel, but the DPS as well.

Aint reading all of that but ashes of war change how a weapon scales. The weapon abilities (2 hand equip, left trigger) are also a huge factor in how good a weapon is.

every time i do a new playthrough, i always think im using the best for my build and then i start fucking around and using shit Ive never used before and realize im sort of wrong, depending on the situation.

CyborgSage00x0 posted...

Yikes, what a mess of a post.

And how exactly can one properly experiment without scaling the weapon in question to the one you are currently using? Especially with alt attack modes and all the variances that come with it? It's not just the feel, but the DPS as well.

In other words "I don't choose a weapon because I like it, I choose it because I think I can find a secret OP min-max and the system is bad because it makes it harder for me to find said exploit."

The vast majority of weapons are just trade-offs with eachother, they suit people based on their playstyle. There is no intended use to looking for the most powerful weapon because they're supposed to be fairly balanced against eachother. If you just want to find the most OP combination you can just look it up online, if you want to play the game properly then you kind of can't go wrong just doing what you like.

Trying out weapons without upgrading them works fine in my experience. DPS isn't really a factor in games like this, what matters is how reliably you can land hits without getting hit back. Run the runebear/revenant/greatshield knight gauntlet with something and you'll get a sense of how effective it will be, regardless of damage numbers.

That said, I do get that there are players who like to change weapons frequently just for variety, and the system does hinder that playstyle. There are enough somber stones scattered around to support multiples, but if you try to upgrade more than 2 standard weapons you're going to struggle to bring a new one up to par until you find the bell bearings. Doesn't bother me personally, but it is a fair point to criticize.

ConfusedTorchic posted...

you can literally just experiment. you don't know if you'll like this other weapon, so go to limgrave and fuckin use it lmao. you wasting stones upgrading something you don't even know if you'll like would be entirely your fault

I don't want to experiment with weapons until I find the one to upgrade, I literally just want to use all of them with no investment.
If you think that doesn't make sense, think about armour, nobody is arguing that armour should require upgrades before you put it on your guy.
I don't see a point where you explain why it's good to require late game weapon drops to be upgraded 10 times to be viable in the late game.
I never said game is bad of course it's my favourite game since Dark Souls. Otherwise I would have bigger complaints than the upgrade system.

To my point, nobody is defending boss runbacks anymore but that was once a hot topic. Also Item Burden from Demons. Oh we need item burden cause X and Y reasons and if you remove it the game will be blah blah blah

acesxhigh posted...

I don't want to experiment with weapons until I find the one to upgrade, I literally just want to use all of them with no investment.

Okay, and just like other games when you want to dick about with no investment, mod it. This is a weird thing to expect of a game.

acesxhigh posted...

If you think that doesn't make sense, think about armour, nobody is arguing that armour should require upgrades before you put it on your guy.

Armour also doesn't do very much so it doesn't make a massive impact to gameplay.

acesxhigh posted...

I don't see a point where you explain why it's good to require late game weapon drops to be upgraded 10 times to be viable in the late game.

Because the enemy is strong, that doesn't mean the stuff they have is strong. Why should everything be perfectly suited to you upfront? The smith even serves a lore purpose that relies on you going to him to upgrade whatever you choose to use.

acesxhigh posted...

To my point, nobody is defending boss runbacks anymore but that was once a hot topic. Also Item Burden from Demons. Oh we need item burden cause X and Y reasons and if you remove it the game will be blah blah blah

They tried seeing if a classic RPG element worked in their first attempt and it didn't so they dropped it, it's not comparable.

Kyuubi4269 posted...

In other words "I don't choose a weapon because I like it, I choose it because I think I can find a secret OP min-max and the system is bad because it makes it harder for me to find said exploit."

The vast majority of weapons are just trade-offs with eachother, they suit people based on their playstyle. There is no intended use to looking for the most powerful weapon because they're supposed to be fairly balanced against eachother. If you just want to find the most OP combination you can just look it up online, if you want to play the game properly then you kind of can't go wrong just doing what you like.

That is the proper way to play a Soulslike game though.

Revelation34 posted...

That is the proper way to play a Soulslike game though.

Nah fashion over function for me

some people have very little imagination it seems!

acesxhigh posted...

If you think that doesn't make sense, think about armour, nobody is arguing that armour should require upgrades before you put it on your guy.

i do want this though

ConfusedTorchic posted...

i do want this though

Why?

why would someone want to make armor useful?

i wonder

Why did Mass Effect fix their shitty inventory after 1 game but Dark Souls has the same awful item menu from 10 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP9EOmSFbvk
VaatiVidya has a 34 minute Shadow of the Erdtree gameplay and lore video :0

Tag for later I wanna watch that

I ended up replaying. doing a dex build which is probably the hardest way to play tbh. I beat it before with dual great clubs and the poise dmg I did with jumping l1 was insane. with the uchigatana I feel like attacks take just as long and do about 1/4 of the damage...

acesxhigh posted...

I ended up replaying. doing a dex build which is probably the hardest way to play tbh. I beat it before with dual great clubs and the poise dmg I did with jumping l1 was insane. with the uchigatana I feel like attacks take just as long and do about 1/4 of the damage...

Do you have time to talk about our lord and savior Bloodhound's Fang?

Decided I wanted to try a Stone of Gurranq build this time, then remembered that Stone of Gurranq is like 2/3 of the way through the game

Sarcasthma posted...

Do you have time to talk about our lord and savior Bloodhound's Fang?

nah I'm going for the winged scythe and golden vow build. already have the scythe of course, just need to get my stats up. I pretty much pump every rune into vit until I get level 50 or so

Sarcasthma posted...

Do you have time to talk about our lord and savior Bloodhound's Fang?

Being a member of the Bloodhound's Gang pretty much carried me through the game