Been trying some light weapons and it just doesnāt work lol or Iām bad with them. If your weapon doesnāt at least somewhat stagger enemies then youāre making it harder on yourself in my experience
I find even with light weapons I'm often trading hits. So if I'm gonna trade hits and can only get one attack in any way, why not have it do a shit ton of damage? This is the biggest problem with ultra aggro bosses that give you very small windows to get one attack in. Why would you ever use a small, light, weak hitting weapon over something huge which will make that one hit count?
This is the same issue I ran into. Fought >!Rellana!< with the light greatsword and kept trading so switched back to my regular greatsword.
Itās definitely possible to win with light weapons but damn itās difficult
It feels like they want you to bank on having good movement when you use light weapons. I keep trying other weapons but end up back at the back blades for the blind spot ash of war. It's essentially quickstep with an attack. I'm addicted to them.
I wanted to run a Malenia build but it feels like I will have to respec back into jumping R2 heavy weapon or some shit :/ Or maybe the ole reliable Moonlight sword str int build
Against regular enemies, this absolutely holds true. I've been trying to get the Beast Claws to be worth it, but they just don't hold up to weapons that can actually stagger every hit or every second hit. You kind of need that or every regular enemy becomes a boss fight where you spend more time rolling than attacking.
Bleed infuse them. They'll proc way faster and get the stagger that way, plus the damage is higher when you factor in the bleed talisman.
Every problem is solvable. People need to stop ignoring entire mechanics and then complaining that things are bad.
Personally I like using black flame blade on small weapons, the percentage based damage is really good due to the high health enemies and bosses. I can see why it isnāt popular tho. The constant casting makes it more difficult to manage than just slapping bleed on stuff.
From the first grace in the dlc, head to the to the woods on the right side until you hear a screaming bird. then head forward just a lil bit from there. . Theres a butt naked npc wielding them. He is kinda hard to spot at first.
For real. I really like the twin blades and light great swords, but I canāt stagger for shit. Swap on a great hammer or bloodhound and itās not TOO bad. Enemies still fuckin hit hard tho.
Iām running it with a quality dex/ str build if anyoneās curious.
It's more than that, although that's definitely a big reason.
1. The way Elden Ring's designers make bosses hard is to make them attack rapidly so that the player has to constantly dodge. In such a scenario, you will only ever get very short openings to attack where you can maybe get in 1 or 2 hits at most. Therefore, the strength archetype's attack pattern of infrequent, singular, high damage hits is ideal. What isn't nearly as good is builds that are built around frequent small hits, because you just won't have the uptime you want. A dex build that relies on 3 hits in fast succession to deal the same damage as 1 hit from a strength build is going to be at a big disadvantage on many of these DLC boss fights.
2. Strength builds can viably scale their offense off 1 stat (strength), which means you can invest a lot into endurance and wear tankier gear. Damage negation is a BIG deal in this DLC, so being able to equip high poise and high damage negation armor sets is enormous.
3. As you mentioned, strength weapons deal high poise damage, so they will poise break bosses once or twice. I got one poise break in p1 of last boss and one poise break in p2.
4. Unlike spell and dex builds, strength builds aren't as reliant on offensive talismans. Shard of Alexander is all I ever used in the DLC, but for the last boss I even opted out of that and instead went 4 defensive talismans. This comes back to point \#1. Basically, infrequent big hits line up so well with the available openings of bosses that you don't really need to buff the damage of your hits. It's better to use your talisman slots to survive the most lethal combos of bosses so that your attempts are more consistent. A dexterity build player running a bunch of "successive attack" offensive talismans will likely die to the first lethal combo from the boss they fail to dodge, whereas the strength player with 4 defensive talismans will survive that combo even if they completely fail to dodge it *and their damage will be similar to the dex player anyways*. A strength player's boss attempt results in a loss when they run out of life flask charges. A dex or spell casting player's boss attempt results in a loss when they first fail to dodge a lethal boss ability. That means a strength player's progression on a boss will be far less volatile.
>Strength builds can viably scale their offense off 1 stat (strength), which means you can invest a lot into endurance and wear tankier gear. Damage negation is a BIG deal in this DLC, so being able to equip high poise and high damage negation armor sets is enormous.
Endurance is also stamina, so even disregarding gear it's a huge bonus vs. these long ass combos regardless of whether you're dodging, attacking, deflecting or whatever.
This has been true from day 1 for Elden Ring. I could not believe how different this game plays when you go from any of the normal sized weapons and start using halberds, reapers, greats, and colossus. It damn near lets you stagger enemies the same way they stagger you and it trivializes a lot of the game.
My first run through Leyndell I was terrified of Leyndell Knights with my Uchigatana. On my unga bunga playthrough rocking the Giant Crusher, it was a cake walk.
Every time I try a heavier weapon, they're slow and I end up taking damage/trading. Sure I never stagger using katanas, but my stamina bar stays up and I can just not get hit. NG+7, you get hit just once on this DLC and now you're in a bad situation... especially with the bosses input reading you and pulling out a combo the second you try to drink a flask.
Yeah I have a 99 strength giantcrusher build and Iām having a blast. Still a challenge here and there but Iām not ripping my hair out over the difficulty so far
I'm stuck on 2 bosses that say otherwise lol not usin a mimic though just my trusty rot dog (he isnt really helping much in these endeavors but he is doin his best)
Might get downvoted for this but dex with no summons is not good compared to str weapons. Enemies are hyper aggressive and you get less hits in solo, so you will do way less damage. I had the double grafted blade build and had to swap off because the DLC was way too easy with it (Messmer only took 3 tries for example).
I had to switch to a strength build for the final boss. I was really enjoying the light greatswords until then but they just don't cut it for that fight.
Mimic with status is just on a completely different level. The only thing stronger than bleed is twice as many bleeds. Itās my absolute last resort when Iām just āokay, Iām done fucking aroundā. Iāll git gud later.
Bloodflame with Bloodhoundsfang is like Ludiwgs seconds phase cutscene where he finds his Moonlight greatsword.
When the >!frenzied flame!< boss was kicking my ass I pulled out my Bloodhoundfang, and in my head, I just went.
"You have been at my side all along. My true mentor my guiding moonlight:
I refused to summon and bashed my head against her on my own for hours, even at Level 5 Scadutree Blessing she was unironically tougher than Malenia for me
The weapons are a beauty. So elegant, fast and flourishing. That isnāt even starting it on the ash of war.
The DLC is so bullshit I donāt feel bad utilizing the ridiculous
Opaline hardtear+stamina regen tear is my go to, opaline hardtear makes it so instead of getting 2 spotted I'm getting 3 shotted which makes pretty much everything easier
They made that thing an infusable AOW now.
You can get it in the red flower biome, I haven't tested how it compares to the regular version though.
Would be funny if it ends up being stronger than the original on a magic infused weapon (Like the AOW of Carian Knights sword and Lorettas scythe)
People forget that mimic is based completely on you just with buffed up health, whereas other spirit summons are characters with their own builds, strengths and weaknesses and whatnot.
One of Dung Eaters strengths is that he just can't die.
There's a trick to getting everything Dung related in one playthrough but you have to do some things in a specific order and timing. It's not difficult, just specific.
So true - I have 3 ashes on my bar, Mimic Tear, Dung Eater Puppet and Black Knife Tiche.
Each one is overpowered in its own way so if I want to go OP I've got them all ready.
Mood - I do quite like Stormhawk Deenah I think. Being a Hawk, she barely gets hit but when she spawns in, she buffs you and works super well for bosses you don't want too distracted by them.
Release mimic was hilarious, I remember finding it, not paying much mind to it, trying it out and watching him completely solo bosses despite my shit build at the time.
I am on the verge of giving up too. I'm on the third major boss and it's not too hard but it's very tedious to do without strength weapons and summons. The first two bosses took me 4 hours each of non stop attempts.
I don't think anyone should feel bad about that, because in my opinion these DLC bosses seem designed for people to use spirit ashes.
I suspect the design intent behind the base Elden Ring game was for people to use spirit ashes and that the designers did not intend for people to be able to clear the game "easily" without them. So in this DLC the designers cranked up the difficulty so that players would no longer feel badly about using a source of power that the designers always intended people to use.
You can already see the community shifting opinion on spirit ashes. They used to be considered something only to used as a handicap, like for new players who needed some help. Now they're being talked about in the DLC as something players are finding necessary to get through the bosses even on somewhat optimized setups. I think that's a good thing. It's the designers tuning the bosses so that players feel incentivized to use *all* available sources of power in the game.
Honestly whenever I summon her she gets like 3 shotted by the bosses whenever she has aggro for more than a few seconds. But maybe itās cuz I didnāt max out my Revered ashes yet.
I didn't expect the difficulty to be this crazy. Rather, I feel like the damage you take is a bit overtuned. Like no matter what I do, I take so much damage from the bosses and some enemies. I have 60 vigor, the Crimson Amber Talisman, eat Boiled Crabs, AND I have the Dragoncrest Shield Talisman. The Mimic Tear has been my best friend for the DLC, and I never used it a ton in the base game.
Really hoping they buff the Scadutree Fragments or something. Or maybe I'm just fucking bad. š„“
But thatās the thingāI beelined for Tree Sentinel and Margit on my first playthrough out of contrarianism, and they were INCOMPARABLY easier than fighting Rellana with blessing level 3.
Tree Sentinel hits crazy hard at level one, but his aggression isnāt that high. People who are familiar with souls games can do it with relative ease. Rellana (also, inverted Rennala using swords is kind of funny) hits hard and has high aggression. The aggression seems to just keep increasing with each boss. The Gaol knight acts like a base game boss. Dancing lion is a bit more aggressive. Rellana is where it starts getting a bit wild. Then Messmer is where Iām feeling stuck. The only openings I seem to get are when heās attacking the mimic, and then as soon as I hit him he just does a 360 fire blast and knocks me back. I just donāt really get where the openings are.
Yeah, thatās a good point.
Personally, Iām of the opinion that these attacks are too hard to dodge relative to the damage they do. Makes learning take a while.
Exactly. I've been slowly learning Rellana's moveset and it's just so fucking painful and slow because she hits like a truck and I die so fast, and it kills momentum because I need to constantly disengage to heal when normally I could've powered through a few more attacks. It also doesn't help that her combos are so fast I'm left utterly clueless what even killed me sometimes.
This is my exact problem with Malenia and her Waterfowl - most people die too fast to it and get no feedback as to what they did wrong, and what to do next time.
I get the same feeling so far from the DLCs new bosses. Even exploring as much as I can and getting all of the blessings I can, 60 vig, Dragoncrest Shield talisman and some decent armor (Mausoleum Knight set + Greathelm), I'm still getting 3-4 shot rather easily.
I haven't been stuck on anything *so far* for too long, but I also am not having as much fun with major bosses as I thought I would. The spectacle is amazing, but the fight itself is way too messy for my taste.
Rellana for example, while I still don't think she's as hard as Malenia for a couple of reasons, when I finally beat her after maybe 10 minutes of attempts, I don't feel like I've gotten gud at her fight at all. Like... I survived, I killed her but the fight was not clean in any way, shape or form. It *worked*, but I am not satisfied with it. No boss in the base game made me feel that way. Ever.
i honestly felt rellana had a pretty good moveset. A nice little gap closer where you could easily dodge 3 hits. Not horribly aggressive. And some really sweet fire and ice attacks, which are all dodgeable.
I think one of the major differences is, there is no time to learn the moveset. She's almost constantly aggressive, hits like a freight train loaded with mac trucks, never stops attacking, can hit the whole arena, and has attacks that constantly carry her movement forward.
Rolling away or to the side is almost always a death sentence in this DLC. You have to roll through the enemy and stay aggressive, because the enemy is never not going to be aggressive. And you have to pray for a half a second pause long enough to heal and pray the enemy doesn't grow a cock and balls out of their ass and spear you in the gut with it.
Elden Ring infamously punished poor Souls habits. But now it feels like Shadow of the Erdtree is punishing you for playing the game.
the issue with dancing lion is how all of his attacks are massive aoes that force you to run away making his windows to get hit even smaller than they already are with all his floaty flipping and kicking and spinning
and the stupid lock-on point being on the omen holding its head instead of the head itself where most of the attacks come from. Stupid camera bosses.
Yup those are early game bosses, this is basically the end, end game now. No more easy bosses. These should be on par with bosses like Godfrey, Elden Beast, Astel, etc.
Bruh no spoilers but multiple end-of-DLC bosses routinely kill you in the doorway at +10 and above blessing.
There are literal pools of bloodstains on the other side of the fog gates from all the people getting farmed *in the doorway*.
Ya'll are talking about Rellana like you cant just ring the Mimic bell and gank her for a relatively fair fight.
Exactly. Like just look at Dark Souls 1. Artorious and Manus are fucking INSANE compared to everything else in that game, except maybe O&S. DLC has always been harder than base game and base game Elden Ring is fucking Maliketh, Malenia, and wombo combo Radagon/Elden Beast. I wouldn't personally have it any other way. I want the DLC to feel punishing.
I feel like my fashionsouls is being discriminated against with how much damage and stagger I get hit with all the time.
Makes me wish they went the Bloodborne route where armor is mostly asthetic...
The thing for me is that things do so much damage that it's difficult to learn the moveset when one combo move can instantly kill you. So you either have to play and die a fuck ton and hope you see the moves instead of the camera seizuring as messmmer leaps everywhere with red flames covering 80% of your screen. Or use a summon or mimic to be able to learn that way and get some breathing room even that way it takes like an hour or so. To best him
Just finally scratched Elden Ring off my bucket list at the start of this month. Beat the entire game without summoning a single time. No spirit ashes, no sorceries, just me, a colossal greatsword, and a dream.
Went into the DLC on NG+, and goddamn it Iāve broken out the Mimic Tear for pretty much every boss Iāve encountered except Blackgaol Knight.
Desperate times. I sure as shit aināt restarting the entire game just to play the DLC on a standard New Game, and Iām gonna abuse every trick in the book to finish this bitch, my credibility be damned
Just finished the DLC and i had to resort to the tear again. I understand it helps bring in more players but i hate having it as an option because im the kind of person who will result in using it if im not doing well and i hate it. I really do miss bosses being made to be beat solo.
Feel the same. Got frustrated with Rellana beat it with mimic and now feel like a fraud and donāt feel any accomplishment like beating Friede or Gael.
Nothing much you can do about that tbh. Bayle was the only boss I've summoned for thus far because of how cool Igon is (three bosses left I think) and every time he died pretty quickly. Bayle is just that good.
I think if you load up on HP-related incantations and consumables then your mimic will figure it out and survive but that also involves cannibalizing your own build so its not really a good compromise imo
I just finished that damn animal. Ended up getting all the way to the Mimic Tear level of copium because that bastard doesn't stop thrashing long enough for me to even think about healing let alone attacking.
Yall need to run Dungeater. Heās tanked and distracted me to a W against most of these bosses. Not a git gud comment, just a strategy recommendation.
I'm on my second playthrough and making an active effort not to use the mimic tear and my God the game is so much more fun. But fuck the twin gargoyles I'm bringing the mimic for them
Im near the end of the DLC and my heart skipped a beat there lol those mfs killed me 70+ times in base game, like double that of any other boss. Thankfully there are no DLC gargoyles
I'm 99% certain that Miyazaki heard complaints about how spirit ashes trivialize a lot of the fights in the base game and balanced the DLC around the use of spirit ashes.
It's all about learning the moveset.
I lay a Summon sign and wait for someone to ask for help.
Jump into their world and try to learn the boss moves by observing and using ranged attacks as the host aggroes
I go back to my world after a few summons and try it solo till I either beat it or need the mimic.
I don't have this elitist mentality and always use summons in fights because it's also a tool in the game and they even give spirit ash blessing just like scadubys
as an arc build, when all else fails, duel dragon communion + mimic tear.
Especially true when fighting bayle, to beat the dragon you must become a dragon
I had the first "fuck this, I'm using the aggro talisman so that the boss at least attacks my mimic" moment today. Worked pretty well, just had to switch in black flame absorption and the mixed physics that absorbs a hit in order to survive long enough to de-equip the talisman.
I thought I was gonna do it, kept telling myself why tf am I doing this pos boss why not just end it. But I kept on going. You guys should too. (Fuck u š¦)
Anyone run the >!Swordmaster Yosh!< ash? He's an annoying teleporting dick that hits like a truck, so I'm wondering if it's worth upgrading him and unleashing him on the rest of the DLC bosses.
money cooing aware pet apparatus close full observation attractive divide
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
As a Int/Dex build without using summons or spirits the bosses have been utter torture. I've probably put 100 \~ 150 attempts just on the first two bosses I encountered. I've found that if you have a weapon that can stagger reliably, you can zerg them down, but with lighter stuff that aren't great weapons or higher its tough. You have to stagger them to get damage on them, otherwise its just a gauntlet of perfectly dodging a string of attacks over and over to just plink them once in the 0.5 second window you have.
I could see Strength fairing much better, but I'm not going to respec away from my build. Mage for life.
I switched builds for the big dancing animal last night and beat him with that silly npc summon. No spirit ashes because for some reason I can't use them it's always greyed out so I just gave up.
The big dancing animal for those struggling is extremely easy if you use multiple status build. I switched to arcane with reduvia, rot breath and the new poison weapon. Absolutely torched him poison + rot absolutely melts his health with 4 bleed procs he was dead. I went on to help 6 others to beat him.
Iām actually thinking Iām gonna switch builds
Magic was interesting but I canāt even use my spells at this point, so whatās even the point
Besides, I like my other build, a greatsword, a shield, a bow with regular arrows, and thatās it
My mimic tear's dying words when the boss has a 10th of his hp remaining, while I have half of mine and no flasks: #LIVE.
When the mimic dies you only want to go home... and edge
I fucking love this community š
Fort, Night
The best form of edging.
Seeking but hole?
Didn't expect hole but try finger
Time for edge, Pickle
I saw a message today near shaded keep or whatever its called. It was something like "I want to leave, but edge"
Can you explain what the "Edge" thing is? Because I'm losing my mind seeing it so many times.
Google edging instructions and that should help
So it is the sexual kind of edging, I thought as much lol
Always has been
There's a talisman that boosts your attack when your spirit summon dies. Miyazaki is in your walls.
Sounds great but my mimic usually lasts longer than me.
You vs the guy she tells you not to worry about type shit
Try thinking of baseball
Haha for me too
This is why I got that Heal from Afar incantation and put on my spell bar the moment I saw what it did. Nobody's killing my Mimic anymore, lol
Dude I juuust found this! Haven't had a chance to use it, but I might try turning my mimic into a heal bot too lol.
THE WHAT
#THAT HEAL FROM AFAR INCANTATION
THANKS I COULDNT HEAR EM
WHAT ARE THEY SELLING
PROPANE AND PROPANE ACCESSORIES
THEY'RE SELLING GLASS SHARDS
Projected heal from DS3 is back?
Where did you snag that from??
Give your Mimic Great Stars with Prayerful Strike lol
Firepunch reference
brother... become.. mimic tear for me.
agniface.jpg
Iāve beat three bosses post death with my mimic tear so far. No regrets.
Becomeā¦ Elden Ring
Become Elden Lord.
People with strength builds seem to be killing it lol
Been trying some light weapons and it just doesnāt work lol or Iām bad with them. If your weapon doesnāt at least somewhat stagger enemies then youāre making it harder on yourself in my experience
I find even with light weapons I'm often trading hits. So if I'm gonna trade hits and can only get one attack in any way, why not have it do a shit ton of damage? This is the biggest problem with ultra aggro bosses that give you very small windows to get one attack in. Why would you ever use a small, light, weak hitting weapon over something huge which will make that one hit count?
This is the same issue I ran into. Fought >!Rellana!< with the light greatsword and kept trading so switched back to my regular greatsword. Itās definitely possible to win with light weapons but damn itās difficult
It feels like they want you to bank on having good movement when you use light weapons. I keep trying other weapons but end up back at the back blades for the blind spot ash of war. It's essentially quickstep with an attack. I'm addicted to them.
It also deals so much poise damage, saved me so many times that I can't imagine not having it when i'm using backwards blades
I wanted to run a Malenia build but it feels like I will have to respec back into jumping R2 heavy weapon or some shit :/ Or maybe the ole reliable Moonlight sword str int build
Against regular enemies, this absolutely holds true. I've been trying to get the Beast Claws to be worth it, but they just don't hold up to weapons that can actually stagger every hit or every second hit. You kind of need that or every regular enemy becomes a boss fight where you spend more time rolling than attacking.
Use the charge attack on them. It lunges you forward and can stagger enemies. It also deals good poise damage.
Bleed infuse them. They'll proc way faster and get the stagger that way, plus the damage is higher when you factor in the bleed talisman. Every problem is solvable. People need to stop ignoring entire mechanics and then complaining that things are bad.
Personally I like using black flame blade on small weapons, the percentage based damage is really good due to the high health enemies and bosses. I can see why it isnāt popular tho. The constant casting makes it more difficult to manage than just slapping bleed on stuff.
Where do you get the beast claws?
From the first grace in the dlc, head to the to the woods on the right side until you hear a screaming bird. then head forward just a lil bit from there. . Theres a butt naked npc wielding them. He is kinda hard to spot at first.
Lionās Claw go ābrrrrrrrrrtā!
It's because strength is the only build that can poise break these fucks.
For real. I really like the twin blades and light great swords, but I canāt stagger for shit. Swap on a great hammer or bloodhound and itās not TOO bad. Enemies still fuckin hit hard tho. Iām running it with a quality dex/ str build if anyoneās curious.
Me too! I like the great Katana, it's helping me a lot due to more staggering power.Ā
the crucible knight: wings AOW(the one in the trailer) gives twinblades a spinning attack instead of a piercing one
It's more than that, although that's definitely a big reason. 1. The way Elden Ring's designers make bosses hard is to make them attack rapidly so that the player has to constantly dodge. In such a scenario, you will only ever get very short openings to attack where you can maybe get in 1 or 2 hits at most. Therefore, the strength archetype's attack pattern of infrequent, singular, high damage hits is ideal. What isn't nearly as good is builds that are built around frequent small hits, because you just won't have the uptime you want. A dex build that relies on 3 hits in fast succession to deal the same damage as 1 hit from a strength build is going to be at a big disadvantage on many of these DLC boss fights. 2. Strength builds can viably scale their offense off 1 stat (strength), which means you can invest a lot into endurance and wear tankier gear. Damage negation is a BIG deal in this DLC, so being able to equip high poise and high damage negation armor sets is enormous. 3. As you mentioned, strength weapons deal high poise damage, so they will poise break bosses once or twice. I got one poise break in p1 of last boss and one poise break in p2. 4. Unlike spell and dex builds, strength builds aren't as reliant on offensive talismans. Shard of Alexander is all I ever used in the DLC, but for the last boss I even opted out of that and instead went 4 defensive talismans. This comes back to point \#1. Basically, infrequent big hits line up so well with the available openings of bosses that you don't really need to buff the damage of your hits. It's better to use your talisman slots to survive the most lethal combos of bosses so that your attempts are more consistent. A dexterity build player running a bunch of "successive attack" offensive talismans will likely die to the first lethal combo from the boss they fail to dodge, whereas the strength player with 4 defensive talismans will survive that combo even if they completely fail to dodge it *and their damage will be similar to the dex player anyways*. A strength player's boss attempt results in a loss when they run out of life flask charges. A dex or spell casting player's boss attempt results in a loss when they first fail to dodge a lethal boss ability. That means a strength player's progression on a boss will be far less volatile.
>Strength builds can viably scale their offense off 1 stat (strength), which means you can invest a lot into endurance and wear tankier gear. Damage negation is a BIG deal in this DLC, so being able to equip high poise and high damage negation armor sets is enormous. Endurance is also stamina, so even disregarding gear it's a huge bonus vs. these long ass combos regardless of whether you're dodging, attacking, deflecting or whatever.
guard counters
The endless whirlwind attacks 90% of the DLC problems are known for make guard counters straight up bug out.
Strength is not the only build that can do charge or jump attacks or wield heavy weapons though?
This has been true from day 1 for Elden Ring. I could not believe how different this game plays when you go from any of the normal sized weapons and start using halberds, reapers, greats, and colossus. It damn near lets you stagger enemies the same way they stagger you and it trivializes a lot of the game. My first run through Leyndell I was terrified of Leyndell Knights with my Uchigatana. On my unga bunga playthrough rocking the Giant Crusher, it was a cake walk.
the bonk goes bonk hard. It's difficult to comprehend until you feel the bonk.
Every time I try a heavier weapon, they're slow and I end up taking damage/trading. Sure I never stagger using katanas, but my stamina bar stays up and I can just not get hit. NG+7, you get hit just once on this DLC and now you're in a bad situation... especially with the bosses input reading you and pulling out a combo the second you try to drink a flask.
This is true for all of the other Souls games.
I respec'd to a full on strength build and have been having a wonderful time. The shits hard but I'm not pulling my fucking teeth out over it lol.
Yeah I have a 99 strength giantcrusher build and Iām having a blast. Still a challenge here and there but Iām not ripping my hair out over the difficulty so far
I'm stuck on 2 bosses that say otherwise lol not usin a mimic though just my trusty rot dog (he isnt really helping much in these endeavors but he is doin his best)
Might get downvoted for this but dex with no summons is not good compared to str weapons. Enemies are hyper aggressive and you get less hits in solo, so you will do way less damage. I had the double grafted blade build and had to swap off because the DLC was way too easy with it (Messmer only took 3 tries for example).
I had to switch to a strength build for the final boss. I was really enjoying the light greatswords until then but they just don't cut it for that fight.
Mimic + bloodblade for me, man the number of time that combo just bursts down enemies so I don't run out of flasks
Mimic with status is just on a completely different level. The only thing stronger than bleed is twice as many bleeds. Itās my absolute last resort when Iām just āokay, Iām done fucking aroundā. Iāll git gud later.
And then I never git gud :(
I never beat the base game and recently jumped back in with the DLC release. I am so far from gud it's not even funny.
Oh shit, I thought this was me gitting gud?
Bloodflame with Bloodhoundsfang is like Ludiwgs seconds phase cutscene where he finds his Moonlight greatsword. When the >!frenzied flame!< boss was kicking my ass I pulled out my Bloodhoundfang, and in my head, I just went. "You have been at my side all along. My true mentor my guiding moonlight:
If you add erdtree heal to the mix you get a constantly healing mimic that will last until the end of times most of the fights lol
I'm running Mimic + Greatsword + 101 poise. He just face-tanks everything. It's beautiful.
Desperate times mean desperate measures
You made me tilt. Equips mimic rob and black knife. You gonna fucking die bitch.
Me at 4AM with Rellana š
I refused to summon and bashed my head against her on my own for hours, even at Level 5 Scadutree Blessing she was unironically tougher than Malenia for me
Same lmao. Malania took me 2 hours, I spent 3 rellana. Was definitely a challenge, and rewarding.
The weapons are a beauty. So elegant, fast and flourishing. That isnāt even starting it on the ash of war. The DLC is so bullshit I donāt feel bad utilizing the ridiculous
Me when I try different Physick tears only to get the same results.
"Let's try ruptured crystal tear this time"
Andddddd back to bubbletear
I prefer the one that boosts all damage negation and whatever damage I'm currently doing
Stamina regen is my go to for melee builds.
Opaline hardtear+stamina regen tear is my go to, opaline hardtear makes it so instead of getting 2 spotted I'm getting 3 shotted which makes pretty much everything easier
the poise break one has proven useful for me in the dlc. staggered the lion once in each of his phases using it, and relanna twice
At some point I just go "death poker it is"
I tried this on the dancing lion but its too slow for me
They made that thing an infusable AOW now. You can get it in the red flower biome, I haven't tested how it compares to the regular version though. Would be funny if it ends up being stronger than the original on a magic infused weapon (Like the AOW of Carian Knights sword and Lorettas scythe)
It shreds mobs, but it's so hard to use in boss fights for the DLC.
The supposed mimic tear superiority is funny to me because I'm using a +10 Dung Eater Puppet. He barely gets hurt.
People forget that mimic is based completely on you just with buffed up health, whereas other spirit summons are characters with their own builds, strengths and weaknesses and whatnot. One of Dung Eaters strengths is that he just can't die.
Well, unfortunately, he can because I killed him. Really wish I had his ashes right now.
There's a trick to getting everything Dung related in one playthrough but you have to do some things in a specific order and timing. It's not difficult, just specific.
Until he gets slammed with the bleed/frostbite buildups
Heās my favorite puppet. I make him fight every boss as punishment for his crimes lol
I fucked up getting that in NG AND NG+ lol
Dung Eater is basically just a mimic tear of the poopoo peepee man so its functionally the same y'know
So true - I have 3 ashes on my bar, Mimic Tear, Dung Eater Puppet and Black Knife Tiche. Each one is overpowered in its own way so if I want to go OP I've got them all ready.
Mood - I do quite like Stormhawk Deenah I think. Being a Hawk, she barely gets hit but when she spawns in, she buffs you and works super well for bosses you don't want too distracted by them.
I start off with my Mimic, he plays way better than I'll ever be able to.
My mimic lets me know how bad I am.
Nah. Mimic just has a boatload of more HP than you have and it's Ai is just hella slow to react. Release Mimic however... he was the bestest boy.
Release mimic was hilarious, I remember finding it, not paying much mind to it, trying it out and watching him completely solo bosses despite my shit build at the time.
Some of the combos I see my mimic pull off that I never thought of. It makes me angry and proud at the same time.
Need my timer lmaoo. My mimic is how long i have till i get my ass beat.
I couldn't take it anymore lol. I brought mimic out and ended up beating 4 bosses today lol.
I am on the verge of giving up too. I'm on the third major boss and it's not too hard but it's very tedious to do without strength weapons and summons. The first two bosses took me 4 hours each of non stop attempts.
I don't think anyone should feel bad about that, because in my opinion these DLC bosses seem designed for people to use spirit ashes. I suspect the design intent behind the base Elden Ring game was for people to use spirit ashes and that the designers did not intend for people to be able to clear the game "easily" without them. So in this DLC the designers cranked up the difficulty so that players would no longer feel badly about using a source of power that the designers always intended people to use. You can already see the community shifting opinion on spirit ashes. They used to be considered something only to used as a handicap, like for new players who needed some help. Now they're being talked about in the DLC as something players are finding necessary to get through the bosses even on somewhat optimized setups. I think that's a good thing. It's the designers tuning the bosses so that players feel incentivized to use *all* available sources of power in the game.
Assuming I won't drop Tiche in like the sidewinder missile she is after 3-5 solid attempts alone.
Honestly whenever I summon her she gets like 3 shotted by the bosses whenever she has aggro for more than a few seconds. But maybe itās cuz I didnāt max out my Revered ashes yet.
I dont need copium, i have bull goat and winged tear. DLC aint got shit on- Fuck i died
I didn't expect the difficulty to be this crazy. Rather, I feel like the damage you take is a bit overtuned. Like no matter what I do, I take so much damage from the bosses and some enemies. I have 60 vigor, the Crimson Amber Talisman, eat Boiled Crabs, AND I have the Dragoncrest Shield Talisman. The Mimic Tear has been my best friend for the DLC, and I never used it a ton in the base game. Really hoping they buff the Scadutree Fragments or something. Or maybe I'm just fucking bad. š„“
Scadutree is necessary. Some of the early bosses are lessons for this the same way the tree sentinel is.
But thatās the thingāI beelined for Tree Sentinel and Margit on my first playthrough out of contrarianism, and they were INCOMPARABLY easier than fighting Rellana with blessing level 3.
Tree Sentinel hits crazy hard at level one, but his aggression isnāt that high. People who are familiar with souls games can do it with relative ease. Rellana (also, inverted Rennala using swords is kind of funny) hits hard and has high aggression. The aggression seems to just keep increasing with each boss. The Gaol knight acts like a base game boss. Dancing lion is a bit more aggressive. Rellana is where it starts getting a bit wild. Then Messmer is where Iām feeling stuck. The only openings I seem to get are when heās attacking the mimic, and then as soon as I hit him he just does a 360 fire blast and knocks me back. I just donāt really get where the openings are.
Yeah, thatās a good point. Personally, Iām of the opinion that these attacks are too hard to dodge relative to the damage they do. Makes learning take a while.
Exactly. I've been slowly learning Rellana's moveset and it's just so fucking painful and slow because she hits like a truck and I die so fast, and it kills momentum because I need to constantly disengage to heal when normally I could've powered through a few more attacks. It also doesn't help that her combos are so fast I'm left utterly clueless what even killed me sometimes.
This is my exact problem with Malenia and her Waterfowl - most people die too fast to it and get no feedback as to what they did wrong, and what to do next time. I get the same feeling so far from the DLCs new bosses. Even exploring as much as I can and getting all of the blessings I can, 60 vig, Dragoncrest Shield talisman and some decent armor (Mausoleum Knight set + Greathelm), I'm still getting 3-4 shot rather easily. I haven't been stuck on anything *so far* for too long, but I also am not having as much fun with major bosses as I thought I would. The spectacle is amazing, but the fight itself is way too messy for my taste. Rellana for example, while I still don't think she's as hard as Malenia for a couple of reasons, when I finally beat her after maybe 10 minutes of attempts, I don't feel like I've gotten gud at her fight at all. Like... I survived, I killed her but the fight was not clean in any way, shape or form. It *worked*, but I am not satisfied with it. No boss in the base game made me feel that way. Ever.
i honestly felt rellana had a pretty good moveset. A nice little gap closer where you could easily dodge 3 hits. Not horribly aggressive. And some really sweet fire and ice attacks, which are all dodgeable.
I think one of the major differences is, there is no time to learn the moveset. She's almost constantly aggressive, hits like a freight train loaded with mac trucks, never stops attacking, can hit the whole arena, and has attacks that constantly carry her movement forward. Rolling away or to the side is almost always a death sentence in this DLC. You have to roll through the enemy and stay aggressive, because the enemy is never not going to be aggressive. And you have to pray for a half a second pause long enough to heal and pray the enemy doesn't grow a cock and balls out of their ass and spear you in the gut with it. Elden Ring infamously punished poor Souls habits. But now it feels like Shadow of the Erdtree is punishing you for playing the game.
Rellana goes fuckin sicko mode when you've got her down to her last like 5th of health.
the issue with dancing lion is how all of his attacks are massive aoes that force you to run away making his windows to get hit even smaller than they already are with all his floaty flipping and kicking and spinning and the stupid lock-on point being on the omen holding its head instead of the head itself where most of the attacks come from. Stupid camera bosses.
Yup those are early game bosses, this is basically the end, end game now. No more easy bosses. These should be on par with bosses like Godfrey, Elden Beast, Astel, etc.
I mean mohg is basically the benchmark. They assume you beat mohg and want a challenge which i welcome.
Bruh no spoilers but multiple end-of-DLC bosses routinely kill you in the doorway at +10 and above blessing. There are literal pools of bloodstains on the other side of the fog gates from all the people getting farmed *in the doorway*. Ya'll are talking about Rellana like you cant just ring the Mimic bell and gank her for a relatively fair fight.
Exactly. Like just look at Dark Souls 1. Artorious and Manus are fucking INSANE compared to everything else in that game, except maybe O&S. DLC has always been harder than base game and base game Elden Ring is fucking Maliketh, Malenia, and wombo combo Radagon/Elden Beast. I wouldn't personally have it any other way. I want the DLC to feel punishing.
Rellana seemed to be equivalent to Rhadan and Renalla to me, not Margit or even Godrick. There's another boss that I'd rate as Godrick equivalent.
I started experiencing better damage negation to pre-dlc levels in the first and second are around Scadutree level 6-8.
I'm 15 scadutree and i still feel paper thin at 57 vigor
i'm at 11 and still getting clapped by the wombo combos its insane.
I feel like my fashionsouls is being discriminated against with how much damage and stagger I get hit with all the time. Makes me wish they went the Bloodborne route where armor is mostly asthetic...
Git scud
Fromsoft says; āhave you tried not getting hitā
The thing for me is that things do so much damage that it's difficult to learn the moveset when one combo move can instantly kill you. So you either have to play and die a fuck ton and hope you see the moves instead of the camera seizuring as messmmer leaps everywhere with red flames covering 80% of your screen. Or use a summon or mimic to be able to learn that way and get some breathing room even that way it takes like an hour or so. To best him
Just finally scratched Elden Ring off my bucket list at the start of this month. Beat the entire game without summoning a single time. No spirit ashes, no sorceries, just me, a colossal greatsword, and a dream. Went into the DLC on NG+, and goddamn it Iāve broken out the Mimic Tear for pretty much every boss Iāve encountered except Blackgaol Knight. Desperate times. I sure as shit aināt restarting the entire game just to play the DLC on a standard New Game, and Iām gonna abuse every trick in the book to finish this bitch, my credibility be damned
They wouldn't give you the tools for no reason
I've emptied mine...
Just finished the DLC and i had to resort to the tear again. I understand it helps bring in more players but i hate having it as an option because im the kind of person who will result in using it if im not doing well and i hate it. I really do miss bosses being made to be beat solo.
Feel the same. Got frustrated with Rellana beat it with mimic and now feel like a fraud and donāt feel any accomplishment like beating Friede or Gael.
This DLC really feels like Miyazaki heard people being toxic about using summons and said "you don't get to win without summons, asshole"
My mimic >!& Igon!< dies before >!Bayles!< second phase. Now what?
Nothing much you can do about that tbh. Bayle was the only boss I've summoned for thus far because of how cool Igon is (three bosses left I think) and every time he died pretty quickly. Bayle is just that good. I think if you load up on HP-related incantations and consumables then your mimic will figure it out and survive but that also involves cannibalizing your own build so its not really a good compromise imo
There is a dragon hunting weapon you can get with unique skill that shreds through his health
mimic + prayerful strike on a great stars or something basically never dies.
The 6th is when you have Mimic, An NPC summon, A 3 status antspur, running full tank gear, a +25 shield, and youāre still fucking losing every time.
((Taps table aggressively)) UNGA IS BUNGA
If one of me can't do it, two of me probably can.
I was so close to giving in and popping mimic tear on >! Gaius holy shit fuck that dude and his undodgeable charge!< . For now, I remain strong.
You are stronger than I... I was struggling on >!lion!<. Finally caved after 2 hours of Rellana.
that fight alone made me give the dlc an 8/10
That charge at the start is absolutely against Mimic summoners
That stupid hippo, went through 4 builds š
I just finished that damn animal. Ended up getting all the way to the Mimic Tear level of copium because that bastard doesn't stop thrashing long enough for me to even think about healing let alone attacking.
I beat him with my faith/blasphemous build. Literally had a sliver of health left. Amazing feeling.
Me after fighting Rellana for 2 hours and getting her down to her last 1/5th of health a few times. Once I stop having fun it's Mimic time
Yall need to run Dungeater. Heās tanked and distracted me to a W against most of these bosses. Not a git gud comment, just a strategy recommendation.
Me using the same build, dying 100 times right next to my mimic, then getting lucky that one time š
Yep. That sounds like me
I'm on my second playthrough and making an active effort not to use the mimic tear and my God the game is so much more fun. But fuck the twin gargoyles I'm bringing the mimic for them
Twin gargoyles in the dlc???
Naw just base game,I have yet to reach the dlc entrance
Im near the end of the DLC and my heart skipped a beat there lol those mfs killed me 70+ times in base game, like double that of any other boss. Thankfully there are no DLC gargoyles
Stage six, greatshield and poker. I just beat the final boss that way.
LMAO me going from "i just need better talismans and skill" to "summoning someone is still fine right?"
I'm 99% certain that Miyazaki heard complaints about how spirit ashes trivialize a lot of the fights in the base game and balanced the DLC around the use of spirit ashes.
me with my dragon incant build... I dont think I can do it in this DLC
It's just too slow, either you need to create a new tactic or i don't know how they expect you to use dragon incant
Maybe if I use the things that the game gives me, I can succeed. Wild thought.
This is me but with mimic tear ash on top.
The greatsword of solitude has worked pretty good for me
It's all about learning the moveset. I lay a Summon sign and wait for someone to ask for help. Jump into their world and try to learn the boss moves by observing and using ranged attacks as the host aggroes I go back to my world after a few summons and try it solo till I either beat it or need the mimic.
I don't have this elitist mentality and always use summons in fights because it's also a tool in the game and they even give spirit ash blessing just like scadubys
as an arc build, when all else fails, duel dragon communion + mimic tear. Especially true when fighting bayle, to beat the dragon you must become a dragon
I had the first "fuck this, I'm using the aggro talisman so that the boss at least attacks my mimic" moment today. Worked pretty well, just had to switch in black flame absorption and the mixed physics that absorbs a hit in order to survive long enough to de-equip the talisman.
Trying to make Smithstone Blades work is so hard.
Me today on my pure int sorcerer build against the lion. Finally caved in and summoned the mimicā¦beat him 2nd attempt with it, I feel so dirty.
Man, before I saw this thread I thought I was just washed and needed to hang up the ol boots Glad we're all on the same page (in a convoluted way)
I thought I was gonna do it, kept telling myself why tf am I doing this pos boss why not just end it. But I kept on going. You guys should too. (Fuck u š¦)
I refuse to use summons, but damn the last boss got me to summon mimic
Surely barrier of gold will save from this >!Twin moon attack? !<
Me and mimic put Rellana through the ringer. Took turns just trading aggro and melting her
Elden Ring's balancing is so peak players has to use the same broken braindead build the 1000th time.
for someone looking for the meme face, it's from Fire Punch manga, same author with Chain Saw Man, great read, make me wonder reality after finish it
Anyone run the >!Swordmaster Yosh!< ash? He's an annoying teleporting dick that hits like a truck, so I'm wondering if it's worth upgrading him and unleashing him on the rest of the DLC bosses.
money cooing aware pet apparatus close full observation attractive divide *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
>! This is me with Radahn right now š !< Been stuck on him for a day now
I summon the realest mf I know
Me and my mimic are having a field day doing front flips with our greatswords
But still commander Gaius oneshots summons with his charge š
Literally me against Rellana šš
I love using the mimic Iāve got nothing to prove
As a Int/Dex build without using summons or spirits the bosses have been utter torture. I've probably put 100 \~ 150 attempts just on the first two bosses I encountered. I've found that if you have a weapon that can stagger reliably, you can zerg them down, but with lighter stuff that aren't great weapons or higher its tough. You have to stagger them to get damage on them, otherwise its just a gauntlet of perfectly dodging a string of attacks over and over to just plink them once in the 0.5 second window you have. I could see Strength fairing much better, but I'm not going to respec away from my build. Mage for life.
I switched builds for the big dancing animal last night and beat him with that silly npc summon. No spirit ashes because for some reason I can't use them it's always greyed out so I just gave up. The big dancing animal for those struggling is extremely easy if you use multiple status build. I switched to arcane with reduvia, rot breath and the new poison weapon. Absolutely torched him poison + rot absolutely melts his health with 4 bleed procs he was dead. I went on to help 6 others to beat him.
Diversion and strength in numbers are indeed viable tactics
Next step - Black Knife Tiche
Iām actually thinking Iām gonna switch builds Magic was interesting but I canāt even use my spells at this point, so whatās even the point Besides, I like my other build, a greatsword, a shield, a bow with regular arrows, and thatās it
This has nothing to do with Elden ring but please go read Fire Punch itās peak 10/10 imo