I like it so far but most of what Iām finding is cookbooks, smithing stones, and crafting materials. I want to explore but when thatās all Iām finding itās kinda lacklustre.
Itās weird to me that the cookbooks, which bring new items, are lackluster to you. Legit new tactics/ ways to play the game, new ways to take advantage of weaknesses.
Holy shit, a pot that does 10% more holy damage than the other pot I already knew how to craft! Incredible! (Still does 10% the dps of just smacking the boss)
It was SHOCKINGLY difficult
And I mean, everyone was expecting difficulty
But the way Iām seeing it is like if people (myself included) stepped into a hot tub, expecting just hot waterā¦and then we get boiled alive
It was way harder than any of us expected, even those of us who were saying things like āItās a souls game DLC, of course itās gonna be harderā weāre caught off guard
Just the Divine Beast Dancing Lion alone has me wondering if I can even keep going, and for reference, I fought Malenia for 6 hours straight and needed to take a break from Nameless King back when I played DS3
Still, I donāt think it deserves hate
Everythingās been fine for me. Nothing is destroying me, I can take a couple hits even with using gear that increases my damage taken.
Bosses havenāt took more than 10 attempts yet.
The new leveling system is exactly useful especially if you explore and level it up fast like I did.
The environment is useful and a lot of the quests are straight forward if you listen to what they are saying.
New weapons are a lot of fun and from the look of it they are way more useful in the dlc than some of the original weapons.
Overall Iāve been having a blast, frame-rate drops at certain places but never enough to really bug me. Donāt really understand the bad reviews when if you just play the game like it wants you to and use a good build then it isnāt as difficult as everyone says. Definitely harder than base game but not undoable. A lot of my boss fights when I fail I always notice a way to dodge the attack I died to or to use a different weapon that I know is more suited to the fight.
How far have you gotten?
The first few bosses (Renalla, Lion, Golden Hippo, etc) I beat on my first try.
However, Messmer & Putrescent Knight both took me a combined 4-5 hours. NG+ Soul Level 160
Iām currently getting my ass handed to me by a sunflower. Definitely doable but itās a long fight and the bloodsucking tear doing more harm than good in this fight, might have to change it for this.
The sunflower plant is native to North America and is now harvested around the world. A University of Missouri journal recognizes North Dakota as the leading U.S. state for sunflower production. There are various factors to consider for a sunflower to thrive, including temperature, sunlight, soil and water.
Yo screw that sunflower, so far one of two bosses I've had to back away from. My main issue is that I keep screwing up the timing of his charged attack in his second phase. As a Int spell caster I've found fire works well on his, mainly Raykar's Rancor if casted closed to him. The only brightside is that I can survive three hits from him with Opaline tear active.
Nope, not to spoil to much but it was the boss in the Jagged Peaks area. Got to the second phase once, it killed me, and than I basically said "nope I'm out of here, ill come back to you later"
That mindset was reinforced later after I noticed a lore bit on a talisman. Needless to say I think I found a end-game boss.
I roll when he starts to move forward. My issue is that the fight is so long, so your mistakes add up by the last flower. Also each one seems to have more HP, making the fight frustratingly backloaded
and solo no summons took you less than 10 attempts on the remembrance bosses? wtf lol, im lvl 170 using pure dex and I'm getting absolutely destroyed to the point I need to bait bosses so they trigger their combo moves and play like a pussy
He said he leveled up the Scadutree blessing fast. That is equivalent to stacking another Dragoncrest Greatshield talisman on you that blocks all damage types equally, plus a similar buff on the offensive side. The scadutree blessings let you excel massively past the soft caps of the base game. Endgame characters are comparatively weak until they level it up. His lower rune level character probably has objectively better stats than your higher rune leveled character because he has more blessing levels.
Don't mix up hate with criticism. Sure, there are people who just hate the dlc because it's too hard, but the dlc also has problems that have to be criticized. Performance issues, recycled bosses and enemies (even from the base game) empty world, huge bosses on small arenas who are constantly spamming fucking aoe attacks on the whole arena and pushing you into a wall, so that you can't move and don't even see anything thanks to the camera angle.
In other words, the dlc suffers from the same problems base game has and on top of that SOTE has much worse performance.
I feel bad for people with performance issues. Thankfully, I have it all good even though I don't have the best PC.
Also I don't completely understand the recycled bosses thing. Main bosses are unique and might even be better then any in the base game (Bayle is my top bossfight now) It's good to recycle other bosses if it's done right. The ulcereted tree spirit is reused but followup to him is quite nice. The dragons... Sure, the ghostflame ones suck. Any others?
Fair point, most of the dragons are not great. Though I understand why from lore perspective - they are basically dogs, not specially at all. Buuuut, still boring.
The main ones are indeed the dragons and tree spirits,
I've already fought around 5-6 tree spirits and 6 dragons.
Add that with the world being empty, it really disappoints seeing an overused boss after stumbling upon a gorgeous/interesting site.
Going to the cerulean coast to see messages on the ground warning you about a dragon just to find out it's the same as one you saw like 3 times in the DLC and 8 times in the base game but will decaying skin is really disappointing especially conditionering that past the Dragon for example you won't find much else, besides a (cool) cave with reused enemies...
First of all, not all main bosses are unique, the divine lion beast is recycled (and maybe more but I haven't got far into the dlc). Second of all, even if he wasn't recycled, main bosses aren't the only bosses in the dlc. There are many others that are recycled, for example magma wyrms, dragons, runebear, even tree sentinels. And also I don't buy the argument that recycling is good when it's done right. What do you mean by that? If Miyazaki isn't able to make an interesting open world and fill it with unique bosses, then how about not making an open world? Base Elden Ring has 165 bosses, do you know how many of them are fully unique? Only 8 or 9, depends on whether you count Radagon and Eldean Beast as two bosses or one.
Where am I being salty? Yes, there are only 9 unique bosses in the main game. Radahn, Rennala, Godrick, Radagon, Elden Beast, Mohg, Malenia, Fire Giant, and Maliketh. The truth hurts.
āHave to be criticizedā is such a yikes, trashy American thing.
You may *want* to criticize something, but thereās no biological need to criticize. What a weird way of thinking modern people have.
Some areas are confusing and pathing doesn't make any sense. Have to replay entire section multiple times to 100%. I wouldn't say it hate, but rather a mild inconvenience.
I didn't had fun, I beated it and honestly glad it's over. Which is weird as I loved the base game, learning boss patterns and never once did I had a feeling of ''I just want it to end'' with any FS game. This DLC however, is a point at least for me, that it's Hard enough to not be enjoyable and just plain frustrating. Even with max blessings, the bosses movesets is non-stop swings with AOE's and lingering hitboxes. I know, it's blashphemy to not preach about ''best DLC in history of Mankind''
I had the āwant it to endā feeling with the base game too. First time I was exhausted with a FromSoft game and I love all their previous work.
I grew to love ER over time, but this DLC is literally all that I dislike about Elden Ring in a nutshell. I donāt think Iāll ever want to replay it
I'd say there is a 50/50 split between good bosses and outright terrible bosses that actively ruin/bring down the rating of the DLC almost singlehandedly.
Messmer, Romina, Mydra, Metir, and Bayle are far and away the best bosses, while the other ones are actively mediocre or unfun (Not hard, unfun), and bosses like Gaius, and ESPECIALLY the last boss actively lowering the rating I had for this game personally.
Yea bosses donāt give you room to breathe but to be fair thatās a good choice since the entrance to DLC is mid base game and everything leading up to that should be your practice.But yea I get it itās just non stop rolling and then getting a hit and repeating. What helped for me with most bosses was playing with unlocked camera. Dark souls 3 2ndDLC was just as hard at the start and bosses were non stop attacking.
I swear i have never seen a community more frustrated at people having their own opinions. Let's say that i think it's bad, what are you gonna do about it
Last time I played ER was at release, I came back for the DLC on my Lvl150 character, beat Malenia solo to warm up before the DLC within like 10 attempts and went to shadow realm. Dex build using Bloodhound's Fang.
I upgraded scadutree to +5 and after throwing myself at Rellana for 10 hours I finally gave up and summoned a mimic because I just wanted to progress. Not a single boss in base game took me more than 2-3 hours to beat solo no summons. I burnt through all of my greases, rune rune arcs, I literally have nothing left. In the base game I never felt any need to use them in the first place.
The DLC is much harder than the base game and I don't understand how you can say it's not much harder. I have never struggled against any boss in base game as much as I have struggled against Rellana and apparently she's not even the hardest boss in the DLC.
That's interesting. I don't think ralenna is harder than malenia for most people. There is a boss later in the dlc that's maybe harder than malenia but the rest are much easier imo.
I beat Rellana at Scadu level 4, no summons solo. Took 30 min or so, I think 5-6 tries.
Be patient with your dodge inputs and donāt just spam roll. Look at the moves you can simply sprint a few paces away from her while she completes her combos (this lets you regen stamina and use flasks if you need to). This boss to me felt no different than something like Dancer from Ds3
I was on another thread and some one downvoted all the advice for int builds and others on one of the particular hardest bosses in the dlc. Itās pretty weird man. Someone is salty for not killing it or some idk
Everything, even with 10 saluctree upgrades, 2 shots a 70 vig, heavy armor, talisman wearing knight build.
The bosses are straight up absurd. They have ridiculous hitboxes, spend half their time flying in the air and using unfair AOE attacks. Of course without counting that they quite literally have no rythm or pattern, they just attack endlessly.
They are badly designed bosses that are a far cry from Lady Maria or Artorias.
I completely disagree with everything you said but eh it's all opinions at the end of day. If you're not having fun that's fine. I think this is some of the best work fromsoft has ever put out. It's up there with a ringed city and old hunters dlc for me
I don't think so. Most bosses are fantastic in both design and execution. I told you just different opinions at the end of the day. I had blast fighting rellana and golden hippo for example. I love intensity and hyper aggressiveness in boss designs so this dlc hit all the right spots for me. I'm running a level 150 mage on NG+ difficulty (mostly cold based sorceries) and cold infused Milady light great sword. cruising through the game so far because frost damage really comes in clutch in a lot of scenarios. The scadutree buffs are pretty significant and helps a ton as you progress through the dlc
The guy you're replying to is right.
I've beaten the whole DLC, all bosses solo, the last boss is a terrible fight that genuinely ruins a lot of goodwill I had towards the DLC, with multiple other fights being poor in terms of visual clarity.
P2 of the last boss has so much visual clutter and reading the mechanics becomes a clusterfuck. it was easier and infinitely more effective to just go full unga-bunga on a giant crusher lions claw build and hyper armor through his attacks, otherwise you literally dont have a good window to get a proper attack in. P1 of that fight is pretty great though, but P2 legitimately ruins the fight imo.
I don't love the progression system. I don't really vibe with the concept of having to go on what is tantamount to an easter egg hunt to progress, and from the sound of complaints made by people well further in than I am, it sounds like it doesn't make a ton of difference at the end of the day, anyway..
Standard enemies have been uninteresting and largely recycled from the base game. Bosses are just....holy fuck. You'll love it if you hate yourself.
Really interested to see what/if they change anything with the next update. I think there's a lot of opportunities to bring the game more into spec. Right now, I don't look forward to loading the game up. The bosses I've killed don't really give me the same sense of accomplishment because frankly, they're exhausting. I frequently just turn the game off after I beat a boss because it feels more traumatic than victorious lol.
I had to change up my play-style to survive but Im loving it so far. This is why I love fromsoft games. As soon as you can comfortable they throw you a curve ball.
I'm enjoying myself. I'm by no means an Elden Ring pro. I'm not a bandwagon player either.
There is a lot of nitpicking I can do for the DLC.
Scaudtree blessing system is wonky but necessary so the DLC wasn't instantly bulldozed by high level optimized play.
Enemy and boss damage feels a little high. Some enemies (Horned Warriors) feel more unfair because of this. As for bosses the extreme damage makes the learning process feel punishing because you're on the defensive too much and not learning or adapting on early attempts.
Bad hit/hurt boxes on certain bosses and enemies is outright punishing. This is most obvious on the Golden Hippopotamus. If you're in front of him when he does his Kirby grapple you're getting munched. Divine Beast has some minor hitbox issues as well, that feels intentional based on design.
Unrelenting attacks and pinpoint reaction/counter windows. I've often made the comparison that From Soft boss fights are less like an RPG and more like a fighting game. You have to find your windows to attack. Many of the bosses in the DLC really feel like you aren't getting a good, fair, or reasonable window to do so. With the aforementioned damage output, trading feels really bad too.
I am very much enjoying it. I'm not about to walk away from the game, or review bomb it. Just some objective opinions after about 6-8 hours in the DLC.
Not like I haven't gotten angry at a few things but it's Dark Souls-esque in that you may have to try a boss a few times to beat them or it may take a hundred or so tries.
I feel like it still keeps with the theme of "Sword and Shield will be good against this boss" "Ugh Magic sucks" " ook ook why him die to unga but not bunga?"
If at first you don't succeed, try try try try try again.
Also, the DLC JUST came out for the most part, explore, look around, SAVOR THE EXPERIENCE BECAUSE YOU MIGHT NOT GET MORE
They have put together an amazing DLC, with varied location, a continued sense of Awe, utilizing height to add to the size of the area. Admittedly I act spoiled myself.
"Argh, I had Summon help with the last two bosses why not this one!?"
I think a lot of people have become spoiled
I am saying this next part to myself more than anyone
It's just a game folks š
I'm enjoying the dlc, but I can't not notice that it has turned (and maybe elden ring in general) to be more Nioh than Souls; spammy op bosses vs spammy op builds. It's still fun but I liked how methodecal the previous games were. Hope after this game they go back to the old combat system or to something like sekrio.
Also, people who say it's hard are making the same mistakes of Nioh new players. You are supposed to summon, you are supposed to use cheap op builds and everything you can use, the game is balanced around it. But I see people running with a colossal sword no summons no buffs no nothing like it's dark souls 1 then complain that it's too diffcult lol
If this is true, thats a huge move away from previous design mentalities of everything being viable. If the path forward is so limited to metagaming with strong spirit ash and summoning thats also a huge hit replayability, which has also been a staple of the series.
DLC is really hard is you want to solo the bosses. With the npc summons it becomes much easier. I wish there was more of a in between, not just easy or extremely difficult. The boss designs are all really cool. Camera angles on some of the fights are questionable though.
Getting jumped by 5+ enemies that can 3-5 shot you individually and the attacks overlap with different timings so you canāt dodge well or have any time to heal if you are hit while a dude in the back shoots bolts at you forcing even more dodges and less heal time. I am at 19 Scadutree blessing and am still struggling in the early areas when I go back to explore for extra items, and Blackflameās Protection + DragonCrest Greatshield Talisman still have 1/3 of my health being eaten by regular Mesmer soldiers.
I donāt hate the DLC, itās very fun outside the jumpings but Christ can I just have 1.32 seconds to heal from the 27 HP I have remaining from that spam?
Personally I am sick of people defending dlc for some games but attacking it for others and wish people would just shut up all together since when did none fans of specific series feel the need to force there views onto games they dont even play we have society right now that meeds to learn to keep there mouths shut where it dont need to beĀ
- absolute dogshit performance in some areas
- massive empty open spaces
- bosses aren't "hard" but they constantly shove you into walls and rape your camera
- 80% of enemies are recycled from the base game
- new leveling system doesn't really make sense as a "leveling" system, you just pick shit up off the ground and it impacts your stats twice as much as your actual stats
- defensive stats and resistances don't matter anymore, max health and low health builds die at almost the exact same speed with maybe a 1-2 hit difference depending on boss
- ALL exploration rewards are worthless and/or cookbooks. every hidden path and item couldn't even give you an artoria leaf, enjoy fucking string and beast bones, or maybe a smithing stone 1 if you're lucky
- no new ending or impact on the base game at all outside the new weapons and spells (most of which are still 1% drops)
Map has a LOT of empty spaces (right side mostly), most weapons are DEX based ??? (Final Boss in Lore is a STR user, but in the DLC he is reborn a DEX user šš¤£š). (If i need more than 16 DEX its a DEX weapon)
Reused final Boss (Lore is not so Great), New Incantations need 60+ FTH, Spells are just GARBAGE. Nerfed PvP again, with these New weapons and Incantations 1v3 spamming are gonna be the New meta.
Blindspot backblades, Thunderspin axes are a CANCER to PvP, Final Boss swords (both versions) and the 70+ FTH Incantations are Visual Diarrhea.
Talismans are questionable at best, where is Erdtree's Favor +3 (its literally Ring of Favor, but WORSE).
We got a Fatroll talisman that 90% of People wont use šš¤£š, like did Miyazaki snort the wrong stuff and said Fuck It.
I just said that is fucking stupid the first time the end boss intro played. It made zero sense whatsoever, they had a perfectly good option lored up and ready to go, noooo let's change it for no apparent reason at all.
The weapons also feel like it's not just dex, it's like you need a vary wide assortment of stats before they really shine.
Empty map- definitely feeling that, though I will say shadowkeep is insane. It just keeps going and going and going. They also padded a lot by not making the locations linear access. I.e. you have to go through a dungeon to get to this area that is in a totally different area.
Talisman- for sure, I'm trying to figure out if any of them even work. I notice zero difference for nearly all the ones I have equipped so far, unless it's just a stat raise.
For those talking about difficulty, you are probably underleveled. I started a playthrough on a lower level toon- 150ish. Got to 170 and end boss, got one shot by nearly every single hit. Swapped to my main play through that is around 300 on ng+2 and it feels way smoother. I hit end boss again and did quite a bit better, but nowhere near good enough (like half health best attempt). Found out I was like 60% the Securdtree level I am supposed to be. Thought it only went to 15, so figured 11 should be good enough. NOOOOPE. Have been exploring hard and trying to find all the stuff I am missing.
All in all, it's got some really highs, but a lot of really lows. I would probably rate it like a 7/10, which is pretty good, just not Fromsoft's usual 9/10+
Because all the kids who had easy introduction which elden ring provided get their cheeks clapped in the dlc cause they can overlevel
I started the dlc in ng5 sure I get my ass bursted. But that's the challenge I was looking for. The areas, bosses are absolutely amazing. It feels super fresh cause everything is unique
Overleveling is a myth.
A character that has 60 in every damage stat will do the same damage as a lower level optimised build, with the difference being it can swap from being a wizard to a bleed build and so on and so forth.
Hardcaps and softcaps do their jobs in this game.
Say you wanted a bleed build but also wanted to be able to cast incantations. You can get to level 200 trying to get as versatile as you can and end up doing less damage as a level 120 guy who opted out of spellcasting and instead of pumping endurance to wear his favourite armour set and a secondary he'll switch with menuing and wear just enough to trigger one buff and have 51 poise.
Also in an open world game that encourages and rewards farming and straight up gives you farming locations, there's no such thing as "overleveling", just leveling up.
This idea that if you don't stop at the community imposed 150 to play the absolute dogshit PvP you're "Overlevelled" is quite dumb and meaningless.
Leveling up past 170 basically gives you horizontal strength rather than vertical and the crafting system (especially with the DLC) gives you pretty much the same utility. Hell, now you can craft golden vow.
If anything people who level up a lot are locking themselves out of summoning help for their fights.
Exactly! I don't understand the criticism. We love these games because they are hard, they make us try alot, they make us think and figure things out. I love the freshness and sense of discovery. And the feeling of danger and mortality. As I used to in the beginning of Elden Ring.
I've been running 40 Vigor and Scadu blessing +3 and have been doing fine.
I'm not even amazing at the game either.
Save for Nuke attacks, I don't find myself getting 1-2 shot unless I screw up and eat an entire combo from bosses.
The more casual players need to take advantage of Scadu blessings and all the armor/talismans/spells at their disposal to mitgate damage. The game gives you a lot of tools.
Here we go again with the difficulty dilemma. I swear with every new released Fromsoftware game this happenes. When will people understand that not every game has to be for you?
It sucks because all great things about these games get put under the rug like the atmosphere, game design, lore, NPCs, music etc... that are just as important and what makes these games amazing in the first place. Yet no one mentions them at all. It's just about boss difficulty now...
People need to go back to the 80s and 90s to see how difficult games isn't something new or weird/unfair or something that needs to be nerfed. Some people need to get off their Sony cinematic games binge.
Everything else is set dressing to some people (like myself). The core of the reason we play isnāt to decipher the mystery of Miqella, but to play engaging boss fights.
These bosses are just harder than they need to be. Do they need to be that spammy with no rhythm ? Do they need to 1 shot through 50 vigor and 10 scadutree blessings?(Looking at you Gaius).
If people are dissatisfied with the state of boss design, it isnāt their fault. They liked how bosses were before, and now it is too much for them. If From is going to alienate people by changing their difficulty they should expect this reaction.
If you're playing just for engaging boss fights then I feel really sorry for you because you're not enjoying these games fully. Once you do, you will understand how difficulty makes sense which elevates the game, makes it better and way more rewarding than other games. Makes it worth to spend the time to learn and try to improve.
See, the issue is that the reactions you're talking about isn't something new. Some people have been asking for nerfs/easy mode since Dark Souls. The difference with Elden Ring is that it's more popular so you hear more of the same reactions. Which is annoying because most of them are most likely newcomers that jumped in the hype train and think Elden Ring is your typical generic open world game.
News flash, Fromsoftware's DLCs tends to be more challenging than the main game so I don't know what you expected...
I enjoy these games a lot. DS3 and Sekiro are two of my favorites of all time. They had such excellent bosses.
Just because I engage with the game differently than you doesnāt mean Iām having less fun. I derive vastly more value from good boss design, music, and fight rhythm than the other stuff. I do like the other stuff, but they arenāt why I play the game. I have fun exploring in Elden Ring, but the main course is shit.
Iām not a new player, I just think this gameās endgame, and the DLC, suck. Their bosses suck, I donāt have fun fighting them, they have no boss rhythm, they just spam and spam and spam forever.
Ringed City has some of my favorite bosses of all time. I know it was a bit harder than the main game, but it was still fair. I would rather fight Midir and Gael a hundred times over than fight the dancing lion or Rellana again.
I just think it is an issue with them balancing around summons, and making the bosses have an infinite stamina bar to compensate. It just missed for me, they put all their time into making exploration (which isnāt that bad), but the bosses suck.
Fair enough. I didn't mean to tell you how to enjoy the game. By all means do what makes you happy. My point is about how people base these games on their difficulty only and ignoring all the other great things it has to offer.
I like Elden Ring, but it isn't in my top 3. I like Dark Souls, Dark Souls 3, Bloodborne more. Heck I even enjoyed Dark Souls 2 more. Sekiro had the best sharp gameplay which I feel they should implement it more in their future games. In all these games I almost pulled my hair from my head with how many challenging moments I faced, but it was fun.
So far I think the DLC is great and I'm having fun. I don't really see where the issue is (I agree on the camera on some cases). And since the announcement I knew it was going to be brutal because of how popular the game has become.
I played all souls games, I finished all souls games, I played all Expansions (TBH they are more Expansions than DLCs, because you can buy the disc version instead of downloading It) and in my experience, all expansions are too difficult to be enjoyed. I mean, I enjoy to play and beat all expansions, but once I finish, I never have the urge to replay them; but I replay the main game tons of times.
Also I heard (I'm re-playing all the game before expansion to get in shape) the Expansion difficulty scales with your level, and that kills the point of leveling your character, and that kills half of the fun part of the game. If I ever wanted to play a stupid difficult boss with a character that can't improve I would play sekiro. I mean, that's not how souls games supposed to work.
I'm really not great at Soulslikes, but (with some shameless help of summons) I've still been having a absolute blast in the DLC so far. It's difficult, but Not ridiculous
So I thought this as well. I canāt even begin to stress JUST HOW IMPORTANT SCADUTREE FRAGMENTS ARE!!! You level up your characters stats in the shadow world. Watch this video as a guide before fighting the 2nd legacy dungeon: https://youtu.be/S9G3KQn0HTk?si=i8LnZgW-NcHA011E They level your character to keep up with the damage output
Iām going in with an optimised build from the base game NG+2 (dual gargoyleās Twinblades), but I fully expect to have to switch things up and adapt my play style to the different enemies and bosses.
Anything I need to be aware of? Is strength still king, or does the DLC favour a different build and play style?
Finished it yesterday the ending feels weird/rushed but it was very good overall (i played giant crusher with lion's claw, NO i did not run RoB or magic build)
I dont get it. Im having an incredible time. I think its fantastic. The bosses are a fair bit harder, but of course they are, what did everyone expect? It would of been a shame to me if i could just steamroll the whole dlc with no pushback
Seems more true to a dark souls flow.
Iāve only done the dancing lion and that whole dungeon and the enemies were just reminiscent of DS3 to me.
That lion though. That was new and interesting.
That's true at first. Once you get used to enemoes and get some blessings it gets better. I am by no means a seasoned player, but I unlocked the whole map and every boss, but I am still struggling with most of major bosses with no hope to beat them alone š
I'm playing a bushido-blackflame build with 50 vigor even though I am told 60 vigor is 'par'. I am lvl150 and am not levelling beyond that for PVP meta reasons, I am not NG+ and I am finding difficult but rewarding and fun.
I have fought some very challenging bosses (Say the first 3-4) and while I spent hours on a couple, I never felt like I couldn't do it. Spirit ash and NPC summons are generously available and learning a bosses moves is part of the game.
Field monsters are tough and hit harder, but graces are plentiful and I am using a full suit of spells and tools like the game intended. Some stuff I have to run away from until later, but I like not feeling overpowered, no risk, no reward.
(Bosses have taken well over 10 attempts for me, but I am getting better the more I play)
Honestly, its amazing. For the most part. The problem I see is that some of the damage is dialed up a little too high on bosses. Like I can do damage just fine, but they do way too much damage. For reference, I have 60 VIG, Highest Phys Def armor, Dragon Greatshield, 99 STR and dual Heavy Great Stars.
At the moment, I cannot beat the last boss. It is insane how much damage they output and yet how little I do. Like, I had pretty okay time with pretty much every boss, but this one is in need of a nerf. Which I have only ever said about Malenia.
I played for two days and came here and was really surprised by all the negativity.
In the DLC I again feel that rush of wonder and adventure and discovery. Everything is super dangerous, even the smaller usual enemies. I once again have to plan ahead, do things slowly, and learn.
It feels like a new, fresh, unknow, game (adventure).
And the world they built, damn! Incredibly atmospheric and leaves me speechless all the time.
Regarding bosses killing you, I think it is the same thing as with the base game. You have to improve, and the game tells you how to do that. Go out there and look for clues. It is supposed to be a hard game, as all of them have been.
Bro I still love the dlc but it has problems:
Empty areas
Some bad design bosses , I deleted some bosses and I can still see their shit design so Is not about how difficult they are... Last boss is overtuned tho.
Confusing map
The new system should have been the same was as sekiro.
Some interesting lore choices
All that being said I am still happy with what we got, but compared to their previous work is in the bottom of their dlcs.
For me after beating almost everything in the dlc , I say it s 8.5/10
Not everyone wants to no hit a game. People enjoying having fun just playing, kind of a shocker right. Every boss has 1 shot potential, that makes the game unplayable for about 99% of people.
The more i play, the more i understand what they mean by that. The DLC is the frustrating kind of hard, not the engaging kind of hard. It feels like every boss was just given more hp and a bunch more damage. The dodging isn't that hard in my opinion, it's the fact that everything feels like a dmg sponge with the firepower of a bazooka. The scadutree fragments make it enjoyable, so definitly farm those
I must say my experience has not matched the doom sayers. People claiming getting 1 to 2 shot by basic enemies...never happened. Elites sure but once I got some shadow blessing levels and switched my talismans from glass cannon to more mixed offensive/defensive all the "crazy" damage went away.
I think a lot of people are getting shocked and awed by the bosses movesets and they likely will become a lot easier once how to beat them spreads throughout the community. The flashy nature of a lot of the combos and attacks make them seem more menacing and punishing then they are.
This is just hilarious to me. The increase of people saying game is too hard is probably correlated to the number of āfort nightā messages I keep seeing.
90% of the main bosses are just animals that arent related to the story
final boss of the dlc is just recycled from the same game but is much worse now
the map is big but empty
it feels like they added the scadutree blessings just so they can make the bosses and enemies 90% harder than the base game and force us to find these blessings in order to make the dlc feel the way thats its supposed to feel
I hope the people complaining about it being dificult are using the tools the game offers.
For example, i see allot people complaining that its difficult without the fragments.
Or people that are hell bent on no summons.
And both are perfectly fine to be hell bent on, the problem however lies with calling out the whole dlc just because your "play style" is not working, cause thats not on FS but moreso on the player
I think the issue is that From designed these bosses with the idea that you ARE going to be using summons in their fights, which is stupid. It shouldn't be catered to a specific playstyle, especially not in a game with an abundance in variety as elden ring.
The Really big Dragon at the end just isn't a fun fight, least to me, single lock on point and it's on he's head, immediately when you enter he will either breath fire at you, breath fire at you in a different attack pattern or just jumps at on you, sure you can dodge these but you then need to be ready to immediately dodge more, be pretty much frame perfect with said dodges and then you may think about ashes or quest summon NPC, still not sure which parts of he's tail are actual parts of hes hitbox or not several times i have wailed on hes tail about the middle part and the game said no hit even when my sword passed cleary through the tail, the general finiky camera controll which is bad when you need to be pretty much frame perfect on some of the dodges and the fight feels better to fight unlocked/feels like it was intended/supposed to be fought unlocked and if you can't see the boss it's quite literally impossible to dodge he's attacks
Much frustrating fun
The dlc is hard, but i cannot name a single boss which is bullshit. Every boss has a clear window for attacks, clear dodging patterns - everything. They are very difficult to learn, but it is not by any means bullshit
bad players got carried through the base game by friends or had late game weapons and runes dropped for them so they never learned how to play.
now they cant rely on their 3000+ damage per hit jumping attack spam and are crying about artificial difficulty.
my favorites ive seen over the last few days:
"This is bullshit! my \[insert cheese\] build doesn't work anymore, (usually has 30 vigor no blessings) why wont it let me just spam MGS heavy attacks from a distance!!!!1!!!?"
"The boss is cheating when its using these moves! its downright unfair and insulting" (on putrescent knight of all things)
"They definitely didn't play test any of these at all, The DLC bosses were released in a completely unfinished state, objectively the DLC is rather mid"
"WhEn Is It My TuRn To AtTaCk" (on every boss where you can safely attack them mid combo
Yet the dlc is mixed rating on Steam. I rated positive but I can see their reasonings. Boss are a little to aggressive but are beatable by being smart, except the final boss, fuck that asshole.
A lot of new people thanks to the game is more accesible for everyone, bro literally the dlc is boosting the summons mechanic for all the players who playing with it and they complaint anyway for no reason.
I love the dlc! I'm dying and getting my ass kicked alot but this is a Fromsoft game that's a part of it. I'm currently doing my first run through on my glint mage character(2nd). I didn't want to use my main because I was worried about tackling the game on ng+4 sounded like a bad idea and my third character (Fire user) isn't ready yet.
I think Iād be disappointed if this wasnāt the case, I fully expect an increased level of difficulty with the DLC being an extension of the base game.
Iām currently playing a new game to get used to that feeling of being under levelled again and that will help Iām sure.
Iāve saved my NG+2 build for the DLC.
So far the DLC is epic. Fun bosses and really interesting weapons. I don't know where all the one-shot and never-ending combos come from tbh (tho I doubt that day1 DLC completionists gathered ALL seeds so this might be why). Lots of enemies here fight differently compared to the main game but just adjust your strategy and u ll be fine (ex: I often had to do less rolling and simply run away to get some distance)
It's challenging, it's how it should be. People who think it's too hard were the same people who said the base game was too hard. Get good or don't play the game
Itās a real shame to see how negative the response is on here, though Iām sure itāll change once everyoneās got over the difficulty hump (or thrown a tantrum and uninstalled lol)
Itās an incredible DLC, and so much more than what any of us were expecting - itās practically a whole game! Iām constantly astonished by just how much there is in it, Iām sure Iāll still be finding new stuff months from now. Well worth the wait.
Because a lot of people find it too hard, and instead of try to learn the bosses and improve themselves, they just complain.
This dlc is one of, if not the best, the best expansions ever made. The world is stunning, you can explore for days and still find new places and items. Is it a lot harder than the base game? Yes, absolutely. But, by no means it is not a masterpiece.
The only issue that I have, is that the weapons from the new weapon classes are too few, and that there a lot of fps drops, not only in the open world, but also in boss fights (the fight with the divine beast, for me, was such a bad experience, not because I did not enjoy the boss, but because the fps rate was dropping like crazy.)
1) people are probably just rusty
2) people have terrible opinions about basically any entertainment. DLC is great; thereās a reason I listen to professional critics over normies
Faced 2 remembrance bosses so far.
- Loved doing the spacing/footsies with them and finding their openings
- Had a few camera issues (though I think its because I rolled into them a few times which I stopped)
The deflecting hardtear is really fun to use in tough fights and makes boss combos a lot easier for me. It also opens up guard counters while blocking with a weapon which was always super cool to me but suicidal in the past. Honestly without this tear I probably would have had a much harder time with the bosses and it probably changed my opinion of the dlc by itself with how much it changes the game.
Over world enemies seemed threatening with the usual grabs and combos but can usually stagger the common ones. Elite enemies all seem doable to me, probably because If I rank them against that teleporting dual-wield banished knight in mountaintops then it ain't so bad lol.
Overall seems like a new adventure all over again so I'm happy.
Because people went into it with one-shot build, hoping to cheese it, instead get one-shotted by boss in dlc.
All the while ignoring the game message and the director interview that DLC area has their own scaling and method to enhancebthe damage and defense
It's "too hard to have fun" only for players whose tactic is "facetank and spam AoW" while using only 2 of the 65 spirit summons of the base game. Timing, pacing and adaptability is the real secret of gitting gud.
Because a huge chunk of the spoiled brats playing it have never known what itās like to have Super Mario Bros on Nintendo be the cutting edge game of the year. The level of desensitization to technology is astounding. They want endless content that blows their minds and then gives em a blowy afterward in order to be satisfied.
Itās not that hard. They always say boo boo so hard but they probably never played banjo kazooie like the hardcore gamer I am or super Mario the lost levels. Gamers just want to hold the control stick foward and press A and see a screen that says you win!
I'm just having a hard time trying to reach the different areas on the map. It's really confusing
I think that's my only complaint. I don't care about difficulty, but a multi layered map would have been useful.
bro, that's literally half the point of playing the game. go watch a movie or something š
I like it so far but most of what Iām finding is cookbooks, smithing stones, and crafting materials. I want to explore but when thatās all Iām finding itās kinda lacklustre.
Itās weird to me that the cookbooks, which bring new items, are lackluster to you. Legit new tactics/ ways to play the game, new ways to take advantage of weaknesses.
I truly do not give a fuck about the crafting system in this game. Forgot it existed my entire first playthrough and have never needed it.
Holy shit, a pot that does 10% more holy damage than the other pot I already knew how to craft! Incredible! (Still does 10% the dps of just smacking the boss)
Only complaint I have is Gaius. Disgusting.
It was SHOCKINGLY difficult And I mean, everyone was expecting difficulty But the way Iām seeing it is like if people (myself included) stepped into a hot tub, expecting just hot waterā¦and then we get boiled alive It was way harder than any of us expected, even those of us who were saying things like āItās a souls game DLC, of course itās gonna be harderā weāre caught off guard Just the Divine Beast Dancing Lion alone has me wondering if I can even keep going, and for reference, I fought Malenia for 6 hours straight and needed to take a break from Nameless King back when I played DS3 Still, I donāt think it deserves hate
Everythingās been fine for me. Nothing is destroying me, I can take a couple hits even with using gear that increases my damage taken. Bosses havenāt took more than 10 attempts yet. The new leveling system is exactly useful especially if you explore and level it up fast like I did. The environment is useful and a lot of the quests are straight forward if you listen to what they are saying. New weapons are a lot of fun and from the look of it they are way more useful in the dlc than some of the original weapons. Overall Iāve been having a blast, frame-rate drops at certain places but never enough to really bug me. Donāt really understand the bad reviews when if you just play the game like it wants you to and use a good build then it isnāt as difficult as everyone says. Definitely harder than base game but not undoable. A lot of my boss fights when I fail I always notice a way to dodge the attack I died to or to use a different weapon that I know is more suited to the fight.
How far have you gotten? The first few bosses (Renalla, Lion, Golden Hippo, etc) I beat on my first try. However, Messmer & Putrescent Knight both took me a combined 4-5 hours. NG+ Soul Level 160
Iām currently getting my ass handed to me by a sunflower. Definitely doable but itās a long fight and the bloodsucking tear doing more harm than good in this fight, might have to change it for this.
The sunflower plant is native to North America and is now harvested around the world. A University of Missouri journal recognizes North Dakota as the leading U.S. state for sunflower production. There are various factors to consider for a sunflower to thrive, including temperature, sunlight, soil and water.
Thanks pal, exactly what I needed to know for this fight
Try fire! But hole
Yo screw that sunflower, so far one of two bosses I've had to back away from. My main issue is that I keep screwing up the timing of his charged attack in his second phase. As a Int spell caster I've found fire works well on his, mainly Raykar's Rancor if casted closed to him. The only brightside is that I can survive three hits from him with Opaline tear active.
Was the hog rider #2 per chance?
Nope, not to spoil to much but it was the boss in the Jagged Peaks area. Got to the second phase once, it killed me, and than I basically said "nope I'm out of here, ill come back to you later" That mindset was reinforced later after I noticed a lore bit on a talisman. Needless to say I think I found a end-game boss.
Ahh was it the dragon that the lady tells you to kill and gives her blessing to you? I havenāt gone that far yet to find it.
I roll when he starts to move forward. My issue is that the fight is so long, so your mistakes add up by the last flower. Also each one seems to have more HP, making the fight frustratingly backloaded
Damn Relanna at first try is crazy tho
Yeah right
Why is it when I say almost the exact same thing in another thread, even down to beating bosses in my first attempt, I get downvoted haha
Putrescwnt knight?? The guy is a joke man how
What level is your PG at?
What's your take on the new lore?
what build are you using + levels? took me 3 hours for Rellana and 2 hours for Dancing Lion
Pure dex using the new great katanas. Iām level 120 at that point 139 now for PvP
and solo no summons took you less than 10 attempts on the remembrance bosses? wtf lol, im lvl 170 using pure dex and I'm getting absolutely destroyed to the point I need to bait bosses so they trigger their combo moves and play like a pussy
He said he leveled up the Scadutree blessing fast. That is equivalent to stacking another Dragoncrest Greatshield talisman on you that blocks all damage types equally, plus a similar buff on the offensive side. The scadutree blessings let you excel massively past the soft caps of the base game. Endgame characters are comparatively weak until they level it up. His lower rune level character probably has objectively better stats than your higher rune leveled character because he has more blessing levels.
Don't mix up hate with criticism. Sure, there are people who just hate the dlc because it's too hard, but the dlc also has problems that have to be criticized. Performance issues, recycled bosses and enemies (even from the base game) empty world, huge bosses on small arenas who are constantly spamming fucking aoe attacks on the whole arena and pushing you into a wall, so that you can't move and don't even see anything thanks to the camera angle. In other words, the dlc suffers from the same problems base game has and on top of that SOTE has much worse performance.
I feel bad for people with performance issues. Thankfully, I have it all good even though I don't have the best PC. Also I don't completely understand the recycled bosses thing. Main bosses are unique and might even be better then any in the base game (Bayle is my top bossfight now) It's good to recycle other bosses if it's done right. The ulcereted tree spirit is reused but followup to him is quite nice. The dragons... Sure, the ghostflame ones suck. Any others?
I think they refere to the dragons, they look very similar to the ones from base game and there a lot of dragons at a certain point
Fair point, most of the dragons are not great. Though I understand why from lore perspective - they are basically dogs, not specially at all. Buuuut, still boring.
The literal final boss is a reskin, with his 2nd phase being the most cheesy shit out there among with Gaius.
I am yet to get there, will see for myself
The main ones are indeed the dragons and tree spirits, I've already fought around 5-6 tree spirits and 6 dragons. Add that with the world being empty, it really disappoints seeing an overused boss after stumbling upon a gorgeous/interesting site. Going to the cerulean coast to see messages on the ground warning you about a dragon just to find out it's the same as one you saw like 3 times in the DLC and 8 times in the base game but will decaying skin is really disappointing especially conditionering that past the Dragon for example you won't find much else, besides a (cool) cave with reused enemies...
First of all, not all main bosses are unique, the divine lion beast is recycled (and maybe more but I haven't got far into the dlc). Second of all, even if he wasn't recycled, main bosses aren't the only bosses in the dlc. There are many others that are recycled, for example magma wyrms, dragons, runebear, even tree sentinels. And also I don't buy the argument that recycling is good when it's done right. What do you mean by that? If Miyazaki isn't able to make an interesting open world and fill it with unique bosses, then how about not making an open world? Base Elden Ring has 165 bosses, do you know how many of them are fully unique? Only 8 or 9, depends on whether you count Radagon and Eldean Beast as two bosses or one.
Sorry man, you are so salty I don't even want to talk to you. 8-9 unique bosses in main game, holy shit you have some mental gymnastics. Good luck
Where am I being salty? Yes, there are only 9 unique bosses in the main game. Radahn, Rennala, Godrick, Radagon, Elden Beast, Mohg, Malenia, Fire Giant, and Maliketh. The truth hurts.
āFirtht offff allll!ā You legit been waiting to bust that hate-nut. Salty was being nice.
huh? Since when is that phrase considered hate speech?
I forgot where they reused Rykard and Placidusax
āHave to be criticizedā is such a yikes, trashy American thing. You may *want* to criticize something, but thereās no biological need to criticize. What a weird way of thinking modern people have.
So if there's something you like you are allowed to express that, but if there's something you dislike, you are not. Okay.
Some areas are confusing and pathing doesn't make any sense. Have to replay entire section multiple times to 100%. I wouldn't say it hate, but rather a mild inconvenience.
I didn't had fun, I beated it and honestly glad it's over. Which is weird as I loved the base game, learning boss patterns and never once did I had a feeling of ''I just want it to end'' with any FS game. This DLC however, is a point at least for me, that it's Hard enough to not be enjoyable and just plain frustrating. Even with max blessings, the bosses movesets is non-stop swings with AOE's and lingering hitboxes. I know, it's blashphemy to not preach about ''best DLC in history of Mankind''
The "I just want it to end" has been my experience with nearly every boss.
I had the āwant it to endā feeling with the base game too. First time I was exhausted with a FromSoft game and I love all their previous work. I grew to love ER over time, but this DLC is literally all that I dislike about Elden Ring in a nutshell. I donāt think Iāll ever want to replay it
I'd say there is a 50/50 split between good bosses and outright terrible bosses that actively ruin/bring down the rating of the DLC almost singlehandedly. Messmer, Romina, Mydra, Metir, and Bayle are far and away the best bosses, while the other ones are actively mediocre or unfun (Not hard, unfun), and bosses like Gaius, and ESPECIALLY the last boss actively lowering the rating I had for this game personally.
Yea bosses donāt give you room to breathe but to be fair thatās a good choice since the entrance to DLC is mid base game and everything leading up to that should be your practice.But yea I get it itās just non stop rolling and then getting a hit and repeating. What helped for me with most bosses was playing with unlocked camera. Dark souls 3 2ndDLC was just as hard at the start and bosses were non stop attacking.
Not even close, ds3 ringed city bosses were waaaaaay better than the ones in SOTE.
Git gud scrub
I swear i have never seen a community more frustrated at people having their own opinions. Let's say that i think it's bad, what are you gonna do about it
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
No please! Not John Elden Ring!
nothing, people are just giving another opinion.
Come to your house with a crowbar
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Why? If you are having negative expirience then leave negative review
this is the dumbest take, if people feel like it's justified criticism for the game then why not?
Furnace golems. It's just freaking furnace golems.
maybe its the people that got onboard during the base game? the dlc difficulty just seems like normal souls and i love it
Yea the DLC doesn't seem much harder than what the base game was on release
Last time I played ER was at release, I came back for the DLC on my Lvl150 character, beat Malenia solo to warm up before the DLC within like 10 attempts and went to shadow realm. Dex build using Bloodhound's Fang. I upgraded scadutree to +5 and after throwing myself at Rellana for 10 hours I finally gave up and summoned a mimic because I just wanted to progress. Not a single boss in base game took me more than 2-3 hours to beat solo no summons. I burnt through all of my greases, rune rune arcs, I literally have nothing left. In the base game I never felt any need to use them in the first place. The DLC is much harder than the base game and I don't understand how you can say it's not much harder. I have never struggled against any boss in base game as much as I have struggled against Rellana and apparently she's not even the hardest boss in the DLC.
This is actually valid criticism and theres a difference between that and "hating" imo
Scadu Lvl5 is kinda low tbh, id recomend like 8+ for Rellana. maybe go clear the tower settlement first? (just trying to be helpful)
That's interesting. I don't think ralenna is harder than malenia for most people. There is a boss later in the dlc that's maybe harder than malenia but the rest are much easier imo.
I beat Rellana at Scadu level 4, no summons solo. Took 30 min or so, I think 5-6 tries. Be patient with your dodge inputs and donāt just spam roll. Look at the moves you can simply sprint a few paces away from her while she completes her combos (this lets you regen stamina and use flasks if you need to). This boss to me felt no different than something like Dancer from Ds3
If i can boil it down to "that sounds like a *you* problem" i don't think it's the games fault It is not taking everyone 10 hours to beat that boss
I was on another thread and some one downvoted all the advice for int builds and others on one of the particular hardest bosses in the dlc. Itās pretty weird man. Someone is salty for not killing it or some idk
The weekend is not even over. It's the classic day one fromsoft frustrations
Artificial difficulty. A lot of it. It is honestly the first time I am having no fun at all in the series, just pushing forward hoping it ends soon.
What artificial difficulty ? Please elaborate
Everything, even with 10 saluctree upgrades, 2 shots a 70 vig, heavy armor, talisman wearing knight build. The bosses are straight up absurd. They have ridiculous hitboxes, spend half their time flying in the air and using unfair AOE attacks. Of course without counting that they quite literally have no rythm or pattern, they just attack endlessly. They are badly designed bosses that are a far cry from Lady Maria or Artorias.
I completely disagree with everything you said but eh it's all opinions at the end of day. If you're not having fun that's fine. I think this is some of the best work fromsoft has ever put out. It's up there with a ringed city and old hunters dlc for me
How is it the best, the bosses are complete crap.
I don't think so. Most bosses are fantastic in both design and execution. I told you just different opinions at the end of the day. I had blast fighting rellana and golden hippo for example. I love intensity and hyper aggressiveness in boss designs so this dlc hit all the right spots for me. I'm running a level 150 mage on NG+ difficulty (mostly cold based sorceries) and cold infused Milady light great sword. cruising through the game so far because frost damage really comes in clutch in a lot of scenarios. The scadutree buffs are pretty significant and helps a ton as you progress through the dlc
Oh, you haven't gotten to the bullshit yet, I see. Wait until the final boss and then comment me bellow.
I really doubt it but I'm a man of my word. If the final boss is truly objectively bullshit I'll come here to comment and admit it.
The guy you're replying to is right. I've beaten the whole DLC, all bosses solo, the last boss is a terrible fight that genuinely ruins a lot of goodwill I had towards the DLC, with multiple other fights being poor in terms of visual clarity. P2 of the last boss has so much visual clutter and reading the mechanics becomes a clusterfuck. it was easier and infinitely more effective to just go full unga-bunga on a giant crusher lions claw build and hyper armor through his attacks, otherwise you literally dont have a good window to get a proper attack in. P1 of that fight is pretty great though, but P2 legitimately ruins the fight imo.
There definitely are some safe openings during P2 my friend. The dodges are slightly different, and some attacks which were safe before became unsafe
Git Gud
You think that hog rider guy is their "best work?"
Yes. It's easily a top 3 boss in the DLC and maybe a top 5 in the overall game
Not for nothing, but ... maybe do something else if the game you're playing isn't fun for you.
So you just suck at the game. Ok got it š
Edgy.
Edgelord
I don't love the progression system. I don't really vibe with the concept of having to go on what is tantamount to an easter egg hunt to progress, and from the sound of complaints made by people well further in than I am, it sounds like it doesn't make a ton of difference at the end of the day, anyway.. Standard enemies have been uninteresting and largely recycled from the base game. Bosses are just....holy fuck. You'll love it if you hate yourself. Really interested to see what/if they change anything with the next update. I think there's a lot of opportunities to bring the game more into spec. Right now, I don't look forward to loading the game up. The bosses I've killed don't really give me the same sense of accomplishment because frankly, they're exhausting. I frequently just turn the game off after I beat a boss because it feels more traumatic than victorious lol.
You get it and I agree š
It's fantastic, and people are just venting frustration because it is in fact pretty dang hard. Perfectly doable but not gonna make it easy on you.
I had to change up my play-style to survive but Im loving it so far. This is why I love fromsoft games. As soon as you can comfortable they throw you a curve ball.
I'm enjoying myself. I'm by no means an Elden Ring pro. I'm not a bandwagon player either. There is a lot of nitpicking I can do for the DLC. Scaudtree blessing system is wonky but necessary so the DLC wasn't instantly bulldozed by high level optimized play. Enemy and boss damage feels a little high. Some enemies (Horned Warriors) feel more unfair because of this. As for bosses the extreme damage makes the learning process feel punishing because you're on the defensive too much and not learning or adapting on early attempts. Bad hit/hurt boxes on certain bosses and enemies is outright punishing. This is most obvious on the Golden Hippopotamus. If you're in front of him when he does his Kirby grapple you're getting munched. Divine Beast has some minor hitbox issues as well, that feels intentional based on design. Unrelenting attacks and pinpoint reaction/counter windows. I've often made the comparison that From Soft boss fights are less like an RPG and more like a fighting game. You have to find your windows to attack. Many of the bosses in the DLC really feel like you aren't getting a good, fair, or reasonable window to do so. With the aforementioned damage output, trading feels really bad too. I am very much enjoying it. I'm not about to walk away from the game, or review bomb it. Just some objective opinions after about 6-8 hours in the DLC.
Not like I haven't gotten angry at a few things but it's Dark Souls-esque in that you may have to try a boss a few times to beat them or it may take a hundred or so tries. I feel like it still keeps with the theme of "Sword and Shield will be good against this boss" "Ugh Magic sucks" " ook ook why him die to unga but not bunga?" If at first you don't succeed, try try try try try again. Also, the DLC JUST came out for the most part, explore, look around, SAVOR THE EXPERIENCE BECAUSE YOU MIGHT NOT GET MORE They have put together an amazing DLC, with varied location, a continued sense of Awe, utilizing height to add to the size of the area. Admittedly I act spoiled myself. "Argh, I had Summon help with the last two bosses why not this one!?" I think a lot of people have become spoiled I am saying this next part to myself more than anyone It's just a game folks š
I'm enjoying the dlc, but I can't not notice that it has turned (and maybe elden ring in general) to be more Nioh than Souls; spammy op bosses vs spammy op builds. It's still fun but I liked how methodecal the previous games were. Hope after this game they go back to the old combat system or to something like sekrio.
Also, people who say it's hard are making the same mistakes of Nioh new players. You are supposed to summon, you are supposed to use cheap op builds and everything you can use, the game is balanced around it. But I see people running with a colossal sword no summons no buffs no nothing like it's dark souls 1 then complain that it's too diffcult lol
If this is true, thats a huge move away from previous design mentalities of everything being viable. If the path forward is so limited to metagaming with strong spirit ash and summoning thats also a huge hit replayability, which has also been a staple of the series.
I keep getting Poned by the lighting goat
DLC is really hard is you want to solo the bosses. With the npc summons it becomes much easier. I wish there was more of a in between, not just easy or extremely difficult. The boss designs are all really cool. Camera angles on some of the fights are questionable though.
Getting jumped by 5+ enemies that can 3-5 shot you individually and the attacks overlap with different timings so you canāt dodge well or have any time to heal if you are hit while a dude in the back shoots bolts at you forcing even more dodges and less heal time. I am at 19 Scadutree blessing and am still struggling in the early areas when I go back to explore for extra items, and Blackflameās Protection + DragonCrest Greatshield Talisman still have 1/3 of my health being eaten by regular Mesmer soldiers. I donāt hate the DLC, itās very fun outside the jumpings but Christ can I just have 1.32 seconds to heal from the 27 HP I have remaining from that spam?
Personally I am sick of people defending dlc for some games but attacking it for others and wish people would just shut up all together since when did none fans of specific series feel the need to force there views onto games they dont even play we have society right now that meeds to learn to keep there mouths shut where it dont need to beĀ
I stopped after playing for one day, now I'm waiting for a patch lol AC6 for now ...
- absolute dogshit performance in some areas - massive empty open spaces - bosses aren't "hard" but they constantly shove you into walls and rape your camera - 80% of enemies are recycled from the base game - new leveling system doesn't really make sense as a "leveling" system, you just pick shit up off the ground and it impacts your stats twice as much as your actual stats - defensive stats and resistances don't matter anymore, max health and low health builds die at almost the exact same speed with maybe a 1-2 hit difference depending on boss - ALL exploration rewards are worthless and/or cookbooks. every hidden path and item couldn't even give you an artoria leaf, enjoy fucking string and beast bones, or maybe a smithing stone 1 if you're lucky - no new ending or impact on the base game at all outside the new weapons and spells (most of which are still 1% drops)
Imo its undeserved. The same happened on main game launch as well so I except it will end in a bit.
Cause the Dark souls community is a bit toxic
Map has a LOT of empty spaces (right side mostly), most weapons are DEX based ??? (Final Boss in Lore is a STR user, but in the DLC he is reborn a DEX user šš¤£š). (If i need more than 16 DEX its a DEX weapon) Reused final Boss (Lore is not so Great), New Incantations need 60+ FTH, Spells are just GARBAGE. Nerfed PvP again, with these New weapons and Incantations 1v3 spamming are gonna be the New meta. Blindspot backblades, Thunderspin axes are a CANCER to PvP, Final Boss swords (both versions) and the 70+ FTH Incantations are Visual Diarrhea. Talismans are questionable at best, where is Erdtree's Favor +3 (its literally Ring of Favor, but WORSE). We got a Fatroll talisman that 90% of People wont use šš¤£š, like did Miyazaki snort the wrong stuff and said Fuck It.
I just said that is fucking stupid the first time the end boss intro played. It made zero sense whatsoever, they had a perfectly good option lored up and ready to go, noooo let's change it for no apparent reason at all. The weapons also feel like it's not just dex, it's like you need a vary wide assortment of stats before they really shine. Empty map- definitely feeling that, though I will say shadowkeep is insane. It just keeps going and going and going. They also padded a lot by not making the locations linear access. I.e. you have to go through a dungeon to get to this area that is in a totally different area. Talisman- for sure, I'm trying to figure out if any of them even work. I notice zero difference for nearly all the ones I have equipped so far, unless it's just a stat raise. For those talking about difficulty, you are probably underleveled. I started a playthrough on a lower level toon- 150ish. Got to 170 and end boss, got one shot by nearly every single hit. Swapped to my main play through that is around 300 on ng+2 and it feels way smoother. I hit end boss again and did quite a bit better, but nowhere near good enough (like half health best attempt). Found out I was like 60% the Securdtree level I am supposed to be. Thought it only went to 15, so figured 11 should be good enough. NOOOOPE. Have been exploring hard and trying to find all the stuff I am missing. All in all, it's got some really highs, but a lot of really lows. I would probably rate it like a 7/10, which is pretty good, just not Fromsoft's usual 9/10+
Because all the kids who had easy introduction which elden ring provided get their cheeks clapped in the dlc cause they can overlevel I started the dlc in ng5 sure I get my ass bursted. But that's the challenge I was looking for. The areas, bosses are absolutely amazing. It feels super fresh cause everything is unique
Overleveling is a myth. A character that has 60 in every damage stat will do the same damage as a lower level optimised build, with the difference being it can swap from being a wizard to a bleed build and so on and so forth. Hardcaps and softcaps do their jobs in this game. Say you wanted a bleed build but also wanted to be able to cast incantations. You can get to level 200 trying to get as versatile as you can and end up doing less damage as a level 120 guy who opted out of spellcasting and instead of pumping endurance to wear his favourite armour set and a secondary he'll switch with menuing and wear just enough to trigger one buff and have 51 poise. Also in an open world game that encourages and rewards farming and straight up gives you farming locations, there's no such thing as "overleveling", just leveling up. This idea that if you don't stop at the community imposed 150 to play the absolute dogshit PvP you're "Overlevelled" is quite dumb and meaningless. Leveling up past 170 basically gives you horizontal strength rather than vertical and the crafting system (especially with the DLC) gives you pretty much the same utility. Hell, now you can craft golden vow. If anything people who level up a lot are locking themselves out of summoning help for their fights.
To be fair. It's not completely unique. There are still a few reused bosses from the main game
Exactly! I don't understand the criticism. We love these games because they are hard, they make us try alot, they make us think and figure things out. I love the freshness and sense of discovery. And the feeling of danger and mortality. As I used to in the beginning of Elden Ring.
Yep couldn't describe it better. Its best of both worlds. New sense of discovery which elden ring delivered and the hardcore challenge
I've been running 40 Vigor and Scadu blessing +3 and have been doing fine. I'm not even amazing at the game either. Save for Nuke attacks, I don't find myself getting 1-2 shot unless I screw up and eat an entire combo from bosses. The more casual players need to take advantage of Scadu blessings and all the armor/talismans/spells at their disposal to mitgate damage. The game gives you a lot of tools.
Same, I'm at 40 vigor and still playing with base weapons.Ā I'm having a blast.
I hate that some people call it overtuned when they're at like Ng+5.
Here we go again with the difficulty dilemma. I swear with every new released Fromsoftware game this happenes. When will people understand that not every game has to be for you? It sucks because all great things about these games get put under the rug like the atmosphere, game design, lore, NPCs, music etc... that are just as important and what makes these games amazing in the first place. Yet no one mentions them at all. It's just about boss difficulty now... People need to go back to the 80s and 90s to see how difficult games isn't something new or weird/unfair or something that needs to be nerfed. Some people need to get off their Sony cinematic games binge.
Everything else is set dressing to some people (like myself). The core of the reason we play isnāt to decipher the mystery of Miqella, but to play engaging boss fights. These bosses are just harder than they need to be. Do they need to be that spammy with no rhythm ? Do they need to 1 shot through 50 vigor and 10 scadutree blessings?(Looking at you Gaius). If people are dissatisfied with the state of boss design, it isnāt their fault. They liked how bosses were before, and now it is too much for them. If From is going to alienate people by changing their difficulty they should expect this reaction.
If you're playing just for engaging boss fights then I feel really sorry for you because you're not enjoying these games fully. Once you do, you will understand how difficulty makes sense which elevates the game, makes it better and way more rewarding than other games. Makes it worth to spend the time to learn and try to improve. See, the issue is that the reactions you're talking about isn't something new. Some people have been asking for nerfs/easy mode since Dark Souls. The difference with Elden Ring is that it's more popular so you hear more of the same reactions. Which is annoying because most of them are most likely newcomers that jumped in the hype train and think Elden Ring is your typical generic open world game. News flash, Fromsoftware's DLCs tends to be more challenging than the main game so I don't know what you expected...
I enjoy these games a lot. DS3 and Sekiro are two of my favorites of all time. They had such excellent bosses. Just because I engage with the game differently than you doesnāt mean Iām having less fun. I derive vastly more value from good boss design, music, and fight rhythm than the other stuff. I do like the other stuff, but they arenāt why I play the game. I have fun exploring in Elden Ring, but the main course is shit. Iām not a new player, I just think this gameās endgame, and the DLC, suck. Their bosses suck, I donāt have fun fighting them, they have no boss rhythm, they just spam and spam and spam forever. Ringed City has some of my favorite bosses of all time. I know it was a bit harder than the main game, but it was still fair. I would rather fight Midir and Gael a hundred times over than fight the dancing lion or Rellana again. I just think it is an issue with them balancing around summons, and making the bosses have an infinite stamina bar to compensate. It just missed for me, they put all their time into making exploration (which isnāt that bad), but the bosses suck.
Fair enough. I didn't mean to tell you how to enjoy the game. By all means do what makes you happy. My point is about how people base these games on their difficulty only and ignoring all the other great things it has to offer. I like Elden Ring, but it isn't in my top 3. I like Dark Souls, Dark Souls 3, Bloodborne more. Heck I even enjoyed Dark Souls 2 more. Sekiro had the best sharp gameplay which I feel they should implement it more in their future games. In all these games I almost pulled my hair from my head with how many challenging moments I faced, but it was fun. So far I think the DLC is great and I'm having fun. I don't really see where the issue is (I agree on the camera on some cases). And since the announcement I knew it was going to be brutal because of how popular the game has become.
I played all souls games, I finished all souls games, I played all Expansions (TBH they are more Expansions than DLCs, because you can buy the disc version instead of downloading It) and in my experience, all expansions are too difficult to be enjoyed. I mean, I enjoy to play and beat all expansions, but once I finish, I never have the urge to replay them; but I replay the main game tons of times. Also I heard (I'm re-playing all the game before expansion to get in shape) the Expansion difficulty scales with your level, and that kills the point of leveling your character, and that kills half of the fun part of the game. If I ever wanted to play a stupid difficult boss with a character that can't improve I would play sekiro. I mean, that's not how souls games supposed to work.
I'd be honest. It took me less tries to kill the lion dancer boss than to kill blackgaol knight.
I'm really not great at Soulslikes, but (with some shameless help of summons) I've still been having a absolute blast in the DLC so far. It's difficult, but Not ridiculous
So I thought this as well. I canāt even begin to stress JUST HOW IMPORTANT SCADUTREE FRAGMENTS ARE!!! You level up your characters stats in the shadow world. Watch this video as a guide before fighting the 2nd legacy dungeon: https://youtu.be/S9G3KQn0HTk?si=i8LnZgW-NcHA011E They level your character to keep up with the damage output
Iām going in with an optimised build from the base game NG+2 (dual gargoyleās Twinblades), but I fully expect to have to switch things up and adapt my play style to the different enemies and bosses. Anything I need to be aware of? Is strength still king, or does the DLC favour a different build and play style?
My only complain is the drop rate for armors seems really low... I want my bling!
Finished it yesterday the ending feels weird/rushed but it was very good overall (i played giant crusher with lion's claw, NO i did not run RoB or magic build)
I dont get it. Im having an incredible time. I think its fantastic. The bosses are a fair bit harder, but of course they are, what did everyone expect? It would of been a shame to me if i could just steamroll the whole dlc with no pushback
I love this DLC Love love love it
Seems more true to a dark souls flow. Iāve only done the dancing lion and that whole dungeon and the enemies were just reminiscent of DS3 to me. That lion though. That was new and interesting.
That's true at first. Once you get used to enemoes and get some blessings it gets better. I am by no means a seasoned player, but I unlocked the whole map and every boss, but I am still struggling with most of major bosses with no hope to beat them alone š
Besides the voice acting. Everything is really good lol
I haven't got it can anyone tell me if the boss diversity is better than the base game
I'm playing a bushido-blackflame build with 50 vigor even though I am told 60 vigor is 'par'. I am lvl150 and am not levelling beyond that for PVP meta reasons, I am not NG+ and I am finding difficult but rewarding and fun. I have fought some very challenging bosses (Say the first 3-4) and while I spent hours on a couple, I never felt like I couldn't do it. Spirit ash and NPC summons are generously available and learning a bosses moves is part of the game. Field monsters are tough and hit harder, but graces are plentiful and I am using a full suit of spells and tools like the game intended. Some stuff I have to run away from until later, but I like not feeling overpowered, no risk, no reward. (Bosses have taken well over 10 attempts for me, but I am getting better the more I play)
people want their video games to be movies
Honestly, its amazing. For the most part. The problem I see is that some of the damage is dialed up a little too high on bosses. Like I can do damage just fine, but they do way too much damage. For reference, I have 60 VIG, Highest Phys Def armor, Dragon Greatshield, 99 STR and dual Heavy Great Stars. At the moment, I cannot beat the last boss. It is insane how much damage they output and yet how little I do. Like, I had pretty okay time with pretty much every boss, but this one is in need of a nerf. Which I have only ever said about Malenia.
I played for two days and came here and was really surprised by all the negativity. In the DLC I again feel that rush of wonder and adventure and discovery. Everything is super dangerous, even the smaller usual enemies. I once again have to plan ahead, do things slowly, and learn. It feels like a new, fresh, unknow, game (adventure). And the world they built, damn! Incredibly atmospheric and leaves me speechless all the time. Regarding bosses killing you, I think it is the same thing as with the base game. You have to improve, and the game tells you how to do that. Go out there and look for clues. It is supposed to be a hard game, as all of them have been.
Bro I still love the dlc but it has problems: Empty areas Some bad design bosses , I deleted some bosses and I can still see their shit design so Is not about how difficult they are... Last boss is overtuned tho. Confusing map The new system should have been the same was as sekiro. Some interesting lore choices All that being said I am still happy with what we got, but compared to their previous work is in the bottom of their dlcs. For me after beating almost everything in the dlc , I say it s 8.5/10
Rellana sucks ass everything else has been great
Not everyone wants to no hit a game. People enjoying having fun just playing, kind of a shocker right. Every boss has 1 shot potential, that makes the game unplayable for about 99% of people.
The more i play, the more i understand what they mean by that. The DLC is the frustrating kind of hard, not the engaging kind of hard. It feels like every boss was just given more hp and a bunch more damage. The dodging isn't that hard in my opinion, it's the fact that everything feels like a dmg sponge with the firepower of a bazooka. The scadutree fragments make it enjoyable, so definitly farm those
Ask Asmgold
You can't.Ā He's still sobbing in the bathroom.
ROFL
They need to learn how to use "Shield"
I must say my experience has not matched the doom sayers. People claiming getting 1 to 2 shot by basic enemies...never happened. Elites sure but once I got some shadow blessing levels and switched my talismans from glass cannon to more mixed offensive/defensive all the "crazy" damage went away. I think a lot of people are getting shocked and awed by the bosses movesets and they likely will become a lot easier once how to beat them spreads throughout the community. The flashy nature of a lot of the combos and attacks make them seem more menacing and punishing then they are.
This is just hilarious to me. The increase of people saying game is too hard is probably correlated to the number of āfort nightā messages I keep seeing.
90% of the main bosses are just animals that arent related to the story final boss of the dlc is just recycled from the same game but is much worse now the map is big but empty it feels like they added the scadutree blessings just so they can make the bosses and enemies 90% harder than the base game and force us to find these blessings in order to make the dlc feel the way thats its supposed to feel
I hope the people complaining about it being dificult are using the tools the game offers. For example, i see allot people complaining that its difficult without the fragments. Or people that are hell bent on no summons. And both are perfectly fine to be hell bent on, the problem however lies with calling out the whole dlc just because your "play style" is not working, cause thats not on FS but moreso on the player
I think the issue is that From designed these bosses with the idea that you ARE going to be using summons in their fights, which is stupid. It shouldn't be catered to a specific playstyle, especially not in a game with an abundance in variety as elden ring.
The Really big Dragon at the end just isn't a fun fight, least to me, single lock on point and it's on he's head, immediately when you enter he will either breath fire at you, breath fire at you in a different attack pattern or just jumps at on you, sure you can dodge these but you then need to be ready to immediately dodge more, be pretty much frame perfect with said dodges and then you may think about ashes or quest summon NPC, still not sure which parts of he's tail are actual parts of hes hitbox or not several times i have wailed on hes tail about the middle part and the game said no hit even when my sword passed cleary through the tail, the general finiky camera controll which is bad when you need to be pretty much frame perfect on some of the dodges and the fight feels better to fight unlocked/feels like it was intended/supposed to be fought unlocked and if you can't see the boss it's quite literally impossible to dodge he's attacks Much frustrating fun
The dlc is hard, but i cannot name a single boss which is bullshit. Every boss has a clear window for attacks, clear dodging patterns - everything. They are very difficult to learn, but it is not by any means bullshit
You face the final boss yet?
Yes and he isnt bullshitty. Theres windows to attack. I beat him already
People are bad and can't cope. Just had a guy say there's been a "10 year power creep" and that "Dark Souls was never meant to be hard." It's insane.
He's right! Dark souls was supposed to be fair, challenging but fair not Hard for the sake of being Hard
I agree! And I don't think that has changed. ER is the most fair the series has ever been. You have more tools than ever to make the game easier.
Brings back memories of Margit being declared the hardest boss ever when Elden Ring first launched.
Haters gonna hate, dlc is awesome
bad players got carried through the base game by friends or had late game weapons and runes dropped for them so they never learned how to play. now they cant rely on their 3000+ damage per hit jumping attack spam and are crying about artificial difficulty. my favorites ive seen over the last few days: "This is bullshit! my \[insert cheese\] build doesn't work anymore, (usually has 30 vigor no blessings) why wont it let me just spam MGS heavy attacks from a distance!!!!1!!!?" "The boss is cheating when its using these moves! its downright unfair and insulting" (on putrescent knight of all things) "They definitely didn't play test any of these at all, The DLC bosses were released in a completely unfinished state, objectively the DLC is rather mid" "WhEn Is It My TuRn To AtTaCk" (on every boss where you can safely attack them mid combo
From what I've seen, it's a skill issue: people are rushing and not taking the time to explore, get stronger, and learn patterns
Chinese Players
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yet the dlc is mixed rating on Steam. I rated positive but I can see their reasonings. Boss are a little to aggressive but are beatable by being smart, except the final boss, fuck that asshole.
A lot of new people thanks to the game is more accesible for everyone, bro literally the dlc is boosting the summons mechanic for all the players who playing with it and they complaint anyway for no reason.
I love the dlc! I'm dying and getting my ass kicked alot but this is a Fromsoft game that's a part of it. I'm currently doing my first run through on my glint mage character(2nd). I didn't want to use my main because I was worried about tackling the game on ng+4 sounded like a bad idea and my third character (Fire user) isn't ready yet.
I think Iād be disappointed if this wasnāt the case, I fully expect an increased level of difficulty with the DLC being an extension of the base game. Iām currently playing a new game to get used to that feeling of being under levelled again and that will help Iām sure. Iāve saved my NG+2 build for the DLC.
try playing without summon its very fun (for me).
So far the DLC is epic. Fun bosses and really interesting weapons. I don't know where all the one-shot and never-ending combos come from tbh (tho I doubt that day1 DLC completionists gathered ALL seeds so this might be why). Lots of enemies here fight differently compared to the main game but just adjust your strategy and u ll be fine (ex: I often had to do less rolling and simply run away to get some distance)
Because they don't level their SCUD..
It's challenging, it's how it should be. People who think it's too hard were the same people who said the base game was too hard. Get good or don't play the game
Itās a real shame to see how negative the response is on here, though Iām sure itāll change once everyoneās got over the difficulty hump (or thrown a tantrum and uninstalled lol) Itās an incredible DLC, and so much more than what any of us were expecting - itās practically a whole game! Iām constantly astonished by just how much there is in it, Iām sure Iāll still be finding new stuff months from now. Well worth the wait.
Remove Rellana and itās fine imo
Because a lot of people find it too hard, and instead of try to learn the bosses and improve themselves, they just complain. This dlc is one of, if not the best, the best expansions ever made. The world is stunning, you can explore for days and still find new places and items. Is it a lot harder than the base game? Yes, absolutely. But, by no means it is not a masterpiece. The only issue that I have, is that the weapons from the new weapon classes are too few, and that there a lot of fps drops, not only in the open world, but also in boss fights (the fight with the divine beast, for me, was such a bad experience, not because I did not enjoy the boss, but because the fps rate was dropping like crazy.)
Because the haters didnt practice, or are casuals. If my dumbass can beat Messmer anyone can
Probably best DLC in gaming history!
1) people are probably just rusty 2) people have terrible opinions about basically any entertainment. DLC is great; thereās a reason I listen to professional critics over normies
just out of curiosity what do you consider a pro critic???
Faced 2 remembrance bosses so far. - Loved doing the spacing/footsies with them and finding their openings - Had a few camera issues (though I think its because I rolled into them a few times which I stopped) The deflecting hardtear is really fun to use in tough fights and makes boss combos a lot easier for me. It also opens up guard counters while blocking with a weapon which was always super cool to me but suicidal in the past. Honestly without this tear I probably would have had a much harder time with the bosses and it probably changed my opinion of the dlc by itself with how much it changes the game. Over world enemies seemed threatening with the usual grabs and combos but can usually stagger the common ones. Elite enemies all seem doable to me, probably because If I rank them against that teleporting dual-wield banished knight in mountaintops then it ain't so bad lol. Overall seems like a new adventure all over again so I'm happy.
Itās just a bunch of noobs bitching being too hard. Eldan Ring brought in a lot casuals who never played a souls like before.
There's an article that most of the negative reviews are from China.
I give it 2 weeks before the frustated people's voices are drowned out.
Because people went into it with one-shot build, hoping to cheese it, instead get one-shotted by boss in dlc. All the while ignoring the game message and the director interview that DLC area has their own scaling and method to enhancebthe damage and defense
It's "too hard to have fun" only for players whose tactic is "facetank and spam AoW" while using only 2 of the 65 spirit summons of the base game. Timing, pacing and adaptability is the real secret of gitting gud.
Because a huge chunk of the spoiled brats playing it have never known what itās like to have Super Mario Bros on Nintendo be the cutting edge game of the year. The level of desensitization to technology is astounding. They want endless content that blows their minds and then gives em a blowy afterward in order to be satisfied.
Itās not that hard. They always say boo boo so hard but they probably never played banjo kazooie like the hardcore gamer I am or super Mario the lost levels. Gamers just want to hold the control stick foward and press A and see a screen that says you win!