Elden Ring (From Software RPG)

In same spot...hardest boss fight for me recently was the two gargoyles down in the Neocron or whatever it's called. took me quite a few tries even with mimic tear ashes. Finally had a round where neither one used much poison.

The two gargoyles tore me up this morning. I could almost kill the first by the time the second showed up, but my spirit summons wouldn’t distract the second one.

I’m in sage robes, so they pretty much two-shot me. The crucible knights there weren’t much of a problem though. Two combos from the fang kills them pretty easily.
 
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The two gargoyles is definitely a horrible fight. I finally managed to win it when one of them seemingly got distracted and wandered to the other side of the arena. Even then, just beating 2 of those bastards alone took all of my health potions (11 at the time) and my other potion...which is basically just another health potion on my end.

I finally found the Mimic Tear, and agree that summon is godlike. I can understand the desire to nerf it even now. It actually does quite a bit of damage (when leveled up) and it tanks like a champ, too. Plus, because most boss fights begin slowly, you have time to spring it and heal before they're on you. I could probably re-spec again and put the points in magic toward health instead now.

I'm at level 130 now and just now starting the Mountaintops area. I ran through once to complete the last Volcano Manor quest, but am now finally exploring that area for real. I *did* finally start casting spells (the lake of rot seemingly requires it if you fight that damned giant), but am still 99.9% melee.
 
You can cheese the gargoyle fight by standing next to the waterfall and time it right so he dive bombs at you and off the cliff.
 
I did the Gargoyles by using the greatshield soldier ashes to distract one of them. I actually found them easier than the solo gargoyle on the steps to Lyendell (after the duo tree sentinels).
 
On journey 3. I only need one of the Elden Lord endings now, so I’m gonna skip as much as I can, have done basically everything I needed/wanted to do in the last two play throughs. I will need to take a break from games because of this one... over 100 hours now.

Hoping I can make it through this journey without resorting to the Blasphemous Blade… Gonna see how far Marika’s Hammer and faith casting gets me this time.
 
The Black Blade Kindred (aka. the "Black Gargoyle") is still the toughest of the gargoyles IMO. Even worse than fighting 2 at once. Even when I finally beat him, it took forever and I was never doing much damage to him. IMO, him, the giant in the the lake of rot, and the 2 guardian statues have been the toughest fights I've had in the game so far.
 
I'm going back for the two today. I went up a couple of levels, tweaked my equipment, and leveled a couple of spirits, so we'll see how it goes this time. If I can just finish off the first one about 20-30 seconds more quickly than before then I can concentrate more on the second one.
 
A friend of mine turned me on to the White Mask Varre quest over the weekend. It requires you to invade other players (be ready to get swarmed), but the payoff is a new area that gives you runes galore. We're talking 400K of 'em for beating the boss + piles of easy enemies that drop 2K per kill. If anyone is struggling, you can boost your levels pretty quickly there. I'm too impatient to farm, but that are is the easiest place to top off levels that you can imagine.
 
In the 200 hours I've put into the game, I've never farmed nor ever felt the need to. This isn't like Dark Souls, so there's no need. The game's natural progression hands out plenty of runes. Farming seems only necessary if you're trying to shortcut your way through the game, and even that's debatable.
 
Took me 2 days to kill Maliketh. You have to time the attacks on his 2nd form almost perfectly or you get 1 - 2 shot even with like 50 vigor. I hear STR plays a large role in damage mitigation but I don't have that many points there. Maliketh is the hardest boss I've face thus far. So frustrating but when you finally kill a boss that's giving you problems, it's a good sense of accomplishment.
 
Took me 2 days to kill Maliketh. You have to time the attacks on his 2nd form almost perfectly or you get 1 - 2 shot even with like 50 vigor. I hear STR plays a large role in damage mitigation but I don't have that many points there. Maliketh is the hardest boss I've face thus far. So frustrating but when you finally kill a boss that's giving you problems, it's a good sense of accomplishment.
There's an item that apparently enables you to deflect him in that phase (I never used it). https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Blasphemous+Claw
 
Other than the 1-shot kill and 2% damage bosses I'm not meant to fight yet, I still haven't faced anything tougher than the 2 Burial Watchdog statues at the same time. Even beyond the sheer challenge of sneaking in hits, those things shrug off damage from strong weapons. The trick is, they feel beatable even at relatively low levels. I never bailed from the fight with the assumption that it wasn't possible yet.
So I just ran into them on my 2nd playthrough, died 2-3 times and decided I would switch my weapon to Ash of War: Flame of the Redmanes, with the intention of breaking their poise and doing critical strikes, things were not going as planned.... then randomly stumbled on a solution mid fight, I was pretty shocked when this happened.

 
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A friend of mine turned me on to the White Mask Varre quest over the weekend. It requires you to invade other players (be ready to get swarmed), but the payoff is a new area that gives you runes galore. We're talking 400K of 'em for beating the boss + piles of easy enemies that drop 2K per kill. If anyone is struggling, you can boost your levels pretty quickly there. I'm too impatient to farm, but that are is the easiest place to top off levels that you can imagine.

is that the one were you have to invade three people?
 
is that the one were you have to invade three people?
Yup, that's the one. I highly recommend spending all of your runes before even try it. On my first one, it was me and one other player against one guy who seemed unprepared. On my other invasions, it was 2-on-1 against me and they were clearly both geared up for PvP.
 
Played a bunch, level 101 now. I could probably kill this giant snakey monstrosity but I was told to wait to do that.

I’m now dual wielding two giant swords. So that’s pretty cool. I also got a smorgasbord of interesting equipment now, so it’s mostly a matter of what I feel like using/powering up, instead of trying to find the new hotness. I’m still pumping endurance because two swords that weigh over 15 each, combined with trying to wear heavy armor, well, it’s heavy.

Just made it to the capital city as well. Weee!

Oh, and mimic tear ash of war is broken as hell and I love it.
 
Played a bunch, level 101 now. I could probably kill this giant snakey monstrosity but I was told to wait to do that.

I’m now dual wielding two giant swords. So that’s pretty cool. I also got a smorgasbord of interesting equipment now, so it’s mostly a matter of what I feel like using/powering up, instead of trying to find the new hotness. I’m still pumping endurance because two swords that weigh over 15 each, combined with trying to wear heavy armor, well, it’s heavy.

Just made it to the capital city as well. Weee!

Oh, and mimic tear ash of war is broken as hell and I love it.

Just got there the other night. It's a pretty fun area. There are a couple of enemies that pissed me off a little bit, but it's an interesting area.
 
The capital city area has been my favorite thus far. It's huge and there are lots of areas to explore. Even after I "completed" it, I discovered two giant sections that I didn't explore in my first pass. The designers for that section did a great job. I'm about halfway (or so I assume) finished with the mountains after the capital city. So far they've been the most linear section to date. There are still caves, castles, etc. but it's a pretty confined area. There are some absolutely beastly enemies up here, though. Several different humanoid foes can lock you down and shred your defense. I'm getting tempted to power up my shield just so I don't get stunlocked to often.
 
Finally tried coop after 100 hours and I was able to help out with a few bosses. One person had one of those creepy talking head things and it said "please help". Then we got to the boss door, and before traversing the mist, they turned to me and made it say "please help" again. It was the most adorable thing.
 
Yup, that's the one. I highly recommend spending all of your runes before even try it. On my first one, it was me and one other player against one guy who seemed unprepared. On my other invasions, it was 2-on-1 against me and they were clearly both geared up for PvP.

Ok I DO need to do that so I can get the dragon somber stone as I screwed up the quest of the other way.
 
Last night I discovered that you should be careful what you do after fighting the Fire Giant. I figured it was just the next step to getting to that large unexplored area to the north. It isn't. I ended up having to go back to an older save I (luckily) had from only a couple hours prior. You've been warned :p
 
Last night I discovered that you should be careful what you do after fighting the Fire Giant. I figured it was just the next step to getting to that large unexplored area to the north. It isn't. I ended up having to go back to an older save I (luckily) had from only a couple hours prior. You've been warned :p

Hmm... I was about to go North sometime soon actually. I don't actually have any backed up saves. :D Maybe I'll do a little more exploring first.
 
Hmm... I was about to go North sometime soon actually. I don't actually have any backed up saves. :D Maybe I'll do a little more exploring first.

Basically you can move forward and do everything you'd normally do (including fighting the Fire Giant) - just know that when the game asks you a question, don't say "yes" yet.
 
As I've progressed north, the main difference in difficulty that I've noticed is that I can't really block anymore. At least not with the +10 brass shield I've been sticking with. Pretty much everything immediately staggers or locks me down until I stagger. Everything has to be rolled now, and windows to return fire are really tight. I'm facing the same enemies I've fought many times before, but they're simply more powerful. Luckily they're also giving me way, way more souls. Almost everything drops at least 3K up here. Mini-bosses drop upwards of 150K...except those damned red wolves. Those things are tough and only drop like 15K. Guardian Statues, too. I could kill like 4 of those round clay guys running around in like 15 seconds...or nearly die on a wolf that takes 3 minutes.
 
As I've progressed north, the main difference in difficulty that I've noticed is that I can't really block anymore. At least not with the +10 brass shield I've been sticking with. Pretty much everything immediately staggers or locks me down until I stagger. Everything has to be rolled now, and windows to return fire are really tight. I'm facing the same enemies I've fought many times before, but they're simply more powerful. Luckily they're also giving me way, way more souls. Almost everything drops at least 3K up here. Mini-bosses drop upwards of 150K...except those damned red wolves. Those things are tough and only drop like 15K. Guardian Statues, too. I could kill like 4 of those round clay guys running around in like 15 seconds...or nearly die on a wolf that takes 3 minutes.
pay attention to your poise stat if you aren't already.
 
As I've progressed north, the main difference in difficulty that I've noticed is that I can't really block anymore. At least not with the +10 brass shield I've been sticking with. Pretty much everything immediately staggers or locks me down until I stagger. Everything has to be rolled now, and windows to return fire are really tight. I'm facing the same enemies I've fought many times before, but they're simply more powerful. Luckily they're also giving me way, way more souls. Almost everything drops at least 3K up here. Mini-bosses drop upwards of 150K...except those damned red wolves. Those things are tough and only drop like 15K. Guardian Statues, too. I could kill like 4 of those round clay guys running around in like 15 seconds...or nearly die on a wolf that takes 3 minutes.
+18 Brass Shield is fine for me in Mountaintops of the Giants area. Having 50 endurance helps. I can absorb at least 3 successive hits from any of the Banished Knights in Castle Sol before I have to start backing off or start rolling away. The twin sword elite knight being the only exception. There are some enemy attacks, like the two handed greatsword over the head or charge attacks that you simply can not absorb with a medium shield. You're better off rolling away or staying right outside their attack range.

Remember, if you have your shield up and don't have enough left in your stamina bar to tank the hit your guard will break regardless. You're better off just dropping the shield momentarily and take the hit. When in doubt, roll away. It's better to roll away to a safe distance and get your stamina bar charged back up than being caught in a stunlock loop because you're too darned stubborn to let your shield down.

Poise is a good backup, and if you've dumped 50 points into endurance like I have, you should have enough carry weight for at least Scaled Armor at this point. I think that should give you at least 60 poise. Poise is really more useful for pushing through attacks to punish the opponent. However, the whole point of shields is to negate the damage altogether and then punish them when there's a window open. They are completely different approaches. But who's to say you can't do both?

Unless of course you're trying to fast roll with light equipment load. I that case you're probably low poise. Probably better off ditching a shield altogether for paired weapons if you're into fast rolling.

Also, the shield guard counter is less effective vs some of the tougher end-game enemy types. If you've been exclusively relying on it, time to switch up your game.
 
My endurance is only 30, but I've been balancing out my points into a lot of areas (I have both spell-casting stats at 23 even though I don't cast spells), so I'll end up re-spec'ing to boost my core stats more. I'm level 152 I think. I just mainly noticed that as soon as I got to the mountains, blocking suddenly went out the window. I'm definitely not a shield user in the prior games, but I've kinda gotten used to it in this game. Mainly because I'm not able to splat enemies with the Uchi. In the DS games, I stick to a giant club and splat = my way of not having to worry about enemies hitting me through my own attacks.
I just got to the tree area at the very top of the map, so I'm nearing the end of the line pretty soon. I'll likely re-spec into my boss-fighting form tonight.
 
I re-spec'd on my lunch break and boosted the Brass Shield to +22. My endurance is now 40, too. That seems to have done a lot. Blocking and even guard counters are more of an option, now.
I'm also tinkering with the Rivers of Blood katana. I had boatloads of upgrade materials for the "named" weapons, so I went ahead and upgraded that and the Pulley Bow to +10.
 
Last night I discovered that you should be careful what you do after fighting the Fire Giant. I figured it was just the next step to getting to that large unexplored area to the north. It isn't. I ended up having to go back to an older save I (luckily) had from only a couple hours prior. You've been warned :p
I did the same lol
Had to start a new game as I didn't have a backup of the old.

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Basically you can move forward and do everything you'd normally do (including fighting the Fire Giant) - just know that when the game asks you a question, don't say "yes" yet.
Too late, I don't listen to spoilers 😝

Having said that, I've already been planning my second play through, so I'm not concerned with a "good ending" on my first run.
 
Too late, I don't listen to spoilers 😝

Having said that, I've already been planning my second play through, so I'm not concerned with a "good ending" on my first run.
So, I'm actually not sure about this affecting the ending at all. It absolutely DOES affect the game world, though. Apparently it shuts down most of the NPC quests in the game and some characters straight up disappear. Hence why when it happened, I started looking up to find out if I screwed up.
 
So, I'm actually not sure about this affecting the ending at all. It absolutely DOES affect the game world, though. Apparently it shuts down most of the NPC quests in the game and some characters straight up disappear. Hence why when it happened, I started looking up to find out if I screwed up.
Well that explains a bit but I'm not terribly concerned as I feel like I should be nearing the end of the game by this point (100+ hours into my playthrough). I haven't really been aware or encountered any quests up until that point either, other than the one for the first lift, which I never did anyways 😝

A lot of people have expressed that they wouldn't replay this game but I would say I'm completely the other direction on that opinion. I think this game has a lot of stuff in it warranting at least a couple playthroughs.
 
A lot of people have expressed that they wouldn't replay this game but I would say I'm completely the other direction on that opinion. I think this game has a lot of stuff in it warranting at least a couple playthroughs.
I'm definitely one of those who won't replay this game. It simply is too damn hard. I don't have the time to sink into fighting and getting killed a ridiculous number of times fighting bosses. If and when I get to the end, I'm done. The days of having unlimited time to play a sole game are gone.
 
I'm definitely one of those who won't replay this game. It simply is too damn hard. I don't have the time to sink into fighting and getting killed a ridiculous number of times fighting bosses. If and when I get to the end, I'm done. The days of having unlimited time to play a sole game are gone.
Same. I don't know how people can sink 100 hours into a game and immediately go "I want to do that all over again." I mean props to them, but how do you not experience burnout?
 
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Yeah, not sure if I'm up for a new game+ either. My kid beat the game awhile ago, and tried new game plus, but even with the harder difficulty, he blew through the early-mid game (he got bored of being overpowered and doesn't touch it much anymore).

It might be fun to try different builds and whatnot, but I'm not really feeling the pull.

Currently finishing up some exploring in Caelid, will probably head back to Haligtree and struggle through that. Once I beat the last shardbearer there, I'm heading back to the Forge and finishing the game.

Currently sitting at level 150, 100-ish hours on the game, felt like I got my money's worth.
 
I've replayed the Souls games a bunch (and played through NG+), so I'm sure I'll do the same with ER. I'm not sure I'll do it right away or not, though. While it's absolutely wonderful, it's also massive. After you've played through Dark Souls 1-3, NG+ only takes about 1/3 of the time to play through. While Elden Ring NG+ will be easier, it'll be no less gigantic. I'm also one of those players that feels obligated to do everything in front of them, too. I dunno.

I'm in the main Haligtree area right now and steadily making progress. This area seriously benefits from a good bow and a shitload of arrows, so that's what I'm rocking more and more. At this point (level 160'ish) my stats are all where I'd like them to be, so I'm just tossing extra points into INT and FAT for the hell of it. Maybe they'll barely keep a spell from killing me...?
 
Co-op in this game is so friggin wholesome. I've never seen such good manners in an online game. Everyone waves and says hi, helps each other out, then we all celebrate with victory emotes after a boss fight. I love it so much.

Also I can't help but laugh at some of the players who are getting absolutely wrecked. This one guy got hit with every single arrow on the run up to Radahn. How is that even possible??
 
Also I can't help but laugh at some of the players who are getting absolutely wrecked. This one guy got hit with every single arrow on the run up to Radahn. How is that even possible??

The first time I fought him I think I got hit by every single one, too. When you aren't ready for it, those things are fast :p
 
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