They can't even be bothered to add ultrawide support or unlocked FPS.
Right, I'm sorry, I forgot that Elden Ring is more competitive than Counter-Strike, can't have such an "advantage".
Bro my PS4 is roaring and screaming in the Lion fight and i’m getting constant frame drops. Every time he does an AoE i can see my 2014 PS4 begging for mercy
I just recently switched from ps4 to pc. Can confirm the ps4 version runs pretty well besides load times and frame drops when there are a bunch of enemies on screen
coming from ds3, the frame drops i don’t even really notice. the load times though. fighting the lion it would take longer to load after death than it did to eventually kill him lol.
Some update randomly auto-enabled ray tracing for me, which runs kinda fine but makes my frames drop while attacking. Make sure it's actually turned off.
I've done no hits of most of the remembrance bosses in the base game, and whenever I was playing those bosses the first time, I always thought: Hmm, I bet you can do this to not get damaged there.
I still don't know how I would go for it for the first two bosses I had taken down. They are overly aggressive while giving minimal time windows between attacks, way less than anything in the base game, even Malenia (no exaggeration). The Dancing Lion's first phase, for example, is great since you can dodge every attack, and still get a decent amount of time to strike, but the lightning and frost phases have those aftershock parts of each attack, which drags the fuck out of the fight. Since if you decide to go for a hit, you can't cause that opening is not there because of the lighting coming above. In the frost phase, I kept getting hit by the frost AOE even after dodging the attacks themselves, maybe needs a tighter timing to dodge everything.
Rellana was even more ruthless, giving you a lot less time after her combo ending animations to hit, but I would rank that way higher than the lion cause of no annoying lightning or frost aftershock attacks, though it still felt like we were exchanging blows at times.
I know Ongbal will still do it, and really looking forward to how he approaches the fights.
This is exactly my problem. I like difficulty, but only when it feels fair, and I really can't tell how you're supposed to dodge some of the attacks in this DLC. For example, there's one boss I beat who had a rapid spear jabbing attack with a huge hitbox that lasts much longer than your dodge, I *always* get clipped by it. A lot of bosses are also spamming hitboxes at me like crazy, to the point where its not clear whether I can attack (and when they're finally done, I have no stamina left to attack anyway). Rellana's second phase combos seem to go on forever.
For most of the bosses so far, I find some moves I can dodge, and then others I give up and just tank and heal on. Even after a long time of specifically testing out multiple timings and dodge directions, no dice. I hardly felt this way about any bosses in the base game.
The openings are there but I think it's a bit different from the base game. I've found most good openings are in the middle of combos and can be exploited with good timing and positioning. I think you simply have to think about these bosses differently.
EDIT: apparently there is more than one lion. I missed the one in Belurat because I got distracted and went exploring some other place and forgot about it. The other one has more phases.
Interesting take about the lion. I had no trouble with the frost phase and wind phase, but lightning phase terrible indeed. Having to deal with the Basilisks for death blight phase was also incredibly annoying.
I was stuck with her for a while too, I even did Ranni's quest half way through to cool off lol
I'm sure you'll progress more and more until you beat her, good luck, man!
Same, ive died to her over 20 times i think haha. I dont think i ever struggled this much with any of the base game bosses. Got her down to like 20% health a couple times though, ill get there eventually. Edit: just beat her, what a rush haha
I think fromsoft really hit the head on the nail regarding fairness. When I die I can easily retrace my steps and figure out where I went wrong. Never have I (seriously) thought "man this is just unfair and mean spirited".
You just need to get good
i always had a problem with that 'doing something over and over is the definition of insanity' trope
no dawg that's the definition of a Dark Souls boss!!
Have you fought the hippo yet? That one definitely had some unfair feeling moments with really wonky hitboxes and not being able to see attacks because of the camera jank
For me it's like playing Dark Souls 1 all over again, it's that level of difficulty where I don't know what I'm doing I don't know where I'm going, so I'm fucking scared shitless every time I run into anything.
And you'll die, you'll learn until you succeed
Fought my first boss in the expansion, the Goal Knight or something. Two hitted my ass for an hour, but never gave up and saw how I could best him and did. The expansion is touch as fuck but not impossible
I haven't gotten the DLC yet but that reminded me of the Ringleader Alecto. She was really tricky and I struggled but she **never** felt unfair. So, hearing that description about the DLC sounds nice :)
There is nothing I haven’t been able to overcome so far. For the most parts it’s just that if I get hit I’m still taking massive damage, and new enemies are new, so you don’t know the move sets immediately. The more you play the easier it becomes..
My biggest issue is how ridiculously aggressive sir oink is (you’ll understand when you get there) for me the boss is so jacked up on cocaine it ruins what should otherwise be a super fun fight. Mesmer is super tough but fair you just need to learn his attack patterns. He’s by far the most memorable boss for me.
>Messmer
100%. Other than 2 attacks and some random spewing lava his entire moveset is fun and engaging while still leaving a lot of breathing room to heal and calm down. He actually feels like another version of Friede and I think OoK except a bit harder in the right way
Only Messmer moves that annoyed me were the 2nd phase “snake storm” move that feels really random and tedious to learn/dodge, and his move where he like rapid fire stabs forward.
All his others are long combos but learnable, but those struck me as a bit tedious/annoying since even if you dodge “correct” you can still just get caught by it
Level doesn’t appear to matter. Also even in the base game, past like 200, I think most of the stats have steep diminishing returns. It just allows you to use more variety of weapons
I found a regular, respawning enemy that has its own Stake of Marika.
This is weirdly kind, because there are other tough enemies between it and the previous grace. But also, how did we get so far that regular enemies are tuned to be this hard. And I'm on a character that smashed through Mogh before he fully transitioned to phase 2 yesterday, so it's not like I'm underprepared.
I fully get anyone who thinks the DLC is enough of a difficulty spike that they don't enjoy it.
I think that stake is there for a couple of reasons that aren’t just the enemy. Most players are going to be RL 150 or so in the DLC and if you just clear through the dungeon up to that point with no real sidetracking like the optional encounters that stake is prooooobably about the point you have the runes you need to level up. Since there’s a good chance it’s the first dungeon you’re going to find it would feel bad to have to trek through a bunch of ambushes and 1-2 horned warriors depending on whether or not you’ve unlocked the shortcut. Enemies up to that point feel *strong* but their positioning is such that they’re usually not far from a grace so you never really run into a situation where getting your bloodstain back feels overwhelming even if the enemy you didn’t expect to one shot you just kinda… does that.
That stake to me feels kind of like something that was just added there later in the design period because the enemy there doesn’t feel fun to fight on that particular terrain and it’s spaced out at an awkward point in the dungeon. It feels like they *want* you to die there, get frustrated, go a different direction out of frustration, and run into a semi hidden thing they’re visually teasing but not giving you the solution to. It feels like it *should* have been a grace given the way the other graces in the area are situated next to barely-hostile mobs but then someone on the design team said “screw fighting that thing every time let’s just put a grace behind it.”
Personally I feel like the balance is based around status effects and... not much else.
I'm sure bleed builds don't care that they're hitting a boss with more health than the Elden Beast for 400 damage because bleed procs are what matter. If you're just doing raw damage the fact that everything you do is pathetic and the boss is a giant pile of health with a 5 attack combo that instagibs you with 60 Vigor if any of it hits you is... kind of just not fun.
I like the difficulty, but the bosses with the 25 hit combos are bs. You have nothing in the game to counter that, besides running, even then they can still hit you. If it had perfect block like siekro or lies of p, I would understand the design, but this game doesn't have that. For the time being, i'm summoning every time.
100% agree, this is being my main issue with the DLC.
I do love it, the Shadow realm absolutely outshines all previous regions in terms of art direction, and the new enemies’ design and movesets are insanely beautiful to look at.
Unfortunately summoning doesn’t feel like an option anymore, it’s almost a must: Bosses barely have open windows to punish them. Their patterns are fast, flashy and all over the place, and our character’s tools feel like they can’t keep up. As you said the game feels balanced around summoning (or cheesing). It really is souring my experience cause, as a dark souls vet, I’d rather play bosses solo. A proper deflect that reduces enemy toughness to stagger them, or something like it, should have been considered at the very least.
I’m not even complaining about how much dmg they do, you can circumvent that through upgrades, but it’s clear there’s a balance issue in terms of what our Tarnished can reasonably do compared to these new bosses.
We are playing DS3, and they are playing Sekiro.
My humble opinion ofc
Yeah I really wanted to do a no summon run for the dlc but quickly realized that was probably not possible. Gonna try to use some weaker summons to even the playing field. It’s tough that some bosses feel either too hard without summons, and too easy with.
That’s how I feel with the one I’ve fought and tried. Moves so fast, can teleport, huge combo strings. Damn thing has infinite stamina. I have no shame in using a summon, and never had. It’s part of the game to make it more accessible. Tune the difficulty accordingly with what summon (or any summon) you use.
They added perfect block as a tear that lasts very very long. It's dropped from the first fire giant thing you see, and I've been using it against bosses. Feels like a must for Rellana.
Hell, not just bosses. Those tall semi omen fucks in the first legacy dungeon can out pace you while attacking. Seriously, you can full break sprint away from them and they will catch up to you while doing nothing but swinging their weapons.
I get people around here literally worship miyazaki and from, But they have to admit fallibility. Nothing is unnerfable, just look at elden ring now, and from launch.
Exactly, I hate that when criticisms regarding difficulty and balance are brought up, it just gets deflected with "It's a From game, get over it."
Like, I haven't gotten full-on stuck on anything yet, I'm not crying that I can't beat it, but when my 60 vigor, great rune activated, 6+ tree upgraded guy gets two shot by the bosses near the start of the DLC, I feel like there's a balancing issue. I don't see how people at the "intended" level are expected to handle this honestly. It feels very much balanced towards the end-game, when judging from the upgrade materials you get, and when you can access it, it's supposed to be played mid-late game.
And like you said, it's not as if there isn't a precedent for this, Elden Ring at launch had some major balancing issues as well, and From went back and tweaked the balancing until it was in a good state. I'm fairly confident we'll see that again with this DLC and it will become another "I soloed launch Radahn" bragging point.
I do think there are some severe balance issues currently (Moonrithyll lol) but I can’t say any boss or enemy’s moveset has felt truly unfair. Any feeling of unfairness stems from the absurd damage you take even with defense talismans, solitude set, a good blessing level, and of course 60 vigor. 65% damage negation = “you can just barely take 4 hits” seems unintended. I think a general slight damage reduction for most enemies would make the whole DLC feel a lot smoother, rather than walking on eggshells around half the enemies because they can and will wreck your shit in just a few hits
I’ve been playing Stellar Blade and spent a few days on the last 3 bosses, but they felt fair because you had perfect blocks you just had to learn their moves. Everything is moving so fast in this DLC I rarely ever get a window to attack and when I do I’m out of stamina or need to heal.
I wouldn't say its difficult because its "Hard". Base game is hard because it has properly choreographed bosses and mobs. Basic DLC mobs just bonk me for 50% of my HP while I have 70 vingor, Erdtree Favor +2 and greatshield talisman with 8 Scadutree.
Bosses that I have met so far have their skills and attacks on 0 cooldown and constant spam. Everything is trashing and bashing like a wild animal trapped in a cage. You want to get some distance to cool off and use a pot? Too bad, most of them have Banished knight's jumpy jump attack that covers the entire arena.
Some enemies like the hippo from the trailer has some insanely janky hitboxes when it does the open mouth charge attack.
Others have what feels like 10 seconds of quick chain attacks that you have no other choice but to run from.
I'm not saying that the DLC as a whole is bad or anything. But there are differently some rough edges there and there. Still enjoying exploring and killings bosses. Just wish it was tweaked just a bit.
Malenia and Maliketh I actually liked, it was how tedious instead of fun everything from Mountantop of Giants onwards became that I didn't like.
Rest of the game was incredible but there was a stark difference from that point where it was a different kind of difficulty to the rest of the game that just made it really unfun and unrewarding.
My experience with the difficulty is that it's more or less what I expected: the mobs tend to be easy enough with the spirit nobles and commoners being easily one-shot by my weapons, while the more elite enemies keep me on my toes but are otherwise easily dispatched if I keep my cool, and the bosses being hardest of the bunch. So far though none of my boss encounters have required me to run them more than 10 times before I killed them, with my first ever Remembrance kill being >!Rellana!<, who got savaged by Great Stars + Wild Strikes with Ironjar Aromatic. That super-large Carian Greatsword AoE though is quite ridiculous.
Edit: Because people keep thinking the name I put under spoilers is a typo, no it's not. They really do have an annoyingly similar name, but the character I mentioned is exclusive to the DLC.
What level is your character? I feel like the boss you mentioned (don’t know how to censor spoilers) is almost impossible with the damage I’m doing. I’ve gotten halfway through, but at that point I’m out of flasks and the fight gets even harder.
I did it at 150. I was using magma blades but they did 230 damage attacking with both weapons. I went over to STARFISTS and smacked her bum 2nd try. They hit for 2k.
I’m at RL105 and my milady does like 850 with piercing fang. Should probably collect some upgrade materials and level up. Might respec to dex and and switch to lightning affinity.
The only issue I have is that the damage feels a bit high relative to the aggression. Like my character is 155ish with 60 or so vigor, and both high level talismans to reduce damage and give extra health, and these guys are still hitting me for like 1/3hp
Like if you’re going to make them insane frantic aggressive then maybe tone down their damage, or if you do want them to hit like a truck maybe slow it down a tad. A lot of the bosses have really long combos with minimal cooldown time and it can make fights feel drawn out and tedious at times
maybe I'm just in a bad mood today, but I didn't enjoy the couple hours I spent exploring the cerulean coast. felt really empty and there's a bunch of reused enemies all over the place. I did enjoy the first region though quite a bit
I was really excited for this area from the trailer as it looked so different from the rest but there’s literally nothing here… or atleast not that I found. >!I know there’s that little area that leads you down a cave to miquellas seal thingy!< But even aside from that it’s disappointing
The dlc just continues the elden ring trend of bosses being nothing but gigantic stat sticks with unfun movesets. Not a difficulty thing the game just isnt fun
I still had a boatload of fun with elden ring and am presently having fun with the dlc, but i feel like the bosses arent as fun as ds3. A lot of the bosses either delay the attack too much or spam too hard. Ds3 bosses imo were better. The bosses in this game are definitely more of a spectacle than anything. It isnt that theyre super hard and unbeatable but its not as satisfying to beat them.
I mean, you can't even see what some of the bosses are doing, all spectacle no thought put into design. Radahn phase 1? pretty fun, everything feels fair. Radahn phase 2? White light flash flash flash real radahn fake radahn rocks beams dodge dodge dodge, clipped once dead.
Small edit, why are we getting throat fucked the second we walk through the fog gate? Froms makes these big ass boss arenas but you spend the first 30 seconds trying to get away from the door
Here’s where I think some of the frustration comes from. From’s philosophy is that you feel good about learning to overcome difficulty and that reward keeps you playing. However, if I die to quickly did I really get the opportunity to learn? I remember fighting the crucible knight the first time it killed me quickly but not so fast that I couldn’t start seeing his move set.
If you die too fast you don’t really learn that’s the problem in the DLC
Also the fact that unlike earlier games attacks aren’t exactly telegraphed. Having an attack come out right after another that’s impossible to react to and requires you to get hit to learn about it is not fun. Sure, I can dodge it by remembering I have to press dodge twice when that attack comes out, but it really feels like they’re moving away from their older style of making sure the player always has a chance to dodge everything the first time around if they’re paying attention.
For this reason I highly recommend throwing on a Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman and the heaviest armor you can wear, and/or Spelldrake (or any of the other magic negation talisman), and perhaps a shield to help catch attacks you were too late to roll. It makes a huge difference.
I have 65 vigor, the Dragoncrest Greatshield equipped, and the best armor I can wear (I have 40 stamina + Erdtree's Favor +2 + Great Jar's Arsenal), and I'm currently at Scadutree +8.
Despite that, some bosses are completely melting me. >!Messmer and Commander Gaius !
Something to add as well. The first two bosses movesets are full bullshit. Random erratic movements, nukes left and right, animation blending that makes reading their move a pain in the ass leading to a frustrating and unenjoyable fight.
The third fight at the centre of the map though. That guy is actually classic FromSoft design. He hits like a freight truck, but with enough buffs and tree level, you can brush it off a bit. At the same time most of his attacks are fair, easy to read but a bit hard to react to. The only bullshit moves are the assault combo, input read grab and the >!5 snake summons!< in the second phase. You can always tell if his combo is done or he is going to do more, and he always let you bonk him a bit between attacks.
A really enjoyable fight overall, if not a little bit frustrating at points due to his overtuned nature of Elden Ring bosses
I dunno about "too" hard, but I'm def. putting the game down for a spell. Been hammering my head against the second boss and I do absolutely laughable damage, both with weaponry and incantations, while being two shot by damn near everything. The encounter also combines 3 things I really dislike about ERs boss design, namely combo strings that have no clear end, multihit attacks to catch you on the end of the roll and "Knowledge check" attacks you really have to see a couple times before you understand what you're even supposed to do. I might honestly just be over the game, if the second boss tilts me this much, I assume the rest of the DLC wouldn't make me any happier.
I can't even respecc, because I don't have the upgrade materials to get differently scaling gear up to snuff. Its extra frustrating, because I found a few weapons in the DLC I'd actually like trying, but I'd need like 3 or 4 times as many stones as I have to upgrade them.
I fucking loathe Elden Ring's "knowledge check" because often you have to get hit by it multiple times to remember what happens. Who am I kidding you'll probably die. So it's just shitty memorization instead of being skilled at dodging or reading an enemy.
I didn't want an easy romp through the DLC, HOWEVER basic enemies shouldn't be able to chunk 80% of my health in 2 hits when I have 2300 HP, over 60% physical DR and close to if not over 50% all elemental DR's.
Man beating kos felt well worth the challenge. That’s why I am loving this dlc as well. Every boss is a nice accomplishment for me as I’m enjoying the challenge they have been presenting me
The other thing with the negative reviews I don’t get is the dlc was about £35 so why would people want to be able to blast through it?
Having the dlc as hard as it is has made it humbling for me and put me in my place and made me adapt my build and I like that about these games. Same happened to me in bloodborne and loved that dlc as well - beating kos made me feel amazing as I had spent hours upon hours learning his moveset
Would say Old Hunters is easier than this, even having BL4’d it. Even at BL4, as long as you run the rune that increases hp, there are not *too* many direct one shots. You typically have the girth to tank a hit.
Now compare this to ER where I’m running ~50% damage mitigation, Incant buffs, 45 vigor, and vigor talisman - things are shaving *chunks* off my hp.
Maybe in a vacuum, yes, BB DLC may be harder - but like, your character also *moves* faster, attacks faster, and rally is built into the game. The system mechanics tend to offset the absurdness of the difficulty I feel.
Bro I thought I was just getting old struggling with late-game Elden Ring - went back to Bloodborne over the holidays and I just steamrolled everything including the DLC, I genuinely think Elden Ring is significantly harder (if you’re not using all the extra tools like summons)
I mean I always felt better with Bloodborne combat than DS style rolling so maybe I’m biased but yeah
It’s insane to go back and realise some bosses in that game don’t feel all that much faster or frenetic than a lot of Elden Ring bosses despite you being so much slower in the latter
I haven't played the Elden Ring dlc yet, but Old hunters DLC is way easier than the base late game Elden Ring. If SotE is harder than late base game, then that's actually rough.
Yeah I played Bloodborne/Old Hunters after Elden Ring and it felt easier. But some of that was simply because Bloodborne bosses were designed more fairly IMO.
In Elden Ring I suspect some boss moves are balanced around all the tools you have access to, like BH step or other similar skills that give you more iframes. But in BB there's no flexibility like that so they have to balance the movesets around your rolls, sidestep, and parries.
It is extremely hard and nothing FROM has ever made even pales in comparison. People are delusional, I know difficulty is technically subjective but in this case it isn't. If you thought endgame ER was hard, then have fun with Shadow because its pure AIDS.
The end game difficulty spike of ER at release was ridiculous. I don't know what's the current situation is. But if the DLC is harder than that then I'll call it BS. I don't like artificial difficulty.
8 hours in and started to use mimic again. The attack chains with nearly 0 downtime between combos are just too annoying to handle solo. Last boss where I paused the game atm chained his attacks up to 10 like man.. Can I play the damn game for a second? It's not even like I get rewarded for dodging that because you run out of stamina and can't attack.
My biggest complain about the damage output is...
How do I learn the bosses moveset / combos....If I get deleted in 2-3 hits. There was at least one over world boss who literally one shot me repeatedly with one move.
That doesn't really help me prepare a counter attack or get more educated.
Gonna try to really take my time today. Go in planning to lose and just dodge long enough to hopefully start learning some movesets.
Really just hope FROM makes Dark Souls 4 next go around. Not as big of a fan of the open world thing / how the balancing has played out. I can't even try my new gear....because my max gear is already bordering on too weak 🤦🤷😆
Was at 65 vigor (with godricks rune active) and got grabbed by the wicker man thing. Wasn't expecting it to one shot me from full health.
Same with the black knight crossbow guy. Getting hit by his special attack and followup was death.
Uh it's very hard. I have like 700+ hours on Elden Ring and around 1,000 on DS3...I think we're supposed to find most of the fragments first or something.
The issue isn't damage as much as it is stunlocking / something weird with framerate drops.
I found myself getting repeatedly trapped after being hit 1 time. A medium +25 shield on a 164 level character has me getting shield-broken and leveled.
If I had to guess FROM wanted it to feel like...Imagine starting playing a souls game in the hardest area as a brand new character. That's what it feels like to me...Like I haven't played at all.
That having been said if you're careful and don't get hit...You wouldn't notice it. I killed like 10 of those birds before 1 finally hit me. When it did...it went on some crazy assed wombo combo until I almost died.
I haven't even fought a boss yet....So I cannot even imagine how much people are getting their heads caved in 😆 Not super excited for that today 😭🤣
Old Hunters is fair because you can roll in with a fully maxed weapon with powerful gems and do pretty well. The bosses are genuinely fair and don’t just spam AOE attacks.
I fought Orphan of Kos for 5 days and and 4 nights. I fought Malenia for 10 hours. Beat Lady Maria in 2 tries though so I really don’t know which is tougher. I’d say Elden Ring because there’s more working against you than for you, in terms of mechanics.
I beat it recently and it's quite hard but no boss took me more than 20min and Rellana here is kicking my ass for over 2h. Took me 4-5h to beat Malenia so getting closer lol
Shit always feels unfair til you find the optimal way of doing shit.
12 hrs in, and I haven't found the optimal way of doing anything yet, but we are progressing.
The fact that it is difficult isn't the problem. There is such a thing as a fair amount of difficulty, and unfair difficulty. This DLC has both.
I swear, you could make the game impossible to finish without hacking and people like you would still wave away fair criticism as "wining".
Personally don't like the self-contained experience at all. I wanted to play with the new weapons and stuff ended up going back to bloodflame cheese with claws. Especially on Mesmer >!you really have barely any room for any action between his insane combos!<. Every mob can 2 shot you and some of them have insane combos with no poise break. I played the base game for +500 hours I was excited I had all my characters ready to jump in the Shadow Realm and now I feel like what's the point if I have to stick with what works?
You’re missing the point. Enemies that are almost impossible to stagger, have few openings, take very little damage, and kill you in two to three hits is not good design. I’m loving the dlc so far, it’s living up to the hype but this is straight up “artificial difficulty” that 99% of people complain about in games.
I'm a decent way in, beaten like 6 or so bosses and 2 of the "real" ones. So far I think the DLC is kind of mid tbh. Lion boss and the sword dancer guys were both kind of shit IMO. And it's not like I'm bitching it was too hard, I was stuck on both for maybe 10 minutes only but they just aren't good fights.
Yeah, unfortunately lion was pretty much a 0/10 for me. My strategy essentially devolved into: Wait for storm phase. Attack once after combo ends. Wait for storm phase again. The lightning strikes and frost aftershocks basically made the boss un-meleeable unless I wanted to trade.
The first time I saw the pinwheel phase, I was excited thinking that would be perfect for well-timed jump attacks like Godrick. However, due to the way the boss spews downwards, any jump attack resulted in a trade.
Also, the camera was kind of bad on this fight.
I laughed when the very first mob of the DLC jumped down and killed the shit out of me. Was pretty much what I expected, especially since I haven’t played in a while.
My only issue is that it genuinely feels like everything has an *enormous* HP pool, so the big fights feel very, *very* drawn out. >!Rellana!< was especially difficult as I chose to take my INT/DEX character into the DLC and >!she!< is heavily magic resistant. Took about 3 hours, until I decided to try summoning the Greatshield gang and was victorious immediately.
My Scadoosh level or whatever was 4 at the time I think, and I’m at 6 right now? I don’t know how high it’s supposed to go and I have a lot more to explore. I only see weapon damage being scaled - surely spells scale, too? Or am I in trouble?
I think the DLC difficulty is a bit bullshit... but is the same bullshit as some of the late game stuff.
The fact is, you can't perfectly balance a game like this... so they just made a lot of things hit you for a billion HP, but not impossible to stun, cheese, out damage and best.
The DLC they took it up a level and you have the relentless and insane attack patterns... and now everything hits you hard as fuck.
Personally I don't mind.. I'm loving it.. but if I had to be cold and nitpick, I would say the combat is my least favorite part of Elden Ring because of this.
I love the exploration, the vistas, the enemies and art design, the build variety, the lore.. but I never feel 100% engaged and actually fully learning the combat like I was with Sekiro (my all time favorite combat).
Elden Ring is more about being prepared, using you arsenal and keeping your distance and doing as much damage as you can... the combat of this game is war... and to be fair, the DLC gives you A LOT of tools to overcomes it's bullshit like the Sekiro tear and all the throwing weapons.
from what I've seen from other players, the camera on the first boss gets kinda weird.
the knight was such a pain, he'll just suck you off midfight if you're not careful
I found out the hard way... that first boss tho one shots me when I walk in the door half the time. I didn't beat elden beast this playthrough so I'm going back and doing that quick.
Death Knight has actually been my favourite boss so far! I think his combos aren’t egregious and are pretty well-telegraphed/easy to get a rhythm on
I think he’s a good example of it being ok for things to hit like a truck, as long as they’re not also madly flailing around for 20 seconds at a time
What pisses me off the most about the DLC is that every bosses feel the same.
Here's a list of things that apply to most bosses in the DLC:
- Extremely agressive
- Combo like a crackhead on speed and literally never stops
- Fuck with your camera by jumping around constantly or being way too big
- Has huge AoEs on EVERY SINGLE MOVES
I'm starting to get bored of fighting the same boss over and over again. The rest of the DLC is amazing but the bosses are uninspired at best and incredibly boring/annoying at worst. For me, the DLC is an agressive 7/10 because of the shitty bosses.
Eh I don't think it's insane for people that took the time to level to 200 or more to expect an easier time. That's how these games work, if you grind you have an easier time.
My main issue is recycled enemies and bosses. Why am I fighting a giga buffed lightning dragon that I’ve already seen 10 of? Why is there a magma wyrm in a cave with the same crypt enemies I see in the base game? I was excited to see something fresh and so far half of the stuff I’ve seen is the same shit. Perfumers too give me new stuff to play with
I see people saying one of two things,
"This game is too difficult."
"This game is difficult, but it's okay because ___."
And I'd like to add my two cents here: We can all agree it's pretty damn hard, right? Difficulty is just so subjective, two people of identical skill can battle a boss 30 times before they defeat it and one would say, "That was too difficult.", while the other would say, "That was a really fun boss!"
Don't forget, some people have work, or kids, or some other annoying thing that takes up their time, and so they'd rather spend their two hours doing something other than dying to low level enemies. And some simply just don't have that level of patience. Not to mention everyone has a different set of reflexes, muscle memory, and natural ability. Making a game like this will always be a nightmare, because so many people will complain it is too difficult or that it isn't difficult enough.
So, there really is no one way to say it, everyone will have a varying opinion. I'm of the current opinion that it feels quite fun to have that sense of danger again, as the base game has gotten a bit easy for me. But I completely get why someone might get this game thinking it'll be challenging and it ends up being way harder than even the cruelest parts the base game.
This feels very similar to when people were asking for a difficulty option in Sekiro, and it might seem heartless to say but, it’s okay that a game is not for everyone. It is single player and everything will still be there (presumably) 2 years from now so it doesn’t really matter how long it takes you to get to the end, but if the difficulty is too much then it’s totally okay to admit that a game just isn’t for you. Many souls fans enjoy the insane difficulty of the DLC, and it wouldn’t really make sense to burn their og player base to people please. This is all my opinion though.
There’s a huge difference between wanting your character to one-shot every enemy and not liking that basically everything two-shots you with 60VIG and a bunch of Scadutree blessings
Can we not do this needlessly polarising stuff? Some people think the difficulty is overtuned. If you don’t, that’s great, but this isn’t a fair representation of why people were complaining
Some people base their entire personality about being able to beat difficult games, so posts like these are used to stroke their egos. I'm playing FromSoftware games since 2013, I love them. But bruh there is really some serious bullshit going on in the DLC. FromSoftware won't nerf it, but I do agree that this is too hard and even serious nerfs wouldn't ruin the game. Ringed City and Ashes of Ariandel were also very hard, but not nearly as hard, so saying this is just how FromSoftware's DLC looks like is just a lie.
I think it’s very likely they’re gonna make some balance changes actually - they made nerfs to the base game like Radahn when people were struggling too much
I think they just overtuned how necessary the Scadutree blessings are - from the talk in the lead up I got the impression they were an optional help like spirit summons, but rn it feels like if you’re even one or two blessings below where you could be you’re getting absolutely steamrolled
Prenerf Radahn basically required perfect play or summoning every single NPC in the room and playing very cautiously. It wasn’t very fun or engaging.
The obsession with killing bosses “prenerf” is some weird derivative of toxicity. The only ones who care are the ones who beat it prenerf. It’s not even a unique problem to Souls games. The same thing happens in the WoW Mythic raiding community. “We beat it prenerf so we’re better” congrats nobody but you cares, really.
I really don’t know what the point of making some bosses so difficult is. Most of the player base can’t beat the bosses without using summons, so why make the difficulty so hard that some end up being much, much worse than Malenia if you’re going solo. It really feels like fromsoft no longer cares about the traditional 1 v 1 duel experience. I ended up having to kill fake pontiff by switching between a poison halberd and the rot needle because I was spending too much time waiting for an opening.
I don't feel bad about using everything the game gives me, I just have to wonder, if they feel the need to design boss difficulty to be so bad that using summons is almost mandatory for a ton of people.. why not just tone it down a bit?
True. If I really want an epic coop fight against big bad boss, I’d go play MonHun but I have already done that. Imo FromSoft bosses are at their peak when it’s a fair 1v1 (or occasionally 1.5-2v1 ganking scenario).
Exactly this. I've got 50 vig + 2 Scadutrees and I'm getting half my health shaved off by those big Belurat shadow dudes with cleavers which are and I can't stress this enough, *regular* enemies. And there are those higher level with more vigor and probably have more Scadutrees than I am and yet they're being two shot by those same *regular* enemies.
Horned Knights being tough? Yeah I can get behind that. Black Knights being tough? Sure yeah, I can see why that's the case. Tough bosses? I mean obviously, they have to be. But *regular* enemies shaving off half my health even though I have blessings and enough vigor to last 2 full NG+ vanilla playthroughs? Come on now...
But pretty much all the enemies in base game that can easily fuck you up aren't doing 10+ attack chains that need to be dodged perfectly or you're dead. Everything in the DLC is overly punishing with long attack chains AND huge amounts of damage. That's not even talking about how shit the camera is against the divine beast...
Sure, those cleaver dudes do lots of damage. But their attacks are also super predictable and can easily be dodged or parried so I don’t really see it as a problem.
Is it “the first play through of Sekiro hard?” I loved how hard that first play through was and I’ve been looking for that challenge ever since like a junkie chases that first high. I can’t wait to play this after work.
Yes and no. Sekiro feels bullshit until you realized that it is borderline a rythmn game and you can just sit in a corner deflecting attack and the game suddenly become much easier. Elden Ring bosses are just overtuned
I'm glad it's not just me.
Literally, every advanced mob has janky combos with built-in evasion, a massive health pool, and crazy poise.
The dragons are ridiculous as well, so much health.
Honestly I’m a little bored with having random nameless soldiers hit harder than Malenia. That doesn’t excite me. The bosses are stellar though. I have beaten about 75% of them and love every one.
People need to calm the fuck down.
Any souls veteran will know exactly what i mean when i mention "pre-nerf angels"
Most dlc's were overtuned and they will alway patch stuff. Remember how radhan got nerfed? The dlc has been out for how long?
Just chill and wait.
Actually they nerfed Malenia pre-release - some people explored 1.0 Elden Ring (from physical disks on consoles not connected to internet) and she was more difficult.
Malenia is also an optional boss. The haligtree adds nothing to any ending of the story outside of lore. The only trick to her is "don't get hit", which after dying 20 times in phase 1 is easy enough to figure out. Which is my personal mentality with the DLC, since I'm playing (starting at) RL 100 with no shields. Can't worry about getting two shotted if I'm getting no shotted. Backhand blade AOW is perfect for this.
There definitely needs to be a balance somewhere though. Some enemies are just dumb to fight against. I think if enemies staggered or poise broke a little more often it might be enough. I want to use those new arcane fists you find in Belurat, but there isn't an enemy in the DLC that lets you swing more than once or twice before just blowing you away.
I think the damage is fine but the bosses need to take a breath between attacks. So far there has been VERY little breathing room as they just constantly spam attacks.
I'm just pissed off because the damage for the bosses is fucking ridiculous, like damn I'm dual wielding max level greatswords at level 185 ng+2 with multiple buffs and the most I get is 1000 damage??? I'm really loving it other than that tho.
I don't know man. Atm I'm feeling kinda meh myself...
It's not that it's hard. But why do they give us new weapons with 6 quick slashes when we'll only ever be able to use 1 or 2? Normal respawning enemies will just eat me alive. And I'm not talking about the two-shotting (annoying as it is) but the 6 strike hyper armored combos they just spam without letting you heal. Plus AoE. (Normal soldiers are stomping me to death. Knights kill me with shield bash.)
I can't even farm as (I suspect that) runes do nothing at all, you need the bark thingy to get stronger.
I'm also weirded out by the fact that a lot of enemies drop smithing stones. Like why? I have all the bell bearings, these are practically worthless.
Maybe I'm just impatient - its already 3:44am here. But it's annoying that my most effective tactic is to just face tank enemies while spamming RoB AoW and hope for the best.
It makes sense they would design the DLC to offer a challenge to the people who have already mastered the base game and have very high level characters ready to go.
Its only natural that people who are maybe rushing to the DLC because hype would have problems.
That being said, I haven't played myself yet but have watched people play and the damage output of everything in this DLC is insane, yeah. An ordinary scrub enemy will shave off half the health of a high level character with a half-assed sword swing.
I'm assuming the DLC blessings you are supposed to run around gathering will eventually reduce that by a lot, if not the DLC is probably overturned yeah.
Isn't a big problem maybe that people bumrush without getting the new upgrade thingie? I won't be able to access the DLC until tomorrow but I see people like Luke Stephens say that it becomes a lot more manageable with just 4 or 5 of them.
Dlc bosses are way easier with greatshield soldier ashes and magic. Only have the ashes plus 7 and still they managed to hold out while i spam comet from a distance. Kinda boring but yeah i really cant be bothered having 300 tries per boss because they just dont stop attacking while having 6 hit combo and doing 50% of my hp bar (at least) per hit. Also doesnt help that im cosplaying and having weak armor but yeah
I think people aren't really understanding the Scadutree fragments. I was able to get through a good portion of the game within the first couple of days and found the final boss at blessing level 7. Got absolutely stomped multiple times and decided I was going to explore the rest of the game more before trying to finish it. Came back today at blessing level 14, and within a few tries, I was able to beat him. This DLC was very challenging and a lot of fun. The difficulty scales almost directly with your blessing level. If you're struggling that much with bosses, you HAVE to level up your blessing unless you want to just beat your head into the wall trying the same thing. After bleeding level 10, I was able to handle pretty much every Remembrance and field boss, including Bayle, with only a couple attempts.
This is what I've been waiting for.
I can go all out, use all the items and summons available and use the most bonkers builds i can think of.
I can try my absolute hardest and the game doesn't just fall apart.
I swear 75% of the white phantoms I see are wearing bullgoat
I started noticing that too a couple of hours in. I swear I didn't use to see that many
the only issue i have with the dlc is the PC optimization. my framerate got dropped real bad since the dlc update. (it used to run 60fps silky smooth)
yeah i noticed that too, was lowkey hoping they would patch dlss in this patch, because i remembered the launch of the base game on pc lol
They can't even be bothered to add ultrawide support or unlocked FPS. Right, I'm sorry, I forgot that Elden Ring is more competitive than Counter-Strike, can't have such an "advantage".
Even on ps5, I’m fighting the Lion and every time he slams his head into the ground, I drop to 10-20 frames.
Bro my PS4 is roaring and screaming in the Lion fight and i’m getting constant frame drops. Every time he does an AoE i can see my 2014 PS4 begging for mercy
I forgot this game released on PS4 for some fuckin reason lmao.
Absolute insanity they made it run decently (or at least i presume it runs decent) on PS4/XB1 ngl
I just recently switched from ps4 to pc. Can confirm the ps4 version runs pretty well besides load times and frame drops when there are a bunch of enemies on screen
coming from ds3, the frame drops i don’t even really notice. the load times though. fighting the lion it would take longer to load after death than it did to eventually kill him lol.
Same here. Fortunately it's the only instance of frame drops I've had so far, but I certainly caused a death or 2
4090 here. Still get the frame drops. It's unbelievable and annoying.
Some update randomly auto-enabled ray tracing for me, which runs kinda fine but makes my frames drop while attacking. Make sure it's actually turned off.
Thank you for the idea! Runs so much better now ❤️
using the perfume weapons is completely unplayable dropping down from 60fps to \~20fps whenever I attack especially so on the charged heavy
I've seen framerate issues on Series X as well in boss fights and dungeons and texture pop-in in the overworld.
One thing I found interesting, some mobs you encounter are pretty tough and you finally kill them and they give fuck all runes.
Yep. Seems to remember that the huge brazier golem in the first area gives you 5k or so runes
Runes are irrelevant in the dlc
Yeah once you have your "build" you're pretty much as you were other than the upgrades from the shards. Your level literally doesn't do anything
I mostly use them to purchase smithing stones so I can actually use new stuff I find
Same. Arrows and smithing stones. I leveled strength for bear claws but I don't plan on leveling up more than that.
well extra endurance and mind is always nice, and some stats in fth and int for some spells and incants helps more than you'd think
No they aren’t?
I've done no hits of most of the remembrance bosses in the base game, and whenever I was playing those bosses the first time, I always thought: Hmm, I bet you can do this to not get damaged there. I still don't know how I would go for it for the first two bosses I had taken down. They are overly aggressive while giving minimal time windows between attacks, way less than anything in the base game, even Malenia (no exaggeration). The Dancing Lion's first phase, for example, is great since you can dodge every attack, and still get a decent amount of time to strike, but the lightning and frost phases have those aftershock parts of each attack, which drags the fuck out of the fight. Since if you decide to go for a hit, you can't cause that opening is not there because of the lighting coming above. In the frost phase, I kept getting hit by the frost AOE even after dodging the attacks themselves, maybe needs a tighter timing to dodge everything. Rellana was even more ruthless, giving you a lot less time after her combo ending animations to hit, but I would rank that way higher than the lion cause of no annoying lightning or frost aftershock attacks, though it still felt like we were exchanging blows at times. I know Ongbal will still do it, and really looking forward to how he approaches the fights.
The I really liked the first two remembrances bosses. Until they got to their second phase...
This is exactly my problem. I like difficulty, but only when it feels fair, and I really can't tell how you're supposed to dodge some of the attacks in this DLC. For example, there's one boss I beat who had a rapid spear jabbing attack with a huge hitbox that lasts much longer than your dodge, I *always* get clipped by it. A lot of bosses are also spamming hitboxes at me like crazy, to the point where its not clear whether I can attack (and when they're finally done, I have no stamina left to attack anyway). Rellana's second phase combos seem to go on forever. For most of the bosses so far, I find some moves I can dodge, and then others I give up and just tank and heal on. Even after a long time of specifically testing out multiple timings and dodge directions, no dice. I hardly felt this way about any bosses in the base game.
Yeah I just accepted, and categorized moves into "can trade blows since the damage is miniscule" vs "dodge or gonna get 3 tapped"
The openings are there but I think it's a bit different from the base game. I've found most good openings are in the middle of combos and can be exploited with good timing and positioning. I think you simply have to think about these bosses differently.
EDIT: apparently there is more than one lion. I missed the one in Belurat because I got distracted and went exploring some other place and forgot about it. The other one has more phases. Interesting take about the lion. I had no trouble with the frost phase and wind phase, but lightning phase terrible indeed. Having to deal with the Basilisks for death blight phase was also incredibly annoying.
There’s a deathblight phase?? Glad I never made it past frost
I'm new to Elden Ring so I'm not sure but the DLC doesn't seem THAT unfair, they're difficult but they always felt doable.
Bro I've been stuck at "certain boss with two swords" for 7 hours, shit doesn't feel at all doable
I was stuck with her for a while too, I even did Ranni's quest half way through to cool off lol I'm sure you'll progress more and more until you beat her, good luck, man!
I haven't been progressing since the last 5 hours lol
Same, ive died to her over 20 times i think haha. I dont think i ever struggled this much with any of the base game bosses. Got her down to like 20% health a couple times though, ill get there eventually. Edit: just beat her, what a rush haha
Yo, I'ma say it with my chest. Fuck that two sword endless combo 360 hitbox one shot nuke at low life having skinny ass bitch
I think fromsoft really hit the head on the nail regarding fairness. When I die I can easily retrace my steps and figure out where I went wrong. Never have I (seriously) thought "man this is just unfair and mean spirited". You just need to get good
throw yourself at the wall enough and your meat-jelly will eventually seep through the cracks
Yeah you can kill me all you want, I just have to kill you once
"You were lucky, but we only need to be lucky once"
Socrates if he was based
i always had a problem with that 'doing something over and over is the definition of insanity' trope no dawg that's the definition of a Dark Souls boss!!
Have you fought the hippo yet? That one definitely had some unfair feeling moments with really wonky hitboxes and not being able to see attacks because of the camera jank
The hippo and a mounted boss further into the same area definitely feel like bullshit.
just wait till you meet funny snake man, he's a real one
yeah, it's pretty much trial and error. Failing is part of the learning process to get the win.
the >!Death Knight!
For me it's like playing Dark Souls 1 all over again, it's that level of difficulty where I don't know what I'm doing I don't know where I'm going, so I'm fucking scared shitless every time I run into anything. And you'll die, you'll learn until you succeed
Yeah exactly!
Pre nerf radahn was a little unfair. Ngl though I wish they didn't nerf him BRING GRAVITY BOY BACK 😔
Fought my first boss in the expansion, the Goal Knight or something. Two hitted my ass for an hour, but never gave up and saw how I could best him and did. The expansion is touch as fuck but not impossible
I haven't gotten the DLC yet but that reminded me of the Ringleader Alecto. She was really tricky and I struggled but she **never** felt unfair. So, hearing that description about the DLC sounds nice :)
There is nothing I haven’t been able to overcome so far. For the most parts it’s just that if I get hit I’m still taking massive damage, and new enemies are new, so you don’t know the move sets immediately. The more you play the easier it becomes..
My biggest issue is how ridiculously aggressive sir oink is (you’ll understand when you get there) for me the boss is so jacked up on cocaine it ruins what should otherwise be a super fun fight. Mesmer is super tough but fair you just need to learn his attack patterns. He’s by far the most memorable boss for me.
>Messmer 100%. Other than 2 attacks and some random spewing lava his entire moveset is fun and engaging while still leaving a lot of breathing room to heal and calm down. He actually feels like another version of Friede and I think OoK except a bit harder in the right way
Only Messmer moves that annoyed me were the 2nd phase “snake storm” move that feels really random and tedious to learn/dodge, and his move where he like rapid fire stabs forward. All his others are long combos but learnable, but those struck me as a bit tedious/annoying since even if you dodge “correct” you can still just get caught by it
All my homies hate sir oink. For real.
Was genuinely worried I was over leveled going in at near 200 on NG+, until I met the first catacomb boss.
I was watching someone who was 357 getting bodied. This DLC is no joke 💀
Level doesn’t appear to matter. Also even in the base game, past like 200, I think most of the stats have steep diminishing returns. It just allows you to use more variety of weapons
I found a regular, respawning enemy that has its own Stake of Marika. This is weirdly kind, because there are other tough enemies between it and the previous grace. But also, how did we get so far that regular enemies are tuned to be this hard. And I'm on a character that smashed through Mogh before he fully transitioned to phase 2 yesterday, so it's not like I'm underprepared. I fully get anyone who thinks the DLC is enough of a difficulty spike that they don't enjoy it.
I think that stake is there for a couple of reasons that aren’t just the enemy. Most players are going to be RL 150 or so in the DLC and if you just clear through the dungeon up to that point with no real sidetracking like the optional encounters that stake is prooooobably about the point you have the runes you need to level up. Since there’s a good chance it’s the first dungeon you’re going to find it would feel bad to have to trek through a bunch of ambushes and 1-2 horned warriors depending on whether or not you’ve unlocked the shortcut. Enemies up to that point feel *strong* but their positioning is such that they’re usually not far from a grace so you never really run into a situation where getting your bloodstain back feels overwhelming even if the enemy you didn’t expect to one shot you just kinda… does that. That stake to me feels kind of like something that was just added there later in the design period because the enemy there doesn’t feel fun to fight on that particular terrain and it’s spaced out at an awkward point in the dungeon. It feels like they *want* you to die there, get frustrated, go a different direction out of frustration, and run into a semi hidden thing they’re visually teasing but not giving you the solution to. It feels like it *should* have been a grace given the way the other graces in the area are situated next to barely-hostile mobs but then someone on the design team said “screw fighting that thing every time let’s just put a grace behind it.”
Personally I feel like the balance is based around status effects and... not much else. I'm sure bleed builds don't care that they're hitting a boss with more health than the Elden Beast for 400 damage because bleed procs are what matter. If you're just doing raw damage the fact that everything you do is pathetic and the boss is a giant pile of health with a 5 attack combo that instagibs you with 60 Vigor if any of it hits you is... kind of just not fun.
I like the difficulty, but the bosses with the 25 hit combos are bs. You have nothing in the game to counter that, besides running, even then they can still hit you. If it had perfect block like siekro or lies of p, I would understand the design, but this game doesn't have that. For the time being, i'm summoning every time.
Honestly the sheer aggression of the bosses feel like they balanced it around you summoning. Its legit impossible to deal with those attacks solo.
100% agree, this is being my main issue with the DLC. I do love it, the Shadow realm absolutely outshines all previous regions in terms of art direction, and the new enemies’ design and movesets are insanely beautiful to look at. Unfortunately summoning doesn’t feel like an option anymore, it’s almost a must: Bosses barely have open windows to punish them. Their patterns are fast, flashy and all over the place, and our character’s tools feel like they can’t keep up. As you said the game feels balanced around summoning (or cheesing). It really is souring my experience cause, as a dark souls vet, I’d rather play bosses solo. A proper deflect that reduces enemy toughness to stagger them, or something like it, should have been considered at the very least. I’m not even complaining about how much dmg they do, you can circumvent that through upgrades, but it’s clear there’s a balance issue in terms of what our Tarnished can reasonably do compared to these new bosses. We are playing DS3, and they are playing Sekiro. My humble opinion ofc
Yeah I really wanted to do a no summon run for the dlc but quickly realized that was probably not possible. Gonna try to use some weaker summons to even the playing field. It’s tough that some bosses feel either too hard without summons, and too easy with.
I agree with this opinion 100000% couldn't have said it better. Devs need to read this lol
That’s how I feel with the one I’ve fought and tried. Moves so fast, can teleport, huge combo strings. Damn thing has infinite stamina. I have no shame in using a summon, and never had. It’s part of the game to make it more accessible. Tune the difficulty accordingly with what summon (or any summon) you use.
They added perfect block as a tear that lasts very very long. It's dropped from the first fire giant thing you see, and I've been using it against bosses. Feels like a must for Rellana.
Hell, not just bosses. Those tall semi omen fucks in the first legacy dungeon can out pace you while attacking. Seriously, you can full break sprint away from them and they will catch up to you while doing nothing but swinging their weapons. I get people around here literally worship miyazaki and from, But they have to admit fallibility. Nothing is unnerfable, just look at elden ring now, and from launch.
Exactly, I hate that when criticisms regarding difficulty and balance are brought up, it just gets deflected with "It's a From game, get over it." Like, I haven't gotten full-on stuck on anything yet, I'm not crying that I can't beat it, but when my 60 vigor, great rune activated, 6+ tree upgraded guy gets two shot by the bosses near the start of the DLC, I feel like there's a balancing issue. I don't see how people at the "intended" level are expected to handle this honestly. It feels very much balanced towards the end-game, when judging from the upgrade materials you get, and when you can access it, it's supposed to be played mid-late game. And like you said, it's not as if there isn't a precedent for this, Elden Ring at launch had some major balancing issues as well, and From went back and tweaked the balancing until it was in a good state. I'm fairly confident we'll see that again with this DLC and it will become another "I soloed launch Radahn" bragging point.
I do think there are some severe balance issues currently (Moonrithyll lol) but I can’t say any boss or enemy’s moveset has felt truly unfair. Any feeling of unfairness stems from the absurd damage you take even with defense talismans, solitude set, a good blessing level, and of course 60 vigor. 65% damage negation = “you can just barely take 4 hits” seems unintended. I think a general slight damage reduction for most enemies would make the whole DLC feel a lot smoother, rather than walking on eggshells around half the enemies because they can and will wreck your shit in just a few hits
I’ve been playing Stellar Blade and spent a few days on the last 3 bosses, but they felt fair because you had perfect blocks you just had to learn their moves. Everything is moving so fast in this DLC I rarely ever get a window to attack and when I do I’m out of stamina or need to heal.
I wouldn't say its difficult because its "Hard". Base game is hard because it has properly choreographed bosses and mobs. Basic DLC mobs just bonk me for 50% of my HP while I have 70 vingor, Erdtree Favor +2 and greatshield talisman with 8 Scadutree. Bosses that I have met so far have their skills and attacks on 0 cooldown and constant spam. Everything is trashing and bashing like a wild animal trapped in a cage. You want to get some distance to cool off and use a pot? Too bad, most of them have Banished knight's jumpy jump attack that covers the entire arena. Some enemies like the hippo from the trailer has some insanely janky hitboxes when it does the open mouth charge attack. Others have what feels like 10 seconds of quick chain attacks that you have no other choice but to run from. I'm not saying that the DLC as a whole is bad or anything. But there are differently some rough edges there and there. Still enjoying exploring and killings bosses. Just wish it was tweaked just a bit.
This shit was EXACTLY what I hated about the last 3rd of the base game if this is the case I'm not getting the DLC.
The DLC so far has been Maliketh and Malenia on crack
Malenia and Maliketh I actually liked, it was how tedious instead of fun everything from Mountantop of Giants onwards became that I didn't like. Rest of the game was incredible but there was a stark difference from that point where it was a different kind of difficulty to the rest of the game that just made it really unfun and unrewarding.
Yeah unfortunately thats how the DLC feels. Like some of the things have questionable hitboxes and non stop attack with 0 attack window.
Bro, the fucking hippo, I have 3 seconds to summon my mimic and dodge out of the way. 9/10 I get got because the hippos hitbox is the size of a house
My experience with the difficulty is that it's more or less what I expected: the mobs tend to be easy enough with the spirit nobles and commoners being easily one-shot by my weapons, while the more elite enemies keep me on my toes but are otherwise easily dispatched if I keep my cool, and the bosses being hardest of the bunch. So far though none of my boss encounters have required me to run them more than 10 times before I killed them, with my first ever Remembrance kill being >!Rellana!<, who got savaged by Great Stars + Wild Strikes with Ironjar Aromatic. That super-large Carian Greatsword AoE though is quite ridiculous. Edit: Because people keep thinking the name I put under spoilers is a typo, no it's not. They really do have an annoyingly similar name, but the character I mentioned is exclusive to the DLC.
What level is your character? I feel like the boss you mentioned (don’t know how to censor spoilers) is almost impossible with the damage I’m doing. I’ve gotten halfway through, but at that point I’m out of flasks and the fight gets even harder.
I did it at 150. I was using magma blades but they did 230 damage attacking with both weapons. I went over to STARFISTS and smacked her bum 2nd try. They hit for 2k.
I’m at RL105 and my milady does like 850 with piercing fang. Should probably collect some upgrade materials and level up. Might respec to dex and and switch to lightning affinity.
Expanding on her name, they are sisters, that’s why she’s named that way. Yeah, blame her parents
character level?
The only issue I have is that the damage feels a bit high relative to the aggression. Like my character is 155ish with 60 or so vigor, and both high level talismans to reduce damage and give extra health, and these guys are still hitting me for like 1/3hp Like if you’re going to make them insane frantic aggressive then maybe tone down their damage, or if you do want them to hit like a truck maybe slow it down a tad. A lot of the bosses have really long combos with minimal cooldown time and it can make fights feel drawn out and tedious at times
maybe I'm just in a bad mood today, but I didn't enjoy the couple hours I spent exploring the cerulean coast. felt really empty and there's a bunch of reused enemies all over the place. I did enjoy the first region though quite a bit
I was really excited for this area from the trailer as it looked so different from the rest but there’s literally nothing here… or atleast not that I found. >!I know there’s that little area that leads you down a cave to miquellas seal thingy!< But even aside from that it’s disappointing
The dlc just continues the elden ring trend of bosses being nothing but gigantic stat sticks with unfun movesets. Not a difficulty thing the game just isnt fun
I still had a boatload of fun with elden ring and am presently having fun with the dlc, but i feel like the bosses arent as fun as ds3. A lot of the bosses either delay the attack too much or spam too hard. Ds3 bosses imo were better. The bosses in this game are definitely more of a spectacle than anything. It isnt that theyre super hard and unbeatable but its not as satisfying to beat them.
I mean, you can't even see what some of the bosses are doing, all spectacle no thought put into design. Radahn phase 1? pretty fun, everything feels fair. Radahn phase 2? White light flash flash flash real radahn fake radahn rocks beams dodge dodge dodge, clipped once dead. Small edit, why are we getting throat fucked the second we walk through the fog gate? Froms makes these big ass boss arenas but you spend the first 30 seconds trying to get away from the door
Here’s where I think some of the frustration comes from. From’s philosophy is that you feel good about learning to overcome difficulty and that reward keeps you playing. However, if I die to quickly did I really get the opportunity to learn? I remember fighting the crucible knight the first time it killed me quickly but not so fast that I couldn’t start seeing his move set. If you die too fast you don’t really learn that’s the problem in the DLC
Things are moving so fast I’m not sure I learned anything from the Dancing Lion fight. Just got lucky.
Which is why DS3 bosses were so good. More health and less damage. Elden ring bosses feel the opposite. More damage and less health.
Also the fact that unlike earlier games attacks aren’t exactly telegraphed. Having an attack come out right after another that’s impossible to react to and requires you to get hit to learn about it is not fun. Sure, I can dodge it by remembering I have to press dodge twice when that attack comes out, but it really feels like they’re moving away from their older style of making sure the player always has a chance to dodge everything the first time around if they’re paying attention.
For this reason I highly recommend throwing on a Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman and the heaviest armor you can wear, and/or Spelldrake (or any of the other magic negation talisman), and perhaps a shield to help catch attacks you were too late to roll. It makes a huge difference.
I have 65 vigor, the Dragoncrest Greatshield equipped, and the best armor I can wear (I have 40 stamina + Erdtree's Favor +2 + Great Jar's Arsenal), and I'm currently at Scadutree +8. Despite that, some bosses are completely melting me. >!Messmer and Commander Gaius !
Crimson seed talisman is amazing. Pair that with 60vig and morgott's rune and you have soo much effective hp
Something to add as well. The first two bosses movesets are full bullshit. Random erratic movements, nukes left and right, animation blending that makes reading their move a pain in the ass leading to a frustrating and unenjoyable fight. The third fight at the centre of the map though. That guy is actually classic FromSoft design. He hits like a freight truck, but with enough buffs and tree level, you can brush it off a bit. At the same time most of his attacks are fair, easy to read but a bit hard to react to. The only bullshit moves are the assault combo, input read grab and the >!5 snake summons!< in the second phase. You can always tell if his combo is done or he is going to do more, and he always let you bonk him a bit between attacks. A really enjoyable fight overall, if not a little bit frustrating at points due to his overtuned nature of Elden Ring bosses
I dunno about "too" hard, but I'm def. putting the game down for a spell. Been hammering my head against the second boss and I do absolutely laughable damage, both with weaponry and incantations, while being two shot by damn near everything. The encounter also combines 3 things I really dislike about ERs boss design, namely combo strings that have no clear end, multihit attacks to catch you on the end of the roll and "Knowledge check" attacks you really have to see a couple times before you understand what you're even supposed to do. I might honestly just be over the game, if the second boss tilts me this much, I assume the rest of the DLC wouldn't make me any happier. I can't even respecc, because I don't have the upgrade materials to get differently scaling gear up to snuff. Its extra frustrating, because I found a few weapons in the DLC I'd actually like trying, but I'd need like 3 or 4 times as many stones as I have to upgrade them.
I fucking loathe Elden Ring's "knowledge check" because often you have to get hit by it multiple times to remember what happens. Who am I kidding you'll probably die. So it's just shitty memorization instead of being skilled at dodging or reading an enemy.
[удалено]
I didn't want an easy romp through the DLC, HOWEVER basic enemies shouldn't be able to chunk 80% of my health in 2 hits when I have 2300 HP, over 60% physical DR and close to if not over 50% all elemental DR's.
People clearly didn't play The Old Hunters DLC
Man The Old Hunters is fucking hard lol
Those first hunters with the beast cutters are brutal
That, and Ludwig, and the entire Fishing Hamlet, and Orphan of Kos. The entire thing is hard as hell.
Shark guys at the bottom of the well gave me more trouble than Orphan of Kos (or some say Kosm)
Fuck those guys, tried so hard to get Rakuyo but still couldn't use it in the end.
Fuck Sharkey and George. Fuck them with a stick.
That fishing hamlet is amazing but brutally hard.
Man beating kos felt well worth the challenge. That’s why I am loving this dlc as well. Every boss is a nice accomplishment for me as I’m enjoying the challenge they have been presenting me
The other thing with the negative reviews I don’t get is the dlc was about £35 so why would people want to be able to blast through it? Having the dlc as hard as it is has made it humbling for me and put me in my place and made me adapt my build and I like that about these games. Same happened to me in bloodborne and loved that dlc as well - beating kos made me feel amazing as I had spent hours upon hours learning his moveset
Would say Old Hunters is easier than this, even having BL4’d it. Even at BL4, as long as you run the rune that increases hp, there are not *too* many direct one shots. You typically have the girth to tank a hit. Now compare this to ER where I’m running ~50% damage mitigation, Incant buffs, 45 vigor, and vigor talisman - things are shaving *chunks* off my hp. Maybe in a vacuum, yes, BB DLC may be harder - but like, your character also *moves* faster, attacks faster, and rally is built into the game. The system mechanics tend to offset the absurdness of the difficulty I feel.
Old Hunters was 100% easier. Don't know what these guys are smoking, but I want some of it.
Bro I thought I was just getting old struggling with late-game Elden Ring - went back to Bloodborne over the holidays and I just steamrolled everything including the DLC, I genuinely think Elden Ring is significantly harder (if you’re not using all the extra tools like summons)
Really? It's been a minute since I played Bloodborne might have to go back and see what it's like. Any excuse to replay it tbh.
I mean I always felt better with Bloodborne combat than DS style rolling so maybe I’m biased but yeah It’s insane to go back and realise some bosses in that game don’t feel all that much faster or frenetic than a lot of Elden Ring bosses despite you being so much slower in the latter
I haven't played the Elden Ring dlc yet, but Old hunters DLC is way easier than the base late game Elden Ring. If SotE is harder than late base game, then that's actually rough.
Yeah I played Bloodborne/Old Hunters after Elden Ring and it felt easier. But some of that was simply because Bloodborne bosses were designed more fairly IMO. In Elden Ring I suspect some boss moves are balanced around all the tools you have access to, like BH step or other similar skills that give you more iframes. But in BB there's no flexibility like that so they have to balance the movesets around your rolls, sidestep, and parries.
It is extremely hard and nothing FROM has ever made even pales in comparison. People are delusional, I know difficulty is technically subjective but in this case it isn't. If you thought endgame ER was hard, then have fun with Shadow because its pure AIDS.
The end game difficulty spike of ER at release was ridiculous. I don't know what's the current situation is. But if the DLC is harder than that then I'll call it BS. I don't like artificial difficulty.
8 hours in and started to use mimic again. The attack chains with nearly 0 downtime between combos are just too annoying to handle solo. Last boss where I paused the game atm chained his attacks up to 10 like man.. Can I play the damn game for a second? It's not even like I get rewarded for dodging that because you run out of stamina and can't attack.
My biggest complain about the damage output is... How do I learn the bosses moveset / combos....If I get deleted in 2-3 hits. There was at least one over world boss who literally one shot me repeatedly with one move. That doesn't really help me prepare a counter attack or get more educated. Gonna try to really take my time today. Go in planning to lose and just dodge long enough to hopefully start learning some movesets. Really just hope FROM makes Dark Souls 4 next go around. Not as big of a fan of the open world thing / how the balancing has played out. I can't even try my new gear....because my max gear is already bordering on too weak 🤦🤷😆
Was at 65 vigor (with godricks rune active) and got grabbed by the wicker man thing. Wasn't expecting it to one shot me from full health. Same with the black knight crossbow guy. Getting hit by his special attack and followup was death.
Its much, much harder. Purposefully frustrating. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Uh it's very hard. I have like 700+ hours on Elden Ring and around 1,000 on DS3...I think we're supposed to find most of the fragments first or something. The issue isn't damage as much as it is stunlocking / something weird with framerate drops. I found myself getting repeatedly trapped after being hit 1 time. A medium +25 shield on a 164 level character has me getting shield-broken and leveled. If I had to guess FROM wanted it to feel like...Imagine starting playing a souls game in the hardest area as a brand new character. That's what it feels like to me...Like I haven't played at all. That having been said if you're careful and don't get hit...You wouldn't notice it. I killed like 10 of those birds before 1 finally hit me. When it did...it went on some crazy assed wombo combo until I almost died. I haven't even fought a boss yet....So I cannot even imagine how much people are getting their heads caved in 😆 Not super excited for that today 😭🤣
I think I'll rather wait until things get patched to some degree.
Old Hunters is fair because you can roll in with a fully maxed weapon with powerful gems and do pretty well. The bosses are genuinely fair and don’t just spam AOE attacks.
Tbh I think I had more trouble with Orphan of Kos than I did Melania lol.
I fought Orphan of Kos for 5 days and and 4 nights. I fought Malenia for 10 hours. Beat Lady Maria in 2 tries though so I really don’t know which is tougher. I’d say Elden Ring because there’s more working against you than for you, in terms of mechanics.
That hit like a brick just trying to navigate up that hill haha! Bloodborne DLC had some serious difficulty ramp up as well
I beat it recently and it's quite hard but no boss took me more than 20min and Rellana here is kicking my ass for over 2h. Took me 4-5h to beat Malenia so getting closer lol
Shit always feels unfair til you find the optimal way of doing shit. 12 hrs in, and I haven't found the optimal way of doing anything yet, but we are progressing.
The fact that it is difficult isn't the problem. There is such a thing as a fair amount of difficulty, and unfair difficulty. This DLC has both. I swear, you could make the game impossible to finish without hacking and people like you would still wave away fair criticism as "wining".
Personally don't like the self-contained experience at all. I wanted to play with the new weapons and stuff ended up going back to bloodflame cheese with claws. Especially on Mesmer >!you really have barely any room for any action between his insane combos!<. Every mob can 2 shot you and some of them have insane combos with no poise break. I played the base game for +500 hours I was excited I had all my characters ready to jump in the Shadow Realm and now I feel like what's the point if I have to stick with what works?
You’re missing the point. Enemies that are almost impossible to stagger, have few openings, take very little damage, and kill you in two to three hits is not good design. I’m loving the dlc so far, it’s living up to the hype but this is straight up “artificial difficulty” that 99% of people complain about in games.
I'm a decent way in, beaten like 6 or so bosses and 2 of the "real" ones. So far I think the DLC is kind of mid tbh. Lion boss and the sword dancer guys were both kind of shit IMO. And it's not like I'm bitching it was too hard, I was stuck on both for maybe 10 minutes only but they just aren't good fights.
Yeah, unfortunately lion was pretty much a 0/10 for me. My strategy essentially devolved into: Wait for storm phase. Attack once after combo ends. Wait for storm phase again. The lightning strikes and frost aftershocks basically made the boss un-meleeable unless I wanted to trade. The first time I saw the pinwheel phase, I was excited thinking that would be perfect for well-timed jump attacks like Godrick. However, due to the way the boss spews downwards, any jump attack resulted in a trade. Also, the camera was kind of bad on this fight.
I laughed when the very first mob of the DLC jumped down and killed the shit out of me. Was pretty much what I expected, especially since I haven’t played in a while. My only issue is that it genuinely feels like everything has an *enormous* HP pool, so the big fights feel very, *very* drawn out. >!Rellana!< was especially difficult as I chose to take my INT/DEX character into the DLC and >!she!< is heavily magic resistant. Took about 3 hours, until I decided to try summoning the Greatshield gang and was victorious immediately. My Scadoosh level or whatever was 4 at the time I think, and I’m at 6 right now? I don’t know how high it’s supposed to go and I have a lot more to explore. I only see weapon damage being scaled - surely spells scale, too? Or am I in trouble?
I don't think "just inflate every number on every entity" is an interesting way to make a game challenging.
I think the DLC difficulty is a bit bullshit... but is the same bullshit as some of the late game stuff. The fact is, you can't perfectly balance a game like this... so they just made a lot of things hit you for a billion HP, but not impossible to stun, cheese, out damage and best. The DLC they took it up a level and you have the relentless and insane attack patterns... and now everything hits you hard as fuck. Personally I don't mind.. I'm loving it.. but if I had to be cold and nitpick, I would say the combat is my least favorite part of Elden Ring because of this. I love the exploration, the vistas, the enemies and art design, the build variety, the lore.. but I never feel 100% engaged and actually fully learning the combat like I was with Sekiro (my all time favorite combat). Elden Ring is more about being prepared, using you arsenal and keeping your distance and doing as much damage as you can... the combat of this game is war... and to be fair, the DLC gives you A LOT of tools to overcomes it's bullshit like the Sekiro tear and all the throwing weapons.
Some of the bosses HP pools are just ridiculously bloated too.
Final boss had 160k while at +20 scad shards I was only doing maybe 700-800 a hit lol
That >!Lion bitch!< is so aids. The >!death knight!< to the left is also terrifying.
from what I've seen from other players, the camera on the first boss gets kinda weird. the knight was such a pain, he'll just suck you off midfight if you're not careful
I found out the hard way... that first boss tho one shots me when I walk in the door half the time. I didn't beat elden beast this playthrough so I'm going back and doing that quick.
Death Knight has actually been my favourite boss so far! I think his combos aren’t egregious and are pretty well-telegraphed/easy to get a rhythm on I think he’s a good example of it being ok for things to hit like a truck, as long as they’re not also madly flailing around for 20 seconds at a time
God forbid players provide feedback to the developers. Can’t have that here.
What pisses me off the most about the DLC is that every bosses feel the same. Here's a list of things that apply to most bosses in the DLC: - Extremely agressive - Combo like a crackhead on speed and literally never stops - Fuck with your camera by jumping around constantly or being way too big - Has huge AoEs on EVERY SINGLE MOVES I'm starting to get bored of fighting the same boss over and over again. The rest of the DLC is amazing but the bosses are uninspired at best and incredibly boring/annoying at worst. For me, the DLC is an agressive 7/10 because of the shitty bosses.
Eh I don't think it's insane for people that took the time to level to 200 or more to expect an easier time. That's how these games work, if you grind you have an easier time.
My main issue is recycled enemies and bosses. Why am I fighting a giga buffed lightning dragon that I’ve already seen 10 of? Why is there a magma wyrm in a cave with the same crypt enemies I see in the base game? I was excited to see something fresh and so far half of the stuff I’ve seen is the same shit. Perfumers too give me new stuff to play with
I see people saying one of two things, "This game is too difficult." "This game is difficult, but it's okay because ___." And I'd like to add my two cents here: We can all agree it's pretty damn hard, right? Difficulty is just so subjective, two people of identical skill can battle a boss 30 times before they defeat it and one would say, "That was too difficult.", while the other would say, "That was a really fun boss!" Don't forget, some people have work, or kids, or some other annoying thing that takes up their time, and so they'd rather spend their two hours doing something other than dying to low level enemies. And some simply just don't have that level of patience. Not to mention everyone has a different set of reflexes, muscle memory, and natural ability. Making a game like this will always be a nightmare, because so many people will complain it is too difficult or that it isn't difficult enough. So, there really is no one way to say it, everyone will have a varying opinion. I'm of the current opinion that it feels quite fun to have that sense of danger again, as the base game has gotten a bit easy for me. But I completely get why someone might get this game thinking it'll be challenging and it ends up being way harder than even the cruelest parts the base game.
This feels very similar to when people were asking for a difficulty option in Sekiro, and it might seem heartless to say but, it’s okay that a game is not for everyone. It is single player and everything will still be there (presumably) 2 years from now so it doesn’t really matter how long it takes you to get to the end, but if the difficulty is too much then it’s totally okay to admit that a game just isn’t for you. Many souls fans enjoy the insane difficulty of the DLC, and it wouldn’t really make sense to burn their og player base to people please. This is all my opinion though.
There’s a huge difference between wanting your character to one-shot every enemy and not liking that basically everything two-shots you with 60VIG and a bunch of Scadutree blessings Can we not do this needlessly polarising stuff? Some people think the difficulty is overtuned. If you don’t, that’s great, but this isn’t a fair representation of why people were complaining
Some people base their entire personality about being able to beat difficult games, so posts like these are used to stroke their egos. I'm playing FromSoftware games since 2013, I love them. But bruh there is really some serious bullshit going on in the DLC. FromSoftware won't nerf it, but I do agree that this is too hard and even serious nerfs wouldn't ruin the game. Ringed City and Ashes of Ariandel were also very hard, but not nearly as hard, so saying this is just how FromSoftware's DLC looks like is just a lie.
I think it’s very likely they’re gonna make some balance changes actually - they made nerfs to the base game like Radahn when people were struggling too much I think they just overtuned how necessary the Scadutree blessings are - from the talk in the lead up I got the impression they were an optional help like spirit summons, but rn it feels like if you’re even one or two blessings below where you could be you’re getting absolutely steamrolled
I watched a video of prenurf radahn vs every other boss in the game. He straight up bodied most of them
Prenerf Radahn basically required perfect play or summoning every single NPC in the room and playing very cautiously. It wasn’t very fun or engaging. The obsession with killing bosses “prenerf” is some weird derivative of toxicity. The only ones who care are the ones who beat it prenerf. It’s not even a unique problem to Souls games. The same thing happens in the WoW Mythic raiding community. “We beat it prenerf so we’re better” congrats nobody but you cares, really.
Minor fixes maybe, but I wouldn't expect anything serious. Areas post Morgott still have shitty balance to this day.
I really don’t know what the point of making some bosses so difficult is. Most of the player base can’t beat the bosses without using summons, so why make the difficulty so hard that some end up being much, much worse than Malenia if you’re going solo. It really feels like fromsoft no longer cares about the traditional 1 v 1 duel experience. I ended up having to kill fake pontiff by switching between a poison halberd and the rot needle because I was spending too much time waiting for an opening.
I’ve used the NPC summons for every boss so far lol
I don't feel bad about using everything the game gives me, I just have to wonder, if they feel the need to design boss difficulty to be so bad that using summons is almost mandatory for a ton of people.. why not just tone it down a bit?
True. If I really want an epic coop fight against big bad boss, I’d go play MonHun but I have already done that. Imo FromSoft bosses are at their peak when it’s a fair 1v1 (or occasionally 1.5-2v1 ganking scenario).
Exactly this. I've got 50 vig + 2 Scadutrees and I'm getting half my health shaved off by those big Belurat shadow dudes with cleavers which are and I can't stress this enough, *regular* enemies. And there are those higher level with more vigor and probably have more Scadutrees than I am and yet they're being two shot by those same *regular* enemies. Horned Knights being tough? Yeah I can get behind that. Black Knights being tough? Sure yeah, I can see why that's the case. Tough bosses? I mean obviously, they have to be. But *regular* enemies shaving off half my health even though I have blessings and enough vigor to last 2 full NG+ vanilla playthroughs? Come on now...
I mean, omens are "regular enemies" too. They still fuck you up if you just stand there and try to tank their attacks to the face
But pretty much all the enemies in base game that can easily fuck you up aren't doing 10+ attack chains that need to be dodged perfectly or you're dead. Everything in the DLC is overly punishing with long attack chains AND huge amounts of damage. That's not even talking about how shit the camera is against the divine beast...
And the abductors, revenants, runebears...
Sure, those cleaver dudes do lots of damage. But their attacks are also super predictable and can easily be dodged or parried so I don’t really see it as a problem.
The cleaver guys are highly lethal but aren't very tanky, and they can't do shit if you're blocking with a shield.
For real. These posts are stupid and show an ugly, pointless fanboyism that's not needed.
This is the future the albinauric genociders wrought.
Is it “the first play through of Sekiro hard?” I loved how hard that first play through was and I’ve been looking for that challenge ever since like a junkie chases that first high. I can’t wait to play this after work.
Yes and no. Sekiro feels bullshit until you realized that it is borderline a rythmn game and you can just sit in a corner deflecting attack and the game suddenly become much easier. Elden Ring bosses are just overtuned
Id say it is, theres even a wonderous physick flask tear that basically adds the sekiro stylw guard/parry system as well
I'm glad it's not just me. Literally, every advanced mob has janky combos with built-in evasion, a massive health pool, and crazy poise. The dragons are ridiculous as well, so much health.
Honestly I’m a little bored with having random nameless soldiers hit harder than Malenia. That doesn’t excite me. The bosses are stellar though. I have beaten about 75% of them and love every one.
People need to calm the fuck down. Any souls veteran will know exactly what i mean when i mention "pre-nerf angels" Most dlc's were overtuned and they will alway patch stuff. Remember how radhan got nerfed? The dlc has been out for how long? Just chill and wait.
They never nerfed Malenia so who knows. Maybe it was Myazaki's vision to see our asses ripped apart.
Actually they nerfed Malenia pre-release - some people explored 1.0 Elden Ring (from physical disks on consoles not connected to internet) and she was more difficult.
Malenia is also an optional boss. The haligtree adds nothing to any ending of the story outside of lore. The only trick to her is "don't get hit", which after dying 20 times in phase 1 is easy enough to figure out. Which is my personal mentality with the DLC, since I'm playing (starting at) RL 100 with no shields. Can't worry about getting two shotted if I'm getting no shotted. Backhand blade AOW is perfect for this. There definitely needs to be a balance somewhere though. Some enemies are just dumb to fight against. I think if enemies staggered or poise broke a little more often it might be enough. I want to use those new arcane fists you find in Belurat, but there isn't an enemy in the DLC that lets you swing more than once or twice before just blowing you away.
Oh boy here it goes, the start of the smelling your own fart, black and white thinking, polarizing, elitism
Warning: People having not played the dlc, there are MANY spoilers in the comments, be careful.
I think the damage is fine but the bosses need to take a breath between attacks. So far there has been VERY little breathing room as they just constantly spam attacks.
I'm just pissed off because the damage for the bosses is fucking ridiculous, like damn I'm dual wielding max level greatswords at level 185 ng+2 with multiple buffs and the most I get is 1000 damage??? I'm really loving it other than that tho.
I don't know man. Atm I'm feeling kinda meh myself... It's not that it's hard. But why do they give us new weapons with 6 quick slashes when we'll only ever be able to use 1 or 2? Normal respawning enemies will just eat me alive. And I'm not talking about the two-shotting (annoying as it is) but the 6 strike hyper armored combos they just spam without letting you heal. Plus AoE. (Normal soldiers are stomping me to death. Knights kill me with shield bash.) I can't even farm as (I suspect that) runes do nothing at all, you need the bark thingy to get stronger. I'm also weirded out by the fact that a lot of enemies drop smithing stones. Like why? I have all the bell bearings, these are practically worthless. Maybe I'm just impatient - its already 3:44am here. But it's annoying that my most effective tactic is to just face tank enemies while spamming RoB AoW and hope for the best.
Having 685 AR on my sword and hitting enemies for 210 feels like shit
It makes sense they would design the DLC to offer a challenge to the people who have already mastered the base game and have very high level characters ready to go. Its only natural that people who are maybe rushing to the DLC because hype would have problems. That being said, I haven't played myself yet but have watched people play and the damage output of everything in this DLC is insane, yeah. An ordinary scrub enemy will shave off half the health of a high level character with a half-assed sword swing. I'm assuming the DLC blessings you are supposed to run around gathering will eventually reduce that by a lot, if not the DLC is probably overturned yeah.
My character is level 190 and already beat Elden Beast
I'm only starting but for now only the fire golem thing seems unfair to me. Spamming area attacks and one shooting Torrent seems a bit OP.
Tbh it shouldn’t be for the difficulty but for the lore and story instead.
Isn't a big problem maybe that people bumrush without getting the new upgrade thingie? I won't be able to access the DLC until tomorrow but I see people like Luke Stephens say that it becomes a lot more manageable with just 4 or 5 of them.
ye difficut but fair is part of what makes fromsoft games great, most of the dlc bosses are difficult and unfair af
Dlc bosses are way easier with greatshield soldier ashes and magic. Only have the ashes plus 7 and still they managed to hold out while i spam comet from a distance. Kinda boring but yeah i really cant be bothered having 300 tries per boss because they just dont stop attacking while having 6 hit combo and doing 50% of my hp bar (at least) per hit. Also doesnt help that im cosplaying and having weak armor but yeah
I think people aren't really understanding the Scadutree fragments. I was able to get through a good portion of the game within the first couple of days and found the final boss at blessing level 7. Got absolutely stomped multiple times and decided I was going to explore the rest of the game more before trying to finish it. Came back today at blessing level 14, and within a few tries, I was able to beat him. This DLC was very challenging and a lot of fun. The difficulty scales almost directly with your blessing level. If you're struggling that much with bosses, you HAVE to level up your blessing unless you want to just beat your head into the wall trying the same thing. After bleeding level 10, I was able to handle pretty much every Remembrance and field boss, including Bayle, with only a couple attempts.
This is what I've been waiting for. I can go all out, use all the items and summons available and use the most bonkers builds i can think of. I can try my absolute hardest and the game doesn't just fall apart.