to be fair, its alot more understandable if those are new game + runs, because the posture system/death blow system, the only thing that really changes is the amount of mistakes you're allowed to make, so if you're REALLY into the rhythm and still riding that launch high, its totally conceivable
@@sasaki999proHow would he know what to do exactly for each ending tho? I had to look some up just to know how to get them, namely the Purification and Return endings, lol. I cannot imagine that being done in 3 days with probably 0 guides out?
Yeah ima go ahead and call bullshit. The farm required to complete all the combat arts and skill tree is absolutely ridiculous. Theres no possible way he got the platinum after 3 days upon release. AND with no available guides.
Also dont think like: Ill roll when I see it coming. Roll as the animation starts, its not real life Also see the delay some bosses have. Its all pratice and being ok dying to see the paterns
What if the boss is a giant, and stays in corners in a tiny arena, where the unlocked camera glitches into their body, or into the wall, while they spam you with AOE you can't see coming?
I have a lot of fun with the DLC so far. I did quite a bit of random exploring, then watched a build guide and did two questlines and now I am back at taking things slow. I have two kids (8&5) and they like to watch me play Elden Ring every now and then for maybe 20min or so. In those moments I mostly just resort to exploring the world, which really makes me see and discover places I never would have when playing by myself. Man, I love the whole Soulsborne series so much, as it really makes me feel like a kid again.
Makes me feel like a kid again is EXACTLY what I had been feeling but I didn't realize it. I have a bunch of kids too so it's hard to get the time in to play, but man, I am constantly thinking about it and just can't wait to get back to exploring the stunning world they built for us, and vanquishing all the foes in my own personal Fantasy book story
What I’ve realized is that many techniques that were useful in some fights are now mandatory in most. Biggest being positioning - not just “roll then attack” like you mentioned.
I see so many people ignoring jumping as a dodge. Your bottom half has no hitbox at all during the entire jump. It will get you out of so many attacks not just aoe
5:44 I disagree with this SO hard, the dodging and attacking was what made those games for me. Being able to read a bosses attacks and react simply BY INSTINCT was by far the most satisfying thing about those games for me, it really felt like a fair duel with someone on par with your skills. I live for this shit. Sekiro especially did this perfectly, I remember being able to 2-3 try some late game bosses in this game not because they were easy but because I was so in tune with the mechanics it was like second nature, my left finger would just deflect without me even having to think about it. Elden Ring pits you against animals you have to observe and analyze before you can even think of making a move. No matter how good you are at the game, if you don't already know some combos' dodge timing by heart you WILL die. Some combos coming out so fast you actually can't get close to the boss by fear of them instantly deleting your ass for having the gall to try to punish. This engenders passivity, something I was taught to avoid with Bloodborne and Sekiro. Still good vid I'm glad you enjoyed this DLC, I just wish i could start being aggressive in Fromsoft games again.
@@kevinvolchok14 Exactly, being able to one try some bosses because you were just good at the game felt infinitely better than learning every combo and having to execute perfect dodges like a robot.
I really enjoyed this video. I honestly had to remind myself that the game is going to be different depending on how you approach it. What weapons you use, what talismans, how fast you get to bosses etc. I'm the opposite of objective based and can enjoy a game for 100s of hours without ever beating it, but for a bit when fighting the first mini-boss and remembrance boss I beat, I honestly thought that they were over-tuned and was not looking forward to bashing my head against the wall to beat the rest of the bosses. It wasn't until I was off of the game and reflecting on them that I remembered that a lot of the "difficulty" was manufactured from the way I like to play and I was blowing it out of proportion.
“Don’t be stubborn”. That’s the mantra that Elden Ring wants to hammer home. It’s part of the design philosophy so that players are compelled to interact with all its systems. I’m only a few hours into the DLC. Haven’t fought a single main boss yet but have 3 scadutree levels on my character and my spirit ash already. Seems pretty clear that the game wants me to explore the area available before trying to take on a gate keeping boss, so that’s what I’m doing and enjoying :)
Yeah, the change od mindset was something i needed back in the day druing my DS3 playthrough (my 1st souls game). I had a feeling that dying, loosing souls was such a setback that i couldnt force myself to play it. After a year i changed approach and instead of thinking about the whole game as a challenge i made my own challenges. Getting to the next bonfire, exploring one courner of the map or killing mini Boss. It helped me to keep my focus on smaller things. And it stays with me till this day. Already clocked 6k hrs into souls games, but like mentioned i focus on smaller things ie. Learning one combo pattern, mastering phase one and such. Great video, made me reflect on the topic
Bro u played DS2 and said why tf would I play these games🤣 my roommate sold me in DS3 after watching him and him explaining shit to me. DS3 was definitely a blast. I'd say it's my official first DS
@@givesrespect8788Funnily enough, I played up to like, the capra demon or somewhere around there in 1, didn't like the awful controls (played on PC with keyboard and mouse; people can huff copium about it all day but if a pc port has terrible kbm controls/camera and framerate-based physics issue, it's a bad port and usually indicates a bad game, which is what I wrote it off as at the time) and ditched it, but a friend talked me into trying 2 a couple of years later and I absolutely loved it.
With what you said about Maliketh, my first playthrough was really like that. I had beaten all the other souls games (excluding sekiro, but I do need to try that sometime, deflecting physick tear is cracked), and I didn't understand how different and more complex the bosses were. I didn't enjoy my first playthrough, and kind of just resorted to cheese, because I thought that was the only way to beat the game. About 8 months later, I saw a video explaining the design philosphy of these bosses, and decided to give it another chance, with no cheese. And I loved it. I feel a lot of the negativity towards the DLC will die down once everyone gets used to the bosses.
Rellana is super vulnerable to guard counters and stance breaks (also reliably parryable). AoWs like Square Off are almost a hard counter for her. The final boss is surprisingly weak to parries and bleed. All bosses have major weaknesses, and its up to the player to be creative and figure it out. The skidoosh fragments simply help level the playing field a bit but its up to you to use ur noggin
Yeah you have to think and adapt. The bosses in this thing are wild, with crazy combos, tons of damage, and wild special abilities. But so far I've been able to deal with everything with creativity and the tools at hand. The only thing i can't beat so far is the furnace world boss. but even that feels like i just need to find the right strategy.
Doesn't require 100% to get all the trophies/ achievements. Still crazy fast but honestly I feel elden ring is one of the easier souls games to get all of them
Thats so true! Elden Plat is not that hard , heck i only have that one , sekiro & blodborne , go try some ds3 , ds2 or ds1 plat your gonna be a bit longer while grinding 😅@xxmausermanxx8389
One clarification, the boss isn't holding an attack longer based on your panic rolls. They DO however have timing mix-ups, and many of these mix-ups are positionally based. The game isn't going to change an attack timing to make sure it hits during your roll, but it will change that attack timing as a mix-up, and that mix-up can lead to it feeling like the game "read your roll". Loopine has some goated videos delving into boss mechanics that explain some of the differences between input reading vs branching combo chains for those who are interested. Other than that slight clarification I gotta say you hit the nail on the head. The depth of these bosses is unlike anything I've experienced before, and as someone who is comfortable taking my sweet time exploring before rushing content, I have found the majority of their challenge to be alleviated somewhat by collecting better gear and higher scadutree levels.
I've ruminated a lot on the perspective shift per-game with the Souls series. A big thing I've noticed is with the before/after Bloodborne (and to a lesser extent DaS2) paradigm shift. Before that, the combat was typically, barring oddball or uncommon build/play styles, to block attacks and strafe around until you saw an opening, then press the opening for typically one or twp attacks, then move away and block again, much of the challange coming from choosing moments to lower your shield to recover stamina, or needing to dodge if you got yourself cornered with low stamina. 2 made it much riskier to just block continually unless you had the stablest greatshields and actually leveled for stamina, since it (like Elden Ring more recently, which is a phrase you can use a lot when talking about Dark Souls 2) had a strong design focus on encouraging build diversity; Bloodborne had a single weaker, less accessible shield that called you a stupid crybaby for even looking at it in the item description. But something I saw come up over and over again around the Dark Souls 3 era was people saying 3 was much more fast-paced and dodge-focused than Dark Souls 1, followed by a wave of people saying they'd gone back and played 1 like it was Bloodborne and it was so much faster and more fun, and completely playable (and of course it was- by wearing light armour you could get, like, an entire day of s every time you rolled in 1, to say nothing of DWGR flips). But conversely, in every title besides Bloodborne (and albeit with a more specific build in 2), you can play it just like DeS or 1, cowering safely behind a shield most of the game. Even Malenia, who (by design) freaks out blockers and makes them try ditching the shield for her fight, is actually hardwalled by a greatshield because as long as you meet the stat reqs on a +8 or higher weapon (especially a thrusting weapon for shieldpokes), even if she WFDs nonstop her healing will never outpace the damage you deal to her. The design never actually changed, as shown in the Malenia example. The presentation is what changed. Other playstyles are made more appealing or cool (powerstancing, action-oriented sorceries, weapon arts/aows, steps vs rolls, etc) and you're made to feel like blocking and strafing is generally a losing proposition because that presentation encourages players to enjoy the game more. Also "this boss I hated the first time I played, and thought was unfairly difficult, is now my favourite" seems like a relatively common observation in action games. Rajang seems to get that a lot in Monster Hunter (and for me it's Stygian Zinogre, which used to be a huge salt factory for third and fourth gen players in general, though it was made more straightforward in World), for instance.
Maliketh gang, he's also my favorite boss in all of souls (or rather, he was, Messmer overtook him for me). I just love how much the fight rewards smart positioning and jumping as a form of dodging, its one of my favorite paced and structured fights and it really opened my eyes to how the extra complexity of elden ring bosses wasnt artificial difficulty but a change in design.
Hes definitely top 10 for me but abyss watchers will probably always be my favorite boss. What's your favorite boss if this dlc for me the dancing lion was the most fair boss by far
@@domicci4460 Messmer is definitely my favorite boss of the dlc so far, just a very well paced fight with a great blend of visuals and a mechanically complex moveset.
I think this is the best explanation, and something I've been trying to put into words for myself, that I've heard explaining the philosophy FROM has had for elden Ring and how the difficulty feels in relation. Awesome video dude and very well said!
The mental shift that helped me was switching from treating the combat like Metal Gear Rising to looking at it like Pokemon (or insert your own preferred turn-based RPG), if that makes sense. The boss is going to do something, and you have a "turn" to respond with something from your list of options: attack, evade, block, approach, disengage, or heal/buff. Plenty of options, but you get just _one,_ then it's the next turn. Boss does something, you pick an option, next turn. Pick the right one, maybe you get a bonus move that turn; pick the wrong one or try too many at once, expect punishment. I find segmenting the combat like this helps slow my brain down and pay better attention to what's happening.
Thats a good way to see it. The only thing I'd point out is, you also get to do something when it's the bosses turn. Play defense/evade or block. So you're always performing. I think people have been programmed in games to only feel engaged when they are on the offense. Take some pride in the defense side of things as well and you won't have that feeling of "just waiting around for my turn to attack" as so many complain about. Sometimes the other team has the ball, half of the game is defense.
That is how fighting game players tend to break it down. Fighting games are generally real-time action games, but with systems like stagger and superarmor, hitboxes, framedata and juggles, it is useful to think of them in terms of turns, and people who cannot understand that tend to perform poorly and lose their cool (conversely, using better reflexes or strategy to "steal turns" is hugely beneficial, and that's what you're _trying_ to do in games like Souls when you dodge through attacks and immediately attack- the problem is that enemies don't get staggered as easily as players, so whether you can take a turn at all depends much more on your first-hit frame data and very little else).
@SaintKines I don't usually have that issue, but I also don't attack for the first run of a new boss. I focus on staying alive and seeing their moves and learning paterns. It's like, this is a reconicess run. It also takes some of the pressure off, and I get more engaged. I'll slowly start adding attacks if I can.
@@SaintKinesPeople feel like that because the defense has changed. Back in Dark Souls, it was always a quick succession of attack, defend, then attack. It felt like an actual back and forth trade. Then Bloodborne came, and offense WAS your defense. You couldn't afford to be timid and you were actively rewarded for attacking during smaller windows and even during attacks since you could heal the damage back. Now, in Elden Ring, it's literally just wait until the anointed time, get your alloted damage in, then go back to defending. You can definitely find windows within attack strings, but the game doesn't prioritize aggression like Bloodborne, so this realization can come too late for most players. If I had to compare it to something, it's almost like you're fighting a Destiny raid boss where you need to perfect damage phases and maximize your output otherwise you're missing out.
Not to be that guy. I just kinda wanna point out thats what a framework or just any kind offensive defensive position in any game that has u the player going against any enemy/obstacle. Literally when striped down to the bare bones whether its action adventure, rpg, turn base, or even fps (yes even fps) thats just how things work when its u the player going against any obstacle whether npc (pve) or player (pvp). However, it is like you said it's just what u realized helped u mentally think of the mechanics to get through the expansion. I mean hey this mindset is just how i played Elden Ring once I go an understanding on the mechanics of a FromSoft game (This is my 1st FS game) to eventually boss attacks as well look out for in the animation leading up to it. Really no different from a couple of games Ive played growing up like for single player action KH, Bayo, Nier, Zelda, Ninja Gaiden, stealth games like AC and Splinter Cell, fighting games like Smash, Tekken, Dragon Ball Z games, and as an FPS pvp example I will throw Halo mp in there with the golden triangle rule Halo's core gameplay was designed upon along with the sandbox arena shooter it was.
A few years ago I saved a girls life. Some junkie was trying to strangle her so I kicked him off her and had to fight him for 10 minutes. Thanks to my elden ring training it was easy to dodge his attacks and time mine well. Praise the elden ring 💍
Its the kind of DLC that needs to be experienced much like the base game. I think people are finding it too hard because theyre rushing into bosses. They dont adapt builds, read item descriptions, they dont explore other solutions, they dont think about the weaknesses of enemies and then they keep dying. Ofc if you play this way you’re going to have a hard time. You need that level 1 mindset.
My first playthrough was ROUGH, then i started my second, man did I breeze through. You're so right to call it a mindset change. I think the number one thing is that you need to look up a map or something of the scadutree fragments and get them all, after that defense and stamina are so important. Vigor is still big, but it's shifted. You have to buff yourself, you have to be aware of armor values and defense percentages, and you have to be ontop of your stamina and level it as much as you can. And thrn it just works. If you rely on dodging and blocking in the DLC but don't have the stamina or defense to compete with the faster bosses who do a lot more stamina damage, then you're dead in the water
@@kang1983 i totally understand that.... but also there's a ton in the first area and the first couple and a few following are marked with giant golden glowing crosses and when you pick uo the first one it tells you that they are needed to level up your character and progress in the DLC, so I'm not sure what else they could've done... like I still agree with you and there's some that are easily missed, I jjst genuinely don't know what more they could've done 😅
I have the opposite problem. I tend to be overleveled and trivialize content because i explore and fight everything. Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation in games is interesting to me. I think the games you like and the way you play them says a ton about your personal psychology.
Very good video. Elden Ring, and Shadow of the Erdtree really feel like a refinement of all systems and combat that FromSoft has implemented over the years on various games (DS1-3, Blood Borne, Sekiro) where the game is challenging for returning players, but is also accessible to new players (spirit ashes being an example of a tool intended to make fights more manageable). I remember when playing Sekiro and wanting to play it like Dark Souls; Sekiro requires a complete mindset shift and if you approach it like Dark Souls, you're going to have a bad time. Completely agree on the mindset shift and on playing the game as you see fit, using the tools at your disposal to make it more manageable or challenging. The games are difficult and challenging, yes, but not impossible and the sense of accomplishment and exhilaration you get after beating a hard boss is something few games have managed to provide for me. What's important in the end is to have fun playing.
I realized just today after beating Rellana and Messmer (and then seeing others fight them) that this DLC experience is simmilar to hiw it was to Jump from Dark Souls to Bloodborne and the again with Sekiro. Thise games feels simmilar but they arent the same, you have to approach the bosses differently anf have anothet strategy. Which I feel isnthe same this time too going from base game to the DLC. the only boss in base game that shares the same mindset (too me at least) is Malenia and maybe Maliketh.
Spot on. The discourse over Elden Ring’s difficulty has always seemed a bit nonsensical to me. I can’t think of another game which gets critiqued for being too difficult because you shouldn’t have to use mechanics the game was designed around. Always seemed a bit like complaining that 3D Mario games were too hard because it’s extremely difficult to beat them only moving in a straight line from left to right. The weapon skills, spirit ashes, summons, etc are as much a part of the game design and balance as anything else. Yes you can play naked with no leveling and no upgrades, but nobody sensible would suggest that the game should be balanced around that play style. I’m firmly of the opinion that play smarter is a part of “git gud”. Elden Ring practically begs the player to develop a flexible build with combinations of magic, melee, status and stagger options. I think it’s a lot closer to AC 6 than Dark Souls in its combat design. And the DLC just doubles down on that.
Dope that you specifically highlight Guard Counters. Its a really powerful slept on mechanic that in my observations the majority of players simply ignore. You get the full posture damage of a fully charged heavy with faster recovery, and you dont even need to risk missing your dodge roll because you can just hold block. Incorporating it into your playstyle can double the amount of posture breaks you get in a given fight.
I would agree with your point if the combat wasn’t ripped straight out of another game that came out in 2016. Like, if the combat hasn’t changed one bit, why should the mentality of the player change? From has made two games in the past that wanted to be played with different mentalities, so they changed the combat drastically. I can’t remember what they’re called though…something something blood something something shinobi?
I think the classic Dark Souls formula that's been around the past 14~ years has been used to it's limit, these combo monster bosses continue to evolve in moveset and ability while the player is more or less stuck in 2010, with the only things helping us being the introduction of spirit ashes and ridiculous AOE attacks. I think the DLC has seriously opened my eyes to how desperately players need a proper overhaul to the combat.
This video feels like its from a youtuber with 100k+ subs. I wanted a video to listen to while I rune farm for stones before I head into the DLC and this one was great. Thats a like and sub from me
I completely agree. I feel like everyone forgot the constant complaints about difficulty when ER first launched and the asking for a difficulty selector. So many people thought Margit was overtuned. Not realizing the game was telling them to go explore and become.more powerful. Another huge thing in Elden ring is the ability to jump over attacks and punish bosses. I still rarely see people do this. Messmer in particular has a phase one attack that can be jumped for a solid smash over the head. When you jump, the lower half of your body has i frames. Try it on different boss attacks. You'll be shocked at how many can be jumped over. Maliketh has a bunch pf phase one attacks that can be jumped (since you were talking about him, thought I'd mention it). Also - you are a fantastic presenter. Clear and concise ideas. And well recorded as well. Subbed. I hope you get a ton more subs. You deserve it.
Problem with jumping attacks tho, your hands don't get invincible. Meaning when you're on a dual katana build like me, you can't jump-dodge many attacks you otherwise could. So If I hear any more collosal-Sword wielders complain about difficulty, I will rip my head of!!!
Gotta say that I agree. A mindset change helps so much. Made me realize I could try using my ice magic to freeze some bosses to slow them down. Use items! Poison a fool! Jump more! Use those summons!! Double check your build. Try the new weapons! And of course, just keep practicing. It’s such a great feeling to go from being stomped to dodging almost all the boss attacks and using minimal flasks, and then the victory! Don’t give up skeleton!!
Beating Sekiro 5 times within 3 days of release is MADNESS dude. You just got yourself a sub on that alone I haven’t even finished the video yet LOL I love this dlc but I’m struggling immensely because I’m playing on NG+. I feel like they didn’t think that’s aspect through, that the people who have been committing so much time in their base game are going to be punished for entering the dlc. Since I am on NG+4, I am essentially over 60 Scadutree levels behind where my character should be lol so I’m being absolutely demolished while dealing minuscule damage to bosses. This is one aspect I hope they patch in the future.
@@Wilhelm4131 considering Ongbal is already doing no hit runs and Tyrannicon has a cheese out for every boss already, it’s not the most far fetched statement. I’m more impressed by the time commitment and patience required than the skill lol
Thanks lol. I don't consider myself particularly above average skill wise in these games, I just am super hardheaded and dedicated. The following 4 runs were NG+ (which are easier than base due to upgrades) and if you know where to go Sekiro is a really short game, just like DS3. You can easily blitz through a campaign in 3-4 hours, shorter if you do the fastest ending. Sekiro also has a combat style where once you know it, you know it, and bosses don't really change or adapt too much.
Honestly I have been mainly using spirit summons when fighting bosses in the DLC. And yes they make the fight very easy but what's interesting is now it takes at least a couple of hits or for the boss their combo to end to begin shifting focus on your summon. That was something very interesting I thought, because I'd just be running away from the boss and they still kept chasing me which made for some really hilarious situations. And I've had that same feeling when summoning friends. The bosses tend to focus the host waaaaay more than the summons even if it's just idle or your summons attacked them. Honestly was a scary surprise, but still fun nonetheless.
I've been saying stuff adjacent to this in regards to Elden Ring in general since day one. Margitt already teaches you tha in ER bosses have their own complex behaviour system regarding their moveset. - There's going to be 1-2 attacks that you have to perfectly fit in your s, because if you don't roll at the right time you roll through the first swipe but not the second - Jumping is useful, whether to dodge or to punish with a R2 - R2s are more improtant than they used to be, since it's your primary way to stack posture damage - R1s are more for pinging the boss, as well as ranged options, to keep the posture bar from regenerating and for those short openings where an R2 is just not possible - Sometimes there's not enough downtime to strike, so you HAVE to create your own openings, knowing by heart the boss's combos lets you know when the risk you're taking going in will pan out or not. Attacks being flashy and flowy make it the best defense in some instances where your hitbox becomes just low enough for some attacks. - Positioning is as important as it ever was, but now even more, since all the rest is based upon it, even nailing that risky attack that sometimes trades and sometimes it's free. - Can't stress enough the importance of learning the bosses' moves, but also how they can connect. Part of what makes Malenia so insane is the fact that she spends so little time in her idle pose, she's always chaining a ton of moves in her moveset. And phase 2 increases how she can chain them, and adds new attacks on top. Relanna is a good example. Phase 1 you get guaranteed openings for most attacks except slow ashes of war whenever she does a two-sworder attack. Always. Except that one slow heavy two sword combo. But even that can be punished early with good positioning, you can keep hitting her on the back, exploiting her poor tracking. Phase 2 is the same, but she can chain with her new special moves, the longwinded two sword dance attack, the flame tornado or the carian sword flurry that I never got the hang of even after having beaten her. That, and the speed of certain attacks changes, as well as the fact that she can end a combo or two with an extra move if I'm not mistaken. Then other bosses, like Maliketh, Radagon, Hoarah Lux, Malenia, Placidusax and I'm sure there are others, teach you another important lesson. Sometimes the bosses have a gimmick that's sort of exclusive to them, always justified in lore somehow, always trying to SWITCH IT UP. Like Sekiro did with its myriad minibosses and bosses alike. They tried to introduce factors that switched it up somehow. Maliketh has the deathflame, Radagon has weird teleports mid combo, Hoarah Lux has these wrestling grab attacks that don't look like grab attacks at all and like the worst grab attacks they have a lingering hitbox, along with the strongest version of the ground stomp, Malenia can recover HP, and Placidusax can turn into a storm cloud at will. I think the DLC has more of the same tbh. Each boss for sure has their own gimmick. Even reused ones. EDIT: You said it best. And it sums up what I've been thinking. You have to think of them as enemies. As a puzzle to figure out in in of themselves. You can't apply the rules just the same for them all. This isn't Dark Souls. This is Dark Souls AFTER Sekiro. Each boss with its own thing (or things!) that makes them unique. For instance Bayle the Dread for me felt like a Dark Souls boss. I felt encouraged to roll through everything. Some AoEs are so big and with such short notice that I felt forced to them, because the tell wasn't clear, there wasn't any last second "let's see how fast you react" attacks, it was just timing, like in Dark Souls. I felt compelled to run whenever he did that firebreath at least until I lowered his health enough for it to become predictive, thanks Elden Ring lol. Turns out I had to start running towards him so that his tracking prediction was off when I changed directions. I want to add to your very good assesment, Elden Ring is about adaptability. They want you adapt to the challenge (or more accuately I guess adapt the challenge to your skill) through whatever means necessary. The real "Improvise Adapt Overcome" mentality. And oh boy have I improvised not only with my builds but trying to get in right after attacks with my own so that the boss wouldn't know what him 'em. And boy have I died doing so haha! But I feel like I'm a better Elden Ring player because of it.
Good video and tbh I feel like we had a quite close experience xD PS: For me Rellana was the one that made me have a harder time (even tho I consider that there are 3 harder bosses in the sense that they require more skill), but didn't understand what she was trying to tell me, and then Messmer made me realize; I died to him for 30 mins non stop, during those 30 mins I always had perfect openings (not hard cuz tbh easy af to dodge his start) and learnt what followups he had after the start depending on my position and how to trick the AI into doing one or another, but still, once he was out of control, I could only panic roll and pray, so I said "okay this is too hard, I see how this is doable, but I might be too bad because feels impossible to me" and then decided to adopt an open mindset because I knew that if I kept playing like that, maybe I would beathim after 1h trying, but probably would end up using mimic and shield to finish the DLC, and didn't want to use that strat cuz doesn't sound fun to me, stopped playing, studied my armors and talismans and crystal tears and buffs, relearnt the game instead of playig the same way as I did in DS3 and DS2 and DS1 and ER base game, etc. got into the fight trying to understand him, and after that I am way better at the game to the point that things that used to feel like a challenge feel actually too easy, indeed the DLC became a bit of a cake walk in the sense that I did feel like 2 of the bosses that I killed afterwards required way more skill, but they took me way less time, because I had a way better mindset and a way better build and started changing my build to adapt to the challenges, etc. (Indeed, Messmer was the first time ever that in a souls game I changed the weapon I'm using because of his ressitances) and yeah, legit you can see how I cried for 2 days in a row when speaking with friends about how the DLC was actually super challenging even tho not unfair and it was still super good, and on day 3 I was just slaying every boss in not that many tries and how I felt like a buffoon for how suboptimally I was playing the game because dumb
Historically, fromsoft games have always been guided and direct in guiding you down the story. Due to elden ring being so wide and free to do anything fromsoft had to chnage how they designed the game from "this is your next objective" to (i got this from another youtuber) "go do something else if you are having trouble" with all the exploration that is in the game. This is especially shown through the shadow tree blessings
What Elden Ring has taught me the most is find the FLOW. You go in with the excitement, the panic, the knowing its difficulty, its alot of weight of emotions, not necessarily in a negative way because its through a video game and not an actual event in life. But the Flow and not fall for the panic of mashing the dodge button, staying calm, dodge, hit, repeat. Thats the key. Stats dont compare.
I was struggling with Relanna for a long time, but then I had a flashback to Pontiff and I switched up to a parry playstyle. I eventually beat her and it felt so satisfying to find my own solution
I went into this dlc expecting bosses that are harder than malenia and I got them, a bunch in fact so I already had the mindset Now the final boss needs a new mindset shift of its own
Was a good dlc imo. One thing though, I’m starting to get a little annoyed by our movesets. Especially boss weapons. I really hope boss weapons can start standing out a little more in the future.
It requires you to be good at the game. It's the exact hard that it needed to be. Everyone before it came out " the game easy". You'll complain about everything
The problem i have with the difficulty is they use very cheak was of making bosses hard with insane damage and hp. And the fragments make it way worse because if yiu dint find enough your sol. They also litteraly buffed then because bosses were over tuned
I actually greatly enjoy this DLC, but rellana is a fight I don’t think I’ll ever find myself enjoying. I like to look for all of the opportunities for jump heavies and charged attacks in a boss fight, and its extremely rewarding to learn that some attack can be jumped, or you can avoid an attack in a specific way to create a bigger opening. Rellana’s biggest openings come from light rolling backwards, that’s exclusively it. I spent so long trying to jump over things, stick close and force an opening, but you can get a fully charged heavy on almost all of her strings if you just light roll backwards. All of her guard counter openings can be better exploited, and without taking damage, by just light rolling backwards and charging a heavy. This also doesn’t incur the risk of getting hit by her occasional quick starter. I find that she does this more often if you’ve attacked her from close range after she finishes her strings, but depending on your weapon, a charged heavy spaced correctly won’t provoke her quick follow up. Also they do some very intentionally frustrating things in the DLC which I feel is just done in bad faith, like putting igons summon sign in the arena of their Hyper death laser beam big dragon boss battle.
Just use a weapon that staggers easily and use the ash of war where you counter and teleport above the enemy and hit a heavy attack. Pretty straightforward and easy method and fits what you want.
A stagger weapon plus mimic tear equals beat that boss in one minute. I was surprised how easy it was to keep her stun locked. She could barely react. I used the giant katana you get from the boss Rakshasa and the ash of war it has. It obliterated her. Never give up! Hope you manage to beat them bosses next time you try!
I think that one of the reasons I really love Elden Ring is that I am generally not an objective based gamer. I like to take my time, try different things and experience games in different ways. To me it's always about the journey, the destination is just a bonus. I can't imagine living my life any other way.
For me, what got me through this DLC was Creativity. Instead of just dodging and R1-ing, I was using every possible mechanic (taugh and untold by the game). For defense, I wasn't just rolling; I was also using jumping, spacing, positioning, crouching, and most recently Spontaneous Guarding. For attacking, I wasn't just attacking at the end of combos; I was squeeking in even the tiniest of attacks mid-combo, using all six weapon slots, and taking advantage of special skill hitboxes (ex. Waterfowl Dance can evade ground AOEs).
I think the hardest lesson to learn for a souls fan, particularly one who enjoys style points, is that when you're new to a fight you should play to your strengths, not necessarily the build you like the most, but the one that suits your skills the most On my dex lightning run, I found myself several times resorting to tactics I've always been good at (str bonk), going as far as just putting lightning on a colossal, so I could play to my strengths because I am generally bad at not trading, and dex builds are best when you're not trading
There's a subtle change that I think is fairly major for this game in particular, in that a lot of enemies are able to track you while swinging, like another player can. So you can roll to dodge, but they turn with the dodge, and you get caught out. I was like "everything is so aggressive!" when I first started and I couldn't figure it out.
Bro, Maliketh humbled me too. Took me a long time when i fought him without a summon. I too thought it was unfair until i learned his moveset and how to parry him. One of my favorite fights now. Maliketh took me like 1-2 weeks to really learn and beat him
Playing AC6 taught me different missions would require (or atleast, encourage) using different weapons. The dlc giving a lot of smithing stones seem to encourage this as well
Does the light greatsword hit twice on guard counter? And Jesus how much stance does that 2 hit combo do? Had rallana riposted so much quicker than I did, and I was guard countering with a great hammer.
It does. I was using the new perfect block physic (which boosts damage on perfect block guard counter) as well as the two handed talisman and the guard counter talisman. My whole build for the char with this video was perfect blocking and stance damage. Thanks for watching!
The difficulty is fun. You have to exploit boss weaknesses. Lightning in ponds and in wet areas Bleed and frostbite against fire and lightning resistant enemies. Holy against the undead. The DLC emphasizes learning and adapting your fight around ash of war affinities
that's why i often need to remind one of my friends why i usually stick to only one build, as opposed to making 10 in a row of which all have different specialties.. because every build has their own playstyle, and my build caters specifically to how i play..
I honestly think your take of Maliketh will be the exact same case as Rahadn in a few months. People need to learn to work for things and not to expect things to just be given to them. I spent 5hrs learning and mastering the final boss and was very satisfied with my kill on him. Dissapointing to see people just give up. I dont think "the average person" needs to be able to beat a game, it should be up to them to want to improve and feel a sense of pride or accomplishment from doing so.
Well said. The whole mission statement of Fromsoft was to get back to when games were challenging. We remembered games like Mike Tysons Punchout where most people couldn't or hadn't beat the game because the final fights were so hard. People would spend days trying to beat Tyson until finally getting him. And that was great. The trend that every game needs to give the illusion of challenge so everyone can win is unfortunate. Thank the outer gods for Fromsoft.
Instead of thinking "what's the roll timing to dodge that attack", I've started thinking "where do I need to be to not get hit by that attack". The final boss of SotE has some insane moves but you can avoid the majority of them by just walking behind or sticking near him
I feel reflected, however for me the objective in dark souls games was to get all the items and play against all enemies and basically enjoy all the content, not just reaching the end, but still in my playthroughs ive always been underprepared, as you say (basically in ER first time I got tired of exporing so much after completing Leyndell + Mt.Gelmir + all the zones previous to that, and I wanted to feel progress towards the achivement completion part of the game), because despite doing so much side content, I didn't focus on leveling up or killing enemies or even run back to get my souls, but rather finding new experiences, if that makes sense. For example, I completed my first playthrough of ER at SL105, and I was like half of it whenever I tried to kill the draconic tree sentinel from Leyndell (I didn't even kill Rennala back then because I wanted to find new zones and new enemies and whatever)
I've fought 4 remembering bosses in the dlc. I'm stuck on 1 of them and it's the only one I'd consider unfair. Their attacks are just all over the place and the fire effects make it hard for me to follow. I'm basically just white knuckling it through the whole fight and attacking when I think there's an opening. I'm sure I'll get it but after about 2 hours I don't feel like I'm anywhere closer to beating it.
Maliketh is my favorite boss from any game period. Go use some summons and stand back and just watch him fight your friends for a second. The arena design, the flow of his fighting style, its an absolutely masterful work of art. 10/10 would die again.
i set my xbox to new zealand to play half a day early and i beat the dlc day 2 because i took y time exploring. it was pretty easy since i had a bunch of blessings except for the final boss
One thing I started doing is just eating Boiled Crab all the time, even when just progressing in dungeons. At this point in the game it's so cheap to just buy in stacks of 100 and it makes such a huge difference. I'd previously just ignored all consumables like many other players.
The fact that you play games just to beat them and accomplish goals means that you are a very hard worker who likes to get shit done. You are a fierce warrior whoever you are. You have incredible potential and you need to work harder than ever. You are extremely valuable to our society
Ds1 does this format way better still. In this dlc most bosses feel around the same level and some that you are clearly meant to find later feel underpowered. In ds1 finding the gargoyles after clearing the whole underground and two shotting them was one of my most memorable moments in any game. The hog rider and plant lady being so much easier than any of the other bosses felt more disappointing than anything. The fact that i don't even remember their named says a lot too
Base Game Elden Ring was too easy in the franchise. The DLC is truly a challenge because I explore, take my time, and use everything the game gives me. I only worry about breaking Quest progression with NPCs in From Soft games.
I don't really agree with this, I think these are simply Elden Ring bosses but 30% more aggressive, that's it. I can see moments when to attack but doesn't change the fact that they are indeed aggressive and i have to be locked in. But to be fair only a few are aggressively punishing. I think the Commander boss, the Golden Hippo boss and the 2nd phase for the last boss. These all seem like you need to dodge literally perfectly in a specific direction or you die. Just isn't fun. On the other hand you have Romina which is a typical Elden Ring boss and is really fun and really well designed. I also hate the chase for fragments when we have freaking runes.
Being an objective based gamer myself I completely agree with this. It's the reason why I'm not a Pokémon scarlet and violet. You can do anything and go anywhere so I feel lost without directions
It definitely requires a different mindset if you go into the DLC expecting to be satisfied with any kind of lore you find. This was my most anticipated release of 2024 because I was so ready for the lore answers/expansions we would get after learning so much in the lands between. Don’t bother playing if you’re a lore-nut who does nothing but read, this story went from 100 straight to like 5 to me.
i finished yesterday: I used the black knight hammer with prayerful strike. Did a lot of damage and heals. I had the super armor from that first npc boss at the start. Most times i just face tanked mobs and bosses. Mimic tear was almost invincible. He healed a lot with prayerful strike. Also summend coop people for some fights. Like the death bird. I never tried any boss more than five times. On the last boss i used a cheat engine and made myself invincible. At the end i was at scadutree fragmet level 18. DLC Spirit ash on level 9. I was on NG. It was still my first playthrough which i never took to ng+. Level 411. Everything on 80 except strenght, dex and arcane which where still at 30. Also Scarlet rot is the "i win button". I love the new butterfly incantation. It wasn't that hard.
Tbh I’ve never thought these are too hard, dying is to be expected. Especially the first few tries. I do like to do some jolly coop though so that helps lol
Hmm my objective is totally different. I was like level 35 when I got to Margit I cleared entire Limgrave and Weeping peninsula. I killed every boss, picked up all weapons all spells etc. I slowly go through entire zone and clear it. Did this for all zones. I did not beat Elden Ring until like May 2022.
I think if you use spirit summons you might have a harder time in this dlc. It’s objectively true that spirit summons make the game easier, however I was watching some people play and they were having a lot of trouble where I wasn’t because the an element of randomness is introduced when you’re not sure if the boss’s attacks are targeting you or not. I also see people fundamentally unable to calmly control and read inputs when they are facing enemies that do not allow summons. Yes I am in fact a strength build guts greatsword bonk man with a superiority complex 🗿
these games are built for completion and exploration not boss rushing. even DS1 is this way. by the time you hit the next boss you should have completed literally EVERYTHING you can reach in a dark souls. Elden ring is a little different because you can skip bosses and leave them for later however. as a rough rule of thumb? limgrave should be complete before Stormvale castle (like before Margit) same with Renala and her area. objective focused gaming is not what these games are designed for. glad you enjoyed them that way.. but it is in difance of the game design not in in alignment with it. you need every item if you want even a clue what the story is. Now I don't recomend grinding for drops. but getting every world item you can find? yep. like. I don't even get the next section of the map until I explore the entire present map in Elden ring. most bosses are much EASIER than any darksouls. and thats with no summons. you can beat this game as a Pokémon trainer. you can make the game beat the game FOR YOU. its not the hardest souls like. its the easiest. so I don't get all the complaints about it beign too hard. if you beat ANY darksouls NOTHING in Elden ring should make you so much as sweat. to the point of boredom. the DLC is the first part that was hard enough to feel like a souls game. and I still haven't found a foe that took 10 tries. however Seikiro is very much designed the way you describe playing so it is not a shock to me that you flew through the game despite it being considered the "hardest" of their games. it seems to have been made for your playstyle.
I found Maliketh one of the best too. But I didn't find him very difficult, he reminded me of a Bloodborne boss, which is the Souls game I've got the most time in (next to Elden Ring now).
Rellana is a really well made boss, while I was fighting her I thought of Godfrey 100%. They have these amazing combo strings and. They react similarly to the players actions.
I am one of the least talented Souls players. I can't swap strategies mid-fight, I lean hard on crutches like shields and leveling, and I occasionally end up having to look up details like boss resistances/weaknesses. As hard as Elden Ring is, though, the tools the devs included (ashes, weapon arts, magic, etc) and the broad, active wiki community have allowed me to reach all bosses and defeat most (all base game ones, still working on DLC). I adore these games.
I’m with the side of players who Really Liked this DLC probably Souls veterans who liked Souls game from the start. I rate this DLC 10/10 the final boss moment I had is so Clutch and one of the best experience I’ve had in a Souls game.
“I 100% Sekiro within 3 days, I beat it 5 times in the first 3 days” my brother in Christ, did you sleep????
to be fair, its alot more understandable if those are new game + runs, because the posture system/death blow system, the only thing that really changes is the amount of mistakes you're allowed to make, so if you're REALLY into the rhythm and still riding that launch high, its totally conceivable
Madness lol still need to kill the endboss didnt feel like it lol :’)
@@sasaki999proHow would he know what to do exactly for each ending tho? I had to look some up just to know how to get them, namely the Purification and Return endings, lol. I cannot imagine that being done in 3 days with probably 0 guides out?
Yeah ima go ahead and call bullshit. The farm required to complete all the combat arts and skill tree is absolutely ridiculous. Theres no possible way he got the platinum after 3 days upon release. AND with no available guides.
No life
"Don't watch the weapon, watch the hand" That's what I learned from Elden Ring
DS2 actually teaches this really well. Attacks are really telegraphed in that game.
Watch these nuts bro
Also dont think like: Ill roll when I see it coming.
Roll as the animation starts, its not real life
Also see the delay some bosses have.
Its all pratice and being ok dying to see the paterns
@@mhead1117 Got 'em 😂
What if the boss is a giant, and stays in corners in a tiny arena, where the unlocked camera glitches into their body, or into the wall, while they spam you with AOE you can't see coming?
I have a lot of fun with the DLC so far. I did quite a bit of random exploring, then watched a build guide and did two questlines and now I am back at taking things slow. I have two kids (8&5) and they like to watch me play Elden Ring every now and then for maybe 20min or so. In those moments I mostly just resort to exploring the world, which really makes me see and discover places I never would have when playing by myself. Man, I love the whole Soulsborne series so much, as it really makes me feel like a kid again.
That’s so cool that you can share these games with ur children 😊
Makes me feel like a kid again is EXACTLY what I had been feeling but I didn't realize it. I have a bunch of kids too so it's hard to get the time in to play, but man, I am constantly thinking about it and just can't wait to get back to exploring the stunning world they built for us, and vanquishing all the foes in my own personal Fantasy book story
What I’ve realized is that many techniques that were useful in some fights are now mandatory in most. Biggest being positioning - not just “roll then attack” like you mentioned.
I see so many people ignoring jumping as a dodge. Your bottom half has no hitbox at all during the entire jump. It will get you out of so many attacks not just aoe
@@leftovernoisealso the guard counter is slept on too much. People forget both mechanics
@@leftovernoisebs, I get clipped all the time when I jump to dodge, dat shi does not work on most bosses, basically only Godfrey really
@@SaintKines Because all of ER base game teaches you guard counters are bad
@@superspork3975 you might have a point. The game does a bad job teaching mechanics
5:44 I disagree with this SO hard, the dodging and attacking was what made those games for me. Being able to read a bosses attacks and react simply BY INSTINCT was by far the most satisfying thing about those games for me, it really felt like a fair duel with someone on par with your skills. I live for this shit.
Sekiro especially did this perfectly, I remember being able to 2-3 try some late game bosses in this game not because they were easy but because I was so in tune with the mechanics it was like second nature, my left finger would just deflect without me even having to think about it.
Elden Ring pits you against animals you have to observe and analyze before you can even think of making a move. No matter how good you are at the game, if you don't already know some combos' dodge timing by heart you WILL die. Some combos coming out so fast you actually can't get close to the boss by fear of them instantly deleting your ass for having the gall to try to punish. This engenders passivity, something I was taught to avoid with Bloodborne and Sekiro.
Still good vid I'm glad you enjoyed this DLC, I just wish i could start being aggressive in Fromsoft games again.
Yeah, I really like the flow of dodging and attacking by being in tune with the game mechanics, not the boss specific moveset
This is an awesome comment
@@kevinvolchok14 Exactly, being able to one try some bosses because you were just good at the game felt infinitely better than learning every combo and having to execute perfect dodges like a robot.
@@kevinvolchok14 thank u gang
@@fredotonyI think some bosses should be like this, and a percentage should be the over elaborate kind of dance that you must learn.
I really enjoyed this video. I honestly had to remind myself that the game is going to be different depending on how you approach it. What weapons you use, what talismans, how fast you get to bosses etc. I'm the opposite of objective based and can enjoy a game for 100s of hours without ever beating it, but for a bit when fighting the first mini-boss and remembrance boss I beat, I honestly thought that they were over-tuned and was not looking forward to bashing my head against the wall to beat the rest of the bosses. It wasn't until I was off of the game and reflecting on them that I remembered that a lot of the "difficulty" was manufactured from the way I like to play and I was blowing it out of proportion.
I mean that's the only thing Drows good at
@@Jikurilol
“Don’t be stubborn”. That’s the mantra that Elden Ring wants to hammer home. It’s part of the design philosophy so that players are compelled to interact with all its systems. I’m only a few hours into the DLC. Haven’t fought a single main boss yet but have 3 scadutree levels on my character and my spirit ash already. Seems pretty clear that the game wants me to explore the area available before trying to take on a gate keeping boss, so that’s what I’m doing and enjoying :)
Yeah, the change od mindset was something i needed back in the day druing my DS3 playthrough (my 1st souls game). I had a feeling that dying, loosing souls was such a setback that i couldnt force myself to play it. After a year i changed approach and instead of thinking about the whole game as a challenge i made my own challenges. Getting to the next bonfire, exploring one courner of the map or killing mini Boss. It helped me to keep my focus on smaller things. And it stays with me till this day. Already clocked 6k hrs into souls games, but like mentioned i focus on smaller things ie. Learning one combo pattern, mastering phase one and such. Great video, made me reflect on the topic
Bro u played DS2 and said why tf would I play these games🤣 my roommate sold me in DS3 after watching him and him explaining shit to me. DS3 was definitely a blast. I'd say it's my official first DS
Ment to say I not u lol
@@givesrespect8788Funnily enough, I played up to like, the capra demon or somewhere around there in 1, didn't like the awful controls (played on PC with keyboard and mouse; people can huff copium about it all day but if a pc port has terrible kbm controls/camera and framerate-based physics issue, it's a bad port and usually indicates a bad game, which is what I wrote it off as at the time) and ditched it, but a friend talked me into trying 2 a couple of years later and I absolutely loved it.
@vitriolicAmaranth I don't think anyone denies that Fromsoft has made some bad ports of the Souls games but DS1 is still a great game.
I love that you pronounce it "sk'doo tree"
Skibidoo tree 🚽
Skadoosh-tree
@@Emil-sh6sq exactly what it makes me think of
Skibitree
With what you said about Maliketh, my first playthrough was really like that. I had beaten all the other souls games (excluding sekiro, but I do need to try that sometime, deflecting physick tear is cracked), and I didn't understand how different and more complex the bosses were. I didn't enjoy my first playthrough, and kind of just resorted to cheese, because I thought that was the only way to beat the game. About 8 months later, I saw a video explaining the design philosphy of these bosses, and decided to give it another chance, with no cheese. And I loved it. I feel a lot of the negativity towards the DLC will die down once everyone gets used to the bosses.
Rellana is super vulnerable to guard counters and stance breaks (also reliably parryable). AoWs like Square Off are almost a hard counter for her. The final boss is surprisingly weak to parries and bleed. All bosses have major weaknesses, and its up to the player to be creative and figure it out. The skidoosh fragments simply help level the playing field a bit but its up to you to use ur noggin
Yeah you have to think and adapt. The bosses in this thing are wild, with crazy combos, tons of damage, and wild special abilities. But so far I've been able to deal with everything with creativity and the tools at hand. The only thing i can't beat so far is the furnace world boss. but even that feels like i just need to find the right strategy.
I'm sorry, you completed every sidequest, got every item, and every achievement the game had to offer in 7 days????
Doesn't require 100% to get all the trophies/ achievements. Still crazy fast but honestly I feel elden ring is one of the easier souls games to get all of them
Thats so true! Elden Plat is not that hard , heck i only have that one , sekiro & blodborne , go try some ds3 , ds2 or ds1 plat your gonna be a bit longer while grinding 😅@xxmausermanxx8389
One clarification, the boss isn't holding an attack longer based on your panic rolls. They DO however have timing mix-ups, and many of these mix-ups are positionally based. The game isn't going to change an attack timing to make sure it hits during your roll, but it will change that attack timing as a mix-up, and that mix-up can lead to it feeling like the game "read your roll". Loopine has some goated videos delving into boss mechanics that explain some of the differences between input reading vs branching combo chains for those who are interested.
Other than that slight clarification I gotta say you hit the nail on the head. The depth of these bosses is unlike anything I've experienced before, and as someone who is comfortable taking my sweet time exploring before rushing content, I have found the majority of their challenge to be alleviated somewhat by collecting better gear and higher scadutree levels.
I've ruminated a lot on the perspective shift per-game with the Souls series. A big thing I've noticed is with the before/after Bloodborne (and to a lesser extent DaS2) paradigm shift. Before that, the combat was typically, barring oddball or uncommon build/play styles, to block attacks and strafe around until you saw an opening, then press the opening for typically one or twp attacks, then move away and block again, much of the challange coming from choosing moments to lower your shield to recover stamina, or needing to dodge if you got yourself cornered with low stamina. 2 made it much riskier to just block continually unless you had the stablest greatshields and actually leveled for stamina, since it (like Elden Ring more recently, which is a phrase you can use a lot when talking about Dark Souls 2) had a strong design focus on encouraging build diversity; Bloodborne had a single weaker, less accessible shield that called you a stupid crybaby for even looking at it in the item description.
But something I saw come up over and over again around the Dark Souls 3 era was people saying 3 was much more fast-paced and dodge-focused than Dark Souls 1, followed by a wave of people saying they'd gone back and played 1 like it was Bloodborne and it was so much faster and more fun, and completely playable (and of course it was- by wearing light armour you could get, like, an entire day of s every time you rolled in 1, to say nothing of DWGR flips).
But conversely, in every title besides Bloodborne (and albeit with a more specific build in 2), you can play it just like DeS or 1, cowering safely behind a shield most of the game. Even Malenia, who (by design) freaks out blockers and makes them try ditching the shield for her fight, is actually hardwalled by a greatshield because as long as you meet the stat reqs on a +8 or higher weapon (especially a thrusting weapon for shieldpokes), even if she WFDs nonstop her healing will never outpace the damage you deal to her. The design never actually changed, as shown in the Malenia example. The presentation is what changed. Other playstyles are made more appealing or cool (powerstancing, action-oriented sorceries, weapon arts/aows, steps vs rolls, etc) and you're made to feel like blocking and strafing is generally a losing proposition because that presentation encourages players to enjoy the game more.
Also "this boss I hated the first time I played, and thought was unfairly difficult, is now my favourite" seems like a relatively common observation in action games. Rajang seems to get that a lot in Monster Hunter (and for me it's Stygian Zinogre, which used to be a huge salt factory for third and fourth gen players in general, though it was made more straightforward in World), for instance.
Definetly Rajang for me, I hated the monkey at first. Now he is the one fight I allways look forward to.
Maliketh gang, he's also my favorite boss in all of souls (or rather, he was, Messmer overtook him for me). I just love how much the fight rewards smart positioning and jumping as a form of dodging, its one of my favorite paced and structured fights and it really opened my eyes to how the extra complexity of elden ring bosses wasnt artificial difficulty but a change in design.
Hes definitely top 10 for me but abyss watchers will probably always be my favorite boss. What's your favorite boss if this dlc for me the dancing lion was the most fair boss by far
@@domicci4460 Messmer is definitely my favorite boss of the dlc so far, just a very well paced fight with a great blend of visuals and a mechanically complex moveset.
@UncreativePontiff my only problem with that boss is how similar her moves are with wind up and mostly do to the explosion she does in front of her
Seriously, Messmer is a victory for Soulsborne bosses, it's not even close. I would say Bayle is also a new top Soulsborne boss.
I agree Mesmer is also my favorite boss in Elden ring
Shadow of the Erdtree kind of shares some difficulty from Sekiro. I feel lots of Sekiro team worked on this DLC.
Deflecting tear made me play sekiro again after finishing dlc. That tear was just chefs kiss bosses became so fun
I think this is the best explanation, and something I've been trying to put into words for myself, that I've heard explaining the philosophy FROM has had for elden Ring and how the difficulty feels in relation. Awesome video dude and very well said!
Very Well said Good sir
I found your channel today and I'm sure ill be staying with you for long so keep up and I'm sure you will achieve great success
Well said. Much love and blessings.💪🏾💙
Very appreciated pep talk 🎉❤
The mental shift that helped me was switching from treating the combat like Metal Gear Rising to looking at it like Pokemon (or insert your own preferred turn-based RPG), if that makes sense. The boss is going to do something, and you have a "turn" to respond with something from your list of options: attack, evade, block, approach, disengage, or heal/buff. Plenty of options, but you get just _one,_ then it's the next turn. Boss does something, you pick an option, next turn. Pick the right one, maybe you get a bonus move that turn; pick the wrong one or try too many at once, expect punishment. I find segmenting the combat like this helps slow my brain down and pay better attention to what's happening.
Thats a good way to see it. The only thing I'd point out is, you also get to do something when it's the bosses turn. Play defense/evade or block. So you're always performing.
I think people have been programmed in games to only feel engaged when they are on the offense. Take some pride in the defense side of things as well and you won't have that feeling of "just waiting around for my turn to attack" as so many complain about.
Sometimes the other team has the ball, half of the game is defense.
That is how fighting game players tend to break it down. Fighting games are generally real-time action games, but with systems like stagger and superarmor, hitboxes, framedata and juggles, it is useful to think of them in terms of turns, and people who cannot understand that tend to perform poorly and lose their cool (conversely, using better reflexes or strategy to "steal turns" is hugely beneficial, and that's what you're _trying_ to do in games like Souls when you dodge through attacks and immediately attack- the problem is that enemies don't get staggered as easily as players, so whether you can take a turn at all depends much more on your first-hit frame data and very little else).
@SaintKines I don't usually have that issue, but I also don't attack for the first run of a new boss. I focus on staying alive and seeing their moves and learning paterns. It's like, this is a reconicess run.
It also takes some of the pressure off, and I get more engaged. I'll slowly start adding attacks if I can.
@@SaintKinesPeople feel like that because the defense has changed. Back in Dark Souls, it was always a quick succession of attack, defend, then attack. It felt like an actual back and forth trade.
Then Bloodborne came, and offense WAS your defense. You couldn't afford to be timid and you were actively rewarded for attacking during smaller windows and even during attacks since you could heal the damage back.
Now, in Elden Ring, it's literally just wait until the anointed time, get your alloted damage in, then go back to defending. You can definitely find windows within attack strings, but the game doesn't prioritize aggression like Bloodborne, so this realization can come too late for most players.
If I had to compare it to something, it's almost like you're fighting a Destiny raid boss where you need to perfect damage phases and maximize your output otherwise you're missing out.
Not to be that guy. I just kinda wanna point out thats what a framework or just any kind offensive defensive position in any game that has u the player going against any enemy/obstacle. Literally when striped down to the bare bones whether its action adventure, rpg, turn base, or even fps (yes even fps) thats just how things work when its u the player going against any obstacle whether npc (pve) or player (pvp). However, it is like you said it's just what u realized helped u mentally think of the mechanics to get through the expansion. I mean hey this mindset is just how i played Elden Ring once I go an understanding on the mechanics of a FromSoft game (This is my 1st FS game) to eventually boss attacks as well look out for in the animation leading up to it. Really no different from a couple of games Ive played growing up like for single player action KH, Bayo, Nier, Zelda, Ninja Gaiden, stealth games like AC and Splinter Cell, fighting games like Smash, Tekken, Dragon Ball Z games, and as an FPS pvp example I will throw Halo mp in there with the golden triangle rule Halo's core gameplay was designed upon along with the sandbox arena shooter it was.
Man the quality of this video and how u monologue it's insane, definetly didn't expect that from a 1k sub channel congrats! Great video all around
A few years ago I saved a girls life. Some junkie was trying to strangle her so I kicked him off her and had to fight him for 10 minutes. Thanks to my elden ring training it was easy to dodge his attacks and time mine well. Praise the elden ring 💍
Its the kind of DLC that needs to be experienced much like the base game. I think people are finding it too hard because theyre rushing into bosses. They dont adapt builds, read item descriptions, they dont explore other solutions, they dont think about the weaknesses of enemies and then they keep dying. Ofc if you play this way you’re going to have a hard time. You need that level 1 mindset.
Beautiful video
My first playthrough was ROUGH, then i started my second, man did I breeze through. You're so right to call it a mindset change.
I think the number one thing is that you need to look up a map or something of the scadutree fragments and get them all, after that defense and stamina are so important. Vigor is still big, but it's shifted. You have to buff yourself, you have to be aware of armor values and defense percentages, and you have to be ontop of your stamina and level it as much as you can. And thrn it just works. If you rely on dodging and blocking in the DLC but don't have the stamina or defense to compete with the faster bosses who do a lot more stamina damage, then you're dead in the water
i think they shouldve incentivised the shadutree fragments more cuz i didnt even realise what they were for a bit
@@kang1983 i totally understand that.... but also there's a ton in the first area and the first couple and a few following are marked with giant golden glowing crosses and when you pick uo the first one it tells you that they are needed to level up your character and progress in the DLC, so I'm not sure what else they could've done... like I still agree with you and there's some that are easily missed, I jjst genuinely don't know what more they could've done 😅
Great explanation! I definitely had this same aha moment facing the Scadutree Avatar
Really good video, wish I could give this more than one like!
bro u are super underrated. great content!
Appreciate your take as a fellow forward thinking gamer. Subscribed 👍
I have the opposite problem. I tend to be overleveled and trivialize content because i explore and fight everything. Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation in games is interesting to me. I think the games you like and the way you play them says a ton about your personal psychology.
Very good video. Elden Ring, and Shadow of the Erdtree really feel like a refinement of all systems and combat that FromSoft has implemented over the years on various games (DS1-3, Blood Borne, Sekiro) where the game is challenging for returning players, but is also accessible to new players (spirit ashes being an example of a tool intended to make fights more manageable). I remember when playing Sekiro and wanting to play it like Dark Souls; Sekiro requires a complete mindset shift and if you approach it like Dark Souls, you're going to have a bad time. Completely agree on the mindset shift and on playing the game as you see fit, using the tools at your disposal to make it more manageable or challenging. The games are difficult and challenging, yes, but not impossible and the sense of accomplishment and exhilaration you get after beating a hard boss is something few games have managed to provide for me. What's important in the end is to have fun playing.
I realized just today after beating Rellana and Messmer (and then seeing others fight them) that this DLC experience is simmilar to hiw it was to Jump from Dark Souls to Bloodborne and the again with Sekiro. Thise games feels simmilar but they arent the same, you have to approach the bosses differently anf have anothet strategy. Which I feel isnthe same this time too going from base game to the DLC. the only boss in base game that shares the same mindset (too me at least) is Malenia and maybe Maliketh.
But the problem is no other dlc imo does that and that's a problem immagin going from ds3 and the dlc is sekero thats bad design
Hard disagree, this expands elden ring, you need to use more of the repertoire @domicci4460
Spot on. The discourse over Elden Ring’s difficulty has always seemed a bit nonsensical to me. I can’t think of another game which gets critiqued for being too difficult because you shouldn’t have to use mechanics the game was designed around. Always seemed a bit like complaining that 3D Mario games were too hard because it’s extremely difficult to beat them only moving in a straight line from left to right. The weapon skills, spirit ashes, summons, etc are as much a part of the game design and balance as anything else. Yes you can play naked with no leveling and no upgrades, but nobody sensible would suggest that the game should be balanced around that play style.
I’m firmly of the opinion that play smarter is a part of “git gud”. Elden Ring practically begs the player to develop a flexible build with combinations of magic, melee, status and stagger options. I think it’s a lot closer to AC 6 than Dark Souls in its combat design. And the DLC just doubles down on that.
Dope that you specifically highlight Guard Counters. Its a really powerful slept on mechanic that in my observations the majority of players simply ignore.
You get the full posture damage of a fully charged heavy with faster recovery, and you dont even need to risk missing your dodge roll because you can just hold block.
Incorporating it into your playstyle can double the amount of posture breaks you get in a given fight.
I would agree with your point if the combat wasn’t ripped straight out of another game that came out in 2016. Like, if the combat hasn’t changed one bit, why should the mentality of the player change?
From has made two games in the past that wanted to be played with different mentalities, so they changed the combat drastically. I can’t remember what they’re called though…something something blood something something shinobi?
I think the classic Dark Souls formula that's been around the past 14~ years has been used to it's limit, these combo monster bosses continue to evolve in moveset and ability while the player is more or less stuck in 2010, with the only things helping us being the introduction of spirit ashes and ridiculous AOE attacks. I think the DLC has seriously opened my eyes to how desperately players need a proper overhaul to the combat.
Because the change in mentality isn't exclusively about the player's complexity but the opponent's as well.
This video feels like its from a youtuber with 100k+ subs. I wanted a video to listen to while I rune farm for stones before I head into the DLC and this one was great. Thats a like and sub from me
I completely agree. I feel like everyone forgot the constant complaints about difficulty when ER first launched and the asking for a difficulty selector. So many people thought Margit was overtuned. Not realizing the game was telling them to go explore and become.more powerful. Another huge thing in Elden ring is the ability to jump over attacks and punish bosses. I still rarely see people do this. Messmer in particular has a phase one attack that can be jumped for a solid smash over the head. When you jump, the lower half of your body has i frames. Try it on different boss attacks. You'll be shocked at how many can be jumped over. Maliketh has a bunch pf phase one attacks that can be jumped (since you were talking about him, thought I'd mention it).
Also - you are a fantastic presenter. Clear and concise ideas. And well recorded as well. Subbed. I hope you get a ton more subs. You deserve it.
Problem with jumping attacks tho, your hands don't get invincible. Meaning when you're on a dual katana build like me, you can't jump-dodge many attacks you otherwise could. So If I hear any more collosal-Sword wielders complain about difficulty, I will rip my head of!!!
Gotta say that I agree. A mindset change helps so much. Made me realize I could try using my ice magic to freeze some bosses to slow them down. Use items! Poison a fool! Jump more! Use those summons!! Double check your build. Try the new weapons! And of course, just keep practicing. It’s such a great feeling to go from being stomped to dodging almost all the boss attacks and using minimal flasks, and then the victory! Don’t give up skeleton!!
Beating Sekiro 5 times within 3 days of release is MADNESS dude. You just got yourself a sub on that alone I haven’t even finished the video yet LOL
I love this dlc but I’m struggling immensely because I’m playing on NG+. I feel like they didn’t think that’s aspect through, that the people who have been committing so much time in their base game are going to be punished for entering the dlc. Since I am on NG+4, I am essentially over 60 Scadutree levels behind where my character should be lol so I’m being absolutely demolished while dealing minuscule damage to bosses. This is one aspect I hope they patch in the future.
I need footage to believe he did that
@@Wilhelm4131 considering Ongbal is already doing no hit runs and Tyrannicon has a cheese out for every boss already, it’s not the most far fetched statement. I’m more impressed by the time commitment and patience required than the skill lol
Thanks lol. I don't consider myself particularly above average skill wise in these games, I just am super hardheaded and dedicated.
The following 4 runs were NG+ (which are easier than base due to upgrades) and if you know where to go Sekiro is a really short game, just like DS3. You can easily blitz through a campaign in 3-4 hours, shorter if you do the fastest ending.
Sekiro also has a combat style where once you know it, you know it, and bosses don't really change or adapt too much.
The real shadow of the erdtree was the friends we made along the way
we are all still maidenless tarnished, but at least we are all maidenless tarnished together 😅
he's the guy
Honestly I have been mainly using spirit summons when fighting bosses in the DLC. And yes they make the fight very easy but what's interesting is now it takes at least a couple of hits or for the boss their combo to end to begin shifting focus on your summon. That was something very interesting I thought, because I'd just be running away from the boss and they still kept chasing me which made for some really hilarious situations. And I've had that same feeling when summoning friends. The bosses tend to focus the host waaaaay more than the summons even if it's just idle or your summons attacked them. Honestly was a scary surprise, but still fun nonetheless.
Great video. Keep it up.
Great video
I've been saying stuff adjacent to this in regards to Elden Ring in general since day one. Margitt already teaches you tha in ER bosses have their own complex behaviour system regarding their moveset.
- There's going to be 1-2 attacks that you have to perfectly fit in your s, because if you don't roll at the right time you roll through the first swipe but not the second
- Jumping is useful, whether to dodge or to punish with a R2
- R2s are more improtant than they used to be, since it's your primary way to stack posture damage
- R1s are more for pinging the boss, as well as ranged options, to keep the posture bar from regenerating and for those short openings where an R2 is just not possible
- Sometimes there's not enough downtime to strike, so you HAVE to create your own openings, knowing by heart the boss's combos lets you know when the risk you're taking going in will pan out or not. Attacks being flashy and flowy make it the best defense in some instances where your hitbox becomes just low enough for some attacks.
- Positioning is as important as it ever was, but now even more, since all the rest is based upon it, even nailing that risky attack that sometimes trades and sometimes it's free.
- Can't stress enough the importance of learning the bosses' moves, but also how they can connect. Part of what makes Malenia so insane is the fact that she spends so little time in her idle pose, she's always chaining a ton of moves in her moveset. And phase 2 increases how she can chain them, and adds new attacks on top.
Relanna is a good example. Phase 1 you get guaranteed openings for most attacks except slow ashes of war whenever she does a two-sworder attack. Always. Except that one slow heavy two sword combo. But even that can be punished early with good positioning, you can keep hitting her on the back, exploiting her poor tracking.
Phase 2 is the same, but she can chain with her new special moves, the longwinded two sword dance attack, the flame tornado or the carian sword flurry that I never got the hang of even after having beaten her. That, and the speed of certain attacks changes, as well as the fact that she can end a combo or two with an extra move if I'm not mistaken.
Then other bosses, like Maliketh, Radagon, Hoarah Lux, Malenia, Placidusax and I'm sure there are others, teach you another important lesson.
Sometimes the bosses have a gimmick that's sort of exclusive to them, always justified in lore somehow, always trying to SWITCH IT UP. Like Sekiro did with its myriad minibosses and bosses alike. They tried to introduce factors that switched it up somehow.
Maliketh has the deathflame, Radagon has weird teleports mid combo, Hoarah Lux has these wrestling grab attacks that don't look like grab attacks at all and like the worst grab attacks they have a lingering hitbox, along with the strongest version of the ground stomp, Malenia can recover HP, and Placidusax can turn into a storm cloud at will.
I think the DLC has more of the same tbh. Each boss for sure has their own gimmick. Even reused ones.
EDIT: You said it best. And it sums up what I've been thinking. You have to think of them as enemies. As a puzzle to figure out in in of themselves. You can't apply the rules just the same for them all. This isn't Dark Souls. This is Dark Souls AFTER Sekiro. Each boss with its own thing (or things!) that makes them unique.
For instance Bayle the Dread for me felt like a Dark Souls boss. I felt encouraged to roll through everything. Some AoEs are so big and with such short notice that I felt forced to them, because the tell wasn't clear, there wasn't any last second "let's see how fast you react" attacks, it was just timing, like in Dark Souls. I felt compelled to run whenever he did that firebreath at least until I lowered his health enough for it to become predictive, thanks Elden Ring lol. Turns out I had to start running towards him so that his tracking prediction was off when I changed directions.
I want to add to your very good assesment, Elden Ring is about adaptability. They want you adapt to the challenge (or more accuately I guess adapt the challenge to your skill) through whatever means necessary. The real "Improvise Adapt Overcome" mentality. And oh boy have I improvised not only with my builds but trying to get in right after attacks with my own so that the boss wouldn't know what him 'em. And boy have I died doing so haha! But I feel like I'm a better Elden Ring player because of it.
Good video and tbh I feel like we had a quite close experience xD
PS: For me Rellana was the one that made me have a harder time (even tho I consider that there are 3 harder bosses in the sense that they require more skill), but didn't understand what she was trying to tell me, and then Messmer made me realize; I died to him for 30 mins non stop, during those 30 mins I always had perfect openings (not hard cuz tbh easy af to dodge his start) and learnt what followups he had after the start depending on my position and how to trick the AI into doing one or another, but still, once he was out of control, I could only panic roll and pray, so I said "okay this is too hard, I see how this is doable, but I might be too bad because feels impossible to me" and then decided to adopt an open mindset because I knew that if I kept playing like that, maybe I would beathim after 1h trying, but probably would end up using mimic and shield to finish the DLC, and didn't want to use that strat cuz doesn't sound fun to me, stopped playing, studied my armors and talismans and crystal tears and buffs, relearnt the game instead of playig the same way as I did in DS3 and DS2 and DS1 and ER base game, etc. got into the fight trying to understand him, and after that I am way better at the game to the point that things that used to feel like a challenge feel actually too easy, indeed the DLC became a bit of a cake walk in the sense that I did feel like 2 of the bosses that I killed afterwards required way more skill, but they took me way less time, because I had a way better mindset and a way better build and started changing my build to adapt to the challenges, etc. (Indeed, Messmer was the first time ever that in a souls game I changed the weapon I'm using because of his ressitances) and yeah, legit you can see how I cried for 2 days in a row when speaking with friends about how the DLC was actually super challenging even tho not unfair and it was still super good, and on day 3 I was just slaying every boss in not that many tries and how I felt like a buffoon for how suboptimally I was playing the game because dumb
Nice video. I think a same way. Knowing your arsenal and your options is a part of your "git gud" journey!
Historically, fromsoft games have always been guided and direct in guiding you down the story.
Due to elden ring being so wide and free to do anything fromsoft had to chnage how they designed the game from "this is your next objective" to (i got this from another youtuber) "go do something else if you are having trouble" with all the exploration that is in the game.
This is especially shown through the shadow tree blessings
Someone send this to Joseph Anderson
What Elden Ring has taught me the most is find the FLOW. You go in with the excitement, the panic, the knowing its difficulty, its alot of weight of emotions, not necessarily in a negative way because its through a video game and not an actual event in life. But the Flow and not fall for the panic of mashing the dodge button, staying calm, dodge, hit, repeat. Thats the key. Stats dont compare.
I was struggling with Relanna for a long time, but then I had a flashback to Pontiff and I switched up to a parry playstyle. I eventually beat her and it felt so satisfying to find my own solution
Yeah I started using the mimic tear also
I went into this dlc expecting bosses that are harder than malenia and I got them, a bunch in fact so I already had the mindset
Now the final boss needs a new mindset shift of its own
It's easier if you just think that in the DLC you are nerfed and the blessing reverses the nerf
Maliketh slapped me around quite a bit too haha.
I agree.
In my opinion the only boss that isn’t scaled for the scadu fragments is gaius and I feel like the ones behind him might be useful for his fight
Was a good dlc imo. One thing though, I’m starting to get a little annoyed by our movesets. Especially boss weapons. I really hope boss weapons can start standing out a little more in the future.
It requires you to be good at the game. It's the exact hard that it needed to be. Everyone before it came out " the game easy". You'll complain about everything
The problem i have with the difficulty is they use very cheak was of making bosses hard with insane damage and hp. And the fragments make it way worse because if yiu dint find enough your sol. They also litteraly buffed then because bosses were over tuned
much more of a fan of the sekiro straight forwardness personally
I actually greatly enjoy this DLC, but rellana is a fight I don’t think I’ll ever find myself enjoying.
I like to look for all of the opportunities for jump heavies and charged attacks in a boss fight, and its extremely rewarding to learn that some attack can be jumped, or you can avoid an attack in a specific way to create a bigger opening.
Rellana’s biggest openings come from light rolling backwards, that’s exclusively it.
I spent so long trying to jump over things, stick close and force an opening, but you can get a fully charged heavy on almost all of her strings if you just light roll backwards.
All of her guard counter openings can be better exploited, and without taking damage, by just light rolling backwards and charging a heavy.
This also doesn’t incur the risk of getting hit by her occasional quick starter.
I find that she does this more often if you’ve attacked her from close range after she finishes her strings, but depending on your weapon, a charged heavy spaced correctly won’t provoke her quick follow up.
Also they do some very intentionally frustrating things in the DLC which I feel is just done in bad faith, like putting igons summon sign in the arena of their Hyper death laser beam big dragon boss battle.
I never jumped on rellana. I dodged through all her attacks. I didn't even know I could jump her.
@@slevscythe yeah you can jump a couple of her horizontal combo finishers and her magic slash for a heavy.
@@slevscytheyou can jump her sweeping uppercut attacks as well
Just use a weapon that staggers easily and use the ash of war where you counter and teleport above the enemy and hit a heavy attack. Pretty straightforward and easy method and fits what you want.
A stagger weapon plus mimic tear equals beat that boss in one minute. I was surprised how easy it was to keep her stun locked. She could barely react. I used the giant katana you get from the boss Rakshasa and the ash of war it has. It obliterated her.
Never give up! Hope you manage to beat them bosses next time you try!
I think that one of the reasons I really love Elden Ring is that I am generally not an objective based gamer. I like to take my time, try different things and experience games in different ways. To me it's always about the journey, the destination is just a bonus. I can't imagine living my life any other way.
How do you put lightning on the milady without incantations like he does??
Probably the lightning strike ash of war or like lightning greases
For me, what got me through this DLC was Creativity.
Instead of just dodging and R1-ing, I was using every possible mechanic (taugh and untold by the game).
For defense, I wasn't just rolling; I was also using jumping, spacing, positioning, crouching, and most recently Spontaneous Guarding.
For attacking, I wasn't just attacking at the end of combos; I was squeeking in even the tiniest of attacks mid-combo, using all six weapon slots, and taking advantage of special skill hitboxes (ex. Waterfowl Dance can evade ground AOEs).
I think the hardest lesson to learn for a souls fan, particularly one who enjoys style points, is that when you're new to a fight you should play to your strengths, not necessarily the build you like the most, but the one that suits your skills the most
On my dex lightning run, I found myself several times resorting to tactics I've always been good at (str bonk), going as far as just putting lightning on a colossal, so I could play to my strengths because I am generally bad at not trading, and dex builds are best when you're not trading
There's a subtle change that I think is fairly major for this game in particular, in that a lot of enemies are able to track you while swinging, like another player can. So you can roll to dodge, but they turn with the dodge, and you get caught out. I was like "everything is so aggressive!" when I first started and I couldn't figure it out.
Bro, Maliketh humbled me too. Took me a long time when i fought him without a summon. I too thought it was unfair until i learned his moveset and how to parry him. One of my favorite fights now. Maliketh took me like 1-2 weeks to really learn and beat him
Playing AC6 taught me different missions would require (or atleast, encourage) using different weapons. The dlc giving a lot of smithing stones seem to encourage this as well
Elden Ring: Shadows Die Once
Does the light greatsword hit twice on guard counter? And Jesus how much stance does that 2 hit combo do? Had rallana riposted so much quicker than I did, and I was guard countering with a great hammer.
It does. I was using the new perfect block physic (which boosts damage on perfect block guard counter) as well as the two handed talisman and the guard counter talisman. My whole build for the char with this video was perfect blocking and stance damage. Thanks for watching!
The difficulty is fun. You have to exploit boss weaknesses.
Lightning in ponds and in wet areas
Bleed and frostbite against fire and lightning resistant enemies.
Holy against the undead.
The DLC emphasizes learning and adapting your fight around ash of war affinities
that's why i often need to remind one of my friends why i usually stick to only one build, as opposed to making 10 in a row of which all have different specialties.. because every build has their own playstyle, and my build caters specifically to how i play..
I honestly think your take of Maliketh will be the exact same case as Rahadn in a few months. People need to learn to work for things and not to expect things to just be given to them. I spent 5hrs learning and mastering the final boss and was very satisfied with my kill on him. Dissapointing to see people just give up. I dont think "the average person" needs to be able to beat a game, it should be up to them to want to improve and feel a sense of pride or accomplishment from doing so.
Well said. The whole mission statement of Fromsoft was to get back to when games were challenging. We remembered games like Mike Tysons Punchout where most people couldn't or hadn't beat the game because the final fights were so hard. People would spend days trying to beat Tyson until finally getting him. And that was great.
The trend that every game needs to give the illusion of challenge so everyone can win is unfortunate. Thank the outer gods for Fromsoft.
Instead of thinking "what's the roll timing to dodge that attack", I've started thinking "where do I need to be to not get hit by that attack". The final boss of SotE has some insane moves but you can avoid the majority of them by just walking behind or sticking near him
I feel reflected, however for me the objective in dark souls games was to get all the items and play against all enemies and basically enjoy all the content, not just reaching the end, but still in my playthroughs ive always been underprepared, as you say (basically in ER first time I got tired of exporing so much after completing Leyndell + Mt.Gelmir + all the zones previous to that, and I wanted to feel progress towards the achivement completion part of the game), because despite doing so much side content, I didn't focus on leveling up or killing enemies or even run back to get my souls, but rather finding new experiences, if that makes sense. For example, I completed my first playthrough of ER at SL105, and I was like half of it whenever I tried to kill the draconic tree sentinel from Leyndell (I didn't even kill Rennala back then because I wanted to find new zones and new enemies and whatever)
I've fought 4 remembering bosses in the dlc. I'm stuck on 1 of them and it's the only one I'd consider unfair. Their attacks are just all over the place and the fire effects make it hard for me to follow. I'm basically just white knuckling it through the whole fight and attacking when I think there's an opening. I'm sure I'll get it but after about 2 hours I don't feel like I'm anywhere closer to beating it.
Maliketh is my favorite boss from any game period. Go use some summons and stand back and just watch him fight your friends for a second. The arena design, the flow of his fighting style, its an absolutely masterful work of art. 10/10 would die again.
i set my xbox to new zealand to play half a day early and i beat the dlc day 2 because i took y time exploring. it was pretty easy since i had a bunch of blessings except for the final boss
One thing I started doing is just eating Boiled Crab all the time, even when just progressing in dungeons. At this point in the game it's so cheap to just buy in stacks of 100 and it makes such a huge difference. I'd previously just ignored all consumables like many other players.
The fact that you play games just to beat them and accomplish goals means that you are a very hard worker who likes to get shit done. You are a fierce warrior whoever you are. You have incredible potential and you need to work harder than ever. You are extremely valuable to our society
Ds1 does this format way better still. In this dlc most bosses feel around the same level and some that you are clearly meant to find later feel underpowered. In ds1 finding the gargoyles after clearing the whole underground and two shotting them was one of my most memorable moments in any game. The hog rider and plant lady being so much easier than any of the other bosses felt more disappointing than anything. The fact that i don't even remember their named says a lot too
Base Game Elden Ring was too easy in the franchise.
The DLC is truly a challenge because I explore, take my time, and use everything the game gives me.
I only worry about breaking Quest progression with NPCs in From Soft games.
Haha Yes the NPC questlines are the true hardest part. Almost impossible without a guide 😂
No the base game was balanced
@@dvdivine1962 to what? Theres plenty of one shot builds and plenty of "bad builds" there as well.
I don't really agree with this, I think these are simply Elden Ring bosses but 30% more aggressive, that's it. I can see moments when to attack but doesn't change the fact that they are indeed aggressive and i have to be locked in. But to be fair only a few are aggressively punishing. I think the Commander boss, the Golden Hippo boss and the 2nd phase for the last boss. These all seem like you need to dodge literally perfectly in a specific direction or you die. Just isn't fun. On the other hand you have Romina which is a typical Elden Ring boss and is really fun and really well designed. I also hate the chase for fragments when we have freaking runes.
Being an objective based gamer myself I completely agree with this. It's the reason why I'm not a Pokémon scarlet and violet. You can do anything and go anywhere so I feel lost without directions
Agreed :)
It definitely requires a different mindset if you go into the DLC expecting to be satisfied with any kind of lore you find. This was my most anticipated release of 2024 because I was so ready for the lore answers/expansions we would get after learning so much in the lands between. Don’t bother playing if you’re a lore-nut who does nothing but read, this story went from 100 straight to like 5 to me.
i finished yesterday:
I used the black knight hammer with prayerful strike. Did a lot of damage and heals. I had the super armor from that first npc boss at the start. Most times i just face tanked mobs and bosses. Mimic tear was almost invincible. He healed a lot with prayerful strike.
Also summend coop people for some fights. Like the death bird. I never tried any boss more than five times. On the last boss i used a cheat engine and made myself invincible.
At the end i was at scadutree fragmet level 18. DLC Spirit ash on level 9. I was on NG. It was still my first playthrough which i never took to ng+. Level 411. Everything on 80 except strenght, dex and arcane which where still at 30.
Also Scarlet rot is the "i win button".
I love the new butterfly incantation.
It wasn't that hard.
“I cheated” -> “it wasn’t that hard” 😂
@@MrHubba9bubba only on the last boss. Worse than elden beast. Elden beast isn't the worst boss anymore.
Tbh I’ve never thought these are too hard, dying is to be expected. Especially the first few tries. I do like to do some jolly coop though so that helps lol
Yeah, coop really makes most boss fights actually fun
@@pretzelboi64 yeah, teamwork is good times. Esp if you're a caster :P
Hmm my objective is totally different. I was like level 35 when I got to Margit I cleared entire Limgrave and Weeping peninsula. I killed every boss, picked up all weapons all spells etc. I slowly go through entire zone and clear it. Did this for all zones. I did not beat Elden Ring until like May 2022.
I think if you use spirit summons you might have a harder time in this dlc. It’s objectively true that spirit summons make the game easier, however I was watching some people play and they were having a lot of trouble where I wasn’t because the an element of randomness is introduced when you’re not sure if the boss’s attacks are targeting you or not. I also see people fundamentally unable to calmly control and read inputs when they are facing enemies that do not allow summons. Yes I am in fact a strength build guts greatsword bonk man with a superiority complex 🗿
I cheesed the final boss with Fingerprint Shield and Antspur Rapier at level 125.
I cursedd the last boss of the DLC with every fiber of my being.
After killing it, I wanna do it again. So sad you need to do a whole Ng+ to do it.
these games are built for completion and exploration not boss rushing. even DS1 is this way. by the time you hit the next boss you should have completed literally EVERYTHING you can reach in a dark souls. Elden ring is a little different because you can skip bosses and leave them for later however. as a rough rule of thumb? limgrave should be complete before Stormvale castle (like before Margit) same with Renala and her area. objective focused gaming is not what these games are designed for. glad you enjoyed them that way.. but it is in difance of the game design not in in alignment with it. you need every item if you want even a clue what the story is. Now I don't recomend grinding for drops. but getting every world item you can find? yep.
like. I don't even get the next section of the map until I explore the entire present map in Elden ring. most bosses are much EASIER than any darksouls. and thats with no summons. you can beat this game as a Pokémon trainer. you can make the game beat the game FOR YOU. its not the hardest souls like. its the easiest. so I don't get all the complaints about it beign too hard. if you beat ANY darksouls NOTHING in Elden ring should make you so much as sweat. to the point of boredom. the DLC is the first part that was hard enough to feel like a souls game. and I still haven't found a foe that took 10 tries.
however Seikiro is very much designed the way you describe playing so it is not a shock to me that you flew through the game despite it being considered the "hardest" of their games. it seems to have been made for your playstyle.
I found Maliketh one of the best too. But I didn't find him very difficult, he reminded me of a Bloodborne boss, which is the Souls game I've got the most time in (next to Elden Ring now).
Rellana is a really well made boss, while I was fighting her I thought of Godfrey 100%. They have these amazing combo strings and. They react similarly to the players actions.
I am one of the least talented Souls players. I can't swap strategies mid-fight, I lean hard on crutches like shields and leveling, and I occasionally end up having to look up details like boss resistances/weaknesses. As hard as Elden Ring is, though, the tools the devs included (ashes, weapon arts, magic, etc) and the broad, active wiki community have allowed me to reach all bosses and defeat most (all base game ones, still working on DLC). I adore these games.
I’m with the side of players who Really Liked this DLC probably Souls veterans who liked Souls game from the start. I rate this DLC 10/10 the final boss moment I had is so Clutch and one of the best experience I’ve had in a Souls game.