i mean kinda yeah,you can get up to 20 scadutree upgrades,each upgrade gives you 5% more damage reduction and health,so if yu collect them all 20 x 5 = 100 you can fight at 200% of your max stats
People on 2014: Just level adap lmfao People on 2019: Just level vitality lmfao People on 2022: Just level vigor lmfao People on 2024: Just level blessings lmfao
One Crucial thing everyone seems to be forgetting: Use crafting! The pickled livers are fucking insane against elemental damage, especially the new vastly boost damage negation.
For real, the crafting system has lots of ways to boost your stats. Perfumes, livers, etc. Sadly the livers don't stack with the aura Miracles, and take your Body buff slot, so you also can't use Flame Grant Me Strength. But if you're not a Faith build, 15% increased resistance is no joke.
I agree, or just buff. I use like 8 buffs and debuffs in a fight(literally 10k damage per stars of ruin before 1.12 with a max of 10 casts in a row)----most people just throw a golden vow on or a weapon buff and say "fk it we ball." Like ok bro but this is supposed to be endgame content thats supposed to be difficult for the best builds, if you use a trash build youre supposed to summon, get fragments, etc, do all the other stuff.
Exactly I craft constantly and I'm glad some of the giant furnaces got a gimmick that forces crafting. It's even better there an infinite string bell bearing now.
Problem is crafting sucks ass. Sure the items might be good, but who in their right mind actively engages with a tagged on crafting system outside of survival games.
I think another thing that is making people struggle with this dlc is the fact that the bosses have a lot of hyper armor and consistent gap closers which I believe many people exploited the lack of these things in the base game to heavily negate needing to engage with the mechanics of the boss and all the bosses in the dlc are seemingly designed to punish this mindset.
Yeah, Rellana teaches the player that you can't stunlock the bosses anymore and have to engage with their moveset, and also with the DLC bosses you have to heal in windows in which you would normally attack.
To be fair, I felt that a lot of the late-game non-DLC bosses were built with the same philosophy. Maliketh with his pillar hopping, Godfrey with his stunlock stomping, Radagon with his teleporting. All of these features making the punish windows of the bosses smaller and the heal windows for you also smaller and more risky. Then take them, and turn them up to 11 with the DLC bosses. Honestly, I'm having a blast. Rellana has forced me out of a habit of hesitating with my heals that I hadn't realised I had developed. After at least 50 runs, I've noticed I'm healing immediately at a gap in combos so as not to get hit by her slash, as opposed to before when I would have an internal debate over whether healing was risky this close to the boss. The thing is, because of the gap closing, you are ALWAYS close to the boss. Disengaging is no longer as effective and learning to heal while still engaged in close range has honestly made me better at playing the game.
@@theholypopechodeii4367 I stunlocked her to death with giants hunt lmao. Couldn't even enter second phase properly. Still, a moderate sized boss that doesn't even flinch when hit with an ugs is ridiculous
Yup that’s kinda the whole point why they’re there. High level players can’t just steam role the area and are forced to explore and interact with the world to get stronger and start beating the harder enemies
yeah,for ppl who dont understand a scadutree upgrade gives you a 5% buff in attack and resistance, knowing this you can make up to 20 scadutree upgrades,which is about 100% more resistance and attack damage then normal,which means that if you collect them all,you fight bosses at your 200%
Sounds like a similar experience to ds3 with ringed city. I remember how much I hated but loved the ringed knights because they were significantly harder than the base game mobs but still fun to fight.
The answer is scadtree fragment That and also: 60 vigor + dragoncrest greatshield, its non negotiable Edit1: Y'all with the 40 vigor is probably the reason why you die in 2 hits when I invade Edit2: boiled crab is king. Helps a lot
It's very negotiable. Just go with whatever was good enough for the endgame (in my case 40 was more than enough) and collect scadutree fragments. That's it.
Ritual shield’s been helping me a lot too, boiled crab as well. I would like to add the green turtle tal. for stamina, it’s came in clutch w the faster moving enemies, been able to dodge through multiple combos w this
@@lonelyshpee7873no reason not to have 60 vigor though at endgame. You’re going to end up overleveling something and getting no return for your investment if you don’t put 60 points into vigor. It’s almost guaranteed. The only real exception is fait/int hybrids.
I only dislike the one on the blue flower area that have a high pitched BG thats way too similar to the loot beetles, so I keep looking for beetles lol
Mine is cold infused with wing stance on my int build. Also has a magic backhand sword as the left hand weapon. It's a fun combo with the way the movesets flow together
@@GenDrake3you could combine it with a fire art weapon, to instantly remove the cold cooldown after frostbite. I’m using it in my playthrough, and it is very fun to use!
Backhand blade + Milady on my Carian knight build have been amazing and I was only 125 on that char at start of dlc. All these salty mofos must have got carried hard and maybe performance is shit on nvidia cuz on my 7800xt at 3440x1440 it has been near flawless except for 1 huge hitch in open world near the start, 20hrs in and hasn't happened again, haven't even updated drivers lol.
Going from 60% -> 70% is taking 10% less damage absolutely but the relative damage chance is 25%. If an attack did 1000 damage, going from 60 -> 70 does mean taking 100 less damage per hit. But that 100 is 25% of what you were taking previously. Damage negation is exponential. It gets more powerful from the RELATIVE perspective the higher it gets. And this makes sense as at 100 negation you take 0 damage
@@EldenRingBuildsArchive Very true. I remember people complaining that tank builds weren't viable in DS3, but the irony is that in higher NG cycles, the only game in which it was still viable was DS3.
I've gotta be honest, I saw this coming at the tutorial prompts. "Hey guys! We made a new system just for this area that makes your attack and defense way better with no downsides!" Me: Oh... so I'm going to need to grab and clutch every one of these to do okay, unless I'm one of those perfect parry psychos that beat this game on a Guitar Hero controller? Already, got it.
It is a tad annoying to have to actively go get these rare level up items and it offers way less freedom than say… progressing naturally via runes/souls or having the ability to farm, but it’s alright.
@@weaversong4377 Is it "a tad annoying", or is it "alright"? It can't be both. It's fine to dunk on the DLC if it's got crap things, like most of the boss fights.
@@weaversong4377 You find more than enough fragments running through legacy dungeons and killing bosses/hippos. On your 3rd or 4th playthrough you won't need scadu level 20, you'll just take what you run into and clear bosses with memorization
I have a pretty big gripe with the remembrance bosses. With the exception of Messmer, all the remembrance bosses don’t feel like their openings are wide enough for you to reliably land a charged heavy attack without trading. The bosses, just like the base game, have tons of openings, but unlike the base game, they are much more brief. So builds that use ultras and colossal weapons, who get the MOST out of charged attacks, have their play style gimped. I played most of the DLC with the Zweihander and this is what I felt. The biggest exception was Messmer, who felt much more inline with the base game.
Messmer felt like by far the best boss, maybe in the whole game. Totally fair even though extremely powerful and flashy. Pretty much all the others feel like a mess.
I feel like we have just hit the limit for what sort of difficulty can be added to this type of gameplay without starting to reach into "bullshit" territory. They feel the need to make each game/dlc harder than the last. Personally I'd rather have an easier game if it meant the bosses were more enjoyable, I'm afraid though it's going to keep getting more ridiculous
It’s worth mentioning, when Elden ring first released, a lot of people complained about the bosses being too fast and aggressive, and that ultras and collossals were terrible. Spoiler, ultra and collossals are among the most powerful and rewarding weapons in the game, and the opinion that strength builds are bad has been pretty thoroughly debunked. I’m sure as the DLC sits and marinates, we’ll all get better at the bosses, but I’m not sure if the incredibly tight windows can be worked around.
You most certainly can land charged R2's on the bosses, I did it constantly with Milady. The only boss I'm not confident of saying there's many times is Rellana, because I fought her with a parry focused playstyle, but I still had to occasionally dodge attacks and I'd get to do a charged R2 then.
@@ISesseriII used the Godslayer greatswords against Rellana and it was possible to land changed attacks. She also has some blindspots in her combos, where she will miss most of her attacks
I'm surprised a majority of people found her hard. I'm NG+1 RL250 Scadu 6 with a colossal STR build. Beat her in attempt 3 & the other attempts were pretty close. All solo. Maybe the stagger of big STR weapons and ashes of war with hyper armor are a good match against her. Just my opinion and advice.
It’s funny to me that we do this every time with FromSoftware. DS1 DLC is too hard, Bloodborne DLC is too hard, DS3 DLC is too hard, Sekiro is too hard, and so on. People will come to their senses just like all the other times.
Yes you are correct, however I have more sympathy for the “too hard” people this time around because of the new progression system in the dlc. Putting a new progression system into a game that a player has played for most likely 100+ hours already can be rough in peoples mind. I love the new progression, but I can see more casual players hating that they took 100+ hours to build their character and get absolutely wrecked in the dlc, unless they find the new item and there’s 70 of them. So it’s more of a mental block imo. Also these bosses are much harder than the base game, full stop, without the new progression system taken in to account. Again, I love it, but can see why some people are frustrated.
@@bigsmall2842 ng+ doesn’t mean anything for the dlc though right? I had a nice NG character already built, so I didn’t use my ng+2 original character because I remember doing that for Bloodbourne and wanting to kms. Haven’t seen an answer to this though. I haven’t really looked but in my head the new progresssion route would make the difference between ng and ng+ minimal.
Yeah, I'm sure it's the scaling that's the issue and not the bosses' non-stop barrage of shit that catches you at the end of the dodgeroll with the second hit.
If you die in 2 hits you probably want more defense. If you're getting hit left and right all the time and feel like you can't avoid it, that means you need to learn the mechanics better.
While I do understand the importance of Scadutree Fragments, the system as a whole has one big, glaring flaw. The devs implemented this system not to encourage exploration, but to ENFORCE it, as gathering these items are pretty much mandatory to not get 2-shot. While this is alright for crafting the perfect "first playthrough", once you know where everything is, this system has the potential to become absolutely OBNOXIOUS on subsequent playthroughs. Gathering these fragments now becomes a chore that you have to do when you start the DLC just so you can fight properly. This is the same problem that people face when they make a new character in this game: you have to do so many chores like gathering the Steed Whistle, Whetstone Knife, Physick Flask, and so on before the playthrough genuinely begins. It's boring. That's the flaw behind this system's premise: they didn't NEED to enforce exploration. Players were already going to explore every nook and cranny of this land just to find all of the cool shit they've scattered everywhere. But now you HAVE to explore every nook and cranny. Every playthrough. Thus artificially extending your playtime with none of the fun. They didn't really need to introduce this system. They could've just made the Gravesite Plains on the same area scaling of Elphael and gradually increased the enemy scaling from there. If Fromsoft insists on keeping this system, then I hope that they consider reducing the amount of Scadutree Fragments required to reach +20, or perhaps place more of them along the critical path through the DLC, and then allow the player to sell any excess fragments that they find (and honestly, they should allow you to sell excess Golden Seeds as well).
I agree. I have a pet peeve against always needing power progression via damage increases especially in open world games. I would go so far as to say ER would be better off if smithing stones didnt exist, they do add player progression but at the cost of enforcing exploration, making replaying the game a chore, and limiting experimentation, they arent worth it either. Action RPGs should lean more into the action side when they have mechanics like elden ring IMO.
you can't complain about scadu then propose more weapon upgrades. It's literally the same thing. Also +20 is the cap, you're not meant to reach that level with every character just like you're not meant to hard cap every stat.
@@gianlucaangeli2905 Except that weapon upgrades are vastly less intrusive than the Scadu fragments. You wouldn't need to scour the entire map to find some smithing stones unless you were running a variety of different weapons. Also, a lot of folks online have stated that they feel compelled to get to +20 just to stand a chance against the final boss. It's just overall an oppressive and annoying system.
@@redst0114 folks online call Rellana "extremely hard" and i killed in 3 tries without summon and the scadu that you organically find in the first portion of the map. Plus on subsequent playthrough the difficulty won't be that hard because you already now the moveset of the bosses. An expanded weapon upgrad system would require you to go around and collects stuff like we did for the base game.
Im loving this DLC, but im worried about speed and aggression creep. Elden Ring has had the fastest, most aggressive bosses of any From Software game. I hope they dont continue the trend upwards with the next game. Im only getting older, and it's legit getting hard to keep up with all the flashy spell effects and hyper aggro bosses. Its visually hard to parse what is actually happening most of the time, as long as they never take great shields away. I can continue to have fun and beat their games
Elden Ring was by FAR the most generous to shield players, after the travesty of shield poking being bugged in DS3, even in this DLC, you’ll find a talisman that raises your damage negations when guarding.
It's hard because unlike the base game, you can't just level your way out of your problems. In the DLC it is effectively SL1 or go on a scavenger hunt for scadutree fragments (and revered spirit fragments). Ok, yes, having more vigor DOES matter up until the level 60 hardish cap. But after that, yoou are basically just as squishy as sl1
The whole point of the difficulty curve imo was to force players to explore the map and find scadutree blessings. But even if u have the maximum 20 blessings, normal enemies still take away massive amounts of health from 3 combos. Cowboy showcased this as well.
@@anonisnoone6125 it will still help a ot,you can make up to 20 scadutree upgrades,each upgrade gives you a 5% buff,which means that if you collect them all 20 x 5 = 100 you would fight with 100% more health and damage
LISTEN HERE.... IF ITS HARD, USE DEFENSIVE TAILSMANS, BOILED CRAB, DRIED LIVERS, CERULIAN HARD TEAR, SUMMONS, ETC. ALSO AND MOST IMPORTANT, GO COLLECT SCADUTREE FRAGMENTS PEOPLE!!!
honestly, i’m at Scadutree level 9 and about to go for 10 but as soon as I reached 5-6 most of the dlc became a bit more manageable and feels more like end game base game. at 9 and most areas feels pretty good (haven’t reached end game areas yet but i’ll be around 15 levels in at that point) of course enemies can still destroy me but it’s less likely to happen now, so if anyone is having a hard time at the beginning of the dlc then try reaching for Scadutree level 5, you can reach that before fighting any main bosses. Explore around and experience the world have fun before you tackle the main stuff first.
The bosses are still insane, only at 7 blessings but combined with my armor I have 50% phys absorption and still get hit for like 75% of my 2100 health.
Is it possible to get to level 5 without exploring the Scadu Altus? I've explored everything except for there and most of the Jagged Peak (but located the paths to both) and am still only level 3 or 4. I'm hesitant to explore further into the Altus beyond the fort because the Hornsent has already moved after I jumped up there and I'm scared to break/skip ahead in NPC questlines by progressing without beating the first two bosses.
@@seagoat3852nothing massive really happens until you hit the shadow keep so make sure you don’t go near it. but yeah I got to level 6 without fighting a boss, the map is kinda hard to explain in words but watch or explore around and find areas that connect to other areas.
I've been running around at Scadutree blessing level 2 or 3, I guess I've been on the "power through" kick, at least for when I cleared Belurat...I've never been great at knowing when stuff is hitting me too hard in this game.
I think a lot of people have a hard time putting into words why they don't enjoy Elden Ring / The DLC, and they just say boss to hard. But for me I don't really find the DLC "hard" but annoying and unfun to play. Elden Ring is full of enemies delaying their attacks for an arbitrary amount of time, and when the attack does go off, it fires like a laser. Many attacks have less than 2 frames of travel time. Humans can't react to that. This design style was used very lightly Ringed City, but it's all over Elden Ring and it's just not fun to interface with at all. Connected to this point is the bad attack telegraphing. For Example Messmer's has some poke attacks that are 100% telegraphed that he is standing still. But then as the attack goes off he just magically slides across the floor and goes way farther forward than the animation would have suggested. Or when he does his big combo (The Ash of War you can do) After the first attack the devs know you can easily run the opposite direction thus making his second attack whiff, So even tho his animation doesn't match the attack attack just teleports forward on the last attack of the flurry. This kinda stuff just feels unnatural and cheap I think FROM started doing this so no matter how good you are at this style of game you HAVE memories these arbitrary timings. It feels so "gamey" and arbitrary I can't enjoy it. The enemies having super high stats is fine to me. But the above design just ruins it. Also the DLC just feels dull. You fight the same enemies times over and over. You find some cool hidden area just for it to be full of the same baddies you've been killing all game. After like hours of gameplay you've nearly seen the whole roster of baddies. There's also so much garbage filler loot. The base game had this issue but it's so much worse here. TLDR Delay attacks that have 0 travel time once the attack actually starts, Bad boss animations vs the frame data they actually have So few enemy types / world feels bland
@@PlatinumAltaria Which is fine if Elden Ring was advertised as an entertaining memory game for kids to study and memorise patterns so they can play Simon Says with the computer... but it isn't. I don't want to repeatedly die to bosses and be forced to memorise their attack patterns to avoid damage and kill them, I want to rely on my own reactions and skill.
Honestly this kind of takes me back to Dark Souls 2, and not in a good way. A lot of boss attacks feel floaty, and some of the tracking they do when attacking is pretty insane.
Delayed attacks are not good. they're running out of tricks. reacting instinctively will always be better than having to memorize an unnatural delayed moveset
One thing I don't see many people bring up when it comes to Elden Ring's (and other Fromsoft games) difficulty is the way they implemented dodging. You dodge when you release the button, rather than when you press it. If you're constantly getting that 'I dodged that!' feeling, this is why. It makes dodging the relentless assaults of the bosses way harder, you have to tap the button as quickly as you can and even then there's a bit of a delay. On Steam, you can get alternate controller maps that make it so you dodge on button press, and it makes a world of difference. There might also be a way of doing this on console but I don't know. It's worth trying, and there are a bunch of different ones. The one I use maps sprint to left stick click like in other games and it's amazing!
It has to be on button release since it's also the sprint button when held. Not a solvable problem on console without them putting sprint elsewhere or increasing the number of buttons on controllers. Having multiple control mappings also wouldn't work since any with dodge and sprint on the same button means dodge would be on button release whereas any mapping with dodge as an independent button would be on press and not release. That sort of inconsistency isn't great UX design. I imagine the mappings you've found on Steam separate the dodge and sprint functions so dodge is its own, dedicated button.
@@Jassu323 Yep, it makes B (on xbox controller) the dedicated dodge button and maps sprint to left stick as a toggle, you stop sprinting when the stick is centered. Sneak/dismount Torrent is left stick while holding Y. It feels very intuitive, it also makes moving the camera while sprinting a lot easier. Sad to hear there's no way to do this on console, I haven't used one in a while so I thought maybe they'd implemented a similar functionality into the dashboard.
it is a nightmare to map controls in Fromsoftware games. i play on mouse and keyboard + pc and never have issues with camera btw. i remember i had canged the jump button somehow in ds3 back in the day, so that i could sprint and dodge simultaneously(in default if you press dodge while sprinting u just jump that has no i frames in old games) i used these sprinting into dodging a lot in my first playthroughs honestly i would have gave up on beating ds3 if i couldn't change the controls this way back in the day. slight change in the controls made a world of difference
Holy hell I didn't know about the button press/release on ER! I always thought it was me getting screwed by the camera field of view or something. Now I know why I sometimes feel like the input doesn't register on certain bosses, like what would be a perfect dodge with faster and smaller bosses like Malenia or her DLC Sulyvahn counterpart gets me hit by slower and bigger bosses that should be easier. I'm not in a hurry and don't release the button like I would do in the middle of a waterfowl dance, but like I would with Nameless King or Midir, i.e. slow and steady. Thank you.
The only issue with this approach is that popping Mimic Tear still makes things trivial, even after all its nerfs. So, do I go back out and look for more fragments or just get it over with using summons. My big issue with all of Elden Ring isn't difficulty, but how uneven an experience it is overall. Some bosses are like 70 tries solo and 4 with a summon. It's so inconsistent and messy.
My issue with this system is that now, whenever I want to replay the DLC, I gotta make a checklist of these items in order to be able to progress. I had the same issue in the base game because getting all your flasks and such is just a boring fetch quest.
@@joelhodoborgasYou use to just be able to go to a DLC area without some buffing mechanic stopping you from doing full damage to bosses and enemies in Low Level playrthoughs for speedruns.
Dude you come across all the flask stuffs naturally by playing the game, i dont ever feel like i had to go on anything like a boring fetch quest just to because flasks.
I will say that a lot of the bosses have attack patterns which basically force you to just chill until they're finished. In the base game, they gave bosses a lot of moves that had huge windup. This meant you could get in a few hits during a boss's combo chain. Sometimes you could even get a fully charged r2 in there. This made for some really awesome stagger moments where you're half a second from eating it and then the boss crumples. Maybe it's just the newness but my perception of the bosses I've fought so far is that their combo chains are some combination of too active or too long to really get any hits in. Like, I'm at 40 endurance on a very high level character and I can find myself running out of stamina if I try to weave attacks in, that's how long some of their attack chains are. There's also a tendency for the bosses to run away after an attack. The worst culprit that immediately comes to mind is the damn hippo. They've just made it so much harder to actually hit the boss outside of the obvious points where their big combo has ended. it kinda feels like a completely different team with a different ethos made the bosses for the DLC. Now that I've adjusted, it's not bad. But those first couple of bosses were a pain. The game has spent all this time training you to weave hits into boss combos and now it's telling you to stop.
Also slipping in obligatory jumping over sweeps or ground area attacks, which is something they've pulled over from Sekiro. Problem is, Sekiro teaches you from near the start of the game that it works, and trains you to jump over things / off enemies. Elden Ring doesn't. It's the same way a lot of people have spend ~13 years playing with Soulsborne swing speeds, then in Elden Ring they give most attacks that obnoxious, unnatural delay before rapidly swinging, just to punish the muscle memory to roll away from danger.
In the base game, if Margit is too hard. Sure, go level your character, the whole weeping peninsula to explore. It show in the map. You can't miss it In the DLC, if the early bosses are too hard, go find hidden item. Sure, it not like I don't understand more shadow tree LV make game easier. But how much are they in the map? I explore a bit, hop around the map, found some hidden fragments, found every crosses in NPC's map. Maybe I found most of the fragments I'm able to? But end up found a lot more after I kill both Ensis's and Belurat's boss. Cause all of the area I able to explore are hidden
Honestly I love this DLC but so far I had to completely start over from the beginning because I explored too far into Scadu Altus and progressed the world state without fighting a single boss and locked myself out of quests. I had gathered around 15 fragments at that point. So I completely understand the necessity to explore and gather this stuff but it seems kinda stupid for the game to go "Whoops! You stepped too close to Shadow Keep and nobody will talk to you anymore! Good luck!"
@@japas lol how can fromsoft say 'WE WANT YOU TO EXPLORE, NYA NYA' and put some obnoxious mechanic in to force players into it, then slap their hand when they do? if going towards shadow keep or into scadu or another fortress screws with the storyline, it should be cut off until such time as the player has spoken to all requisite npcs.
That just progresses their quests lol If you found that many fragments by then you had every opportunity to talk to them as half of the fragments are at the crosses they're found at lol
@@h445 Lol what kinda logic is that? Using that logic you shouldn't be able to progress past Limgrave without activating a whole heap of NPC's, You wouldn't be able to pass Sens Fortress unless you talked to Siegemeyer first, so on and so forth. Git gud at the formula
For me, the real heart of the “difficulty” critique boils down to this: - In Dark Souls, you died to a boss because you ran out of Estus. - In Elden Ring, you died to a boss because you mistimed two rolls in the middle of an 8+ move combo and the combined damage exceeded your max health.
1. The second thing can also happen in Dark Souls (particularly Ds3 in the case of Friede, Twin Princes, Dancer, Pontiff, Champion Gundyr. Manus in DS1 is also like this) 2. Most of the combos from bosses you're talking about can be completely negated by just strafing or running behind them. I've tested this on Morgott, Malenia, Maliketh, Hoarah Loux, Radagon, Rellana, Dancing Lion, and Messmer all completely solo with no summons. I can say that with 100% confidence.
@@LuigiG145 I don’t mean to sound like a douche, but I feel like some people look at DS3’s bosses with rose tinted glasses. Now don’t get me wrong they have some of my favorite bosses being soul of cinder and Lothric and Lorian, but honestly some of the critics with Elden Rings bosses…pretty much apply with some of DS3 bosses, like what you said with sister friede because she is so aggressive that it feels like a Bloodborne boss modded into DS2 and Gael I could probably get off a single attack with an ultra greatsword (sometimes two depending the attack) and there always have been bosses since demons souls that two shot you. Edit: Now I’m not trying to through shade at anyones opinion if anyone else is reading this, I mean you could have bed of chaos or Lud and Zallen as your favorite bosses for all I care, but I’m typing this comment just to say that some people are kind of blinded by the “imperfections” of things they love.
@@Doommarine-sr8y Friede has one element that justifies here Bloodborne-es. She staggers very easily. This fact alone is proof there was actual forethought put into designing that fight, same can't be said about ER. And Gael still moves at the tempo of Dark Souls 3 boss and not Sekiro.
@@Doommarine-sr8y Thats true but you cant deny the death of the gimmicky bosses. Until DS1 most boss fights Had gimmicks like four Kings, Iron golem, taurus demon, gwyndolin or priscilla. Yes many of the gimmicks made the bosses bad like bed of chaos but still It was refreshing and felt like there was a hidden mechanic to every Boss. Fools Idol is a very good example of a cool gimmick even tho the fight itself can be boring. After DS1 most bosses became Artorias, just dodge and learn the patterns which I like too but It gets repetitive. Elden Ring only has 2 gimmick fights: Radahn and rennala first phase. Radahns fight was a gimmick fight done good and Im sick of fighting artorias and manus clones..
Yep. Not once I died to Messmer because I ran out of Estus. Every time I had more than one Estus. But the boss goes supersaiyan, flying, attacks you can barely see cause the camera gets crazy, and bam, just like that, you're dead from max health despite 65% physical damage negation and 60% fire damage negation.
The only major problem with the dlc is that some of the bosses, especially the final one, give so little windows to attack them when they have unlimited stamina and can just pile on combos for 30 secs. Some base game bosses also had this problem and they didn't learn from that at all.
Yea, that final boss needs a few tweaks. Waayyyy too aggressive. Can be parried I guess, gonna have to practice that a bunch now. Edit: I beat the last boss, and parrying makes it possible. Dang you Miyazaki. He owes me blood pressure meds.
Yeah it's Maliketh as the baseline pretty much. Pillar jumps, tons of output when you get like 1 attack every combo. Which tbf makes sense! That is when on a fresh playthrough you'd be doing the dlc.
@@awtodor Maliketh? Bro what? Maliketh literally sits there swinging miss into the air and then does nothing for like five seconds every time I fight him. Also, you're immune to damage from 90% of his attacks by just standing near his belly.
yeah, the final boss in his second phase is basically a non-stop flashbang with each attack. there have been so many times where I lose track of what the fuck is happening, because the lightshow they put on is just overwhelming and hurt my eyes after a while.
Thing is the Tree Sentinel is right there for you to fight, imagine going through a whole area eager for that boss loot only to be told no, you need to go to at least 4 edges of the map and then come back here. I mean the Dancing Lion and Renalla are right there by the beginning, I feel like this only increases the list of incomplete areas you have to remember. I wouldn't mind it as much if the bosses that needed more Scadutree items were deeper into the map. People shouldn't be forced to explore, the dlc does look beautiful yes but at times you run into areas that are just a whole lotta nothing.
You don't have to remember unfinished places. That's what the marker system is for. Simply mark areas on the map you have yet to go through, or finish, and use a skull icon for bosses that you have encountered, but not yet killed (like the Furnace Golems).
@Neonmirrorblack That's a fair point, I guess I forgot cause I never really used it. Never had a need to, but my point is I prefer exploration at my own leisure, not as a mandatory feature now if you want to fight the actual boss of an area you're currently in. It's a Souls game, so naturally the boss fights are gonna be the main draw card for most people.
@@Jard357 I agree with you. I also believe that going "open-world" wasn't the boon so many make it out to be. I think it actually hurts the pacing and it has the same problem every single other open-world game does: empty, pointless space and copy/paste encounters ad nauseam. Having to search for these "Deku Seeds" just exacerbates it.
I'm really enjoying the DLC so far, but my best guess as to why people see this new upgrade system as an issue is because you can't just grind it endlessly - you have to find some of the fixed number of fragments, and some will be locked between areas where you need to clear bosses. In the base game you can effectively level up infinitely before engaging any bosses, but in the DLC you can't max out your Scadutree level (or whatever it's called).
@@Knoloaify Except this DLC is nothing like Sekiro. In Sekiro your defence was your offence at the same time. In this DLC you are dodging a 10 hit combo to get get some damage in. Not saying it is bad but its just miles away from the fun I had with Sekiro.
I kid you not I've read a comment today and it said that FromSoft screwed up because they punish players who don't want to explore... For God's sake the game is built around exploration. If you don't like it then don't play Elden Ring that's a massive ass open world game where exploration is a key element.
@@Sylphan I was specifically referring to Sekiro's leveling system and how it wasn't possible to simply farm yourself into being over-leveled, and referring only to that.
Not hard, just lazily done. Most of the complaints are not that it's hard, it's that instead of making the bosses difficult through mechanics, they make them difficult by having them spam attacks that can 2 hit you endlessly without any way of interrupting them. The extreme camera issues in this DLC only serve to make it even worse. The other reason combat in this DLC feels unfun and unfair is because they seemly just gave most enemies hyperarmor, you cannot flinch most enemies and even staggering them is difficult because by the time there's an opening to attack their stagger bar has replenished so combat has for the most part just devolved into a waiting game. I saw a quote that summed it up perfectly, "Bosses in Shadows of the Erdtree are playing Sekiro, but you're playing Darksouls."
Most of them like Messmer and Rellana are a lot more aggressive and unrelenting and spammy than even Sekiro bosses. Take Owl Father or either version of Isshin for example. They leave way more openings than Messmer does.
@TheStraightestWhitest they have to keep pushing the envelope of difficulty, which I think we've sort of reached the limit for how hard a boss can be without having some bullshit moves or effects now. I'd rather have bosses be more enjoyable than on the verge of bullshit. I feel they have taken to trying to balance the game after seeing all of these insane streamers doing no hit runs etc and many of which claim the games aren't hard enough. Leaving actual human players to not have much fun
No, we are playing Elden Ring. The bosses ALL have openings where you can land R2 or Charged R2, and no, the stagger bar doesn't "replenish" so quickly that taking small downtime to heal is going to lose you all your progress. You shouldn't be trying to interrupt boss attacks, you should be positioning to bait out favorable attacks and punish them. You getting two hit? Use defensive buff talismans, use boiled prawn, use livers, use buffs like golden vow. Or go out explore and get fragments, I've NEVER been two shot by a boss outside of when I was very low scadutree fragment.
an issue I'm having is that the bosses are way hard while the mobs of the boss area are easy. So it only feels that you're in the wrong place when you're about to face the boss
Lol funny cos I feel the opposite way. Bosses may take me some time, but I can fight them in a controlled environment, so it's fine, but the mobs are what really stresses me out. The dlc has such a high density of regular enemies and most of them can 2 to 3 shot me, so I usually run past everything and go straight for the boss.
Indeed. The base game is fine, I hardly died to mobs, mostly to gravity, but the bosses are either push overs with summons, or almost impossible without them .
I have the same problem with the dlc that I had in the main game. Bosses are doing more damage per hit than ever, moving faster than ever, and have longer combo attacks than ever. Pushing players more and more into specific builds and play styles in order to beat them. I want more games like DS1, where any weapon or build can get me through the game without becoming a frustrating slog
Watch players like Ongbal and you'll see just how many openings these bosses have. Too many players spam dodge roll without strafing or jumping, which are sometimes MUCH more effective than rolling.
All the bosses have some or the other elemental weakness. Rellana is weak to holy and messmer is weak to magic. I won't spoil the names of other bosses and weaknesses, but it exists. I would keep rotating fire, magic and holy damage throughout the dlc whichever weapon you use. Or bleed. Bleed just works on everything even in this dlc.
i think another important aspect of damage and defense upgrades that is sometimes understated is how it can often influence the way you fight a boss way more that the percentages imply. Having more damage doesnt just make the fight shorter, it also means that you are less likely to be in the boss fight long enough to get a "bs pattern". Likewise, an increase in health and defenses can put you over the one or two shot range from attacks, meaning you consistently have less risk when fighting. Seen some people who have gone into the divine lion beast fight and roll-spammed and charged attacked their way to victory because their attack/defense put them over the threshold where that strategy is viable.
definitly true that the scadutree fragments are vital, and I think it's good that they want to keep the philosophy of if you can't beat something yet go somewhere else and get stronger. But the problem with the dlc is that quite a few areas are pretty (arguably unreasonably) hard to reach, so you can't do their challenges. Like an entire region where the only path to it is behind a fake wall in a hidden room halfway across the map from the actual region. Or a path that can only be opened by using a very specific emote that is hidden in some random location with no story significance that could be anywhere on the map. And these would be largely fine, if you at some point at least got some hints about their existence at the very least
I'll say one thing, the camera in some of these fights is the hardest thing so far for me, but that's a fromsoft staple, so. Cant really go about and explore to beat the camera. Also that scadurtree stuff is honestly a bit nonsensical. I have 10 and mobs at the beginning of the dlc will still do bookoo amounts of damage, Fromsoft is just pulling some cracked difficulty in this DLC Enjoying it overall though
this is factual for me too on a 100% basis. I do not 'struggle' with bosses, I struggle with the arenas constantly clipping and blocking me on the tiniest props. I do not find it difficult to fight enemies like the trolls, gargoyles or golems, I find fighting the camera during engaging them difficult. It's 100% quality of life issue that fromsoftware fanboys tend to gloss over, telling "git gut" to anyone who points out the lack of responsive controls and lack of good camera panning. Just because I point out flaws in the game, doesn't mean that it's bad, and just because it's good, doesn't mean I shouldn't point out the flaws.
I can't even count how many 360 spins the camera has made so far, it feels like every animal boss like the lion dancer or the hippo is hard coded to fuck with lock-on.
I think one issue is the way the map is laid out. You can get to most of the map without killing bosses, but you often have to find unintuitive ways that you can't see on the map due to the verticality. So you need to explore for the scadutree fragments, but there usually isn't an obvious way to get to other areas other than beating the boss you are stuck on. There are cliffs everywhere so it feels a lot more confined than it actually is.
I don't mind the difficulty. I just hate the limits on re-specing and fully upgrading weapons with the ancient dragon stones. Like why put those artificial limits on these things? It really prevents me from experiencing the whole game.
Something I'm going to mention for the DLC, there is a thing you can do after fighting mesmer, the demigod in all the promotional material. It's like burning the erdtree in the base game, and fails several quests, you'll know what it is when you get to it, but be aware that some quests you have to go off the beaten path to find the ending. Make sure to explore the whole world if you want everything.
i like the leveling system in the dlc and i agree with the concept but i still think that the bosses hit too hard regardless, have enormous health pools and they spam attacks monstop. all these three factors combined didn't make for a fun experience for me, it felt more like it was hard just to be hard. another complaint i had is the way you traverse the land, it was very disorienting and confusing and having so few graces makes it even harder. i found it hard to figure out where to go and follow the main storyline and even harder for the optional stuff. in general i still think the dlc is good but it felt a little unbalanced and undercooked, at least from the perspective of a casual fan going blind for the first time.
So I do have a slight criticism with the scadutree system in that it is a little limiting compared to what was done before and also the game is very unhelpful as to actually helping you find them. In the base game when you went elsewhere when hitting a roadblock there were lots of things you could do, you could get weapon upgrades, new talismans, new weapons, level up, AND upgrade your flask (which I feel is close to the scadutree and sacred ash system). Now here while you can still do a lot of that the effect is generally weakened by the assumption you probably aren't going to find anything THAT more powerful than what the end game of Elden Ring offered, though I could very much be wrong as I have seen some crazy things pulled out in multiplayer. My main issue with the scadutree fragments is that the description says "Found in churches", well, I have been to two churches in the game so far and one of them did not even have a fragment. Most of them have been near the stakes of Miquella and other locations that simply did not stand out enough for me to remember exactly. I think this is a genuine flaw compared to the golden seeds and sacred tears of the base game. You found golden seeds by small, golden trees that were very hard to miss. You found sacred tears in churches. There is no "Haha! We tricked you!" at any point in the game for these items, they are found in a specific place and stick to that place. Whereas the placement of the scadutree fragments seem more arbitrary. If the description had a different line from "at churches" I would probably feel better about it. But as it is now it creates a genuine issue where a player can go "Well, I COULD explore, but what if I already HAVE all the available scadutree fragments in my general vicinity?". EDIT: And fromsoft seems to agree with me on this because they clarified in a steam news post that "Hey, these pot dudes? Yeah they have scadutree fragments". I also think that decision is fucking stupid to attach these items to not-crystal-lizard enemies that respawn and have zero way to tell if you have already gained their shard.
Thank you so much for making this video. It's been really frustrating to see people rushing through the game and then complain how they're getting wrecked cause they ignore the empowerment mechanic It's as if they learned nothing from the base game
I feel like summing up people complaining as those who rushed through and ignored the scadutree fragments is incredibly generalising and refusing to even listen to the arguments of the other side. I am a souls vet, I was confused when they nerfed launch radahn, I argued against difficulty settings when the urinalists started trying to push them. and yet I genuinely think this DLC is too much. as we speak I have just given up at the final boss. I was not underequipped by any stretch of logic, my blessing is at 19 and my character is level 188, my armour negates 80% minimum on ALL damage types. I respecced my build specifically to use heavier armour and a greatshield because dodging some attacks is impossible due to roll recovery time or the sheer size and duration of the hitbox. My best attempt got the boss to around 55% health. if I make a mistake I get killed in 2 hits of an 8 hit long combo. I understand that there are people who have beaten the boss so it's not literally impossible to do but, even as someone who loved getting their ass beat by the 3 phase frieda fight in ds3's DLC because it still felt fair, this is simply not enjoyable and frankly I have better uses for my time while I wait for an inevitable balance patch (becuase if day 1 radahn got nerfed this sure as shit isn't going to be left as is for long)
@@backslash4141 You're just bad, my guy. Accept it. Nothing you said is valid. Get better with time and learn patience. It's meant to be the most difficult content they've done. Maybe it's just not for you, brodie. 😂
I think they all had the idea that the dlc was gonna be on endgame level which is what it was marketed as but most of the enemies seem even worse than endgame enemies.
Looking into the values with modding software, the max Scadutree damage resistance is 50%, so getting to blessing level 20 effectively gives you double the effective health
my biggest gripe with the dlc has been the exploration honestly. the map is gorgeous of course and there is still some fun in the sense of discovery but the loot feels even more worthless than the base game and i dont particularly like how everything is so vertical and hard to reach. it was fine for that one plateau in limgrave (the one for rannis quest i believe) but when its the core design of the map it feels more restrictive instead of freeing like an open world should be imo.
Yep. My thoughts exactly. It is very divided, it doesn't feel like a real open world, but a very restrictive one. And you go exploring and you get smithing stones and gloveworts that you can buy a gazillion already? It's stupid.
yea, a lot of just dead ends with a smithing stone... that we could just buy this exact thing 3x from the runes the enemies I killed give to get here. the whole lets see where this goes to a dead end unfortunately is my guess of not having a true open world to take you somewhere else, so it becomes painfully obvious this was just a giant path for one or two things and now thats it. not the worst but definitely 4th wall breaking at times "Why is it always, dung?"
Honestly I hate the system: it's invisible so it's not like you got a shiny new armor or something it just means you clicked a button and your numbers are better, likewise it doesn't feel like any actual progression has happened since I'm fighting the same boss with the same equipment but my numbers are just arbitrarily higher. "Promoting exploration" only applies for like a week and then everything becomes known and then you just ride Torrent around the map getting the free seeds just like what people do now with the Golden Seeds and Sacred Tears in Limgrave/Weeping Peninsula, it's just tedious and uninteresting but you're forced to do it because it's a numbers game
It's meant to give endgame characters a fresh experience in place of more levelling, when they have probably reached skill caps and improved the gear they like. Both are an invisible numbers game. It's like if you went straight to Stormveil in the base game, you'd probably get stomped by the boss, so you explore the lands around it and gain levels before going back. People can look up where to find them, and that's fine, but I think they are missing out on exploring the world organically. It's a condensed version of the main game, so even just popping into new areas and exploring the world you're going to find a ton of them. It also has an added function of being a sort of difficulty slider for the truly psychotic players.
Although I agree with the take, progression here would always hit a conundrum. How do you input a new progression without making all the progress from the base game not be useless, or even worse all the items from the base game not be useless while keeping a progression system in place. There could be a couple of choices: Higher upgrades for weapons matched with increase of mobs health Introduce Armor upgrades matched with higher damage from mobs Having items with better scalling so that you are incentivised to level up more. These introduce another issue that is once you go back to base game you would be completely overpowered. For example I didn’t clear out the Dragonlord Placidusax. Now I can go back with new weapons and play styles and do that while still being as challenging. I understand that it sucks that it is invisible. But on the other hand it makes the DLC an addition on the side of the base game and not a endgame for the original game. Meaning on a new play through you can go to the DLC do the DLC and come back to the base game and become an Elden Lord with new build and new playstyles that didn't exist before. All that with maintaining the same level for PvP and PvE and not splitting the player base that doesn't have the DLC or didn't play it. These are the benefits of it. It's a trade of at the end of the day.
idk maybe its because I'm only half way through, but I feel like I'm pretty naturally discovering the upgrades through the course of my play and its working just fine. Maybe that will change when I hit end game though but I'm not complaining
Think the main problem is that farming runes fits into the RPG mechanic of the core game than the scadutree fragments. You can kill anything, anywhere, to get runes and get stronger. Bosses are balanced, based on their location, around a certain RL. In the DLC, it seems like every boss requires you to have a ton of Scadutree fragments to be on par. Also, it's less about farming enemies now, and it's become a scavenger hunt for upgrades. Some of these are locked behind bosses, and while it does encourage exploration, some folks may get stuck trying to find that one scadutree fragment they need for an additional upgrade. I think Fromsoft worries of steamrolling the DLC is a non-issue, because you need to beat Mohg anyways to access it. Most folks will be at RL 125 or higher by that point, and if people are way higher, then let them steamroll the DLC. Typically folks who overlevel are doing NG+, so the bosses will scale to be much harder, anyways. It makes the DLC system more confusing for folks used to the base system. If the DLC was instantly accessible from the start, the DLC upgrade system makes sense. But to have it accessible pretty much late game, this made things more frustrating and cumbersome than necessary. Not to mention, getting max upgrades just doesn't feel enough to challenge DLC end game bosses.
Given I avoided all kinds of spoilers, this interview of Miyazaki, I should have listened or watched them. But the beauty of this DLC, as much as it kicked my butt 700 ways to sunday, is the discovering thing. Learning what these fragments are and the like...that's what makes the DLC so damn memorable...like exploring things for the first time, not sure what the key items are. And then diving into the item descriptions to find the answers rather than being told...isn't that what makes these games so fun? After reaching the endgame of the DLC and learning in retrospect about the fragments, it shows me how much I missed out. Thank you for the video, this gave me quite a lot of insight. That way I can finally solo the bosses, instead of relying on my spirit summons.
You should rely on spirit summons, just as much as you rely on healing potions or consumables, blocking and dodging. There's nothing wrong with them; they're a part of the game in Elden Ring, they have their own upgrade system in the base game and in the DLC. You're supposed to use them, even though a handful of really, really cool guys don't.
I think since the DLC map is a lot tighter with medium dungeons littered everywhere, the fragments make exploring feel less rewarding than the base game. It's like explore A first because A makes B easier. The problem is if you do 90% of B first and just not the boss in the DLC, the XP you gain and stuff you find barely make things easier like levelling/upgrading did in the base game
so. I agree and LOVE Elden ring. that being said I have a nitpick. Mind you I have 9 upgrades and Have beaten all bossess on the shadow keep, and I feel like there is too much visual clutter. to a degree that sometimes obfuscates the bossess attack making it feel poorly designed. I am sure I can just git gud, but it still feels like some attacks come to you before you can realize it. I have 2 examples in mind but dont want to give spoilers. but both are on the shadow manor. also if you are locked in and against a wall. the moment the boss dashes past you the camera goes WILD. so beware that. best of luck to all and enjoy this magnificent piece of art
you are 100% right, im repeating myself a bunch but the info needs to get out there, the unreactable moves are NOT traditional fromsoft design they are what day one game devs do when trying to mimic darksouls without understanding what was fun about avoiding attacks, it was on the player 80% of the time, with a few gimmicks to keep you looking, now its auto death 10 times cause you'll never know what the timing is for these moves. but can still cheese everything with great shield or ash of war spam, theres no balance and the honest players are the ones feeling it the worst. many people like to grind blindly like that and i don't shame them, but they need to understand that theres plenty of games out there with that kind of trial by failure gameplay loop and From was the safeplace for people who liked good game design that was challenging as well. a counter argument i could see raised to this criticism is "Sekiro has a ton of unreactables" yes but you miss timing a parry is just blocked, or getting hit from missing the rhythm of a new attack pattern doesn't mean instant start over, the devs saw this issue and gave you revivals mid fight for this exact issue, lore was not the original reason you die twice(thrice?) it was deliberate game mechanic to make the experience fun instead of tedious, it shows they understood as good devs that unreactables have potential for cinematic fights but need a lot of help to make them not a tedious grind, and going back to the beginning cause of one pick a path like obstacle is bad. did they get someone new to work on the dlc bosses, did they get rushed? were they hoping everyone would use the sekiro bubble tear? we'll never know.
This is a fine PSA, but I think the gameplay issue for a lot of people is in fact, the movesets. The "sit around and wait for the 20 string combo to end so I can do a single light attack" gameplay. I think this has just become way too prevalent in Elden Ring
@@Caseyuptobat You just sound like a cucked out retard when you can't handle any criticism of the game mechanics whatsoever. Watch Joseph Anderson's video on the game. He perfectly outlines the issues with the core mechanics, and that was two years ago. From Soft just doubled down on the BS, and they get infinite cover to not improve from you troglodytes. Your entire conception of a From Soft game is one dimensional, and you therefore assume any criticism is a skill issue. Literally brain dead
You were the first person to help me understand to level Vigor past 20 in my first ER playthrough. I now return to you during my precious time of Free Time Off Work to help me understand how to succeed in the DLC because my plumber/bass player brain isn’t quite sure at this point lol
Thank you. This explanation is motivational. I finished up the requirements last night to step into the DLC but found myself playing Helldivers today instead, due to the messaging of difficulty that everyone is spreading.
Me: listening to this, nodding my head intently and agreeing with every word. Also me: ok, back to beating my head into a brick wall trying to defeat that giant flame bucket corpse thing right inside the DLC on level 1.
You need to stagger both their legs and then crit the face. Make sure you stay on torrent to avoid the stomps, and stay behind the boss, switching legs often. I think you need to stagger each leg twice to knock them down.
The fight is attack until you have to jump -> attack until you have to run away and jump -> stagger three times -> crit -> repeat. The reward is worth it.
@@bobertastic6541Just FYI you don’t need to be on Torrent to avoid the stomps, jumping works just fine. The hitbox for the flames is much lower and lasts much less time than you would think based on the animation of the fire. I found it easier to stay off Torrent most of the time so I could do charges heavy attacks in between each stomp.
LISTEN HERE.... IF ITS HARD, USE DEFENSIVE TAILSMANS, BOILED CRAB, DRIED LIVERS, CERULIAN HARD TEAR, SUMMONS, ETC. ALSO AND MOST IMPORTANT, GO COLLECT SCADUTREE FRAGMENTS PEOPLE!!!
i want to try the discount mohg spear the new enemies have, I got one to drop too, There are a lot of really cool arcane weapons in the dlc, i wish i respected to arcane over faith this playthrough
I'd really love to see a heroic concept video of Messmer, similar to your previous videos. Perhaps one of those videos is worth revisiting with the added information within the DLC.
Is is a great boss. I summoned Leda to beat her, but even then it was a difficult fight. I think I'll take my time on my second character and try to solo her, because it definitely seem like I can do it. Parrying her feels so nice.
As someone who created arbitrary restrictions when I play it’s frustrating to see people do the same then blame the game/design for the wonky difficulty when they are going out of there way to make it harder for themselves. The game will let you hamstring yourself, it doesn’t require that you do.
But, but if you use any of the mechanics that weren't in Dark Souls 1, blessed be its name, you're not a REAL souls player! Just parroting the nonsense I see on reddit, because you're absolutely right. I must have respec'd and overhauled my approach to Elden Ring at least 10+ times (at least 8 of of those were just for Malenia). The devs put all of these things in the game to be used, if you want to. Intentionally hamstringing yourself or just flat out ignoring a game mechanic will make the game exceedingly more difficult.
well i went with juiced stats, an overpowered build with mohg's spear and using all the fragments i found, the bosses still have lots of hp, do too much damage and they are super aggressive spamming attacks nonstop. to me it felt poorly balanced still. elden ring became so big because it allowed for more than just the dark souls old heads to play and enjoy the game, giving you options to make the game as easy or hard as you'd like but the dlc, even with all the tools doesn't feel like that, unless you mimic run away and rot the bosses from afar i guess , which is kinda boring and lame. maybe i'm just a casual and trash but elden ring was supposed to be for people like me too based on the base game.
The issue is that they seem to balance it around people abusing every single advantage which results in honest solo players facing sloggishly long bossfights. I had to switch to dual wielding because a single 800AR (before scadutree) greatsword was just tickling them.
The fun part is that people will cry the exact same way they did on release: saying you need OP tools and summons, when in reality you can do everything alone. It's hilarious seeing people saying Rellana will one or two shot you with all of her attacks when, in reality, you can tank 5 to 6 hits fine. The last bosses are brutal and will murder you with at least 3-4 hits, but of course the DLC final bosses are going to hit like a truck.
Guys here’s a tip for beating the bosses. Do not use gold NPC summon signs outside the boss room. It actually makes the bosses harder. You’ll be doing little to no damage at all.
I used it for the Lion Dancer and it helped a lot with staggers and take attention from him but the health increase is a doozy. You gotta have high damaging attacks to summon an NPC. Using spirit ashes tho doesn’t increase the bosses health as much.
@@michaelbarnes2126Summons also happen to raise posture of bosses, alongside health, I must agree with the OP, tbh, with spirit ashes on your side, the normal summoning is more of a detriment
I did it out of fear of not being able to progress the quest. It was hard but I could still use a mimic tear to help so it definitely made it more manageable
Normally I would agree, but this time Fromsoft had the genius idea to tie quests to summoning. So you literally cannot progress some NPC quests without summoning them.
There is knowing that the scadutree fragments help, then there is KNOWING the scadutree upgrades will help. I went in blind, completely blind and that was my choice. I knew the upgrades would help but I didn't know to what degree they would help. And honestly I think Fromsoft should have done an logarithmic curve on the scaling from the blessings. I think a lot of people are upgrading a few blessing levels and going to town on the boss. I know that is what I did and it felt like I didn't upgrade at all. Once you get blessing level 10+ it almost feels like you went to far. Luckily this is still a Fromsoft game and you can still die to a blob that pushes you off a cliff randomly. My biggest complaint on the DLC so far is the needlessly complicated routing to get around the world. I never looked up how to get anywhere in the base game. On my first playthrough I didn't even know the elevator worked to get to the altus plateau. In the DLC I have had to look up how to get to multiple locations now. In fact, it has caused me to do something I didn't want to do which was watch videos spoiling the areas.
Yeah same but I do like it. I had to look up a video, but it it very cool how hidden away and expansive it is. I was like how do I get down there??? For an entire afternoon before looking it up via RUclips
I think the biggest difference is that in the base game you get souls from anywhere, but in this dlc you have to find these very specific items, some of which are very obscure. Going in blind feels like a worse option than its ever been because of this
I haven't used any myself, but I can see why people would feel the need to use them. A lot of boss attacks are literally impossible to dodge, "****cough****, Commander Giaus, ****cough****"
Great video. Also, I feel like there's a lot of newer FromSoft players with the assumption that a proud victory can only come from dodgerolls and weapon smashing. But Elden Ring differs from the other games in giving you so many new tools to use. Item crafting, wonderous physick, ashes of war, great runes, bleed, scarlet rot, spirit summons. And I'm sure I'm still missing some. With the addition of these, the developers created bosses with the exploitation of what they've given you in mind. It might be hypocritical of me to say because I'm stubbornly banging my head against the wall with nothing but dual twinblades, but there is no shame in utilizing what's clearly been provided for you.
Good video! I learned today from Leviathan video that you can apparently just jump over half of all those super annoying chain and ground shock attacks, because your lower body immediacy gets not counted as a hit box as soon as you press the jump button, this goes hand in hand with jump attacks. And guard counter also works well. Referring back to the videos you did at release, when I shared your sentiment they had just made the bosses more insane without giving us the tools that we got in Sekiro or Bloodborne. But it turns out they did give us the tool, we just didn't use it. Talking about the base game and boss attack patterns overall in Elden Ring. Basically you can jump all Margit and Godricks attacks. Not to mention using perfumes, strafing, pots, weaknes like gravity vs birds or holy pots vs death birds, sleep etc etc... Honestly Ratatoskr, old chap, we might just have played the game wrong, rolling to much.
two major problems with dlc: 1. there is almost no interaction or new dialogue in erdtree realm. at least gideon would spill some info or gossip. i.e. even you would accept 3 fingers Midra doesnt tell or do a new thing. 2. exaggerated vertical design. i.e. roofed Raul sites or library scenes make nausea to some or feel them clostrophobic
I dont have the dlc yet but should i like hold back on the shards a little so its not too easy? Like get two then after a boss four then six ect, or is every boss just built different and it doesnt hurt the experience all that much?
honestly, you won't notice them helping the way this video describes it, its attempting to validate people who aren't enjoying the dlc and getting told they suck at the game when reaally they just need to know its a tough experience for most. over all, your enjoyment will be mostly on what kind of playstyle and weapons you use. what i mean is there are breakpoints of how many hits to die to a boss, and 7 scurd fragments (relatively high amount) wont change a 80% of your hp hit to under 50% so you still have to heal or risk dying, you still have to learn the fight or your extra damage wont mean anything, most bosses literally hit you mid attack every single time, forcing you to wait for them and avoid an attack and punish them. and almost every attack in the game takes memorizing a specific timing and/sometimes also a roll direction, you will get killed regardless of your fragment count if you get two unreactable attacks in a row (very common experience) when you start learning the fight you die no matter what. 0 fragments or 10, you will generally kill a boss in the same amount of grind. the sooner you accept that you have to memorize every attack and not react like other games, the sooner you beat the boss and that's all there is to it. the fragments make open world less obnoxious, cause everything does most of your health. if you have a bullky build then you wont really see the immediate danger but if you are playing fashionsouls then the damage is veru noticable. long story short they intentionally inflated enemy hp and damage to give the fragments a reason to exist, but also made most attacks a gimmick so you were going to get rolled no matter what till you learnt he fight. the end
Issue with the blessings is that. 1. It turns the game into a fetch quest, your not exploring for new options your hunting down blessings cause you can't engage with the DLC without them. 2. And, the blessings gave the devs a huge excuse to overturn bosses to take into account said blessings that now they are more tedious than fun. They prioritized the difficulty spike far too much in this DLC.
@@jeremiahjohnson2784 If the point of the game is to be a crappy, empty open world you have to be FORCED to explore yeah, please end it now. Have fun zig zagging across every dumb open plain, scouring it and hoping to find a random hole in the ground leading to any actual gameplay.
@@I-ONLY-BUILD-MECHS-AND-DUSTERS I understand where you're coming from, but exploring the GREAT DLC open world is as much a part of Elden Ring as the "actual gameplay". I love Dark Souls, but while this shares a lot of it's DNA, it's not a Dark Souls game where it's fight-after-fight.
They prioritized exploration yes. And I prefer that. I'm the type of player that never finishes souls games because once I reach the final boss I lose interest since there's nothing else to find afterwards. I've seen the final boss, tried it a couple times, see how I fare, and if it take mlre than 5-10 tries, I just stop and watch the ending on RUclips. So Elden Ring and its DLC are pretty much my top Souls style so far, please give me more exploration-gated content ! To me the exploration is the gameplay, and the bosses are checkpoints to unlock new areas.
@@arenkai Yeah, exploring to find some random crafting material or ash spirit you wont ever use. If they wont to make us explore, they should add some positive reasoning instead of just the "you gonna get destroyed if you dont, lmao". Sure, there is some good stuff here and there, but is so few and somewhat randomly placed for the size of the world, and it lacks live. I say even as old as it is Skyrim is still better as an open world game.
I haven't killed all the DLC bosses yet, but in my experience, the bosses' difficulty doesn't stem just from the stats, but from the fact that the window of opportunity for attacking is way too small, and that they do not seem to get staggered from anything, aside from posture breaking. It's not isolated from the main game of course, but seem more prominent in the DLC
Only problem for me is the world map is a nightmare to explore. i genuinely hate how vertical it is its actually pretty frustrating. Legacy dungeons and catacombs are absolutely peak though.
I think the game really needs to be better at communicating. Intended routes, boss orders, etc. Because sometimes there's an enemy/boss that the game thinks you are ready for but it is inconsistently more difficult than the rest of the difficulty curve, and other times they have things they expect you to skip and come back to, but don't make it clear.
I think it's because they don't "expect" you to do anything. They trust that you're intelligent and will either hit your head against the wall until it breaks, or summon, or go find fragments. If players complain that the wall isn't breaking and refuse to summon or find fragments, it's on them, not the game. It's like doing a SL1 run and then complaining that the game is too difficult. Of course, it's going to be, what did you expect?
If you are struggling, I have a build suggestion for you. Str+arc build using heavy armor (bullgoat or veridris) + fingerprint/veridris shield + blood affinity antspur rapier. For talismans, I recommend dragoncrest greatshield, pearl shield talisman, greatshield talisman, and two-headed turtle talisman. Hold block, and R1 spam with rapier to proc rot + bleed. When you get to about 1/2 stam, let it regen before attacking more. This build honestly makes the game very very easy. I was even able to kill the final boss with no deaths because of this build.
As someone who didn’t watch a single trailer or discussion video about the gameplay of the DLC, I was able to figure out this system and have a lot of fun in it.
It's not an issue with the Scadutree fragments. Something is very off with the balance of the game overall. [Spoilers follow] I play a mage build (80 Int, 42 vig an 42 mnd, level 162). I can do a dungeon where I'm 1-shotting all the regular enemies with Great Glintstone Shard (one of my weakest spells). Then, there's a Mesmer Soldier (those fire guys in all red) That take nearly a full bar of MP to kill. Plus the tracking on their fireballs is absolutely insane. And you can't interrupt those things. I've killed the guys while they were casting the fireball, and the fireball still came out and hit me even after he had already died. And those things are so hard to dodge because of how fast and accurately they track you. There shouldn't be that big of a difference in the experience of just killing regular dungeon enemies. There's no middle ground. The enemies are either too easy, or way too hard. Not even talking about the bosses... yet. But when you get to the bosses, they just charge right at you and camera frack you in the fog gate, if not just 1-shot you. I've been having to use Scholar's Shield and block as soon as a boss fight starts. But some enemies can start the fight with a ridiculous command grab that you can't block (like that stupid hippo in the Shadow Keep). So that's a whole new level of wtf... The boss fights just feel cheap. I don't want to engage with most of them. I just want them over. Fighting that hippo, for example: he charges at the fog gate as soon as you enter, with either the command grab, or something else (I can never tell because my camera goes inside him and I can't see). If you survive that, you can't create space to cast anything without having spirit ashes out because he advances across the whole room with any given attack. And again, you're either dead, or you can't see because your camera goes inside of him. I used a spirit ash to distract him while I cast a couple of Rock Slings to break his poise. But even when he was poise broken, he didn't stay down long enough for me to even fully charge a spell. He went down and almost immediately started to get up again. All of the bosses, except for the Furnace Golems are like that. I kind of just got lucky and got Meteorite of Astel off and that nuked his HP from around 80% to 0%. But that whole fight just felt cheap and very luck based. Then I fought the Commander Gaius... Again, he charges right at the fog gate as soon as you walk in with some weird dodgy charge that sometimes 1-shots, sometimes does barely any damage, sometimes I can block it, sometimes it breaks my guard. It's very inconsistent, and so is the hitbox when you try to roll away from it. You can use Torrent in that fight. But the damn pig boss is literally twice as fast and agile as Torrent is, so it really defeats the purpose of using him. This isn't a problem with the boss' damage. This is a problem with enemies animations, hitboxes, aggressiveness, cheap attacks, obnoxious speed, hyper armour, ridiculous amount of ground covered with any one attack (have Gaius chain 3 attacks together and he's just traveled half a mile in 2 seconds), etc. The damage is ONLY an issue because of all those other things. I even noticed something else. So in the base game, I remember how you could use night sorceries to hit enemies without them dodging, because they can't "see" them. Not a thing in the DLC. Rellana, for example, will button read dodge night sorceries. It's like the devs watched strategies people came up with in the base game, and did everything they could to make sure those strategies don't work in the DLC. You like to summon or buff up in the base game as soon as you enter the boss room. Good luck doing that in the DLC. You think you can stagger bosses in the base game. Not possible in the DLC. It almost feels like they're trying to force players to just cheese every boss. Cheese or be cheesed isn't fun boss design, Imo. Just my 2 cents.
I'm so glad someone else said it. yeah, it's not the damage. it's everything else. they literally made attacks just cheaper. you can't interrupt them. they chain together 8+ hits in a single combo. you can't dodge away because they move so much with every attack. they're faster than you. stronger than you. most of them have erratic movement that's very hard to read and screws with the camera... it feels like the devs are trying to frustrate players instead of create a fun experience.
agree. we get some really fun looking new spells in the DLC. but I can never use them during boss fights because I never have the time. bosses are just so aggressive and so fast... and you literally can't stop them or interrupt them. they just keep going and going.
Don't worry, idiots will mock you for your "pathetic" 42 Vigor instead of the vastly superior 60, while also declaring you should wear heavy armour with a greatshield instead of, you know, playing the character you've enjoyed levelling and playing...
I agree with your closing argument. Commander Giaus represents everything I have a problem with when it comes to boss design in the late-game/dlc. They are way too aggressive. I have never had to spend time figuring out how to cheese a boss as much as I have with this dlc. "Getting gud" is simply not enough. I feel like the boss battles in this dlc are at odds with the original souls-born design philosophy that was built around combat being methodical, not cheesy.
Two things I don't like about the bosses are how much of a visual eyesore they are (there are times where I genuinely cannot see or read what they are doing because they're too big, too close to the camera, have way to many lighting effects, and/or move unnaturally) and that their movesets aren't intuitive (feasibly, a boss can just attack forever and at any point, and there's no intuitive tell that the divine beast dancer's move has a 3 hit combo or a 4 hit combo or a 5 hit combo after a delay before suffering from it).
Ever since I played through Armored Core 6 (and DS1) my approach to boss battles has changed. Those games taught me to adjust my character so I can more optimally take on the current challenge. Sometimes it’s better to use something with bleed, or something that attacks quick. Other times you need to break the stance of the boss which is easier with a larger weapon(in my opinion). I switch up my armor, my weapons, and my talismans if the boss is giving me too much trouble. It’s kinda like I’m trying to find the solution to a problem and I love it. I was being taken to town by one of the DLC bosses because I was trying to use a big slow weapon. It was taking up my stamina which made it hard to dodge frequently. I pulled out an old upgraded weapon and added a new ash of war to it and the fight became so much more manageable and fun. I know not everyone likes to play this way but I just thought I’d share
My experience in DS1 that is applicable was during the 4 kings boss. Long story short I couldn’t avoid all attacks with my dodges and as soon as my stance was broken it was a guaranteed death. I put on some big boy armor and made sure I could still medium roll and I took out those b*stards in 2 tries. All I needed was to be able to take a couple hits without being knocked over.
It's not about the bosses being too hard, it's more about the bosses being difficult in a way that's not fun to fight. It's not fun when you can't even see what the bosses are doing when you are struggling more with the camera than the boss itself. Sorry but Fromsoft have forgotten to include the fun aspect in their boss designs.
This might be the BEST dlc ever created by from-soft. And I mean it with full certainty, just wait until you get all the weapons, all incantations and sorcery, ashes of war, bosses, and more. You will quickly realize why this took at-least two years to develop for the players and i'm just astonished at the Rellana boss fight due to the fact of how flashy and spectacular it can be.
I feel like going on a fetch quest to get percentile stat increases is a little bit lame and not the best solution they could have come up with, but I'm still excited to jump in once I'm done with other games. New weapon types look nuts
I feel like the patterns of the enemy leave very little room for actual player interaction, it's the same problem with most Elden Ring endgame bosses (especially Malenia) only up to 11. The bosses basically attack non stop and even with enough Scadutree Fragments and 50+ Vigor they often two and one shot you. I'm fine with bosses being challenging, but the bosses in this DLC are just insanely exhausting gameplay wise because you wait 5 Minutes for a small opening and even a small mistake sets you back to the beginning. This also massively restricts build variety.
I totally understand the reasoning for using boss difficulty to encourage exploration so that you can come back later and prevail. It really is a great idea. However, if I’m almost at max blessing rank with a level 200 character, bosses should NOT still be two shotting me like I was at rank 2 or 3. Otherwise, what is the point of the system? It makes attempting to learn the moveset of each boss way too burdensome when you can’t survive long enough to learn hit boxes of massive AOEs and hyper-aggressive combos only to die with one bad roll. If the point of the game is to encourage your own play-style with the variety of weapons and gear, then the blessing system should accommodate not having to equip all defensive related items just to survive a few more hits for the sake of learning. I get why it’s difficult, but it just feels flawed.
One other thing to note for people who don't realize it. When the Spirit Ash Blessings say they upgrade Torrent's damage (and damage negation), this means the damage you deal when you do horseback attacks. I haven't tested it myself, but the way it's worded I believe this will double-dip damage wise: that is to say, you'll get both the AR (attack rating) damage boost from your Scadutree Blessing and then also get another damage multiplier for your damage on horseback.
I miss it when these games had more grounded movesets, for both the player and the bosses. Not even talking about difficulty here. I just don't really enjoy seeing all these endless combo swings and overly bright AoE particle effects everywhere being so freaking prevalent anymore. What used to feel cool and unique to see has become almost nauseating now...
Игры
![The moment we stopped understanding AI [AlexNet]](/img/1.gif)
The only thing thats hard is me when i play this dlc
Idk if you are going to end up with the top comment. But you deserve it lmao
It's true. I was there to bear witness.
classic
Miquella being evil only makes him hotter
As a rock
'Get your blessings' is the new 'level up your vigor'
i mean kinda yeah,you can get up to 20 scadutree upgrades,each upgrade gives you 5% more damage reduction and health,so if yu collect them all 20 x 5 = 100
you can fight at 200% of your max stats
Blessings check lol
People on 2014: Just level adap lmfao
People on 2019: Just level vitality lmfao
People on 2022: Just level vigor lmfao
People on 2024: Just level blessings lmfao
@@ll-ll5gtit’s like 4%, so roughly an 80% increase to damage and negation at 20 blessings
@@Koyy206 yeah,i think it's bit more than 4,about 4.8,anyways it's still a significant increase
One Crucial thing everyone seems to be forgetting: Use crafting! The pickled livers are fucking insane against elemental damage, especially the new vastly boost damage negation.
For real, the crafting system has lots of ways to boost your stats. Perfumes, livers, etc. Sadly the livers don't stack with the aura Miracles, and take your Body buff slot, so you also can't use Flame Grant Me Strength. But if you're not a Faith build, 15% increased resistance is no joke.
I agree, or just buff. I use like 8 buffs and debuffs in a fight(literally 10k damage per stars of ruin before 1.12 with a max of 10 casts in a row)----most people just throw a golden vow on or a weapon buff and say "fk it we ball."
Like ok bro but this is supposed to be endgame content thats supposed to be difficult for the best builds, if you use a trash build youre supposed to summon, get fragments, etc, do all the other stuff.
Bold of you to assume that the people mad at the DLC being "too hard" actually wanna use all the tools under their belt.
Exactly I craft constantly and I'm glad some of the giant furnaces got a gimmick that forces crafting. It's even better there an infinite string bell bearing now.
Problem is crafting sucks ass. Sure the items might be good, but who in their right mind actively engages with a tagged on crafting system outside of survival games.
I think another thing that is making people struggle with this dlc is the fact that the bosses have a lot of hyper armor and consistent gap closers which I believe many people exploited the lack of these things in the base game to heavily negate needing to engage with the mechanics of the boss and all the bosses in the dlc are seemingly designed to punish this mindset.
I actually think this is the main thing. Everything is super aggressive here way more so than base game.
There’s like 4 bosses that I’ve fought already that have instantly charged at me. It’s wild
Yeah, Rellana teaches the player that you can't stunlock the bosses anymore and have to engage with their moveset, and also with the DLC bosses you have to heal in windows in which you would normally attack.
To be fair, I felt that a lot of the late-game non-DLC bosses were built with the same philosophy. Maliketh with his pillar hopping, Godfrey with his stunlock stomping, Radagon with his teleporting. All of these features making the punish windows of the bosses smaller and the heal windows for you also smaller and more risky. Then take them, and turn them up to 11 with the DLC bosses.
Honestly, I'm having a blast. Rellana has forced me out of a habit of hesitating with my heals that I hadn't realised I had developed. After at least 50 runs, I've noticed I'm healing immediately at a gap in combos so as not to get hit by her slash, as opposed to before when I would have an internal debate over whether healing was risky this close to the boss. The thing is, because of the gap closing, you are ALWAYS close to the boss. Disengaging is no longer as effective and learning to heal while still engaged in close range has honestly made me better at playing the game.
@@theholypopechodeii4367 I stunlocked her to death with giants hunt lmao. Couldn't even enter second phase properly. Still, a moderate sized boss that doesn't even flinch when hit with an ugs is ridiculous
I’ve been getting my ass kicked by even common enemies but I’m having a blast. The shadow tree blessings have been making a difference.
Yup that’s kinda the whole point why they’re there. High level players can’t just steam role the area and are forced to explore and interact with the world to get stronger and start beating the harder enemies
@@proggz39 i dunno why everyone is speedrunning the game instead of enjoying the exploration and learning boss movesets
yeah,for ppl who dont understand a scadutree upgrade gives you a 5% buff in attack and resistance,
knowing this you can make up to 20 scadutree upgrades,which is about 100% more resistance and attack damage then normal,which means that if you collect them all,you fight bosses at your 200%
Sounds like a similar experience to ds3 with ringed city. I remember how much I hated but loved the ringed knights because they were significantly harder than the base game mobs but still fun to fight.
@@proggz39 I’ve been taking my time, exploring, finding new stuff. It’s been a lot of fun.
The answer is scadtree fragment
That and also: 60 vigor + dragoncrest greatshield, its non negotiable
Edit1: Y'all with the 40 vigor is probably the reason why you die in 2 hits when I invade
Edit2: boiled crab is king. Helps a lot
ritual shield talisman and one of the greatshield elemental talismans after you find it is super helpful as well.
That does limit options of course, every defensive item, is a slot not used for aggression, which in my experience can make boss fights lengthy.
It's very negotiable. Just go with whatever was good enough for the endgame (in my case 40 was more than enough) and collect scadutree fragments. That's it.
Ritual shield’s been helping me a lot too, boiled crab as well. I would like to add the green turtle tal. for stamina, it’s came in clutch w the faster moving enemies, been able to dodge through multiple combos w this
@@lonelyshpee7873no reason not to have 60 vigor though at endgame. You’re going to end up overleveling something and getting no return for your investment if you don’t put 60 points into vigor. It’s almost guaranteed. The only real exception is fait/int hybrids.
The ambient music is beautiful in the dlc
Yeah the atmosphere is PEAK
Atmosphere is the best it's ever been.
I only dislike the one on the blue flower area that have a high pitched BG thats way too similar to the loot beetles, so I keep looking for beetles lol
@@joelhodoborgasyeah that got me bad.
I constantoy feel like I'm not supposed to be there, like I'm tresspassing in an incredibly dangerous place. It's great.
I too have taken the Milady pill. What a woman, what a weapon.
Same, anti-air’d one of those jumping ascetics yesterday with the r2 leap and nearly busted
Mine is cold infused with wing stance on my int build. Also has a magic backhand sword as the left hand weapon. It's a fun combo with the way the movesets flow together
@@GenDrake3you could combine it with a fire art weapon, to instantly remove the cold cooldown after frostbite. I’m using it in my playthrough, and it is very fun to use!
Black Knight Hammer and Flowerstone Gavel mog it.
Backhand blade + Milady on my Carian knight build have been amazing and I was only 125 on that char at start of dlc. All these salty mofos must have got carried hard and maybe performance is shit on nvidia cuz on my 7800xt at 3440x1440 it has been near flawless except for 1 huge hitch in open world near the start, 20hrs in and hasn't happened again, haven't even updated drivers lol.
Going from 60% -> 70% is taking 10% less damage absolutely but the relative damage chance is 25%. If an attack did 1000 damage, going from 60 -> 70 does mean taking 100 less damage per hit. But that 100 is 25% of what you were taking previously.
Damage negation is exponential. It gets more powerful from the RELATIVE perspective the higher it gets. And this makes sense as at 100 negation you take 0 damage
Pretty much, DS3 moved to the right direction with damage negation, tanking attacks in the latter NG+ cycles of Demon, DS1 and 2 was a joke
@@EldenRingBuildsArchive Very true. I remember people complaining that tank builds weren't viable in DS3, but the irony is that in higher NG cycles, the only game in which it was still viable was DS3.
I made a separate comment but i am hitting over 90... my hp grows as it shrinks.
I feel like you are saying something important but I’m too stupid to understand
@@zwarx3237 amen
I've gotta be honest, I saw this coming at the tutorial prompts. "Hey guys! We made a new system just for this area that makes your attack and defense way better with no downsides!"
Me: Oh... so I'm going to need to grab and clutch every one of these to do okay, unless I'm one of those perfect parry psychos that beat this game on a Guitar Hero controller? Already, got it.
It is a tad annoying to have to actively go get these rare level up items and it offers way less freedom than say… progressing naturally via runes/souls or having the ability to farm, but it’s alright.
@@weaversong4377 Is it "a tad annoying", or is it "alright"? It can't be both. It's fine to dunk on the DLC if it's got crap things, like most of the boss fights.
@@weaversong4377 I really haven't been trying to find them just exploring generally and I've found plenty.
@@weaversong4377 You find more than enough fragments running through legacy dungeons and killing bosses/hippos. On your 3rd or 4th playthrough you won't need scadu level 20, you'll just take what you run into and clear bosses with memorization
I have a pretty big gripe with the remembrance bosses. With the exception of Messmer, all the remembrance bosses don’t feel like their openings are wide enough for you to reliably land a charged heavy attack without trading.
The bosses, just like the base game, have tons of openings, but unlike the base game, they are much more brief.
So builds that use ultras and colossal weapons, who get the MOST out of charged attacks, have their play style gimped.
I played most of the DLC with the Zweihander and this is what I felt. The biggest exception was Messmer, who felt much more inline with the base game.
Messmer felt like by far the best boss, maybe in the whole game. Totally fair even though extremely powerful and flashy. Pretty much all the others feel like a mess.
I feel like we have just hit the limit for what sort of difficulty can be added to this type of gameplay without starting to reach into "bullshit" territory. They feel the need to make each game/dlc harder than the last. Personally I'd rather have an easier game if it meant the bosses were more enjoyable, I'm afraid though it's going to keep getting more ridiculous
It’s worth mentioning, when Elden ring first released, a lot of people complained about the bosses being too fast and aggressive, and that ultras and collossals were terrible.
Spoiler, ultra and collossals are among the most powerful and rewarding weapons in the game, and the opinion that strength builds are bad has been pretty thoroughly debunked.
I’m sure as the DLC sits and marinates, we’ll all get better at the bosses, but I’m not sure if the incredibly tight windows can be worked around.
You most certainly can land charged R2's on the bosses, I did it constantly with Milady. The only boss I'm not confident of saying there's many times is Rellana, because I fought her with a parry focused playstyle, but I still had to occasionally dodge attacks and I'd get to do a charged R2 then.
@@ISesseriII used the Godslayer greatswords against Rellana and it was possible to land changed attacks. She also has some blindspots in her combos, where she will miss most of her attacks
I'm getting absolutely stomped by Rellana as we speak 😀
~30 attempts so far
me too xD
She was tough, bro.
You using mimic? Finally gave in and user mine lol
I'm surprised a majority of people found her hard. I'm NG+1 RL250 Scadu 6 with a colossal STR build. Beat her in attempt 3 & the other attempts were pretty close. All solo.
Maybe the stagger of big STR weapons and ashes of war with hyper armor are a good match against her. Just my opinion and advice.
I swear Fromsoft forgot this game has a stamina bar
It’s funny to me that we do this every time with FromSoftware. DS1 DLC is too hard, Bloodborne DLC is too hard, DS3 DLC is too hard, Sekiro is too hard, and so on. People will come to their senses just like all the other times.
Sekiro especially was hated on alot
Especially once some of the balance patches start rolling in.
Yes you are correct, however I have more sympathy for the “too hard” people this time around because of the new progression system in the dlc. Putting a new progression system into a game that a player has played for most likely 100+ hours already can be rough in peoples mind.
I love the new progression, but I can see more casual players hating that they took 100+ hours to build their character and get absolutely wrecked in the dlc, unless they find the new item and there’s 70 of them.
So it’s more of a mental block imo.
Also these bosses are much harder than the base game, full stop, without the new progression system taken in to account.
Again, I love it, but can see why some people are frustrated.
The only area in my playthrough that has been breakneck difficulty is ancient ruins of rauh. Everything before has been fine, and I’m on ng+
@@bigsmall2842 ng+ doesn’t mean anything for the dlc though right?
I had a nice NG character already built, so I didn’t use my ng+2 original character because I remember doing that for Bloodbourne and wanting to kms.
Haven’t seen an answer to this though. I haven’t really looked but in my head the new progresssion route would make the difference between ng and ng+ minimal.
Yeah, I'm sure it's the scaling that's the issue and not the bosses' non-stop barrage of shit that catches you at the end of the dodgeroll with the second hit.
Dodge better and you won't get caught.
If you die in 2 hits you probably want more defense. If you're getting hit left and right all the time and feel like you can't avoid it, that means you need to learn the mechanics better.
While I do understand the importance of Scadutree Fragments, the system as a whole has one big, glaring flaw.
The devs implemented this system not to encourage exploration, but to ENFORCE it, as gathering these items are pretty much mandatory to not get 2-shot. While this is alright for crafting the perfect "first playthrough", once you know where everything is, this system has the potential to become absolutely OBNOXIOUS on subsequent playthroughs. Gathering these fragments now becomes a chore that you have to do when you start the DLC just so you can fight properly. This is the same problem that people face when they make a new character in this game: you have to do so many chores like gathering the Steed Whistle, Whetstone Knife, Physick Flask, and so on before the playthrough genuinely begins. It's boring.
That's the flaw behind this system's premise: they didn't NEED to enforce exploration. Players were already going to explore every nook and cranny of this land just to find all of the cool shit they've scattered everywhere. But now you HAVE to explore every nook and cranny. Every playthrough. Thus artificially extending your playtime with none of the fun. They didn't really need to introduce this system. They could've just made the Gravesite Plains on the same area scaling of Elphael and gradually increased the enemy scaling from there.
If Fromsoft insists on keeping this system, then I hope that they consider reducing the amount of Scadutree Fragments required to reach +20, or perhaps place more of them along the critical path through the DLC, and then allow the player to sell any excess fragments that they find (and honestly, they should allow you to sell excess Golden Seeds as well).
I agree. I have a pet peeve against always needing power progression via damage increases especially in open world games. I would go so far as to say ER would be better off if smithing stones didnt exist, they do add player progression but at the cost of enforcing exploration, making replaying the game a chore, and limiting experimentation, they arent worth it either. Action RPGs should lean more into the action side when they have mechanics like elden ring IMO.
you can't complain about scadu then propose more weapon upgrades. It's literally the same thing.
Also +20 is the cap, you're not meant to reach that level with every character just like you're not meant to hard cap every stat.
@@gianlucaangeli2905 Except that weapon upgrades are vastly less intrusive than the Scadu fragments. You wouldn't need to scour the entire map to find some smithing stones unless you were running a variety of different weapons.
Also, a lot of folks online have stated that they feel compelled to get to +20 just to stand a chance against the final boss. It's just overall an oppressive and annoying system.
@@redst0114 folks online call Rellana "extremely hard" and i killed in 3 tries without summon and the scadu that you organically find in the first portion of the map.
Plus on subsequent playthrough the difficulty won't be that hard because you already now the moveset of the bosses.
An expanded weapon upgrad system would require you to go around and collects stuff like we did for the base game.
god this is such a good point. hadnt even thought of the replay...
Im loving this DLC, but im worried about speed and aggression creep. Elden Ring has had the fastest, most aggressive bosses of any From Software game. I hope they dont continue the trend upwards with the next game. Im only getting older, and it's legit getting hard to keep up with all the flashy spell effects and hyper aggro bosses. Its visually hard to parse what is actually happening most of the time, as long as they never take great shields away. I can continue to have fun and beat their games
Elden Ring was by FAR the most generous to shield players, after the travesty of shield poking being bugged in DS3, even in this DLC, you’ll find a talisman that raises your damage negations when guarding.
It's hard because unlike the base game, you can't just level your way out of your problems.
In the DLC it is effectively SL1 or go on a scavenger hunt for scadutree fragments (and revered spirit fragments). Ok, yes, having more vigor DOES matter up until the level 60 hardish cap. But after that, yoou are basically just as squishy as sl1
True
The whole point of the difficulty curve imo was to force players to explore the map and find scadutree blessings. But even if u have the maximum 20 blessings, normal enemies still take away massive amounts of health from 3 combos. Cowboy showcased this as well.
@@anonisnoone6125 it will still help a ot,you can make up to 20 scadutree upgrades,each upgrade gives you a 5% buff,which means that if you collect them all 20 x 5 = 100
you would fight with 100% more health and damage
LISTEN HERE.... IF ITS HARD, USE DEFENSIVE TAILSMANS, BOILED CRAB, DRIED LIVERS, CERULIAN HARD TEAR, SUMMONS, ETC. ALSO AND MOST IMPORTANT, GO COLLECT SCADUTREE FRAGMENTS PEOPLE!!!
I don't like the scadutree fragments because they are extremely hard to find without a guide
honestly, i’m at Scadutree level 9 and about to go for 10 but as soon as I reached 5-6 most of the dlc became a bit more manageable and feels more like end game base game.
at 9 and most areas feels pretty good (haven’t reached end game areas yet but i’ll be around 15 levels in at that point) of course enemies can still destroy me but it’s less likely to happen now, so if anyone is having a hard time at the beginning of the dlc then try reaching for Scadutree level 5, you can reach that before fighting any main bosses.
Explore around and experience the world have fun before you tackle the main stuff first.
The bosses are still insane, only at 7 blessings but combined with my armor I have 50% phys absorption and still get hit for like 75% of my 2100 health.
Im pretty sure I’ve heard that you can get the Scadutree level 8 without fighting a single boss.
Is it possible to get to level 5 without exploring the Scadu Altus? I've explored everything except for there and most of the Jagged Peak (but located the paths to both) and am still only level 3 or 4. I'm hesitant to explore further into the Altus beyond the fort because the Hornsent has already moved after I jumped up there and I'm scared to break/skip ahead in NPC questlines by progressing without beating the first two bosses.
@@seagoat3852nothing massive really happens until you hit the shadow keep so make sure you don’t go near it.
but yeah I got to level 6 without fighting a boss, the map is kinda hard to explain in words but watch or explore around and find areas that connect to other areas.
I've been running around at Scadutree blessing level 2 or 3, I guess I've been on the "power through" kick, at least for when I cleared Belurat...I've never been great at knowing when stuff is hitting me too hard in this game.
I think a lot of people have a hard time putting into words why they don't enjoy Elden Ring / The DLC, and they just say boss to hard.
But for me I don't really find the DLC "hard" but annoying and unfun to play.
Elden Ring is full of enemies delaying their attacks for an arbitrary amount of time, and when the attack does go off, it fires like a laser.
Many attacks have less than 2 frames of travel time. Humans can't react to that. This design style was used very lightly Ringed City, but it's all over Elden Ring and it's just not fun to interface with at all.
Connected to this point is the bad attack telegraphing. For Example Messmer's has some poke attacks that are 100% telegraphed that he is standing still. But then as the attack goes off he just magically slides across the floor and goes way farther forward than the animation would have suggested. Or when he does his big combo (The Ash of War you can do) After the first attack the devs know you can easily run the opposite direction thus making his second attack whiff, So even tho his animation doesn't match the attack attack just teleports forward on the last attack of the flurry. This kinda stuff just feels unnatural and cheap
I think FROM started doing this so no matter how good you are at this style of game you HAVE memories these arbitrary timings.
It feels so "gamey" and arbitrary I can't enjoy it.
The enemies having super high stats is fine to me. But the above design just ruins it. Also the DLC just feels dull. You fight the same enemies times over and over. You find some cool hidden area just for it to be full of the same baddies you've been killing all game. After like hours of gameplay you've nearly seen the whole roster of baddies. There's also so much garbage filler loot. The base game had this issue but it's so much worse here.
TLDR Delay attacks that have 0 travel time once the attack actually starts,
Bad boss animations vs the frame data they actually have
So few enemy types / world feels bland
You have to learn timings for attacks, waiting to react is not going to work. The rhythm isn't that hard to get down.
@@PlatinumAltaria Which is fine if Elden Ring was advertised as an entertaining memory game for kids to study and memorise patterns so they can play Simon Says with the computer... but it isn't.
I don't want to repeatedly die to bosses and be forced to memorise their attack patterns to avoid damage and kill them, I want to rely on my own reactions and skill.
Honestly this kind of takes me back to Dark Souls 2, and not in a good way. A lot of boss attacks feel floaty, and some of the tracking they do when attacking is pretty insane.
Delayed attacks are not good. they're running out of tricks. reacting instinctively will always be better than having to memorize an unnatural delayed moveset
@@MagikarpPower Actually no, learning the game is better than having a biologically faster reaction speed.
One thing I don't see many people bring up when it comes to Elden Ring's (and other Fromsoft games) difficulty is the way they implemented dodging. You dodge when you release the button, rather than when you press it. If you're constantly getting that 'I dodged that!' feeling, this is why. It makes dodging the relentless assaults of the bosses way harder, you have to tap the button as quickly as you can and even then there's a bit of a delay. On Steam, you can get alternate controller maps that make it so you dodge on button press, and it makes a world of difference. There might also be a way of doing this on console but I don't know. It's worth trying, and there are a bunch of different ones. The one I use maps sprint to left stick click like in other games and it's amazing!
It has to be on button release since it's also the sprint button when held. Not a solvable problem on console without them putting sprint elsewhere or increasing the number of buttons on controllers. Having multiple control mappings also wouldn't work since any with dodge and sprint on the same button means dodge would be on button release whereas any mapping with dodge as an independent button would be on press and not release. That sort of inconsistency isn't great UX design.
I imagine the mappings you've found on Steam separate the dodge and sprint functions so dodge is its own, dedicated button.
@@Jassu323 Yep, it makes B (on xbox controller) the dedicated dodge button and maps sprint to left stick as a toggle, you stop sprinting when the stick is centered. Sneak/dismount Torrent is left stick while holding Y. It feels very intuitive, it also makes moving the camera while sprinting a lot easier.
Sad to hear there's no way to do this on console, I haven't used one in a while so I thought maybe they'd implemented a similar functionality into the dashboard.
Thanx
it is a nightmare to map controls in Fromsoftware games.
i play on mouse and keyboard + pc and never have issues with camera btw.
i remember i had canged the jump button somehow in ds3 back in the day, so that i could sprint and dodge simultaneously(in default if you press dodge while sprinting u just jump that has no i frames in old games) i used these sprinting into dodging a lot in my first playthroughs honestly i would have gave up on beating ds3 if i couldn't change the controls this way back in the day. slight change in the controls made a world of difference
Holy hell I didn't know about the button press/release on ER! I always thought it was me getting screwed by the camera field of view or something. Now I know why I sometimes feel like the input doesn't register on certain bosses, like what would be a perfect dodge with faster and smaller bosses like Malenia or her DLC Sulyvahn counterpart gets me hit by slower and bigger bosses that should be easier. I'm not in a hurry and don't release the button like I would do in the middle of a waterfowl dance, but like I would with Nameless King or Midir, i.e. slow and steady.
Thank you.
The only issue with this approach is that popping Mimic Tear still makes things trivial, even after all its nerfs. So, do I go back out and look for more fragments or just get it over with using summons. My big issue with all of Elden Ring isn't difficulty, but how uneven an experience it is overall.
Some bosses are like 70 tries solo and 4 with a summon. It's so inconsistent and messy.
My issue with this system is that now, whenever I want to replay the DLC, I gotta make a checklist of these items in order to be able to progress.
I had the same issue in the base game because getting all your flasks and such is just a boring fetch quest.
So just like the base game looking for your build items? I don't see an issue.
@@joelhodoborgas Seeds are not part of a build.
@@joelhodoborgasYou use to just be able to go to a DLC area without some buffing mechanic stopping you from doing full damage to bosses and enemies in Low Level playrthoughs for speedruns.
Dude you come across all the flask stuffs naturally by playing the game, i dont ever feel like i had to go on anything like a boring fetch quest just to because flasks.
I will say that a lot of the bosses have attack patterns which basically force you to just chill until they're finished. In the base game, they gave bosses a lot of moves that had huge windup. This meant you could get in a few hits during a boss's combo chain. Sometimes you could even get a fully charged r2 in there. This made for some really awesome stagger moments where you're half a second from eating it and then the boss crumples. Maybe it's just the newness but my perception of the bosses I've fought so far is that their combo chains are some combination of too active or too long to really get any hits in. Like, I'm at 40 endurance on a very high level character and I can find myself running out of stamina if I try to weave attacks in, that's how long some of their attack chains are.
There's also a tendency for the bosses to run away after an attack. The worst culprit that immediately comes to mind is the damn hippo. They've just made it so much harder to actually hit the boss outside of the obvious points where their big combo has ended. it kinda feels like a completely different team with a different ethos made the bosses for the DLC. Now that I've adjusted, it's not bad. But those first couple of bosses were a pain. The game has spent all this time training you to weave hits into boss combos and now it's telling you to stop.
Also slipping in obligatory jumping over sweeps or ground area attacks, which is something they've pulled over from Sekiro. Problem is, Sekiro teaches you from near the start of the game that it works, and trains you to jump over things / off enemies. Elden Ring doesn't.
It's the same way a lot of people have spend ~13 years playing with Soulsborne swing speeds, then in Elden Ring they give most attacks that obnoxious, unnatural delay before rapidly swinging, just to punish the muscle memory to roll away from danger.
In the base game, if Margit is too hard. Sure, go level your character, the whole weeping peninsula to explore. It show in the map. You can't miss it
In the DLC, if the early bosses are too hard, go find hidden item. Sure, it not like I don't understand more shadow tree LV make game easier. But how much are they in the map? I explore a bit, hop around the map, found some hidden fragments, found every crosses in NPC's map. Maybe I found most of the fragments I'm able to?
But end up found a lot more after I kill both Ensis's and Belurat's boss. Cause all of the area I able to explore are hidden
Honestly I love this DLC but so far I had to completely start over from the beginning because I explored too far into Scadu Altus and progressed the world state without fighting a single boss and locked myself out of quests. I had gathered around 15 fragments at that point.
So I completely understand the necessity to explore and gather this stuff but it seems kinda stupid for the game to go "Whoops! You stepped too close to Shadow Keep and nobody will talk to you anymore! Good luck!"
But you kinda rushed it then, no? I've taken my time and this wasn't a problem for me.
@@japas How do you rush when you're exploring?
@@japas lol how can fromsoft say 'WE WANT YOU TO EXPLORE, NYA NYA' and put some obnoxious mechanic in to force players into it, then slap their hand when they do? if going towards shadow keep or into scadu or another fortress screws with the storyline, it should be cut off until such time as the player has spoken to all requisite npcs.
That just progresses their quests lol
If you found that many fragments by then you had every opportunity to talk to them as half of the fragments are at the crosses they're found at lol
@@h445 Lol what kinda logic is that?
Using that logic you shouldn't be able to progress past Limgrave without activating a whole heap of NPC's, You wouldn't be able to pass Sens Fortress unless you talked to Siegemeyer first, so on and so forth. Git gud at the formula
For me, the real heart of the “difficulty” critique boils down to this:
- In Dark Souls, you died to a boss because you ran out of Estus.
- In Elden Ring, you died to a boss because you mistimed two rolls in the middle of an 8+ move combo and the combined damage exceeded your max health.
1. The second thing can also happen in Dark Souls (particularly Ds3 in the case of Friede, Twin Princes, Dancer, Pontiff, Champion Gundyr. Manus in DS1 is also like this)
2. Most of the combos from bosses you're talking about can be completely negated by just strafing or running behind them. I've tested this on Morgott, Malenia, Maliketh, Hoarah Loux, Radagon, Rellana, Dancing Lion, and Messmer all completely solo with no summons. I can say that with 100% confidence.
@@LuigiG145 I don’t mean to sound like a douche, but I feel like some people look at DS3’s bosses with rose tinted glasses. Now don’t get me wrong they have some of my favorite bosses being soul of cinder and Lothric and Lorian, but honestly some of the critics with Elden Rings bosses…pretty much apply with some of DS3 bosses, like what you said with sister friede because she is so aggressive that it feels like a Bloodborne boss modded into DS2 and Gael I could probably get off a single attack with an ultra greatsword (sometimes two depending the attack) and there always have been bosses since demons souls that two shot you.
Edit: Now I’m not trying to through shade at anyones opinion if anyone else is reading this, I mean you could have bed of chaos or Lud and Zallen as your favorite bosses for all I care, but I’m typing this comment just to say that some people are kind of blinded by the “imperfections” of things they love.
@@Doommarine-sr8y Friede has one element that justifies here Bloodborne-es. She staggers very easily. This fact alone is proof there was actual forethought put into designing that fight, same can't be said about ER. And Gael still moves at the tempo of Dark Souls 3 boss and not Sekiro.
@@Doommarine-sr8y Thats true but you cant deny the death of the gimmicky bosses. Until DS1 most boss fights Had gimmicks like four Kings, Iron golem, taurus demon, gwyndolin or priscilla. Yes many of the gimmicks made the bosses bad like bed of chaos but still It was refreshing and felt like there was a hidden mechanic to every Boss. Fools Idol is a very good example of a cool gimmick even tho the fight itself can be boring. After DS1 most bosses became Artorias, just dodge and learn the patterns which I like too but It gets repetitive. Elden Ring only has 2 gimmick fights: Radahn and rennala first phase. Radahns fight was a gimmick fight done good and Im sick of fighting artorias and manus clones..
Yep. Not once I died to Messmer because I ran out of Estus. Every time I had more than one Estus. But the boss goes supersaiyan, flying, attacks you can barely see cause the camera gets crazy, and bam, just like that, you're dead from max health despite 65% physical damage negation and 60% fire damage negation.
The only major problem with the dlc is that some of the bosses, especially the final one, give so little windows to attack them when they have unlimited stamina and can just pile on combos for 30 secs. Some base game bosses also had this problem and they didn't learn from that at all.
Meh not looking forward to that
Yea, that final boss needs a few tweaks. Waayyyy too aggressive. Can be parried I guess, gonna have to practice that a bunch now.
Edit: I beat the last boss, and parrying makes it possible. Dang you Miyazaki. He owes me blood pressure meds.
Yeah it's Maliketh as the baseline pretty much. Pillar jumps, tons of output when you get like 1 attack every combo. Which tbf makes sense! That is when on a fresh playthrough you'd be doing the dlc.
The final boss and gaius are overtuned, the rest are fine difficulty wise. The hippos are easy but dogshit too.
@@awtodor Maliketh? Bro what? Maliketh literally sits there swinging miss into the air and then does nothing for like five seconds every time I fight him. Also, you're immune to damage from 90% of his attacks by just standing near his belly.
i believe the worst part is the awfull camera and the overloaded effects on some bosses. The bosses in this dlc were primarily a visual nightmare.
your nightmares must be beautiful
yeah, the final boss in his second phase is basically a non-stop flashbang with each attack.
there have been so many times where I lose track of what the fuck is happening, because the lightshow they put on is just overwhelming and hurt my eyes after a while.
FromSoftware: "How many nuke attacks do you want for the DLC bosses?"
Miyazaki: "Yes."
Cope. The camera is not killing you *every* death.
@@artiscool6873 it's not every death sure but it's often enough to be frustrating
Thing is the Tree Sentinel is right there for you to fight, imagine going through a whole area eager for that boss loot only to be told no, you need to go to at least 4 edges of the map and then come back here. I mean the Dancing Lion and Renalla are right there by the beginning, I feel like this only increases the list of incomplete areas you have to remember. I wouldn't mind it as much if the bosses that needed more Scadutree items were deeper into the map. People shouldn't be forced to explore, the dlc does look beautiful yes but at times you run into areas that are just a whole lotta nothing.
You don't have to remember unfinished places. That's what the marker system is for. Simply mark areas on the map you have yet to go through, or finish, and use a skull icon for bosses that you have encountered, but not yet killed (like the Furnace Golems).
@Neonmirrorblack That's a fair point, I guess I forgot cause I never really used it. Never had a need to, but my point is I prefer exploration at my own leisure, not as a mandatory feature now if you want to fight the actual boss of an area you're currently in. It's a Souls game, so naturally the boss fights are gonna be the main draw card for most people.
@@Jard357 I agree with you. I also believe that going "open-world" wasn't the boon so many make it out to be. I think it actually hurts the pacing and it has the same problem every single other open-world game does: empty, pointless space and copy/paste encounters ad nauseam.
Having to search for these "Deku Seeds" just exacerbates it.
I'm really enjoying the DLC so far, but my best guess as to why people see this new upgrade system as an issue is because you can't just grind it endlessly - you have to find some of the fixed number of fragments, and some will be locked between areas where you need to clear bosses. In the base game you can effectively level up infinitely before engaging any bosses, but in the DLC you can't max out your Scadutree level (or whatever it's called).
The Sekiro filter.
@@Knoloaify Except this DLC is nothing like Sekiro.
In Sekiro your defence was your offence at the same time. In this DLC you are dodging a 10 hit combo to get get some damage in.
Not saying it is bad but its just miles away from the fun I had with Sekiro.
I kid you not I've read a comment today and it said that FromSoft screwed up because they punish players who don't want to explore...
For God's sake the game is built around exploration. If you don't like it then don't play Elden Ring that's a massive ass open world game where exploration is a key element.
@@Sylphan I was specifically referring to Sekiro's leveling system and how it wasn't possible to simply farm yourself into being over-leveled, and referring only to that.
yup you actually have to earn your way now and not cheese like a b1tch
Wow that was quick! I was waiting for this video from you.
Nothing like a Sunday learning percentages. 😊
Not hard, just lazily done. Most of the complaints are not that it's hard, it's that instead of making the bosses difficult through mechanics, they make them difficult by having them spam attacks that can 2 hit you endlessly without any way of interrupting them. The extreme camera issues in this DLC only serve to make it even worse.
The other reason combat in this DLC feels unfun and unfair is because they seemly just gave most enemies hyperarmor, you cannot flinch most enemies and even staggering them is difficult because by the time there's an opening to attack their stagger bar has replenished so combat has for the most part just devolved into a waiting game.
I saw a quote that summed it up perfectly, "Bosses in Shadows of the Erdtree are playing Sekiro, but you're playing Darksouls."
Most of them like Messmer and Rellana are a lot more aggressive and unrelenting and spammy than even Sekiro bosses. Take Owl Father or either version of Isshin for example. They leave way more openings than Messmer does.
So, everyone is Malenia now?
Real
@TheStraightestWhitest they have to keep pushing the envelope of difficulty, which I think we've sort of reached the limit for how hard a boss can be without having some bullshit moves or effects now. I'd rather have bosses be more enjoyable than on the verge of bullshit.
I feel they have taken to trying to balance the game after seeing all of these insane streamers doing no hit runs etc and many of which claim the games aren't hard enough. Leaving actual human players to not have much fun
No, we are playing Elden Ring. The bosses ALL have openings where you can land R2 or Charged R2, and no, the stagger bar doesn't "replenish" so quickly that taking small downtime to heal is going to lose you all your progress.
You shouldn't be trying to interrupt boss attacks, you should be positioning to bait out favorable attacks and punish them.
You getting two hit? Use defensive buff talismans, use boiled prawn, use livers, use buffs like golden vow. Or go out explore and get fragments, I've NEVER been two shot by a boss outside of when I was very low scadutree fragment.
an issue I'm having is that the bosses are way hard while the mobs of the boss area are easy. So it only feels that you're in the wrong place when you're about to face the boss
That's a really good point
Wait that's kinda true
Lol funny cos I feel the opposite way. Bosses may take me some time, but I can fight them in a controlled environment, so it's fine, but the mobs are what really stresses me out. The dlc has such a high density of regular enemies and most of them can 2 to 3 shot me, so I usually run past everything and go straight for the boss.
Indeed. The base game is fine, I hardly died to mobs, mostly to gravity, but the bosses are either push overs with summons, or almost impossible without them .
This is a solid point
I have the same problem with the dlc that I had in the main game. Bosses are doing more damage per hit than ever, moving faster than ever, and have longer combo attacks than ever. Pushing players more and more into specific builds and play styles in order to beat them. I want more games like DS1, where any weapon or build can get me through the game without becoming a frustrating slog
That being said, Elden Ring is second only to Sekiro for me. And the DLC is so fantastic! I just wish it was easier to play the way I want
Watch players like Ongbal and you'll see just how many openings these bosses have. Too many players spam dodge roll without strafing or jumping, which are sometimes MUCH more effective than rolling.
The only boss where I felt this was the case was Rellana, and I've been using colossals the entire time.
All the bosses have some or the other elemental weakness. Rellana is weak to holy and messmer is weak to magic. I won't spoil the names of other bosses and weaknesses, but it exists. I would keep rotating fire, magic and holy damage throughout the dlc whichever weapon you use. Or bleed. Bleed just works on everything even in this dlc.
@@vijaybm9305Rellana is weak to lightning
i think another important aspect of damage and defense upgrades that is sometimes understated is how it can often influence the way you fight a boss way more that the percentages imply. Having more damage doesnt just make the fight shorter, it also means that you are less likely to be in the boss fight long enough to get a "bs pattern". Likewise, an increase in health and defenses can put you over the one or two shot range from attacks, meaning you consistently have less risk when fighting. Seen some people who have gone into the divine lion beast fight and roll-spammed and charged attacked their way to victory because their attack/defense put them over the threshold where that strategy is viable.
definitly true that the scadutree fragments are vital, and I think it's good that they want to keep the philosophy of if you can't beat something yet go somewhere else and get stronger.
But the problem with the dlc is that quite a few areas are pretty (arguably unreasonably) hard to reach, so you can't do their challenges.
Like an entire region where the only path to it is behind a fake wall in a hidden room halfway across the map from the actual region. Or a path that can only be opened by using a very specific emote that is hidden in some random location with no story significance that could be anywhere on the map.
And these would be largely fine, if you at some point at least got some hints about their existence at the very least
Just in a point to the emote needed to open the hinterlands, it has a VERY large story significance to Marika.
I'll say one thing, the camera in some of these fights is the hardest thing so far for me, but that's a fromsoft staple, so. Cant really go about and explore to beat the camera.
Also that scadurtree stuff is honestly a bit nonsensical. I have 10 and mobs at the beginning of the dlc will still do bookoo amounts of damage, Fromsoft is just pulling some cracked difficulty in this DLC
Enjoying it overall though
fr the dancing lion fight would have been amazing if the camara placement was better.
Kid named right stick
this is factual for me too on a 100% basis. I do not 'struggle' with bosses, I struggle with the arenas constantly clipping and blocking me on the tiniest props. I do not find it difficult to fight enemies like the trolls, gargoyles or golems, I find fighting the camera during engaging them difficult.
It's 100% quality of life issue that fromsoftware fanboys tend to gloss over, telling "git gut" to anyone who points out the lack of responsive controls and lack of good camera panning.
Just because I point out flaws in the game, doesn't mean that it's bad, and just because it's good, doesn't mean I shouldn't point out the flaws.
I can't even count how many 360 spins the camera has made so far, it feels like every animal boss like the lion dancer or the hippo is hard coded to fuck with lock-on.
Fromsoft cannot, for the life of them, figure out something the rest of the industry figured out 20 years ago.
Generally find myself loving your music selection
SOTN was a pleasure to hear again, need to replay that soon
I think one issue is the way the map is laid out. You can get to most of the map without killing bosses, but you often have to find unintuitive ways that you can't see on the map due to the verticality. So you need to explore for the scadutree fragments, but there usually isn't an obvious way to get to other areas other than beating the boss you are stuck on.
There are cliffs everywhere so it feels a lot more confined than it actually is.
1. Nerfed player
2. Force player to collect
Go tell me how fun playing elden ring is without upgrading your flask or weapons. All of that is completely optional like fragments.
@@ISesseriI Flask upgrades were already an issue. Weapons are not mandatory, minus the one you want to use.
I don't mind the difficulty. I just hate the limits on re-specing and fully upgrading weapons with the ancient dragon stones. Like why put those artificial limits on these things? It really prevents me from experiencing the whole game.
Something I'm going to mention for the DLC, there is a thing you can do after fighting mesmer, the demigod in all the promotional material. It's like burning the erdtree in the base game, and fails several quests, you'll know what it is when you get to it, but be aware that some quests you have to go off the beaten path to find the ending. Make sure to explore the whole world if you want everything.
Cheers to Ratatoskr pronouncing Scadutree perfectly 👏
i like the leveling system in the dlc and i agree with the concept but i still think that the bosses hit too hard regardless, have enormous health pools and they spam attacks monstop. all these three factors combined didn't make for a fun experience for me, it felt more like it was hard just to be hard. another complaint i had is the way you traverse the land, it was very disorienting and confusing and having so few graces makes it even harder. i found it hard to figure out where to go and follow the main storyline and even harder for the optional stuff. in general i still think the dlc is good but it felt a little unbalanced and undercooked, at least from the perspective of a casual fan going blind for the first time.
So I do have a slight criticism with the scadutree system in that it is a little limiting compared to what was done before and also the game is very unhelpful as to actually helping you find them. In the base game when you went elsewhere when hitting a roadblock there were lots of things you could do, you could get weapon upgrades, new talismans, new weapons, level up, AND upgrade your flask (which I feel is close to the scadutree and sacred ash system). Now here while you can still do a lot of that the effect is generally weakened by the assumption you probably aren't going to find anything THAT more powerful than what the end game of Elden Ring offered, though I could very much be wrong as I have seen some crazy things pulled out in multiplayer.
My main issue with the scadutree fragments is that the description says "Found in churches", well, I have been to two churches in the game so far and one of them did not even have a fragment. Most of them have been near the stakes of Miquella and other locations that simply did not stand out enough for me to remember exactly. I think this is a genuine flaw compared to the golden seeds and sacred tears of the base game. You found golden seeds by small, golden trees that were very hard to miss. You found sacred tears in churches. There is no "Haha! We tricked you!" at any point in the game for these items, they are found in a specific place and stick to that place. Whereas the placement of the scadutree fragments seem more arbitrary. If the description had a different line from "at churches" I would probably feel better about it. But as it is now it creates a genuine issue where a player can go "Well, I COULD explore, but what if I already HAVE all the available scadutree fragments in my general vicinity?".
EDIT: And fromsoft seems to agree with me on this because they clarified in a steam news post that "Hey, these pot dudes? Yeah they have scadutree fragments". I also think that decision is fucking stupid to attach these items to not-crystal-lizard enemies that respawn and have zero way to tell if you have already gained their shard.
Thank you so much for making this video. It's been really frustrating to see people rushing through the game and then complain how they're getting wrecked cause they ignore the empowerment mechanic
It's as if they learned nothing from the base game
THIS!
I feel like summing up people complaining as those who rushed through and ignored the scadutree fragments is incredibly generalising and refusing to even listen to the arguments of the other side.
I am a souls vet, I was confused when they nerfed launch radahn, I argued against difficulty settings when the urinalists started trying to push them. and yet I genuinely think this DLC is too much.
as we speak I have just given up at the final boss. I was not underequipped by any stretch of logic, my blessing is at 19 and my character is level 188, my armour negates 80% minimum on ALL damage types. I respecced my build specifically to use heavier armour and a greatshield because dodging some attacks is impossible due to roll recovery time or the sheer size and duration of the hitbox. My best attempt got the boss to around 55% health. if I make a mistake I get killed in 2 hits of an 8 hit long combo.
I understand that there are people who have beaten the boss so it's not literally impossible to do but, even as someone who loved getting their ass beat by the 3 phase frieda fight in ds3's DLC because it still felt fair, this is simply not enjoyable and frankly I have better uses for my time while I wait for an inevitable balance patch (becuase if day 1 radahn got nerfed this sure as shit isn't going to be left as is for long)
If you empower your character you’re literally playing on easy mode. Get better at the game
@@backslash4141 You're just bad, my guy. Accept it. Nothing you said is valid. Get better with time and learn patience. It's meant to be the most difficult content they've done. Maybe it's just not for you, brodie. 😂
I think they all had the idea that the dlc was gonna be on endgame level which is what it was marketed as but most of the enemies seem even worse than endgame enemies.
On the backside of the Fort of Reprimand castle there’s what appears to be ratatoskr squirrels by the cliffside.
Looking into the values with modding software, the max Scadutree damage resistance is 50%, so getting to blessing level 20 effectively gives you double the effective health
my biggest gripe with the dlc has been the exploration honestly. the map is gorgeous of course and there is still some fun in the sense of discovery but the loot feels even more worthless than the base game and i dont particularly like how everything is so vertical and hard to reach. it was fine for that one plateau in limgrave (the one for rannis quest i believe) but when its the core design of the map it feels more restrictive instead of freeing like an open world should be imo.
Yep. My thoughts exactly. It is very divided, it doesn't feel like a real open world, but a very restrictive one. And you go exploring and you get smithing stones and gloveworts that you can buy a gazillion already? It's stupid.
Are you kidding? I love how layered and intricate the map is.
yea, a lot of just dead ends with a smithing stone... that we could just buy this exact thing 3x from the runes the enemies I killed give to get here. the whole lets see where this goes to a dead end unfortunately is my guess of not having a true open world to take you somewhere else, so it becomes painfully obvious this was just a giant path for one or two things and now thats it. not the worst but definitely 4th wall breaking at times
"Why is it always, dung?"
Honestly I hate the system: it's invisible so it's not like you got a shiny new armor or something it just means you clicked a button and your numbers are better, likewise it doesn't feel like any actual progression has happened since I'm fighting the same boss with the same equipment but my numbers are just arbitrarily higher. "Promoting exploration" only applies for like a week and then everything becomes known and then you just ride Torrent around the map getting the free seeds just like what people do now with the Golden Seeds and Sacred Tears in Limgrave/Weeping Peninsula, it's just tedious and uninteresting but you're forced to do it because it's a numbers game
this comment is 10/10
This is a great take
It's meant to give endgame characters a fresh experience in place of more levelling, when they have probably reached skill caps and improved the gear they like. Both are an invisible numbers game. It's like if you went straight to Stormveil in the base game, you'd probably get stomped by the boss, so you explore the lands around it and gain levels before going back. People can look up where to find them, and that's fine, but I think they are missing out on exploring the world organically. It's a condensed version of the main game, so even just popping into new areas and exploring the world you're going to find a ton of them. It also has an added function of being a sort of difficulty slider for the truly psychotic players.
Although I agree with the take, progression here would always hit a conundrum. How do you input a new progression without making all the progress from the base game not be useless, or even worse all the items from the base game not be useless while keeping a progression system in place.
There could be a couple of choices:
Higher upgrades for weapons matched with increase of mobs health
Introduce Armor upgrades matched with higher damage from mobs
Having items with better scalling so that you are incentivised to level up more.
These introduce another issue that is once you go back to base game you would be completely overpowered. For example I didn’t clear out the Dragonlord Placidusax. Now I can go back with new weapons and play styles and do that while still being as challenging.
I understand that it sucks that it is invisible. But on the other hand it makes the DLC an addition on the side of the base game and not a endgame for the original game. Meaning on a new play through you can go to the DLC do the DLC and come back to the base game and become an Elden Lord with new build and new playstyles that didn't exist before. All that with maintaining the same level for PvP and PvE and not splitting the player base that doesn't have the DLC or didn't play it.
These are the benefits of it. It's a trade of at the end of the day.
idk maybe its because I'm only half way through, but I feel like I'm pretty naturally discovering the upgrades through the course of my play and its working just fine. Maybe that will change when I hit end game though but I'm not complaining
Very much appreciate the simple explanation on the impact of scadu fragments. Seen a lot of people saying they dont matter that much
Think the main problem is that farming runes fits into the RPG mechanic of the core game than the scadutree fragments. You can kill anything, anywhere, to get runes and get stronger. Bosses are balanced, based on their location, around a certain RL. In the DLC, it seems like every boss requires you to have a ton of Scadutree fragments to be on par. Also, it's less about farming enemies now, and it's become a scavenger hunt for upgrades. Some of these are locked behind bosses, and while it does encourage exploration, some folks may get stuck trying to find that one scadutree fragment they need for an additional upgrade.
I think Fromsoft worries of steamrolling the DLC is a non-issue, because you need to beat Mohg anyways to access it. Most folks will be at RL 125 or higher by that point, and if people are way higher, then let them steamroll the DLC. Typically folks who overlevel are doing NG+, so the bosses will scale to be much harder, anyways. It makes the DLC system more confusing for folks used to the base system. If the DLC was instantly accessible from the start, the DLC upgrade system makes sense. But to have it accessible pretty much late game, this made things more frustrating and cumbersome than necessary. Not to mention, getting max upgrades just doesn't feel enough to challenge DLC end game bosses.
Given I avoided all kinds of spoilers, this interview of Miyazaki, I should have listened or watched them.
But the beauty of this DLC, as much as it kicked my butt 700 ways to sunday, is the discovering thing. Learning what these fragments are and the like...that's what makes the DLC so damn memorable...like exploring things for the first time, not sure what the key items are. And then diving into the item descriptions to find the answers rather than being told...isn't that what makes these games so fun?
After reaching the endgame of the DLC and learning in retrospect about the fragments, it shows me how much I missed out.
Thank you for the video, this gave me quite a lot of insight. That way I can finally solo the bosses, instead of relying on my spirit summons.
You should rely on spirit summons, just as much as you rely on healing potions or consumables, blocking and dodging. There's nothing wrong with them; they're a part of the game in Elden Ring, they have their own upgrade system in the base game and in the DLC. You're supposed to use them, even though a handful of really, really cool guys don't.
yea because getting blessings will help when that fucking dragon on the mountain busts my ass as soon as I'm out of the fog gate animation
I think since the DLC map is a lot tighter with medium dungeons littered everywhere, the fragments make exploring feel less rewarding than the base game. It's like explore A first because A makes B easier. The problem is if you do 90% of B first and just not the boss in the DLC, the XP you gain and stuff you find barely make things easier like levelling/upgrading did in the base game
Never has boiled crab been such a strong item in a video game.
so. I agree and LOVE Elden ring. that being said I have a nitpick. Mind you I have 9 upgrades and Have beaten all bossess on the shadow keep, and I feel like there is too much visual clutter. to a degree that sometimes obfuscates the bossess attack making it feel poorly designed. I am sure I can just git gud, but it still feels like some attacks come to you before you can realize it. I have 2 examples in mind but dont want to give spoilers. but both are on the shadow manor. also if you are locked in and against a wall. the moment the boss dashes past you the camera goes WILD. so beware that. best of luck to all and enjoy this magnificent piece of art
I had a big issue with that on the boss of the tower, i just couldnt tell what they were doing most of the time
you are 100% right, im repeating myself a bunch but the info needs to get out there, the unreactable moves are NOT traditional fromsoft design they are what day one game devs do when trying to mimic darksouls without understanding what was fun about avoiding attacks, it was on the player 80% of the time, with a few gimmicks to keep you looking, now its auto death 10 times cause you'll never know what the timing is for these moves.
but can still cheese everything with great shield or ash of war spam, theres no balance and the honest players are the ones feeling it the worst.
many people like to grind blindly like that and i don't shame them, but they need to understand that theres plenty of games out there with that kind of trial by failure gameplay loop and From was the safeplace for people who liked good game design that was challenging as well.
a counter argument i could see raised to this criticism is "Sekiro has a ton of unreactables"
yes but you miss timing a parry is just blocked, or getting hit from missing the rhythm of a new attack pattern doesn't mean instant start over, the devs saw this issue and gave you revivals mid fight for this exact issue, lore was not the original reason you die twice(thrice?) it was deliberate game mechanic to make the experience fun instead of tedious, it shows they understood as good devs that unreactables have potential for cinematic fights but need a lot of help to make them not a tedious grind, and going back to the beginning cause of one pick a path like obstacle is bad. did they get someone new to work on the dlc bosses, did they get rushed? were they hoping everyone would use the sekiro bubble tear? we'll never know.
This is a fine PSA, but I think the gameplay issue for a lot of people is in fact, the movesets. The "sit around and wait for the 20 string combo to end so I can do a single light attack" gameplay. I think this has just become way too prevalent in Elden Ring
Git gud and engage with the game on its own terms.
@@Caseyuptobat You just sound like a cucked out retard when you can't handle any criticism of the game mechanics whatsoever. Watch Joseph Anderson's video on the game. He perfectly outlines the issues with the core mechanics, and that was two years ago. From Soft just doubled down on the BS, and they get infinite cover to not improve from you troglodytes. Your entire conception of a From Soft game is one dimensional, and you therefore assume any criticism is a skill issue. Literally brain dead
My two favorite bosses I've encountered in the DLC so far have been exactly this. I find the dance enthralling.
@Caseyuptobat
And then get destroyed or use tiche and mimic tier to destroy the boss. What great design!
@@LastExpellian The dance was more enthralling in Sekiro, where the player was actually allowed to participate in the dance.
You were the first person to help me understand to level Vigor past 20 in my first ER playthrough. I now return to you during my precious time of Free Time Off Work to help me understand how to succeed in the DLC because my plumber/bass player brain isn’t quite sure at this point lol
Thank you. This explanation is motivational. I finished up the requirements last night to step into the DLC but found myself playing Helldivers today instead, due to the messaging of difficulty that everyone is spreading.
The hardest part of the game is traversing the map
Ign has a good video on it for the map fragments. Helped me a ton.
@@awtodor IGN??? LOLOLOL!!!!
Me trying to get to the 2nd Finger Ruins...
Me: listening to this, nodding my head intently and agreeing with every word.
Also me: ok, back to beating my head into a brick wall trying to defeat that giant flame bucket corpse thing right inside the DLC on level 1.
You need to stagger both their legs and then crit the face. Make sure you stay on torrent to avoid the stomps, and stay behind the boss, switching legs often. I think you need to stagger each leg twice to knock them down.
It's the best feeling, and also the worst feeling - that brick wall.
The fight is attack until you have to jump -> attack until you have to run away and jump -> stagger three times -> crit -> repeat. The reward is worth it.
@@bobertastic6541Just FYI you don’t need to be on Torrent to avoid the stomps, jumping works just fine. The hitbox for the flames is much lower and lasts much less time than you would think based on the animation of the fire. I found it easier to stay off Torrent most of the time so I could do charges heavy attacks in between each stomp.
LISTEN HERE.... IF ITS HARD, USE DEFENSIVE TAILSMANS, BOILED CRAB, DRIED LIVERS, CERULIAN HARD TEAR, SUMMONS, ETC. ALSO AND MOST IMPORTANT, GO COLLECT SCADUTREE FRAGMENTS PEOPLE!!!
I’m really not having that hard a time. But then again I’m using Mohg’s Sacred Spear and Mimic Tear.
i want to try the discount mohg spear the new enemies have, I got one to drop too, There are a lot of really cool arcane weapons in the dlc, i wish i respected to arcane over faith this playthrough
I'd really love to see a heroic concept video of Messmer, similar to your previous videos.
Perhaps one of those videos is worth revisiting with the added information within the DLC.
if you're on PC and stuck on rellana, check righthand the corner before the stairs. i'll help c:
i could fight this boss everyday
It's. A great fight the way she ramps up new attacks and adds extra swings to old combos as the fight goes on.
Is is a great boss. I summoned Leda to beat her, but even then it was a difficult fight. I think I'll take my time on my second character and try to solo her, because it definitely seem like I can do it. Parrying her feels so nice.
If someone helps you beat the boss you never really beat it
A gentleman and a scholar. The world needs more people like you.
i agree top boss fight
As someone who created arbitrary restrictions when I play it’s frustrating to see people do the same then blame the game/design for the wonky difficulty when they are going out of there way to make it harder for themselves. The game will let you hamstring yourself, it doesn’t require that you do.
But, but if you use any of the mechanics that weren't in Dark Souls 1, blessed be its name, you're not a REAL souls player!
Just parroting the nonsense I see on reddit, because you're absolutely right.
I must have respec'd and overhauled my approach to Elden Ring at least 10+ times (at least 8 of of those were just for Malenia). The devs put all of these things in the game to be used, if you want to. Intentionally hamstringing yourself or just flat out ignoring a game mechanic will make the game exceedingly more difficult.
well i went with juiced stats, an overpowered build with mohg's spear and using all the fragments i found, the bosses still have lots of hp, do too much damage and they are super aggressive spamming attacks nonstop. to me it felt poorly balanced still. elden ring became so big because it allowed for more than just the dark souls old heads to play and enjoy the game, giving you options to make the game as easy or hard as you'd like but the dlc, even with all the tools doesn't feel like that, unless you mimic run away and rot the bosses from afar i guess , which is kinda boring and lame. maybe i'm just a casual and trash but elden ring was supposed to be for people like me too based on the base game.
i just realized making RP builds counts as _'an arbitrary restriction'_ one places upon himself
The issue is that they seem to balance it around people abusing every single advantage which results in honest solo players facing sloggishly long bossfights. I had to switch to dual wielding because a single 800AR (before scadutree) greatsword was just tickling them.
The fun part is that people will cry the exact same way they did on release: saying you need OP tools and summons, when in reality you can do everything alone. It's hilarious seeing people saying Rellana will one or two shot you with all of her attacks when, in reality, you can tank 5 to 6 hits fine.
The last bosses are brutal and will murder you with at least 3-4 hits, but of course the DLC final bosses are going to hit like a truck.
Guys here’s a tip for beating the bosses. Do not use gold NPC summon signs outside the boss room. It actually makes the bosses harder. You’ll be doing little to no damage at all.
true, from a practical standpoint, but having a lore significant npc fighting alongside you is cool so i choose to do it anyway, lol
I used it for the Lion Dancer and it helped a lot with staggers and take attention from him but the health increase is a doozy. You gotta have high damaging attacks to summon an NPC. Using spirit ashes tho doesn’t increase the bosses health as much.
@@michaelbarnes2126Summons also happen to raise posture of bosses, alongside health, I must agree with the OP, tbh, with spirit ashes on your side, the normal summoning is more of a detriment
I did it out of fear of not being able to progress the quest. It was hard but I could still use a mimic tear to help so it definitely made it more manageable
Normally I would agree, but this time Fromsoft had the genius idea to tie quests to summoning. So you literally cannot progress some NPC quests without summoning them.
There is knowing that the scadutree fragments help, then there is KNOWING the scadutree upgrades will help. I went in blind, completely blind and that was my choice. I knew the upgrades would help but I didn't know to what degree they would help. And honestly I think Fromsoft should have done an logarithmic curve on the scaling from the blessings. I think a lot of people are upgrading a few blessing levels and going to town on the boss. I know that is what I did and it felt like I didn't upgrade at all. Once you get blessing level 10+ it almost feels like you went to far. Luckily this is still a Fromsoft game and you can still die to a blob that pushes you off a cliff randomly.
My biggest complaint on the DLC so far is the needlessly complicated routing to get around the world. I never looked up how to get anywhere in the base game. On my first playthrough I didn't even know the elevator worked to get to the altus plateau. In the DLC I have had to look up how to get to multiple locations now. In fact, it has caused me to do something I didn't want to do which was watch videos spoiling the areas.
The map is a nightmare
Yeah same but I do like it. I had to look up a video, but it it very cool how hidden away and expansive it is.
I was like how do I get down there??? For an entire afternoon before looking it up via RUclips
I always look everywhere so I hadn't this issue. Eventually you will find some path
Yeah they've made so many areas seemingly a little secret lol
My gut feeling is that people are getting impatient because they believe they are experts and feel entitled to progress and content.
I think the biggest difference is that in the base game you get souls from anywhere, but in this dlc you have to find these very specific items, some of which are very obscure. Going in blind feels like a worse option than its ever been because of this
All you need to do is take your time and explore so why it is worse?
dont treat formsoftware games like a boss rush simulator
I've been finding them without really trying. A lot of them are in really obvious locations too.
Even after just finding the first two upgrades you’re likely to find; it feels like a huge difference.
Yeah I come prideful to the land of shadow, then I been humbled by the celestial beast. I explore a lot and now the fun is right there.
the dlc just forces you have a shield
I have killed the bosses without them
Nah. I don't need em
You don't need a shield.
-someone that blocks with the Ruins Greatsword lol
I haven't used any myself, but I can see why people would feel the need to use them. A lot of boss attacks are literally impossible to dodge, "****cough****, Commander Giaus, ****cough****"
@@SleepyMatt-zzz Which of Gaius' attacks are impossible to dodge?
Just beat NG+7 Promised Consort Radahn.
I want to go home...
and then edge.
spoilerb 🦒☹️
Great video. Also, I feel like there's a lot of newer FromSoft players with the assumption that a proud victory can only come from dodgerolls and weapon smashing. But Elden Ring differs from the other games in giving you so many new tools to use. Item crafting, wonderous physick, ashes of war, great runes, bleed, scarlet rot, spirit summons. And I'm sure I'm still missing some. With the addition of these, the developers created bosses with the exploitation of what they've given you in mind. It might be hypocritical of me to say because I'm stubbornly banging my head against the wall with nothing but dual twinblades, but there is no shame in utilizing what's clearly been provided for you.
Good video!
I learned today from Leviathan video that you can apparently just jump over half of all those super annoying chain and ground shock attacks, because your lower body immediacy gets not counted as a hit box as soon as you press the jump button, this goes hand in hand with jump attacks. And guard counter also works well.
Referring back to the videos you did at release, when I shared your sentiment they had just made the bosses more insane without giving us the tools that we got in Sekiro or Bloodborne. But it turns out they did give us the tool, we just didn't use it.
Talking about the base game and boss attack patterns overall in Elden Ring. Basically you can jump all Margit and Godricks attacks. Not to mention using perfumes, strafing, pots, weaknes like gravity vs birds or holy pots vs death birds, sleep etc etc...
Honestly Ratatoskr, old chap, we might just have played the game wrong, rolling to much.
This DLC is so PERFECT I LOVEEE
same,ppl are just complaining because everyone is trying to speedrun the game instead of enjoying it
wait till you reach the finger ruins
The lore is pure shit
You know you can love something while still admitting it's flawed? Nothing is perfect, especially not this dlc.
@@TheSectric NOOO!!! Miyazaki can do no wrong! It's a 10/10 DLC and if you disagree you're WRONG!!
two major problems with dlc:
1. there is almost no interaction or new dialogue in erdtree realm. at least gideon would spill some info or gossip. i.e. even you would accept 3 fingers Midra doesnt tell or do a new thing.
2. exaggerated vertical design. i.e. roofed Raul sites or library scenes make nausea to some or feel them clostrophobic
just completely false there are complete comprehensive npc questlines that divulge lots of information
@@SilentSolvent i didnt mean shadow realm, i meant erdtree realm as above. there is no new dialogue in erdtree realm.
I dont have the dlc yet but should i like hold back on the shards a little so its not too easy? Like get two then after a boss four then six ect, or is every boss just built different and it doesnt hurt the experience all that much?
honestly, you won't notice them helping the way this video describes it, its attempting to validate people who aren't enjoying the dlc and getting told they suck at the game when reaally they just need to know its a tough experience for most.
over all, your enjoyment will be mostly on what kind of playstyle and weapons you use. what i mean is there are breakpoints of how many hits to die to a boss, and 7 scurd fragments (relatively high amount)
wont change a 80% of your hp hit to under 50% so you still have to heal or risk dying, you still have to learn the fight or your extra damage wont mean anything, most bosses literally hit you mid attack every single time, forcing you to wait for them and avoid an attack and punish them.
and almost every attack in the game takes memorizing a specific timing and/sometimes also a roll direction, you will get killed regardless of your fragment count if you get two unreactable attacks in a row (very common experience)
when you start learning the fight you die no matter what.
0 fragments or 10, you will generally kill a boss in the same amount of grind. the sooner you accept that you have to memorize every attack and not react like other games, the sooner you beat the boss and that's all there is to it. the fragments make open world less obnoxious, cause everything does most of your health. if you have a bullky build then you wont really see the immediate danger but if you are playing fashionsouls then the damage is veru noticable.
long story short they intentionally inflated enemy hp and damage to give the fragments a reason to exist, but also made most attacks a gimmick so you were going to get rolled no matter what till you learnt he fight. the end
Dragoncrest Greatshield talisman on the balcony right before the elevator to Malenia is a lifesaver for this DLC.
Still remember taking like four steps into that field and was immediately cut to pieces by the masked omen dude
10000/10 game
Issue with the blessings is that.
1. It turns the game into a fetch quest, your not exploring for new options your hunting down blessings cause you can't engage with the DLC without them.
2. And, the blessings gave the devs a huge excuse to overturn bosses to take into account said blessings that now they are more tedious than fun.
They prioritized the difficulty spike far too much in this DLC.
I wanna complete the dlc, now! None of this open world shit, just a 3 hour steamroll! Fuck the point of the game!
@@jeremiahjohnson2784 If the point of the game is to be a crappy, empty open world you have to be FORCED to explore yeah, please end it now. Have fun zig zagging across every dumb open plain, scouring it and hoping to find a random hole in the ground leading to any actual gameplay.
@@I-ONLY-BUILD-MECHS-AND-DUSTERS I understand where you're coming from, but exploring the GREAT DLC open world is as much a part of Elden Ring as the "actual gameplay". I love Dark Souls, but while this shares a lot of it's DNA, it's not a Dark Souls game where it's fight-after-fight.
They prioritized exploration yes.
And I prefer that.
I'm the type of player that never finishes souls games because once I reach the final boss I lose interest since there's nothing else to find afterwards. I've seen the final boss, tried it a couple times, see how I fare, and if it take mlre than 5-10 tries, I just stop and watch the ending on RUclips.
So Elden Ring and its DLC are pretty much my top Souls style so far, please give me more exploration-gated content !
To me the exploration is the gameplay, and the bosses are checkpoints to unlock new areas.
@@arenkai Yeah, exploring to find some random crafting material or ash spirit you wont ever use.
If they wont to make us explore, they should add some positive reasoning instead of just the "you gonna get destroyed if you dont, lmao". Sure, there is some good stuff here and there, but is so few and somewhat randomly placed for the size of the world, and it lacks live. I say even as old as it is Skyrim is still better as an open world game.
I haven't killed all the DLC bosses yet, but in my experience, the bosses' difficulty doesn't stem just from the stats, but from the fact that the window of opportunity for attacking is way too small, and that they do not seem to get staggered from anything, aside from posture breaking. It's not isolated from the main game of course, but seem more prominent in the DLC
The challenge has been fun as hell! Been loving this dlc❤
Only problem for me is the world map is a nightmare to explore. i genuinely hate how vertical it is its actually pretty frustrating. Legacy dungeons and catacombs are absolutely peak though.
I think the game really needs to be better at communicating. Intended routes, boss orders, etc. Because sometimes there's an enemy/boss that the game thinks you are ready for but it is inconsistently more difficult than the rest of the difficulty curve, and other times they have things they expect you to skip and come back to, but don't make it clear.
I think it's because they don't "expect" you to do anything. They trust that you're intelligent and will either hit your head against the wall until it breaks, or summon, or go find fragments. If players complain that the wall isn't breaking and refuse to summon or find fragments, it's on them, not the game.
It's like doing a SL1 run and then complaining that the game is too difficult. Of course, it's going to be, what did you expect?
I wish it was better at communicating dodges. I find it har to know in this dlc if I miss-timed a dodge, or if I simply dodged the wrong direction.
If you are struggling, I have a build suggestion for you.
Str+arc build using heavy armor (bullgoat or veridris) + fingerprint/veridris shield + blood affinity antspur rapier. For talismans, I recommend dragoncrest greatshield, pearl shield talisman, greatshield talisman, and two-headed turtle talisman.
Hold block, and R1 spam with rapier to proc rot + bleed. When you get to about 1/2 stam, let it regen before attacking more. This build honestly makes the game very very easy. I was even able to kill the final boss with no deaths because of this build.
As someone who didn’t watch a single trailer or discussion video about the gameplay of the DLC, I was able to figure out this system and have a lot of fun in it.
It's not an issue with the Scadutree fragments. Something is very off with the balance of the game overall.
[Spoilers follow]
I play a mage build (80 Int, 42 vig an 42 mnd, level 162). I can do a dungeon where I'm 1-shotting all the regular enemies with Great Glintstone Shard (one of my weakest spells). Then, there's a Mesmer Soldier (those fire guys in all red) That take nearly a full bar of MP to kill. Plus the tracking on their fireballs is absolutely insane. And you can't interrupt those things. I've killed the guys while they were casting the fireball, and the fireball still came out and hit me even after he had already died. And those things are so hard to dodge because of how fast and accurately they track you. There shouldn't be that big of a difference in the experience of just killing regular dungeon enemies. There's no middle ground. The enemies are either too easy, or way too hard. Not even talking about the bosses... yet.
But when you get to the bosses, they just charge right at you and camera frack you in the fog gate, if not just 1-shot you. I've been having to use Scholar's Shield and block as soon as a boss fight starts. But some enemies can start the fight with a ridiculous command grab that you can't block (like that stupid hippo in the Shadow Keep). So that's a whole new level of wtf...
The boss fights just feel cheap. I don't want to engage with most of them. I just want them over. Fighting that hippo, for example: he charges at the fog gate as soon as you enter, with either the command grab, or something else (I can never tell because my camera goes inside him and I can't see). If you survive that, you can't create space to cast anything without having spirit ashes out because he advances across the whole room with any given attack. And again, you're either dead, or you can't see because your camera goes inside of him. I used a spirit ash to distract him while I cast a couple of Rock Slings to break his poise. But even when he was poise broken, he didn't stay down long enough for me to even fully charge a spell. He went down and almost immediately started to get up again. All of the bosses, except for the Furnace Golems are like that. I kind of just got lucky and got Meteorite of Astel off and that nuked his HP from around 80% to 0%. But that whole fight just felt cheap and very luck based.
Then I fought the Commander Gaius... Again, he charges right at the fog gate as soon as you walk in with some weird dodgy charge that sometimes 1-shots, sometimes does barely any damage, sometimes I can block it, sometimes it breaks my guard. It's very inconsistent, and so is the hitbox when you try to roll away from it. You can use Torrent in that fight. But the damn pig boss is literally twice as fast and agile as Torrent is, so it really defeats the purpose of using him. This isn't a problem with the boss' damage. This is a problem with enemies animations, hitboxes, aggressiveness, cheap attacks, obnoxious speed, hyper armour, ridiculous amount of ground covered with any one attack (have Gaius chain 3 attacks together and he's just traveled half a mile in 2 seconds), etc. The damage is ONLY an issue because of all those other things.
I even noticed something else. So in the base game, I remember how you could use night sorceries to hit enemies without them dodging, because they can't "see" them. Not a thing in the DLC. Rellana, for example, will button read dodge night sorceries. It's like the devs watched strategies people came up with in the base game, and did everything they could to make sure those strategies don't work in the DLC. You like to summon or buff up in the base game as soon as you enter the boss room. Good luck doing that in the DLC. You think you can stagger bosses in the base game. Not possible in the DLC. It almost feels like they're trying to force players to just cheese every boss. Cheese or be cheesed isn't fun boss design, Imo. Just my 2 cents.
I'm so glad someone else said it. yeah, it's not the damage. it's everything else. they literally made attacks just cheaper. you can't interrupt them. they chain together 8+ hits in a single combo. you can't dodge away because they move so much with every attack. they're faster than you. stronger than you. most of them have erratic movement that's very hard to read and screws with the camera... it feels like the devs are trying to frustrate players instead of create a fun experience.
agree. we get some really fun looking new spells in the DLC. but I can never use them during boss fights because I never have the time. bosses are just so aggressive and so fast... and you literally can't stop them or interrupt them. they just keep going and going.
Don't worry, idiots will mock you for your "pathetic" 42 Vigor instead of the vastly superior 60, while also declaring you should wear heavy armour with a greatshield instead of, you know, playing the character you've enjoyed levelling and playing...
I agree with your closing argument.
Commander Giaus represents everything I have a problem with when it comes to boss design in the late-game/dlc. They are way too aggressive.
I have never had to spend time figuring out how to cheese a boss as much as I have with this dlc. "Getting gud" is simply not enough.
I feel like the boss battles in this dlc are at odds with the original souls-born design philosophy that was built around combat being methodical, not cheesy.
Two things I don't like about the bosses are how much of a visual eyesore they are (there are times where I genuinely cannot see or read what they are doing because they're too big, too close to the camera, have way to many lighting effects, and/or move unnaturally) and that their movesets aren't intuitive (feasibly, a boss can just attack forever and at any point, and there's no intuitive tell that the divine beast dancer's move has a 3 hit combo or a 4 hit combo or a 5 hit combo after a delay before suffering from it).
Ever since I played through Armored Core 6 (and DS1) my approach to boss battles has changed. Those games taught me to adjust my character so I can more optimally take on the current challenge. Sometimes it’s better to use something with bleed, or something that attacks quick. Other times you need to break the stance of the boss which is easier with a larger weapon(in my opinion). I switch up my armor, my weapons, and my talismans if the boss is giving me too much trouble. It’s kinda like I’m trying to find the solution to a problem and I love it.
I was being taken to town by one of the DLC bosses because I was trying to use a big slow weapon. It was taking up my stamina which made it hard to dodge frequently. I pulled out an old upgraded weapon and added a new ash of war to it and the fight became so much more manageable and fun.
I know not everyone likes to play this way but I just thought I’d share
My experience in DS1 that is applicable was during the 4 kings boss. Long story short I couldn’t avoid all attacks with my dodges and as soon as my stance was broken it was a guaranteed death. I put on some big boy armor and made sure I could still medium roll and I took out those b*stards in 2 tries. All I needed was to be able to take a couple hits without being knocked over.
What talisman do I need to get a steady framerate?
Monster energy gang, rise up.
It's not about the bosses being too hard, it's more about the bosses being difficult in a way that's not fun to fight. It's not fun when you can't even see what the bosses are doing when you are struggling more with the camera than the boss itself. Sorry but Fromsoft have forgotten to include the fun aspect in their boss designs.
This might be the BEST dlc ever created by from-soft. And I mean it with full certainty, just wait until you get all the weapons, all incantations and sorcery, ashes of war, bosses, and more. You will quickly realize why this took at-least two years to develop for the players and i'm just astonished at the Rellana boss fight due to the fact of how flashy and spectacular it can be.
I feel like going on a fetch quest to get percentile stat increases is a little bit lame and not the best solution they could have come up with, but I'm still excited to jump in once I'm done with other games. New weapon types look nuts
I feel like the patterns of the enemy leave very little room for actual player interaction, it's the same problem with most Elden Ring endgame bosses (especially Malenia) only up to 11.
The bosses basically attack non stop and even with enough Scadutree Fragments and 50+ Vigor they often two and one shot you. I'm fine with bosses being challenging, but the bosses in this DLC are just insanely exhausting gameplay wise because you wait 5 Minutes for a small opening and even a small mistake sets you back to the beginning. This also massively restricts build variety.
the dlc is so good dudee
I totally understand the reasoning for using boss difficulty to encourage exploration so that you can come back later and prevail. It really is a great idea. However, if I’m almost at max blessing rank with a level 200 character, bosses should NOT still be two shotting me like I was at rank 2 or 3. Otherwise, what is the point of the system? It makes attempting to learn the moveset of each boss way too burdensome when you can’t survive long enough to learn hit boxes of massive AOEs and hyper-aggressive combos only to die with one bad roll. If the point of the game is to encourage your own play-style with the variety of weapons and gear, then the blessing system should accommodate not having to equip all defensive related items just to survive a few more hits for the sake of learning. I get why it’s difficult, but it just feels flawed.
One other thing to note for people who don't realize it. When the Spirit Ash Blessings say they upgrade Torrent's damage (and damage negation), this means the damage you deal when you do horseback attacks. I haven't tested it myself, but the way it's worded I believe this will double-dip damage wise: that is to say, you'll get both the AR (attack rating) damage boost from your Scadutree Blessing and then also get another damage multiplier for your damage on horseback.
I miss it when these games had more grounded movesets, for both the player and the bosses. Not even talking about difficulty here.
I just don't really enjoy seeing all these endless combo swings and overly bright AoE particle effects everywhere being so freaking prevalent anymore. What used to feel cool and unique to see has become almost nauseating now...