Elden Ring - gamertags on first page

I've always been a no shield melee dude, so I've basically always been playing on hard mode. I know that, it's just that it's worked fairly well for me so far.

Still, I'd say the final boss was hard by most standards? He has several combos, very delayed attacks, and can counter with the knife almost instantly. Then after getting down to half health he becomes even worse.

Again though, I couldn't summon anyone, I guess things would have been a lot easier if I could.

Same for me. I don't know if it's easier or harder - I consider it easier for me, especially after Bloodborne. Always take mobility over damage/defence

I tend to go with Dex weapons as well. I don't mind doing less damage. I'd rather feel like I've learned a boss properly and am able to stick it out doing less damage than rely on doing enough damage before I run out of Estus

Nope! Just the item - equip it as you would a consumable; it's permanent but they do use up varying amounts of FP and you only seem to be able to use them once per boss fight. So there are restrictions, but very useful indeed. 

Think I'm gonna give it one last try. If I can summon someone, I might be able to at least kill the big dude before the end of the test. Even if that means I won't have explored much beyond the mandatory road.

I died a few more times, said screw it (summons still seem pretty iffy, they almost never work) and went somewhere else. Found a cave and killed a few enemies, and then killed the boss at the bottom. My ego has recovered slightly. Guess that's enough for me.

[/div][/quote]


On the other hand, DS2 becomes a lot easier if you specifically know how it works, because then you can just pump all of your early levels into agility.

I think my problem is that I started with Demon's Souls rather than Dark Souls. Because the community was pretty small back then, there wasn't a lot of consensus on what were the best tactics. So I kinda went and made a shield-less build because it seemed simpler to manage. By the time people realised in Dark Souls that shields were essential for an easy time, it was too late to change my habits.

Well, it did prepare me for Bloodborne. I think I didn't have as much trouble with that game as some other people.

I didn't beat Margit the Fell in the end - yes, I who said "the bosses seem easy". Let me be clear: this is true of the mini-bosses / dungeon bosses but not the main ones like Margit.

I switched up tactics - going off and buying a bastard sword, grinding a bit for smithing stones in the mines and upgrading it. Maybe a bit better, especially with fire added but I just couldn't get past that final 20%- 30% of his health bar. He's quite unpredictable, making dodging by rolling a bit hit and miss; and he can really close a gap quickly or spam ranged attacks at you when you back off to heal or replenish FP.

Anyway, I ended up summoning a couple of random players, about 3 or 4 times - didn't fare any better, they were crapper than me :-D We'll see how I get on in February...

The hold block then hit heavy attack straight after seems op. I beat the boss in a dungeon with just spamming it. He also staggered very easily it seemed for the back stab.

I never beat the main path boss. Got him down low a few times but didn't finish him off. That magic hammer was a bitch

Yeah, I had actually forgotten about weapon upgrading until my son had a go (he's really bloody good) and declared the fight bullshit, with too little damage output, saying I needed to upgrade my weapon...so I googled and I'd totally forgotten there's an anvil for upgrading next to the merchant in the church. You can upgrade to +3 if you have enough smithing stones (from the mine). They are scarce, though. It helped a bit but not massively - he's just a bit of a bastard for the reasons you both mention (high health and that 2nd phase magic hammer attack - really quite hard to avoid, and my health is pretty much gone by then).

True, I think we can expect pretty much everything to be different, including item placement etc. I can't bloody wait to be honest, I found the main boss frustrating but loved the experience overall. 

I was going to stay away from spoiling myself as much as possible but I caved and watched a few videos and a PvP stream from the network test today. So, thoughts:

Looks like I'll enjoy it. Very Dark Souls 3, both in terms of designs and combat, which I'm fine with.

The overworld (at least this part of it) doesn't look super exciting but the locations, dungeons and bosses/minibosses look good.


I approve of birds with swords for legs.

Santa Claus.



I'm not so sure they are. There's more of a learning curve to not using a shield for sure, but once you can time your dodges you have a lot of advantages as well. Letting you play however you want is one of the best things about the games though, so screw what's best or easiest or optimal.


If you played BB first it's no wonder if you find the thought of turtling behind shields a bit boring. DS1, 2, 3, BB for me, and I've used shields progressively less.

It’s a network test. Like others they’ve done in the past, player health and abilities are boosted, enemy and boss health isn’t what will appear in the final game.

Can't wait for the release and I'm taking that week off to play it, and possibly sending Ms Danno to a hotel too.

quadfather Positive from me as well. As I said, for all intents and purposes this is Dark Souls 4 in an open world setting. IMHO, it plays as a "best of Souls", with both familiar & brand new mechanics and several open world elements that could expand the whole experience.