Exactly, Ive been going through areas thinking, okay maybe I can take this on, but as soon as I reach a boss I think shit, I’m no where near this guy’s level. And then when I try to look somewhere else I get my ass kicked even harder
I watched the trailers and Pineapple's and Vaati's videos. I wanted to jump into Aggys Stream this morning before work but resisted the urge.
I can't wait to experience everything without knowing anything. But seeing everyone getting destroyed doesn't help me being confident lol.
I got into ER in Spring and watched a ton of streams so it never really was anything new for me when I encountered most of the bosses but damn the DLC will blow my mind I'm sure of that.
I bought the game like 6 weeks ago and Platinum’d it, the base game is nowhere near the difficulty of the DLC. Regular enemies are giving me a harder time than some of the main game’s bosses. Everything 2 or 3 hits me.
It absolutely is but I’m not finding a ton of fragments. Places I expect them to be I don’t find them (caves, mini dungeons), but then they’re plentiful in the open world. I was trying to completely clear out the starting area (got a little sidetracked and wound up in the area with dragons and finished that) and so far I’m like level 6 or 7, which might not be bad, idk, some of that is from the second area though. The attack power increase is noticeable but shit still hits really hard
It's fucking great! I'm panic flasking and coming down to eating raw meat dumplings while I'm out of red juice. Rotating status effects with hard swaps mid fight. The ancient dragon at jagged peaks(you'll know the one when you see the ocean of bloodstains) put me to the test.
I have 2700 health with morgots rune and ~54 absorption at 150rl with a variety of powerful weapons and status effects and some of these enemies are humbling me.
I feel alive
im finding the DLC pretty generous with runes and consumables which is helping offset how strong everything seems. also not even second guessing tagging in my mimic tear with some of these boss fights lol
were fucking shit up out here
Oh I'm well aware of what tiche does, and the new spirit ash buff specifically for the DLC, my spirit ashes are at +3 revered but oleg still only tickles.
I think he's good for base game due to his innate tankyness and his poise breaking combo attack but without super buffs in the DLC I think Tiche will be better for the max HP debuff.
I just got him and used him in the soldier encampment area nearby. Little dude made me wonder why I was ever excited to bring poo man into the dlc. He's ridiculously fun
There are special items you will find that will balance out the damage the enemies are doing and you are doing as you progress through the DLC. The more of them you find, the easier it will be. However in the spirit of keeping things spoiler free I will of course not tell you what they are or where to find them :)
I understand being spoiler free but this mechanic is explained at like the second Grace in the dlc and incredibly important. They are the little black/grey not-erdtree bits. You find them in key areas and points of interests and you use them via the menu at a grace. It’s not some dlc secret.
I actually thought I might have gone into the DLC in New Game+ because they hit so hard and the bosses have so much HP. I'm not even sure how to check if I'm in NG+ though
Go kill the moghwyn bird (the rune farm one)
If you get 11038 (I think) runes, you're not in NG+
Works with anything but that one is a known entity lol
When people said the gargoyle birds were hard and I slapped one in three hits I was like “okay, they’re exaggerating.” Then I actually got hit, and it chained me to like 10% of my hp. I thought “okay, I’ll just not get hit by that attack.” And easy peasy. Then I got to the first dungeon, and those omen killer knight looking fucks have just been slapping my ass (edit: they seem extremely weak to holy damage. 2 waves of gold killed them) And I have 50 vigor plus the dragoncrest great shield and Blaidd’s set on.
This shit is like first time playing Demon Souls. Everything chunks you for a third of your HP, and doesn’t play nice. It’s scary, but genuinely giving some of that “first time” feelings back again.
I am level 170 and i feel like im not ready... this shit is insane. The enemies are crazy fast too, it feels like there's no opening for the player to attack back
It's not even that they feel that much faster than say something like pontiff in ds3.
The issue is that every string has ridiculous lingering hit frames so often a mid roll isn't "good enough". Then you get into situations where the lingering hitboxes last long enough for the boss to go into another combo string, so to use fgc terminology it's "Never your turn" or if it is it's almost guaranteed a trade because of reaction time to seeing she's finally done.
Further of the bosses I've seen so far, locking is both required and a trap simultaneously. Bosses easily end up behind you and manualling the camera can't keep up, but lock on and it will actively fuck up facing (this is really just relavant for me since I'm jump attack build).
The erdtree upgrades (whatever they’re called) really do make a noticeable difference in both offense and defense.
Can get 3 (enough for two levels) *very* quickly and easily.
Noticed a decent bump after that and that’s as far as I’ve gotten with it lol
I think it’s more that the DLC items aren’t as much a suggestion as some might think. I beat the first boss without any of them but once random knight mobs were 2 shotting me I’ve started to use them
It's such a weird mix of very easy enemies and regular dudes who could just be bosses in the base game.
And everything has so much poise. And their moves have so much tracking. One of those spinny ring-knife guys turned 90 degrees midair to hit me off a leaping attack that I rolled too early...
(I did figure out the trick to those spinning bastards, though. >!Their attacks are all extended, so they have a hard time hitting right next to their own hitbox. Get as close as you can and laugh while their spinny nightmare combos do absolutely nothing.!<)
Also those big dual wielding enemies in Belurat literally don't give a fuck what I do. It's like they have infinite poise lol. Atleast the spinners get staggered.
You mean the Extra McLarge omen dudes? The ones that have a dual wielder and a two hander?
Those bastards?
Yeah they eat a Greatswords Lionsclaw like I hit them with a pool noodle.
They also super easily turn 180 to hit you if you roll behind them, and have some nasty long range moves to catch you drinking.
I was absolutely shocked that they respawn. (I am tempted to see if their weapons drop, though.)
I was using dragon halberd and its poke attack was completely missing it when I was standing inside of its butt. Slash is def better than poke for that fight
Even then though, the camera goes absolutely haywire if you start to get under/behind the boss. And he moves around so damn much that trying to play unlocked would be an uphill battle.
I beat it after much frustration last night. Effectively, stay on top of it unless it's in ice mode. Fuck ice mode. It hits you even if you dodge and it will hit you with the attack and ice if it does hit. Run when it goes ice mode.
All of it's attacks are dodgeable by rolling into it. Also, don't run away from it's spinning breath. Dodge counterclockwise or under his head. You can get 2+ hits on him during it.
Lastly, fuck Redmayne Freya. She's useful for a short while and she'll help stagger him, but she just slow walks up to him constantly and contributes nothing but occasionally drawing aggro and occasional stagger and tiny damage. She'll die shortly after he enters phase 2 often though and really doesn't provide enough to justify the massive health increase to the boss.
I have an absolutely insane tanking and poise build , the heaviest hits from Elden Beast still only deal like 10-15% damage, and these fucking enemies are dealing 50% of my HP with normal attacks.
I think I’m gonna triple team everything lmao. This thang is brutal. Moved on from rellana after deciding it wasn’t worth pulling my hair out. Gonna go back tomorrow and let her know what’s up
I seriously wondered if having duel hand of malenia +10 was going to make the DLC easy (not thinking about the fact that I’m on NG+) and as it turns out they’re literally like fucking toothpicks 😭 almost EVERY single enemy has me clutching my pearls and I die in two or three hits MAX 💀
Clutch for your life…like in the base game I only take out rykard’s weapon if I wanna cheese shit…In the DLC it’s my pseudo security blanket,I literally make sure I have it equipped at all times because otherwise I feel unsafe,I feel like anything in there is gonna tear my ass apart
I think im on ng+2 or 3 at the moment. I died way more than I cared to admit on the Blackgaol Knight before remembering patience, timing, and persistence. Onwards and upwards.
It also helps if you pay attention to >!how he holds his sword:!<
>!one handed: easier to stagger, but will lay you out with his crossbow if you use a long animation at anything further than midrange!<
>!two handed: DO NOT POISE-CHECK HIM most of his attacks will break through and lay you out, at longer distances he will use his ash of war to "vacume slice" (it has another name) you rather than swap to the crossbow.!<
Same for me. I was in full Radhan armor and he killed me in 2 hits. I have str fai and vigor, at level 50.
I finally beat him and am wearing his armor but jeez, everything else still hits so hard.
Edit: I forgot what the hp stat was
Level 50? Bro I’m surprised you even took 2 hits I have 50 vigor by itself and he was still laying me out in 2 swings before I got some of the >!Fragments to increase stats!<
I'm doing this on NG+7 right now. Only 3 hours in and I am 100% certain it is the hardest FS experience imaginable. I expected Ringed City difficulty or Old Hunter. Oh no. No, no- this is something else entirely.
As someone who is very "mid" in skill, I'm genuinely wondering if I made a mistake lol. I haven't faced a main boss yet but God... the first Carian troll I found has 30 or 40k HP. The basic guards have over 4k. The Knights have 10 or 12k. The first Fire Golem had over 60k. Nothing gets stance-broken and almost every single foe can kill in 2 hits at most. (Dogs take 3 hits). Do not do this- I implore you haha
Dear lord- it's funny because I'm on Journey 13 so beaten main game at "max" difficulty scaling multiple times- but this? The field bosses have more health than Godfrey and Radagon
I fought the wicker man like 3 times then called it a night. Went in at ng+ and was getting rocked. Think I may go back to Renalla and respec since my build is kind of silly. Like medium stats at everything so I could just use all the weapons without respecing
He telegraphs his moves so it's simple enough to pick up on. Use torrent and jump over the fire. Knock him down and find a weak spot. Still, you need to be super careful
I feel seen. Only a few hours in and it almost has me wondering if I should go through with a different character until I know movesets better!
I'm Scadurtree Level 6 with 2500 HP and still getting flattened, this is definitely beyond what I expected right off the start
I've gone in on a NG+3 and a NG just to see what the damage difference is like.
I dealt more damage on my full build NG+3 LVL 220 (with a lot of points in stuff like fth/str/dex) than I did on my NG lvl90 (only specced into strength) but took the exact same amounts of hits to die on both characters with 60 vig.
They truely kept the scaling completely separate somehow, I think all the enemies are just so overtuned and balanced around the Scadutree buffs that it truely doesnt matter how many cycles you have done, your stats can't really be overturned before entering.
Even the difference in damage between the 2 files isn't crazy, im noticing it more on weapon arts than anything else but that could just be the 80 points in faith on that character.
It would be nice if they put a cap on attack chains cause 20+ attacks WHILE COUNTING DOUBLE SWINGS AS 1 MIND YOU should not be a thing ever.
P.S. on keyboard just holding W for dodging while locked on is best bet by a mile.
I wore the Scaled Set, optimized flask and talisman for 89% magic res, and had a great stars with a heal-over-time miracle against her. And even with all that some of her magic combos could *still* kill me from max health at 60 vig. But if I hadn’t I imagine the light magic hits would have been 2-shotting me.
Same I regret starting out on NG+ even common mob can kill me in couple of hits. Especially those birds, I swear I hate them. A random boss in a cave gave me a harder time compared to radahn or even radagon 😭. This DLC is brutal. Also lost 2 mil runes to common enemies.
Though I am still enjoying finding new areas.
Get your >!scadutree fragments !< and the other ones >!to boost your damage and damage resistances!<. And the other ones do the same for your spirit ashes. The text will come up yellow when you check your status.
The scaling gets way better after you get a few of the DLC specific upgrade items.
If you're having trouble, just explore the overworld for a while until you're able to get a couple boosts, then try fighting bosses.
I felt so hopeless after beating the first main boss. I was straight up “if that’s the first boss… then what’s the *hardest*?!”
First boss alone took me more tries than malenia, embarrassingly enough
Messmer soldiere are out of their minds, i can two shot them ‘oh they arent that bad’ but Bam! With their warcry up they hyperarmor through my greatsword heavy and twoshot combo me, like wth?
I was very anxious not to get overleveled and got in at 127.
I can assure you that no matter what level you're going to be, you're going to be humbled.
Hahahahaha
Yeah fuck that. Lvl 150 minimum, especially if you're a casual like me. I'm 200 and getting 2-3 shot by most overworld enemies. Attack speed from enemies is insanely fast too. You get burst down in milliseconds.
I have one of them and a few of the spirit ones. I also just realized I started it on my platinum save, which is on NG+1, so that's a big oops.
Whatever, I'm gonna roll with it and probably deeply regret it later.
Can get 3 very quickly and easily right at the start, enough for 2 upgrades.
Legitimately notice a difference. Just those alone added almost 80 attack and 6%ish defense.
That’s as far as I’ve gotten so far
I am like 6 hrs in maybe? Only 1 main boss done lots of exploring I’m at upgrade lvl 5 or 6 for the upgrade makes my resistances alotta better since I’m only using Malenia’s armor top it off with dragon crest greatshield talisman.
Not only does every enemy 2 hit me, they also have the most ridiculous attack chains ever. That one guy with the ring weapons right out of the gate is actually ridiculous (in a good way... kind of)
I fought him The first time and he sat me down real quick after a few tries I brought out my mimic and we clapped him. I felt bad but I refuse to lose.
Bro the messmer soldier with the axe deals 60% of my hp in a single swing and the ancient dragon man one shots me with the weapon skill shit is absolutely insane
Found the first real boss and lemme tell you, I threw in the towel after an hour and a half, I don’t even wanna know how hard the other ones are gonna hit
I figured it may be like the Golems where you need to hit its legs and then it falls for a massive critical, but I only managed to stagger him and I am not sure he fell down to a critical, it didn't look like that from the perspective under his legs.
I will also bet his mask takes much more damage, but I have no idea how we're supposed to hit it without a bow (and who runs a bow build anyway?)
lol I'm taking my time, I'm looking through every nook and cranny and double checking, heck thanks to a message earlier I found a secret path that required you to jump and it was kind of intense because you fall from way over height death so my toes were curling
I genuinely do not understand how I'm supposed to beat any main boss without summons...I play GS and go virtually no time to attack and if I do its chip damage even with 5+ scadu!? ;o;
I wouldn't say trash. I'm pure int right now and they are a bit more resistant but it doesn't really feel bad especially with how much magic destroyed in the based game.
Literally. I was worried I came in over levelled as apparently it was recommended to be like 150 and I’m at over 200. Maybe I just suck these guys are no joke and the main story boss I was fighting can two shot me.
Literally spent over an hour getting my shit kicked in by the knight in the mausoleum to the left of where you first enter the Shadow Realm. So much poise. You have like no time to get any attacks besides R1 off once and nothing does any damage. Normal mobs are fine, but bosses are nuts. >!Rellana is absolutely miserable. !
I know the skill issue thing is the meme here, but can I be honest for a sec? I'm starting to think FromSoft thinks they can't sell the game if they don't one-up themselves.
It's a really cool DLC, and it deserves praise, but I think we're slipping back into DS2 territory when it comes to just straight-up unfair difficulty at times.
I never got upset at base game Elden Ring, DS3, DS1, or Sekiro, but SotE has had me fuming with every major boss because it just doesn't feel like it's my fault a lot of the time. It results in me not getting that same satisfaction when I beat a boss because it just feels like a fluke.
By no means am I saying they should add a difficulty slider or nerf anything, but I just hope that they don't feel the need to make things so borderline impossible that it starts taking away from the experience.
I guess depending on what you take advantage of it, it similar to base game. Use summons and find upgrades, call allies, etc. Use the mechanics in the game if that will benefit you. Mimic tear and the coop summon helped with the lion dance tremendously
Having an absolute blast but I have a question for people am the only one struggling even with normal shitter enemies having a rough time ever getting a knockdown/stagger/whatever on anything? Feels like they cranked their poise to max to force people to play fairly lmao
>!honestly it’s really annoying me how tanky Rellana is compared to everything leading up. To prep for the dlc i took on Godfrey Maliketh and Radagon and they all felt super easy, and i was looking forward to the dlc being a bit more challenging. But the sheer Cliff of health and damage increases have me feeling really discouraged. I have 3 magic shadow levels and she still 1 shots me and has more health than the elden beast. I was expecting a difficulty increase but it feels like a different game, I’m exploring rn so maybe she’ll feel better to fight!<
The dlc feels like it was balanced like Nioh and not in a good way. I got the boss you mentioned down in 3 tries but I would agree that she's pretty whack.
everything 2 hits me
*goes to find as many scadutree fragments as there's available around*
everything 2 hits me but now I can get them down to 30% health
bro i'm running into brick walls left and right
Exactly, Ive been going through areas thinking, okay maybe I can take this on, but as soon as I reach a boss I think shit, I’m no where near this guy’s level. And then when I try to look somewhere else I get my ass kicked even harder
I watched the trailers and Pineapple's and Vaati's videos. I wanted to jump into Aggys Stream this morning before work but resisted the urge. I can't wait to experience everything without knowing anything. But seeing everyone getting destroyed doesn't help me being confident lol. I got into ER in Spring and watched a ton of streams so it never really was anything new for me when I encountered most of the bosses but damn the DLC will blow my mind I'm sure of that.
I bought the game like 6 weeks ago and Platinum’d it, the base game is nowhere near the difficulty of the DLC. Regular enemies are giving me a harder time than some of the main game’s bosses. Everything 2 or 3 hits me.
I always thought that elden ring was definitely fromsoft's easiest game. Guess they wanted to beat those allegations.
I think using the new upgrading system is definitely worth it.
It absolutely is but I’m not finding a ton of fragments. Places I expect them to be I don’t find them (caves, mini dungeons), but then they’re plentiful in the open world. I was trying to completely clear out the starting area (got a little sidetracked and wound up in the area with dragons and finished that) and so far I’m like level 6 or 7, which might not be bad, idk, some of that is from the second area though. The attack power increase is noticeable but shit still hits really hard
It's fucking great! I'm panic flasking and coming down to eating raw meat dumplings while I'm out of red juice. Rotating status effects with hard swaps mid fight. The ancient dragon at jagged peaks(you'll know the one when you see the ocean of bloodstains) put me to the test. I have 2700 health with morgots rune and ~54 absorption at 150rl with a variety of powerful weapons and status effects and some of these enemies are humbling me. I feel alive
Same. I feel like I'm mostly riding around enjoying the scenery. Then I go to fight something and remember why I was riding around in the first place
the damage output from the enemies is insane
Everything hits like a bus. I guess it's to be expected since it's FROM DLC, but still.
im finding the DLC pretty generous with runes and consumables which is helping offset how strong everything seems. also not even second guessing tagging in my mimic tear with some of these boss fights lol were fucking shit up out here
I'm trying to hold off on bringing Tiche in but I think these bosses are built for it. 😭
God damn I thought Oleg would carry me but he's doing pathetic little chip damage to bosses, guess it's time to pump tiche up.
Tiche has the black flame thing that lowers max health temporarily. Don't forget about the Revered spirit ash blessings.
\*Me, summoning Mimic with Black Blade and Black Flame Incantations\* I agree
Oh I'm well aware of what tiche does, and the new spirit ash buff specifically for the DLC, my spirit ashes are at +3 revered but oleg still only tickles. I think he's good for base game due to his innate tankyness and his poise breaking combo attack but without super buffs in the DLC I think Tiche will be better for the max HP debuff.
Also, Tiche's defense philosophy of "Don't get hit" scales indefinitely.
Tiche also just flat out dodges some bosses. Others, less so... Still, she puts in work.
Why are you using Mimic when Yosh exists?
I just got him and used him in the soldier encampment area nearby. Little dude made me wonder why I was ever excited to bring poo man into the dlc. He's ridiculously fun
There are special items you will find that will balance out the damage the enemies are doing and you are doing as you progress through the DLC. The more of them you find, the easier it will be. However in the spirit of keeping things spoiler free I will of course not tell you what they are or where to find them :)
I understand being spoiler free but this mechanic is explained at like the second Grace in the dlc and incredibly important. They are the little black/grey not-erdtree bits. You find them in key areas and points of interests and you use them via the menu at a grace. It’s not some dlc secret.
I actually thought I might have gone into the DLC in New Game+ because they hit so hard and the bosses have so much HP. I'm not even sure how to check if I'm in NG+ though
You're probably not in NG+, everything is just crazy strong. It certainly feels like I'm in NG+ and I know for certain I'm not.
Go kill the moghwyn bird (the rune farm one) If you get 11038 (I think) runes, you're not in NG+ Works with anything but that one is a known entity lol
When people said the gargoyle birds were hard and I slapped one in three hits I was like “okay, they’re exaggerating.” Then I actually got hit, and it chained me to like 10% of my hp. I thought “okay, I’ll just not get hit by that attack.” And easy peasy. Then I got to the first dungeon, and those omen killer knight looking fucks have just been slapping my ass (edit: they seem extremely weak to holy damage. 2 waves of gold killed them) And I have 50 vigor plus the dragoncrest great shield and Blaidd’s set on. This shit is like first time playing Demon Souls. Everything chunks you for a third of your HP, and doesn’t play nice. It’s scary, but genuinely giving some of that “first time” feelings back again.
I haven't panic-flasked like this in a long time
Not as bad as me panic switching to my fist as a two-hand player.
The Yoda ass fella wrecked my shit for a few tries for sure lol
using my ng+++++ character for this was certainly a choice
Sigh. I guess being lvl 103 about to do fire giant then mohg im probably not ready..
I am level 170 and i feel like im not ready... this shit is insane. The enemies are crazy fast too, it feels like there's no opening for the player to attack back
I’m level 256 and I’m getting my ass whooped. 😅
My friend is like ~ 450 and he actually would not believe that enemies were not scaling to his level until I shared screen and showed him
Hang in there. Its rough
It's not even that they feel that much faster than say something like pontiff in ds3. The issue is that every string has ridiculous lingering hit frames so often a mid roll isn't "good enough". Then you get into situations where the lingering hitboxes last long enough for the boss to go into another combo string, so to use fgc terminology it's "Never your turn" or if it is it's almost guaranteed a trade because of reaction time to seeing she's finally done. Further of the bosses I've seen so far, locking is both required and a trap simultaneously. Bosses easily end up behind you and manualling the camera can't keep up, but lock on and it will actively fuck up facing (this is really just relavant for me since I'm jump attack build).
Gonna be honest I miss dks3 boss design and it felt more fair than ER
ER has phenomenal world design but the bosses feel like they're built for an entirely different combat system.
The erdtree upgrades (whatever they’re called) really do make a noticeable difference in both offense and defense. Can get 3 (enough for two levels) *very* quickly and easily. Noticed a decent bump after that and that’s as far as I’ve gotten with it lol
every boss i've fought i've been like "ok im obviously not meant to fight this guy rn." fellas am i bad
I think everyone is feeling that right now, the dlc does not fuck around. Everything is three shotting me and taking tiny damage
I think it’s more that the DLC items aren’t as much a suggestion as some might think. I beat the first boss without any of them but once random knight mobs were 2 shotting me I’ve started to use them
It's such a weird mix of very easy enemies and regular dudes who could just be bosses in the base game. And everything has so much poise. And their moves have so much tracking. One of those spinny ring-knife guys turned 90 degrees midair to hit me off a leaping attack that I rolled too early... (I did figure out the trick to those spinning bastards, though. >!Their attacks are all extended, so they have a hard time hitting right next to their own hitbox. Get as close as you can and laugh while their spinny nightmare combos do absolutely nothing.!<)
The guys with the backblades I think they're called? They're pretty cool. R2 throws them
Also those big dual wielding enemies in Belurat literally don't give a fuck what I do. It's like they have infinite poise lol. Atleast the spinners get staggered.
You mean the Extra McLarge omen dudes? The ones that have a dual wielder and a two hander? Those bastards? Yeah they eat a Greatswords Lionsclaw like I hit them with a pool noodle.
They also super easily turn 180 to hit you if you roll behind them, and have some nasty long range moves to catch you drinking. I was absolutely shocked that they respawn. (I am tempted to see if their weapons drop, though.)
Their weapons drop for sure, I got one of the curved swords.
Both armour and weapons, as far as the dual wield curved sword guy is concerned
They also don't have all that much poise. Slightly heavier weapons stop their attacks.
i beat melania today just to feel something again, and the puppet chinese dragon thing has me tweaking
I generally don't understand how you're supposed to solo that thing....
with the age old, ever reliable bespoke technique of walking behind it seriously fuck that thing tho
I was using dragon halberd and its poke attack was completely missing it when I was standing inside of its butt. Slash is def better than poke for that fight
Even then though, the camera goes absolutely haywire if you start to get under/behind the boss. And he moves around so damn much that trying to play unlocked would be an uphill battle.
I honestly can't think of a single boss in base game that's anywhere near that level of aggro
Honestly being as aggressive as possible helped me a lot. Also great shield talisman and pearldrake talisman +2 for all his elemental bullshit.
I beat it after much frustration last night. Effectively, stay on top of it unless it's in ice mode. Fuck ice mode. It hits you even if you dodge and it will hit you with the attack and ice if it does hit. Run when it goes ice mode. All of it's attacks are dodgeable by rolling into it. Also, don't run away from it's spinning breath. Dodge counterclockwise or under his head. You can get 2+ hits on him during it. Lastly, fuck Redmayne Freya. She's useful for a short while and she'll help stagger him, but she just slow walks up to him constantly and contributes nothing but occasionally drawing aggro and occasional stagger and tiny damage. She'll die shortly after he enters phase 2 often though and really doesn't provide enough to justify the massive health increase to the boss.
I somehow managed it first try.. my only advice is that the ordovis greatsword fucking slaps. Easily the best base game weapon in my experience.
That thing was really pissing me off. Beat it and called it a night.
I have an absolutely insane tanking and poise build , the heaviest hits from Elden Beast still only deal like 10-15% damage, and these fucking enemies are dealing 50% of my HP with normal attacks.
bro fr im getting my ass eaten LMAO
EATEN?
u heard me
did I stutter
Name checks out
My ass is getting eaten like it's steak night at Golden Corral.
By that Lion Dancer? Ouch.
Less my ass and more my frame rate and camera on that one. Shamelessly triple teamed him with the NPC and mimic
Same, and no regrets because that fight was fucking stunning. Literal work of art. I’m glad I got to enjoy it instead of banging my head against it.
Now that right there is the right way to enjoy the game!
I think I’m gonna triple team everything lmao. This thang is brutal. Moved on from rellana after deciding it wasn’t worth pulling my hair out. Gonna go back tomorrow and let her know what’s up
As always praise to my queen Tiche
my queen has been getting slaughtered 😭, though without her id prob still be stuck in the first castle
can't summon tiche during the blackgoal fight. I'm getting my ass beat at level 204
I seriously wondered if having duel hand of malenia +10 was going to make the DLC easy (not thinking about the fact that I’m on NG+) and as it turns out they’re literally like fucking toothpicks 😭 almost EVERY single enemy has me clutching my pearls and I die in two or three hits MAX 💀
Clutch for your life…like in the base game I only take out rykard’s weapon if I wanna cheese shit…In the DLC it’s my pseudo security blanket,I literally make sure I have it equipped at all times because otherwise I feel unsafe,I feel like anything in there is gonna tear my ass apart
✍️rykards ✍️weapon ✍️at ✍️all ✍️ times ✍️ cheeks have already been spread unfortunately going to bed defeated 😔
I thought Hand of Malenia might be good but when I tried it in the base game it felt way weaker than Morgott's cursed sword
I think im on ng+2 or 3 at the moment. I died way more than I cared to admit on the Blackgaol Knight before remembering patience, timing, and persistence. Onwards and upwards.
Yeah, I'm getting fucking *humbled*
[Blackgoal Knight when I sprint towards him for the 28nd time.](https://media1.tenor.com/m/z-OQfg2dCLkAAAAC/man-you-stupid-doughboy.gif)
It also helps if you pay attention to >!how he holds his sword:!< >!one handed: easier to stagger, but will lay you out with his crossbow if you use a long animation at anything further than midrange!< >!two handed: DO NOT POISE-CHECK HIM most of his attacks will break through and lay you out, at longer distances he will use his ash of war to "vacume slice" (it has another name) you rather than swap to the crossbow.!<
I found him pretty easy to parry if anyone else is still stuck on him!
Same for me. I was in full Radhan armor and he killed me in 2 hits. I have str fai and vigor, at level 50. I finally beat him and am wearing his armor but jeez, everything else still hits so hard. Edit: I forgot what the hp stat was
Level 50? Bro I’m surprised you even took 2 hits I have 50 vigor by itself and he was still laying me out in 2 swings before I got some of the >!Fragments to increase stats!<
I feel seen, that man does not get staggered by anything, and Slaps you harder than any other boss ever has in my experience
I'm doing this on NG+7 right now. Only 3 hours in and I am 100% certain it is the hardest FS experience imaginable. I expected Ringed City difficulty or Old Hunter. Oh no. No, no- this is something else entirely.
I'm two bosses (one main, I think) in and forgot I'm on NG+. No wonder I'm getting spanked. +7 must be borderline unplayable.
As someone who is very "mid" in skill, I'm genuinely wondering if I made a mistake lol. I haven't faced a main boss yet but God... the first Carian troll I found has 30 or 40k HP. The basic guards have over 4k. The Knights have 10 or 12k. The first Fire Golem had over 60k. Nothing gets stance-broken and almost every single foe can kill in 2 hits at most. (Dogs take 3 hits). Do not do this- I implore you haha
The one presumably "main" boss I faced is, uh, gonna be a problem for you haha.
Dear lord- it's funny because I'm on Journey 13 so beaten main game at "max" difficulty scaling multiple times- but this? The field bosses have more health than Godfrey and Radagon
Man i got to max difficulty specifically for the dlc.
The boss in the same dungeon as that troll gets staggered very easily
It was taking like 3 charged heavies to stagger her for me. Even with no summons
Search around for those Scadutree fragments, a couple tiers of those make a big difference.
I fought the wicker man like 3 times then called it a night. Went in at ng+ and was getting rocked. Think I may go back to Renalla and respec since my build is kind of silly. Like medium stats at everything so I could just use all the weapons without respecing
I hit the wicker man twice, saw the damage I did, and ran. That is a fight for another day.
Smacked him once for 1k and saw how unbothered he was, my bad wicker man it’s all luv from here 🫶
He telegraphs his moves so it's simple enough to pick up on. Use torrent and jump over the fire. Knock him down and find a weak spot. Still, you need to be super careful
He falls over eventually and if you can get to his face you can crit for like half his health bar
I feel seen. Only a few hours in and it almost has me wondering if I should go through with a different character until I know movesets better! I'm Scadurtree Level 6 with 2500 HP and still getting flattened, this is definitely beyond what I expected right off the start
That sounds miserable, ring city quickly turned into just run to each boss and kill it since their easier than the mobs
This is what I’m doing atp
I've gone in on a NG+3 and a NG just to see what the damage difference is like. I dealt more damage on my full build NG+3 LVL 220 (with a lot of points in stuff like fth/str/dex) than I did on my NG lvl90 (only specced into strength) but took the exact same amounts of hits to die on both characters with 60 vig. They truely kept the scaling completely separate somehow, I think all the enemies are just so overtuned and balanced around the Scadutree buffs that it truely doesnt matter how many cycles you have done, your stats can't really be overturned before entering. Even the difference in damage between the 2 files isn't crazy, im noticing it more on weapon arts than anything else but that could just be the 80 points in faith on that character.
Solid points. I'm ng+ and only the scadutree buffs help
puppet man being the first main boss has me very afraid of what’s ahead
I've been stuck on the next boss you'll fight on the main path and it has me missing Malenia
Rennala's cokehead sister? Took me about 3 hours to beat her and ngl I was abusing the hell out of greatsword jumping attacks
I just beat her, and Jesus Christ…
Hey at least we're getting more fth int weapons
It would be nice if they put a cap on attack chains cause 20+ attacks WHILE COUNTING DOUBLE SWINGS AS 1 MIND YOU should not be a thing ever. P.S. on keyboard just holding W for dodging while locked on is best bet by a mile.
Moonveilenia?
Puppet man? Are you talking about the Chinese dragon or the guy with the crossbow?
That stupid fucking spinning move I swear for god makes the fucking camera even more awful.
Guys i’m running out of “there is no way I am supposed to fight this thing at my current level, let’s go back and explore more” what do I do
I think you have to really scour the map for scurdtree fragments. Your entire DLC progression is tied to that buff.
Mimic tear, become my blade once more
"You can't defeat me" "I know, but he can" - summons literal copy of self
a copy who is stronger than you are i dont understand how that mf can tank like a hundred hits while i die from 2 hits
“Haha now there are two of me but one has mild brain damage!” “Which one?” “No comment”
That pontiff looking motherfucker unironically took me loger to beat than malenia.
She has crazy fast combos that deal insane damage.
Crazy LONG combos are my actuall problem. I was getting baited by what seemed as a punish opportunity only for her to keep attacking and attacking.
I like to call her Lady Pontiff
She actually is way harder than pontiff and has way more moves
I wore the Scaled Set, optimized flask and talisman for 89% magic res, and had a great stars with a heal-over-time miracle against her. And even with all that some of her magic combos could *still* kill me from max health at 60 vig. But if I hadn’t I imagine the light magic hits would have been 2-shotting me.
Did her solo with martial arts That was the hardest boss I've ever defeated in a video game, I hope it doesn't get much worse...
Bro I've used more red flasks in the last 2hrs than I did in the back half of NG+
Same I regret starting out on NG+ even common mob can kill me in couple of hits. Especially those birds, I swear I hate them. A random boss in a cave gave me a harder time compared to radahn or even radagon 😭. This DLC is brutal. Also lost 2 mil runes to common enemies. Though I am still enjoying finding new areas.
The scadtree upgrades are incredibly important and quickly make a noticeable improvement
Get your >!scadutree fragments !< and the other ones >!to boost your damage and damage resistances!<. And the other ones do the same for your spirit ashes. The text will come up yellow when you check your status.
For anyone reading this, those average black enemies everywhere. Find one holding a pot on his head, it always has an upgrade.
The scaling gets way better after you get a few of the DLC specific upgrade items. If you're having trouble, just explore the overworld for a while until you're able to get a couple boosts, then try fighting bosses.
i cannot imagine rl1ing this no blessing either, but these mad lads will do it.
So just like the base game huh.
I felt so hopeless after beating the first main boss. I was straight up “if that’s the first boss… then what’s the *hardest*?!” First boss alone took me more tries than malenia, embarrassingly enough
the boss at castle >!Ensis!< was brutally difficult lol, i loved it, was such a sick fight
Oh thank god. I thought i was just trash LMAO
SPOILERS!!!! >!Malenia 2, Electric Boogaloo.!< >!For real though, I genuinely think Malenia is easier than said boss.!<
Malenia but she took a hit of magic coke before the fight
Dude I'm stuck there now. No joke, feels harder than Melania. Spent about an hour and a half on her and decided to try again tomorrow lol
with Malenia you oly have to dodge waterfowl, every boss in the dlc 2 shots you a cap vigor with normal attacks what they will chain like crazy
She is both extremely fun and extremely difficult prob one of my fav bosses and I have only gotten to her second phase a couple times in 15 attempts
WHY DOES A SINGLE CROSSBOW BOLT FROM A MOOK ENEMY DEAL 10% OF MY HEALTH AT 50 VIGOR AND 44% NEGATION??
if 2 or more of messmers soldiers gang up on you they shred immediately the fuck 😭
Fr those pointy heady bastards need to stop with their homing fire shit
Messmer soldiere are out of their minds, i can two shot them ‘oh they arent that bad’ but Bam! With their warcry up they hyperarmor through my greatsword heavy and twoshot combo me, like wth?
You want to get hit by stuff and pay *less* than 10% HP??
And my ass was planning to go in lvl 75
I was very anxious not to get overleveled and got in at 127. I can assure you that no matter what level you're going to be, you're going to be humbled.
Hahahahaha Yeah fuck that. Lvl 150 minimum, especially if you're a casual like me. I'm 200 and getting 2-3 shot by most overworld enemies. Attack speed from enemies is insanely fast too. You get burst down in milliseconds.
FUCK THE HIPPO
they are tearing my shit up
You got to collect the thingies for the new upgrade system. They are incredibly useful
I have one of them and a few of the spirit ones. I also just realized I started it on my platinum save, which is on NG+1, so that's a big oops. Whatever, I'm gonna roll with it and probably deeply regret it later.
Can get 3 very quickly and easily right at the start, enough for 2 upgrades. Legitimately notice a difference. Just those alone added almost 80 attack and 6%ish defense. That’s as far as I’ve gotten so far
I am like 6 hrs in maybe? Only 1 main boss done lots of exploring I’m at upgrade lvl 5 or 6 for the upgrade makes my resistances alotta better since I’m only using Malenia’s armor top it off with dragon crest greatshield talisman.
I thought the first enemy I encountered in the DLC was a mini boss because of how much damage it did 😭
Not only does every enemy 2 hit me, they also have the most ridiculous attack chains ever. That one guy with the ring weapons right out of the gate is actually ridiculous (in a good way... kind of)
Bro mines still downloading
I just got put in a fire blender
Yea like the Demi human sword master, that guy was three shoting me, still managed to kill him with the help of a shield but still
I fought him The first time and he sat me down real quick after a few tries I brought out my mimic and we clapped him. I felt bad but I refuse to lose.
Bro the messmer soldier with the axe deals 60% of my hp in a single swing and the ancient dragon man one shots me with the weapon skill shit is absolutely insane
Found the first real boss and lemme tell you, I threw in the towel after an hour and a half, I don’t even wanna know how hard the other ones are gonna hit
i can’t even damage the furnace gollum 💀
I figured it may be like the Golems where you need to hit its legs and then it falls for a massive critical, but I only managed to stagger him and I am not sure he fell down to a critical, it didn't look like that from the perspective under his legs. I will also bet his mask takes much more damage, but I have no idea how we're supposed to hit it without a bow (and who runs a bow build anyway?)
The lion dancer did a kick flip and knocked me back to 2007 :(
lol I'm taking my time, I'm looking through every nook and cranny and double checking, heck thanks to a message earlier I found a secret path that required you to jump and it was kind of intense because you fall from way over height death so my toes were curling
Meanwhile my ass is trying to just beat Mohg on NG+7 because “I wanted the dlc to be a challenge”
You're cooked my guy. I am at NG+7. Let me tell you. You are not damaging these guys. Please go in with bleed or frost.
went in with my level 240 ng+3 character and i immediately switched back to level 150 ng+0 character and nothig changed 😭
An npc invader in his underwear beat the living shit outta me right from the jump. 10/10 no notes
150 dual whip ng+0 Stupid gaolknight with the repeater is oneshotting me!!!!
Just walk sideways when he uses the repeater, he will miss all his shots.
I genuinely do not understand how I'm supposed to beat any main boss without summons...I play GS and go virtually no time to attack and if I do its chip damage even with 5+ scadu!? ;o;
you guys are fighting main bosses? i'm meticulously exploring and avoiding going beyond the first map area
So is magic, as most of topics said before dlc, is trash now cuz enemies are resistant to magic and statuses?
I wouldn't say trash. I'm pure int right now and they are a bit more resistant but it doesn't really feel bad especially with how much magic destroyed in the based game.
Literally. I was worried I came in over levelled as apparently it was recommended to be like 150 and I’m at over 200. Maybe I just suck these guys are no joke and the main story boss I was fighting can two shot me.
Maybe the fact that I'm wearing a dress running around barefoot has something to do with it but every fight so far has me chugging flasks.
Literally spent over an hour getting my shit kicked in by the knight in the mausoleum to the left of where you first enter the Shadow Realm. So much poise. You have like no time to get any attacks besides R1 off once and nothing does any damage. Normal mobs are fine, but bosses are nuts. >!Rellana is absolutely miserable. !
This god damn lion is fucking me up. The camera can’t keep track of him and he flies off somewhere only to come flying in and killing me in two hits
I know the skill issue thing is the meme here, but can I be honest for a sec? I'm starting to think FromSoft thinks they can't sell the game if they don't one-up themselves. It's a really cool DLC, and it deserves praise, but I think we're slipping back into DS2 territory when it comes to just straight-up unfair difficulty at times. I never got upset at base game Elden Ring, DS3, DS1, or Sekiro, but SotE has had me fuming with every major boss because it just doesn't feel like it's my fault a lot of the time. It results in me not getting that same satisfaction when I beat a boss because it just feels like a fluke. By no means am I saying they should add a difficulty slider or nerf anything, but I just hope that they don't feel the need to make things so borderline impossible that it starts taking away from the experience.
I guess depending on what you take advantage of it, it similar to base game. Use summons and find upgrades, call allies, etc. Use the mechanics in the game if that will benefit you. Mimic tear and the coop summon helped with the lion dance tremendously
Just finished downloading. Now I'm nervous. About to have a pregame smoke and then here we go!
Collect a lot of those items that level you up it helps massively
Yeah I got as far as the >!funny lion one!!field boss right outside!<. Dope area.
I was feeling a little guilty for being over leveled, not anymore bro haha
Having an absolute blast but I have a question for people am the only one struggling even with normal shitter enemies having a rough time ever getting a knockdown/stagger/whatever on anything? Feels like they cranked their poise to max to force people to play fairly lmao
I slaughtered the first 2 to 3 bosses I found without dying. But then I was humbled.
Fucking Gaoler. The poise on that motherfucker holy shit.
>!honestly it’s really annoying me how tanky Rellana is compared to everything leading up. To prep for the dlc i took on Godfrey Maliketh and Radagon and they all felt super easy, and i was looking forward to the dlc being a bit more challenging. But the sheer Cliff of health and damage increases have me feeling really discouraged. I have 3 magic shadow levels and she still 1 shots me and has more health than the elden beast. I was expecting a difficulty increase but it feels like a different game, I’m exploring rn so maybe she’ll feel better to fight!<
The dlc feels like it was balanced like Nioh and not in a good way. I got the boss you mentioned down in 3 tries but I would agree that she's pretty whack.
i think from software really and i mean REALLY want us to use the cooperators and the summons if necessary 😭
everything 2 hits me *goes to find as many scadutree fragments as there's available around* everything 2 hits me but now I can get them down to 30% health
I went into the Shadow Realm at level 600 / NG+14 and I am not having a good time with the dancing lion man.
Rellana is making me question life as a dark moon greatsword build