Elden Ring is finally real

[Paul le Fou]

Taker’s Flame is one of the Ashes that everyone expects to be nerfed in the next balance patch, yeah. Lots of people whining about it alongside Rivers of Blood and Fingerprint Shield builds.

Taker's Flame probably deserves a nerf, it is absolutely nutty.

Nooooo my Blasphemous greatsword! Well it's a good thing I already went through the game with it. And I know deep down in my heart that it does need a nerf, even in PvE - it basically obsoleted all of my incantation casting except for buffs and heals, doing way more damage and ridiculous poise-crushing for the same or less FP. It basically stunlocked Malenia to death.

People who've done sorcery builds, how do you balance needing to level up so many different stats? I'm doing okay so far, but at level 50 I'm having trouble figuring out when I should be leveling intelligence versus (for instance) mind or endurance. Right now I've got vigor and mind at 20, intelligence at 30 or 31, but my endurance is at maybe 14. Hard to know how much min-maxing is needed here.

I got Endurance up to 20, but mostly for moderate armor equip weight. I feel like the game is generous enough with the stamina bar that you don't need to invest too much.

Hah, my sorcery build is almost exactly the same level as you, almost exactly the same stat spread, with similar issues. But it was the same with my faith/strength build. In either case, I set my sights on a stat requirement for the physical stat (for dex, getting it to 24 so I could use the Nightrider flail; for STR, getting to 34 for the golden greatshield). Endurance, I got as high as I needed to wear nice heavy armor with my greatshield and greatsword, but even that I could piecemeal - a point here or there to upgrade my helm in a certain configuration. Mind, I basically only went as far as I needed to summon a powerful spirit (100 FP, also just a nice round number) and then let sit for a good while until putting more in it much later down the line. Other than that, mostly faith and vigor until later on, with a random point into endurance now and then to get heavier.

OK, honestly, most of the time I felt like I had no idea what was best and just went with what I felt like at the time. Like "I want heavier armor now. Endurance!"

Also, if I have some requirements out of reach acting as a goal, which as a sorcerer I very do, I level that almost exclusively. As of right now I'll be pouring levels into INT until I'm dying too easily and have to divert some to vigor, because I'm getting a bunch of spells with very high int requirements and I am going to use them gosh dangit. Frankly, I'm looking at at least 60 int long-term to use Rennala's staff, and probably 70 to try using the Moon spell(s), so that's like 40 levels spoken for. I'll also definitely need way more FP... maybe I'll do something like, for every 3 levels of int I'll put 1 each into vigor and mind for a bit. Or 4, 2, and 2. Something. Or pick randomly. It'll all work out.

Dex will probably languish behind for a while, depending on what weapons I go to next. Currently I have 3 flails: Bastard's Stars, Nightrider Flail, and Family Heads. I'm switching them around as appopriate and doing some power-stancing too. Nightrider took me through Raya Lucaria since I could make it all physical damage instead of magic, which most there are pretty strong against. When Rennala fell down, I put a blood wax on, held down the Wild Strikes button, and finished phase 1 in a single landing. It wasn't magic damage, but it was magical. As a summoned helper, I made it frost with wild strikes and it was even more magical. Frost/bleed is so strong, I love it. Even if I didn't need the nightrider, the bastard's stars still takes 22 dex, and that's so super cool that I don't intend to put it down anytime soon.

I also used fake caps as round numbers to smooth things out. Like, oh, my faith is at 45, vigor is 43, endurance is 31. I should get vigor to 45, then faith to 50, maybe getting endurance to 35 before I leave it for a while. Etc.

Still, the game is constantly providing new challenges and places to explore, and it feels very satisfying. There is always somewhere else to go or some big monster to beat your head against. And when you run out of things to do in an area, that means you're easily strong enough to take on the next place or go back to an earlier roadblock.


So much of this game is just more Dark Souls, and a lot of people have pointed out that the legacy dungeons - the part that are the most similar to Dark Souls - are the best part. But, all of that open world & copy pasted stuff is pulling its weight in a different way. The sum of what it's providing to the experience is greater than the quality of each little cave or gaol. I've read about some people burning out on all the content, but for me it has just been incredibly pleasant. I'm having a blast.

Agreed with all of this. I started getting a bit of skyrim syndrome around Altus Plateau ("I feel way behind or out of touch with the main story because I've been spending all my time riding around exploring and doing caves and catacombs, and my interest is starting to flag") but was able to dive back into story stuff right away and rekindle my interest to a healthy blaze again.

 

[estragon]

Question - What's your rune level and stat spread with this build? And are you on NG or NG+?

I don't remember the level at that time, but it didn't take any special effort or grinding to setup as a Hero other than deciding early on that I'd only put points into Vigor, Endurance, and Strength.

I don't play NG+ in these games, but I'm betting that if you do you would want a better shield poke weapon than Serpent Hunter to keep up with boss health bloat. But also, on a NG+ you'd have the extra stats to invest a little into Dex or Faith or whatever to easily meet the minimums for whatever that better shield poke weapon might be.

That's a theoretical problem for me, though. It's definitely good enough to beat everything and trivialize many bosses on a standard playthrough. Toward the very end, there was a pattern of it completely shutting down the first phases of endgame bosses, so you can quickly and effortlessly button mash through them and just learn the second. My next playthrough will be the first time I actually have to learn how to deal with the first phases of BC-->M, G-->HL, and R-->EB, because they don't gain the tools to challenge a Stoneprint Poke build (significant elemental chip damage and/or difficult to dodge grabs) until phase two. Like that duo, you can just lock them in a stagger cycle, and they can't do meaningful damage or drain your stamina.

They probably should make the shield or the talisman a smidge weaker. It would still be extremely powerful if they did. I like that there's a reward for going all into Vigor, Endurance, and Strength. The game is full of tempting hybrid builds, so it's good I think that there's a satisfying reward for going full melee. But it's maybe a bit much to recover stamina while blocking endgame boss combo strings that do either zero or almost no damage. I feel like the sweetspot is probably minor stamina loss so there's at least nominal stamina management in play.

 

[jpfriction]

Started beating my head against that optional endgame boss everyone loves last night. Got her to the second phase on my third try or so, seems doable.

May level up a different ash to help me out, mimic is a bit too squishy with my build and he got obliterated pretty quickly. Greatshield soldiers got her jammed into a corner once which was fun, but not terribly reliable.

Did the thing! Tiche was quite helpful as expected. Didn’t need to respec or anything silly but I did go full frost witch on my equipment and spell load out to pile on the frostbite from the other side of the arena. Helped me reliably keep the hell out of the way when she started dancing.


Running out of stuff to do in this playthrough. I think I’ll just finish now, then respec to faith and do all the frenzy stuff in NG+. I don’t want to save scumm endings anyway.

 

[Issun]

I made it to Volcano Manor yesterday and found out that if I don't want to lock myself out of a bunch of questlines I need to get through Leyndell first. So Draconic Tree Sentinel and Golden Shade Godfrey are down (the jump attack is kind of broken for how it lets you slowly stagger an enemy without having to sit in harm's way the whole time). I'm taking a break until tomorrow before I press on to the main boss because I've seen who it is and I need time to gather myself first.

 

[R.R. Bigman]

Yeah, I just learned that the hard way. Looks like I won’t be able to get Bernahl’s legendary weapon.

I’ve missed a lot of character’s questlines, it seems. It’s a big game and there’s no quest log to remind me what a person said when I saw them four weeks ago.

 

[Ludendorkk]

Yeah, I just learned that the hard way. Looks like I won’t be able to get Bernahl’s legendary weapon.

I’ve missed a lot of character’s questlines, it seems. It’s a big game and there’s no quest log to remind me what a person said when I saw them four weeks ago.

There's another chance to get it down the road

 

[lincolnic]

Anybody else having a notably harder time summoning people for bosses? I feel like ever since I started my second playthrough, I spend a lot more time waiting for summon signs to appear.

 

[Fyonn]

So I started a Richter Belmont gimmick run. Here are my notes if anyone else wants to try it out. Note that I had to pull just a whole pile of assorted barely-thematic AoE incantations for a bunch of the Item Crashes because there are so many "just kill everything on screen" ones. These notes have spoilers for late game bosses and locations in them, be warned.

Spoiler

[[The Whips]]
Flail - I don't consider this a whip, BUT it's a good stand-in before you get the Whip - it's in Gatefront Ruins, which you'll be stopping at to get the basic Whetblade anyway.
Whip - Castle Morne
Urumi - Caria Manor
Hoslow's Petal Whip - Volcano Manor Quests or Diallos' Quest

[[The Cosplay]]
Blue Cloth Set - Available by starting as a Warrior (which already has whip-worthy stats, so I recommend this); technically available from the Isolated Merchant on the stairs directly south of the Main Academy Gate site of Grace in Raya Lucaria (yes you can go that way)
Carian Knight Set - In Raya Lucaria, in the lifts/graveyard section; maybe look it up

[[The Seal]]
A ton of the items are going to be in the form of Incantations, so...
Clawmark Seal - Gurranq Beast Clergyman after feeding him a Deathroot; D in the Roundtable Hold will point you there

[[Ashes for Elemental Whips without Specialty Whetstone Blade]]
Flame of the Redmanes - invisible Teardrop Scarab located in front of the Fort Gael North Site of Grace
Sacred Blade - Teardrop Scarab North of the Third Church of Marika near a Spiritspring

[[The Backup]]
Lone Wolf Ashes [standing in for uh... Alucard wolf mode???] - it's free, be sure to stop off at the Church of Elleh once you have Torrent and it's night time (so as soon as you meet Melina, basically)
Stormhawk Deenh [standing in for Maria's summons] - Found at the Chapel of Anticipation after you get back there via the Four Belfries. Activate the Eastern Belfry gate to get there.

[[The Items]]
[KNIFE]
Bone Dart [98 Damage at 50 STR&DEX] - Needs 2 Thin Beast Bones, know the recipe from the start.
Throwing Dagger [127 Damage at 50 STR&DEX] - Church of Elleh 40 Runes each
Crystal Dart [no info on damage, scales STR D and DEX C, costs FP but minimally so] - Needs 3 Cracked Crystals; taught by Nomadic Warriors Cookbook [11] from Nomadic Merchant in Liurnia, you won't miss him.
[KNIFE CRASH]
Beastial Sling - feed Gurranq 1 Deathroot
Fan Dagger [54 Damage at 50 STR&DEX] - Patches at Murkwater Cave (160 Runes each) ((probably better to kill him and take his bell bearing if you want these reliably))

[HOLY WATER]
Holy Water Pot [no info on damage, does not scale] - Needs 1 Mushroom and 1 Tarnished Golden Sunflower; taught by Missionary's Cookbook [1] available from Kale at the Church of Elleh for 1000 runes
Flame Sling - sold by Brother Corhyn at the Roundtable Hold for 800 runes
[HOLY WATER CRASH]
Death Lightning - Remembrance of the Lichdragon

[AXE]
Battle Axe used for one of these weapon arts: Sacred Blade, Storm Blade, Vacuum Slice, Blood Blade - 800 Runes at Roundtable Hold
Beast Claw - feed Gurranq 5 Deathroot
[AXE CRASH]
Gurranq's Beast Claw - feed Gurranq 8 Deathroot

[CROSS]
Discus of Light - buy from Brother Corhyn 11,000 runes after he moves to Goldmask's location
[CROSS CRASH]
Elden Stars - in the Deeproot Depths

[WATCH]
There's no way to stop time in Elden Ring, but there are options to move very fast...
Quickstep - sold by Bernahl for 800 runes, he's at the Warmaster's Shack in Limgrave
Bloodhound Step - Night's Cavalry need Lenne's Rise in the Dragonbarrow
[WATCH CRASH]
Black Flame Ritual - Spiritcaller's Cave in the Mountaintops of the Giants (but frankly it's not worth it)

[BIBLE]
Rejection - sold by Brother Corhyn for 1,500 runes
Wrath of Gold - found at Woodfolk Ruins in Altus Plateau
Noble Presence - Godskin Noble at Volcano Manor
[BIBLE CRASH]
Burn, O Flame! - Remembrance of the Fire Giant

[[Other Stuff]]
I'm definitely also using, like, Flame Cleanse Me and the Fortification spells if necessary because like, come on.

 

[estragon]

Anybody else having a notably harder time summoning people for bosses? I feel like ever since I started my second playthrough, I spend a lot more time waiting for summon signs to appear.

I think part of this is probably just a natural cool down from release window levels of player activity. I don't summon players, but I feel the same thing when I'm hoping someone will someone me. In the first month, getting summoned was more or less instantaneous every time I put down a sign in front of any boss, but now I often have to wait a bit. It's still way, way more active than when I played any other Souls game years after the fact, but definitely moving more toward the normal pace, where there's a culture of a few bosses with high levels of co-op activity and many others where it's less common.

 

[Oathbreaker]

It occurs to me that in one of the early promotional videos, Blaidd was the wolf knight shown howling and my gut reaction was "I HOPE I CAN BE ONE OF THOSE INSTEAD OF BEING FORCED TO KILL THEM LIKE USUAL" and here we are. I am very pleased.

 

[Issun]

Taking Morgott down in five tries after spending hours on Margit was one of the most satisfying victories in any video game I've ever played.

 

[lincolnic]

Taking Morgott down in five tries after spending hours on Margit was one of the most satisfying victories in any video game I've ever played.

Had a very similar experience here, right on.

 

[estragon]

After beating this, I've been poking around the early areas in a New Game with a Prophet, using a guide this time to find missed NPCs or missed steps in NPC quests. Prophet's starting gear is kind of amazing in the early areas. The Rickety Shield is not good but that's one of the easiest upgrades and honestly it's still good enough until you find something better, the unupgraded Small Spear with no added pints in Strength or Dex honestly does more than good enough damage early on, Catch Fire just melts early enemies, the hub immediately sells a ranged fire spell, and the heal really stretches out your ability to explore without returning to Sites of Grace while you don't have many flasks, and you have enough FP to summon easily. Very fun starting loadout, and basically a completely different game than a Hero who only put puts into Strength, Vigor, and Endurance. Really enjoying the versatility this enables.

I'm wondering, if I

1) Buy Rya's necklace from Boggart
2) Never buy a prawn from Boggart
3) Free Dung Eater, and do his field invastion
4) Get Selvius' potion
5) Make the tied up Dung Eater drink the potion, then kill him
6) Buy a prawn from Boggart

would that set up a situation where Dung Eater is dead, I get a Dung Eater puppet, and Boggart is just alive and chilling and makes his final move to sell his upgraded consumable? That's what I want to happen, if possible. I believe step 5 should work , but I'm not confident about the interactions between the two quest lines. Hmmm.

 

[Ludendorkk]

After beating this, I've been poking around the early areas in a New Game with a Prophet, using a guide this time to find missed NPCs or missed steps in NPC quests. Prophet's starting gear is kind of amazing in the early areas. The Rickety Shield is not good but that's one of the easiest upgrades and honestly it's still good enough until you find something better, the unupgraded Small Spear with no added pints in Strength or Dex honestly does more than good enough damage early on, Catch Fire just melts early enemies, the hub immediately sells a ranged fire spell, and the heal really stretches out your ability to explore without returning to Sites of Grace while you don't have many flasks, and you have enough FP to summon easily. Very fun starting loadout, and basically a completely different game than a Hero who only put puts into Strength, Vigor, and Endurance. Really enjoying the versatility this enables.

I'm wondering, if I

1) Buy Rya's necklace from Boggart
2) Never buy a prawn from Boggart
3) Free Dung Eater, and do his field invastion
4) Get Selvius' potion
5) Make the tied up Dung Eater drink the potion, then kill him
6) Buy a prawn from Boggart

would that set up a situation where Dung Eater is dead, I get a Dung Eater puppet, and Boggart is just alive and chilling and makes his final move to sell his upgraded consumable? That's what I want to happen, if possible. I believe step 5 should work , but I'm not confident about the interactions between the two quest lines. Hmmm.

My guess is this will probably prematurely end the Boggart quest but it's worth a shot

 

[estragon]

My guess is this will probably prematurely end the Boggart quest but it's worth a shot

Yeah I think there's definitely a good chance he just dies or vanishes for no clear reason if I try this. I definitely had a few quests just break like this while stumbling through blindly last time, and wikis don't yet have a clear grasp on triggers for what breaks some quests yet so who knows. This was one of the NPCss I completely missed this in my first playthrough, and also I killed Dung Eater on sight in the sewers, so I have no idea how they intersect.

Kind of silly to try to scheme out a happy end for Boggart here, because my end goal with this character is to be the prophet who acts as a vessel for the Three Fingers to end all existence so there will be no long term happy endings, but I'm just curious if this is possible...

 

[jpfriction]

I finished my first play through yesterday. Me and my snow witch wife are off exploring the cosmos or something.. I think the final boss actually gave me a bit more trouble than Malenia but it was close. Bastard wouldn’t hold still long enough for me to pile on the damage.

Going to beef myself up a bit for my next round and see if I can be a bit less reliant on summons.

 

[R.R. Bigman]

I don’t know who Boggart is. At least I don’t think I do.

I looked up some good incantations and ashes of war that complement strength builds. I’ve been using Golden Vow and Flame, Grant Me Strength separately, but I didn’t know they could be stacked to work at the same time. The Royal Knight‘s Resolve skill that almost doubles your next attack, combined with said buffs, can do some absurd damage.

 

[lincolnic]

Yesterday I finally got my sorcerer to the point where I can delete bosses with the Comet Azur/10 seconds of infinite FP combo. It's not gonna work all the time, but for anything big and slow, prepare to get dunked on.

 

[Alixsar]

I'm up to Miquella but I haven't tried her yet and have been chipping away at The End Game Zone™ (been playing more FFXIV lately to prepare for tomorrow's patch). Tonight I fought the Godskin Duo and I think I'm too strong? I haven't been grinding, but I killed them just...so easily. There's so many upgrade materials too that I now have a maxed out greatsword that does bleed, a maxed out greatsword that does a lot of innate frost, and two magic greatswords that can be buffed seperately that both do frost to varying degrees (depending on buffs or not) that are also RIDICULOUSLY strong aside from buffs/frost considerations. Also I have two fully upgraded wands (well, one, but the other I could upgrade in like 3 minutes of grinding) that boost different spells. My health bar is insane, my stamina is insane, my damage is insane.

This game is bonkers. Plus if I wanted to, I can make TWO of me. This game is truly, truly insane. I feel far and away the most powerful I've felt in any Souls game by a MILE. It's funny, this game is still great despite it's flaws

 

[ASandoval]

This game is bonkers. Plus if I wanted to, I can make TWO of me.

I finished the game night but not before making a discovery about this that got me through the last couple of fights: Whatever you put in your item inventory the mimic will use as well, so between warming stones and raw meat dumpling (which as far as I can tell doesn't actually poison the mimic?!), the mimic gets ways to heal itself on top of its already bonkers health at max level. The only downside is it will sometimes go overboard on using items and not fighting but it mostly just kept it in the fight.

 

[Adrenaline]

It's weird to be level 100 in a Soulsish game and not feel that close to the end. Starting Leyndell.

 

[Fyonn]

Reporting in on my Richter Belmont run:

Crystal Darts are excellent and Selia Crystal Tunnel provides extremely easy access to the resources to make them. Turns out that having a fast and cheap ranged attack is a really powerful move that many people underrate in Castlevania and From Software games alike. Poisonbone Darts are also extremely good for obvious reasons, though much harder to get the resources to make.

Beastial Sling is, as always, an extremely useful incantation for any non-caster. It's not an effective attack but it's so good for hunting annoying targets for their crafting materials like animals and dragonflies. Against low-poise enemies it's even an effective combo opener or casting disrupter if you suspect your light attack will be too slow.

I swapped from using Holy Water Pots to using Flame Sling as my holy water stand-in 100%. I could absolutely do the grinding to make infinite Holy Water Pots (see the Crystal Darts above), but they feel like they track targets poorly and the extra work of having to re-craft them after use is just kind of a pain in the buns since your Cracked Pots limit how many you can have. There is an incantation similar to Flame Sling that is even more like Holy Water's mechanics in Castlevania Black Flame, but I'm not sure I want to invest the points to use it.

Whips are maybe the biggest surprise. It's to the point that I feel like if you're a DEX build maybe you should have a whip as a side arm. They're relatively fast, reach further than you expect, and their attack rhythm is slightly off. If a player-type enemy rolls through a whip attack you will almost certainly hit them with a second whip attack or they'll be out of their attack range too. Much to my delight the Pest enemies as seen in Selia Crystal Tunnel in particular seem completely unable to deal with the whip once you're on level ground with them. The whip also consistently has slightly more stopping power than I expect it to, and has some neat quirks like not deflecting off of shields or enemies with hardened bodies.

Since I want a variety of elemental whips (fire, sacred, debating on magic or blood) available to swap between, there isn't really a stat I can increase to flat-out make Richter deal more damage, so I'm really feeling the 36 of each Smithing Stone I need. In some ways it's exactly like the Belmont runs of Igavanias in that I feel really powerful and versatile but the limits I do have are brick walls of "no, you just have to get good at this." Also, I really need to get my hands on the Whetblades for those elements because the whip has exceptionally few ashes of war that are compatible with it. It's like 8 of them, and there isn't a single blood ash that will work.

 

[Paul le Fou]

Yeah, I just learned that the hard way. Looks like I won’t be able to get Bernahl’s legendary weapon.

I’ve missed a lot of character’s questlines, it seems. It’s a big game and there’s no quest log to remind me what a person said when I saw them four weeks ago.

To the first point, I completely locked out Volcano Manor quests my first time through and still got that weapon, but not til an endgame zone.
I also missed a ton of questlines, so I'm using guides on my second playthrough. This is, as I recall, pretty much standard for From games.

Yeah I think there's definitely a good chance he just dies or vanishes for no clear reason if I try this. I definitely had a few quests just break like this while stumbling through blindly last time, and wikis don't yet have a clear grasp on triggers for what breaks some quests yet so who knows. This was one of the NPCss I completely missed this in my first playthrough, and also I killed Dung Eater on sight in the sewers, so I have no idea how they intersect.

I dunno about that NPC in particular, but when I was late in the game in NG trying to round up quest NPCs I'd missed, all I found were a bunch of corpse-spots with their item drops. That said, I don't know that that NPC really has a "quest" of his own so, without getting involved in the first place, there's as good a shot as any?

I finished the game night but not before making a discovery about this that got me through the last couple of fights: Whatever you put in your item inventory the mimic will use as well, so between warming stones and raw meat dumpling (which as far as I can tell doesn't actually poison the mimic?!), the mimic gets ways to heal itself on top of its already bonkers health at max level. The only downside is it will sometimes go overboard on using items and not fighting but it mostly just kept it in the fight.

Even better, PERFUMES. The invigorating aromatic buffs attack and gives a 1-time damage shield to it and you (if you're close enough). You can also use the acid one to reduce physical/weapon damage from applicable bosses. I think next time I might try to put sleep pots or poison pots on there too and make it a walking buff/debuff utility.

It's weird to be level 100 in a Soulsish game and not feel that close to the end. Starting Leyndell.

I feel like DS2 had a similar level curve - you got a lot more levels, and faster, than in DS1. I ended up a little over 150 by the end without doing any particular extra grinding (that I can recall). DS3 kinda split the difference, less than DS2 but more than DS1 - I think a normal end level was about 120ish? But yeah, the levels here are some of the highest they've been.

I think you're expected to put more points into vigor than you traditionally have been, and also, there are so many more options for hybrid builds they wanted to give you more flexibility earlier on than mid- or late-game (if not NG+).

Reporting in on my Richter Belmont run:

Crystal Darts

I keep a handful on my sorcerer but I sleep on them a lot, only to consistently remember that with their 1 fp cost they're by far my most efficient cheap damage, with long range and low (if any?) stamina cost. Getting into Gelmir I'm swinging back to the point where they don't quite do enough damage except against weenie enemies, but those are still a thing. I really need to put them in my #1 item bar slot so I remind myself about them more often. (I put my red and blue flasks on my triangle hotbar so I'd never have to scroll to find them. I can't believe it took me until a new game to realize this.)

Beastial Sling is, as always, an extremely useful incantation for any non-caster. It's not an effective attack but it's so good for hunting annoying targets for their crafting materials like animals and dragonflies.

Ugh that's a good idea. Actually I wonder if glintstone shards or whatever the similar shotgun sorcery is would work like that...

Whips

I messed around with the giant's fire braid on my older character and an urumi on this one for a bit. Whips are really interesting for their tradeoffs: No bouncing off, long-range and relatively fast, with weird timing - but also no critical hits, and very limited ashes.
That said, if you want to just use "Whip" then you'll need some of the limited ashes. But there are whips with innate fire and blood effects. For Bleed, the Hoslow Petal Whip is also from VM quests (and/or from the end of Diallos's quest chain), and the Thorned Whip is a chance-drop in the mountaintops of the giants. For fire, there's the Magma Whip Candlestick, from Volcano Manor quests; the aforementioned Red Giant's Braid is a fire whip, though it comes relatively late-game. ...That's actually 4/6 total whips, the basic one you already have and the Urumi is in Carian manor, so relatively easy to pick up early. I know the Urumi isn't quite Belmont-y, but it is very cool (and has an even weirder timing on its charged strong attack), and that'd give you two to swap your ash loadout with until later on, if you feel like you need more than one per area.

 

[Fyonn]

WHIP STUFF

I did a whole pile of research before I got this character up and running, and the plan at this point is some combination of Fire, Sacred, Magic, and Keen spread among the whip, urumi, and hoslow's petal whip. That plan is inspired by the look and damage types Belmonts have had access to in both classic CV and Iga games. I think it's probably going to end up Sacred Whip, Keen / Magic Urumi, Fire Hoslow's Petal Whip. Mainly driven by the desire to have Hoslow's Petal Whip stand-in for the maximum power Vampire Killer and also because I imagine most of the endgame is going to be heavily resistant to holy damage but maybe not so much fire and bleed damage. I'm also planning on giving every single one of them Bloodhound Step courtesy of ash duplication and the various elemental whetblades.

 

[Paul le Fou]

Sorcerer run update: After finishing Liurnia, I decided to do the medallion route so I went to Caelid and polished off almost everything except Radahn, because the festival doesn't seem to have triggered yet? I suppose I could actually fight my way up and through the castle but I'm not sure if that triggers it either or I need to wait. Anyway I went up the lift, took Rya's teleport to Volcano Manor (grateful to skip the climb), and started doing quests there because I don't want to miss the myriad of cool rewards again (and also to do the quest for Best Girl Rya). But now I need to go into the capital for the next ones. But that brings me to the problem I've run into...

I've been pouring almost all my levels straight into intelligence because I want to use the high-int sorceries and staff. I'm still using the meteorite staff but have the resources to upgrade another one past its strength... but I keep debating about which other to pick up. (Glintblade is the top contender right now, which would also rearrange some of my spells toward that type, probably - not a plus or a minus, just a thing.) But in the end I'll probably just wait and use Rennala's staff because I'm closing in on 60 (when wearing my hat and having my great rune active, that is. I have the +5 talismans for faith, strength and dex but of course the one for int is closed away much later in a certain quest's progression...though I could probably push to get there now with some elbow grease. But ugh...). I have Lusat's staff (and Azur's, but eh) but don't really have the FP to spare just yet for what I understand isn't quite as huge a damage buff as I'd hope for the extra cost? But also, everyone uses it, so maybe I should level it up just in case. I also just, despite getting to skip it, went back to the bottom and sprinted up the mountainside anyway to get Comet Azur, and that's 60 int requirement too.

Er, anyway, the problem is that I've been pouring all my levels into int, but having gone up to the plateau, my 20 in vigor has caught up with me and I'm getting squished a lot more, even with pretty decent armor (scaled chest and legs, Rennala hat and some cloth gloves to squeeze under the weight limit). Definitely not looking forward to the capital like this. But I'm soooo close to that 60... just a few more levels and then I can switch and level up HP again! (And mind!) But the number of places I can go to get enough levels without getting squished is suddenly feeling rather limited, too. I suppose I could push through to one of two rune-grinding spots I know. (The dang scarab is in a higher-level cave I think, though I could make an attempt... But I couldn't get to the soreseal that was in that same area, so it's not encouraging. Also I feel kind of bad about using the bird cheese...) blgrhbglbrglrhgb

 

[estragon]

Er, anyway, the problem is that I've been pouring all my levels into int, but having gone up to the plateau, my 20 in vigor has caught up with me and I'm getting squished a lot more, even with pretty decent armor (scaled chest and legs, Rennala hat and some cloth gloves to squeeze under the weight limit). Definitely not looking forward to the capital like this. But I'm soooo close to that 60... just a few more levels and then I can switch and level up HP again! (And mind!) But the number of places I can go to get enough levels without getting squished is suddenly feeling rather limited, too. I suppose I could push through to one of two rune-grinding spots I know. (The dang scarab is in a higher-level cave I think, though I could make an attempt... But I couldn't get to the soreseal that was in that same area, so it's not encouraging. Also I feel kind of bad about using the bird cheese...) blgrhbglbrglrhgb

If you don't want to grind, a solution that would let you just keep playing the game more or less as is might be to just respec into more Vigor. Until 40, ever new point into Vigor gives increasing returns, so you really, really feel every single point between 20 and 40, and you feel every new point more than the previous one. And you honestly probably won't seriously feel losing those INT levels past 50 unless you need it for a minimum. In the long run, it's worth it to go to 80 for a primary damage stat (both for endgame equipment/spell minimums and because you still get good not great returns per point until 80), but the rewards for every single point put into Vigor up to 40 are huge, and you've already hit the first level of diminishing INT returns.

Unless you need Comet Azur immediately for some specific boss instakill, a little more survivability might make it a lot smoother to reach that minimum by expanding the amount of areas you can explore relatively safety. The game really starts handing out runes like candy once you hit the capital, so if you can just get there you start to gain an absurd amount of levels naturally.

 

[Paul le Fou]

And you honestly probably won't seriously feel losing those INT levels past 50 unless you need it for a minimum.

I am impatient and I want my high-level spells and staff. They torment you with a staff requiring 60 int and a spell requiring 70 from the second boss! How dare they?! Also I don't mind being a bit of a glass cannon as a mage, I just need to not get insta-gibbed the moment I walk through a boss door.

I did actually manage to reach walking-around 60 int (base 52) when I realized that I had 2 levels' worth of Golden Runes, so now I just need to get some more runes and level up my staff. I'm actually pretty sure that from 60-69 int, the academy glintstone staff is better, but I intend to go to 70 and beyond so I might as well shrug off the couple scaling points and just go for it.

I also followed up my talk of "I want to try more weapons with ashes" by looking at my available weapons and going "ehhhhh, I need more cool stuff." I also keep feeling like I should embrace power stance and stop hiding behind my shield... Then getting hit and going aaaaahhhhh noooooooo

 

[Adrenaline]

I have decided that I really don't like hero's graves

 

[lincolnic]

I have Lusat's staff (and Azur's, but eh) but don't really have the FP to spare just yet for what I understand isn't quite as huge a damage buff as I'd hope for the extra cost? But also, everyone uses it, so maybe I should level it up just in case.

The trick to Lusat's staff is that you only really want it for bosses, and you want to use the "10 seconds of infinite FP" and "boost magic damage" options in your Flask of Wondrous Physick. (I think you get those from the Ulcerated Tree Spirit guarding the Minor Erdtree in Mt. Gelmir and the Erdtree Avatar in Liurnia.) All of that combined gives you something like a 30% damage increase right out of the gate. For regular casting, Rennala's staff seems to be the go-to.

Our sorcery runs have mirrored each other pretty closely - I've also been leveling intelligence to the detriment of other levels (20 vigor and mind), but I can't say it's really been an issue because the damage output from magic is so high. Most regular mooks die in one or two Glintstone Pebbles! I was using the Meteorite Staff until the sorcery scaling from Rennala's staff began to outpace it, and I haven't looked back. I'm at 70 intelligence now when I use a rune arc (or maybe even without a rune arc, actually, I have to double check) and it feels like easy mode. Once I hit 80 I'll start putting those levels back into vigor, mind, and endurance.

I have decided that I really don't like hero's graves

Brother!

 

[zonetrope]

I thought the death machine on wheels was an incredible idea for a dungeon in the first hero's grave, then when I found out that all of the other ones were variations on that same idea, I noped out. That kinda sums up the side content in this game in general for me, honestly.