Elden Ring is finally real

[Paul le Fou]

Malenia is the hardest boss in the game for the vast majority of players, and yeah, being a nice high level helps a lot (but only so much tbh). I feel like with the amount of runes you get in the Haligtree it's normal for your level to be much higher by the time you reach her, for whatever good that does you. I think 150ish felt like the natural curve point to me? My most successful runs against her have both featured a powerful weapon's art (blasphemous blade or mogh's spear) and the mimic tear to get two of us spamming it at once to keep her staggered.

 

[Yimothy]

I took on Mohg after Malenia, so I didn’t have his spear. Mohg was a lot easier - I went in low on flasks after working through the area thinking I’d just see how it was and die, but I beat it easily. The katana I got from Malenia made the area and presumably the boss both much easier.

 

[pudik]

well, if i was in the 170-180 range for malenia, i suppose it's because i did play a lot of co-op on that character. either way, the higher the level the more diminished the return, especially if you're like me where i'm not playing numbers or using buffs well (i was using a poison/rot build, which i feel is less conducive to damage buffs, i was aiming for recurrent damage, not really the damage spikes). it's an achievement whether it took 35 hits or 50 to down her.

but speaking of numbers i've tried doing a build that actually focuses on the numbers, going for a frenzied flame (and black flame for some of the more fire-resistant bosses) and I've come across an absolutely miserable bug. Current patch (1.09) has a bug where many damage boost buffs simply do not work on incantations/spells, or sometimes breaks the spells completely. I had spent a little bit of time gathering jellyfish shield, fire grant me strength, faith talisman, etc. So I get behind the putrid avatar that drops the fire damage buff tear, load up all my buffs and sneak behind, charge up flame of frenzy, and then drown the avatar in yellow plasma, only for the health bar to be completely unaffected. I could downgrade to a previous version, but i think i'll just wait for a fix, even though it's been a few months now. Just a heads up for anyone trying something similar.

 

[Paul le Fou]

Did you try with other fire spells, like the black flame? I think one or two of the frenzied flame spells only work on other Tarnished, including The Flame of Frenzy.

I've also heard of this bug before, though I thought I also heard it got fixed.

 

[pudik]

Did you try with other fire spells, like the black flame? I think one or two of the frenzied flame spells only work on other Tarnished, including The Flame of Frenzy.

I've also heard of this bug before, though I thought I also heard it got fixed.

i don't think it's a problem with the flame of frenzy, because its base damage is still just fire. Howl of Shabiri and Inescapable Frenzy are the only ones that only work on Tarnished. Seems like it's a problem with the ash of wars Golden Vow and Contagious Fury (which I was using). I think when 1.09 came out, it introduced a bug where contagious fury could stack with itself, so it's probably part of a hotfix to change that. I've seen cases of a lot of incantations/spells not working with buffs (it does look like those were addressed in 1.09.1), but I think there are just specific cases where it does no damage: catch flame and all frenzy spells. Maybe it's just a fire damage thing. Example here:

 

[Paul le Fou]

Dang. I hope they fix it

 

[Yimothy]

I finished it. Went with Ranni’s ending, not that it makes much difference. I thought about savescumming to get all the endings which I think would have got me all the achievements, but I couldn’t be bothered chasing down the frenzied flame (and I don’t really care about achievements). Time to move on.

The last boss I found pretty challenging, even at level 200. I’ve been pretty reliant on bleed and frost for quite a while, so not having them available slowed me down. The three bosses before I found pretty trivial, though. I beat Gideon and Godfrey on the first attempt, though my controller’s battery ran out during Radagon’s intro so I had a loss there.

Right to the end I pretty much stuck with my hookclaws from the castle at the start of the game. I used the hand of Malenia for a while, mostly in the farum (and other weapons from time to time in other places), but it wasn’t getting me past the dragonlord so I switched back for the bleed and the frostbite.

 

[Paul le Fou]

Gideon on the first try is pretty normal, he tends to be a huge pushover on NG and then on NG+ for some reason he grows fangs. Godfrey and Radagon on the first tries though, that's impressive.

Congratulations! Now to wait for the DLC with the rest of us 😭

 

[Sarcasmorator]

I got Radagon on the first try, and most subsequent tries (out of all attempts I think he only killed me two or three times). The beast I found a lot harder for some reason. Gideon was a pushover as noted, and Godfrey took a few attempts but not a ton.