Elden Ring (George RR Martin and From Software)

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122173245#Comment_122173245

Decided to try out NG+ with my second character just to see what it was like. Respecced to a Strength/Faith build rather than Arcane (I was using Mohg's Spear towards the end of that build), as I wanted to use Malekith's Black Blade which I'd never used before.

Started NG+, took down the enemies in the training area as well as the Soldier of Godrick. Wasn't doing as much damage as I'd have thought, but assumed that was just due to NG+. Took down Tree Sentinel first try but still a tough fight. A few random enemies later it dawned on me, I respecced my build to use Malekith's Blade, but never upgraded the weapon itself. It was still at it's base level. No wonder it wasn't doing as much damage as I thought. F*cking dumbass…. I'll be able to level it up when I reach Roundtable but for now having to use the Assassin's Black Knife which I'd half levelled up and is one of the only upgraded weapons I have which suits the new build.

I will say though, the Dualsense Edge controller is making a huge difference. Being able to have one of the backpaddles as Circle means I can sprint/dodge but also move the camera at the same time, and the other paddle as Down means I can switch between flasks/items in battle while still using the analogue stick to move.

Zero-Cool

Spun this up again, loaded up my ps5 version and had no recollection of my current build. Save said i was 2 hours into the game and prisoner build with estoc and septer. I have no recollection of this at all, had to look up a video on how to use quick menu to call horse. I was in a tomb which i cleared out handy enough and used magic arrows on the boss that felt way too easy and reminded me of how i don't like magic builds in souls games so now I'm stuck on deciding to keep going with this, go back to a sword and board build or just reload my ps4 version end game with Gof of Blood build before the dlc comes out.

It's mad how smoother the ps4 version runs.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122217440#Comment_122217440

If you're only 2 hours in, it probably wouldn't take long to change up your build. I've always found in these games that magic builds are pretty awful until after mid-game where you have access to better and more spells. But yeah it took ages for me to get used to the controls again. Even after getting on the horse, I couldn't figure out how to get back off it (L3).

I'm still going with my NG+ run on my second character. Was doing it without summons but started to hit a wall so Mimic Tear has made a return. Also picked up my second Wing of Astel yesterday so have switched from a Blasphemous Blade build to dual Wing of Astel Int/Dex build. Blasphemous Blade if anything felt a bit too OP at times, and too slow at others. Finished Ranni's quest so ready to start hitting Altus Plateau and Leyndell. Still think I'll just do the DLC on my main NG character.

There's one thing I'd really love to be in the DLC. I don't care how brutal, difficult and pure arseholey he is in a fight, but give me a Bell-Bearing Hunter to fight so I can buy Ancient Dragon Stones and level up whatever weapons I want. Let me make whatever build and use whatever weapon at its highest level. I don't mind having to farm for millions of runes each time (RIP Albunarics), but 8 Ancient Dragon Somber Stones per playthrough isn't enough when you have a bajillion cool-ass weapons, staffs, seals and viable build combinations in the game. Or even let Hewg downgrade a weapon and get the stone back. Let me buy Larval Tears too, just in case.

So many weapons and builds I'd love to try, but it's hard to properly try them out and compare them to what you normally use because you can't get the most out of them. And at endgame/NG+ having your weapons at +25/+10 is pretty vital. It's such a long game that either starting a NG+ run or even a new game entirely takes ages to get to the point where you get the top upgrade weapons and upgrade materials.

Zero-Cool

Yeah think I'll use my NG character for the dlc and hope my stats are able to equip some new items, I'm sure From will have something for everyone. I still have areas to complete in NG so will use those as a way to shake off rust.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122218320#Comment_122218320

That's part of the reason I had to jump into NG+ with my secondary character. On my main character, I explored and did pretty much everything. Every cave, catacomb, ruins, got all the legendary talismans, weapons etc, beat all the main and minor bosses, did absolutely everything I could find. There were no more worlds for me to conquer…

I had most of the same done on my second character (as I used it to complete the platinum with the other endings) so just said I'd use it for NG+ to get back into the swing of things. Have gotten totally sucked back in though so going to finish off this playthrough.

Retr0gamer

The DLCs usually give you a few high end upgrade materials. I remember having ran out of them in bloodborne but the DLC giving you a few more for the new weapons which let me build the buzzsaw of death.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122218507#Comment_122218507

Yeah I definitely expect there to be a few in the DLC, but they'll also be adding in a bunch of new weapons too so most of them might be used for those. I just think that you should be able to buy them, even if it's only after beating the DLC.

Zero-Cool

Just saw this, instantly thought of Penn.

https://twitter.com/EldenRingHub/status/1797704811258994994?t=EjcfhJ1fFEnn2TcKxgQS1w&s=19

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122218788#Comment_122218788

Yup 😁. Any time I want to try a new build:

"Fast travel to Rennala. Respec. Cancel respec because I forgot the requirements for the weapon I want to use. Check that. Respec again. Equip new weapons. Fast travel to Roundtable. Go to Hewg. Level up weapon. How the f*ck do I have no Somber Stone 6 but I have thirteen 5's and eight 7's? Run to the twin maiden husks (ewww…. rebrand your shop name). Buy Somber Stone 6. Run back to Hewg. F*ck I have no 8's either! Run to husks. Run to Hewg. Get it to +9 (because I'm out of the Ancient Stones). Fast travel to Caelid to try new build. Ahh…. it's not great. Fast travel to Rennala. What'up homegirl!…. and so on…."

Vicxas

Just started a new playthrough last night as a Dex build. Last time i was a Mage so i missed out on a LOT of physical weapons to mess around with.

Any advice for a Dex build? Probably wont be levelled enough in time for the DLC.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122218940#Comment_122218940

Katanas are obviously great for a Dex build, even the Uchigatana can get you pretty far. Even if you didn't start with one, I just checked and you can get one in the Deathtouched Catacombs in Stormhill so should be easy to get. Some of the later katanas you can get like the Moonveil and Rivers of Blood are great, and dual-wielding katanas are great for a bleed build.

Aside from Dex, I'd also level up Int. A lot of the best Dex weapons also scale with Int (or even scale more with Int than Dex) and means you can keep a staff in your off-hand for sorceries.

Vicxas

Trying to avoid sorceries this time, do miracles scale well with Dex build or am i better off trying something completely different?

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122219029#Comment_122219029

It's pretty much Int for sorceries, Faith for miracles/incantations. A Dex/Faith build is definitely viable, but I haven't really done that build myself so you may want to look up different builds for it. I'd still say the Uchigatana and bumping up Arcane to do more bleed damage would still be a decent starting point until you find weapons to suit a Dex/Faith build.

johnny_ultimate

A lot of previews hitting the web at the moment, based on three hours of preview gameplay. They certainly don’t get at everything - obviously that’s too short to suss out just how big it is - but a few more insights out there into things like the levelling system and the new weapons.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/how-elden-ring-shadow-of-the-erdtrees-new-levelling-system-makes-life-easier-for-newcomers-or-harder-for-veterans

Penn

First previews of DLC starting to come out, based on about 3 hours

https://www.ign.com/articles/elden-ring-shadow-of-the-erdtree-first-impressions-of-the-big-dlc?utm_source=threads,twitter

https://www.gameinformer.com/preview/2024/06/04/a-three-hour-trek-through-the-land-of-shadow

Vicxas

Those new weapons look insane, beast claws especially:

https://youtu.be/nP9EOmSFbvk?feature=shared

Zero-Cool

I watched a minute of that and had to turn it off, looks incredible!

Retr0gamer

I need to reinstall this and check where my character is. I hope to **** I didn't jump into NG+ as I do not have the time to replay Elden ring.

Zero-Cool

I tried my PS5 build again and raised i was going with a dex/int build and i remember now it was because i wanted the moonveil kitana which i heard so much about. I just got the Uchi and really getting sucked into it but very early on still.

Some gathered info from previews.

https://twitter.com/Okami13_/status/1798001323641544897?t=q9H4rPNwD9tb9fkkAf9jWg&s=19

Zero-Cool

I was wondering what the 8 new weapon types could be, never mind the 100+ new weapons, but just saw that one new type of martial arts where you use punches and kicks. I can't picture it at all but if it's fast and viable, I'll definitely be checking it out.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122220200#Comment_122220200

Eurogamer has a video. Seems to use animations from sekiro enemies and looks fun.

TitianGerm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122220200#Comment_122220200

Running in throwing jabs at a 40ft tall behemoths big toe for 6 hours to whittle away at his health 😂

J. Marston

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122220338#Comment_122220338

There is a new Spirit Ash called Corner man, who just stands there and buffs you with advice like: "Work the body!" and "Move your head!"

Zero-Cool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122220446#Comment_122220446

And now I'm just picturing an Ash Mick from Rocky 😂

Retr0gamer

Started up Elden ring and my character isn't in new game plus thankfully.

Game was running like absolute ****, 40 fps but I'm guessing that ray tracing was turned on.

What isn't so good is that shader comp stutter definitely isn't fixed. I teleported to a place near the starting area and the game stuttered so much it hard crashed to desktop.

Zero-Cool

Loaded up my ps4 save and forgot how damn cool my character looked. I'm level 130 and i see people recommending 150 for the dlc although I'm fairly sure my 130 will suffice but it means there's plenty of other areas/things still to do in my end game.

I'm rusty with the respec aspect though, as long as i have tears, i can go to ranalla and completely respec all my attribute points? Not that I'll respec now but if the martial arts style needs certain attributes, want to keep my respec for that.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122225037#Comment_122225037

Yeah once you have a Larval Tear, you pick Rebirth at Rennala and she'll reset your attributes back to your starting character. Once you start the DLC you'll still be able to jump back and forth between the DLC areas and the main game areas, so respeccing won't be a problem.

Loving the Mohgfrey look!

Retr0gamer

Seems my Elden ring performance issues were because my AMD GPU drivers had corrupted and needed a major reinstall. Not just uninstall and reinstall but jump into safe mode and run a third party program to nuke any traces on my GPU drivers and then reinstall.

Running a lot better now.

PC gaming is fun until it's not.

Vicxas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122225416#Comment_122225416

PC gaming is the best until something very minute goes wrong and cascades all over the place. I once had an issue where my sound was disappearing for no reason. Turns out it was a bad driver from speaker set i got rid of years before.

Love PC gaming

Kiith

Going to start a new character this week, and start leveling up in advance. Been ages since i played.

Do we know if we can get some of the new weapons before going to the new areas? Love the sounds of the martial arts, but not sure if its a fist type weapon or an Ash of war type thing. Would love to get that in the early game.