Beat Bayle and now I'm back exploring the second area of the game. There's just so much to do and discover on the map, it and Zelda really put to shame every other open world game.
He got my black steel shield to +25 giving 77 guard boost which is the default for finger print shield which has me 2nd guessing, maybe should have gone with that. Anyway, beat the scadtree avatar because of the reward that will help. Hilariously, i died on my first attempt but mimic tear hit a blow as i was turning to dust killing him. Damn, i love that guy.
I have shield grease but also a spell to buff shield guard boost. Trying to use the spell, it is a slightly dark icon and my guy tries to use the seal but nothing happens. I have to check how much fp is needed for that spell and maybe not enough fp when full to even use it. One yi get that figured out, I'm ready for the final boss again.
Oh I definitely played BG3 before; one of the best games I've ever played. Just getting a hankering for playing it again.
I'm looking forward to NG+, the main game will probably be a breeze after the DLC. But I'll probably take a break before another play through as I've now logged over 350 hours across three characters.
You have to play BG3 soon, it surpassed Elden Ring as the GOAT for me, but I suppose it depends on what you're in the mood for as it scratches a different kind of itch.
Have done pretty much everything I can reasonably do in the DLC. My summons and I are +9 and +18 respectively, and I have some of the upgrade material to get to the next level of each, but I think trying to find the last few won't be worth it and would be difficult even with a guide as I haven't tracked which ones I have.
Part of me says to bring my character into NG+ with the new weapons and items I got from the DLC (really enjoying the backhand blades, would love to see it against some of the main game bosses and enemies), Part of me says to use my NG+ character and just go through the DLC again, but then another part of me says play Baldurs Gate 3 again or any of the numerous games I bought this year but ignored.
Had a quick go after getting home late last night which ended up as a 2 hour jog up jagged peak to bayle.
I'm loving the aesthetic of the game but it's really ruined by the deferred rendered engine. The dithered transparencies on the grace stones look awful, really wish we could go back to real alpha instead of dithered effects that looked awful back on the Sega Saturn. Digital foundry just flat out ignores it.
Havent had a whole lot of time to play over the last few days so not sure I’ll finish it before a holiday-imposed hiatus. But only have a few of the major optional bosses left so nearly there.
Did Metyr last night which wasn’t too bad, though in the second phase has one of the more insane AOE effects I’ve seen (the floating laser one). Doesn’t hit super hard so it’s survivable, but genuinely couldn’t find a safe dodging zone as the laser’s area was so massive I couldn’t even roll through it. Maybe it’s a case of running in a circle to dodge it?
After over 200 hours on Elden Ring the DLC finally made me learn how to parry. If you know you know!
Man, the absolute shame. I just learned that upgrading shields increases guard boost (less stamina drain). I always thought upgrades increased attack attribs which is pretty pointless so always ignored upgrading shields. I went through the whole game with a level 0 shield when my main strategy in any fight is to absorb their combo with my shield and hit them back with remaining stamina. To the blacksmith!!
Grabbed the blacksteel shield instead and got the greatshield talisman. Huge difference, went from getting him to about 90% health left to now 25%. Actually defending the 2nd phase easier with the holy protection but the grab is a killer and not being able to get many hits in between his long ass combos. I'm still icky 16 tree blessing and 7 ash blessing so still probably under leveled. Progress none the less.
Ah crap, the black steel greatshield looks a better option for me 😩
Just got the fingerprint shield, i would NEVER have found that without a guide. Takes 48 strength to wield it and even though i always have high strength, but not that high, so I'm off to respec, then to get the greatshield talisman and ban to the final boss. Good to hear your tank strategy worked!
I beat the final boss today. My normal dodge, dip, duck and dive playstyle, and various iterations of it, were getting nowhere so I tried blocking instead with a medium shield. It worked a bit better so I went full greatshield. I opted for the black steel greatshield as it has the best holy protection, and a more reasonable strength requirement and it worked a treat. A couple of more tries later, me and my very tanky mimic emerged victorious.
Right, sat down to go get the finger print shield. Google, where is it?.... Aw feck thaaaaaaaat 😩
Vaati with new lore video!!!!
Looking at videos the shield is definitely the best strategy for that boss. I went through both the base and DLC without a shield though.
My favourite and most important attribute is Poise. That's why i lean into the great shield and as heavy armour as possible while staying medium weight. Only today, i learned about the finger print greatshield from the base game that has huge poise and holy protection. I also learned of the greatshield talisman that boosts poise to the point where you can get almost 100 poise. It's now my mission to get those 2 items before trying the end boss. In my head, 100 poise and 75 holy protection while using mohg's spear to stab while holding up the shield and let mimic cry use bloodboone ritual. It sounds like a good plan but i could go through all the that trouble for him to still one shot me 😁
She’s good in some fights as she’s such a tank, but definitely not in all. I’ve found giving my Mimic Tear Rivers of Blood while focusing on casting myself has been a very effective approach for several bosses, as the Mimic will happily spam Bloodbound’s Fang and get that precious blood loss damage.
Actually speaking of Tiche, I tried to use her once in the final boss after the glowing reviews and she died before phase 2 😅
But just reading up on it and it’s well known now that Tiche isn’t suited to that boss
Few days behind everyone, just got to Messimer who promptly annihilated me. The Shadow Keep in general I found okay with a strength build, my poise is high enough to make light work of most of those knights.
That f*cking hippo though. The moveset would be fine if the space wasn’t so cramped, pretty much all deaths were due to the camera or lock releasing after getting hit.
All in all it’s great to be back!
Some surprisingly talky bits in this, relative to the From norm. Did the Ansbach / Leda fight and they were chatting away throughout.
Yeah Rellana's not too bad. I actually used Tiche for aggro and went magic to beat her. Once you know how to avoid the moons she's relatively simple.
I beat the Chinese dragon guy and Rellana and kind of did it handily. Used my summon as well as the story summon for both. Kind of feels like I'm cheesing it since I heard Rellana is tough but with me and Mimic tear building up bleed damage he was a bit of a chump.
Oh god enthusiasm is class, sounds like he's going to wage absolute war in him to turn around and miss 4 arrow shots in a row 😂
Yeah he's worth bringing in just for the voice lines, but seems like he's not much addition other than that.
Think i need to take a bit of a break, the final boss is mind numbingly hard.
This is very accurate.
He disappeared but Google told me i had to kill the 2 drakes on the mountain, did that and got the finger, summoned him against Bayle and he was useless. Basically the monty python knight chatting **** with no limbs 😂
Oh i keep hearing about how good is a character he is. Cool, I'll go back to him and then try the fight again, thanks!
Speaking of Jagged Peak is absolutely class, the tense atmosphere is amazing for an optional area.
You might have to talk to him (Igon) a few times, he gives you a Finger item so you can summon him for the fight. It's the one I missed. His item is in one of the other menu pages in the inventory for some reason so I couldn't find it to summon him (and apparently people are putting messages down on top of where his summon sign appears). But I saw a video of bringing him into the fight, it's pretty good. Worth watching the video at least if you can't or don't want to bring him into the fight.
I met a guy who sounded like he got 10 kicks to the balls and i got a cook book, couldn't see any summon sign though, might have missed it? Bale is incredibly hard, actually similar to final boss with how quick he is on you.
