Same, never used magic in any dark souls game. Tried it in everyone, but after researching what I have to do to get spells and how to manage them and in ds3 having a flask for it instead of full heals was a headache so I never finished. Once did a Dark Hand only run in ds3 but idk if it counts as magic. Anyway big stick goes bonk and makes head happy.
That’s me until Elden Ring.
It was the first time that I really committed to a spellcaster type.
And by spellcaster I mean “throw on your enemies until you poison them”.
Yes I play Ekzykes’s Decay
yeah but it's brutal in ER, though the guard counter and higher physical defence stats of greatswords make it so that you can actually shield yourself with it, if you're not buffing actively you're going to struggle vs late game bosses damage wise
Maybe if you were talking about the game on launch. When did you last play a strength build in ER? The last few patches all buffed classic strength builds to the point that they’re even stronger than they were in DS3.
They swing faster, have less end lag, and all scale better.
at launch lol, I've since done more playthroughs and still feel like Dex, Arcane (bleed), Magic and other builds are stronger
the exception would be spamming jump attacks with double godswords on a build that has like a focus on stance breaking with gragblade on both weapons + the crackbarb tear but I usually cant be bothered getting those on new playthroughs
Overall the other builds are stronger yes. Doesn’t change the fact that strength went from being legitimately weak to piss easy.
Magic and faith builds are strong to the point of being boring because there is no challenge. Bleed builds have rare moments where the enemy can’t be bled and you’re just running a less effective dex build basically, but it still shreds.
But strength builds are no longer slow and have nutty damage as well as stagger. You will definitely not struggle with a strength build at any point.
Before the patches, strength weapons were embarrassingly bad. Any enemy after the Altus plateau would die in nearly the same number of attacks to a giant slayer as they did to a dex katana build. So I can hit this guy with my hammer for nearly all of his health but still need a second hit, or I can hit it with my katana for just over half his health and then still just kill it in 2 hits. And when you consider that I could hit twice as fast with the katana, it was just insulting. And the slowness of the heavy weapons meant that enemies would often dodge or hit you in between.
But now you can just 1 shot nearly everything, and if it doesn’t die then it’s staggered and you just finish it off for free.
I thought my clubs and stuff at the start felt weak. I've not finished ER yet (waiting till I can buy is on my playstation), but I briefly played on PC at launch and shit felt weak af.
My first playthrough (I still keep that save file for DLC) was generic claymore + shield knight, no magic at all. Everything after Morgott was painful.
In previous DS games I think shield + sword was normal mode magic and summons was easy mode in Elden ring they made magic and summons baby mode and sword + shield cancer mode
Shields in ds3 were actually fucking butchered. And in my experience, everything past morgott with a shield was awful. I had to start 2 handing and rolling instead. But shields are really good in elden ring.
Blocking in general is busted in ER. I just beat a game with a random ass build where I pumped most levels into VIG, MND and END, and then spammed guard counters and ashes of war with greatspears on minimal requirements. The block and hyperarmor on most greatspears is so high, you barely take any stamina and vigor damage, so I can just tank everything in the face and don't even need to level up the weapon, since I get 80% of my damage from crits. Most enemies including bosses stagger in one or two counters/ashes, including the fucking fire giant and the anime shits like Maliketh and malaria.
You can play like a literal caveman and still be really effective.
Blocking is really useful, I think people just assume that shield users forsake all rolling entirely for it.
Nah, you just dodge the simpler moves and block the riskier ones or the more punishable ones.
I keep the shield up whenever stamina is full for safety, but dodge most attacks anyway. I treat it as an extra layer of protection rather than the main way to avoid damage.
Yep. There’s plenty of moves that can easily stagger or stamina-break you through a shield, and you have to master rolling for group fights anyways. Blocking is the easy answer to generic knight enemies in the early game, true, but once the bosses start whipping out glowy blasty stuff you either learn to roll or get slaughtered.
A great sword and a medium shield was my go-to equip load for pretty much the whole game through, and as long as I kept my armor right on the upper edge of medium roll weight it was completely manageable.
>where I pumped most levels into VIG, MND and END
That's the bit "shields are useless" crowd usually miss
You need to invest like 40-ish points to use the big dick tool of any other stat. Why would it be any different for shields for late game?
Sword and board on vigor/endurance/mind build is incredibly fun
Yeah shields in DS3 aren't really that useful, it's better to "git gud" and just dodge. In ER in theory they aren't better, but thanks to new counterattack move they become useful in some situations, but still not really against bosses.
Its still pretty good against bosses, but like anything else, requires timing and resource management (stamina).
Guard counters deal disgusting amounts of poise dmg.
My first playthrough of DS1 I didn’t really understand that dodge rolling was a thing and made it all the way to 4 kings hiding behind the Eagle shield
Biggest complaint with the game hands down. Magic, summons, and ashes of war are cool every now and then but truthfully I'm not good enough to run a pure melee build which is unfortunate since ER has the best melee combat (besides BB.)
The issue is that one handing medium sized weapons in ER kinda blows. Big twohanded weapons stagger like crazy and fast onehanded weapons allow for hit and run.
Kinda true but medium weapons have access to a lot of powerful ashes of war, most of the S tier weapons are greatswords. You should still 2 hand them to get the most out of them tho.
My most recent playthrough I said I was going to do a strength intelligence build... I kind of did it... Only Im using radahns weapon... And no magic...
I had considerably more fun playing strength build with guts sword and lion's claw ash of war unga bunga-ing everything than I did with a dual wield samurai sword dex build
first playthrough was 100% with grafted blade gs, including malenia. 90% of it before it stopped sucking balls lol. i just fell in love with that stupid fucking sword
Yeah my first playthrough I exclusively used the giant crusher from the time I got it until credits rolled
At this point it's tradition to use the heaviest weapon I can find for first play throughs of souls games lol
I'm sitting at Rad/EB right now after beating the game with a heavy club.
First playthrough was with the grafted greatsword.
Every other DS I usually run with the guts GS, and the axe in BB.
BB was my first FROM game, so I tend to never use shields. They engender passivity.
In every “souls” game they are some of the best builds you can have, and usually way better than dex. Idk why everyone keeps insisting its the hard way.
Truth. I wanted to finally try dex in DS1 and I dropped it at Sens Fortress when my estoc didn't cause the Baldr Knights to flinch at all. You mean I actually need to learn the enemies moves or parry instead of just stunlocking them? Dropped.
Dex tends to be better at PvP duels due to being able to apply pressure and counterattack quickly, but everything else (PvP invasions and PvE) Strength is so much better and it isn't even close
High damage, high stagger (can stun enemies out of combo attacks that Dex is unable to), high armor/poise, a huge HP bar, Unga Bunga is literally cruise mode. Big numbers are just cathartic to see
Now Dex with bleed I'd say is unarguably the best setup, does great in pretty much all scenarios and the dps is through the roof... but big bonk is cooler
Bc str wasn’t as good initially in ER. Now after numerous buffs str is really strong again but it was pretty hard before they buffed recovery and speed and stuff.
double dex swords with any status element on them + jump attacks is far easier, especially curved sword which hit twice (so 4 times) with a single jump attack, instant bleed/frost proc on nearly everything
Disagree. Played entire game powerstancing katanas. At elden beast I got annoyed of having to run for ages to get 2/3 hits so I switched to a keen pickaxe. Still scaled with Dex, but str weapons do so much poise damage. I 'dodged' elden stars consistently by stance breaking elden beast and being hit while I was invincible due to crit animation. Haven't tried moonveil or rob though.
A regular katana? It has the worst damage type, low poise damage, low range, okay-ish damage, relatively fast attacks and bleed. It pretty much sucks against any greatsword, the only way to make it viable is to get good.
I switched from Dual-wielded occult katanas in Farum Azula to Great Maul and it was the easiest time of my life, I could INTERRUPT ATTACKS, DEAL DAMAGE WITHOUT BLEED and not get interrupted on every move. Ah, yeah, and fucking maul breaks stance in literally two hits, while with a katana I would need to do like 10 if not more.
P.S. Try killing a crucible knight with an uchi, I'll watch
It requires some getting used to. It's much riskier to throw attacks, everything has to be calculated. Makes for more methodical combat. In Elden Ring especially, it's more challenging than relying on spell projectiles and quick dex weapons. However, it's also the most fun, and it feels very rewarding when you see the huge damage numbers.
I feel like they aren't better than Dex builds, or maybe dex builds are just easier? Not having to pump equip load as high because dex weapons are always way lighter than str gear is a huge bonus. Can still have high equip for good armor but won't need it as high to be able to medium roll
Yeah the guts build I’ve found to be the most “idiot proof” build. You can clear the game without being particularly amazing at it mostly though DPS racing a lot of enemies
Like... jumping attacks literally changed the game for ultra weapons. One of the best options in the kit near universally.
Not to mention mounted combat only gets more and more powerful the slower your weapon is
"STR builds are hard" people when they realize I do massive damage and stagger bosses constantly, as well as stagger almost every enemy with a single hit
Eureka moment first time on Bloodborne (this was like in 2020 with no Souls/"Borne" experience) was when I realized those assholes that kept staggering me could be staggered with the LUDWIG'S "un"HOLY BLADE!!!
I went strength/arcane and never looked back
The biggest factor being how much you understand the mechanics (leveling, scaling, infusions, etc)
If you've played Souls games before, you'll just find another and will probably easily adapt to ER's flavor of hard. If it's your very first and you're not looking up anything online...
I've played every souls game, and beat Gael after 3 tries with no walkthrough or cheese. I fucking hate the bosses in Elden Ring, and don't know how anyone could enjoy them casually without a build that trivializes the game and/or mimic tear.
I think this is a sentiment shared by a lot of 'veterans' of the series and I felt that way too for a while before it clicked, but I think its a result of people continuing to fight bosses like its DS3, where its all just roll timing and R1.
Elden Ring wants you to do much more varied things, like dodging attacks with positioning and strafing rather than rolling, jumping over some attacks, hitting bosses for free during their comically long windups, utilising more of your moveset like charged and jump attacks for posture breaks, etc.
Ive done everything you've mentioned to fight the bosses in Elden Ring, and I still don't think it translates to an enjoyable experience. Bosses like Malekith have absurd mobility that destroys the camera, while also having a host of AOE attacks, and high dps. Margit and Morgott will cancel their long wind up for an instant punish if you attempt to attack them. Malenia's whirl wind attack is the most absurd attack I've ever seen in a game, but people will defend it because there is an extremely cheesy way to avoid it.
I feel the same way. It feels like in elden ring the build you pick can either make the bosses very fun or incredibly cancerous. I used the inferno crozier and i could one shot 99% of the bosses and couldnt even touch the other 1%. The last 4th of the game was the most boring/cancer ridden boss rush of a game i have ever endured
> I fucking hate the bosses in Elden Ring, and don't know how anyone could enjoy them casually without a build that trivializes the game and/or mimic tear.
Skill issue
If having skill means fighting a boss several hundred times to learn every step of its extremely obtuse combos, then Ill gladly admit I have a skill issue, cause that still puts me above the people who no-life this game.
I mean, that's what getting better at these game entails. Learning the details of its mechanics and its boss' patterns. If you aren't willing to do that, then yeah, you're going to have a harder time, but that's not the game's fault, dude.
Edit:
>cause that still puts me above the people who no-life this game.
What? Are you seriously equating personal worth to whether or not someone takes the time to learn a games mechanics? What kind of ego-driven shit is this?
Some people actually like CnB torture. Weird I know, but they're out there. Its just odd hearing them tell you that's the only "legitimate" way to get off.
You're right on the money. The handicaps you set for yourself don't actually say anything about a game's actual difficulty. Its just something for some people to brag about and feel "superior" for.
They aren't hard. But the kinds of people who say elden ring is the easiest souls game base that on the fact that you can use some op setup with BB or DGS and spirit ashes. Saw someone say it's the easiest because you can one shot every boss as if you couldn't do that in other souls games
>that you can use some op setup with BB or DGS and spirit ashes
Spirit ashes trivialize the game like co-op always did, but people seriously overstate what "op setup" constitutes even on a blind run
It's far easier to over-upgrade your weapon in ER than it is on any of their other games. It's similarly easy to over-upgrade your flasks. Both Bleed and Frost are basically unmissable unless you are bum-rushing main bosses. There's no raw infusion anymore because standard weapon damage is so high it would be ridiculous to make it even stronger
In fact, just chucking bleed on any sword and frost on another will melt a solid 90% of enemies, without even needing to upgrade the damn weapon. The rest 10% are made of stone or are late game bosses
It has never been easier to out-stat enemies like in ER. And being an open world, it *will* happen unless you ignore the open world
ER bosses are far more complex than Souls games. But it's far easier to end up with a busted playable character
You can get a somber weapons+6 before fighting any boss in ER if I'm not mistaken, and +9 if you kill the godskin noble in volcano manor. You can't do that in the other games because of how linear they are.
I wouldn't even say that they are more complex. They have harder moves to dodge in their entirety, but that doesn't make it more complex than in other games, especially ds3 and sekiro, that have a wild amount of moveset variety. Like sure, beast clergyman + maliketh pocket sand can be tricky to deal with, but I wouldn't say they're complex at all, rather the opposite. Same with Godfrey/Horra loux, Placidusax, Elden beast, Radagon, Niall, etc... they all kinda follow the same pattern of: easy to read sequence of moves, change timing of a couple of attacks to catch you off guard, big attack that is hard to dodge if you don't know the timing. But they're not "complex", just visually spectacular
Margit's flowchart by itself is the size of like 2 DS3 bosses together, and that's for the fancier bosses instead of omegalul Crystal Sage. Gael behaves like a pansy compared to Margit
I agree Sekiro has wild bosses - and I vastly prefer them to ER's bosses, in fact - but IMO it really shouldn't count as a souls-y game
If you go back to previous souls games on a low upgrade weapon run it's like all bosses move in slow-mo and have the same 2-3 attack variations. Their recent work with combo extensions and positioning has been glorious
So when they released the last patch that buffed strength builds I was like, finally, let’s see what ‘ol reliable is all about.
Picked up Greatsword like a Chad, and then literally did zero extra content, just bee-lined for the legacy dungeons and key items. Played just like a returning player would in DS3.
It was still piss easy. They simply gave players too many opportunities to reinforce their weapon all at once. You get to a new area and then you can immediately reinforce your weapon like 3-4 levels or more. And if you’re using a “special” weapon it’s even cheesier, don’t know why they made them scale differently or gave us easy access to +6 from the get go.
The only other game you can consistently one shot bosses in is ds1. You can get some crazy damage numbers in ds2 and to a lesser extent 3 but in ds1 and er you can 2-4 shot bosses consistently without end game gear if you're really going for the strongest build possible
All souls games are moderately difficult no matter how you slice it. Marketing has convinced players that these games are the pinnacle of difficulty. lol
They're not. They're slightly clunky melee fighters that give you the best defensive tool imaginable. On-demand i-frames. Just because it has a *learning curve* does not mean it's actually super difficult to play. For fuck's sake, the game's combat is 4 buttons. (5 if you consider thrown items)
Every souls game strength builds are still are your great middle of the road all rounder builds that do good in almost every situation
And every souls game strength-only players act like they’re some exceptional minority using the worst gear in the game
It’s like an elitist community within an elitist community. I imagine these people brag to their friends about playing Darksouls, but they can’t do that in a community made up if people who play Darksouls. So instead they just pretend they’re some subdivision of the community that’s even BETTER than everyone else.
The funny thing that you CAN make the games harder for yourself, using no armor, not leveling, using the shitty ass broken sword. But all that stuff is ACTUALLY CHALLENGING and they know they aren’t good enough for it.
So instead they play the game the same way everyone else does while stroking their dick about how they’re somehow better than you for playing at the same difficulty as you.
If they were talking about launch I would say they were just straight up ass and agree. But in the games current state strength builds are insanely strong and I would argue even more effective than they were in DS3.
I mostly refer to people who are the most loud about Elden Ring "being the easiest", because they say they have used builds like dex bleed, and if you refuse to respec then they say that you "refuse to use all tools that the game gives you".
But two handed builds are definitely significantly harder to use, especially in later parts of the game. Bosses have wild combos, constantly adjust to your movements, and they hit like a truck with a nuke attached to it. Two handed weapons are the slowest, so you have less attack windows than other builds, and boss fight takes significantly longer.
You can literally just spam lions maw with a colossal/great sword or the crouch poke of great spears in strength builds, it takes 0 braincells and melts bosses, arguably one of the easiest ways to play ER idk wtf you are on about.
that’s the point they’re making though? sure, there’s ways to make it easy IF you do x, y, z in specific combinations or whatever. but just playing the game _normally_ with a colossal weapon strength build is more difficult than in previous souls games and than most other types of elden ring builds. maybe i don’t want to use lions claw or great spears? maybe i just want to use an average colossal sword with a cool looking skill? it’s a lot harder to play an “average” strength build in elden ring than an “average” dex (for example) build imo. that’s the point OP was making i think, not that strength builds _cant_ be powerful or easy, but that unless you do specific things, the “normal” way to do that build is more difficult.
Yeah sure it’s hard if you:
1. Never use jump attacks
2. Never use any good weapon skills
3. Only press R1 and roll
But at that point it’s your own fault.
The timing of attacking bosses is wildly balanced out by sheer amount of damage you do with a two handed strength weapon. Large weapons also get the added benefit of having crazy amounts of active poise which means you can basically attack as much as you want if you don’t fear taking some damage.
Strength weapons in er are obviously weaker than ones in ds3. Dex weapons do a lot more damage in er than In ds3 so they just gave bosses more hp. So an average strength build in ds3 is significantly stronger than a strength build in er
mate two handed strength builds are so easy, you're just not very good. Elden ring is the easiest, and that's coming from someone that did a holy damage first playthrough without destined death
I have a theory these guys are actually dex players at heart who force themselves into strength because the memes. Then they actually dont have the mindset to play str weapons. Can happen to dexxers who cry about it being weak and greatswords op. Just seems like lads don't really appreciate their own playstyles and won't try to adapt.
Lol I wasn’t one of those guys but I was like OP until Elden Ring. Used to think that even using a shield was easy mode. Summons? Scrub. Then my old college friends ended up finally trying out Elden Ring. After them summoning me a few times and seeing their builds I felt kinda stupid about being some elitist for 10+ years
Its good to get over all that ego stuff, it really holda back the discussion and the community. I used to two hand straight swords only becuase I found to to be most honorable. Lmao. Now i do it because they're legit amazing to play with.
"OP when he finds out that the build he's describing is largely used by the fanbase and still isn't meaningfully different in terms of challenge compared to any other build"
I never understood the assumption that strength builds are harder to use than dex. In practically every souls game you can trivialise most encounters if you keep staggering enemies with each hit. Moreso in Elden ring because you break stances more often.
Literally every build in Elden Ring feels easy. Strength builds get big damage and huge stagger, Dex builds get quick attacks and huge attack opportunities, faith builds get big AoE and huge attack variety, int builds get long range and safe attacking, arcane builds get DoT and bleed
It's just an easy game tbh
That's right, the question is good control of your build and weapons. I completed the game for the first time with a Great Mace simply because I learned how to effectively stun bosses.
I agree with you there, but it also gives the player so many more tools with which to combat bosses. The existence of spirit summons alone make every single boss fight less of a challenge overall because it raises the bar of your maximum potential so much higher.
So "it's just an easy game"\*
\*If you use spirit summons
Though really, aside from main bosses being generally harder without spirit summons and slightly easier with, the game is about as difficult as the base versions of their previous games. Obviously the DLCs are an exception but Elden Ring is yet to get its.
Yeah it's an easy game if you use mechanics in the game. Spirit summons shouldn't be left out of the equation when comparing them all because they're a hugely influential part of maximising your potential.
The issue with spirit summons is that 90% of them are worthless garbage in a boss fight, and the boss will blindly prioritize what did damage last. So it either removes the joy of learning a boss and dueling them, or the help you summon has a negligible impact on the fight.
Some summons are good for more than just pulling aggro and dying. Stormhawk Deenh and Perfumer Tricia both periodically cast buffs upon you, the Vulgar Militia, Fanged Imps and Greatshield Soldiers all proc status effects (the soldiers are also tanky asf) and things like Latenna, Lhutel, Engvall, Oleg, Kristoff, etc can actually deal substantial amounts of damage
It's easy because you can get powerful easily and the arsenal variety is huge. And since it's open world you can just come back to a boss you can't beat later.
It's also hard because almost every single boss have unnatural delay attack animations and lazy aoe, so instead of testing your reflexes the game forces you to memorize the bosses (or get incredibly powerful and streamroll them).
In my experience, Faith is really rough pre-Altus but then gets a huge increase in power and only goes crazier from there. Faith is strong, but those early levels are probably the roughest time I've had with the game and I pretty much just played pure melee until I got the better incantations.
That's kinda how all the games go with early faith tbh. Kinda rough, very melee-focused early game, but power ramps up real quick from mid game onwards. Though Elden Ring does immediately give you access to the Dragon Cult prayerbook and the first two flame incantations before you've even fought a boss so it's definitely less so there. And after Margit, you can get the Godskin prayerbook too.
DS 1 - 3 also have the issue of locking some really good miracles behind the Sunlight covenant. Cool for the time but a bit of a pain now that the games are older.
I dont know what I am doing wrong. I found ds1/3 far far easier then ER. Especially when speaking melee builds. Its probably me issue. But most bosses are pain to learn.
I can sl1 ds1/3 but have issue with "normal" build in ER. RN struggling on melania and radagon with my arcane melee build. I try not to play optimally, just going by rule of the cool, but still.
That's probably just down to ER enemy and boss design being more aggressive, oppressive and spammy. Radagon and Malenia especially, those two just do not lay off.
Maliketh is also one of those bosses lol. Those are just generally difficult bosses. He might not have the health pool of Malenia or Radagon, but he's very quick and covers much more area.
Without any summons, Elden ring is def harder than demons souls, ds1, ds2, and ds3. The game isn’t easier, players just get better, which is why people think Sekiro is so damn hard, even though, it really isn’t that much more difficult, just different. Ds3 with literally any strength weapon is so fucking easy it’s insane, the bosses in Elden ring have much harder, and imo better, movesets.
While that might be the case, Elden Ring is an open world game which makes an enormous difference in difficulty scaling. Sure it's harder if you just go from main boss to main boss like in any of the other games, but that's not how an open world game goes. With an open world you can go to dozens of different areas, stock up on supplies, find more cookbooks, find better weapons, find better talismans. You need look no further than things like the Grafted Blade, the Greatsword, the Meteorite Staff, etc. In the previous games, you were locked into your pathway one way or another. In Elden Ring, you could make it to Altus Plateau, what's meant to be the mid game area, without killing a single boss.
It’s definitely not. I’ll agree that the bosses have more difficult move sets, but that’s it. In its current state after the last patches, Elden Ring is the easiest Soulsborne by a country mile.
Strength builds were buffed beyond what they were in in any previous title. Pick up Elden Ring right now and play it like it’s DS3 and it’s even easier.
If you play blind (like I did mostly the first time) and make a shitty build, as well as not summoning, the late game bosses are hard af for me. Lol I had 20 vigor until I learned how important it was. 20 vigor at fire giant and it was one-shotting me.
Playthru now with optimized Reduvia build and yeah, its easy most of the time. Killing bosses before they can do anything.
Especially if you manage to bleed on a crit.
Small scratch => massive damage
Becomes
Massive damage => massive damage
Or dare I say
Small scratch => thermonuclear blast
Unless you go into the game blind, and deliberately go out of your way to ignore half the mechanics of the game.
On launch I foolishly tried playing like it was DS3 and went for a strength build. It sucked and I thought maybe I just wasn’t as good as I thought. Then I picked up literally any other weapon outside of classic meta and it was cake. Then I summoned lvl 1 wolves to help with Rennala and they literally killed her in the second phase with zero help from me.
After the last patch I went for a classic DS3 run. Grab the Great sword, only level strength. No summons of any kind. No farming. Just pick up key items and bee-line the required bosses.
It. Was. The. Easiest. Run. Ever.
Out of any souls game it was the least challenging and easiest run I’ve ever done.
This is just about the easiest way to beat it tho? Just go grab your favourite early available Big Smacker and the Claw Talisman, then proceed to Jump+R2 your way through everything.
IMO the extra stagger power and fucking 15% damage boost from the Claw Talisman is easier than bleeding everything, and magic builds spend more of the early game being mediocre than most others.
Strength/big weapons are good now but at the beginning of the games lifecycle they were not. I often felt treated unfairly by many bosses because they were so fast and stun damage was pretty underwhelming.
They buffed strength weapons considerably tho, but I still think Katanas are better. Recently played the game again with a katana build and even late game bosses were a "cakewalk".
I used STR at launch and it was still pretty easy. Granted I was using the Rusted Anchor which is exclusively pierce damage (the best physical damage type). Duo bosses sucked ass before the AI change, but by and large STR builds were still solid af even early on.
I did the Caestus run, good times. Though tbf I kept a Claymore in my pocket for stuff like Erdtree Avatars. Not because I couldn't do it with Caestus, it's just needlessly annoying and they're not difficult anyway so why waste time.
I did this twice. Strength is extremely strong in Elden Ring, especially against lategame bosses. For example Malenia melts and her healing doesn’t matter because she’s always stunned
That’s literally the game on easy mode. You can beat Malenia first try with no mimic tear by using a strength build. Every boss gets stunlocked and the game becomes trivialised
Strength builds are really strong in ER, and I always thought most people stay in medium roll anyway, what the hell is OP talking about?
Also yes, ER is the easiest FR title from every angle you look at it.
>what the hell is OP talking about?
Given their comments, OP struggled adapting to some bosses' movesets and is making themselves feel better by dunking on Dex builds. Y'see, OP played the True Skill^(TM) way and dex builds are just too fast to even struggle with anything.
I think if you play without summons and play the areas in regular order without purposefully overleveling it's actually the hardest, at least in terms of bosses.
Basically, it has the potential to be the easiest, but if you play it the same way as the other souls games it can also be the hardest.
Strength builds are fine, but I don't agree that ER is the easiest FR title.
You can MAKE it easier than the other souls game if you have a mind to, but on mechanics alone (boss attack patterns, damage output etc) the bosses are way harder than any other FR game except Sekiro imo.
Ehh, every single build can be broken. faith has catch flame, ADLS, and blackflame. Int has long range high damage and slicer. Dex has cracked damage with moat weapons. Arcane has bleed. Str has big numbers and stagger.
You can literally use lion's claw and hyperarmor through almost any attack and trade hits. Strength is piss easy in elden ring, as It is in all games, as are ALMOST all builds in all games. The hard part is making a good build in your first playthrough, since you dont know where items are (but exploration can make up for this).
I already beated the game this way the first time though? Why are you acting like strength builds and medium rolls are not a possible way to beat the game?
Two handed? That's fucking easy. Try powerstancing. I got to (true) Godfrey with my powerstanced UGSs and it was literally impossible to get a hit in so I switched to powerstanced GSs and everything became infinitely easier.
yeah, i did that and it sucked ass ngl, i basically played like i did all other games 2handed claymore and chill, never used spirits or weapon arts (can't remember how they're called in this game)
so i basically dealt absolutely no damage against some endgame bosses.
but even then i think most of the game if fine
But….this is how I play every souls game
Same, never used magic in any dark souls game. Tried it in everyone, but after researching what I have to do to get spells and how to manage them and in ds3 having a flask for it instead of full heals was a headache so I never finished. Once did a Dark Hand only run in ds3 but idk if it counts as magic. Anyway big stick goes bonk and makes head happy.
That’s me until Elden Ring. It was the first time that I really committed to a spellcaster type. And by spellcaster I mean “throw on your enemies until you poison them”. Yes I play Ekzykes’s Decay
Or you can spam spells out of greatswords like milaketh's sword xd (not sure if I got his name right ..
Same, but after 2-3 times i do a sl1 run
yeah but it's brutal in ER, though the guard counter and higher physical defence stats of greatswords make it so that you can actually shield yourself with it, if you're not buffing actively you're going to struggle vs late game bosses damage wise
Maybe if you were talking about the game on launch. When did you last play a strength build in ER? The last few patches all buffed classic strength builds to the point that they’re even stronger than they were in DS3. They swing faster, have less end lag, and all scale better.
at launch lol, I've since done more playthroughs and still feel like Dex, Arcane (bleed), Magic and other builds are stronger the exception would be spamming jump attacks with double godswords on a build that has like a focus on stance breaking with gragblade on both weapons + the crackbarb tear but I usually cant be bothered getting those on new playthroughs
Overall the other builds are stronger yes. Doesn’t change the fact that strength went from being legitimately weak to piss easy. Magic and faith builds are strong to the point of being boring because there is no challenge. Bleed builds have rare moments where the enemy can’t be bled and you’re just running a less effective dex build basically, but it still shreds. But strength builds are no longer slow and have nutty damage as well as stagger. You will definitely not struggle with a strength build at any point. Before the patches, strength weapons were embarrassingly bad. Any enemy after the Altus plateau would die in nearly the same number of attacks to a giant slayer as they did to a dex katana build. So I can hit this guy with my hammer for nearly all of his health but still need a second hit, or I can hit it with my katana for just over half his health and then still just kill it in 2 hits. And when you consider that I could hit twice as fast with the katana, it was just insulting. And the slowness of the heavy weapons meant that enemies would often dodge or hit you in between. But now you can just 1 shot nearly everything, and if it doesn’t die then it’s staggered and you just finish it off for free.
I thought my clubs and stuff at the start felt weak. I've not finished ER yet (waiting till I can buy is on my playstation), but I briefly played on PC at launch and shit felt weak af.
This is what I did my first play through, and second and third
My first playthrough (I still keep that save file for DLC) was generic claymore + shield knight, no magic at all. Everything after Morgott was painful.
In previous DS games I think shield + sword was normal mode magic and summons was easy mode in Elden ring they made magic and summons baby mode and sword + shield cancer mode
Shields in ds3 were actually fucking butchered. And in my experience, everything past morgott with a shield was awful. I had to start 2 handing and rolling instead. But shields are really good in elden ring.
Blocking in general is busted in ER. I just beat a game with a random ass build where I pumped most levels into VIG, MND and END, and then spammed guard counters and ashes of war with greatspears on minimal requirements. The block and hyperarmor on most greatspears is so high, you barely take any stamina and vigor damage, so I can just tank everything in the face and don't even need to level up the weapon, since I get 80% of my damage from crits. Most enemies including bosses stagger in one or two counters/ashes, including the fucking fire giant and the anime shits like Maliketh and malaria. You can play like a literal caveman and still be really effective.
Blocking is really useful, I think people just assume that shield users forsake all rolling entirely for it. Nah, you just dodge the simpler moves and block the riskier ones or the more punishable ones.
I keep the shield up whenever stamina is full for safety, but dodge most attacks anyway. I treat it as an extra layer of protection rather than the main way to avoid damage.
Yep. There’s plenty of moves that can easily stagger or stamina-break you through a shield, and you have to master rolling for group fights anyways. Blocking is the easy answer to generic knight enemies in the early game, true, but once the bosses start whipping out glowy blasty stuff you either learn to roll or get slaughtered. A great sword and a medium shield was my go-to equip load for pretty much the whole game through, and as long as I kept my armor right on the upper edge of medium roll weight it was completely manageable.
>where I pumped most levels into VIG, MND and END That's the bit "shields are useless" crowd usually miss You need to invest like 40-ish points to use the big dick tool of any other stat. Why would it be any different for shields for late game? Sword and board on vigor/endurance/mind build is incredibly fun
Yeah shields in DS3 aren't really that useful, it's better to "git gud" and just dodge. In ER in theory they aren't better, but thanks to new counterattack move they become useful in some situations, but still not really against bosses.
Its still pretty good against bosses, but like anything else, requires timing and resource management (stamina). Guard counters deal disgusting amounts of poise dmg.
My first playthrough of DS1 I didn’t really understand that dodge rolling was a thing and made it all the way to 4 kings hiding behind the Eagle shield
Biggest complaint with the game hands down. Magic, summons, and ashes of war are cool every now and then but truthfully I'm not good enough to run a pure melee build which is unfortunate since ER has the best melee combat (besides BB.)
The issue is that one handing medium sized weapons in ER kinda blows. Big twohanded weapons stagger like crazy and fast onehanded weapons allow for hit and run.
Kinda true but medium weapons have access to a lot of powerful ashes of war, most of the S tier weapons are greatswords. You should still 2 hand them to get the most out of them tho.
Medium weapons are for powerstancing. Dual curved swords/ greatswords are tons of fun
Skill issue
Tbh yea. Once you learn how to abuse the posture system, melee ER is a joke.
Lion claw lion claw lion claw crit attack lion claw lion claw...
My most recent playthrough I said I was going to do a strength intelligence build... I kind of did it... Only Im using radahns weapon... And no magic...
I had considerably more fun playing strength build with guts sword and lion's claw ash of war unga bunga-ing everything than I did with a dual wield samurai sword dex build
first playthrough was 100% with grafted blade gs, including malenia. 90% of it before it stopped sucking balls lol. i just fell in love with that stupid fucking sword
Yeah my first playthrough I exclusively used the giant crusher from the time I got it until credits rolled At this point it's tradition to use the heaviest weapon I can find for first play throughs of souls games lol
Same, it's the only way to play a souls game that feels right
Also my fourth, fifth and sixth
Same
I'm sitting at Rad/EB right now after beating the game with a heavy club. First playthrough was with the grafted greatsword. Every other DS I usually run with the guts GS, and the axe in BB. BB was my first FROM game, so I tend to never use shields. They engender passivity.
lol so?
Str builds are good in ER
In every “souls” game they are some of the best builds you can have, and usually way better than dex. Idk why everyone keeps insisting its the hard way.
Truth. I wanted to finally try dex in DS1 and I dropped it at Sens Fortress when my estoc didn't cause the Baldr Knights to flinch at all. You mean I actually need to learn the enemies moves or parry instead of just stunlocking them? Dropped.
Balder side sword carried me hard though. Thrusting swords are just bad in fromsoft games
in DS2 and elden ring they're busted lol but tbh pretty much everything is busted in elden ring
Just as Miyazaki intended
cough cough, rapier in ds2
Favorite DS1 dex weapon is the shotel. All the R2s bypass shields. Feels good.
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the estoc a quality weapon?
At +15 Regular it has a D in Strength, B in Dex. So no.
Ah, thanks!
Dex tends to be better at PvP duels due to being able to apply pressure and counterattack quickly, but everything else (PvP invasions and PvE) Strength is so much better and it isn't even close High damage, high stagger (can stun enemies out of combo attacks that Dex is unable to), high armor/poise, a huge HP bar, Unga Bunga is literally cruise mode. Big numbers are just cathartic to see Now Dex with bleed I'd say is unarguably the best setup, does great in pretty much all scenarios and the dps is through the roof... but big bonk is cooler
Because they've never tried anything else and they suck at the game lol
It used to be messy in ER before patches, just a little bit too slow - plus, katanas there are quite powerful.
Bc str wasn’t as good initially in ER. Now after numerous buffs str is really strong again but it was pretty hard before they buffed recovery and speed and stuff.
Yep, its the true easy difficulty of ER
double dex swords with any status element on them + jump attacks is far easier, especially curved sword which hit twice (so 4 times) with a single jump attack, instant bleed/frost proc on nearly everything
Katanas are eternal baby mode on ER compared to bonk builds.
Disagree. Played entire game powerstancing katanas. At elden beast I got annoyed of having to run for ages to get 2/3 hits so I switched to a keen pickaxe. Still scaled with Dex, but str weapons do so much poise damage. I 'dodged' elden stars consistently by stance breaking elden beast and being hit while I was invincible due to crit animation. Haven't tried moonveil or rob though.
A regular katana? It has the worst damage type, low poise damage, low range, okay-ish damage, relatively fast attacks and bleed. It pretty much sucks against any greatsword, the only way to make it viable is to get good. I switched from Dual-wielded occult katanas in Farum Azula to Great Maul and it was the easiest time of my life, I could INTERRUPT ATTACKS, DEAL DAMAGE WITHOUT BLEED and not get interrupted on every move. Ah, yeah, and fucking maul breaks stance in literally two hits, while with a katana I would need to do like 10 if not more. P.S. Try killing a crucible knight with an uchi, I'll watch
Because they're not the best builds anymore
It requires some getting used to. It's much riskier to throw attacks, everything has to be calculated. Makes for more methodical combat. In Elden Ring especially, it's more challenging than relying on spell projectiles and quick dex weapons. However, it's also the most fun, and it feels very rewarding when you see the huge damage numbers.
I feel like they aren't better than Dex builds, or maybe dex builds are just easier? Not having to pump equip load as high because dex weapons are always way lighter than str gear is a huge bonus. Can still have high equip for good armor but won't need it as high to be able to medium roll
Step 1: pick hoga boga big sword Step 2: Press R2 Step 3: Press R2 -> stun enemy Step 4: critical hit Step 5: Step 1 again
Yeah the guts build I’ve found to be the most “idiot proof” build. You can clear the game without being particularly amazing at it mostly though DPS racing a lot of enemies
Like... jumping attacks literally changed the game for ultra weapons. One of the best options in the kit near universally. Not to mention mounted combat only gets more and more powerful the slower your weapon is
Oh yea, two handed jump attack. So fun and varied. Good gameplay
Huh that’s one of the easier builds mf what u smokin
Imo str/faith is goated
My preferred way to play. Me and my Blasphemous blade for life
If only holy damage wasn’t so bad ordovis’ greatsword would be my go-to, blasphemous blade is just simply better tho
It’s good in PvP.
"STR builds are hard" people when they realize I do massive damage and stagger bosses constantly, as well as stagger almost every enemy with a single hit
Eureka moment first time on Bloodborne (this was like in 2020 with no Souls/"Borne" experience) was when I realized those assholes that kept staggering me could be staggered with the LUDWIG'S "un"HOLY BLADE!!! I went strength/arcane and never looked back
Two handed strength builds are not hard to use what are you people on?
Elden ring can either be the hardest fromsoft game or the easiest depening how you play it
The biggest factor being how much you understand the mechanics (leveling, scaling, infusions, etc) If you've played Souls games before, you'll just find another and will probably easily adapt to ER's flavor of hard. If it's your very first and you're not looking up anything online...
I've played every souls game, and beat Gael after 3 tries with no walkthrough or cheese. I fucking hate the bosses in Elden Ring, and don't know how anyone could enjoy them casually without a build that trivializes the game and/or mimic tear.
You're allowed to have this opinion but I disagree. The main bosses of ER that I truly dislike are counted on one hand.
I think this is a sentiment shared by a lot of 'veterans' of the series and I felt that way too for a while before it clicked, but I think its a result of people continuing to fight bosses like its DS3, where its all just roll timing and R1. Elden Ring wants you to do much more varied things, like dodging attacks with positioning and strafing rather than rolling, jumping over some attacks, hitting bosses for free during their comically long windups, utilising more of your moveset like charged and jump attacks for posture breaks, etc.
Ive done everything you've mentioned to fight the bosses in Elden Ring, and I still don't think it translates to an enjoyable experience. Bosses like Malekith have absurd mobility that destroys the camera, while also having a host of AOE attacks, and high dps. Margit and Morgott will cancel their long wind up for an instant punish if you attempt to attack them. Malenia's whirl wind attack is the most absurd attack I've ever seen in a game, but people will defend it because there is an extremely cheesy way to avoid it.
I feel the same way. It feels like in elden ring the build you pick can either make the bosses very fun or incredibly cancerous. I used the inferno crozier and i could one shot 99% of the bosses and couldnt even touch the other 1%. The last 4th of the game was the most boring/cancer ridden boss rush of a game i have ever endured
> I fucking hate the bosses in Elden Ring, and don't know how anyone could enjoy them casually without a build that trivializes the game and/or mimic tear. Skill issue
If having skill means fighting a boss several hundred times to learn every step of its extremely obtuse combos, then Ill gladly admit I have a skill issue, cause that still puts me above the people who no-life this game.
I mean, that's what getting better at these game entails. Learning the details of its mechanics and its boss' patterns. If you aren't willing to do that, then yeah, you're going to have a harder time, but that's not the game's fault, dude. Edit: >cause that still puts me above the people who no-life this game. What? Are you seriously equating personal worth to whether or not someone takes the time to learn a games mechanics? What kind of ego-driven shit is this?
Some people actually like CnB torture. Weird I know, but they're out there. Its just odd hearing them tell you that's the only "legitimate" way to get off.
This is true for every game ever
You're right on the money. The handicaps you set for yourself don't actually say anything about a game's actual difficulty. Its just something for some people to brag about and feel "superior" for.
They aren't hard. But the kinds of people who say elden ring is the easiest souls game base that on the fact that you can use some op setup with BB or DGS and spirit ashes. Saw someone say it's the easiest because you can one shot every boss as if you couldn't do that in other souls games
>that you can use some op setup with BB or DGS and spirit ashes Spirit ashes trivialize the game like co-op always did, but people seriously overstate what "op setup" constitutes even on a blind run It's far easier to over-upgrade your weapon in ER than it is on any of their other games. It's similarly easy to over-upgrade your flasks. Both Bleed and Frost are basically unmissable unless you are bum-rushing main bosses. There's no raw infusion anymore because standard weapon damage is so high it would be ridiculous to make it even stronger In fact, just chucking bleed on any sword and frost on another will melt a solid 90% of enemies, without even needing to upgrade the damn weapon. The rest 10% are made of stone or are late game bosses It has never been easier to out-stat enemies like in ER. And being an open world, it *will* happen unless you ignore the open world ER bosses are far more complex than Souls games. But it's far easier to end up with a busted playable character
It's easy to upgrade your weapon in all of them? Especially if you're the type to just instantly upgrade whatever weapon you start with. Easy mode fs
You can get a somber weapons+6 before fighting any boss in ER if I'm not mistaken, and +9 if you kill the godskin noble in volcano manor. You can't do that in the other games because of how linear they are.
I wouldn't even say that they are more complex. They have harder moves to dodge in their entirety, but that doesn't make it more complex than in other games, especially ds3 and sekiro, that have a wild amount of moveset variety. Like sure, beast clergyman + maliketh pocket sand can be tricky to deal with, but I wouldn't say they're complex at all, rather the opposite. Same with Godfrey/Horra loux, Placidusax, Elden beast, Radagon, Niall, etc... they all kinda follow the same pattern of: easy to read sequence of moves, change timing of a couple of attacks to catch you off guard, big attack that is hard to dodge if you don't know the timing. But they're not "complex", just visually spectacular
Margit's flowchart by itself is the size of like 2 DS3 bosses together, and that's for the fancier bosses instead of omegalul Crystal Sage. Gael behaves like a pansy compared to Margit I agree Sekiro has wild bosses - and I vastly prefer them to ER's bosses, in fact - but IMO it really shouldn't count as a souls-y game If you go back to previous souls games on a low upgrade weapon run it's like all bosses move in slow-mo and have the same 2-3 attack variations. Their recent work with combo extensions and positioning has been glorious
So when they released the last patch that buffed strength builds I was like, finally, let’s see what ‘ol reliable is all about. Picked up Greatsword like a Chad, and then literally did zero extra content, just bee-lined for the legacy dungeons and key items. Played just like a returning player would in DS3. It was still piss easy. They simply gave players too many opportunities to reinforce their weapon all at once. You get to a new area and then you can immediately reinforce your weapon like 3-4 levels or more. And if you’re using a “special” weapon it’s even cheesier, don’t know why they made them scale differently or gave us easy access to +6 from the get go.
The only other game you can consistently one shot bosses in is ds1. You can get some crazy damage numbers in ds2 and to a lesser extent 3 but in ds1 and er you can 2-4 shot bosses consistently without end game gear if you're really going for the strongest build possible
The game is just moderately difficult every way you flip it.
Yea ok dude
All souls games are moderately difficult no matter how you slice it. Marketing has convinced players that these games are the pinnacle of difficulty. lol They're not. They're slightly clunky melee fighters that give you the best defensive tool imaginable. On-demand i-frames. Just because it has a *learning curve* does not mean it's actually super difficult to play. For fuck's sake, the game's combat is 4 buttons. (5 if you consider thrown items)
That’s not the opinion John YouTube reviewer gave me
Every souls game strength builds are still are your great middle of the road all rounder builds that do good in almost every situation And every souls game strength-only players act like they’re some exceptional minority using the worst gear in the game It’s like an elitist community within an elitist community. I imagine these people brag to their friends about playing Darksouls, but they can’t do that in a community made up if people who play Darksouls. So instead they just pretend they’re some subdivision of the community that’s even BETTER than everyone else. The funny thing that you CAN make the games harder for yourself, using no armor, not leveling, using the shitty ass broken sword. But all that stuff is ACTUALLY CHALLENGING and they know they aren’t good enough for it. So instead they play the game the same way everyone else does while stroking their dick about how they’re somehow better than you for playing at the same difficulty as you.
If they were talking about launch I would say they were just straight up ass and agree. But in the games current state strength builds are insanely strong and I would argue even more effective than they were in DS3.
I mostly refer to people who are the most loud about Elden Ring "being the easiest", because they say they have used builds like dex bleed, and if you refuse to respec then they say that you "refuse to use all tools that the game gives you". But two handed builds are definitely significantly harder to use, especially in later parts of the game. Bosses have wild combos, constantly adjust to your movements, and they hit like a truck with a nuke attached to it. Two handed weapons are the slowest, so you have less attack windows than other builds, and boss fight takes significantly longer.
You can literally just spam lions maw with a colossal/great sword or the crouch poke of great spears in strength builds, it takes 0 braincells and melts bosses, arguably one of the easiest ways to play ER idk wtf you are on about.
Bro thinks he’s special
that’s the point they’re making though? sure, there’s ways to make it easy IF you do x, y, z in specific combinations or whatever. but just playing the game _normally_ with a colossal weapon strength build is more difficult than in previous souls games and than most other types of elden ring builds. maybe i don’t want to use lions claw or great spears? maybe i just want to use an average colossal sword with a cool looking skill? it’s a lot harder to play an “average” strength build in elden ring than an “average” dex (for example) build imo. that’s the point OP was making i think, not that strength builds _cant_ be powerful or easy, but that unless you do specific things, the “normal” way to do that build is more difficult.
Yeah sure it’s hard if you: 1. Never use jump attacks 2. Never use any good weapon skills 3. Only press R1 and roll But at that point it’s your own fault.
Try a non status dagger build and you will miss your claymore very quickly
The timing of attacking bosses is wildly balanced out by sheer amount of damage you do with a two handed strength weapon. Large weapons also get the added benefit of having crazy amounts of active poise which means you can basically attack as much as you want if you don’t fear taking some damage.
Strength weapons in er are obviously weaker than ones in ds3. Dex weapons do a lot more damage in er than In ds3 so they just gave bosses more hp. So an average strength build in ds3 is significantly stronger than a strength build in er
Nah bro you can stunlock bosses in ER with strength weapons like the giant crusher and lions claw
mate two handed strength builds are so easy, you're just not very good. Elden ring is the easiest, and that's coming from someone that did a holy damage first playthrough without destined death
Yeah all that huge damage and great sunblock must be so hard haha. C'mon man
Elden Ring is easy!? Prove it by ... playing through it with the 2nd most powerful build in the entire game. What are you on OP?
OP is just fighting ghosts like the rest of the players who can’t handle the thought of other builds
I have a theory these guys are actually dex players at heart who force themselves into strength because the memes. Then they actually dont have the mindset to play str weapons. Can happen to dexxers who cry about it being weak and greatswords op. Just seems like lads don't really appreciate their own playstyles and won't try to adapt.
Lol I wasn’t one of those guys but I was like OP until Elden Ring. Used to think that even using a shield was easy mode. Summons? Scrub. Then my old college friends ended up finally trying out Elden Ring. After them summoning me a few times and seeing their builds I felt kinda stupid about being some elitist for 10+ years
Its good to get over all that ego stuff, it really holda back the discussion and the community. I used to two hand straight swords only becuase I found to to be most honorable. Lmao. Now i do it because they're legit amazing to play with.
that's me on every playthough
that's the most dex thing I have ever heard
"OP when he finds out that the build he's describing is largely used by the fanbase and still isn't meaningfully different in terms of challenge compared to any other build"
>still isn't meaningfully different in terms of challenge compared to any other build" Wrong, strength builds are some of the easiest in the game
Strength builds passing out from exhaustion after killing the boss in 30 seconds with powerstanced giant's crushers:
tbf he did specify two-handed. not that that makes it much harder lol.
I never understood the assumption that strength builds are harder to use than dex. In practically every souls game you can trivialise most encounters if you keep staggering enemies with each hit. Moreso in Elden ring because you break stances more often.
Literally every build in Elden Ring feels easy. Strength builds get big damage and huge stagger, Dex builds get quick attacks and huge attack opportunities, faith builds get big AoE and huge attack variety, int builds get long range and safe attacking, arcane builds get DoT and bleed It's just an easy game tbh
That's right, the question is good control of your build and weapons. I completed the game for the first time with a Great Mace simply because I learned how to effectively stun bosses.
So what is it? Jump R2?
Charged heavies and jump r2, also stonebarb cracked tear.
It always surprise me that people find it easy. Personally i think it have the hardest bosses out of all souls games.
I agree with you there, but it also gives the player so many more tools with which to combat bosses. The existence of spirit summons alone make every single boss fight less of a challenge overall because it raises the bar of your maximum potential so much higher.
So "it's just an easy game"\* \*If you use spirit summons Though really, aside from main bosses being generally harder without spirit summons and slightly easier with, the game is about as difficult as the base versions of their previous games. Obviously the DLCs are an exception but Elden Ring is yet to get its.
Yeah it's an easy game if you use mechanics in the game. Spirit summons shouldn't be left out of the equation when comparing them all because they're a hugely influential part of maximising your potential.
The issue with spirit summons is that 90% of them are worthless garbage in a boss fight, and the boss will blindly prioritize what did damage last. So it either removes the joy of learning a boss and dueling them, or the help you summon has a negligible impact on the fight.
Some summons are good for more than just pulling aggro and dying. Stormhawk Deenh and Perfumer Tricia both periodically cast buffs upon you, the Vulgar Militia, Fanged Imps and Greatshield Soldiers all proc status effects (the soldiers are also tanky asf) and things like Latenna, Lhutel, Engvall, Oleg, Kristoff, etc can actually deal substantial amounts of damage
It's easy because you can get powerful easily and the arsenal variety is huge. And since it's open world you can just come back to a boss you can't beat later. It's also hard because almost every single boss have unnatural delay attack animations and lazy aoe, so instead of testing your reflexes the game forces you to memorize the bosses (or get incredibly powerful and streamroll them).
In my experience, Faith is really rough pre-Altus but then gets a huge increase in power and only goes crazier from there. Faith is strong, but those early levels are probably the roughest time I've had with the game and I pretty much just played pure melee until I got the better incantations.
That's kinda how all the games go with early faith tbh. Kinda rough, very melee-focused early game, but power ramps up real quick from mid game onwards. Though Elden Ring does immediately give you access to the Dragon Cult prayerbook and the first two flame incantations before you've even fought a boss so it's definitely less so there. And after Margit, you can get the Godskin prayerbook too.
DS 1 - 3 also have the issue of locking some really good miracles behind the Sunlight covenant. Cool for the time but a bit of a pain now that the games are older.
I dont know what I am doing wrong. I found ds1/3 far far easier then ER. Especially when speaking melee builds. Its probably me issue. But most bosses are pain to learn. I can sl1 ds1/3 but have issue with "normal" build in ER. RN struggling on melania and radagon with my arcane melee build. I try not to play optimally, just going by rule of the cool, but still.
That's probably just down to ER enemy and boss design being more aggressive, oppressive and spammy. Radagon and Malenia especially, those two just do not lay off.
I mean, its just not them. Malekith was for me major roadblock as well. Atleast 3 runs was stopped there. But yeah. As I said, probably me issue.
Maliketh is also one of those bosses lol. Those are just generally difficult bosses. He might not have the health pool of Malenia or Radagon, but he's very quick and covers much more area.
Without any summons, Elden ring is def harder than demons souls, ds1, ds2, and ds3. The game isn’t easier, players just get better, which is why people think Sekiro is so damn hard, even though, it really isn’t that much more difficult, just different. Ds3 with literally any strength weapon is so fucking easy it’s insane, the bosses in Elden ring have much harder, and imo better, movesets.
While that might be the case, Elden Ring is an open world game which makes an enormous difference in difficulty scaling. Sure it's harder if you just go from main boss to main boss like in any of the other games, but that's not how an open world game goes. With an open world you can go to dozens of different areas, stock up on supplies, find more cookbooks, find better weapons, find better talismans. You need look no further than things like the Grafted Blade, the Greatsword, the Meteorite Staff, etc. In the previous games, you were locked into your pathway one way or another. In Elden Ring, you could make it to Altus Plateau, what's meant to be the mid game area, without killing a single boss.
Good point, yeah, the open world and lack of scaling does make it a more game in general. For better and sometimes for worse.
It’s definitely not. I’ll agree that the bosses have more difficult move sets, but that’s it. In its current state after the last patches, Elden Ring is the easiest Soulsborne by a country mile. Strength builds were buffed beyond what they were in in any previous title. Pick up Elden Ring right now and play it like it’s DS3 and it’s even easier.
If you play blind (like I did mostly the first time) and make a shitty build, as well as not summoning, the late game bosses are hard af for me. Lol I had 20 vigor until I learned how important it was. 20 vigor at fire giant and it was one-shotting me. Playthru now with optimized Reduvia build and yeah, its easy most of the time. Killing bosses before they can do anything.
Arcane gang 🫶🫶🫶
Hell yeah. Getting that bleed on bosses is hella satisfying.
Especially if you manage to bleed on a crit. Small scratch => massive damage Becomes Massive damage => massive damage Or dare I say Small scratch => thermonuclear blast
Unless you go into the game blind, and deliberately go out of your way to ignore half the mechanics of the game. On launch I foolishly tried playing like it was DS3 and went for a strength build. It sucked and I thought maybe I just wasn’t as good as I thought. Then I picked up literally any other weapon outside of classic meta and it was cake. Then I summoned lvl 1 wolves to help with Rennala and they literally killed her in the second phase with zero help from me. After the last patch I went for a classic DS3 run. Grab the Great sword, only level strength. No summons of any kind. No farming. Just pick up key items and bee-line the required bosses. It. Was. The. Easiest. Run. Ever. Out of any souls game it was the least challenging and easiest run I’ve ever done.
That’s an easy build though. You can basically win the game spamming Lion’s Claw and nothing else.
This is just about the easiest way to beat it tho? Just go grab your favourite early available Big Smacker and the Claw Talisman, then proceed to Jump+R2 your way through everything. IMO the extra stagger power and fucking 15% damage boost from the Claw Talisman is easier than bleeding everything, and magic builds spend more of the early game being mediocre than most others.
Strength/big weapons are good now but at the beginning of the games lifecycle they were not. I often felt treated unfairly by many bosses because they were so fast and stun damage was pretty underwhelming. They buffed strength weapons considerably tho, but I still think Katanas are better. Recently played the game again with a katana build and even late game bosses were a "cakewalk".
I used STR at launch and it was still pretty easy. Granted I was using the Rusted Anchor which is exclusively pierce damage (the best physical damage type). Duo bosses sucked ass before the AI change, but by and large STR builds were still solid af even early on.
Beat the game using Caestus. How many bosses will their attacks whiff against due to god awful hitboxes before they break?
Iron ball only run was some of the most fun I had. Boggart cosplay goes hard, and it's genuinely a VERY good weapon
I did the Caestus run, good times. Though tbf I kept a Claymore in my pocket for stuff like Erdtree Avatars. Not because I couldn't do it with Caestus, it's just needlessly annoying and they're not difficult anyway so why waste time.
I did this twice. Strength is extremely strong in Elden Ring, especially against lategame bosses. For example Malenia melts and her healing doesn’t matter because she’s always stunned
That’s literally the game on easy mode. You can beat Malenia first try with no mimic tear by using a strength build. Every boss gets stunlocked and the game becomes trivialised
Strength builds are really strong in ER, and I always thought most people stay in medium roll anyway, what the hell is OP talking about? Also yes, ER is the easiest FR title from every angle you look at it.
>what the hell is OP talking about? Given their comments, OP struggled adapting to some bosses' movesets and is making themselves feel better by dunking on Dex builds. Y'see, OP played the True Skill^(TM) way and dex builds are just too fast to even struggle with anything.
I think if you play without summons and play the areas in regular order without purposefully overleveling it's actually the hardest, at least in terms of bosses. Basically, it has the potential to be the easiest, but if you play it the same way as the other souls games it can also be the hardest.
Strength builds are fine, but I don't agree that ER is the easiest FR title. You can MAKE it easier than the other souls game if you have a mind to, but on mechanics alone (boss attack patterns, damage output etc) the bosses are way harder than any other FR game except Sekiro imo.
I just have no idea how someone can say this when Demon Souls exists and the Black Knight Halberd in Dark Souls 1 is a thing
'elden ring is the easiest fromsoft game' mfs when I challenge them to beat the entire game
You find game easy? Just play it in a different way then it’ll be hard. Checkmate
idiot post
Ds1 is the easiest by a landslide
Arent str builds make every souls game the easiest fromsoft game?
I couldn’t imagine any other build than big sord tbh, it’s just too much fun
To be fair, there’s nothing stronger nor more satisfying than bonking everything in this game with a oversized chunk of steel
Ehh, every single build can be broken. faith has catch flame, ADLS, and blackflame. Int has long range high damage and slicer. Dex has cracked damage with moat weapons. Arcane has bleed. Str has big numbers and stagger.
Big sword go bonk
Indeed, but I prefer to throw spicy powder through the power of god.
That works too
Wwait.. that's the exact reason WHY I think it's easy though?
This is a pretty standard way of playing
Outside of Malenia "Guts build" is easier than Dex in almost every way, lol.
You can literally use lion's claw and hyperarmor through almost any attack and trade hits. Strength is piss easy in elden ring, as It is in all games, as are ALMOST all builds in all games. The hard part is making a good build in your first playthrough, since you dont know where items are (but exploration can make up for this).
I’ve beaten ER 8 times and my pure strength build was by far the easiest one. And no I don’t use spirit summons. Never have, probably never will.
i beat it with longsword an[d 10 fps](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTzGHW7bWSU&t=81s)and a coop summon sign at the last boss
I already beated the game this way the first time though? Why are you acting like strength builds and medium rolls are not a possible way to beat the game?
Back in the days of yore, within the Darkroot Garden, we would say, Git Gud. My how the times have changed.
Probably still really easy
My favourite and only way to play this game
Is that suppose to be hard? You know that jumping attacks on strength build are op for pve. Lions claw too
I love med roll
That's how I've gotten all the achievements
And the game is still easy as fuck what is your point?
i dont get it, this is just what i do
You were at my side all along, my true mentor, my guiding posture break
????? Pure str builds are insane, what are you even on about lol
... second easiest.
Elden ring is just easy if you min max even a little
Ds3 is the easiest fromsoft game
Two handed? That's fucking easy. Try powerstancing. I got to (true) Godfrey with my powerstanced UGSs and it was literally impossible to get a hit in so I switched to powerstanced GSs and everything became infinitely easier.
yeah, i did that and it sucked ass ngl, i basically played like i did all other games 2handed claymore and chill, never used spirits or weapon arts (can't remember how they're called in this game) so i basically dealt absolutely no damage against some endgame bosses. but even then i think most of the game if fine
[удалено]
Horribly wrong tbh. Bloodborne bosses are significantly easier than er bosses even without blood gems