Video Games

[BahamaDada]

No need to do it all again. Just rush the parts you need to complete.

Thx a lot. Gonna do (try) this tomorrow on my day off.

 

[BahamaDada]

I had a similar situation. I had started NG+ at a similar level, but after a while lost the motivation to keep going and got involved with other games instead. I put a litlte time in recently and rushed to do the Varre quest, like in the video above. It was said in an interview that you also have to defeat Radahn, which isn't mentioned in the video, but you can rush to get to that as well if needed.

Yeah, I think it's totally doable to finish Radahn and Mohg. I guess if you can't finish both off you wouldn't stand a fight in the DLC anyway. Sad but hard truth.

 

[Jynx]

Took me 4.5h today to do most of what I need to do to enter the DLC. Have Radahn beaten. Just need to grind a bit tomorrow to face Mohg. I'm right outside his arena but I'm too low to beat him.

Make sure you get the purifying crystal tear and drink it at the start of the fight to help nullify his curse attack.

https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Purifying+Crystal+Tear

 

[Aelred]

I have 3 builds that have defeated Mohg and another 2 ready to. I could probably get a further 2 or even 3 there, but they are lower level for co-op.

I never understood the "1 buld only" in Souls games. I like to try different weapons and spells etc. Others do it religiously and wonder why I would use all 10 save slots provided. The DLC will have new weapons and spells, so I'll push my Dragon (lvl256) build through first, with Sorcerer (190) targetting new spells before they nerf them. Then I'll go through with the 150 build.

Mohg: Wait until you get two blood rings on and chug the Purifying Tear before the third, and keep on damaging him so he doesn't re-nihil.

I've set a build up to assist with Mohg at 150, and have been helping folk through for a week now.

 

[laxu]

I have 3 builds that have defeated Mohg and another 2 ready to. I could probably get a further 2 or even 3 there, but they are lower level for co-op.

I never understood the "1 buld only" in Souls games. I like to try different weapons and spells etc. Others do it religiously and wonder why I would use all 10 save slots provided. The DLC will have new weapons and spells, so I'll push my Dragon (lvl256) build through first, with Sorcerer (190) targetting new spells before they nerf them. Then I'll go through with the 150 build.

Mohg: Wait until you get two blood rings on and chug the Purifying Tear before the third, and keep on damaging him so he doesn't re-nihil.

I've set a build up to assist with Mohg at 150, and have been helping folk through for a week now.

I'm too lazy to play through the game all over again so if I want to try a different build, I would just respec using Larval Tears at Rennala. You get enough of these throughout the game that you can do it multiple times. Probably a few more from the DLC.

Aiming to go into the DLC with a strength/dex/faith frenzy flame build at around level 200. This character was a battlemage originally and then I just respecced my stats to try out different weapons. I've stumbled into what I think is a pretty powerful build:

• Icon Shield blocks really well and gives me HP regen. The lack of a skill means I can use my weapon skill with it.
• Small shield for parries.
• Cross-Naginata with Ice Spear ash of war. It does bleed buildup and the Ice Spear gives it a long range frost attack.
• Dagger with Golden Vow ash of war. For buffs and critical attacks.
• Bunch of pyromancies or other faith spells for long range attacks.

I started a new character recently to just get a feel for the game again but I don't think I will play that one so far I'd get to the DLC. That's a lot of time even if you know where to go for specific items.

I always start with the Wretch class that is level 1 with 10 on all stats because that can be turned into anything, and increasing levels early on is very cheap since it's level 1 to start. You only miss out on having some decent starting gear. But it takes next to no time to stumble upon a decent sword at least from the first soldier camp.

 

[Jynx]

Do this to beat Mohg the easy way. Lol. Also works as a rune farm in general because all the nearby enemies in the map die.



I'll just point out, because he didn't make it specific enough, you need to do that little jump out into the chasm at the end. If you can't still slash your sword like he does as you fall you've gone to far. And you need to keep slashing your sword as you fall or you will die after a few seconds. You're going to be falling for quite a bit but once Mohg dies you can go to the map and teleport to a site of grace to collect that sweet money.

Also; you don't need to do that buffer sprint thing he does. That's bullshit. Just run out into the right side of the ledge as far as you can go before you jump.

 

[Devin]

I can't even create a new character without deleting a current one and they're all either endgame, postgame or NG+ so I feel like I should have plenty of options

 

[Jynx]

Well that's me all set for the DLC. Roll on Friday.

 

[Jynx]

Shadow of the Erdtree getting tons of 10/10 reviews today. \[T]/

 

[Aelred]

I'm too lazy to play through the game all over again so if I want to try a different build, I would just respec using Larval Tears at Rennala. You get enough of these throughout the game that you can do it multiple times. Probably a few more from the DLC.

Like I said, many other people prefer the 1 build method and re-spec. I also play sometimes with someone who caps at level 11, and who has beaten NG7 many times over at 11, then starts another.

I cannot do co-op at various level tiers without making multiple builds. Co-op matches on level and weapon upgrades and I do much more co-op assisting than playing the game through myself, and have been for 2 years now. It never gets old, especially with Invasions. People do the strangest things to die at the point of victory, or show me something new. The Colosseums suck, however, and the game would have been much better with even DS2 type Arenas for PvP. If you would team-match with friends it would go nuts.

I'll do the DLC at various levels for co-op as well, and probably restart and transfer DLC weapons to a new build and play the base game with DLC weapons as another variation/fun. On day 1 of Elden Ring I made 4 builds, intending to cap 2 of them at low levels for co-op.

From provides great big sandboxes for people to play in many different ways. I'm a co-op junkie. My online friend plays through NG7 at level 11 with no weapon upgrades, but likes co-op for the extra difficulty and random actions players do.

If you are just playing the PvE game through in single player you probably wouldn't be concerned with such matters. Why would you?

 

[Aelred]

One thing I just saw online I hadn't considered:

Why is the DLC behind an Optional Boss (or 2 - you don't have to kill Radahn to get to Radagon)? Lots of folk in NG++ don't bother with a lot of the optional stuff on their way to NG+++.

A bit of an odd location for the access point, imho. 62% of players haven't defeated Mohg as of about a week ago (according to Forbes).

 

[laxu]

One thing I just saw online I hadn't considered:

Why is the DLC behind an Optional Boss (or 2 - you don't have to kill Radahn to get to Radagon)? Lots of folk in NG++ don't bother with a lot of the optional stuff on their way to NG+++.

A bit of an odd location for the access point, imho. 62% of players haven't defeated Mohg as of about a week ago (according to Forbes).

That's pretty much every From Software DLC to date.

When DS3 DLC was announced, people speculated that the painting room in Irithyll would be where you access the DLC, it was almost set up for that. But where's the entry? Oh, just talking to Gael in a church.

 

[mbenigni]

Pretty sure I completely rinsed all the PvE content in Elden Ring. The only question is whether I jumped into to NG+ and ruined everything. I should go check, but I’m afraid…

I’ve never really understood the appeal of NG+, at least not in From’s games. “Would you like to do all of that again, except this time it will be an even bigger pain in the ass and there will be no surprises or significant advancements for your efforts?” Oh, well, gee, sign me up.

 

[Jynx]

Pretty sure I completely rinsed all the PvE content in Elden Ring. The only question is whether I jumped into to NG+ and ruined everything. I should go check, but I’m afraid…

I’ve never really understood the appeal of NG+, at least not in From’s games. “Would you like to do all of that again, except this time it will be an even bigger pain in the ass and there will be no surprises or significant advancements for your efforts?” Oh, well, gee, sign me up.

DS2, as much as many people aren't a fan of it, actually did this right. There were new enemy placements in NG+ and extra stuff in the boss fights. It was full of surprises.

 

[mbenigni]

DS2… It was full of surprises.

Yes, but all of them bad.

What I mean is, the NG+ is more challenging by design, but you already have all your gear/items, character advancement has gotten to the “barely noticeable” side of a logarithmic curve, etc., so half of the give and take equation that makes these games so fun… is absent.

Also the first run through a FromSoft game typically consumes 200 hours of my life, by which point I’m looking for the check please.

 

[laxu]

Pretty sure I completely rinsed all the PvE content in Elden Ring. The only question is whether I jumped into to NG+ and ruined everything. I should go check, but I’m afraid…

I’ve never really understood the appeal of NG+, at least not in From’s games. “Would you like to do all of that again, except this time it will be an even bigger pain in the ass and there will be no surprises or significant advancements for your efforts?” Oh, well, gee, sign me up.

NG+ can be fun for using endgame gear early on. The added difficulty of NG+ varies pretty wildly. For example Dark Souls 3 NG+ is not too bad, while Bloodborne was pretty brutal.

The first time I played the Old Hunters DLC in BB was in NG+. It was an ordeal, but I got through it. But I have no interest to venture into NG+2 or beyond.

But the general idea is that you didn't sweep every nook and cranny so maybe you find new things on your second playthrough.

Nioh 2 is how you do NG+ modes really well. You can read the list of changes each NG+ level brings here. Plus you can just jump back to regular NG difficulty any time you want.

 

[BahamaDada]

Beat Radahn on my 3rd try. Mohg on the other hand... Is giving me a challenge. It's not yet friday, am I right?

 

[Aelred]

DS2 base game was a large tutorial for NG+ but everyone gripes about the base game. And it kept changing and surprising until at least NG7 (my stopping point) and I'm told NG10. You couldn't get a platinum without going to NG2. All 3 DLC points were very obvious.

But with Bonfire Ascetics you could make a particular area NG7 in a base game, or whatever you wanted to do. PvP folk still say DS2 was the best.

I always thought they should have called it Hex Souls or something - anything! - other than Dark Souls 2. Folk who trying it now after ER don't seem to have the same hate.

I thought at least one of the DS3 DLC's was easy to access, but I gave it the least time of any From game, as it was largely a cut & paste (e.g. entire levels re-purposed from Bloodborne) job to raise cash for Elden Rind - so I forgive it somewhat. Losing dual-wielding, NG+ variations and the silly Arts of War (Ashes are great!) were a step backwards imho. Great PvP arenas compared to ER tho.

Shadow of the Erdtree installed, now just counting down the hours to play it.

 

[norminal]

Next!

 

[laxu]

DS2 base game was a large tutorial for NG+ but everyone gripes about the base game. And it kept changing and surprising until at least NG7 (my stopping point) and I'm told NG10. You couldn't get a platinum without going to NG2. All 3 DLC points were very obvious.

But with Bonfire Ascetics you could make a particular area NG7 in a base game, or whatever you wanted to do. PvP folk still say DS2 was the best.

I always thought they should have called it Hex Souls or something - anything! - other than Dark Souls 2. Folk who trying it now after ER don't seem to have the same hate.

DS2 had some great ideas like Bonfire Ascetics and power stancing (using two weapons at once, giving you a different moveset). I wish they had kept those. The Adaptability stat was really dumb shit though because you needed to raise that to have decent iframes.

To me the game's problem is that it's very long, and has few memorable bosses. All too many of them are the large knight variety too. By the time I was done with the main game and DLC, I had zero interest in venturing into NG+. Elden Ring has the same problem for me.

A lot of the criticism of DS2 is warranted but that doesn't make it a bad game by any means. Just a disappointing sequel.

I thought at least one of the DS3 DLC's was easy to access, but I gave it the least time of any From game, as it was largely a cut & paste (e.g. entire levels re-purposed from Bloodborne) job to raise cash for Elden Rind - so I forgive it somewhat. Losing dual-wielding, NG+ variations and the silly Arts of War (Ashes are great!) were a step backwards imho. Great PvP arenas compared to ER tho.

DS3 is meant to be a bit of a nostalgia trip for fans of the series, and it's not like From hasn't recycled a lot of assets and animations dating back to Demon's Souls. I find that recycling much more grating in Elden Ring because it recycles even within its own content. It's just too large for its own good.

I actually played DS3 before playing DS1 and 2, so those two felt extra janky after the faster DS3 gameplay, but I can also totally see why people love DS1's level design and vibe. It has an air of mystery and dread that DS3 lacks.

I love DS3 because it's relatively quick to play through if you know what you are doing. It could be much less linear, and the DLC enemies could be less tanky. Elden Ring's switchable weapon skill system is better too. Many complained that DS3 feels too much like Bloodborne but I didn't mind that because I was coming from BB gameplay anyway so I didn't mind that in a fantasy setting.

I just wish Elden Ring did more with its gameplay, since it's a new game rather than a sequel. It feels too much like DS3.5 to me, and the open world seems unnecessary because you can't do anything but run around and collect materials in it until you hit a set piece level or dungeon. Those play just like DS3 but with jumping, and are still the best parts. Then there's the Roundtable hold that exists in another dimension apparently. Why is that not a castle smack in the middle of the map instead to give it actual importance in the world?