Elden Ring

[QualityChimp]

Had a mare last night.
My external storage kept squeaking and then dying.
Then the game would kick me out!

I eventually solved the issue by turning the drive over and it seems OK now...

Basically, I'm working my way around the Erdtree castle at the top of the map.
Loads of tough nights and prawns.

Tried to respec last night and messed up, not giving enough strength to use Mohg's spear!
Took note of my fave kit's min spec and did it again.

So, I've got this set up where I seppuku the occult curved swords, then use the raptor feathers armour and jump attack talisman.
It's pretty effective, but not deadly, disappointingly.

Tried the double Rivers of Blood and they're good too, especially if you're close enough to use the blood slash and physical attack, but again, not earth-shatteringly good.

So the best, by far, is still Mohg's spear.
It does bleed and fire damage, so at least one of those is going to hurt most enemies.
I can take multiple out at a time too, so I was literally running into a group of enemies and killing them all before they could stand up.

Might do a comparison video.

I think the bleed got pretty badly nerfed on the last patch and the best weapons include the Reduvia daggers and now just one is better than dual-wielding.

[Atticus]

Must say, that spear looks super satisfying in your vids Fair play for experimenting though ... I think you need to in this more than any of the Souls games I've played. I changed up my build to be more ranged for boss bashing but kept the Fang for close encounters.

[QualityChimp]

I just love how flexible the game is.
Zaki was this squishy but deadly long-range wizard.
I'm running up to stuff and working on buffs and damage increases.

It's not an easy game, but I am trying to stay within the confines of still making it fun.
I could farm runes or glitch farm to get crazy levels, but I do like the idea of being an excellent warrior, rather than just spamming a nuclear bomb or being level 999.

Which is why it's a bit of a shame that these skill builds I've gone for are miles behind popping the spear.

The Fang has been brilliant, though.
Really took me through 75% of the game and the tension of seeing if the second part of the teleport attack will hit is the difference between success and victory in a fight!

[QualityChimp]

[Atticus]

Fine teamwork I never found Malenia in my playthrough but I've heard she's one of, if not the, toughest in the game.

[QualityChimp]

Fine teamwork I never found Malenia in my playthrough but I've heard she's one of, if not the, toughest in the game.

Cheers. I'm sure I'm breaking some code of honour using mimic tear, levelling up and using the spear, but some motherhubbards are always trying to ice skate uphill.

I'm about level 153, regjigging my stats to favour Arcane to make the spear more powerful.

It only took me about 5 attempts - my main issue being the start of the second phase she had this instakill move I couldn't dodge.
So I took the scavenger sword I'd not maxed and applied Bloodhound's Step, which is like the teleport move from Bloodhound's Finesse as part of the Fang's special move and as soon as I could, I hot stepped out of range.

Obviously, having the mimic takes the heat off me and sometimes we'd get in sync and do the Ritual special together and you can see her health plummet.

I've tackled tougher bosses, but I was weaker at the time. Godskin Noble being the biggest threat to my joypad interfacing with the wall...

I got the Bloodhound's Step suggestion from a video that used the archer spirit summon and they took all the aggro, whilst the spirit peppered Malenia with arrows. Seemed quite a long process though!

I couldn't work out how to get to that area of the map, but @Zaki explained it to me in one of our co-op sessions and I picked up the second half of the secret medallion and he told me how to use it.
Thanks Zakster!

[Atticus]

For much of the business end of the game I either used Mimic Tear or a summon for boss encounters. It's in the make up of the game ... no honour broken IMO. What I did notice with a couple of battles was summoning another player scaled the boss beyond what I/we could handle ... making solo/Mimic Tear a better way to go, your other self tanking like a champ while you hit the boss with maximum dps.

[QualityChimp]

It was quite funny as you have to prep your mimic properly.
I still had my bleed scavenger swords equipped and he kept doing seppuku!

In the end, I had to take them out of my equipment and just take the spear.
Had to add the step sword for that dodge moment, and he started using the level 2 sword, rather than the maxed spear, the doughnut!

Had some other stuff equipped. A talisman to increase damage at full health, increase bleed build-up, mask to increase bleed and so on.

She is hard AF, though and can one-hit if you're not careful.
Great battle.
She says "I have never lost in battle" and I took a screen shot of that moment.
By the time I'd got back to the game, YOU DIED was on the screen!

[briareos_kerensky]

If you have a physical build, Malenia is not that bad, especially if you have a bleed or frost weapon. Great weapons also do a good job of staggering her, especially during the first phase.

I had much more trouble with Maliketh, personally.

[QualityChimp]

Pffft.

Well, that's something else for me to look forward to!

I'm kiiinda getting to the end of my playtime with this, I think.
I'm not bored, by any means, but I don't want to get to the point where I am, and I don't want to finish it.
I'm on the frosty plains bit, where there are a few more bits to explore, but I've already done Mohg's gaff and Haligtree that's reached from here and I think I need to go to the floating azura place (or whatever) and finish off the last section.

I was wondering, all those Hero Runes and stuff, they're literally just to give you runes, right?

Only, I think I used a tear thing to bring my horse back really early on, only to discover that's what increases your flask capacity.

[Lebowski]

What sucks about Melina is every time she hits you she gets health back, so sometimes having the mimic can go against you as all the smacking about she is doing of him is filling up her health bar as quick as you can take it down. Her massive range and her stupid combos make her a real pain and nothings worse than having a great first phase to then getting insta killed in the second.

[QualityChimp]

What sucks about Melina is every time she hits you she gets health back, so sometimes having the mimic can go against you as all the smacking about she is doing of him is filling up her health bar as quick as you can take it down. Her massive range and her stupid combos make her a real pain and nothings worse than having an great first phase then getting insta killed in the second.

Yeah, you can see in my video her health going up as she attacks, which is hella sneaky, but adds to the tension.
Her combos added a massive chunk of health.
Thankfully, the spear takes off more health than she heals and adding the pendant that increases damage with successive attacks means each successful hit just increases and you can see big chunks of her health dropping off.

[QualityChimp]

Patch 1.09 is out and they've nerfed the jump attacks, raptor feathers, white mask and blood exultation pendant - basically my outfit, the basts!

[Finsbury Girl]

Hmm. I might have to bust out my Guts build again to see the changes

praise the sun

[QualityChimp]

Had a look on the map app last night to see if I'd done all the evergaols and there was 3 I'd not done, so I mopped those up.
I died on the one for being greedy, but all three I just blasted through.

Funny riding through some of the earlier areas and one-hitting most enemies now when in the early days I'd have to run away!

Still looking for smithing stones to bump up the gargoyle's twinblade, but realistically, I have all the weapons I could possibly need.

I'd remembered a couple of dragons that had killed me previously, so want to get some revenge now I'm a street tough.
I teleported to a church and as I left, a boss dragon I'd obviously missed before appeared!
I seppuku'd and it didn't take very long.

Then saw the other 3 dragons and did the same to them.

Loving getting some justice!