Elden Ring journeys and experiences

DS3: Yesterday I killed Midir, Halflight and Gael once again (in NewGame+). Since I had defeated Ariandel this time I learned only now, that killing Gael gives you a new dialogue with the Painter in the Ariandel church. Nice little detail!
Edit: And a little bit tragic: "I wonder, when uncle Gael will come back." Somehow you feel bad, when you hear that...
 
Last edited:
Joined
Dec 26, 2007
Messages
1,786
Killed off half a dozen bosses over yesterday and today.
One of them, a Rot Knight (?), killed me with poison after I'd already killed him, so I had to fight past some poison-dispensing bastards to where I defeated him to pick up my runes.

Finally killed Godrick! I'd had a couple of attempts a few levels ago - easy enough to get him to half health, but then he gets that dragon head and things go to shit. Made myself a bit more flame resistant and things went a bit better, and I also hit a bit harder now. Still took 6 or so attempts though.

Also found out that the world has an underworld by going down some random lift in a well.
I'm loving the amount of stuff there is to discover. Great exploration.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,245
Location
New Zealand
Also found out that the world has an underworld by going down some random lift in a well.
I'm loving the amount of stuff there is to discover. Great exploration.
The Siofra River. I discovered that area and explored some of it before I went to Stormveil. I recently went back to it and did everything except for two boss fights.

The game really is massive. I'm still discovering places in Limgrave I hadn't been to yet.

I wish some places, like Stormveil Castle, stayed clear after beating the boss. I also don't care for how everything resets when you fast travel.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,129
Location
Florida, US
The game really is massive. I'm still discovering places in Limgrave I hadn't been to yet.
Me too. Only just found the sorcerer that you can apprentice to.
Also, a little talking tree. :)
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,245
Location
New Zealand
Me too. Only just found the sorcerer that you can apprentice to.
Also, a little talking tree. :)
I somehow missed Summonwater Village until recently.

About the talking tree...

You mean the one that turns into the monkey-man if you strike it? He said he was going to reward me, but then he left the area and I never saw him again. I assume we eventually run into him again at some point.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,129
Location
Florida, US
About the talking tree...

You mean the one that turns into the monkey-man if you strike it? He said he was going to reward me, but then he left the area and I never saw him again. I assume we eventually run into him again at some point.
You need to
return to the cave, which is the entrance to the underwater tunnel to the dragon worshipper island; or you have to discover it, if you didn't find it by now.
 
Joined
Dec 26, 2007
Messages
1,786
Yeah, I found that early on. He was there and badly injured, but I didn't realize that was the same guy. I thought it was another of whatever race he is. Also, the dialogue there didn't lead to anything at the time. I'll go back at some point.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,129
Location
Florida, US
DS3: I just got the "All Pyromancies" trophy. That may not sound very hard to achieve, but for one of those spells you need to collect 30 Vertebra Shackles. And that is hard work...
Now I am only missing six trophies (including the "All Trophies" one).
 
Joined
Dec 26, 2007
Messages
1,786
Yeah, I found that early on. He was there and badly injured, but I didn't realize that was the same guy. I thought it was another of whatever race he is. Also, the dialogue there didn't lead to anything at the time. I'll go back at some point.
There's some dialogue you get if you have a certain item when you see him again. If you've beaten the bosses in that cave, you'll have it.
It's the sewing needle the Coastal Caves' bosses drop. I didn't see him as a tree until after I'd already cleared the cave - I'm pretty certain he wasn't there when I first went there - and I returned to the Coastal Cave and gave him the needle then. He then volunteers to be your on-call tailor.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,245
Location
New Zealand
Am I the only one that finds ashes of war mostly underwhelming? I've tried a few, but I've yet to find one where the special ability was really that useful.

Also, I don't seem to get much out of the ones that grant your weapon an affinity. I get that it depends on the enemy's resistance, but I wish there was a way to tell if an affinity was actually causing more damage to a particular enemy. For example, I equipped my sword with an ash than added Holy damage, but I don't seem to be doing more damage to enemies that I would expect to be susceptible to it like undead, etc.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,129
Location
Florida, US
Some of the ashes of war on the unique weapons are pretty huge. They do cost a lot of FP to use.

You can easily get by without them, same as everything, but they're fun to have a mess around with.

The affinity is probably less about trying to match an enemy weakness and more about getting the weapon scaling to suit your build. Like, if you're mostly all STR then the Heavy brand will be the best. The holy damage brands will scale with Faith, which isn't much good if you're low faith.

The old thing in all the souls games is you're mostly better off with just physical damage so you only have to deal with one resist type. like, like 200 damage -50 from physical resist is 150 damage. But 100phys and 100holy -50 on both you're only hitting for 100.
 
Joined
Jul 10, 2007
Messages
2,974
Location
Australia
Am I the only one that finds ashes of war mostly underwhelming? I've tried a few, but I've yet to find one where the special ability was really that useful.

Also, I don't seem to get much out of the ones that grant your weapon an affinity. I get that it depends on the enemy's resistance, but I wish there was a way to tell if an affinity was actually causing more damage to a particular enemy. For example, I equipped my sword with an ash than added Holy damage, but I don't seem to be doing more damage to enemies that I would expect to be susceptible to it like undead, etc.
I forgot how these things work in Elden Ring since I played DS2 so much in the last weeks. Also, in Elden Ring I only used katanas with blood effects and don't have much experience with other combinations.
But if the effects are similar to those in DS3, there might be several things to take into account:
Adding special damage might reduce normal damage.
Also each damage type might scale on different attributes, such that it doesn't make sense to equip a strength type with damage types scaling with faith or intelligence. Shouldn't you be able to compare the damage output of two variants in the screen, where you choose the extra damage type?
Also damage reduction of the enemies has to be taken into account. usually a weapon issuing 100 damage of one type is more useful than a weapon issuing 50 each in two damage types, because damage reduction is calculated for each damage type individually.
Edit: Sir James mentioned some of these things already, while I was writing.
 
Joined
Dec 26, 2007
Messages
1,786
Yep, they are a little underwhelming, but I guess they're just there to tweak things a little.
The most useful one I found was very early on - Storm Stomp to (very) briefly stun lesser enemies to make certain I got the first hit in. It was also useful for downing low-flying enemies that wouldn't stay still.
Now I'm using some other one entirely so that my Str/Dex D/D weapon scales as a Str B weapon, but I don't use its ability (Wild Swings?), because it usually results in me getting surrounded and beaten to a pulp.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,245
Location
New Zealand
You can put any affinity on any weapon art.

Storm Stomp + Heavy or whatever you like. :)
Well, I def couldn't at the beginning. When I first got Storm Stomp I only had access to the "Quality" one. Was that a bug?
I now have access to all three currently, so I presume I do for Storm Stomp now, so yeah, I should change back.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,245
Location
New Zealand
This page seems to indicate that Storm Stomp gives Quality:

Ash of War: Storm Stomp

provides the Quality affinity and the Storm Stomp Skill

And this page lists which Affinity you get with each AoW:

I assume I can now apply any of the three physical affinities across the board because I found the Iron Whetblade in Stormveil Castle:
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,245
Location
New Zealand
I've explored almost all of Liurnia now and was almost starting to feel a little OP. Most mobs aren't much of a challenge, and the bosses in the smaller dungeons are going down on the first or second attempt.

Then I ran into the Glintstone Dragon and promptly got humbled. That guy can 2-shot me with his breath attack.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,129
Location
Florida, US
Then I ran into the Glintstone Dragon and promptly got humbled. That guy can 2-shot me with his breath attack.
I ended up sneaking around behind him, looting all of his stuff (including the key you need to get into the academy) then racing away on my horse as he was starting to attack me.
Killed the academy boss yesterday, Rennala, on first try. Really easy, yet there were three mini-bosses that killed me multiple times. I ended up having to cheese the knight outside her library to get past him (Flame Sling, plus taking advantage of his unwillingness to follow past a certain distance).
Then I spent some time trying to find all the secrets in the academy. It involved lots of dying when not making jumps successfully. :)
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,245
Location
New Zealand
Back
Top Bottom