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Elden Dark King's Demon's Blood Ring Fieldborne Souls thread
I'm playing through Demon's Souls (remake) right now for the first time and this is an easy game made for babies. There is just so much cheesiness and exploitability in this thing that it removes almost all challenge. I'd say I'm about 3/4s through by now and literally don't think anything has been truly challenging. Granted I'm playing as a pure strength build so maybe that makes it easier.
I've generally found that each FROM game is always harder than the previous one - Dark Souls is easier than 2, which is easier than 3, which is easier than Elden Ring. So, while I haven't played Demon's Souls, I'm not entirely surprised that someone who has dealt with the nonsense of the later games would find the first one to be baby mode - honestly when I went back to Dark Souls 1 and 2 after playing ER it felt like someone input some cheat codes. Enemies were so slow, and they had openings!
Elden Ring forged bold new frontiers in dark souls boss technology, primarily in the 'take ten years to wind up a swing while you roll in a panic' field and the ever delightful 'go insane and never stop attacking even once' method of battle.
Honestly I found Messmer to be the most fun hard boss in the game. Sure dude is tough, but he also felt fair in a way previous big bosses in the DLC like the Lion and Rellana did not. I could learn the dude. To the point I eventually was basically doing the Let Me Solo Her thing in front of the fog door to beat him for other people, with my runesmith backblade and shield, because I just really enjoyed the fight.
Messmer has that patented anti mimic tear tech, you try and pull that out immediately and you're taking a quick dirt nap.
I uh, I just walked in and spammed summon and dodged his attack.
I dunno what to tell you it worked every time.
I summoned the mimic in every boss. There were zero bosses I was "forced" to solo, although one or two I had to wait until I had room and time to summon the mimic by using another npc summon or they have a big attack or something.
But not messmer. I had exactly enough time to mash summon then dodge.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
Iornically in my first run, i dunked Messmer and Rellana both on my first tries. They were a ton of fun and both felt very fair. ALso light Greatsword shits on them both, so that might be part of it.
My medium roll caster build had zero chance against that absurdity, ended up summoning a big shield guy to get wailed on while I slunk in the back desperately spamming lasers.
I had to go Light Roll but am consistently getting to phase 2, but by then my ashes are dead and I get smeared. I tried holding the ash until phase 2, but he's just so damn aggressive I can barely get casts off.
EDIT: Oh and for all the build-up, Bayle was hilarious. Ash takes aggro, melee range on the side, flask, Meteorite of Astel and the fight was over in less than 30 seconds. That spell just plain deletes dragons.
Casters can whallop the hell out of giant monsters with aoe spells, knock regular guys flat on their ass with chunky spells, but then huge guys like the last boss don't care about either of those things and do 50 hit combos while you're desperately trying to cast magic missile.
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+1
ThegreatcowLord of All BaconsWashington State - It's Wet up here innit? Registered Userregular
Yeeeup, Basically had to resort to leveling strength so I could use the Blacksteel Greatshield and combo'd it with an Antspur Thrusting Rapier with Frost (the ash of war from the dancing lion) and loaded every stamina and holy protection talisman I could and just hid behind it and slowly poked him to death.
Figure I'll hopefully get him on my next go around. Just wasn't fun getting continually deleted like that.
Level 200. Early game is waaaay more fun with a bigger toolkit available.
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
Is there a back entrance out of the Specimen Storehouse area? I'm not really sure where to go next, and the map makes it look like there's a stairway at the north that leads to another field to the northeast?
Area to the northeast is pretty obtuse to get to. Successively spoilery hints below.
Potentates keep secret about mother.
Marika statue and jars.
Use the bonny village emote (oh mother, i think) at the marika statue at the northease exit of the tower
+1
cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
As much as I hate looking up guides for these games, it never fails that I find out that I've already missed like half of the NPC quests(if not all of them).
+3
cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
If this endgame boss was this tough after the patch, he must have been terrifying before.
I'm at the Radahn Festivahl (Mk. 2) and getting rocked, but I'm not sure if I should bother backtracking for anything at this point...
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited October 1
I only beat him with the perfect block tear and a shield so I could just no sell all his bullshit.
Fun fact if you perfect block moves that normally blast you away on block you just stand there and go "nah" and then he's in massive recovery! It will let you sneak in hits during his combos and always get a punish on his combo enders, big useful.
Other than that in phase two dodge towards the top right (his left) to make a lot of his followup attacks miss except the big aoes. (Which you can also perfect block)
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
Casters can whallop the hell out of giant monsters with aoe spells, knock regular guys flat on their ass with chunky spells, but then huge guys like the last boss don't care about either of those things and do 50 hit combos while you're desperately trying to cast magic missile.
There's a specific thorn spell you can get that absolutely ruins his shit. Not sure if it's been patched since I used it but I've taken him down fairly easily with it.
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
Casters can whallop the hell out of giant monsters with aoe spells, knock regular guys flat on their ass with chunky spells, but then huge guys like the last boss don't care about either of those things and do 50 hit combos while you're desperately trying to cast magic missile.
There's a specific thorn spell you can get that absolutely ruins his shit. Not sure if it's been patched since I used it but I've taken him down fairly easily with it.
After finally getting back to this and cleaning up remaining bosses I finally reach the end of the DLC.
And well... this is gonna be a project isn't it. I've resorted to a great katana with savage lions fang and cold enchant for most of the bosses since I came back. It does great damage, occassionally staggers and the jump on the technique lets me avoid some attacks. Except I am not seeing any openings to use it in the 10 or so attempts I have done so far. And keeping short distance and using glintstone spiral which has been my other goto technique is also heavily punished.
And this is just phase 1... Guess I gotta strap in and get good, this really feels like a several hundred attempt boss like Malenia or Sister Friede at first glance.
So, Radahn update. After an hour or so I saw phase 2 the first time. Interesting. Veeeeery interesting.
And by very interesting I mean fuck this boss. After 2 hours or so I got to phase 2 reliably and died before doing 5-10% more of his health every time. What in the absolute goddamn fuck is this bullshit. How are you even supposed to scratch him without max shield build? Hard attacks to dodge, insane damage through very heavy armor+anti holy/phys talismans and seemingly not a single goddamn opening in melee. Magic does no damage even with all magic boosting gear and 72 int, not to mention that finding openings to cast is just as hard as meleeing.
I broke my cardinal rule and started using summons. Ansbach+mimic tear let me get some attacks in at least and another 1-2 hours of tries ensues. Since magic didn't do damage I ended up using a cold great katana with savage lions claw, 2h talisman and technique does more damage talisman to actually hurt him.
On my last attempt for the day (was getting angrier and angrier at a boss that barely had openings even with summons) Mimic tear dies with about 20% health left as usual and I despair. Usually at this point I basically don't get attacks in since he is so goddamn fast at turning around with just one distraction. I keep going in for "safe" hits and end up getting him to just a sliver of health left... but I have no flasks left and 1% health left myself. Going into melee would probably kill me instantly, and I swap to my carian royal scepter with just 1 spell memorized - Ranni's Dark Moon since the mimic occasionally cast it to get debuff up. Ansbach dies as I finish casting the first moon, as I land Radahn starts channeling the giant holy aoe and it's too late to move. I spam my cast button and slooooowly float into the air to wind up another moon. The first moon hits and his healthbar can't be seen any more, but he is still alive.
The light intensifies. It explodes and kills me right after the second moon launches, you died pops up on my screen and I see the moon impact radahn while he is still in the air
and... he collapses. I start swearing profusely.
As the screen fades to black I see the remembrance loot screen appear at the very last moment! Sadly felt a bit anticlimactic since the boss overall just left a bad taste in my mouth. It really just felt unfair unlike basically every other boss in the game.
I will defend pretty much all of Elden Ring's bosses as fun in some way except for this piece of shit. And this is the nerfed version? How bad was the one at release?
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ThegreatcowLord of All BaconsWashington State - It's Wet up here innit? Registered Userregular
So, Radahn update. After an hour or so I saw phase 2 the first time. Interesting. Veeeeery interesting.
And by very interesting I mean fuck this boss. After 2 hours or so I got to phase 2 reliably and died before doing 5-10% more of his health every time. What in the absolute goddamn fuck is this bullshit. How are you even supposed to scratch him without max shield build? Hard attacks to dodge, insane damage through very heavy armor+anti holy/phys talismans and seemingly not a single goddamn opening in melee. Magic does no damage even with all magic boosting gear and 72 int, not to mention that finding openings to cast is just as hard as meleeing.
I broke my cardinal rule and started using summons. Ansbach+mimic tear let me get some attacks in at least and another 1-2 hours of tries ensues. Since magic didn't do damage I ended up using a cold great katana with savage lions claw, 2h talisman and technique does more damage talisman to actually hurt him.
On my last attempt for the day (was getting angrier and angrier at a boss that barely had openings even with summons) Mimic tear dies with about 20% health left as usual and I despair. Usually at this point I basically don't get attacks in since he is so goddamn fast at turning around with just one distraction. I keep going in for "safe" hits and end up getting him to just a sliver of health left... but I have no flasks left and 1% health left myself. Going into melee would probably kill me instantly, and I swap to my carian royal scepter with just 1 spell memorized - Ranni's Dark Moon since the mimic occasionally cast it to get debuff up. Ansbach dies as I finish casting the first moon, as I land Radahn starts channeling the giant holy aoe and it's too late to move. I spam my cast button and slooooowly float into the air to wind up another moon. The first moon hits and his healthbar can't be seen any more, but he is still alive.
The light intensifies. It explodes and kills me right after the second moon launches, you died pops up on my screen and I see the moon impact radahn while he is still in the air
and... he collapses. I start swearing profusely.
As the screen fades to black I see the remembrance loot screen appear at the very last moment! Sadly felt a bit anticlimactic since the boss overall just left a bad taste in my mouth. It really just felt unfair unlike basically every other boss in the game.
I will defend pretty much all of Elden Ring's bosses as fun in some way except for this piece of shit. And this is the nerfed version? How bad was the one at release?
It was pretty much like you said only with less margins for error. Basically I had to level up enough strength so I could use the biggest greatshield I could get my hands on (Blacksteel Greatshield) and the Antspur Thrusting Rapier so I could hide behind the shield and attack as well. It was a goddamn mess.
I got so distracted by alts in general and my RL1 run in particular I didn't finish the DLC before something distracted me and I ended up spending my time on other games.
I feel like I lost out on something, not fighting him stupid and busted, even though as a general rule I support them fixing stupid and busted fights.
Fighting him stupid and busted did not give me any sense of accomplishment, just relief and anger that I wasted so much time and energy.
A big amazing end sequence will make a game stand out in your head and smooth over any faults you might have with it, and the same is true of the opposite. This was a truly superb dlc with all sorts of cool set pieces and environments, but the thing I'll always remember most about it is the last 3 hours being shitty unfun grinding against poor design choices.
I feel like I lost out on something, not fighting him stupid and busted, even though as a general rule I support them fixing stupid and busted fights.
Oh he is still stupid and busted.
But overall shadows of the erdtree was a tour de force in large scale level design with some amazingly fun and cool setpieces.
It's just a pity my last impression was this absurdly badly designed boss.
It was especially disappointing that it was Radahn. I was hoping for them to just embrace the berserk references and give us griffith miquella phase 1 and femto miquella phase 2.
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I've generally found that each FROM game is always harder than the previous one - Dark Souls is easier than 2, which is easier than 3, which is easier than Elden Ring. So, while I haven't played Demon's Souls, I'm not entirely surprised that someone who has dealt with the nonsense of the later games would find the first one to be baby mode - honestly when I went back to Dark Souls 1 and 2 after playing ER it felt like someone input some cheat codes. Enemies were so slow, and they had openings!
Messmer.
Hoo boy.
Mesmer was my first wall in the DLC too.
I uh, I just walked in and spammed summon and dodged his attack.
I dunno what to tell you it worked every time.
I summoned the mimic in every boss. There were zero bosses I was "forced" to solo, although one or two I had to wait until I had room and time to summon the mimic by using another npc summon or they have a big attack or something.
But not messmer. I had exactly enough time to mash summon then dodge.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TheZombiePenguin
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin/
Switch: 0293 6817 9891
I went to collect more fragments (I only had 7 when I first tried) and got up to 10. Going to try again today and see.
I came back later.
I don't rememeber what level I was when I killed the last boss.
"Hey, the dominoes are falling, spike passed!"
"Hey, why is that guy back...oh, oh no."
15 tries and counting now.
EDIT: Oh and for all the build-up, Bayle was hilarious. Ash takes aggro, melee range on the side, flask, Meteorite of Astel and the fight was over in less than 30 seconds. That spell just plain deletes dragons.
Wud yoo laek to lern aboot meatz? Look here!
Figure I'll hopefully get him on my next go around. Just wasn't fun getting continually deleted like that.
Level 200. Early game is waaaay more fun with a bigger toolkit available.
Fun fact if you perfect block moves that normally blast you away on block you just stand there and go "nah" and then he's in massive recovery! It will let you sneak in hits during his combos and always get a punish on his combo enders, big useful.
There's a specific thorn spell you can get that absolutely ruins his shit. Not sure if it's been patched since I used it but I've taken him down fairly easily with it.
I happened upon a random ally with the best name ever.
They nerfed it.
And well... this is gonna be a project isn't it. I've resorted to a great katana with savage lions fang and cold enchant for most of the bosses since I came back. It does great damage, occassionally staggers and the jump on the technique lets me avoid some attacks. Except I am not seeing any openings to use it in the 10 or so attempts I have done so far. And keeping short distance and using glintstone spiral which has been my other goto technique is also heavily punished.
And this is just phase 1... Guess I gotta strap in and get good, this really feels like a several hundred attempt boss like Malenia or Sister Friede at first glance.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TheZombiePenguin
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin/
Switch: 0293 6817 9891
I broke my cardinal rule and started using summons. Ansbach+mimic tear let me get some attacks in at least and another 1-2 hours of tries ensues. Since magic didn't do damage I ended up using a cold great katana with savage lions claw, 2h talisman and technique does more damage talisman to actually hurt him.
On my last attempt for the day (was getting angrier and angrier at a boss that barely had openings even with summons) Mimic tear dies with about 20% health left as usual and I despair. Usually at this point I basically don't get attacks in since he is so goddamn fast at turning around with just one distraction. I keep going in for "safe" hits and end up getting him to just a sliver of health left... but I have no flasks left and 1% health left myself. Going into melee would probably kill me instantly, and I swap to my carian royal scepter with just 1 spell memorized - Ranni's Dark Moon since the mimic occasionally cast it to get debuff up. Ansbach dies as I finish casting the first moon, as I land Radahn starts channeling the giant holy aoe and it's too late to move. I spam my cast button and slooooowly float into the air to wind up another moon. The first moon hits and his healthbar can't be seen any more, but he is still alive.
I will defend pretty much all of Elden Ring's bosses as fun in some way except for this piece of shit. And this is the nerfed version? How bad was the one at release?
It was pretty much like you said only with less margins for error. Basically I had to level up enough strength so I could use the biggest greatshield I could get my hands on (Blacksteel Greatshield) and the Antspur Thrusting Rapier so I could hide behind the shield and attack as well. It was a goddamn mess.
Wud yoo laek to lern aboot meatz? Look here!
which is to say he was fine imo never should have been nerfed
I feel like I lost out on something, not fighting him stupid and busted, even though as a general rule I support them fixing stupid and busted fights.
A big amazing end sequence will make a game stand out in your head and smooth over any faults you might have with it, and the same is true of the opposite. This was a truly superb dlc with all sorts of cool set pieces and environments, but the thing I'll always remember most about it is the last 3 hours being shitty unfun grinding against poor design choices.
Oh he is still stupid and busted.
But overall shadows of the erdtree was a tour de force in large scale level design with some amazingly fun and cool setpieces.
It's just a pity my last impression was this absurdly badly designed boss.
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But he is dead and I am free to play other games. And maybe do ng+ in DS3 which I've been really itching to do.
Miniboss...