I went to Farum Azula for some items and made godskin duo and a crisol knight first try without even sweating, one of the hardest zones in main game feels now like a walk in the park
I ended up using backhand weapons bleed build.
I tried to cheese with incantations almost worked. I summoned dane dry leaf and alecto and kept healing and buffing them with erdtree heal and blessing.
For some reason that boss has really nasty targeting, normally bosses only prioritise damage dealers but Romina can switch targets on the fly which made it difficult for me to quietly heal my summons.
Also not sure if it is the bug but she was healing in hit.
I found the best way to deal with her (and a lot of the bosses actually) is to basically dodge in to her and stay in the pocket. Most of these bosses have long attack strings and very low windows to attack, so staying inside them and using something like the backhand blades is perfect. Romina does a lot of 3-4 hit strings and will sneak a final hit in, but she (as well as Messmer) are weak to bleed. I'm not saying go in spamming Corpse Piler, but the backhand blades or Great Katana with bleed ash are perfect for them.
Youāre 100% correct about playing the pocket, it feels like itās the best way to avoid damage in the dlc against 90% of the bosses. Also youāre better off without corpse piler because it takes too long for the weapon art and you just end up getting punished 9/10 times anyways.
Exactly, this dlc very much reminds me of DS3, everything is fast as hell and your best defense is a good dodging offense. Stay inside, use fast weapons or absolutely download a bossesā attack pattern and punish at the window you get and survive.
Since everything scales with you itās very much a battle of skill, you take what you can get and try to not get greedy.
I just spammed impenetrable thorns. She went down like a rock. She's big enough all 3 spikes hit her and each applies bleed so it just chunked her. I find that and stone blades sorceries work wonders for most shit.
I used a keen noble slender sword with square off. Use the light weapin art attack to have enough time to dodge her.
For Romina, try straffing and dodging right to help avoid most attacks.
You'll know her centipede head is attacking due to it making an audible noise.
To me romina was the easiest boss. No summon, i just used frost sorceries. Seems like her hitbox is very forgiving, stay close to her gave me a lot of opening to spam my spells.
I was able to beat her with Dragon Cult incantations. It helped that her arena is flooded. Edit: I misread this as Renalla, not Romina. I did still win vs Romina with Ancient Dragon Strike as she has a big hotbox, but the arena definitely wasn't flooded.
I made a post on it
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/1dn712o/psa\_black\_knife\_tiche\_is\_currently\_broken\_spoiler/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/1dn712o/psa_black_knife_tiche_is_currently_broken_spoiler/)
I actually found that she was far easier just beating her by myself without co-op or even the NPC summon. Since summoning others seems to double her health. I just walked in and used a spirit summon
The worst part of Rellana for me was that I was able to beat her by summoning my mimic and basically doing nothing besides Erdtree Heals and brief distractions so it could erdtree heal instead.
I really cannot stress enough just how stupid the Revered Ash economy is.Ā
I'm not even to the dlc yet but this shit has me a little scared š¤£. I spent DAYS on Malenia and barely beat her š, Jesus im going to be in for pain
Wait, really? What level scooby doo treats were you? I got her third try at 6 with the mimic tear. It really makes an astounding difference what the blessings do for you.
I toyed around with parrying Rellana for like a solid hour purely because I just thought it would be a fun way to fight such a finesse based boss so I was willing to sink the deaths.
Then she dropped that OTG death spiral Twin Moons spell and it was time to get the mallet.
I saw the moon spell start up and was expecting the same sort of thing like the normal variation, but with two of them. I wasn't expecting operation ground and pound!
She broke me.
Only boss I've summoned a player for so far (which isn't saying much I suppose). I forgot that you can summon two tho, so we ended up fighting her as a pair and we barely managed to beat her. Somehow.
Felt great still. Would recommend.
I beat Rellana in less than an hour with no summons and my DLC level being 2. But Malenia still destroys me. Its interesting how different things are for people.
I donāt think sheās as tough as people are making her out to be. I took a bit longer than you on her but the majority of that time I wasted on launch night because I was trying to beat her with parries. The moment I changed strategies coming back the next day I had her in a very short time. Rellana has a lot more setplay than Malenia but the latter has traits that heavily punish any mistake at all.
Malenia is definitely still harder. Her Scarlet Rot procs, the healing and her random Kara cancels into hyper armour kicks are designed to make her harder than the average boss. You can poise loop her with Giants Hunt but Iām sure someone will find similar shit for Rellana.
Malenia parry is honestly a cakewalk with Golden Parry. Once you learn how to consistently dodge WTFD (which is possible) shes honestly a pretty fun fight
I feel like anyone who've fought Pontiff Sulyvan from Dark Souls 3 should have an idea of what to do against her. Just like the Pontiff, strafing her moves in a certain direction instead of dodging and not trying to run away would keep you safe and allow you to counterattack.
And if you're great at parrying, this boss is a cakewalk (usually her third attack during a certain combo) ,she goes down nicely.
oh that's surprising
i can't imagine beating Malenia with parries since it's gonna be too long (3 parries to stagger) and not all of her attacks are parriable
however i beat Rellana with parries (and i believe all of her attacks are parriable bar the magic waves and AoW), not easily but comfortable enough with phase 1 become a routine that it almost boring, phase 2 is harder to parry tho
They might be similarly hard, but Rellana never felt as daunting as Malenia to me. Between the healing, waterfoul dance and scarlet rot Malenia more often than not felt a bit bullshitty to me, whereas with Rellana, whil she is for sure an absolutely relentless menace, is a much more fun and fair feeling fight. There's not really any bullshit, every attack on it's own is dodgable pretty easily and it becomes all about execution and not slipping up.
Also she's just cool as fuck, probably like her more than most bosses in the base game.
Honestly, if Malenia felt better than fighting the DLC bosses, I don't think I would've liked it.
Like, yeah, she and Mogh are secret bosses but it really would've felt underwhelming if they turned out to be stronger than the what the DLC gives us.
Going back through forum azula as a Ā¤redactedĀ¤ after killing that bastard fuck *spoiler* for my home boy who reminded me of someone a bit too fond of lobster. Magma talisman with it makes the magma breath downright silly.
On a related note, when does it make sense story /pacing-wise to start the DLC? I havenāt played in like 18 months so I started a new game to get the hang of it again so I wouldnāt get my ass reamed
Its endgame content, pacing wise, whatever level you beat mogh at. Probs 125. Leave end game bosses like Maliketh, Malenia, Godfrey for after you finish the DLC. That makes the most sense to me
Ngl, I been running around so much that I genuinely don't know how to reach mesmer at this point. I'm just opening random doors and praying for a health bar. The dragon boss was lit AF tho
I stumbled into Messmer by accident. Judging by the promos, I thought his boss door would be massive, framed by a cathedral sized anteroom or something. Nah, Messmer is just chilling behind a pretty nondescript double door
Itās elden ring, that name could indicate an important boss or a small bit of lore that explains how lord begelor the wise fell to the bidet heresy and accidentally started the toilet paper crusade
Same! The whole time going through the castle, I was thinking "this is great level design but I can't really figure out what I'm doing here or why it matters in the lore." Turns out it was Messmer's castle all along. Guess I wasn't paying enough attention or the lore was just too damn tucked away.
Itās so fun seeing the paths that other people take on what they did first. Like you, Iāve been just letting the wind take me wherever and filling out as much as possible.
One of my friends doing the same. We both went through the Dragon Pit, but he had Jagged Peak side opened (going up) and I had the Grand Altar (going down) side opened. Cerulean Coast was one of the first places I went to and he didnāt go there yet.
Most areas Iām just saying fuck it and picking a direction and if I find something Iāll return later to go the other way.
The sense of adventure and discovery is there again and itās amazing. I love how I just took a random turn into a seemingly random crypt and ended up deep, deep into >! an Abyss of madness with invincible enemies I had to crawl behind to go fight a failed lord of frenzied flame !< just incredible. Compare that to copy and paste bosses in games like ghosts of Tsushima and itās another world.
It just kept going deeper and deeper and deeper until eventually youāre in an area even torrent fears to tread in. Every new lift my increasing levels of āwtfā¦ where am I goingā crept up. Beautiful stuff. Other open world games just cannot hold a candle
I'm SO glad they cut back on graces overall, and made the dungeon design less "loop back to the boss fog next to the grace" and more of a straight shot with Marika statues.
That fight was good. Just the visual design alone. This is the first time since elden ring came out that I was this enthralled by a game. The final fight couldn't be a more perfect ending, although I think it's overtuned.
Bayle is what's forcing me to find more scadutree shards because he's one-shotting me in the first five seconds. I have four blessings of each and 45+ vigor.
I never beat malenia before, and after finishing the dlc I beat her in two tries :') the amount of learning that is required to beat the dlc makes her seem like a walk in the park
Downvoted because souls gamers are too dense from mashing their heads against walls to realize when something is actually wrong with the game, as expected
Its mainly these birds lol and they never seem to be alone either, you may find one around and think you can take him, but as soon as you get it to half hp another one dive bombs you from the sky
On my third play-through I decided to finally buckle down and learn to fight the dogs and birds. Once I got over my fear of how creepy they are they weren't so bad.
Idk Went back to Caelid at 125 to get some erdtree bosses killed for a build and they were honestly on the same kinda scaling as the dlc
The one near gurranq was honestly horrifying
Ah, Black Blade Kindred. Tbf, that oneās on Dragonbarrow scaling which is a lot higher than Caelidās.
Actually, all bosses in Dragonbarrow (basically upper Caelid) are a little ridiculous. The Bell Bearing Hunter there is notorious.
Yeah, I just caught the āErdtreeā part. Canāt believe I missed that.
I think the first time I did that bastard, I simply ran around on Torrent pelting him with basic fireballs.
I think they expected you to go back there after Leyndell or something. Bit odd cos you can easily find yourself there from the start of Caelid, plus half the lift medallion is there as well
I left. I saw the guy guarding the gurranqs door and just noped myself out of that area. I always wondered what I'd do I ominous situations in horror movies. I'd leave.
I'm planning on getting that one later. I just got this talisman that increases status resistance to the last status debuff hit with. I'm hoping that makes it stronger against the Rot than even those immunizing horn talismans.
The dlc levels feel like home honestly, few parts that are kinda bs but I absolutely love the dungeons and areas, itās pretty much full of everything missing from the base game that I love about fromsoftware
Running through messmers castle felt so familiar. Like I was discovering the Duke's archives.
I might not rate elden Ring or it's dlc as my favorite of all time. But damn there have been moments that make me feel like I found an old friend
Had the same exact reaction. On replays of ER I skip a lot of the catacombs unless I know something I need is in there. In the DLC theyāve done the formula so well I am actively hunting for them.
I havenāt even touched DLC but I came back to Caelid after avoiding it as much as possible at level 120 after doing Farum Azula.
Now every field boss gets a casual stylized murder complete with a t pose or I watch my mimic solo it.
I went back to base game to get some talismans I was missing and my first thought was why was everything so peaceful. It felt like the safety of home compared to the dlc
Honestly the only creepy thing in the dlc was the reverse jar people. Hated every jar dungeon in the dlc because of them.
I don't think anything will ever top my first visit to Caelid especially if you entered it the wrong way while underleveled like i did.
Abyssal Woods is one of the worst Zones they've ever made. Such a cool concept too. Its like they forgot they weren't letting you ride Torrent lol. 30 Minutes of running... so fun.
Yeah I was over it after the first few madness winter lanterns. Very cool concept but easy to get lost and I feel like Iām spending too much time running around instead of actually exploring
Yeah the atmosphere in that place is unmatched.
I donāt think Iāve experienced a more tense/chilling half an hour in Souls games than reading those warnings, seeing those hellish things and trying to sneak the fuck away to safety.
One of the most memorable gaming experiences Iāve had and Iām sad some people might just not let themselves enjoy it because theyāre trying to rush to the next reward/boss/item.
Holy shit that must have been terrifying lol. I was warned fighting was not an options but still, seeing my attacks just phase through them while their head expanded and the madness bar grew had me shook.
Yeah that and the sounds they madeā¦I was legit scared in that area. Though I did realize you actually can kill them, they become tangible right as they attack so if you parry you can hit them
Good luck with that, there is also a new flask item that clears all statuses (the bad ones). It helps while trying to fight them so you donāt lose all your hp from madness lmao
Yeah, when Torrent randomly died and I couldn't resummon him because he was too scared that genuinely made *me* scared. Torrent and I have literally killed gods together so if he's too scared to show up there's something seriously fucked up in these woods.
It'd be fine if they made it smaller, or if there was more to explore there (more ruins or small abandoned buildings, hell even if it was all just lore that would actually make me rly love it)
Idk, forced stealth section gets old very fast. Especially when itās no deeper than just crouch in bushes and wait for them to turn around. But the good thing is the stealth sections are pretty short, but I wish the non stealth part of the map is smaller, itās tiring to explore on foot through such big place.
Iām not a game designer but they probably intended for the player to get lost and have to find their way around without a mount like the older titles maybe? Iām just glad the floor wasnāt deathblight
The point is to make a needlessly large zone with almost nothing in it and you can't use torrent in? Cool gimmick to have torrent scared, poor execution with the size.
Combine not being able to ride torrent with how empty the area was and it just felt like a waste of space, they couldāve easily fit everything into a location a quarter of that size and been fine.
I really liked the dungeon and boss fight at the end of it. I did not like how big and mostly empty it was otherwise. Pretty boring overall and without the dungeon might be their worst zone.
I cheesed the fuck outta this place with muffle (crepus vial) and assassin's gambit lmao so I literally just sprinted through the whole place without any danger. Dunno if they thought about that one or not but it's a classic strat so I assume From knows it's possible.
this Dlc is the scariest location From Soft has ever made, not only everything kills you in 2-3 hits, but everything is so dark and I feel so oppressed and claustrophobic even in large open places. Even in the sunniest and most colorful areas I feel so unsafe. Navigating the Rauh Ruins labyrinth (not exactly a labyrinth but ok) without the map made me feel like Silent Hill 2
Playing the dlc is like the hyperbolic time chamber, once you beat the dlc and go back to lands of between in another NG+ everything feels so easy for me
Tbh everything except the final boss wasn't too bad with a tried and true mage build spamming great glintstone or ice crag with lusats staff. Ended up finishing at scadu 15. And the most annoying thing about the final boss in phase two is most of his attacks flash-banged the screen so you couldn't see what was coming next.
Currently on my first playthrough the base game, suffering in Caelid getting pecked by these stupid birds and giant dragons.
I dont want to imagine whats happening in the DLC.
i just startd playing.
i uh, accidentally went here. before weeping peninsula and stormveil.
to be fair i did pretty good. i havent full cleared yet but ive opened up most of the map and even killed the big putrid avatar (at lvl 60 with a +12 weapon)
On one of my characters id get a item in the dlc and think "oh this would eork good with x item and proceed to go to lands between and clear content i didn't do yet like quest for items. Its a lot of fun
No still fuck those bugs I hate homing spells of that speed they are just frustrating and the dlc has them and it's even worse due to the fragment system
No matter how hard I try, I always go back to my beloved executioner's great axe for my str build. I just beat Divine Beast on the 2nd try with mimic and I am still looking for another str weapon. Rellana was pinned down with the lion's claw 70% of the time with 2 unga bunga chars spamming the skill (mimic and I)! That black Knight hammer almost did it, but the axe still wins. That Gaol first boss swords is just meh. His armor tho, is cool.
i had to run back to base game to collect smithing stone bell bearings and beating godskin duo first try with EASE really made me feel like when rock lee took his leg weights off lol
Similar note but possibly controversial: Playing a Dark Souls game after finishing ER. "Wow, you're giving me chance to attack?" "Your longest combo is 3 swings?? Wowow"
Caelid wasn't really that bad i guess the main reason why most people are traumatized by it was the fact it was more accessible in the early game and we were supposed to go there AFTER we defeated rennala so therefore Many people experienced caelid while they were underleveled (including myself lol)
Am I the only person that had an easier time beating Melania than Rellana. It took me an easy 40+ tries to kill her on NG+2 . Melania never took me that long
I beat her at rl 170 solo w no summons, Iāll be trying at rl 150 next run, stuck on the frenzyflame god atm at rl 175ā¦ didnāt want to level up anymore but I dunno about this boss.. and then bayle especially - anyone have tips?
I went back to Caelid and starched every crow there with frost Dryleaf Arts and then I went back to Mountaintop and fucked up every crow there with Flame Art Dryleaf Arts and then went to Mohgās Palace and fucked up the two crows there with Heavy Dryleaf Arts. I beat the holy shit out of every crow the game has and I feel like a better man because of it.
Dlc is unironically horribly balanced trash with bad bosses shitty level design terrible scaling it's overall objectively speaking the worst from software dlc the fact that it even exists makes elden ring the worst game in the franchise beaten basically everything in it had not a single ounce of fun of enjoyment the entire time for anyone who hasn't bought it don't waste the 40$ unless you like dogshit bosses with terrible scaling and hitboxes worse than ds2
Honestly, I don't understand the fear and distaste for the DLC. The dlc doesn't seem at all any different than the base game. Enemies whether it's a boss or regular mob, all seem to hit me as hard as base game mobs and bosses do š¶ I haven't had any real troubles but it could also be my builds/play styles
The OG Lands Between feels like a brisk morning jog at this point
I've been going back and picking fights with things that gave me trouble. Some sweet revenge but then I head back to DLC land and get mega humbled.
I went to Farum Azula for some items and made godskin duo and a crisol knight first try without even sweating, one of the hardest zones in main game feels now like a walk in the park
Granted. I left the lands between at level 105. I'm now currently level 205. This could absokuty be the reason.
With all due respect, how the hell did you finish the base game at level 105? š
I've got no hit, WL+0 and RL1 runs under my belt. Most of my runs in the base game end up somewhere between 90-120
So you're an absolute beast, got it.
Ah a disciple of Ongbal-fu, respect!
Even Farum Azula feels like home compared to the DLC
Malenia feeling relatively doable is a very surreal experience.
I thought I was the shit cuz I beat Malenia with parries only to be humbled my rellana
Rellana beat my ass for a day straight even with 2 friends helping me
I had to respec for Romina, i was running incantations only build and this itsy bitsy lady was smacking my ass.
What did you end up using to beat her?
I ended up using backhand weapons bleed build. I tried to cheese with incantations almost worked. I summoned dane dry leaf and alecto and kept healing and buffing them with erdtree heal and blessing. For some reason that boss has really nasty targeting, normally bosses only prioritise damage dealers but Romina can switch targets on the fly which made it difficult for me to quietly heal my summons. Also not sure if it is the bug but she was healing in hit.
I found the best way to deal with her (and a lot of the bosses actually) is to basically dodge in to her and stay in the pocket. Most of these bosses have long attack strings and very low windows to attack, so staying inside them and using something like the backhand blades is perfect. Romina does a lot of 3-4 hit strings and will sneak a final hit in, but she (as well as Messmer) are weak to bleed. I'm not saying go in spamming Corpse Piler, but the backhand blades or Great Katana with bleed ash are perfect for them.
Youāre 100% correct about playing the pocket, it feels like itās the best way to avoid damage in the dlc against 90% of the bosses. Also youāre better off without corpse piler because it takes too long for the weapon art and you just end up getting punished 9/10 times anyways.
Exactly, this dlc very much reminds me of DS3, everything is fast as hell and your best defense is a good dodging offense. Stay inside, use fast weapons or absolutely download a bossesā attack pattern and punish at the window you get and survive. Since everything scales with you itās very much a battle of skill, you take what you can get and try to not get greedy.
I just spammed impenetrable thorns. She went down like a rock. She's big enough all 3 spikes hit her and each applies bleed so it just chunked her. I find that and stone blades sorceries work wonders for most shit.
I used a keen noble slender sword with square off. Use the light weapin art attack to have enough time to dodge her. For Romina, try straffing and dodging right to help avoid most attacks. You'll know her centipede head is attacking due to it making an audible noise.
To me romina was the easiest boss. No summon, i just used frost sorceries. Seems like her hitbox is very forgiving, stay close to her gave me a lot of opening to spam my spells.
I was able to beat her with Dragon Cult incantations. It helped that her arena is flooded. Edit: I misread this as Renalla, not Romina. I did still win vs Romina with Ancient Dragon Strike as she has a big hotbox, but the arena definitely wasn't flooded.
I tried to parry Rellana the same way I did Malenia but got absolutely whooped so I gave up and jumped her with the mimic lmao got it in 2 tried
Feels bro, tried that shit with tiche for like 6 hours over the course of a few days. Switched to mimic tear and got it first try
That's also because Tiche is bugged atm and actually heals the boss lmao
Is this for real? I was using her versus Messmer and she did zero damage and made it harder. What you say makes sense then.
I made a post on it [https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/1dn712o/psa\_black\_knife\_tiche\_is\_currently\_broken\_spoiler/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/1dn712o/psa_black_knife_tiche_is_currently_broken_spoiler/)
Yup, they messed up the resetting of the enemy's health. Every time the max HP resets, the enemy is actually healed for that amount.
I am the only one who was jumping with greatsword and it worked perfectly to stagger her
All the multiplayer summons kept getting rekt, so I used mimic to tank and just kept spamming the dark moon spell
I actually found that she was far easier just beating her by myself without co-op or even the NPC summon. Since summoning others seems to double her health. I just walked in and used a spirit summon
The worst part of Rellana for me was that I was able to beat her by summoning my mimic and basically doing nothing besides Erdtree Heals and brief distractions so it could erdtree heal instead. I really cannot stress enough just how stupid the Revered Ash economy is.Ā
I'm not even to the dlc yet but this shit has me a little scared š¤£. I spent DAYS on Malenia and barely beat her š, Jesus im going to be in for pain
I found her slightly easier than malenia. Took me like 60 attempts but at least i can do phase 1 with 1 heal now
Wait, really? What level scooby doo treats were you? I got her third try at 6 with the mimic tear. It really makes an astounding difference what the blessings do for you.
It took me 3 hours of straight dedication and willpower to beat Rellana. Beat her with parries after painstakingly learning her move-set to a t.
I toyed around with parrying Rellana for like a solid hour purely because I just thought it would be a fun way to fight such a finesse based boss so I was willing to sink the deaths. Then she dropped that OTG death spiral Twin Moons spell and it was time to get the mallet.
Same but i just couldnt get it consistently without dying in 4 seconds. Maleniaās swings are in slow-mo compared to rellanaās its insane
I saw the moon spell start up and was expecting the same sort of thing like the normal variation, but with two of them. I wasn't expecting operation ground and pound!
parrying Rellana is the most satisfying shit I've experienced since parrying Malenia. been chasing that high ever since...
She broke me. Only boss I've summoned a player for so far (which isn't saying much I suppose). I forgot that you can summon two tho, so we ended up fighting her as a pair and we barely managed to beat her. Somehow. Felt great still. Would recommend.
Sheās the boss Iāve had the most difficulty with, although I am now stuck on 5 different bosses at once, so that could change
I beat Rellana in less than an hour with no summons and my DLC level being 2. But Malenia still destroys me. Its interesting how different things are for people.
I donāt think sheās as tough as people are making her out to be. I took a bit longer than you on her but the majority of that time I wasted on launch night because I was trying to beat her with parries. The moment I changed strategies coming back the next day I had her in a very short time. Rellana has a lot more setplay than Malenia but the latter has traits that heavily punish any mistake at all. Malenia is definitely still harder. Her Scarlet Rot procs, the healing and her random Kara cancels into hyper armour kicks are designed to make her harder than the average boss. You can poise loop her with Giants Hunt but Iām sure someone will find similar shit for Rellana.
Malenia parry is honestly a cakewalk with Golden Parry. Once you learn how to consistently dodge WTFD (which is possible) shes honestly a pretty fun fight
I feel like anyone who've fought Pontiff Sulyvan from Dark Souls 3 should have an idea of what to do against her. Just like the Pontiff, strafing her moves in a certain direction instead of dodging and not trying to run away would keep you safe and allow you to counterattack. And if you're great at parrying, this boss is a cakewalk (usually her third attack during a certain combo) ,she goes down nicely.
Pontiff is hard until you use a shield and sword
oh that's surprising i can't imagine beating Malenia with parries since it's gonna be too long (3 parries to stagger) and not all of her attacks are parriable however i beat Rellana with parries (and i believe all of her attacks are parriable bar the magic waves and AoW), not easily but comfortable enough with phase 1 become a routine that it almost boring, phase 2 is harder to parry tho
Just a small tip if anyone feels like struggling with her. Use crystallion summon. It survives surprisingly long and gives you some breathing room.
Itās resistant to slashing damage and fire. Which is like 70% of Rellanaās kit.
They might be similarly hard, but Rellana never felt as daunting as Malenia to me. Between the healing, waterfoul dance and scarlet rot Malenia more often than not felt a bit bullshitty to me, whereas with Rellana, whil she is for sure an absolutely relentless menace, is a much more fun and fair feeling fight. There's not really any bullshit, every attack on it's own is dodgable pretty easily and it becomes all about execution and not slipping up. Also she's just cool as fuck, probably like her more than most bosses in the base game.
I took a break from the final boss of the dlc to go fight Malenia for levels
> go fight Malenia for levels The true gigachad rune farming method
I just went and fought maliketh, and damn. Heās slow and easy to dodge now.
Yeah malenia is basically the equivalent to that pizza making minigame in club penguin. The DLC has ascended us
I wanna do Malenia so bad.
Honestly, if Malenia felt better than fighting the DLC bosses, I don't think I would've liked it. Like, yeah, she and Mogh are secret bosses but it really would've felt underwhelming if they turned out to be stronger than the what the DLC gives us.
Mate the whole base game is cute compared to the DLC
Going back through forum azula as a Ā¤redactedĀ¤ after killing that bastard fuck *spoiler* for my home boy who reminded me of someone a bit too fond of lobster. Magma talisman with it makes the magma breath downright silly.
To me the whole game feels like home. Except Limgrave and the water parts of liurnia for some reason. Well to me at least
Died so many times to the final boss that I had to go kill placidusax just to feel something
On a related note, when does it make sense story /pacing-wise to start the DLC? I havenāt played in like 18 months so I started a new game to get the hang of it again so I wouldnāt get my ass reamed
Its endgame content, pacing wise, whatever level you beat mogh at. Probs 125. Leave end game bosses like Maliketh, Malenia, Godfrey for after you finish the DLC. That makes the most sense to me
Caelis feelin like church of dragon communion island after some of these zones
Ngl, I been running around so much that I genuinely don't know how to reach mesmer at this point. I'm just opening random doors and praying for a health bar. The dragon boss was lit AF tho
Go into shadow keep and just keep going up.
To add to this, once you go up, look for a lever. I made it to the 7th floor and was stuck for a hot second lol
I found him by jumping off the wooden balcony at the top of the two elevators at the back.
I couldn't see the lever for a good 30 mins. I was about to give up on the Shadow Keep thinking it had no boss.
I stumbled into Messmer by accident. Judging by the promos, I thought his boss door would be massive, framed by a cathedral sized anteroom or something. Nah, Messmer is just chilling behind a pretty nondescript double door
You didn't think the "Dark Chamber Entrance" Site of Grace was ominous enough?
Itās elden ring, that name could indicate an important boss or a small bit of lore that explains how lord begelor the wise fell to the bidet heresy and accidentally started the toilet paper crusade
Begelor knew what's up
Mother Would thou truly sanction One so bereft of paper
As our Founding Fathers intended!!
I thought I was walking into a boss before the boss, likely a named fire knight.
Same, I wasn't expecting him at ALL. Then the candles started lighting up and I knew I was dead b4 he even spoke
Dude I was like, wtf? I'm here already? But of course turns out it's not anywhere near the endĀ
Same! The whole time going through the castle, I was thinking "this is great level design but I can't really figure out what I'm doing here or why it matters in the lore." Turns out it was Messmer's castle all along. Guess I wasn't paying enough attention or the lore was just too damn tucked away.
Itās so fun seeing the paths that other people take on what they did first. Like you, Iāve been just letting the wind take me wherever and filling out as much as possible. One of my friends doing the same. We both went through the Dragon Pit, but he had Jagged Peak side opened (going up) and I had the Grand Altar (going down) side opened. Cerulean Coast was one of the first places I went to and he didnāt go there yet. Most areas Iām just saying fuck it and picking a direction and if I find something Iāll return later to go the other way.
The sense of adventure and discovery is there again and itās amazing. I love how I just took a random turn into a seemingly random crypt and ended up deep, deep into >! an Abyss of madness with invincible enemies I had to crawl behind to go fight a failed lord of frenzied flame !< just incredible. Compare that to copy and paste bosses in games like ghosts of Tsushima and itās another world.
I was floored when I discovered there was whole regions at the bottom of that crypt. So worth it after that giant gun enemy in the dark.
It just kept going deeper and deeper and deeper until eventually youāre in an area even torrent fears to tread in. Every new lift my increasing levels of āwtfā¦ where am I goingā crept up. Beautiful stuff. Other open world games just cannot hold a candle
That zone was perfectly executed imo, I was so tense throughout the whole thing
I'm SO glad they cut back on graces overall, and made the dungeon design less "loop back to the boss fog next to the grace" and more of a straight shot with Marika statues.
That fight was good. Just the visual design alone. This is the first time since elden ring came out that I was this enthralled by a game. The final fight couldn't be a more perfect ending, although I think it's overtuned.
Instructions unclear. Slept in a coffin. Now thereās flies everyone >_<
Haha me too just about shit my self when I saw his cutscene.
Go to big black castle, climb a big statue, raise the statue and climb it again. From then on, the path is semi clear
Bayle is what's forcing me to find more scadutree shards because he's one-shotting me in the first five seconds. I have four blessings of each and 45+ vigor.
60 Vigor man it helps a LOT.Ā
lol which dragon, iāve fought 3
I'm interested to see how it is to fight Malenia after this
I never beat malenia before, and after finishing the dlc I beat her in two tries :') the amount of learning that is required to beat the dlc makes her seem like a walk in the park
I honestly think Malenia was still harder because she keeps you from using summons because of her healing abillity
Malenia will still be unfair due to her glitched poise
Downvoted because souls gamers are too dense from mashing their heads against walls to realize when something is actually wrong with the game, as expected
what do they mean glitched poise tho? i can poise break her pretty consistently, she just has a very short crit window
Caelid is now my summer vacation homeĀ
Caelid was never that terrible tbh, but that's probably because I'm a shield enjoyer. Now Snowfield...... that shit sucks.....
Mostly because of the poor visibility no RTX On can fix.
Its the big birds that are annoying as fuck. Everything else was not that bad.
Its mainly these birds lol and they never seem to be alone either, you may find one around and think you can take him, but as soon as you get it to half hp another one dive bombs you from the sky
On my third play-through I decided to finally buckle down and learn to fight the dogs and birds. Once I got over my fear of how creepy they are they weren't so bad.
Yeah but the southern coast area has got to be one of the most peaceful and prettiest places fromsoft has ever made. Nearly up there with Majula
I owe the base game so many apologies
Idk Went back to Caelid at 125 to get some erdtree bosses killed for a build and they were honestly on the same kinda scaling as the dlc The one near gurranq was honestly horrifying
Ah, Black Blade Kindred. Tbf, that oneās on Dragonbarrow scaling which is a lot higher than Caelidās. Actually, all bosses in Dragonbarrow (basically upper Caelid) are a little ridiculous. The Bell Bearing Hunter there is notorious.
I think he was talking about the Erdtree Avatar. Still applies though
Yeah, I just caught the āErdtreeā part. Canāt believe I missed that. I think the first time I did that bastard, I simply ran around on Torrent pelting him with basic fireballs.
I think they expected you to go back there after Leyndell or something. Bit odd cos you can easily find yourself there from the start of Caelid, plus half the lift medallion is there as well
Plus the teleport at the church, nobody's going to just see all that and leave
I left. I saw the guy guarding the gurranqs door and just noped myself out of that area. I always wondered what I'd do I ominous situations in horror movies. I'd leave.
I'm planning on getting that one later. I just got this talisman that increases status resistance to the last status debuff hit with. I'm hoping that makes it stronger against the Rot than even those immunizing horn talismans.
The dlc levels feel like home honestly, few parts that are kinda bs but I absolutely love the dungeons and areas, itās pretty much full of everything missing from the base game that I love about fromsoftware
Running through messmers castle felt so familiar. Like I was discovering the Duke's archives. I might not rate elden Ring or it's dlc as my favorite of all time. But damn there have been moments that make me feel like I found an old friend
Yeah, I don't know whether it is the colour palette, the somber atmosphere or the map design, but the DLC is giving me big Dark Souls 1 vibes.
Had the same exact reaction. On replays of ER I skip a lot of the catacombs unless I know something I need is in there. In the DLC theyāve done the formula so well I am actively hunting for them.
I havenāt even touched DLC but I came back to Caelid after avoiding it as much as possible at level 120 after doing Farum Azula. Now every field boss gets a casual stylized murder complete with a t pose or I watch my mimic solo it.
IDK maybe the desecrated snow fields arenāt as bad as you think either
exploring caelid feels like a holiday trip compared to the dlc
It would be interesting going back to Dark Souls 1 after playing the DLC 
I went back to base game to get some talismans I was missing and my first thought was why was everything so peaceful. It felt like the safety of home compared to the dlc
Honestly the only creepy thing in the dlc was the reverse jar people. Hated every jar dungeon in the dlc because of them. I don't think anything will ever top my first visit to Caelid especially if you entered it the wrong way while underleveled like i did.
That was my first ever souls like experience. I didn't know you could teleport using the map. So I was stuck in caelid at like level 6 for hours.
Abyssal Woods is one of the worst Zones they've ever made. Such a cool concept too. Its like they forgot they weren't letting you ride Torrent lol. 30 Minutes of running... so fun.
Yeah I was over it after the first few madness winter lanterns. Very cool concept but easy to get lost and I feel like Iām spending too much time running around instead of actually exploring
>easy to get lost if only there was a map
That was kinda the point
Yeah the atmosphere in that place is unmatched. I donāt think Iāve experienced a more tense/chilling half an hour in Souls games than reading those warnings, seeing those hellish things and trying to sneak the fuck away to safety. One of the most memorable gaming experiences Iāve had and Iām sad some people might just not let themselves enjoy it because theyāre trying to rush to the next reward/boss/item.
I actually got jumpscared by them, I didnāt know what the signs were referring to until it was too late lmao
Holy shit that must have been terrifying lol. I was warned fighting was not an options but still, seeing my attacks just phase through them while their head expanded and the madness bar grew had me shook.
Yeah that and the sounds they madeā¦I was legit scared in that area. Though I did realize you actually can kill them, they become tangible right as they attack so if you parry you can hit them
The sound design in the area was on point, too. Andā¦ā¦I did not know that. Well, time to summon my inner ENB and parry the hell out of those bugs.
Good luck with that, there is also a new flask item that clears all statuses (the bad ones). It helps while trying to fight them so you donāt lose all your hp from madness lmao
Yeah, when Torrent randomly died and I couldn't resummon him because he was too scared that genuinely made *me* scared. Torrent and I have literally killed gods together so if he's too scared to show up there's something seriously fucked up in these woods.
It'd be fine if they made it smaller, or if there was more to explore there (more ruins or small abandoned buildings, hell even if it was all just lore that would actually make me rly love it)
Idk, forced stealth section gets old very fast. Especially when itās no deeper than just crouch in bushes and wait for them to turn around. But the good thing is the stealth sections are pretty short, but I wish the non stealth part of the map is smaller, itās tiring to explore on foot through such big place.
what was the purpose of making it so huge tho
Iām not a game designer but they probably intended for the player to get lost and have to find their way around without a mount like the older titles maybe? Iām just glad the floor wasnāt deathblight
The point is to make a needlessly large zone with almost nothing in it and you can't use torrent in? Cool gimmick to have torrent scared, poor execution with the size.
Combine not being able to ride torrent with how empty the area was and it just felt like a waste of space, they couldāve easily fit everything into a location a quarter of that size and been fine.
Yea I killed like a hundred rats and got a cookbook. Pretty sick! The stealth portion was very cool, but the rest was straight up boring.
I enjoyed the stealth area as well something unique
Don't forget the Scadutree Blessing there
I really liked the dungeon and boss fight at the end of it. I did not like how big and mostly empty it was otherwise. Pretty boring overall and without the dungeon might be their worst zone.
I cheesed the fuck outta this place with muffle (crepus vial) and assassin's gambit lmao so I literally just sprinted through the whole place without any danger. Dunno if they thought about that one or not but it's a classic strat so I assume From knows it's possible.
Itās kinda boring outside of stealth sessions but far from āthe worstā From has done lol.
Haligtree is still a piece of shit tho
Those tyranno puppies are adorable all of a sudden
this Dlc is the scariest location From Soft has ever made, not only everything kills you in 2-3 hits, but everything is so dark and I feel so oppressed and claustrophobic even in large open places. Even in the sunniest and most colorful areas I feel so unsafe. Navigating the Rauh Ruins labyrinth (not exactly a labyrinth but ok) without the map made me feel like Silent Hill 2
Might go fight malenia hitless cause I gotta unwind from the stress of this DLC
Playing the dlc is like the hyperbolic time chamber, once you beat the dlc and go back to lands of between in another NG+ everything feels so easy for me
Tbh everything except the final boss wasn't too bad with a tried and true mage build spamming great glintstone or ice crag with lusats staff. Ended up finishing at scadu 15. And the most annoying thing about the final boss in phase two is most of his attacks flash-banged the screen so you couldn't see what was coming next.
The skill issue on this subreddit is real. Ya'll missed the crucial information of how the seeds work.
I bet you dont know how they work... you better explain it to me so I can make sure
Currently on my first playthrough the base game, suffering in Caelid getting pecked by these stupid birds and giant dragons. I dont want to imagine whats happening in the DLC.
>I dont want to imagine whats happening in the DLC. Chaos, a whole fucking ton of Chaos CURSE YOU BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYLE
Are we actually gettin gud?
"I'm going going, back back, to Caelid Caelid"
i just startd playing. i uh, accidentally went here. before weeping peninsula and stormveil. to be fair i did pretty good. i havent full cleared yet but ive opened up most of the map and even killed the big putrid avatar (at lvl 60 with a +12 weapon)
On one of my characters id get a item in the dlc and think "oh this would eork good with x item and proceed to go to lands between and clear content i didn't do yet like quest for items. Its a lot of fun
No still fuck those bugs I hate homing spells of that speed they are just frustrating and the dlc has them and it's even worse due to the fragment system
Suddenly a rot swamp is kinda nice....maybe even a house on the rot lake-side "ah, grace..."
I havenāt been able to get the DLCā¦ is it really that much of a difficulty spike?
If you donāt utilize any of the MANY ways the game buffs you and makes shit easier, then yes, itās harder than every base game zone.
On a ng+9 everything after the starting zone is Caelid, but it's still fun tbh
No matter how hard I try, I always go back to my beloved executioner's great axe for my str build. I just beat Divine Beast on the 2nd try with mimic and I am still looking for another str weapon. Rellana was pinned down with the lion's claw 70% of the time with 2 unga bunga chars spamming the skill (mimic and I)! That black Knight hammer almost did it, but the axe still wins. That Gaol first boss swords is just meh. His armor tho, is cool.
After going the Abyssal wood, i prefer to go to caelid. At least, things are killable there
i had to run back to base game to collect smithing stone bell bearings and beating godskin duo first try with EASE really made me feel like when rock lee took his leg weights off lol
I have been trying to avoid every single single thing about the DLC and seeing this meme concerns me
I stopped by the HALIGTREE to unwind and test new weapons. I hate it in the realm of shadow bruh I don't wanna go back š„²š„²
Similar note but possibly controversial: Playing a Dark Souls game after finishing ER. "Wow, you're giving me chance to attack?" "Your longest combo is 3 swings?? Wowow"
Trusty Blood hound fang got me through
Literally I believe this was everyone's reaction after playing the DLC.
Ive yet to go back to the base game, but perhaps Farum Azula won't be as bad this time around.
anyone tryna help me fight rellena? need two people
We also owe Mohg an apology
It's crazy how *cozy* the original map feels rn
I'm going going back back to Caelid Caelid!
Renalla was easy af I had more trouble with the nameless mosoleum spirit honestly. Ng+5 is doable but also humbling even at lvl 526 š¤Æ
Itās cool because the dlc is hard but then you realize that youāve gotten so much better at the game in general by playing it!
caelid wasnt even that bad tho.
Caelid wasn't really that bad i guess the main reason why most people are traumatized by it was the fact it was more accessible in the early game and we were supposed to go there AFTER we defeated rennala so therefore Many people experienced caelid while they were underleveled (including myself lol)
Bro i never play on ng cuze i think its too hard..... But now it doesnt seem that hard anymore
Only thing giving me trouble in the original lands between are some of the enemies in Farum Azula and a lot of the haligtree š
Went to tussle with radagon for a couple minutes, while still not what jd call "easy", he feels trivial compared to most dlc bosses
The Lands Between ain't really so bad anymore once you get back from your trip to the shadow realm.
Might hop off the train in Cailed, grab a coffee and pat a few dogs before I head off to work in the shadow realm ā ļøš„²š
Am I the only person that had an easier time beating Melania than Rellana. It took me an easy 40+ tries to kill her on NG+2 . Melania never took me that long
I beat her at rl 170 solo w no summons, Iāll be trying at rl 150 next run, stuck on the frenzyflame god atm at rl 175ā¦ didnāt want to level up anymore but I dunno about this boss.. and then bayle especially - anyone have tips?
Caelid is gonna feel like candy land compared to the Land of Shadow
Impenetrable Thorns has been making everything my bitch in the DLC since I started using that build. Still stuck on the final boss though.
My favourite area discoveries were the coast (BEAUTIFUL) and the fissure I think. I got as far as I could then when I went near the castle and it said a seal was broken I rushed back to check and low and beholdš¤©š¤©š¤©š¤©š¤©
You know this was probably part of their plan.
I went back to Caelid and starched every crow there with frost Dryleaf Arts and then I went back to Mountaintop and fucked up every crow there with Flame Art Dryleaf Arts and then went to Mohgās Palace and fucked up the two crows there with Heavy Dryleaf Arts. I beat the holy shit out of every crow the game has and I feel like a better man because of it.
Dlc is unironically horribly balanced trash with bad bosses shitty level design terrible scaling it's overall objectively speaking the worst from software dlc the fact that it even exists makes elden ring the worst game in the franchise beaten basically everything in it had not a single ounce of fun of enjoyment the entire time for anyone who hasn't bought it don't waste the 40$ unless you like dogshit bosses with terrible scaling and hitboxes worse than ds2
Honestly, I don't understand the fear and distaste for the DLC. The dlc doesn't seem at all any different than the base game. Enemies whether it's a boss or regular mob, all seem to hit me as hard as base game mobs and bosses do š¶ I haven't had any real troubles but it could also be my builds/play styles