Elden Ring

[DeTess]

So I tried some of the weapons sitting in my inventory instead of going through the game with the exact same ensemble, and honestly, I'm in awe with some of you guys making the 2-handeds, the dual-wields and whatnot work. Anytime I try anything but the halberd+shield, even the lowliest of mooks end up whittling down my flasks. Eternal chump build, is where I'm at.

Hey at least you're getting somewhat up close and personal, unlike me, whose gameplan involves hitting mooks with the light blue stuff, big bosses with the purple stuff and small, dodgy bosses with the dark blue stuff.

[Lord Raziere]

So I tried some of the weapons sitting in my inventory instead of going through the game with the exact same ensemble, and honestly, I'm in awe with some of you guys making the 2-handeds, the dual-wields and whatnot work. Anytime I try anything but the halberd+shield, even the lowliest of mooks end up whittling down my flasks. Eternal chump build, is where I'm at.

Yeah.......I've had to switch to a 100% shield for Altus and Caleid for some of the bosses simply because they're so big and full of attacks I don't know to dodge consistently. but now that Radahn's dead, there is not much reason for me to stay in Caelid so I can hopefully go elsewhere and do my daggers again.

the thing is about two-handing I've learned is that its actually one of the safer ways to be offensive in soulslikes. reach plus lots of damage means you have more room to just attack as long as you take the initiative and do it faster than your foe. and if you need to block, the big weapon often serves as its own shield. not as good as an actual shield, but it can work. chip damage is just something you have to accept while doing it while hopefully killing them faster than the damage accumulates. like your basically relying on your big weapon to either kill them before they can do much or to break their guard then kill them.

while dual-wielding is also a bit offensive and either relies on you being fast in the case of daggers, having reach in the case of whips to stunlock people in the case of dual-wielding those, and probably reach for all the other big weapons. also, bleed buildup. bleed buildup's is what makes daggers in particular work cause if you use the attacks that are a right click on my computer, you do really fast stabs with both daggers that pretty much causes bleed near-instantly. works even on bosses when I can get close enough. unfortunately I can't really test out most of the weapon combos because most of them are unupgraded and to test on anything more than gatefront soldiers they need a lot of runes to buy the stones then upgrade to get to anything approaching good damage. and even then, I'm pretty sure the max I could get most stuff I have would be like, +6 out like something ridiculously high compared to other souls games, I don't even remember.

[GloatingSwine]

So I tried some of the weapons sitting in my inventory instead of going through the game with the exact same ensemble, and honestly, I'm in awe with some of you guys making the 2-handeds, the dual-wields and whatnot work. Anytime I try anything but the halberd+shield, even the lowliest of mooks end up whittling down my flasks. Eternal chump build, is where I'm at.

Any non-shield build for me generally relies on zoning and baiting out attacks then going in for a punish. (TBH I still do that anyway with a shield it's just that I have the safety margin)

[Lord Raziere]

Any non-shield build for me generally relies on zoning and baiting out attacks then going in for a punish. (TBH I still do that anyway with a shield it's just that I have the safety margin)

Yeah I learned even before Elden Ring in my test playing of Dark souls 3 of shieldless methods, that shieldless dark souls isn't much different from shield souls combat, you just don't have the block option to fall back on so you have to relearn how dodge even more, how to zone and figure out when and how to be offensive with your weapons to kill them as fast as possible. knights are generally the hardest to defeat using dual-wielding or two-handing because they have enough poise to not care about your attacks, and enough health to live through them long enough to kill you. anything bigger than that and they start being slow targets that big weapons and offense are practically designed to kill, and anything smaller starts being just a matter of catching them with your swings once or twice and they're done.

like its possible to do the usual thing of "bait out their strong attack while circling then stab them from behind for a crit" for knights with something like dual-wielding, its just less safe.

[Burley]

So I tried some of the weapons sitting in my inventory instead of going through the game with the exact same ensemble, and honestly, I'm in awe with some of you guys making the 2-handeds, the dual-wields and whatnot work. Anytime I try anything but the halberd+shield, even the lowliest of mooks end up whittling down my flasks. Eternal chump build, is where I'm at.

The only FromSoft game that I'd clicked with (before Elden Ring) was Bloodborne. Back in my PS3 Demon Souls days, the only thing that made sense was rolling around and backstabbing and, when I tried the trio of Dark Souls, I just couldn't rely on rolling and backstabbing like I wanted. Bloodborne offered, with the trick weapons, an opportunity to control the flow of a fight, whipping at mid-range and counter-caning close range.
I played that was because I couldn't figure out the parry timing. I could do it with Bloodborne guns, but not with DS shields.

With Elden Ring, I'm playing much like I'd play Bloodborne (to my chagrin, with the lack of rally). It's worked relatively well, until I get to story bosses who do not want to play with my play style. I trade hits too often, but using a shield (even with shield counters) breaks my inadvertent RP of a Bloodborne character: Quick weapon with elemental effect added on.
I need to remind myself (when I'm playing and not at work) that my favorite Bloodborne weapon was the Blade of Mercy and start powerstancing more. I'm wasting my EquipLoad on having a second right-weapon and only a left-staff. Real chumpy playstyle, if I ask me.

[Lord Raziere]

My man Radahn literally dedicating his life to learning gravity magic so he doesn't overburden his horse (who is named Leonard BTW) with his prodigious bulk. Absolute legend.

I wish we got to meet Radahn before he went insane.

We still might. Wouldn't be the first time a DLC for a From game involved time travel.

I'd pay for that DLC. time travel to help Radahn scourge the stars or something, just meeting him repeatedly while he happily talks about his mount or something. be forced to fight a boss where Radahn is one summoning you as cooperator to like, fight a boss that HE needs help with or something, and its like a clash of titans that your just there helping him more than anything else.

anyways, I just remembered: Godrick in contrast to Radahn was so hated had a single undead guy stomping on his face forever when he died. no even mourned. Wimp evil Godrick vs. Badass good guy Radahn.

[Cespenar]

Hey at least you're getting somewhat up close and personal, unlike me, whose gameplan involves hitting mooks with the light blue stuff, big bosses with the purple stuff and small, dodgy bosses with the dark blue stuff.

True, it's kinda "whatever works" with these kinds of games.

the thing is about two-handing I've learned is that its actually one of the safer ways to be offensive in soulslikes. reach plus lots of damage means you have more room to just attack as long as you take the initiative and do it faster than your foe. and if you need to block, the big weapon often serves as its own shield. not as good as an actual shield, but it can work. chip damage is just something you have to accept while doing it while hopefully killing them faster than the damage accumulates. like your basically relying on your big weapon to either kill them before they can do much or to break their guard then kill them.

I'm planning to give 2h another try with a boss where I can get a summon to tank. Against fast mooks, though, I don't trust myself just yet.

Any non-shield build for me generally relies on zoning and baiting out attacks then going in for a punish. (TBH I still do that anyway with a shield it's just that I have the safety margin)

I mean, yeah, your in-parenthesis is my case, basically.

The only FromSoft game that I'd clicked with (before Elden Ring) was Bloodborne. Back in my PS3 Demon Souls days, the only thing that made sense was rolling around and backstabbing and, when I tried the trio of Dark Souls, I just couldn't rely on rolling and backstabbing like I wanted. Bloodborne offered, with the trick weapons, an opportunity to control the flow of a fight, whipping at mid-range and counter-caning close range.
I played that was because I couldn't figure out the parry timing. I could do it with Bloodborne guns, but not with DS shields.

It's kind of a parallel for me too, but I try to emulate Sekiro instead, which works best in Elden with shield-guard counter, IMO. The only difference is that there are no unblockable-attack-indicators.

[GloatingSwine]

It's kind of a parallel for me too, but I try to emulate Sekiro instead, which works best in Elden with shield-guard counter, IMO. The only difference is that there are no unblockable-attack-indicators.

That's because there aren't really any truly "unblockable" attacks, only attacks you don't have the stamina to block or that your shield doesn't resist.

[Dienekes]

That's because there aren't really any truly "unblockable" attacks, only attacks you don't have the stamina to block or that your shield doesn't resist.

Out of curiosity, as I am not using a shield this run. Big area attacks that make the ground rise up and often fling you into the air. Do shields block those?

Also I think technically the cipher pata is unblockable. But that’s more a pvp thing.

[Cespenar]

That's because there aren't really any truly "unblockable" attacks, only attacks you don't have the stamina to block or that your shield doesn't resist.

I know, but attacks-that-are-not-really-feasible-to-block-with-your-shield didn't roll off the tongue that well.

[Wookieetank]

I know, but attacks-that-are-not-really-feasible-to-block-with-your-shield didn't roll off the tongue that well.

Good thing you're using your fingers

[Dragonus45]

He should be on the balcony in Roundtable. Yknow, where you can see all those red puddles?

I'm familiar. Explored a bit when I got home last night and couldn't find him there, checked the chapel and he wasn't there, I did find his bloodstain in the sewers near The Face though. After that he was at the Round Table. I'm not questioning it, just rolling along.

That's because there aren't really any truly "unblockable" attacks, only attacks you don't have the stamina to block or that your shield doesn't resist.

There are ones that aren't parry able though. Figuring out what's what there is fun.

[Anteros]

There's just something satisfying about getting the perfect dodge roll timings right when things finally click for a boss. Like, fighting Tree Sentinel as a level one wretch naked with a club. Sure, you die 400 times, but when things finally click it feels so good.

Something I don't like about Elden Ring is how many bosses have multiple mobs involved. It adds a ton of RNG to the fight, which I feel goes against the core gameplay. It's hard to complain too much though when there are so many other great fights.

[Cespenar]

There's just something satisfying about getting the perfect dodge roll timings right when things finally click for a boss. Like, fighting Tree Sentinel as a level one wretch naked with a club. Sure, you die 400 times, but when things finally click it feels so good.

Something I don't like about Elden Ring is how many bosses have multiple mobs involved. It adds a ton of RNG to the fight, which I feel goes against the core gameplay. It's hard to complain too much though when there are so many other great fights.

I'd like the RNG, actually, since it adds some sorely needed razzle-dazzle to the hundreds of bossfights in the game, but hard boss + RNG can get a bit too irritating, yes.

[Lord Raziere]

this time on Raziere roleplays a murderous bandit:

Spoiler

Show

I've finally gotten to Nokron, it took me killing the second big deer to realize that was completely optional and didn't need to do that. and while the treasure for Ranni is this corpse dagger, for me its the cool Nox monk gear and silver tear mask thats the real treasure to me. honestly I don't consider either this or Nokstella all that hard, the Nox priests would probably be harder if I wasn't shielding but the tears are generally easy to beat.

then I went further into Ainsel to find this Lake of Rot nonsense. I got past into the Grand cloister but I'll get to it later. I want to find whatever is here in the lake thats valuable and get out. though I don't know how to get out the ainsel underground so that itself will be bit of an adventure.

also I cured Millicent before all this underground exploration. cause hey I'm may be a lowly dirty bandit who uses poison, bleed and such to kill gods and whatnot, but at least I cured the scarlet rot for somebody instead of inflicting it.....which I'll probably do a lot once I've got the Antspur going. sorry Millicent, you an exception cause your like, innocent and harmless and not some god or monster trying to kill me. well except for that one time you invaded me, but considering that most soldiers just attack me on sight without even a word and you spoke words to me, my standards for forgiveness are pretty low. also a guy asked me to do it and gave me a reward, so I think there might be another motive at work here.

honestly if you ask me the thing I don't like about the game is mainly dogs and those lobster people found in scarlet rot places. like, in dark souls the dogs could be dealt with easily. but here, they are more annoying and the fact that there is both bleed and scarlet rot dogs existing makes them dangerous with how fast they are. while the lobster people just....tend to group up and attack in twos and it makes them hard to fight when they're both doing their magical missile and spear things.

[LaZodiac]

Question for you raz; did you have to fight the twin gargoyle boss in that area you're in? Because I'm sick and tired of fighting it.

[Lord Raziere]

Question for you raz; did you have to fight the twin gargoyle boss in that area you're in? Because I'm sick and tired of fighting it.

...twin gargoyle boss? Sorry, I have no idea what you mean. I haven't found that boss yet, and to exit the underground, I found is simple as selecting the Siofra River well depths grace and taking the elevator there- the underground graces are all connected no matter which one your in, which I'm thankful for small mercies.

the only advice I give fight wise is if they're made of stone like those stone imps I keep fighting everything I find a catacombs, then you need a mace or a flail to whack 'em with, something blunt to crack something hard, deals more damage than a blade. I've also found the existence of explosive ammo so.....if you can find and use that, that will probably also work. also if its twinsies for anything, always call for a spirit ash or a cooperator to help at the beginning of the fight unless they're incredibly fast and aggressive, most bosses aren't, there is generally a window of time where you can summon spirit ashes if your quick. allows you to distract one while taking out another.

[Rynjin]

...twin gargoyle boss? Sorry, I have no idea what you mean. I haven't found that boss yet, and to exit the underground, I found is simple as selecting the Siofra River well depths grace and taking the elevator there- the underground graces are all connected no matter which one your in, which I'm thankful for small mercies.

I hate (love?) to inform you, but Siofra River and Ainsel River are about twice as deep as you think they are. She's in the deeper portion.

[Lord Raziere]

I hate (love?) to inform you, but Siofra River and Ainsel River are about twice as deep as you think they are. He's in the deeper portion.

wait, there is a deeper part to Siofra? I'm not surprised for Ainsel but.....is the platform in Siofra with the two stone gargoyles keyslots something that takes me down instead of up? cause I thought those would just lead to surfacing somewhere in northern Caelid (which I now know is Dragonbarrow) since messages around it just said stuff about regret so I just assumed it was just an alternate path there.

Edit: also I have like 14 golden rune (10)'s, and like three remembrances I haven't used yet for a grand total of like...160,000 runes I'm just SITTING on. and I don't exactly know what to do with this bountiful wealth I've acquired, especially when none of the remembrances grant me any dex or arcane weapons which my build is about. the collector in me wants to get all the items I can even when I can't use them, while my practical side is thinking to just spend it all on level ups which I'm estimating might net me a grand total of......maybe 4 or 5 level ups at most where I'm currently at? so thats a decision I have to make.

[Rynjin]

wait, there is a deeper part to Siofra? I'm not surprised for Ainsel but.....is the platform in Siofra with the two stone gargoyles keyslots something that takes me down instead of up? cause I thought those would just lead to surfacing somewhere in northern Caelid (which I now know is Dragonbarrow) since messages around it just said stuff about regret so I just assumed it was just an alternate path there.

There are things you can do later to get to the later parts, it's nothing you have access to via the initial string of Graces you get down there.

Here's a screenshot I took from the second part of one of them.

Spoiler: Obviously

Show

[Anteros]

wait, there is a deeper part to Siofra? I'm not surprised for Ainsel but.....is the platform in Siofra with the two stone gargoyles keyslots something that takes me down instead of up? cause I thought those would just lead to surfacing somewhere in northern Caelid (which I now know is Dragonbarrow) since messages around it just said stuff about regret so I just assumed it was just an alternate path there.

Edit: also I have like 14 golden rune (10)'s, and like three remembrances I haven't used yet for a grand total of like...160,000 runes I'm just SITTING on. and I don't exactly know what to do with this bountiful wealth I've acquired, especially when none of the remembrances grant me any dex or arcane weapons which my build is about. the collector in me wants to get all the items I can even when I can't use them, while my practical side is thinking to just spend it all on level ups which I'm estimating might net me a grand total of......maybe 4 or 5 level ups at most where I'm currently at? so thats a decision I have to make.

Using remembrances to level? Oh no. I have to collect all those items I'll almost certainly never use. I can't even bring myself to use the remembrances to choose the item, much less just use them for not even a level each.

Also, there's at least one area I've unlocked where mobs are worth 2 to 10k each and they're easy to kill, even though they 1 shot me, so souls aren't that valuable to me. I'm actively holding off on grinding lately to try to preserve the difficulty.

[LaZodiac]

I hate (love?) to inform you, but Siofra River and Ainsel River are about twice as deep as you think they are. SHE'S in the deeper portion.

(fixed that for you)

Naw, the knife Raz found means she's where I was. I just didn't know about the area she was in (and vice versa, it seems!)

Anyway hey I fought a boss that genuinely just made my brain explode. Naturalborn is... a fascinating encounter to say the least.

[Lord Raziere]

(fixed that for you)

Naw, the knife Raz found means she's where I was. I just didn't know about the area she was in (and vice versa, it seems!)

Which I can't get to proc the scarlet rot for some reason (same with the rapier), and it seems unique so....will take a +1 playthrough to dual wield. considering the amount of things you have to do to get it to it, not sure if its worth it, like the number of things you have to do to get this one dagger again would be a complex route full of danger like being required to face Radahn again. like people think Arcane scaling is bugged so....I'll unfortunately have to stick with my usual bleed daggers for now.

[Rynjin]

(fixed that for you)

(Sorry about that; fixed.)

Naw, the knife Raz found means she's where I was. I just didn't know about the area she was in (and vice versa, it seems!)

Anyway hey I fought a boss that genuinely just made my brain explode. Naturalborn is... a fascinating encounter to say the least.

Yeah! Anstel is probably the most interesting boss in the game? It's got a really flashy moveset, and it's just cool all around.

[Calemyr]

Holy crap. I had to fight like hell and pull every cheap trick in the book, abused the hell out of Fextralife for item locations, and I drastically upped my capacity for swearing in the process, but I did it. I platinumed the game. Well, it's Steam, so it's not platinum, but you know what I mean.

All told, I'd rate it second of the FROMSoftware games I've played, with Bloodborne keeping the top slot. They did a lot of cool things with it, but some of the bosses go beyond "Tough but fair" and into "Cheap, cheap, cheating son of a canine" levels of tough, which I take as FROMSoftware getting lazy. Sorcery is king in this game and if it weren't for it, I'd never have beat several bosses, but that's been the rule whenever spellcasting is part of the game from this company. The addition of spirit summons really helps make the fights more interesting, as the spirits can complement your build in valuable ways. Amusingly, if you listen to YouTube, just about every weapon in the game is OP, so that sounds equal bits click bait and surprising game balance. All told, however, a psuedo-Norse setting doesn't please my eyes as much as Bloodbourne's gothic style and I found Bloodborne's trick weapons to be a more intriguing mechanic than Elden Ring's ashes of war mechanic.

[Anteros]

I'm finding it to be a fair bit easier than other games in the series so far. I'm not done yet though. Magic is definitely easy mode though.

[Yora]

After almost 45 hours, I finally have explored all of Limgrave.

On to further adventures.

[Calemyr]

I'm finding it to be a fair bit easier than other games in the series so far. I'm not done yet though. Magic is definitely easy mode though.

This is true, without a doubt. Spirit Summoning is a game changer. You can pick a spirit that compliments you and takes advantage of the enemy. Mages get it doubly easy because now you can (usually) summon a spirit to take the attention while you pelt the enemy with spells. Of course, you don't get to summon in Evergaols, which makes them pretty absurdly hard/ for some builds, but with enough determination even they fall. (As my brother puts it "You can fail 175 times and the only thing it damages is your pride. They fail once and you've cinched it.") Spirits that I found most useful are Jellyfish (this should NOT be as effective a tank as it is), the Crystallian (slow moving, but incredibly durable against anything but striking), and Lhutel the Headless (a powerful mix of offense, defense, and mobility). Useful late-game summons were the greatshield soldier (5 guys with greatshields and little for offense, extremely durable, though and five of them keeps most bosses pretty busy) and the Mimic Tear (uses HP instead of FP, copies all your gear and their skills, has one healing flask, and infinite FP. Use it right and it can really wreck house.). I would also include Black Knife Tiche as extremely useful (an evade tank with brutal percentage-based damage over time abilities), but just getting to the Ringleader's Evergaol is extremely late game and the boss stored inside was #5 in my top 5 worst boss fights. If you can get her, and afford her 132 FP cost, suddenly the more HP a boss has the more damage she does. a very nice equalizer.

Torrent is also a game-changer. The gazelle-horse is hard to control when it comes to precision, but he's fast and that double jump lets you get into places you couldn't hope to without it. You can end-run any field boss with it, allowing a cagey player to explore the first five regions (4.8?) before tackling any of the big bosses. Hell, without gaining a level if you know the terrain well enough. This lets you build your character your way and equip them properly well before you face the most significant challenges.

The warp gates and trap chests are set up in a way that you can gain access to very profitable gear and grinding sites long before you have any right to be there. The risk is high (don't do it when you have any decently sized chuck of change in your pocket), but you can get some potent gear really early on and the Beastial Sanctum is filled with very squishy enemies that are mostly solitary, but can easily one-shot even high level players very quickly if they see you. Get your stealth game on and you can grind up to level 80 with ease (even from level 10) and get to 100 without feeling the grind that much. By the time you're 100, there are much better places to farm.

The maps make life easier as well, and their locations are pointedly marked in unmapped regions you've been exploring. It's the little obelisk marker. When entering a new region, I always put a beacon on that spot and make a bee-line for it before doing anything else. Maps are just that useful.

Then there are the Bell Bearings, which add items to the creepy twins' shop in the Roundtable Hold. This includes all the upgrade materials for your weapons and summon spirits, both normal and elite. The capstone resource for the final upgrade, however, can't be done like this and are rare finds. However, this means you can very easily upgrade your spirits and weapons to +9 (or +24, for normal weapons) for nothing more than easily grinded-for coin, and the only majorly critical decision is what things are useful enough to deserve the final upgrade. It does require you to beat the bosses that hold those bearings, though. HINT: Always keep a striking weapon handy in case of Crystallian bosses. Nothing else works reliably. I like using the cestus, which does not have a onerous stat requirements and I like playing the brawler once in a while.

All these additions DO make the overall game so much easier than usual FROMSoftware fare. However, the top five bosses are so obnoxiously cheap that I only won by finding every possible way to do it wrong, and then doing it right again and again and again and again until I could survive long enough to seal the win.

If anyone's curious, these are the five bosses I'm talking about (spoilers, but I'll try to keep them light).

Spoiler: Nasty Bosses

Show

#6 - Margit, from the start of Stormveil Castle. The first real challenge of the game. He sucks to high heaven, especially at the experience level you're likely to be when you find him. However, Patches sells a shackle item that really helps make him manageable in the first phase and the his abilities are more easily dodged than the rest of these. He absolutely earns an honorable mention, though, and I'm sure he's broken more players than any other boss in the game.

#5 Alecto, Black Knife Ringleader. An optional boss, unless you want Black Knife Tiche and the Legendary Ashes achievement. Dude teleports, spams attacks, and is very good at getting out of stunlocks. Gave me a lot of trouble, and was the second to the last boss I actually beat in the game. Fortunately, if you can avoid or block his combos, he provides openings to punish him. Surviving long enough to do that is a trick and a half, though.

#4 - Fire Giant. Such a mundane name, such a royal pain. Guy is comically HUGE and uses his shield to give him reach that you wouldn't expect even from someone that big. Fortunately, while he rules at range, his options for dealing with you up close are pretty feeble in comparison, so stay up near his feet, get behind him, and go hard. Torrent can really help you close the gap, but you can easily spend all your flasks healing him rather than yourself.

#3 - Starscourge Radahn. Requires either lightning quick dodge reflexes or a really good shield or he'll take you out well before you fight him. Dodge or block his arrows (they still hurt like hell if you block, but it was survivable even on a mage), then use the gold messages to summon everyone you can. Back off and deal with the arrows (the barrages have a limited range, so you can get far enough away that only the single-shot gravity arrows can hit you, and those can be tanked with a good shield) until your troops close into melee. Then close in and join the fight once he is forced to put the bow away. Each of your companions has roughly five summon points (usually under the ghostly banners), so go summon them back as they die. At half health, he jumps into the air and turns himself into a meteor and you basically need to be running from the moment he disappears to get out of the blast radius he's going to leave when he returns. He's really nasty even with all this, but he's also extremely vulnerable to Scarlet Rot (he technically already has a mammoth case of it, it's just not actively doing him damage, but it's comically easy to tip that balance), so weapons that inflict rot will result in a lot of damage being done. Defeating him is technically optional (you don't need to beat him to beat the game), but defeating him opens up a world of new locations bristling with useful gear.

#2 Malenia - She's optional, and thank heavens for that. Her health pool is markedly low, but she gains a large amount of health on every hit (even when it's blocked) and she has extremely long chains of very aggressive attacks. When she's not flitting about like a mosquito on crack, however, she walks very slowly, which is good for mages. If you have the stars of ruin spell, this is a fantastic chance to spam the hell out of it as it's about the only spell that is both fast enough and tracks enough to hit her reliably. She has a second form at 50% health and, while she loses self-healing katana, she gains some nasty ranged abilities and the ability to inflict scarlet rot. Beat her and you get a great rune that lets you self-heal like she did and access to a katana with the same ability to chain rapid fire attacks. Good for a dex fighter (requires 48 dex to wield properly), but might not be worth it to most players.

#1 Final Boss - Far and away, bar none, the worst fight in the game. Technically two bosses in rapid succession. First one would actually be fun if the second one didn't follow immediately and demand EVERY resource you can manage. First boss is human(ish) and deals a lot of powerful lightning-based attacks at every range with quick casts and unrelenting stamina, but it's a skill fight and it doesn't have a large health pool (and, unlike Malenia, it doesn't regenerate). You can beat it pretty easily after you learn its moves and how to mitigate them. You barely have time to down a flask or two before the second boss shows up, and it's cheap as hell. It chains high powered attacks that cover large areas at a long range rarely give you a moment to heal, and both the arena and the enemy are so massive that simply getting in range to hit it while it pelts you with said evil (well, holy, but still wicked) attacks and he has a massive health pool. If you're like me, the first boss will finish you (and quickly) roughly 80% of the time and, when it doesn't, leaves you short on flasks for the second fight. To make matters worse, both bosses have mandatory cutscenes before the fight, making the repeated attempts much more frustrating. Fortunately, there's a glitch in the first boss's AI that is really hard to exploit but is really helpful for a sorceror: if you run like a bat out of hell from the first second of the fight and get to the left side of him before he can finish his animation, such that he has to turn to face you but can't take a step forward, he'll just do nothing until he can take that step. This takes a lot of practice to pull off, but it does work. A sorcerer can take advantage of this and hit him with an Azur Comet with everything you've got, killing the boss without actually having to fight it and saving your resources for the second one. I needed to do this to win. The second boss, the trick I found is that most of its attacks are front-facing and it's not very good with up-close melee or spells on its flanks and back. A durable summon that can hold its interest (Tiche or a well-built Mimic do the job well) can let you maneuver around it. Even then, there's a whole lot of running involved. A solid Kame Hame Ha (Azur's Comet) to the back a couple times made the fight winnable, but only because I learned how to deal with its attacks one scar at a time. I really should have named my character O'chul, because that's how I won most of my fights.

Anyway, yeah. Overall an easier game due to many wonderful quality of life additions, but they really dropped the ball on the quality of some of their bigger fights, which rely on so much cheese that the only way to fight back is to git gouda yourself.

[Anteros]

This is true, without a doubt. Spirit Summoning is a game changer. You can pick a spirit that compliments you and takes advantage of the enemy. Mages get it doubly easy because now you can (usually) summon a spirit to take the attention while you pelt the enemy with spells. Of course, you don't get to summon in Evergaols, which makes them pretty absurdly hard/ for some builds, but with enough determination even they fall. (As my brother puts it "You can fail 175 times and the only thing it damages is your pride. They fail once and you've cinched it.") Spirits that I found most useful are Jellyfish (this should NOT be as effective a tank as it is), the Crystallian (slow moving, but incredibly durable against anything but striking), and Lhutel the Headless (a powerful mix of offense, defense, and mobility). Useful late-game summons were the greatshield soldier (5 guys with greatshields and little for offense, extremely durable, though and five of them keeps most bosses pretty busy) and the Mimic Tear (uses HP instead of FP, copies all your gear and their skills, has one healing flask, and infinite FP. Use it right and it can really wreck house.). I would also include Black Knife Tiche as extremely useful (an evade tank with brutal percentage-based damage over time abilities), but just getting to the Ringleader's Evergaol is extremely late game and the boss stored inside was #5 in my top 5 worst boss fights. If you can get her, and afford her 132 FP cost, suddenly the more HP a boss has the more damage she does. a very nice equalizer.

I watched my friend play a bit with his magic/summon build. I don't really understand why you'd want to play the game that way. You don't even have to learn the boss's combos. To each their own, but it feels like robbing yourself of a great gaming experience.

[Calemyr]

Different styles lead to different experiences. I started with a mage build, my brother started with... well, a paladin build, for want of a better word. Heavy armor, solid shield, faith scaling weapons, and a serviceable if not exceptional faith score. Bosses he found comically easy I had a hard time with, while bosses he spent upwards of an hour on I completed with little challenge. And don't let one or two bosses fool you, their reaction to magic varies just as much as their reaction to combat styles. YouTube folk like to say the Infinite Azur Comet is an automatic I Win button, but most bosses can dodge out of it in a few ticks and you're stuck rooted to the ground as a gigantic cleaver decides you would look much better if you 15 inches shorter.

The thing about the a mage build is that it's more cerebral than instinctive, if you follow me. A mage juggles spells more than a warrior juggles weapons, so you gotta know the cast times, effective range, expected FP costs vs your current total, expected damage, etc. You're not in the thick of it, but you have to keep dancing and bosses don't just ignore you if you get a good lick in. The battle is won or lost before the enemy even knows you're there. And there is nothing like dodging and weaving through the enemy's onslaught just to find the right time to fire some black and green energy across their bow... I find that satisfying, as well as a good first run. Now that I have a stronger grasp on the mechanics and how bosses work, I want to do a more melee focused build to get the other half of the experience.