Hero-of-Time Posted March 6, 2022 Posted March 6, 2022 6 minutes ago, drahkon said: Interesting. Then I have no clue where that farming spot's supposed to be. When you come across a bunch of electric blob type enemies then you are in the right place.
drahkon Posted March 6, 2022 Posted March 6, 2022 3 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said: When you come across a bunch of electric blob type enemies then you are in the right place. You mean those black blobs... Spoiler ...and some of them turn into humans (or whatever)?
Hero-of-Time Posted March 6, 2022 Posted March 6, 2022 10 minutes ago, drahkon said: You mean those black blobs... ... (Hide contents) ...and some of them turn into humans (or whatever)? Yeah, these specific ones just have electric and stabbing attacks. 1
Hero-of-Time Posted March 6, 2022 Posted March 6, 2022 I was intrigued with the fight you mentioned @drahkon as I seemed to have missed it. Just went back to that area and had a crack at it. Yeah, it's a toughie but I managed to scrape by and get the win. I've just reached level 100 and even that was barely enough! 1
Julius Posted March 6, 2022 Author Posted March 6, 2022 (edited) I also beat the big boss that is the hot topic, and hoo boy, is that one hell of a fight. I already loved the character from what I'd read and heard about them elsewhere in the game, so finally getting to square up to them, and having the fight surpass my expectations, was pretty spectacular. And I'm looking forward to seeing the ramifications of the fight too. However, while the fight is conceptually awesome...I do think it has some practical issues, and I feel like there are definitely one or two things which could have been done to make the fight a bit. It also brought to the forefront a minor nitpick for me in the game that I'd come across a few times before but could put up with, but this being a boss fight, it blew it up exponentially, and now it's going to be on my mind a lot moving forwards into other important fights. For reference, I've been running a STR-based melee build, which I've only really recently started phasing into a Magic Knight hybrid, and I'm probably one of the lesser experienced Souls players here, so looking at the tally for my number of deaths, I think I'm probably going to be one of those more intimate with the fight in terms of sheer exposure to it. I spent a good while with it, but thankfully, just powered through - got to that point where I always knew what was coming. It never felt unfair as I feel a couple of bosses in Dark Souls and Demons Souls did at times (looking at you, my clip-happy experiences with O&S and Adjudicator), but well, I'll just get onto it: praise, criticism, my idea on how it could potentially be improved, warts and all. Spoiler ...boy does that fight not seem balanced compared to most other fights in the game in that I felt like I was playing an already tough at times game on a harder difficulty, as it was definitely screaming for ranged combat (magic or heck, even a shedload of arrows). Looking at some of the reactions elsewhere it seems some even went so far as - and are actively promoting - using a Larval Tear for a full re-spec just to get past this fight, especially for melee builds, and particularly STR-based ones. What I want to praise about this fight is it's sheer scale, from the size of the arena itself to the use of summoning warriors into the bout and joining the charge with you against Radahn. The atmosphere leading up to the fight in Redmane Castle - that male choir in its location theme was great; it was like a chorus of warriors were meeting for one last melancholic time ahead of a final charge, with everything on the line - gave me chills, the opening cutscene adding a bit more context to Radahn was great, and just the atmosphere of it all was worthy of the hulking character we've seen for 3 years in marketing for this game. It lived up to the hype. His first phase isn't anything too crazy, but some of the moves in his second phase - such as his initial leap up into the sky, and through the sky like a meteor? - was wonderful. I'm typically not a fan of moves in a second phase of a boss fight with the potential to one-hit you, but Radahn earned it through and through (well, that and I would just take cover behind a dune rather than sticking around to see whether or not he was in the mood to one-shot me on that attempt), and I love his use of gravity magic. Major Dragon Quest XI third act vibes for the cutscene that follows your victory, too. However, again, I do have some criticisms. And I hate criticising without thinking of a potential solution for my criticisms, so I'll throw those in there too. They aren't massive, but they seem so easy to clean up, and one of them is that the summoning is great in concept - let me rephrase that: genius in concept - but not spectacular in practice. It's one of those things where I think the fight on a whole will rightly be remembered fondly for what it's brought to the table, but I fully expect From Software to improve on this in another game down the road. I think was compounded by my build in that having Radahn distracted with other fighters is essential for someone with a STR-based melee build to get some good hits in. My issue with it is that after the initial round of summoning, once heads start rolling, it seems impossible to track when and where summons will land, and so in my case with a melee build, I had no choice but to grab Torrent and start running around like a headless maniac, spamming Triangle every time I rode over one, and then on more than one occasion having to run over it multiple times due to bloodstains, messages, or the damn summon sign just being too small. There's also the fact that sometimes you'll see light emitting from where a summoning sign was or will be, but the summoning sign won't be there, so you're taken away from the fight longer than you perhaps should be. I think there are super simple fixes which could fix this and could even be implemented in an update here. For instance, in the case of not knowing where they'll turn up once respawning, stick them by the flags, which are the only real landmarks out there on the battlefield. It seems like that might have been what they were going for with they're initially planted, but when heads start rolling, there's just no real consistency to it, and they're completely randomly dotted over the battlefield - or at least that's how it feels on the heat of the moment, which I guess it shouldn't. They could use a beacon but it'd be a bit hard to see with some of the lighting, and making it too heavily contrasting could kill the vibe of the fight. I did also think they could just make it so these guys can actually survive the entirety of the fight, but then I think it becomes too short for how big a fight it should be, in the world of the game it'd open up questions about these guys being as strong as Radahn, and I really don't think you'd see the full repertoire of moves at Radahn's disposal. But I think if you don't want to stick them by the flags, I think there's already a huge in-game bit of lore and game design you could tap into, and I'm surprised they didn't use it here: have the light of the Guidance of Grace guide players to the summons? In the world it's already established that Tarnished see grace differently, and that we, the players, can see it in a way a lot of other NPC's we come across no longer can, so us being this mythical Tarnished who is going to patch things up - typical MC stuff - it wouldn't raise questions about why others haven't been able to pull this off (and there's also the fact this is still the legendary Radahn). It would also make sense in that the Guidance of Grace seemingly wants us to beat these Shardbearers - why else would it point us directly towards them? - and so aids us in the fight in that sense. Oh, and just make the summoning signs a bit bigger. Just for this fight. It makes sense seeing as you'll probably be running around on Torrent at some point to pick them up. Something else small but worth mentioning: weird handling of checkpoints on this fight. If you want to change anything major about your character you need to back to the Site of Lost Grace, sort your stuff out, run through the corridor and festival in the courtyard, talk to the guy to open the door, watch or skip the Radahn cutscene, run to the end of the church, take the lift down, run to the shore to teleport over to the battle...which itself is a whole lot of running to get into place for the first minute or so. I don't know why you wouldn't just stick a Site of Lost Grace on the shoreline? But then again, I'm also not sure why there isn't a Site of Lost Grace in the Roundtable Hold... Another minor issue I had with this fight on one of my stronger runs - and haven't come across anywhere else in the game, so think I may have just somehow been incredibly unlucky - is that the lock-on failed me at a crucial juncture in the fight and decided to stop my lock-on. I got lucky with a few dodge rolls while I was next to Radahn and not locked on while trying to reset the camera, but it didn't end well for me. And then the minor issue which became a major one here, and which genuinely enraged me for a split second is L3 being crouch and, yep, what you click in to dismount from Torrent. I was ONE - ¡ONE! - strike away from taking Radahn out, started sprinting left as his homing gravity orbs chased me, and then... DualSense needed a paddle, damn it. I didn't even register that I must have clicked it in, because all I had to do was ride in one direction with a bit of speed for those tracking orbs to not connect. Of all of the things you're most likely to accidentally click in due to the sheer stress of a boss fight in the heat of the moment, this genuinely just seems like a poor bit of oversight, and I'm very confused about how it hasn't been picked up in QA - and if it was, I don't get why you'd shoot it down and ignore it. I've seen people elsewhere mention going through this elsewhere in the game (though maybe not in as extreme a scenario as I have here), and it's not the first time I've run into it in the game, as I've found myself crouching a couple more times than I'd like to in fights where crouching is most certainly not the answer. I think it's a pretty baffling bit of button assignment. To end on some high notes though - because I do definitely dig into criticisms a lot and it probably sounds like I hated the fight, when it's probably my favourite so far - the fight gave me major Berserk vibes, in particular it reminded me of the Battle of Doldrey. Backs against the shore, taking on an impossible to face enemy, the sight of a huge battle...it's definitely where I think Miyazaki's head was at, consciously or not. Elden Ring has been bountiful with its Berserk references, somehow even more than previous From games, and I'm here for it. What better way to pay tribute to Kentaro Miura than having his work so clearly inspire so much of an open world? Also, I love how this fight challenged me to question my build. Swording and boarding wouldn't do it, neither would my open world Torrent + Halberd tactics, and neither did when I tested going with a bunch of Flasks of Cerulean Tears and trying to spam low level magic, so I ended up dual-wielding greatswords, and swapping out two of my talismans for better Guard Counters and greater equip load, for the Starscourge Talisman (+5 STR) and Pearldrake Talisman+1 (because apparently these can come in upgraded variants? This one reduced all non-physical damage), which coupled with my two greatswords AND my jump attack talisman made for a very different style of play, but also a fun challenge to learn my character in a new way. Allocating all 12 of my flasks to be Crimson Tears just showed how far I was ready to be pushed. Absolutely love in games when I come up against a wall and have to tweak things as I go with what I've got to hand - like my stubborn fight with Storm Dragon in Final Fantasy VI - and it felt incredibly rewarding finally taking Radahn down. Stopping there for now, got a few places I want to check out before I've got a couple of ideas for where I want to head next. I'm pretty confident I know where exactly the next big bosses are going to be based on my running ahead (I've pretty much only got the top right quarter of the map left to discover, and I have a good idea of what to expect there based on NPC talk, quests, and item descriptions), but I'm in no real rush to get to them, because I'm just enjoying the game that much. I do look forward to hopefully getting to the grinding spot @Hero-of-Time and @drahkon have been mentioning though, one final big grind before probably just going where I think I need to go would be very nice Lastly, it needs to be said: what a great year this already is for games. In all of the Elden Ring hype - which it's worthy of every drop of - I've somehow not realised that with this, Legends: Arceus, and a good chunk of late night/early morning Gran Turismo 7 sessions that I already have 3 games that I'm confident I'll be talking about at the end of the year when it comes to my personal favourites and backing in GOTY discussions. That's insanely wild, and I haven't even picked up Sifu or Horizon Forbidden West yet. Dare I say that 2022's already on course to be one of the strongest years for gaming, never mind the fact that so many other games with huge potential are pencilled in or are likely to be aiming to come out by the end of this year? Edited March 6, 2022 by Julius 2
drahkon Posted March 6, 2022 Posted March 6, 2022 6 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said: I've just reached level 100 and even that was barely enough! Welp, I'm at level 80 Think I'll leave this fight for later. Maybe invest in some Vigor instead of my planned points into faith so I can try out a certain sword. Awesome write-up @Julius. I'll be going back to the Lands Between now
drahkon Posted March 6, 2022 Posted March 6, 2022 (edited) 34 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said: Which sword are you trying to rock, @drahkon? Spoiler Sword of Night and Flame Really wanna try out its unique skills. Added to that, with the required Faith I'll get to try some incantations. And I also wanna get away from my Katana. Need to change things up a bit Edit: By the way, something I forgot to mention about that awesome main boss fight: Spoiler I was surprised to see a summon sign from Patches. Thought to myself: "Heh, let's see what he can do." Moments after he arrived at the battlefield I got the message "Patches has returned to his world." This guy Edited March 6, 2022 by drahkon 1
Hero-of-Time Posted March 6, 2022 Posted March 6, 2022 I dabbled with using that weapon. I tried it for a while but then went back to my katana. I'm currently using... Spoiler The Moonveil katana and it's an absolute beast. The Transient Moonlight skill is amazing. 1
drahkon Posted March 6, 2022 Posted March 6, 2022 1 minute ago, Hero-of-Time said: I dabbled with using that weapon. I tried it for a while but then went back to my katana. I'm currently using... Weapon (Hide contents) The Moonveil katana and it's an absolute beast. The Transient Moonlight skill is amazing. Yup, been using that for a while, too. The skills stagger potential is ridiculous. Doesn't really help for the boss fight that's kicking my ass. YEAH, I haven't left it for later
drahkon Posted March 6, 2022 Posted March 6, 2022 What is happening. Here I was taking a break from that fight and following a certain questline...now I've gone through two more new areas (one of which can suck my nads - still haven't found everything there, probably never will ) and reached another boss that's kicking my ass. I love this game.
drahkon Posted March 6, 2022 Posted March 6, 2022 (edited) 16 hours ago, drahkon said: Boss spoilers (Reveal hidden contents) There had to be a Gargoyle. And yes, there had to be another fucking Gargoyle. I won That fight nearly broke me. During my winning battle, once shit went down I was as careful as I could be. It took a long time, but eventually I made it. With one red flask to spare. Now, the next area...I remembered a video of a farming method I've seen a while ago and thought: "OH, it has to be here somewhere." And it is. Used horsey to sprint through and reached the glorious Site of Grace. If you wanna know about it, open the spoiler tag: Spoiler This is in Deeproot Depths. You know what I'm going to do for a bit Edited March 6, 2022 by drahkon 1
Hero-of-Time Posted March 6, 2022 Posted March 6, 2022 (edited) Most of this afternoon I've been working my way through one massive dungeon/area. There were so many enemies kicking about and numerous passages to take. At one point I had made lots of progress but couldn't for the life of me find a Site of Grace point. While frantically searching for one it got me thinking of that scene from Ferris Bueller's Day Off... I did finally make it to the boss but I've yet to beat it. It's the hardest one I've come across so far. That video @drahkon posted may come in useful... Edited March 6, 2022 by Hero-of-Time 1
drahkon Posted March 6, 2022 Posted March 6, 2022 Phew. Completed a certain questline: Spoiler Renna's/Ranni's quest. What a journey that was. Defeating Radahn has blown this quest wide open. Went through several areas, defeated an awesome boss and killed a beloved beast That was awesome. 1
Hero-of-Time Posted March 7, 2022 Posted March 7, 2022 17 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said: I did make it to the boss but I've yet to beat it. It's the hardest one I've come across so far. That video @drahkon posted may come in useful... I finally managed to beat this boss last night. It was way past my bedtime but I was determined to get it done. By all accounts this optional boss is the hardest fight in the game and so it should be smooth sailing from now on. Spoiler She is an absolute monster. She's so fast, regains health when she lands an attack and has stupidly fast combos that can instantly wipe you out. That's just her first phase! To be fair, I think the second phase is easier but it's whether or not you've got any of the healing items left by the time you reach said phase. There's a fantastic grinding spot that has been found that can dish out between 13k-17k every 10 seconds or so, depending on your set up. All you need is a longbow and a bunch of arrows. It basically involves spawning at the Site of Grace, looking over a cliff and shooting a bird in the distance. This aggros the enemy and sends it charging over the edge of a cliff. This spot is right next to where you spawn and so you just take a few steps back, rest and then repeat. I got myself just shy of level 150 doing this. Love it. 1 1
Julius Posted March 7, 2022 Author Posted March 7, 2022 1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said: There's a fantastic grinding spot that has been found that can dish out between 13k-17k every 10 seconds or so, depending on your set up. All you need is a longbow and a bunch of arrows. It basically involves spawning at the Site of Grace, looking over a cliff and shooting a bird in the distance. This aggros the enemy and sends it charging over the edge of a cliff. This spot is right next to where you spawn and so you just take a few steps back, rest and then repeat. I got myself just shy of level 150 doing this. Love it. I saw a clip of this going around yesterday without any context and it shot up on my to-do list for the game My plan going into the game was always to do a hybrid Knight/Sorcerer build focusing on STR/VIG/END as usual for much of the game before pumping Runes into INT/MIND later on to give me more versatility and to see the cool spells. But my experience with the last boss, as much as I loved it, showed me that my current build just probably isn't going to cut it moving forwards, considering some of the later areas I've already come across later in the game, and this was hammered home by 5 seconds I had spoiled of some random boss fight (thanks, YouTube thumbnail clips - thankfully didn't see a name or even really the boss, just someone with a typical sword and board melee build like mine getting smeared across the floor), which made it abundantly clear that rather than re-spec... I'm going to choose to grind in order to level up INT/MIND so that they're pretty much on par with my other stats and incorporate them into my build. Well, INT a bit (a lot) further, as I have a spell I've picked up that I really want to use! I'd actually already started doing the quest which would get me to where I needed, as it turns out, so will be finishing that after work today and putting some other essential parts of the grind in place. After the grind I have one more thing to do to get the armour set I've been fawning over the entire game, I have the big ass swords I wanted, and so there'll be no looking back. Tonight, I become a farmer. A farmer of Runes. And ascend to damn near godhood. 2
drahkon Posted March 7, 2022 Posted March 7, 2022 4 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said: There's a fantastic grinding spot that has been found that can dish out between 13k-17k every 10 seconds or so Where...where? WHERE?
Hero-of-Time Posted March 7, 2022 Posted March 7, 2022 It's an underground area. Grace point you're looking for is called Palace Approach Ledge-Road. 1
drahkon Posted March 7, 2022 Posted March 7, 2022 17 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said: It's an underground area. Grace point you're looking for is called Palace Approach Ledge-Road. If you're telling me that the place is near... Spoiler ...Mohgwyn Dynasty Mausoleum... ...it'd be a pretty big coincidence. A few minutes ago I rummaged through my inventory and found that weird little medallion and decided to finally use it. It teleported me to the place mentioned in the spoiler.
drahkon Posted March 7, 2022 Posted March 7, 2022 Just now, Hero-of-Time said: That's the one. Enjoy your grinding! Whohooo Hope the grinding spot is not too far away from where I'm at.
drahkon Posted March 7, 2022 Posted March 7, 2022 (edited) Eeehhhh? Just defeated... Spoiler Mohg, motherfucking Lord of motherfucking Blood First try Had to use all my flasks, though. It was a tough battle I was chuffed to see 500k runes added to the counter after my victory. I guess that farming place is close now? Edit: Or it's somewhere else? I may have taken a wrong turn Edited March 7, 2022 by drahkon
Hero-of-Time Posted March 7, 2022 Posted March 7, 2022 Praise the ring! It is done. With that done, i'm once again caught up. Spoiler I'll post my final thoughts later/tomorrow but I will say that it's only been a month and already Pokemon Legends has been dethroned as potential GOTY. 3
drahkon Posted March 7, 2022 Posted March 7, 2022 Awesome Was it a grind? Did you have to savescum, i.e. are there different endings? 1
Hero-of-Time Posted March 7, 2022 Posted March 7, 2022 (edited) 8 hours ago, drahkon said: Was it a grind? Did you have to savescum, i.e. are there different endings? Not really. By the end of the game I was level 150+ and that was more than enough to handle most end game bosses. The grinding spots I used throughout the game served me well. Also, things like weapon and summon upgrade mats came naturally. No need to farm those either. As for the endings, yeah, the Bloodborne save scumming method needs to be used if you want to avoid 3 playthroughs. Of course, that obviously depends on whether or not you've met the requirements for each of them. Edited March 8, 2022 by Hero-of-Time 1
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