Progress update here. I have found my first and so far only 3 stage boss. Quite the peculiar design, as well, and challenging for certain. Lots of bloodloss damage. Managed it on my second attempt.
Found a repeat of a certain dancing boss but with petrification powers this time around. Managed to get it on my first attempt just barely.
Found myself in the Abyssal Woods, what appears to be the last major area/map I had yet to get to. I also managed to find my way across certain ancient ruins that lead to a story-critical part of the DLC, the effective point of not return. Will do a little more exploration and maybe make my way to the final bits depending on how it goes. I think I'll definitely get through this before the weekend hits.
I put a couple of hours in, and so far it's been remarkably chill. I've yet to encounter a boss that I wasn't clearly intended to run away from and return later, and the regular enemies have not been challenging at all. It's making me a bit nervous because if previous fromsoft dlcs have taught me anything, it's that when the other shoe drops it's going to drop hard.
master0 wrote:I agree with both posts. This dlc feels more dark souls then elden ring in some ways. Tighter level design but also less exploration. Overall I'm having a good time but it's not as good as the original. More yes but lacking in some ways. Honestly I think they could have designed something better if you started completely naked in the DLC.
That is essentially what they did... You have to take part in the fragment system to level up. That determines the difficulty of the game. Sure just out of the gate things feel spongey and hit hard. You get a few levels of fragments under your belt and things feel more normal.
I'm at level 11 for damage fragment thingy. Wasn't talking about the early game per say. More how the design is similar to the last zone. In that to challenge high level players the hp and attack damage gets huge.
It's probably too extreme but removing levels, gear and flasks could have made it more interesting. But I'm playing arm chair designer. That and some people would've rioted if they did that.
2 Remembrance bosses down. Absolutely loving it so far.
Well, I have completed Shadow of the Erdtree to the best of my abilities going in blind. I managed to get a few NPC quests done, found every main boss and all the main optional ones, as well as other less significant ones. The ending is interesting and satisfying enough. That final couple of fights were suitably epic, as well.
Before managing to get this, I found my way to a couple of Finger ruins/altars and completed Ymir's (sp?) questline, which I found to be the most satisfying of the quests lore-wise. It was very eye-opening and makes me wish that the DLC's story revelations would actually influence something in the base game.
Having said that, on a separate note, as a warning to those who have not yet made it to the Abyssal Woods, bring tons of madness healing items and get comfortable with stealth and/or parrying. There are enemies there reminiscent of some from another, lovecraftian FROM Soft game and are pretty much invulnerable unless one parries them. These were my biggest headache in the game by far.
All in all, this was pretty freaking great. I need a break from Souls-like games for a few weeks after this. It was pretty intense, completing it in the space of 5 days (Thursday evening to Monday evening).
Outstanding work brokenclavicle, congrats! I'm on Death Knight (lost 160k runes trying to get them back but the bugger is so quick to get to you) which feels extremely hard atm. The attack combos just have that unorthodox timing that make you react with a roll before you should.
I've also fought the Dancing Lion boss a load of times but it's just demolishing me. I've upgraded my Scadutree Blessing level twice now (an extra one since the two mentioned boss encounters) so I'm hoping that will kick my damage up a bit & start to negate the huge damage I'm recieving.
I'm loving the environments so far & the Catacombs underground area the Death Knight is in has lots of secrets, pathways, ambushes & traps. I hope the difficulty doesn't stop me in my tracks somewhere down the line but I suppose there's co-op if that happens.
93_confirmed wrote:I'm at the end of what I think is the first legacy dungeon and ithe boss it's very difficult, even with a spirit ash AND NPC summons. It's insane. I'm close to beating it, just need to get the right combination of talismans and level up a bit.
Reminder that leveling up for the DLC is not the same as the regular game... If you're 150 now and level to 170 you're still going to have issues if you don't level up your scadutree fragment levels
I'm aware. I just meant I need levels to adjust my build since I used a number of larval tears already. Trying not to respec as much so I use the farm before Mohg's location and can get like 1M runes every 10 minutes or so. Works well.
Starting the DLC after playing Lords of the Fallen reaffirms my opinion about original Elden Ring. It is an absolutely amazing game, but I prefer the tighter closed area designs of the previous Souls games over the open world of Elden Ring. Feels like a more handcrafted, intense, balanced experience.
Both styles offer something different though. Maybe the perfect balance for me, would be having a classic "Dark Souls" map in the center of the game world, with interconnected, but otherwise closed off zones, and then all around that, an open world "wasteland" you can also explore, as you leave those main zones.
Fewer of those classic maps being different versions of castles/keeps would be nice too.
I agree with this. I like the way that Bloodborne was set up with the interconnectivity and they should have some something like that with Elden Ring. I would also like to see less locations and more massive legacy dungeons instead.
I'm at the end of what I think is the first legacy dungeon and ithe boss it's very difficult, even with a spirit ash AND NPC summons. It's insane. I'm close to beating it, just need to get the right combination of talismans and level up a bit.
What I have found is the NPC summons do more harm than good. They up the boss health, the same way a multiplayer summon would, but usually aren't nearly as good. After getting rid of the NPC summon my Mimic and I got Renalla down below 20%, all three times I fought her, and killed her on the last one. Still had 9 flasks too!
I've also fought the Dancing Lion boss a load of times but it's just demolishing me. I've upgraded my Scadutree Blessing level twice now (an extra one since the two mentioned boss encounters) so I'm hoping that will kick my damage up a bit & start to negate the huge damage I'm recieving.
I fought the Dancing lion first and he was the hardest do to having annoying hit boxes and camera that can't manage his movement and size. He's the only boss that I have used my shield, a lot, which helped a bit.
I did Dancing Lion on my first go, so I decided to help people and I think I must have just gotten lucky. I have utterly failed to be of assistance to folks. This is before I found out about how terrific Carion Greatsword sorcery is though, and I wonder if it might have staggered him well in close range. (I won by retreating to mid/long range and pelting with rocksling.)
Got to what is probably the flashiest in boss. Huge display of special effects. Great to look at but tough to fight. All large bosses need multiple lock on points. At least one point that's on the ground.
Think I'm heading to the end soon. About two more bits left before I finish up.
What I ended up doing for Dancing Lion is summoning the NPC and Black Knife Tiche (base game spirit ash) and equipped the Sacred Relic Sword (acquired from the Elden Beast rememberance). I stood far away and spammed the Wave of Gold weapon skill for most of the fight. If I needed to get close, I used Bloodhound Fang which is very effective due to the bleed attack.
I've downed the final boss of the DLC. I'll try to post some more general impressions soon, but first, let me share a PSA. If you are in the market for a broken build to make the DLC easier, this is it. Act quickly, because there is absolutely no way this isn't getting hard nerfed.
The build is simply perfumer bottles + the Rolling Sparks ash of war. I went dex + faith with the lightning bottle, but this should work just as well with any of the perfume bottles that can use Rolling Sparks. This ash sends a cascading cloud of explosions in a straight line in front of you, and it absolutely wrecks any enemies large enough to be hit multiple times by the explosions.
My first mouth agape moment was against the opening boss of the Shadow Keep, where this ash would hit for 9k damage per cast at Scadu Blessing level 5. Furnace Golem? Stand in on the outside of one leg and target the other with the ash. It will cascade through both legs and drop the golem in record time. This ash is so good that you really can almost exclusively cast it to get through the DLC.
After I finished the final boss, I went online to see how many others had discovered the power of Rolling Sparks, and I learned that I hadn't even discovered what truly makes this ash broken. If you don't lock on and free aim the ash at the ground, the cascading explosions don't fizzle, the all go off in one location. This means that 9k damage I did against the large first boss of the Shadow Keep is possible against even small enemies.
To see this in action, head to 24:30 in this video and watch how quickly the Fire Giant dies to this:
I repeat, there is absolutely no way this isn't nerfed to the ground in the near future, so use it now if you want the easy mode. There was nothing in the base game close to this powerful.
I ended up respeccing at the last boss, as the Int+Str build I had used for the rest of the DLC (and the base game) just wasn't cutting it anymore. After a bunch of tries I never got below 25% HP with it.
This Arcane Bleed build completely destroyed the boss.
Didn't use this exact version, as I equipped the biggest shield around (which my previous build was also using), just so I could both destroy the boss in no time, and facetank it at the same time. Because why not?
It is not as crazy as the perfume build. But who knows, maybe it will also take a bit longer for the weapon to get nerfed (even if it should).
The build can also kill Furnace Golems, but not very fast at all, since apparently monsters made of fire can't bleed!
Shadout, I think it's a bit early to spoiler the final boss so clearly. I would put the video behind spoiler tags for now.
Quite a few of the streamers I've check in on have been using that same weapon and build to fight the final boss. It looks very powerful. Arcane builds in general seem to have received a nice boost in this DLC.
Ugh, you are right, sorry, didnt even look a the title/thumbnail. Sorry 
I've downed the final boss of the DLC. I'll try to post some more general impressions soon, but first, let me share a PSA. If you are in the market for a broken build to make the DLC easier, this is it. Act quickly, because there is absolutely no way this isn't getting hard nerfed.
As foretold the perfume bottles have been nerfed. They were doing double damage apparently.
I hate hugs.
Done with the game. My hand hurts but its finished. Had level 18 scads and last boss was pretty brutal for me. Fromsoft has been moving away from shields in each game. Which is noticeable in the boss fights. Which hurts for me since that's what I prefer. Still it was a good game overall. Not as much as the original and way too many castles. Still good though/
Think I finished most the game. Maybe missed a small dungeon and few other things here and there. But my starting gear basically was unchanged. No real pure strength colossus sword in the game. Will probable watch the NPC stuff I missed cause that always happens.
Now to chill after dying 20 times in a row...
I feel at this point I must be one of the lesser skilled From Soft players out there. I must be verging on 40 attempts at the Dancing Lion Boss. That was from scudatree level 1 & now I'm at level 6 (for the last 10 attempts or so), it honestly doesn't seem to have made that big a difference in my damage output or damage taken.
The camera is also atrocious in the Dancing Lion fight, when it's in tight to you it can be all over the place & you can't properly see the animation it's about to do so you can read exactly when to dodge.
I'm dodging pretty much all of its attacks now but there's so little opportunity to get hits in yourself that it's just a war of attrition until it hits the
elemental second phase with it's lightning & frost attacks
It's beyond frustrating. Did someone say they beat the Dancing Lion in one shot? (Yep just checked it was HarpoMaxist) My mind is honestly boggled by this, it's taken me the guts of at least 20 attempts to start reading & dodging it's attacks to a decent level, now I'm closer to 40 attempts I can read it extremely well but the camera screws you or a couple of the new attacks in that second phase get you.
I love the game but I've noticed more & more the window for attacking bosses is so small without getting hit yourself & these constant barrage of multiple attack combos have you on the defensive.
Not to brag, but I'm pretty sure I also got the Dancing Lion in one shot with 2 or 3 levels of the whatchamacallit buff. I brought in the NPC summon and also used the Mimic Ash - the latter of which continues to be ridiculously overpowered, imo (seriously, boss hits me for like 3/4ths of my health, but only a few pixels of Mimic health? how's that supposed to figure?).
Yeah I tried solo it without the my summon. And I agree it was too much waiting for a chance to attack. Especially for my slow attack. Then once an elemental form happens I can't block with my shield anymore. Or I was just getting chipped to death. At that point I used the mimic and just overwhelmed him.
I feel like I keep hearing that you should really just use the summons in the dlc.
I feel like I keep hearing that you should really just use the summons in the dlc.
not sure why even with the shadow buffs they were awful. This latest patch is supposed to address that though
I feel at this point I must be one of the lesser skilled From Soft players out there. I must be verging on 40 attempts at the Dancing Lion Boss. That was from scudatree level 1 & now I'm at level 6 (for the last 10 attempts or so), it honestly doesn't seem to have made that big a difference in my damage output or damage taken..
We’ll have to have a good go at him Spikeout. Splitting the aggro really helps with getting attacks in. I used Flextralife to create a build for the DLC. It’s made a difference in terms of damage and having effective attacks for different fights. This is roughly my build.
I also used the npc summon and mimic tear in the fight.
I changed my weapon to the +9 Magma Wyrm Scalesword & it seems to be much better with damage output. I can handily dodge every attack in the first phase as long as the camera is playing ball when the boss is up close & personal. I never use any spells or mimics etc maybe I need to look at changing that.
Still the second phase though with the area of effect attacks that are left exactly where it's just attacked you make it tougher to get my sword strikes in & not lose health.
If I don't get the boss soon Higgledy we'll definitely do it together. I almost feel at this point I have to do it myself for my own sanity 
If I don't get the boss soon Higgledy we'll definitely do it together. I almost feel at this point I have to do it myself for my own sanity :D
Some of these boss fights do become personal
I never use any spells or mimics etc maybe I need to look at changing that.
By that do you mean you never summon any Spirit Ashes? If so, you're definitely playing the game on extra hard mode.
Not that there's anything wrong with that if you're into it, but having a spirit ash to pull aggro during boss fights and allow you to reposition yourself is key. The bosses are definitely balanced around Spirit Ashes.
Also, this video is excellent info (no Erdtree spoilers)
Spikeout wrote:I never use any spells or mimics etc maybe I need to look at changing that.
By that do you mean you never summon any Spirit Ashes? If so, you're definitely playing the game on extra hard mode.
Not that there's anything wrong with that if you're into it, but having a spirit ash to pull aggro during boss fights and allow you to reposition yourself is key. The bosses are definitely balanced around Spirit Ashes.
Also, this video is excellent info (no Erdtree spoilers)
I don't think I've summoned anything in about 60-70 hours of play out of my 160+ hours in the game. It sounds like I could do with drawing the aggro away in hard boss fights, especially in Shadow Of The Erdtree. I'll take your advice on that Serengeti.
That video is great btw, who knew jumping was so useful in avoiding attacks vs rolling.
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That video is great btw, who knew jumping was so useful in avoiding attacks vs rolling.
There's entire builds out there that rely on jumping and the power boost it can give
I agree with the recommendation to use spirit ashes. I definitely used them on most Bosses and only ever summoned NPCs when they were part of a quest - their performance was irregular, but at least they drew aggro away from my character.
I didn't use the Mimic tear at all in the dlc, but would definitely recommend it to anyone having a hard time. With these bosses, being able to have a few seconds to breathe is priceless.
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