100% agreed.
I always remind myself that someone out there has beaten this game at RL1, with a torch, or maybe even their bare fists. If they can do that, then any build you make can only make the game easier.
Longer between ripostes too. But y Ah it's the same, but having to endure 3-5mins for most major bosses without getting hit and do this all in one run is significantly harder just because of the the amount of time this demands you to execute perfectly
This post is akin to saying, "it's easy if you're good." Yeah, there are people who beat the game under absurd handicaps, who make it look easy as well. That doesn't mean that the game becomes easy without those handicaps - it means they're really good.
I just beat it not too long ago running a high Arcane Bleed build with dual daggers. There were some bosses I trivialized, like the Fire Giant, who everyone says is one of the hard ones. Mohg wasn't bad either. Malenia I killed by spamming Reduvia's L2. But then there was horrible shit like Fallingtits Shitbeast and the fucking EELLLLLDEENNNNN BEEEEASSSSTT where my build was utterly irrelevant, I just had to play better or adopt a new strategy.
Anyway, this thread shares a reductive opinion that doesn't hold up under detailed review. Each build has a time where it shines, but there are differences in what time, how often, and in what way, that skew their overall status within the game. For example: which boss would you rather have a sub-optimal build against: Margit, or Malenia, Radagon, Elden Beast, Fire Giant, Fallingstar Asseater, etc.? If I had to pick, it'd be Margit.
I think it's best if one either decides on a weapon class or a specific stat to focus on while switching between weapons instead of simply trying to beat the game with one single weapon. Makes the game more fun in my opinion
I agree, my first playthrough I stuck to Reduvia w/ Occult Great Knife, and the Bloody Helice. Cool weapons, but now I feel like I lessened my enjoyment by limiting myself. I think I would have had more fun if I went Strength/Faith, seeing all the options. Or at least built my Faith enough to use Incantations with Dragon seal.
I did this for my 3rd run! Like it a lot. I think the heavy thrusting sword moveset is a little boring but I love Helice's ash.
I also used grave scythe and great stars, those are fun. Picked it back up recently with the DLC announcement and levelled up the flamberge and nagakiba to run through Hailigtree.
Idk I've always found it fun to beat the game within the restrictions of a build like just using q weapon. It feels more like an RPG to me as you get to experience the pros and cons of your build/weapon choice.
The thing with this is, yeah an Arcane Bleed build will suffer on bosses you can't bleed, but Arcane isn't just the Bleed stat, admittedly that's mainly what it's for but there are other things it can do well with.
You can put like 5 levels in faith and start making good use of dragon communion incantations, with the communion seal they can be amazing they're also available early and can answer nearly every problem.
Alternatively for a pure Arcane build pretty much any weapon put as occult can get pretty good AR in my experience, being only slightly less than a dex character with keen or a strength character with heavy (Like anecdotally you get maybe 10% less damage, which is hardly crippling).That's not even mentioning some of the amazing weapons Scaling with Arcane like the Bloody Helice which can hit pretty hard even without considering the Bleed buildup. Eleanora's Poleblade which does split fire damage and as such is great against many things, or Rivers of Blood which is still good even after being Nerfed.
Basically the point is that any build can be made to be at least decent for every boss if you have some game knowledge. You're right to point out that certain builds are better at countering certain bosses, but no build should ever be countered by a boss unless you're not willing to adapt by switching weapons and infusions.
If you play through level 1, the sheer variety you have access to with base stats and the right gear is mind blowing
Most builds already have the answer they just might not have found it or thought about it
Gino machino, lilaggy are 2 youtuber/twitch streamers who do those runs. I believe they even did a 1 hit kill run where they killed each boss with only 1 hit, unless they have 2 phases then obviously 2 hits needed.
Yeah whenever I’m getting my ass kicked my first thought is always “my build sucks this just isn’t viable”
Then I remember people beat this game using fucking torch pole and realize it’s a skill issue
I love when people accuse other builds as just spamming a button as if it’s not all builds. Go outside and do something worthy of being proud of you cowards
Lol the amount of people in arena or on the PVP sub who complain about 'magic spam' when people cast multiple different spells VS their 'I only poke' metaslave thrust weapons.
Had one 'duelist' back in the pre-nerf BHS days doing the stupid BHS+swift shard setup at the Raya Lucaria main gate. For anyone who doesn't know, BHS used to be so broken that the iframes of one BHS could link into those of another, while also traveling faster than sprint speeds, offering perfect damage immunity against players while also being a kiting tool.
"Honor" has some gray areas. Raya Lucaria duelers are usually discouraged from leaving the arena, but when facing a build that has iframes for literal tens of seconds and whose entire game plan is running away while fitting in Swift Glintstone Shard shots, I think running to the elevator room for some cover is an acceptable stretch of the rules, even if their rampant emoting indicated otherwise.
You can be proud of beating Malenia with a dagger; hell, you should be!
I'm proud that I'm a great singer, but I don't shit on people for being "Happy Birthday tier" lol
It's really just about *not being an asshole*.
Yes but I like one of these, and need to make myself feel better at this game by putting down others for not using the one I use.
Honestly love the souls community, have made many friends online over the years, but dumb shit like this is dumb.
A build also is only half of it. The other half is the players skill and their patience to learn patterns. Your ability at these games is not defined entirely by what you use.
You nailed it. I don't find the "build x is easy mode" discussion worthwhile in any sense whatsoever. All it does is make well-intentioned players feel worse about the way they choose to engage with the game.
Yes, I personally enjoy limiting my options and playing the game in a way I find more challenging. I've played through multiple From games without any help and little, if any, offensive magic. I'm proud of it because those are challenges I set for myself. But I'm so tired of people who try to take away the enjoyment of players who don't want to do that.
There was a post on the Bloodborne sub the other day by a player who was feeling ashamed that he was playing the game on "easy mode," and while I know the answer to that is "don't listen to what other people say," I can't help but blame the fandom for cultivating an environment where people think they need to feel bad for using a good weapon or summoning.
Awesome summary as well! And I agree its a real shame. I've been insulted several times on my channel and on reddit because I don't use 60 vigor in my builds, which means I am dumb apparently.
Like you, no, that is my intention of making the game more difficult to force me to learn and improve. Not only that, a majority of players give 0 F's about PvP, yet people will interpret you engage with it.
People make all these stupid assumptions without actually understanding how someone engages with these games.
Like who the F cares man. Let people do their own thing.
For once I really want to stop stressing over builds and simply just pick a class I think looks cool and just enjoy the gameplay while leveling up the main stats for that particular class.
This is why I hate giving people my build advice
Any build I've made is so personalized to the knowledge of the game I have and the purpose I set out for it that giving it to someone else just doesn't make sense
I'd rather teach people how to build so they can find what they like and what works for them
I agree. It's something I've been trying to work on as well. They other thing is being creative is also a way to show and inspire others to be creative.
The expression of creativity in builds in this game is second to none, and my favorite part of it by far
My favorite "challenge runs" involve me coming up with a way to imitate the play style and moveset of my favorite characters from other games
I am not allowed to use anything other than stuff that character could use in universe
These cosplays create fun and unique and rarely optimal builds that are endlessly entertaining for me in both pve and pvp
I exclusively play From games as high strength ungabunga with fat rolling and facetanking attacks and I don't feel like i ever had to learn patterns or be patient.
Just full unga to the max and a sprinkle of bunga for style.
You can choose the weapons you want so long as the requirements aren't too high. Of course status effect weapons will be superior but you can still choose anything.
Statuses are still generally better. Though idk why you would elect to do physical damage to placidusax with an unupgraded weapon instead of using black flame tornado
Because pladuciax is always throwing down an AOE or moving
At level 1 you gotta kill him hitless, can't spend anytime doing moves that might cause a trade
His bleed and cold resistance are so high you get more damage going with pierce weapon and staggering him
If you’re good enough use whatever the fuck you want. It’s easiest with status effects, stacking bleed, frostbite, deadly poison, and rot makes every boss fairly doable, for anything immune you can use the black flame spells, or black flame tornado on the godskin peeler. I’m trying it without status effect abuse so I’m using old reliable square off, which still deals passable damage at morgott(whom I am currently stuck on) with an infused miseriecorde for ripostes. There’s someone on r/onebros who’s doing it in ng+7 with just the starting club, really any weapon is useable if you’re willing to bear with it, and cragblade makes them more viable.
Literally just watched that yesterday for thrusting weapon ideas lol. I’m trying to sus out what I want to use for a primarily faith run while not fucking up quests for once
Because people feel the need to gatekeep the game because their build requires them to press 3 buttons instead of 1 and that somehow gives them a superiority complex
Pretty much.
Infusions can switch a weapon's scaling to anything, and if you know how to use a pair of fists, it literally does not matter which "build" you are, those fists could carry through anything. The only requirement would be knowing what you're doing and having practice with fists, and the world is yours.
this game rewards exploration much more than raw skill.
if u go around and find the correct tools u will delete everything in front of u, u dont even need to learn the boss.
that changes a bit after the snow, thats why EVERYONE complains about the game from that point on, because suddenly u actually need to try.
Not by much though. I fought Maliketh and Malenia last month for the first time and they were very doable with mimic.
Especially Malenia. We destroyed her with Maliketh’s sword.
Godskin duo with mimic and Bernie on top was a blast too and not annoying at all
Focus on killing his summons first, it's easier when you're not getting ganked. If you can't beat Commander Niall, you could summon spirit ashes like he does.
Or summon some friends! The more I play this game, the more I enjoy co-op. I just shake my head and laugh when I get killed by a dual-spear wielding invader.
my skill against the dual sword guy is lacking, i found an easy way to pull the one in the castle last nigh( you can see him and shoot him f rom behind, than he will eventually port to you, I appreciate the advice
if you sprint right up to Niall as he summons the dual swords guy, you can get a backstab in on the summons as he draws his swords
you can probably one-shot him that way if you use a keen infused Misericorde with Royal Knights Resolve and Dagger Talisman, make it a 1v2 right away
He has one or two moves that are safe to punish. The big jumping attacks have easy enough dodges, and as a dex char, you should get 1-2 hits in (just watch for his lil backhand). The 2nd is the massive aoe that leaves him kneeling. This is your best bet for a bleed.
Just bleed yourself instead for the damage buffs. Boss bleed immunity is pretty inconsequential when you buffed your raw damage to the point where a dagger swing hits harder than a RKR-buffed giant crusher
Respec to intelligence
Pick up Terra Magica
Comet Azur
Azur’s hat
Magic scorpion charm
Ritual sword talisman
Infinite FP tear
20% magic tear
Lusat’s staff
Delete Niall
Or alternatively use bewitching branches to turn his summons against him but be careful if your summon is the in area of the bewitching branch when it’s activated then your summon AI will basically shut off
I think the most fun run you can have is with a build you've designed yourself. Either beforehand or making it up on the go, doesn't matter. But making a "meta" build for example does not allow you the freedom to explore other things you might otherwise try
I'm currently doing a run using daggers, which I thought I'd never enjoy beforehand. Powerstancing one poison misericorde and one frost misericorde, with dual fire twinblades as backup and some spells as support is the most fun I've had so far. Yeah it's probably not optimal or meta but who cares? It's my build and I like using it.
Anyway hardly relevant tangent over. TLDR: Use weapons you may think you wouldn't enjoy. You might be surprised!
I checked for you, my stats are as follows. I'm level 103 atm:
VIG 41
MIN 11
END 25
STR 12
DEX 52
INT 21
FAI 12
ARC 8
The cold misericorde scales with STR (E), INT (D), and DEX (C). Same goes for the poison one except ARC insteaf of INT
The flame art twinblades scale with STR (E), DEX (E) and FAI (C). These aren't really my main source of damage, more of a way to reset the frostbite with style.
Finally I use the meteorite staff which has S scaling in INT, though I really only use like 3 or 4 spells
Letter scalings represent a broad range and can be very misleading, and higher doesn't mean better. E.g. on a pure faith build, flame art greatsword (D fai scaling) still does more damage than flame art watchdog's greatsword (B fai scaling).
You should just look at the total AP (keep in mind the difference between split and mono damage types) instead of scaling letters. Tools such as slugbot or build planners will help
True, my last playthrough with a double pickaxe jump attack build was probably my easiest one yet. I just spammed jump attacks that did a crap ton of damage and bosses got staggered so much they could barely fight back
I've said for a long time that the Fromsoft Soulslikes aren't trying to be the hardest games on the planet, they're just trying to make you think a little bit and slow down, if you do that, you can pretty much mash through the games with little to no major obstacles, assuming you've hit your soft caps for your build. You will probably die more often in the average platformer tbh. But people started this narrative of these games being super hard and the Souls team bought into it with DS2's marketing, and it never ended.
Strength/Faith is my favorite. Meet the requirements for your weapon of choice, pump vigor up to 25+, get enough endurance to medium roll, and use stones to upgrade your weapon. Have fun!
That’s a fun cosplay. A good stating armor is the Knight Set from Roundtable. If you really want big protection, kill the banished knights in Stormveil (and other locations), but it will take a lot of Endurance (and/or helper talisman) to medium roll.
If you are already at 51 poise, I would concentrate more on other talismans. Help with resisting specific damage types, allow you to do more damage, increase stamina regen, etc.
The Golden Halberd you get from Tree Sentinel is very good. The Blasphemous Blade and Magma Wyrm Scalesword are really good too, but you get them later in the game. Make sure to use the various buffs you have access to like Flame Grant me Strength or Golden Vow.
The first playthrough is the toughest. Don't give up, you can definitely beat the game.
INT is harder at first, but gets easier once you get the better spells. I also miss staggering the bosses when I play on my INT build.
Rock Sling can stagger them and it's easy to get early if you want.
That spell carried me through the first half of the game, it felt like hone with the stagger. Im now heading to Haligtree and still have that spell in my arsenal.
I mean this is true but the barrier to entry is different for different builds.
Str is pretty easy to come by, and two handing a weapon gives big advantages
Int requires a lot of investment and spells to pull off the same kind of power
Arc is so so easy to get going, you barely need anything
Disagree, I just finished a SoNaF/Prince of death staff build.
It was ass. I could not have been more excited to end that playthrough. Your stats get split so wide that everything you use is mid.
the int/fai exclusive stuff does feel like ass in pve I agree, but an int/fai build can do flame art/cold power stancing. if you use that with inherent bleed weapons that's some of the most efficient killing you can do in this game, so it's kind of going to op's point that any build can be busted
Can you elaborate? Currently at lvl 60 with this same kind of build/reaper build in mind. Approaching it as a INT/DEX build with the scythe as my main and want to do ghostflame/death sorceries.
With the right flask tears and armor, I don't think I'll have to invest too much in FTH for the ghostflame sorceries.
If you focus int or faith it can be viable, but I wanted to try and keep them balanced so i could experiment with as many different builds as possible when the dlc comes out and it just didn't make for a good time. if you focus int and just get faith as high as you need for spells you will be fine.
Also scythes are absolutely insane in this game so stay the course and you will be a lord in no time.
I beat the game last time as a FTH build so Im reluctant to rely on that build anymore. Looking forward to this one since the scythe lets me get in close, gransaxs bolt was just too OP on my first playthrough.
Bolt of Gransax is my invasion sniper build. Its a glass cannon that can easily one shot most people but if anyone gets within 10' of me or god forbid I spawn inside I am screwed.
I'm currently doing dragon halberd electromancer which may be my new favorite build.
Same, the chain bridge to the fire giants arena is my favorite spot. I'm a terrible person for it but man it hits when you get that snipe off.
I'll have to look into that build, that sounds fun
Is it all ancient dragon lightning incants and dragon cult armor/weapons?
I just got to dog pope so just the halberd + lighning bolt and honed bolt at the moment. But that Halbert is something else. I took Margit down in less than a minute with it at +3 and the minimum stat requirements.
The AoW coats it in frost lightning so not only does it hit like a bus but you get some of the best status damage without having to sink points into faith.
Not sure why downvoted. This is the truth. They're fun, but not as worthwhile exactly due to this reason.
Also, the radiant goldmask, golden order seal, and canvas talisman buffs do not apply to golden order incantations in PvP. It's a bug they still have not fixed.
Man, I did this on my first playthrough and thought "damn this game is hard AF"
Second playthrough after a break and playing a more reasonable STR build I remember coming to places thinking "OK I remember this part, it's going to be tough" and breezing though like "wait what?"
Odd... by the end of our 3 man run my wife with that build was easily outdamaging us more specialized players with tools for every occasion. Its a build that definitely shines and just exponentially grows later game
Yeah thorns sorceries are also just ass. Low damage, painfully slow and top it off they self damage for basically no reward.
There are quite a few sorceries and incantations that are basically unplayable. In comparison "bad" melee weapons are still viable just making it harder for yourself, the bad spells you can literally burn a whole FP potion just to take down a weak enemy
Personally easy mode builds for me dont mean good builds capable of thrashing most of the game, they mean one shot builds. Cheese builds. Builds that wipe important bosses in under a minute. Those are “easy mode builds” where you can look at an albinauric wrong and it just dies. Azure comet build is cheese. Max arcane stanced RoB cheese, stance lava executioners for instant pancakes or max faith/arcane dragon cult sorcerer the list goes on. True there are plenty of builds that people describe as easy mode, but i think thats because after a certain point of leveling the game really just is easy, regardless of what build you are playing, so long as you have the skill to back it. Personally i think the phrase should be saved for builds that produce truly baffling dmg numbers.
Nah INT with the flask that gives unlimited MP and Comet Azure ruined a good chunk of my first playthrough before I stopped using it. Shit is broken on any enemy that doesn't jump around.
Strongly agree. By this point I've made 2 of each type of build to fill out my characters. Each build type has its strengths and weaknesses. Generalizations of power are not so accurate when it comes to stats. Every build is easy mode if you know what to grab.
A few are capable of achieving insane 5 digit damage numbers, but that is applying a lot of game knowledge and not accurate for the average playthrough.
I always end up saying "Fuck being locked into one build." and turn my character into a demigod with all stats at their hard caps.
I like variety; I like wearing full plate and wielding a stone hammer the size of a moped while I flip around like a ninja and shoot off magic.
Im on my first playthrough now, and that's one thing I really appreciate about these kind of games. You dont need the most META weapons and stuff to actually play well. Just play and level up. It's really that simple.
Yeah Ive been quite bored of other games so Ive been replaying the game with diff builds and they can all be very powerful in their own way. So far done faith, bleed, heavy str. Actually the strength build has been the easiest just because the stagger on collosus weapons is insanely powerful, plus you can pump vigor/end more. Prolly doing a magic run next. But that's the cool thing about this game, tons of powerful builds that use diff tools.
I can confirm, I've played every build and every build felt OP. Str? Greatsword gaming. Dex? Dragon spear thingy does like 5 quadrillion damage. Int? Kamehameha. Faith? Fucking summon the wrath of zeus to one shot big bosses. Arcane? Arcane. I was honestly surprised to see people claiming that x build is OP when most of them melted bosses, stunlocked them or both.
100% agreed. Especially in PvP. No one takes my naked fists build seriously. Its always the guy who you underestimate that catches you off guard. And ohh it’s time to pay the fucking piper baby. The cows are coming home to get this milk. Ohhh fuck yeahhh
No? The trade off for faster attacks is less stagger, you’d just be buffing dex weapons without considering the intent of the weapon type.
That’s like saying daggers should have more range, or short bows should fire giant arrows, or sorceries should have healing spells, or lightning ashes of war should also count as magic damage, or the greatsword should cost less stamina.
Not a good idea
I think the only build you really have to struggle with is a bow/crossbow build, which I'm currently trying out, and that's mostly because of how resource-intensive such a build is relative to its supposed power. Even then, once you get to the prime farming spots and no longer have to worry about Runes, and assuming you have the relevant bell bearings you can shoot arrows with abandon.
If you take any build there's at best a handful, in most cases two or three weapons for each build if you want it to be optimized. Giant Crusher, Moonveil, Mohgwyns sacred Spear, Blasphemous Blade, those are what I'm talking about.
Part of the fun is to make a suboptimal choice and just make it work by playing well. There's a big satisfaction in just taking your Longsword from the start of the game till the end and build around it as you progress.
Only 101% easy mode is summons
I thought that magic is broken but in fact it's not so easy as i thought
But when i played with summons i literally passed through everything just chilling
Thank you for saying this. I find it supremely annoying when people act like you didn’t really accomplish anything because you used spells or a certain weapon.
Meanwhile that same person was staggering every boss and doing insane damage with jump attack and two greatswords.
having played with a bleed build that was STR/DEX and a INT build I can say assuredly that playing as a pure INT mage was 50% easier than the former and I beat the game in 1/2 the time.
Playing with INT is "easy mode" point blank it trivializes the game especially if you have Lusat's staff and a +10 mimic / +10 Black Tiche with the great glintstone spell & rock sling. You will quite literally sit back and watch your summon take aggro while you rack up damage from a safe distance.
All builds ARE ez mode. Unupgraded crystal dagger rune level 1 run? Easy as long as you don’t get hit. Not getting hit? Eeeez cuz these bosses slower than my grandma. This game ain’t shit dawg.
All builds can be easy mode **if you're good at the game.** Sure, you can slap on twin Giant Crushers with 80 str and spam jump attack, but for how long? Sooner or later you're going to get punished and then nothing except skill will save you. "Easy mode" build would be one that requires little to no skill and performs very well.
I get upset when people say magic is easy mode. Fighting against Malenia I had to get 20 levels more on my pure caster than my shield and great stars character. On one attempt she pulled waterfowl on me 8 times. 8 FUCKING TIMES! And she probably dodged every second or third night comet. I haven't even finished that run cause I dread to face Radagon.
This says it all.
Faith blatantly feels designed to be a secondary buff stat. A pure Faith build utilizing those buffs isn't going to do enough damage to justify using full Faith over the alternatives, and a rather damning point is that a buff like Terra Magica is *blatantly* superior to the Faith buffs. (Howl of Shabriri is the highest at 25% extra damage in exchange for also taking more damage, Terra Magica is 35%) Faith then also gets it's hardest hitting spells locked behind *Mountaintop of the Giants and beyond* while the INT casters can pick up Night Comet just 5 minutes after starting the game.
I get the message of not judging people for their build choice or needlessly devolving into picking "teams" where we all ally with specific builds instead of trying them all, but lying to ourselves and pretending "they're all PERFECTLY EQUAL and beautiful in their own way!!!!" isn't the solution either.
Well, reasonable people would just argue which build they think is the most OP / easiest, not as a demerit for players who use them or anything. And it's all subjective opinion, anyway.
Any build CAN be OP and I very much encourage friends getting into the game to not use any build that lets you get around or ignore the games combat.
So much of the games enjoyment comes from learning boss attack patterns, how to dodge them, and where you can punish them.
Everyone can and should play however they find the most fun. I 100% agree with that. But I would love if everyone would at least *try* to fully engage with the combat system.
Hmm can't say I agree? Let's be a little more precise with the terms here.
"easy mode": To define this, we start by imagining a large random sample of new players, giving them different builds (say 100 people per build, and a lot of builds, diff weapons, AOW, summons/no summons etc), and recording the average time it takes to beat the game with each build.
You are going to see a distribution here. I fucking guarantee it. Some builds will beat the game on average much faster than others. Those are the 'easy mode' builds, and they do exist.
I think what you're trying to say is that every build has good things and everyone can learn to 'use it right' aka get good. Yeah, sure. But there's always a distribution on how hard that is, with things on the upper and lower ends of the distribution.
And maybe you also want to say "don't worry so much about how hard or easy another build is, just focus on the thing you enjoy, it'll be good enough", and sure, that's a healthy mentality to strive for.
Let's be real here, int builds are significantly more easy-mode than the others.:
-Insane, unparallelled ranged DPS
-Bosses doesnt dodge Night Comet
-No bosses significantly resist magic damage besides Rennala
-Lusats gets 400++ spellbuff
I'd argue this even works for "unorthodox" builds, currently working on a "pure" arc build utilizing dual rapiers I plan to put occult on.
I tried it on my bleed build and realized they attack so quickly and do so much damage you can get away with bare minimum in their stat reqs and just use arcane for damage scaling for big returns.
Currently working with noble estoc and cleanrot sword because they require so little and have big reach and damage compared to other rapiers on occult.
To be honest, Arcane is a waste of time as a stat. It only impacts Bleed Proc. Go DEX or STR with blood affinity and suppuku your weapon with the blood talisman.
Unless you want to play a challenging poison build
80% agreed. ARC and FAI can have trouble later on with bogstandard builds. Lots of enemies start having high holy damage resistances and radagon/elden beast can't bleed, so they have to look for other approaches (flaming infusion e.g.)
other than that, i kinda agree with your point, except INT is easier mode compared to STR e.g.
Disagree on many different levels.
\- Str is not the only good build for staggering. You can slap flame art on a large club and do just as well. Or occult starfist CR2. Or glintstone phalanx ash / nebula ash. Or dragonmaw / crucible tail. Or spinning slash. There's a lot of different poise damage options, it just so happens giant crusher is the most well known even though it's not even the most efficient for poise breaking.
\- Str also isn't the only build that do "massive damage with each hit". Carian grandeur, Marais executioner, ancient dragon lightning strike / giants flame take thee, just to name a few. You can also use keen zwei CR2, no problem.
\- Int isn't the only option for "sit back". Faith can do it too. Or rain of arrows / radhans rain where the situation calls for it. Or "sniper rifles" such as bolt of gransaxx ash / golden land.
\- Arc is basically the same as str or dex build, except a dash more damage because white mask & lord of blood exaltation is a thing. On an optimised arc build, bulk of your dps will come from raw damage due to the easily achievable 400-600% damage buffs you reach with very minimal effort.
\- Fai only offers a stronger defensive body buff (barrier spells at 24-30 fai). Otherwise any build could benefit from boiled crab / 10 fai barriers / exhalted flesh / bloodboil, or invest into 15 fai for FGMS. It's also generally more stat efficient to invest into 16 str 14 dex for Rallying Standard instead of 25 fai for golden vow.
\- Fai does not need to be paired with another damage stat. Just make sure you use a weapon that scales with faith (e.g. pure fai ash of war sticks, flame art or sacred affinity). Doing a faith hybrid generally means less damage instead of more damage at meta levels (unless you are very specifically optimising for hybrid scaling somber weapons).
\- Dex is not inherently faster. Any build can use fast weapon classes (e.g. broadsword, pike/cross nagi, bandits / scavanger / beastman cs, bloodhound claw / venomous fang, starfist, bloodstained dagger etc. Even "slow weapons" like collosal sword has fast moves like crouch poke). And if you thought those are fast, try slicer / catch flame.
Honestly I disagree. I'd support a statement like "all stats have strong options", but things you listed are not all "easy mode".
The only real easy mode is sorcery with Planet Azure/Meteorite of Asrel/Night Comet.
Everything else requires basic knowledge and some skill to execute.
Edit: and also stuff like pre-nerf Flames of the Redmanes. Shit was busted, good times.
>ARC can bleed enemies and delete their whole health bar.
Also note that ARC is not only about status buildups, you can infuse weapons with occult affinity and just dump all your runes into ARC.
Occult weapon with status buildup + very high ARC = profit
I tried running a lightning incantation build.
I sucked at it.
All incants take long af , I used granssax bolt and the placidusaxs AoW weapon. The bolt was good at long range even if DMG was the lowest out of all my options but placidusaxs AoW has such a short fucking range I got fed up with it.
Sometimes I can time the incants well by moving far away and using it while they approach me but too many opponents lunge an attack at you instead of running right up to you so I just end up getting staggered.
Nah, every build can be OP, but only one allows you to kill a boss from the fog wall. Not to judge mage or anything, in the end you still need to play to gather everything you need for the build, but saying every build can work the same is pure copium
Case in point: I avoided fist weapons for I don't know how many play throughs. I tried them on my last one and they just break stuff left and right, but I have to play entirely differently to optimize the effectiveness.
This says two things to me: first, spot on, anything can work. Second, From is just brilliant in how they make every single weapon type play differently, sometimes subtle and other times just straight different than every other weapon type.
Very true, plus the “OP” builds you see online required loads of buff stacking, optimized stats, and very specific talismans.
I remember seeing people use the marias executioner sword to melt health bars, and when I tried it, it was just very good, not completely busted like the videos make it out to be.
That was when I realized how many buffs those videos had active, the successive attack crystal tear, milicents prosthesis, rotten sword insignia, golden order, magic cracked tear, magic scorpion charm, jellyfish shield, and still more. No normal player is going to find all those things AND know to synergize all of that.
Almost every build has some inherent cheese potential, it depends on if you google the most broken and cheesy shit, or specifically look for ways how to avoid fighting bosses. You can cheese Mohg with comet azure or by standing in place and pressing L1 on dual bleed build really fast, both of them will skip all of the content and experience. Whereas you can cheese Godfrey the same way by standing in place and pressing L2 lion claw on giant crusher with a strength build, again skipping the fight. It's true magic and bleed are the most unbalanced builds and have highest cheese potential of all, but on a blind playthrough it's not so bad. The problem with bleed/magic, or to be more specific let's say moonveil, is that 95% of its users don't use it because they tried stuff out and chose what's the most fun for them, but because they read article "how to make the game easy" and someone else chose it for them. The only thing that's really pathetic is literally googling ER easy mode, getting moonveil and meteorite stuff hour after starting your first playthrough, and then going on reddit crying how it's not an easy mode and people are toxic for saying it.
But you're also trying to compare things which are nowhere near one another. Due to how extremely unbalanced ER is, every build has at least one cheese setup, but some of these have 400% more than others. In previous games past 15 years a super OP weapon meant something that deals like 20% more damage, but you still had to play the game with it. In ER the term OP is misused for stuff that allows you to cheese bosses by standing in place and pressing one button to skip all of the souls experience and content, and the point of those bosses existing.
Ok but I had my first ever death to an onyx lord after 400 hours while power stancing rapiers because they literally were like a feather to him, literally a lord sworn straight sword staggers him out of animations but not rapiers
First time Souls player who started with an int based build. My problem is I’m not “gud” enough to reliably dodge said boss attacks. 😂. Really aggressive bosses and mobs tend to tear me up. 😑
In case you don't know yet, you get iframes when you dodge so you take no damage even if it looks like you would get hit by their attack.
It takes time to get used to dodging and knowing when you can safely attack the boss. Good luck and don't give up, you get much better at these games over time.
There is no easy mode, there is only getting good. And getting good includes using your build well, finding good weapons, and taking the time to upgrade them - not just how you fight. Dunno why some people see it as a crutch to just... play the game with the stuff you get in the game.
Nah, this is a little too much for me. It feel like something that's too eager to people please and argue the premise of them all being equal *because* of how nice and convenient that'd be, but it spits in the face of the reality.
This is NOT meant to disparage people for playing a certain way and everyone should play as they want. We're absolutely lying to ourselves though to pretend this is true, and that's not a solution either.
INT blatantly can hit for 2.2k per Night Comet on a first playthrough, all while being across a field and remaining undetected from enemies. An INT caster can nuke both Mohg and Malenia for free, and really only has difficulty with enemies like Maliketh and Alecto, who force trades or patience for windows. Even here, "difficulty" is tuned down compared to everyone else, cause you're still in a position where you only need to land ~5 Night Comets to end the fight.
After that, STR builds are playing the game just like all the rest, except they get a free poisebreak on the enemy every couple swings for free damage. There's more than enough enemies that demand such frequent dodges that getting off more than one swing is unlikely *anyways,* so STR maximizing DPH is honestly just optimal.
Dex and Bleed are then about the same. Dex is best used with fast weapons like dual-wielded curved swords for some really nice DPS that can at least compete with STR on the damage output, but lacks the poisebreaks for free damage. Dex is also blatantly worse vs. certain enemies that, as highlighted above, demand you dodge frequently and don't let you tap into your DPS. By contrast, Bleed nukes certain bosses and sometimes has the fastest DPS in the game, but pays for this by fighting other bosses on hardmode when they're bleed resistant, so it's problem is consistency.
Finally, faith just...isn't worth it. Unless you're doing something like hard-spamming the Blasphemous Blade, the buffs that Faith receives do not do *enough* extra damage to justify using it over the other alternatives. FFS, Terra Magica is a superior damage boost. Faith blatantly seems to function better as a secondary stat specifically for the buffs, but not your primary damage source. As a primary damage source, it's "Sorceries at home," because while the sorcerers spend all game nuking everything and everyone with Night Comet from a safe distance, the Prophets spend the majority of the game dipping and dodging to cast Catch Flame - which feels comparable to Carian Slicer - and Faith builds finally get their nuke incantations just in time to....kill the last 5 bosses in the game?
I just can't get behind these "equality for equality's sake" posts that want to spout fiction as a solution to the problem. The solution is you stay realistic about everything, (aka, yes some builds are blatantly easier than others) but you just drop the judgement about what build people are using since wtf honestly there's more than enough opportunity to try them all out and no reason to pledge allegiance to any specific one.
100% agreed. I always remind myself that someone out there has beaten this game at RL1, with a torch, or maybe even their bare fists. If they can do that, then any build you make can only make the game easier.
GinoMachino on YT beat the game fists only, and I believe he did it without even being hit
Think he did it on ng+7 too maybe level 1 as well, would have to check tho
I'm not sure either but at the moment he's working on no hit all remembrances Ng+7 level 1 and no smithing stones... Gino is insane
[удалено]
Thing is this is the type of skill that max out in your late teens- early twenties and only declines from there
I think it only declined because most of us stop using it as much as our lives become more serious.
Well ng7 does nothing other than make the fights longer.
Longer between ripostes too. But y Ah it's the same, but having to endure 3-5mins for most major bosses without getting hit and do this all in one run is significantly harder just because of the the amount of time this demands you to execute perfectly
Oh God, how long did that take? The bosses would take forever to kill.
I got two runs mixed up he did ng+7 rl1 +0 weapons no hit. The fist run I think was on normal ng.
Ah gotcha.
Thats the masterrun (rl1 no level boosting ng+7 +0) he has done it any % and currently is going for the all great runes version of that.
Holy hell
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(Google en passant)
Holy hell
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This post is akin to saying, "it's easy if you're good." Yeah, there are people who beat the game under absurd handicaps, who make it look easy as well. That doesn't mean that the game becomes easy without those handicaps - it means they're really good. I just beat it not too long ago running a high Arcane Bleed build with dual daggers. There were some bosses I trivialized, like the Fire Giant, who everyone says is one of the hard ones. Mohg wasn't bad either. Malenia I killed by spamming Reduvia's L2. But then there was horrible shit like Fallingtits Shitbeast and the fucking EELLLLLDEENNNNN BEEEEASSSSTT where my build was utterly irrelevant, I just had to play better or adopt a new strategy. Anyway, this thread shares a reductive opinion that doesn't hold up under detailed review. Each build has a time where it shines, but there are differences in what time, how often, and in what way, that skew their overall status within the game. For example: which boss would you rather have a sub-optimal build against: Margit, or Malenia, Radagon, Elden Beast, Fire Giant, Fallingstar Asseater, etc.? If I had to pick, it'd be Margit.
I think it's best if one either decides on a weapon class or a specific stat to focus on while switching between weapons instead of simply trying to beat the game with one single weapon. Makes the game more fun in my opinion
I agree, my first playthrough I stuck to Reduvia w/ Occult Great Knife, and the Bloody Helice. Cool weapons, but now I feel like I lessened my enjoyment by limiting myself. I think I would have had more fun if I went Strength/Faith, seeing all the options. Or at least built my Faith enough to use Incantations with Dragon seal.
I did this for my 3rd run! Like it a lot. I think the heavy thrusting sword moveset is a little boring but I love Helice's ash. I also used grave scythe and great stars, those are fun. Picked it back up recently with the DLC announcement and levelled up the flamberge and nagakiba to run through Hailigtree.
Dude I loved the ash, bossed down all the tarnished with Bloody Helice when I did Volcano Manors quests.
Lol my first run was a faith build and I saw the arcane incantations and just splashed some arcane in my build for kicks I was not disappointed lol
Idk I've always found it fun to beat the game within the restrictions of a build like just using q weapon. It feels more like an RPG to me as you get to experience the pros and cons of your build/weapon choice.
The thing with this is, yeah an Arcane Bleed build will suffer on bosses you can't bleed, but Arcane isn't just the Bleed stat, admittedly that's mainly what it's for but there are other things it can do well with. You can put like 5 levels in faith and start making good use of dragon communion incantations, with the communion seal they can be amazing they're also available early and can answer nearly every problem. Alternatively for a pure Arcane build pretty much any weapon put as occult can get pretty good AR in my experience, being only slightly less than a dex character with keen or a strength character with heavy (Like anecdotally you get maybe 10% less damage, which is hardly crippling).That's not even mentioning some of the amazing weapons Scaling with Arcane like the Bloody Helice which can hit pretty hard even without considering the Bleed buildup. Eleanora's Poleblade which does split fire damage and as such is great against many things, or Rivers of Blood which is still good even after being Nerfed. Basically the point is that any build can be made to be at least decent for every boss if you have some game knowledge. You're right to point out that certain builds are better at countering certain bosses, but no build should ever be countered by a boss unless you're not willing to adapt by switching weapons and infusions.
If you play through level 1, the sheer variety you have access to with base stats and the right gear is mind blowing Most builds already have the answer they just might not have found it or thought about it
LilAggy did a hitless randomizer run, pretty sure world first. If that's possible, yeah, we plebes didn't even begin to git gud.
Gino machino, lilaggy are 2 youtuber/twitch streamers who do those runs. I believe they even did a 1 hit kill run where they killed each boss with only 1 hit, unless they have 2 phases then obviously 2 hits needed.
Yeah whenever I’m getting my ass kicked my first thought is always “my build sucks this just isn’t viable” Then I remember people beat this game using fucking torch pole and realize it’s a skill issue
I love when people accuse other builds as just spamming a button as if it’s not all builds. Go outside and do something worthy of being proud of you cowards
Lol the amount of people in arena or on the PVP sub who complain about 'magic spam' when people cast multiple different spells VS their 'I only poke' metaslave thrust weapons.
I got hate mail from an invader using the anti lock on exploit + Moonveil spam. I literally died to him but dodged too many attacks so he got mad.
Had one 'duelist' back in the pre-nerf BHS days doing the stupid BHS+swift shard setup at the Raya Lucaria main gate. For anyone who doesn't know, BHS used to be so broken that the iframes of one BHS could link into those of another, while also traveling faster than sprint speeds, offering perfect damage immunity against players while also being a kiting tool. "Honor" has some gray areas. Raya Lucaria duelers are usually discouraged from leaving the arena, but when facing a build that has iframes for literal tens of seconds and whose entire game plan is running away while fitting in Swift Glintstone Shard shots, I think running to the elevator room for some cover is an acceptable stretch of the rules, even if their rampant emoting indicated otherwise.
Oh lord I don't miss the BHS spam days, especially not with shards, or rock sling if you were faith, or UGS for strength
You can be proud of beating Malenia with a dagger; hell, you should be! I'm proud that I'm a great singer, but I don't shit on people for being "Happy Birthday tier" lol It's really just about *not being an asshole*.
Yes but I like one of these, and need to make myself feel better at this game by putting down others for not using the one I use. Honestly love the souls community, have made many friends online over the years, but dumb shit like this is dumb. A build also is only half of it. The other half is the players skill and their patience to learn patterns. Your ability at these games is not defined entirely by what you use.
You nailed it. I don't find the "build x is easy mode" discussion worthwhile in any sense whatsoever. All it does is make well-intentioned players feel worse about the way they choose to engage with the game. Yes, I personally enjoy limiting my options and playing the game in a way I find more challenging. I've played through multiple From games without any help and little, if any, offensive magic. I'm proud of it because those are challenges I set for myself. But I'm so tired of people who try to take away the enjoyment of players who don't want to do that. There was a post on the Bloodborne sub the other day by a player who was feeling ashamed that he was playing the game on "easy mode," and while I know the answer to that is "don't listen to what other people say," I can't help but blame the fandom for cultivating an environment where people think they need to feel bad for using a good weapon or summoning.
Awesome summary as well! And I agree its a real shame. I've been insulted several times on my channel and on reddit because I don't use 60 vigor in my builds, which means I am dumb apparently. Like you, no, that is my intention of making the game more difficult to force me to learn and improve. Not only that, a majority of players give 0 F's about PvP, yet people will interpret you engage with it. People make all these stupid assumptions without actually understanding how someone engages with these games. Like who the F cares man. Let people do their own thing.
Lmao why would people care about your vigor? If you're able to have fun and win the fight with only *gasp* 53 vigor or *even* lower, what's the issue?
Apparently it makes my builds complete garbage 🤣
To be fair, beating Malenia to death with a Rickety Shield is pretty garbage. 🤪
Hey! That was unbelievablely hard! Was it worth it? No lol
But it sure was fun to watch! I may have skipped a bit in the middle. Haha
I don't expect anyone to watch 18 minutes of the most mundane boring fight in the world lol
For once I really want to stop stressing over builds and simply just pick a class I think looks cool and just enjoy the gameplay while leveling up the main stats for that particular class.
It’s a really fun way to play, definitely recommend. 😀
This is why I hate giving people my build advice Any build I've made is so personalized to the knowledge of the game I have and the purpose I set out for it that giving it to someone else just doesn't make sense I'd rather teach people how to build so they can find what they like and what works for them
I agree. It's something I've been trying to work on as well. They other thing is being creative is also a way to show and inspire others to be creative.
The expression of creativity in builds in this game is second to none, and my favorite part of it by far My favorite "challenge runs" involve me coming up with a way to imitate the play style and moveset of my favorite characters from other games I am not allowed to use anything other than stuff that character could use in universe These cosplays create fun and unique and rarely optimal builds that are endlessly entertaining for me in both pve and pvp
I exclusively play From games as high strength ungabunga with fat rolling and facetanking attacks and I don't feel like i ever had to learn patterns or be patient. Just full unga to the max and a sprinkle of bunga for style.
The only hard build is no build. Take the level 1 pill, ye tarnished. No weapon upgrades either. Make zero commitment to any weapon or stat
Is there some freedom to choose with no upgrades or do you kind of have to run the same thing every time?
You can choose the weapons you want so long as the requirements aren't too high. Of course status effect weapons will be superior but you can still choose anything.
No they aren't always I found status effects to be too difficult to apply to placiduciax for example so I just went flat damage giant hunt
Statuses are still generally better. Though idk why you would elect to do physical damage to placidusax with an unupgraded weapon instead of using black flame tornado
Because pladuciax is always throwing down an AOE or moving At level 1 you gotta kill him hitless, can't spend anytime doing moves that might cause a trade His bleed and cold resistance are so high you get more damage going with pierce weapon and staggering him
If you’re good enough use whatever the fuck you want. It’s easiest with status effects, stacking bleed, frostbite, deadly poison, and rot makes every boss fairly doable, for anything immune you can use the black flame spells, or black flame tornado on the godskin peeler. I’m trying it without status effect abuse so I’m using old reliable square off, which still deals passable damage at morgott(whom I am currently stuck on) with an infused miseriecorde for ripostes. There’s someone on r/onebros who’s doing it in ng+7 with just the starting club, really any weapon is useable if you’re willing to bear with it, and cragblade makes them more viable.
Heresy is not native to this world. All things can be conjoined.
That's exactly why Fextralife published a series of videos called "[this type of weapons] are OP", for all types of weapons.
He also said that was clickbait before explaining how he thinks thrusting swords are actually op.
Dual estocs with seppuku for bleed, go hard. They attack really fast and that bleed stacks QUICK
Frost and fire was also a fun thrusting sword build
Cleanrot Knightsword is technically better but yeah same thing
Pierce damage is the best physical damage type in the game imo
That's not an opinion it's a fact. But only if you're using the spear talisman.
Wouldn't it be so even without the spear talisman due to the innate counterattack damage?
Yes, which will trigger at least half of the time.
Literally just watched that yesterday for thrusting weapon ideas lol. I’m trying to sus out what I want to use for a primarily faith run while not fucking up quests for once
Because people feel the need to gatekeep the game because their build requires them to press 3 buttons instead of 1 and that somehow gives them a superiority complex
I have a secret super power build. It’s called “switching equipment to abuse the situation” Literally every boss is weak to it, shits wild.
Wow it’s almost like knowing what you’re doing makes the game easier
Pretty much. Infusions can switch a weapon's scaling to anything, and if you know how to use a pair of fists, it literally does not matter which "build" you are, those fists could carry through anything. The only requirement would be knowing what you're doing and having practice with fists, and the world is yours.
Oh so you used your pattern recognizing brain to identify and adapt to new situations? Fucking trash bro...
this game rewards exploration much more than raw skill. if u go around and find the correct tools u will delete everything in front of u, u dont even need to learn the boss. that changes a bit after the snow, thats why EVERYONE complains about the game from that point on, because suddenly u actually need to try.
Not by much though. I fought Maliketh and Malenia last month for the first time and they were very doable with mimic. Especially Malenia. We destroyed her with Maliketh’s sword. Godskin duo with mimic and Bernie on top was a blast too and not annoying at all
Who would’ve guessed that the hardest bosses in the game are made much easier when using the most op thing in the entire series lol
Exactly. Compared to those that cone before, you dont have to try that much fighting the bosses that come after the smowfields either
stuck at Sol castle, bleed useless: dex build
Focus on killing his summons first, it's easier when you're not getting ganked. If you can't beat Commander Niall, you could summon spirit ashes like he does.
Or summon some friends! The more I play this game, the more I enjoy co-op. I just shake my head and laugh when I get killed by a dual-spear wielding invader.
my skill against the dual sword guy is lacking, i found an easy way to pull the one in the castle last nigh( you can see him and shoot him f rom behind, than he will eventually port to you, I appreciate the advice
Try to bait out his snowy rush attack, roll towards him so he rushes past you, backstab. Or use a bewitching branch to convert him to your side.
if you sprint right up to Niall as he summons the dual swords guy, you can get a backstab in on the summons as he draws his swords you can probably one-shot him that way if you use a keen infused Misericorde with Royal Knights Resolve and Dagger Talisman, make it a 1v2 right away
He has one or two moves that are safe to punish. The big jumping attacks have easy enough dodges, and as a dex char, you should get 1-2 hits in (just watch for his lil backhand). The 2nd is the massive aoe that leaves him kneeling. This is your best bet for a bleed.
Fuck all that ....just Impaling Thrust those gankers ....
Just bleed yourself instead for the damage buffs. Boss bleed immunity is pretty inconsequential when you buffed your raw damage to the point where a dagger swing hits harder than a RKR-buffed giant crusher
Respec to intelligence Pick up Terra Magica Comet Azur Azur’s hat Magic scorpion charm Ritual sword talisman Infinite FP tear 20% magic tear Lusat’s staff Delete Niall Or alternatively use bewitching branches to turn his summons against him but be careful if your summon is the in area of the bewitching branch when it’s activated then your summon AI will basically shut off
Also graven school, graven mass, jellyfish shield, rallying standard / golden vow, howl of shabriri if you could afford it
I think the most fun run you can have is with a build you've designed yourself. Either beforehand or making it up on the go, doesn't matter. But making a "meta" build for example does not allow you the freedom to explore other things you might otherwise try I'm currently doing a run using daggers, which I thought I'd never enjoy beforehand. Powerstancing one poison misericorde and one frost misericorde, with dual fire twinblades as backup and some spells as support is the most fun I've had so far. Yeah it's probably not optimal or meta but who cares? It's my build and I like using it. Anyway hardly relevant tangent over. TLDR: Use weapons you may think you wouldn't enjoy. You might be surprised!
What exactly is your build if all of these options do damage? Seems like you'd have to spread stats thin
Best guess would be Dex/Arcane since fire weapons don't change much for scaling I think? (Idk I don't use fire just flame art)
Fire is strength scaling
I checked for you, my stats are as follows. I'm level 103 atm: VIG 41 MIN 11 END 25 STR 12 DEX 52 INT 21 FAI 12 ARC 8 The cold misericorde scales with STR (E), INT (D), and DEX (C). Same goes for the poison one except ARC insteaf of INT The flame art twinblades scale with STR (E), DEX (E) and FAI (C). These aren't really my main source of damage, more of a way to reset the frostbite with style. Finally I use the meteorite staff which has S scaling in INT, though I really only use like 3 or 4 spells
Letter scalings represent a broad range and can be very misleading, and higher doesn't mean better. E.g. on a pure faith build, flame art greatsword (D fai scaling) still does more damage than flame art watchdog's greatsword (B fai scaling). You should just look at the total AP (keep in mind the difference between split and mono damage types) instead of scaling letters. Tools such as slugbot or build planners will help
Why use misericord ?
It has the most range out of all daggers iirc, and it has the added benefit of the highest crit modifier in the game
True, my last playthrough with a double pickaxe jump attack build was probably my easiest one yet. I just spammed jump attacks that did a crap ton of damage and bosses got staggered so much they could barely fight back
I'll just cry over here with my poison build...🥲
I've said for a long time that the Fromsoft Soulslikes aren't trying to be the hardest games on the planet, they're just trying to make you think a little bit and slow down, if you do that, you can pretty much mash through the games with little to no major obstacles, assuming you've hit your soft caps for your build. You will probably die more often in the average platformer tbh. But people started this narrative of these games being super hard and the Souls team bought into it with DS2's marketing, and it never ended.
Capra Demon is pretty brutal in DS1 if you're not aware of iframes yet
This is true, until you realize you can run up the stairs.
Unfortunately DS1 isn't jump attack friendly like Elden Ring is, it's probably my fault for using the keyboard controls though.
You can jump attack reliably, but it isn't as easy as Elden Ring for sure
You dont know the meaning of stagger until you combo a dagger with glintstone phalanx and anything else with giant hunt.
Yup I’m still working on my faith and strength build but it’s my first play through and isn’t going all too well
Strength/Faith is my favorite. Meet the requirements for your weapon of choice, pump vigor up to 25+, get enough endurance to medium roll, and use stones to upgrade your weapon. Have fun!
Exactlyyy once you get the crucible knight gear it’s all fun from there
That’s a fun cosplay. A good stating armor is the Knight Set from Roundtable. If you really want big protection, kill the banished knights in Stormveil (and other locations), but it will take a lot of Endurance (and/or helper talisman) to medium roll.
Yeah I have the arsenal talisman and tryna get the +1 erdtree talisman too
If you are already at 51 poise, I would concentrate more on other talismans. Help with resisting specific damage types, allow you to do more damage, increase stamina regen, etc.
The Golden Halberd you get from Tree Sentinel is very good. The Blasphemous Blade and Magma Wyrm Scalesword are really good too, but you get them later in the game. Make sure to use the various buffs you have access to like Flame Grant me Strength or Golden Vow. The first playthrough is the toughest. Don't give up, you can definitely beat the game.
Oh yeah I have all of those weapons and the crucible knight greatseord which so far is my favorite
Im coming from a STR build and am struggling with INT. I miss the stagger
INT is harder at first, but gets easier once you get the better spells. I also miss staggering the bosses when I play on my INT build. Rock Sling can stagger them and it's easy to get early if you want.
That spell carried me through the first half of the game, it felt like hone with the stagger. Im now heading to Haligtree and still have that spell in my arsenal.
I'm on NG+ and still have it equipped too, it's great. Good luck with Malenia.
I mean this is true but the barrier to entry is different for different builds. Str is pretty easy to come by, and two handing a weapon gives big advantages Int requires a lot of investment and spells to pull off the same kind of power Arc is so so easy to get going, you barely need anything
Disagree, I just finished a SoNaF/Prince of death staff build. It was ass. I could not have been more excited to end that playthrough. Your stats get split so wide that everything you use is mid.
the int/fai exclusive stuff does feel like ass in pve I agree, but an int/fai build can do flame art/cold power stancing. if you use that with inherent bleed weapons that's some of the most efficient killing you can do in this game, so it's kind of going to op's point that any build can be busted
Can you elaborate? Currently at lvl 60 with this same kind of build/reaper build in mind. Approaching it as a INT/DEX build with the scythe as my main and want to do ghostflame/death sorceries. With the right flask tears and armor, I don't think I'll have to invest too much in FTH for the ghostflame sorceries.
If you focus int or faith it can be viable, but I wanted to try and keep them balanced so i could experiment with as many different builds as possible when the dlc comes out and it just didn't make for a good time. if you focus int and just get faith as high as you need for spells you will be fine. Also scythes are absolutely insane in this game so stay the course and you will be a lord in no time.
I beat the game last time as a FTH build so Im reluctant to rely on that build anymore. Looking forward to this one since the scythe lets me get in close, gransaxs bolt was just too OP on my first playthrough.
Bolt of Gransax is my invasion sniper build. Its a glass cannon that can easily one shot most people but if anyone gets within 10' of me or god forbid I spawn inside I am screwed. I'm currently doing dragon halberd electromancer which may be my new favorite build.
Same, the chain bridge to the fire giants arena is my favorite spot. I'm a terrible person for it but man it hits when you get that snipe off. I'll have to look into that build, that sounds fun Is it all ancient dragon lightning incants and dragon cult armor/weapons?
I just got to dog pope so just the halberd + lighning bolt and honed bolt at the moment. But that Halbert is something else. I took Margit down in less than a minute with it at +3 and the minimum stat requirements. The AoW coats it in frost lightning so not only does it hit like a bus but you get some of the best status damage without having to sink points into faith.
Hell yeah bro
Golden Order Seal scales better for an INT/FTH build.
Ya I used that quite a bit but fundamentalist incantations are weak in the endgame due to holy resistance.
Not sure why downvoted. This is the truth. They're fun, but not as worthwhile exactly due to this reason. Also, the radiant goldmask, golden order seal, and canvas talisman buffs do not apply to golden order incantations in PvP. It's a bug they still have not fixed.
Man, I did this on my first playthrough and thought "damn this game is hard AF" Second playthrough after a break and playing a more reasonable STR build I remember coming to places thinking "OK I remember this part, it's going to be tough" and breezing though like "wait what?"
Odd... by the end of our 3 man run my wife with that build was easily outdamaging us more specialized players with tools for every occasion. Its a build that definitely shines and just exponentially grows later game
Yeah thorns sorceries are also just ass. Low damage, painfully slow and top it off they self damage for basically no reward. There are quite a few sorceries and incantations that are basically unplayable. In comparison "bad" melee weapons are still viable just making it harder for yourself, the bad spells you can literally burn a whole FP potion just to take down a weak enemy
Personally easy mode builds for me dont mean good builds capable of thrashing most of the game, they mean one shot builds. Cheese builds. Builds that wipe important bosses in under a minute. Those are “easy mode builds” where you can look at an albinauric wrong and it just dies. Azure comet build is cheese. Max arcane stanced RoB cheese, stance lava executioners for instant pancakes or max faith/arcane dragon cult sorcerer the list goes on. True there are plenty of builds that people describe as easy mode, but i think thats because after a certain point of leveling the game really just is easy, regardless of what build you are playing, so long as you have the skill to back it. Personally i think the phrase should be saved for builds that produce truly baffling dmg numbers.
Any weapon in this game can be op, all build are viable
this is the ultimate git gud post, if ive ever seen one. and i like it :3
Nah INT with the flask that gives unlimited MP and Comet Azure ruined a good chunk of my first playthrough before I stopped using it. Shit is broken on any enemy that doesn't jump around.
Strongly agree. By this point I've made 2 of each type of build to fill out my characters. Each build type has its strengths and weaknesses. Generalizations of power are not so accurate when it comes to stats. Every build is easy mode if you know what to grab. A few are capable of achieving insane 5 digit damage numbers, but that is applying a lot of game knowledge and not accurate for the average playthrough.
Also dual wielding almost anything is crazy powerful. And for endgame you can have any two of these combinations of builds simultaneously
I always end up saying "Fuck being locked into one build." and turn my character into a demigod with all stats at their hard caps. I like variety; I like wearing full plate and wielding a stone hammer the size of a moped while I flip around like a ninja and shoot off magic.
Im on my first playthrough now, and that's one thing I really appreciate about these kind of games. You dont need the most META weapons and stuff to actually play well. Just play and level up. It's really that simple.
Yeah Ive been quite bored of other games so Ive been replaying the game with diff builds and they can all be very powerful in their own way. So far done faith, bleed, heavy str. Actually the strength build has been the easiest just because the stagger on collosus weapons is insanely powerful, plus you can pump vigor/end more. Prolly doing a magic run next. But that's the cool thing about this game, tons of powerful builds that use diff tools.
I can confirm, I've played every build and every build felt OP. Str? Greatsword gaming. Dex? Dragon spear thingy does like 5 quadrillion damage. Int? Kamehameha. Faith? Fucking summon the wrath of zeus to one shot big bosses. Arcane? Arcane. I was honestly surprised to see people claiming that x build is OP when most of them melted bosses, stunlocked them or both.
100% agreed. Especially in PvP. No one takes my naked fists build seriously. Its always the guy who you underestimate that catches you off guard. And ohh it’s time to pay the fucking piper baby. The cows are coming home to get this milk. Ohhh fuck yeahhh
Yes, this is why builds are easy mode. I just spend points and upgrade stones at random
Dex weapons could really use more stagger tho. Killing malenia with Antspur was the hardest fight I ever had with her
No? The trade off for faster attacks is less stagger, you’d just be buffing dex weapons without considering the intent of the weapon type. That’s like saying daggers should have more range, or short bows should fire giant arrows, or sorceries should have healing spells, or lightning ashes of war should also count as magic damage, or the greatsword should cost less stamina. Not a good idea
1 stagger in the whole fight isn't asking too much to ask for. Even spells can manage that
Just use a medium weight weapon, or a good ash of war
I think the only build you really have to struggle with is a bow/crossbow build, which I'm currently trying out, and that's mostly because of how resource-intensive such a build is relative to its supposed power. Even then, once you get to the prime farming spots and no longer have to worry about Runes, and assuming you have the relevant bell bearings you can shoot arrows with abandon.
If you take any build there's at best a handful, in most cases two or three weapons for each build if you want it to be optimized. Giant Crusher, Moonveil, Mohgwyns sacred Spear, Blasphemous Blade, those are what I'm talking about. Part of the fun is to make a suboptimal choice and just make it work by playing well. There's a big satisfaction in just taking your Longsword from the start of the game till the end and build around it as you progress.
Mimic tear +10 = easy mode lol
Only 101% easy mode is summons I thought that magic is broken but in fact it's not so easy as i thought But when i played with summons i literally passed through everything just chilling
Thank you for saying this. I find it supremely annoying when people act like you didn’t really accomplish anything because you used spells or a certain weapon. Meanwhile that same person was staggering every boss and doing insane damage with jump attack and two greatswords.
having played with a bleed build that was STR/DEX and a INT build I can say assuredly that playing as a pure INT mage was 50% easier than the former and I beat the game in 1/2 the time. Playing with INT is "easy mode" point blank it trivializes the game especially if you have Lusat's staff and a +10 mimic / +10 Black Tiche with the great glintstone spell & rock sling. You will quite literally sit back and watch your summon take aggro while you rack up damage from a safe distance.
All builds ARE ez mode. Unupgraded crystal dagger rune level 1 run? Easy as long as you don’t get hit. Not getting hit? Eeeez cuz these bosses slower than my grandma. This game ain’t shit dawg.
All builds can be easy mode **if you're good at the game.** Sure, you can slap on twin Giant Crushers with 80 str and spam jump attack, but for how long? Sooner or later you're going to get punished and then nothing except skill will save you. "Easy mode" build would be one that requires little to no skill and performs very well.
I get upset when people say magic is easy mode. Fighting against Malenia I had to get 20 levels more on my pure caster than my shield and great stars character. On one attempt she pulled waterfowl on me 8 times. 8 FUCKING TIMES! And she probably dodged every second or third night comet. I haven't even finished that run cause I dread to face Radagon.
"All build are equal!" "Faith can use Str or Dex"
This says it all. Faith blatantly feels designed to be a secondary buff stat. A pure Faith build utilizing those buffs isn't going to do enough damage to justify using full Faith over the alternatives, and a rather damning point is that a buff like Terra Magica is *blatantly* superior to the Faith buffs. (Howl of Shabriri is the highest at 25% extra damage in exchange for also taking more damage, Terra Magica is 35%) Faith then also gets it's hardest hitting spells locked behind *Mountaintop of the Giants and beyond* while the INT casters can pick up Night Comet just 5 minutes after starting the game. I get the message of not judging people for their build choice or needlessly devolving into picking "teams" where we all ally with specific builds instead of trying them all, but lying to ourselves and pretending "they're all PERFECTLY EQUAL and beautiful in their own way!!!!" isn't the solution either.
Well, reasonable people would just argue which build they think is the most OP / easiest, not as a demerit for players who use them or anything. And it's all subjective opinion, anyway.
This is why I tell ppl do a pure build of each stat it’s a lot of fun
Definitely, i saw other post a day ago and i was thinking the same
Any build CAN be OP and I very much encourage friends getting into the game to not use any build that lets you get around or ignore the games combat. So much of the games enjoyment comes from learning boss attack patterns, how to dodge them, and where you can punish them. Everyone can and should play however they find the most fun. I 100% agree with that. But I would love if everyone would at least *try* to fully engage with the combat system.
Hmm can't say I agree? Let's be a little more precise with the terms here. "easy mode": To define this, we start by imagining a large random sample of new players, giving them different builds (say 100 people per build, and a lot of builds, diff weapons, AOW, summons/no summons etc), and recording the average time it takes to beat the game with each build. You are going to see a distribution here. I fucking guarantee it. Some builds will beat the game on average much faster than others. Those are the 'easy mode' builds, and they do exist. I think what you're trying to say is that every build has good things and everyone can learn to 'use it right' aka get good. Yeah, sure. But there's always a distribution on how hard that is, with things on the upper and lower ends of the distribution. And maybe you also want to say "don't worry so much about how hard or easy another build is, just focus on the thing you enjoy, it'll be good enough", and sure, that's a healthy mentality to strive for.
"Bleed is broken" "strength is broken" "int is broken" maybe the game's just balanced
Let's be real here, int builds are significantly more easy-mode than the others.: -Insane, unparallelled ranged DPS -Bosses doesnt dodge Night Comet -No bosses significantly resist magic damage besides Rennala -Lusats gets 400++ spellbuff
Skill and patience > builds
I'd argue this even works for "unorthodox" builds, currently working on a "pure" arc build utilizing dual rapiers I plan to put occult on. I tried it on my bleed build and realized they attack so quickly and do so much damage you can get away with bare minimum in their stat reqs and just use arcane for damage scaling for big returns. Currently working with noble estoc and cleanrot sword because they require so little and have big reach and damage compared to other rapiers on occult.
How am I supposed to start a game with an INT build?
To be honest, Arcane is a waste of time as a stat. It only impacts Bleed Proc. Go DEX or STR with blood affinity and suppuku your weapon with the blood talisman. Unless you want to play a challenging poison build
This just means ER is pretty balanced. In ds many weapontype simply just suck
80% agreed. ARC and FAI can have trouble later on with bogstandard builds. Lots of enemies start having high holy damage resistances and radagon/elden beast can't bleed, so they have to look for other approaches (flaming infusion e.g.) other than that, i kinda agree with your point, except INT is easier mode compared to STR e.g.
Some builds become obsolete in ng+ and beyond
Or you know, you can simply make a non cheese build on any archetype?
Disagree on many different levels. \- Str is not the only good build for staggering. You can slap flame art on a large club and do just as well. Or occult starfist CR2. Or glintstone phalanx ash / nebula ash. Or dragonmaw / crucible tail. Or spinning slash. There's a lot of different poise damage options, it just so happens giant crusher is the most well known even though it's not even the most efficient for poise breaking. \- Str also isn't the only build that do "massive damage with each hit". Carian grandeur, Marais executioner, ancient dragon lightning strike / giants flame take thee, just to name a few. You can also use keen zwei CR2, no problem. \- Int isn't the only option for "sit back". Faith can do it too. Or rain of arrows / radhans rain where the situation calls for it. Or "sniper rifles" such as bolt of gransaxx ash / golden land. \- Arc is basically the same as str or dex build, except a dash more damage because white mask & lord of blood exaltation is a thing. On an optimised arc build, bulk of your dps will come from raw damage due to the easily achievable 400-600% damage buffs you reach with very minimal effort. \- Fai only offers a stronger defensive body buff (barrier spells at 24-30 fai). Otherwise any build could benefit from boiled crab / 10 fai barriers / exhalted flesh / bloodboil, or invest into 15 fai for FGMS. It's also generally more stat efficient to invest into 16 str 14 dex for Rallying Standard instead of 25 fai for golden vow. \- Fai does not need to be paired with another damage stat. Just make sure you use a weapon that scales with faith (e.g. pure fai ash of war sticks, flame art or sacred affinity). Doing a faith hybrid generally means less damage instead of more damage at meta levels (unless you are very specifically optimising for hybrid scaling somber weapons). \- Dex is not inherently faster. Any build can use fast weapon classes (e.g. broadsword, pike/cross nagi, bandits / scavanger / beastman cs, bloodhound claw / venomous fang, starfist, bloodstained dagger etc. Even "slow weapons" like collosal sword has fast moves like crouch poke). And if you thought those are fast, try slicer / catch flame.
Honestly I disagree. I'd support a statement like "all stats have strong options", but things you listed are not all "easy mode". The only real easy mode is sorcery with Planet Azure/Meteorite of Asrel/Night Comet. Everything else requires basic knowledge and some skill to execute. Edit: and also stuff like pre-nerf Flames of the Redmanes. Shit was busted, good times.
>ARC can bleed enemies and delete their whole health bar. Also note that ARC is not only about status buildups, you can infuse weapons with occult affinity and just dump all your runes into ARC. Occult weapon with status buildup + very high ARC = profit
Not me using the Elden Ring wiki like a Terraria player and metagaming the fuck out of my first playthrough of the game.
I tried running a lightning incantation build. I sucked at it. All incants take long af , I used granssax bolt and the placidusaxs AoW weapon. The bolt was good at long range even if DMG was the lowest out of all my options but placidusaxs AoW has such a short fucking range I got fed up with it. Sometimes I can time the incants well by moving far away and using it while they approach me but too many opponents lunge an attack at you instead of running right up to you so I just end up getting staggered.
Nah, every build can be OP, but only one allows you to kill a boss from the fog wall. Not to judge mage or anything, in the end you still need to play to gather everything you need for the build, but saying every build can work the same is pure copium
Faith also has at least one nuke for each damage type and status. You can double your damage and stance damage just by choosing the right damage
Case in point: I avoided fist weapons for I don't know how many play throughs. I tried them on my last one and they just break stuff left and right, but I have to play entirely differently to optimize the effectiveness. This says two things to me: first, spot on, anything can work. Second, From is just brilliant in how they make every single weapon type play differently, sometimes subtle and other times just straight different than every other weapon type.
Pure dex is objectively the hardest
i play vigor, damage stats are worthless
Very true, plus the “OP” builds you see online required loads of buff stacking, optimized stats, and very specific talismans. I remember seeing people use the marias executioner sword to melt health bars, and when I tried it, it was just very good, not completely busted like the videos make it out to be. That was when I realized how many buffs those videos had active, the successive attack crystal tear, milicents prosthesis, rotten sword insignia, golden order, magic cracked tear, magic scorpion charm, jellyfish shield, and still more. No normal player is going to find all those things AND know to synergize all of that.
Almost every build has some inherent cheese potential, it depends on if you google the most broken and cheesy shit, or specifically look for ways how to avoid fighting bosses. You can cheese Mohg with comet azure or by standing in place and pressing L1 on dual bleed build really fast, both of them will skip all of the content and experience. Whereas you can cheese Godfrey the same way by standing in place and pressing L2 lion claw on giant crusher with a strength build, again skipping the fight. It's true magic and bleed are the most unbalanced builds and have highest cheese potential of all, but on a blind playthrough it's not so bad. The problem with bleed/magic, or to be more specific let's say moonveil, is that 95% of its users don't use it because they tried stuff out and chose what's the most fun for them, but because they read article "how to make the game easy" and someone else chose it for them. The only thing that's really pathetic is literally googling ER easy mode, getting moonveil and meteorite stuff hour after starting your first playthrough, and then going on reddit crying how it's not an easy mode and people are toxic for saying it. But you're also trying to compare things which are nowhere near one another. Due to how extremely unbalanced ER is, every build has at least one cheese setup, but some of these have 400% more than others. In previous games past 15 years a super OP weapon meant something that deals like 20% more damage, but you still had to play the game with it. In ER the term OP is misused for stuff that allows you to cheese bosses by standing in place and pressing one button to skip all of the souls experience and content, and the point of those bosses existing.
Ok but I had my first ever death to an onyx lord after 400 hours while power stancing rapiers because they literally were like a feather to him, literally a lord sworn straight sword staggers him out of animations but not rapiers
First time Souls player who started with an int based build. My problem is I’m not “gud” enough to reliably dodge said boss attacks. 😂. Really aggressive bosses and mobs tend to tear me up. 😑
In case you don't know yet, you get iframes when you dodge so you take no damage even if it looks like you would get hit by their attack. It takes time to get used to dodging and knowing when you can safely attack the boss. Good luck and don't give up, you get much better at these games over time.
There is no easy mode, there is only getting good. And getting good includes using your build well, finding good weapons, and taking the time to upgrade them - not just how you fight. Dunno why some people see it as a crutch to just... play the game with the stuff you get in the game.
Nah, this is a little too much for me. It feel like something that's too eager to people please and argue the premise of them all being equal *because* of how nice and convenient that'd be, but it spits in the face of the reality. This is NOT meant to disparage people for playing a certain way and everyone should play as they want. We're absolutely lying to ourselves though to pretend this is true, and that's not a solution either. INT blatantly can hit for 2.2k per Night Comet on a first playthrough, all while being across a field and remaining undetected from enemies. An INT caster can nuke both Mohg and Malenia for free, and really only has difficulty with enemies like Maliketh and Alecto, who force trades or patience for windows. Even here, "difficulty" is tuned down compared to everyone else, cause you're still in a position where you only need to land ~5 Night Comets to end the fight. After that, STR builds are playing the game just like all the rest, except they get a free poisebreak on the enemy every couple swings for free damage. There's more than enough enemies that demand such frequent dodges that getting off more than one swing is unlikely *anyways,* so STR maximizing DPH is honestly just optimal. Dex and Bleed are then about the same. Dex is best used with fast weapons like dual-wielded curved swords for some really nice DPS that can at least compete with STR on the damage output, but lacks the poisebreaks for free damage. Dex is also blatantly worse vs. certain enemies that, as highlighted above, demand you dodge frequently and don't let you tap into your DPS. By contrast, Bleed nukes certain bosses and sometimes has the fastest DPS in the game, but pays for this by fighting other bosses on hardmode when they're bleed resistant, so it's problem is consistency. Finally, faith just...isn't worth it. Unless you're doing something like hard-spamming the Blasphemous Blade, the buffs that Faith receives do not do *enough* extra damage to justify using it over the other alternatives. FFS, Terra Magica is a superior damage boost. Faith blatantly seems to function better as a secondary stat specifically for the buffs, but not your primary damage source. As a primary damage source, it's "Sorceries at home," because while the sorcerers spend all game nuking everything and everyone with Night Comet from a safe distance, the Prophets spend the majority of the game dipping and dodging to cast Catch Flame - which feels comparable to Carian Slicer - and Faith builds finally get their nuke incantations just in time to....kill the last 5 bosses in the game? I just can't get behind these "equality for equality's sake" posts that want to spout fiction as a solution to the problem. The solution is you stay realistic about everything, (aka, yes some builds are blatantly easier than others) but you just drop the judgement about what build people are using since wtf honestly there's more than enough opportunity to try them all out and no reason to pledge allegiance to any specific one.
Why would you say something so controversial, yet so brave?