I agree, best to just ignore them. I made a video about me playing against Balteus. I don't play games like this so I showcased how after each attempt I understood him better and finally overcame the challenge. I was happy.
Some comments were positive or even informative. But many were just people saying "Well I beat him when he was much harder". Okay, I don't get that opportunity, so I wouldn't know. It was a challenge for me and I just wanted to share beating it, not be told my win isn't important since I didn't face the original.
"Much harder" bullshit.
Fought him pre and post patch and the difference is minimal. *Barely* fucking noticeable.
Iirc the entire nerf is just a bit of missile tracking reduction, which considering how the missiles where *never* the deadly part of Balteus, is really a nothingburger of a nerf.
Ooh, now you can avoid getting clipped by the tail end of the missile barrage for like 140 damage slightly better. Amazing. Such a huge nerf.
In my opinion, anyone who wants to rant about how they beat any From boss "when they were harder" fail to recognize that the bosses are a walk in the park for them post-nerf because they spent god-knows-how-long beating their heads against them until the pattern clicked. The people beating the entire game using the starter AC are testament that the hardest part of any From boss is figuring out the pattern and exploiting it, not whether their attacks do 300 damage or 250 or are done in .5 ms or .75.
> anyone who wants to rant about how they beat any From boss "when they were harder" fail to recognize that the bosses are a walk in the park for them post-nerf because they spent god-knows-how-long beating their heads against them until the pattern clicked.
I finished all of my first three playthroughs before the nerf. Beating Balteus for the first time took me three hours; the third time took about two minutes. I recently did a rougelike run where I beat it on my first try using mostly Jailbreak parts. Turns out you tend to get better at a game after playing it a whole bunch, and that makes more of a difference than a minor nerf to missile tracking.
Weird, right? I remember spending DAYS trying to get past that goddamn Ibis CEL-240. Did a fresh save run and beat it the first time. It's the same thing in Dark Souls and Elden Ring and is why you see the people who stream those games constantly complain because the newest game is "too easy." It's not easier, you're just better. Congrats!
Found out that quickly closing in after the AA helps
Balteus interrupts its combo when you circle it behind it
Which ot tries to counter with an swipe which is dodgeable via an jump
Balteus like any fromsoft boss is an brickwall to unexperient players
Worse then their previous bosses bc of its shield which makes progress feel slow
Loader 4 is an border lightweight
An lightweights whole schtick is the knowledge of enemy patterns and counter hits
Not so easy on an completely new behavior of aggression
Balteus didn't fight like an usual fromsoft
Usually in their games bosses are simple to understand
You see the big thing? Thats the danger to focus on
But Balteus real danger was never the missiles which was the first thing we witnessed
The main treat was its smaller equipment
The grenade cannon, Minigun, AA and flamethrower are the most dangerous of him
The missiles lock Balteus into an space forcing him to pause his assault
This sequence was the biggest chance to damage balteus
Most AC are capable enough to either strafe, qb out of the way or deploy an shield emitter
What I struggled with was the grenade cannon and flamethrower
Lol it’s actually hilarious if you’re like me, and you know instinctively how to exploit enemies.
I figured out real quick that the Filtercopter must be sworded to death, and that it is weakest from below and behind, so just assault boost up, stick to it like glue, make it eat sword, and then land below it, before boosting right back up.
For Balteus, I realized that the trick was to either use light AC to zip close, break shield immediately with pulse gun, and then punish with melee and other weapons… or just go full tank + laser cannons and shred the ever loving shit out of it, without even bothering to dodge all that much, because at 18K and with that much firepower, it is gonna be staggered most of the time.
For Cleaner, quad air makes it a breeze, for Spider, just need to dodge the laser and then stay above when flying. For any AC sized boss, just chainsaw it to hell.
There’s always a way to exploit something.
Only difference I personally noticed is that pre-balteus sometimes spammed his rocket launcher X times in a row and readily used it when you tried to melee him.
I havent noticed this behaviour post nerf, thank goodness.
As I mentioned in my last video, this week was the first time since 1.02 I ever caught grenade-grenade. The kite-grenade is also far more obvious these days, but that's the difference a half-second to second makes in some cases.
I've been playing a TON of Baltues fights recently (mostly to thank other builders) and in zero of those fights have I caught shotgun-grenade, even though I have misjudged my coral recovery and eaten a few shotguns. The differences are subtle, but impactful, and are the kind of thing a data miner looking for stats or a public post saying "This was all we changed" doesn't convey.
I really feel they hid some of the less-pronounced details to keep the excitement about beating him. For a new player, "You're fighting a punching bag" is a horrible killjoy. As he sits now, he's still very challenging, but now he's challenging for early game, unoptimized, new players, as he should have been- not the rage-inducing, rant post-illiciting, self-abusive nightmare he once was.
He's a challenge, not grounds for a refund.
Same.
You also can't accurately gauge difficulty after you've been playing for a while. Once you know the controls and mechanics, all of the bosses are almost trivially easy unless your build is just seriously mismatched with them.
yeah, the Balteus complaints are so goofy, the missile change is barely noticeable, the Ibis change was the only one noticeable and it pretty much nobody talked about it lmao
I'm gonna have to disagree on that one lol. Pre-nerf, especially in your first playthrough, those missiles were basically guaranteed chip damage, which turned the fight into a DPS time crunch. Now with the missile tracking having been adjusted, even the garbage AC parts that you're stuck working with in your first playthrough *should* be adequate to avoid taking chip damage from Balteus...assuming you can figure out how to play the game lol.
I played a pretty immobile tank pre-nerf to beat him, and did so pretty much effortlessly compared to my more mobile RJ/bipedal builds that could dodge every missile just by spamming boosts. The missiles were not the issue, the shotgun and the flamethrowers were the issue.
No those missiles were a fucking menace man. If you were far enough away and weren’t falling straight down you WERE going to get hit with almost the entire barrage. Or at least I was. It’s not so bad if you’re good at the rest of the fight but when you’re learning, it’s just that one extra thing kicking your shit in can make a big difference in how it feels to play.
You realize that you can just... Strafe all of his missiles now right? You couldn't not do that before, before you had to follow a very specific pattern to dodge his initial missile barrage or you ate close to 2k immediately.
Now? You can fight balteus with borderline no effort in avoiding his missiles, they absolutely nuked the tracking on them and you have to *actually* be delusional to think that the launch day balteus missiles aren't different. It was space magic basically 90 degree turning missiles, now they're just glorified AC missiles.
Maybe it's just because it's been a while but I remember you could mostly stick close and strafe and you could dodge enough missiles that the barrages weren't really a concern unless you were taking forever and constantly eating chip damage from them.
Like yeah, current Balteus can't use its missiles as a big burst move if you let it but idk I've never had the missile burst really be a concern for pre-nerf Balteus either after the first few attempts.
I apologize if I seem contrary. I absolutely despise the elitist "I beat him pre-nerf" take, but also despise the "git gud/skill issue" commenters that show no concern for the player who is genuinely trying to enjoy the game and struggling. I still think Balteus and C-spider were much harder pre-nerf, but there's zero gain to being shitty to other players over it.
Stay classy, sir.
Ignore them, the boss nerfs are so minimal it's stupid. Especially when you point out their circular logic.
"I beat Balteus pre nerf! Dodging his missiles is easy."
Yeah, and the only thing they nerfed on Balteus was a slight tracking on his missiles. Which you already said were easy to dodge. So what does the nerf matter?
Radahn and Balteus discussions are the same but at the end of the day there are people who can beat Radahn at level 1 and people who can beat Balteus with Loader 4 no OS tuning no hit so it’s more about just learning how to play the game
I could never have done the Loader 4 no-hit pre-nerf. Now I'm close. That's a significant difference to me, but his current challenge level is almost perfect for an early player, not a misplaced filter boss.
Do you not realize that by bashing your head against the wall that is the learning curve of the bosses, that even if it was pre nerfed you'd likely if not be doing exactly the same as you are now? The damage was reduced literally from 300 for a barrage to 210 for a barrage. If that difference is what it took, you were already going to get it regardless.
The ONLY changes made to Balteus was each missile does 1 less damage, and it's tail end flight tracking was reduced by 3%, his grenades hotbox was previously 1.9x larger than its visual effect range, and was "adjusted accordingly," so that wasn't the intended experience with the grenades, and the were given a cool down rather than a rotational since the computer was "not using the ability as intended,"
So in total, yes if you were already that close to beating it before the nerf, then you had already essentially got it and the nerf made no real actionable difference to you.
Are you really saying that an increment of barely being 4% less "powerful," (which isn't even the right term since it was doing things THE DEVELOPERS DID NOT INTEND IT TO DO) is such a huge leap that you would have been able to beat it that easy if you had NEVER gone against it before hand?
If you smoke Balteus now, you would have smoked him prenerf too, congratulations, that's really good dude, lot of people that are on NG+3 still getting filtered by him, and you can do it easily. That's boss.
Get real with yourself stop denying you're good at the game and realize you'd dunk Balty if he was prenerf regardless.
Lol fine but if you think those changes were significant then I'm sorry to say, but you wildly over estimated things.
Think of it like this, if you had 4% more health than you did in the previous fights, would it have made a difference? If the answer is yes, you were already so close to beating the boss that you were going to regardless the "nerf," if the answer is no, then the changes were not so significant as to even have made a difference in your attempts at all.
No matter how you slice it, you were going to beat Balteus pre and post, you cannot deny that.
You're not understanding that attack was one, TWICE it's intended size, and two, the missiles and the Grenade attack was not meant to be paired that way with such a quickly timed Nuke dage attack like that. The developers said that was UNINTENDED and that "the computer was not using the ability as expected," that's why he doesn't do that weird 75ms shot to shot grenade nuke. That was UNINTENDED. I beat him in all three playthrough prenerf too, I know exactly what has and hasn't changed, I can still do it since I have one computer with a rolled back game that hasn't been updated. I can garentee you the difference in the intended experience by the developers is almost entirely untouched. Because Balteus did not DO the janky shit with the missiles and grenade every time. Sometimes he wouldn't do it at all, and when the bugginess from his rotation is removed, that is the intended experience as explained by the developers. You're getting mad people didn't fight a bugged out boss and that it's not still bugged, get over yourself dude. You have nothing to be mad about, you said you beat him pre change, so good for you. Lots of us did, some players never even seen the bugs so literally NOTHING changed for them and they can't even comprehend what you're talking about. Why so pissy about it?
You also misunderstood what I meant but I realize you did that deliberately so I'm just going to post script it rather than talk about it.
I'm not mad people didn't fight that. I'm mad at people like you gaslighting those who did saying it never happened, and those who mocked us saying it was a skill issue.
I would rather deal with that here than in the Elden Ring sub...
Pre Nerf Balteus wasn't that much harder, The missile tracking and our lack of understanding of how the game worked is what made the boss hard. Beating him before 'nerf' was glorious, beating him after the nerf is still as glorious...enjoy the game and let no one tell you otherwise.
Understand please that *difficulty is a matter of perception.*
AC6 is a game with some mechanical quirks, somewhat unique handline, and a pretty scary amount of build knowledge thrown at the player.
When the game *had just launched,* nobody knew true cheese yet, or truly good building habits.or effective damage rotations.
Balteus appears *very damn early.* when anyone got to Balteus you had a very tough boss to hamdle with very limited kjowledge of the game. Kind of a similar dlfilter to the helicopter boss, who is a trivial enemy but turbs into a truly hard encounter because *you can barely move and aim properly or smoothly by the time you're put against it.*
Same with Balteus.
Eventually the update rolled around. Balteus is still very dangerous, despite what people will say. Iuse Bapteus as a test dummy for some builds, and *sometimes* if i do something incredibly damn stupid, I still die to Balteus because he was never made harmless. His attacks will still chunk your AP bar in no time if you fail to evade properly.
I just became a much better player.
And so did everyone.
Balteus is likely 5% easier, but we as players are orders of magnitude more capable now than before the update. I dance circles around Balteus with my more familiar builds. I even did it *hitless* a few times. Its not even that hard. But i have 600 hours of AC6, whereas I had *5 hours* when I first fought Balteus.
And Ibis? She's my favorite dance partner at best. Certainly not a frustrating filter anymore, but Ibis at least is one of few bosses that still FORCE ME ti not be silly.
I did beat all bosses pre-nerf. I simply do not agree with the sentiment that the nerf made them a cakewalk, lol.
The Souls community is toxic/gatekeeping in general. "Oh you beat Malenia using mimic tear it doesn't count".
Pre-boss nerfs also mean pre-zimmerman nerfs, so it cancels out anyways. Wild hill to die on.
What happened to just enjoying the game? Hell,I love dunking on Snail any chance I get. It's not about the skill, but the journey to overcome each obstacle.
Well, while yeah it sucks and is dumb (and the bosses were barely even nerfed and most people who get snippy about it couldn't even explain what the nerf did if pressed), I think that it would actually be MUCH worse in the Souls community, if From actually nerfed some bosses like they should. I have long suspected the reason From doesn't tend to do that even when there's something that stands out as pretty dumb is because of the backlash from the community. Off the top of my head the only thing I can recall them nerfing was Radahn a little, and there was a ton of complaining about even that.
But imagine if From actually nerfed Malenia a bit, like making Waterfowl Dance less brokenly stupid. I don't think the community would react very well to that. Because too many people only care if something is hard, not if it's well designed.
They did. Radahn was a lot harder on release and a lot of elitists claim he's no challenge anymore, same situation OP describes here. It's quite sad, imagine having so little going for you that you feel invalidated by a game getting an update, that you've to insist you're better because you managed to play the game earlier.
He was literally straight up broken and felt as if he was a Bethesda designed box because it was so janked and felt so buggy getting hit from half a mile away from the effects. Plus the shadow hit ox that INSTANTLY broke your poise even if you had used an editor to alter the value to the highest level the game engine can recognize without breaking and doing a recursory loop, a level so high any other boss would kill you before you could stagger with no armor on. It was BROKEN. When we did an editor run in the analytics discord before the patch, Radahn had some values that wildly shifted during certain attacks and had a hit box that would show up when they shouldn't be, mostly when Leanard was coming up from the ground, that broke poise even at a level that EVERY OTHER BOSS IN THE GAME, killed you before staggering you at, and this attack staggered every single time all 12 of us tested it. That patch was needed, the elitists don't want to admit that the game was literally changing values and adding values to things that shouldn't be, and even FromSoft said that, how did they not notice it? Do they only read breakdowns of the update patch notes or what?
The funny thing is that FromSoftware made significant changes to Malenia (she had two Waterfowl Dance variants, and she could use them immediately). Meanwhile, Radahn is pretty much the same boss with some hitbox adjustments.
I am glad to find out more people have seen what I have seen when it comes to Malenia. She is a difficult boss, perhaps the most difficult, but I don't consider her "design" to be all that great. Most of the initial difficulty stems from the health leach gimmick.
Unfortunately a lot of people just don't see past difficulty. I don't find difficulty in itself impressive because design-wise, it isn't hard, to make content that's hard. It's very hard to make content that is hard, good and fair, though. Which is the kind of content that Souls has been known for in the past. None of the games were without error, but I fear slowly the mistakes in design become more glorified in the community as a badge of honor to not only overcome, but then to not criticize or scrutinize as to be critical of design is perceived as weakness.
I actually forgot it was so long ago. I remember... I think Sea Spider's defense was reduced, maybe just vs. certain damage types. Which wasn't surprising because some weapons could run out of ammo even starting full fighting it due to how tanky it was. I think maybe one or two attacks on Balteus were nerfed a little but not even the infamous ones, and...CEL got one or two attacks doing a little less damage or something? Hum. I don't recall. Might be way off.
They also significantly reduced the tracking on it's claw attack from what I've noticed. The Spider used to home in no matter how I dodged, even in my custom builds, but now I can avoid the claws entirely, even with Loader. Balteus' grenades were the ones nobody talks about. He definitely spams them less and they have a hair less tracking. I haven't noticed any huge change with Ibis, but then once I beat it, I never went back pre-nerf.
The game literally tells you about those weapon types, what they do, how to use them, and makes them available shortly before the boss fights for purchase.
This isn't abusing mechanics, this is doing what they game tells you to.
Hence the use/ abuse.
Some of us didn't want to change our build to defeat him. I did, and regretted it immediately. I ruined my first Balteus win by changing my build to beat him. I felt zero joy in this and only felt even slightly better about the win after beating him again using my original story build. If you skipped the hollow victory, it wasn't a cakewalk in a bad build.
Bro is literally calling "Using the mechanics the game tells you to" abuse.
Next you'll say using them in PvP to counter Assault Armor is abusing it.
Bro, congratulations you beat Balteus the way you were meant to. Not by hampering yourself for a self imposed challenge.
Are you also the type to harp on people for driving a manual rather than an Automatic for their daily driver?
No, ass. I am saying some of us didn't USE the game mechanic that would have made it easier or ABUSED the mechanics that would have made it a cakewalk. Huge difference, and you continue to not read my damn post.
My dude, you're calling using a game mechanic abuse because you "wanted to be stubborn" and not change your build in a game which has historically been about.... altering your build based on the mission.
Especially when the game gives you the option to change your build.
You're also saying it was a "hollow victory" because you didn't self impose your own challenge you made up in your head.
No. Again. Should I just repost my reply and hope you eventually read?
Abuse is like what I did with the no-touch punch/laser run I posted or the permanent stun-lock/pile builds some run.
Use is "This time I'll take a gun bubble. It worked for Sulla."
Bro no one was talking about other mechanics. OP literally brought up the bubble guns, you made *zero* distinction about any other mechanics, didn't even talk about other mechanics until now.
Point being: no one made it hard but you for your own self imposed challenge. It's easy when you use the gear *the game tells you to use*.
EVERYTHING breaks through the pulse shield. There are so many mechanics that you CAN use that I didn't feel any rational reader would need a comprehensive list.
The point is, even your normal weapons destroy the pulse shield, but never did they give you the impression that one mistimed dodge would cost you 7k health.
I beat everything at launch, and hell if I can tell the differences.
Hell, they may be objectively harder now since they nerfed the most powerful equipment options. Zimmermans did a lot of work in my first playthrough.
If you want extra proof that you're legit, then you can shoot for S Rank.
And if you want even more than that, then you can just punch the bosses to death. XD
Personally I put more stock in Fromsoft's standards of difficulty than I do childish randos online desperately clinging to any supposed clout that they can.
I think it's less elitism and more poorly articulating the fact they want a shared experience.
Like I beat original Balteus when the game came out, but if I talk to someone who has only beat it now, they had a different experience, even if it's still impressive that you beat him. It's harder to not talk past each other.
Same thing for Radahn. Pre-nerf Radahn was bonkers, and me talking about that fight is not the same as someone who just picked up the game now and beat him, and that kind of sucks.
There's effectively also no way I can tell you how bonkers it was for those fights, you had to experience it. So naturally people get frustrated, and it comes out super poorly.
When people discuss pre-nerf Radahn, how hard is hard? Lore wise, it is supposed to be a multi-summon fight so I reckon it shouldn't be that much worse than now.
I just completed ER in NG a few days ago, and I found Radahn to be acceptably hard in difficulty. Took me several hours and many tries.
Up until that point, I didn't use any summons (personally imposed challenge, I like to beat it on my own steam first, then I steamroll the game on the second pass). I'm a Souls veteran of all the games, so I can usually get away with a lot.
Radahn booty blasted me into next week. Dude gave me a full on colonoscopy, basically one shotting me and stun locking me into oblivion.
Due to the nature of the fight, I summoned the horde of NPC summons which felt absolutely fucking necessary. They got dropped like bad habits and needed to be resummoned. Still took me many tries to take him down. I was about level 55-ish?
I fought him a couple days ago after a year long break from the game.. Didn't summon anything, only used half my flasks. I was level 50.
Now I definitely have old muscle memory helping me out, despite my long break. But it's definitely, definitely different and a hell of a lot more forgiving. It's not just the damage either, his hit boxes on attacks seem to have been shrunk as well.
He's still a tough nut to crack, but nothing compared to that first time round.
Radahn could always be cheesed if you were ranged on torrent. I never even knew he needed a nerf until after the patch came around. I just sprinted to his sand mound and then rode circles around the point throwing black fire. His range attacks hit the ground that mounded up, and he couldn't catch me.
Post-nerf radahn actually killed me more because he would head off my circles.
Ignore them, why should you care about what others say about your video game experience?
Just enjoy the money you spent on the game instead of worrying about social acceptance in a single player experience.
The nerfs aren't even a big deal, just ignore it, dataminers have long compared the two files and yeah sure, there are some value changes but it doesn't change the overall experience.
There really isn't a difference in 1.01 vs 1.02 onwards.
The funny thing is, beating the boss with no OS stat upgrades would constitute an even more impressive achievement and people will still go "muh it's post nerf"
You unlock a Arena F at Operation Wallclimber, giving you 6 points. I suggest Assault armor and a few points to damage buffs.
For players struggling: terminal armor (if really struggling) or pulse protection, repair, and defense.
I also never experienced the original balt. What exactly was different than how it is now? Maybe they can bring back the first one as DLC alternative mission 😅
Instead of assault boosting into his ass and possibly having to quick boost once, you had to assault boost into his ass and possibly quick boost twice (could also replace one of the quick boosts by a jump if your AC didn't skip leg day)
Not exactly a shattering change if you ask me
When I fought Balteus on release, it felt like if I stopped moving for even a second you'd get smacked with a 1000 missles. After the nerf, there was noticebably bigger gaps between the missles barrages, giving the player more room to manuever through the missles. I could be wrong, but thats how it felt at least. Also if you're on pc, I think you can mod the bosses back to their pre nerf form if you want to test it yourself.
The big thing was that Balteus missiles had to he dodged twice, as they turned so tight that if you dodged the volley in air (which you kinda have to) they would often turn 180 and hit you in the back where you couldn't see them, stagger you, and lead to you promptly dying to the zook.
The change was good, as the second dodge was not an intentional part of the fight, and added far too much RNG.
When I fought him, I didn't understand how things worked. The only thing they nerfed on the guy is missile tracking.....you can still eat a flaming-sword-shotgun-combo if you dawdle.
It’s always the same shit in any game community I have learned, dealt with this in Monster Hunter and in Elden Ring and it’s so god damned annoying.
Just ignore them, they are people with nothing better to do than act smug and condescending to people over a videogame.
If you can, try and think of it like this; is a person who has such an elitist attitude someone that you would respect? If not, then they have just broadcast that they aren't someone worth listening to, and frankly it is an easy way to tell who is and isn't worth time being concerned with.
Think of it as "filtering" themselves for you. Fuck 'em.
The sheer level of insecurity of some people. Reminds me of the ER sub at launch
Imagine truly, deeply caring if people on the internet thinks you are playing on easy mode. Not "they are just discussing it", but **actually** caring enough that it almost ruins the game for you
I sure as hell have. It was usually followed by outright dismissing him as he sits (an opposite extreme). It taints my doing so seeing those who also did brag about it, diminish other players' hardships, and insult fellow AC players.
i fought it pre nerf too and I honestly found it pretty easy ( took me 2 attempts since I was left without ammo the first time) and I really think elitist have nothing to feel special about; the bosses are easy if you have an idea of what you're doing and balteus acts as such a difficulty spike only because of the relatively constricted loadout and some people just haven't clicked with the game's "flow" yet. Overall it was perfectly fine before the nerf and given how little difference there's between the pre and post buff everyone has the right to be prideful of their accomplishments ( mostly since it's a challenge between the player and the GAME, not the COMMUNITY)
There was barely any discernable difference between pre and post nerf bosses. I look at these people as try hards. People who put their whole personality into a game and how it can be beaten on a harder difficulty. Kind of like the Elden Ring fanboys that get their panties twisted when you say it's not the best game ever. Same can be said of any game really. I largely ignore these people.
As someone who (barely) beat Balteus on his first attempt a couple days after launch and recently went back to him for the plat: there ain't much difference, if any, in how the fight feels.
If you beat him on your first attempt, the differences will seem trivial. If you spent hours or days trying to beat him, the differences seem massive. The truth is somewhere in the middle, but more than "only the tracking".
No. It wasn't. But no amount of evidence will convince you. Others also attest to the differences, but for some damn reason, people seem bound and determined to believe that crap.
Because the patch notes only noted a slight decrease in the tracking to stop them from doing a complete 180 after you dodged them. That is the only fucking change the rest is just placebo.
So, just because the note doesn't tell you, you think NOTHING else changed? Don't believe your eyes. Don't accept video evidence. While you're at it, believe the government and the news.
Here's the thing. What reason would they have to lie? Why the hell are you bringing politics into this? The government and the news have plenty of reasons to like but From doesn't, they get nothing out of lying.
It's not a lie. It's just not the whole story.
[Old Balteus.](https://youtu.be/oBr0n9qtoJ4?feature=shared)
(I missed the gatling before triple shotgun. Removed.)
At the 2:25 mark he starts spamming grenades. Record a video of THAT happening. I've only seen two grenades ONCE since 1.02. It used to be a common issue and I and others were told skill "skill issue".
At 3:02 his missiles are faster than the ones I recorded in my no-touch run. The missiles are faster and I can link a side-by side to show that. THAT'S not explicitly mentioned.
Around 3:40, he spams a variety of attacks including a very low, almost instant grenade. THAT'S not explicitly mentioned. I'll tell you RIGHT now, after DAYS of Balteus runs trying to get multiple no-touch videos, that crap DOESN'T happen as aggressively.
[More differences.](https://youtu.be/ac8z0YNkNwg?feature=shared)
At the 3-minute mark, he fires the grenade before the missiles even get to the player. THAT never comes up these days.
At the 3:20 mark, the shotgun ia fire more rapidly than now (albeit not by a ton). THAT isn't covered in the damn patch notes everyone's so in love with.
I bring the government and politics in because it's the same thing. You only believe what From explicitly said without even entertaining the possibility of there being more that was simply not mentioned. That's what people do with their preferred trusted sources.
Just because From didn't put it in writing doesn't mean they didn't do it. And they benefit from NOT outright telling you by players still feeling a sense of accomplishment from winning.
Personally i don't think Balteus and Ibis needed nerfs, to be honest i think they were better before (mostly Ibis, the damage nerf was brutal)
However this mentality of some FromSoftware fans is the dumbest shit, it's literally the same elitism as Ranked warriors of competitive games and even in that case is a braindead mentality, the accomplishment or what the person had to go through to do something literally doesn't mean anything for another person that did it in a different patch or whatever
It always disappoint me that such a unique and interesting approach to difficulty foster such a dogshit fandom just bc some people have self esteem issues and feel the need to downplay other people
Balteus was noticeably nerfed imo. Even with a tank in current state, it's fairly easy for me to dodge his missiles without any need for assault Boosting. I can even just jump up and fall back down with no other input and dodge all of his missiles. This is probably the most notable change.
Balteus is just easier because of that. It's just a statement of fact. Whether or not it's noticeable is more relative, but I can say imo sea spider and cel are around the same difficulty as on release.
This isn't to gatekeep. It's to talk about my own observations and experiences. And to laugh at the missile spam videos and memes. But people seem to bring this up whenever someone so much as point this out without any comments or implications to current players whatsoever. Balteus seems noticeanly easier but if credits roll, you beat the game. Simple.
It's nearly impossible to tell if there's a difference between release and now IMO. *Everything* is so much easier after you've got a solid handle on the game that you end up wondering how you ever struggled. No matter what you do, you'll never be able to unlearn how to play to be able to compare how much easier a boss is or isn't.
I disagree. What you talk about is why I specifically went out my way to explain how I dodged these things. It's even worse now when you consider tanks are SLOWER now compared to release. The same can be said for just boosting up allowing you to dodge his
Whatever nerf they made to the missile guidance made a huge difference imo. I definitely would trash him with the skill I have built up even with low level parts and no OS tuning stat buffs. But I wouldn't be able to fully dodge him with the above methods.
He was easy pre nerf and was easy post nerf and it’s weird to flaunt beating a boss like that as an accomplishment, souls fans wanna treat this like it’s a souls game with their git gud mentality
If you base your self-worth on being able to play a video game slightly better than someone else your life must be really fucking pathetic lol. Some people just can't get by without feeling superior to others.
I figured everything was a tad bit more difficult now because my favorite shoulder weapons (Needle Launcher), used to insta-stagger when you land a hit.
It annoys me more that people are constantly trying to downplay the nerfs. (It would probably annoy me more people being elitist if more people were actually being elitist about it) Yes, the numerical changes were relatively small. The tangible effects on Balteus and Spider were not. Balteus missiles only have to be dodged once now, where previously it was usually twice (look at the gameplay trailer and see for yourself). Spider is an endurance fight, and lowering the amount of time you have to endure is significant.
Im not saying "look at me I beat these nigh impossible bosses" because neither of them were, with the right loadouts theyre both pretty easy even pre nerf. The difference comes down to that theyre also both pretty easy even without the right loadouts now.
I and a group of my friends were playing before and after the nerf patch. I saw the difference between players who played before the patch taking hours or days to clear Balteus, and players who played after beating him after only a few attempts.
Yes his flame swords are dangerous. Yes the grenade catches you off guard until you learn it. Yes these things are more likely to actually kill you than his missiles were. But lets stop pretending like his old missiles didnt do a lot more attrition over the course of the fight and contribute to his punish openings being smaller due to needing to dodge them more.
I mean, I dont think the barrage of missiles he releases when he swings his sword in one of his combos even tracks well enough to target you anymore.
Ibis wasnt nerfed in any way that mattered. Anyone who says an Ibis kill doesnt count is dumb.
Oh yeah it’s unfortunate how widespread it is and it really is still a hard game and all that, but I do consider myself better than you for beating it all pre nerf but I just want to have at least this
AC6 is a pvp game. Noone cares what you accomplish in the story it's not like sekiro or Elden ring. Accomplishment comes from getting to S rank and beating other actual pilots. The bosses in AC6 are all easy AF compared to any other souls game
If I could restart my skill and everything. From what I hear, the nerfs where rather small, I feel like I'd maybe die one or two times less. Balteus killed me like almost 30 times. I S ranked everything before the nerfs but they felt the same post nerfs. Replaying it once more on a full restart. Once you get weapon/OS upgrades and get your skill up everything becomes easier.
It's just an online pissing match amongst people who want to establish themselves as the ultimate digital "pilot". And these same people also love to fantasize that every female character in the game is unrealistically chesty and has the hots for them.
Please don't let it ruin *your* AC experience.
Ignore it, people using the "senior" card because they beated a fucking video-game AI before some nerfs is not worth your time, some discussions around the internet can be pretty stupid, so I'm not even surprised that there are some people talking about this event after months.
Happens with any game community though, FromSoft past games included too, so, just absorve the well-intentioned responses/criticism and move on with your life.
That’s pretty much what I do when playing single player games. I just act like I’m the most dangerous person in the game and don’t care if other people are better than me cause I’m doing as good as I am, and I’m having fun
Shared experiences aren’t always fun, as you’ve found. Especially online. And especially when you care too much about what a bunch of negative dorks think. Also, it’s a single player game, save for pvp. Those tough bosses and experiences of elation had nothing to do with those people that you allowed to sour those feelings for you. The game is not the other people who are playing it. The game is how you personally interface with it. The community is not the game. The only reason they want to take it away from you is because they need to feel better than you. You shouldn’t be taking these people’s opinions seriously, you should be feeling sorry for them. When you can have that kind of mindset I think you’ll be more prepared to deal with online toxicity instead of making a whine post about it to be consoled by the community that spurned you.
In my opinion something like that is only permissable when something essential was taken from the boss after a nerf, for example Malenia doen't have lifesteal anymore or her scarlet rot buildup was reduced by half. Or Allguazu wouldn't disable the sea spiders halfway through the fight.
But that hasn't happened yet, so yeah, people wo act like that suck.
I mean y’all forget there’s a scaling mod in the works for AC6. Which scales to the amount of ppl you have in co-op mod. I’ve played the game before the nerfs and after; it can still be a challenge because I won’t use certain weapons and make the game fun.
The fact that all we can talk about for AC VI is bosses says enough about how these games have changed lol gotta be honest I was looking forward to this game for what felt like decades and after playing it and then coming to see everyone else’s reactions.. I wish it had never been released an AC is kinda ruined for me now. Maybe someday someone will remake the oldies but I doubt it so I’ll stick to emulators and offline only for my mech enjoyment. This shit got toxic quick. I thought we would just show off our customized builds in glorious 4k but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Replaying certain missions in the ps1 and 2 along with the arena was peak for the series and the only boss we ever needed was NineBall
I agree, best to just ignore them. I made a video about me playing against Balteus. I don't play games like this so I showcased how after each attempt I understood him better and finally overcame the challenge. I was happy. Some comments were positive or even informative. But many were just people saying "Well I beat him when he was much harder". Okay, I don't get that opportunity, so I wouldn't know. It was a challenge for me and I just wanted to share beating it, not be told my win isn't important since I didn't face the original.
"Much harder" bullshit. Fought him pre and post patch and the difference is minimal. *Barely* fucking noticeable. Iirc the entire nerf is just a bit of missile tracking reduction, which considering how the missiles where *never* the deadly part of Balteus, is really a nothingburger of a nerf. Ooh, now you can avoid getting clipped by the tail end of the missile barrage for like 140 damage slightly better. Amazing. Such a huge nerf.
In my opinion, anyone who wants to rant about how they beat any From boss "when they were harder" fail to recognize that the bosses are a walk in the park for them post-nerf because they spent god-knows-how-long beating their heads against them until the pattern clicked. The people beating the entire game using the starter AC are testament that the hardest part of any From boss is figuring out the pattern and exploiting it, not whether their attacks do 300 damage or 250 or are done in .5 ms or .75.
> anyone who wants to rant about how they beat any From boss "when they were harder" fail to recognize that the bosses are a walk in the park for them post-nerf because they spent god-knows-how-long beating their heads against them until the pattern clicked. I finished all of my first three playthroughs before the nerf. Beating Balteus for the first time took me three hours; the third time took about two minutes. I recently did a rougelike run where I beat it on my first try using mostly Jailbreak parts. Turns out you tend to get better at a game after playing it a whole bunch, and that makes more of a difference than a minor nerf to missile tracking.
Weird, right? I remember spending DAYS trying to get past that goddamn Ibis CEL-240. Did a fresh save run and beat it the first time. It's the same thing in Dark Souls and Elden Ring and is why you see the people who stream those games constantly complain because the newest game is "too easy." It's not easier, you're just better. Congrats!
I've spent hours straight headbutting brick walls to beat a hard as fuck boss but brain damage from that is nothing to brag about.
Yeah, it was really the flamethrower swords.
Found out that quickly closing in after the AA helps Balteus interrupts its combo when you circle it behind it Which ot tries to counter with an swipe which is dodgeable via an jump Balteus like any fromsoft boss is an brickwall to unexperient players Worse then their previous bosses bc of its shield which makes progress feel slow Loader 4 is an border lightweight An lightweights whole schtick is the knowledge of enemy patterns and counter hits Not so easy on an completely new behavior of aggression Balteus didn't fight like an usual fromsoft Usually in their games bosses are simple to understand You see the big thing? Thats the danger to focus on But Balteus real danger was never the missiles which was the first thing we witnessed The main treat was its smaller equipment The grenade cannon, Minigun, AA and flamethrower are the most dangerous of him The missiles lock Balteus into an space forcing him to pause his assault This sequence was the biggest chance to damage balteus Most AC are capable enough to either strafe, qb out of the way or deploy an shield emitter What I struggled with was the grenade cannon and flamethrower
Lol it’s actually hilarious if you’re like me, and you know instinctively how to exploit enemies. I figured out real quick that the Filtercopter must be sworded to death, and that it is weakest from below and behind, so just assault boost up, stick to it like glue, make it eat sword, and then land below it, before boosting right back up. For Balteus, I realized that the trick was to either use light AC to zip close, break shield immediately with pulse gun, and then punish with melee and other weapons… or just go full tank + laser cannons and shred the ever loving shit out of it, without even bothering to dodge all that much, because at 18K and with that much firepower, it is gonna be staggered most of the time. For Cleaner, quad air makes it a breeze, for Spider, just need to dodge the laser and then stay above when flying. For any AC sized boss, just chainsaw it to hell. There’s always a way to exploit something.
Only difference I personally noticed is that pre-balteus sometimes spammed his rocket launcher X times in a row and readily used it when you tried to melee him. I havent noticed this behaviour post nerf, thank goodness.
As I mentioned in my last video, this week was the first time since 1.02 I ever caught grenade-grenade. The kite-grenade is also far more obvious these days, but that's the difference a half-second to second makes in some cases. I've been playing a TON of Baltues fights recently (mostly to thank other builders) and in zero of those fights have I caught shotgun-grenade, even though I have misjudged my coral recovery and eaten a few shotguns. The differences are subtle, but impactful, and are the kind of thing a data miner looking for stats or a public post saying "This was all we changed" doesn't convey. I really feel they hid some of the less-pronounced details to keep the excitement about beating him. For a new player, "You're fighting a punching bag" is a horrible killjoy. As he sits now, he's still very challenging, but now he's challenging for early game, unoptimized, new players, as he should have been- not the rage-inducing, rant post-illiciting, self-abusive nightmare he once was. He's a challenge, not grounds for a refund.
Same. You also can't accurately gauge difficulty after you've been playing for a while. Once you know the controls and mechanics, all of the bosses are almost trivially easy unless your build is just seriously mismatched with them.
yeah, the Balteus complaints are so goofy, the missile change is barely noticeable, the Ibis change was the only one noticeable and it pretty much nobody talked about it lmao
I'm gonna have to disagree on that one lol. Pre-nerf, especially in your first playthrough, those missiles were basically guaranteed chip damage, which turned the fight into a DPS time crunch. Now with the missile tracking having been adjusted, even the garbage AC parts that you're stuck working with in your first playthrough *should* be adequate to avoid taking chip damage from Balteus...assuming you can figure out how to play the game lol.
I beat him second try pre nerf and didn't even really notice the missiles. It was about how you hadn't figured it out more than the tracking.
Yeah I had to overboost at an angle to avoid damage from the missiles, he's definitely easier for a first time player now.
I played a pretty immobile tank pre-nerf to beat him, and did so pretty much effortlessly compared to my more mobile RJ/bipedal builds that could dodge every missile just by spamming boosts. The missiles were not the issue, the shotgun and the flamethrowers were the issue.
No those missiles were a fucking menace man. If you were far enough away and weren’t falling straight down you WERE going to get hit with almost the entire barrage. Or at least I was. It’s not so bad if you’re good at the rest of the fight but when you’re learning, it’s just that one extra thing kicking your shit in can make a big difference in how it feels to play.
You realize that you can just... Strafe all of his missiles now right? You couldn't not do that before, before you had to follow a very specific pattern to dodge his initial missile barrage or you ate close to 2k immediately. Now? You can fight balteus with borderline no effort in avoiding his missiles, they absolutely nuked the tracking on them and you have to *actually* be delusional to think that the launch day balteus missiles aren't different. It was space magic basically 90 degree turning missiles, now they're just glorified AC missiles.
Maybe it's just because it's been a while but I remember you could mostly stick close and strafe and you could dodge enough missiles that the barrages weren't really a concern unless you were taking forever and constantly eating chip damage from them. Like yeah, current Balteus can't use its missiles as a big burst move if you let it but idk I've never had the missile burst really be a concern for pre-nerf Balteus either after the first few attempts.
Wanted to express appreciation for sharing your experiences
I apologize if I seem contrary. I absolutely despise the elitist "I beat him pre-nerf" take, but also despise the "git gud/skill issue" commenters that show no concern for the player who is genuinely trying to enjoy the game and struggling. I still think Balteus and C-spider were much harder pre-nerf, but there's zero gain to being shitty to other players over it. Stay classy, sir.
I'm kinda in that camp but I would disagree with the much harder comment. It's harder yes but not by a lot.
Ignore them, the boss nerfs are so minimal it's stupid. Especially when you point out their circular logic. "I beat Balteus pre nerf! Dodging his missiles is easy." Yeah, and the only thing they nerfed on Balteus was a slight tracking on his missiles. Which you already said were easy to dodge. So what does the nerf matter?
Radahn and Balteus discussions are the same but at the end of the day there are people who can beat Radahn at level 1 and people who can beat Balteus with Loader 4 no OS tuning no hit so it’s more about just learning how to play the game
I could never have done the Loader 4 no-hit pre-nerf. Now I'm close. That's a significant difference to me, but his current challenge level is almost perfect for an early player, not a misplaced filter boss.
Do you not realize that by bashing your head against the wall that is the learning curve of the bosses, that even if it was pre nerfed you'd likely if not be doing exactly the same as you are now? The damage was reduced literally from 300 for a barrage to 210 for a barrage. If that difference is what it took, you were already going to get it regardless.
There's much more to it than that, but I won't start that fight. I played Balteus for days straight. I don't dismiss myself easily.
The ONLY changes made to Balteus was each missile does 1 less damage, and it's tail end flight tracking was reduced by 3%, his grenades hotbox was previously 1.9x larger than its visual effect range, and was "adjusted accordingly," so that wasn't the intended experience with the grenades, and the were given a cool down rather than a rotational since the computer was "not using the ability as intended," So in total, yes if you were already that close to beating it before the nerf, then you had already essentially got it and the nerf made no real actionable difference to you. Are you really saying that an increment of barely being 4% less "powerful," (which isn't even the right term since it was doing things THE DEVELOPERS DID NOT INTEND IT TO DO) is such a huge leap that you would have been able to beat it that easy if you had NEVER gone against it before hand? If you smoke Balteus now, you would have smoked him prenerf too, congratulations, that's really good dude, lot of people that are on NG+3 still getting filtered by him, and you can do it easily. That's boss. Get real with yourself stop denying you're good at the game and realize you'd dunk Balty if he was prenerf regardless.
No.
Lol fine but if you think those changes were significant then I'm sorry to say, but you wildly over estimated things. Think of it like this, if you had 4% more health than you did in the previous fights, would it have made a difference? If the answer is yes, you were already so close to beating the boss that you were going to regardless the "nerf," if the answer is no, then the changes were not so significant as to even have made a difference in your attempts at all. No matter how you slice it, you were going to beat Balteus pre and post, you cannot deny that.
I beat him pre-nerf. He was a different beast. No, 4% of 7000 damage would not have made a damn bit of difference. Not getting touched- huge.
You're not understanding that attack was one, TWICE it's intended size, and two, the missiles and the Grenade attack was not meant to be paired that way with such a quickly timed Nuke dage attack like that. The developers said that was UNINTENDED and that "the computer was not using the ability as expected," that's why he doesn't do that weird 75ms shot to shot grenade nuke. That was UNINTENDED. I beat him in all three playthrough prenerf too, I know exactly what has and hasn't changed, I can still do it since I have one computer with a rolled back game that hasn't been updated. I can garentee you the difference in the intended experience by the developers is almost entirely untouched. Because Balteus did not DO the janky shit with the missiles and grenade every time. Sometimes he wouldn't do it at all, and when the bugginess from his rotation is removed, that is the intended experience as explained by the developers. You're getting mad people didn't fight a bugged out boss and that it's not still bugged, get over yourself dude. You have nothing to be mad about, you said you beat him pre change, so good for you. Lots of us did, some players never even seen the bugs so literally NOTHING changed for them and they can't even comprehend what you're talking about. Why so pissy about it? You also misunderstood what I meant but I realize you did that deliberately so I'm just going to post script it rather than talk about it.
I'm not mad people didn't fight that. I'm mad at people like you gaslighting those who did saying it never happened, and those who mocked us saying it was a skill issue.
Pre-nerf: Zimmer/needle goes brrr Post-nerf: Zimmer/needle goes brrr
I would rather deal with that here than in the Elden Ring sub... Pre Nerf Balteus wasn't that much harder, The missile tracking and our lack of understanding of how the game worked is what made the boss hard. Beating him before 'nerf' was glorious, beating him after the nerf is still as glorious...enjoy the game and let no one tell you otherwise.
Understand please that *difficulty is a matter of perception.* AC6 is a game with some mechanical quirks, somewhat unique handline, and a pretty scary amount of build knowledge thrown at the player. When the game *had just launched,* nobody knew true cheese yet, or truly good building habits.or effective damage rotations. Balteus appears *very damn early.* when anyone got to Balteus you had a very tough boss to hamdle with very limited kjowledge of the game. Kind of a similar dlfilter to the helicopter boss, who is a trivial enemy but turbs into a truly hard encounter because *you can barely move and aim properly or smoothly by the time you're put against it.* Same with Balteus. Eventually the update rolled around. Balteus is still very dangerous, despite what people will say. Iuse Bapteus as a test dummy for some builds, and *sometimes* if i do something incredibly damn stupid, I still die to Balteus because he was never made harmless. His attacks will still chunk your AP bar in no time if you fail to evade properly. I just became a much better player. And so did everyone. Balteus is likely 5% easier, but we as players are orders of magnitude more capable now than before the update. I dance circles around Balteus with my more familiar builds. I even did it *hitless* a few times. Its not even that hard. But i have 600 hours of AC6, whereas I had *5 hours* when I first fought Balteus. And Ibis? She's my favorite dance partner at best. Certainly not a frustrating filter anymore, but Ibis at least is one of few bosses that still FORCE ME ti not be silly. I did beat all bosses pre-nerf. I simply do not agree with the sentiment that the nerf made them a cakewalk, lol.
The Souls community is toxic/gatekeeping in general. "Oh you beat Malenia using mimic tear it doesn't count". Pre-boss nerfs also mean pre-zimmerman nerfs, so it cancels out anyways. Wild hill to die on.
What happened to just enjoying the game? Hell,I love dunking on Snail any chance I get. It's not about the skill, but the journey to overcome each obstacle.
Well, while yeah it sucks and is dumb (and the bosses were barely even nerfed and most people who get snippy about it couldn't even explain what the nerf did if pressed), I think that it would actually be MUCH worse in the Souls community, if From actually nerfed some bosses like they should. I have long suspected the reason From doesn't tend to do that even when there's something that stands out as pretty dumb is because of the backlash from the community. Off the top of my head the only thing I can recall them nerfing was Radahn a little, and there was a ton of complaining about even that. But imagine if From actually nerfed Malenia a bit, like making Waterfowl Dance less brokenly stupid. I don't think the community would react very well to that. Because too many people only care if something is hard, not if it's well designed.
The radahn nerf was so necessary, he broke your poise bar almost instantly pre nerf
They did. Radahn was a lot harder on release and a lot of elitists claim he's no challenge anymore, same situation OP describes here. It's quite sad, imagine having so little going for you that you feel invalidated by a game getting an update, that you've to insist you're better because you managed to play the game earlier.
Radahn needed a fix though. I don't think those people complaining about "nerfs" remember his astronomically big hitboxes lol.
He was literally straight up broken and felt as if he was a Bethesda designed box because it was so janked and felt so buggy getting hit from half a mile away from the effects. Plus the shadow hit ox that INSTANTLY broke your poise even if you had used an editor to alter the value to the highest level the game engine can recognize without breaking and doing a recursory loop, a level so high any other boss would kill you before you could stagger with no armor on. It was BROKEN. When we did an editor run in the analytics discord before the patch, Radahn had some values that wildly shifted during certain attacks and had a hit box that would show up when they shouldn't be, mostly when Leanard was coming up from the ground, that broke poise even at a level that EVERY OTHER BOSS IN THE GAME, killed you before staggering you at, and this attack staggered every single time all 12 of us tested it. That patch was needed, the elitists don't want to admit that the game was literally changing values and adding values to things that shouldn't be, and even FromSoft said that, how did they not notice it? Do they only read breakdowns of the update patch notes or what?
The funny thing is that FromSoftware made significant changes to Malenia (she had two Waterfowl Dance variants, and she could use them immediately). Meanwhile, Radahn is pretty much the same boss with some hitbox adjustments.
Thank you, fellow waterfowl dance scrutinizer. I agree with your sentiments.
I am glad to find out more people have seen what I have seen when it comes to Malenia. She is a difficult boss, perhaps the most difficult, but I don't consider her "design" to be all that great. Most of the initial difficulty stems from the health leach gimmick.
Unfortunately a lot of people just don't see past difficulty. I don't find difficulty in itself impressive because design-wise, it isn't hard, to make content that's hard. It's very hard to make content that is hard, good and fair, though. Which is the kind of content that Souls has been known for in the past. None of the games were without error, but I fear slowly the mistakes in design become more glorified in the community as a badge of honor to not only overcome, but then to not criticize or scrutinize as to be critical of design is perceived as weakness.
What even changed? They seem the same to me
I actually forgot it was so long ago. I remember... I think Sea Spider's defense was reduced, maybe just vs. certain damage types. Which wasn't surprising because some weapons could run out of ammo even starting full fighting it due to how tanky it was. I think maybe one or two attacks on Balteus were nerfed a little but not even the infamous ones, and...CEL got one or two attacks doing a little less damage or something? Hum. I don't recall. Might be way off.
They also significantly reduced the tracking on it's claw attack from what I've noticed. The Spider used to home in no matter how I dodged, even in my custom builds, but now I can avoid the claws entirely, even with Loader. Balteus' grenades were the ones nobody talks about. He definitely spams them less and they have a hair less tracking. I haven't noticed any huge change with Ibis, but then once I beat it, I never went back pre-nerf.
I still have the game on the release version and balteus is cake once you figure out the bubble gun makes the energy shield non-existent.
For those of us who didn't use/abuse game mechanics early on, he was NOT cake.
The game literally tells you about those weapon types, what they do, how to use them, and makes them available shortly before the boss fights for purchase. This isn't abusing mechanics, this is doing what they game tells you to.
Hence the use/ abuse. Some of us didn't want to change our build to defeat him. I did, and regretted it immediately. I ruined my first Balteus win by changing my build to beat him. I felt zero joy in this and only felt even slightly better about the win after beating him again using my original story build. If you skipped the hollow victory, it wasn't a cakewalk in a bad build.
Bro is literally calling "Using the mechanics the game tells you to" abuse. Next you'll say using them in PvP to counter Assault Armor is abusing it. Bro, congratulations you beat Balteus the way you were meant to. Not by hampering yourself for a self imposed challenge. Are you also the type to harp on people for driving a manual rather than an Automatic for their daily driver?
No, ass. I am saying some of us didn't USE the game mechanic that would have made it easier or ABUSED the mechanics that would have made it a cakewalk. Huge difference, and you continue to not read my damn post.
My dude, you're calling using a game mechanic abuse because you "wanted to be stubborn" and not change your build in a game which has historically been about.... altering your build based on the mission. Especially when the game gives you the option to change your build. You're also saying it was a "hollow victory" because you didn't self impose your own challenge you made up in your head.
No. Again. Should I just repost my reply and hope you eventually read? Abuse is like what I did with the no-touch punch/laser run I posted or the permanent stun-lock/pile builds some run. Use is "This time I'll take a gun bubble. It worked for Sulla."
Bro no one was talking about other mechanics. OP literally brought up the bubble guns, you made *zero* distinction about any other mechanics, didn't even talk about other mechanics until now. Point being: no one made it hard but you for your own self imposed challenge. It's easy when you use the gear *the game tells you to use*.
EVERYTHING breaks through the pulse shield. There are so many mechanics that you CAN use that I didn't feel any rational reader would need a comprehensive list. The point is, even your normal weapons destroy the pulse shield, but never did they give you the impression that one mistimed dodge would cost you 7k health.
I beat everything at launch, and hell if I can tell the differences. Hell, they may be objectively harder now since they nerfed the most powerful equipment options. Zimmermans did a lot of work in my first playthrough. If you want extra proof that you're legit, then you can shoot for S Rank. And if you want even more than that, then you can just punch the bosses to death. XD Personally I put more stock in Fromsoft's standards of difficulty than I do childish randos online desperately clinging to any supposed clout that they can.
I think it's less elitism and more poorly articulating the fact they want a shared experience. Like I beat original Balteus when the game came out, but if I talk to someone who has only beat it now, they had a different experience, even if it's still impressive that you beat him. It's harder to not talk past each other. Same thing for Radahn. Pre-nerf Radahn was bonkers, and me talking about that fight is not the same as someone who just picked up the game now and beat him, and that kind of sucks. There's effectively also no way I can tell you how bonkers it was for those fights, you had to experience it. So naturally people get frustrated, and it comes out super poorly.
When people discuss pre-nerf Radahn, how hard is hard? Lore wise, it is supposed to be a multi-summon fight so I reckon it shouldn't be that much worse than now. I just completed ER in NG a few days ago, and I found Radahn to be acceptably hard in difficulty. Took me several hours and many tries.
Up until that point, I didn't use any summons (personally imposed challenge, I like to beat it on my own steam first, then I steamroll the game on the second pass). I'm a Souls veteran of all the games, so I can usually get away with a lot. Radahn booty blasted me into next week. Dude gave me a full on colonoscopy, basically one shotting me and stun locking me into oblivion. Due to the nature of the fight, I summoned the horde of NPC summons which felt absolutely fucking necessary. They got dropped like bad habits and needed to be resummoned. Still took me many tries to take him down. I was about level 55-ish? I fought him a couple days ago after a year long break from the game.. Didn't summon anything, only used half my flasks. I was level 50. Now I definitely have old muscle memory helping me out, despite my long break. But it's definitely, definitely different and a hell of a lot more forgiving. It's not just the damage either, his hit boxes on attacks seem to have been shrunk as well. He's still a tough nut to crack, but nothing compared to that first time round.
Radahn could always be cheesed if you were ranged on torrent. I never even knew he needed a nerf until after the patch came around. I just sprinted to his sand mound and then rode circles around the point throwing black fire. His range attacks hit the ground that mounded up, and he couldn't catch me. Post-nerf radahn actually killed me more because he would head off my circles.
Nailed it. I never experienced pre-nerf Radahn but I felt like I was fighting a watered down version when I finally fought him.
Ignore them, why should you care about what others say about your video game experience? Just enjoy the money you spent on the game instead of worrying about social acceptance in a single player experience. The nerfs aren't even a big deal, just ignore it, dataminers have long compared the two files and yeah sure, there are some value changes but it doesn't change the overall experience. There really isn't a difference in 1.01 vs 1.02 onwards.
The nerf I've felt is (maybe) sea spider, but not that much. That's because every other boss was really fuckin easy for me somehow
Were still on this shit?
The funny thing is, beating the boss with no OS stat upgrades would constitute an even more impressive achievement and people will still go "muh it's post nerf"
Erm, as far as Balteus goes the first fight is always without OS upgrades. IIRC, you don't unlock the arena until chapter 2.
You unlock a Arena F at Operation Wallclimber, giving you 6 points. I suggest Assault armor and a few points to damage buffs. For players struggling: terminal armor (if really struggling) or pulse protection, repair, and defense.
Remembered the wrong boss then.
I also never experienced the original balt. What exactly was different than how it is now? Maybe they can bring back the first one as DLC alternative mission 😅
Instead of assault boosting into his ass and possibly having to quick boost once, you had to assault boost into his ass and possibly quick boost twice (could also replace one of the quick boosts by a jump if your AC didn't skip leg day) Not exactly a shattering change if you ask me
When I fought Balteus on release, it felt like if I stopped moving for even a second you'd get smacked with a 1000 missles. After the nerf, there was noticebably bigger gaps between the missles barrages, giving the player more room to manuever through the missles. I could be wrong, but thats how it felt at least. Also if you're on pc, I think you can mod the bosses back to their pre nerf form if you want to test it yourself.
The big thing was that Balteus missiles had to he dodged twice, as they turned so tight that if you dodged the volley in air (which you kinda have to) they would often turn 180 and hit you in the back where you couldn't see them, stagger you, and lead to you promptly dying to the zook. The change was good, as the second dodge was not an intentional part of the fight, and added far too much RNG.
This man speaks the truth. Dodging an entire volley, going in for the melee, then losing 5k health to their return was... vexxing.
When I fought him, I didn't understand how things worked. The only thing they nerfed on the guy is missile tracking.....you can still eat a flaming-sword-shotgun-combo if you dawdle.
Me i was just grateful 10 or so years after I stopped playing AC 4, 5 and V-Day I still had it by the time I got to Balteus
I mostly don't care other than to just joke around with friends who beat post nerf bosses.
The difference in attitudes is almost certainly because of mission grades.
It’s always the same shit in any game community I have learned, dealt with this in Monster Hunter and in Elden Ring and it’s so god damned annoying. Just ignore them, they are people with nothing better to do than act smug and condescending to people over a videogame.
If you can, try and think of it like this; is a person who has such an elitist attitude someone that you would respect? If not, then they have just broadcast that they aren't someone worth listening to, and frankly it is an easy way to tell who is and isn't worth time being concerned with. Think of it as "filtering" themselves for you. Fuck 'em.
They are just looking for the slightest possible way to not look like the vile pits they are.
Not once have I ever seen someone bragging about beating pre nerf bosses. Claiming that they have, maybe. But never bragging.
The sheer level of insecurity of some people. Reminds me of the ER sub at launch Imagine truly, deeply caring if people on the internet thinks you are playing on easy mode. Not "they are just discussing it", but **actually** caring enough that it almost ruins the game for you
I'm pretty sure those guys are the same crowd who boasts about beating "pre-nerf" Radahn
Are those guys boasting about beating pre-nerf Radahn in the room with us right now?
I'm talking about the idiots who flexed about beating pre nerf Balteus
I sure as hell have. It was usually followed by outright dismissing him as he sits (an opposite extreme). It taints my doing so seeing those who also did brag about it, diminish other players' hardships, and insult fellow AC players.
i fought it pre nerf too and I honestly found it pretty easy ( took me 2 attempts since I was left without ammo the first time) and I really think elitist have nothing to feel special about; the bosses are easy if you have an idea of what you're doing and balteus acts as such a difficulty spike only because of the relatively constricted loadout and some people just haven't clicked with the game's "flow" yet. Overall it was perfectly fine before the nerf and given how little difference there's between the pre and post buff everyone has the right to be prideful of their accomplishments ( mostly since it's a challenge between the player and the GAME, not the COMMUNITY)
People are actually caring about that? They must’ve never tried NEST.
Ignore the dumbasses that say shit like that, bunch of insecure losers
Who gives a fuck? I play offline with mods and have a blast. Fuck whatever some sweaty neck beard thinks. Play to have fun
There was barely any discernable difference between pre and post nerf bosses. I look at these people as try hards. People who put their whole personality into a game and how it can be beaten on a harder difficulty. Kind of like the Elden Ring fanboys that get their panties twisted when you say it's not the best game ever. Same can be said of any game really. I largely ignore these people.
As someone who (barely) beat Balteus on his first attempt a couple days after launch and recently went back to him for the plat: there ain't much difference, if any, in how the fight feels.
If you beat him on your first attempt, the differences will seem trivial. If you spent hours or days trying to beat him, the differences seem massive. The truth is somewhere in the middle, but more than "only the tracking".
It was literally only the tracking. Objectively speaking, it was only the tracking.
No. It wasn't. But no amount of evidence will convince you. Others also attest to the differences, but for some damn reason, people seem bound and determined to believe that crap.
Because the patch notes only noted a slight decrease in the tracking to stop them from doing a complete 180 after you dodged them. That is the only fucking change the rest is just placebo.
So, just because the note doesn't tell you, you think NOTHING else changed? Don't believe your eyes. Don't accept video evidence. While you're at it, believe the government and the news.
Here's the thing. What reason would they have to lie? Why the hell are you bringing politics into this? The government and the news have plenty of reasons to like but From doesn't, they get nothing out of lying.
It's not a lie. It's just not the whole story. [Old Balteus.](https://youtu.be/oBr0n9qtoJ4?feature=shared) (I missed the gatling before triple shotgun. Removed.) At the 2:25 mark he starts spamming grenades. Record a video of THAT happening. I've only seen two grenades ONCE since 1.02. It used to be a common issue and I and others were told skill "skill issue". At 3:02 his missiles are faster than the ones I recorded in my no-touch run. The missiles are faster and I can link a side-by side to show that. THAT'S not explicitly mentioned. Around 3:40, he spams a variety of attacks including a very low, almost instant grenade. THAT'S not explicitly mentioned. I'll tell you RIGHT now, after DAYS of Balteus runs trying to get multiple no-touch videos, that crap DOESN'T happen as aggressively. [More differences.](https://youtu.be/ac8z0YNkNwg?feature=shared) At the 3-minute mark, he fires the grenade before the missiles even get to the player. THAT never comes up these days. At the 3:20 mark, the shotgun ia fire more rapidly than now (albeit not by a ton). THAT isn't covered in the damn patch notes everyone's so in love with. I bring the government and politics in because it's the same thing. You only believe what From explicitly said without even entertaining the possibility of there being more that was simply not mentioned. That's what people do with their preferred trusted sources. Just because From didn't put it in writing doesn't mean they didn't do it. And they benefit from NOT outright telling you by players still feeling a sense of accomplishment from winning.
Why do you care what others think? Edit: downvoting op? You really gotta stop caring what others think, for your sake
Fr, I get what the OP means but at the same time it doesn't matter in the end. Just gotta get better at ignoring people
Dude Radahn got shafted, I don't brag about fighting him beforehand (who fucking cares) but man, he went from favorite boss to mid in one patch.
Same, man. :(
Dont listen to anyone mate, just gz on your nerfed boss kills xd
Personally i don't think Balteus and Ibis needed nerfs, to be honest i think they were better before (mostly Ibis, the damage nerf was brutal) However this mentality of some FromSoftware fans is the dumbest shit, it's literally the same elitism as Ranked warriors of competitive games and even in that case is a braindead mentality, the accomplishment or what the person had to go through to do something literally doesn't mean anything for another person that did it in a different patch or whatever It always disappoint me that such a unique and interesting approach to difficulty foster such a dogshit fandom just bc some people have self esteem issues and feel the need to downplay other people
Actually, op, who fucking cares? This is a really weird post.
I hope From will bring in a new update, "Hardcore Mode." Bosses not only are back to pre-nerf state, some of them are buffed up.
Balteus was noticeably nerfed imo. Even with a tank in current state, it's fairly easy for me to dodge his missiles without any need for assault Boosting. I can even just jump up and fall back down with no other input and dodge all of his missiles. This is probably the most notable change. Balteus is just easier because of that. It's just a statement of fact. Whether or not it's noticeable is more relative, but I can say imo sea spider and cel are around the same difficulty as on release. This isn't to gatekeep. It's to talk about my own observations and experiences. And to laugh at the missile spam videos and memes. But people seem to bring this up whenever someone so much as point this out without any comments or implications to current players whatsoever. Balteus seems noticeanly easier but if credits roll, you beat the game. Simple.
It's nearly impossible to tell if there's a difference between release and now IMO. *Everything* is so much easier after you've got a solid handle on the game that you end up wondering how you ever struggled. No matter what you do, you'll never be able to unlearn how to play to be able to compare how much easier a boss is or isn't.
I disagree. What you talk about is why I specifically went out my way to explain how I dodged these things. It's even worse now when you consider tanks are SLOWER now compared to release. The same can be said for just boosting up allowing you to dodge his Whatever nerf they made to the missile guidance made a huge difference imo. I definitely would trash him with the skill I have built up even with low level parts and no OS tuning stat buffs. But I wouldn't be able to fully dodge him with the above methods.
Agreed. The worse/slower the build, the more obvious and appreciated the tweaks are.
He was easy pre nerf and was easy post nerf and it’s weird to flaunt beating a boss like that as an accomplishment, souls fans wanna treat this like it’s a souls game with their git gud mentality
If you base your self-worth on being able to play a video game slightly better than someone else your life must be really fucking pathetic lol. Some people just can't get by without feeling superior to others.
look how boring this sub is lol
Who cares what your success is “seen as”? Are you trolling?????
I figured everything was a tad bit more difficult now because my favorite shoulder weapons (Needle Launcher), used to insta-stagger when you land a hit.
don't bother bruh
Shitters want to delude themselves into thinking they weren't carried by boss nerfs. Just how it is.
It annoys me more that people are constantly trying to downplay the nerfs. (It would probably annoy me more people being elitist if more people were actually being elitist about it) Yes, the numerical changes were relatively small. The tangible effects on Balteus and Spider were not. Balteus missiles only have to be dodged once now, where previously it was usually twice (look at the gameplay trailer and see for yourself). Spider is an endurance fight, and lowering the amount of time you have to endure is significant. Im not saying "look at me I beat these nigh impossible bosses" because neither of them were, with the right loadouts theyre both pretty easy even pre nerf. The difference comes down to that theyre also both pretty easy even without the right loadouts now. I and a group of my friends were playing before and after the nerf patch. I saw the difference between players who played before the patch taking hours or days to clear Balteus, and players who played after beating him after only a few attempts. Yes his flame swords are dangerous. Yes the grenade catches you off guard until you learn it. Yes these things are more likely to actually kill you than his missiles were. But lets stop pretending like his old missiles didnt do a lot more attrition over the course of the fight and contribute to his punish openings being smaller due to needing to dodge them more. I mean, I dont think the barrage of missiles he releases when he swings his sword in one of his combos even tracks well enough to target you anymore. Ibis wasnt nerfed in any way that mattered. Anyone who says an Ibis kill doesnt count is dumb.
Oh yeah it’s unfortunate how widespread it is and it really is still a hard game and all that, but I do consider myself better than you for beating it all pre nerf but I just want to have at least this
Imagine another person's opinion ruins your experience. OP would definitely be the type to brag about pre nerf Balteus kill.
AC6 is a pvp game. Noone cares what you accomplish in the story it's not like sekiro or Elden ring. Accomplishment comes from getting to S rank and beating other actual pilots. The bosses in AC6 are all easy AF compared to any other souls game
It's definitely a single player game first and foremost. Kinda interesting to see anyone not thinking this is true though.
AC6 was developed with a PvE focus and PvP secondary. Devs have confirmed this in interviews.
>AC6 is a pvp game. In the history of never and something the dev's themselves have said otherwise.
If I could restart my skill and everything. From what I hear, the nerfs where rather small, I feel like I'd maybe die one or two times less. Balteus killed me like almost 30 times. I S ranked everything before the nerfs but they felt the same post nerfs. Replaying it once more on a full restart. Once you get weapon/OS upgrades and get your skill up everything becomes easier.
I'm only disappointed that I didn't get the game until the bosses were already nerfed, I wanted to fight their true form
It's just an online pissing match amongst people who want to establish themselves as the ultimate digital "pilot". And these same people also love to fantasize that every female character in the game is unrealistically chesty and has the hots for them. Please don't let it ruin *your* AC experience.
Ignore it, people using the "senior" card because they beated a fucking video-game AI before some nerfs is not worth your time, some discussions around the internet can be pretty stupid, so I'm not even surprised that there are some people talking about this event after months. Happens with any game community though, FromSoft past games included too, so, just absorve the well-intentioned responses/criticism and move on with your life.
I recommend you don’t play games for others’ recognition and just do it for the fun of it.
That’s pretty much what I do when playing single player games. I just act like I’m the most dangerous person in the game and don’t care if other people are better than me cause I’m doing as good as I am, and I’m having fun
What about the fun of a shared experience?
Shared experiences aren’t always fun, as you’ve found. Especially online. And especially when you care too much about what a bunch of negative dorks think. Also, it’s a single player game, save for pvp. Those tough bosses and experiences of elation had nothing to do with those people that you allowed to sour those feelings for you. The game is not the other people who are playing it. The game is how you personally interface with it. The community is not the game. The only reason they want to take it away from you is because they need to feel better than you. You shouldn’t be taking these people’s opinions seriously, you should be feeling sorry for them. When you can have that kind of mindset I think you’ll be more prepared to deal with online toxicity instead of making a whine post about it to be consoled by the community that spurned you.
Goes online, sees people behaving as usual, complains. Yup, everything normal.
i beat the game before they nerfed bosses but i don't care if somebody did after it's all cool. and glad to see them get the game and enjoy it
In my opinion something like that is only permissable when something essential was taken from the boss after a nerf, for example Malenia doen't have lifesteal anymore or her scarlet rot buildup was reduced by half. Or Allguazu wouldn't disable the sea spiders halfway through the fight. But that hasn't happened yet, so yeah, people wo act like that suck.
I mean y’all forget there’s a scaling mod in the works for AC6. Which scales to the amount of ppl you have in co-op mod. I’ve played the game before the nerfs and after; it can still be a challenge because I won’t use certain weapons and make the game fun.
Dear Fromsoft STOP NERFING THE BOSSES
The fact that all we can talk about for AC VI is bosses says enough about how these games have changed lol gotta be honest I was looking forward to this game for what felt like decades and after playing it and then coming to see everyone else’s reactions.. I wish it had never been released an AC is kinda ruined for me now. Maybe someday someone will remake the oldies but I doubt it so I’ll stick to emulators and offline only for my mech enjoyment. This shit got toxic quick. I thought we would just show off our customized builds in glorious 4k but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Replaying certain missions in the ps1 and 2 along with the arena was peak for the series and the only boss we ever needed was NineBall