So, thought I'd do another progress update. I'm pretty sure I'm getting close to the end of the game.

First, here's my current stats:
Level 144

Vigor 50
Mind 45
Endurance 13
Strength 12
Dexterity 18
Intelligence 70
Faith 6
Arcane 9
(Not actually sure what to level any more, to be honest.)

Wielding a:
Moonveil + 10
Pulley Bow +9
Carian Regal Scepter +10

I've got 14 flasks.

Did a little grinding, and also leveled up a few times from regular exploration.

I did some arson last time. One thing I hadn't mentioned was that I picked up half a medallion a while back, and found a lady with a wolf friend that went along with me as a summons. There was this pesky dragon that kept attacking me near where I committed arson, so the obvious thing to do was kill it and blame the fire on it.

Took a few attempts, and eventually I got smart and summoned that lady I mentioned, who was an archer. So I attacked it with magic while she fired at its vulnerable spots, and we brought it down.

Went through Castle Sol, which had pesky materializing warriors, an irritating boss, and, as it turned out, half of a secret medallion. Hefting that medallion at a lift got me to the other half of the Mountaintop of Giants, a bloody irritating snowfield.

Went through a mine with some upgrade stuff, and also found a place that was supposed to be of the Forlorn. Didn't actually get to the end of that one. The Forlorn were irritating enough in Dark Souls 2.

I backtracked a little and did the last non-optional murder over in the manor. Still had an optional one I could've done, but I didn't feel like murdering someone that helped me out on a boss fight once.

That murder impressed them, and they took me to meet their boss, who immediately turned into a giant snake. It did't help.

The snake took a fair number of tries with the mimic helping, and eventually I got smart and swapped my clothes and talismans around to be more fire resistant. That meant the mimic survived longer, and helped.

I also went and did some parkour, and explored places I'd missed before, got new spells and things.

Eventually, back in that snowfield area, I went back to deal with this Ordeal place, which was kinda, well, an ordeal. Go into the evergaul, then light three candles while an invisible assassin tries to kill you and these buffed archers shoot at you? Sheesh. Ended up wearing ninja-y armor, using invisibility a lot myself, and murderizing the archers a bit.

That took me over to the Hageltree, where a bunch of stuff blew bubbles at me, and there was lots of parkour and climbing trees. Confusing place, but I eventually figured out how to proceed to Ephael, also in the Hageltree. That's where I am right now, exploring a bunch and dying a bunch. There was a big tree dude walking around... until I went and sniped it with more than 100 arrows from a distance.

There was also this area down a bit where annoying monsters pop out of every corner. Had the mimic dealing with them with my smashing them with rock sling, but I managed to die most of the way through it, and I've only found one grace or so in this area. Lost a ton of souls, but I'm not sure how much I really need them any more. I could easily get them all back grinding if I wanted to. (I was also deliberately not worrying about souls for a bit to do exploring, as it can be easier to just run past stuff and take dangerous risks to get an idea of where things are sometimes.)

But that's my current status. Not sure where I'll stick the next few levels, either, since I think I actually have int, mind, and even vigor about where I want them. Maybe endurance. Or I could add more vigor, I guess. I think 150's the meta for pvp, but I don't really care much about that, so I might go beyond there.

--Sweetie Belle

7688437
Welcome to the Haligtree, very pretty, but very deadly.

7688437
Looks like you're ready for new game plus.
Ordinary maidens won't do, you'll need plus sized maidens.

I saw a video that explains that there are soft caps to stats, and after a certain value, you start losing ROI.
Think for some stats that point is beyond 60.
I wish I could remember the name of the video.

I have a char that has a higher endurance than you but he still fatrolls.
He can't take off his clothes because of the cops giving him a final warning.

Did you get the recipe for making sacrificial twigs?
That would save you some runes.
I don't know where the notebook for that is.
Maybe you can buy twigs at the Roundtable hold?

I've been wandering around.
Found a place on the Northern Road in Liurnia that has guys with four arms that use automatic crossbows.
Not fun, but there's a grace nearby.

Found a steel wire torch.
You can use it to spew flames if you have enough focus points.
It's in Castle Morne somewhere.
Used it on the invisible scarab on the beach. Scarab smores are crunchy and tasty!
Got an ash of war from that. That char couldn't use it.
I going to get my two handed char to grab the Morne sword.
Then I'll be ready for Godrick the guy who takes graft.

Unfortunately, my controller is acting up.
The right bumper sticks and that could be fatal in a fight.
Especially for sorcerers.
I'm not sure what to do.

I could:
1. Buy another wireless controller from someone other than Microsoft.
2. Buy another of the same type of controller from Microsoft.
3. Get someone to fix my controller.
4. Fix it myself.

Option 4 is out.
I have the tools.
Inherited them from my father but not any of his skills.
Since dying in a conflagration is painful, that option is out.
I have a video that shows me what to do if my hands didn't shake like jello on a belly dancer having a seizure during an earthquake.

Maybe I can get someone to do option three?
I think the problem is that a part inside the controller is flaking out.
If it's replaced, things would be great.

Option 1 and 2 could work.
Maybe I got unlucky, and the next controller won't have this problem?
I don't know if this is a design flaw of that particular controller, and I could buy a new one and be back here in a few months.
Or maybe this is a flaw with all controllers and I'll have this problem again.
But if the problem shows up a year or more in the future, that's okay.

So far, Elden Ring is the only game I'll play with a controller.
But I won't play it with a mouse unless it lends me its controller.

What do you think?
I'm leaning towards just buying a new controller but that might not work.

7688478
Yep. I think this area, crumbling farum azula, and some spots underground are the main areas I need to explore more right now. I've been going back and revisiting things I didn't complete earlier, and pretty much clobbering the bosses that used to be tough...

--Sweetie Belle

7688817
Yeah, I'd advise doing as much as possible/finishing quests before farum azula.

7688756

Looks like you're ready for new game plus.
Ordinary maidens won't do, you'll need plus sized maidens.

Well... my stats are close to where I'd want them for new game plus. Still have a few main bosses I have to kill, I think.

I saw a video that explains that there are soft caps to stats, and after a certain value, you start losing ROI.
Think for some stats that point is beyond 60.
I wish I could remember the name of the video.

Sometimes you want to go over where the caps are for stat requirements, though. My int needs to be at least 70 if I want to play magic volleyball.

I have a char that has a higher endurance than you but he still fatrolls.
He can't take off his clothes because of the cops giving him a final warning.

It's usually a game of changing around what clothes you are wearing until over on the right, it no longer says you have a heavy load. Sometimes you can remove a helmet or something, too, or mess with talismans. I'm at a medium roll right now, but it's close to heavy.

Did you get the recipe for making sacrificial twigs?
That would save you some runes.
I don't know where the notebook for that is.
Maybe you can buy twigs at the Roundtable hold?

I don't have a recipe for them. I know you can buy them from some merchants, but it's usually a limited stock.

I've been wandering around.
Found a place on the Northern Road in Liurnia that has guys with four arms that use automatic crossbows.
Not fun, but there's a grace nearby.

Oh, yeah, those guys. It's mostly trying to keep away from where the bows are pointed at, and killing them really quickly, IIRC.

Found a steel wire torch.
You can use it to spew flames if you have enough focus points.
It's in Castle Morne somewhere.

That's kinda neat. Don't have much as far as actual breath weapon type things, though some spells are similar, I guess. Think I have some frost spells, but haven't really messed much with them.

Used it on the invisible scarab on the beach. Scarab smores are crunchy and tasty!
Got an ash of war from that. That char couldn't use it.
I going to get my two handed char to grab the Morne sword.
Then I'll be ready for Godrick the guy who takes graft.

Those invisible scarabs can be tricky! Sometimes, I just watch the pattern, stand in one spot and try to time swinging my sword right. Definitely something that takes multiple tries. Though, you know, there was that see invisible torch. Maybe that would work on them?
Keep in mind that not that far from where the grace near Godrick is, you can run into Nepheli near there, and if you talk to her, her summon sign will appear near there, and you can have her fight the boss with you! And, of course, you can summon something else with your bell. Ranged worked pretty well for me.

Unfortunately, my controller is acting up.
The right bumper sticks and that could be fatal in a fight.
Especially for sorcerers.
I'm not sure what to do.

I could:
1. Buy another wireless controller from someone other than Microsoft.
2. Buy another of the same type of controller from Microsoft.
3. Get someone to fix my controller.
4. Fix it myself.

I'd tend towards either buying a controller from Microsoft, or some other reputable company. For a computer, 8bitdo makes some nice controllers. Some are retroish, to look like various classic controllers.

Mostly just try to avoid some cheap no name third party company, or look for reviews first. It's pretty important controllers are comfortable and the buttons feel good and such. I've gotten cheap ones before that were, well, cheap.

--Sweetie Belle

7688844
Kinda figured that was going to be where a bunch of end game stuff was.

Right now, I'm locating where bell bearings for glovewart are, and upgrading some summons. Just went through a dungeon with a bunch of gremlins and jars and such for one.

--Sweetie Belle

7688869
Nice!

I'm on my third playthrough and raya lucaria is kicking my arse because my build is squishy lol. I'm doing a build based off of an OC for a fanfic I'm working on.

7688872
Honestly, that's one trouble I have is that my characters do tend to easily take a lot of damage, which is one reason I tend to pump vitality earlier than I likely should. Though switching around armor and talismans to reflect what the opponents of the area are throwing at you is good practice, and something I should do way more often.

I do keep thinking of builds that might be fun, but I also feel like I should actually finish this character before starting to, say, do a str-faith he-man build, or an int-faith sword of night and flame character...

A lot of the reason I end up not finishing games like this is trying a new character, and switching to that one before the current one has won.

--Sweetie Belle

7688895
I have a few ideas for builds as well.

You really should finish the game at least once, it's good even if the end game can feel like a bit of slog due to the difficulty spike near the end.
I'd also suggest doing a run where you do, if not all, then most NPC questlines, as you can complete them all before beating the game, though one questline will lock into a certain ending unless you do certain steps to reverse it.

This game has a more content than one playthrough can cover.

7688866
Thanks.
Unfortunately, the controller is from Microsoft.

Finally, my fat rolling char got enough endurance to roll not so fatly.
Knight stuff is so heavy.

7688907
I am definitely planning on completing it, and one reason I'm planning more than one playthrough is that I know I'm going to miss quests and npcs, and make decisions I want to try doing differently later. This one is basically the one where I did a lot of the mage-y stuff. I completed Sellens quest, siding with her, I'm doing Ranni's ending, and so on. Later, I'll probably want to do one where I'm advancing all the faith plotlines.

Also, playstyles can be totally different between characters on Souls-type games, so the different builds will end up playing pretty differently anyways.

7688944
np. And, honestly, Microsoft usually makes good controllers. I own Elden Ring for both pc and the XBox Series S. For the Xbox, I'm using the controller that comes with it, and it seems sturdy, comfortable, and reliable. On the pc, I'm currently using a 8BitDo SN30pro+, which is in form factor more of a playstation type controller, but it works pretty well. (I do also have another 8BitDo controller that's shaped more like a snes with added sticks and shoulder buttons, but that's more one for, well, snes type games.)

Logitech's also made good controllers in the past. I just haven't gotten any from them in a good while.

I have bought controllers before that were from other brands I've never heard of and ended up with cheap feeling buttons, controllers that weren't comfortable, and ones that broke easily, so that's the main reason I'm saying to be careful.

As far as Knight stuff being heavy, remember that you can take characters in any direction you want. The starting classes really only affect what gear you start with, your initial level, and your initial stats. You could take a knight and give them lighter armor and start using spells if you wanted. (In fact, the Deprived is really intended for just going any direction you want, and not committing to any playstyle at the start.

Also, keep in mind with any gear that it's a balance between how good the stats are and how heavy it is. Sometimes you don't necessarily want the armor with the best stats.

Also, you'll eventually be able to respec if you want. It's locked behind a boss, but not a particularly late game one.

--Sweetie Belle

7688907
You know, despite what I said, I was feeling like something different, so I created a quick hero with a blond bowl cut and epic chin, and grabbed the Lordsworn Greatsword (and decided to use the bronze shield when it dropped from a soldier). Made it +1, ran around a bit, got the rotten stray summons, unlocked Patches, bought Margit's Shackle, and after playing for a bit more than 2 hours and getting to level 14 or so, headed over to Margit.

My plan was actually to use the ai-breaking shackle glitch on him, but you can't do that on the first battle because there's no fog wall. So I decided I'd fight him once, then do it. He jumped down, I summoned the rotten stray, used the shackle twice, danced around hitting him occasionally... and, you know, by the time the stray died, Margit was very scarlet rotted, and it just took some more dancing around and occasional hits to kill him.

Still going back to my main character and just using this as a fun side one, but either I misremember how tough Margit is, the rotten stray is a pretty good summon, or both...

--Sweetie Belle

7690984
Both, Rotten Stray is really good for applying rot.
Plus you would've gotten noticeably better compared to when you first started.

For example, my Bloodborne inspired Mage build absolutely wrecked Radahn. Even with the Radahn Festival active, I was doing the most damage. I was able to actually fight as opposed to just running around summoning everyone while they chipped his health down. Granted my build uses Bloodhound Step (because it's basically Old Hunter's Bone with more i-frames and just as much fun to use), but I am having an easier time with the game compared to my first playthrough.

I am dreading late game bosses because squishy hunter lol.

Margit as a boss fulfils the same role as Father Gascoigne did in Bloodborne, a boss that beats the gameplay style into, literally. Both are extremely difficult on a first playthrough but are significantly easier once you've gotten used to how the game plays and the flow of combat.

7690989
I suppose I probably am better at Elden Ring, but I did have plenty of time in Dark Souls 1, 2 & 3. Admittedly, every souls game is different, and Elden ring does have a lot of its own kinks, like jump attacks. I did rather wreck the overworld Margit I ran into with my prisoner character, too.

I did totally just do the lots of summons thing for Radahn the first time. I was kinda fascinated that I could summon that many characters at once, really.

And yes, very much know the feeling of being squishy. I suspect my mage character should probably go fight the godskin duo...

I really do need to spend significant time in Bloodborne, sometime. Of the Fromsoft games I've played, Demon Souls (original), Bloodborne, Sekiro, & Evergrace are basically my least played. Not really a case of not liking it so much as it not sucking me in enough to have significant time in it, and not really having the hang of the combat.

--Sweetie Belle

7691004
Bloodborne's combat is more aggressive, fast-paced compared to Dark Souls. It was actually my first Soulsborne game, I played it on a whim for Halloween one year and actually wasn't getting frustrated by it. Bloodborne is one of my favourite games, to the point where my Elden Ring fanfics is just "What if a Bloodborne Hunter was summoned to The Lands Between?"

The game is great once you get used to it.

7691008
Part of the trouble likely is that I'm mostly a mage/ranged type that occasionally tries melee stuff, and don't really play that aggressively usually.

Then, of course, there was timing. Initially I didn't have a ps 4/5. I tried DS 1 at one point and dropped it fairly early. Tried DS 2 and got frustrated. DS 3 was looking good, got it, couldn't defeat Iudex... and went back and started playing DS 2 more. Things actually clicked more there for me, surprisingly. At this point I've played a lot of all three, of course, and I got a lot better then I was originally.

Much later, I bought a ps 4. Don't use it as much as my computer, switch, and XBox Series S, though, so if I'm thinking of what game to play, I tend to overlook it. I'd actually probably put more time in it if they did a port...

--Sweetie Belle

7691015
That's fair.

A port or at least a current gen remaster would be great.

Haven't been playing much recently, but I backtracked over to the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds, because I kinda totally missed that area earlier. It loops around to shortcuts a lot, and I did a fair amount of exploring. I eventually picked up Mohg's Shackle there. There was also a dungeon near there, and I went and fought some boss there. Don't really remember much about them because I summoned the mimic, healed, ran to the other side of the room, cast Rock Sling a few times, and the boss was dead. Probably more to explore here, since I haven't found the Dung Eater, and I think he's around there, but, you know, got Mohg's Shackle.

I had fought Mohg, Lord of Blood, a few times earlier, and he kept creaming me in his second phase.

Turns out the Morgit's Shackle cheese works with Mohg's Shackle too, though. Slammed the shackle on the ground outside the boss fog a few times, walked in, Mohg wasn't moving, and I summoned the Ancestral Follower, who then just basically shot Mohg to death as I stood there. Yay, cheese!

Not really sure where to head next. Maybe I should actually do that Godskin Duo fight.

--Sweetie Belle

Okay, so I found Malenia's boss fight in the Hageltree. She... kinda sucks.

She's got this one really aggressive attack that mostly instakills you, and you have to run and dodge a long way to avoid it. I'm having trouble even getting past her first phase. There was also a big weird worm boss fight in the area with scarlet rot all around, but, you know, a few tries and that one was down. It was mostly a matter of finding good high ground and flinging spells at it.

Malenia, well, my best strategy was summoning a bowlady and trying to get Malenia away from them and let them shoot it to death. She kept eventually murderizing the bowlady, though, even though I tried to keep her interested.

Also tried summoning a player that said they could handle it themselves. That instakill attack eventually got them. (I was being ranged throwing magic the whole fight, Lasted a while after they died, but...)

I decided to to try Godstein and Duo instead. I'd gotten some sleep pots ready, since I'd heard that was a good strategy for them. Then there was an npc summon by the door, and I decided to summon them and the mimic, and started just chucking magic soccer balls the whole fight. That was a pretty crazy fight, but I did end up beating them!

Also went and stocked up on regular, poison, and holy arrows. You never know...

--Sweetie Belle