Well done matey!

They’ve just buffed a whole heap of spells too so it’s a great time to give it a go.

Margit down. Sorcery is fun!

DrDamn watched that video the other day, looks like it runs very well

    Oh, and that horrible fucker red wolf down. That’s a horrible jumpy bouncy annoying fight and I don’t think it’s a very good boss graphically either. Glad that one is done.

    Progress Update.

    Made my way into the capital proper now, that Draconic Tree Sentinel was an absolute Rune Arc sapping one-shotting bastard. Got him close so many times before eventually taking him down. Explored a few areas inside but also covered off the majority of the Atlas Plateau bar a couple of dungeons and the Hero’s Graves.

    Discovered a new way to fail horribly. When you have your summon sign down before a small minor boss and you give up waiting and decide to go in by yourself remember to cancel your sign before entering! I bubbled up, got my ashes ready, sorted my items and headed in using the mimic tear ashes on entry, only to have the middle of my screen filled with “Your summon sign has been removed”, button panic set in trying to get the message out the way so I failed to heal from the ashes summon and didn’t see the very rapidly approaching git who dispatched me with gusto. FFS. Got him on second attempt and went with the safer skeleton shield dudes option.

    Approaching 140 hours in and just a couple of levels off 100 - FOMO FTW!

      DrDamn I really struggled with the tree sentinel. Eventually I tried on horseback rather than on foot and discovered that it’s way easier that way.

          Rachel’s been plugging away. I’ve tried to have a fairly hands off approach and give just the occasional “message on the floor” style hint if she asks but man it’s been an occasionally tough watch (and fun).

          Trying to persuade her to go to the damn castle (she found her way to the swamp by going round it on a path I had no idea existed) and then subsequently trying to persuade her to do the damn swamp she ignored the castle with has been tongue bitingly difficult.

          JUST USE THE DAMN HORSE.

          Currently in the Academy and pretty much only has Renalla to do now.

          She plays completely differently to me (always has in souls games), much more stealthy, much more use of arrows, much slower, but also I reckon a lot less deaths. She also has to take on everything she sees. I honestly think she’s a better player than I am. Far more patient.

          She’s not seen the prawns yet though. I will be recommending horse usage.

          Gordon oh yeah I’ve been on the horse from the start, but avoiding the one shot kills can be subject to tree crashes and having to combine it with some direct combat means a Torrent death is also a me death as you have no time to recover before the next strike comes in. You can summon a good couple of NPCs for the fight (Millicent and the guy with the hammer were both available). It was just getting past that very aggressive end stage for me. That lighting bolt from the sky with massive distance tracking was killer, though to be fair I hadn’t bothered putting on my lightning resistant talisman 😁

            8 days later

            Continuing to make gradual progress in the capital. Unlocked some shortcuts and now some graces. I’m not entirely sure which way I should be very actually going, but I’m heading towards the big obvious bit. So many possible detours and alternative ways to go though, FOMO is strong. The level design here is top tier FROM.

            Also that twatty knight near the one of the short cut routes can do one. The one which is through the initially locked door to right just in from the initial grace into the city. I ended up cunningly luring him out close to the boss area in the main street - just far enough so that the boss wasn’t triggered, but far enough that I could summon my skeletal tanks 😃 - he ended up just backing off them whilst I peppered him with arrows

            Morgott now down, just exploring a couple of additional bits in the capital before I move onwards.

              DrDamn he’s a good one to farm. Ridiculous amount of runes for a successful coop.

                DrDamn he can be bit overly biological and scatological imo, but he’s definitely turned EG’s previously crappy attitude to VR around, so I’ll not hold it against him too much.

                  Well the name “elden ring” is crying out for bumhole jokes.

                  Explored the Capital Sewers a little and decided to leave them for a bit and concentrate on the main quest line, so now up to the Forbidden Lands.

                  7 days later

                  Done a decent chunk of Mountaintops of the Giants. Just killed Commander Niall and progressed to the Giants Gravepost. I’ve also gone for a little bit of a respec as my weapon of choice (Moonveil) scales better with intelligence so I’ve made a switch from Dex with some sorcery to Sorcery with some Dex. This has made a few of the more powerful spell accessible to me. Comet was very disappointing, Comet Azur on the other hand … Nice. It’s got some limitations in application but against the right sort of mob (big and slow) it melts stuff and I haven’t even looked at optimising the rest of my kit to get the most from it.

                  I also realised I had neglected the Ranni questline so picked that up again and progressed down the the Lake of Rot.

                  I’m now level 128 and 175 hours in 😮

                  9 days later

                  Fire Giant down! Progressed on to the first Grace in “Crumbling Farum Azula” but have backtracked to Hidden Path to the Haligtree is that about the right time to tackle that. I’m assuming Crumbling Farum Azula is the normal end game route?

                    Brave Haligtree is effectively optional I believe - given what you need to do to get the medallion halves I’d say it would be easy to not go that route. Some people seem to think it’s the hardest area and better to leave to post game, but logically it feels more appropriate to go this route.