DrDamn ahhh. Yeah. I went there before finishing. Don’t really see the logic of not doing it that way as you’re making the end easier by levelling up. And the end needs all the help it can get.

    Making my way through now. Backtracked a little as is my want to those Stag spirit bosses in the underground area. Discovered that over leveling to 140 means you get out of range of some boss summons 😕 - will have to backtrack to Ng+ range for rune arc top ups.

    4 days later

    Made it to the Haligtree. Fuck those branches and fuck the trumpet tooting fuckers who inhabit them. That is all.

    Haha. I’m really enjoying my second play through. Much less a sense of urgency about it so I’m just dropping in every so often to make some progress and then dropping out for other games.

    Currently in Volcano Manor / Altus Plateau doing the dodgy quests I skipped on my first go round and really enjoying helping other folk out. I’m finding it easier to get summoned as my build is way more focused this time (mostly faith / little bit of strength) and I’m doing decent damage at a lower level.

    Have settled on a few key lightning spells and two ridiculous frenzy spells ( a damage type I wasn’t even aware of in my first run), plus rot dragon for truly difficult bosses.

    I also have a lightning ram ash of war that sees me bleat like a sheep then roll at my target covered in lightning, for shits and giggles =D

    Managed one of those chariot dungeons yesterday and actually destroyed the chariots, which got me a nice armour set. Still to do the boss though.

    I’m ummm, about to hit 200 hours. 😁

    First part done, Loretta down, on to more traditional castle. \o/

    Malenia down! Had about 8 tries as a co-op furled finger and only once got her to the second phase. First try with myself as host and got a result \o/. There is a definite art to choosing your co op partners 😁

    And … DONE!

    Level 171 and over 221 hours on the clock.

    It’s a stunning game in so many ways and absolutely firmly atop my list of greatest games of all time.

    Looks like I ended up with the same ending as you @Brave. Only trophies I’m missing are two alternative endings, one boss (Mohg lord of blood) and the all legendary weapons/spells/talismans ones.

    Apparently there are other games, I may well try one of those.

      5 days later

      So this is one only Elden Ring nerds will understand (truly, if you don’t do Elden Ring this will seem very random). Rachel is one such nerd.

      It’s her 51st today. When she came downstairs mildly hungover from a bit of wine drinking last night, she opened the kitchen blinds to be greeted with this sight and nearly ended herself laughing.

      Excuse the grass. All the rain this week has seen it get unruly.

      It had a bow on its head at the time. 😄

      Edit: quite why the image gets rotated by imgur sometimes I don’t know. Just tilt your noggin.

        Brave you should lock her out later and leave a note on the step saying “You don’t have the right, O’ you don’t have the right” 😁

          6 days later

          In tears just now. Rachel uses a Wondrous Physick flask that gives you a bubble of invincibility which absorbs the first damage you take.

          She was rushing her way to a boss that she’s tried about five times now and is getting quite “animated”. She must have missed one enemy on the way to the fog door because just as she took the flask before going in she took one hit.

          I was leaving the room and all I heard was “SUNNOVA BITCH! HE JUST SMACKED MA BOTTLE OFF!”

          Nearly ended me.

          a month later

          That’s Rachel now a Elden Lord. Last few boss fights slowed her down a bit but weren’t the road block that I experienced.

          Well impressed with the build she had and the sheer amount of people she helped. If half the very obvious edgelords had realised they’d been humbled and helped by a sweary grandma* I think they’d have rethought their world views.

          *not actually a grandma, just my nickname for her based on her language during boss fights. 😄

            I’ve started out again, was far too long from my last time playing. Feeling much better with it this time round though and actually achieving way more side stuff rather than just wandering and getting killed. Quite a few dungeon/cave bosses defeated and now decided to get back on the main quest. Just finished that silly big dog at the sorcerer’s area, he was much easier this time with my ancestral follower and a big samurai sword 🤣

            Gordon can’t remember the exact specifics but she got the Blasphemous Blade after the Rykard fight and loved it so much she based her build on that. Faith was 60 (the first soft cap) plus with a talisman that gives that a boost also. Quite late in she respecced to beat a particular boss who was weak to lightning and discovered that 40 vitality was really good as you can take two, sometimes three heavy hits from some bosses and survive. So when she went back to her Blasphemous build she tweaked it to keep the vitality at 40.

            Impressed me so much that I’m respeccing my second playthrough Thor Candles build to take advantage of it. I always get by with a glass cannon, but later game that leads to frustration; eg I’m trying to do the Fire Giant just now, which can one shot even middling vitality and can be very difficult to dodge due to how wide his early attacks can be.

            The end result was that with the right talismans and pre fight rituals (potions, buff spells) she was doing 2 - 2.5k per hit with the Blasphemous Blade (the left trigger skill, scales purely on faith). Which is substantial, more than just chip damage on bosses.

            She also has Radahn’s great bow with Radahn’s Rain on the left trigger which MELTS big mobs and the final boss (one of the talismans vastly increases the max range of arrows and a lot of spells) someone aggroed the Elden Beast and from a distance she used Radahn’s Rain to take chunks of the health bar. It varies depending on how still the boss is at the time but the best hit took about a sixth off his health bar.

            It was quite something to see. 🙂

                Brave Sounds like a much better version of my eventual build. I started as high faith + spells, then I got the Blasphemous Blade and just specced everything around that. I didn’t have the bow though, that sounds like tons of fun. M

                    Gordon the bow is amazing. The Rain skill can even be used indoors.

                      9 days later

                      Man, these Valiant Gargoyles are a right bugger when there was only 1, then it dropped a 2nd one in….😭🤮