a month later

Have been fully sucked back in with my punching faith build. Got to just before doggie in Raya Lucaria, already covered off Weeping Penisula and a decent amount of the southern lake. Not even touched the underground and Caelid has been visited under duress a couple of times.

After Godrick I used the Remeberance to create the Grafted Dragon fist weapon which is lots of fun. Particularly Bear Witness which showers fire over a decent area, though you need to time it right and have the target close to do the best damage.

Forgot to mention that population is pretty good for summons and being summoned currently too. Though the invaders are also back, making the most of spots where you will be pre-occupied with something big enemy wise and utilising PvP builds vs your PvE build. Obviously avoiding the actually PvP functionality where they might have to attempt a fair fight …

    2 months later

    Ha. Yeah level one runs are fun. I tried it on DS3 iirc. Upgrading weapons as quick as possible will get you surprisingly far. Still very impressive mind.

    Currently in something like my 560th hour of Elden Ring. Rachel’s got even more than that now too. We’re both running new characters up to the point of the DLC.

    I’ve got a ridiculous black flame build going with the godskin peeler as my main weapon. Melts most things at this point. Lots and lots of fun.

    DrDamn was right too. Jolly cooperation is very easy at this point, sadly so is invasion it seems, but I’m quite surprised, I’d say invasions I’ve either been summoned into or had myself have been very easy to deal with 90% of the time. The amount of time we’ve deleted them the moment they come in has been ridiculous, and very funny.

        DrDamn you should look closely at the armour 😬

        Edit:

          12 days later

          Decided that my fist character isn’t going to be ready for the DLC so loaded up my previous save to remember how to play them. I still need to do Mohg, Lord of Blood for the access (allegedly) so popped back into the start point there to have a nosey around. Went quite well until I died to an NPC invasion I was in no way prepared for (wrong equipment out, button fumble, wrong spell, dead). Then realise I had no Rune Arcs and set about finding somewhere to help people. Sought out Commander Niall and plopped a summon sign outside. First summon took a few minutes but then they were more frequent. Managed 2.5 successful kills, the 0.5 was post host death but not soon enough to count. Once I had my Comet Azur routine sorted he is a lot easier (he stays still for far too long at the start of the fight).

          Will head back to find then fight Mohg next.

          Edit: popping back in as my main character reminded me just how fantastically packed full of content the original game is, also shocked to discover level up costs now I am at level 170 (200k!).

            We’re still ploughing through it. I’m at the Snowy mountaintop bit now, Rachel’s just behind in Leyndell.

            Both of us seem to have managed to build characters that can melt things now. I’m focused on black flame and faith with the Godskin Peeler which has a fantastic L2 attack if you can make the time to pull it off.

            Rachel started with a full bleed build but quickly moved on to the Bloodhound Fang (regularly buffed with Bloodflame Blade) with a second curved great sword in the off hand. It’s devastating. She just two shotted a rune bear outside Leyndell then melted the Sentinel blocking the way in. Its L2 is fantastic; first press sees you phase towards the enemy with invincibility frames on the way and then hit hard, hitting L2 immediately after sees you hit the enemy again and backflip out of reach, again with invincibility frames (edit: other way round, back flip first). Because of this double hit, the bleed procs quite easily too, especially with blood flame on.

            I really fancy giving it a go but I’m going to stick with black flame this run.

            10 days later

            Gordon I decided this weekend that I wasn’t going to get through the snowy bit where I am now anytime soon so just revived my original Glow build save. Feels appropriate to get stuck into the DLC for the first time with my magic character as that’s how I start all my souls games.

            I like my current black flame build but he doesn’t light up caves.

            That said. It’s quite shocking the things I left undone in that save and the state my build was in. Fixed it now but I have no idea how I beat Elden Beast with him at the time.

                Brave I thought my old save was gone, but just checked and my blasphemous blade/faith build is back 🎉 I am now ready, which means I can continue preparing for Dawntrail instead, for which I am not ready.

                  Turns out I hadn’t beaten Mohg on my original save 😭

                    There’s a crystal tear you may have picked up that might help with the fight. I believe it’s called the Crimsonwhorl? You can pick it up in the mountaintops.

                    Gives you health back when you take damage but it’s a very narrow window for using it so you’ve got to time it perfectly for when that annoying red circle crushes you.

                    I’ll be on this afternoon. Got a meeting this morning.

                    Edit:
                    Nope. Nope.

                    I’m a whole week early. I’M GOING IN!

                    Gordon Have you got to Mohg yet? I.e. are you at the battle entrance or have you found the area it starts in?

                    If you need to blast through the region leading up to him that’s reasonably easy to avoid most stuff. Excessive use of Torrent in the first instance then running through and ignoring in the second part. There are some nasty spawn in gits towards the end and if you don’t know where the correct route is then it can be tricky.

                    Once you get to Mohg I found summoning in a player called “MohgSlayer” was quite beneficial. Just be a little wary of summoning people in once you need to get off Torrent as it’s a bit of an invasion hotspot.

                    I’m all set to go … at lunchtime. 🙁

                        DrDamn I’m at Mohg, I’m also just incredibly rusty and not remotely ready to beat what seems to be a pretty hard boss. I respecced back to a sorcery build and got to the second phase at least. Will try again later.

                          Mohg down. Thanks sorcery and mimic tear!

                          Impressions after 15 minutes - wow there’s loads of places to go, WTF the very first guy I met killed me in 2 hits, oh great now the dogs are on fire, this black knight guy is a fucking dick and can one-shot me. GOTY.