Elden Ring - From Software + George RR Martin

Dr.Retarded said:

Why are there two lady-boys fighting a giant monster? Do you always play a female-ish character?

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That was your takeaway from that absurdly close fight? "Hurr durr lady boys"?

I actually agree with you on guys playing chicks in MMOs, when it's a largely first-person game and other people are interacting with you as if you're a chick, that's kinda fucked up. Never played a chick in an MMO.

Single-player games though, that's different, can get more into it if I'm looking at a woman prancing around for 80 hours.

Bald Brah said:

Are you not using mimic? I don't think I had any problem with him using mimic and dual great stars. I think the mimic could just about solo him.

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Yeah, using Mimic. I definitely prefer Mimic over Tiche, haven't really tried any other summons since the Jellyfish early-game.

Bayle took about 7 tries and most of the losses were me getting instagibbed in the doorway while I was trying to just get set up. DLC bosses have a tendency to bumrush you the second you walk into the room.

There's also an NPC you can summon to help with the Bayle fight, and he has some hilarious dialogue. Doesn't increase Bayle's stats at all either. Is that normal for NPC summons? Cause player summons dramatically power up bosses.

Also this weekend I downed Midra, Metyr, Messmer, Gaius, Scadu Avatar, Leda's gank squad, and every world boss I could find except for some of those giant wicker men, F those fights. Going to try and take down Radahn tonight and close the book on the DLC. Scadu 15/7 now, hope that's enough.

Ambiturner said:

Summons only increase a bosses health if you do them pre-fight. Mid-fight summons don't. There's also a great katana that's pretty much designed for the Bayle fight that you get on the way to him.

It's not Rykard/Yhorm where the fight completely revolves around it, but it does make it a lot easier, especially if you're not using summons

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Oh no kidding, didn't realize the Dragon-Hunter sword had some sort of +dragon component to it. Makes sense though. Says "designed for colossal dragons" on the L2 skill which I'm guessing is very specific (maybe just Bayle) and it won't benefit me on regular dragons (if there are any left).

Dr.Retarded said:

Weren't you always posting in game character pics of your main person wearing dresses and stuff, basically doing dress up shit. I just find it weird but I didn't buy the game for you, and you can do whatever you like, doesn't mean I can't call it gay. Don't take it personal, I don't think you're a bad dude, but I got to laugh out of your post.

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Yeah, dressing up a hot female character to make her hotter is generally how it goes. Could also put her in a full suit of platemail but not much fun in that.

Utnayan actually bought the game for me, shout out to Utnayan

Noodleface said:

I found Bayle tough but not unreasonably so. Can't remember what scadu level I was at though when I got there.

Radahn, at least pre nerf, was an absurdly difficult fight. Made Malenia seem like a cake walk.

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Bayle was all about getting through the initial 20 seconds and stabilizing the fight. If you had one of any number of strong weapon arts with range, he gets even easier. I think the last time I ran through the game I was about Scadoosh level 14ish and doing a Salurian (sp?) spear build. Making the dragon hunter guy easier to summon made that fight a lot easier as well, since you kind of need him to pull agro at times. Dry Leaf Arts super punch really fucks him up, too, with the right build if you want to go in close. You just have to avoid his chomp.

Honestly, the Radaahn nerfs to the DLC were perfect and made cheesing him (Finger Print Shield plus bleed spear counterpoke was just too good against literally everything in the DLC) a touch harder, but straight up fighting him more reasonable. That and the hardest issue about him was that you could not see what the fuck he was doing half the time to read his attacks. They left the main challenging aspect alone, namely the two minute wombo combo spam. Still absurdly hard if you dont sport a holy resistant shield though.

Rajaah said:

There's also an NPC you can summon to help with the Bayle fight, and he has some hilarious dialogue. Doesn't increase Bayle's stats at all either. Is that normal for NPC summons? Cause player summons dramatically power up bosses.

Also this weekend I downed Midra, Metyr, Messmer, Gaius, Scadu Avatar, Leda's gank squad, and every world boss I could find except for some of those giant wicker men, F those fights. Going to try and take down Radahn tonight and close the book on the DLC. Scadu 15/7 now, hope that's enough.

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Any NPC who is summoned inside the Fog wall does not scale up the fight. So like Egon against Bayle, the Mogh warrior dude against the NPC horde, and dude who helps you against Mesmer all fall into this category. Egon is pretty much unkillable, too, iirc. As for summons, its really about who can survive a boss and hold agro. Mimic is almost always a no brainer if your own character is tough, but some bosses struggle to hit Tiche. Poop Man and Nefiri Loux are rock stars against certain enemies (I use Neferi in the Bayle fight) and the Golem (with heals) can actually solo most bosses in the DLC.

Unga Bunga is actually the easiest way to beat Bayle, assuming you are good at avoiding his grab and playing without target lock. Couple good stuns and hyperarmor trades make that fight really fast.

Radahn down, SOTE down. 3rd try (of this last set of attempts, I lost a bunch of times at earlier points). Did everything I could possibly find in the DLC before this latest try, including the super secret under-the-ocean legacy dungeon with a bunch of grace points and St. Trina... didn't even know about that place until I found it so that was a huge surprise.

First try, Radahn killed me within 10 seconds, couldn't even get stabilized. Second try, got him to about half. Third try, BARELY won the fight. Ran out of heal potions with him at about 10%, then went into some sort of Ultra Instinct where I somehow dodged everything and managed to hit him a few more times. In particular, he did that rapid-fire teleport-slash thing he does while I was about one hit from death, and they somehow all missed me, not even sure how that happened because I was panic-rolling at that point. Turned around and scored the last hit.

It was nucking futz and probably the biggest rush I've gotten from a game in ages.

Radahn is pretty damn tough in the grand scheme of souls games, but I don't think he is the hardest boss ever, unless you are either making the fight hard or are trying to pure caster that shit. Melenia demands more perfect execution and/or specific builds to solo, so she is at the minimum comparable. Midir is a total rape fest unless you build around parrying him (which parries were much harder in DS3) and even then you have to have some very specific builds to take him on, plus the fight is cheese proof. The two cats fight iin DS2 was rage induing, but thats probably more down to the run back than the actual fight. The fight against the three summons in the DS2 DLC was also fucking brutal.

Radahn's biggest challenge always has been seeing what the fuck he is doing with all the hopping around and diarrhea Christmas lights bullshit. By that point, the spammy bullshit is something you are used to anyhow. But if you want to do anything other than counterpoke with a bleedspear and shield, being able to read his windups is essential.

Phazael said:

Radahn is pretty damn tough in the grand scheme of souls games, but I don't think he is the hardest boss ever, unless you are either making the fight hard or are trying to pure caster that shit. Melenia demands more perfect execution and/or specific builds to solo, so she is at the minimum comparable. Midir is a total rape fest unless you build around parrying him (which parries were much harder in DS3) and even then you have to have some very specific builds to take him on, plus the fight is cheese proof. The two cats fight iin DS2 was rage induing, but thats probably more down to the run back than the actual fight. The fight against the three summons in the DS2 DLC was also fucking brutal.

Radahn's biggest challenge always has been seeing what the fuck he is doing with all the hopping around and diarrhea Christmas lights bullshit. By that point, the spammy bullshit is something you are used to anyhow. But if you want to do anything other than counterpoke with a bleedspear and shield, being able to read his windups is essential.

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Midir and Gael are the only two bosses left in the entire Soulsborne universe that I haven't killed. Didn't really try Gael, DID try Midir and couldn't do it. By that point in Souls 3 I was pretty tuckered out with the game and trying over and over wasn't that appealing anymore. Can also more or less add Nameless King to make it a trio, because even though I technically downed NK, I died enough times to resort to summoning other people and they just ran up and destroyed him, I probably did 10% of the damage. Midir on the other hand I couldn't get down no matter what, and my build was poorly-suited for it.

So basically I really need to do a second run of Souls 3, but it's kind of far down the list now when I have unfinished stuff like Lies of P Overture, Wuchang, and Nioh 1.

Oh yeah, stats at the end of SOTE: Scadu level 16, Revered level 7, character level 255.

Used 2x +25 Blood Bandit's Curved Sword, Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman (defense), Lord of Blood's Exultation, Millicent's Prosthesis, Rotten Winged Sword Talisman.

I didn't get that many chances to spam attacks on him, so I probably would have been better off switching the last two talismans out for the jumping attack talisman and the Golden Braid for holy resistance. Turned out holy damage was way more of a threat than anything else on the fight.

Now that I've got all of Shadow of the Erdtree beaten, I'd rank the boss difficulty like this (Malenia and Elden Beast included as a benchmark) -

Tier 1: Radahn
Tier 2: Bayle / Malenia
Tier 3: Rellana / Commander Gaius / Messmer
Tier 3 and a half: Those stupid Furnace Golem assholes
Tier 4: Metyr / Midra / Elden Beast
Tier 5: Scadutree Avatar / Putrescent Knight / Dancing Lion
Tier 6: Everything else in the DLC

That's just me though, everybody's gonna have different fights that end up being easier or more difficult for them for various reasons.

Phazael said:

Bayle was all about getting through the initial 20 seconds and stabilizing the fight.

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I found that a lot of the DLC bosses were all about surviving long enough to stabilize the fight. Lost count of all the times I died barely out of the doorway of boss fights. Only time I remember that happening in the base game was Radagon a couple times since he has that dashing decapitation swing that can catch you.

Well Bael (after the first attempt) just randomly either breath blasts you or turbo rape charges you, making getting Egon out (or any summon if you are doing those) very difficult. Aside from that coinflip, his moves are very readable and predictable, plus his mega AEs all have safe spots close to him where you can get in and punish him. The main thing is to not get grabbed, because he nearly always follows up with a point blank AE. He is surprisingly easy to stance break, however. I agree its a case of playstyle that some people always struggle with different fights than others and Bayle to me is straightforward. The hardline gear wise is 60 Vigor and 14 Scadu so you can live through all of his attacks if you blow a dodge or block. Armor is pointless, so suit up in your best resists and fast roll arrangement. If you are gonna Unga Bunga him, Ruins Greatsword, MLGS, and Guts with Lions Roar all work amazingly well, provided you don't get hit too much.

Radahn 2.0 is way easier with higher poise combined with the Black Night Shield with the really high Holy Resistance, because of the bullshit Holy attack he spams to chip you down with which can also break your stance if you don't have that or Finger Print shield equipped. If you can read his physical stuff and gear the right shield to block most of the Holy, he is very manageable. Similarly to Milenia, Fingerprint Shield and Gaius spear with Blood Tax can get the job done pretty easily, especially if you bring in the Mimic Tear. But if you are willing to Summon, just loading up heal other spells and the Golem can solo him heh. And if you get to St Trina's location, you can get the item that lets you cure one level of the Charm Grab too. Its a hard fight and rewards knowledge of the battle sequence.

I am surprised to see you put Relanna up so high on the list, but I guess my more recent runs have all revolved around either parry or lightning. And the one punch crunch art on the Dry Leaf Arts really punked her too. Thats one of many fights in the DLC where it comes down to the jump dodging (and/or Silver Mirror shield). But she has shit tier lighting resistance and is fighting you in a room where the entire center is wet, so Lanysex (sp?) Greatspear from the Capital are fucks her up unbelievably fast, especially if you guard/counter attack with it. I remember spanking her with the paired blink axes too once. Basic casters are definately going to have a rough go of it, though.

PS- If you liked Seikero (I never was interested, too much twitch), the Midir fight is very much in line with that. One or two Parries will end the entire fight. Failing that, holy damage is the only thing that can do real damage to him. He remains the Boss I consider the hardest in the entire series, with Melenia (solo) a close second.

And if you have beaten Radahn Consort, Gael is pretty much the same fight minus all the massive Holy AEs.

Phazael said:

Armor is pointless, so suit up in your best resists and fast roll arrangement.

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I've been thinking this for a while. Got a couple friends playing and they're suited up in astronaut suits worth of armor to try and survive. I keep emphasizing that being fast (and using the right talismans) is probably a lot more important than armor but they insist that they survive better with heavy armor. Maybe they're right, IDK for sure, but I don't think so.

Noodleface said:

Perhaps I found Malenia easier because I've beaten her so many times.

I found sekiros final boss difficult, but in the "putting in reps" and learning kind of way. He never felt unfair.

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Sekiro was by and large a lot easier than I expected it to be after all the hype. The only fights that really gave me any legitimate grief on NG were Headless Ape, Demon of Hatred, and the final boss. (And Shura Ending Isshin on NG+)

Demon of Hatred was the worst out of all of them and took me about 15 tries IIRC which dwarfed everything else. Which is funny because I expected that fight to be no problem, given that it's the "Souls-style" fight and thus the thing I'd have lots of experience on.

Final boss I remember using the blue (fully-upgraded) axe to stagger him momentarily, then get hits in. I doubt I did it "the normal way" but I got him down. For me Sekiro was all about finding ways to win and get to the end, by any means necessary. To my credit, I never cheesed Demon of Hatred off the cliff.