The only thing thats hard is me when i play this dlc

'Get your blessings' is the new 'level up your vigor'

I think another thing that is making people struggle with this dlc is the fact that the bosses have a lot of hyper armor and consistent gap closers which I believe many people exploited the lack of these things in the base game to heavily negate needing to engage with the mechanics of the boss and all the bosses in the dlc are seemingly designed to punish this mindset.

One Crucial thing everyone seems to be forgetting: Use crafting! The pickled livers are fucking insane against elemental damage, especially the new vastly boost damage negation.

I’ve been getting my ass kicked by even common enemies but I’m having a blast. The shadow tree blessings have been making a difference.

I too have taken the Milady pill. What a woman, what a weapon.

The ambient music is beautiful in the dlc

Going from 60% -> 70% is taking 10% less damage absolutely but the relative damage chance is 25%. If an attack did 1000 damage, going from 60 -> 70 does mean taking 100 less damage per hit. But that 100 is 25% of what you were taking previously. Damage negation is exponential. It gets more powerful from the RELATIVE perspective the higher it gets. And this makes sense as at 100 negation you take 0 damage

The answer is scadtree fragment That and also: 60 vigor + dragoncrest greatshield, its non negotiable Edit1: Y'all with the 40 vigor is probably the reason why you die in 2 hits when I invade Edit2: boiled crab is king. Helps a lot

I'm getting absolutely stomped by Rellana as we speak 😀 ~30 attempts so far

I have a pretty big gripe with the remembrance bosses. With the exception of Messmer, all the remembrance bosses don’t feel like their openings are wide enough for you to reliably land a charged heavy attack without trading. The bosses, just like the base game, have tons of openings, but unlike the base game, they are much more brief. So builds that use ultras and colossal weapons, who get the MOST out of charged attacks, have their play style gimped. I played most of the DLC with the Zweihander and this is what I felt. The biggest exception was Messmer, who felt much more inline with the base game.

I've gotta be honest, I saw this coming at the tutorial prompts. "Hey guys! We made a new system just for this area that makes your attack and defense way better with no downsides!" Me: Oh... so I'm going to need to grab and clutch every one of these to do okay, unless I'm one of those perfect parry psychos that beat this game on a Guitar Hero controller? Already, got it.

Im loving this DLC, but im worried about speed and aggression creep. Elden Ring has had the fastest, most aggressive bosses of any From Software game. I hope they dont continue the trend upwards with the next game. Im only getting older, and it's legit getting hard to keep up with all the flashy spell effects and hyper aggro bosses. Its visually hard to parse what is actually happening most of the time, as long as they never take great shields away. I can continue to have fun and beat their games

honestly, i’m at Scadutree level 9 and about to go for 10 but as soon as I reached 5-6 most of the dlc became a bit more manageable and feels more like end game base game. at 9 and most areas feels pretty good (haven’t reached end game areas yet but i’ll be around 15 levels in at that point) of course enemies can still destroy me but it’s less likely to happen now, so if anyone is having a hard time at the beginning of the dlc then try reaching for Scadutree level 5, you can reach that before fighting any main bosses. Explore around and experience the world have fun before you tackle the main stuff first.

The only issue with this approach is that popping Mimic Tear still makes things trivial, even after all its nerfs. So, do I go back out and look for more fragments or just get it over with using summons. My big issue with all of Elden Ring isn't difficulty, but how uneven an experience it is overall. Some bosses are like 70 tries solo and 4 with a summon. It's so inconsistent and messy.

While I do understand the importance of Scadutree Fragments, the system as a whole has one big, glaring flaw. The devs implemented this system not to encourage exploration, but to ENFORCE it, as gathering these items are pretty much mandatory to not get 2-shot. While this is alright for crafting the perfect "first playthrough", once you know where everything is, this system has the potential to become absolutely OBNOXIOUS on subsequent playthroughs. Gathering these fragments now becomes a chore that you have to do when you start the DLC just so you can fight properly. This is the same problem that people face when they make a new character in this game: you have to do so many chores like gathering the Steed Whistle, Whetstone Knife, Physick Flask, and so on before the playthrough genuinely begins. It's boring. That's the flaw behind this system's premise: they didn't NEED to enforce exploration. Players were already going to explore every nook and cranny of this land just to find all of the cool shit they've scattered everywhere. But now you HAVE to explore every nook and cranny. Every playthrough. Thus artificially extending your playtime with none of the fun. They didn't really need to introduce this system. They could've just made the Gravesite Plains on the same area scaling of Elphael and gradually increased the enemy scaling from there. If Fromsoft insists on keeping this system, then I hope that they consider reducing the amount of Scadutree Fragments required to reach +20, or perhaps place more of them along the critical path through the DLC, and then allow the player to sell any excess fragments that they find (and honestly, they should allow you to sell excess Golden Seeds as well).

It's hard because unlike the base game, you can't just level your way out of your problems. In the DLC it is effectively SL1 or go on a scavenger hunt for scadutree fragments (and revered spirit fragments). Ok, yes, having more vigor DOES matter up until the level 60 hardish cap. But after that, yoou are basically just as squishy as sl1

My issue with this system is that now, whenever I want to replay the DLC, I gotta make a checklist of these items in order to be able to progress. I had the same issue in the base game because getting all your flasks and such is just a boring fetch quest.

One thing I don't see many people bring up when it comes to Elden Ring's (and other Fromsoft games) difficulty is the way they implemented dodging. You dodge when you release the button, rather than when you press it. If you're constantly getting that 'I dodged that!' feeling, this is why. It makes dodging the relentless assaults of the bosses way harder, you have to tap the button as quickly as you can and even then there's a bit of a delay. On Steam, you can get alternate controller maps that make it so you dodge on button press, and it makes a world of difference. There might also be a way of doing this on console but I don't know. It's worth trying, and there are a bunch of different ones. The one I use maps sprint to left stick click like in other games and it's amazing!

It’s funny to me that we do this every time with FromSoftware. DS1 DLC is too hard, Bloodborne DLC is too hard, DS3 DLC is too hard, Sekiro is too hard, and so on. People will come to their senses just like all the other times.

I don't mind the difficulty. I just hate the limits on re-specing and fully upgrading weapons with the ancient dragon stones. Like why put those artificial limits on these things? It really prevents me from experiencing the whole game.

I will say that a lot of the bosses have attack patterns which basically force you to just chill until they're finished. In the base game, they gave bosses a lot of moves that had huge windup. This meant you could get in a few hits during a boss's combo chain. Sometimes you could even get a fully charged r2 in there. This made for some really awesome stagger moments where you're half a second from eating it and then the boss crumples. Maybe it's just the newness but my perception of the bosses I've fought so far is that their combo chains are some combination of too active or too long to really get any hits in. Like, I'm at 40 endurance on a very high level character and I can find myself running out of stamina if I try to weave attacks in, that's how long some of their attack chains are. There's also a tendency for the bosses to run away after an attack. The worst culprit that immediately comes to mind is the damn hippo. They've just made it so much harder to actually hit the boss outside of the obvious points where their big combo has ended. it kinda feels like a completely different team with a different ethos made the bosses for the DLC. Now that I've adjusted, it's not bad. But those first couple of bosses were a pain. The game has spent all this time training you to weave hits into boss combos and now it's telling you to stop.

I'm really enjoying the DLC so far, but my best guess as to why people see this new upgrade system as an issue is because you can't just grind it endlessly - you have to find some of the fixed number of fragments, and some will be locked between areas where you need to clear bosses. In the base game you can effectively level up infinitely before engaging any bosses, but in the DLC you can't max out your Scadutree level (or whatever it's called).

Honestly I love this DLC but so far I had to completely start over from the beginning because I explored too far into Scadu Altus and progressed the world state without fighting a single boss and locked myself out of quests. I had gathered around 15 fragments at that point. So I completely understand the necessity to explore and gather this stuff but it seems kinda stupid for the game to go "Whoops! You stepped too close to Shadow Keep and nobody will talk to you anymore! Good luck!"

an issue I'm having is that the bosses are way hard while the mobs of the boss area are easy. So it only feels that you're in the wrong place when you're about to face the boss

Cheers to Ratatoskr pronouncing Scadutree perfectly 👏

The only major problem with the dlc is that some of the bosses, especially the final one, give so little windows to attack them when they have unlimited stamina and can just pile on combos for 30 secs. Some base game bosses also had this problem and they didn't learn from that at all.

i believe the worst part is the awfull camera and the overloaded effects on some bosses. The bosses in this dlc were primarily a visual nightmare.

I have the same problem with the dlc that I had in the main game. Bosses are doing more damage per hit than ever, moving faster than ever, and have longer combo attacks than ever. Pushing players more and more into specific builds and play styles in order to beat them. I want more games like DS1, where any weapon or build can get me through the game without becoming a frustrating slog

Wow that was quick! I was waiting for this video from you. Nothing like a Sunday learning percentages. 😊

Messmer = Perfect example of a hard ass boss that feels OP but still enjoyable, great to study, gives you a challenge, feels rewarding, and you have time during the fight to react and correct (use flask) your mistakes. Promised Consort Radahn = I felt nothing, that Fromsoft signature feeling after beating a hard boss vanished, you simply are not allowed to be in that fight long enough to learn it properly.

I think one issue is the way the map is laid out. You can get to most of the map without killing bosses, but you often have to find unintuitive ways that you can't see on the map due to the verticality. So you need to explore for the scadutree fragments, but there usually isn't an obvious way to get to other areas other than beating the boss you are stuck on. There are cliffs everywhere so it feels a lot more confined than it actually is.

I'll say one thing, the camera in some of these fights is the hardest thing so far for me, but that's a fromsoft staple, so. Cant really go about and explore to beat the camera. Also that scadurtree stuff is honestly a bit nonsensical. I have 10 and mobs at the beginning of the dlc will still do bookoo amounts of damage, Fromsoft is just pulling some cracked difficulty in this DLC Enjoying it overall though

On the backside of the Fort of Reprimand castle there’s what appears to be ratatoskr squirrels by the cliffside.

i like the leveling system in the dlc and i agree with the concept but i still think that the bosses hit too hard regardless, have enormous health pools and they spam attacks monstop. all these three factors combined didn't make for a fun experience for me, it felt more like it was hard just to be hard. another complaint i had is the way you traverse the land, it was very disorienting and confusing and having so few graces makes it even harder. i found it hard to figure out where to go and follow the main storyline and even harder for the optional stuff. in general i still think the dlc is good but it felt a little unbalanced and undercooked, at least from the perspective of a casual fan going blind for the first time.

1. Nerfed player 2. Force player to collect

Something I'm going to mention for the DLC, there is a thing you can do after fighting mesmer, the demigod in all the promotional material. It's like burning the erdtree in the base game, and fails several quests, you'll know what it is when you get to it, but be aware that some quests you have to go off the beaten path to find the ending. Make sure to explore the whole world if you want everything.

Yeah, I'm sure it's the scaling that's the issue and not the bosses' non-stop barrage of shit that catches you at the end of the dodgeroll with the second hit.

In the base game, if Margit is too hard. Sure, go level your character, the whole weeping peninsula to explore. It show in the map. You can't miss it In the DLC, if the early bosses are too hard, go find hidden item. Sure, it not like I don't understand more shadow tree LV make game easier. But how much are they in the map? I explore a bit, hop around the map, found some hidden fragments, found every crosses in NPC's map. Maybe I found most of the fragments I'm able to? But end up found a lot more after I kill both Ensis's and Belurat's boss. Cause all of the area I able to explore are hidden

Generally find myself loving your music selection SOTN was a pleasure to hear again, need to replay that soon

The hardest part of the game is traversing the map

For me, the real heart of the “difficulty” critique boils down to this: - In Dark Souls, you died to a boss because you ran out of Estus. - In Elden Ring, you died to a boss because you mistimed two rolls in the middle of an 8+ move combo and the combined damage exceeded your max health.

i think another important aspect of damage and defense upgrades that is sometimes understated is how it can often influence the way you fight a boss way more that the percentages imply. Having more damage doesnt just make the fight shorter, it also means that you are less likely to be in the boss fight long enough to get a "bs pattern". Likewise, an increase in health and defenses can put you over the one or two shot range from attacks, meaning you consistently have less risk when fighting. Seen some people who have gone into the divine lion beast fight and roll-spammed and charged attacked their way to victory because their attack/defense put them over the threshold where that strategy is viable.

Thing is the Tree Sentinel is right there for you to fight, imagine going through a whole area eager for that boss loot only to be told no, you need to go to at least 4 edges of the map and then come back here. I mean the Dancing Lion and Renalla are right there by the beginning, I feel like this only increases the list of incomplete areas you have to remember. I wouldn't mind it as much if the bosses that needed more Scadutree items were deeper into the map. People shouldn't be forced to explore, the dlc does look beautiful yes but at times you run into areas that are just a whole lotta nothing.

Me: listening to this, nodding my head intently and agreeing with every word. Also me: ok, back to beating my head into a brick wall trying to defeat that giant flame bucket corpse thing right inside the DLC on level 1.

definitly true that the scadutree fragments are vital, and I think it's good that they want to keep the philosophy of if you can't beat something yet go somewhere else and get stronger. But the problem with the dlc is that quite a few areas are pretty (arguably unreasonably) hard to reach, so you can't do their challenges. Like an entire region where the only path to it is behind a fake wall in a hidden room halfway across the map from the actual region. Or a path that can only be opened by using a very specific emote that is hidden in some random location with no story significance that could be anywhere on the map. And these would be largely fine, if you at some point at least got some hints about their existence at the very least

Never has boiled crab been such a strong item in a video game.

the dlc just forces you have a shield

my biggest gripe with the dlc has been the exploration honestly. the map is gorgeous of course and there is still some fun in the sense of discovery but the loot feels even more worthless than the base game and i dont particularly like how everything is so vertical and hard to reach. it was fine for that one plateau in limgrave (the one for rannis quest i believe) but when its the core design of the map it feels more restrictive instead of freeing like an open world should be imo.

I’m really not having that hard a time. But then again I’m using Mohg’s Sacred Spear and Mimic Tear.

Looking into the values with modding software, the max Scadutree damage resistance is 50%, so getting to blessing level 20 effectively gives you double the effective health

I dont have the dlc yet but should i like hold back on the shards a little so its not too easy? Like get two then after a boss four then six ect, or is every boss just built different and it doesnt hurt the experience all that much?

This is a fine PSA, but I think the gameplay issue for a lot of people is in fact, the movesets. The "sit around and wait for the 20 string combo to end so I can do a single light attack" gameplay. I think this has just become way too prevalent in Elden Ring

Honestly I hate the system: it's invisible so it's not like you got a shiny new armor or something it just means you clicked a button and your numbers are better, likewise it doesn't feel like any actual progression has happened since I'm fighting the same boss with the same equipment but my numbers are just arbitrarily higher. "Promoting exploration" only applies for like a week and then everything becomes known and then you just ride Torrent around the map getting the free seeds just like what people do now with the Golden Seeds and Sacred Tears in Limgrave/Weeping Peninsula, it's just tedious and uninteresting but you're forced to do it because it's a numbers game

Great video, as always! Question though: in the base game some players, including myself, were constantly more worried about overlevelling and thereby making the game too easy, rather than underlevelling. Do you think that in the dlc there is a chance for players to kind of explore too much, collect too many scadutree fragments and then regret our exploration? In the base game, I restricted myself to a certain area, trying to complete as much as possible, before beating the area boss and then continuing to the next area. Is that something we should also do in the dlc, or does the dlc work significantly differently, and there is no (significant) risk of 'overlevelling' the scadutree blessing?

So do I have to worry about what level I am when I start the dlc, or would beating mogh be enough for me to go into it the dlc since theres a different leveling system

So I do have a slight criticism with the scadutree system in that it is a little limiting compared to what was done before and also the game is very unhelpful as to actually helping you find them. In the base game when you went elsewhere when hitting a roadblock there were lots of things you could do, you could get weapon upgrades, new talismans, new weapons, level up, AND upgrade your flask (which I feel is close to the scadutree and sacred ash system). Now here while you can still do a lot of that the effect is generally weakened by the assumption you probably aren't going to find anything THAT more powerful than what the end game of Elden Ring offered, though I could very much be wrong as I have seen some crazy things pulled out in multiplayer. My main issue with the scadutree fragments is that the description says "Found in churches", well, I have been to two churches in the game so far and one of them did not even have a fragment. Most of them have been near the stakes of Miquella and other locations that simply did not stand out enough for me to remember exactly. I think this is a genuine flaw compared to the golden seeds and sacred tears of the base game. You found golden seeds by small, golden trees that were very hard to miss. You found sacred tears in churches. There is no "Haha! We tricked you!" at any point in the game for these items, they are found in a specific place and stick to that place. Whereas the placement of the scadutree fragments seem more arbitrary. If the description had a different line from "at churches" I would probably feel better about it. But as it is now it creates a genuine issue where a player can go "Well, I COULD explore, but what if I already HAVE all the available scadutree fragments in my general vicinity?". EDIT: And fromsoft seems to agree with me on this because they clarified in a steam news post that "Hey, these pot dudes? Yeah they have scadutree fragments". I also think that decision is fucking stupid to attach these items to not-crystal-lizard enemies that respawn and have zero way to tell if you have already gained their shard.

yea because getting blessings will help when that fucking dragon on the mountain busts my ass as soon as I'm out of the fog gate animation

I think since the DLC map is a lot tighter with medium dungeons littered everywhere, the fragments make exploring feel less rewarding than the base game. It's like explore A first because A makes B easier. The problem is if you do 90% of B first and just not the boss in the DLC, the XP you gain and stuff you find barely make things easier like levelling/upgrading did in the base game

Rata do you use the NPC summons for boss fights? like Freyja or Hornsent?

Given I avoided all kinds of spoilers, this interview of Miyazaki, I should have listened or watched them. But the beauty of this DLC, as much as it kicked my butt 700 ways to sunday, is the discovering thing. Learning what these fragments are and the like...that's what makes the DLC so damn memorable...like exploring things for the first time, not sure what the key items are. And then diving into the item descriptions to find the answers rather than being told...isn't that what makes these games so fun? After reaching the endgame of the DLC and learning in retrospect about the fragments, it shows me how much I missed out. Thank you for the video, this gave me quite a lot of insight. That way I can finally solo the bosses, instead of relying on my spirit summons.

Not hard, just lazily done. Most of the complaints are not that it's hard, it's that instead of making the bosses difficult through mechanics, they make them difficult by having them spam attacks that can 2 hit you endlessly without any way of interrupting them. The extreme camera issues in this DLC only serve to make it even worse. The other reason combat in this DLC feels unfun and unfair is because they seemly just gave most enemies hyperarmor, you cannot flinch most enemies and even staggering them is difficult because by the time there's an opening to attack their stagger bar has replenished so combat has for the most part just devolved into a waiting game. I saw a quote that summed it up perfectly, "Bosses in Shadows of the Erdtree are playing Sekiro, but you're playing Darksouls."

Even after just finding the first two upgrades you’re likely to find; it feels like a huge difference.

Very much appreciate the simple explanation on the impact of scadu fragments. Seen a lot of people saying they dont matter that much

Guys here’s a tip for beating the bosses. Do not use gold NPC summon signs outside the boss room. It actually makes the bosses harder. You’ll be doing little to no damage at all.

if you're on PC and stuck on rellana, check righthand the corner before the stairs. i'll help c: i could fight this boss everyday

What talisman do I need to get a steady framerate?

Hey did you beat the last boss yet? Did you do it with or without spirit Ashe

Just beat NG+7 Promised Consort Radahn. I want to go home... and then edge.

so. I agree and LOVE Elden ring. that being said I have a nitpick. Mind you I have 9 upgrades and Have beaten all bossess on the shadow keep, and I feel like there is too much visual clutter. to a degree that sometimes obfuscates the bossess attack making it feel poorly designed. I am sure I can just git gud, but it still feels like some attacks come to you before you can realize it. I have 2 examples in mind but dont want to give spoilers. but both are on the shadow manor. also if you are locked in and against a wall. the moment the boss dashes past you the camera goes WILD. so beware that. best of luck to all and enjoy this magnificent piece of art

Yeah I come prideful to the land of shadow, then I been humbled by the celestial beast. I explore a lot and now the fun is right there.

Monster energy gang, rise up.

Still remember taking like four steps into that field and was immediately cut to pieces by the masked omen dude 10000/10 game

I haven't killed all the DLC bosses yet, but in my experience, the bosses' difficulty doesn't stem just from the stats, but from the fact that the window of opportunity for attacking is way too small, and that they do not seem to get staggered from anything, aside from posture breaking. It's not isolated from the main game of course, but seem more prominent in the DLC

I totally understand the reasoning for using boss difficulty to encourage exploration so that you can come back later and prevail. It really is a great idea. However, if I’m almost at max blessing rank with a level 200 character, bosses should NOT still be two shotting me like I was at rank 2 or 3. Otherwise, what is the point of the system? It makes attempting to learn the moveset of each boss way too burdensome when you can’t survive long enough to learn hit boxes of massive AOEs and hyper-aggressive combos only to die with one bad roll. If the point of the game is to encourage your own play-style with the variety of weapons and gear, then the blessing system should accommodate not having to equip all defensive related items just to survive a few more hits for the sake of learning. I get why it’s difficult, but it just feels flawed.

This DLC is so PERFECT I LOVEEE

Thank you so much for making this video. It's been really frustrating to see people rushing through the game and then complain how they're getting wrecked cause they ignore the empowerment mechanic It's as if they learned nothing from the base game

Quick question. How do you have max of every resource and crafting material and smithing stones and ancient smithing stones. Is that some kind of cheat engine

Dragoncrest Greatshield talisman on the balcony right before the elevator to Malenia is a lifesaver for this DLC.

There is knowing that the scadutree fragments help, then there is KNOWING the scadutree upgrades will help. I went in blind, completely blind and that was my choice. I knew the upgrades would help but I didn't know to what degree they would help. And honestly I think Fromsoft should have done an logarithmic curve on the scaling from the blessings. I think a lot of people are upgrading a few blessing levels and going to town on the boss. I know that is what I did and it felt like I didn't upgrade at all. Once you get blessing level 10+ it almost feels like you went to far. Luckily this is still a Fromsoft game and you can still die to a blob that pushes you off a cliff randomly. My biggest complaint on the DLC so far is the needlessly complicated routing to get around the world. I never looked up how to get anywhere in the base game. On my first playthrough I didn't even know the elevator worked to get to the altus plateau. In the DLC I have had to look up how to get to multiple locations now. In fact, it has caused me to do something I didn't want to do which was watch videos spoiling the areas.

I think the biggest difference is that in the base game you get souls from anywhere, but in this dlc you have to find these very specific items, some of which are very obscure. Going in blind feels like a worse option than its ever been because of this

Quick question: How do you upgrade weapons in the DLC? I've gotten so many new weapons, but I can't use them effectively due to lacking a blacksmith.

Think the main problem is that farming runes fits into the RPG mechanic of the core game than the scadutree fragments. You can kill anything, anywhere, to get runes and get stronger. Bosses are balanced, based on their location, around a certain RL. In the DLC, it seems like every boss requires you to have a ton of Scadutree fragments to be on par. Also, it's less about farming enemies now, and it's become a scavenger hunt for upgrades. Some of these are locked behind bosses, and while it does encourage exploration, some folks may get stuck trying to find that one scadutree fragment they need for an additional upgrade. I think Fromsoft worries of steamrolling the DLC is a non-issue, because you need to beat Mohg anyways to access it. Most folks will be at RL 125 or higher by that point, and if people are way higher, then let them steamroll the DLC. Typically folks who overlevel are doing NG+, so the bosses will scale to be much harder, anyways. It makes the DLC system more confusing for folks used to the base system. If the DLC was instantly accessible from the start, the DLC upgrade system makes sense. But to have it accessible pretty much late game, this made things more frustrating and cumbersome than necessary. Not to mention, getting max upgrades just doesn't feel enough to challenge DLC end game bosses.

As someone who created arbitrary restrictions when I play it’s frustrating to see people do the same then blame the game/design for the wonky difficulty when they are going out of there way to make it harder for themselves. The game will let you hamstring yourself, it doesn’t require that you do.

Two things I don't like about the bosses are how much of a visual eyesore they are (there are times where I genuinely cannot see or read what they are doing because they're too big, too close to the camera, have way to many lighting effects, and/or move unnaturally) and that their movesets aren't intuitive (feasibly, a boss can just attack forever and at any point, and there's no intuitive tell that the divine beast dancer's move has a 3 hit combo or a 4 hit combo or a 5 hit combo after a delay before suffering from it).

That tree sentinel becomes cake once u get your mount.

The challenge has been fun as hell! Been loving this dlc❤

I think a lot of people have a hard time putting into words why they don't enjoy Elden Ring / The DLC, and they just say boss to hard. But for me I don't really find the DLC "hard" but annoying and unfun to play. Elden Ring is full of enemies delaying their attacks for an arbitrary amount of time, and when the attack does go off, it fires like a laser. Many attacks have less than 2 frames of travel time. Humans can't react to that. This design style was used very lightly Ringed City, but it's all over Elden Ring and it's just not fun to interface with at all. Connected to this point is the bad attack telegraphing. For Example Messmer's has some poke attacks that are 100% telegraphed that he is standing still. But then as the attack goes off he just magically slides across the floor and goes way farther forward than the animation would have suggested. Or when he does his big combo (The Ash of War you can do) After the first attack the devs know you can easily run the opposite direction thus making his second attack whiff, So even tho his animation doesn't match the attack attack just teleports forward on the last attack of the flurry. This kinda stuff just feels unnatural and cheap I think FROM started doing this so no matter how good you are at this style of game you HAVE memories these arbitrary timings. It feels so "gamey" and arbitrary I can't enjoy it. The enemies having super high stats is fine to me. But the above design just ruins it. Also the DLC just feels dull. You fight the same enemies times over and over. You find some cool hidden area just for it to be full of the same baddies you've been killing all game. After like hours of gameplay you've nearly seen the whole roster of baddies. There's also so much garbage filler loot. The base game had this issue but it's so much worse here. TLDR Delay attacks that have 0 travel time once the attack actually starts, Bad boss animations vs the frame data they actually have So few enemy types / world feels bland

two major problems with dlc: 1. there is almost no interaction or new dialogue in erdtree realm. at least gideon would spill some info or gossip. i.e. even you would accept 3 fingers Midra doesnt tell or do a new thing. 2. exaggerated vertical design. i.e. roofed Raul sites or library scenes make nausea to some or feel them clostrophobic

Where can I watch the live stream you did?

I played Dark Souls 2 to prepare for the DLC. Already got 2 rememberances and working on downing frenzy man for my 3rd

It's not an issue with the Scadutree fragments. Something is very off with the balance of the game overall. [Spoilers follow] I play a mage build (80 Int, 42 vig an 42 mnd, level 162). I can do a dungeon where I'm 1-shotting all the regular enemies with Great Glintstone Shard (one of my weakest spells). Then, there's a Mesmer Soldier (those fire guys in all red) That take nearly a full bar of MP to kill. Plus the tracking on their fireballs is absolutely insane. And you can't interrupt those things. I've killed the guys while they were casting the fireball, and the fireball still came out and hit me even after he had already died. And those things are so hard to dodge because of how fast and accurately they track you. There shouldn't be that big of a difference in the experience of just killing regular dungeon enemies. There's no middle ground. The enemies are either too easy, or way too hard. Not even talking about the bosses... yet. But when you get to the bosses, they just charge right at you and camera frack you in the fog gate, if not just 1-shot you. I've been having to use Scholar's Shield and block as soon as a boss fight starts. But some enemies can start the fight with a ridiculous command grab that you can't block (like that stupid hippo in the Shadow Keep). So that's a whole new level of wtf... The boss fights just feel cheap. I don't want to engage with most of them. I just want them over. Fighting that hippo, for example: he charges at the fog gate as soon as you enter, with either the command grab, or something else (I can never tell because my camera goes inside him and I can't see). If you survive that, you can't create space to cast anything without having spirit ashes out because he advances across the whole room with any given attack. And again, you're either dead, or you can't see because your camera goes inside of him. I used a spirit ash to distract him while I cast a couple of Rock Slings to break his poise. But even when he was poise broken, he didn't stay down long enough for me to even fully charge a spell. He went down and almost immediately started to get up again. All of the bosses, except for the Furnace Golems are like that. I kind of just got lucky and got Meteorite of Astel off and that nuked his HP from around 80% to 0%. But that whole fight just felt cheap and very luck based. Then I fought the Commander Gaius... Again, he charges right at the fog gate as soon as you walk in with some weird dodgy charge that sometimes 1-shots, sometimes does barely any damage, sometimes I can block it, sometimes it breaks my guard. It's very inconsistent, and so is the hitbox when you try to roll away from it. You can use Torrent in that fight. But the damn pig boss is literally twice as fast and agile as Torrent is, so it really defeats the purpose of using him. This isn't a problem with the boss' damage. This is a problem with enemies animations, hitboxes, aggressiveness, cheap attacks, obnoxious speed, hyper armour, ridiculous amount of ground covered with any one attack (have Gaius chain 3 attacks together and he's just traveled half a mile in 2 seconds), etc. The damage is ONLY an issue because of all those other things. I even noticed something else. So in the base game, I remember how you could use night sorceries to hit enemies without them dodging, because they can't "see" them. Not a thing in the DLC. Rellana, for example, will button read dodge night sorceries. It's like the devs watched strategies people came up with in the base game, and did everything they could to make sure those strategies don't work in the DLC. You like to summon or buff up in the base game as soon as you enter the boss room. Good luck doing that in the DLC. You think you can stagger bosses in the base game. Not possible in the DLC. It almost feels like they're trying to force players to just cheese every boss. Cheese or be cheesed isn't fun boss design, Imo. Just my 2 cents.

the dlc is so good dudee

Because it isn’t about the pleasure of being easy, it’s about the pleasure of discovering what you’re capable of.

Bro I'm at +6 Shadow Blessings and Rellana is still taking no damage and stomping me. I feel like that should be a good number, sometimes it feels like the right time to beat a boss before exploring more.

Only problem for me is the world map is a nightmare to explore. i genuinely hate how vertical it is its actually pretty frustrating. Legacy dungeons and catacombs are absolutely peak though.

Issue with the blessings is that. 1. It turns the game into a fetch quest, your not exploring for new options your hunting down blessings cause you can't engage with the DLC without them. 2. And, the blessings gave the devs a huge excuse to overturn bosses to take into account said blessings that now they are more tedious than fun. They prioritized the difficulty spike far too much in this DLC.

I'm curious what your thoughts would be about players like me that aren't struggling but just... bored. you showed the rellana fight and I think she looks awesome and I was excited to fight her, but it feels awful to dodge her long attack sequences just to hit her once and then go back to dodging, she (and most enemies in the dlc I find) don't give you a chance to hit them back, if you try to even do your weapons second attack you'll be punished. personally I can't think of a fight in the base game that was like this besides maybe melania but even then I found her enjoyable so maybe it's something else instead, I'm not really sure.

miyazaki balanced for a damn long time on that edge, but i thinks it’s pretty obvious that the fun-fair-difficult balance has been upset for lots of people in ways they aren’t really account for

I think the game really needs to be better at communicating. Intended routes, boss orders, etc. Because sometimes there's an enemy/boss that the game thinks you are ready for but it is inconsistently more difficult than the rest of the difficulty curve, and other times they have things they expect you to skip and come back to, but don't make it clear.