5 Ways You Made Elden Ring More Difficult....

[@DomsRoundtable]

I can't believe you've done this

[@Tcrror]

How dare us!

[@DOC_951]

#1 reminds me of how you told us to kill the prawn man for his necklace instead of just paying him 1000 runes 😝

[@princeofcats8916]

I feel attacked. Leave my 343 Dewkissed Herbas alone. Also, what song is that you use for the credits?

[@TiberiusRex182]

I can absolutely believe weve done this

[@mdmushrush]

Look what you made me do!

[@navtektv]

The avoiding a hard fight aspect of Elden Ring is probably the best feature they have ever introduced because my mentality is to always fight a boss with zero runes. Every time I know I'm going to be facing a boss, I fast travel to a tried and true farming spot and farm for a while in order to level up or if my runes are less then I go and spend it at a merchant or the RTH. I do not like the distraction of worrying about losing runes along with the tension of fighting a boss. I nope out of every boss fight I can and make sure I have only enough runes on me that I would not miss if I died and then I go fight a boss.

[@CCMrJones]

Me too, never realized, that in Dark Souls it was different

[@navtektv]

@@CCMrJones Yeah. In Dark Souls, you hope that you have enough souls to level up before a boss fight because if you don't, chances are you're losing those souls because fast travel doesn't even get unlocked until you beat the most difficult boss in the game, the Dastardly Duo O&S.

[@Arch_Angel_Michael]

I do the same thing

[@Squidbush8563]

Three words. Twiggy Cracked Tear. It's made boss fights SO MUCH less stressful

[@hairymcnipples]

@@navtektv there's basically nowhere that you can't easily farm up the last few K of souls to level up, and though I don't bother with that, it's also pretty easy to pick up your dropped souls at the start of a boss fight each attempt. If you're regularly losing loads of souls at every boss you need to either (a) get over it as they're pretty easy to come by or (b) do something about it, which shouldn't be a big deal. The bigger issue is how often you need to fight your way to the boss room. O+S is probably the best example, although I do run past most of them.

[@meowsqueak]

I liked the way The Witcher 3 handles consumable potions - rather than having limited supply, it gives you limited capacity to handle multiple items simultaneously, with unlimited recharges. This actively encourages the player to experiment with potions in different situations, at no risk of wasting them in the event of premature death.

[@thedeadcannotdie]

Weird they didn't go with that approach. They already have the physic flask which kinda does that to some degree and they also had those candies in sekiro that u got from killing headless which used prosthetic tool ammo.

[@BigDSkids]

They did it the perfect way. Wish elden ring wouldve followed this

[@navtektv]

I'm don't know if I'm reluctant to ever use Rune Arcs. All I know is that every time I use a Rune arc, a boss seems to kill me quicker than usual and then I forget about the Rune Arcs and just run back to the fight. I don't think I've ever successfully beaten a boss with a Rune Arc active. I usually just die, respawn and then eventually beat them with my base stats.

[@thescottishaccent]

I'm the same. I really wish whichever Great Rune you equip would give you *some* of the quality it gives and you could then choose to further buff with Rune Arcs, as I just don't use them because (like you) I feel like the second I do, I end up dying so much quicker.

[@michaelfesinmeyer2061]

I beat the game 3x's and only used a 1 Rune Arc just to see what it did

[@viciouscross9560]

its almost like the games punishes you for using them i stopped using them for bosses an ended up using them to clear areas

[@shawmiserix404]

i use them before every demigod the great rune i use is godricks and it gives some pretty good stat boosts all things considered and resistences to all ailments

[@Tanstaafl_74]

I didn't think I was until I was in NG+ and realized I had more than 60 on me.

[@YYfilmsOfficial]

-One of the biggest things is not getting rid of the heal debuff you get from hugging Fia, too many times I see people just rocking the debuff and complaining when they get bodied by a boss or strong enemy that they don't have enough health. -Not using some weapon/spell/tactic because others have labeled it cheesy. If others want to do a level 1 punch only run that's fine, but general stigmas on some aspects of the game should be used how you see fit, not others. -Neglecting jump attacks. If players are coming from older titles jumping does feel like heresy, but there are some busted builds like the power stanced curved swords with frost and bleed which do crazy damage with their jump attack. Other times it allows you to jump over enemy's attacks and land a counter blow. -Unless doing pvp or killing npcs for quests, death and madness build-ups are pretty much useless on normal enemies so don't lean too hard into them. Frenzied incantations are good to use for damage but don't expect the madness proc to lead to your victory. -Don't save your seeds and tears for later, there is no bonus for not using them so help yourself and upgrade your healing and magic flasks.

[@montgomeryfitzpatrick473]

People don't take STDs seriously anymore

[@selenagamya1612]

Fia's debuff is pretty much negligible, since it's only around -5% of your max. That's nowhere near enough to be as much of a detriment as you claim it to be. Even at high levels when 5% is a larger amount, enemies are dealing way more damage, to the point where it still makes no difference. Sure, there's no reason to NOT get rid of the debuff, but it's not the end of the world if you keep it.

[@alexalvarado2156]

I saw my health drain and getting killed easily by the third time I went for that huh smh. I was like fuck you fia you useless hoe 🤣

[@thescottishaccent]

This is my first ever Souls-like (and so first ever FS game) and my biggest mistake was trying to be 'balanced' with all my stats when levelling up. I got to a stage (and I'm only just reaching the boss gate at Farum Azula on my first playthrough, so not even completed it once yet) where I was quite highly levelled, but almost everything was at 30 (approx) because I wanted to be able to use every new weapon or spell I came across thus far. So I'm a weak jack of all trades and master of none. I'm trying to figure out a good respec for myself, but I still have a mental block about leaving any one stat low. It's a real problem!

[@MrPuddle30]

Same. Very much same

[@Reverandfatdave]

Dude, that's why I'm almost level 400. All my stats are at least 50 and it was hard to push my strength to 80 while my dex and int were only 50...

[@sarahkathryn1839]

imma be real honest. 70 vigor 70 end lets you start lvling everything 1 level at a time if you want to jack of all trades. Long fights tho.

[@TheFinagle]

based on my playing DS 1 to 3 (im only in limgrave/ that storm castle myself - I have no idea where your place is) - honestly 30 of every stat sounds like a fairly decent build. you can pull out whatever the boss/enemy is weak to for every fight and hit them where it hurts. If you keep going to 50 all you will soft cap on everything and become relatively powerful with any given tactic. The issue comes from practice and twitch reflex build up. Having one weapon and armor setup the whole play-through you get really good at judging exactly how many attacks you can get in or if you need to save stamina to dodge as you learn each bosses patterns and attacks.

[@cheefussmith9380]

This is how I’ve run my professional life in the real world.

[@undefinedvariable8085]

Some others for 1st playthroughs: 1. not leveraging consumable buff items (i.e. incoming damage reducers, attack buffs, etc.) 2. neglecting pots and aromatics 3. neglecting the Wondrous Physick, timing the consumption, and using the right mixtures for the right situations 4. neglecting great runes 5. not treating your talisman loadout contextually and rotating them situationally 6. not experimenting or exploring Ash of Wars (or not leveraging them suitably for the particular challenges at hand) 7. neglecting weapon affinities 8. neglecting to prioritise levelling vigor and stamina early game 9. speed running/rushing, neglecting to thoroughly explore (more than enough content to level organically without grinding) 10. not learning the errors of your ways and growing (i.e. reflecting on how and why you fucked up and not doing that thing again) 11. no or limited weapon type range rotation in inventory (i.e. looking for, noticing, and taking advantage of enemy weakness, e.g. always have a decently upgraded strike weapon on hand for those pesky ~spit~ stone miners)

[@Kamishi845]

Who needs a striking weapon when there's magic? Hell even for the Crystalline bosses you can use rock spells for poise break.

[@undefinedvariable8085]

@@Kamishi845 Escalate that: who needs _anything_ when there's magic? Magic is _the_ easy mode in Elden Ring.

[@c_bass1971]

Doing anything to never lose runes! I acted like each rune was my only child and I made the game so much harder trying to avoid any risks of loaing runes.

[@Conky88]

I go into an area die a few times and then tell myself to forget the runes. As goku tells gohan in the fight against cell forget about everything and stop worrying and don’t hold back. So I do and it makes me play better. I can always get the runes back

[@Xarosai]

lol I have fun walking around with enough runes to level up 3-4 times more often than not xD

[@reflectcard6258]

Sometimes I play better with a huge ammount of runes, the will of not losing it makes me git guder a bit

[@Joyful_Traitor]

A friend of mine who let me make a character on his game to see if I liked it before buying it myself told me that at the start of the game get angry about losing runes you can always make them back later yeah that works until you are farming then do something stupid and lose enough for a few levels

[@rhondastroudmccutchen9348]

@carlos this comment made me feel seen!😂😂

[@atimm25]

In my first playthrough I accidentaly killed Boc because I clicked out of the Game and when I clicked back in the Games registered it as a click and I made an attack killing Boc who stood right in front of me. I was so mad. Also about upgrading I started out using the Lordsworns Greatsword and kept upgrading it and ervery weapon I found I thought "Is this better or not? Should I upgrade it to switch or not?" In the end I used the Lordsworns Greatsword for the entirety of Limgrave, Liurnia and Caelid only switching after beating Rykard and getting the Blasphmeous Blade.

[@Tanstaafl_74]

There are a few NPCs that, if I killed accidentally, would cause me to end that playthrough and reroll. Boc is definitely one of them

[@nebs6888]

On upgrading weapons. Imo find a weapon you like and feel comfortable with and stick with it on a first playthrough. Saves yourself a lot of headache for most FromSoft Games.

[@Shaathurray]

Am presently doing this with a +17 claymore. Def pulling its weight.

[@sasaki999pro]

I'm definitely in the latter camp when it comes to upgrades, but not for the reasons you think I withhold my smithing stones because "OH BOY I sure am having FUN with this weapon, I better not spend any worthwhile upgrades on it incase FromSoft NERFS it into the ground next patch! >:("

[@nebs6888]

@@sasaki999pro Honestly Nerfs have never been that bad. Usually the weapons deserving of nerfs are already pretty stupidly strong. So a nerfed version of it would just be on par with other weapons. Still viable of course, just need to build it right.

[@Philroq7]

I’d like to add another thing (it might be related to being stubborn in some way): being too overconfident, especially during boss fight. You have the boss’ health down to a very low point and perhaps you are just a few strikes away from defeating the boss. You get too confident and die. I’m guilty of this and have then learned to be patient and wait my turn.

[@MrJoewhitaker]

Overconfidence is real. i just started NG+ and think I can't be killed. I'm a god. Then 18 wolves decide to have their way with me. Not cool...lol

[@Philroq7]

@@MrJoewhitaker same. I also started a NG+. Our ego and overconfidence will get us killed in battle lol.

[@Sloth8346]

I get overconfident and try to do a cool ending blow and die

[@davejones9469]

It's not always unjustified though, since there have been many times I very nearly beat a boss on the first go, then can't even get close to that first attempt despite rebuffing with a rune arc etc. Those are the most annoying boss fights imo.

[@akaErma]

I farm the shit out of fire pot items because they're just that useful, but guilty as charged for hoarding Trina's Lily. I used sleep pots exclusively on godskins.

[@DilanPandemic]

literally never used a rune arc my whole play through, never realized they were so good.

[@LiamJ4486]

Nor me, but it's because I'm a hoarder on games like these

[@tellarite3000]

Yup. Took me something like 145 hours to beat the game (I did a lot of exploring) and for most of that time I had Godrick's great rune equipped - but never used it. Hoarded every single one of my rune arcs "just in case I need them later".

[@Chainsnroses]

Just use them conservatively.

[@Kamishi845]

I didn't realize you needed to use them to activate a greater rune so I played up into Leyndell without activating one because I naively thought it was activated when you equipped it. And then I went, well I managed the game up to this point without it, may as well continue that way lol. So I almost have 30 arcs now at Leyndell Castle.

[@Jasx_501]

Hardcore called out on hoarding items haha. Being stubborn actually managed to pay off for once: as a Souls vet, I ran into the Tree Sentinel and IMMEDIATELY had to see him dead. I started as the Astrologer and spent 2hrs sneaking, hit & running, and fleeing for my life but I actually did it! All before I leveled up even once. Super dumb but also super proud haha.

[@doomstadt2371]

Killed Patches by accident my first go around lol Was in the middle of a combo when he started begging, and by the time I relized what was happening he was dead lol NGL, his armor is pretty good for an early game bandit, and that spears not bad if you like spears.

[@BiggRich95]

I didn’t spare patches. I beat the shit out of him

[@KraestBurns]

Things that definitely made it harder for me: I play strictly melee in Soulsborne games. Don’t do that here. Despite feeling like it’s a wasted flask, magic is helpful and often *extremely* necessary in ways it just isn’t in Soulsborne games. Ashes of War are BETTER THAN DS3 WEAPON ARTS. USE THEM. I didn’t think spirit summons would be worth it because my wolves did nothing spectacular, so I didn’t use any until I got to Godfrey. USE SPIRIT SUMMONS, THEY ARE A GREAT DISTRACTION FOR THE BOSS. Similarly, don’t follow the line of thinking that using summons, sleep, scarlet rot, etc are cheapening the game in any way. Making it harder for yourself isn’t making the game “better” if you’re ignoring 90% of things the devs put in for you to use, it’s just making you thick-headed. The game gives you a *pile* of respec items, USE THEM. If your slow ass frost build isn’t working against a boss, respec into something that works better. Kill your babies (in this case, your babies being your builds). You can always just screenshot your build and go back to it later with one of the 300 respec items you get. This last one is also just good advice: get used to losing your runes. It will happen, again and again, and you won’t lose your mind and go hollow like the bitch in ds2 said, you’ll just go get more runes again. It’s okay. The game gives you a fairly paltry number of them anyway and if you made it that far without dying before you lost them, what’s one single level going to do for you if you do get them back? Getting upset about it won’t bring back any “progress” you made. Collecting runes isn’t a jenga tower, and dying isn’t knocking it over, so there’s no “progress” to lose. If anything, it gives you another chance to figure out the enemies that killed you, and you’ll be able to take them out swiftly and efficiently the next time, which will feel much more satisfying than adding 3 points to your stamina bar.

[@TheLumpy107]

To me it became almost a mandatory thing to restart my character in a fromsoft game... every time I play for like 2-3 hours, realise that I'm not happy with the stats I took and restart.

[@spcbrass]

My big regret was not finishing areas of the map and moving through the main quest too quickly at the start. I got locked out of a few NPC quests that’s really among the best in the game. Once I learned to slow down and explore more of the map I did t have this problem anymore. I am guilty of item hoarding also. Beat the game on my first play through without using a single item. I also didn’t take enough time to figure out how to combo together all of the different buffs between spells, incantations, potions and buffs. I basically yoloed every single battle with my faith build and managed to still beat enemies that had high faith resistances. There is so much this game doesn’t tell you. But once you know how everything works and what order to tackle the areas it does get significantly easier. How many of us wandered into Caelid the first time way under leveled and got promptly smoked by the pack of zombies? Guilty as charged!

[@Assassin90Nine]

Hi, Great video series mate. I have watched them all while I have been playing. I used the bloodhound fang for ages while I collected weapons then upgraded a few to play around with. Cheers

[@kuku4cocopufs796]

Ok I did all these.. Biggest mistake ..never switched out my armor , was too focused on looking good rather than making my playthrough alittle easier. I didn't study the finer points of each armor in relation to specific strong points. But hey, I died many times in style....! Thanks for the video...knowing others made the same mistakes made me feel less stupid. Lol.

[@ArcNine9Angel]

To be fair, clothing is mostly fashion :p I'm running through as a twinblade user right now with prophet trousers and sorcerer manchettes only, for a martial artist/escaped prisoner look. What's the point in beating a boss for self-confidence if you also don't look good while doing it? c:

[@Ayban3]

fashion way more important

[@hairymcnipples]

The only defensive stat worth worrying about on armour 90% of the time is poise. The exception is basically only resistance to poison/rot in areas that inflict those status effects as an environmental hazard. And even with poise, it's only really something to worry about if you're using heavy, slow weapons and need to poise through attacks to deal damage at times. It probably wouldn't have made a big difference. Unless you're talking about PvP, I guess.

[@arellajardin8188]

For 2&3. I started my original strength run hoping to upgrade hammers and axes (regular, great, and colossal) for a good variety of weapons. By Liunria, I narrowed it to hammers only. And by Calid, great hammers only. The game requires way too many Smithing Stones, and is way to stingy with them. Even after the patch to increase drop rates. As for consumables, I have farming method for mats for Fire Grease, and that’s it. Everything else, I ignore, because it’s just such a pain to farm mat. This crafting system is somehow worse than previous games, since you could just farm souls and buy items. A solution I would suggest, is that you only need to craft an item once to have access to it, then only let us set up our loadout at Grace. Say, for example, you need 10x Souldering Butterflies and Mushrooms to unlock Fire Pots, and any time you’re at Grace, you can restock on Fire Pots. Have limiters like the cracked pots for every type of item. Greases, throwing knives, and status cures. This would make setting up your loadout at Grace feel strategic, and encourage you to use your items, because they won’t be lost.

[@dankroothydra7974]

It's sort of related to point 5, but the biggest offender imo for this game is not leveling vigor. It may sound obvious in hindsight, but things hit so hard in Elden Ring that neglecting it can quickly become a death sentence. This also manifests in other habits such as prioritizing scaling when it's arguably less important than it was in other games (at least compared to upgrades and buffs).

[@locust7777]

It's important early game but becomes pretty much useless when everything can kill you with 2 or 3 hits regardless of your health

[@David-ly2zr]

Another one that might just be me doing it, is selling extra weapons that I pick up, then reading what each weapon has, then selling one that you didn't want to sell, by accident, or forgetting that I'm at a merchant's screen to try to equip it, but selling it instead. Happened twice to me.

[@ShaunRF]

I went out of my way to get the smithing stone bell bearings, just so I could upgrade and try out any weapons I could. Being my first Souls game, I wanted to try out as much as possible. I also sought out good rune farming spots, so that I could buy those smithing stones, and so I wouldn't worry so much about losing runes.

[@hairymcnipples]

Getting those bell bearings is definitely the way. It's only the ancient dragon stones that are limited, you can buy all the rest. Same with the spirit ash upgrade mats. And going from +9 to +10 or +24 to +25 is worth it, but leaving the weapon one level lower is hardly the end of the world. I finished the game without ever getting around to maxing my lance, it was fine.

[@SrmegaCabra]

Although I'm a little sad that the "Things You Missed" series is over (at least until the DLC) I'm keen to see what new videos you have in store, your vids are always entertaining and interesting 👍

[@katbercar]

I started as the deprived/wretch, as I did for DS3 so I could see what I liked and spec from there. Ended-up as Faith/Str build again

[@ecobasetech4558]

Reason #5 has never been an issue for me because I just create multiple characters (I have 4; Bandit, Prophet, Vagabond and Prisoner) and spec them each differently and use primarily different gear/weapons for each. If I come across a weapon/spell/incantation that's not suitable for a particular character I'm playing at the time and the character I have where it is appropriate for doesn't have it yet, then at least I know the location and can aim for it when I've rotated to that character. With regards to Rune Arcs; I do use them sparingly but I've got into the habit at least in late game (going through Haligtree with all 4 characters currently) to get my stats up high enough that I don't get the x in the corner of any of my weapons. This is especially important when doing NPC invasions, because your great rune gets deactivated and you lose the bonuses. So the lesson there is to not 100% rely on your stats having the bonuses that the great rune provides. Aim to get your "base" stats to the point where you can use all your gear/incantations/sorceries WITHOUT the bonus from the Great Rune. A couple of my characters I have, have between 20-40 rune arcs still but I know that at least one of my characters has only about 15 or so left. That is probably enough to get me to the end of the game; but only if I use them sparingly. Example is if I have an activated Great Rune and I die in a boss battle, I generally won't activate another one and will force myself to beat the boss without the activated great rune.

[@thecrocco5572]

I got a few, lol. 1. Didnt realize that the game's initial prompts to explain the controls were set to Gamepad, and not Mouse and Keyboard...so I didnt even know how to do strong attacks until some time after taking down Godrick the Grafted. 2. Ignored powerstancing and dodging, as mechanics, entirely, until about halfway through the game. 3. Completely and utterly ignored Ashes of War until, again, about halfway through the game. 4. Thought Rivers of Blood was stupid and ignored it for a depressingly long time before finally using it. 5. Killed D., Hunter of the Dead, outside of that graveyard, the second I saw him, because his back was turned and his red cape looked an awful lot like the reddish capes on some of the skeletons. 6. Despite cheesing boss after boss with the absolute beauty of scarlet rot, I attempted to fight Astel, Naturalborn of the Void, like a real hero with swords and dodges, dying about 6 times before just embracing the cheese as I'd always done and Decaying him into nothing. I know there are a lot more - ignoring greases, for instance - but those should be enough to demonstrate that Im an Elden Idiot. To further back this up, I have 303 hours in Elden Ring...on one character...and I haven't even gotten through Crumbling Farum Azula yet.

[@akaErma]

It took me several hours to even notice Fia's debuff, and even longer to figure out how to get rid of it.

[@Guy1189]

The skill points thing is too real. My first playthrough I wanted to use SoNaF so badly that I dumped all my points into INT and FTH, completely ignored Vigor, Mind, and Endurance. By the time I was able to use the weapon, I couldn't take a hit long enough to attack with the AoW. I will say though, the 1 way I found to make the game easier on myself? Your "Things You Missed" series. I'd get to a new area and immediately refer to your vids. Eventually, I got confident enough that I didn't need them, but I'd definitely refer to them to make sure I didn't miss something important.

[@aaronfaucett6442]

I just love your polite greeting in the traditional British accent. You have great info in your videos too

[@jacobslifka1358]

Dom, you've made playing this game so much fun by making your content. Keep it up.

[@Saga.Anderson]

I would've liked this video to offer some kind of solution to this mistakes, maybe you can consider this in a possible part 2. But besides this, great work as always! Edit: I meant mistake 1 and 2 especially. My big mistake was to hug Fia and get my HP reduced, and running around not noticing until I was through Caelid.

[@Conky88]

For strength/dex builds. Upgrade the bloodhound fang to +10 as soon as you can. My build is 83 dex and 70 strength 40 endurance and 60 vigor. As of today. They’ll both be 99 soon enough but the damn thing smacks hard.

[@here2there880]

Biggest I see with new players is spreading stats too much. Wanting to do it all right way.

[@itsallgood1972]

One way i made it harded......thuggin my under leveled ass through Caelid. Those dinosaur dogs pissed me off, and I was NOT leaving til I taught them to heel.

[@stephenjohnston2533]

Not using Rune Arcs til VERY late (Stacked 40 of them in inventory..... maybe more.. Not buffing.... relied heavily on weapon stats alone... but got levelled up by exploring to help that. I agree on the stubbornness point... LOST ALOT OF RUNES. Even being intercepted on the way to recover runes - HATEFULL! Thanks Dom! Great channel and Vids! First time FS game. Skyrim on steroids was my take on ER first time round. Just appealed to me a lot more than the Dark Souls and Bloodbourne games.... LOVE ER!

[@BlueAsterismSolstice]

Following along places to the main path you can get all the bell-bearings for upgrade materials to weapons and just need rune farming. Then to fuller side area exploring you get all the bell-bearings to spirit ash upgrade materials. The most limited of either is the final ones to max either upgrades. As a Souls Vet I knew I was going to level wrong no matter what my first playthrough and carried on. But this carried over another familiarity to me that is just getting comfortable with a weapon you pick up and use, but took a while for me to realize how much Ashes of War are part of REALLY deciding the weapon by the time I first was invaded by Vyke and knew his weapon was pretty OP.

[@mr_peach7704]

If I didn't laugh I'd cry but so true the bit about banging your head over and over with the first Tree Sentinel. I have to say though, the first best thing about New Game Plus is you come right out of the gate and beat him to a pulp and it feels sooooo good.

[@DemonKingHiei]

Doms: you’re a hoarder cuz you’re scared of wasting items Me: I hoard items cuz I don’t like using them

[@antoinek.8478]

Rats have a very low chance of dropping rune arcs, so just head on over to an area where you can farm a decent amount of rodents near a site of grace. I often farm for 2 or 3 as a warm-up when I load a save. It's annoying and repetitive but if you don't want to do PvP and want that extra boost then it's worth it in my opinion.

[@emperor_prime2011]

Here's some tips to ease your playthrough. You can find somberstone miner's bells and smithing-stone miner's bells which you can give to the merchant in the RTH to permantly unlock all smithing and somber stones up to +24 and +9 respectively. Only the last stones can only be found and are therefore limited per run. Also rats occasionally drop rune arcs, so there is theoretically an unlimited supply. Still farming those can be a real pain.

[@gthakur17]

wasting smithing stone to upgrade the shield

[@12345.......]

Or accidentally using an ancient smithing stone on something you didn't mean to put to level 10

[@RIPDeogii]

My biggest ways have been: 1. Accidentally leveling up the wrong staff/seal (ie the one that boosted carian spells instead of glinstone spells) 2. Locking myself out of npc quest lines by not doing research (seluvis and Volcano Manor) 3. Not buffing myself more consistently (golden vow, rune arcs, etc)

[@hairymcnipples]

It might be worth looking into which staff actually is the best - my understanding is that the best staff in the game is so much more powerful than the others that it outscales the buffs on the specialised staves at high levels of int.

[@jeffstewart2083]

Another for first timers is not understanding power stancing or even knowing that it exists for half my first playthrough.

[@tobyseth]

I can honestly say I've crafted very little I'm the game. A few boluses and a fire pot here and there. Granted I am a hoarder but I played as a mage and used spells to heal versus materials about 97% of my 300 hours lol As for losing runes I've done that a few times. My best advice is if you're at least half way to a level, farm for runes and then use them before potentially losing them. Especially later on in the game when each level is 250,000+ per level. I don't mind losing 30,000 but I would mind losing 180,000 🤪

[@sordel5866]

Under "levelling the wrong stats" special mention must be made of not levelling Vigor, which makes the game super tough. 45 is a minimum for late game. I tend to plan which weapons I level in advance but I just switched from Cipher Pata to Blasphemous Blade on one character and it made an unbelievable difference to the game's difficulty.

[@tehSunBro]

Number 5 has never been an issue for me in any souls game. My first playthrou of every souls game has allways been a Int/Dex build, and i haven't regretted it once. Since i knew Bloodborne doesn't have the typical Int build, i just went full dex. Second run usually is a faith build. Or in Elden Rings case Faith Arcane because dragon incantations are just so fun and insanely strong.

[@ruediger5795]

Biggest mistake in my first playthrough: following the recommendation of Varre and the game by visiting directly Stormveil!

[@Alex-tn7pv]

I think we all fell for that. I got my ass kicked so hard due to my stubbornness, that I finally said to myself "yeah... I better go explore and level up my char and gear."

[@MrArrino]

About rune arcs - Yeah I did use one rune arc before equipping great rune and got little health. When I understood that you actually need to equip great rune near site of grace after I died I equipped Godrick great rune and... finished game never using rune arc :)

[@Evocatorum]

Rune arcs can be farmed since they are a rare drop from rats. My goto place to do so is the Earthbore Cave; there are 7 small rats and 1 giant rat that take ~1 minute to kill thus making the usage of one silver-pickled fowl foot equivalent to 24 rat kills. They're a rare drop, but they do absolutely drop. Simply ensure that your discovery is as high as possible (+arcane, Silver Tear Mask, SPFF and Silver Scarab if you have it), and buzz through the circuit. At the very least, you'll leave with a ton of Rune 3's and some Rune 5's...

[@billyjeffersoniv4344]

I made it to the second boss before I realized "the hug" was actually hurting me

[@daviddonaldson2807]

I beat the game before I realized

[@benmauger1441]

I always forget to use it too. Its probably on now

[@youtubevoice1050]

That's minimal though. Some of the talismans are way worse in that regard.

[@hairymcnipples]

The video massively exaggerates how bad it is. It's not good, but it's a pretty minor debuff.

[@iban4158]

Bruh I beat melenia like this and I didn’t find out till Godfrey’s slam kept somehow one shooting me even though I’m supposed to have more health than the stomp

[@youtubevoice1050]

I think the biggest issue is, when players follow the guidance of grace straight away, rather than finishing a region and leveling first. That has the biggest impact on difficulty.

[@alisterdyer]

Stacking debuff charms! I couldn't do mountain top until I realised this. Beyond squishy

[@j.f.fisher5318]

The two compromises I came to: 1 plan my build ahead of time so I'd know what to upgrade. And to avoid losing my mind about runes, to only level by farming and treat any progress I made otherwise as a bonus.

[@Malisteen]

weapon upgrades were a major problem. You get the option to respec your stats pretty early on, and that's great if you've decided you're not really enjoying your build. Only, even if you re-set your stats, you still don't have the smithing stones to build up any weapons to fit the new build. the game eventually provides bell bearings to let you buy whatever smithing stones you need... but by the time you get them those materials are so far behind that you might as well not bother. Respec option becomes useless until the absolute end game when you finally have access to bell bearings equivalent to your current level.

[@J-Ndre]

Fat coinpurse ahead! I am indeed a hoarder myself, but I have been using power ups more regularly lately. BTW! Rune arcs can easily be farmed by equipping the Blue Cipher Ring. Help a brother in need. Nothing to loose, rune arcs to gain, if you successfully fend of the invader. Runes are also kind of easy to acquire, but takes a little bit of knowledge and skill. And yes, I did level up wrong stat, but luckily there is the respec, thankfully =)

[@thomask1424]

I did kill Patches on my 1st toon (he drops that nice +7 spear) but no other NPCs, though I accidentally hit Raya with Torrent when I jumped into the little gazebo. Mis-allocating skills isn't too bad if you get access to Mohg's palace to farm for runes. That 1st toon got to 311 so I had a pretty good spread and could use most anything.

[@jsphrodgers]

I looked at 4) differently. If I’m not close to leveling up with my runes then just let them go and just find a good farming spot. It will save you the stress of trying to collect them and get you into boss faster

[@ForgedinPrint]

I have some advice for the first playthrough of any game (and the indecisiveness of what my character should be). I have chosen my build before I actually play the game, not in terms of what items to get but how I want my playthrough to go. I usually start with a knight style character, one who can tank a beating and if possible dish it back out. This allows me to make the most mistakes while playing a new game and kind of study what does what to who in the game, and learn the second playthrough from that one.

[@sofaking1627]

So far, what's making the game harder for me is that I keep starting over. Lol I've been playing for months and haven't beat it because I keep wanting to try a different build after different points in the game and then I think "Man I wish I was like this from the start" and so I make a new character. I think I've burned the tree four times without actually going on to finish the game. This time though, I'll go all the way, I totally like this build, I totally won't reset it again.

[@hairymcnipples]

You, uh, know you can respec at rennala, right?

[@rhondastroudmccutchen9348]

I also put this on another video: I recently learned that unless you have a scalable weapon equipped at the time of leveling up, your favorite weapon will not get the extra boosts even if you’ve used your smithing stones to strengthen it. Again, maybe I was late to discover this feature, but now when I level up I intentionally decide which scalable weapon to equip at the time so when I do eventually use it, it’s already been boosted!! Thanks again for the videos!!❤️

[@rhondastroudmccutchen9348]

@@Exod25 okay. You know how your left and right hand armaments increase when you level up? If you’re not equipped with a weapon at the same time those slots don’t increase if you level strength or dexterity. So when you do equip a weapon in those slots you’re not getting all the boosts. I could be wrong and I’m misunderstanding what I see. Maybe I’ll try it some more and take screenshots for support

[@rhondastroudmccutchen9348]

@@Exod25 I went back and checked everything yesterday. I was mistaken, no shame, about equipping weapons each time you leveled up. The first time I posted this I thought my right armament 1 slot didn’t change weapon or not when I leveled up. That’s where I got the notion that it mattered. It appears I probably didn’t choose an attribute that impacted that slot but thought I did. Again, playing the game more intentionally this time so I’m paying closer attention to attribute scaling and weapon grade scaling that is impacted. Appreciate the adult dialog. 😎

[@ExecutionDbl9]

My strategy for #5 - and this was my mindset going in - I am going to allocate stats to experiment with different things I want to try, and when the time comes where I need to focus, I'll respec into my preferred playstyle. Level 83 and still haven't respecced yet, and still running my most likely ill advised INT / FAI build

[@fizzyshellfish5439]

I've played the other Souls games. Elden Ring is different and has instilled a new habit on me though. Once I'm remotely close to leveling... I go and grind runes somewhere to level up. ONLY THEN will I enter a legacy dungeon, or attempt a new boss/mini-boss or even a new zone. The open world and fast travel just makes it so easy to not lose large amounts of runes. So rune management in ER has become more of a mini-game than in any other Souls game. There's a dozen places to go grind at any point in your play through. It never gets boring. So I almost never care about losing runes. Having leveled up? Then I just don't care if I die. I did this with Stormveil on my first play through. I entered Stormveil with 17 runes, and decided I just don't care about runes until I leave Stormveil. I think I did manage to level once or twice in Stormveil. But having the "I don't care about runes for now" attitude really makes the game easier. My mindset was to just get through Stormveil and find all the items. Leveling can wait until I'm done.

[@jdreign7210]

For the last one, this is why I always go with whatever wretched class they have

[@okonkwojones]

You can’t make me use my elixir! I might need it during the ending cutscene!

[@noneayourbusiness5149]

A lot of other videos have mentioned this, but another way player inadvertently made the game harder was by getting hugs. Being held by Fia actually applies a Debuff of your max HP for as long as you have the item she gives you. And combined with hoarder syndrome, if that item just sits in your inventory, unused, well you keep that debuff, even if you die. And sometimes that tiny bit of HP reduction could mean the difference between life and death.

[@iban4158]

Really ? I always hug her😭 I did it before melenia and got her on like the 10th try with a summon.

[@crimsonvoo7505]

I've got in the habit of using my runes to level up before entering an area I'm not confident about so instead of losing 57000 runes , sacrificed my left over 400 . If I'm short a couple thousand, I would just farm till I hit my cost before attempting to fight something I could lose at

[@TheFinagle]

I think some of these don't really count because its nothing farming cant fix. Losing runes, upgrading the wrong stats, using up crafting materials that do respawn or can be farmed, ect. Are not making it 'harder' - it might make your play through 'longer'. If you change a build plan and have some extra of a stat your not using its not harming that other build, just slows level grinding down later on. You can still get 99 in all the pertinent stats of your new build (unless they introduced a new level cap I'm unaware of). I don't know which materials are limited or not, and that makes it harder to judge whats wasteful or not but there are some, like the standard smiting stones, you can be sure will be available in unlimited numbers.

[@RedneckSith]

Best thing.you can.do for stats early on is pump vigor to 15 or even 20. By the time you've hit that, you should have a rough idea of which play style suits you. Plus it's impossible to gimp yourself by having too much HP. Even if your damage is low, having high health will let you win fights through attrition. As for being stubborn, one of the best things about the game is that you can always find somewhere else to go. The open world style of the game means you don't have to die a hundred times trying to beat a.boss in order to progress. Go exploring! Maybe you'll find something which can give you an edge. A new.weapon, some armor, a spellbook, craftable item, or even just a ton of runes to level yourself up or buy consumables with. Unlike From's previous titles, this one isn't linear. Don't treat it as such.

[@DOC_951]

I didn’t start using rune arcs until I had like 60 of them and I was more than half way done lol. Also, easy mode = mimic tear.

[@crapsharkify]

Yeah, I've only used three or four. I kept forgetting they were a thing!

[@marcoagostini7866]

5:50 I was literally about to write that i never used any elixirs when playing FF8 lol

[@szymonrozanski6938]

1. Playing melee 2. Using shields (Unless for Parry) 3. Not using summons 4. Not cheesing/abusing AI 5. Downloading mods that make the game easier

[@nathanhendrickson790]

Equipping a soreseal for the entire playthrough. Sure if your low on levels and want that legendary guts great sword or golden halbred to carry you, then yes definitely equip it but once you get to mountaintops of the giants and everything after that you’re going to see a significant amount of damage done to you. Yeah enemies in the late or endgame do tons of damage with or without it but they will do a lot less when you gather the courage to exchange that soreseal for a better talisman. Trust me at that point your build will be fine.

[@LateCloser]

ER was my first "Souls" game...I used all of my starlight shards for mana. I only used Rune arcs to test a new greater rune when I received it, because you know you might need them later. Who knows how many you can get. I used my shield because it has this cool counter ability, why would you ever roll? How could you not equip a shield?! Why would you ever 2-hand a weapon?! I only upgraded a spirit summon if I had 5 of the upgrade material necessary, in case it was a mistake and I found 4 others that would be better in the future. An exception to the rule was made if it was labelled "legendary". Then, I only had to have 3! Somber stones?! Oh, those are to be cherished! Pots, perfumes, greases, berries, never know when those might be NECESSARY to be beat a future boss. Don't use em! Ever. The only weapon I ever max leveled was a morning star out of fear to armored mobs carrying shields. A necessity! I killed Patches cause I didn't like the way he talked to me. I didn't know who he was, his history of being in From software games. Regrettable, but not really. The only NPC in the game I killed. I gave Nepheli Loux Seluvis potion, I knew I shouldn't. :( I tried fighting the big bosses from a distance, originally! I'm not getting close to a fire breathing dragon! Are you crazy?! I'm not crazy. My second play through might be easier than the first. :)

[@muramasa870]

Go play Dark souls first

[@nickcarter5569]

Love your videos brotha! The first time I pressed R2 button when I set down my controller and hit an ncp I literally had a heart attack lmao. This game really knows how to make you conscious of your actions 🧐😌

[@Tcrror]

You LITERALLY had a heart attack?

[@Lucy2Juicy]

5:30 funny thing I didnt hoard on purpose I legit forgot I had items, rune arcs included till some handful of fights

[@only4posting]

I absolutely loved elden ring (+360 hours , will soon start my first ng+), and I wish there was 2 or 3 extra worlds, and 30 extra enemies to fight, for an extra 300 hours. Everything in the game works perfectly, and even the gui works great. BUT, although I understand From Software didn't want to clutter the main interface with 300 items, notifications, maps, etc, I wish there was at least a tab, where we could get, eg, some info about the enemies we already fought. With a ultra high res 3d model (a la tlou2), that we could zoom in, rotate, etc. And with some info about it, like how many times we killed it. But despite all that perfection, there is ONE THING, where I absolutely hated it. GURRANQ, BEAST CLERGYMAN. I will explain why: Yes, I had already killed some enemies, and I had found at least 3 or 4 death roots, which I had offered to the Gurranq beast. Then, I kept playing the game, normally (ps5), killed a bunch of enemies, and also went to farum azula, where I killed MALIKETH. Then, after killing MALIKETH, I killed another enemy, and i got another death root, and I decided to pay a visit to GURRANQ, so I could feed him. But when I got there, GURRANQ had gone absolutely crazy, and killed me at least 10 times. No way I could give him another death root. So I thought, ok, GURRANQ is super mad at me, and wants to kill me, because I killed his friend/ brother/etc MALIKETH. So I went outside the building, because GURRANQ couldn't pass the door...and shot at least 200 normal + fire arrows, until he died. From 100 to 0 health, never did GURRANQ become less aggressive... that's why I kept shooting arrows... I thought my only choice was killing him, after killing MALIKETH.... after killing GURRANQ, I was like, hey... what about the remaining death roots...? So I checked Google, to see what I had to do... just to find out I didn't have to kill GURRANQ, and I only had to reach 50% of health, for him to become friendly again, and accept my death roots... I was so, so, so infuriated... I could no longer finish GURRANQ quest, and receive all his gifts. How could I know I didn't have to kill GURRANQ? I'm a completionist, and I was so mad, because of all this... Long story, but... I wish there was some info... some hints... so we could know we didn't have to kill GURRANQ...!

[@fizzyshellfish5439]

Wait... I kept giving Gurranq the roots. Finally, I warped in to his Grace Site and he was hostile. He killed me about five times until I ran out the door and decided to shoot him with arrows. I don't have PERFECT memory, but I swear he became mellow after a certain number of arrow shots. His heath was nowhere close to 50% because my arrows were just doing tiny chip damage to him. Once he went non-aggressive, it was really obvious he wouldn't hurt me, so I went in and talked to him. Maybe your game glitched? I had not killed Maliketh, though.

[@justingloyn5471]

AWESOME video Dom, great for newbies and definitely a reminder for all of us who have lived through those mistakes. If only I wasn’t so susceptible to bloody falling off things all the time; be wary of gravity, that’s my tip! Keep these videos coming, my man.

[@Kevjohno]

I wasted all fire pots on the night evergale... He didn't die.. Love your guides best on KZbin great stuff 👍.. Note.. I used my rune arc because you said it buffs your stats on you guessed it the Knight Evergall 🤔

[@evanhowlett1370]

The way I’ve made the game more difficult for myself? Well when it first came out I bought it at release, then waited 6 months to play it after an hour of playing and frustration for all of the guides to come out 🤣 and there are SO many guides. I feel like everything I do is going to stop a different quest, so I over leveled to the point that I was level 71 before beating rennala. It was like bringing a building down on a turtle with a nerf gun.

[@davidescobar1021]

how 'bout not using cooperators when they're available? if they are there, then they should absolutetly be used.

[@youtubevoice1050]

Ohh yes, I hate it when consumables/ ingredients/ ammunition are rare. Same issue with rune arcs. I keep hoarding that stuff and then forgetting about them. Game designers really need to smart up about these mechanics. Also the smithing stones, especially the regular ones that require how many? Twelve for each rarity type? Ridiculous. At some point it becomes easier to upgrade legendary weapons rather than normal ones. Unreal.

[@tehSunBro]

The whole wasting upgrade materials is a moot point. Nr1 who builds up a weapon that you can't even use, that is beyond wasting materials. Second, and i think that is much more common. Unless you look up what each items stats are, you will most likely end up using the first weapon for the weapon type you want to use. If you wanna make a strength based character with a big beefy sword, most likely you will pick the first big sword you find, and start upgrading that, and just never really swap to anything else. Because by the time you pick up a different weapon, your upgraded one will deal so much more damage than whatever you pick up, so you wouldn't even know that the random big sword you find 10 hours later would actually be better. On subsequent playthroughs you will most likely plan ahead allready for whatever build/weapon you want to have. People use the weapons with the biggest damage and a lot of times, it's the one you are allready using. Sometimes it's even the weapon you started with. On my Samurai build i kept using the Uchigatana, and Longbow for the entire game. Arcane build and an Occult Uchi. And i tried Rivers of Blood, but the Unsheathe Ash was just so much more useful for stagger.

[@foulbeans9693]

Noob tip from someone who hasn't played a souls game before: Don't know what to do with stats? Need a weapon for specific stats you have? Know that your going to encounter Margit the Fell Refund and want to learn their weakness? Don't know how a status effect works? Use a wiki. Fextralife is a good one. It isn't cheating (unless you're cheesing) to know what your going up against. And even then, it isn't a fair fight in the first place. You get slapped by a boss once and you instantly die. Throw dirt in their eye or create immense distance to throw a bunch of ranged bullshit. A lot of enemies will interrupt you at both long and short ranges. Also, search up how the leveling system works. The benefits from leveling up start to decline the higher a stat is. And then technically, you can level up as many times as you like. So at some point, specializing in a specific stat becomes meaningless (unless it's intelligence, it is incredibly taxing on your opportunities). So if a stat doesn't give any bonus, look to others that may. Another thing I found out early enough not to be punked, armor is a myth. Poise is a joke. We are all naked, controlled by technicalities. Euch, sorry, I'll elaborate. If you go into the status tab of the menu, you can see your resistances. It will tell you each class of damage you can defend against. The highest I've been able to get without a heavy load is around 22.whatever. Now that would mean I negate 22.whatever% of that damage type. Now when I remove all my armor I get... 18.something% damage negation. A turns out, each stat can increase your resistance when you level up. That is why you can return to the start of them game naked and tank 20 hits from a noble instead of 5 with full metal plating. Point is, the best way to increase defense is by leveling up. Or by consumables or certain incantations that can decrease the amount of damage you take from specific sources by 50%. Further more, why armor doesn't exactly matter is that even if you have 79% Holy resistance (Highest I could get it for fighting the final boss), 79% of 1,846 Holy damage means will take 387 damage. When I have 833 health. All that work and I will be swatted like a fly. And then I can have 79 holy resistance but only 7% Physical resistance and a lot of enemies do two types of damage. Point being about armor: Reject poise, embrace Elden Bling. Wear what you want, rarely armor will make enough of a difference to let you tank another hit. Terraria taught me knowledge was power, so I was somewhat prepared for this. Of course I didn't spoil the game for myself, I'm not that much of a nerd.

[@shadowsolion7325]

I didn’t use a single rune arc until my fight against the lord of blood because I wanted to use a specific spell but was a level short.

[@DreamskyDance]

For #3 - i always bookmark places with crafting materials ( like that fire fields with snales which have red butterflies ) so i use items quite often. Those with rarer crafting materials i save for "this will be the one" try at the boss... Also rune arcs can be easily replenished in pvp...

[@samdelvestreeservices1523]

I’ll add to the being stubborn one… not using summons because you think it’s cheating. It’s there for a reason Love your videos Dom

[@johnofthewired]

i found, in my first run, knowing which weapon uses normal and somber stones. that way i knew what i could upgrade and not. hope it helps people!!!

[@6PotatoesGaming]

I will say I usually am a hoarder, but I used EVERY SINGLE ARTERIA LEAF to beat friggin' Dragonlord Placidusax. Literally used my last one on the time I finally beat it.

[@dustinspencer7215]

Because Bloodborne was the first game I could stand from Miyazaki, I learned an important lesson that other From Software players never, ever, seemed to learn. Stock up on stuff. Stuff that Miyazaki doesn't want you to have a lot of. Blood vials in Bloodborne aren't a problem if you stock up instead of leveling right off the bat. You know you're going to need them, you're beating the enemies in front of you...that means you should wait for upgrading and leveling before spending your currency on those things. The same principle applies to every game Miyazaki makes. They don't want you to have rune arcs, find a boss that's easy and coop until you have 50 and you're good for a while. That should net you tons of runes too, stock up on things you're going to need, like upgrade materials, if they can be bought. Stuff you need, pay attention to what's around you and where the grace is, because you can go back and pick it up a bunch of times because they respawn all the time. Stock up again on things you need. NEVER SPEND YOUR POCKET CHANGE. Those bunches of runes are best used when you're at the Roundtable Hold and need some for upgrading a weapon or resources. Eventually, you should prioritize places that drop bearings that give you upgrade materials, as that carries from playthrough to playthrough, so you can stock those up and not have to run around looking for them. Elden Ring is mostly a Larval Tear playthrough game for me now. I don't need upgrade materials, or crafting materials, and haven't since I started playing the game. It's not that hard to playthrough the game at level 1, and I encourage everyone who's beat the game a few times to try to see how far you make on a level 1 character. There's lots of ways of getting levels and boosting your weapon to deal enough damage, I'm on a second playthrough. There's no invading or coop, so you have to solo it or try with summons. You can use the Mimic tear and it will help, but the best I found are the Great Rats. They don't live long, but they don't cost FP, so you can cast them whenever. If you can make it through most of the game on level 1 and your brains, upgrading your weapon as you go and using whatever you can to beat the bosses, you find that having just 30 levels is a lot of power in this game. It's easy to deal over 700 damage with a rl 30 character if you know what to build them with. That teaches you the damage output of the game and how it relates to your skill points. How your health is a buffer for hits and can be bigger, but doesn't necessarily need to be if you understand what you're fighting and how buffs stack. Consumables become necessary and crafting is very important when you're trying to playthrough like that, so it teaches you all the stuff you miss when you playthrough at level 230 cuz you keep dying. From Software doesn't make 'hard' games, they're games you need to think about while you're playing, and that's the hard part for a lot of people. It's always been the case, really. Git Gud mfer's

[@locust7777]

I was travelling nicely with 80,000 runes and felt invincible until I got to auriza heroes grave. Attempted the double boss fight about 20 times finally realising I couldn't do it, and just gave up the runes 🥵

[@cheefussmith9380]

Probably too late, but if you quit the game after recovering your runes in a boss fight, you load back in outside the fight with your runes

[@hairymcnipples]

Another tip is if, after dying, you force quit before the loading screen, your runes will be moved to just outside the boss gate.

[@BradJames83]

Juggling flasks between HP and FP and judging when to use them.

[@Kiljoy_]

Definitely agree with stubborn I've lost like 100k runes by dying and then dying again without runes

[@GeordieNerdReacts]

addicted to this channel, thanks for all the work you do!

[@ForgedinPrint]

For the limited items part (still kinda new to fromsoft games in general, at least in terms of playing.) I generally don't even bother with it since I know I'm going to just hold the item forever. If it's limited I basically never use it and therefore never even bother to get it in the first place.

[@Killerwhale317]

I stuck with leveling up vig/dex/arc and the katanas from the start but I did kill the Ronin guy, D and, Patches. Only items I use are rune arcs before boss battles as well as the golden fowl feets.

[@gallantsteel8542]

#6 not using int builds I've never used sorceries in DS1 and DS3 because I didn't wanna manage a mana bar but tried it in elden ring and boy they are OP. People say mages are glass cannons in the game but that's not true at all as long as you sacrifice some damage for armor. Even if you sacrifice some damage, you're still pumping out a lot of damage from a safe distance. Disadvantages are only that it may not be fun and/or you have to manage mana and/or when you're fighting a magic-resistant enemy.

[@blackfyre8837]

Just started DS3 and I leveled up wrong stat. I was wondering why my equip load wasn't going up until I realised I was leveling up the stamina stats. Feels weird playing DS3 after ER.

[@Seelensocke]

I never had these problems. I started as a confessor because I wanted to use incantations because I wanted o do a holy character. Then I found the Winged Scythe which aligned perfectly with my build. So I built my character around that weapon specifically and what do you know? I used it until the very end game. I finished off using Godskin Peeler and Pest Threads though.