Shadow of the Erdtree Was Never That Hard (Proven Mathematically)

[@Rusty._]

tl;dr - if game too hard, look around some more until not hard (Edit: Just to clarify, Radahn's visual effects 100% needed to be tuned down. The thumbnail is referring to damage adjustments and recovery windows.) CROWDMADE: crowdmade.com/collections/rusty FOURTHWALL: rusty-3-shop.fourthwall.com/

[@RonnieMcnutt-z8o]

Don't translate🤗 ເຈົ້າຖືກສາບແຊ່ງເພາະວ່າມັນຖືກແປຖ້າເຈົ້າບໍ່ທໍາລາຍ ຄໍາສາບແຊ່ງ, ເຈົ້າຈະຕາຍວິທີດຽວທີ່ຈະທຳລາຍຄໍາ ສາບແຊ່ງແມ່ນເພື່ອຈອງຊ່ອງທາງຂອງຂ້ອຍລົງທະ ບຽນດຽວນີ້

[@aakashdeepsarkar9503]

Not sure if CROWDMADE and FOURTHWALL will be very happy with the plug-in

[@braydoxastora5584]

Stat difficulty isnt elden rings problem. Theo does a good job of it

[@JoshuaB-wu8pk]

No I don’t think I will subscribe. Why do people think this is funny or cool? It’s like people making memes asking for likes and whatnot. If someone does a good job or something they deserve that like and subscription, if not they don’t. Simple as that.

[@JoshuaB-wu8pk]

I recently started Dark Souls III and I really enjoy it. I just wish you made more Dark Souls III videos, or even Demon’s Souls videos, but I don’t mind.

[@Robocop2134]

And so the "it was never that hard" phase of the elden ring dlc started. Classic souls game lifecycle.

[@hodgindaylon]

As someone who played through the dlc and consort radahn pre nerf I'm upset at the nerf. I only had like level 17 of the fragments and like 9 for the spirits and it still only took like 10 lions claws to bring him down lmao

[@amintron]

@@hodgindaylon The biggest problem with radahn was the obnoxious visuals. They actually hurt my eyes and it sucked ass. (the triple cross slash was bad too)

[@TheSyntheticSnake]

​@@amintronthe visuals hurt my PC much worse than my eyes lol

[@Rusty_Spy]

Classic Elden Ring discussion lifecycle. People were calling Margit overtuned and unfair day 1.

[@GreyBandanna]

Not only Souls lifecycle, any game's life cycle. It gets released, people fight against the game, they get accustomed to its weaknesses and strengths, and a while later (now, it seems) people have mostly become familiar with it. But you know, every time someone publishes a hard game, or even something mildly hard, normal human learning gets mystified like crazy. Like it's something that cannot happen with that particular game because oh my god it's so hard! And also, over the years, people have gotten pretty good at complaining too.

[@lol_phillip6072]

Maybe they should have made an enemy that uses frost damage and fire damage to reset the the frostbite

[@RonnieMcnutt-z8o]

Don't translate🤗 ເຈົ້າຖືກສາບແຊ່ງເພາະວ່າມັນຖືກແປຖ້າເຈົ້າບໍ່ທໍາລາຍ ຄໍາສາບແຊ່ງ, ເຈົ້າຈະຕາຍວິທີດຽວທີ່ຈະທຳລາຍຄໍາ ສາບແຊ່ງແມ່ນເພື່ອຈອງຊ່ອງທາງຂອງຂ້ອຍລົງທະ ບຽນດຽວນີ້

[@lol_phillip6072]

@@RonnieMcnutt-z8o what does that even mean

[@Mezzex]

@@RonnieMcnutt-z8o you rly think i would sub you just by reading this?

[@SereneLeskovsky]

@@lol_phillip6072 Their username is literally named after a person who commited suicide on livestream. It's just a ragebait bot, ignore it.

[@Jeff1999PB2]

@@lol_phillip6072 that means its a bot comment and you should report it

[@Mannu-ou6vz]

"If the game seems too hard, calm the fuck down and go to bed..." this is the best advice imo. Surprising what a night of rest does for your reflexes.

[@xvor_tex8577]

Exactly, and no one said you should finish the dlc in one sitting, space out your sessions and have more fun, it's not a job, it's a game.

[@adambielen8996]

That's how I played all of Elden Ring and it really does work. For the most part breaks make sureI don't get legitimately angry at the game except for a few things (Kindred of the Rot just aren't any fun to deal with and are just bad game design).

[@orenges7034]

I remember a while ago getting stuck on Malenia for two hours. went to bed and beat her in two attempts the next morning lol

[@thomasdevlin5825]

I'm pretty sure that's an actual scientific fact, I had somebody tell me that when you sleep your brain actually rewires itself to make you better at the thing you were trying to do before you went to bed

[@FungusBug]

“The game is not that hard mathematically proven” if that’s true why do I suck so much ass at it then? Checkmate, liberals.

[@RonnieMcnutt-z8o]

Don't translate🤗 ເຈົ້າຖືກສາບແຊ່ງເພາະວ່າມັນຖືກແປຖ້າເຈົ້າບໍ່ທໍາລາຍ ຄໍາສາບແຊ່ງ, ເຈົ້າຈະຕາຍວິທີດຽວທີ່ຈະທຳລາຍຄໍາ ສາບແຊ່ງແມ່ນເພື່ອຈອງຊ່ອງທາງຂອງຂ້ອຍລົງທະ ບຽນດຽວນີ້

[@shadowarchivist2382]

The technical term for your dilemma is 'Skill Issue', mate.

[@tz5116]

@@shadowarchivist2382 and yours is not getting irony

[@kwamemwangs2173]

​@@shadowarchivist2382 if it needs skill, isn't it difficult?

[@DankSouls37]

It's obvious You are bad at math

[@thomasraymond7912]

I think the divine lion beasts are weak to thrust and fire, not so much because of the poking stick, but because lore wise it makes sense. They were massacred by Messmer the impaler, it checks out that they'd be weak to his main damage types, thrust and fire.

[@SquishyOfCinder]

it's also two humans piloted by a divine spirit.

[@infinitepotato001]

So not Mohg's poking stick but Messmer's poking stick.

[@seretith3513]

Messmer be excating some fire Thrusting on them Lions

[@winxwest2964]

This is definitely it

[@soyborne.bornmadeandundone1342]

Hot thrusts!

[@mayday2237]

Radahn's increased visual clarity was a BIG improvement for me. My issue was that with my eye condition all the on screen noise was too much that I just straight up couldn't learn because I couldn't tell what was happening.

[@CreamTheEverythingFixer]

Yeah this was something I struggled with. Rykard still gives me a struggle with it, but Radahn's is the far more challenging one that needed it.

[@Kevvv890k]

cool that the fight is now better for you

[@Rigel_6]

It's silly how much easier the Dancing Lion became for me when I moved particles effects from ultra to minimum. Still kicked my ass a bunch, but at least I saw it kicking my ass, rather than turning into Ohio tornado simulator

[@itscarl0zyall1]

What condition? If you don't mind my asking. Also what attacks are you talking about? His 5 phantom strike thing? Or his 2nd phase holy attack?

[@xvor_tex8577]

I really have a hard time understanding people who are saying visual clarity was a problem, do you play the game in an old ps4 or an old beat up pc with a 480p square monitor or sometging? I really have a hard time believing, and seriously rykard too? Have you tried turning up or down the brightness or sometging? Lol

[@Jonas-ox7eo]

The more I fought Radahn, the more I learned to dodge his attacks. Except for the cross slash. I could never figure out how to dodge that one, and all the stuff online either said that was about luck or positioning. Eventually I would basically only take damage from the cross slash, which still came out often enough to kill me quite a few times before I beat him. The necessarity of the nerf as a whole is debatable, but I absolutely think that the changes to the brightness and the cross slash were necessary.

[@sp4sticchicken65]

yeah it was a bullshit move, you had to be quite literally frame perfect, use an aow, or use the backstep talisman

[@MinhTuHa-ry4fe]

I lucky know how to dodge that because I use blind spot of backhand blade, but I think the improvement of brightness is necessary, this fight was so bright that it hurt my eyes

[@georgekatkus5162]

I never had problems with it. The shadow clones I did for a while.

[@bagredecartola1289]

Only consistent way of dodging that shit was with stuff like blind spot, glad they listened to us and fixed that move, that was like 80% of my issues with the consort fight

[@anbusnipe197]

If you want to roll it You had to be on the outer side of one of his knees and try to roll behind him basically making the second hit miss you the hit box isn’t all the way back there found this out on KZbin it was working for me though I didn’t like it but that’s just what it was

[@SeruraRenge11]

I don't know, even Ongbal whose whole YT channel is about styling on bosses and making them look like jokes, thought that Consort Radahn was a bit much. But he was also talking about particle effects, not just damage and how there was one move he basically was only able to dodge using that one AoW for his no-hit video.

[@loubloom1941]

Yeah, I don't think he said the fight was "a bit much." He didn't seem to mind.

[@叢雲-r3r]

"I bet Miyazaki can't beat him" he said.

[@epsilon1372]

Design aside, difficult or not, I think Consort Radahn is just kinda boring for a dlc final boss. I like the concept, but the moveset itself imo was not the best it could’ve been

[@theFORZA66]

​@@epsilon1372wdym the moveset is really fun. At least the first phase is perfect anyway

[@epsilon1372]

@@theFORZA66 first phase is fine as a starter, but it doesn’t really escalate in an interesting way. Most of his moves in phase 2 are the same as 1 but with holy damage and the new moves he does get are kinda lame imo. I just think the fundamental design of consort is extremely plain especially compared to some of the other bosses in the dlc

[@RegalRoyalWasTaken]

You'll never convince me the nerfs to Radahn weren't warranted. He was just... too much. Too aggressive, too quick, too flashy, too everything. He's still brutally hard now, but he doesn't feel like he's in the wrong game anymore.

[@RegalRoyalWasTaken]

@@kurtgomez4171 Different strokes for different folks I suppose.

[@colossaltitan3546]

He definitely needed nerfs to the visuals cos he had 3 days' worth of fireworks shows after each swing, and the left-right-onigiri slash that was undodgeable 90% of the time. I do believe a lot of the other nerfs were a bit too far but I'm not denying he needed the former ones.

[@Qreaper]

radahn deserved the nerfs simply because the triple cross and the light after effects were overkill and legitimately broken. You can NOT convince me that the fucking triple cross hitbox was ever intended, that you literally cant dodge it unless your right at his left leg. he was terrible, nows he great but these people keep complaining

[@RegalRoyalWasTaken]

@@Qreaper Also his sword hitboxes were fucked.

[@tysonjdevereaux]

Yeah, being able to roll through his quick double slash (the one followed by a cross-slash) more consistently now feels refreshing. And overall, the boss is still hard as fuck. But he feels mostly fair overall.

[@shapeless6755]

I can see we have entered the "it wasn't that hard" phase of the From cycle. Frequency seems to increase with each release.

[@colossaltitan3546]

Given the scale and anticipation of elden ring as a whole, that's to be expected it'll be even bigger tbh

[@rigel9228]

I mean, it's also extremely clear why the "iT's WAy tOo HaRd" phase happened, the same people that thought the main game was too hard came back for the dlc unironically thinking they wouldn't get their asses kicked all over again...

[@PlanetDiablo16967]

I hate this conversation because my take has never been that the game is too hard but rather some ways its difficulty is expressed just aren't fun to deal with. I love the game, but some bosses just aren't fun to fight.

[@LightStylex]

For me it's pretty simple, if an enemy or boss has infinite stamina, it's bullshit. The DLC has it's fair share of those.

[@hitlord]

Yeah, I'm on this team as well. And my problem even has a potential caveat: if you're gonna give an enemy infinite stamina, at least make it so when I connect an attack, THE ENEMY FLINCHES. Either the boss creates an opening for me, or I risk myself and force him to. Almost no souls boss (well, the small ones in ER do, but those are exceptions) works like that, and the aforementioned Problem Trio definitely don't, so they need "more fair" cooldown windows.

[@Skelepathy]

13:30 That fragment in the Stone Coffin Fissure can't be grabbed until Miquella's rune fragment is shattered. If my memory is correct that is.

[@drewengel7073]

Okay but you don't have to beat a single boss to shatter the rune fragment. Get close to Shadow Keep and the rune fragment shatters allowing you to enter Stone Coffin Fissure

[@Skelepathy]

@drewengel7073 you are completely right. But from the point of view of a new player, they may not know that unless they look up a specific walkthrough. Plus, if they found out that they can just skip the boss for later, then they'll just come back for it when they are ready.

[@TheScott-man]

@@drewengel7073I was collecting map fragments and had this happen within my first 2hs of playing that along with me attacking a pest and Moore invading right after ruined a few quest lines

[@bagredecartola1289]

I mean as soon as you step into the shadow keep you get that message, and if you get to the stone coffin fissure and saw the miquella's seal he will probably think about checking that out, specially if they remember morgott's two seals in leyndell And like, getting to the shadow keep is the main objective of the player once he steps into scadu altus

[@Jkirek_]

@@bagredecartola1289 That segment of the video is specifically outlining a way a player might wander if they aren't ready to face rellanna, and not using the route around castle ensis

[@梅友仁-m3p]

The one thing I don't get is why is Rusty using quickstep (with mods?) to demonstrate how to deal with combos. Also, PCR can do the gravity thrust at point blank even when the player is behind him. It happens if the player uses projectiles. PCR usually reacts to the projectiles with ranged attack (e.g. gravity thrust, lion's claw, gravity pull, layered rings of light, Radagon's ring of light, or the clone attack where he jumps right). If the player uses the projectiles when he is ready to commit to another attack, the attack reacting to the projectile will be saved. The reacting attack will then be used immediately after the original attack without the punish window which should be there. So something like this could happen: PCR at range --> the player used a projectile while he was going to do an attack (let's say gravity thrust) --> the player dodged and punished PCR --> PCR immediately followed with savage lion's claw In which case, the player would be stuck in the attack animation and savage lion's claw had a hitbox that came out instantly, making it impossible to dodge the sequence. Some other bullsh*t would be gravity thrust at point blank (also turning 180 degrees) or gravity pull at point blank (which always follows up with the gravity vortex at point blank no matter how the player dodged). Some might ask if using projectiles is causing so much issues in the PCR fight, why still use them? My reason would be while PCR has 120 poise, his poise starts to recover after only 6 seconds wtihout being attacked. The normal time for a 120 poise boss to start to recover poise should be 9.23 seconds. With PCR's tendency to love to run away from the player, I consider the use of projectiles to reset the poise recovery time very neccessary if one wants to consistently poise break him.

[@hi-i-am-atan]

it's not quickstep, it's a modded roll that's functionally identical ( 'cept for the post-s hitboxes being possibly worse due to the different pose ) based on bloodborne's dodge animation

[@梅友仁-m3p]

@@hi-i-am-atan Thanks for the information. Does it have better or worse dodging ability compared to a light roll (dodging distance, s etc.)?

[@hi-i-am-atan]

@@梅友仁-m3p worse, but only to a slight degree. afaik, it has the exact same distance and s as the roll ( and there _is_ a medium roll version of it, but elden ring's medium roll is identical to light roll in all but distance to begin with ) but because hitboxes in these games are tied to animation bones, attacks that the rolls would low-profile in their recovery frames are just gonna slam into your upright upper body with the bloodborne step granted, it's possible that the mod author was cognizant of that and made sure to turn the upper body hitboxes intangible during the appropriate frames, but there's still going to be incongruities between the two because the hitboxes are just in different places and "rising from curling into a ball" is _so_ much more compact than "landing upright from a quick hop"

[@dudeiii2069]

Another example of terrible attack queueing is that PCR can queue his clone. This means that he can do the clone attack at a distance and the attack become undodgeable because you end up directly under him when he summons the gravity rocks

[@entroponetics]

Fun fact: Getting hit by the golden showers in Radahn's second phase is often inconsistent not because of the attacks themselves, but because the back portion of the arena is uneven and they're progressive AOE hitboxes that cover both vertical and horizontal distance. So you can be standing right next to him on a flat section of the arena and the AOE can pass right over you, while if there's any elevation difference between you, you'll be hit by it.

[@shslmahoushoujo]

I noticed this early on during my tries back when first playing the DLC, and that became a reason I make a point to fight phase 1 near the entrance and try to finish that one off with a critical (stunning him and crit into 2nd phase will always start you off where you did it, rather than near the Gate of Divinity), or just trying to move the fight towards the entrance if I missed that. Trying to fight on all those bodies that make the arena uneven is a massive pain during phase 2, being in flat terrain helps keep you close to him during combos since the golden rays will always end up behind you there.

[@Heretical-Harmony]

AHHHHHHHH THE STORE IS FINALLY UP! Hope you guys like my work! There's a hell of a lot more where that came from!

[@RonnieMcnutt-z8o]

Don't translate🤗 ເຈົ້າຖືກສາບແຊ່ງເພາະວ່າມັນຖືກແປຖ້າເຈົ້າບໍ່ທໍາລາຍ ຄໍາສາບແຊ່ງ, ເຈົ້າຈະຕາຍວິທີດຽວທີ່ຈະທຳລາຍຄໍາ ສາບແຊ່ງແມ່ນເພື່ອຈອງຊ່ອງທາງຂອງຂ້ອຍລົງທະ ບຽນດຽວນີ້

[@tmross9256]

They’re genuinely really great, looking forward to seeing more.

[@marystone860]

YAY! Rusty has MERCH now! Looks cool AF!

[@Nylspider]

I cannot stress this enough: *it's really really good stuff*

[@joekewl7539]

Now Rusty you put enough effort into your videos for me to say you've never engagement baited But I gotta say, masterful engagement bait.

[@sushiknight7013]

I'm gonna be honest here, the attack speed nerfs to radahn actually made the fight harder for me because I'm so use to the timing of pre nerf radahn

[@Anteraska]

Same actually especially in co-op I'm scared to actually take any of the new punish windows bc it's hard to gauge how long they are, and the hesitation before I commit just makes me eat a sword the size of a freight train to the face.

[@proto-type3201]

it's just how isshin said: hesitation is defeat ​@@Anteraska

[@Anteraska]

@@proto-type3201 lmfao tested and verified by yours truly. you can find my paper about it engraved onto my tarnished's headstone.

[@IceIfrit666]

I almost killed him in a challenge run and then the update happened the next day. Completely threw me off.

[@valonyaver600]

That's just a matter of relearning the timings, then. It didnt become harder, just unfamiliar.

[@guythasawesome]

Idk man, radahn having that triple slash nigh guaranteed to hit and saying "its not bad just already have all the skadoosh fragments" feels like a bit of a cop out. I scoured every nook and cranny and i wasn't even at 18 level for the end fight, most players don't find them on a first or even secons play of the dlc without a guide.

[@HimothyHimsworthy]

Basically this, they should’ve put in more scadutree fragments like how the estus flask upgrade had more than enough in the base game

[@BasedHyperborean]

Then you didn’t scour every nook and cranny.

[@hi-friend1]

Shmexcuses

[@DataDrain02]

I've done the DLC 4 times now.... NEVER got to level 20. I just can NOT find all the fragments on my own. I did beat Consort Radahn in all the runs.... But, 2 out of 4 characters needed the Mimic to win. (And one of the ones I didn't summon for fought him post nerf.) But... yeah, I feel the nerfs were overall a good thing. Don't even challenge runners agree on this? Since it opens up more playstyles that don't get fucked by the cross slash.

[@xvor_tex8577]

I reached the final boss at lvl 18, and the last 2 I looked up a guide, which PSA it okay to look up guides! People get to hard headed to not look up guides and fight the final boss and get their ass beat and not look up guides to find the last two levels. If looking up guides is bad than imagine playing PoE one of my favorite games ever and say I'm never using guides. It's okay it's lart of gaming. There's no shame in that. What I do is I finished the game 100% In my mind but I havnt found the last 2 level, so I look up guides and see if where to find them, because you can't search every inches of t map to find soemtging you missed, and also what I do is look up guides to see if I missed any bosses. There's nothing wrong with that.

[@Ghouleh3133]

Rusty, I usually love your content, but you have fallen into the trap of "it was never that hard" that infects this community every single time and, without fail, ends up creating a more hostile environment for newcomers with every new release. Even if I agreed with you - and the comments are pretty unanimous in disagreeing - that doesn't make PCR or some of the other most oft-complained bosses any more fun to fight. And that is the sticking point for me. In so many of the main bossfights of this DLC, I felt like fighting the boss was such a chore. You either cheesed them completely or learned how to fall into a very rigid and non-player-expressive pattern. Even after PCR was 'learned' and became easier, he still became a joyless slog that ended this entire game with a feeling of 'I'm glad it's over'. The Scadutree Fragment system, while I don't dislike it in principle, doesn't help in that regard. Assuming that the player will lick the corners of the map before meaningfully attempting to play the videogame doesn't strengthen your argument, and is honestly just a boring chore even when playing with a wiki map by your side. Honestly, FromSoftware got way too high off of their own supply with every new installment. Turning every fight into a dodgeroll-pattern-neverending-attack-chain simulator is perhaps something I can blame Bloodborne for. Something that my Dark Souls-1-nostalgic-ass has never quite managed to enjoy.

[@colesontaylor1231]

Hard agree with everything except the dig at Bloodborne. Bloodborne was my first Soulsborne game. It absolutely gave you the tools you need to keep up with hyper aggressive bosses and long combos. Gun parries, the rally mechanics, a whopping 20+ blood vials to heal with... All those things meant the player could not only punish a boss for being too aggressive, the player themself could be hyperaggressive without being punished too hard. You really felt like a HUNTER, not some chump up against impossible odds. Elden Ring has none of that- Melania's rune gives you a pale shadow of the rally mechanic at the cost of healing flask effectiveness, you will only ever have 14 healing flasks at most, and parrying is a chore now - and a difficult chore at that.

[@gorxela8982]

Truth be told, my problem with the DLC on release was that by the end of it I got overwhelmed, Radahn, Metyr (because adds) and Gaius turned the game for me from "Yeah, I died now but I learned something, next time I will win!" to "Fuck this, I'm gonna assemble the most gross, overpowered shit this game has to offer and destroy this motherfucka, they aint playing fair so I'm not gonna!" And that last approach wasn't as fun for me personally. And I single out those bosses specifically, because with others it still felt like they were "fair", I still don't know really why. Now, I can almost no-hit Radahn but still that first impression made it so I don't really enjoy fighting him which is really a bummer, 'cause he's supposed to be an epic sendoff to this beautiful gem of a game.

[@forwardmoving8252]

"I don't enjoy this boss so I spent a ton of extra time learning all it's moves and patterns instead of just killing it and moving on" - insane person whose opinions can't be taken seriously

[@gorxela8982]

@@forwardmoving8252 I think you misunderstand or didn't read the whole comment. 1. I'm mostly talking about how my personal first experience with some bosses, which was a blind playthrough on release with a lvl 200 character, affected my personal enjoyment of fighting those bosses and how then I felt that compared to the other DLC bosses they were arbitrarily "unfair". 2. I only recently got to the point of almost "no-hit" (3 hits) and that was after nerfs, practice and watching a lot of no-hit videos and Gino's streams. 3. I don't hate those bosses, I just don't love them unlike Messmer or Rellana, or Lion, or Bayle (Igon is a G.O.A.T.) And, considering how Consort Radahn is THE last boss that ER is ever going to get, I expected to love him, like Gael or Orphan and I didn't.

[@1925683]

I'm there with you. Some bosses felt unfair because of moves that I just looked at and went "I don't understand what is going on and where the danger is". Even hours later I still often had no clue how certain boss moves worked until I went and looked up a no-hit guide. That's just not a fun experience. It's funny that Rusty spends time talking through Messmer, because I think he has some of the most readable moves and least amount of camera/arena fuckery of all the bosses in the DLC. That's why he's the true star of the DLC. Meanwhile I couldn't figure out how to dodge/punish half of PCR's moves without a guide. The blades of stone move that he shares with Gaius really threw me for a loop because you can't use Torrent to out-space it. Instead, you need to figure out that there's just barely enough time to start running away and then jump at the last second (which as far as I can tell doesn't work on Gaius' version of the move). I like that some of the bosses seem to be using moves that encourage more than just mindless dodge-rolling, but the game needs to either a) communicate the correct strategies better for certain types of moves (similar to ground attacks being dodge-able with a jump) or b) make the moves significantly more telegraphed to give players the time to think of a solution other than reflexively dodging.

[@jeff3221]

No one wants to tackle the math in the video? Ok. I will👍 Not a single calculation has any meaning at all. The entire math section is irrelevant in the way Rusty delivered the information. Because the only thing covered was scalings and modifiers, we don't see the actual damage output of the enemies and bosses. Here's an example of what I mean: We have two bosses, with their scalings below: Boss 1: 80% damage modifier Boss 2: 110% damage modifier Now if Rusty was to present this information to you, he'd state that this conclusively proves that Boss 1 is less difficult than Boss 2. But if we introduce their actual base damage: Boss 1: 80% x 1 billion damage Boss 2: 110% × 10 damage See how the weaker scaling of Boss 1 doesn't matter because its still going to be atomising you with hundreds of millions of damage? Comical that so much time was devoted to the scalings and we didn't see a comparison of the damage output of DLC bosses vs base game bosses. Confusing us simple folk with these multiplers and defense values is a cheap trick. Just show the actual damage output and let the people decide.

[@prohikikomo]

this is the epitome of yap for too long and repeat back what was said in a stupid way and people think you're smart. you just admitted you don't understand math.

[@jeff3221]

@@prohikikomo You're welcome to correct me

[@ilyskyless]

this means nothing bc no bosses do a billion damage. the only boss that can even consistently 1shot you is messmer with his grab. come on

[@jeff3221]

@ilyskyless You are agreeing with me. If my hyperbolic example is meaningless because it isn't literal, then this video is meaningless because boss damage wasn't touched, just scaling.

[@ilyskyless]

@@jeff3221no, your hyperbolic example is pointless because it’s so hyperbolic that it basically doesn’t at all relate to the conversation. Messmer’s grab is the only attack in the DLC that can consistently oneshot you if you are either A.) wearing light armor or B) have less than 50ish vigor. Yes, the bosses do a lot of damage. You’re playing a late game dlc, no shit. the DLC gives you the tools you need to mitigate that damage. PCR only took me around 60-70 tries at blessing level 14, which is beyond the softcap anyways. He’s a hard ass boss, but he is objectively not unfair. Messmer is probably a top 3 boss in all of souls for me. Romina is peak, Rellana is great.

[@jonharkins1719]

I feel like this video is entirely missing the point of why people would say that the dlc bosses are too hard, almost the point where it feels intentional. Noone is saying its "impossible" to beat the dlc or that there are not ways of easily adjusting to the difficulty of the boss, Weve all seen the no roll, fist only, monitor turned off , etc challenge videos. This is just like the discourse surrounding waterfowl dance. of course, 2 years later there are dozens of ways to dodge waterfowl and most players, including myself, don't have any issue beating her. however, I think we can all agree that the move is disproportionately punishing and requires the player to interact with the game in an overly restrictive, unfun way. if you are using a colossal weapon close range there's just always going to be a possibility that you will be hit, bar unlocking and attempting to break her tracking. This is how the DLC feels, While fighting many of the bosses throughout the DLC I had what you described, every attempt I would progress a little bit and feel some of that classic fromsoft satisfaction. Then, multiple times, I would hit the wall. All of a sudden I would be able to dance with the boss for most of the fight, but more often than not there would be that one aspect that I would always be hit by. Divine beast dancing lion having lightning all over the ground forcing the player to do nothing for 2/3 phases. Bayle using his laser breath attack requiring ???? idk running away after the first dodge. Messmer is goated idc. Commander Gauis shitty hitbox on charge, and more. Every boss was giving me that malenia feeling like it was designed for light load, which is fine for a superboss, but an entire dlc? There is a clear disconnect between the amount of choice in terms of arsenal that the player has now, and the actual viability of their movesets. what good is a cool flashy ash of war or incantation if you never get a chance to cast it? people criticized DS3 for its simplistic gameplay loop of dodge r1 dodge r1, but we are circling back around to this style of gameplay now that there are no longer enough openings to use slower attacks. even after big difficult moves, bosses regularly chain in mix-ups that make no hitting incredibly tedious. I actually downloaded a mod of nexus that simply increased the distance I was getting from my rolls and immediately everything clicked into place, making me believe that these bosses are designed for a game where the player can dodge faster and has faster attacks.

[@jonharkins1719]

Its like for some reason the souls community just holds these games to a different standard of quality than any other game. Just because you can make something easy with gear, scadu, or eventually figure out a contrived way of dodging them, DOES NOT mean that the fight is well designed or fun.

[@venandisicarius32]

Honestly I think the biggest thing is that most Ashes of War are too slow to pop out except for your evasive ones which are the fastest in the game. Everything else I have no real idea whatcha mean since almost everything in the game can be dodged with a Medium load and most bosses have a large enough opening to get a R1 out for all but the slowest of weapons. Charged heavy is debatable, but with the sheer amount of damage you can pump out if you do it right, it's a fair trade. This argument of yours only really seems to kick in at the higher NG+ levels where it just becomes more economical to use faster weapons that can dish out enough damage because the game modifiers AR just that insane

[@CPU9incarnate]

Nothing in the DLC is even as remotely difficult to dodge than Malenia's waterfowl dance except for Radahn's weird three hit cross slash thing that got patched out. And even when it was in the game, it was one hit, not instant death. Also you can block super Radahn's attacks without having your progress undone. So in short, stop crying over content that's only hard because you haven't practiced it yet

[@CPU9incarnate]

​@@jonharkins1719people should hold every game to this standard, that it's okay to force the player to actually be good to progress

[@procrastinatorluke7866]

simply get good my friend

[@kastorcaster]

"Is Messmer difficult?" He was somehow the only boss I one-shot in the entire DLC. So obviously that means no one should die to him.

[@skepsisrollins1711]

Stand near fog gate entrance Jump attack Repeat Win Messmer was my favorite boss btw

[@dariuspenner2528]

The issue isn’t how hard the bosses hit, it’s how frequently they attack. Another video broke down attack frequency by boss and Radahn was only behind Malenia in terms of attack frequency. And when you ignore all the time wasted in the insanely long phase 2 grab attack, Radahn has the highest attack frequency by a mile. Bosses like Radahn are difficult because they hit hard and have insanely high attack frequency. Bosses like Astel that can 1 shot you with a grab or Fire Giant that can one shot you with pretty much anything are still easy fights because their attack frequency is so low. Morgott is able to be tolerable with a relatively high attack frequency because his damage is so low. None of the DLC bosses compromise on attack frequency or damage. Even looking at the base game, the hardest bosses are the ones that attack the most frequently while also hitting hard, like Malenia and Maliketh. The scaling being comparable to the base game doesn’t matter when Radahn can still 2-3 shot you and is mathematically the most aggressive boss in the game whenever he’s not using the dumb grab attack.

[@parkergosman5476]

Fantastic point. I don't know why this is such an esoteric concept for people; balancing isn't rocket science. You want an enemy with lots of poise and a very flashy, long-winded moveset? Don't make him hit for half my healthbar, please.

[@DwWarWolf]

​@@parkergosman5476because this take is trash and Demod, who the original commenter obviously got his info from, is completely garbage and shouldn't be taken seriously. That video is god awful.

[@YellowYeti21]

I had to force myself to pick the DLC up multiple times because I just wasn't having fun but I wanted to be done with it. Is the DLC beatable? Of course. Is it too hard? For me it was at the time. The camera literally gave me a headache. I've beaten the DLC multiple times since then but my first playthrough felt like going to work.

[@David9413]

I'm ready to agree that maybe the game was never that hard, but I won't give you that finding most fragments without just looking them up is reasonable. Which I think is fair to assume most people don't want to do, since it feels like cheating. I just think that "Just explore correctly" doesn't make for a very satisfying levelling experience, and I think the hosts that kept summoning me to Midra at SL8 and 10 agree with me.

[@Marco1995Mega]

Really? I explored organically and found 48 of them by the time I reached Radahn. I mean, it's an open world game where exploration is strongly encouraged.

[@basementreviewer788]

finding them is pretty organic, and the exploration game expecting the players to explore so they can get stronger is pretty reasonable.

[@Gogoroth2]

Right, the "just explore more" argument doesn't work because, without an outside guide, you have no way of knowing if there are any more fragments to find in the area to begin with. Exploring the map with a fine-tooth comb, without even knowing if there is anything to find, isn't a fun player experience. Exploration is one thing, this is something else.

[@1925683]

It's interesting that you mention summoning because that's one of my big issues with the DLC. Summoning is supposed to be "easy" mode (maybe assistance mode would be a better term) but in many cases it either did not help and made the fight significantly more chaotic or flat out made it harder. PCR is a great example because mimic and the 2 NPC summons simply don't do enough damage to the boss and die too quickly. Before the nerf, Radahn gave you basically no opportunity to summon meaning you had to summon spirit ashes in second phase (which is not the worst, but still annoying). And Thiollier/Ansbach both bloat his health pool to such an extent that no one wants to summon them (which is a shame considering their quests). IDK I think that a mode that is meant to help players overcome the challenge should not make the boss worse.

[@ghostboy463]

Maybe if they want us fighting bloodborne level bosses, they should give us the bloodborne parrying guns because fuck these endless combo attacks from bosses that will two shot you at max hp and blessings

[@Creative_Flame9170]

Honestly as usual the nerfs are over exaggerated. This is how people always act with nerfs. People did the same thing with OG Radahn, and even to this day people are still saying things about him that are untrue. And I’m willing to bet the people that say Radahn is easy af now, “look how they massacred my boy” etc are people who just fought the boss so many times that he gradually became easier naturally, but the nerfs are skewing people’s perceptions much more sharply. Kind of how practice and learning works lol. Bosses get easier the more you fight them, they will also get easier with a few nerfs, but people tend to over exaggerate the influence of built up skill and practice vs nerfs. Also whether people want to admit it or not a lot of it *can be* an ego thing. Not saying it always IS, but it can be. You beat PCR pre nerf? Cool I did too, many times, hitless and at RL1. I still think most of the nerfs were needed, especially cross slash. Having to play around an entire attack and making it a guaranteed frame trap if you weren’t humping his left leg made it a bullshit move plain and simple. It’s also wild how nerfing just this one attack opened up the fight so much more (even though I think Radahn is still fundamentally a much more restrictive and less player expressive fight than the majority of ER bosses) People may make the argument to “use a shield” and by extension “use the tools the game gives you” and my response to that is just as you’re entitled to play your way, others are as well. Some people don’t like using greatshields and turtling to play. We shouldn’t need to change our play style to better counter one move. And not using it isn’t “limiting ourselves to what the game is offering” it’s a personal choice. It doesn’t mean people can’t complain or take issue with it. It’s a weak argument imo As for recovery frames I don’t see anything wrong with them. Oh no now I can get more time to get 1-2 more hits after the 6 hit combo. Everyone is entitled to their opinions of course, and I think people just get attached to what they’ve learned prior. I just genuinely find it hard to wrap my head around this fight being worse with the nerfs unless it’s 1) what I just said above, 2) ego/eltitism or 3) just personal preference. But hey that’s subjective so it’s valid

[@Scowleasy]

Base game Radahn wasn’t even nerfed, his health and damage were never altered. It was just his hitboxes that were changed

[@Creative_Flame9170]

@@Scowleasy I would agree he wasn’t really nerfed but that also kind of goes with my point of people over exaggerating it. People still say he was. I see people are still to this day saying that his damage is lower even though they’ve fixed that.

[@bagredecartola1289]

Really all they needed to do was tone down the visual clutter and make that bietch ass cross slash attack consistent to dodge without humping his right knee, and they did, so i'm happy with the nerfs overall

[@valonyaver600]

Even with the nerfs the boss is still as difficult as malenia (i still think she is slightly more difficult). The people who say the nerfs were unneeded dont even explain why they are bad. "you have 2 more seconds to punish him after the bloodflame attack. Entire fight ruined now even babies can beat it." No that recovery window is still tight and can easily be missed if you dont quickly take advantage of it, but that it actually became an opening makes the fight a lot more engaging than before.

[@alondite215]

I'm not sure I'd call correcting basic form-fits-function feedback a "nerf" so much as it is just fixing broken game design. The pre-patch fight wasn't mechanically difficult; any DKART evaluation proves that conclusively, but the feedback was so atrociously bad that you could hardly tell what was going on or where the attacks actually hit.

[@yeetme890]

so we're not talking about radahn's undodgeable criss cross combo pre nerf huh

[@Longknife]

I made a comment about this elsewhere and can't find it now for some reason... Really jumped out to me too that he just conveniently didn't mention the move in Radahn's moveset that was 100% unfair. Not "hard," but legitimately unfair.

[@venandisicarius32]

​@@LongknifeI fought him pre nerf and could dodge it just fine. It wasn't even a luck thing if it's the move I'm remembering, you just dodged towards the attack

[@forthencho1577]

No hit videos of Radahn were out long before the nerfs, AS RUSTY SHOWED IN THIS VIDEO. Stop lying.

[@Oknahidwin]

​@@venandisicarius32 nah you need to stick to his right leg constantly. That's the only consistent way to dodge it

[@Longknife]

@@forthencho1577 I never said they didn't exist, but existing =/= the move isn't unfair. Put "Radahn, Consort of Miquella - How to Ruin a Perfect Boss" in your search bar and you will find a no-hitter saying exactly what I'm saying about the double slash move.

[@yaksher]

The DLC isn't "too hard" but when what bosses ask for from you is to spend ages dodging for a punish window that merely chips their enormous health bar (and yes, your scaling stays on par with theirs, but the base game health bars are already pretty enormous and Malenia has similar problems. This is an Elden Ring problem, not just an Elden Ring DLC problem), it's just... less fun than the more back-and-forth of the previous games.

[@xvor_tex8577]

There's nothing wrong with that it's what the games before it did too, unless you're overleveled and have a broken weapon. It's the fun of the game, and I never once thought that the attack strings are too long or too much I always find opening after and during strings. But I gotta be honest if you're using a collosal weapon or sword it would be kind hard hitting him during combos, which is tye entire point of the build, you have a slower weapon and you wouldn't attack as often but when you do you get bigger damage numbers. It's just playstyles and doffrent weapon, try using varying your build and playstyles you'll have more fun. Ps. I really do think you have more back and forth in elden ring than previous games, you don't have it as much in previous games because you find an opening you hit the boss and stun him until he's dead.

[@yaksher]

@@xvor_tex8577 ??? What previous games involving stun-locking bosses. Elden Ring is by far the most prone to that with its stance breaks. There's a few outlier bosses in Bloodborne which can be stunlocked if you have high DPS and know where to hit them, but they're the exception. I've beaten DS3 at SL1 using nothing but the club. That was much more of a tight back and forth than Elden Ring, without any "overleveled" or "OP weapon". With the majority of bosses it was "they swing once or twice, I swing once, they do a big hit, I get to swing two or even three times." And like, as for "trying to vary my build" I basically killed every DLC boss with a different DLC weapon. Not quite literally, but I assure you, I varied my build constantly. I did not find the DLC _hard_ until Radahn (though even he was an entirely brainless fight with a greatshield, which I tried out and got him to like 5% HP basically without taking damage before letting him kill me to fight him more "fairly"). I also didn't find the long attack chains _too_ bad, because I was wearing heavy armor and pretty tanky, so if Rellana clipped me a bit with her combo or whatever, I could just walk it off, and so I forced the game to be a back and forth by setting up a build that could trade a little. But in Bloodborne, for example, it is a game of constant aggression. The boss is flailing around and you are always sticking close to it and attacking constantly. It was my first FromSoft game and I loved the pace of it. Elden Ring feels much slower, no matter the build. The DLC was mostly not worse than the base game in this regard, and it wasn't all that hard (and, indeed, I loved the DLC), but I do think the digression from readable movesets that give you windows after every one or two attacks to endless combos that have to be memorized rather than just read has been to the series's detriment.

[@Longknife]

18:21 "It's not hard." -The guy that's somehow using Quickstep while his only equipped weapon has Savage Lion's Claw attached...?

[@onlyworstgamers696]

His gameplay is not related Its just for fun Something for us to watch while we listen theres no actual need for it

[@Erden99]

I think it's the talisman that adds I-frames to your backsteps.

[@RTRFelix]

@@Erden99 nah the backstep makes you step back. In the clip he is stepping sideways. Its modded gameplay but like the other guy said, it doesnt have anything to do with what he is saying.

[@Stakuga]

I think it’s a mod. Maybe one that makes the dodge look like the blood borne dodge?

[@hi-i-am-atan]

it's a mostly-visual mod that replaces the roll animation with bloodborne's step animation, modified so that the distance and framedata match elden ring's roll tech the difference in pose on the recovery _should_ alter the hitboxes during it ... but considering the default animation can effectively get extra s against a lot of attacks by low-profiling 'em, while the step has the character upright through the entire thing ... yeah any gameplay impact the mod has is not in _rusty's_ favor

[@BiosTheo]

Radahns average opening time frame was .34 seconds per 6 seconds. Sword saint ishin is .64 per 6 seconds. Mother fucker what? Now, granted, strap on a great shield and trivialize the game but I don't think the play style of fucking DODGE ROLLING should be this heavily punished.

[@Zayd-bg1pt]

Pulling numbers out of your ass lmao, radahn has multiple charged heavy windows, and sekiro openings work completely differently to openings in other fromsoft games

[@mult1versal]

it's really not. you're just bad at rolling

[@viljamtheninja]

Dodge rolling isn't punished. Absolute nonsense.

[@itol2201]

I wouldn't phrase it as "dodge rolling is punished" more so than "your main option is no longer consistently viable" (which it never really was, in fairness) That's still a crazy comparison, though.

[@spod5849]

Yes obviously Isshin is going to have more openings because you can literally stop his combos, like any other sekiro boss. Sekiro bosses have like triple the ammount of openings of any dark souls boss lol Radahn pre nerf was a bad fight, it still has less openings than any other boss in the game even after the nerf, but this comparison is ass.

[@nacorcarmonablanco4414]

BTW, there is something you missed. SOTE enemies attacks base damage is overall higher than original ER ones. For example, a regular castle soldier in original has attacks with base damage from 120 to 250, whilst a similar castle soldier (messmer army) in SOTE has attacks with base damage from 160 to 250. This also contributes significantly to the feeling that they hit harder, because most of their attacks at the end hit around a 40% harder

[@Hattack913]

Aight for my 2 cents i beat him pre nerf no summons with a greatsword and lions claw at scadutree level 19. What angered me was a hippo did not spawn, so I couldn't max out my blessing, and for colossal weapons the openings to attack were severely limited. This is in addition to him having insane poise and poise recovery, so stance breaks also weren't viable. What bothered me about the dlc was how the bosses move too fast, like Rellana and Radahn, with too much poise. It's not good for all weapon types, and I feel the main game was great for all weapon types.

[@madkoala2130]

Radahn nerf were unnecessary?! I dont know about it, since its only boss that managed to OVERCOOK my already aging PC. Maybe you are right, because majority of Consort Radahn haters would still not like his fight even after the nerfs, so they didn't brought increase in his popularity.

[@Rusty._]

Visibility nerfs were needed, sure. But they also nerfed his recovery windows quite a bit.

[@Scowleasy]

I mean clearly Fromsoft thought they were necessary, and I trust the opinion of the people that made the game more than someone that wasn’t involved at all.

[@LuckyLiarK]

They even nerf stamina damage so shield player can have even easier time, so I think he is really over-nerf.

[@COHOFSohamSengupta]

​@@Rusty._ Not sure if you've seen the in depth analysis video with 100k views that went fighting game level analysis by literally comparing each frame *EVERY SINGLE ATTACK ANIMATION* of Radahn has been slowed down, not just cross slash

[@spod5849]

I saw a lot of no hit runners complain about pre nerf radahn and, his nerf was definetely needed and a lot of his openings were inconsistent. Even after the nerf some of his problems were not fixed.

[@janpiorko3809]

My burned retinas say otherwise.

[@RonnieMcnutt-z8o]

Don't translate🤗 ເຈົ້າຖືກສາບແຊ່ງເພາະວ່າມັນຖືກແປຖ້າເຈົ້າບໍ່ທໍາລາຍ ຄໍາສາບແຊ່ງ, ເຈົ້າຈະຕາຍວິທີດຽວທີ່ຈະທຳລາຍຄໍາ ສາບແຊ່ງແມ່ນເພື່ອຈອງຊ່ອງທາງຂອງຂ້ອຍລົງທະ ບຽນດຽວນີ້

[@lolomanu1600]

​@@RonnieMcnutt-z8oscrew you

[@JAGGisBACK]

​@@RonnieMcnutt-z8ono

[@acethenuthead8340]

Your argument about the skibidi fragments assume that you collect all of them or most of them, which most people wont do on their first playthrough. Quite a few of them are easily missable, especially if you dont want to search absolutely everywhere. I don't think telling someone to look around more is a fair argument. If you were underleveled in the base game you do some more dungeons that you could spot from just looking at the map, or even farm. Also the a lot of the attack windows you talk about are often too short if you use a larger weapon. A lot of the boss moves also look very similar making it harder too memorize them. A few of the bosses also had issues beyond stats and moves, like Hippo and gaius having terrible spawns, and dancing lion constantly pushing you into the wall. I never thought the dlc was too hard for me personally, only getting annoyed on rellana, gaius(because of the spawn and having the most difficult to dodge move in the entire game by far) and Radahn, but saying it wasn't that hard when it was obviously significantly harder than the base game is disingenuous. All the DLC bosses were a heck of a lot more aggressive and had way longer attack chains than the base game. Their moves were less telegraphed, had shorter dodge windows between moves and had shorter attack windows. also this from @ClassyReviews "I've always had an issue with the reasoning of the Scadutrees and how "you're supposed to collect the seeds, forehead." This is an argument that can be made with hindsight, when you know where all of them are and just how much they add to your damage/resistences. But when you're first starting... How are you supposed to know there are 10 scadutree fragments you can collect before the first boss?"

[@MinhTuHa-ry4fe]

I think you made a good point but I think having around blessing level 15 before final boss is normal and I did have around blessing 3 before divine beast which is enough to counter its scaling. Except for the pot guys with fragment, the others fragments are easy to get if you explore a bit.

[@JanVerny]

@@MinhTuHa-ry4fe This is such bs, if you didn't note down every skibidi fragment you got and aren't using a guide it's impossible to just explore a bit. Do you know how big the map is? Might as well ask me to find a single needle in 200 haystacks. From my pov I scoured the map, and not only did I not find all the dungeons, I barely made it to level 16. Not that it made the boss any more fun than when I got to him at level 12.

[@EmeralBookwise]

​​@@JanVerny: I found 49 fragments all on my own just by exploring without any guide. However, I get that not everyone is going to play the game as meticulously as I do. Still, especially after the first balancing, a player doesn't need anywhere close to all of then. Just 26 fragments is enough to reach the level 12 soft cap with a boost of 85%. The remaining 8 levels of diminishing returns are only an extra 20% over that. Reaching max blessing is really something only completionists need to worry about.

[@venandisicarius32]

​@@JanVernySelf-report that you don't explore the map in any capacity. I think I was level 14 just by wandering around by the time I got to PCR and then 18 when I decided to double down and look for them

[@Oknahidwin]

Lmao I beat the dlc pre nerf on 15 fragments and all my exploration. No guides. So it doesn't matter if a few of them are missable

[@ZeroExillerius]

The visual noise being reduced for phase 2 Radahn was absolutely deserved. The cross slash being fixed was also absolutely deserved.

[@ZeroExillerius]

I'll also add, that Radahn was the only boss I didn't feel good about beating. I felt exhausted and just glad it was over. I was not having fun.

[@HailDarkseid]

Omg . You are so cool. Congratulations. The game wasn’t hard. You are above the curve. I’m sorry the game being nerfed destroyed your pride .

[@Crusina]

Real talk, the non stop attacking, gap closers, input reading, and delayed attacks make the game harder then it should be. As much as I like ER, it's the game that goes the most against the idea of why they originally designed dark souls.

[@falcoon_f_zero9450]

Very true words spoken right there.

[@UnknownRayDar]

Delayed attacks do not exist. The attacks come out exactly when they are meant to. Don't panic, and you'll be fine. These attacks shouldn't hit you more than once if you have eyes and basic memory.

[@royalsoldierofdrangleic4577]

​@@UnknownRayDar They are jarring and weird, i kinda learned Morgott's moveset (i don't have ER so i play with friends) and how to dodge them. Do these attacks come when they "are meant to"? Yes, if we define "are meant to" as "are coded to hit". But i think that calling them delayed attacks is also right: there is a variable amount of time between the startup of the animation and the ending of it. And i think that's a good definition of delayed attacks that distinguish them from rollcatching attacks (which have fixed animations but that come slightly later to punish a early dodge). And while i don't think they make the game that harder (just wait for the smack not the startup) alongside other thing it can be quite taxing for some. And to me both the delayed attacks and 100% imput read dodge look quite jarring and ugly. For example Morgott just having his stick over his head for 5 seconds just waiting for you to press circle on your coontroller so he can hit you after your roll

[@senounatsuru6453]

@@UnknownRayDar Delayed attacks DO exist. If the windup does not immediately lead into the attack, it's delayed. That fuckin simple.

[@AstirWirble]

I mean the stuff with multipliers doesn’t matter too much considering the base stats are just as, if not more important than the multipliers

[@adamyohan]

The Radahn nerfs were necessary. He was obnoxious and bugged. PLEASE stop being a contrarian.

[@sundewscrewdriver]

just a skill issue maybe?

[@BasedHyperborean]

Skill issue dork

[@brodaline2124]

@@sundewscrewdrivermove that consistently was a guaranteed hit on most players depending on your weapon follow up which you cannot predict

[@melo7038]

Particle effects nerf: yes Cross slash combo nerf: yes Everything else: hell no

[@brodaline2124]

@@melo7038 sure

[@GreenHoleSun]

The main reason why SOE is generally considered harder is because the enemies in most cases are much more aggressive and fast. As far as I know, there is no stats that measures this...

[@blackwing1362]

I like the radahn nerf only because if the visibility changes. It makes some attacks easier to see coming

[@planetzdr]

Math isn't real. This doesn't prove anything.

[@RonnieMcnutt-z8o]

Don't translate🤗 ເຈົ້າຖືກສາບແຊ່ງເພາະວ່າມັນຖືກແປຖ້າເຈົ້າບໍ່ທໍາລາຍ ຄໍາສາບແຊ່ງ, ເຈົ້າຈະຕາຍວິທີດຽວທີ່ຈະທຳລາຍຄໍາ ສາບແຊ່ງແມ່ນເພື່ອຈອງຊ່ອງທາງຂອງຂ້ອຍລົງທະ ບຽນດຽວນີ້

[@rampant1apart]

Correct. What is math? Number piles? That’s nonsense. Pure nonsense.

[@mortenwammen4159]

Oh yeah math ain't real, right up to the point where you learn the difference between one apple falling on your head, and one billion apples falling on your head in the space of 1 second.

[@bagredecartola1289]

What is a math? A miserable little pile of numbers

[@colossaltitan3546]

​@@bagredecartola1289"but enough studying, HAVE AT YOU"

[@CrimsonXenoProduct]

I just don't want to have to scour every ass hair of the map just to play the game, I will never agree with the skibibidi fragments to make it "more accessible to low levels and to not have higher levels steamroll", they are not rewarding in the slightest as they are required for all but the .1% of players who live breath eat and shit the game, i wouldn't care if they doubled the amount found in the DLC as I don't want to have to re-level up, it's overtuned so the player can /make/ it tuned, as for the movesets my only issues were with radahns "lmao just tank it" 3 swipe attack and phase 2 lightbeams - and half the bosses flying around the arena. Beat the DLC twice first on NG+7 and last on Normal Game, and on neither did I enjoy it. It wasn't hard, it was just tedious.

[@leo-shun]

So, how are attack patterns not harder than those of the base game ? You didn't seem to explain that at all.

[@falcoon_f_zero9450]

You see, that wouldn't prove his point

[@Oknahidwin]

​@@falcoon_f_zero9450 attack patterns of bosses like malenia, mogh and maliketh are as hard as any dlc boss

[@cantthinkofagoodnameoof1569]

​@@OknahidwinMaliketh is the only one of those three you can make an argumet for. The only problems with Malenia are WFD and clones attack and the only problems with Mohg are the bloodflame and the delayed attacks which aren't very hard to get used to. Most(if not all) of the DLC main bosses has attack patterns which are at least somewhat harder to learn than any of the base game's bosses and at most a lot harder to learn.

[@cyrus6461]

​@@cantthinkofagoodnameoof1569 and Maliketh's only real problem is the guaranteed DOT that'll snowball like crazy, his actual moveset wasn't that hard day one

[@CPU9incarnate]

Malenia's moveset is far harder than anything in the DLC AND you can't block it.

[@梅友仁-m3p]

Why is Rusty teaching people to dodge away from PCR in the second phase??? It should be dodging around him throughout both phases.

[@theFORZA66]

Because first phase is way easier and the moveset isnt anywhere near as unfair First phase radahn is like godfrey/hoarah while second phase radahn is like malenia if malenia had a massive stagger bar and a twink boy on her shoulders adding staggered magic attacks to every swing

[@梅友仁-m3p]

@@theFORZA66 You should be able to roll the same way in both phases facing the same combos, except the ground slam, which becomes mandatory to roll in phase 2. The light pillar won’t be a problem as long as you’re rolling around him clockwise and be very close to him.

[@alolamao833]

Yeeaaa, I’m gonna have to disagree Mr KZbinr, I think that the nerfs were needed. Even beyond the required visual nerfs, I think the gameplay nerfs make the boss flow much better, ESPECIALLY the cross slash nerf. Playing around that one attack ruined the flow. Granted, the move is now trivial to dodge, but I’ll take an easy dodge over an unfair attack any day of the week.

[@Dr.Barber]

Luckily I never complained about the difficulty in the DLC. I was complaining about the difficulty in base game because I've felt everything past DS1 has picked up enormous amounts of speed that I struggle to deal with.

[@skepsisrollins1711]

imo the only game that got increased fight speed down was Bloodborne. Haven't tried Sekiro though.

[@SMole91]

I replayed Dark Souls 1 in september and one thing that I realised is that I want that Elden Ring enemies wouldn't be so much hp. Some ER regular enemies have more hp thand DS1 bosses. Because of this, sometimes fight feels extremely exhausting. I have no problem learning movesets, but holy fuck I's tiring to repeat everything 20-40 times per fight. And I believe that's one of the reasons people minmaxing their build.

[@falcoon_f_zero9450]

Yeah, a lot of people misunderstand that it's not about being too hard to beat. But about being so hard that it's tedious to beat. Try to go against these DLC bosses without some min-maxed bleed build and the single attack windows you get between the overwhelming combos barely nudge some boss healthbars. Attempts drag on for a long time and can end from a single mistake. Gets pretty tedious at some points. Like playing Skyrim on legendary difficulty.

[@venandisicarius32]

​@@falcoon_f_zero9450At that point I think it's an indicator that you're too low level. Plus any build is minmaxed if you build it right- yes even a standard quality build with Dex and Strength evened out. You don't need to be a Contagion shield, Kindred Rot Talisman, Bleed weapon, all the buffs slinger to beat most of these bosses. Maybe Golden Vow for some extra gas in the tank and talismans that compliment what you're doing.

[@falcoon_f_zero9450]

@@venandisicarius32 If around level 200 character, 60str/60fth stats with a +25 heavy great stars and +25 beastclaw talisman, plus most available scadutree fragments is considered under equipped now then I don't know what to tell you. That weapon is barely nudging some of those boss healthbars. Spells would hit for bigger damage if 90% of them weren't too slow for the hyper aggressive bosses and the rest will likely miss because of their mobility anyway. So if you're not a fan of summoning you'll have to resort to mainly doing minimal damage R1s. Buffs help a bit too... for the first 1/5th of the fight before they run out and can't be used again since there's never time to get the animation off with these boss speeds. Just a tedious experience sometimes. That easily happens when you try to keep a themed character going in Elden Ring despite it being an RPG. If the character doesn't fall in the few overpowered archetypes you'll end up getting very underwhelming results in the endgame. But take some double twinblade bleed build and spam jumping attacks and the bosses crumble completely. The game just has such severe issues with unbalance. You either destroy a boss without any effort with summons or a broken setup. Or slowly tickle the enemy health away without a min-maxed setup, only to get one-shot far into the fight. There's much less of that satisfying in-between the earlier games were able to hit consistently.

[@venandisicarius32]

@@falcoon_f_zero9450 Have you considered the possibility that you are unironically just bad at the game? Because with stats/gear like that you're either lying or are genuinely just bad. And like, there's nothing wrong with just being bad at a game. What IS wrong is not improving and then saying anyone who is contrary to this perspective is wrong.

[@parkergosman5476]

Completely agree. I had the exact same experience with Bloodborne.

[@abdalla8558]

Miyazaki in recent interview: “in the dlc we pushed how much a player can tolerate” 🤷‍♂️

[@crowrevell2082]

I disagree with the idea that people can't suggest improvements unless they stick around for them to be made. how long? 1 month? i'm not allowed to move onto any other games or immediately need to drop what i'm doing, and run back to radahn to see all the balance changes? that's absurd. Some people, when they say a game is too difficult, probably just mean, it's not fun to deal with the challenge. Divine Lion was the first time i swore on stream in 5 years because of how laggy the fight was on top of the camera issues and no weapon to read attacks from. When i see people complain about the DLC it's almost never "to much damage." It's laggy. which it was. Divine Lion's headbutt always lagged for me. A friend stopped playing on PC and switched to console because they timing on parrying Renalla kept changing. Another issue is various builds will have a lot more problems with 1 boss and simply be told to "get good" well I had a poison build and ran into 3 ghostflame dragons, deathrite bird, and something else that were just immune to poison. getting good doesn't change that. There is also the power of "bonk" taking a fist weapon, with no staggering against flame knights is a world of difference vs anything that hits them out of their combos. It's effectively a different game entirely. One, you can ignore what half the enemies are doing and just jump r2 them. the other, you do have to get get, or just avoid encounters. Something being too difficult with ALWAYS be relative. "no i did the math" so what. People can physically or mentally perform at certain levels. Someone who sunk 5,000 hours into souls-like will have an easier time than someone playing elden ring for the first time. The new player will put forth 100% their abilities and fail more often than a veteran just clowning around. "what do you mean it's hard, i beat the boss is only 5 attempts."

[@vengerofthelight]

17:42 -- See, this is the problem. Measuring a game's difficulty based on information you can (mostly) only access OUTSIDE of the game is kind of wild. Sure, SotE gets a lot less difficult if you have access to a good wiki, a personal coach, and 6 Souls games worth of experience under your belt, but those things REALLY aren't part of the game's difficulty -- and aren't universally applicable to the player base. Just going off of your Scadutree Blessing comparisons alone, IF someone had access to all of the fragments you listed at the points in the game you described these are mostly even fights. The problem is that a lot of those fragments are hidden away in areas that can be pretty easy to miss. Some fragments are out in the open and along the main path, but that will only get you so far... and even with taking the extra time to explore you might not find all of the less-accessible fragments without access to a wiki.

[@basementreviewer788]

Or you can just play the game organically and naturally, use your brain for a change aswell, and explore in this exploration game, and you'll find the fragments, making your character stronger. No, you dont need to know the exact numbers or any specifics of anything, because you'll feel it the moment you play the actual game. People bitching about this either dont want to explore, suck at exploring, or simply want to whine that they cant farm and grind until they're overleveled. In any of case: skill issue. Nice strawman, though.

[@vengerofthelight]

@@basementreviewer788 I literally played the DLC as you described for my first playthrough. -_- Level 150 character, blind and solo playthrough. It might not seem it from the philosophical stances I take, but I'm pretty much the standard Souls veteran. Nice set of ignorant assertions, though.

[@senounatsuru6453]

@@basementreviewer788 The base game encouraged exploration by letting you naturally increase your power level, through leveling up and finding important items for a build. SOTE takes that natural power increase and throws it out the window, shoving the fragments down your throat as a jarring "you're just stronger now" buff, and if you can't find them, you're boned.

[@zelatoth]

You ever try to juggle? I found out I have a basic talent for it and picked it up fairy easy after about 5 minutes of watching someone else do it even though I can only juggle spheres. That may seem random but telling someone that something isn't hard when they don't have a talent for it is honestly something the souls community doesn't seem to understand. You finding it easy doesn't mean it is. There also a thing called time and with time people can pick skills when they don't have the talent but that takes, guess what? time that not everyone has.

[@winxwest2964]

I think you are missing the point. Hardness is entirely subjective. He isn’t saying the bosses are easy, in fact he says the exact opposite multiple times in the video. His point is that the bosses are not necessarily harder than the base game. He points out the scadu level counteracts most of the extra leveling stats bosses get in the dlc, and that upon closer analysis the bosses all still have the same basic weakness is their attack patterns that have been prevalent all the way back when you fought Margit.

[@rclaws3230]

So why do you HAVE to play something difficult that takes time to master and demand that it be made easier for your particular time schedule and skill level? Oh, that's right, because you want the clout of having played "the experience" without having to meet the basic requirements of participation. Play something else.

[@theFORZA66]

​​@@winxwest2964they are objectively harder than the base game on ave though because scaduland bosses are much more aggressive than most erdland bosses For example, malenia is still my fav boss fight. But now rellana and messmer are my top 3 right after her. Why? Because rellana and messmer are similair to malenia in that they are all very aggressive (why they are my fav tho is that despite being aggressive there are still tons of openings to deal damage if you are creative making it a fun duel, they have my favorite 'dances' so to speak)

[@etinarcadiaego7424]

Nah. Git gud.

[@venandisicarius32]

Missed the whole point of the video and he doesn't even say the bosses are easy for him. There's a whole section talking about attack patterns and how there's no way to measure how easy or hard this is for a player.

[@DrunkenEros]

Other gaming companies dream they were held up on as high a pedestal as Fromsoft fans hold their infallible developler.

[@UnknownRayDar]

Not an argument in sight. Just "w-well... you're j-just a fromsoft fanboy!!!" lmao

[@colesontaylor1231]

Since you seem to be too dense to figure it out, allow me to point out the argument for you: Many FromSoft fans, yourself included, have such a skewed perception in favor of the developer that you exercise constant hypocrisy in that you let them get away with terrible game design choices that would enrage you if they popped up in other games. The argument, essentially, is that you're a blind idiot. And your response has already proven that argument correct.

[@jh9794]

Theres still one thing i will never forgive, them giving radahn 15X the hp pool while sticking you with arguably cool old guy and tweedle dumb.

[@CyclopsDragon]

Could you explain why you refer to Cerulean Coast as the "successive area" to Charo's Hidden Grave when you access it via the river, entirely independently of the entrance to Charo's?

[@lukefourie3964]

You can reach the Cerulean Coast through the Charo’s hidden grave by hopping down onto one of the boats. That was the path I took on my first play through, so I think that’s what he had in mind

[@vinayakkothari6162]

You can also enter it from jagged peak

[@CyclopsDragon]

That's fair, I just feel like it's a bit weird to call it successive to Charo's, since the path via Ellac is accessible from roughly the same point as the path via Charo's, just without a boss in the middle. That combined with the scaling makes me think that accessing it via the Ellac River is what the designers had in mind. For the record, that was how I found it on my first playthrough, but I also missed the path to Charo's until much later.

[@winxwest2964]

On my first play through I got to the coast by following a path that leads to dropping down onto one of the massive coffins. There are multiple ways to get there

[@Oknahidwin]

​@@CyclopsDragon on my first playthrough of the dlc I accesse the hidden grave first then cerulean coast. So yeah it can be called a successive area

[@ChosekLazzaria]

The DLC wasn't too bad. Yeah there are moments like Commander Gaius and his steed charge (still bullshit when it hits) is not bad when you know the exact pixel to dodge at. My biggest issue is the feeling I receive when I arrive in the final area in Enir-Ilim. What is this all worth? A final boss fight that leads to nothing but a remembrance? An unapologetically starved conclusion? I check out at this point and give my lowest effort.

[@clnetrooper]

I can relate to that. i'd have liked a little something more than a cutscene with basically nothing in it.

[@somersaultinggiraffe1901]

A remembrance with a dogshit weapon and spell

[@parkergosman5476]

Oh my god - another person actually feels underwhelmed with Elden Ring's storytelling!? WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN FOR TWO YEARS IT'S BEEN SO LONLEY

[@ChosekLazzaria]

@parkergosman5476 DLC ending, sure. But elden ring as a whole? You got me confused with somebody else.

[@parkergosman5476]

@@ChosekLazzaria Clarification: I'm not talking about "lore" when I say storytelling; Elden Ring obviously has amazing lore/worldbuilding ETC. The premise of ER's story is fascinating and compelling, but I steadfastly assert that very little was done to actually flesh that premise out through quest design and NPC dialogue. Even some of the most involved, like Ranni's, still requires me to fill in the massive blanks with my imagination to get any sort of catharsis from it. Rogier was one of my favorite NPCs, not just because he's a likable character, but because his questline involved asking pertinent questions about the world and digging for answers. But his inevitable death brings all that to an abrupt halt. And are we really going to pretend like Melina's character felt finished? Girl straight up vanishes for most of the game. The DLC went way further than the base game to make NPCs more involved in the overarching story, and I really appreciated that, but that new overarching story is also extremely anemic. I know I don't need to convince you of that part, but I'm surprised you don't see the similarities between the base game and the DLC. Because I walked into the erdtree for my first time wondering the exact same thing: "What is this all worth?"

[@thenerdmaster9381]

You're right that the people complaining that it's too hard are likely just not scadutree blessed enough, but you're wrong that Radahn's "nerf" was unecessary. Pre-nerf his hit boxes made no sense and his attacks were so blindingly bright that you couldn't even tell where anything was.

[@BasketCase-rr7tx]

I collected them all and I still think it was way harder than the base game. However it wasn’t something I really complained about. I didn’t expect them to make it easy.

[@gr33dl0cknein3]

The Radahn "nerfs" were justified because it turned be videogame equivalent of CBT into something that actually has punish windows.

[@Chyguy]

I really like your point about Radahns "Fuck you I win" meteor attack only really working once, and I think it highlights something about Malenia that made her as infamously difficult as she was, and its that Waterfowl Dance being her "Fuck you I win" attack is so much more dangerous than any of the other similar attacks - with the only one that comes close in my opinion being Bayles aerial laser combo.

[@himenomagnum248]

I still dislike Consort Radahn and Gaius a lot, no matter the nerfs and I'm 100% convinced that, if these bosses were from a non-fromsoft souls like, everybody would just agree that they are poorly designed, but since it's fromsoft, it's just a matter of "git gud".

[@abdelrahmanasal9906]

agree

[@forwardmoving8252]

That's a brainless comment 😂 non fromsoft soulslikes get meatrided into oblivion by the same types of fanboys. The reality is LOTS of people dislike those 2 bosses and you'll find people being more openly critical of elden ring than basically ANY of the ripoffs other studios have made

[@forwardmoving8252]

​@@abdelrahmanasal9906because you're clueless af 😂😂

[@colesontaylor1231]

Think we might've found a FS fanboy, guys.

[@skepsisrollins1711]

@@forwardmoving8252 Me when i can't deduce the heightened critique is simply because ER is more popular by about 10x of it's best competitor Thinking required ahead, therefore seek thoughts You are for sure a From Softer with how you worded your comment, sorry the best game they've made since BloodBorne is AC6. Your magic sword games still matter!

[@30thCenturyFish]

Classic rusty telling us that a borderline bug fix is unnecessary. Cross slash was BROKEN!!! Edit: i meant that the hitbox wasn't working right, meaning you had to run to his leg.

[@RonnieMcnutt-z8o]

Don't translate🤗 ເຈົ້າຖືກສາບແຊ່ງເພາະວ່າມັນຖືກແປຖ້າເຈົ້າບໍ່ທໍາລາຍ ຄໍາສາບແຊ່ງ, ເຈົ້າຈະຕາຍວິທີດຽວທີ່ຈະທຳລາຍຄໍາ ສາບແຊ່ງແມ່ນເພື່ອຈອງຊ່ອງທາງຂອງຂ້ອຍລົງທະ ບຽນດຽວນີ້

[@mobiusone6994]

If you were bad sure lol

[@justMonkle]

​@@mobiusone6994 it was impossible to roll stfu

[@asdergold1]

​@@mobiusone6994 Said the super skilled overgod.

[@mobiusone6994]

​@@asdergold1 Nah I'm a filthy casual, can't speedrun, miss half my attacks, originally thought miracles scaled off int, whole thing. Messmer was harder.

[@tgst1-t8m]

I don't think Rsty understood why people didn't like the DLC, and it's an issue with the game design from Elden Ring as a whole. Bosses are way more aggressive, but you do not have any newer mechanics to deal with those moves, which made it tedious to do. Could I fuck around for like 8 hours on one boss and eventually get the dodging right? Sure. Most people did. But holy SHIT Fromsoftware could've so much better when it comes to the player mechanics. Yes, I can roll for 1 minute straight to get a few attack windows, maybe shorter if I have a light weapon, but is this really all they gave us? They literally made Sekiro, they could've easily given us an extra option to match the aggression, deflecting. Playing Elden Ring in general, but the DLC in particular with a mod that allows deflection is SO much fun, and it's still difficult, because if I miss a deflect I'm getting rolled since I'm so close, but I'm so close s if I succeed, I can attack more, I can match the bosses aggression. My options vanilla, are to parry, which is sort of like deflecting only it causes a pretty huge break in the action, dodge, whch as we discussed is fucking boring as shit and makes the game tedious because I don't interact much with the boss directly, or block with a shield. Which is okay, I'll give it that.

[@beratbayram]

hey, which mod is that?

[@lmtalpha6382]

So we're just going to ignore the deflecting hardtear? That makes it so you can deflect and get a more powerful guard counter on a successful reflect, with a stacking effect for multiple successful deflects and counters in row?

[@NottSaying]

@@lmtalpha6382 it's an optional item that takes up space in your physic and only lasts 5 minutes. Compare that to the sekiro deflect or bloodborne rally. I feel like it's the same thing as "bhs counters waterfowl!" as if there shouldn't be another way for all players to do so.

[@dots1761]

Mods like Elden ring reforged are a godsend, ducking, actually balanced perfect blocking and lower recovery makes pve sooo much more enjoyable

[@lmtalpha6382]

@@NottSaying It's another option besides rolling which OP said they needed to use a mod for when it's in the game in some form. I didn't say that it counters everything because normal rolling and jumping are perfectly viable and the way the game and its bosses are designed around. Everything can be dodged with a roll or a jump (or by running away in the few instances where a boss leaves a lingering aoe or something), if that's boring to some people then that means they just don't like the combat system, not that it's a bad combat system in the first place.

[@thedizaster115]

I think the biggest problem with the DLC is that it teaches you that fragments are next to crosses and ash fragments are next to statues, leading to alot of missed fragments

[@wolfsraynefan]

Sorry, don't mean to be an "Um Ackshually" but the one Scadutree Fragment you mentioned in the Coffin Fissure is inaccessible until Miquella breaks his Great Rune due to a seal that leads into the fissure proper, which means you cannot access that before fighting Rellana unless you did the skip around Castle Ensis to go up to Shadow Keep and trigger the rune break message.

[@AlejandroMartinez-fw3gt]

"you are being influenced" yes, by influencers.. and i'm going to put my hand on the primordial fire, but i think Rusty is an influencer oh and if by you, fighting a boss that can make your graphics card go sepukku is something that shouldn't have been nerfed or the cross-slash of hell shouldn't as well, um.. idk man, but the rest of us dont fight bosses head on with a preset plan

[@jrprzybylowicz]

Yo, Einstein, you missed T3 tier scaling at 4:37, now explain Gaius's hitboxes.

[@tortue_]

Base game being just as hard isn't really a good point. I'm getting my a** kicked by mountaintops deathrite birds cuz walking in cold fire a splitsecond eats away at my 60 vig so much so quick. I basically use Erdtree's Favor+2 and Crimson Amber Medallion+3 and Morgott's Great Rune just to be able to actually play the game and feel like i have what it takes to take some hits and not be in range of imminent death. I love the game and how it let's me play actually with those hp increasing items, there is also the defense side of the game and that combined with hp increasing kinda makes it too forgiving (Midra was a mildly hot pepper that had no name after i got my armor and talismans right. So was Radahn's second phase, his light was just the dawn of day, soothing)

[@MinhTuHa-ry4fe]

Bro, undead enemy take x8 damage if you stack sacred blade, shared order and order blade, the undead damage did stack together, try to take advantage of that next time, maybe you could even oneshot them

[@bagredecartola1289]

M8 i really can't relate with your struggles, 60 vigor, radahn's great rune, 1 or 2 defensive talismans, the basic ass fortification incantations, boiled crab and the golden vow ash of war is all i need to be tanky and deal damage back to the endgame enemies at the same time, mind you these are all universal options for any build, if you're a faith build you can get even more goofier with the defensive options, and anyone can slap opaline hardtear in their flashs Just a tip, damage absorptions are usually more useful to keep you alive than more health, specially if you don't plan on using crimson seed talisman, that's why armor fucking matters in this game And mind you, you're complaining about an undead enemy, a enemy type any build can slap any of the undead bullying tools they picked while looking around for flowers or some shit and deleting them from the game, and they're designed to be harder that the area they're on by definition,

[@tortue_]

Yo guys i just didnt elaborate but thats not like me struggling to kill, simply strolling around some fuxker from thr sky challenges me and walking on that attack had just boggled my mind for a sec since i had tree sentinel set and 60 vig. I didnt prepare, i know how to. Sorry to not be unclear but basically my main point is fuxk elden ring endgame lol. I like strolling without much trouble and the souls games feel more giving in that department i guess. Anyways a basic a** rant by a basic a** guy like myself good day yall.

[@CPU9incarnate]

You're just lying. 60 vig + morgott's rune will let you walk through mountaintops just ignoring enemies unless you're stacking scorpion charms and soreseals.

[@tortue_]

@@CPU9incarnate bro i didnt have anything on while strolling mountaintops only 60 vig and sentinel armor. I know the game i hyperoptimize for hours. Fuck do i suck ass that much at explaining myself

[@kneecaps_soup7563]

I feel like you've missed parts of what makes the DLC hard on this video. Of course, the scaling is well designed for the bosses you fight, everyone who interacts with the skadoodle mechanic will know that. All you did is expose the fact that From knows how to do their game design balancing well. What makes the DLC hard imo, and what should've been taken into account, relates more to s, animation length, visual feedback, and the camera. Stuff that isn't tied to balancing (because it is perfect in this game), but rather limitations that were not taken into account when the bosses were designed. Gaius shit hitbox for example isn't due to balancing, it's a fallback of the hitbox placement being way too tight for the frames window the player character has to correctly dodge it, forcing a frame perfect dodge or risking taking the damage of 1, or sometimes 2 hitboxes. The skadoodle shit can't help with that, bc it's an oversight. The same can be said about the Dancing Beast attacks. They must have been beautiful to look at in a Maya viewport, but their speed and the distance they cover behaves poorly with both the arena and the camera, forcing the player towards walls and causing the cam to go crazy and clip into a never ending flurry of attacks, and leading to deaths by cam rather than skill. On paper, those attacks SHOULD be dodgable, but they aren't, or at least not always, because external factors are hindering the player's capacity to dodge them properly. As a result, the player may feel like the attacks are chaining too quickly for them to react properly, leading to a feeling of unfairness. You also have to take into account the fact that multiple boss combos will lock you into a stun state where the number of frames it takes you to cancel that state is significantly greater than the numbers of frames it takes the boss to continue their combo. In short, missing a singular dodge can put you in a whole world of pain that depletes a good chunk of your hp with no recovery window ahead. Some may call it hard, but i think it is unfair. Everything is dodgeable, yes, but i personally question the enjoyment you get from missing one dodge by a frame and getting hit 4 times in a row after that because you got stunlocked to death. So far, it seems to be more frustrating than anything else. This artificially inflates the difficulty of a boss by chaining attacks seemingly relentlessly (which is true, your health and stun animations are all a bit longer frame wise than the DLC bosses attack chains so they can be chaining attacks faster than you can dodge them). What i'm trying to say is that the DLC becomes overtly difficult because of stuff that your video just didn't cover, so it's disingenuous to say that it "was never that bad" when looking at the obviously well designed part of it ! The DLC is unfairly difficult bc all of From's limitations and oversights are put well on display : not really accounting for frame and input speed, and the camera forcing "faith dodges" where you pray you got the timing right despite not seeing shit on your screen...

[@parkergosman5476]

This is well articulated; I'm really glad you brought up Gaius's charge and Divine Beast's insane forward momentum pushing your camera into a wall. I don't at all agree that the balancing is "perfect", but I hope this comment gets more likes because the number sliders are a comparatively small part of the issues with ER's bosses/enemies.

[@basementreviewer788]

Eh, i think the hippo is the only problem with camera, really. The dancing lion is solved easily by not locking on to him at certain points. Fromsoftware doesnt have a limitation with camera, when they already made games like Sekiro whose camera is dynamic, or bloodborne who also made the camera go farther from the player in certain bosses like Ludwig. They have the tech for it, and its inside the engine they are using for elden ring(since its the same one used in bloodborne, just updated). It's a conscious decision to let the player control that aspect of the game, you're not supposed to rely fully in the locked-on camera, because not only would that lead to camera problems, but it also impacts your movement in the game. Anyone that plays without lock on will tell you that your directional movement is much better, since your axis is not locked to the enemy anymore. You can use that to great advantege for better positioning, which grants you better oportunities for damage that you might not have found if you were just fighting with lock on. This is probably the reason why they havent implemented a dynamic camera system in elden ring at all, since you still had ''problems'' with the camera in the base game, especially with larger enemies like the putrid avatars in enclosed spaces. Fighting the death rite birds with lock on is also complete trash, same with ancient dragons. The ideal way to play these games has always been to know when to turn on and off the lock-on feature. If you do this, then the dancing lion will not only become easier, you will barely have visibility problems. The hippo is a worse offender, because he's simply too big, so you cant see what he's doing properly if you dont lock on, but if you do lock on, then you have to deal with a bad camera. There's simply no winning. The dancing lion is not big enough to lose sight of his movements without the lock-on.

[@kneecaps_soup7563]

@basementreviewer788 I personally find it insane to, from a game mechanic perspective, entertain the idea that "you shouldn't use this QoL feature in certain fights because it'll make them harder despite it being a QoL". Why should Fromsoft's outdated camera interactions with the lock on system be seen as a feature rather than what it actually is, an oversight ? If the lock on system behaved that way in any other franchises, they would get shat on into oblivion for it, but From gets a pass everytime ! What you're suggesting (delocking for big fights) is what i'd call a work around a mechanic that isn't behaving properly rather than an actual fix, and personally I don't think we should keep acting like purposefully not interacting with certain QoL features at certains points in the game is somehow genius and what "From intended all along".

[@BJ-lh6pn]

Bless your heart Rusty for assuming that I didn't do my first playthrough with a wiki in hand precisely to find every single shadowtree fragment as early as possible, you believe in me more than i believe in myself.

[@cyrus6461]

The second I heard there was exactly 50 of them I opened Fextralife and was like "goddamnit"

[@ImpulseOnyx]

I know this video deals with the current patch but I'm still surprised you didn't bring up Radahn's Cross Slash in the attack patterns, basically the biggest issue everyone had with his fight next to the visual clarity. The one move in his whole arsenal that required an almost frame perfect dodge to avoid

[@SpectraSkittle]

Being scaled up to fourteen times the toughness of the base game absolutely counts as 'that hard'. Wtf are you smoking, Rusty? Also, saying that content isn't 'too hard' because you can buff up before boss fights is disproving your point. Pushing one button, one time, to give myself 15% attack and 10% dmg reduction is literally just a difficulty slider. Which you've suggested we all turn down. Because the content is too easy, maybe? But the reason this was a problem is simple: When Margit hands me my ass, I go explore a cool world for some cool weapon or cool spell or cool ash that is a literal active ability I have to use. When Rellana hands me my ass, I get to go ride around the map for 2 hours picking up tree bark. That's literally why the scadutree fragment system was tweaked. You need fewer fragments, so you end up engaging in the boring 'content' less. This really isn't rocket surgery.

[@CPU9incarnate]

Radahn is 14X. You are 2X. So Radahn is actually 7X, same as Malenia. You're crying because you refuse to just practice the boss a little and get more used to it. Just like you do with every From game or DLC. People said the same things about Malenia and Isshin and Gael and Friede and Pontiff and Raime and the Ruin Sentinals and Artorias. Any time you get mildly challenged you throw a tantrum, then you actually learn the boss and use it as some bar of quality that the next new piece of content alledgedly doesn't beat because you don't know it yet and actually have to try again.

[@colesontaylor1231]

Mfw this same commenter feels the need to go around replying to everyone who rightfully calls out Rusty for being wrong and the DLC for being unreasonably difficult and/or boring. Like, seriously man, is this what you do with your life? Play FS games and go around online attacking people who criticize them? It's pathetic. I mean, what, did your parents "dodge roll" spending time with you as a child so now you have to fill the empty void inside yourself by sucking Michael Zaki's peen? Ignore this idiot, OP. You're in the right.

[@miri669]

What is that math.... 26% dmg reduction does not mean you need 52% more damage... 1x(1+0,52)x(1-0,26) = 1.1248, so that would be 12.5% extra damage... You can't just multiply by 2... It works only for 50% damage reduction. For 26% damage reduction you need 35.14% atk power boost. 1x(1+0.351351351)x(1-0,26) = 1

[@CAepicreviews]

I like how Rusty made sure he can't change the title without a discrepancy since it's word for word within the first minute.

[@thospe-f8x]

The shared knowledge point at the end is something I've thought about a lot in SotE criticism. I think veteran Souls players are used to the fact that these games are kinda meant to be played as a community. That's why the message system exists, as clunky as it is. That's why actually piecing together the lore of these games amounts to archaeology, why (spoiler warning) critical lore that recontextualizes all of DS1 and doesn't get paid off until DS3 is locked behind ignoring explicit instructions and beating a boss out of order. Almost nobody does that by accident and they're probably not intended to. I think that despite its difficulty, Elden Ring is probably the most approachable of the Souls games. It generally offers a path of least resistance and very rarely puts a solid wall in front of you that you can't somehow go around or detour until your character can just face-tank it. I think that led to a lot of people who weren't prepared for the game to slap them down and force them to meet it on very specific terms, which may include seeking help or taking advantage of all those buff items you've been collecting. When I made an NG character for the DLC after having not played for a year or so, I bounced back and forth between SotE content and the Haligtree because I wanted to play with the new toys, but I didn't want to go through Haligtree overpowered. Maybe it's because I was approaching SotE with a lot more caution, but honestly the Haligtree often gave me more trouble. The biggest difference really in my opinion is that Malenia's low poise makes her easier to cheese. One thing I am curious about is I hear a lot of people say that their sorc builds were made unviable by how relentlessly the bosses close distance and how narrow their recovery windows are, but I suspect that it's more that flashy ranged builds can't get away with nearly as much as they can in the base game.

[@spudkin564]

I love difficulty discussions because it's fascinating how subjective difficulty can be. I beat Messmer on my 3rd attempt, and Maliketh on my 2nd, who are considered difficult. However, it took me much longer to beat Rykard and the Dancing Lion, even though they rarely are mentioned in hardest boss discussions. Rellana took me over an hour alone.

[@GilbertVonArphostein]

9:32 That was a reference to the fact that messmer soloed 3 Dancing Lions in the story trailer.

[@greenpotato4796]

12:35 Come on that's not fair. You can't give me massive weapons that have bonus effects on guard counters and expect me not to use those. Yes, I feel guilty, no I will not confess further sins

[@noble7525]

The real challenge fighting Rahdan is not going under 60fps during second phase

[@josephbellamy1976]

Honestly, I avoided spoilers for the DLC until I beat it. I know people didn't like the final boss but I didn't read any of the reasons why A lot of my problems to the fight (this is all post-nerf btw) were about how the holy meteor attack was pretty much an auto-loss unless you knew exactly how to dodge it, camera issues, and the fact that once you beat the boss, it was very anti climatic, with the only things being a memory that stated what you already knew. I was surprised that people complained about the imfamous cross slash attack, which people still complain about even post nerf. I guess my playstyle just naturally dodged the attack but the reasons why people hated the fight I never would've guessed from my experience.

[@Astran0th]

tbh the only thing I thought that was actually "too hard" was pre-patch Consort Radahn. Due to several reasons, like the visibility, aggressiveness and combos with the delayed holy-damage in P2. And maybe also the fact that I did it with a mage build on NG+2 without the (back then) overpowered Thorns-Sorcery. But man did it feel good after I finally got him after trying out a lot of different spell combinations (turns out, just using the ol' reliable night comet and glintstone icecrag, so that the mimic focuses on that instead of other risky spells instead, was the best approach there) and different talismans. Might have shed a tear of joy afterwards.

[@zalaquin]

lol saying From Soft intended path is laughable anyone who is playing blind can go anywhere. And probably just keep repeating the same boss even without skidew fragments

[@alexophilia16]

Don't gaslight me, by the time I finally beat Radahn pre-patch at Scadu level 18 I was pretty much numb

[@bagredecartola1289]

When i got to the shadow keep i tought to myself "nah messmer is the big dog from this dlc and this area lets me access like 3 others, i'll explore everything else" I made him be my last rememberance boss before enir illim and got upset when he hit me with a paper towel instead of a spear

[@Lukes_Arcade]

Your advice to “just dodge and stay alive, don’t attack” is great. I started doing this for DLC bosses (and blocking with a shield). When I couldn’t just wing it anymore. A day of rest and beat the boss next session most every time. Only had to summon the mimic tear for PCR.

[@SSJAsura]

16:06 No he's not. Messmer's moveset is not unpredictable like Morgott or the Godskin Duo, you just need to study his strings that occur due to your position. That's why I've been able to no-hit him consistently. 🙂

[@cyrus6461]

I haven't no hit him or even beat him first try but messmer always was like 3-5 tries depending on build, even day one

[@xvor_tex8577]

Messmer is honestly one of the my top favorites, his attacks are very learnable and not to say that he's easy, he's not not. But it was so fun learning him, and it it took me like 14 tries to beat him, not terrible compared to other people who spends hours or days and swear that he's impossible.

[@outcastwayne]

i genuinely hate the argument of 'learn the pattern' as to why fromsoft bosses aren't bad. It's pretty explicit that nothing you do really matters until the boss gets to show off their combo and gives you your turn to do a few safe hits before they launch into another horribly obviously telegraphed attack pattern that lasts 20 seconds and if you mistime your dodge once, whoops you get killed by two hits. simon says isnt hard even when you get to round 100.

[@JanVerny]

Yeah, learning the patterns is the really easy part anyways.

[@UnknownRayDar]

Youre never killed in two hits if you don't neglect vigor and fragments. Try again. Learning the pattern is fun. If that isn't fun to you, play something else. It isn't a game issue that you're not into it. It's a you thing. The bosses aren't bad. YOU just don't like them. If the idea of (checks notes) ...learning the boss patterns and figuring out how your build can punish them is somehow bad to you, then games aren't for you. Unless you're playing a puzzle/turn based game, this is JUST how bosses work. Try, again. Criticism based off of a lack of viewing reality are shut down. People see that as "erm ur just a fanboy!!" because they literally can't find criticism that they didn't make up in a dream. If they actually had any idea what they're talking about, they'd have actual criticisms to levy at the game, of which there are many. "Game too hard" will never be one. "Game too boring" will never be one. You need reasons based on reality to explain why.

[@JanVerny]

@@UnknownRayDar Dude not everyone is a proffesional game developer. I honestly have no idea why I had fun in ER but I had absolutely zero fun in the SoTE. Maybe it's not the difficulty. Honestly it's probably not it, because I don't even find the parts most players clamor about to be actually difficult. But it's definitely a problem with the combat. And it's definitely a real problem, since I didn't have this with any other souls like.

[@outcastwayne]

@@UnknownRayDar you somehow can't tell hyperbole/exaggeration and also missed the point during your kneejerk spaz attack to criticism, try again.

[@UnknownRayDar]

@@JanVerny You don't know why you liked the base game and disliked the dlc. That is a fine opinion to have. You don't have to know. ...Do you know what discussions this bars you from having, though? Discussions about the quality of the game. Because you literally do not know why you feel what you feel. You have no arguments. No "I think x because y". Your being involved in the conversation serves only to frustrate everyone. Including you. I don't play For Honor. My experience with it was short, but I don't like it. I don't talk with people about why I think it sucks because people who know why they like (or even dislike) it would outpace me in the conversation. This is frustrating for me, and would be for them as well. If I were more combative, I might even pull out the "ur just a toxic fanboy!!!" excuse. You are out of your depth. And that is okay. But for the sake of every person involved including you, it would be best if you weren't in discussions about the quality of the game and what makes it bad. Or even good.

[@Sherudons]

I only hated it's artificial nature, that level 100 player is still level 100 until he's got enough fragments then he's suddenly 200, it's not even a good argument to say I didn't want players to steam roll it and get bored since it's just a new area like any other, have you met the souls community?, some of us still collect our gear to make a meme build and take it to a duelling ground ten years later.

[@Cody211282]

That's not what artificial difficulty is, you're upset at a leveling system.

[@1925683]

@@Cody211282 I mean, it's a second leveling system slapped onto the games standard expressive progression systems so they can make everything way harder. Sounds pretty artificial to me

[@OMFGWTF01]

Funny thing.. I actually think the divine beast is more frustrating than radahn or messmer, because of his lack of arms to track and learn his attacks (a method i personally use for learning moves)

[@awes5893]

5:36 - DEF x0.487 is a little misleading as a graphic, it should be DMG imo. Yes, I know it's a little pedantic.

[@TooSlickTim]

it was so rewarding to beat PCR before update (and after) my build was a battle mage that used darkmoon GS for the first phase and the second i spammed him with dark moon blue balls and used magma sorceries to reset of course. after that my fav was to use golden great shield and clayman harpoon with chilling mist AoW to poke him with proc.

[@stansebagh4624]

13:30 You can't enter stone coffin fissure without going to scadu altus It only opens when miquella's rune breaks.

[@leviadragon99]

Yeah honestly I was keeping up with my scadutree blessings, so aside from the design of certain enemies being... a choice, (pyre golems can just go away) I didn't find the DLC unreasonable. the Scadutree blessings were a change in expectations to adjust to, but having helped a friend now with NG+7 DLC, the base game difficulty for anything feels like a light breeze.

[@JPMgeo]

No one cares dude. And I don't know about too hard but certain aspects were definitely poorly balanced. And off-topic the final boss was still an epic fail lore wise.

[@nightshadewaite8525]

The fact that the Scadoosh fragments carry over to NG+ was the nicest part for me, and they also respawn so at the start you'll be at lvl 16-17, and just pick up a few more & you can probably get to lvl 20 when you fight Relanna

[@Goustave]

I disagree with the Thumbnail. The Radahn nerfs were necessary, at least to me. Not because he was as hard as he was, but because he was too frustrating. Now he is fun, but still hard as balls Still a shame Elden Beast and Radagon give more runes despite being significantly easier, but that might just be the time I had to learns their Movesets

[@lucasmuniz5263]

Consort Radahn drops 500.000 runes, which is the same quantity as Elden Beast.