You're Using Defense Wrong (DLC Spoilers)

[@AlphaSeagull]

A few notes since this upload! It would seem a second endure stack is possible, leading to a true max EHP of 7,557,295,618. Nice I completely forgot to actually INCLUDE scenes of my build tanking Waterfowl and grabs. Here is an unedited video of my full fight against Malenia so you can see everything I tanked and verify I lived for 6 minutes on top of that kzbin.info/www/bejne/hWSuoad4ftpsmdk When I made the decision not to use Braggart's roar in my shieldless build, that was because I thought they still lasted 30 seconds. They were buffed to last 60, making them a lot easier to maintain on both weapons. It's perfectly viable to have 2 great stars weapons and have Braggart's Roar on both, as they give 10% negation each (though this isn't shown on the stats screen) When I made the choice to use Boiled Crab instead of Black Flame Protection, I didn't do all the math I should've. While BFP does reduce healing by 20%, it also gives 23% more effective health than Boiled Crab does, so this balances out to only ~1.5% effective healing lost when using Black Flame protection instead of Boiled Crab, so both of these buffs work fine! Ironjar is great too if you don't mind moving like a snail and crafting aromatics

[@perphenanolastnamethopls3610]

Because of the way floating point precision works, you're actually at a number that may erroneously get flipped to 100% negation, provided negation is stored in a floating point data type

[@leonake4194]

You guy's have been using boosts to go shieldless? I just dont like using shields so never did in the whole game

[@AlphaSeagull]

@@perphenanolastnamethopls3610 It's tough to really know if/when that error would happen because I don't know how the game engine handles their float calculations (from what I understand there's multiple ways of doing it) and the rounding on the UI happens much sooner. I'll try to look into it though. If it does turn out that the game registers it as 100 negation, that'd be funny.

[@pat777b]

@@AlphaSeagull Also, is HP even stored as a floating point number? If HP is an integer and damage gets rounded down to zero...

[@MidhunMKM]

​@@AlphaSeagull A video tanking a highest damaging hit with the exact moment your negation hits 100 would be nice. Would it even tick damage?

[@oliverp3545]

Dodging provides effectively infinite health

[@aceboogie5819]

Jumping >>>

[@floradochi559]

@@aceboogie5819 jumping is a form of dodging

[@ghoulbuster1]

WOW REALLY? NO WAY! HOW DID YOU KNOW??

[@mukamuka0]

and Gravity provides effectively infinite damage....because god forbid even if demigod attack just tickle you but if you fall an inch too far down below...you dead

[@HazhMcMoor]

​@@mukamuka0yeah it's the infinite spear to kill infinite shield invaders who are cheating

[@Ixxlostinabox]

Before watching this video: Hmm lets see some fun info After watching this video: I had no idea that I had no idea how this shit worked.

[@Bongboy56]

I understood like 45% of wat he said

[@MekmekLaZ]

@@Bongboy56same but im trying to get better so no choice 😂

[@yanpaq6405]

it's not like the game explains anything. Can't blame you.

[@MuiKaHo]

you dont need to know. just dont get hit. that magically solves everything

[@venerablewu8744]

Look 90 dr vs 99.99 the difference is like this 100 -90 vs 100 -99.99 10 dmg vs 0.01 dmg the difference in tanking is over 1000

[@BagelBoi4000]

You guys are learning deep and complex damage calculations that the game does not communicate to you, I'm learning that blackflame protection has been reducing my healing this whole time, we are NOT the same!

[@drstone46]

Meanwhile I'm learning BOTH.

[@michaelbowman6684]

Black Flame's Protection still makes your healing provide more effective health than without it, except in PvP because they butchered it. 1 Health / 0.65 = ~1.53 Heath, 1.53 Healing - 20% Healing Penalty = 1.224 Healing which is still greater than 1, obviously.

[@WoobertAIO]

I mean, the game has been communicating these numbers to you. Most people just don't know what they're looking at. In any case, the safest assumption is "big number good, bigger number gooder"

[@AlexanderTripiten]

I can read numbers, you can't. Yeah we totally not the same.

[@leonardo9259]

My brother the item description SAYS IT MAKES HEALING WORSE

[@EldenPeasant]

1000 hours and I've never thought of using Endure for long cast time spells, you're a genius sir.

[@Judgement_Kazzy]

It's a really common tactic in PVP, specifically invasions. Run around a corner and endure into a big AOE spell to punish aggressive ganks.

[@KNGDDDE]

Really? It's like the 3rd idea I cam up with lol. I've always thought endure was a sleeping dragon

[@KABLAMMATS]

Bro there a lot of sht in the game, people just follow the ytuber build and then complaining later said the game is hard 💀

[@themitchum1]

Endure lasts long enough to buff your weapon with black flame and start spamming r1

[@__-fi6xg]

i think its the other way around, youre just really really stupid

[@ryanleatigaga7596]

Messmer's gonna be crying and screaming when he sees that my fat belly turns his spear thrusts into tickles. Nice video!

[@joshuakim5240]

My joke Thicc Tom build with Fire Prelate armor shall use sheer girth to facetank Messmer to death.

[@TheUnrelatable]

Massmer the Invalidator lol

[@funggoose]

Don’t say that pyrocynical might get turned on

[@KkachiKashaKarma]

Kung Fu Panda moment

[@stefanomartinelli7344]

This video Is explaining to me how I did manage to First try rellana with 6 scadutree, a great shield, bull goat armor and only 40 vig (used the Copy, but I basically tanked the double Moon at full hp). Shields are Op. Also, about 5 tries for bayle, about 2-ish for scadutree avatar (I got summoned on the other side of the Castle, we did the full thing, then got to the tree but the host died, I got there in my world and beat it First try). I Heard those guys were nerfed before I got there. Honestly, the Giant Fire toilets are more problematic to me. My brain doesn't brain how their leg moves, so I get under the triple stomp. And I'm blind to the super Mario Jump start, so I realize too late and have to tank the damage with the shields.

[@palerite]

This guy Elden Rings

[@alchemi8085]

Legends say he rings all the elden, too.

[@Solid--Snake]

he's elden ringing all over everyone

[@colorlessking.]

This guy is the elden lord and the elden beast

[@terra6713]

cue Radagon's theme

[@upon-fe2720]

This guy maths

[@OrgBrent]

We're applying monster hunter maths to souls games now. I'm here for it.

[@Deamonder_]

I mean...no, you're right, it is exactly what you said :')

[@OrgBrent]

@@Deamonder_ yeah, older monster hunter games (prior to the fifth generation) had monsters with defense rate on top of their base health, which was used to calculate the effective health by doing (base HP / defense rate) = effective health. Then they have hitzones, which is the percentage of damage you'd do to a certain part. On top of that some of them have enrage modifiers too which would either increase or decrease their damage taken along with the damage they would deal. This video at some point made me go; "wait a minute.. I've been doing this kind of maths too, just on a different franchise!" and then it all suddenly clicked lol

[@Deamonder_]

@@OrgBrent Isn't a quest level modifier too ? But yeah, math games being math games x)

[@pasticle]

​@@OrgBrentok that's hot. i really wasn't into the game loop of mh world but i remember mh1 being way much about survival and exploration, should i give the old games a chance or mhw is actually the peak of the franchise as some people say?

[@senthordika]

@@Deamonder_ all video games are just cleverly disguised maths

[@volynx]

All that hp and a small ledge still on top

[@KyokujiFGC]

This is why ARPG players always talk about EHP rather than just raw HP or defense.

[@vitriolicAmaranth]

EDPS, EHP, etc. It's always disheartening when you use these terms around people who purport to be discussing "meta" and they're like what the fuck are you talking about, where are these numbers coming from, you're making shit up to justify not just using big stick have big big damage number, etc.

[@Shadorenify]

😂​@@vitriolicAmaranth

[@anthonypritchard2798]

@@vitriolicAmaranth yeah i remember seeing a reddit page on some setup that gave you 50% physical defense and some guy said you basically have 3000 hp with that much defense and his comment got downvoted and people kept telling him "that's not how it works"

[@vitriolicAmaranth]

@@anthonypritchard2798 For what it's worth (really just playing devil's advocate, the guy in your example was right if we assume the display HP was 1500), a RL160 build wearing typical medium to light armour is going to have probably around 25% reduction just on accident already, meaning what people naturally consider 1500 HP is already actually 2000 EHP and proportionately speaking the 50% reduction build is more like how the typical RL160 player's build would be with 2250 DHP. That is totally splitting hairs and definitely not what they meant, though.

[@ThreeGoddesses]

the best part is that EHP is NOT a stat; its an ephemeral concept thats so complex you cant boil it down to a single number that MEANS anything that matters in terms of performance that isnt effectively explained by standard hp and defence; the player doesn't need to know that 100hp and 90% damage reduction is 50% worse than 100 hp, 95% damage reduction OR that EHP/second is also a thing and now your single "Stat" is basically just an indian guy on youtube teaching you post secondary math. EHP is basically useless for 90% of players as well, because its MOST important in determining how much damage it would take to one shot you, preventing any recovery from happening. If you're ehp exists below the one shot line, it literally does not matter to the player. And even then, in terms of gameplay, ehp isnt a terribly useful value because you can effectively boil it down to how many boss attacks you can take in a row from a particular combo, which changes because bosses have more than one attack. With 100 health and 50% dr, a boss doing 110 damage will 2 shot you but what numerical value is most important? You can represent it as EHP itself (200 hp), health and defence (100 health, 50% dr) or as effective hit hp (2 hits). In short, it ONLY matters to players who want to see their numbers hit the maximum possible value for a configuration. Which I think is neat, cuz it IS useful for theory crafting but knowing the EHP does nothing for gameplay itself. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[@JOHLumLums]

Before DLC: *Scared of Malenia* After DLC: *Uses Malenia for Brolls now*

[@CrimsonHysteriaAsherah]

After DLC, she feels like she is nerfed, slow, weaker, and... Omg why do I have too much fear on fighting her all this time!!??

[@JOHLumLums]

@@CrimsonHysteriaAsherah No. You're just stronger now.

[@CrimsonHysteriaAsherah]

@@JOHLumLums Sometimes I just have very bad errors and die, I will not say that I can beat her first try, but I don't know, the DLC bosses are more quicker and have more hit combos as far as I know by fighting them, I think is because of the DLC, since I have not changed my build for anything, but thank you for the kind words!!😊

[@MetalHev]

Yeah, I see everyone cramming shard of alexander and dmg stuff on all builds, meanwhile I just jam the dragoncrest greatshield, pearldrake and opaline hardtear on everything so I just walk around with 70% resist all.

[@secretlyaslug2325]

My final setup for the DLC end boss was Greatshield, Dragoncrest, Braid, Crimson Seed +1. Solitude set, Oplaine Tear, crabs. And it was still a struggle to survive attacks using the black steel great shield. I had to liquidate virtually my entire talisman setup to beat him.

[@tribeval]

don't forget the horn charm that boost robustness specifically.

[@gunnarschlichting9886]

I do still run 3 damage Talismans when I'm just exploring/going through a legacy dungeon (Blessed Blue Dew my beloved), but that's only because they are all needed to get my Loretta's Greatbow to kill some enemies in one hit instead of leaving them with a sliver. After I got folded by the Chakram Hornsent plus the first Mausoleum enemy, I pretty quickly switched my Magic Scorpion Charm for a Dragoncrest Greatshield lol. (NG+ dlc hits hard, who would've guessed?)

[@viorp5267]

this speaks to me. I have a big bonk build and it's painful, but I am addicted to big bonks.

[@bofa722]

Defense is always my go to in these games. More forgiving for learning purposes, you survive longer, and you kill enemies slower*; i.e. you play the game more. You also develop much more mechanical skill Never understood these ppl that just wanna kill bosses ASAP on their first try. Boring asf

[@The-Omega-Blade]

Imagine Bi Radahn rocketing down in phase 2.5 and then seeing 1 damage on a newly appeared Boss HP bar...

[@cyclic_infinity]

Maths comment for anyone still confused, hopefully it helps. Focusing on damage and not EHP might make it clearer. Damage decreases linearly per point of negation, but EHP increases non-linearly because of how damage and HP interact. 1% of 100 is still only "worth" 1, whether you add it from 0 to 1 or 98 to 99. Let's say you have 77 Vigor, rounding up to 2000 base HP. A boss has a big attack that has a 4000 damage value. 50% reduces the attack to 2000 damage, you're still one-shot. 2x EHP 75% reduces to 1000 damage, you survive. 4x EHP 87.5% reduces to 500 damage. You can take another before needing to flask. 8x EHP 93.75% reduces to 250 damage. Just a scratch. 16x EHP 96.825% reduces to 125 damage. A tickle. 32x EHP 98.388% reduces to 62.5 damage. Not even yellow damage. 64x EHP 99.169% reduces to 31.25 damage. Basically nothing. 128x EHP ... ~99.975% reduces to 1 damage. 4,096x EHP Because of how fractions work, each halving of _remaining_ damage occurs at smaller and smaller intervals. The raw damage reduced per point of negation never changes, it is always 40 damage reduced per whole negation point in this example. I think what may be confusing is that each halved damage interval is an _EHP_ multiplier of 2x, which is why 75% starts the upward curve and 87.5% and above breaks the game (graph at 4:05). In this example, 4,096 times 2000 base HP equals 8,192,000 EHP. The numbers are only confusing and big because EHP is calculated from raw HP value and not what matters really, number of attacks that are survivable without healing. In this example, relative EHP starts at 0.5 (attack deals double your health) and ends at 2000, where presumably minimum damage is 1 and it never rounds down. If the game is "balanced" around 1500 health and 25% negation at endgame, let's say Godfrey is supposed to 4-shot you at these values. He does 500 average damage per attack, reduced to 375. 4 of those is exactly 1500. If you buff to 50% negation you can take 6 attacks. At 60% you can take 8 attacks, 10 at 70%, 15 at 80%, 30 at 90%, and 300 at 99%. Each point is "equal" in damage reduced, but because of how numbers approaching 0 work, values above 90% reduction go crazy for EHP due to game design and balancing decisions. If the game expected you to reach 95% negation, this wouldn't happen because the math would be baked into the game balancing. Edit: For clarity.

[@JellyJman]

I’ve always been telling people that PVE in this game is all about buff stacking and damage negation that goes BEYOND just leveling vigor to 60.

[@2spliffs41lifetime]

Dmg negation is the rpg way to play it or neo dodging everything is the action way to play it

[@igozi5728]

The whole buff stacking system imo is so stupid. There should be some limit for that.

[@hez8719]

@@igozi5728 There is. Some buffs will overwrite other buffs

[@JellyJman]

@@2spliffs41lifetime real

[@r.faj.5636]

​@@igozi5728i think it's fun lol. Also most players aren't gonna figure this out on their own. And even people who do know about this stuff aren't gonna use a 20 buff stacking routine unless they're doing some challenge or meme build lol.

[@leonardhinkelmann5629]

You can play as a simple melee tank with 2 greatstars with braggart's roar and godskin swaddling cloth on a jump attack build. The jumping l1 on greathammers has the highest poise dps out of all the jump attacks and good damage. On top of that, a jump l1 + l1 or 2 jump l1's trigger the swaddle. With the double braggart's roar you take 0.9^2 damage while buffing your stamina regen so you can use verdigris disk more comfortably. For Pure tanks: use endure + oath of vengeance with ironjar and verdigris disk while overloaded etc. But then you have the mobility issue... good vid btw. Another interesting topic is your effective combat strength: dps × effective hp. When you factor in that the boss can't kill you if they're ded, offense becomes defense. So some armor, like the white mask or the leda's armor are vastly more powerful than (almost) all other armor. As long as their buff applies obvsly...

[@AlphaSeagull]

@@leonardhinkelmann5629 dude I think you're the first person I've ever seen mention how effective combat strength is dps * effective hp, like oh my god I've been screaming this since release day, it's actually cathartic hearing SOMEONE ELSE bring it up for once, so true. The build you have is great. The only reason I didn't opt for Braggart's Roar myself is because I wanted something that would last as long as possible, and those buffs expire relatively quickly. In terms of tanking ability, damage and effective health, it definitely surpasses the one in my video, albeit for a shorter time. Now, as for white mask being better than other armors, it would depend on where your damage is coming from. In a case where you have virtually no damage coming from your weapon since you have no other damage buffs, a large portion of your total damage is gonna come from bleed (that's why I went for bloodflame blade here) and since bleed doesn't receive buffs, that 10% isn't gonna affect all your damage, meaning 10% isn't always 10%. In a case like mine it might just be more worth it to have the negation, but that's gonna have to be decided on a case by case basis. Ideally you want a healthy mix of offense and defense. As you said, to an extent offense IS defense, and the reverse is also true.

[@Zanemob]

Godskin Swaddling Cloth heals me for roughly 40 HP every two hits. In my experience it does absolutely nothing for trading. I tried stacking it but even against basic enemies and dual curved swords both swinging with no misses or getting staggered the enemy out trades me.

[@SUPERLUMINAL_87]

Effective DPS is much different than theoretical DPS, though, especially since you can't face tank DPS race most enemies in the game because of hitstun. There's also stamina recovery to factor in, as well as FP if you try to eliminate the hitstun problem with Endure (or if your damage relies on spells or ashes of war). Of course, in practice, your EHP (and EDPS) are also dependent on the percentage of attacks that actually *hit*, so with skillful dodging, spacing, and timing of attacks, your EHP (and overall combat power) approaches infinity. This is also true of your opponent, of course, so you need damage sources that can actually connect reliably (hence, the age-old rot-and-run tactic).

[@AlphaSeagull]

@@Zanemob well godskin swaddling cloth isn't the type of talisman that's supposed to let you trade. It's the type of talisman that's going to make you live longer if you plan on trading anyway. Unless you are a bulked out Mimic Tear (mimic has over triple your HP) then trading is generally not gonna make you leave with more health than you started with

[@Zanemob]

@@AlphaSeagull I mean I understand why the game shouldn’t devolve into a mindless trade simulator but might as well stack regeneration at that point lol.

[@everything-narrative]

You have 100kg of mathematical potatoes that contain 99% water. Overnight you leave them to dry and next day they are 98% water. How many kgs of potatoes are left? 50kg. 50 damage at 98% negation is 1 HP lost. 100 damage at 99% negation is 1 HP lost. 20 damage at 95% negation is 1 HP lost.

[@SuperVillain0utcast]

I’m too dumb for this 😢

[@champiggyfrm_pig5271]

​@@SuperVillain0utcastthe dmg absorbed doesn't scale linearly. Basically the more you go up in defense percentage the more an additional percent is worth it.

[@cyclic_infinity]

@@SuperVillain0utcast Let's use numbers scaled for Elden Ring, maybe that will help. Let's say you have 77 Vigor, rounding up to 2000 base HP. A boss has a big attack that has a 4000 damage value. Because of how percentages work, each halving of remaining damage occurs at smaller and smaller intervals. 50% reduces the attack to 2000 damage, you're still one-shot. 75% reduces to 1000 damage, you survive. 87.5% reduces to 500 damage. You can take another before needing to flask. 93.75% reduces to 250 damage. Just a scratch. 96.825% reduces to 125 damage. A tickle. 98.388% reduces to 62.5 damage. Not even yellow damage. 99.169% reduces to 31.25 damage. Basically nothing. Because the starting value was so high at 4000, 1 damage requires 99.975% reduction. Flat 99% is still 40 damage. The actual damage reduced by each percent does not actually change, but the relative amount of EHP gained per point does change, which is only counterintuitive because of game balancing. If the game is "balanced" around 1500 health and 25% negation at endgame, let's say Godfrey is supposed to 4-shot you at these values. He does 500 average damage per attack, reduced to 375. 4 of those is exactly 1500. If you buff to 50% negation you can take 6 attacks. At 60% you can take 8 attacks, 10 at 70%, 15 at 80%, 30 at 90%, and 300 at 99%. Each point is "equal" in damage reduced, but because of how numbers approaching 0 work, values above 90% reduction go crazy for EHP due to game design and balancing decisions. If the game expected you to reach 95% negation, this wouldn't happen because the math would be baked into the game balancing.

[@koktszfung]

@@SuperVillain0utcast 1-1/100=99/100, 1-1/50=98/100. To increase that one percent of water, you need to double the amount of water.

[@cyclic_infinity]

@@champiggyfrm_pig5271 Damage absorbed does scale linearly. It's just a percentage reduction. 1% of 1000 is the same value whether it's added from 0 to 1 or 98 to 99. It reduces damage by 10. EHP is what doesn't scale linearly, and even then it is practically linear until about 70% negation. Asymptotically approaching infinite EHP at 100 negation is what causes the inflection point to go nuts above 90, which is why that's so hard to achieve and is very temporary. And because buffs are multiplicative, you can never reach 100% negation.

[@TheTylerCathey]

9:53 damn, even i couldnt last that long with the rotussy. props to you

[@2spliffs41lifetime]

The rotussy drippin ong fr fr no cap

[@cannedsquasher5923]

​@@2spliffs41lifetime*thousand yard stare

[@jungtothehuimang]

the WHAT

[@amberhernandez]

Rest in peace, Rosales6969. Gone but not forgotten. 🙏

[@TheTylerCathey]

@@amberhernandez ?

[@Bocchi-the-Rock_]

I was paying attention but then I heard "Vy-ger" and forgot it all lol

[@McDudes]

wait imagine this but with the thorns armor so the enemies who attacks you kills themselves

[@AlphaSeagull]

@@McDudes imagine if we actually had some form of damage that scaled on negation, that'd be funny

[@McDudes]

@@AlphaSeagull lol would be hilarious

[@2spliffs41lifetime]

@@AlphaSeagulltry path of exile

[@alphasierrabravo5905]

​@AlphaSeagull isnt the tree setinal sheild that reflects magic back technically is one????

[@ZephyrsOfficial]

Just do the same set up but the only difference is youd be wearing Briar armour, you might not achieve 100% negation with that armour but itd likely be pretty close!

[@joopert]

And then there's me who just wears what looks cool.

[@collapsiblechair9112]

well it's just a game, play how you want

[@NitirenRissho]

Right? I just wear for fashion

[@Trap-chan750]

Yeah the game is prepared for this option as well. You'll have a bit harder time but play the game you bought the way you want.

[@min24434]

Style comes first.

[@dimmune6860]

Gotta have that drip.

[@Zer0Main43]

Finally, a video talking about how good defense stacking is Now for me to go back to telling people “defense stacking works” while ignoring defense in my builds

[@onlystamina5932]

I competitively play tanks on lots of games, especially world of warcraft private servers. A lot of the information in this video; I try my best to teach other players, I'm glad you touched on the fact that multiplicative values don't become weaker as you stack them.

[@mkdmc]

"This build could tank an all-out brawl with Malenia. DO NOT USE THIS BUILD AGAINST MALENIA",

[@AlphaSeagull]

I mean I said it could tank, not that it could win 😂

[@Aeby2886]

I wish armor wasn't so pivotal given how it determines how you look and we can't do anything to change it My most recent character I've decided to die for fashion, consequences be damned, but it sucks to stop and think like "I could be twice as tanky and still med roll" lol

[@upon-fe2720]

Yeah, being under 100 poise just feels pathetic.

[@frazfrazfrazfraz]

This is why I hate the equip load system in Elden Ring. In DS2, every 10% lighter you were, you had slightly better stamina Regen and a slightly further roll. There was some motivation to not just be at 69%, 29%, or 16 units for blue dancer literally all the time

[@axel8406]

With degensive spells, comanders aura, and a defensive talisman you can get 55 percent damage negation. With the right chest and leg armor you can get 89 poise with bull hoat talisman. With this in mind, we can look at a specific setup. Tree sentinel chest piece and the bull goat leg armor. Buff using black flame protection, commander buff, and phy def talisman, you get a 70 percent physical negation. Hp at 60 vigor is 1900, which equals an effective health pool of over 6000

[@azure4622]

​@@upon-fe2720 Wait is 100 poise considered the recommended lower limit for the game? I've been running around with like 47

[@apanst]

It's not that bad at all. There are tradeoffs for all situations and getting light roll or a lower endurance 51poise medium roll is worth it in a most cases.

[@chrispysaid]

Verdigris = "VER-di-gree" Rhymes with pedigree

[@AlphaSeagull]

@@chrispysaid oh cool didn't know that. You have no idea how many takes it took pronouncing "vur-dig-ris-dis-cis"

[@rollomax7625]

@@AlphaSeagull And 'vigor' rhymes with 'trigger' 😅

[@SirWalapalougus]

@@rollomax7625it also rhymes with ni

[@RangerX___]

@@rollomax7625 try-ger?

[@chrispysaid]

@@SirWalapalougus it also rhymes with pp

[@IamTheSnowman4]

Surprised to see I'm still learning something, using endure during a bossfight to recast a buff is something I never thought of. Many thanks.

[@WoobertAIO]

Fun fact about these defense calculations: In Dark Souls 2, elemental and status resistances stack additively, which means you can become completely immune to annoying hazards and status effects, such as Fire damage during the Iron Keep section, or the Curse status as early as The Gutter. For the Fire immunity, just put on Felkin's or Straid's clothes, upgrade the chest and leg pieces a couple of times, put on the Fire Quartz Ring +1 from the salamander pit in Forest of the Fallen Giants, then cast the Flash Sweat pyromancy and eat an Orange Burr. You **should** be reaching 1000 (100%) Fire Resist with just that, which would make you immune to the hot rocks where there are items, as well as to any and all instances of Fire damage in the game. (SotFS only) For the Curse immunity, it's as simple as lighting all the torch sconces in The Gutter, which will spawn an NPC invader called "Gutter Denizen" in the ladder zone at the bottom near Black Gulch. Kill her, and she will drop Zullie the Witch's Black Witch Veil, which on its own has 1000 (100%) Curse Resist and will make the wearer completely immune to any source of the Curse status effect (you can still become hollowed by dying though, of course).

[@titanhood6511]

Here from your reddit post, crazy analysis. This guy knows how to buff.

[@aaqibjavedz2569]

Idk why i read buff as bluff and low key wanted to stop watching

[@Wrathios]

🤢

[@RilfDanielson]

Bro announced he's from reddit like it qualifies him for something 😂

[@carceusrko]

@@RilfDanielson fr 💀

[@_Somsnosa_]

@@RilfDanielson He just said that he found the video from this guy's reddit post thats all, calm down drama queen. Any mention of Reddit gets people whining about "Redditors" frfr no cap skull emoji

[@mdcrumpler]

I accidently made this build for Radahn with a bit less optimization, esp with my talisman choice, but crazy to see this build being properly min/maxed with math. Love that you put this effort in, found this from your reddit thread. Super appreciated, subscribed.

[@michaelbowman6684]

I've been saying this stuff since the launch of the game, negations boosts your effective health, which subsequently makes your healing more efficient because if you have 50% negation, 1 health point is now effectively worth 2 health points, meaning you've doubled the longevity of your healing flasks.

[@michaelbowman6684]

@TheRealJohnHooper Duh, that would be equivalent to the pre-patch Level 20 Blessing and only that, which was exactly 50% Physical Negation while being completely naked. So yeah, enemies in the DLC are doing over double the damage of the hardest hitting base game enemies, which is it's own discussion and potential criticism/can of worms when it comes to discussing the DLC. IMO, DLC enemies hit too hard and the "scribbledeedoo" fragments are an artificial method of forcing the player to explore eveny nook and cranny to search for these things (which you need an exact amount of, there are no bonus ones to make collecting the amount you need less tedious) rather than being something the player would want to find naturally, like Golden Seeds in the base game.

[@upon-fe2720]

​@@michaelbowman6684 how is it artificial? The damage done at the start of SoTe if at recommended level and recommended vigor is equivalent to the damage taken at the start of elden ring, roughly 3 - 4 hits to kill the player. Those same enemies with all Scuda Fragments will take about 20-30 hits to kill you, same as the base enemies in Elden Ring. The fragments give very good reason to explore and it's certainly not artificial because A) there are bosses in every area. B) every area is a unique biome C) every area has unique weapons and armour D) many areas have unique questlines E) Scudatree fragments are often a biproduct of other intrigue / en route of main path and finally F) scudatree fragments have extremely high applicable value so find them is a dopamine hit. You need to come up with an argument or just don't bother saying anything

[@michaelbowman6684]

@@upon-fe2720 It's artificial because you could remove them from the game entirely, halve the damage the bosses do while also reducing their health to compensate for the lost damage the fragments provided, and _nothing_ would really change. The fragments do nothing to enhance the gameplay or make exploring the world more interesting, they are flat stat buffs that the game periodically gives you to _keep up_ with the ramping difficulty of the enemies, they are as about as exciting as Golden Seeds or Sacred Tears are for empowering your character. Are you telling me that these stat buff fragments are in any way not just padding to make exploring the world more "rewarding" by essentially punishing the player for not -scaling their difficulty to the appropriate level- having enough of them? We've already done this song and dance when we collected Golden Seeds and Sacred Tears, the player shouldn't need and probably doesn't even want to do a more restrictive version of the system a second time over, no one actually _likes_ fragments in the same way they'd like finding a new weapon or spell. Dark Souls 3's Ashes of Ariandel and The Ringed City didn't give you additional Estus Shards or Undead Bone Shards as "incentives" for exploring the new areas, because they weren't needed. These fragments only exist because the developers thought the world would feel a little empty if they didn't sprinkle a bit of stuff everywhere, and didn't want to put a bunch of Arteria Leaves or other consumables all over the place because they got a lot of feedback that players apparently didn't like getting consumables as rewards, so they had to come up with something more permanent. Which is where the bright idea of putting a portion of the _difficulty scaling_ into the game as collectables came from, they literally couldn't think of anything else to put into the game that wouldn't take a massive portion of development resources to implement. Side note, I do believe that these fragments are FromSoft's attempt at making a pseudo-sliding difficulty setting for the game. The slider goes from ball-crushingly hard -> still harder than base game, and you can't undo it once you've altered it. Think of some other game where changing from the hardest mode to the next level down wouldn't let you change it back to hardest mode, that's basically the fragments in a nutshell but as a collectible item instead of something you'd find in an options or settings menu, and the default experience is "I'm going to die" mode which can only get easier until the player either gives up and makes it easier (or succeeds and wonders if they made it too easy for themselves, of which I have not found a single mention of someone thinking the DLC is too easy, so probably never that latter half.) I don't really _hate_ the fragments, as I don't really _hate_ Golden Seeds or Sacred Tears, I think of them as nothing burgers that exist solely for the sake of gameplay progression and that's it. In the case of the fragments, I _do_ think they are a little under-baked, if only because they took me out of the experience and made me question how much I liked their execution. I wouldn't have critically analyzed them if there were several redundant ones to make getting a max blessing easier without having to look up a guide because you played the DLC blind, which I had to do because I don't like having an incomplete save file and for the life of me could not find the last 2 I needed to get the max blessing, they took me out of the experience and retroactively reduced my enjoyment of exploring the world for the first time, and it's made me not even want to play though through the DLC a second time.

[@bofa722]

​@@upon-fe2720 it is literally a stat tweak lmfao. You dont know what artificial means if you deny the objective fact that they are artificial difficulty modifiers

[@borke42]

​@bofa722 bro the entire game is artificial. Literally everything in the game is at an artificial difficulty by that logic

[@theauditor3224]

We finally found him John Defense

[@Noizzed]

I was astonished when Marigga of all enemies one shotted my full 60 vit healthbar because it attacked me while i was vulnerable mid attack. That such a simple enemy can anihilate a FULL healthbar simply because you were vulnerable is crazy.

[@leonake4194]

Yeah, the size of your healthbar is kinda irrelevant in elden ring. I still have a super large healthbar but dammnit, when I came back to elden ring I smilled at the size of my healthbar thinking I would be invincible then I was reminded how little that actually means

[@LetMeTankHim-LMTH]

❤

[@AlphaSeagull]

The legend himself

[@nata4344]

15 dolla 👀👀

[@timothyfraeyman8667]

Yes tanking is a solid strategy! Just beaten the final boss of the dlc

[@hakageryu-hz7jz]

Good job giving 6 dollars to google.

[@elliottb7009]

let me thank him

[@Mr_Bounc3]

This is insanely good work. You deserve 100x the views and subs you're getting. Keep this up

[@brettrichardson7924]

first time in awhile my attention was kept the whole time. you were straight up cooking my man

[@demacry]

I was completely on board and then you pronounced vigor as veigar and you lost all credibility.

[@AlphaSeagull]

I'm aware of the mispronunciation. It's a choice.

[@CreamyGoodness]

@@AlphaSeagull Why do you make that choice? To increase engagement from correction comments? lol

[@I3uzzKillinton]

@@AlphaSeagull Legend response

[@AlphaSeagull]

@@CreamyGoodness Well back when I streamed on twitch, a lot of people were concerned about their inconsistent and sometimes ridiculous moderation policies. Saying one word that just SOUNDED like another word could easily get you banned. Given what word "Vigor" sounded like along with my skin complexion, I pronounced it wrong on purpose to avoid any misunderstandings, and it kinda just stuck.

[@mamamia5668]

That’s pretty funny

[@hades_head_empty]

as someone who's not great at videogames, but really interested in soulsborne games, this has made me feel like i could actually play this game. and after getting used to it, maybe i'd actually be able to tackle one without this tactic as training wheels (maybe even bloodborne, if i go shieldless and get used to a parrying weapon idk. so i can't express enough how thankful i am for this!! rather than being told to immediately "get gud", i can hopefully learn at a more comfortable pace for a casual gamer like myself.

[@pelinial]

such a good video, that last final gigabuff rundown was so satisfying

[@DrakeWarriorIgonHarpooner]

The chonk build lets goo

[@DiogenesTheCynic.]

Impressive, very nice Let's see Paul Allen's (Bleed) damage negation (for PvP)

[@FlameForgedSoul]

Ver-deh-gree. Vih-ger. All that math seems to have done things to your speech, Dearest.

[@p1ngerss]

fuck yes, I love it when number go up

[@jackpollard550]

I saw the thumbnail and immediately started hearing the Annihilation soundtrack in my head. Good video! 👍

[@mistermysteryman107]

Vigor rhymes with ….trigger. Verdigris rhymes with “her degree”. Edit: also upvoted and subbed

[@SaladDongs]

The correct English pronunciation is "VER-duh-grees", you pronounce the 's' at the end like in "her degrees"

[@mistermysteryman107]

@@SaladDongs no. You don’t. You’re wrong.

[@SaladDongs]

@@mistermysteryman107 google it

[@bofa722]

​@@mistermysteryman107 Google says he's right but my brain and knowledge of several language says you are right Idk which one is true lol

[@mistermysteryman107]

@@bofa722 one of my best friends is an English teacher in Limoges France. He says I am right. So it’s whatever.

[@wolfrat4998]

very informative, i always forget just how good multiplicative negation is until i see the math

[@calvin4d]

I don't like maths. I don't like the numbers. But i see a fellow great stars conisseur, so I like and subscribe. 👍

[@AlphaSeagull]

Great stars is great

[@jprec5174]

@@AlphaSeagull but is it good?

[@matthewyeomans7106]

Really great and insightful video, expected this to come from some 500K+ sub channel

[@KABLAMMATS]

Change your heal to the new heal and aim for your leg, its faster than the base game heal

[@AlphaSeagull]

Oh that's a sick strat, thanks

[@Safetyman99]

"New heal"?

[@ghoulbuster1]

ohhh you mean THAT heal? Oh yes that heal is very good

[@boi3987]

That heal is so good, it's saved me so many times

[@bofa722]

​@@Safetyman99 projected heal

[@abdaabda]

Dude this is fricking genius I can’t even imagine how stronger this would be with a great shield

[@SwedetasticGames]

Earned yourself a sub. Also, the Endure trick for spells is hillarious. I can already think of several ways to giga-abuse it for PvP.

[@bofa722]

It used to be a combat art in dark souls 3 for some catalysts. Idk why Michael Zaki lost brain cells and decided to remove it

[@rxbynwubs]

1200 hours into warframe and I didn't inners multiplicative vs additive damage until now. KZbin notification just did the lord's work

[@kingstonhammerton8743]

Omg its him… john elden ring

[@itsSmiv]

Amazing video, reminds me of vash cowaii's videos on remnant 2 damage negation. Videos like these are absolute godsends.

[@AlphaSeagull]

Vash is a cool guy

[@clankymocha]

This guy buffs

[@Lecan14]

This mf last 6 minutes with Malenia, find out how!!!

[@ClothTurtle.]

I WAS HERE BEFORE THIS VIDEO GOES VIRAL 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥(great video btw) Edit: i fucking knew it

[@AlphaSeagull]

You sure called it!

[@lb50x22]

You did a really good job at explaining the multiplicative aspect of defense percentages

[@TheFartsandCrapsShow]

I have about 1300 hours in the game, but I suck at math, so thank you, THANK YOU so much for explaining this so well. It finally clicked, made sense to my brain, and you have a new like and sub. Seriously, fantastic work.

[@ScottJund]

god im getting path of exile max resistances flashbacks

[@quiteafancyemerald]

Really detailed video explaining core mechanics this is legit an amazing video. I think I remember you being on stream I got that funny memory 🗿

[@kilsgb]

I tried to go to sleep last night but I just couldn't because I kept thinking about how AlphaSeagull says 'vigor'.

[@gendoslice5971]

I’m watching this 10x to get through my think 4 kids around me skull

[@TheZombieCurryKid]

Casting a ton of buffs every 60 seconds is the opposite of fun though.

[@AlphaSeagull]

Then don't do it. Even the initial buffs before combat give a noticeable advantage, you just won't be shieldless tanking the whole fight, which means you probably need a completely different kind of build.

[@TheZombieCurryKid]

@@AlphaSeagull Yeah, you're right. Great video though. Do you think there's a way to play viably while spreading all your stats evenly?

[@AlphaSeagull]

@@TheZombieCurryKid There's ways to play viably without levelling at all, that's how extensive the building/buffing system is. Tanking is about 2 things: Leveling Vigor, and having good negation. More is better obviously (as that's the point of this video), but you don't NEED everything, you just need enough wiggle room to feel comfortable. Having STR for the defense stat and heavy armor will help but you really don't need those to feel alright in terms of HP. Attacking is about 3 things: Choosing an offensive option (this will usually be a specific weapon/spell/attack), upgrading the weapon/staff/seal that you're using, and adding talismans/buffs that affect what you're using. Scaling will help but it's mostly secondary, at least for basically all melee weapons. The only stat I really recommend pushing high no matter what is Vigor because 60 is almost always mathematically worth it, but even that's not an issue if you're good at dodging. I've seen (and MADE) level 1 builds that can dish out more damage than some players at max level can do, and if you really know what you're doing with negation, level 1 can be tankier than some players at 60 vigor too. So as long as you've got the game knowledge to back it up, absolutely any stat spread can work, at least in PvE

[@scarypoltergeist]

it was dragon communion that forced me to learn most of this through experimentation. having 3 year cast times and being basically naked obviously wasn't working, but with two shield talismans, vow+negation spell, and endure, most fights became trivial wars of attrition. low key made me want to just play sekiro instead great video 👍

[@MrDjfeight]

just shy of 13 min of continuous mind-blown, right before bed and now all i can think of is starting up the game and laughing in bosses faces and walking around the map without a care in the world.

[@never-ending-space]

Great video. Love the pace, voice sounds good, great clips to go with it. Good shit.

[@joncarter3761]

That explains why switching to tank build really made the DLC much easier. Gotta love stacking those def buffs as well as attack ones!

[@sethstewart9704]

Moore's set with Moore's shield, some shield grease, and an antspur rapier with bleed/rot turned the final boss of the DLC into a fight where I never even needed to roll. That was without knowing the calculations behind it. This info is pure gold for build optimizers.

[@CrappyCar]

Came here from Reddit, thanks for the reply to my question. One of my favorite things pre-DLC was to stack holy negation and then co-op Radabeast. After watching your video I see my build wasn't optimized, but still a fun time. It is amazing to see how different people tackle these games. ER is my first FS game, and I'm loving every minute.

[@AlphaSeagull]

I loved watching everybody complain about how difficult the final boss was, meanwhile I was just sitting there with literally one spell that just invalidates the fight cuz most of their damage is holy. And then almost the exact same thing happened for the DLC

[@CrappyCar]

@@AlphaSeagull If you use all the tools FS supplies, it's all good.

[@bofa722]

All you need for Radabeast is Divine Protection or whatever its called and the haligtree talisman tbh. Not nearly as bad as the butt brothers over here

[@Sam-gl4qn]

Thanks for all the info and ideas, I’ve never thought of pronouncing verdigris like that

[@jasunsandiego]

Thank you. Very smart. I'll be learning from this video for time to come. Might as well sub.

[@Tweny_420]

vay-ghor? VAY-GHOR????

[@PoisonJarl71501]

Thankful for another content creator teaching us what from soft does not haha

[@bayouboigaming]

Does a bunch of mathematic pirouettes and backflips “You’re doing it wrong”

[@nimerecl]

This video is top-notch, keep up the great work, you're doin well

[@John-fo4wp]

I usually am in no armor and using something like Star fist charged attack builds They have helped me through my 4,000 hours and ~100 no-hit runs

[@Wellymanful]

Holy shit an actually informative, interesting video that isn't about the same builds and 'BrOKennnn'. Thank you.

[@Tronas1111]

thanks for making this video. People complaining that dlc bosses hit too hard, just dont realize how tanky you can get in this game, while putting in very little effort. If the bosses did any less damage, then they wouldnt even be a threat.

[@SkeleTonHammer]

My problem with the DLC is only that none of the bosses ever stop attacking, and can trade with you and make you come out the loser no matter how squishy they are and no matter how tough you are. There's no way to punish enemies that never stop attacking if they also have effectively infinite poise. I don't know if I poise broke a single boss in the entire DLC except once as a freak accident, even when I just suck it up and trade blows and go to town on them.

[@MundaneEsotericStick]

bro has a doctorate in soulsbourne damage calculations

[@Asankeket]

LOL, many thanks. On one hand, it's sort of obvious. I even did a similar calculation for a factory building game where the benefits of some upgrade increased exponentially but the costs quadratically, so eventually every added level benefitted you more than the previous one in spite of being significantly more expensive. So I'm familiar with this sort of thing but its significance for this game totally escaped me. Again, thanks.

[@TheGClover01]

That over buffing bit at the end just reminds me of anis from overlord,neat video i had no clue you could get this tanky beyond what was already known

[@plagueboned5208]

i wanna last 6 full minutes with malenia

[@willowquinn5108]

Close enough. Welcome back Havel the Rock

[@jjswifthd]

Really just listened to this man say words for 12 minutes

[@Loctorak]

You, sir, are a mathematical madman and I'm here for it

[@revvrie4725]

My league of legends brain " ah yes jak show, aftershock tabi boots rammus"

[@forevahpanda8141]

Instructions unclear... I want to go home, and then edge

[@Jazod]

I love looking into the numbers of stuff like this but I feel I'm too stupid to actually figure any of this out myself. Thanks a ton for the vid

[@lukasscott5414]

This is really interesting. I made a pvp build really early on that gets a lot of vigor early and uses health regen and the blue feather talisman to effectively just chill.

[@BigDBrian]

Thank you for this video, it's said everything I want on this topic and more. People always misunderstand absorption and its equivalent in other games, and it's infuriating. They always think the % doesn't go up as much therefore there's "diminishing returns" without any understanding.

[@EphemeralPseudonym]

league of legends has had disastrous consequences

[@root_squash]

@11:45 reminds me of that one scene in Overlord where Ainz does all the buffs...I could almost here his voice actor for a second there.

[@Stroimex]

I haven't heard someone say numbers this big since Stryder's Paper Mario videos

[@AOW222]

Thankyou for putting this together, i did all the mental math and you confirmed what I've believed was the case for a long time. You can theoretically get 100% reduction now with the addition of the [Verdigris Discus] talisman in the DLC. I was already reaching over 80 physical reduction beforehand with an effective damage build, you'd have to be able to get it pretty close or over 100% now.

[@AlphaSeagull]

I feel like you skipped a step bud lol. Negation stacks Multiplicatively. Verdigris Discus + an 80% negation build will not reach 100, it'll be 84 when overloaded, which is still great when compared to 80, but not 100. Stacking 15 different buffs INCLUDING verdigris discus did not reach 100, it just reached a number so close that it rounded up to 100

[@billylebullyhunter7366]

Exponents are very powerful! Thanks this will help with the DLC boss

[@hrupalwens5001]

I’ve been looking for a video like this. People would have a much easier time with harder bosses in the base game and dlc in general if they understood how valuable DR is.

[@JonoBogano]

This is such a well made and informative video, thanks!

[@sythrus]

Im glad that im super familiar with multiplicitive percentage based damage resistances, makes the video much easier to get on the first try. Dota 2 magic resistance and armour works basically the same, and it serves as both a clever way to make every source of it count, as well as making it so that multiple sources of reductions dont give you 100% resistance (ironically the damage reduction stat in dota 2 is additive, meaning that with 2 instances of 40% damage reduction and an instance of 25% reduction you do get the full 100%. This only applies to alternative game modes however). two 50% resists is equal to 75%, so you would need a 100% resist in order to be completely immune. Even 99% and 99% wouldn't give you a 100% resist. You have to look at it like this, with 50% damage reduction you take only half damage, then if you add another 25%, you get 62.5% damage reduction. This means that you are now an additional 25% harder to kill. With an additional 10% you go to 68.75% dmg reduction. The easy way of calculating it would be to take your current percentage and multiply with the new value, with the smaller value being larger by 1 (ex: 0.50 x 1.25 = 0.625, 0.625 x 1.10 = 0.6875 You can also do it as one equation if you go from largest value to smallest) This is also how you calculate EHP, but instead of having the previous damage reduction value you use your health value instead (so at 1500 health: 1500 x 1.50 = 2250, 2250 x 1.25 = 2812.5, 2812.5 x 1.10 = 3093.75) Actually, if you were to have two instances of 25% damage reduction, the second one would actually give more health then the first, eg: 1500 x 1.25 = 1875 ehp (or 375 extra health) and 1875 x 1.25 = 2343.75 ehp (or 468.75 extra health) for 93.75 more ehp then the first instance. I know I probably said a lot of what was already brought up in the video but i just know way to much about ehp and multiplicative damage resistance to not go on a mini rant.

[@thebrotacogamer2944]

Friendly reminder that prayerful strike is a must have for making tanky mimics. Those homies overuse it and get massive chunks of HP back by comparison to yourself using it. Bonus for the very slight lingering heal effect it has. You can run by like a second after the sound cue of it connecting and get some juice. My mimic helped keep both of the summons for the final boss alive on over NG+7. Now that is what I call heals.

[@SebastesMarinus]

No, YOU‘RE using defense wrong! That‘ll teach ya!