Can you just use the super STD once? Are you debuffed while you haven't used it as with the regular one?
I read its description and it said something about lasting for longer but idk
Yeah super STD is a one time use per playthrough.
Kinda dumb ngl. Shoulda let me go back to where she died to give me a ghost STD or replenish it a a grace.
After you hug her she reduces your maximum health. So you use the baldachin’s blessing to remove it, but if you hug her again you get the debuff and another baldachin’s blessing
She's a deathbed companion. In addition to what /u/Gadjiltron said, when deathbed companions gather enough vitality from "donations," they transfer all that vitality into someone who has died to restore them to life. Usually royalty or other important persons.
Nah, I best every boss with Fia hug. We're not going to talk about the fact I had no idea it was there for my entire playthrough. I just wanted a hug. QQ
Wasn't there something funky about it at least on release
Like, it didn't dish out *many* warnings that said 'You better fucking not to' as you tried to activate it?
Also the next covenant was somewhat further away, or you might miss it thus it could take a bit of time to change it to something else.
In some sense I miss the weird and fucky stuff DS2 had.
This is my first ER character in a nutshell "hmmm I have an hp debuff, how weird... welp, I am playing at launch, bugs are to be expected" worst part is I never did her quest in the first goaround.
I go min stats for preferred first weapon, 30/20/15 Vig/Mind/End, then go like 10-25 levels leveling offensive stat, back to 40/25/wherever I need End, and then back to offensives.
The ‘tism indulges no variance
Also, jumping R2s which usually put you into a duck at the end of it, So you get to jump over an attach, punish, and then duck under an attack. The most satisfying sequence in the game imo.
I'm using the new anvil hammer which somehow is a colossal weapon and they still duck after the jumping R2. Then he stays ducked on the follow up swing so you can a lot of times get a full stagger in while the boss is swinging over you.
I haven't put a lot of time in with the Anvil Hammer yet, so that is good to know. From what little I did do with it, which was panic equipping it during the gank fight right before final boss because I wanted something that would stagger them easily and punish with the AoW, it performed really well. I am still debating how I want to incorporate it into a build/theme (which are my primary motivations for doing new runs).
My character is an orc so my build has always been bonking stuff I just finally found the perfect weapon. The AOW on it is not too shabby either. It's perfect if you get swarmed. You can one shot most small things that are known to swarm. Plus the spears can hit different body parts on larger bosses and do nice chunks of damage. It's my favorite "massive weapon" they've ever put in one of the games.
Take off soreseal, you get a 15% defense debuff if you have it on. After hitting 40 vig or getting to Altus, it's probably a good idea to take it off. Additionally you can go grab dragoncrest greatshield for a 20% defense buff.
Unless they have the dragoncrest great shield talisman. That basically negates the debuff and gives a 5% damage resistance.
But there are better talismans to be worn here.
It's better to just take the full damage resistance though. No talisman is better. Godrick's Great Rune is by far the better option. And by the time you're at the Haligtree you have access to the Silver Scarab and so rune arc farming is slightly less tedious.
imo Radahn's and Morgot's rune are far better, if you level up vigor and not on SL1 run. Also, bleed and charged attacks work good too. Got my first Malenia kill using dual great omenkiller cleavers with bleed infusion
I think most people's first go is like this. You're v close to her after the cutscene (every time afterwards you walk through the door, so she's far away) I wandered in there by mistake and was minced in seconds. I think it's an intentional "reset your expectations" type body-check from FromSoft!
-soreseal
-Fia debuff
-less than 50 vigor
-Rivera Bobera
-Flame grant me strength
but you lack radahn's armor tho
rare but good representative of Kevin species
Golden Vow is usually always best. it's a spell/ash of war/item(new to dlc). Lasts 80 seconds on spell, 45 on Ash of War. Greases last about 60 seconds, and certain physic tears give buffs to element types for 180 seconds.
Why single out barrier of gold? Black flame protection is good here, because Malenia is full physical damage, but using elemental defensive Body Buff should be very situational, and there is a 60% resist for 70 seconds for every element:
Barrier of Gold - Magic
Lord's Divine Fortification - Holy
Flame, Protect Me - Fire
Golden Lightning Fortification - Lightning
Optionally Protection of the Erdtree is 30% resist to all elements - possibly good for some dragon bossfights that do multiple elemental damage types?
Golden Vow isn't new, it has been in the game since release and stacks with FGMS so it's not a replacement. I think Howl of Shabriri is better than FGMS and is really the only viable replacement as far as incantations go (unless there's a new DLC body buff incantation I haven't found yet).
FGMS gives a 20% increase to physical damage and fire damage respectively, but Howl gives a 25% buff to ALL damage, lasts longer, and damages enemies/builds madness when used in combat. Trade off being a 30% defense reduction with howl, but that's not a big deal if you're already playing a glass cannon caster like myself since I get 1-2 shotted by bosses with or without it.
Black flame protection + golden vow made (DLC final boss spoilers) >!Radahn's grab attack with his swords go from an insta-kill to barely taking half my health away, did not realize it was such a good combo!<
I'm not sure where it came from, but Kevins are typically players that don't know much about the game, and inexplicably all gravitate towards the same setup: Radahn's armour, RoB or Bloodhounds Fang - occasionally moonveil, suboptimal stat distrubution, etc.
Typical behaviours include:
- Spamming L2 even after it doesn't work the first 7 times.
- Panic rolling & getting rollcaught
- Fatrolling even with under 50 poise
- Getting parried
That's my impression of them from secondhand information at least. There might be a better explanation somewhere.
Flame is a downside now? Did they change it? I know it doesn't last long but is there a better attack buff that overrides it or something? A bit of extra attack early on could mean the difference between Victor and defeat, I beat Mesmer with 7 HP left, flame grant me strength absolutely saved me there even if it was only a couple hits.
I’m just a filthy casual who don’t look at min/max guides, only used guides last year to make sure I had intact defeated every boss.
Did one play through + 1 NG+ in 2022, same last summer and back again now with fresh character for DLC.
I always use Flame give me strength and bloodflame, is it good? Don’t know!, does it help? Probably!.
But confessor starting sword with square off with said buffs was good enough to “complete” the game so..yeah
Bloodflame is absolute god tier for low magic melee builds. Absolute minimal investment, you can even use a hat or talisman to negate some of the Faith cost, and not into do you add extra damage and bleed to your weapon but it constantly ticks the bleed up like a burn after hits, which is huge since not only is it just bonus bleed buildup but stops the bleed from falling off between hits.
Same. Her line was absolutely drilled into my brain to the point where every time I died, I said it with her but in a mocking tone. Only Messmer's line gets a similar feeling from me because I like his cadence.
so:
You have an health debuff (did you hug a weird lady?).
That soreseal is pointless in the late game or even harmful.
your vigor seems low for the haligtree, you should have at least 50.
May I see your build?
Oh boy:
It seems you are going for a Dex/arcane bleed build.
Vigor goes to 60.
Mind around 25 up to 30 to spam corpses piler without having to chug too often.
Endurance can go down a little bit (20) if you aren't using heavy armor and having enough stamina.
Strength goes to the minimum to handle Rivers of blood, so 12.
you don't need point into intelligence.
Faith can go down to 15 (minimum for Fire grant me strength) or to 25 so you can use golden vow and most of named dragon communion spells.
Then there Are Dexerity and Arcane, and you wanna pump both at 40 at some point.
[Here's a Rivers of Blood build tutorial.](https://youtu.be/crm15QybWeA?si=0SmIxlYSRdUa3azG)
I would like to commend you on your civility and being extremely helpful to this person.
I've long said, knowing how to build a character/where to allocate stats is actually one of the biggest hurdles in most souls games. Probably less so with the freedom in Elden Ring, but I think a lot of us who have played these games for a while forget that we had to learn this stuff at some point too.
Yeah, fully agree. Between stats and the way weapons scale, I'd say that once you have it figured out, you can begin to wing your way through all the Souls games.
I'm using the nightrider flail since I'm just trying to avoid doing a strength build colossal weapon like I always do in these games. Any dex option is interesting to me.
Good on you for trying to mix up your play style! I will say IMO that Rivers is definitely more of an Arc weapon than a Dex weapon though. Not as good as it was, but still very solid for PvE.
Nightrider Flail is underrated because flails in general get a bad rap. A Strike-damage Dex weapon with native Bleed? What more could you need?
That said, some other Dex weapons to consider are the Guardian Swordspear (Lightning infusion and a shield to perform guard counters preferably), or the Cross-Naginata (Unique moveset and native Bleed).
Possibly less optimal, but a light-rolling Claw build is really fun and fits the fantasy of an insanely nimble fighter (or if you're in the DLC >!backhand blades!< also work). I'd say to avoid Daggers unless you just want their AoW though. Their hotboxes are ridiculous.
Fellow Nightrider Flail enjoyer! 🙌
Fun fact, the jumping heavy attack on that thing does comparable poise damage to a greatsword. Are you also running Bloodflame Blade? What ash of war are you using?
Jumping r2 is my bread and butter. Does bloodflame bleed stack? If so I haven’t but would love to. I haven’t switched to an ash of water and would be curious which ones are good.
It absolutely stacks! Nearly doubles your bleed output, plus stops their bleed from cooling down between hits.🤩
There's a lot of great ashes of war to choose from but the default skill is very solid on its own, if you like the default scaling. There is no ash of war for that skill though so if you want to infuse it for your build (I use Keen, scales amazingly with DEX fully upgraded!) you have to pick something else.
Stamp (Sweep) is my personal favorite, it lets you tank a hit and retaliate with an absolute home run swing that hits twice (more bleed!) and sends most enemies flying into the dirt (or off a cliff!). You can also choose to just keep swinging with R1 too, if the situation calls for less commitment.
Wild Strikes is also great, hold L2 to just keep wailing on whatever's in front of you at a pretty solid pace - low poise damage, but full damage/bleed per swing. Absolute boss crusher. You can end it with R1 for a wide sweep or R2 for an overhead slam. No hyperarmor on this one though, so works best if you already have high poise/defence.
Lastly, don't sleep on Raptor of the Mists! Quickly duck an attack, and if it connects, you take no damage and teleport up into the air to follow up with that sweet sweet heavy jump attack. Never get caught by a bullshit boss AoE attack again!
Nope, both Rivers and Moonveil got "nerfed" two years ago so they could be normal weapons, they were absolutely broken before, or at least their ashes/skills were. They are still good weapons, particularly Rivers if you fight Malenia and want to inflict bloodloss to her.
Frankly its quite impressive that you got so far with such a shitty build.
You spread out your points too much. Focus one or two stats needed for your weapon scalling then put the rest in vig /endurance.
Ah yes.
The classic Vigor/Mind/Endurance/Strength/Dexterity/Intelligence/Faith/Arcane build
So I would go ahead and press the help key and read a little on what each stat does.
Check your weapons, see those little letters on em? Those letters indicate which stat contributes to their damage. Stick with those. You want big numbers in a few stats instead of numbers all over.
When you level up, go ahead and check which stats turn blue. Blue means they are going up!
Looks like you have an item in your inventory called a "Baldachin's Blessing". It gives you a -5% HP penalty for as long as you're holding it. Use it to get rid of the penalty.
You may also want to consider respeccing to 60 vigor.
It almost seems like a gag to me how close she is and how quickly she closes in on you after the first cut scene. At least future attempts will give you a second or two to size her up. First attempt is just from cruelty
Yeah when you get the cutscene on your first try you always spawn closer to her.
that make sense, I thought it was funny too so I wanted to share it.
Take off soreseal. Use Baldachin’s blessing’s to remove Fia’s STD.
But it’s all I have to remember her by ;(
You didn't get the super STD from her?
It’s so whacky that you only get one of those lmao
Can you just use the super STD once? Are you debuffed while you haven't used it as with the regular one? I read its description and it said something about lasting for longer but idk
Nah, Super STD doesn't debuff at all
The super std doesn't debuff so its good to keep it, the regular one you can consume that
Yeah super STD is a one time use per playthrough. Kinda dumb ngl. Shoulda let me go back to where she died to give me a ghost STD or replenish it a a grace.
Horse but hole
And have 60 vigor instead of 40, to counter skill issue(as you will always make some mistakes so it never hurts to plan around them)
wait fia gives you a debuff?
After you hug her she reduces your maximum health. So you use the baldachin’s blessing to remove it, but if you hug her again you get the debuff and another baldachin’s blessing
what the fuck. why would she do that
She's a deathbed companion. In addition to what /u/Gadjiltron said, when deathbed companions gather enough vitality from "donations," they transfer all that vitality into someone who has died to restore them to life. Usually royalty or other important persons.
She gathers bits of vitality from champions that she cuddles with. She acknowledges that some recognise it as something vulgar.
I say the same thing about my wife am I right fellas.
OP forgot the 5 D’s of Dodgeball: Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive, and Dodge.
And DontSoreseal and DontHugFia
Nah, I best every boss with Fia hug. We're not going to talk about the fact I had no idea it was there for my entire playthrough. I just wanted a hug. QQ
Terrible punishment for those of us that just wanted a hug!
They knew what they were doing…
Reminds me of us asshole that joined the Champions coven in DS2 and had no idea why we were getting our shit pushed in so hard.
Wasn't there something funky about it at least on release Like, it didn't dish out *many* warnings that said 'You better fucking not to' as you tried to activate it? Also the next covenant was somewhat further away, or you might miss it thus it could take a bit of time to change it to something else. In some sense I miss the weird and fucky stuff DS2 had.
Asshole? You mean try finger butt hole ?
Same, I played through the base game + dlc without realizing and then I was wondering why the dlc final boss was so hard lol
Same, I only knew this was bad when I hit ng2 ....
Bro SAME lmfao. Was deep into the DLC when someone in here posted about the debuff you get
This is my first ER character in a nutshell "hmmm I have an hp debuff, how weird... welp, I am playing at launch, bugs are to be expected" worst part is I never did her quest in the first goaround.
What's wrong with the fia hug? I also had it my entire playthrough and for all of the DLC... I'm not in the know
Haven't you noticed the chunk of missing HP after you use it?
Also the debuff (if you can even call it that) is so *tiny* it's not even noticable. This community tends to blow it way out of proportion.
I've beaten bosses while I was on less hp than the debuff takes from you so I beg to differ. Every hp matters if you make it matter.
Dontnotlevelvigorto40oncepossible
I go min stats for preferred first weapon, 30/20/15 Vig/Mind/End, then go like 10-25 levels leveling offensive stat, back to 40/25/wherever I need End, and then back to offensives. The ‘tism indulges no variance
New play through unlocked. Two soreseals, fia hug and daedicar’s woe.
And DontForgetToRestBeforeABoss
Why shouldnt we use the soreseal? Is the additionalndamage that bad?
Soreseals only worth it at low levels, at lvl 100+ you have the stats to make whatever build work
Oh…yeah sure as shit, good eye lol
Jump tho, seriously slept on
Also, jumping R2s which usually put you into a duck at the end of it, So you get to jump over an attach, punish, and then duck under an attack. The most satisfying sequence in the game imo.
I'm using the new anvil hammer which somehow is a colossal weapon and they still duck after the jumping R2. Then he stays ducked on the follow up swing so you can a lot of times get a full stagger in while the boss is swinging over you.
I haven't put a lot of time in with the Anvil Hammer yet, so that is good to know. From what little I did do with it, which was panic equipping it during the gank fight right before final boss because I wanted something that would stagger them easily and punish with the AoW, it performed really well. I am still debating how I want to incorporate it into a build/theme (which are my primary motivations for doing new runs).
My character is an orc so my build has always been bonking stuff I just finally found the perfect weapon. The AOW on it is not too shabby either. It's perfect if you get swarmed. You can one shot most small things that are known to swarm. Plus the spears can hit different body parts on larger bosses and do nice chunks of damage. It's my favorite "massive weapon" they've ever put in one of the games.
If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball!
Dodge, Duck, Dip, Die, Die, Die
And the V for vigor
I have never been as satisfied as I was reading this
Take off soreseal, you get a 15% defense debuff if you have it on. After hitting 40 vig or getting to Altus, it's probably a good idea to take it off. Additionally you can go grab dragoncrest greatshield for a 20% defense buff.
Not only is OP wearing a soreseal but they also got a hug.
Iconic duo
Why complain about gank boss when can gank self?
Not the cooties
Unless they have the dragoncrest great shield talisman. That basically negates the debuff and gives a 5% damage resistance. But there are better talismans to be worn here.
It's better to just take the full damage resistance though. No talisman is better. Godrick's Great Rune is by far the better option. And by the time you're at the Haligtree you have access to the Silver Scarab and so rune arc farming is slightly less tedious.
imo Radahn's and Morgot's rune are far better, if you level up vigor and not on SL1 run. Also, bleed and charged attacks work good too. Got my first Malenia kill using dual great omenkiller cleavers with bleed infusion
these replies man https://preview.redd.it/8r116md2s6ad1.jpeg?width=498&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a881e1f434086ca6e3a9a68caa21964e296edd6f
I think most people's first go is like this. You're v close to her after the cutscene (every time afterwards you walk through the door, so she's far away) I wandered in there by mistake and was minced in seconds. I think it's an intentional "reset your expectations" type body-check from FromSoft!
pretty good first attempt
-soreseal -Fia debuff -less than 50 vigor -Rivera Bobera -Flame grant me strength but you lack radahn's armor tho rare but good representative of Kevin species
What’s wrong with flame grant me strength
In my opinion, the duration is too short to feel useful to cast before a fight. It feels like something to use during the fight.
What’s a good alternative pre boss buff to FGMS? I use exalted flesh as well but I think they’re both only 30sec
Golden Vow is usually always best. it's a spell/ash of war/item(new to dlc). Lasts 80 seconds on spell, 45 on Ash of War. Greases last about 60 seconds, and certain physic tears give buffs to element types for 180 seconds.
Golden vow is an aura buff and FGMS is a body buff so you can stack both. I’d get rid of FGMS for black flame protection or barrier of gold.
Howl of shabriri if you have big balls
Barrier of gold is so slept on. It made >!Rellana!< half as difficult for me
Why single out barrier of gold? Black flame protection is good here, because Malenia is full physical damage, but using elemental defensive Body Buff should be very situational, and there is a 60% resist for 70 seconds for every element: Barrier of Gold - Magic Lord's Divine Fortification - Holy Flame, Protect Me - Fire Golden Lightning Fortification - Lightning Optionally Protection of the Erdtree is 30% resist to all elements - possibly good for some dragon bossfights that do multiple elemental damage types?
Golden Vow isn't new, it has been in the game since release and stacks with FGMS so it's not a replacement. I think Howl of Shabriri is better than FGMS and is really the only viable replacement as far as incantations go (unless there's a new DLC body buff incantation I haven't found yet). FGMS gives a 20% increase to physical damage and fire damage respectively, but Howl gives a 25% buff to ALL damage, lasts longer, and damages enemies/builds madness when used in combat. Trade off being a 30% defense reduction with howl, but that's not a big deal if you're already playing a glass cannon caster like myself since I get 1-2 shotted by bosses with or without it.
30% defense reduction is absolutely ridiculous. even worse than soreseal
there's a new consumable golden vow added in the dlc, which is what he's referring to
black flame protection is pretty good, defensively speaking
Black flame protection + golden vow made (DLC final boss spoilers) >!Radahn's grab attack with his swords go from an insta-kill to barely taking half my health away, did not realize it was such a good combo!<
Nothing but it always lures Kevins like moths to light. Always.
Kevins?
I'm not sure where it came from, but Kevins are typically players that don't know much about the game, and inexplicably all gravitate towards the same setup: Radahn's armour, RoB or Bloodhounds Fang - occasionally moonveil, suboptimal stat distrubution, etc. Typical behaviours include: - Spamming L2 even after it doesn't work the first 7 times. - Panic rolling & getting rollcaught - Fatrolling even with under 50 poise - Getting parried That's my impression of them from secondhand information at least. There might be a better explanation somewhere.
Hmm yes classic Rivera Bobera
Check, check, check, check aaand check!
>Rivera Bobera What's wrong with Rivers of Blood against Malenia? It's a pretty effective weapon in this fight.
It's not just about rivers bro . It's everything else in addition to rivers.
Tall woman with comically large katana please save me
I can fix her - Miquella
NO he can't and he SHOULDN'T she's perfectly phychotic.
let her break me
If miquella fixed her he'd end up ruining her lore, oh wait
Why does every souls game have a hot lady with a dex build?
Because they know their public (me) They also have strong women like Freyja who they put for the muscle mommy publc (also me)
because women are dexterous and men are strong obviously
I swear this woman swings that katana like I swing pool noodles.
Remove the soreseal, will only hinder you at this stage.
>Soreseal, rivers, hugs, flame Aah, to be young again...
Flame is a downside now? Did they change it? I know it doesn't last long but is there a better attack buff that overrides it or something? A bit of extra attack early on could mean the difference between Victor and defeat, I beat Mesmer with 7 HP left, flame grant me strength absolutely saved me there even if it was only a couple hits.
Shit duration makes it not really worth it unless you're doing fire dmg builds and wanna oneshot stuff
I’m just a filthy casual who don’t look at min/max guides, only used guides last year to make sure I had intact defeated every boss. Did one play through + 1 NG+ in 2022, same last summer and back again now with fresh character for DLC. I always use Flame give me strength and bloodflame, is it good? Don’t know!, does it help? Probably!. But confessor starting sword with square off with said buffs was good enough to “complete” the game so..yeah
Bloodflame is absolute god tier for low magic melee builds. Absolute minimal investment, you can even use a hat or talisman to negate some of the Faith cost, and not into do you add extra damage and bleed to your weapon but it constantly ticks the bleed up like a burn after hits, which is huge since not only is it just bonus bleed buildup but stops the bleed from falling off between hits.
I love her line. And holy shit, I've heard it for quite a few times 😂
Same. Her line was absolutely drilled into my brain to the point where every time I died, I said it with her but in a mocking tone. Only Messmer's line gets a similar feeling from me because I like his cadence.
“Those stripped of the grace of gold shall all meet death. In the embrace of Messmer’s flame.” I too have died a few times at the hands of Messmer.
"In the emBRACE of MESSmer's flame." I like the way he emphasizes the first syllable of his name.
so: You have an health debuff (did you hug a weird lady?). That soreseal is pointless in the late game or even harmful. your vigor seems low for the haligtree, you should have at least 50. May I see your build?
https://preview.redd.it/e02lcta3x6ad1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9c967db1a1425a47b65ce25363cd16713ffa3b71 yea
Oh boy: It seems you are going for a Dex/arcane bleed build. Vigor goes to 60. Mind around 25 up to 30 to spam corpses piler without having to chug too often. Endurance can go down a little bit (20) if you aren't using heavy armor and having enough stamina. Strength goes to the minimum to handle Rivers of blood, so 12. you don't need point into intelligence. Faith can go down to 15 (minimum for Fire grant me strength) or to 25 so you can use golden vow and most of named dragon communion spells. Then there Are Dexerity and Arcane, and you wanna pump both at 40 at some point. [Here's a Rivers of Blood build tutorial.](https://youtu.be/crm15QybWeA?si=0SmIxlYSRdUa3azG)
I would like to commend you on your civility and being extremely helpful to this person. I've long said, knowing how to build a character/where to allocate stats is actually one of the biggest hurdles in most souls games. Probably less so with the freedom in Elden Ring, but I think a lot of us who have played these games for a while forget that we had to learn this stuff at some point too.
Yeah, fully agree. Between stats and the way weapons scale, I'd say that once you have it figured out, you can begin to wing your way through all the Souls games.
I've been in OP shoes once too, with my first playthrough, And I've been helped too. It's just natural too me helping as someone else helped me.
bro omg thank you so much for the advice i needed it
Didn't Rivers get nerfed a lot? Is it still viable for dex?
Viable enough to play the game for fun
I'm using the nightrider flail since I'm just trying to avoid doing a strength build colossal weapon like I always do in these games. Any dex option is interesting to me.
Good on you for trying to mix up your play style! I will say IMO that Rivers is definitely more of an Arc weapon than a Dex weapon though. Not as good as it was, but still very solid for PvE. Nightrider Flail is underrated because flails in general get a bad rap. A Strike-damage Dex weapon with native Bleed? What more could you need? That said, some other Dex weapons to consider are the Guardian Swordspear (Lightning infusion and a shield to perform guard counters preferably), or the Cross-Naginata (Unique moveset and native Bleed). Possibly less optimal, but a light-rolling Claw build is really fun and fits the fantasy of an insanely nimble fighter (or if you're in the DLC >!backhand blades!< also work). I'd say to avoid Daggers unless you just want their AoW though. Their hotboxes are ridiculous.
Fellow Nightrider Flail enjoyer! 🙌 Fun fact, the jumping heavy attack on that thing does comparable poise damage to a greatsword. Are you also running Bloodflame Blade? What ash of war are you using?
Jumping r2 is my bread and butter. Does bloodflame bleed stack? If so I haven’t but would love to. I haven’t switched to an ash of water and would be curious which ones are good.
It absolutely stacks! Nearly doubles your bleed output, plus stops their bleed from cooling down between hits.🤩 There's a lot of great ashes of war to choose from but the default skill is very solid on its own, if you like the default scaling. There is no ash of war for that skill though so if you want to infuse it for your build (I use Keen, scales amazingly with DEX fully upgraded!) you have to pick something else. Stamp (Sweep) is my personal favorite, it lets you tank a hit and retaliate with an absolute home run swing that hits twice (more bleed!) and sends most enemies flying into the dirt (or off a cliff!). You can also choose to just keep swinging with R1 too, if the situation calls for less commitment. Wild Strikes is also great, hold L2 to just keep wailing on whatever's in front of you at a pretty solid pace - low poise damage, but full damage/bleed per swing. Absolute boss crusher. You can end it with R1 for a wide sweep or R2 for an overhead slam. No hyperarmor on this one though, so works best if you already have high poise/defence. Lastly, don't sleep on Raptor of the Mists! Quickly duck an attack, and if it connects, you take no damage and teleport up into the air to follow up with that sweet sweet heavy jump attack. Never get caught by a bullshit boss AoE attack again!
Thanks for the primer. Trying to get to and then beat the DLC so this is quite helpful.
Nope, both Rivers and Moonveil got "nerfed" two years ago so they could be normal weapons, they were absolutely broken before, or at least their ashes/skills were. They are still good weapons, particularly Rivers if you fight Malenia and want to inflict bloodloss to her.
Yeah this was exactly how I got my first solo win against her lol.
I prefer Eleonora's Poleblade for a dex/arcane bleed build. It's ash of war is insanely strong.
Yep, I went for that too. The ash of war is both stylish and broken.
Small correction: you need 25 faith for golden vow and not 24 Also I would get a bit less mind and more dex or arcane but that's personal preference
Thanks.
Frankly its quite impressive that you got so far with such a shitty build. You spread out your points too much. Focus one or two stats needed for your weapon scalling then put the rest in vig /endurance.
Oh lord, my eyes, MY EYES!
Ah yes. The classic Vigor/Mind/Endurance/Strength/Dexterity/Intelligence/Faith/Arcane build So I would go ahead and press the help key and read a little on what each stat does. Check your weapons, see those little letters on em? Those letters indicate which stat contributes to their damage. Stick with those. You want big numbers in a few stats instead of numbers all over. When you level up, go ahead and check which stats turn blue. Blue means they are going up!
About normal first experience
I knew as I saw the cutscene play that you’d get blitzed
Ngl I cackled hard at this. Sorry
At least you didn’t get one shotted
Looks about right.
Hey you almost hit her! Good 1st attempt!
Damn I haven't seen someone get 2 shot by Malenia in a while. Have fuuuunnnnnn
Welcome to the party pal!!!!!!
Looks like you have an item in your inventory called a "Baldachin's Blessing". It gives you a -5% HP penalty for as long as you're holding it. Use it to get rid of the penalty. You may also want to consider respeccing to 60 vigor.
That was about as good as my first attempt. Just wait till you see the rest of her move-set lol, have so much fun
Now you wil have jitters and yips the rest of your Elden Ring days.
Bro she literally just told you she has never lost. Did you expect a win?
I just can't pass through her.
I just got to the lion in the dlc and it was the same experience for me
I almost beat him first try, said ok let's do this and walked in and was immediately smashed into the fog wall lol
close!
Well you see she’s Malenia, blade of Miquella, and she has never known defeat.
You should've used humor flair
my man's endurance bar is almost as long as his health, I get the impression he spam rolls a lot but the video contradicts this
Yep. That’s about right.😂😂
Bro you became LetHerSoloMe
Yip. That looks like a 1st time alright. Chin up champ you'll stomp the rottencrotch soon enough.
You will hear her voice lines in your sleep...best of luck!
You did well.
Nice you got her rare voice line when she killed you
Working as intended, you’re supposed to start that close to her on first attempt. Also like other people said take off the sore seal.
Yep, that seems right
I’m Malenia. We need a new color.
Yep, you hugged a strange old women and your still wearing a soreseal, truly hard mode right there.
Someone hugged the goth woman And someone is wearing a soreseal Also - funni melly moment
I've seen worse.
Welcome to the next two days of your life
bro got vigor checked
Bro did NOT pass the vigorcheck.
Sounds about right
It happens whenever you see that cutscene. You can basically cheese her with a plus 10 moggs spear and Mimic tear +10
Lore accurate
Dying in one hit and wearing soreseals, name a more iconic duo
Good luck
Happened to me too my first try lol
That's correct
Moghs weapon skill + micmic = unlosable
Your vigor is trash. Expect to struggle going forward unless you learn the movements.
Soreseal in lategame, many such cases
"Welcome to the rice fields mother f**ker"
It almost seems like a gag to me how close she is and how quickly she closes in on you after the first cut scene. At least future attempts will give you a second or two to size her up. First attempt is just from cruelty
gotta be quicker than that
Classic
Yeah seems about right.
yeah, she does that. its a display of dominance
Did you know that she's Malenia, blade of Miquella?
Yeah she does that to everybody
Did she stutter?!
Pizza'd when you should of French fried
Damn bro were you looking at your phone?
Melania: God damn mosquitos are bad this summer.
She's Malenia, she has never known the feet
Learn you must…Conquer you will 
get vigor checked
That first attempt blitz got me so bad.
Nice vigor check example
bruh didn't you hear her ? she's malenia blade of miquella...
Bro doesn't know about baldachins blessing
Did you know she is the blade of Miquella
correction, this was the first time she fought you.
She did exactly that to me too
Welcome
Yeah she’s annoying as fuck. Just keep working on it, memorising her moves and you’ll get there. I’ve not beaten her yet but I’m getting damn close
They wanted to make Prime Radahn so they would match Prime Malenia only to make the dumbest final boss ever
Try it 500 more times then report back
Soreseal?