different shields have different parry windows right? i’m trying with the shield that the first merchant sells you but fuck me i’m getting my ass handed to me
But that’s the beauty of it…you have a lot of tools in your disposal to overcome the challenges, it’s your call on how to use them IF you want to use them in the first place. Some people enjoy the extra challenge, some others enjoy playing co-op, some others want to wreck stuff with magic. I don’t see why anyone should be upset about other players using the various systems of the game. 
That being said what are your characters look like stats wise? I am going with quality build, 40 lvl (or what the soft cap is) on both str and dex and upping the others so I can use some buffs on my weapons. Also used my shortbow more yesterday in some combat encounters and it’s so much fun, bows feel legit awesome now! Combat is so fuckin’ good! 
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Put me in the camp that prefers to defeat bosses solo with no summons or ashes of war, BUT! I give myself complete permission to cheese the hell out of them if they’re cheesable. I just defeated a boss by luring him out of his arena into the open world, riding around on my horse and spamming magic missiles.
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This game is hard enough without putting artificial restrictions on what you can and cannot do. I’m sure as hell going to use every legit game mechanic I can to my advantage, certainly fair given instant respawns of enemies you’ve already killed a million times when you want to save the game.
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I honestly think Torrent is more op than any summon lol.
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I’m debating starting over with a different character. Astrologer, aside from having Glistening Pebble, feels like a very constrained class at the moment. I’m underleveled for all of the weapons I’ve come across, can’t wield a crossbow (only a short bow at this point), and I’m seriously having to rely on timing and i-frames to avoid taking damage.
I wanted to try the mage-like class first, but I feel like I’d be better served running some sort of tanky melee class. Anyone want to share their opinions about the class they started with?
Ha, I think you’re right.
Mostly I like to be in control of how a boss fight plays out, and get to experience all the different attacks and animations a bunch of times and appreciate the work that went into it all, and I worry that summoning other players or even NPCs will end the fight before I’ve had a chance to even get to grips with it. I certainly have no objections to others taking a different approach.
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lol definitely, just coming off of Sekiro where there were very few cheese tactics available outside firecracker spam felt a bit different.
And regarding character, I’m doing a mix of str and dex as well, realized a dozen hours into the game as a samurai start that I love the greatsword just as much as the katana lmao, and good for me, the Bloodhound Curved Greatsword is fire as hell, scales with both dex and str, got a guard counter boost talisman for it, also has a dope ash of war which costs almost nothing to use that has great damage and also creates distance immediately.
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So checking back in near 20 hours later, and the performance seems to be… good? It’s not a rock solid 60 and I do feel it drop every once in a while, but it’s nowhere near as bad as say Bloodborne and it still feels leagues ahead of Dark Souls 3’s locked 30.
This is on the Series X.
I eat sleep drink ER. This game has consumed my life. Not since BOTW has a game done thia
I sort of understand the review scores. A game like this goes above and beyond. And its spectacular. Starfield got its work cut out.
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I started out with Prophet but I feel like im not doing enough damage. I liked Herald and using spears in DS3 which is why I picked it but I think I should have went Confessor since I like to melee while using Incantations for utility.
I don’t wanna abandon the class yet so i’ll tough it out for a little longer. I managed to get Margit’s health down to 1/4th.
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I was exploring a huge area, fell down a hole to my death but my body landed…somewhere. Guess I’ve got a LOT more to explore.
Grind levels and raise your INT to at least 20, there are also ways to very easily strengthen the Astrologer class early on.
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These folks got a game they’ll be playing for the next 8 years now lol.
Now I still have plenty of game left to play. I’m about 30+ hours in. I’ve beaten well over 15 bosses including 2 elder shard bosses. I have a few takeaways
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I think this is one of the easier Souls games due to the variety in different ways you can beat areas/bosses for Souls veterans specifically.
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New players who have never touched Souls games I think will be overwhelmed and quit early. The game is unapologetic about letting you, the player, figure out your next goal/objective. Some newbies will find that frustrating and might end up hard stuck without a guiding hand which we know Miyazaki will never do.
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Elden Ring will have the highest incompletion% out of all From Software games
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I stayed up way too late playing last night. Almost to double digit bosses being down. Part of me feels like I’ve been missing out on From Soft games but I think the reason it’s clicking is because I can go do all these side bosses to level up and it doesn’t feel like a grind. I should really lay down for a bit before work tonight but I really want to play some more 
Elden Ring almost feels like two seperate games at times. You have the open world, exploration and mount combat based game. And then you hit a dungeon, or a castle, and it’s full on Dark Souls again. And then there are times where it goes and mixes the two almost perfectly.
Imo, if you enjoyed the castle/dungeon segments, then you’d enjoy the Souls games too. I always say, the hardest Souls game is your first one.
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Well i finally managed to kill the Tree Sentinel, but fuck the RuneBear though. Holy shit!
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Is the Rune Bear a named boss btw? And if so, is it in the first area, Linegrave East?
There is a Section by Agheel lake South where it will literally materialize when you take out an undead and ruin your day fast. Caught me way off guard the first time but there should be a warning near where the undead is standing.
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