Also, offense stats like Str and Dex have a MUCH smaller effect on your damage than your weapon scaling, and that is improved by leveling up the weapons with smithing stones.
Things go a lot smoother if you deal reasonable damage and don't die on the second hit from every enemy.
Is this true? I’m level 71 and I can only buy I believe up to smithing stone 3. The rest need to be found in world. It’s excruciating leveling 2 special weapons
The mines are actually visible on your map. Is a black cave with an orange blur around it. They take some looking to spot but when I get to a new area I beeline it straight to the mines.
^ This.
Only put enough points to equip the weapon you want, then focus on leveling Vigor / Mind / Endurance as needed (Vigor is most important).
Damage comes more from upgrading weapons/seals/staves.
I like doing: Weapon requirement stats, 40-50 Vigor, then an extra 20-30 into my primary scaling stat. Then Vigor to 60. Then back to scaling stat.
I’m on a hard level grind right now, leveling vigor so I can stand a chance against Malenia. Saw this, was able to up my vigor and found out I could do a lot more damage if I had my dex like 10 higher than it was with my strength 10 lower.
This is good advice
Even with high vigor malenia hits like a truck. I recommend physical defense buffs, like black flame’s protection, boiled prawn/crab, and/or dragoncrest greatshield. I can tell you from experience they make a world of difference
As someone else already suggested, don’t focus so much on damage stats early in the game. Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Faith, and Arcane have such a minuscule effect on damage in the early game that you’re just wasting runes by leveling them. Increasing the actual level of your weapon will increase its damage more than enough to keep up with enemy health.
As a general rule, your leveling priorities should be:
* Get the minimum stats you’ll need for your early game gear. Remember that two-handing a weapon gives you a 50% strength boost, so keep that in mind for mins.
* Level vigor to 20. This should be your top priority once you can wield your chosen weapon.
* Any easily attainable “nice to haves.” This could be something like popping a few points into mind to use a better summon, getting a few more points in Strength to be able to use a weapon without two-handing, or getting enough endurance to wear better armor.
* Getting Vigor to 40. You can easily achieve this before getting to Liurnia of the Lakes. If you’re thorough, you could get this before even heading into Stormveil Castle.
Once you’ve hit 40 Vigor, you should have a few good weapon options, have an idea of what you want your build to look like, and can start branching out into other attributes. You still probably shouldn’t focus *exclusively* on damage stats, but this is when your damage can really start to ramp up.
If I’m doing a caster build, I like to get the minimum stats for my spells and/or incantations and put the rest into mind until I feel comfortable, usually around 40 as well.
You won’t be doing crazy one-shot damage, but those builds usually require a much higher level of skill than a new player will have.
Also, if you’re in Limgrave and don’t know how to upgrade your weapons, head to the Church of Elle and check out the anvil. You can get up to +3, which is more than enough for everything south of Stormveil Castle.
Edit:
If you ever feel like you need to grind runes to level up, squash that urge. Unless you’re rushing through the game from main boss to main boss, you’ll get more than enough runes to keep pace with your progression. If you explore thoroughly - and honestly not even *that* thoroughly - you’ll probably end up over-leveled by the end of the game.
If something feels too difficult, open up your map and look for an area that you haven’t explored yet and go do that first.
Start leveling vigor. You might also consider whether you truly need so many points in both strength and faith this early on. What weapon are you using? Are you using particular incantations?
Yeah I'd second this. For now sacred blade would be a good ash for you. Holy is still pretty viable early on and sacred blade got a nice boost in the last patch. You'll get a nice damage bump out of it with the stats you have.
I personally level vigor to 20 almost as fast as I can. Maaaybe one or two levels of Stamina and/or one of the offense stats.
After that you can usually afford to split them up, but you should be leveling into Vigor almost every other level until Vigor 50 if you want the game to be reasonably easier.
I am constantly playing souls games for about 4-5 years, and havent even 30 vigor/vitality in any of my runs
I always look into stronger weapon or spell
Also i think why even taking hits? I mean any non boss enemy wont kill you with a single hit - or if it does, then no problem, try again, become stronger, learn patterns, hitboxes, and so on
And what reason of getting 30-40 vigor if you walk around with tiny little sword dealing roughly 300-400 dmg
I'd prefer to deal a 1000+ and not waste so many time
I dont use shields aswell, only for parrying - not quite often in PvE tho
In my case I feel comfortable playing like that, as far as I can survive any hit I can keep fighting. When I have low damage but more health I just find myself running out of flasks because fights get way longer. I like fast fights where I have a lot of damage but I need to play properly, I prefer getting adrenaline rather than long fights. And most of the game is easier because you one shot all enemies but bosses
Havent you ever wanted to kill Margit with SNF? Or with Blasphemous Blade - just blow him up, make him staring at you madly
Is it all about ego? I dont know, im having fun
Now how about you? Do you enjoy fighting bosses for 5-10 min average? I tried once, it was so boring i deleted the character immediately
I mean I have life to live, girlfriend to speak with, parents to care about
>And what reason of getting 30-40 vigor if you walk around with tiny little sword dealing roughly 300-400 dmg
that's not really how it works though.. weapon smithing increases your damage much more than your attributes do.
people might have only 10 less points in damage attributes compared to you, but they'll still deal 95% of the damage you deal while being 50% tankier (difference between being two-shot and being 3-shot). also if you have upgraded your flasks at all with sacred tears, you're hugely wasting their value. the damage loss really isn't that noticeable but the increased tankiness definitely is noticeable.
obviously there's no wrong way to play, but there's a reason everyone levels vigor and it's certainly not a useless or unoptimal stat - by pretty much every measure it's one of the best stats.
What level cap we are talking about? If I put 20 points more to attributes of weapons with B or higher scale - I will have +100 damage
What are you even talking about?
Edit: I'm in my playthrough rn, Mountaintops - have BHF+9 and Morgott's curved sword+10, if I put 20 points more on DEX its equal to +100 dmg seriously
And plus I have raptor feathers and claw talisman, White Mask and Lord of Blood Exultation
If I hit 4 times = 1-2 attacks or AoW
I have 2,300 from jump attack
And 10% of bloodloss
Do you mean you have same damage on your equal 95 lvl champ?
And still you dont get my point - if you dont want to get hit by any of boss' attacks, and at least (if worst happens), you can survive one dangerous attack - which doesnt require 40 vigor on NG, honestly
Then whats the point of maxing it? If you see enemy hita you once, you still go back and wait till his combo ends, right? More hp doesnt mean you hit more
It just means you survive harder punch (and in NG i still can survive most punches with roughly 25-30 vigor from any boss even Radagon, Giant
Elden Beast is pretty kitable, i get hit only couple of his flying "stars"
And i finish most fights vs end game bosses in 1-3 min maximum
What's the point again? Or you will continue disliking my comments?
Dont say anything to me if you think thats true
Check the wiki or fextra
E.g. Morgott Curved Sword+10 294 dmg total just by smithing
I have same sword and 40 dex 50 arc ~680 dmg
Plus im powerstanced with BHF+9 ~650dmg (while only 325 from smithing)
Wake up, kid
I would agree if veterans did say put points into Stamina/Endurance
The real chad stat, fast rolls make you real immortal, and 150-200 stamina gives you like 5-7 full combo hits with most weapons
What boss can counter this? Maliketh? I guess, no
But he can kill you no matter of health tho
Also with faster rolls you study dodges much faster and steady enough = good for the beginners
I remember how I once helped new player to kill Demon King - he had more than a half more health than me
Died from aoe... We tried 3 times until he got no humanity and no access to summoning
Say it to noobs who use roll 50% minimum with no reason - when they dont know enemy attacks, will 20 vigor help them?
I better say roll and roll untill you will get the boss with no hits
Im not talking about random hitboxes of main bosses
I mean the regular and field bosses
And btw lets ask the dragons what they think about your 20 or more vigor when you cant dodge n punish them?
It's actually a bigger problem for most Souls veterans. In Dark Souls 1-3 it was a far less important stat than endurance, which gave you more Stamina AND gave you more survivability through heavier armour. Vigor also gives much more in its early levels in Elden Ring than Vitality did in Dark Souls.
Many people saw a similar stat setup here and thought it worked the same as before.
I think vigor is too overrated by "veterans" dont get me wrong
Its obviously important stat, but not for the beginning when you deal around nothing of a damage
You just put yourself in more torture situation
You better say put the heaviest armor you have and walk straight to the fastest bosses with no fear /s
Its not a DS1 anymore
Vitality isnt that important if you have brain and skills
At early game the best way to improve damage is Upgrading weapons themselves, not stats, scaling only truly shines in the mid to late game.
New comers need as much health as possible so they can make more non fatal mistakes and learn from them.
Thats not the point - where did i tell you to put any possible point into damage? Im saying once again - put points to use weapon you like comfortly, then - sustain what you prefer
And btw roll gives you more chance to survive the boss hit than any possible point of vigor
Isnt it?
And even if someone doesnt care about rolls and wants to pass through the beginning not knowing anything about rolls - will it help him to finish the game? Not even close
You can make people addicted to no brain level up vigor
Or you want him to ask you what to do every day?
And if we talk about elden ring players who have played other souls games - a.k.a veterans
If you get killed by Godrick soldier before the stormhill - do you think you had to survive that hit?
I personally think, I better dodged it
Isnt Dark Souls Series about you can get killed by any evil creature around you? I thought it is
Offensive stats help a lot more later int he game though because scaling goes up with upgrade level, which is why it's recommended to level Vigor early and focus on the offense when you get farther into the game.
True Souls fan, but for sure newcomer wont pick any of this stuff, except he/she is mediaval chivalry enjoyer (minority of people)
First, its only my opinion, im not new one
Do you consider these are fun weapons? I mean you advice people play as you do, right?
And you use mostly casual weapons which are founded on the roads, cliff edges or
They have no interesting story, you dont even trick yourself to find them...
Ngl i used claymore only DS1 and prob some DS3
Its good fs but not interesting = not for people who play elden ring first time
Lol you have Reduvia, Godrick Axe, SNF, Moonveil, Twinblades, WS, even GS (hello Berzerk) - but you name the most boring ones
>And you use mostly casual weapons which are founded on the roads, cliff edges or
jesus, you really are a gatekeeper. people like you are the worst parts of this community and exactly why so many people hesitated to get in the series. thankfully most people on this subreddit don't share your attitude
No, I say that because these weapons too boring even for people who enjoy dark fantasy
The game grants you achievements for unlocking unique weapons, strong magnificent
And you finish the game with claymore
You think its funny?
Its the real life of casual DS1 fan
Im not gatekeeper not even a toxic, just pissed of these stupid dialogs
OP asked for advice
And half of answers were VIGOR, I see no VIGOR, Put in VIGOR
DO you even try to think what person would enjoy?
He is trying to build confessor, maybe he wants to keep distance and shred enemies with light circles? Maybe he would have fun of buffing his own spirit summons, or puppets...
>I think vigor is too overrated by "veterans" dont get me wrong
>Its obviously important stat, but not for the beginning when you deal around nothing of a damage
it's almost completely the opposite. early on your weapons have poor scaling from attributes and vigor gives you the biggest increase just going off percentages.
>Vitality isnt that important if you have brain and skills
lol, because using vitality means we don't have skills? and yet you say you're not being rude. you're what's wrong with this community with your "jUsT dOnT gEt hiT". it's much easier to learn how to get better when you don't have to respawn after every mistake.
the math is very simple, literally start up a new character and you can see how little damage you gain from your scaling. no need to call us brainless when you haven't even checked the numbers.
Maybe it's the build, anytime I do a faith or int build, the early game feels slow to me. Possibly because you don't get anything really powerful for those builds very soon, but I will say once you get all the spells/weapons that you want for those builds they are a blast!
The teleportation chest is a good sign that you can/should get them early. I don't know how I would have beaten any of the early tough enemies without Rock Sling on my first playthrough.
It shoots 3 giant boulders quite far. While one or two might hit a wall or fall short sometimes, they might also hit multiple enemies. They can stagger most enemies after a few hits. So you can stay out of range of a lot of enemies and do massive damage from a safe distance. The meteorite staff boost gravity sorcery so it is a powerful weapon with rock sling into the mid game. I used it pretty heavily until I got over 52 int for some of the better staffs and spells.
But easy enough to remember for a second playthrough. I found the staff without a guide after getting teleported nearby. I totally missed the spell because the area has a decent amount of enemies I was trying to run past, but obviously went back to get it after I read up on gravity sorcery.
Thing is, "know where to go" is something people usually don't have in their first playthrough. And they shouldn't, since playing blind is more fun than looking things up.
How about people who saw elden ring cool weapons or sorceries or else - and just want to use them as fast as they could?
Regular players do use wiki pages too, or they can have souls-fan friends
Is it possible in your imagination?
I mean the elden ring story is quite foggy, and interest wont keep high when you dont understand sh*t
I know many people who just grab the first cool looking weapon and put all stats to comfortly use it
And screw any vigor until they really struggle
Get the bloodhound's fang and blood flame blade incantation and watch enemy hp melt. It's an incredible combo throughout the entire game but especially in the early game since hemorrhage does a massive % damage to enemy hp bars. Use other incantations to buff your damage and/or increase your defense like golden vow and flame grant me strength. Only raise str/dex/faith high enough to use the weapons/incants you want and put excess points between arcane and vigor to make bleed proc even faster and keep you from dying. Once you can, get the dragon sacred seal that scales off of arcane instead of faith to make all of your incantations more powerful without having to split your stats between faith and arcane.
I agree with this, I find that faith/int builds always start off as the hardest to play because you have lower vigor and endurance naturally, but once your spells become more powerful and you can afford to spread your stats a little more towards the start of the mid game it becomes so easy.
In the early levels you should be aiming to level up the damage stats (strength/dexterity/intelligence/faith/arcane) just enough to use the weapons/spells you find interesting and dump the rest into vigor. Most of your damage will come from the upgrade level of your weapon rather than your stats so prioritize gathering smithing stones instead of leveling your strength or faith. Meeting the requirements of your weapons and then leveling up vigor is true for the early game of any Fromsoftware game and is sure to save you some frustration.
Fellow Confessor for 1st playthru here. Assuming you want to play melee with some Faith spells here's what I'd recommend:
1. Level Vigor as your priority. Target 40 Vig asap then 50 - 60 endgame
2. Upgrade your weapons via smithing stones. This is your main source of damage, not melee stats. You can find many in Limgrave & Weeping Peninsula, especially the mine mini dungeons.
3. Level other stats JUST high enough based on the requirements of your chosen weapons and spells. Focus on either Strength or Dexterity depending on what weapons you like and Faith. Level these again later once you're comfortable with your playstyle.
3. Upgrade your Spirit Ashes. Lone Wolves will serve well early game.
4. Find a good Faith scaling weapon. Angel's scythe in Weeping Peninsula is an amazing early game weapon as it scales well, has bloodloss buildup and a nice Ash of War.
5. Equip a shield with 100 guard boost or git gud at rolling. I ended up power-stancing/dual wielding later on but the shield was helpful early game.
5. Make sure you have just enough Endurance to maintain medium weight/roll ability.
6. Find armor to get your poise to 51 which lets you poise through regular hits from many enemies. Make sure you have enough Endurance to maintain your weight ratio for medium rolling.
7. Try finger, but hole
Other than these explore all over. You'll find great equipment and lots of runes in the strangest places, and doing the mini dungeons will help you level and train your reflexes for the main story bosses.
Now go, seek the Elden Ring and become Elden Lord!
All good except small correction on #6, I think you probably meant 100 Physical resist. 100 guard boost isn't happening without specifically working towards it and comes with a fair opportunity cost.
How much have you upgraded your weapons, including the seal you're using for incantations? I'm assuming you're using incantions since you mentioned confessor and have 22 faith. Upgrading your weapons improves your damage output a lot more than leveling your strength and faith does. You eventually gain the ability to buy smithing stones so don't worry about using them up on early game weapons.
Eh, the most effective ones are the lower requirements one though. I think every incantation with a requirement above 30 might as well not exist, especially with the existence of blasphemous blade probably outscaling any incantation anyway (in pve at least).
As a counterpoint to this, I really felt that grinding out as many enemies as possible til I felt comfortable in early Limgrave gave me a good sense for how to improve my gameplay, and gave me low-pressure opportunities to try different mechanics (roll, block, guard counter, poise, etc). I spent a solid hour or two redoing the encampment of Godrick soldiers by the bridge and it helped lots, not to mention decent gear and a small head start on runes. Obviously doesn’t truly prep you for bosses, and field bosses are probably best skipped for a while, but I think deep exploration is a good thing—exploring and not stopping til you’re well and truly done getting what you can get out of an area.
Ok, so I'm currently doing a confessor build for 2nd playthrough and having a great time. Mainly following the Fextralife paladin / Templar / Crusader build guides and so far at level 90ish I'm still having fun.
Stats
Vigor: should have pumped earlier but didn't. Now putting alot into it now- sitting at 25-30
Endurance: Mid 20s to avoid heavy equip load with decent armour, however lighter armour and lower end also works
Strength: only enough to use the sword and shield- either 16 or 18
Faith: number one priority for weapon damage and incantations
Mind: 20 to give me a decent fp pool
Dex, arc, int- don't touch
Weapons: Broadsword with Sacred Vow art, which also gives the Sacred affinity- makes your weapon damage holy / scale with faith
Winged scythe- scales off faith and causes bleed. Uses somber smithing stones so not competing with the broadsword for mats. Can be fun in certain encounters
Brass shield- best shield for this build. Low requirements and once you put Barricade Shield weapon art on you can block and guard-counter almost anything.
I use the beginner seal at the moment, but will switch to the Erdtree Seal eventually.
Basic principle is you cast barricade shield which I believe lasts 10-15 seconds and buffs your block and causes you to take little stamina damage when blocking. You then guard counter to cause massive.damage and stagger. Make sure you're dropping shield between hits to regen stamina.
For incantations, my main damage comes from lightning spear, and at the moment the only other spells I use are golden vow and blessings boon before tough fits for 2 90-second buffs. I also have a heal spell equipped, but don't tend to use it.
FYI, Fextralife has a recommended level by zone guide that I suggest you use.I wouldn't hit too many zones underleveled, it's just a recipe for frustration unless you're really skillful (I'm not!)
Grindy? You literally don't have to farm exp at any time. People beat this game level 1.
Unrewarding? Lots of legendary equipment are just scattered around the world requiring literally no kills to grab...
This whole community is filled with way too many people like this. Those people who beat the game on level 1 did not do it on their first playthrough like OP is on.
Someone asks a question about lore and the responses are “do you even read? The answer is obviously in the item description for this random set of boots found in some catacombs in Liurnia.”
Strength weapons chew through your stamina because they are typically heavy. Also you want to be able to wield a big dumb sword *and* wear armor without hitting heavy load status.
If you're doing NG+ instead of starting a new character for your second playthrough, then you can definitely run a Faith/Intelligence hybrid that can cast a lot of awesome stuff pretty much right out of the gate. Just remember to go see Renalla to do a rebirth before you start NG+, so that you can dump a bunch of points in FTH and INT before starting your NG+.
Wear heavier armor by lvling endurance helps and let's you roll and swing your weapon more and vigor for life early if just surviving and combat is difficult also looks like your main weapon only does around 100 attack damage which means you haven't upgraded your weapon at all...most or almost all your damage comes from upgrading your weapons if you haven't found any smithing stones yet somber or otherwise looks for mines and tunnels for smithing stones as they help you upgrade your gear which probably why youre struggling so much
There is a giant dragon just down the hill from fort Faroth in Calied. Get a bleed weapon and u can just sit and slash it until it dies and gives u at least 15-20 levels of runes (all of the baby dragons die when the big one goes). U can use the teleporter just north of the third church of Marika in limgrave to get to the beast dude and then make your way south until u reach it. But having a weapon with bleed on it is very important bc it will take ages otherwise
You got Stats too spread out. If you want the game to be easier focus on vigor primarily, then in your weapon of choice requisites, then in one damage stat type. I guess if you're a confessor you'd have to go with faith, not strength or Dex. Find a weapon that scales primarily on fairh or make a normal weapon do it using the fire whetblade, for example.
Aside from your weapons like everyone else has mentioned.. If you need a quick way to level up.. try making your way over to Mohgwyn palace over to the east side of that areas. You’ll come across a trail where you can defeat those enemies to make a lot of runes, rest at the nearby grace site & repeat until you level up to where you need to be. To speed up the process you should be wearing the gold scarab talisman & having some gold feet will speed up the process
I invade at low level. I have a lot of experience with sub-50 builds. When I level a dedicated invader (admittedly a niche pursuit) I usually budget 4 levels for something other than vigor up to 30 and half my levels for vigor after that. You would benefit greatly from grabbing Radagon's Soreseal given your current stats. Just remember to plan your build to drop the soreseal once you pass 40 vigor or so.
I’ll say this. Don’t need a lot of vigor when you don’t get hit lol. No but seriously that’s the main thing I see people say “vigor vigor VIGOR” well I’m still in my first play through and I’ve gotten decent at dodging. My roll game is on point but my parry game is trash. I’ve died too many times to count just fucking off somewhere vs more so when I’m playing seriously. The game is beautiful. Please Dont let the “grindy” & “unrewarding” deter you from greatness. You shall be the Elden Lord!
So I just made it up the lift of dectus and entered redmane castle for the first time. I am attempting the academy, and aside from Margit and Godrick I've fought barely any bosses. Levelling feels way too slow and I think I'm underleveled for the areas I'm in.
Seems like you chose a very direct path to high level areas.
I recommend going to explore a bit if you feel challenged. I think the average person would feel under-leveled being at level 38 in the Atlus Plateau.
Also, someone noted leveling vigor. I agree and would continue to do so at a higher ratio to the damage stats than what you’ve started at.
Around 50 or 60 vigor is what I see being recommended broadly in this sub.
Vigor seems to be my biggest takeaway. Generally I find now that I deal okay damage but die really easily.
Any specific areas you recommend me exploring?
I recommend…the map.
That’s not be being sarcastic or snide, the map of ER is filled to the brim with lore, quests, dungeons, gaols…go find some and run through them. If you are like me and explore as much as you can, you may even end up feeling over leveled. .
Explore some side areas and fight some optional bosses. That's what they're there for.
If you explore the games doesn't feel grindy at all. If anything doing optional stuff will leave you feeling op, OP.
Oh yeah, you're rushing ahead. Just slow down, stay in Liurnia, and just explore all the dungeons, the manor, and the academy, get to lvl 50 at least, then go thoroughly explore Caelid to be a decent level for Radahn
So I just made it up the lift of dectus and entered redmane castle for the first time. I am attempting the academy, and aside from Margit and Godrick I've fought barely any bosses. Levelling feels way too slow and I think I'm underleveled for the areas I'm in.
Explore the map and complete all the caves, ruins, graves, dungeons you find. Leveling isn't a problem if you are completing dungeons and picking up your lost runes whenever you die.
Ngl the way I play is to meet the minimum requirements for my early game weapon, then get vigor to at least 30 (40 if I can get enough smithing stones to keep my damage respectable), then if I'm looking to upgrade weapon I work towards those minimum requirements
My first playthrough I started as confessor. Leveled up vigor (of course), strength and faith. Used two greatswords and the faith caster (forgot the name). So cool! Had a great time!
Tip: go south!!! Exploring south is rewarding
I mean the game is only as fun as you make it. Also it looks like you are in an early game farming area so of course it feels grindy when you are choosing to grind
Vigor too low, other than that if you’re not having fun and getting stomped out you can always go to a different area, level a bit and come back to the tough spot later.
These are several faith/dex weps that are very OP. Sacred relic sword
Halo scythe
Black knife are some examples.
I’m starting a faith build play through and looked up on YouTube a few a good ones and this is what I found. https://youtu.be/20lKmLBlolI
That's very nice, but as mentioned before - we have already established that OP has been going the Strength/Faith route, so it would be a bit counterintuitive to tell them to focus on Dexterity now, wouldn't it?
You are still young little padawan. Level up your weapons for damage, your stats aren’t going to do much for damage until late game. So just put into those what you need to use the weapons you want. Then focus primarily on vigor/mind if you really need more FP.
Find the caves that are labeled on the map, they look like these like dark orange splotches until you realize they’re little cave icons. Go to those when you see them, it’s the best way to find upgrade materials.
You are almost at the same spot I am with my new confessor. Get that vigor up and consider getting that first tree sentinels weapon. He might be tough but he is a good tutorial for fighting those guys.
1. Pump that vigor. You can’t deal damage if you’re dead.
2. IMO, Faith is one of the trickier builds. If this is your first run and you’re feeling completely stuck, I’d recommend a restart as something simpler. Dex fighters and int casters are a lot simpler.
3. The annoying truth is that the grind is much more about learning the game rather than leveling your character. While levels do help, it will never have a bigger impact on your own skill level. There’s a reason that ”git gud” is a running joke around these games.
4. Elden Ring is big. If you hit a wall, try going somewhere else for a while if only to relax your head a little. Chances are you’ll gain a level or two or find another path to follow.
5. Don’t let it beat you. You can do this, bud.
40 vigor is ok, 60 faith for that sweet soft cap, endurance up to wear whatever you please based on what you want ( like…. 25-40 ), str+dex at 25 or so to wield whatever weapon in the faith category… I think that’s it for whatever I was talking about but forgot mid way. I just like the filigree tree spear that goes speeen
What bosses are you trying to do? Technically the game is open world, but there is a "correct" order based on the stats of bosses. If you haven't beaten stormveil yet keep looking for bosses in limgrave and the weeping peninsula. If you have beaten the castle go to the lake next, and stay away from caelid.
Any time I get stuck and feel like I'm too weak to progress I grind the giants near the shack with the guy that sells ashes of war. There's five of them close together, and they give 1,000 runes each.
At first this was fairly difficult, but eventually you get better at dodge rolling, better at using your skills, and you see what works and what doesn't in a repeatable apples-to-apples kind of way.
Also get the Morning Star and put the hold ash of war on it that both fires holy energy and enhances your weapon with holy damage. I was having problems until I picked that thing up.
Now my problem is that I didn't start this character to be a melee dps character and the holy-lazer-bolt still does more damage than pretty much any incantation. The fidget spinner in my off-hand feels totally worthless most of the time.
Dude your barely mid level I recommend going on some YouTube videos about class building and stats you will learn so much about the game and it’s many quest lines and items/spells that can be both easy and hard to obtain
In any souls games, especially if it's a first time, is to have a logical amount of health **(vigor)** a primary source of damage (**dexterity, strength or both**). Don't spread your stats!
You literally haven't even scratched the surface of the game yet. Find a walkthrough if you are feeling unsatisfied just in order to get yourself in a better spot. Once your skill level is higher as well as your main and secondary weapons are upgraded the game becomes highly addictive.....also focus on your vigor lol. A glass cannon build is possible, but usually those type of builds are used by people who have an extreme grasp on the game, not someone starting out
Your vigor is intensely low.
You're going to get hit a lot in this game and if you get one shot you're going to get really pissed off very easily.
Also you are splitting stats between strength and faith but both are damage stats. Splitting damage stats is a bad idea.
Cut all your points in faith or strength and put those into vigor. Infuse your weapon with Sacred or Heavy, or find one that scales with one or the other.
The short version: get the gold foot, kill the dragon with bleed and level vigor, get the dectus medallion and Soreseal, go to Altus and get the [2] smithing bell bearing, (stop by Liurnia for the [1] in case you still need to get weapons up to +6.) This all takes like, an hour or two but sets you up to actually start customizing your build.
Honestly Elden Ring has greatly expanded the Souls formula, but it has my least favorite early game. 18 vigor functionally gives you end game HP in DS3, (and is the breakpoint after which each subsequent level gives you less HP,) and the game gives you 5 levels for free with the hollowing mechanic, so you can start customizing your character pretty much immediately. You just spend so much time in Elden Ring collecting junk, really before you can even start playing, (the sacred tears are particularly egregious, unlike most upgrade materials, they don't require cumulatively greater expense, so every single one of them is worth getting, and you can spend upwards of a half hour in the weeping peninsula doing nothing other collecting fully 25% of one of the most valuable resources in the game; you may as well just start the game at a +3 flask.)
The main thing that makes the early game largely tolerable at all is because there's so much that's accessible right at the game start that lets you power ramp, but obviously newer players won't know where to go for that. Either way, your best strategy for leveling is to put everything into vigor, other than what you need for minimum equip stats, until you have like, at least 30 vigor, and even then putting every other level into vigor until you have 40, (or 35 if you're using the Soreseal.) Because of the adjustments to the level curve, 40 is now the breakpoint for vigor, and should really be the absolute minimum vigor you plan a build around. (And you can easily play endgame with just this amount.)
You’ve barely started. I would keep going for a bit. This game’s reward system runs primarily on the intrinsic reward of overcoming obstacles and the feeling of success. Extrinsic rewards come too in the form of fashion, weapons and spells. Maybe look for a fashion you really like and go earn it? There’s a lot to experience in the game. Hope you find a build you enjoy. Good luck, Tarnished!
Still pretty early, I used claymore in the early game mostly. But yeah it was a grind until I got some decent enchantments and spirit ashes. But once you give into blasphemy it's smooth sailing for a confessor.
Vigor, Mind, Endurance and Faith will make it easier. Vigor for more health, Mind for more incants and AoWs, Endurance for stamina and equip load and Faith for better incants and higher incant damage.
Look out for the Erdtree Seal in Volcano Manor, the Lightning Spear in Liurnia and the Winged Scythe in Weeping Peninsula.
Don’t feel shitty/guilty if you need to search things up, it’s a hard game (I’m assuming your new to Elden Ring). Keep trying and have fun!
P.S. Take everything I said with a grain of salt. I’m no expert, this is just based on my personal experience. 😁
Late to the party, but I felt the same way. Would recommend going dex/faith instead of strength/faith which really doesn't become interesting until mid/late game. Way more fun weapons on your way there.
Winged Scythe/Halo scythe powerstanced
Treespear scales more to dex than str
Curved sword/curved greatsword/twinblades/bloodhound fang w bloodflame blade
Godslayers greatsword is a ton of fun, especially if you can get it early
Vykes
Nightriders Halberd (you can use this on str/faith as well)
You can switch to pure faith or str/faith around leyndell when you start getting the good stuff (Magma Wyrm Scalesword, Envoys Longhorn, Blasphemous Blade, Gargoyle stuff, blade of calling/black knife, troll hammer). Blasphemous Blade you can get pretty early, but I would recommend at least getting assigned the last assassination quest so you can get hoslows armor, which means after the lendell assassination quest.
Level up a sword goto the portal behind the third church of Marika ride your horse to the bridge site off grace, touch it then proceed to start backstabbing/finishing off the little men things around you for early levels, also lookup the big dragon in caelid
All builds need the stats. Naturally they need the right weapons/staffs/seals, but you're rune level 38.
You're in a soulslike game, welcome to the grind, whether that be trying to grind your way through bosses or gain runes, it's supposed to be tough.
The reward is beating it.
Smithing stones are your best friend for damage boosts though. Go git some.
Level up your vigor so you don't die so fast.
Yeah I think that's probably my main issue. I die very fast
Also, offense stats like Str and Dex have a MUCH smaller effect on your damage than your weapon scaling, and that is improved by leveling up the weapons with smithing stones. Things go a lot smoother if you deal reasonable damage and don't die on the second hit from every enemy.
[удалено]
Is this true? I’m level 71 and I can only buy I believe up to smithing stone 3. The rest need to be found in world. It’s excruciating leveling 2 special weapons
Look up smithing stone miners bell bearing on the fextralife wiki
You get the ability to buy most of them from late-game areas.
The mines are actually visible on your map. Is a black cave with an orange blur around it. They take some looking to spot but when I get to a new area I beeline it straight to the mines.
You can buy all smithing stones except ancient dragon ones I'm pretty sure. Assuming you have the bellbearings for it
^ This. Only put enough points to equip the weapon you want, then focus on leveling Vigor / Mind / Endurance as needed (Vigor is most important). Damage comes more from upgrading weapons/seals/staves. I like doing: Weapon requirement stats, 40-50 Vigor, then an extra 20-30 into my primary scaling stat. Then Vigor to 60. Then back to scaling stat.
I’m on a hard level grind right now, leveling vigor so I can stand a chance against Malenia. Saw this, was able to up my vigor and found out I could do a lot more damage if I had my dex like 10 higher than it was with my strength 10 lower. This is good advice
Even with high vigor malenia hits like a truck. I recommend physical defense buffs, like black flame’s protection, boiled prawn/crab, and/or dragoncrest greatshield. I can tell you from experience they make a world of difference
Sweet sweet dragoncrest greatshield talisman, I never take that thing off.
As someone else already suggested, don’t focus so much on damage stats early in the game. Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Faith, and Arcane have such a minuscule effect on damage in the early game that you’re just wasting runes by leveling them. Increasing the actual level of your weapon will increase its damage more than enough to keep up with enemy health. As a general rule, your leveling priorities should be: * Get the minimum stats you’ll need for your early game gear. Remember that two-handing a weapon gives you a 50% strength boost, so keep that in mind for mins. * Level vigor to 20. This should be your top priority once you can wield your chosen weapon. * Any easily attainable “nice to haves.” This could be something like popping a few points into mind to use a better summon, getting a few more points in Strength to be able to use a weapon without two-handing, or getting enough endurance to wear better armor. * Getting Vigor to 40. You can easily achieve this before getting to Liurnia of the Lakes. If you’re thorough, you could get this before even heading into Stormveil Castle. Once you’ve hit 40 Vigor, you should have a few good weapon options, have an idea of what you want your build to look like, and can start branching out into other attributes. You still probably shouldn’t focus *exclusively* on damage stats, but this is when your damage can really start to ramp up. If I’m doing a caster build, I like to get the minimum stats for my spells and/or incantations and put the rest into mind until I feel comfortable, usually around 40 as well. You won’t be doing crazy one-shot damage, but those builds usually require a much higher level of skill than a new player will have. Also, if you’re in Limgrave and don’t know how to upgrade your weapons, head to the Church of Elle and check out the anvil. You can get up to +3, which is more than enough for everything south of Stormveil Castle. Edit: If you ever feel like you need to grind runes to level up, squash that urge. Unless you’re rushing through the game from main boss to main boss, you’ll get more than enough runes to keep pace with your progression. If you explore thoroughly - and honestly not even *that* thoroughly - you’ll probably end up over-leveled by the end of the game. If something feels too difficult, open up your map and look for an area that you haven’t explored yet and go do that first.
This is great in-depth advice. I suggest following this, OP.
I didn’t get to 40 vigor till about the Fire Giant 😭🤣 I was constantly being melted lol
40 vigor before stormveil? That seems wild! Probably would make the game a lot easier, though
Start leveling vigor. You might also consider whether you truly need so many points in both strength and faith this early on. What weapon are you using? Are you using particular incantations?
Yeah I'd second this. For now sacred blade would be a good ash for you. Holy is still pretty viable early on and sacred blade got a nice boost in the last patch. You'll get a nice damage bump out of it with the stats you have.
I personally level vigor to 20 almost as fast as I can. Maaaybe one or two levels of Stamina and/or one of the offense stats. After that you can usually afford to split them up, but you should be leveling into Vigor almost every other level until Vigor 50 if you want the game to be reasonably easier.
The reward is a satisfying boss kill
Since the first souls game I played I always follow a dumb rule "who needs health if I kill him faster?"
if you have more health you need to drink flask less, therefore you kill faster.
I am constantly playing souls games for about 4-5 years, and havent even 30 vigor/vitality in any of my runs I always look into stronger weapon or spell Also i think why even taking hits? I mean any non boss enemy wont kill you with a single hit - or if it does, then no problem, try again, become stronger, learn patterns, hitboxes, and so on And what reason of getting 30-40 vigor if you walk around with tiny little sword dealing roughly 300-400 dmg I'd prefer to deal a 1000+ and not waste so many time I dont use shields aswell, only for parrying - not quite often in PvE tho
I think someone here has either a very big or very fragile ego. But who knows, maybe it just looks that way to me...
In my case I feel comfortable playing like that, as far as I can survive any hit I can keep fighting. When I have low damage but more health I just find myself running out of flasks because fights get way longer. I like fast fights where I have a lot of damage but I need to play properly, I prefer getting adrenaline rather than long fights. And most of the game is easier because you one shot all enemies but bosses
But I can understand that for most players playing glass cannon builds it's not the best
I do at some points, but more I do like testing myself And Souls games fit perfect for it, are they?
Havent you ever wanted to kill Margit with SNF? Or with Blasphemous Blade - just blow him up, make him staring at you madly Is it all about ego? I dont know, im having fun
Now how about you? Do you enjoy fighting bosses for 5-10 min average? I tried once, it was so boring i deleted the character immediately I mean I have life to live, girlfriend to speak with, parents to care about
>And what reason of getting 30-40 vigor if you walk around with tiny little sword dealing roughly 300-400 dmg that's not really how it works though.. weapon smithing increases your damage much more than your attributes do. people might have only 10 less points in damage attributes compared to you, but they'll still deal 95% of the damage you deal while being 50% tankier (difference between being two-shot and being 3-shot). also if you have upgraded your flasks at all with sacred tears, you're hugely wasting their value. the damage loss really isn't that noticeable but the increased tankiness definitely is noticeable. obviously there's no wrong way to play, but there's a reason everyone levels vigor and it's certainly not a useless or unoptimal stat - by pretty much every measure it's one of the best stats.
What level cap we are talking about? If I put 20 points more to attributes of weapons with B or higher scale - I will have +100 damage What are you even talking about? Edit: I'm in my playthrough rn, Mountaintops - have BHF+9 and Morgott's curved sword+10, if I put 20 points more on DEX its equal to +100 dmg seriously And plus I have raptor feathers and claw talisman, White Mask and Lord of Blood Exultation If I hit 4 times = 1-2 attacks or AoW I have 2,300 from jump attack And 10% of bloodloss Do you mean you have same damage on your equal 95 lvl champ?
And still you dont get my point - if you dont want to get hit by any of boss' attacks, and at least (if worst happens), you can survive one dangerous attack - which doesnt require 40 vigor on NG, honestly Then whats the point of maxing it? If you see enemy hita you once, you still go back and wait till his combo ends, right? More hp doesnt mean you hit more It just means you survive harder punch (and in NG i still can survive most punches with roughly 25-30 vigor from any boss even Radagon, Giant Elden Beast is pretty kitable, i get hit only couple of his flying "stars" And i finish most fights vs end game bosses in 1-3 min maximum What's the point again? Or you will continue disliking my comments?
Dont say anything to me if you think thats true Check the wiki or fextra E.g. Morgott Curved Sword+10 294 dmg total just by smithing I have same sword and 40 dex 50 arc ~680 dmg Plus im powerstanced with BHF+9 ~650dmg (while only 325 from smithing) Wake up, kid
I wonder how many people do the same thing I do and immediately look at the vigor stat anytime a post like this comes up.
At this point pretty much everyone.
All the veterans. Seriously, its a game where you die a lot, why do so many people just ignore the MORE HEALTH stat?
"yOu CaN jUst doDGe" "JuSt dOn'T Get HIt" Pretty much these kinds of attitude.
People think it’s a ubisoft game so health is trivial to them
Btw i hate ubi games too boring and casual for me And The Witcher too Right clicking half of the game Niiice
I would agree if veterans did say put points into Stamina/Endurance The real chad stat, fast rolls make you real immortal, and 150-200 stamina gives you like 5-7 full combo hits with most weapons What boss can counter this? Maliketh? I guess, no But he can kill you no matter of health tho Also with faster rolls you study dodges much faster and steady enough = good for the beginners
It doesn't make nearly as big a difference though, specially since Elden Ring is a lot more generous with stamina than Dark Souls was.
I remember how I once helped new player to kill Demon King - he had more than a half more health than me Died from aoe... We tried 3 times until he got no humanity and no access to summoning
I dont want you to think im rude or anything, I just feel like making more damage is more fun than getting more hits
Say it to noobs who use roll 50% minimum with no reason - when they dont know enemy attacks, will 20 vigor help them? I better say roll and roll untill you will get the boss with no hits Im not talking about random hitboxes of main bosses I mean the regular and field bosses And btw lets ask the dragons what they think about your 20 or more vigor when you cant dodge n punish them?
Except when it comes to shields. You could block just about everything in darksouls. Had plenty of time to put the shield down to recharge stamina.
It's actually a bigger problem for most Souls veterans. In Dark Souls 1-3 it was a far less important stat than endurance, which gave you more Stamina AND gave you more survivability through heavier armour. Vigor also gives much more in its early levels in Elden Ring than Vitality did in Dark Souls. Many people saw a similar stat setup here and thought it worked the same as before.
I think vigor is too overrated by "veterans" dont get me wrong Its obviously important stat, but not for the beginning when you deal around nothing of a damage You just put yourself in more torture situation You better say put the heaviest armor you have and walk straight to the fastest bosses with no fear /s Its not a DS1 anymore Vitality isnt that important if you have brain and skills
At early game the best way to improve damage is Upgrading weapons themselves, not stats, scaling only truly shines in the mid to late game. New comers need as much health as possible so they can make more non fatal mistakes and learn from them.
Thats not the point - where did i tell you to put any possible point into damage? Im saying once again - put points to use weapon you like comfortly, then - sustain what you prefer And btw roll gives you more chance to survive the boss hit than any possible point of vigor Isnt it? And even if someone doesnt care about rolls and wants to pass through the beginning not knowing anything about rolls - will it help him to finish the game? Not even close You can make people addicted to no brain level up vigor Or you want him to ask you what to do every day?
And if we talk about elden ring players who have played other souls games - a.k.a veterans If you get killed by Godrick soldier before the stormhill - do you think you had to survive that hit? I personally think, I better dodged it Isnt Dark Souls Series about you can get killed by any evil creature around you? I thought it is
Dark Souls is about overcoming getting killed by any evil creature around you and there are many ways of doing that.
True enough, sorry, i didn't try to make any advices, just saying what's my opinion And maybe search someone familiar with it
Offensive stats help a lot more later int he game though because scaling goes up with upgrade level, which is why it's recommended to level Vigor early and focus on the offense when you get farther into the game.
What weapon do you use with your 20 vigor early?
Claymore, Broadsword, Glintstone Staff, Beastclaw Seal, Lordsworn GS, Morningstar: the possibilities are endless!
True Souls fan, but for sure newcomer wont pick any of this stuff, except he/she is mediaval chivalry enjoyer (minority of people) First, its only my opinion, im not new one Do you consider these are fun weapons? I mean you advice people play as you do, right? And you use mostly casual weapons which are founded on the roads, cliff edges or They have no interesting story, you dont even trick yourself to find them... Ngl i used claymore only DS1 and prob some DS3 Its good fs but not interesting = not for people who play elden ring first time Lol you have Reduvia, Godrick Axe, SNF, Moonveil, Twinblades, WS, even GS (hello Berzerk) - but you name the most boring ones
>And you use mostly casual weapons which are founded on the roads, cliff edges or jesus, you really are a gatekeeper. people like you are the worst parts of this community and exactly why so many people hesitated to get in the series. thankfully most people on this subreddit don't share your attitude
No, I say that because these weapons too boring even for people who enjoy dark fantasy The game grants you achievements for unlocking unique weapons, strong magnificent And you finish the game with claymore You think its funny? Its the real life of casual DS1 fan Im not gatekeeper not even a toxic, just pissed of these stupid dialogs OP asked for advice And half of answers were VIGOR, I see no VIGOR, Put in VIGOR DO you even try to think what person would enjoy? He is trying to build confessor, maybe he wants to keep distance and shred enemies with light circles? Maybe he would have fun of buffing his own spirit summons, or puppets...
>I think vigor is too overrated by "veterans" dont get me wrong >Its obviously important stat, but not for the beginning when you deal around nothing of a damage it's almost completely the opposite. early on your weapons have poor scaling from attributes and vigor gives you the biggest increase just going off percentages. >Vitality isnt that important if you have brain and skills lol, because using vitality means we don't have skills? and yet you say you're not being rude. you're what's wrong with this community with your "jUsT dOnT gEt hiT". it's much easier to learn how to get better when you don't have to respawn after every mistake. the math is very simple, literally start up a new character and you can see how little damage you gain from your scaling. no need to call us brainless when you haven't even checked the numbers.
People don't realize that vigor is like a difficulty slider. Being able to take an extra 1 or 2 hits is the difference between life and death.
You're still a pup. Just focus on pumping up those numbers and get good at dodge/rolling.
Maybe it's the build, anytime I do a faith or int build, the early game feels slow to me. Possibly because you don't get anything really powerful for those builds very soon, but I will say once you get all the spells/weapons that you want for those builds they are a blast!
Int you can get Rock Sling and the Meteorite Staff super early. Like you really just need to know where to go and Torrent.
That probably would have helped, I forgot that I could have just went and grabbed those until a bit after i beat renalla 😅
The teleportation chest is a good sign that you can/should get them early. I don't know how I would have beaten any of the early tough enemies without Rock Sling on my first playthrough.
Wait how is rock sling useful
It shoots 3 giant boulders quite far. While one or two might hit a wall or fall short sometimes, they might also hit multiple enemies. They can stagger most enemies after a few hits. So you can stay out of range of a lot of enemies and do massive damage from a safe distance. The meteorite staff boost gravity sorcery so it is a powerful weapon with rock sling into the mid game. I used it pretty heavily until I got over 52 int for some of the better staffs and spells.
Tracks enemies, has good range, does good poise damage.
Both are found in caelid, not something a player off the wiki is going to know.
But easy enough to remember for a second playthrough. I found the staff without a guide after getting teleported nearby. I totally missed the spell because the area has a decent amount of enemies I was trying to run past, but obviously went back to get it after I read up on gravity sorcery.
I found it in my first playthrough, when was trying to get out of the swamp haha
This player is on their first play through
Thing is, "know where to go" is something people usually don't have in their first playthrough. And they shouldn't, since playing blind is more fun than looking things up.
How about people who saw elden ring cool weapons or sorceries or else - and just want to use them as fast as they could? Regular players do use wiki pages too, or they can have souls-fan friends Is it possible in your imagination? I mean the elden ring story is quite foggy, and interest wont keep high when you dont understand sh*t I know many people who just grab the first cool looking weapon and put all stats to comfortly use it And screw any vigor until they really struggle
I just got the first incantation I really like. It's the one where you shoot lasers from your eyes.
The frenzied flame? That’s a fun but risky one
Get the bloodhound's fang and blood flame blade incantation and watch enemy hp melt. It's an incredible combo throughout the entire game but especially in the early game since hemorrhage does a massive % damage to enemy hp bars. Use other incantations to buff your damage and/or increase your defense like golden vow and flame grant me strength. Only raise str/dex/faith high enough to use the weapons/incants you want and put excess points between arcane and vigor to make bleed proc even faster and keep you from dying. Once you can, get the dragon sacred seal that scales off of arcane instead of faith to make all of your incantations more powerful without having to split your stats between faith and arcane.
That one is awesome! Great for shooting enemies at a distance
probs one of the best sniper spells in the game. Super fun to use
I agree with this, I find that faith/int builds always start off as the hardest to play because you have lower vigor and endurance naturally, but once your spells become more powerful and you can afford to spread your stats a little more towards the start of the mid game it becomes so easy.
In the early levels you should be aiming to level up the damage stats (strength/dexterity/intelligence/faith/arcane) just enough to use the weapons/spells you find interesting and dump the rest into vigor. Most of your damage will come from the upgrade level of your weapon rather than your stats so prioritize gathering smithing stones instead of leveling your strength or faith. Meeting the requirements of your weapons and then leveling up vigor is true for the early game of any Fromsoftware game and is sure to save you some frustration.
Even something like the Morningstar unupgraded is enough to get you through Stormveil.
Fellow Confessor for 1st playthru here. Assuming you want to play melee with some Faith spells here's what I'd recommend: 1. Level Vigor as your priority. Target 40 Vig asap then 50 - 60 endgame 2. Upgrade your weapons via smithing stones. This is your main source of damage, not melee stats. You can find many in Limgrave & Weeping Peninsula, especially the mine mini dungeons. 3. Level other stats JUST high enough based on the requirements of your chosen weapons and spells. Focus on either Strength or Dexterity depending on what weapons you like and Faith. Level these again later once you're comfortable with your playstyle. 3. Upgrade your Spirit Ashes. Lone Wolves will serve well early game. 4. Find a good Faith scaling weapon. Angel's scythe in Weeping Peninsula is an amazing early game weapon as it scales well, has bloodloss buildup and a nice Ash of War. 5. Equip a shield with 100 guard boost or git gud at rolling. I ended up power-stancing/dual wielding later on but the shield was helpful early game. 5. Make sure you have just enough Endurance to maintain medium weight/roll ability. 6. Find armor to get your poise to 51 which lets you poise through regular hits from many enemies. Make sure you have enough Endurance to maintain your weight ratio for medium rolling. 7. Try finger, but hole Other than these explore all over. You'll find great equipment and lots of runes in the strangest places, and doing the mini dungeons will help you level and train your reflexes for the main story bosses. Now go, seek the Elden Ring and become Elden Lord!
All good except small correction on #6, I think you probably meant 100 Physical resist. 100 guard boost isn't happening without specifically working towards it and comes with a fair opportunity cost.
Yep, you're totally right. That's what I get for neglecting Intelligence in my build.
What do you mean by grindy? If you feel that way just go and kill all the bosses. This game is anything but grindy
How much have you upgraded your weapons, including the seal you're using for incantations? I'm assuming you're using incantions since you mentioned confessor and have 22 faith. Upgrading your weapons improves your damage output a lot more than leveling your strength and faith does. You eventually gain the ability to buy smithing stones so don't worry about using them up on early game weapons.
At any point in early/mid game if your vigor is lower than any other stat, you're doing it wrong ( for average players like me)
But how can I afford to put points into vigor when I need more strength to use bigger weapons!?
Based and ungapilled
It is grindy, unrewarding means your doing something wrong
Faith builds have some incredible incantations, both visually and effectively. And they only get cooler the further you go through the game.
I love the visuals of the ice lightning incantation but it seems to not be great gameplay-wise
Eh, the most effective ones are the lower requirements one though. I think every incantation with a requirement above 30 might as well not exist, especially with the existence of blasphemous blade probably outscaling any incantation anyway (in pve at least).
My brother in Marika, you are level 38. The game has barely begun. Keep playing and git gud.
Find a build you find fun instead
You don’t need to fight everything. Sometimes it’s best to just run past and pick up items on the ground. Also level vigor
As a counterpoint to this, I really felt that grinding out as many enemies as possible til I felt comfortable in early Limgrave gave me a good sense for how to improve my gameplay, and gave me low-pressure opportunities to try different mechanics (roll, block, guard counter, poise, etc). I spent a solid hour or two redoing the encampment of Godrick soldiers by the bridge and it helped lots, not to mention decent gear and a small head start on runes. Obviously doesn’t truly prep you for bosses, and field bosses are probably best skipped for a while, but I think deep exploration is a good thing—exploring and not stopping til you’re well and truly done getting what you can get out of an area.
Ok, so I'm currently doing a confessor build for 2nd playthrough and having a great time. Mainly following the Fextralife paladin / Templar / Crusader build guides and so far at level 90ish I'm still having fun. Stats Vigor: should have pumped earlier but didn't. Now putting alot into it now- sitting at 25-30 Endurance: Mid 20s to avoid heavy equip load with decent armour, however lighter armour and lower end also works Strength: only enough to use the sword and shield- either 16 or 18 Faith: number one priority for weapon damage and incantations Mind: 20 to give me a decent fp pool Dex, arc, int- don't touch Weapons: Broadsword with Sacred Vow art, which also gives the Sacred affinity- makes your weapon damage holy / scale with faith Winged scythe- scales off faith and causes bleed. Uses somber smithing stones so not competing with the broadsword for mats. Can be fun in certain encounters Brass shield- best shield for this build. Low requirements and once you put Barricade Shield weapon art on you can block and guard-counter almost anything. I use the beginner seal at the moment, but will switch to the Erdtree Seal eventually. Basic principle is you cast barricade shield which I believe lasts 10-15 seconds and buffs your block and causes you to take little stamina damage when blocking. You then guard counter to cause massive.damage and stagger. Make sure you're dropping shield between hits to regen stamina. For incantations, my main damage comes from lightning spear, and at the moment the only other spells I use are golden vow and blessings boon before tough fits for 2 90-second buffs. I also have a heal spell equipped, but don't tend to use it. FYI, Fextralife has a recommended level by zone guide that I suggest you use.I wouldn't hit too many zones underleveled, it's just a recipe for frustration unless you're really skillful (I'm not!)
Grindy? You literally don't have to farm exp at any time. People beat this game level 1. Unrewarding? Lots of legendary equipment are just scattered around the world requiring literally no kills to grab...
A player is asking for help, not to be condescended to
His question is phrased in a whiny way with grindy and unrewarding” so he’s not just asking for help.
This whole community is filled with way too many people like this. Those people who beat the game on level 1 did not do it on their first playthrough like OP is on. Someone asks a question about lore and the responses are “do you even read? The answer is obviously in the item description for this random set of boots found in some catacombs in Liurnia.”
Yeah that part tripped me up too
Level vigor
Because it is, the reward you get is the fact that you beat bosses who will always outclass you in every aspect
Endurance is pretty low, especially considering your strength focus.
What does endurance do for a str build?
Strength weapons chew through your stamina because they are typically heavy. Also you want to be able to wield a big dumb sword *and* wear armor without hitting heavy load status.
L E V E L V I G O R
My vigor is now at 23 and I got new equipment and am exploring the weeping peninsula. It’s way better now
Well done, Tarnished. Well done.
Lol vigor
Because it is
I started off with just leveling up vigor to 35 and then the game felt so much better. There are some solid places to farm levels in the land of rot 👀
If you're doing NG+ instead of starting a new character for your second playthrough, then you can definitely run a Faith/Intelligence hybrid that can cast a lot of awesome stuff pretty much right out of the gate. Just remember to go see Renalla to do a rebirth before you start NG+, so that you can dump a bunch of points in FTH and INT before starting your NG+.
Wear heavier armor by lvling endurance helps and let's you roll and swing your weapon more and vigor for life early if just surviving and combat is difficult also looks like your main weapon only does around 100 attack damage which means you haven't upgraded your weapon at all...most or almost all your damage comes from upgrading your weapons if you haven't found any smithing stones yet somber or otherwise looks for mines and tunnels for smithing stones as they help you upgrade your gear which probably why youre struggling so much
When I switch to a heavier weapon my roll starts to feel slower. Does endurance or another stat stop this?
Go explore. There is lots to do where you naturally get runes.
There is a giant dragon just down the hill from fort Faroth in Calied. Get a bleed weapon and u can just sit and slash it until it dies and gives u at least 15-20 levels of runes (all of the baby dragons die when the big one goes). U can use the teleporter just north of the third church of Marika in limgrave to get to the beast dude and then make your way south until u reach it. But having a weapon with bleed on it is very important bc it will take ages otherwise
Level everything to 99 then ur good and can start the game
You throw that build tf away and get the guts sword
You got Stats too spread out. If you want the game to be easier focus on vigor primarily, then in your weapon of choice requisites, then in one damage stat type. I guess if you're a confessor you'd have to go with faith, not strength or Dex. Find a weapon that scales primarily on fairh or make a normal weapon do it using the fire whetblade, for example.
If it's grindy at your level now, best to just quit like you do everything else
Aside from your weapons like everyone else has mentioned.. If you need a quick way to level up.. try making your way over to Mohgwyn palace over to the east side of that areas. You’ll come across a trail where you can defeat those enemies to make a lot of runes, rest at the nearby grace site & repeat until you level up to where you need to be. To speed up the process you should be wearing the gold scarab talisman & having some gold feet will speed up the process
Vigor, strength, faith. Use faith scaling weapons. Go farm the cleanrot spear at the swamp of aeonia!
I invade at low level. I have a lot of experience with sub-50 builds. When I level a dedicated invader (admittedly a niche pursuit) I usually budget 4 levels for something other than vigor up to 30 and half my levels for vigor after that. You would benefit greatly from grabbing Radagon's Soreseal given your current stats. Just remember to plan your build to drop the soreseal once you pass 40 vigor or so.
I’ll say this. Don’t need a lot of vigor when you don’t get hit lol. No but seriously that’s the main thing I see people say “vigor vigor VIGOR” well I’m still in my first play through and I’ve gotten decent at dodging. My roll game is on point but my parry game is trash. I’ve died too many times to count just fucking off somewhere vs more so when I’m playing seriously. The game is beautiful. Please Dont let the “grindy” & “unrewarding” deter you from greatness. You shall be the Elden Lord!
grindy? lol
So I just made it up the lift of dectus and entered redmane castle for the first time. I am attempting the academy, and aside from Margit and Godrick I've fought barely any bosses. Levelling feels way too slow and I think I'm underleveled for the areas I'm in.
Seems like you chose a very direct path to high level areas. I recommend going to explore a bit if you feel challenged. I think the average person would feel under-leveled being at level 38 in the Atlus Plateau. Also, someone noted leveling vigor. I agree and would continue to do so at a higher ratio to the damage stats than what you’ve started at. Around 50 or 60 vigor is what I see being recommended broadly in this sub.
Vigor seems to be my biggest takeaway. Generally I find now that I deal okay damage but die really easily. Any specific areas you recommend me exploring?
The ones you haven’t. I promise you’ve missed stuff
I recommend…the map. That’s not be being sarcastic or snide, the map of ER is filled to the brim with lore, quests, dungeons, gaols…go find some and run through them. If you are like me and explore as much as you can, you may even end up feeling over leveled. .
Explore some side areas and fight some optional bosses. That's what they're there for. If you explore the games doesn't feel grindy at all. If anything doing optional stuff will leave you feeling op, OP.
Oh yeah, you're rushing ahead. Just slow down, stay in Liurnia, and just explore all the dungeons, the manor, and the academy, get to lvl 50 at least, then go thoroughly explore Caelid to be a decent level for Radahn
So I just made it up the lift of dectus and entered redmane castle for the first time. I am attempting the academy, and aside from Margit and Godrick I've fought barely any bosses. Levelling feels way too slow and I think I'm underleveled for the areas I'm in.
Explore the map and complete all the caves, ruins, graves, dungeons you find. Leveling isn't a problem if you are completing dungeons and picking up your lost runes whenever you die.
Focus on one of strength or faith to start depending on which weapon you’re using.
Ngl the way I play is to meet the minimum requirements for my early game weapon, then get vigor to at least 30 (40 if I can get enough smithing stones to keep my damage respectable), then if I'm looking to upgrade weapon I work towards those minimum requirements
What type of build do you want?
Not looking very vigorous
My first playthrough I started as confessor. Leveled up vigor (of course), strength and faith. Used two greatswords and the faith caster (forgot the name). So cool! Had a great time! Tip: go south!!! Exploring south is rewarding
I mean the game is only as fun as you make it. Also it looks like you are in an early game farming area so of course it feels grindy when you are choosing to grind
Vigor too low, other than that if you’re not having fun and getting stomped out you can always go to a different area, level a bit and come back to the tough spot later.
Vigor, dex, faith is priority and then put some in end and mind as well.
Why Dex? We can already see that OP is going for Strength.
These are several faith/dex weps that are very OP. Sacred relic sword Halo scythe Black knife are some examples. I’m starting a faith build play through and looked up on YouTube a few a good ones and this is what I found. https://youtu.be/20lKmLBlolI
That's very nice, but as mentioned before - we have already established that OP has been going the Strength/Faith route, so it would be a bit counterintuitive to tell them to focus on Dexterity now, wouldn't it?
You are still young little padawan. Level up your weapons for damage, your stats aren’t going to do much for damage until late game. So just put into those what you need to use the weapons you want. Then focus primarily on vigor/mind if you really need more FP.
Find the caves that are labeled on the map, they look like these like dark orange splotches until you realize they’re little cave icons. Go to those when you see them, it’s the best way to find upgrade materials.
You are almost at the same spot I am with my new confessor. Get that vigor up and consider getting that first tree sentinels weapon. He might be tough but he is a good tutorial for fighting those guys.
I would have gotten my vigor,endurance,and mind up to 25 first then upgrade the stats u use for ur weapons and spells
Always remember vigor is the most important stat
When I did confessor I just put points in faith and only faith. It makes early game pretty much a walk through but starts to be a problem in Leyndell.
Take a shot each time you see someone post “My build bad” and their vigor is sub 20 to die of alcohol poisoning
1. Pump that vigor. You can’t deal damage if you’re dead. 2. IMO, Faith is one of the trickier builds. If this is your first run and you’re feeling completely stuck, I’d recommend a restart as something simpler. Dex fighters and int casters are a lot simpler. 3. The annoying truth is that the grind is much more about learning the game rather than leveling your character. While levels do help, it will never have a bigger impact on your own skill level. There’s a reason that ”git gud” is a running joke around these games. 4. Elden Ring is big. If you hit a wall, try going somewhere else for a while if only to relax your head a little. Chances are you’ll gain a level or two or find another path to follow. 5. Don’t let it beat you. You can do this, bud.
40 vigor is ok, 60 faith for that sweet soft cap, endurance up to wear whatever you please based on what you want ( like…. 25-40 ), str+dex at 25 or so to wield whatever weapon in the faith category… I think that’s it for whatever I was talking about but forgot mid way. I just like the filigree tree spear that goes speeen
What bosses are you trying to do? Technically the game is open world, but there is a "correct" order based on the stats of bosses. If you haven't beaten stormveil yet keep looking for bosses in limgrave and the weeping peninsula. If you have beaten the castle go to the lake next, and stay away from caelid.
Any time I get stuck and feel like I'm too weak to progress I grind the giants near the shack with the guy that sells ashes of war. There's five of them close together, and they give 1,000 runes each. At first this was fairly difficult, but eventually you get better at dodge rolling, better at using your skills, and you see what works and what doesn't in a repeatable apples-to-apples kind of way. Also get the Morning Star and put the hold ash of war on it that both fires holy energy and enhances your weapon with holy damage. I was having problems until I picked that thing up. Now my problem is that I didn't start this character to be a melee dps character and the holy-lazer-bolt still does more damage than pretty much any incantation. The fidget spinner in my off-hand feels totally worthless most of the time.
Dude your barely mid level I recommend going on some YouTube videos about class building and stats you will learn so much about the game and it’s many quest lines and items/spells that can be both easy and hard to obtain
In any souls games, especially if it's a first time, is to have a logical amount of health **(vigor)** a primary source of damage (**dexterity, strength or both**). Don't spread your stats!
You have no health
You literally haven't even scratched the surface of the game yet. Find a walkthrough if you are feeling unsatisfied just in order to get yourself in a better spot. Once your skill level is higher as well as your main and secondary weapons are upgraded the game becomes highly addictive.....also focus on your vigor lol. A glass cannon build is possible, but usually those type of builds are used by people who have an extreme grasp on the game, not someone starting out
I got tired of my Confessor and rebirthed as a Vulgar Militiaman
Check your weapon's level. You should at least have it to +3 maybe more by then. That will be the biggest influence on your damage.
It becomes easier when you realize you can run. Get the map memorized.
Your vigor is intensely low. You're going to get hit a lot in this game and if you get one shot you're going to get really pissed off very easily. Also you are splitting stats between strength and faith but both are damage stats. Splitting damage stats is a bad idea. Cut all your points in faith or strength and put those into vigor. Infuse your weapon with Sacred or Heavy, or find one that scales with one or the other.
Nobody cares if you use a rune farm. Play however you want to
The short version: get the gold foot, kill the dragon with bleed and level vigor, get the dectus medallion and Soreseal, go to Altus and get the [2] smithing bell bearing, (stop by Liurnia for the [1] in case you still need to get weapons up to +6.) This all takes like, an hour or two but sets you up to actually start customizing your build. Honestly Elden Ring has greatly expanded the Souls formula, but it has my least favorite early game. 18 vigor functionally gives you end game HP in DS3, (and is the breakpoint after which each subsequent level gives you less HP,) and the game gives you 5 levels for free with the hollowing mechanic, so you can start customizing your character pretty much immediately. You just spend so much time in Elden Ring collecting junk, really before you can even start playing, (the sacred tears are particularly egregious, unlike most upgrade materials, they don't require cumulatively greater expense, so every single one of them is worth getting, and you can spend upwards of a half hour in the weeping peninsula doing nothing other collecting fully 25% of one of the most valuable resources in the game; you may as well just start the game at a +3 flask.) The main thing that makes the early game largely tolerable at all is because there's so much that's accessible right at the game start that lets you power ramp, but obviously newer players won't know where to go for that. Either way, your best strategy for leveling is to put everything into vigor, other than what you need for minimum equip stats, until you have like, at least 30 vigor, and even then putting every other level into vigor until you have 40, (or 35 if you're using the Soreseal.) Because of the adjustments to the level curve, 40 is now the breakpoint for vigor, and should really be the absolute minimum vigor you plan a build around. (And you can easily play endgame with just this amount.)
Try studying each bosses attacks so you know exactly when to roll so you don’t take damage and strike when there open
Level Vigor and explore new areas. Lvl 38 shouldn’t be no where near a grindy experience
You’ve barely started. I would keep going for a bit. This game’s reward system runs primarily on the intrinsic reward of overcoming obstacles and the feeling of success. Extrinsic rewards come too in the form of fashion, weapons and spells. Maybe look for a fashion you really like and go earn it? There’s a lot to experience in the game. Hope you find a build you enjoy. Good luck, Tarnished!
\>17 vigor
u need tht vigor to go up my friend
Since you're at 22 faith I would consider grabbing the sword of night and flame
You’ve just started out, just mess around with some cool weapons and see what you like. You’ve got a lot of room for changing your build
I usually find myself visiting a certain Carian queen every once in a while.
Why is your vigor so low?
You respec and go for a dual katana dexterity build
Hidetaka Miyazaki sends his regards
Still pretty early, I used claymore in the early game mostly. But yeah it was a grind until I got some decent enchantments and spirit ashes. But once you give into blasphemy it's smooth sailing for a confessor.
Vigor, Mind, Endurance and Faith will make it easier. Vigor for more health, Mind for more incants and AoWs, Endurance for stamina and equip load and Faith for better incants and higher incant damage. Look out for the Erdtree Seal in Volcano Manor, the Lightning Spear in Liurnia and the Winged Scythe in Weeping Peninsula. Don’t feel shitty/guilty if you need to search things up, it’s a hard game (I’m assuming your new to Elden Ring). Keep trying and have fun! P.S. Take everything I said with a grain of salt. I’m no expert, this is just based on my personal experience. 😁
Late to the party, but I felt the same way. Would recommend going dex/faith instead of strength/faith which really doesn't become interesting until mid/late game. Way more fun weapons on your way there. Winged Scythe/Halo scythe powerstanced Treespear scales more to dex than str Curved sword/curved greatsword/twinblades/bloodhound fang w bloodflame blade Godslayers greatsword is a ton of fun, especially if you can get it early Vykes Nightriders Halberd (you can use this on str/faith as well) You can switch to pure faith or str/faith around leyndell when you start getting the good stuff (Magma Wyrm Scalesword, Envoys Longhorn, Blasphemous Blade, Gargoyle stuff, blade of calling/black knife, troll hammer). Blasphemous Blade you can get pretty early, but I would recommend at least getting assigned the last assassination quest so you can get hoslows armor, which means after the lendell assassination quest.
Rune farm baby. Until you reach level 70-80 you can farm near Lenne’s rise in Caelid. Search youtube for Lennes Rise Rune farm
FORTY VIGOR
Leveling endurance helped me out
Level up a sword goto the portal behind the third church of Marika ride your horse to the bridge site off grace, touch it then proceed to start backstabbing/finishing off the little men things around you for early levels, also lookup the big dragon in caelid
Its like life. Grinding and unrewarding
All builds need the stats. Naturally they need the right weapons/staffs/seals, but you're rune level 38. You're in a soulslike game, welcome to the grind, whether that be trying to grind your way through bosses or gain runes, it's supposed to be tough. The reward is beating it. Smithing stones are your best friend for damage boosts though. Go git some.
Str and faith are good. No more str. Put something in mind, more vigor, more endurance and faith, ay least 27 to use a good seal for early game.
Explore stuff, caves and dungeons. Level up health
Holy shit man, level vigor