@“Syzygy”#p61975 The guard counter is such an interesting addition, but I play dual handing a weapon and never use block with it so I think I've used it like…twice? It kind of makes me want to do a shield build just so I can play around with this mechanic.
Just as if not more important than maximizing stagger damage dealt per hit using charged R2s or jump attacks or guard counters is getting a feel for how much it‘s going to take to stance break a particular foe and just keeping the pressure on them. I don’t know the exact particulars of how it is working, but posture on enemies works much like it does for status effects like Bleed or Poison does with players. It starts at 0 and once it passes a certain threshold a stance break is triggered, at which point it goes back to 0. Whenever you are not dealing stagger damage to an enemy, its posture is continually dropping back down to neutral.
If it's working exactly like _Sekiro_ but with the posture gauge hidden, enemies are recovering posture continually, and damage doesn't interrupt it. I don't know if anyone has done the deep dive to confirm or deny the particulars but it could be different, and posture recovery for enemies in _Elden Ring_ could work like player posture in _Sekiro_ where it only starts recovering once about a second has passed since the last hit of incoming stagger damage. Perhaps the rate accelerates after longer, even. Could be that some enemies have faster rates of recovery to compensate for lower thresholds, and vice versa. It does feel to me that in order to get back to default posture for an enemy that's taken moderate to heavy posture damage is going to need something like you creating distance, healing back to full, and then still waiting for a good opportunity to begin attacking to get there.
Either way, how posture works rewards continually aggressive play. Stance breaking, or, as far as I can tell applying any status effect to an enemy, is a "bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" situation. Landing 2 Charged R2s and a guard counter with an ultra greatsword is gonna stance break damn near anything, but not if they aren't landed in relatively quick succession. Landing in quick pokes or combos is still doing stagger damage and working against that continual recovery.
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@“tapevulture”#p61965 wish i could just undo my progress and redo the boss
Don't worry, you'll have an opportunity to try that kind of fight again soon if you stay in Stormveil!
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@“fridgeboy”#p61980 The guard counter is such an interesting addition, but I play dual handing a weapon and never use block with it so I think I’ve used it like…twice? It kind of makes me want to do a shield build just so I can play around with this mechanic.
Your 2 hand wielded ZWEIHANDER has a block button too, you know!! I mean, unless you're powerstancing with two.
I've been on the fence myself whether I should learn to get used to the chip damage from blocking with the ZWEIHANDER or just accept that shields have been incorporated into this game so well that it's difficult to ignore them now. For what it's worth, the 1 handed moveset is the same in about every way that counts.
Also PSA to everyone: did you know powerstancing was back?? Put two melee weapons of the same type (e.g. two straight swords, two curved swords) in each hand and use L1 for special powerstancing dual wield combos.
Yes defeating a boss is often bittersweet, and makes you wanna go back and challenge them again! Especially if you cheesed it.
Well, unlike Sekiro I don’t think this game lets you rechallenge bosses at your whim, but I will say that many bosses appear multiple times throughought the journey. An obvious one is margit, who talks to you after you kill him, foreshadowing… something 
Also I finally got my second Great Rune the other day…
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........from Radahn..........................................................
That was a mistake! A fun and messy one, but genuinely not a good idea. I guess it wouldn't be my first playthrough of a non-linear game if I didn't do weird shit in a weird order.
Speaking of the jump attack and posture damage. Are jump attacks as bonkers as I think they are? The jump attack‘s posture damage, actual damage, and immediacy make it pretty nuts in my mind. I was jumping around like an idiot so much all game, it put Mario games to shame. For me 2-handing a katana, the jump R2 guard broke almost everything and gave an easy window for a second attack the times that it didn’t just one-shot everything. I don‘t know what’s considered high damage in this game, but doing 1,500-2,000 damage with one swing of my weapon to things seemed sorta absurd.
Of course, then I found a katana that does all that from a block down the street. Think I'm just gonna try out a new play-type for NG+.
@“Gaagaagiins”#p61990 yeah this is what I mean - I haven‘t been willing to take the chip damage. And I’ve been too stubborn to use a shield in my left hand even though, like you say, the difference in the moveset is minimal. You get more damage for two-handing though right?
My Zwei is my baby
@“Gaagaagiins”#p61997 This is what I did too - I haven't honestly located any other great runes besides Radahn and Godrick (oh wait I did the Academy before Radahn…)
Can I make a dex scaling Zwei in this game because that sounds pretty sick
I looked at the wiki and saw a greatsword that could be a terminus est analogue, so I'm gunning for that
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@“sabertoothalex”#p62007 Can I make a dex scaling Zwei in this game because that sounds pretty sick
As far as I can tell, yes, although I'd wait on the numbers to see just how effective that would actually be.
The weapon customization system this time around is pretty fluid. You can attach new Weapon Arts in the form of Ashes of War to pretty much every normal weapon. These Ashes of War have associated modifying types not unlike in _Dark Souls,_ like Standard for not modifying the scaling, Heavy for favoring Strength scaling over Dexterity, Quality for even scaling between Strength and Dexterity, and Keen for favoring Dexterity scaling over Strength. I don't think it modifies the stat requirements, though, and I'm not sure if it completely guts the existing scaling or just re-balances it, meaning a Keen ZWEIHANDER might just do less damage while still requiring a pretty high amount of Strength to wield in one hand.
You can also find an item that will let you bypass the weapon modification type attached to individual Ashes of War and just choose whichever one you want.
Actually that mostly might be how it all works with _Dark Souls_ and I just forget. For _Elden Ring,_ though, what's definitely different is that you can swap Ashes of War in and out at will and not consume them or lose the weapon, which is nice. And you don't need a plethora of obscure upgrade materials to upgrade a weapon down a specific upgrade path, there's just one for standard weapons and one for special/unique weapons.
rather than creating a Keen Zweihander, which would be pretty inefficient and I can‘t guarantee the effectiveness, there are great swords and curved great swords that scale with dex by default and making them Keen would give them even better dex scaling. But by all means, experiment and do what you like. I’m pretty put off by anyone who plays like optimal is the only correct way.
@“sabertoothalex”#p62007 Why not? Though it wouldn't change the gameplay at all. My guess is it would just end up as a not-as-strong Zweihander compared to heavy with the corresponding levels in STR instead of DEX.
But like @treefroggy said, who cares? Have fun with it. A +20 Keen Zweihander with 50 DEX is probably going to destroy just fine.
@“yeso”#p62011 I think I just got this the other day - ||it‘s one of the legendary weapons right?|| It appears to be modeled similar to the Executioner’s Greatsword from DS3, which is one of my favorite weapons in the whole series.
Everyone probably knows this already but Slave Knight Gael's greatsword was a modified, beat the heck up executioner's gs
Quick google shows me I guess there just is an executioner's gs in Elden Ring. Gotta track that down!
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Wow, I got at least 5 “shardbearer defeated” messages during my last session…either the game repeats them or DONKYMLK seems to be cleaning up.
I took one last detour and explored ||Siofra||, which has to be one of the most awe-inspiring environments I've seen in any game, ever. I lit the various flame pillars and fought the ||Ancestor Spirit||, which was a somewhat underwhelming battle despite the wonderful music and boss design. Oh, and I made sure to say hi to ||Blaidd||...what a hunk.
I found a lift locked behind a Stonesword gargoyle down there, though I elected not to unlock it (I haven't used a single key yet lol...there's something wrong with me). If anyone thinks its a better idea to revisit this elevator, though, I could be convinced to finally part with a key!
I then took my first furtive steps into ||the Academy|| and I'm having fun with the Sneak King squad (I tried to commemorate them with a message...the best I could manage was "_bog or monarch_").
Also I would add if I had a pure dex build and wanted to sometimes use a zwei just for fun, yeah i'd make it keen lol.
I spent at least an hour or two farming Cleanrot Knights, I got everything but the leg armor.
I had two of the blue shiny magic sword keys, so I used two of them at the Four Belfries in Liurna.... Holy shit. A lot of the messages will tell you "dead end, turn back" but it's definitely worth it using keys on those belfries. I only did the southernmost and easternmost one, leaving just the western one left.... and to be clear there is no must-have pickup or really much of anything to do in either teleport location, but it's worth it from a lore and spectacle standpoint. The game is even larger than I thought..... but I was expecting there to be a significant chunk of the game left that I haven't been seeing so far.... But yeah from starting point to the capital is basically only half of the entire map...... Though it may just be spaced out. No spoilers.
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New fit
@“fridgeboy”#p62057 That shield rules, however, does it have a stamina recovery speed buff,
I haven’t really followed the conversation here since I am too damn busy playing the game when I have time outside work (clocking at 120h right now) but if anyone has trouble with the notorious General Radahn, just ping me this weekend, I always enjoy this fight.
※Not sure about the crossplay limitations of the game but I am on PS5.