Strength build the best way to handicap yourself?

[Mog]

Been playing as a strength char for my first play through, feels like im much weaker than i should be, other classes/play style (magic especially) are keeping up with me if not doing more than me at lower Sl's. Anyone else feeling like strength is a harder way to play?

[jojokaizer]

melee is pretty garbage in elden ring. magic does way more damage and way safer. ultra weapons are basically all trash. coming from a guy who uses ultra greatswords in all previous games, they are almost unusable cause of the way the enemies work in elden ring.

[Phyore]

Dex build here but I'm going to be quality soon, I guess. I feel like melee in general is pretty limited in this game. The first main boss (I mean the story boss) is really a pain in the butt when you have to face it in close range.

[Vantus]

Although I've "only" played around 21 hours, I'm inclined to disagree.

Almost everything I've found so far scales off Strength and most of the fun weapons I would consider dex weapons have sizeable strength requirements.

I'm consistently feeling bullied into dumping precious levels into Strength just to get out of my starting equipment.

I can't imagine how restricted casters must feel, not being able to equip anything new.

[jojokaizer]

Originally posted by Vantus:

Although I've "only" played around 21 hours, I'm inclined to disagree.

Almost everything I've found so far scales off Strength and most of the fun weapons I would consider dex weapons have sizeable strength requirements.

I'm consistently feeling bullied into dumping precious levels into Strength just to get out of my starting equipment.

I can't imagine how restricted casters must feel, not being able to equip anything new.

are you joking? casters will 1 or 2 shot enemies from afar or aoe groups to death. elden ring is prob the worst melee has been in all dark souls games. wait till you get to mid game and everything around you are either ranged units who can stagger you to death or enemies with super armor that 2 or 3 shot you as well. melee becomes really fun at that point..../s

[shiftygemini]

Here is the problem - I went min/max with a melee build (Hero class) and I went min/max with a dex build (bandit class). THEN I went with magic. All the way up through Storm castle and killing the 1st 2 bosses, I felt Dex was gimped the worst, melee was super underwhelming, and magic was S tier. THEN I went past Storm castle and did the magic castle - My mage did fine at level 32 but my melee was TRASH in comparison to my mage. Not saying my melee was bad - it was just blatantly in your face subpar to magic. Then I went in with my Bandit (who I usually keep way overleveled to compensate for the super gimp class) and at level 62 I got my butt handed to me and escorted out the door. It's not solo friendly for dex and with melee you just have to go super slow. My mage zipped through everything without a scratch. So i deleted my level 62 bandit and kept my 38 Hero. I only play my 29 mage now. Wait till after storm castle, the damage taken, the mobs swarming you, and the amount of unblockable attacks and the amount of unstunnable foes (for melee) is a trainwreck. Thankfully none of the mobs are immunte to magic.

[Darling's Pants]

shields exist and are super OP when you have decent poise against the bosses. Holy fk you guys suck, melee is (as usual) the strongest. Git Gud souls newbies.

[jojokaizer]

Originally posted by Darling's Pants:

shields exist and are super OP when you have decent poise against the bosses. Holy fk you guys suck, melee is (as usual) the strongest. Git Gud souls newbies.

yes, force all melee players in to using a shield and experience the most boring combat since dark souls 1. no one is saying shields aren't good, they are saying melee is bad. which even with a shield, melee is still completely behind magic in both damage and crowd control. don't be dumb please.

[Mr. Black]

Originally posted by Darling's Pants:

shields exist and are super OP when you have decent poise against the bosses. Holy fk you guys suck, melee is (as usual) the strongest. Git Gud souls newbies.

how many hours you have on others soul games?

[Darling's Pants]

Originally posted by jojokaizer:

Originally posted by Darling's Pants:

shields exist and are super OP when you have decent poise against the bosses. Holy fk you guys suck, melee is (as usual) the strongest. Git Gud souls newbies.

yes, force all melee players in to using a shield and experience the most boring combat since dark souls 1. no one is saying shields aren't good, they are saying melee is bad. which even with a shield, melee is still completely behind magic in both damage and crowd control. don't be dumb please.

no, the most boring gameplay is ROLLING you braindead f'ing moron

[Orion Invictus]

Melee:
Attacks consume stamina (a renewable resource)
Can take more hits (armor made for strength builds is generally more resilient)
Can dedicate all flasks to HP recovery
Has a LOT more weapons to choose from

Magic:
Attacks consume stamina AND FP (FP does not regenerate)
Has to dedicate flasks to FP recovery, making them weaker in case of any ♥♥♥♥-ups
Has fewer weapons to choose from

Sure, magic can clear enemies more easily and has higher DPS, but that only lasts as long as FP does. When FP is gone, magic users have to rely on melee weapons that they're simply not built for.

[Beer Squirrel]

I think a lot of people here are misinterpreting the game design here. This is Elden Ring NOT SoulsBourne.....

You're NOT SUPPOSED to have a melee-only build in this game. The insane number and strength of spells and summons makes this extremely obvious. Melee is more of a supplemental tactic in Elden Ring -- one that allows you to kill the weaker enemies without expending your FP.

(Again, IMO -- based on my experience thus far)

[Chewy102]

Don't really care that strength builds are "weak". It's too much fun smashing things with my pickaxe. The worst part of going strength is weapon range. Was using a hammer for a while, but the thing just had no reach and swapped to the pickaxe the moment I found 1, even farmed a 2nd to duel wield once I get my equipment weight up.

And not 20 minutes ago I found a "Grafted Greatsword" from a boss. It's an ultra greatsword that's made up up like 100 other swords. That thing looks freaking edgy as F***! Love it, but gotta wait to use it till I can upgrade the thing.

[Mog]

Originally posted by Darling's Pants:

shields exist and are super OP when you have decent poise against the bosses. Holy fk you guys suck, melee is (as usual) the strongest. Git Gud souls newbies.

MFW you clearly don't know that magic goes through almost all of the shields in the game...

[Schizm]

I have been mauling most things with a Zweihander STR build.

[Leto]

hm... Are some people playing a different game? ... with a 2h weapon you do damage with one hit like with a spell, plus you break the opponent with heavy attacks, and you don't have to split your potions, melee is the strongest, it's just very equipment dependent, with a good and upgraded weapon you knock everything away, you just have to be able to dodge and block/parry, because of counterattacks