Playing smarter not harder

[Jarko]

I've been going for a build that's well balanced and would optimize myself against enemies and bosses based on their "weakness." I'm going for a jack of all trades build.

Imps and Gargoyles do not like weapons that inflict strike damage. Maybe norning stars are the best weapon for that

Erdtrees hate fire so using Black Flame is highly effective and it's not only because its fire, but also because it does percent dmg and what better way to compliment the spell with the fire scorpion charm talisman.

Any enemy with flesh are prone to bleed more. Elenora's poleblade will work with that. Lord of blood's exultation will compliment it

Im trying to categorize more enemies to see what common weaknesses they have.

as for stats. I would start off leveling up each trait to a base of 25, this will allow me to equip probably most weapons. The Palace Approach Ledge Road will help as a rune farm for that. The golden scarab and a bow will be used to farm

[Fineous🔥]

Originally posted by Nevict:

Originally posted by Jarko:

I'm making it for strictly PvE, it's Jack of all trades, but master of none.

“A jack of all trades is a master of none, but often times better than a master of one.”
- William Shakespeare.

I have a good one!.
"Fine. I can feel my wits evaporating in your mere presence"
-Seluvis.

OP man what are you doing? why you dont enjoy your first Elden Ring experience finding out things by yourself?.

You are neglecting a golden opportunity to enjoy one of the best games ever your way...meh.


Bless you anyways.....also happy clouds and trees.

[psheue]

What you're trying is harder than just playing the game using whatever looks fun. You're going to find enemies that are weak or strong against everything and with that kind of stat allocation, even if you can use most weapons, everything is going to be under powered.

The *smart* way to build is to choose one main damage dealing stat and equipment that works well with it.

[Nevict]

Originally posted by psheue:

What you're trying is harder than just playing the game using whatever looks fun. You're going to find enemies that are weak or strong against everything and with that kind of stat allocation, even if you can use most weapons, everything is going to be under powered.

The *smart* way to build is to choose one main damage dealing stat and equipment that works well with it.

Unfortunately, it is true. This is due to how Elden Ring calculates damage. Only high attack values are able to give consistent results.

[Nevict]

Originally posted by RubbaKeys16k:

Originally posted by Nevict:

“A jack of all trades is a master of none, but often times better than a master of one.”
- William Shakespeare.

Not relevant to an ER build but you might want to check your facts on that one. The jack was Bill, he didn’t say it.

I looked around extensively, but the only thing I found is that it is a Shakespeare quote. :(

[Jarko]

Originally posted by Jarko:

Originally posted by 𝕱𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖔𝖚𝖘🔥:

I have a good one!.
"Fine. I can feel my wits evaporating in your mere presence"
-Seluvis.

OP man what are you doing? why you dont enjoy your first Elden Ring experience finding out things by yourself?.

You are neglecting a golden opportunity to enjoy one of the best games ever your way...meh.


Bless you anyways.....also happy clouds and trees.

It's been working pretty well for me, depending on the boss I face I'll just swap weapons, gear and sometimes armor. depending on the summon, it can also be a life savior. Like using Dolores the Sleeping Arrow Puppet does wonders. I also use the mimic and and tiche. All I gotta do is play carefully and not get hit by treating this as a rhythm game and also depend on luck.

[Jarko]

Originally posted by Lenox:

https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Damage+Types

This link categorizes what you’ve figured out for yourself. It’s how I approach things too, instead of just using one strong or overpowered (and future nerfable) weapon all game.

However, you’re undoing your optimal combat strategy with a horrid attribute spread and trying to use every weapon.

Let’s say you’re using a weapon that requires 25 STR & 25 DEX, but nothing else. You’re wasting the 25 points in INT, ARC, and FAI. That’s 55-60 or so levels wasted, depending on starting class.

You do not need a hybrid attribute spread to achieve your strategy. Instead, it’s better to choose a weapon weight class (so you don’t waste equip load) and consistent affinity and minimum requirements, and ignore the rest. That way you can put the rest of those attributes into Vigor, Endurance, or even Mind.

Also, if you feel the need to farm, something is wrong. But if over-leveling is your thing, then strategy doesn’t matter.

The point is not to be able to use every weapon but of every type so that I can swap out and fight a boss with an optimized set. My vigor and endurance take a priority of being at 30 the rest would be 20 to 25. It's worked pretty well. and I would think to use any resource I can and have now I've gone past Godfrey.

[s0d0]

Is this your first playthrough?
And did you look up the bosses weaknesses online or did you find out by yourself?

[Jarko]

Originally posted by s0d0:

Is this your first playthrough?
And did you look up the bosses weaknesses online or did you find out by yourself?

First. I usually confront the boss first and if I die, I'll look up weaknesses online.

[s0d0]

That sounds unfun to be honest, you let community make half the work you basically.
I mean a friend of mine looked up a lot for his first run, too. I am not here to judge, but overall I think you would have a far better and more rewarding experience if you figure that stuff out yourself.
You already said that you have a sort of JOAT build, so why not just try it all out for yourself?
Use this weapon, if it is bad, use other weapon until you find something that works well.

[Sabaithal]

Question (since this never got answered): Do gravity spells do a lot of stance damage to mobs? It seems like they would.

[Jarko]

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

Question (since this never got answered): Do gravity spells do a lot of stance damage to mobs? It seems like they would.

I haven't got around to use gravity spells yet. My main melee weapon does bleed. I've been leveling up a great sword, rapier, and these boxing gauntlets. The main spells i use are mostly buffs: Golden Vow, Flame give me strength, Flame clense me. I'm getting into more spell combat now. Starting with Black flame, rot breath.

Usually enemies will have 2 or more weakness. Sometimes only physical weaknesses, and sometimes between physical and magic. I usually go for melee, but i know some people that have straight up mage builds, and do nothing but cast a variety os spells.

[Senki]

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

Question (since this never got answered): Do gravity spells do a lot of stance damage to mobs? It seems like they would.

Rock sling does, don't know about the others or the ashes of war but they probably do as well

[Scheneighnay]

Originally posted by Senki:

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

Question (since this never got answered): Do gravity spells do a lot of stance damage to mobs? It seems like they would.

Rock sling does, don't know about the others or the ashes of war but they probably do as well

Gravitas definitely does, it's outright broken early game.

[MULTIPASS]

Spreading out your stats is definitely working harder, not smarter. Working smarter would be sticking to a lane and figuring out how to use different tools for different challenges within the constraints of that build.

For example, there are loads of weapons with low stat requirements in the 8-14 range. Even if you're playing pure sorcerer, that doesn't mean you can't equip some kind of club to fight enemies weak to strike, and that club can also be infused with something that gives it INT scaling, or left as standard for physical damage but given ashes that scale with INT. You can equip talismans and helms that give stat boosts to use certain weapons and spells for certain situations. Having 25 in strength when you only need 16 to use the weapon is stupid, you're hardly benefiting from the extra points you spent above the minimum requirements, and now you're just bad at everything for no reason.

[Lenox]

Originally posted by Jarko:

Originally posted by Lenox:

https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Damage+Types

This link categorizes what you’ve figured out for yourself. It’s how I approach things too, instead of just using one strong or overpowered (and future nerfable) weapon all game.

However, you’re undoing your optimal combat strategy with a horrid attribute spread and trying to use every weapon.

Let’s say you’re using a weapon that requires 25 STR & 25 DEX, but nothing else. You’re wasting the 25 points in INT, ARC, and FAI. That’s 55-60 or so levels wasted, depending on starting class.

You do not need a hybrid attribute spread to achieve your strategy. Instead, it’s better to choose a weapon weight class (so you don’t waste equip load) and consistent affinity and minimum requirements, and ignore the rest. That way you can put the rest of those attributes into Vigor, Endurance, or even Mind.

Also, if you feel the need to farm, something is wrong. But if over-leveling is your thing, then strategy doesn’t matter.

The point is not to be able to use every weapon but of every type so that I can swap out and fight a boss with an optimized set. My vigor and endurance take a priority of being at 30 the rest would be 20 to 25. It's worked pretty well. and I would think to use any resource I can and have now I've gone past Godfrey.

You can use a weapon of every damage type with any attribute spread. Why not use what’s available for a specific setup? Instead of choosing all of them.

Name any non-JoaT setup and weight class and I can give you a weapon setup that covers all damage types.

What will you do once you’ve gotten all those attributes to the levels you mentioned? Keep allocating evenly?

Spirits are giving you the false sense that your build works. Especially with Mimic and Tiche, the strongest ones. The real way to test things would be to try some encounters spirit-less.

Btw, I’m by no means saying you must play optimally. I’m just calling attention to your style not being optimal, which is a shame since your damage type thinking is. If you want to go 99 mind and 10 everything else, go nuts. But I wouldn’t lie to you about it being a good build.