Vagabond tips/tricks?

[Zero]

I decided on vagabond, I want to just concentrate on HP mainly and use less flasks, simplicity.

A few questions if you don't mind

1, is it bad practice to use a shield most of the time? Do you lose out on getting better at dodging etc?

2, I just got battle stomp but unsure what the stat changes mean, it was something like, 110 phsyical but if I choose battle stomp it gos to 94+20 (not accurate numbers just what I remember) Should I use it and replace what I started with?

3. When is halberd useful, will I ever need a long weapon like that, or can I discard it and concentrate on my sword

4. Is it a waste of materials to upgrade my sword/shield, when later on down the line I may find better stuff that I would rather spend resources on?

5. Should I worry less about 4 and just do whatever I think and think less about optimization?

6. When are the right times to put my shield away and use my sword 2 handed and vice versa?

[fauxpas]

I believe there is a time and place for both, just don't fat roll.

Scaling changes based on your stats, so unless it adds elemental/magic damage use whichever gives you better numbers. ... Note that whetblades will let you use different affinities with weapon arts as you collect them.

Reach matters alot, but so does speed, so use each tool against the proper enemy.

Not really, you get infinite numbers of each upgrade material except for the final upgrade, so don't worry too much about wasting them, but they do cost runes to buy and dungeons to unlock the stores so don't be completely reckless either.

YES!!! But for all your questions, having fun is far more important than min-maxing.

Basically when you either like the altered move set or the difference will let you get through blocking or stagger the badguy, which is something you'll learn by feel.

[fauxpas]

Oh, and the easiest way to not fat roll with starting stats is to take your helmet off, that puts the vanguard at med load and still let's you use both weapons and your shield.

[Turt]

1. Shields are relatively good for new players who aren't accustomed to dodging in souls games yet (tho quickstep and bloodhound step can also help). You can also use the counter attack mechanic to break posture for easy crits.

2. When changing Ashes of War in early game, go for the change that gives you the most physical damage. As you level your stats the infusion better suited for you will differ.

3. The starting halberd for Vegabond I think is alright. It will help you learn spacing and will probably deal better stagger than your straight sword, but the straight sword will be better for more agile enemies. I'd keep both and swap depending on the situation. Mess around with weapons and find the ones you like.

4. Early upgrade materials (+3-6) are quite easy to come by if you know where to look (check merchants). If you are unsure about upgrading a weapon try messing around with it first. See if you like its move set, damage, appearance, etc.

5. Elden Ring isn't particularly difficult compared to previous souls games. Optimization isn't as important as long as you level vigor and stats accordingly (like if you want to use big hammer, then level vig, end, and str)

6. 2-handing weapons increases damage (dependent on str) and posture damage. If you are dealing with a larger enemy that doesn't stagger as easily, switching to 2-hand may allow you stagger with certain attacks or break their posture quicker. Larger enemies generally deal higher damage so a shield may be guardbroken easily if you block.

Hope this helps.

[Sabaithal]

1. No, its not, ignore anyone telling you this. Shields are perfectly viable as a form of defense, always have been, in fact sometimes its a better option than dodging (Especially since guard counters are thing now). It all depends on guard boost. The higher that stat is, the less stamina is drained when you block, and yes it goes up when you upgrade most shields. You just need to be wary of grab attacks, which shields cannot block.

2. No idea on that one unfortunately. The "stomps" aren't used very often aside from hoarfrost.

3. Depends on the Halberd. The Nights Cavalry halberd for example does high damage, high stagger, and is reasonably quick. They're an oddly versatile mix between a greatsword and a spear, but with higher weight. If its not fun don't use it.

4. All smithing material aside from the topmost tier material can be both farmed, and bought in infinite quantities later on.

5. Optimize later when you get a feel for the combat, focus on having fun with the combat first.

6. 2h a weapon does more damage, and slightly changes the moveset. Make of that what you will.

[MULTIPASS]

Another good tip to know early is that holding a weapon with 2 hands helps you meet the strength requirement to use it - this gives a 50% bonus to your effective strength, rounded down if your str is an odd number.

[Tetsuya_Kurogane]

Hello there,

1) Your shield is a trustful companion. The only downside could be that it can cost more stamina face-tanking than rolling.
A heavier shield have better result. That's the 'Guard Boost' stat. It determines how much stamina blocking cost.
Also, while many shield have 100% physical guard, elemental damage will do chip damage.

2) When you switch around your Ash of War, it can change the weapon infusion. Look at the name of the weapon, it may gain a : Heavy, Keen, Quality, etc.

This change the stats scaling to determine damage. When you apply that move, you can always select Standard to keep the regular distribution.
Later in the game you might also find Whetblade. Those allow you to select your desired type to match what you want.
There are also elemental type of infusion that will split the damage between physical and either fire, thunder, magic or holy.

3) Sword and shield is cool, sure, but a long weapon will help out a lot more. Halberd are great at slaying dragon. n_n
Holding a weapon with 2 hand also increase damage and the stagger. You can more efficiently stop an ennemy attack and make the Boss kneel for a critical attack.

I think the vagabond start off into heavy load, with the slow and loud roll, with it's startup set. Look into it and you may need to put your halberd aside for now.

4) Upgradde what you use as soon as possible. 2 reasons for that.

First, you will find an item (smithing stone bell bearing) that allow you to buy upgrade materials. You are not limited to how much stuff you can upgrade. (Exept for the final upgrade, Ancient Stone are limited but you will have found your trusty god-slaying weapon by then.)
When you find a new weapon you want to try, you can look at the wiki and hunt those bell bearing.

Secondo, there are no 'better' weapon in this game like what other RPG might do. What truly define the efficieny of a weapon, thus potential damage, it's their weight. If you take 2 hammers, the heavier one would do a tiny bit more damage once upgraded.

5) I would say worry not, but I kinda lied in my last point. Weight is not the only factor and some weapon turn out to be better at equal level. Weapon that are unique often have special L2 move that annihilate regular Ash of War and will reach higher damage rating.

6) I guess only trial and error will help you find the flow. See the difference in combo when your holding your sword with both hands.

If your shield have a special attach to it, like parry or shield bash, it will take priority and stop you from using your weapon Ash of War. So try switching out to place some devastating attack then pull back your shield.

I also mentioned that 2 handing cause more stagger. An enemy Poise is a hidden meter that fill out with each hit they take until it breaks them and they fall. (It will slowly decrease if they receive no attack for a while, be careful)
During a boos fight, you might get a feel after a few blow that they are about to break. Take the offensive with jumping heavy and you will get your critical.

Bonus tip: If you want to focus on shield usage, try out a spear. You can poke attack while holding your guard up. Great way to safely engage a troublesome ennemy.
Thrusting sword also have that ability. You can find the Great Epée very close to the starting area. Give it a try.

Have fun out there.

[Argonaut]

Effortpost incoming.

Originally posted by Serenity:

I decided on vagabond, I want to just concentrate on HP mainly and use less flasks, simplicity.

A few questions if you don't mind

Vagabond good. Vagabond most stat efficient starter class.

1, is it bad practice to use a shield most of the time? Do you lose out on getting better at dodging etc?

Yes and no. The game is more complex than you think. Are you using a shield so you can use shield bash and stagger into 2-3 light weapon attacks with high bleed? Are you using the twinkite bird shield for the passive buff in the hopes it will save you? Are you using a light shield that boosts resistances against a specific enemy/unit type that has it(i.e perfumers shield VS malenia).

Relying on a shield for just blocks is one dimensional and like all things one dimensional it blinds you to the possibilities. Also yes it will make you bad at dodging and lazy when fighting enemies and you will get clapped halfway through the game where blocking bosses is no longer an option.

2, I just got battle stomp but unsure what the stat changes mean, it was something like, 110 phsyical but if I choose battle stomp it gos to 94+20 (not accurate numbers just what I remember) Should I use it and replace what I started with?

When you select your own ash of war you are given an option for weapon infusion. You need to find and unlock multiple key items known as whetstone blades in order to unlock more infusion options for every ashe of war. By default it will offer you one or sometimes two options and the more whetstone blades the more options. Keep in mind that ashes of war that have a very obvious elemental bias(i.e glintstone pebble being magic) cannot offer you elemental infusions outside of their bias.

So what does this all mean? Infusions will change your weapons innate damage as well as the scaling of your weapon. A heavy infusion favors strength scaling while a keen infusion favors dexterity scaling. Then you get to fire which favors strength with a little faith or fire arts that favors faith entirely.

You want to use the infusion that parallels your main damage stat.
Str - Heavy / fire
Dex - Keen / Lightning
Intelligence - Magic / Cold
Faith - Fire arts / Sacred
Arcane - Bleed / Occult

3. When is halberd useful, will I ever need a long weapon like that, or can I discard it and concentrate on my sword

It depends entirely on your playstyle. Long weapons are good for spacing out enemies or running them down and staggering them before they have a chance to react. Pokey weapons are great at running down fleeing enemies or physically weak enemies such as mages.

The thing is ashes of war exist as well. A halberd with flaming strike is one of the most popular weapon combos for PvP because the halberd is great at pursuit and long range while flaming strike is an extremely powerful close range attack thus covering what is otherwise a weakness of the halberd. My suggestion is to try out everything you come across that you have the stats to use and see what you like and what feels natural to you. After you've gotten the hang of the weapons you have a natural inclination towards you can start to look at other options.

4. Is it a waste of materials to upgrade my sword/shield, when later on down the line I may find better stuff that I would rather spend resources on?

Yes and no. You can find key items known as bells that allow you to purchase an infinite amount of upgrade materials excluding the final tear(+25 normal / +10 somber). As a new player you will not know where these are and it is up to you whether you want to use a wiki to find out or not. I would suggest to not do so.

That being said upgrade materials are quite plentiful and just by learning to read your map and learning which marking denotes the location of a mine will allow you to get a lot of upgrade materials very quickly so you can keep 3-4 weapons upgraded up to a certain point. I would suggest not upgrade a weapon past +12 if you are not confident you may want to use it and picking a strong all around weapon to focus on upgrading to get you through the game on your first playthrough or until you've found the location of all the smithing stone bells.

I would suggest using the Claymore as your main weapon for your first playthrough as it is very well balanced for PvE and cannot be used as a crutch.

5. Should I worry less about 4 and just do whatever I think and think less about optimization?

As long as you have a weapon that you have chosen ahead of time to prioritize upgrading you don't need to worry about upgrading other weapons. Don't worry about making the right choice.

6. When are the right times to put my shield away and use my sword 2 handed and vice versa?

All the time. Blocking is a crutch and the sooner you get used to not having it the better you will be at using it as well as all the other tools at your disposal. Two handing a weapon also increases its damage by multiplying its strength scaling by 1.5x and increases the poise damage the weapon does. If you find yourself attacking an enemy and they do not stagger one handed switch to two handing and see if you can stucklock them with R1s. If you want to try to stagger a boss as quickly as possible switch to two handing.

[Yal]

Originally posted by Serenity:

1, is it bad practice to use a shield most of the time? Do you lose out on getting better at dodging etc?

Shields are best against weak, fast attacks (a lot of enemies will stagger if they hit you while blocking, notably this is very useful against rats and dogs). With bigger shields you can block more powerful attacks without getting guardbroken (the "guard boost" stat influences this but generally the rule of thumb is, bigger shield = better)
Do keep in mind that most shields don't protect against ELEMENTAL damage (fire, holy, electric etc) very well, so if you block magic you will take chip damage.

Dodges are more useful against projectiles and big powerful attacks, a lot of bosses have delayed attacks that tend to hit you right after your dodgeroll finishes so learning timing takes some effort. If you're in a bad spot, your two main choices are giving up and blocking anyway, or spam dodgerolls and hope you manage to dodge the attack by sheer luck.

Jumping ALSO lets you dodge some attacks, only your lower body gets iframes while jumping but it can be useful against enemies with ground slams. Early in the game, most enemies have to real way to counter heavy jumping attacks either so it's a safe way to approach.

Originally posted by Serenity:

2, I just got battle stomp but unsure what the stat changes mean, it was something like, 110 phsyical but if I choose battle stomp it gos to 94+20 (not accurate numbers just what I remember) Should I use it and replace what I started with?

There's several different types of Ash Of War scaling: regular, strength, dexterity, quality (strength AND dexterity), elemental, bleed, poison etc. Generally if you use a different affinity than the regular, it will lower base power and add more scaling (for the physical ones), this mostly matters when you have a lot of one stat. Elemental affinities splits the attack power evenly between physical and the element, and ailment affinities lower attack power but give you bleed/poison/frost buildup.
Generally I'd say what matters the most is the skill the ash grants, not the scaling. The Storm Stomp isn't super good, but there's a guy on Stormhill that sells Ashes of War, his stock includes a wind projectile (really useful if you have no other ranged attacks) and a defensive stance that temporarily makes you unstaggerable and halves all damage. Check out his stuff, I guarantee you'll find at least one skill you enjoy!

Originally posted by Serenity:

3. When is halberd useful, will I ever need a long weapon like that, or can I discard it and concentrate on my sword

Never discard anything, you never know when it'll be useful! There's a lot of unique items that you can only get once per playthrough. When you rest at a site of grace there's an option to put items you don't need in storage, use that instead.

Halberds are pretty useful on horseback, if you charge the heavy attack it becomes a 2-hit combo that sends a lot of enemies flying. If you get a second halberd and dual-wield them you get a really cool moveset too, it lets you hit in a 180-degree circle in front of you. They can also use a lot of ashes-of-war (both the spear and axe ones, even a katana-exlusive one!) so if you're into active-use skills you have a lot to choose from.

Originally posted by Serenity:

4. Is it a waste of materials to upgrade my sword/shield, when later on down the line I may find better stuff that I would rather spend resources on?

You don't really get "better" stuff in this game, you just get different stuff. Stronger weapons need higher stats or have other drawbacks (often being slower or heavier) so sticking with your starting weapon through the entire game is a completely valid choice - the power is gonna come from upgrades so it'll keep up with all the cool boss weapons you collect. It's good to upgrade several weapons with different properties so you can change up your strategy if you get stuck (e.g. one fast weapon and one big weapon is a good strat, or an elemental weapon for when you fight armored enemies)
There's also a couple NPCs that give you pre-upgraded weapons if you complete their sidequests so you'll get a couple options to fall back on if you regret your upgrade choices.

Originally posted by Serenity:

5. Should I worry less about 4 and just do whatever I think and think less about optimization?

Yeah, thinking too much about minmaxing is going to ruin the fun. Stats often mislead you, weapons with lower power might make up for it by being faster or having longer range (or a really awesome skill - the Black Knife comes to mind). I also recommend you only pick armor pieces after what looks cool, a 0.5% in defense is almost never noticeable.

Originally posted by Serenity:

6. When are the right times to put my shield away and use my sword 2 handed and vice versa?

The complete answer would be "when you want to change movesets". Generally you won't notice the power increase but when you need more crowd control, range or speed, usually the twohanded moveset provides. (But not for every weapon - e.g. greatswords hit over a bigger area when onehanded but attack vertically when twohanded, so they've got more crowd control when onehanded but are better in tight spaces when twohanded)

Also good to know: your weapon won't bounce off enemy shields / scales when twohanded, so if you wanna keep the pressure up on a knight or miner you should twohand it.

[C1REX]

Big shields are very good in this game. You need high STR stat for big shields but they can make the game very easy.

Combine a great shield with a spear or a rapier and you can attack and block at the same time.

[Zero]

Originally posted by C1REX-PL:

Big shields are very good in this game. You need high STR stat for big shields but they can make the game very easy.

Combine a great shield with a spear or a rapier and you can attack and block at the same time.

I like the aesthetic of rapiers, are they any good with a shield?

[C1REX]

Originally posted by Serenity:

Originally posted by C1REX-PL:

Big shields are very good in this game. You need high STR stat for big shields but they can make the game very easy.

Combine a great shield with a spear or a rapier and you can attack and block at the same time.

I like the aesthetic of rapiers, are they any good with a shield?

Rapiers and heavy thrusting weapons (big rapiers) are very good. Just add bleed and they will do massive damage.
However you may not like the look of a small pointy weapon with a huge heavy shield.
I prefer Spartan way of a big shield + spear.

[Zero]

Originally posted by C1REX-PL:

Originally posted by Serenity:

I like the aesthetic of rapiers, are they any good with a shield?

Rapiers and heavy thrusting weapons (big rapiers) are very good. Just add bleed and they will do massive damage.
However you may not like the look of a small pointy weapon with a huge heavy shield.
I prefer Spartan way of a big shield + spear.

Must be super slow though?

[C1REX]

Originally posted by Serenity:

Must be super slow though?

It’s not slow at all but have different limitations. But with the right setup it works amazingly well and it’s an easy mode since Dark Souls 1.

[gungadin22000]

In Elden Ring, you can finish the game by cosplaying as Leonidas: butt naked, hiding behind a huge shield and poking away with a spear or another thrusting weapon. ER allows you to block AND poke at the same time, and this is how I beat the game the first time around, even the optional super-hard hidden boss.

Bear in mind that this will NOT make you git gud, as learning dodge or parry timings is irrelevant when you can just keep holding block instead.

[Sabaithal]

Originally posted by Serenity:

Originally posted by C1REX-PL:

Rapiers and heavy thrusting weapons (big rapiers) are very good. Just add bleed and they will do massive damage.
However you may not like the look of a small pointy weapon with a huge heavy shield.
I prefer Spartan way of a big shield + spear.

Must be super slow though?

Not really honestly. Spear thrusts are pretty quick attacks, very precise as well. Just not a huge amount of damage per thrust.

Greatspears absolutely destroy enemy stance though.