So, is melee skill a hard requirement in Elden Ring?

[Charlemagne]

I found Dark Souls very challenging. I managed to finish it but mostly because every boss had its cheese. I couldn't defeat most of them otherwise. I managed to fight lesser monsters and had a certain knack for rolling, but I was never able to parry, for example. Not for lack of trying. I never achieved a single parry in the whole game, can you believe. Many players take parry as a given to fight bosses.
OK they said Elden Ring would be a bit easier than Dark Souls and I have managed to explore a big chunk of the world and kill a lot of stuff including bosses using an Astrologer and relying heavily on magic, summons and the horse. But I have found bosses or minibosses that don't let you use the horse or summons and are practically immune to magic. There is no way I can beat them using refined melee techniques. Forget parry or dodge. I can't even roll in this game, because they changed the button I used in Dark Souls and I find it too hard to coordinate.
So, are there bottlenecks in Elden Ring that can ONLY be resolved with parry and other refined melee stuff, or everything has another way of doing it? If melee is required, it's game over for me and why bother.

[Todd Howard]

Use summons and build fully into mage, the game is 10x easier until maybe Radahn.

[Dam Stark]

If you are this bad and dont care for learning the bosses the game provides enough tools to mitigate the fights. You can use greatshields, ultra heavy armor and of course summon a duplicate version of yourself which is super strong to help you split the agro so I think it's still totally cheesable if you enjoy that. It might be somewhat difficult until you get it though but its also extremely easy to overlevel and find strong spells and weapons. I'd say this game is easier than dark souls if you acctually use everything it throws at you.

[Wushiba]

Just like Dark Souls you can cheese pretty much everything but it's more fun to not do that and give the enemies a chance too.

[Charlemagne]

Yep but there are these specific bosses or minibosses where I can't summon anything, I can't use the horse, and magic is useless. So, my main question is if these can ONLY be beaten by prowess in melee? Which is a hard stop for me. It's something with me, perhaps my coordination is a bit slow. I can get through a lot using other tehniques but in games where fights require exact 1/10 of a second reactions, like Kingdom Come Deliverance, I just can't make it. So, if Elden Ring has battles where the only way to get through is by parry, better know that and go play something else.

[Knavenformed]

Melee is not required, magic is good (Can't say best it has ever been since Dark Souls 1 exists) but it's most enjoyable since you get so many flavors of it.

You can re-bind keys how you like, I prefer my jump on Y.

Parrying is much worse in Elden Ring since you need more than one parry against select bosses to get a riposte, and you could finish Dark Souls without parrying too, made it a lot easier though.

Evergaols are completely optional, and if one spits you out you might just need to find a magic that counters it.

[Koros Antavo]

What do you mean by "they changed the roll button?" It's where it always was - the Circle on the PS controller or B on Xbox. Do you play with mouse and keyboard? If so, little wonder you are struggling.

You said you have a certain knack for rolling - that's all these games really require. It is possible to do stuff like Level 1 runs naked with nothing but a stick precisely because you skill in pattern recognition and rollling is the most important factor in the combat system.

As for actual advice, you can cheese most bosses here too, and you have way more options to do so in ER than in any other Fromsoft game. Especially since you run a mage, there are powerful spells, weapon arts, and buff stacks that can melt boss health bars with ease. If you're struggling, find some youtube guides on how to be an effective PvE and PvBoss mage.

[DarkFenix]

Magic is always an option, both sorcery and incantations have some exceptionally effective builds that involve avoiding melee. There are indeed mini-bosses that don't allow summoning, those can make avoiding the enemy quite challenging, but it's not what I'd call melee skill.

There are also options for melee without the skill part. Channel your inner Trump, build a wall. Or in other words, use the biggest, heaviest greatshield you can find, laugh as the enemy impotently flails against it. Then shove a spear through their face without ever lowering your guard. Or maybe just use the greatshield that has a literal cannon built into it, that's good for a laugh.

[Charlemagne]

Yeah keyboard and most fighting games I've played have roll on spacebar. In ER roll is with Shift (or is it Control?) I have to do it with the pinky finger and its a bit hard to remember where it is and do it automatically.
I tried changing roll to spacebar but I found jumping awkward. I think I'll give that another try.
I abandoned controller many years ago because it gave me tendinitis and gamer's thumb.

[Tao314zdin]

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

Yep but there are these specific bosses or minibosses where I can't summon anything,

You mean like evergaol bosses? If you level up to 100+ they are all but one extremely weak, so you can kill them in like 2-3 casts, or even just oneshot with things like comet or thorns.

Can also use ironjar and basically just ignore them and cast away.

So essentially come back later with OP spells and ironjar flask.

[Charlemagne]

OK thanks to all. SO next question would be how to level up further? I've explored a big chunk of the world, and now I'm meeting bottlenecks everywhere, for example I finally killed Mirgit and now I'm stuck with a blue knight in a room in the castle. He's the one that makes me feel it has to be melee. Main thing I haven't found practically any new spells, where to find them?

[Knavenformed]

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

OK thanks to all. SO next question would be how to level up further? I've explored a big chunk of the world, and now I'm meeting bottlenecks everywhere, for example I finally killed Mirgit and now I'm stuck with a blue knight in a room in the castle. He's the one that makes me feel it has to be melee. Main thing I haven't found practically any new spells, where to find them?

Slight spoilers but Stormveil Castle is optional and skippable

And you can do the main gate route once you figure out how, unless it's already locked by going with the side-access plan

Spells are a bit tricky to find, they are not necessarily the easiest to find, but Sellen in Limgrave sells good starting spells, and the next area after Stormveil Castle has different types of spells too in the INT category

Do remember to level up your Vigor though, it scales up hard, lvl10-20 isn't much but 20-40 is a big, big difference

[Fineous🔥]

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

So, are there bottlenecks in Elden Ring that can ONLY be resolved with parry

Just one! The deadliest entity in all Souls but dont you worry....They are waiting for you in the mist......AKA Shadow of the Erdtree!

[Knavenformed]

Originally posted by Fineous🔥:

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

So, are there bottlenecks in Elden Ring that can ONLY be resolved with parry

Just one! The deadliest entity in all Souls but dont you worry....They are waiting for you in the mist......AKA Shadow of the Erdtree!

People just forgor the sneaking tutorial

[Jack Blastem]

Originally posted by Talisman:

Use summons and build fully into mage, the game is 10x easier until maybe Radahn.

Radahn is super easy for a mage pre nerf even.

[Fineous🔥]

Originally posted by Knavenformed:

Originally posted by Fineous🔥:

Just one! The deadliest entity in all Souls but dont you worry....They are waiting for you in the mist......AKA Shadow of the Erdtree!

People just forgor the sneaking tutorial

That was not a option! After more than one hour throwing the first one EVERYTHING i had!. I also wanted all the shiny things they have.....

They are not that hard to parry but shh...dont want to spoil OP his big surprise.