Consort Radahn Nerf

[lastofus69]

Do you guys think that nerfing Consort Radahn was the right choice?

[paincanbefun]

it's hard to say what is right when the player base changes

i think it's not a big deal. it's still close to the game's release, and the changes are small from what i've heard (i did him after the first nerf and i have not seen him yet after the second). it's perfectly reasonable to tune the game after launch, especially if there is a lot of qq

the fights i care about are the ones i've played over and over and gotten on lockdown (gael, fume) or struggled 100+ attempts before learning how to down the bastard (orphan of kos) and i think it would bother me if those got nerfed

if people are only mad because they can't gatekeep, rather than out of appreciation for the actual fight, this is not a good reason to be mad

[lastofus69]

Well that's a really cool headed way of looking at it

[An Irate Walrus]

Originally posted by paincanbefun:

it's hard to say what is right when the player base changes

i think it's not a big deal. it's still close to the game's release, and the changes are small from what i've heard (i did him after the first nerf and i have not seen him yet after the second). it's perfectly reasonable to tune the game after launch, especially if there is a lot of qq

the fights i care about are the ones i've played over and over and gotten on lockdown (gael, fume) or struggled 100+ attempts before learning how to down the bastard (orphan of kos) and i think it would bother me if those got nerfed

if people are only mad because they can't gatekeep, rather than out of appreciation for the actual fight, this is not a good reason to be mad

I appreciate that this was marked as the answer to the thread; now let's get it slapped on every thread connected to this subject.

And OP, thanks for being cool enough to consider this well-reasoned, level-headed response. We need more like both of y'all here.

[Amene]

Originally posted by lastofus69:

Do you guys think that nerfing Consort Radahn was the right choice?

It never is. There are better ways than dumbing the game down.

[lolschrauber]

Originally posted by Amene:

Originally posted by lastofus69:

Do you guys think that nerfing Consort Radahn was the right choice?

It never is. There are better ways than dumbing the game down.

Like what?

[Humpenstilzchen]

Originally posted by Amene:

Originally posted by lastofus69:

Do you guys think that nerfing Consort Radahn was the right choice?

It never is. There are better ways than dumbing the game down.

Yea of course you know better than Fromsoft. Maybe write them an email and teach them about gamedesign and balancing. I´m sure they´ll aprreciate your wisdom.

[Azylis]

I think it was a good choice. The damage nerf was not significant from what I can tell so far, he is still very difficult, but you get to take a breath every now and then now. And I also appreciate very much that they improved visibility of some of the attacks. In my opinion, the fight feels better now. It was a good fight before, don't get me wrong, but it's better now that he's a bit less erratic.

[Senki]

yeah it was, he was excessively annoying compared to the other bosses

[Azusa]

Sort of. It really depends on how far From wants/expects players to go to defeat a challenge. Consort is a trivial fight using one of several builds or techniques, but none of those is available to everyone, at least without respec. Is it a bridge too far to ask a player to respec their build to beat a boss? I don't think so, otherwise why does respec even exist outside of PvP?

OTOH, certain popular builds from the base game are/were nearly impossible to beat the fight with. I have yet to see a jump attack build beat him, for instance. So if you do think forcing a respec is too much to ask, then you can argue that the nerfs didn't go far enough.

To me, one of the great things about Souls games is that they sometimes put a challenge in front of you that your existing way of solving problems doesn't account for. It forces you to learn, to try new weapons/tactics/etc. Radahn 2.0 did that, but then again so did the rest of the DLC and that's what bothers me about the nerfs. The progression of SotE clearly lead the player towards the conclusion that you needed to pick a path, be it light and nimble or heavily armored. Radahn is the pinnacle fight of that design choice; middle of the road, decent at everything builds tend to not do well against him.

I guess I'd just say the specific nerfs they implemented seem OK because they're very focused, and I hope they don't do any more.

[Spacesuit Spiff]

The visual clarity made phase 2 feel much better. I didn't play it much pre-nerf but it seemed a bit cluttered, post-nerf there was only 2 moves that came off weird visually. Really enjoyed the post-nerf version, but I had the benefit of more practice with it so can't really compare.

My build wasn't especially good vs the guy (finally tried an INT build after hearing about how "broken" it is, playing without summons the spells were more trouble than they were worth like most bosses, so 70 INT just boosting a cold weapon). So I needed to win a war of attrition and find solutions to all his moves. That was a lot of fun. Yeah his damage was a lot, but if it wasn't for that it wouldn't have been as engaging figuring out a deliberate and consistent strat for everything (his phase 2 vacuum took me a while until I finally checked if running away from it worked like phase 1).

If that's the experience the boss is designed to serve up, they did a great job and the nerf helps emphasise it.

[Paulo Ramos]

The nerfed too much. The boss did not need a nerf to stamina damage or a change to many non-weapons attacks range. Now the players can beat the boss by spaming circle/dodge like Dark souls 3.

[Amene]

Yea of course you know better than Fromsoft. Maybe write them an email and teach them about gamedesign and balancing. I´m sure they´ll aprreciate your wisdom.

What's there to know mr sarcastic wiseass ? is it that complex of a concept ?[i.vgy.me].

The sad reality is that we do get that, only it's hidden and hardcoded to "easier" within days-weeks after the release, depending on the game.

[ArrantThief]

IMO the the boss needed a massive nerf and they didn’t do enough. He needs less HP, flat out. I also am extremely opposed to all two phase bosses with cutscenes and consider them to be the worst bosses in the game. It should have been two separate bosses, I will never not think that.
Consort Radahn was genuinely my least favorite experience in any video game ever and I’ve put in hundreds of hours into the souls games and Elden Ring on console and PC over the years. Just a genuinely unfun experience