Legitimate Non Bait PVP Topic

[Nifty]

Just for a sample to see if anyone still cares, or if all the conclusions that can be drawn from the competitive scene have already been mined to death.

So again this is all the new tech I have learned from playing through the dlc 7 times with 7 builds, and taking 3 of those builds to rank 5 in arena.

1. Greatshields Are Good Again - nobody has really been talking about this but superior stamina stacking has made this Shield class B+ tier again, when I would argue it was fairly unplayable.

Stamina + 3, two headed turtle, greatshield talisman, maybe even pearl shield.

It's entirely possible to have 100% physical dmg negation, 95% dmg negation in everything else, and enough stamina to make shield breaks a rarity.

2. Spell Dadies Are Good Again - part of it is the generally elevated soul level for dlc meta being 160 and some of it is that the weapons in the dlc cost 0 weight.

Turn your 100 poise max dmg spellcaster into a flying kick kung-fu master at the press of a button chances are they will be so hyper focused on dodging spells they won't even notice you have good up close dmg.

3. Weebs are good again - enhanced dmg stacking potential means blue dancers are gonna be very scary. Two handed, plus dancer, plus spear talisman, plus Alexander is a lot of dmg for wearing nothing but a shirt and pants.

But even assuming you want to ignore that, your standard anime L2 spam will make your medium weight build move like you're Yoda from the prequels.

4. Bows are good again - more ranged talisman stacking means more dmg. It's used to be a bow build was hard stuck on +10% and you were kinda done.

Now it's +20% plus 15% it's more likely your bow adversary will be rocking 40% flat dmg increase and maybe spear talisman on top of that.

Thats not mentioning all the nasty status options.

5. Throwing weapons are game changers - who needs bows when you can spam your lightning fast discuss hurls across the arena, or spam a fan of knives with claws of night?

Even impalers spear the go to choice for L2 warriors has range pressure.

Conclusions:

There's very few builds that aren't better in the dlc. I think the only builds that aren't is sweaty vanilla tech that is no longer relavent.

Oooh star fists, how about Pata with mile long Vega claws instead?

Double spear? How about vanilla great thrusting swords instead?

Double vanilla curved sword? How about paired unique curved swords?

If I'm missing anything here let me know but this is the most non bait Elden Ring state of the nation you can get!