If Elden Ring: The Shadow of the ErdtreeThe first patch was supposed to make the DLC easier, this second one is once again out for blood. Indeed, patch 1.12.3 issues a multitude of balance changes that weaken a bunch of The Shadow of the ErdtreeAsh of War’s new weapons and abilities, including a popular build that players used to kill the expansion’s difficult final boss.
While the latest update brought many nerfs, the most notable changes were the new Perfume Flasks and the specific War Ash called Rolling Sparks. When used in tandem with the Lightning Perfume Flask and/or Frenzyflame, the build was able to vaporize enemies quite quickly, and in some cases, even kill them in a single hit.
Editor’s Note: Spoilers for the final boss of Shadow of the Erdtree follow. If you haven’t reached this fight yet or simply don’t want spoilers, hit the back button now. — David.
This build has become a particularly popular tool for players who were stuck on the DLC’s final boss fight against Promised Consort Radahn, which hits like a fucking truck and kind of requires you to use a cheese strategy – which are often dubbed cheap tricks because they rely on overpowered builds or exploiting a glitch in the game.
Now, players will have to go back to the good old ways of defeating Radahn. The update also weakens the fast-cutting War Ash (thank goodness) due to its overkill in PvP, as well as the new thrusting shield weapons, which have started to gain popularity. Shielding while attacking with them would not consume much stamina, allowing players to spam attacks on thrusting shields with little consequence.
While many new weapons have been weakened, the Carian Sorcery Sword has had its Intelligence increased, though its overall attack damage has been slightly reduced. This should make spellcasting via the sword more powerful, while also appropriately weakening its raw damage, as it is rarely the choice of those who prioritize the Intelligence stat.
While weapons are the focus of this patch’s balance changes, it also makes life a little easier for the DLC’s two most demanding boss fights. Commander Gaius and the Golden Hippo have had their spawn points fixed. They should now start at a fixed point a good distance from the Fog Gate entrance, so as not to wipe out the player too quickly, which has become a common complaint among players for most Shadow of the Erdtree boss fights.
And so FromSoftware gives, but it also takes away. Given the cadence of these updates, I expect a few more balance changes over the next few weeks before the developer decides everything is in its proper place. So if you have a broken version and want to get rid of it, I encourage you to hurry. The full patch notes follow below:
PvP-exclusive balance adjustments
- The damage and damage animation of the skill “Swift Slash”’s shear void effect have been reduced.
General Balance Adjustments
- Carian Sorcery Sword’s intelligence scale has been increased and base damage has been slightly decreased.
- The range of throwing attacks has been extended for the following weapons:
- Smithscript Dagger / Smithscript Circus
- The boss placement during the new Golden Hippopotamus and Commander Gaius boss fight has been changed so that they are in the same position as during the first fight.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug where the Rolling Sparks skill would deal more damage than intended.
- Fixed a bug where the skills Rolling Sparks and Wall of Sparks would not deal any damage while certain special effects were applied to the player.
- Fixed a bug where some special effects of a right-handed weapon were also applied to the following weapon skills when cast with the left hand:
- Lord Faible’s Frenzied Flame Disc Throw
- Fixed a bug where successfully shielding while attacking with the Attack Shield weapon type would consume less stamina than intended.
- Fixed a bug where players were unable to cancel the attack recovery of two-handed heavy attacks by rolling for certain Backhand Blades type weapons.
- Fixed a bug where the Lightning Perfume Bottle and Frenzyflame Perfume Bottle weapons would deal double damage under certain circumstances.
- Fixed a bug where the Blood Demon Arms weapon’s arcane scaling was higher than intended when setting an affinity. The status stack of Heavy Attack has also been reduced.
- Fixed a bug where the Faith scaling of the Gazing Finger weapon was not being applied correctly.
- Fixed a bug where the damage animation of some Fire Knight’s Greatsword attacks against players was different than expected.
- Fixed a bug where the attack affinity of some of the Fire Knight’s Greatsword’s attacks was different than expected.
- Fixed a bug where some affinities for the following weapons were higher than intended:
- Smithscript DaggerSmithscript CircusSmithscript AxeSmithscript Great HammerSmithscript SpearGolem FistSmithscript Shield
- Fixed a bug where enemies would heal when the maximum HP reduction effect applied by Black Knife Tiche wore off.
- Fixed a bug that caused summoned NPCs to behave differently than intended under certain circumstances.
- Fixed a bug where the Golden Hippo boss’s unblockable bite attack would connect to players more easily than intended.
- Fixed a bug that caused text to display differently than intended.
- Several other performance improvements and bug fixes.
Possible unstable performance fixes
- For the PS5 version of the game, choppy framerate can be improved by using the “Rebuild Database” option from the device’s Safe Mode.
- On some PC versions, Ray Tracing may be enabled inadvertently and cause unstable performance. Please check the Ray Tracing setting in “System” > “Graphics Settings” > “Ray Tracing Quality” from the title screen or game menu.
- In the PC version, the message “Inappropriate activity detected” may appear without cheating.
To resolve this issue, please verify the integrity of the game files before restarting the game.
- In the PC version, unstable frame rate may be caused by third-party applications that control mouse behavior. Disabling these third-party applications may improve performance.
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