I’ve currently got three of the dungeons with the instant death carousel horse carriages that run up and down tracks on the go and I’m not bloody having it.
I don't agree with you about the navigation, progression or combat. I can see the argument for imbalance, but I'm not sure it negatively affects the play experience. Though I don't pvp. The pve enemies can deal insane damage, but you can turn yourself into a truly OP beast in half a dozen different ways, and things like the ash summons and NPC cooperators let you turn almost any boss fight into a gank squad where you almost can't lose. The controls are what they are. Outside of some dropped inputs, which while unfortunate didn't fundamentally damn me any more than my other mistakes did, I find them to be largely deliberate and effective.
Honestly? It's easily one of the best games FromSoft has ever produced. Far from perfect? Sure. Maybe not as technically mind blowing as Bloodborne or Sekiro, but the sheer scope of what was attempted here is worthy of praise, and the execution is surprisingly effective. The lore is excellent, the challenge is there if you are looking for it. And, quite frankly, the view from the East Capital Rampart site of grace when you first reach Leyndell may be one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in a game. Not just for the sheer, overwhelming visual of the golden capital, but because YOU CAN GO TO EVERYTHING YOU CAN SEE.
I'm 65 hours in, working my way up the Mountaintop of the Giants just this afternoon. The difficulty spike coming out of Leyndell is no joke. I went from feeling OP and just a bit over-leveled in the Capitol to hitting like a wet noodle and having to up my dodge game all over again. But I have loved almost every minute of it. I'm easily going to hit 100 hours in this thing, and that's without NG+.
As an aside, no FromSoft enemy has ever given me actual nightmares before, no matter how twisted. But Finger Spiders? Yeah, I'm losing sleep. And now on the Mountaintop there are Giant Finger Spiders. Bloody thing flicked me half a mile over a cliff and I wasn't sure if I should laugh or cry.
The Opaline Bubble Tear in your Wondrous Physick is your friend.
I'm still cleaning up Limgrave and slowly making my way through the swamps to Hogwarts, I'm like 20 hours in and around level 52 dual wielding the sword of fire and night and metero staff with the delay dagger spell feeling pretty good.
I'm rocking the land of reeds samurai set but I wanna find a good armor set. Any recommendations?
My personal favorites are the Crucible Knights sets. The Axe set is the version you can fight in the Stormhill Evergaol. The Tree set, my fave, is the alternate with the badass tree helm.
My other favorite is the Hoslow set.
Those are all a bit later game than where you're at, and a bit on the heavier side. Blaidd's set is also awesome, bit again, later game.
Also a shout out to my favorite weapon in the game, the Blasphemous Blade. Rocking a pure faith build at level 105 and I absolutely wreck face against anything not on the mountaintop.
Vigor is totally worth the investment. At least 40, maybe even 50 depending on your style.
But I'd hesitate to invest in a third damage stat any more than you have to. An easy way to leave yourself spread thin. And several mid game bosses are a lot easier if you can kill them quickly rather than a long, drawn out battle because your damage is low.
If you have weapons/sorceries you like? Yeah. If you're dissatisfied, that's different. Never be afraid to change it up if you're unhappy with what you've got or you find something you are more interested in.
Now, keep in mind, there is a limited ability to respec your character after you defeat Rennalla at Raya Lucaria. It requires a relatively rare consumable, but you get access to 10-12 per playthrough so it's not like you are totally stuck. If you want to try some different stuff later, or you find something you like better, you'll definitely be able to change it up.
But, in general, three damage stats means not taking full advantage of any of them. Also, Dex/Int is super strong, particularly early game. It's maybe not as powerful as Dex/Arcane in the long run right now, but that's only if you're going full meta I suspect. There are great options available to you with your current type of build. From what I'm seeing, Dex/Int and Str/Fth are probably the two most common pve builds in the game and there is still a lot of variety in loadouts and styles. Unless you're big into pvp, where it's Dex/Arc as far as the eye can see, with everybody running Moonveil or Rivers of Blood.
Heck, I went full Faith. I've not touched Strength or Dex beyond what I need for the weapons I want to use. And I still feel like I do amazing damage in the mid game, either with casting incantations or melee. I tend to go caster first, but I can mix it up in CQB when I need to. Particularly early, it's more about your weapon upgrade level than your stats anyway.
okay cool, yeah I don't play online.
I specced dex/int 24/24 respectively because I wanted to use the flame and night sword.
I always have the meteor staff and gives me good range, so I think I will pump into hp/mp, but I was also thinking is it even worth adding vigor since most bosses one shot anyways?
I've yet to be actually one shot by any boss and I am currently running 45 Vigor (40 naturally, and 5 from Radagon's Soreseal). Yeah, bosses deal an absolute truckload of damage, no question. But two things: 1) normal enemies also hit hard. So 25 vigor might mean death where 40 means chugging a flask and going about your business. Which means fewer resets and more time pulling in runes, or more mistakes you can make and still walk away. Not going to lie, a few extra points in vigor got me to a couple of bosses that I otherwise would have died en route to. And I still take a deeply stupid death because I made a mistake here or there, but then I have more leeway to go and get my runes back.
And 2) the way vigor works in ER is a little counterintuitive. You actually get better gains between 25-40 than you did before 25. Which means it's actually, and weirdly, more efficient to level it more, not less. Not to mention that levels are going way higher in this than other From games. I think I finished Bloodborne at like 77. I'm 105 now and I still have like four areas of the game to even get to. I'll be 140-150 easy by the time I'm done, and I haven't done any level farming since Limgrave when I was putting on stats to face Margit/Godrick. So you'll have the points to spend.
Elden Ring really AND I MEAN REALLY needs to re-balanced.
The late game enemies hit far too hard and far too fast (and that's with vigor powered up all the way to 60!). Seriously, bosses basically cheese you with infinite stamina, infinite poise and AOE attacks that melt your health away.
And the rune drop system needs to re-worked from the ground up. Case in point, that Crucible Knight f..ker hits so hard in the early game and he drops only 2100 runes but at Caelid those big birds drop 1781 runes! Those birds hit hard but they are nowhere near as tough as the Crucible Knight.
It's an amazing game but it has some flaws which FromSoft have been addressing lately but there's still a bit more to do.