If Elden Ring: Shadow of ErdtreeThe first patch was intended facilitate DLC, this second one is again for blood. Effectively, patch 1.12.3 issues a number of balance changes that weaken a lot Shadow of ErdtreeNew Ash of War weapons and skills, including a popular build that players used to kill the difficult final boss of the expansion.
While there are plenty of nerfs in the latest update, the most impressive changes are to the new Flasks and the Ash of War specific Rolling Sparks. When used in tandem with a Lighting Perfume Bottle and/or Frenzyflame, the set was able to vaporize enemies very quickly and in some cases even one shot them.
Spoilers for Shadow of Erdtreethe final boss follows.
This build has become a particularly popular tool for players stuck in the final DLC boss fight Radahn’s promised husbandwhich hits like a goddamn truck and requires you to use cheesy strategy – which are often called cheap tricks because they rely on overbuilding or exploiting something wrong with the game.
Now players must go back to defeating Radahn the good old fashioned way. The update also nerfs Ash of War’s Swift Slash (thank goodness) for his over-effectiveness in PvP, as well as the new explosive shield weapons that have started to gain popularity. Guarding while attacking with them wouldn’t be necessary that a lot of stamina, allowing players to spam stabbing shield attacks with little consequence.
While many of the new weapons were nerfed, the Carian Sorcery Sword actually had its intelligence scaling tweaked to a higher level, though its overall attack damage was reduced a bit. This should make it stronger to cast spells through the sword while also nerfing his brute damage appropriately, as this is rarely a move for someone who favors the Intelligence stat.
Although the balance changes in this patch focus on weapons, it also makes life a little easier when it comes to the DLC’s two more challenging boss fights. Both Commander Gaius and Golden Hippo have their spawn point fixed. They should now start at a fixed point far enough away from the foggate entrance to not wipe out players too quickly, which has become a common player complaint with most players. Shadow of Erdtreemeeting with the boss.
Thus FromSoftware it gives but also takes. Given the cadence of these updates, I’d expect a few more balance changes over the next few weeks before the developer decides everything is in its right place. So if you have a broken build and want to jump, I would encourage you to hurry. Full patch notes follow below:
PvP-exclusive balance adjustments
- Reduced the damage and animation of the vacuum shearing effect of the “Swift Slash” skill.
General balance adjustments
- Increased the intelligence scaling of the Carian Sorcery Sword and reduced the base damage slightly.
- Expanded the range of throwing attacks for the following weapons:
- Smithscript Dagger / Smithscript Cirque
- Changed the placement of bosses in the rematch against the Golden Hippopotamus and Commander Gaius bosses to be in the same position as in the first fight.
Error correction
- Fixed a bug that caused the Rolling Sparks skill to deal more damage than expected.
- Fixed a bug that caused the Rolling Sparks and Wall of Sparks skills to do no damage while some special effects were applied to the player.
- Fixed a bug where some right-handed weapon special effects were also applied to the following weapon skills when cast with the left hand:
- Feeble Lord’s Frenzied FlameDiscus Hurl
- Fixed a bug where successfully guarding when attacking with the Thrusting Shield weapon type used less stamina than intended.
- Fixed a bug that prevented players from canceling the attack cooldown of two-handed strong attacks by throwing on certain Backhand Blades weapons.
- Fixed a bug that caused the Lightning Perfume Bottle and Frenzyflame Perfume Bottle weapons to deal double damage under certain circumstances.
- Fixed a bug where the Bloodfiend’s Arm Arcane setting was higher than intended when setting affinity. The increase in heavy attack stat has also been reduced.
- Fixed a bug where the Faith scaling of the Gazing Finger weapon was not applied correctly.
- Fixed a bug where the damage animation of some Fire Knight Greatsword attacks against players was different than expected.
- Fixed a bug where the attack affinity of some Greatsword Fire Knight’s attacks was different than expected.
- Fixed a bug that caused some affinities for the following weapons to be higher than intended:
- Smithscript DaggerSmithscript CirqueSmithscript AxeSmithscript GreathammerSmithscript SpearGolem FistSmithscript Shield
- Fixed a bug that caused enemies to be healed when the gradual HP reduction effect applied by Black Knife Tiche wore off.
- Fixed a bug that caused spawned NPCs to behave differently than expected under certain circumstances.
- Fixed a bug that caused the Golden Hippopotamus boss’s unblockable attack to connect with players more easily than intended.
- Fixed a bug that caused text to display differently than expected.
- Several other performance improvements and bug fixes.
Possible fixes for unstable performance
- For the PS5 version of the game, the unstable framerate can be improved using the “Rebuild Database” option from the device’s safe mode.
- On some PC versions, Ray Tracing may be inadvertently enabled and cause unstable performance. Please check the Ray Tracing settings in “System” > “Graphics Settings” > “Raytracing Quality” on the title screen or in the game menu.
- In the PC version, the “Inappropriate activity detected” message may appear without cheating.
To resolve this issue, verify the integrity of the game files before restarting the game.
- In the PC version, the unstable frame rate may be caused by third-party applications that control the behavior of the mouse. Disabling these third-party applications may improve performance.
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