order5330: Isn't it because the game is hard that we play and enjoy Soulsborne games...??
SKNGame: what I love is how bosses cause you to mix and match your gear for the best outcome.
TheZak6969: I think a big issue also is people that looked up powerful builds to cruise through the base game, then coming back not quite remembering how to play and the power of those builds being scaled in the DLC. It probably makes the DLC difficulty spike feel like a brick wall.
nicodemusedwards6931: Honestly the only part of Shadow of the Erdtree I’d say is too difficult is like… the Final Boss. Other than him, I never really got frustrated with the DLC. 90% of the time when I got hit and died I knew what I did wrong.
satyasyasatyasya5746: The problem is this:
Shooom-or9mk: Rather than too hard, I think things have too much damage and not enough health. By the end of the DLC I was running the armor or solitude with the dragoncrest greatshield talismans (physical, pearldrake, and one elemental) and still getting 2 or 3-shot by some things, but once I got good at fights they would end really quickly.

High damage enemies worked incredibly well for Bloodborne because of the rally mechanic--when you got hit, your best option was to increase your aggression. It led to really cool fights.

But in a Dark Souls-type combat systems, if you get hit by a high-damage enemy, your best move is always to back off and heal so the next hit doesn't end you. This unnaturally lowers player aggression, and forces you to disengage when you're having fun.

Some of the best bosses in the Souls series were Gael, Demon Prince, and Midir, all of whom were extreme tanks that didn't do that much damage. Even Midir's laser doesn't one shot most medium builds at the hp soft cap. These types of bosses tend to drain your healing rather than destroying you outright. The low damage means that when players get hit they can choose to stay in rather than run and heal.

I suspect the focus on number of deaths is what drives this change. A boss that takes you three ten-minute fights to beat is just as hard as a boss that takes you thirty one-minute fights--it took you thirty minutes of exposure to learn both of them--but I suspect some people would complain about the first boss, saying it is too easy because it only took them three tries.

Ultimately, I think a lot of these bosses feel pretty cheap, and are over-reliant on damage to make otherwise easy fights hard.
Xiao_Saeko: All these complaints about difficulty just makes me laugh
joshhayes3433: Final boss is over tuned IMO, a few small tweaks here and there would bring him in line. Most of the rest of it is fairly in line with what I would expect from a DLC, but the changes to the STree fragments is a good call.
EDIT: the beautiful yet time consuming weapon arts on some of the DLC weapons makes it such that you have to time them PERFECTLY to not be greatly punished for using them. I know, there’s a time and place for everything and not every weapon can/should be used in every situation, but try using Romina’s, Messmers or Rellanas super cool weapon arts against the final boss and you’re going to get pancaked. Dunno, just wish the super cool stuff from the DLC could be used in the DLC without being punished for it.
SubFlow22: No complaints here. Loving the DLC so far.
zodsersylvan9419: also pve poise is so broken, fire knight armor gives absolutely garbo level of poise but those fire knight npc can poise through pretty much anything lower than greatsword and spam spining
sushirollers1334: I definitely felt the scadutree fragment buff i was at 13 frags when fighting messmer. As long they don't nerf bosses i like the challenge of fighting them and overcoming and learning as you go
scotto9712: I'm halfway through, so far I haven't thought it was TOO hard. It has been challenging though. Most of the bosses in the base game seem to slowly walk at you so you can set up and think, drink a potion, whatever. Even Malenia slow walks the arena for a while. In the DLC many of the bosses sprint/charge/fly right at you and attack aggressively with little break. I hate that MF Gaius though.
thebarbaryghostsf: Don't underestimate cranking up endurance. Having a load of stamina and weight allowance can be way more beneficial to having a huge health pool. If you have low stamina, it won't matter how much health you have.
chiakinanami478: My main and only issue is the fact that there are only 50 fragments and you need 50 to max yourself out, the first couple of blessing levels are easy to find but once you reach the end it feels more like a scavenger hunt rather than progression. I was blessing level 17 when i reached the final boss and I searched what felt like the entire map but not having those last levels really hurt. My proposed change would be what they did with golden seeds in the base game, make them plentiful and have more than what is needed to max out. Having bosses/mini-bosses drop 1-2 like the upgrades in Sekiro would also go a long way to make it feel like progression.

As for the bosses themselves, I only have issues with 2 of them. The first being Gaius with his bugged hitbox which should be an easy fix. The last being of course the final boss and his unrelenting endless combos, AoEs and light shows. That boss needs changes as of right now as you practically have no time to breath with its agression. I will refrain from talking about its insane damage as i was only blessing 17 as opposed to 20 but I feel it wouldn't have mattered.
Chris-fg7bx: The issue is everything hits so hard. You can make things harder without making every enemy and boss hit like malenia
mh_golfer: I feel like the attack damage was fine before the update, the issue is how hard enemies hit, especially bosses. A lot of the main bosses swarm you the minute to get into the fight and you instantly lose at least half of health if you don't die without seeing any of their moves. Hard to learn moves you never get to see.

Commander Gaius is a good example of this, it took me 10 tries just figure out how to roll through his initial charge attack the minute you enter the fight. Other bosses have a ton of long combos with huge AOE and projectiles attacks that wipe out your entire health bar instantly.

I personally would like to see the bosses take more damage and deal out a bit less to make the fights longer and allow you to learn their move sets. I thought Sekiro did a good job of balancing this.
vcy96: I still remember how my first pre-nerf Radahn fight went. So fortunate to have been able to experience it.
currensea9094: The dlcs have ALWAYS had the hardest bossed in the games. DS1, DS3, Bloodborne, etc.. Elden Ring became pop culture and brought in casuals that don't know how FromSoftware operates. I am loving the dlc.

Jun 28 2024

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