It’s odd that you still need to rest at a checkpoint to swap skills or magic. I would have thought that was to balance the old mechanic where you’ve got a limited number of casts per equipped spell.
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imo the way the stats ask you to constantly balance offensive and defensive trade offs is a good thing and makes character building more interesting. i think it’s good that there are 60 int spells that force you to make hard defensive sacrifices because characters that can do everything well are the dull endpoint of broken progression systems and strip any real threat or menace from the world.
i think having to deliberately invest in defense is good: it adds interesting friction and more room for player expression. i feel like if you’re going to ensure the player can’t screw up their build by not stacking enough defense (or offense) you might as well just remove character building altogether since you’re not really giving the player the agency you claim to be. players are smart and will figure it out, players hashing through metas and arguing about breakpoints is fun and builds community around your game. hell, i’ve had build convos with just about everyone i know playing this.
take all that away and you just have horizon’s pointless skill tree that leads every player to the exact same place
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yeah it should really be understood how incredibly and unbelievably broken being able to employ the @miffy strategy is right now, and I still love that it’s an option, that I’m at level 85 with 38 int and absolutely straining against the limits of my theoretically balanced build, considering putting another 30 points into int with every level I get from all the optional late-game content ahead of me, purely so that I can do the go fuck yourself laser
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but endurance is already a more interesting defensive tuner and always has been, which is why HP has traditionally had minimal importance in these games. now it’s endurance that doesn’t have importance, because you’re dying in two hits almost regardless of your armor and there’s only one roll break point. it still matters for shields, presumably (I haven’t used shields), so that’s something.
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endurance is extremely important for shields even with how generous the stamina bar is now. you can block so much but you need all that stamina to soak big hits
if anything, the two handed nude slam & jam tactic is the weakest it’s ever been (i think big weapons could use a little buff fwiw) and a lotta people are mistaking that for the game being unforgiving
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Greatswords have more phys block than a lot of the smaller shields…
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bugs bunny and lebron james in
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I’ve just yesterday learned how the new block ripostes work after 70 hrs of twohanding and rolling, never felt so duped (by myself tbh)
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My current strategy is great: I proc with poison or rot then go through the motions of a duel, sticking and moving just out of range as their health ticks away. Sometimes I get cocky and die anyway.
I’m basically Joaquin Phoenix from the end of Gladiator.
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yeah it also helps with the equip load problem a shield creates too. i’ve not regretted any point i’ve put into endurance
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does anyone know if it is possible to permanently miss the jellyfish summon? cause i think both A) it is possible to permanently miss it and B) i have permanently missed it 
nope, I thought I’d missed it but then I was able to get it from talking to what’s her name after she takes up spirit ash tuning at the roundtable hold
now, gelmir’s fury I think I missed permanently
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Given the generous respec system, this is a game of loadouts not builds IMO.
All characters can do eventually everything well, but you need the choose the subset of that “everything” consciously before you enter the fog gate.
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Yeah you get so many respec items. You really shouldn’t hesitate to respec at any point; I’m so much happier after tweaking my build.
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Where/how to find respec items?
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Aren’t smithing stones a huge issue re: respec at will?
Most of the respec items are in the area opened up by beating Radahn.
Somber smithing stones are really abundant and you eventually unlock the ability to buy stones, so I have 4 weapons and 1 shield upgraded to near-max right now. It is a limit but starts to seem less onerous in the late game than it did at the beginning.
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the actual funniest From button choice is that the “exit out of/menu-back” button is also the “jump back 10 feet button/dash forward 20 feet on horse” button, which is impossible not to mistakenly hit to put your telescope away as you stand exactly on the very edge of the death cliff to get a better view
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I like to think that whenever Miyazaki explains that he’s a masochist he thinks of the first time this exact thing happened to him and smiles.
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