When facing a melee enemy, stepping back at the right moment can allow you to evade an attack, so you can attempt to carefully time a forward-step-and-attack followed by a backward step (and repeat). In general, how you move and position yourself can be important. Enemies may even get temporarily "stuck" near corners and doors, allowing you to safely attack them (even with a melee weapon) while they can't quite seem to reach you. Yes, that's more of a "cheesy" exploit, but the early game is so difficult that I don't mind occasionally having an advantage like that.

Other than that, choosing the right item or spell at the right time can also obviously be important. Other details are covered by other responders.

Arena is a flawed gem. I love its overall world and atmosphere, but yeah, I can't deny the gameplay isn't always super fun. Nonetheless, I hope you continue to enjoy its good points (and its funny jank) for as long as you wish! 😄 For some of us, it continues to hold a special place in our hearts.

You didn't hear it from me but creating a spell with the effect of reflecting 100% of magic not only makes you immune to magic attacks but also kills enemies from their own magic attacks (unless they are resistant to their own element like hell hounds are resistant to fire). Also it's actually pretty cheap

Different types of swings have different hit chances and damage modifiers.

• Diagonal slash is -5% to hit, +2 damage.

• Horizontal - 0 modifiers.

• Vertical -10% to hit, +4 damage.

• Thrust - +10% to hit, -4 damage.

I recommend the player's guide for tons of details on the game's mechanics which aren't explained in game.

im playing as a barbarian btw

Side swings have neutral hit chance and damage.

Thrusts have better hit chance, but less damage.

Chops have better damage, but less damage.

The only real strategies behind combat is using different items at the right time. Popping a health potion when low on health, fire resistance when you see a hell hound and so on. There isn't much to combat, though you could in theory get creative with combat if you have enough magic items for decent combos, though magic only gets really strong in later levels, so for the first 14 levels you want to get used to swinging that axe before using rings of invisibility and amulets of fire ball.

Most people doing invasions are going to be maxed if not close to it. The game attempts to scale them down to create an even playing field… but they are still going to have superior armor and weapons, and more game time logged to understand the nuances of combat within the game… I need to make that video. I’ve been saying I’m going to make a video about advanced combat for beginners, where I would go over all of the subtleties of the fighting mechanics that don’t become apparent until many hours of gameplay. Your bow build is going to be OP. Bows and crossbows are pretty overpowered in this game. If I do an invade, I want a fair duel. I usually match the tactics of my opponent, and don’t use a lot of casting and such unless they do so first. Bows are an exception. If the player is using a bow or crossbow, I’m forced to use whatever tactics I can just to close the distance…. Many invaders aren’t like me. They will throw everything they have at you from the jump. So a mixture of all of that is what’s likely going on. I would just play solo or co-op until your build is finalized, and you’re comfortable with the fight mechanics you’ve chosen. If someone invades you, of course try to win. The only downside is you’d have to go collect your vigor if you don’t… A lot of people will force quit the game if they’re being invaded. Don’t be that guy 😉

Spam block to parry attack spam. Ez win.

I dual light reapers. It's really easy to parry.. parring in this game is a joke a 3 year old could do it.

You play They come You get a few seconds to prepare They attack You be ready to fight like hell or you die. No coming back from the dead in the umbral.

This game is just awful for PVP, if you're going to do it don't expect fair, balanced or interesting gameplay.

Very cool, have been curious about trying parrying. What stat do you need for shields to reduce stamina cost do you know?

I love how short and sweet these videos are!

90% of the time, you need to roll forward, towards the enemy

The Spirit of Bloodborne and Dark Souls III lives on.

The other thing I would add is Elden Ring also cares about the WHEN of dodging. There is a certain "and...NOW!" timing with Elden Ring dodging and also positioning plays an important roll as well. Some attacks from Elden Ring bosses can be dodged by simply strafing.

If we’re talking boss fights, playing aggressively requires knowing the boss’s moveset so you can capitalize on punish windows consistently. So part of it may just be more practice against whichever boss you’re facing. Learning how to dodge INTO the boss so you’re close enough to land an attack when they’re vulnerable. Also learning when you can sneak in an attack, such as during a delayed windup of theirs.

You specifically mentioned ripostes, so the above will help you break stances more often to get the riposte damage in. You can also try parrying.

A few other considerations… bosses have a sort of invisible stance meter that fills up as you land attacks. When full, it results in a stance break, allowing you to riposte. If you take too long between attacks, their stance will start to recover and you won’t get the stance break. You can help this somewhat by equipping a throwable like kukri. Throw these at the boss if you’re too far away to land a hit to keep the stance meter from recovering. Jump attacks and charged heavies do extra stance damage also.

Lastly, the Greatsword is universally loved by this community, but personally I don’t care for colossal weapons. Their recovery animations are soooo long that I hate the feeling of being trapped in the animation and then taking damage from the boss. Personal preference of course, but if this applies to you then maybe try a slightly faster swinging weapon like the claymore, rusted anchor, or Great Stars.

EDIT: something I’ve found helpful is to head over to r/onebros and watch some clips of the boss you’re facing. Usually will show the optimal way to dodge and punish if you’re struggling.

You could mess around with some of the dodging ash of wars. Raptor of the mists, quickstep/bloodhound step, blinkbolt, and movement + attack ashes of war like greatsword of solitude or bloodhound's fang.

Other than that, with any weapon heavier than spears basically, going for charged r2's and stance breaking enemies is pretty worth during any opening you get to do so. With endure you can also just tank hits while going for charged r2's against many bosses, otherwise ashes of war often have hyper armor.

I'm sort of trying to do sort of the same thing by pushing myself to use weapons types I don't usually use, using the hookclaws (attacking in openings between attacks), the lucerne halberd (chaining heavies and lights and trading hits and out ranging with stagger) and the cross naginata spear (spacing with a varied moveset and outranging with no stagger).

Any faster weapons that do a good amount of poise damage ?

When you say first boss are you talking about the knight or the obvious big boss with a cutscene (trying to not spoiler)

If it's the knight, you really have to focus on his attacks and decide if you play safe and punish the crossbow or go hard and get rekt from his sword over and over like me.

If it's the other, good luck, he's really hard or medium depending on build and weapon.

Go get the Scadutree fragments. They are the DLC's power progression system, and the bosses are scaled to them. If you can't find any, you can look up a guide online.

I started the DLC this week after creating a new character, which took me 80 hours just to get to it. First impressions are that this is practically Elden Ring II, and has some of the best areas and exploration that from have created.

The DLC has a unique levelling system for both summons and yourself. It's genious as it gives that constant progression feeling even with a high level character, and doesn't spoil the main game if you've not finished it.

Don't try attacking the giant flame golem unless you know what you're doing (I don't).

The first gaol optional mini boss in the start area is an arsehole. My build is a light blue dancer doll/dagger/buckler and he is a bitch for me.

Scadutree Fragments are your best friend. Welcome to the best DLC ever mate

Make sure you’re obtaining scadutree fragments so you can level up your scadutree blessing at sites of grace. It increases your damage dealt and decreases your damage taken so it’s essential for keeping up with the increased damage and hp of the dlc enemies.

Combat is pretty simple. You auto target lock an enemy by holding left trigger. While targeting, you can jump to the side over and over to go around in circles around the enemy. Or you can jump backwards to backflip away from them. If you do any of these jumps at the same time as the enemy attacking, you’ll get a flurry rush, which is a slow motion flurry of counter attacks. It’s very effective. Similarly, if you press B (I think) while blocking with a shield, it does a shield bash, or parry. If you do this with perfect timing while an enemy is attacking, it knock them backs and stuns them. You can block most attacks that way, including big attacks from big enemies, but the timing is pretty tight. Flurry rushes are a little easier. But even if you don’t get a perfect flurry rush, I just want to emphasize the strategy of jumping around in circles around an enemy while target locked. Even if you don’t get a perfect flurry rush, it’s still a very effective way to dodge attacks and get behind an enemy.

There are a few basic combat movements you can perform in the game that you learn about early on.

FLURRY RUSHES:
WHAT: Dodge an attack from an enemy's weapon at the perfect moment. This will trigger time to slow down, allowing you to hit the enemy multiple times without risking getting hit yourself.
HOW: Pull out your shield and target the enemy with ZL > do either a backflip or a sidejump (depending on the movement of the enemy's weapon) by pressing back/sideways on the joystick and hitting the jump button.

PERFECT PARRY:
WHAT: Parry an enemy's weapon with your shield to stun them, or in the case of Guardians: to reflect their beams back at them to damage them.
HOW: Lock on to a nearby enemy by pressing the ZL button > press A right as the enemy's weapon is about to connect to the shield.

CHARGED ATTACK:
WHAT: Use stamina to build up the power of your weapon, then release it to deal damage to enemies.
HOW: Hold the attack button then release it as you get the cue that it's charged up.

SNEAK STRIKE:
WHAT: Sneak up behind an enemy and attack it while it's asleep or unaware of your presence, then do a stealth attack to perform a crit attack that deals 8x the damage.
HOW: Crouch by pressing down on left stick > sneak up behind an enemy > wait for the "Sneakstrike" prompt to show up > hit the attack button.

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WEAPON TYPE BASICS:
Aside from the bow, the 3 main weapon types you're gonna come across in the game are one-handed weapons, two-handed weapons, and spears. Two-handed weapons are slower than one-handed ones so you won't be able to get as many hits in as quickly, and it will also leave you vulnerable to enemy attacks more often. You can get more hits in in a shorter time with the spears, but they also generally have lower attack power in general. There are also boomerangs that you can throw at enemies and also catch them again as it comes back at you afterwards.

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There's a lot more to discover about the combat system and the enemies in this game, but I'll just leave the basics here for now.

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USEFUL LINKS:

• Combat Tips And Tricks
• Croton's Stats of the Wild series (useful info about weapons, enemies, loot, cooking, etc)

When up against a guardian, hold up your shield and wait for the firing sound before parrying. It might take you a while to get it, but once you do they won't be as scary.

Bokoblins are fairly easy enemies, Moblins are tanks and heavy hitters but can't really do anything when you're close, lizalfos are fast and can come in different elements.

Stal enemies (bone) spawn only at night and will only die from a hit to the head.

Mini bosses are scattered across the map (hinoxes, talus, and lynels). They only spawn in specific places, so you can mark them on a map if you'd like.

All enemies respawn after blood moons, so if you have a travel quest through an enemy camp, kill them directly after a blood moon to have the most time to get through.

No problem, happy to help if I can! :)

And I can't recommend the videos by Croton enough. They're simple and to the point, while also digging deep into how the various parts and elements of the game actually work. Actually, Croton's a great creator overall and has some great stuff on his channel.

• Perfect dodging and parrying
• Polearm weapons like spears are the fastest, but deal the least amount of damage. Two-handed weapons like claymores are the slowest, but deal the most amount of damage (on the other hand, you can get the most out of them with spin attacks). One-handed weapons like broadswords break even.
• Sneakstrikes deal 8 times the normal damage—use them when you can. In fact, a fun fact I learned is that when you quickly get in front of an enemy after performing a sneakstrike, it’ll immediately turn around without noticing you, giving you an opening to do it again—you can basically perform chain sneakstrikes XD
• On that note, there are ways beyond direct combat to defeating enemies. Aside from Lizalfos, standard enemies can’t swim—knock them in a body of water if you have the chance. Since you have an endless supply of remote bombs, you can just blitz an enemy camp with them repeatedly until nobody’s left standing. During rain/near water, electric attacks can deal AOE damage (conversely, bomb arrows are ineffective in rainy weather). During storms, if an enemy is wielding a metal weapon, just stand back and wait for the lightning strike.

Duck, dodge, dive, run, duck and dodge.

Edit: added run

Shoot strong magic and run like hell

Find the biggest sword I can.and swing it as hard as I can.

Tactics? Swing until I hit is a tactic right?

Run around naked don't get hit

The greatest weapon in every Souls players toolkit: patience.

Combat will speed up once you get more stamina and Mighty points. Enemies also get a lot faster the further you get into the game.

Early game, crit fishing seems to be king for Longsword, while area denial seems to be Spears best trait if you bought the Steam Spear from the Panda Vendor.

If you aren't clicking I suggest trying another weapon since you can refund skills for free. I've changed my build multiple times before settling on Magic.

Im still at the beginning, but I've been aggressive, and when my stamina runs out, I use a skill.