Maybe wear elemental rings or have a holy shield upgraded on standby if you're invaded idk. I've only been invaded 2-3 times and luckily I won them both but I think 1 the guy let me kill him it felt and the other I think I won because of lag lol so I'm not experienced in the PvP side of things.

Also couldn't you just turn online off in the settings if you don't want to be invaded? And have one of those consumables on where on death you keep your vigor incase you get killed.

The best way to stay alive and boost your defense is to use a defensive aura or adyrs hardiness spell (or both) to boost your resistances as they count almost as much as an entire extra armor set and even more if stacked, also wearing armor that increases your fire and holy defense as those matter more than physical in this game. Simply because the fire and holy weapon buffs / spells are responsible for a majority of the dmg.

Physical dmg only really matters against PvE, in pvp if the enemy player is not using a weapon spell, their dmg is going to be pitiful against those defensive auras anyway.

Don't bother with defensive talisman talisman and rings. The talisman that boosts your fire or holy dmg and increase your resistance are good though, or go light armor and use princesse sting talisman for even more dmg.

Another thing you can do is try and parry them a few times for a critical hit, but that is risky if you are already getting hit for a lot of dmg.

That said, there are some attacks in the game where no matter how much defense you have, you will still get deleted (special attacks), mostly because a few meta weapons do so much dmg that the best way to survive is to not get hit in the first place or kill them before they can kill you.

I guess the holy mace you are having problems against is most likely the Flickering flail, which has a special attack while 1-handed that shoots out 3 bolts in a row doing ridiculous dmg while also having hyper armor, best way to counter that is to try and predict it so you can dodge it (light dodge helps a LOT), but if they have the right eyes socketed in the lamp and it's the umbral realm then it's spamable forever.

I'd suggest getting the same flail, Lightreapers daggers, or harrower crossbow builds, or some umbral magic build and shotgun their face with the eyes spell when you get the chance.

The devs really need to do some balancing when it comes to a few weapons special attacks.

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Among the other recommendations, it is important to consider Armor Sets in PVP, as some boost your Fire/Holy Defense so much.

There are also the Holy Ward items, and if you found it, the 'Odd Stone' boosts your Holy/Wither defense a lot. The Rhogar Pendant from the Tortured Prisoner also boosts your Holy Defense.

In general though, if you see someone casting the "Lightning from Clouds above you" spell, screw those guys and fight dirty. 👏🍺 But if you see someone who wants to fight normally, let them. Because its nice to have a good old fight. 🫡

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.

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

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.

Accept the fact that each boss fight is going to take several attempts. Read the boss pattern the first few attempts just by doing defensive moves. The game forces you to parry during NG because you cant chain dodge more than twice. Some of the delayed attacks are easier to dodge than parry. Stock up on shotput balls as it is much easier to break posture using them than charged heavy attack.

I've beaten the game eight times. You only need to level up Vitality, Capacity, and a small amount of Vigor. Pretty much every weapon in the game is viable as long as you upgrade it. The game is designed to favor equal amounts of dodging and Perfect Guarding.

I started this game last week and now at the final boss running a pure motivity build.

I used the starter greatsword until I got the bone cutting saw in chapter 5. Really good at staggering bosses (Police Baton + Saw)

The game is mostly built around parrying. Even if you start blocking to early and don't fully negate the damage, you can still recover the damage you took by attacking. On the other hand, if you mistime your dodge, you simply take all the damage. Dodging is still useful for avoiding attacks and combos you aren't confident you can parry, though in that case it's better to get physically out of the way of an attack rather than i-frame through it.

Blocking and parrying also builds up the enemies' stagger meters, meaning it directly enables the thing you want to do anyway.

I haven't used motivity weapons so far, but I heard the handle of the Police Baton is a good, quick motivity handle (the game has a weapon crafting system where you can mix different handles and blades. Handles determine moveset and scaling, blades base stats and attack speed)

Parrying is more rewarded in this game than dodging. It makes it so the boss becomes staggerable and if the boss has a weapon, it eventually breaks it, reducing their damage and attack distance considerably. Some bosses are extremely hard unless you break their weapon.

As far as stats go, you only need to upgrade the first three (Vitality, Vigor and Capacity). You can play the whole game just by spending your points on these stats equally without a problem.

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.

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.

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.

For co-op, trade, and PVP action, check out our other subreddits, r/CypherRing or r/EldenRingHelp

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My advice is to observe your opponent and wait until they start attacking

I take advantage of this. I attack first and expect a punish. I expect the punish and punish the punish, if that makes sense. Such as I do a running attack (purposely miss) then expect an attack so I parry. Don't always wait for an attack. Catch them off guard, switch it up. Get agro and passive in the same fight.

I murked the Ozma on NG+ with fleshripper set and spamming phantom wave and charge attacks lol. My potent blows did 60k per hit haha

GS is great for this, also those two moves are such core to a decent GS playstyle, kind of a shame because everyone will be using them so there's not really much build variety for that weapon.

Did you find the scroll for the radiant guardian set?

still working?

This has kind of been my play style for the whole game pretty far. Just stacking defense and max health. Currently at 4k health with over 2k defense. My ability rotation is just the charged swift attack than a charged potent blow. Than using skills like Phantoms nightveil, titanic descent, and another I can’t remember the name of.

Edit: currently using the armor you get from >!Skalpel!<

Sword and sheild is a pretty weak PVP set-up. If you're very good you can make use of the fast attacks and win, but spacing and timing is very important and your low damage means you'll have to win more engagements than you would with most weapons.

Dual straight swords are MUCH better, arguably one of the best PVP set-ups in the game. The good news is you can probably switch into that specifically for PVP without a respec since a single straight sword weighs about as much a med sheild.

Plus, blocking with med sheilds in PVP is a fools errand, if you're not using it to parry don't use it.

I have successfully fought off an end game geared out invader with an unupgraded longsword. The weapon you're comfortable with is a viable weapon.

Straight sword main here. Frankly, I find they are slept on in PvP, and because of square off, they are absolutely fantastic in pve at any level. Most will tell you to dual wield straight swords if you're gonna use them in PvP, but sword and shield or even spellblade setups work a lot better than people expect. An important thing to remember is the r2s are going to be your bread and butter, both to break poise and due to the range, particularly if you're using a sword with a 1h stab for its r2. When it comes to weapon arts, I usually go spinning slash with straight swords in pvp. They're a good fuck-off button, which is useful when people see your straight sword and underestimate it. When it comes to what straight sword to use, I recommend a longsword on a quality build, noble slender sword on dex, and broadsword on strength (or longsword if you want the stab). For faith I recommend coded sword, and I generally suggest an infused lordsworn for int. In general, straight swords are a fairly well balanced class with a few unique movesets, and most are worth trying, from warhawk's talon to the carian and miquellan knight swords. If you like them, I don't see a reason to stop using them.

Straight swords are arguably the most versatile small weapons in the game- they're not "the best" at anything but they can also handle anything. They have a balance of speed, damage, and stamina use. Most have access to both swings and thrusts in their moveset and they are compatible with a large variety of Ashes of War.

Your biggest drawbacks when using Straight Swords against either other players or the game's hardest bosses will be reach and damage. You can deal dependable damage overall but will have to learn to wear down some of the tankier bosses, making your fights likely longer than someone using a Large weapon. Many enemies and players can get in and out of range quickly, which will force you to learn to close distance and strike with proper timing.

If you can manage those two shortcomings, Straight Swords are a strong choice even for late game or PvP.

For PvP, they're mixed.

They have short reach and no hyper armor, which are two of the big things you want in PvP. They've got great sustained damage output, but sustained damage is what you want on bosses, PvP is all about what helps you score the hits in the first place.

Like u/werebwitch said (nice name, I lol'd), the shield and sword style tends to be the favorite if you are using them in PvP. You're taking a page from the DS3 playbook with them, punishing enemy whiffs to compensate for having the shorter range, and using the very nice charged heavy poke to punish panic rolls.

Feel free to mess with different ashes. Getting good at parrying via Carian Ret or Golden Parry wins games, but you can mess with opponents like quick swapping to a similar shield with No Skill, keeping the opponent guessing whether you're able to parry or whether you've got an ash like Storm Blade or Sword Dance ready to roll-catch an opponent.

Gravity kills, use rainbow stones if concerned. Buy a lamp. Follow lights of grace.

Also don’t forget to upgrade your weapons with smithing stones that you find and buy from vendors

"Prepare to die" isn't a warning, it's a strategy. Making suicide runs to grab specific items can help tremendously.

level health, upgrade weapons, explore, and most importantly have fun.

Almost all of your issues can be solved by either exploring more of the world, learning the boss’ moves, and/or adding more points to Vigor.

I think you should go no further than defeating the Fire Giant. i.e. not burning the Erdtree OR inheriting the Frenzied Flame. For all we know Melina might get a part to play, like the NPC's did in Bloodborne: The Old Hunters.

You might wanna avoid burning the Erdtree down before going into the DLC. Who knows, maybe beating the DLC unlocks a new interaction with an NPC or something, that happened in FromSoft's games before.

Otherwise, probably just be sure to have plenty of upgraded healing flasks and a +10/+25 weapon.

Other than that I would probably recommend using the Blessed Dew Talisman and the Turtle Talisman for general exploration of the new areas. That healing may seem slow, but it extends exploration immensely. And stamina regen is always great when you're facing new enemies whose movset you're not familiar with.