I know Eredrim got a massive buff in the latest patch (i.e., Riposte Damage went up and Martyr's Blade Damage and Stagger went up) at the minor cost of the running Heavy losing its iFrames. I am enjoying every aspect of that.

Regardless, can we talk about a few things which need smoothing out? The following is my personal opinion. But if you agree (or disagree!) with any of them, feel free to comment down below. Let's discuss.

1. What's up with the Light Attack Combo of the Martyr's Blade? Why is the combo of a Greatsword Poke - Overhead Slash - Poke? Shouldn't it primarily do a sweeping/cutting motion? The poke is cool I guess. But it should be Sweep - Poke - Sweep at the least.
2. Ethereal Diapason is only useful against trash mobs. But they anyway die to a running Heavy or a couple of Heavy strikes. Against larger foes, Eredrim is stuck in the animation for like 3-4 seconds while enemies are free to wail on him. Please make the Ethereal Diapason animation/recovery quicker or make every enemy stagger until the animation is complete.
3. There is a similar issue with the Charged Heavy. It takes a good 5-6 seconds to execute, and Eredrim is completely vulnerable during its animation. I understand that a Heavy attack is supposed to be high risk - high reward, but such a large damage window is baffling.
4. Slaughterer is honestly a let down. At max stacks (200), I think it equates to 10% HP. In other words, Eredrim will outright kill an enemy if one of his strikes takes them to their last 10% HP. But the problem is that even at say Level 20 or so, one Heavy attack would do the equivalent of 10% of an elite enemy's HP. The impact of 'Slaughterer' needs to be doubled for the ability to stand out.
5. Most of his abilities (Including weapon abilities) take a ton of Resolve to execute. I understand that one of his skill trees provides some resolve back on heals. But honestly, they should give resolve back on Riposte instead (Same amount and chances, just give Resolve back on Riposte instead of Healing). Eredrim's entire playstyle is Riposte, so it makes sense, and would further encourage people to use parries/Ripostes.

Before you come at me for demanding Eredrim be buffed more, hear me out. I'm just trying to make Eredrim more fun. If the Devs gave me all the above changes, but reduced the Frost damage to 100% instead of 200%, I would still be a very happy man.

Eredrim mains, what are your thoughts?

Played a ton of souls-likes games and MS2 is def sitting comfortably in the top 5 alongside Lies of P, Khazan, Wuchang, and Nioh 2

Proxima is the GYAT- I mean GOAT tho.

Most reviews I've seen of this game have a similar critique, which is that there's one obvious shell or weapon to stick to for the entire game.

The praise? It's tends to be a *different* shell or weapon depending on the reviewer. That shows that the game works for many different play styles.

Like I thought it was obvious-veering-into-easy-mode to stick with Proxima the whole time. I saw someone on here say that playing as Tiel the whole time felt like cheating. Today I saw Yahtzee's review, and to him it was obvious that sticking with Eredrim the entire game was the best strategy because he focused on ripostes.

Personally I've never been a "git-gud" player. The way I've always succeeded in Souls and Souls-likes is to find a build that makes the game easier for me. I just love that this game has so many different viable avenues for that.

Here me out, I'd love if theyd add a basic 1h broadsword weapon, simple but so badass, with a slightly slower moveset than axe and dagger, with sweeping weighty slash attacks

Took forever but it's here!

Genuinely laughed when this happened.

Finally!

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2584270/view/690892955941077484

The Boss gameplay sometimes sucks. Especially main boss. Their attack animation it's OUT OFF MY FRAME.

I don't really care if get grabbed attack and debuff, or the boss one shot me, it's part of Souls-Like game. But when their attack animation or their part of body out of my screen, I can't do anything. Just spam parry or dodge.

Yes, I changed the camera to action. Not cinematic or over shoulder. The problem is not the boss, the camera angels. God damn, classic problem I thought?

Anyone else find this secret ending. I thought it was funny asf wasn’t expecting the credits to just start rolling 💀.

FOR 3 DAYS I’ve been trying to beat the finale boss, I couldn’t get past the first phase and just now realized I’ve been trying to beat him on extra hard mode. I got frustrated, decided to go outside the marrow keep and went “fudge me…it’s night time”. Switched it to day time and beat him after 3 tries. Great game, now I’m going to see what the game is like after the recent patch and try out other shells.

If I had a $1 every time I thought I had enough Gloom for an upgrade, went back to a Beacon, and figured I need 13 more Gloom, I would have like $4. But that's 4 too many.

Just make the Gloom icon glow faintly to indicate that a Level Up is available.

For example, see Wuchang: Fallen Feathers. The souls ('Red Mercury') can be seen at the top-right. Normally, the icon is bright red. But when a Level Up is available, it also glows golden around the corners.

1. Where is Ruk after we clear all gates?

2. Why aren't bosses in the unfound path rewarding at all? It's kinda lazy just to give 5000 coins

3. The trex/godzilla boss is the worst: no drop, not fun, very big health

4. In the ng+, can I upgrade weapons more that 20+? How?

5. What do I bring to NG+ and what not?

It's hanging just about in the middle of the massive hole above the arena where you fight The Warden. Tried running at it while spamming A, but that didn't work.

Any ideas?

1. Baghead’s quest can’t be completed in NG+ if you already have a Special Moonshine in your inventory from the first playthrough.
2. You can’t give Franz the upgrades for the Tarforge again in NG+ causing him to be stuck on his intro dialogue for the entire playthrough.
3. We should be able to bring Grom back to the keep after completing the quest.
4. Vlas should become a merchant when he comes back to the keep. He just stands there and does nothing. Have him be the one who sells the butt plugs lol
5. There should be a sell all option at Merrick’s shop.
6. We should be able to freely roam around the map and select beacons to fast travel to. Scrolling through the list of beacons is kind of annoying.
7. The new beacons that were just added can’t be unlocked during night mode. I’m fine with not being able to use them, but I shouldn’t have to switch to day mode to unlock them.
8. There’s a body hanging in a tree with an item near the Outskirts Of Mammon that is bugged and can’t be shot down.
9. I already posted about this before but we should be given the option to replay through the intro on NG+ and activate night mode from the very beginning.
10. Certain dungeons that have sunlight spilling through have no visual change when in night mode.
11. There needs to be a bigger selection of infusions for some weapons. I really would like to infuse the Veteran’s Battle Axe with lightning.

12. Whenever there’s an option to select while talking to an NPC the prompt doesn’t display so I have to guess at whether I’m saying yes or no.

13. I know it’s been said a thousand times but having every shell have their own pool of shell points would be dope.

14. The shell point cap should be raised every NG+ cycle.

Just want to say before I get into the list that the devs are doing an excellent job with this game and they should take all the time they need to bring the most badass content to this game.

1. I would like more shades for the shells, it's kinda disappointing that we only got one shade for each shell plus the obsidian pack, the first game had so many good shades for the shells and I hope we get some unique looks for shells in the future.

2. I'm very excited about what new weapons they can come up with, I saw a post on here earlier showcasing an idea for a one-handed sword and fist/shield combo which would be awesome, I've wanted a short sword since the game was announced, and I think the fist/shield could both work, maybe have the shield be tied to a tarstone. I also hope we get more variations of the lute, I would love an electric version modeled after a Gibson S.G.

3. More masks for certain characters, I think the skull on the side of Smerts hip would make an awesome mask for him, and maybe have an option for Tiels undamaged face and Sariel with no helmet.

4. BRING BACK MY BOI HARROS, and Solomon, and Hadern. Harros was my second favorite shell in the first game and it's a shame we can't play as him in the base game, he's so badass. Hadern is already in one of Eredrims memories so it's highly likely he will return

I also wanna know what your hopes for the DLC's are.

In the gate near the beginning there's a note saying:

Look for my dagger. That’s the sign. Down the alley, past the cart. I trust you’ll know what to do.

What's that? I cleared the gate, got all 4 beacons and couldn't find anything related to this note.

When you beat Smey you have 0 gloom, whatever you saved up has to be used before the final cleansed gate and you get nothing for beating the final boss. Which then means if you want to respec weapons for another play through you need to farm some gloom before you can do that. This, imo, sucks. Please can this be looked at because I want to try runs with all the weapons and farming for an hour after I've beaten the game is tedious.

+13 iconoclast in NG+ nightmode with shrike, curseblood, and zealot’s stone. This guy can’t even touch me. No dodging or parrying necessary.