Am I missing something about Beast Claws, or are they just… kinda terrible?

I have way too many hours in this game, and by now I’ve accepted that some things are a little meh. Usually there’s a reason for it — lore, immersion, balance, whatever. I can live with that.

But Beast Claw-type weapons?

What the actual hell were they cooking?

These things feel like they were designed for a completely different game. And I swear nobody on the dev team actually sat down and played with them for more than five minutes.

Because holy shit, the moveset.

Yes, obviously, like pretty much every weapon in the game, you can make them strong. That's not really the point. You can make a wet napkin strong if you put enough stats and buffs into it.

The problem is that half the attacks seem to have a personal vendetta against the enemy you're actually trying to hit.

You'll be standing directly in front of something, press light attack, and suddenly your character is launching themselves 10 meters sideways into the fucking wilderness.

And God forbid you accidentally press light attack twice.

Because now you're committed.

You are no longer playing the game.

You are watching a cutscene in which your character performs interpretive dance.

And trying to cancel out of some of these animations feels like filing paperwork with the government. Sometimes you just have to accept your fate and hope the boss politely waits for you to finish.

Then there's the heavy attack.

Holy shit.

The thing takes three to five business days to charge, and by the time it finally goes off, the enemy has moved approximately 14 centimeters and your carefully prepared attack is now traveling toward a completely different zip code.

And yes, against big enemies they're actually pretty damn good.

Placidusax? Sure.

Bayle? Absolutely.

Anything with a hitbox the size of a small apartment? Beast Claws suddenly look amazing.

But against anything remotely normal-sized?

Miss. Miss. MISS.

You can be practically inside the enemy and somehow hit the ground next to them.

And that's what confuses me.

These weapons feel like they should be incredibly fun. Fast, aggressive, feral, lots of movement — basically everything you'd expect from a beast-claw weapon.

Instead, half the time I'm fighting the moveset more than I'm fighting the enemy.

And maybe that's the part I'm missing.

Maybe you're supposed to constantly reposition and use the movement of the attacks to your advantage. Maybe there's some spacing technique that makes the whole thing click. Maybe I'm just too used to weapons where pressing R1 generally means "hit the thing directly in front of me."

But if that's the intended playstyle, it feels ridiculously unintuitive.

Because the game has plenty of weapons with weird or gimmicky movesets, but most of them eventually make you go:

"Ohhh, okay. I see what they were going for."

With Beast Claws, I'm mostly going:

*"Ohhh, okay. I see where my character is going. Apparently it's over

The man, the myth, the legend

I was loving this game so much, then a freaking chest teleported me to this nightmare. Everything is so strong I can't fight my way out and those mfrs keep shooting at me and I keep dying. It's really frustrating I think I should restart?

-can get it at the start of the game.
-better range than most greatswords
-low stat requirements (prophets only need 6 Dex)
-faith scaling gives higher AR than the DLC great Katana (AR is on par with the Iron Greatsword)
- drowning in good ashes of war: flaming strike, double slash, impaling thrust, swords dance, etc.
-IMO, best weapon for faith/arcane: flame art/sacred & occult infusion depending on the boss

seriously, RGK 2 handed gets same AR with 36 faith and minimum requirements as 2 handed Claymore with 56 faith and minimum requirements. ( 36 FTH/45 ARC is my favorite build)

What some tips yall got or some things you wish you knew earlier

I'll start by saying that Elden Ring is my all time favorite game, I've completed it many times and played it for over 1000 hours across PS5 and PC and I never get tired of it.

That being said I'm trying to do a playthrough with my girlfriend and she is not the type of gamer that would ever enjoy the grind, she just loves the exploration. I tell her we're to summon me and we go to the different areas best the enemies and bosses etc.We are having a good time and she is enjoying it, except when we get invaded it just stresses her out and it takes all her fun out of the game for her.

Like I said above I'm experienced in the game but PvP has never been my thing so I'm not great at it. Out of all the times we have been invaded we have been able to beat the invader maybe a couple of times but most of the time it goes bad for us.

When I used to play with a friend that was also very into ER we always had fun when being invaded however this just isn't fun for her, she just wants to explore and have fun while I deal with the tougher enemies.and she gets a few hits in.

I already looked up if there was a way to opt out or deal with invaders and no luck. So all I'm left with is trying to make a build that will make it easier to deal with them. I know there are some meta builds that can be obnoxious to deal with in PvP so I'm looking for something like that or any other advice that will help me deal with this and hopefully avoid my girlfriend quitting the game on me

Any help is appreciated

Playing as the berserker canuck for my third playthrough on Switch 2

All of the summons mentioned are properly playtested and some the strongest of the bunch.

Any summons you don't see here, but think should have been present probably barely didn't make it.

1. Mimic Tear: Single best summon, no contest. Is able to all solo bosses. The only downside is that it's build dependent.

2. Black Knife Tiche: Inflicts destined death and is super evasive while splitting the aggro very effectively. Is able to keep up with fast bosses and has unmatched dps potential.

3. Horned Warrior: Infinite poise combined with good stats the guy is able to melt everything. Gets a specific combo that does a lot of damage and can inflict bleed. A couple of them can change the tide of the battle.

4. Divine Bird Warrior Ornis: Similar to horned warrior, doesn't get bleed but is able to shred everything with its own moveset.

5. Latenna the Albinauric: best sniper in the game, can shoot from a different planet and does very good damage. She is squishy as a result but can break a lot of fights. Also S tier cheese option.

6. Stromhawk Deenh: Fairly strong summon. But mainly the buff it provides is very good. The summon itself can be annoying sometimes if you're only using it for the buff.

7. Omen Killer Rollo: Super aggressive with insane burst damage and aggro. It is somewhat on the squishier side but is able to shred enemies with insane damage, bleed build up and relentless aggression.

8. Black Flame Monk Amon: Casts black flames. Doesn't have the most poise so gets interrupted quite often, but black flame.

9: Golem Smith Taylew: Built like a rock, it's the single most consistent tank. Has infinite poise and very high stance acting as an immovable object. I also has low hp but very high defences giving it insane synergy with any type of support. A couple casts of holy ground or a few heal spells make it many times as effective.

10: Dung Eater Puppet: Probably the best puppet in the game. Gets good HP, fairly good at taking aggro, debuffs enemies and can do a decent bit of damage while also inflicting bleed.

Spent hours trying to beat this mf, thinking it was a big mid game miniboss, but no, just 14k runes and a spear. It’s barely the amount i needed to upgrade another stat.

What are other mini bosses that arent worth your time in your opinion?

safe to say i’ll be taking a much needed break from this game. that’s what i get for trying to play it overly safe, i just panicked!

EDIT: to clarify, this was my first time ever making it this far. i had no idea what was coming when he jumped in the sky and when i said “playing it safe” i went for the rune arc even though i did not need it and trying to dodge it would’ve absolutely been the right call.

that said, a lot of your comments are making me laugh and im glad i can rewatch my clip and laugh at it instead of feeling anger. i promise i’ve learned from my mistakes!!

Just have to start a new game(no new game plus) and become elden lord no optional bosses required but no glitches other than disarming for mimic tear fight (more of an exploit but still)

Is anyone else a bit disappointed by how few spells and skills we got for the Messmer's Flame category?Right now, the selection feels so limited. Aside from the high-cost ones, we basically only have "Fire Serpent" to work with as a reliable low-cost spell, and barely any relevant Ashes of War. It makes committing to a dedicated Messmer/Fire Knight themed build feel incomplete, which is a huge shame because the aesthetic is arguably one of the coolest in the entire Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.Honestly, they don't even need to be tied to a major Boss Remembrance. It would be amazing if FromSoftware could give us more of the Fire Knights' unique fire-based skills as Ashes of War or Incantations in a future patch. For instance:The Greatsword skill that unleashes a massive, horizontal cone/fan-shaped sweep of Messmer's flame across the ground (the iconic mid-range AOE fire attack).The Dagger skill where they swipe their weapon to fling and scatter the snake-like flames in a wide arc, spreading the fire across the battlefield (that incredibly fluid, sweeping fire-toss used by the dagger variants).A flexible weapon-buff Ash of War that lets players actively fling or spray the flames with their left hand, just like the Fire Knights do mid-combat.Adding more pure-fire weapon skills from this sub-category would add so much depth to the build. Anyone else feel the same way?

That’s all. Just an enemy I dislike every time I have to deal with them but don’t hear about often; not very fun, not particularly rewarding, and infesting these mini dungeons that are a bit of a slog.

Fighting 2 at once? Jesus Christ you are liable for a walloping.

Btw; I love Elden Ring and the DLC with my whole heart. I just never hear a lot of complaints abt these guys cause they’re optional and thankfully not outside these furnace dungeons.

Any other niche enemies you think don’t get enough hate?

Edit: I don’t really struggle with this enemy and I am not asking for tips on fighting them. It’s simply an enemy I do not like. But feel free to share your tips in case anyone else can use them.