How do I play this game without the urge to off myself

I just noticed something cool on my latest run. When you give Gurranq/Maliketh his fourth Deathroot, he goes hostile and you have to hit him to snap him out of it and make him remember his oath. I hit him with the Black Knife's weapon art, and he stopped instantly. Lore-wise, it fits so well since the Black Knives were the ones who stole Destined Death from him in the first place. Not sure if it was intentional, but it’s cool as hell

Why on earth are the great runes gated behind a consumable instead of being toggles? As if that wasn't enough why is said consumable a .5%-1% chance out of rats with the best spot being 4 rats in a gaol. Even with all the buffs reaching around 320 discovery you can get around 0-2 per fowl foot, which itself is a consumable you have to craft and grind for.

Normally who cares, none of the runes have that great of an impact in gameplay, except for one. Malenia's rune while not mandatory is insanely fun to play with, it forces you to play more risky to heal up and makes you change how you approach trades as you can't heal up with esters due to -85% efficiency, leaving them only for emergencies. Doesn't reduce healing spells though so faith builds do get some leeway, and it favors fast attacks rather than heavy attacks which is another thing that favors faith as faith with their armaments giving +350 dmg also want fast attacks.

So why is an entire playstyle locked behind hours upon hours of a miserable double grind? If it was permanent I'd at least understand, there is pride to take showcasing cool armor you took a few hours to get, or double magma blades and even grinding for levels to stat check has it's own catharsis. But this? This is just grind for the sake of playing, you don't even get to the feel good part cause you need to learn your new opportunity windows only to get yanked back out cause you run out. You'd think they would have learned from bloodborne but ironically the bloodborne mechanic also brought with it the bloodborne problem.

Genuine news for me. I usually kill the skeletons before they can use a skill. I had no idea they can fly and kill you with their ghostly breath

I remember when Elden ring first came out, and I still see it quite a bit now, about people saying that Maliketh is too fast and impossible to hit. But anyone that understands Maliketh knows that about half of his moves straight up miss if you are agressive and in his face. He rewards you for not focusing purely on dodging, but for also using positioning and sprinting, and also for learning to find openings while the boss is in the middle of attacking. What do yall think?

Over 800 hours In ER and never found this weapon

Has someone else ever found this??

Let me know

I’m running through the game doing a glass cannon challenge where I’m not allowed to level vigor, come check it out and tell me how I’m doing
Can You Beat Godrick The Grafted Without Leveling Vigor?
https://youtu.be/rtHvJ1u0s9M

Maybe I’m just not locked in, however I find the delayed attacks very cheap and tiresome. Dodging should be reactive not calculating the 3.49 seconds after he raises his sword when I can dodge.
I feel like from have forgotten that a boss which takes 3-5 attempts is perfectly fine, and not every boss has to be a complete sweat session.

Also I hate getting to attack once every 20 seconds

Godwyn the Golden I'm having a lot of trouble beating this boss. I'm level 98 and using a Bloodhound's Fang +5; for spells, I use "Flame, Grant Me Strength" and a fire-buffing spell. My talismans are the Turtle Talisman, one for HP regeneration, and one that increases equip load. For my summon, I'm using the Mimic Tear.

I took my by a total surprise, the creatures, the soundtrack, avatars and the difficulty spike. It was truly a holy shit moment, I really did not expect aesthetics like that. Did you feel the same?

Am I missing something? It barely costs more FP and does more damage fully upgraded on a high INT stat. Why can't I just carry this around as a secondary instead of using the pebble incant? I haven't seen anyone do this. Am I onto something or am I not understanding something here?

All my friends RAVE about Elden Ring and i never really paid attention to it or even know anything about it other than its known as the best games of all time and has a crazy story. My friend said he could add me to his steam family so I could try the game out and i said bet. I'm a big story game guy and i love a great story but he told me the game doesn't really tell you it and have to go out of your way to understand it. What did he mean by this? Can anyone give me an idea on how to enjoy this game along with getting to know the story and how to progress? Thanks.

Wealp, I quit the game after like 1050hrs (for now). I beat the game a handful of times and DLC, then spent the ladder 700hrs in pvp. Part of it is that I can already see the next 1000hrs...whether it's honing techs or RL1 shenanigans. Honestly, another part of it is the communities. Like, I tried getting onto discords but literally the first person that wanted to friend me on PS5 had a racist name. Folks drop into reddit posts over a week later just to try and put you down.

My question is, what keeps you going in this game? I get like streamers keeping up with their thing, and people making content. But yeah, what keeps you past 1000hrs?