Made a new character last night, and like all good ideas it's super easy to set up. The goal was simple: Great Axe. From the first roaming caravan. Nothing but strength and vigor. What was even better was when I came across Ground Slam and decided to run that as the L2, as I had never tried it before.
Playing this build with very little care in the world has honestly been a breath of fresh air. No challenge to set anything up, and just using a few things you find in the starting areas to take on Margit really showed me how much they lay it out for you if you decide to go strength. Great Axe freely available, Axe talisman for charged attacks in Mistwood, Ground Slam also there, Strength physick tear on the way to Stormveil. All of this stuff stacks up VERY well for the Margit fight.
Speaking of Margit, it's so weird for me to say this after 860+ hours, but I finally
get Margit. All it took was medium range, and I so used to being on top of him that it kept me in the danger zone. At medium, he comes to you and leaves openings. So when you combine that with Great Axe charged R2s and Ground Slam's poise damage, it's so easy to stance break him. Really this is no surprise to me, but my first experience with this was
After Godrick I pumped dex to use his axe (another one I haven't used before), and although it's got nice flashy R2s it's not half as effective as the GA and the L2 leaves you far too open. Catches NPC enemies but that's about it. I'll respec back into full strength and go back to the GA.
So never played any of the dark soul games, but as i bought a deck now i kinda wanna play it. Is it doable or just extremely hard for a new player with no experience to get anything done in this.
The truth behind all of the memes is that the core gameplay philosophy is attack commitment with the intent of punishing but fair gameplay. If you relentlessly spam attacks, different enemies can and will punish you for it. The second core element is i-frames through dodge rolls, which goes hand in hand with the first by allowing you to roll through attacks and be in a position/range to get your own hits in.
Elden Ring is perhaps the easiest of the bunch, because it provides so many options for the player. NPC summons, the most ever customisation, freedom, etc. You start off with not much healing or health, but sticking with a shield and leveling the Vigor stat helps with that. Even using a shield, which obviously becomes unnecessary when you master a game, is more encouraged in ER. They added a fantastic new feature called Guard Counter, which is a heavy attack counter after blocking an attack. Works wonders for many otherwise annoying enemies, and I personally made great use of it all the way through my first character.