#and also uses blackflame. very fun

[sollucets]

in anticipation of dlc soon i have reupped my ps4 to play elden ring and am engaging in my favorite pastime (sunbro!) and it does. feel nice. enjoying liking things again

[conjoinedpubes]

Adventures of Maern - Chapter 6: Reflection

Since the last update, Sister Maern reached endgame. Sadly, I did not take much notes + didn't play ER for a few months after. As a result, this journal is mostly reflection and not a specific breakdown of end-game.

6.1 TIME FOR REFLECTION

One thing that became clear attempting at this co-op build is that a dedicated healer in ER is a very flawed concept.

EMERGENCY HEALS

Emergency healing assumes 3 things - position, timing and coordination. Achieving position and timing could be best done by closely hugging allies at all times - but is that fun? I personally found it draining...

- Constantly trying to 'hug' a host also removes the ability to split attention, arguably the strongest advantage in co-op (both in PVE and PVP). - Its also much harder to do in late-game, where monsters have more complex/faster movements. - Another strange issue was that - because monster attacks have multiple ways of being countered; dodging/running in a way different to an ally often leaves you out of position to heal.

As for coordination; taking to public co-op maybe wasn't the best idea. If someone takes life-threatening damage - they're just going to flask. No-one (rightfully) assumes that a random gold-phantom is playing a dedicated healer.

SLOW HEALS

Maybe the better idea is to provide slow heal/regeneration, save your friends on flask charges? This it turns out, was the more flexible/generally applicable use for a support character.

- Regen buffs are static value healing. Stronger at lower levels due to Hp being lower, also less flask uses available. I found regeneration buffs to be useful all game, absurdly good IMO at low levels. - Theres alot of small damage sources (poisons, projectiles etc). Not worth spending heal flask to stay topped of all the time, but a really good place for slow regen to keep one's Hp at full.

Despite all this, bringing a regen incant may not be that big of a deal. Heal on kill effects and warming stones are a common sight in public co-op, requiring little to no character specialisation to use.

- IMO, regen incants are still the most convenient way to access over-time recovery - Warming Stones to after all require players to stand still. They also stack, so you could also just bring both.

OTHER BUFFS

The main ones are the barriers and Golden Vow. Not much to say other than; great in PVE. Like regen buffs, these effects dont scale in any way.

OFFENSE

While we ran Blackflame effects initially for theme reasons, it ended up being effecient PVE damage. This was due to monsters having more hp in co-op + Blackflame having a %max hp burn effect.

Black Flame Tornado (BFT) Will single-handedly cover boss damage in the lategame. Takes some positioning and planning to use, but absurdly good vs everything. Black Flame Ritual (BFR) Better in PVP than BFT. The lingering fire circle helps with zoning, not needing to channel is a lifesaver on a low-poise character like this one. Scouring Black Flame (SBF) Nothing great about this one, but I do enjoy it. Takes some manual aim, as the flame always rise with travel distance. Occasionally causes a 'double hit' on enemies. Can be acquired earlier than BFT/BFR. Black Knife Weapon Art Another good one, the '%Hp Cut' effect is a great bossfight debuff. While you can try to spam this, I didn't enjoy the playstyle + it eats into Fp that could be used for heals/buffs. Great opener to help againt late-game boss hp.

Weapon wise, Scythe had some intresting upsides. Scythe swings often have natural hyper-armour, helping mitigate the low character poise.

- Combined with wide sweeps and good stagger, Scythe was a good weapon to handle groups of small agressive monsters (ie. rats/dogs). - Having natural bleed status was minor. Between stopping to cast + not being bleed focused; bleed procs rarely happen on anything thats not a large and immobile boss. - Grave Scythe is better in every way except weight, but farming in ER is a pain, so I did not use it.

SYNERGIES

By far my favourite tool in this build was the Ritual Shield Talisman (+Absorption on Full Hp) + Regen effects.

- A common pattern in combat is: dampen the first hit + regen to bring you back to full. Since the first hit is reduced, you regen to full faster, gaining back to bonus. Exceptional on slow, hard hitting enemies.

That said, this combo does take a talisman slot and is not great in scenarios with status or just vs multi-hits generally.

6.2 LESSONS

Since 'non-scaling buffs' ended up being the best aspect of the character, it brings up the question of faith-hybrid/faith dip support builds.

The other big takeway is that ER late-game is just not the place where a healer shines. Monsters are faster, players are not lacking in healing resources. In addition, most of the lategame co-op is boss kill centric, while this character's focus is 'adventure endurance' in dungeons.

Were I to recreate this character, a mid level (60, +12/5) setup would be better. Strike a balance between having interesting tools, long dungeons and a place where having healing spells are still a great addition.

Its been fun.