***OFFICIAL ELDEN RING thread - praising the sun in an open world***

[lexbishop]

Finished.

I have to say I'm not happy about the last 15% of the game's balance. It soured me pretty badly about the first 85%. I'm not even sure what their reasoning could be. Hard for the sake of hard is just not fun.

I did it eventually by getting two iron greatswords infusing them with fire from the Flame of the Redmane Ash and just LB and Mimicked my way to victory. It did enough damage where I could rely on a little luck, some dodging, healing, and running away and I was able to do it.

I was forced to farm the swords and the ash which took over 3 hours since I also needed the silver scarab talisman for better discovery.

Doing it the normal way by blocking and dodging and managing my stamina and eventually winning by learning the final boss move set wasn't getting me anywhere. I guess I didn't cheat but I didn't use the melee build I'd been using the whole game. It felt like who could out damage the other first rather than me improving. Beating the game by checking a bunch of videos on strongest weapon combinations, leveling heavily, and changing my build entirely doesn't feel like I did it myself.

A lot of that time was wasted trying to figure out what was going to work. The damage from the two swords was around 600 more damage per hit vs my Golden Halberd and still faster.

I didn't even need the Art itself in the end.

2 of the previous 5 bosses I needed Fallingstar Beast's Jaw LT magic attack. Idk, nobody seems to agree with my sentiments so either you're magic builds or just super good at fighting strings of overpowered bosses in a row without getting frustrated. I can't deny the quality of the rest of the game but the end squeezed every ounce of fun out of it. It could have been 10-20 hours of fun content but it got blown up into 20+ hours of frustration.

To enjoy Elden Ring without burdening yourself too much you must spec a magic or hybrid build or you're not gonna have the best time.

[TBO1313]

Finished.

I have to say I'm not happy about the last 15% of the game's balance. It soured me pretty badly about the first 85%. I'm not even sure what their reasoning could be. Hard for the sake of hard is just not fun.

I did it eventually by getting two iron greatswords infusing them with fire from the Flame of the Redmane Ash and just LB and Mimicked my way to victory. It did enough damage where I could rely on a little luck, some dodging, healing, and running away and I was able to do it.

I was forced to farm the swords and the ash which took over 3 hours since I also needed the silver scarab talisman for better discovery.

Doing it the normal way by blocking and dodging and managing my stamina and eventually winning by learning the final boss move set wasn't getting me anywhere. I guess I didn't cheat but I didn't use the melee build I'd been using the whole game. It felt like who could out damage the other first rather than me improving. Beating the game by checking a bunch of videos on strongest weapon combinations, leveling heavily, and changing my build entirely doesn't feel like I did it myself.

A lot of that time was wasted trying to figure out what was going to work. The damage from the two swords was around 600 more damage per hit vs my Golden Halberd and still faster.

I didn't even need the Art itself in the end.

2 of the previous 5 bosses I needed Fallingstar Beast's Jaw LT magic attack. Idk, nobody seems to agree with my sentiments so either you're magic builds or just super good at fighting strings of overpowered bosses in a row without getting frustrated. I can't deny the quality of the rest of the game but the end squeezed every ounce of fun out of it. It could have been 10-20 hours of fun content but it got blown up into 20+ hours of frustration.

To enjoy Elden Ring without burdening yourself too much you must spec a magic or hybrid build or you're not gonna have the best time.

I think everyone has those same opinions. The game is amazing until you hit the mountaintops and then there is a huge difficulty spike. Every boss after the fire giant is hard as hell if you don't use a hybrid build and/or spirit ashes. The game was balanced around having 2 damage stats. One being either strength or dex and the other being int or faith. This game has a very different approach than the previous souls games. It's both a lot easier and a lot harder

[Kev1972]

I think everyone has those same opinions. The game is amazing until you hit the mountaintops and then there is a huge difficulty spike. Every boss after the fire giant is hard as hell if you don't use a hybrid build and/or spirit ashes. The game was balanced around having 2 damage stats. One being either strength or dex and the other being int or faith. This game has a very different approach than the previous souls games. It's both a lot easier and a lot harder

Dex faith is pretty epic. Just enough faith for golden vow though. And enough arc for rotten breath.

Rotten breath + lightning infused attacks on bleed weapons = easy mode along with golden vow and flame Grant me strength, lightning scorpion charm, jightning cracked tear, jump attack talisman and raptor feather cloak. Ritual sword talisman and Alexander shard for a strong ash like bolt of granseax.

[lexbishop]

I think everyone has those same opinions. The game is amazing until you hit the mountaintops and then there is a huge difficulty spike. Every boss after the fire giant is hard as hell if you don't use a hybrid build and/or spirit ashes. The game was balanced around having 2 damage stats. One being either strength or dex and the other being int or faith. This game has a very different approach than the previous souls games. It's both a lot easier and a lot harder

idk where you discuss games but everywhere I've looked people get nasty when you criticize a game that gets you mad.

But getting mad is a natural reaction to getting your ass handed to you, for some people its try #1, for others its try #100.

I appreciate your level headed response, wish it was more common. I still think it's GOAT (like the true definition of its meaning, best fantasy open world action rpg ever made), but I can't wrap my head around the end game balance.

An npc notebook would be nice too. No need for quests or quest markers even. The lack of hand holding is refreshing but def too vague.

[swolefnatic]

Currently running moonveil with Dex/int

[Muzzlrpress]

I think everyone has those same opinions. The game is amazing until you hit the mountaintops and then there is a huge difficulty spike. Every boss after the fire giant is hard as hell if you don't use a hybrid build and/or spirit ashes. The game was balanced around having 2 damage stats. One being either strength or dex and the other being int or faith. This game has a very different approach than the previous souls games. It's both a lot easier and a lot harder

I think magic may be a little easier, but it doesn't have the same fun factor for me. Respected into it and a hybrid for a while, but ended up going back to two hammers. Next toon I won with a two handed greatsword.

I may try a full on new spellcaster next playthrough. Debating NG+ respec or new toon. 75% sure I'll just make my 3rd character.

Definitely a frustrating difficulty spike after fire giant.

[WoofieNugget]

Jesus just started trying to beat Godrick the Great and holy crap he hits like a mofo. Even with help from spirits and the additional person you can summon. I need to work on my dodging.

[EagleOfWar]

Dex faith is pretty epic. Just enough faith for golden vow though. And enough arc for rotten breath.

Rotten breath + lightning infused attacks on bleed weapons = easy mode along with golden vow and flame Grant me strength, lightning scorpion charm, jightning cracked tear, jump attack talisman and raptor feather cloak. Ritual sword talisman and Alexander shard for a strong ash like bolt of granseax.

This is how I got plat. Bleed/faith pretty much. Lighting and swarm of flies was my go to.

[Kev1972]

This is how I got plat. Bleed/faith pretty much. Lighting and swarm of flies was my go to.

I'd try to fight everything straight up, but if I couldn't beat it after an hour or so I'd whip out the rotten breath cheese. It's kind of odd as tough as this game is it will let the monsters reset and still take damage.

[WoofieNugget]

So finally just sucked it up, went and levelled up in the cheese troll area about 5 levels and beat Godrick. Have to say, one of the things I like about Souls games is when you finally get in that last hit and they fade away because you've spent hours trying to beat them. Very satsifying. Now on to the next area which I'm sure will kill me dead in about thirty seconds.

[TBO1313]

idk where you discuss games but everywhere I've looked people get nasty when you criticize a game that gets you mad.

But getting mad is a natural reaction to getting your ass handed to you, for some people its try #1, for others its try #100.

I appreciate your level headed response, wish it was more common. I still think it's GOAT (like the true definition of its meaning, best fantasy open world action rpg ever made), but I can't wrap my head around the end game balance.

An npc notebook would be nice too. No need for quests or quest markers even. The lack of hand holding is refreshing but def too vague.

I got the game on release and at that time everyone had the same opinion that the late game difficulty spike was unbalanced and the fun factor went way down after beating Morgott. The main problem is enemy damage. I like to do glass cannon type builds and was completely fine with 30 vig all the way through Lyndell but as soon as I got to the mountaintops it felt like I needed a minimum of 40 for even a glass cannon build. The regular enemies in the Haligtree are the worst offenders. No matter how much you level vig they will 2 shot you. The best counter to the high damage is to use the blasphemous blade since it gives you health on the ash of war and massive damage. I think people are getting defensive because its game of the year time so they don't want any criticism that might cause it to lose to GOW. I've replayed the game several times trying different builds but I always flame out and start over once I get towards the end.

[lexbishop]

I got the game on release and at that time everyone had the same opinion that the late game difficulty spike was unbalanced and the fun factor went way down after beating Morgott. The main problem is enemy damage. I like to do glass cannon type builds and was completely fine with 30 vig all the way through Lyndell but as soon as I got to the mountaintops it felt like I needed a minimum of 40 for even a glass cannon build. The regular enemies in the Haligtree are the worst offenders. No matter how much you level vig they will 2 shot you. The best counter to the high damage is to use the blasphemous blade since it gives you health on the ash of war and massive damage. I think people are getting defensive because its game of the year time so they don't want any criticism that might cause it to lose to GOW. I've replayed the game several times trying different builds but I always flame out and start over once I get towards the end.

LOL. From what i heard, Ragnorok is a woke version of GOW 2018.

And GOW 2018 is not as good as the old ones.

I didnt get that far in yet to be fair but it seems to have an identity crisis.

The environments kind of feel like Tomb Raider 2013, the gameplay feels like an offshoot of Elden Ring, and the boy yells a little too much. Kratos seems to switch from weak and tired to godlike and back again.

I don't think people should worry. Elden Ring sold 17 million copies. At the very least it's getting DLC and a sequel and From has already expanded.

IMO its biggest future problem is that it got Sony and Tencent investment money. Sony is becoming increasingly woke and Chinese investment has ruined Ubisoft. I've always liked Sony but they need to cut the woke sh*t out and if that means firing thousands of woke staff thats what they need to do.

Anyway, Elden Ring is my GOAT. Still let's be honest. An endgame balance patch is sorely needed OR some kind of in game nudge to upgrade your character in certain ways.

[Kev1972]

Honestly what do you think is so difficult about the end game?

My 3rd play through I stayed under lvl 70 until fire giant, then leveled to 90 to finish the game.

Certain builds suck against certain bosses, but other builds flatten them in seconds.

Malenia dies in a few hits to a maxed out bleed/jump attack build, where elden beast is immune to bleed and much easier to kill at range. So you're much better off switching to lightning/dex and just melting him with spells or ranged ash.

I think the higher difficulty bosses are supposed to challenge you with different builds, which is why the rebirth and larval tears are introduced so early in the game. On the second demigod.

[TBO1313]

LOL. From what i heard, Ragnorok is a woke version of GOW 2018.

And GOW 2018 is not as good as the old ones.

I didnt get that far in yet to be fair but it seems to have an identity crisis.

The environments kind of feel like Tomb Raider 2013, the gameplay feels like an offshoot of Elden Ring, and the boy yells a little too much. Kratos seems to switch from weak and tired to godlike and back again.

I don't think people should worry. Elden Ring sold 17 million copies. At the very least it's getting DLC and a sequel and From has already expanded.

IMO its biggest future problem is that it got Sony and Tencent investment money. Sony is becoming increasingly woke and Chinese investment has ruined Ubisoft. I've always liked Sony but they need to cut the woke sh*t out and if that means firing thousands of woke staff thats what they need to do.

Anyway, Elden Ring is my GOAT. Still let's be honest. An endgame balance patch is sorely needed OR some kind of in game nudge to upgrade your character in certain ways.

They actually have done a lot to make endgame easier since release. They've buffed the chit out of nearly everything to make you hit harder. That was never the problem though. Its the insane damage late game enemies do that's the issue. I seriously doubt they ever change that.

I only played GOW when it was free on Playstation Plus a couple months ago. It wasn't bad but I'm completely over "story" games like that. It was fun for a playthrough but I'll never touch it again.

[lexbishop]

Honestly what do you think is so difficult about the end game?

My 3rd play through I stayed under lvl 70 until fire giant, then leveled to 90 to finish the game.

Certain builds suck against certain bosses, but other builds flatten them in seconds.

Malenia dies in a few hits to a maxed out bleed/jump attack build, where elden beast is immune to bleed and much easier to kill at range. So you're much better off switching to lightning/dex and just melting him with spells or ranged ash.

I think the higher difficulty bosses are supposed to challenge you with different builds, which is why the rebirth and larval tears are introduced so early in the game. On the second demigod.

First let me say that burnout started happening for me after 150 hours. I took my time and I had the game paused when I went to the gym or overnight, so that's probably closer to 80-100 hours realistically.

Plus I was grinding every location and boss and secret mission and item I could find. The game is massive.

1. For your question, im going to separate this into 4 parts. First, we need to decide if spirit summons or coop are cheating or not

I never used coop but I did use Jellyfish spirit summons for many bosses even early on. And I used Perfumer Tricia for the double dragons.

If spirit summons are cheating I got nothing, because I'd probably have quit without a respec at Margit. I always like to melee and shield and mid roll. I can't figure out the parry in Souls games it just feels off.

If spirit summons are fair then starting at the Haligtree is when the game exploded in difficulty. But you can run past all that.

2. Its the Consecrated Snowfield where you're forced to fight some ridiculous bosses, and there I started using Mimic. Using Mimic is like summoning a coop friend. This is where I didn't feel like I was being fair. Where the Jellyfish gives you a breather, Mimic feels like it's taking over.

Commander Niall was a hard wall for me. 2 former bosses and the boss was too much for a shield & sword mid roll melee build.

Slightly before him, the giant bird on the hill before his castle, a dragon in front of that same castle, the Fire Giant.

Individual rough bosses before the snowfield were the Crucible Knights and Godskin Noble, then Godskin fatty, Pumpkin Head (then later on, Godskin Duo).

Pumpkin Head is a funny one. I watched my mage friend beat him with zero damage.

For Malenia specifically I needed a guide to tell me how to dodge her divebomb into bloom. 20 tries and i couldnt figure out what the game wanted from me. Turns out i needed to unlock the target and run forward and then roll. Still needed Mimic but I did it. This is when I started feeling serious burnout.

For Crumbling Farum Azula I just didn't have it in me to keep going because I stumbled on FOUR dragons in a row. Then the hidden boss there, Dragonlord Placidusax.

Keep in mind at this point I'm still opening up older routes like the Noktella castle, Dragon Rot lake, the overworld section where you finish up Ranni's quest, and some of the underground and cleaning up old dungeons.

3. For two bosses I not only used Mimic, but I cheated by spamming Fallingstar Beast Jaw L2 magic attack: Maliketh and Godfrey plus his 2nd form. I probably could have gotten both of them (or more) if I had respec-ed earlier, but just the concept of it is just so strange to me. Plus unless I'm reading multiple guides and suggestions, it kind of feels like starting over with someone else and not you any longer.

Those two is where I started getting actually super pissed off and I was mentally just done.

4. I took a breather, couldn't do the final boss part, watched a lot of youtube videos to try to find a good melee build for it, found a potential solution, and took many hours to get lucky drops for the two fire iron greatswords and upgrade them.

Again it felt like a different game and didn't seem to make much sense that farming weapons for 4 hours, no change in skill, in fact less skill, resulted in me completing the game.

Spoiler!

Side complaint
5. Let's talk about most of the boss battles in the game for a second. They work like this:

Boss uses random combo 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5.
Ridiculously short time to react
Very similar tells to each other

If you get hit by any one of these, you're on the ground. That starts a new string of things that happen in most boss fights in the game:

You on ground, must press roll or get smashed on ground.
Press roll because you're forced to.
Boss starts next random combo immediately, you're low on health already though.
Roll away, not sure how many attacks.
Press heal potion.
Boss sees you healing, immediately starts a new long range combo.
Lose health, try to heal again, new boss combo.

Here you're either dead, low on potions, or out of stamina.

Everyone who has it played it knows 1 hit sometimes means death or near death because the second you get hit its like being combo'd in Tekken when you can never get back up in a safe neutral position to counterattack. You're stuck in a loop that you can't get out of.

There's got to be better ways to do this. This has to be upwards of 80% of the game bosses. Bosses need either better tells or slightly longer wind ups.

Sorry if I'm all over the place with this. I never actually respec-ed, but I had to drop my shield and waste hours to get the right weapon and my resulting final boss fight was a lot uglier and less impressive, yet I still beat the game.





TLDR
The changes I made that helped me beat the game wasn't to get good. I wasn't able to block, I still had a mid roll, I wasn't dodging better, I got hit more so I could hit the boss more.

My only improvement was to exploit the damage and equipment system.

If you count from Mimic to the end, I beat the last 15% of Elden Ring by getting worse.

In stark contrast to Dark Souls 3 where I beat the game, without coop summons, by only changing my armor once, my shield twice, and stuck with the same sword from beginning to end.

[jimmybobjim]

Elden Ring is on sale at Walmart for $35. Sekiro is on sale on Microsoft Store for $30.

Which one should I get?

[Kraken]

First let me say that burnout started happening for me after 150 hours. I took my time and I had the game paused when I went to the gym or overnight, so that's probably closer to 80-100 hours realistically.

Plus I was grinding every location and boss and secret mission and item I could find. The game is massive.

1. For your question, im going to separate this into 4 parts. First, we need to decide if spirit summons or coop are cheating or not

I never used coop but I did use Jellyfish spirit summons for many bosses even early on. And I used Perfumer Tricia for the double dragons.

If spirit summons are cheating I got nothing, because I'd probably have quit without a respec at Margit. I always like to melee and shield and mid roll. I can't figure out the parry in Souls games it just feels off.

If spirit summons are fair then starting at the Haligtree is when the game exploded in difficulty. But you can run past all that.

2. Its the Consecrated Snowfield where you're forced to fight some ridiculous bosses, and there I started using Mimic. Using Mimic is like summoning a coop friend. This is where I didn't feel like I was being fair. Where the Jellyfish gives you a breather, Mimic feels like it's taking over.

Commander Niall was a hard wall for me. 2 former bosses and the boss was too much for a shield & sword mid roll melee build.

Slightly before him, the giant bird on the hill before his castle, a dragon in front of that same castle, the Fire Giant.

Individual rough bosses before the snowfield were the Crucible Knights and Godskin Noble, then Godskin fatty, Pumpkin Head (then later on, Godskin Duo).

Pumpkin Head is a funny one. I watched my mage friend beat him with zero damage.

For Malenia specifically I needed a guide to tell me how to dodge her divebomb into bloom. 20 tries and i couldnt figure out what the game wanted from me. Turns out i needed to unlock the target and run forward and then roll. Still needed Mimic but I did it. This is when I started feeling serious burnout.

For Crumbling Farum Azula I just didn't have it in me to keep going because I stumbled on FOUR dragons in a row. Then the hidden boss there, Dragonlord Placidusax.

Keep in mind at this point I'm still opening up older routes like the Noktella castle, Dragon Rot lake, the overworld section where you finish up Ranni's quest, and some of the underground and cleaning up old dungeons.

3. For two bosses I not only used Mimic, but I cheated by spamming Fallingstar Beast Jaw L2 magic attack: Maliketh and Godfrey plus his 2nd form. I probably could have gotten both of them (or more) if I had respec-ed earlier, but just the concept of it is just so strange to me. Plus unless I'm reading multiple guides and suggestions, it kind of feels like starting over with someone else and not you any longer.

Those two is where I started getting actually super pissed off and I was mentally just done.

4. I took a breather, couldn't do the final boss part, watched a lot of youtube videos to try to find a good melee build for it, found a potential solution, and took many hours to get lucky drops for the two fire iron greatswords and upgrade them.

Again it felt like a different game and didn't seem to make much sense that farming weapons for 4 hours, no change in skill, in fact less skill, resulted in me completing the game.

Spoiler!

Side complaint
5. Let's talk about most of the boss battles in the game for a second. They work like this:

Boss uses random combo 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5.
Ridiculously short time to react
Very similar tells to each other

If you get hit by any one of these, you're on the ground. That starts a new string of things that happen in most boss fights in the game:

You on ground, must press roll or get smashed on ground.
Press roll because you're forced to.
Boss starts next random combo immediately, you're low on health already though.
Roll away, not sure how many attacks.
Press heal potion.
Boss sees you healing, immediately starts a new long range combo.
Lose health, try to heal again, new boss combo.

Here you're either dead, low on potions, or out of stamina.

Everyone who has it played it knows 1 hit sometimes means death or near death because the second you get hit its like being combo'd in Tekken when you can never get back up in a safe neutral position to counterattack. You're stuck in a loop that you can't get out of.

There's got to be better ways to do this. This has to be upwards of 80% of the game bosses. Bosses need either better tells or slightly longer wind ups.

Sorry if I'm all over the place with this. I never actually respec-ed, but I had to drop my shield and waste hours to get the right weapon and my resulting final boss fight was a lot uglier and less impressive, yet I still beat the game.





TLDR
The changes I made that helped me beat the game wasn't to get good. I wasn't able to block, I still had a mid roll, I wasn't dodging better, I got hit more so I could hit the boss more.

My only improvement was to exploit the damage and equipment system.

If you count from Mimic to the end, I beat the last 15% of Elden Ring by getting worse.

In stark contrast to Dark Souls 3 where I beat the game, without coop summons, by only changing my armor once, my shield twice, and stuck with the same sword from beginning to end.

They wanted to give people more options in Eldon ring. I think this sometimes made gameplay more complicated, because some weapons shine in certain encounters, but can completely suck at other encounters. You could also miss or mess up some really important stuff very easily.

In dark souls three, they were good weapons, a few average weapons, and really bad weapons. Good weapons could be used in every encounter, like long swords.

Elden ring was great because of the open world and lots of options, but felt like rebirths were a necessity unless using a busted weapon (which later got nerfed anyway). There is such a thing as too many options, because many of them end up bad. Dark souls three was great because you could work on one armor set, one weapon, and do well at the game.

Balancing a game with so many options can create chaos, so you end up wasting so much time trying to put sets and weapons together, and before you reach the end of the game, you might have to switch your weapon because it got nerfed.

[AD117]

Elden Ring is on sale at Walmart for $35. Sekiro is on sale on Microsoft Store for $30.

Which one should I get?

I'd go ER (ESPECIALLY for a comparable price to an older game), but you'll get an amazing experience either way.

[lexbishop]

They wanted to give people more options in Eldon ring. I think this sometimes made gameplay more complicated, because some weapons shine in certain encounters, but can completely suck at other encounters. You could also miss or mess up some really important stuff very easily.

In dark souls three, they were good weapons, a few average weapons, and really bad weapons. Good weapons could be used in every encounter, like long swords.

Elden ring was great because of the open world and lots of options, but felt like rebirths were a necessity unless using a busted weapon (which later got nerfed anyway). There is such a thing as too many options, because many of them end up bad. Dark souls three was great because you could work on one armor set, one weapon, and do well at the game.

Balancing a game with so many options can create chaos, so you end up wasting so much time trying to put sets and weapons together, and before you reach the end of the game, you might have to switch your weapon because it got nerfed.

I realize there isn't any great way to balance hundreds of hours of content, but it almost feel like it was balanced for coop. I don't know if I would have it in me for a sequel. Maybe I'm just getting too old.

[AD117]

Eat it, Ragnorok nerds.

[MrBourbon]

[TugOfPeace]

Oddly enough.. I got this game at release and traded it in after reaching the underground lake area. Just seemed too difficult to navigate and whatnot, got sick of the game.

Now I'm getting the itch to rebuy it after being disappointed with God of War Ragnarok combat, but don't want to pay full price

Guess I'll just play TW3 for the first time when the update comes out

[2010JW]

Hell yeah , well deserved. They got it right this year

[jimmybobjim]

Anyone still play this game? dam looks like everyone got burnt out.

it's crickets in here.

[TBO1313]

Anyone still play this game? dam looks like everyone got burnt out.

it's crickets in here.

Yep I'm still playing. I try to play other games but keep coming back. At this point I've tried almost every build there is

[TugOfPeace]

Anyone still play this game? dam looks like everyone got burnt out.

it's crickets in here.

I load it up occasionally, but I ragequit after a couple deaths then play something else lol. Love/hate relationship

[ohiostate124]

Got plat. Just waiting for dlc.

[EagleOfWar]

Got plat. Just waiting for dlc.

Same here.


Literally as soon as there’s new dlc (story wise, idc about pvp so much) I’ll be all over it again.

[WoofieNugget]

I suck at DS games but have been working on this for a couple of months. Did a strength build first, suck at melee, did a caster and got to Raya Lucaria. Then at Xmas I upgraded to a PS5 so I decided to start from scratch with a samurai.

Still suck, but I've made it to Caelid with my samurai and then started an astrologer build and rocketed to Level 50. I'm enjoying the caster build a lot more TBH. Going to get through Raya Lucaria hopefully soon. Although I have to say, I hate Caelid but Altus Plateau is a big jump.

[jthm]

just started a new game after not playin for months when did they nerf the bosses?