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My Elden Ring Arcana Run - Part 7 (Contemplations)

Do we have enough stonesword Keys? I think we picked one up that wasn't in my notes - which is to say, that ... as I've been writing this, a few new things popped up and that kind of messes things up. Like so, those glintstone pebbles I told you we'd need - well - it's there in the same dungeon where we picked up the sacred seal. If you drop down that bridge (and do so from the bridge rather than the edge before it to not miss the ledge below) you get into a secret part of the dungeon. There you'll get into a chapel. There you'll find an Item, which is a decent-ish Talisman to have - but looking up will reveal two Grafted Scions lurking to drop down on you. Running straight accross the bridge there will have one land right ontop of you. So, you have to jump off the bridge to get to the other side. Then it's best - I think - to prepare for a fight in order to flee - rather than just blindly trying to dodge through. But, beneath that bridge is another ledge. You only get to it from the side you enter the room. Below it, you'll find an elevator that takes you back up. If you stand in that arch where we dropped to the other slope - if you look to the left you'll see a Ghostly Knight and an Item. The Glintstone pebble was to attack him - so he'd drop down - so we can then enter the secret part and when we get back up here we won't have to deal with him to obtain the stonesword key there. A Bow will however do just fine.

And so I was thinking about bows. And at that point I noticed that I'm basically just drafting things from a wiki - where my curiosity takes me to things I don't have much of a clue about. Like bows. Previously I had access to Magic. In my Faith run I kind of didn't need ranged options so far. I think. But this time around it felt like something that's missing.

And so, from what I can tell, there are three types of Bows. Light, Normal and Heavy. We started the Run with a Light bow. We then had the option to pick up two Normal ones, but if you prefer one that is upgraded with normal smithing stones, the best option for now seems to be the one we can buy from the Twin-Husks.
Passing through the gates to the Capital ... so I learned, we may have picked up a Greatbow and a Golden Rune [9]. And now, that sucks. But while some people might enjoy incorporating either one of these bows into their build; I'll have to play around a bit as well. However, the Pulley Bow ... from what I read is the one with the best Range and Damage. But since we're also levelling Arcane, the Scorpion Bow might be better. But ... It's one of those things I rather have no opinion on right now.


But well. So, next step is to enter Nokrum for the Black Whetblade, the Mimic Ashes and some Ghostwarts - and then Nokstella for some Ghostwarts and Somber Smithing stones. Here I'd use the Mimic to help kill the Malformed Star for a Somber Smithing Stone [7] - and once we got everything we'd be on to enter the Capital proper and make our way to Morgott. Perhaps taking a detour to pick another Somber Smithing stone up from the sewers. And somewhere along the way we may pick up another weapon. And I'm thinking that we're essentially just playing the game normally. So, I've lost a bit of faith in what this is. Or is supposed to be.

And so I'm thinking ... why not go and kill Mogh in preparation for the DLC? I've just done my test-kill on Rune Level 60 ... notably with vigor on 22, and Dex and Arcane on 25 respectively. The particular strat I used requires a bit of playing the second phase. So, you might want to go for more health to survive a hit; Or Arcane to get it over with quicker (the Helice scales better with Arcane. So, if you don't level Dex at all until you're at like 45 Arcane - say, 20 Dex and 30 Arcane for Level 60, that might already get you closer to a sort of quick kill. 70, to pull a number out of the Darkness, might be the sweet spot here).


But not today ...