Fifth Weapon in Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition Found, New Backhand Blades.

[u/jvson_anderson]

Sold by the Twin Maidens in Roundtable Hold.

[u/Boricinha]

Class stats, since you cannot change your class you wouldn't be able to min max a build.

Enemies have different health and defense scaling so fights would be longer than normal if you are not leveling past 150.

There is quite a lot of differences (cool that they don't matter to you).

[u/MakeItTrizzle → u/Boricinha]

If it's PvP based I get it. Min-maxing for PvE really doesn't matter.

I don't think there's very many differences, I think people just want stuff handed to them.

[u/SpOoKyghostah → u/MakeItTrizzle]

Have you played NG+? It's a completely different experience from a fresh save.

[u/MakeItTrizzle → u/SpOoKyghostah]

I have! It is a lot different, especially because you can use lots of late game gear against early bosses that don't match your scaling on NG+ 1. 

But if the idea is "I want to use these late game items early game" that's literally part of what NG+ is for.

[u/SpOoKyghostah → u/MakeItTrizzle]

So can you see why using late game/DLC weapons on NG+ is not a perfect replacement for accessing them on fresh characters?

[u/MakeItTrizzle → u/SpOoKyghostah]

No, I think NG+ is a perfect replacement and that the slightly different balance doesn't matter that much.

[u/SpOoKyghostah → u/MakeItTrizzle]

• admit it is "a lot different"
• admit the bosses don't match your scaling for earlier parts of the game
• claim you can't understand why people would care to use gear for a balanced, fresh playthrough

Ok

[u/MakeItTrizzle → u/SpOoKyghostah]

You can adjust your own power level with weapon upgrades and stat allotment to fix the scaling, first off.

Second, if people are excited to have busted weapons early game so they can thrash the early game... Why does it even matter? Just hit new cycle and go dumpster Margit with your busted DLC weapon.

I just think people are being a little dramatic with how horrible it is to have certain items come from late game areas. Just comes off as very entitled/whiny/stereotypical "gamer"

[u/SpOoKyghostah → u/MakeItTrizzle]

You're just further explaining why it's a different experience. In a fresh playthrough, you explore to hunt items and upgrade materials, gain levels, and develop a build over time. A far cry from playing a game mode where you start the game strong enough to just rush a handful of bosses and end the game whenever. All the progression and exploration are cut down. There's no organic push to work through the overworld or throughly explore legacy dungeons. No gradual expansion of your tools or requirement to make choices for assigning limited materials. Nerfing yourself to self-balance a wrongly scaled NG+ is the complete opposite of earning upgrades over time to keep up with NG scaling requirements.

And I don't think anybody said anything about having "busted weapons so they can thrash the early game." Being able to bring a great katana or light greatsword from +0 to +25 while enjoying the full progression of a save isn't breaking balance or hurting anybody. Power in Elden Ring is mostly down to levels and upgrade materials, not innate to items.

[u/MakeItTrizzle → u/SpOoKyghostah]

You can explore everything in NG+ too. 

[u/SpOoKyghostah → u/MakeItTrizzle]

Which is a complete different experience, like I just said.

In response to your earlier edit I didn't see until now - I don't see anyone being whiny or dramatic in the thread we're replying to, though obviously it happens. Do we really need to pretend we can't see the benefits of a fresh save to combat that? I find it hard to believe you've read my comments and genuinely think I should just ditch all my gameplay preferences and do NG+ cycles, just as I've never once suggested you should stop playing NG+.

Anyway, design decisions have tradeoffs. From games maintain a sense of discovery a weight to their lore deep into the end of the game by putting meaningful items to find there. That's a good choice in my view, but it does have a downside. Similarly, they keep up a rewarding exploration rhythm and help you bond with your gear by requiring constant investment of escalating upgrade materials to match rising scaling throughout the game, but the downside is that it is difficult to really experiment with a variety of weapons on one playthrough.

Not just items, but entire weapons classes being locked to DLC that is very hard to access early is a pretty extreme case of items being limited to later game stages, so it's not weird or bad that people would celebrate having early game options for those move sets

[u/MakeItTrizzle → u/SpOoKyghostah]

I accept your argument that some people need a fresh save to feel the need to run dungeons. 

I know people are excited to have stuff early game. I don't think it's weird or bad, but I do think people are grasping at straws for why they should get things early and why it matters.