The New 'Elden Ring' Update Actually Made Magic Even Stronger

The Elden Ring 1.04 patch is out and FromSoftware have nerfed and buffed a number of attacks, alongside general bug fixes.

Nerfing Swarm Of Flies, an attack which inflicts bleed and is commonly used on one of the hardest bosses Malenia, fans were not best pleased. Flame Of Frenzy and Frenzied Burst are two other spells which received a nerf as part of the latest patch. Elden Ring is the most approachable Soulsborne game to date, as director Hidetaka Miyazaki wanted to give players more options when it came to the genre's notoriously difficult combat. This was controversial, however, as some players believe that if you don’t struggle to beat the game with weaker melee builds then you aren’t experiencing what is truly great about the games.  

If you want to see a melee build which offers a bit more slice, check out our tutorial to find the powerful pizza cutter weapon.

Despite player’s disappointment over the nerfing of these three magical spells, FromSoftware has buffed an eye-watering 52 other incantations. Buffs often increase cast speed, and reduce recovery time between casting, meaning you can deliver more attacks in the same amount of time. Other buffs include reducing stamina cost to casting certain spells, or adding extra hitboxes or invulnerability to the attacks. This increases the amount of damage some attacks can do and how much damage you take while casting. 

Many of these buffs have been added for what FromSoftware calls “balance adjustment”. Despite the game not being an MMO, the studio hopes that by making all weapons equal that players will be steered towards using the weapons and attacks they enjoy playing with, rather than simply using the most overpowered playstyles. 

Of the spells which have received a buff a few of them were already considered pretty powerful. Unendurable Frenzy has received a whole host of buffs including increased cast speed and decreased recovery, as well as fewer random projectiles, and increased madness for enemies.

Elden Stars and Black Blade have also received general buffs, and fan favourite Rock Blaster now allows the caster to more easily withstand attacks from enemies. Looks like there was never a better time to give up on melee.