After nearly three weeks in The game Elden Ring Runes players had discovered a number of highly effective ways to take it down, employing OP builds to demolish difficult bosses such as Malenia and other players in PVP invasions. FromSoft did not take note however, and decided to nerf several of the most well-known builds with a huge 1.03 patch, which was made available overnight. In the coming days, players must come up with alternatives for strats that are based around Mimic Tear, Hoarfrost Stomp and other powerful items and abilities.
Mimic Tear was by far the most efficient. A Spirit Ash summon found in Elden Ring's Eternal City region, it allows players to summon an exact copy of themselves that would engage in a war with them. Because it was able to replicate the exact form of the player however, it was controlled by AI that allowed players to kit themselves out in the most powerful equipment, activate the summoning, and go back to their usual configuration while the duplicate ran amok in front of them in a way that distracted bosses. This became a standard technique to beat most of the game's bosses, and even the most difficult, Malenia, Blade of Miquella.
In the last patch, however, it was discovered that the Mimic Tear summon's damage was severely diminished. One participant on the Elden Ring subreddit who tested it estimated the nerf was roughly 50%. The same time they claimed that the imitation performed a little better and could dodge more. But it's certainly less effective at just spamming powerful spells over and over.
Hoarfrost Stomp was another of my favorites. The melee skill that was found near the Liurnia of the Lakes had both an impressive DPS and area-of-effect damage. Repeated use of it could result in frosting on enemies. It was a total crowd control tool that was ideal for farming enemy spawns and to wreck other players in attacks. The patch of last night reduced its damage to a significant extent and increased the cast time. "I received it just minutes before closing and applying the patch," wrote one player. "Didn't even get to use it. Still wrecked people in pvp but not like I got rekt by it yesterday."
The patch did, thankfully provide a fix for a particular flaw players had been using to ruin PvP. The Deathblight version combines an Eclipse Shotel weapon with the Fire's Deadly Sin incantation to build up the death ailment quickly on players who are in conflict and keep them from repeating backstab animations. The Elden Ring Items buy community was split on whether it was actually a bug or an actual part of the game, but the issue is gone. A few PvP players unaware the exploit was patched have still been trying to exploit it, only to be immediately cut down when it doesn't work.