Elden Ring Update Nerfs Several OP Builds

If you’ve been using one of several popular Elden Ring builds made possible by items in Shadow of the Erdtree, you might want to check on your weapons today after the latest update. FromSoftware put out an update on July 4th that nerfed several different strategies players have been using such as the overwhelming amount of bleed damage that the Bloodfiend’s Arm weapon dished out as well as the potency of the Rolling Sparks skill that’s been decimating bosses when used with some of the new perfumes. These builds and others affected will naturally still be powerful, though not to the degree that they were before.

What’s interesting about this particular Elden Ring update is that there are really only a few actual balance changes, so that’s not where the nerfs are coming from. Instead, the nerfs are actually bugfixes which prove that some of these weapons players were using were actually dealing more damage than intended. Players suspected as much in regards to things like the Rolling Sparks skill which was shown off in Shadow of the Erdtree videos and guides urging players to try the busted perfume build with many speculating that it was only a matter of time until nerfs came through.

The Bloodfiend’s Arm is another example of a broken build that’s been nerfed now. This colossal weapon dealt incredible amounts of bleed buildup to the point that the bleed effect could be triggered instantly after a charged heavy attack.

Below are all the patch notes for this week’s Elden Ring update:

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Patch Notes for July 4th

PvP-exclusive balance adjustments

• Decreased the damage and damage animation of the shearing vacuum effect of the “Swift Slash” Skill.

General balance adjustments

• Increased the Intelligence scaling of the Carian Sorcery Sword and slightly decreased the base damage.
• Extended the throwing attacks range for the following weapons: Smithscript Dagger, Smithscript Cirque
• Changed the placement of the bosses in the re-fight against the Golden Hippopotamus and Commander Gaius bosses to be in the same position as in the first fight.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused the Rolling Sparks Skill to deal more damage than expected.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Rolling Sparks and Wall of Sparks Skills to deal no damage while some special effects were applied to the player.
• Fixed a bug where some special effects of a right-handed weapon would also be applied to the following Weapon Skills when cast with the left hand: Feeble Lord’s Frenzied Flame, Discus Hurl
• Fixed a bug where successfully guarding while attacking using the Thrusting Shield weapon type would consume less stamina than intended.
• Fixed a bug that prevented players from cancelling the attack recovery of two-handed strong attacks by rolling for certain weapons of the Backhand Blades weapon type.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Lightning Perfume Bottle and Frenzyflame Perfume Bottle weapons to deal double damage under certain circumstances.
• Fixed a bug where the Arcane scaling of the Bloodfiend’s Arm weapon was higher than intended when setting an affinity. The status buildup of the heavy attack was also reduced.
• Fixed a bug where the Faith scaling of the Gazing Finger weapon was not being applied correctly.
• Fixed a bug where the damage animation of some attacks of the Fire Knight’s Greatsword against players was different than expected.
• Fixed a bug where the attack affinity of some attacks of the Fire Knight’s Greatsword were different than expected.
• Fixed a bug that caused some affinities for the following weapons to be higher than intended: Smithscript Dagger, Smithscript Cirque, Smithscript Axe, Smithscript Greathammer, Smithscript Spear, Golem Fist, Smithscript Shield
• Fixed a bug that caused enemies to heal when the Maximum HP reduction gradual HP reduction effect  applied by Black Knife Tiche wore off.
• Fixed a bug that caused summoned NPCs to behave differently than expected under certain circumstances.
• Fixed a bug that where the unblockable bite attack of the Golden Hippopotamus boss would connect with players more easily than intended.
• Fixed a bug that caused text to display differently than expected.
• Several other performance improvements and bug fixes.

Possible unstable performance fixes

• For the PS5 version of the game, unstable framerate may be improved by using the “Rebuild Database” option from the device’s safe mode.
• In some PC versions, Ray Tracing may be unintentionally enabled and cause unstable performance. Please check the Ray Tracing setting in the “System” > “Graphics Settings” > “Raytracing Quality” from the title screen or in-game menu.
• In the PC Version, the message “Inappropriate activity detected” may appear without cheating.
• To fix this issue, please verify the integrity of the game’s files before restarting the game.
• In the PC version, unstable framerate may be caused by third party applications that control mouse behavior. Deactivating these third party applications may improve performance.