KEY POINTS

  • Colossal Weapon attack speed and damage values were buffed
  • Players must level up, use Godrick's Great Rune or wear any stat-changing Talisman for the buffs to take effect
  • The majority of offensive spells, incantations and Ashes of War received buffs of varying degrees

A surprise patch drop rocked the “Elden Ring” community with a barrage of big balance changes to some of the game’s underperforming weapons and spells. The update also introduced some new story bits and a list of bugfixes.

Patch 1.04 for “Elden Ring” buffed every Colossal Weapon in the game to make them more usable in combat, especially against other players. According to the patch notes, Colossal Weapons should now feel faster thanks to increased attack speed values and lowered recovery times.

At the same time, Colossal Weapons will now deal even more damage when wielded with two hands on top of receiving a buff to their block rate and guard boost values. This defense buff also applies to large, two-handed weapons like Great Swords, Great Axes and Halberds.

The Grafted Blade Greatsword and Devourer’s Scepter in particular received their own separate damage buffs.

The Devourer's Scepter and Beast Champion armor in Elden Ring
The Devourer's Scepter and Beast Champion armor in Elden Ring Elden Ring

As for spells, incantations and weapon skills, there’s an extensive list of buffs, nerfs and rebalances in this patch. A total of 117 abilities had their numbers readjusted, including some of the community’s favorites.

Most of the changes involve shifts to FP costs, stamina usage, cast speed, recovery time and, in some cases, damage.

The speed of slow weapon skills like Blade of Death, Lightning Slash and Sacred Blade has been improved. Similar attacks should also be more reliable now in general combat.

However, the most noticeable changes include the addition of Poise to many Incantations, particularly those with long cast times like Scarlet Aeonia and the Ancient Dragon incantations. This will let players tank through hits without getting their incantations canceled when taking damage.

Only the Swarm of Flies, Flame of Frenzy and Frenzied Burst skills received direct nerfs. The build-up rate of their respective status conditions has been slowed, which could serve as a nice pretense to a wider balance check for Status builds that have proved to be frustrating to play against in PvP.

As for notable bug fixes, players should now be able to progress through Diallos’ questline without getting stuck. Scythes will also retain their innate bleed damage when infused with Poison.

Lastly, extra events for the NPC Patches were added to the game.

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