So, my tank-based paladin character ran into a couple problems: while you certainly can block boss attacks if you boost your brass shield with barricade shield, the fact is that playing that defensively isn't great for bosses who move quickly or have odd hit-boxes. It got frustrating.
So I respecced him (three times this playthrough, though the first two were just so I could do Goldmask's quest in Leyndell and then spec back). And I've gone all in on Arcane dragon communion.
Dragon spells require faith and arcane, and there's a special seal you can get (it's in a deceptively large dungeon past the stonesword key door you pass at the very beginning of the game before you emerge into Limgrave - mostly it's tough because of those instant-kill chariots) which is the Dragon Communion Seal, whose Incant bonus scales with both Arcane and Faith (more of the former).
Why go with Dragon Communion? Because you can melt bosses.
Most of the dragon incantations have a long wind-up and then you can channel a breath attack for a few seconds, totally draining all your FP in the process. The thing is, these do massive amounts of damage, and some give nasty status effects. Most elements can be picked up, and then after you kill specific dragons, you get an upgraded version (somewhat more costly, but I think they do more damage).
Essentially, bosses become less of an intimate dance of death than having you stand there and try to burn them down before they can kill you. It's not fool-proof, though: you're immobile while channeling the spell, and while you can take down a boss fast, it's likely going to get a couple hits in there, which as any veteran of these games will know can mean death.
The more powerful dragon communion spells get unlocked after you kill the dragon who's spell it is, and you need to purchase them with dragon hearts at one of two locations: one is on an island off Limgrave (you have to go through the seaside cave with the demi-humans... which, by the way, is a term I think really needs to be unpacked) and another is in southern Caelid (I think you might have to use the latter for the later ones).
Anyway, what I've tended toward is using breaths that inflict status effects and then follow up with one that does straight damage. Frost and Rot are both pretty good - I got the Rot breath running on the Fire Giant and it let me spend more time avoiding his attacks while his health ticked away. Frostbite I think has myriad nasty effects on foes (I think it slows them, for one thing, which helps give you more time).
It's funny, I think that spellcasters in Elden Ring have a real viable strategy using powerful channeled spells. I've been using Meteorite of Astel on my sorcerer, which is profoundly imprecise (even on a big boss only half or fewer of the projectiles actually hit the thing) but the damage is utterly staggering.
Taking my Dragon Paladin (as I'll be calling him now) to the Haligtree, I kind of rushed through the early parts and got to Loretta. Using the Mimic Tear, I waited until my doppelganger got her attention so I wouldn't have to concentrated on dodging and then I unleashed Rotten Breath followed by Borealis' Mist and then Smarag's Glintstone Breath, and she went down pretty smoothly (after a couple attempts, to be fair). I did the same to the version of Astel in the Yelough Anix Mine, and I'm looking forward to bringing this to Mohg (though I haven't actually gotten Moghwyn Palace unlocked yet on this character).
Now that I'm in Ephael, Brace of the Haligtree, I'm kind of in farming mode. My raw (pre-Silver Tear helmet) Arcane is, I think 50 at this point, and I have 30 Faith. I'm hitting a bit of a point of diminishing returns, but higher Faith will let me get some of the high-level Incantations that I can't currently use. Arcane also, I think, affects the secondary attributes of weapons with things like bleed on them, so I'm running with River of Blood as my main melee weapon, which both has a bleed buildup effect and also does extra fire damage that scales with Arcane.
The first area of Ephael, after the Prayer Room site of grace, is kind of absurd for farming runes. The enemies are not hard and each drops like 2.6k a head, which means that when I've gone forward to just get a couple more to fill out a level, I usually wind up sitting on 15k "spillover." Looks like the Dragon Paladin is catching up with the Sorcerer.
One thing also about building up his faith (I've been kind of alternating) is that at this point, I think he's basically got the stats to do what he had been doing before I respecced him anyway (maybe not as much dexterity). So, if I want to get the Brass Shield and Treespear out again, I should be ok.
I don't know what level players are expected to be before they beat the game, but right now I think I'm fine with just pumping things up until it becomes excruciating to level, and honestly, when you hit Ephael, that ceiling gets way, way higher.
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