Elden Ring's latest update brings huge magic buffs and more Patches hijinks
A wide variety of weapons, skills, and Spells are more viable now.
FromSoftware has dropped a massive Elden Ring update, featuring countless weapon changes, Spell alterations, and bug fixes to the wildly popular RPG. This update, patch 1.04, is a major one, bringing many of the game’s underappreciated armaments, Sorceries, and Skills to the limelight. Since the 1.04 patch notes are extensive, we’ll highlight some of the more notable changes this time around, with a focus on the main changes you’ll want to be aware of. These are the biggest updates introduced with Elden Ring’s 1.04 patch.
5. Sorcery buffs
At first glance, it might seem odd that so many Spells were buffed since magic was already ridiculously powerful, but many of the adjustments were made to some of the least used Sorceries and Incantations in the game. These are spells like Briars of Punishment—which received decreased recovery time and increased blood loss buildup—along with a slew of other improvements to the likes of Burn, O Flame!, Crystal Barrage, Rock Blaster, and dozens more.
Some of the most underused Spells have been buffed and are now viable.
Many of the buffed spells now have faster cast speed or decreased recovery time, making them much more effective. One we’re particularly excited about is the buff to Ancient Dragons’ Lightning Spear, which now has decreased FP and stamina cost, along with improved cast speed, and decreased recovery time.
4. Swarm of Flies nerf
While many Spells have become more powerful as part of the 1.04 patch, Swarm of Flies is one of the few that has received a nerf—and thankfully so, because it was grossly overpowered. Swarm of Flies was previously a dominant Spell since it would follow your opponents, continuously deal damage, and stagger them, making it extremely easy to cheese through encounters. Now, it deals significantly less blood loss buildup to opponents.
3. Weapon balancing
Certain underused weapons will now be more viable after patch 1.04.
As part of Elden Ring patch 1.04, a number of armaments have been buffed, bringing some of the most underused weapons to the forefront. These include buffs to Colossal weapons’ attack speed, recovery time, and two-handed damage (looking at you, Starscourge Greatsword).
Additionally, physical block rate and guard boost for Colossal Weapons, Great Sword, Great Hammer, Great Axe, Great Spear, and Halberd classes have been increased. Specific weapons like the Grafted Blade Greatsword and Devourer’s Scepter have also received damage buffs. This will make these weapon types more viable in PvP and PvE encounters.
2. Weapon Skill adjustments
Along with Spells, a slew of Weapon Skills have been improved. If you look at the patch notes, you’ll see that most of the Weapon Skills now have faster cast speeds and decreased recovery times, while others feature improved hitboxes.
Once again, most of the changes were made to Weapon Skills that were previously underused, so you’ll have far more options at your disposal. A few Skill improvements of note are Carian Greatsword, which now has increased cast speed and increased damage, along with Frenzyflame Thrust, featuring decreased FP cost, better recovery time, and decreased madness buildup to self.
1. Bug fixes and performance improvements
A lengthy list of bug fixes have been implemented as part of patch 1.04.
It’s always great to see bug fixes and patch 1.04 brought quite a few. One potentially game-breaking bug, which prevented players from entering the boss area after defeating Morgott has been fixed, for instance.
Another bug that caused the Carian Retaliation Ash of War to deal an absurd amount of damage has also been adjusted and works as intended. Finally, online performance has been improved, hopefully preventing multiplayer sessions from being disconnected.
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