It’s been a year since Game of the Year winner Elden Ring first lit our tarnished souls on fire, and FromSoftware looks determined to keep kindling that flame. Players can download the game’s 1.10 patch today, which brings a few key balance changes to The Lands Between.
As far as overall balance goes, we have a few buffs to critical hits (i.e. what happens when you backstab). Not only are these moves wholesale stronger, but they now inflict greater poise damage as well. We also have “decreased recovery time after a missed critical hit” listed here. It’s a merry crit-mas from FromSoftware.
That said, this patch also brings a few PvP adjustments. Three of the six changes focus on poise adjustments, and the skills “Quick Step” and “Hound’s Step” have decreased invulnerability windows. This section vaguely states that this patch “decreased the damage reduction granted by some skills, incantations and items” without specifying what this affects. Guess they expect players to figure it out on their own in classic Souls fashion.
Oh, also, critical hit angles have been extended in PvP too. This patch really is the gift that keeps on critting.
Rounding out the Elden Ring 1.10 patch are a few bug fixes. Again, these read a little vague, but players apparently won’t have their attack direction unintentionally shifted around as much now. Other fixes include preventing the Sacred Order skill from persisting after you change weapons, as well as making it so certain spells and incantations won’t cause damage while certain effects are active.
Check out the patch notes here if you want to see them for yourself.
Just some balance adjustments
Overall, this patch mostly impacts players still invested in Elden Ring’s PvP scene. Nothing here will get a lapsed player to jump back in the game, unless they didn’t feel they met a critical hit quota, in which case go to town I suppose. That said, I’ll never object to seeing a game receive continued support. As long as that support addresses what the community wants, anyway.
The 1.10 patch of course comes ahead of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC for Elden Ring, which still does not have a release window as of writing. While I wouldn’t recommend holding your breath waiting, I imagine any proper new content will release alongside that. If Shadow of the Erdtree is like previous Souls DLC, it should be a good time.
In the meantime, you can find Elden Ring on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
