In FromSoftware games, PvP has often been one of the most enduring features. However, the area is structured differently than in most online games. The Souls expert Oroboro has now explained in a video why level 125 is the ideal level for the PvP meta.
How does PvP work in Elden Ring? There are mainly two types of PvP:
- Duels: You can place a symbol in the game world through which other players can summon you to their world. There you can then compete against the host.
- Invasions: You can invade the worlds of other players as intruders. This is often quite chaotic and unpredictable, but has numerous lovers.
- You can read details about the multiplayer of Elden Ring in our guide.
But no matter which type of PvP you play: Your level and equipment play an important role. Not all players can simply play PvP with all others; there are level limits.
In a new video, YouTuber Oroboro listed 3 reasons why PvP players should not level beyond 125 and that it is the ideal build meta.
Note: The video is about duels, not invasions. Also, the PvE area is completely excluded from this.
Who is Oroboro? Oroboro has been around since the days of Dark Souls 1 and is considered a Souls expert in the community, especially in the PvP area. His YouTube channel has 241,000 subscribers, and his videos usually revolve around exciting and funny PvP experiences. He also shares his opinions on balancing and the meta.
Level 125 for Duels? Oroboro says: “It is perfectly balanced.”
What is meant by PvP meta? You cannot specifically play online with players who are too far above or below your level.
So, for example, if you have an extremely high level, you will automatically meet fewer players online. The online modes of Bloodborne and Dark Souls 1-3 worked according to the same principle. In each game, the community agreed on a certain level to stick to, thus mostly encountering an active online community.
Moreover, the level also significantly affects which builds are possible. Oroboro sees level 125 as ideal: “It is the perfectly balanced level where you can’t have too much of everything, but can still make important decisions when it comes to builds.”
However, quite a bit has changed compared to previous games from FromSoftware. For instance, strength has a much greater influence on health points.
According to Oroboro, there are 3 good reasons not to exceed 125. He has leveled multiple characters and experimented. Here is the summary:
1. At a certain point, damage just becomes too high
What does that mean? According to Oroboro, the overall damage in PvP is currently too high, and it only gets worse with every level increase. At a certain point, players can level everything and increasingly lose disadvantages.
- Thus, you will find people in the heaviest armor, wielding two huge greatswords, yet moving as fast as players in light armor.
- The same applies to spells and various other builds. Eventually, everything becomes so powerful that you can eliminate players with just 1-2 hits.
- Basically, anyone can eventually skill everything if they level high enough.
At level 125, however, you can build a character that fills its respective area very well without becoming too powerful. This also supports build diversity in duels.
2. Balance becomes too strong
What does that mean? Balance determines in Elden Ring how easily enemy attacks can stagger you.
- The heavier your armor, the higher your balance, but the higher your carrying load as well.
- However, if you level high enough, you can eventually offset this disadvantage and wear the heaviest armors.
- This makes you in PvP like a train that rams everything without being stopped by counterattacks.
At level 125, on the other hand, you can increase your balance but must accept disadvantages in dodging and movement speed.
3. Level 125 allows the right builds to be created
What does that mean? According to Oroboro, at 125, all disadvantages of too high or too low levels are mostly offset.
While you are still limited in your skill points, you can bring important base attributes like strength or mind to a usable level while still creating certain builds.
This way, you can easily increase strength to level 60, which is the ideal value, and additionally level dexterity and intelligence to create one of the most powerful builds in 1.03.
Based on his conclusions, he has also created some example builds that you can use as a reference. They cover various playstyles:
Here are the corresponding attributes in English
- Vigor: Vitality affects your health points and influences fire resistance and poison immunity.
- Mind: Mind affects FP (Mana) and focus-related resistance. Important for magic and sorcery builds.
- Endurance: Increases your character’s stamina and also raises physical defense. Especially important for melee fighters, as stamina allows dodging and blocking.
- Strength: Required to wield heavy weapons. It also increases the attack power of strength-scaling weapons.
- Dexterity: Required to wield advanced weapons. It also increases the attack power of weapons that scale with finesse. Reduces casting time for spells, mitigates fall damage, and makes it harder to fall off a horse.
- Intelligence: Increases the spell power of intelligence-scaling spells and improves magic resistance. Also increases how often you can use spells.
- Faith: Required to perform summons. It also enhances summons that scale with faith.
- Arcane: Affects death resistance and certain spells and summons.
Here’s a little tip: If you do not want to level a new character but still want to exceed 125, you can at least save a backup of your save file on PC.
This way, you can level your character and still have the option to have a save file just for PvP.
How do his viewers react? In the comments, a discussion has erupted due to the YouTuber’s analysis.
- Some argue that 125 is too low a level because some weapons require more than two primary attributes to be used effectively.
- It is also criticized that the endurance value in his builds is far too low, especially for mages and users of summons, since spells and summons consume not only FP but also stamina.
- Others find the assessment very good and want to follow it.
It is certain that the topic is far from over and that other assessments will emerge in the future.
But what do you think of Oroboro’s arguments? Do they resonate with you? Or have you had other experiences?
If you are looking for weapons for your builds, we have here the Elden Ring Tier List – All 309 weapons ranked after patch 1.03
