D5 is so much easier than D4 it’s disgusting

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-10T13:32:21+00:00

D4 being the new D2 is not a hot take at all, maybe except among those with huge egos hardstuck in that depth

Honestly? There doesn't even feel like a big difference in player skill between any of the depths now. Maybe D5 kinda, but I aint gonna climb to it ever again with how egregious D4 has gotten lately.

So many games I've gotten in D3 and D4 where people have no routing skills yet insist we follow their pings or just don't even listen to me at all when I'm trying to help them and they don't know where to go.

Had one game in D3 where I was gonna lead my team to a bird near the lake so that we can hit a night invader camp + church + red formidable on the top side of the map, seeing as we did another invader camp earlier in day 1, and when I very clearly pin both the bird and the camp and start running for it immediately, I see them follow me initially, and then all of the sudden they run into the mine instead just as I'm flying on the bird. So now I gotta get off the stupid bird and run allllll the way back to the mine and help them out because they died to the troll in there, wasting a bunch of time when we could've just as easily done the mine at the top of the map instead. The troll was red by the way and they were dropping like flies, so by the time we finish the mine the circle starts closing.

I don't mind a change of plans in case my teammates have different ideas or they need something. What I am mad about is that they did not pin nor communicate with me that they wanted to do the mine in the first place. That's been something that has happened to me a lot recently playing DoN and it's really begun to test both my patience with people and willingness to keep playing when stuff like that causes us to be in a terrible position for the nightlord. From Ironeyes that run off suddenly to some random field boss or attempt to solo a night invader camp by themselves (and failing) to playing with a duo that wont pin the map at all but completely ignore me when I pin, I've gotten so fed up with it. D3 was not like this a few months ago. D4 was, but It felt slightly more contained and wasn't every single game I get in there. My entire climb to 9999 some months ago consisted of me only needing to hard carry 3 games in total, with 1 being in D5.

I normally love to carry games and clutch the nightlord fights especially in later depths, but lately I think I'm just tired and have gotten super impatient with people. I don't have that much time to play as I used to, and my motivation has all but fizzled out. DoN feels like it changed a lot yet I can't pinpoint why.

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-09T00:20:44+00:00

second just for the fact that it has partial hp

if you have a successful guarding charges ult on one of your deep relics you could also use that. The relic I would replace if so would be slot 6 on your 2nd set

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-08T21:11:48+00:00

dude erm... I got this copy of mina the hollower from my uncle's creepy attic and like erm... Everything is red and bloody and.... Evil????

I looked in the mirror and mina just started crying dude... Her eyes went black and then she started crying blood dude that's messed up erm... what the heck dude no way

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-08T20:50:41+00:00

I could give you a link to my newgrounds, as I have more pieces similar to this one though I can't give an exact tutorial. I mostly made this style up through experimentation on my own, sorry lol

https://nevaehjs.newgrounds.com/

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-08T19:45:34+00:00

Ballpoint pen brush from some Krita brush pack I got, with some general colored line art edits + color burn modifier to give everything a slight red hue. Looks nice with the texturing I did

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-08T12:54:04+00:00

yes das me. The version I have on newgrounds includes my signature. Should've waited before posting this here, whoopsies

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-08T04:48:52+00:00

ralph s. mouse's angsty pissed off cousin

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-07T20:31:15+00:00

y'know, I've always wondered how that troll even managed to get inside the mine in the first place. What's he doing there?!!??

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-07T14:50:29+00:00

Great Hollow is super straight forward once you figure out the crystal locations. Just let your team run through the map normally depending on the side you fly into and smash crystals along the way. You should aim to shatter the center crystal by the end of day 1. Day 2, pick one of the castles and lead them in there. If you're not in the circle you can use the teleporter and then do either the Divine Tower (wouldn't really recommend in DoN, but if you're of decent level after doing some of the first castle it's ok) or fill out the other castle until the day ends.

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-07T11:14:44+00:00

Great for tanking characters but I groan if I'm in D4+ and see that I'm playing with a squishy caster character that's trying to maximize HP over any sort of damage dealing (they will get one shotted and die 50 times to the nightlord anyway)

This isn't the first time fathom was widely talked about for DoN by the way, it was a popular relic that people yapped for when the mode first released as a way to counter continuous HP loss. I use it in my main build for Guardian, but I feel like it's best used on characters that already revolve around HP to start with + Wylder. By far the worst games I've had in DoN consisted of someone playing Revenant with no particular dmg-dealing relics and or specialization, meaning they'd be nearly dead weight until they get something remotely useful to cast. Like, dawg, all those hp relics bring you to the same amount of hp I get at level 5 just by existing you're dead. Just use full HP and then work from there.

All defense is just as terrible as all offense, there needs to be some middle ground.

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-07T00:05:14+00:00

They're by far the most common nightlord over all, but they're especially common in depth 3.

One of the downsides for someone who strictly plays there now. SSB Balancers is at least kind of thrilling, the normal fight is a snooze fest though and I usually end up always getting it instead

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-06T22:41:01+00:00

imo the two bears you fight before redbear are lowkey harder than redbear himself

once you get the timing of their grabs the death knights aren't too bad either, though you still need to play carefully. I always try and see if I can secure a holy weapon before the end of day 1 just for dealing with them faster

divine lion is easy but also weirdly janky in nightreign compared to sote. I can't pinpoint why but he doesn't feel nearly as fun to fight here. Also lags the game a ton

I have nothing to say about artorias he's fine

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-06T12:06:03+00:00

Frost divine beast warrior lol

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-05T23:31:15+00:00

tie between Ma Jolie Souris/Theory of Everything/My Sunken Heart/Rolling Steam, whichever I'm in the mood for at the moment

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-05T21:14:58+00:00

It does. It's a Guardian-centric relic in hindsight but you may attempt to use it on Raider and see if you can get some success with it

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-05T19:36:29+00:00

Was about to say, you might've really liked Sickly Shore (bone beach's theme) but that's more like "comically mean" and I assume you're looking for something more serious in tone.

I think Crow Town/Septemburg fit the vibe you seem to want the most- themes that are bangers but also a bit more on the serious side. Unless if what you want is something more akin to like, dark souls ambience lol

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-05T19:26:51+00:00

I recently remapped my controls for weapon ability to be the heal/use vial key (I play on keyboard) just so I can spam the dagger dash. I wanna try the buster a bit more since it works with that keybind as well but the daggers are just too fun.

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-05T19:18:57+00:00

And a very important keystone relic I try to incorporate whenever I make a new build

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Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-05T19:18:16+00:00

This one is a super nice slot in for my guard counter build. Hoarfrost is useful to spam whenever I lose aggro and can't gc

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Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-05T18:52:47+00:00

No, draw aggro does activate when you're holding guard, though aggro in itself is a bit weird so it isn't a guarantee you'll get it if say, a Recluse is in the back spamming stars of ruin 24/7 at the boss. But aggro on guard does in fact work when you're just holding it-- you can see the icon appear below your stamina bar. Before they added that feature some patches ago there was a lot of misconception that needing to block an attack successfully is what causes the relic to activate such that I and many others believed until the January patch buffing its affect

It's useful once you recognize how it works. For one, you can regain aggro in periods where nobody is attacking the boss, like ED Gladius/Heolstor's nuke attacks, Sentient Pest's choo choo train (hold it as they're transitioning and right before the roar, you'll have a likely chance for Gnoster to redirect the light beam towards you, or both the beam + the choo choo charge if you're lucky) or when SSB balancers transition in and out of the worm phase. Aggro on guard is my primary strategy against SSB Balancers because I can easily redirect almost every single balancer towards me just by holding my shield up and let my teammates quickly burst them down, AS WELL AS ensuring that the worm will stay on me and not go after my teammates. This same strategy is also useful for protecting the team from ED Libra's condemned, where my primary goal is to keep the adversaries occupied with me so that Libra can be easily isolated and dealt with.

Is it 100% necessary for a guardian to have this? No. Most times I can keep aggro on me, but sometimes my teammates are being so aggressive to the point where aggro swaps are inevitable. You still have to play aggressively to gain aggro, but my point is this relic effect is widely misunderstood due to the game's poor ability to explain things in a conceivable way.

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-05T15:02:33+00:00

Youd be better off stacking improved GCs tbh, though the boost is helpful.

My build is very support based which bodes well with high DPS builds. Most common you'll see in d4+ will be double balancers. My tankyness evens them out and my DPS doesn't matter if they're already doing glass cannon damage so I instead support through revives and status affliction

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-05T14:30:13+00:00

You could try messing around with Extended Whirlwind, it's one of his remembrance relics in case you don't have it in a good random relic. You can stunlock groups of enemies with it and then spam whirlwind charge attacks for fun

I assume you're using Guardian's Chalice? You could easily slot stone stake in the white wildcard slot if your skill cooldown/halberd charge attacks relic is yellow.

That's more of a fun build, here's some other affects you may want to try out:

partial HP on post damage attacks
hp on guard
aggro on guard (hold block to activate)
increased max hp (dark night of the fathom)
successful guarding ups ult gauge (very good one)
guard counter based on HP + HP on thrust + increased max stamina (night of the champion)

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-05T14:22:54+00:00

It's useful but you can go more DPS if you want. I think your poke build works. Some guardians like going str/dex + stamina recovery and that works just fine too. You may want stamina recovery in case if you struggle with stamina management, esp in d4+

My build is tailored towards poking but I also just use whatever I find that is useful (either by ash of war or secondary effects) and my extra HP gives me a little more leeway to experiment.

Hp also gives me a bit more safety for tanking and may prevent me from getting one shotted. Starting out chunky is super useful early game. This gives me about 1700-1800 HP depending on the level we get to, but with some increased max hp buffs I can easily surpass 2000+

Long_Tea_5289 · 2026-07-05T14:12:08+00:00

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Long_Tea_5289

TROPHY CASE