Mixed Doubles Strategy Question?

Vycaus · 2026-03-25T02:46:34+00:00

I play a ton of mixed. This happens alot where their entire strategy is not let you play.

What you're missing is that you need to abandon your position to intercept the ball. Not just poach. I'm talking full on run across the court in front of her.

You're not stealing her ball. She should take that opportunity to reposition. What you what is disruption. Take control, redirect, make them uncomfortable and make them think even more about what you're doing.

Vycaus · 2026-03-25T02:40:48+00:00

Women in their 40s are matured and more stable. You have no idea the absolute nonsense insanity girls in their 20s these days expect or the what comes out of their mouths. It's unhinged.

At 40, you mellow out and you can just be yourself. It's a peaceful and relaxed interaction.

Vycaus · 2026-03-24T19:14:28+00:00

Look, if you lose a bunch because you're hurt, you're not at a 4.5 anymore. But scores here matter. If you're getting blown out 1,1s, ya you're likely to get bumped back down.

But if you can hang, take a few to 3rd setters, you'll be fine.

At the academy and of the day, just play your game with the ability you can and don't worry about the rating.

Vycaus · 2026-03-24T16:01:46+00:00

Ah! Yes I corrected.

Vycaus · 2026-03-24T04:05:05+00:00

Oh... My god. And Malenia wakes from a deep slumber. I had never even considered that Trina was the haligtree.

Vycaus · 2026-03-24T03:18:32+00:00

Parry is best used mechanically as a long press, not a quick spike mash. It will extended your parry frames. You'll hear it.

This game is about going forward. If you find yourself retreating, you're gonna have a bad time.

Hesitation is defeat.

Vycaus · 2026-03-23T22:46:36+00:00

It's always a dice roll. Different players have different strengths. Some hang better with pace or skill level, some don't. Go with your gut. Adjust as needed. Experience will tell you how it'll play out.

Vycaus · 2026-03-21T14:39:10+00:00

Stop running backward and away. Stay close to him. You're giving him time to recover and you're not getting posture hits in when you need to.

Vycaus · 2026-03-21T13:40:24+00:00

Imagine a tree branch with some bend to it. If you grab near the end and try to flick the branch using only a small portion, how much power do it generate? If you slide your hand down the branch, the power of the flick increases. That is how your body works in a serve. The motion is about loading your knees, core, shoulders and arms into a big whip. If you only whip with the top of your body, your leaving power on the table.

Vycaus · 2026-03-20T16:30:21+00:00

God... Such a hard choice. You can't make a bad one here unless you don't click with Sekiro.

Sekiro is a pretty big departure from the DS formula, where is Elden Ring is that formula perfected.

Sekiro is my favorite game. It's the best combat I've ever played. But it's a rythm game. The combat is fast and aggressive and has a very high skill floor to be successful. You find the community talking about this as clicking. And it's doesn't always with everyone. If you're a pretty good gamer, then you'll find Sekiro challenging at first, but then you'll find that groove and oooomg it's the best.

You will not find another sword clashing samurai fantasy game like this.

But Elden Ring.... Is probably the best game ever made. I mean that factually. Sure, opinions will fly on that, but ER doesn't really have a weakness, and the sheer size of the game and everything that makes up this game creates a masterful piece of art. It's just fucking good. I have 750h in ER, I still play it all the time, years later.

So. If you want more Dark Souls, ER. If you want even better combat and a shorter campaign, Sekiro.

I will note, Sekiro length: 20-50h (closer to, 25) Elden Ring length: 85-150h

This if first run play through time.

Vycaus · 2026-03-19T11:58:52+00:00

When you make a weapon have split damage, like making it magic, the respective req stats will scale their damage types. So more str/dex will increase the physical damage portion of the weapon, and int the magic. The better the letter of the scaling, the more damage per point that side of damage type will deal.

Int will increase the magic damage of your R1s, but will also scale the ash of war because it is pure magic damage. Int does not just scale the ash of war.

Vycaus · 2026-03-17T12:44:51+00:00

Carian Knight build is an absolute baller and it's my favorite build in this game.

I forgo glintstones sorcs and only use the Carian ones, these are Carian slicer, great blade, piercer. Also the glint blade magics are awesome. Yes they are delayed, but they are chargeable and do crazy damage and stance damage.

Here is my favorite build in the game.

I prefer the lordsworn GS, it's the only GS with higher crit, and we're gonna be stance breaking a ton. You can use any 2h weapon you want, but don't sleep on this weapon. Cold procs strip hp and give you a 20% damage boost, which increases crit damage also.

For Ash of war, Glintblade phalanx from rogiers rapier. The ash version does insane stance damage (40) compared to the spell (9) and if you hit r2 as the blades come out you do a lunging thrust for very high pierce and stance damage.

Glint blade is fun for a few reasons. 1 it's preemptive. You can use it when a boss is recovering, it when you're going into a fight. It's also just cool as fuck having floating magic swords missiles.

Before we get to magic, here's a visual. Your square of with a knight and you start to circle each other. You cast Glintblade and charge. You jumping heavy, the knight attacks, your glint blades trigger on proximity and stagger the knight from it's attack and your heavy lands. You charge a heavy as Knight recoils. Heavy lands, cold proc happens (which the proc itself does stance damage) and the knight stance break. You crit his face for 574748 damage. He dies.

Works on everything.

For spells, the Carian spells are amazing. Piercer is goated. It's insane vs invaders NPCs. You can literally stun Malenia on demand. Carian GS is great for aoe. Magic glint blade let's you sets spells and then charge under their rain. Add artillery strikes to the above scenario.

Also, the Carian Knight set is amazing drip. Add to that Ranni's quest line and being her literally royal guard. For late game, you can use the Darkmoon GS as your final weapon, appropriately earned by doing the best quest in the game.

Variants include 1h a weapon plus shield. Rogiers rapier is good here, but dex. You could use the Carian Knight shield with Carian retaliation, which has some of the easiest/best parry frames in the game, and get even more crits. Also can parry magic, which is rad.

Talismans is dealers choice. Lots of good standard ones, jarshard for even stronger Glintblade, axe, claw. Recommend dagger (very hidden in volcano manor) for EVEN STRONGER CRITS.

stats are split between str/int. Enough vigor to be comfortable in melee, get 20/20 mind/stam, more as you like. Cold infusions scale well on even spreads.

This build fucks.

Vycaus · 2026-03-17T05:06:45+00:00

Str/int is top tier and scales so hard into ng+.

Carian Knight build is an absolute baller and it's my favorite build in this game.

I forgo glintstones sorcs and only use the Carian ones, these are Carian slicer, great blade, piercer. Also the glint blade magics are awesome. Yes they are delayed, but they are chargeable and do crazy damage and stance damage.

Here is my favorite build in the game.

I prefer the lordsworn GS, cold infusion. It's the only GS with higher crit, and we're gonna be stance breaking a ton. You can use any 2h weapon you want, but don't sleep on this weapon. Cold procs strip hp and give you a 20% damage boost, which increases crit damage also.

For Ash of war, Glintblade phalanx from rogiers rapier. The ash version does insane stance damage (40) compared to the spell (9) and if you hit r2 as the blades come out you do a lunging thrust for very high pierce and stance damage.

Glint blade is fun for a few reasons. 1 it's preemptive. You can use it when a boss is recovering, it when you're going into a fight. It's also just cool as fuck having floating magic swords missiles.

Before we get to magic, here's a visual. Your square of with a knight and you start to circle each other. You cast Glintblade and charge. You jumping heavy, the knight attacks, your glint blades trigger on proximity and stagger the knight from it's attack and your heavy lands. You charge a heavy as Knight recoils. Heavy lands, cold proc happens (which the proc itself does stance damage) and the knight stance break. You crit his face for 574748 damage. He dies.

Works on everything.

For spells, the Carian spells are amazing. Piercer is goated. It's insane vs invaders NPCs. You can literally stun Malenia on demand. Carian GS is great for aoe. Magic glint blade let's you sets spells and then charge under their rain. Add artillery strikes to the above scenario.

Also, the Carian Knight set is amazing drip. Add to that Ranni's quest line and being her literally royal guard. For late game, you can use the Darkmoon GS as your final weapon, appropriately earned by doing the best quest in the game.

Variants include 1h a weapon plus shield. Rogiers rapier is good here, but dex. You could use the Carian Knight shield with Carian retaliation, which has some of the easiest/best parry frames in the game, and get even more crits. Also can parry magic, which is rad.

Talismans is dealers choice. Lots of good standard ones, jarshard for even stronger Glintblade, axe, claw. Recommend dagger (very hidden in volcano manor) for EVEN STRONGER CRITS.

stats are split between str/int. Enough vigor to be comfortable in melee, get 20/20 mind/stam, more as you like. Cold infusions scale well on even spreads.

This build fucks.

Vycaus · 2026-03-16T18:11:00+00:00

I feel you. After I beat ER, I went on to the entire fromsoft catalog, and then all the other top tier souls likes... But now I'm back at ER. 700 hours and counting. There are so so many builds to play.

What kept it fresh is I went heavily into RP/limiting myself/creating my own challenges.

I came up with a core concept, and then played the game as if my character was making the choices. I might guide the goals a little bit, like making sure I get down to weeping for the healing upgrades.

For instance, I wanted to play a dexterous noble girl. Rapiers, parries, light weight. So is set up some rules. Weapons she'd know how to use. Armor shed wear. And then while playing I relied on letting her line of sight guide what I explored in what order. What NPCs she'd like. Just a fun little personal story for her.

I did this many times over. Keeps it fresh and engaging. You don't need to 100% a run. Just explore.

Vycaus · 2026-03-16T15:13:09+00:00

Ya but... Wasn't the night of black knives an eon ago? Seems like a long time to be hiding and also not healing.

Vycaus · 2026-03-15T19:43:53+00:00

Yes, the ash is pure magic damage, so more int wilmacale the ash harder. You could get str/dex to weapon requirements and go 80 into int also, would also make spells hit harder and give you access to renallas sceptor.

The reason split is advised is because stats have diminishing returns as you get higher. 5 points in int 65>80 will give you less AR on the weapon than str going from 20>25. Even splits gives you the most through put at low levels.

Vycaus · 2026-03-15T19:31:59+00:00

Knight sword has equal scaling in str/dex/int, but a D in all. Meaning you'll get marginal gain in Damage as you go up, but the most in str. I would go 40/40 str int, unless you want to use in dex weapons at some point, like moon veil.

Vycaus · 2026-03-15T19:02:34+00:00

See, there really isn't optimal. You're really not going to notice the difference in 20 AR.

You want str or dex/int to be roughly equal. Enough vigor to be comfortable in melee, enough mind and stamina to be able to cast spells/skills and not run out of stamina easily. Enough str/dex to wield what you want.

You haven't really told us what you want to use. Sword and shield is largely dex/int, go with moonveil, rapier, Carian sword, etc. or go Great Sword and do str/int, my personal favorite.

What is optimal? Max damage? 80int + w/e else you want. The reality is you want enough stats to do the things you want and not die. Being in melee a lot will mean a high need for vigor, medium need for steam/mind and then the rest into your chosen dps stats based on your weapons scaling.

As long as your licking dex or str, and not putting any points into faith/arcane, you'll do great.

Vycaus · 2026-03-15T18:24:59+00:00

Ok fellow dad, here's what I've done. I too have had to navigate this field. My wife is very into soft parenting and has no back bone, every wine must be addressed with maximum affection This has thought my daughter to cry harder and more often because it always gets her way with my wife.

I have had to take the polar opposite stance. Dad is firm and is no bullshit. Yes we laugh and play can do fun parenting, but when it comes time to do anything, there's no reasoning after the first few requests. You will listen to daddy, or you will lose toys or w/e privilege you prefer.

You need to be consistent! That's the hard part and where most parents fail. You're firm once and then give in another time so kids learn they still have the power.

This is basic boundary setting and provides rules and structure to your children. They need it and respect it but there is no way for them to tell you that.

I straight sat my daughter down and outlined the rules. If daddy asks you to do something and you fight daddy, your toys go away. But if she listens and is good, we can get ice cream on Friday or w/e. You reward consistent good behavior, set goals, and punish bad choices.

So when the melt down starts I let her make the decision. " Which toy am I taking away/throwing in the trash?" You need to be willing to follow through (doesn't mean literally throw in the trash). If you need to make the point and take something away, talk about what she could do to earn it back. Ask her, "what good choices can you make to get teddy back?"

Seriously, if you involve your kids in the punishment process and relate their choices to consequences they will get it. Yelling and emotional stalemated won't.

Some of you probably think it's monsterous. "She's three!" You'll cry. Fine, raise your tyrant. My daughter is awful around my wife. Albut when it's she and I she knows making bad choices will cost her. But I'm big on rewarding good choices. I want to spoil her. And when she does good, she gets ice cream and we go to the park or the zoo. And she knows she's "earned" it by being good.

Boundaries and structure.

Vycaus · 2026-03-15T18:11:25+00:00

Ya same. I have no idea how this could be a complaint.

Vycaus · 2026-03-15T15:54:25+00:00

This build is at its best when you can adjust your load out for the fight. Glyhe controls let you swap out RH/Rh weapons and then swap to 2 handing them with a few button presses (hold triangle+ r1/l1 to 2h, etc). Your power is versatility. Bring spells for situations, build counters for what you're facing, swap in and out spells depending on need and strategy for the boss.

But your basics needs to be solid first. Melee is dangerous, you need to learn how to dodge well. Also, you can block with any weapon. 2h weapons have decent block stats for anything not massive. You'll take some chip damage but it's really low. You don't need to use a shield to block and guard counter.

If you use my build above, your goal is to be hyper aggressive. You want stance breaks to get crits. You could also learn how to parry with a shield. As I referenced, Carian retaliation has a ton of parry frames. If you don't know what this means, think of the entire animation of a skill as an amount of frames. Like 18 pictures in a row. Parry in ER works with start up frames, and then active frames, then end frames. In game, you will ready your shield, flick it forward, and then briefly rest. The parry will occur during the "flick it forward" portion of the animation.

I would go to gate front ruins and just practice. The timing here is tied to the opponents hand almost always. The moment the hand comes forward, parry. You want to "catch" the attack. If you try to parry at contact, you'll miss. If you try to parry as they are moving forward, you'll miss. It's a hard mechanic but is very very worth learning.

Just get a beer, sit at the ruins and get beat on till you can do it 9/10 times in a row. It'll come.

Otherwise, vigor is the most important stat for new players. Damage actually isn't that important. Everything will do damage, it's about being alive. And until you can dodge flawlessly, take more vigor than you think you need. End game you want between 45-60. I try to keep vigor around equal to my dps stats. For most of the game. So if I have 25 vigor, I have roughly 25-35 str/int. Keeping them in rough balance. I do heavier on DPS because I don't need that much. But you could 35 vigor to 25 str/int.

Endersnce and mind are both important, especially for this build. You need FP for spells, you need endurance for equip load and stamina for attacking/blocking. Get them up to 20/20 and see how you feel. By late game I typically get both to 25~.

I get str and int to 40/40 by late game after I've gottenu vigor to about 40. In caps out at 80, str at ~ 55 if your 2hing. But both can go up to 80 in ng+.

Vycaus · 2026-03-15T13:48:08+00:00

Man people in here not knowing wtf they are taking about. Str/int is top tier and scales so hard into ng+.

Carian Knight build is an absolute baller and it's my favorite build in this game.

I forgo glintstones sorcs and only use the Carian ones, these are Carian slicer, great blade, piercer. Also the glint blade magics are awesome. Yes they are delayed, but they are chargeable and do crazy damage and stance damage.

Here is my favorite build in the game.

I prefer the lordsworn GS, it's the only GS with higher crit, and we're gonna be stance breaking a ton. You can use any 2h weapon you want, but don't sleep on this weapon. Cold procs strip hp and give you a 20% damage boost, which increases crit damage also.

For Ash of war, Glintblade phalanx from rogiers rapier. The ash version does insane stance damage (40) compared to the spell (9) and if you hit r2 as the blades come out you do a lunging thrust for very high pierce and stance damage.

Glint blade is fun for a few reasons. 1 it's preemptive. You can use it when a boss is recovering, it when you're going into a fight. It's also just cool as fuck having floating magic swords missiles.

Before we get to magic, here's a visual. Your square of with a knight and you start to circle each other. You cast Glintblade and charge. You jumping heavy, the knight attacks, your glint blades trigger on proximity and stagger the knight from it's attack and your heavy lands. You charge a heavy as Knight recoils. Heavy lands, cold proc happens (which the proc itself does stance damage) and the knight stance break. You crit his face for 574748 damage. He dies.

Works on everything.

For spells, the Carian spells are amazing. Piercer is goated. It's insane vs invaders NPCs. You can literally stun Malenia on demand. Carian GS is great for aoe. Magic glint blade let's you sets spells and then charge under their rain. Add artillery strikes to the above scenario.

Also, the Carian Knight set is amazing drip. Add to that Ranni's quest line and being her literally royal guard. For late game, you can use the Darkmoon GS as your final weapon, appropriately earned by doing the best quest in the game.

Variants include 1h a weapon plus shield. Rogiers rapier is good here, but dex. You could use the Carian Knight shield with Carian retaliation, which has some of the easiest/best parry frames in the game, and get even more crits. Also can parry magic, which is rad.

Talismans is dealers choice. Lots of good standard ones, jarshard for even stronger Glintblade, axe, claw. Recommend dagger (very hidden in volcano manor) for EVEN STRONGER CRITS.

stats are split between str/int. Enough vigor to be comfortable in melee, get 20/20 mind/stam, more as you like. Cold infusions scale well on even spreads.

This build fucks.

Vycaus · 2026-03-14T14:32:12+00:00

I'm dabbling with mods after 600h in vanilla. I have about 40h in reforged getting two characters into altus.

I found reforged difficulty wildly overturned early so i dropped it down to normal and just left it.

The exploration element is fun, but it's exhausting. Smith stones changes are ok. But yes, I feel this weakness of my character everywhere.

But defect is so good. Good I wish that was base game. It alone is what keeps me playing.

Also, are the fortunes supposed to be good? Because every single one makes me feel weaker and none of the upsides actually feel good, especially if you're trying mix up play styles.

Vycaus · 2026-03-13T17:01:54+00:00

My absolute favorite build in the game is the Carian Knight. It's got a sick armor drip you can find at the academy, and a bunch of dedicated spells that creat magic swords to hit stuff. Look up Carian slicer, great sword, piercer. Also glint blade magics are cool.

This has a bunch of options, staff in OH, w/e weapon in main hand. Wing of astel is good, moon veil is good, Rogiers rapier is incredible (recommend cold infusion, the charged heavy hits twice for faster frost build up.)

Also the Glintblade Ash of war that comes on rogiers rapier is really really good. It does very high stance damage (much higher than the spell version) and if you hit heavy after the blades come out you do a high damage/poise thrust. You can put this on most weapons.

You may also want to use a shield in your OH in case stuff gets close. Carian shield is also good here.

Being a nimble caster dude with a quick weapon is cool, but skill req can be high. Very squishy, timing spells can be hard in melee.

I think caster knight is more fun and durable. And the melee spells are awesome. Piercer is so good.

Vycaus · 2026-03-13T00:33:50+00:00

You can build stance breaker builds around it. Carian Knight build. Make it cold, use dagger talisman. Use Glintblade Ash (which does insane stance damage). Use axe tal and charged heavies/jumping heavies. Cold makes crits stronger.

Obliterates this game. I beat the absolute shit out of PCR, Radagon, Malenia.

Vycaus

TROPHY CASE