The excitement of From Software's announcement of Shadow of the Erdtree has been short-lived, as the long and lonely wait for more news on Elden Ring continues once again. But just yesterday, another major balance patch 1.10 was released, adding more tweaks to what has felt like the most flexible sandbox ever. The full changes are as follows:

It is interesting to note that From Software has adjusted the "stance" here. A long-running and somewhat infamous status in "Souls," it helps you parry attacks without flinching, grunt your way through weaker enemy attacks, and unleash your own hard hits. All weapon attacks and some spells have a higher chance of breaking poise, effectively nerfing this status, but this patch also buffed the poise and damage resistance of some abilities that were poise hungry. As a result, the enemy's attacks cannot be punched through with basic attacks, but may give way with Ultra Greatsword or Slow Swing's Ashes of War.

Critical hit buffs, especially the more generous backstab angles, give me nightmares of laggy Dark Souls 1 teleport barstabs, but Elden Ring online is much more stable overall, and I don't think it becomes dangerous here.

It makes sense that Quickstep and Bloodhound Step would hit again, if only in PvP. Once upon a time, the latter was the go-to against the Eldenbeast of the Rust Boss, but it seems to be a real nuisance to deal with in PvP. And this is a PvP-focused update overall: with OP single-player exploits like OG's Hoarfrost Stomp taken care of out of the gate, all that's left is to water the garden of Elden Ring's still fairly vibrant PvP scene.

It is truly remarkable how much Elden Rings has been rebalanced since launch. Dark Souls 3 still had several patches applied to it after such a long time since launch, but in the meantime, it was also balanced for one new content expansion. Now, it's still far from the strict counterfactual of "Elden Ring live service," but I think FromSoft has done an admirable job of sticking with it and catering to the long tail of PvP's appeal. Now I just can't wait for "Shadow of the Elden Tree" to bring out the evil katana that no one will ever forgive you for using it.