Small note about the demi human ashes: It mentions them basically going feral at night(glowing red eyes) and when you summon them at night they are more aggressive than usual.
The Skeleton Militia Bros have carried me through so many boss fights in the early / mid game, their revive mechanic makes them so good for keeping bosses distracted / not targeting you.
EvE they didn't though. Go any area where the enemies they fight one another they do 1/5 of the damage they do vs you to make the battle take longer so you can't farm them easily.
Ancestral follower is one of my personal favorites, having a back line archer that almost never misses is just amazing imo, plus hes got those massive arrows that stay stuck in stuff lol
Does someone know if we can fire those incredibly powerful arrows they use with their bow? They drop a bow that says to show it's true strength while firing magic arrows but I tried that and it was just normal arrows. It would be cool if we could learn their skill
We can debate which is best (Skeletal Militia is invincible, one applies scarlet rot, imps do insane bleed, Mimic is a clone of your CURRENT character and power) but let's all agree this system adds a whole new fun aspect to the game, and effectively removes any difficulty walls.
There's no debate that mimic is best. On top of ash upgrade, it copies your weapon upgrade, your spells, your equipment. If you going into catacombs with undead, equip a holy weapon and some holy bombs. If you going into crystal mine, grab a weapon with fire or magic damage. Mimic has near unlimited potential compared to other spirits.
@@jjstraka1982 mimic is the most opportunistic which makes it the best. But i like to role play in these fantasy type games so the lone wolves are my choice
I think this was the correct choice to hang back and record how they fare against bosses on their own. BUt I think a note should be made on how ranged/mage characters should be given as much time as possible; I feel like a lot of them appeared far weaker than they actually were because the boss wasn't given another target Page/Archers/ Glintstone and Twinsage / Ancestral Follower comes to mind
Thats true but then again, unless the mage can deal twice as much dps than the great shield soldiers, why bother using them since the greatshield soldiers can both tank, aggro, deal considerable damage all at the same time.
@@supanjibobu372 It's based on encounters and the levels, if you are sniping a boss like a dragon, the mage helps a lot to not stand under its feet. All summons fail against the rot dragon though, that thing is stupid OP because its rot breath counts as normal damage as well as building up rot, so it kills everything that sits in there. to kill the rot dragon you need to engage afar and retreat every so often, when you reduce it's HP by 25%, it casts like a 25 meter radius rot cloud which you have to run away from it and if your HP is too low, the gas kills you in 3 seconds. The gas lasts like 10 seconds.
@@dra6o0n fuck, i knew the rot dragon would be literal cancer after fighting the twin gargoyle boss with the poison breath attack. Glad to see confirmation for this lol. Will spam rock sling and luther headless since i alr upgraded him alot
@@dra6o0n Latenna can take down the rot dragon all on her own. She doesn't move from where you place her, so you can place her in a safe spot and she will snipe away with her bow.
@@nicholasgraves3149 Latenna is amazing if you tank for her. High dps and great accuracy. Plus she doesn't run into boss aoe range (also doesn't run out of boss aoe range but you can't have everything).
@@Kronos0999 you have to get a memento in the castle after you beat Margit and give it to the girl that gave you the jelly fish and tell her to be the black smiths apprentice when she goes to the round table
@@ukiyottv3764 You dont need the memento though. As soon as you get to the round table you can start the convo chain with her and the smith and thats that
@@Kronos0999 They actually pretty good at stunlock humanoid enemy and super hard to kill because boss normally ignore when they "die", just move the boss away from them and they will back up in no time.
In another case of something not being showcased well in this scenario, the Kaiden Sellsword in particular (and probably some of the other big ashes) does a lot of poise damage. You can combo this really well by using a lot of heavy attacks, or just having a big weapon, to stun bosses extremely quickly.
Seeing how good the godrick soldiers are doing makes me want to do a summoner build focusing on them for early game atleast since they are free to grab as soon as you start and can easily carry you through the first few bosses
I'm surprised the demi-humans did so well. I like using them early on because they hold aggro well and they're super aggressive but I might keep them around for longer seeing this.
The demihumans squad are amazing if you summon them at knight. It causes them to frenzy and turn hyper agressive. They practically solo'd rennala's second phase by keeping her continuously staggered.
Ever since I've gotten my mimic, I haven't given the other spirits any love anymore. But for a long time, the demi humans were my go to, hell I even began naming each one.
I'm watching this vid not to see which spirit ashes is good for a boss, but to just watch in awe at the amazing ai coding and pathing this game has. If you want an example, just look at the oracle envoys (funny snowmen people) the teamwork the ai has and that they know to properly space and zone around a boss is just fucking insane. This games a masterpiece.
Yeah, the AI is great but it can also be really bad, especially when interacting with janky terrain and having to react to player actions. Most optional boss fights take place in uneven, small arenas with lots of obstacles.
Okay so from what I am seeing there seem to be some VERY clear winners and losers. If you're trying to pick which to use, I suggest you rank them according to this: 1. Survivability 2. Range 3.Status Effects 4. Affinity 5. Damage (Note how mobility is not a factor - that surprised me too.) The overall winners would probably be 1. Skeletal Militiamen (infinite survivability) 2. Greatshield Soldiers 3. Fanged Imps 4. Leyndell Soldiers 5. Godrick Soldiers 6. (honorable mention) Albanauric/Oracle Envoy Also Oracle Envoys go "DOOT" so that's a pretty clear benefit
Great showcase! It’s good to see how each summon plays. There’s not gonna be one best summon for everything, there’s quite a few solid choices that would be really good in the right scenarios.
So good ones in my eyes are skeleton militia, wolf, fang imps, demi human, great shield soldier, azula beastman, God Rick soldier, radahn soldier. Either strong defense or very aggressiv spirits are good with 2 to 5 units vs single target. The Radahn soldiers look so bad ass with their Flames word.
Those are good if you're playing someone that stays back. If you're more tank then a bunch of the ranged summons can be amazing. This showcase did a poor job of showing them because they need something else to distract the boss
Fanged Imp ashes are honestly underrated. If you use them while fighting in tandem, and not as a thing to solo, they will fuck the enemy up alongside you. Specially when they .anage to do the bleed attack, which takes a LOT of health. They are fast too, so sometimes the enemy will miss when they attack them. Not the best, but def very powerful. So I cant understand why they allow you to have them since the start lol
Greatshield Soldier and Mausoleum Soldiers are hands down the best summons to use for clearing groups of mobs in areas that let you summon them. Other good summon are the Rotten Stray for Scarlet Rot, Crystallian for tankiness(although there are better elite ashes), and the Azula Beastman for the damage(although they are only 2 so they can't handle big groups of mobs as well as the soldiers).
I use the marionette archers, and I think this way of testing doesn't do them justice. What they do best is take away aggro rapidly. They aren't the best against bosses with large AOE, but thrive against bosses like the one shown. The trick is to keep swapping aggro to get hits in.
Thank you so much for making this! I've spent days comparing disparate sources of information to try and figure out what to invest in, but since you took the time to both upgrade and test all of these, I'm finally free!
There isn't any objectively good summon, except Mimic Tear, but that's a legendary spirit ash. Every single summon is situational: some are tanky, some are damage dealers, some inflict status effects, some are ranged, some use magic, some use their advantage of numbers, etc. You have to consider the boss fights itself, if it's weak to certain status effects or damage types, if it's fast or slow, aoe or single target damage, etc. And, this doesn't even include Legendary/Named Ashes, which are better overall, but still a bit situational. The most important thing to consider while upgrading & using summons, is whether it complements & supports your build and playstyle.
I really like the Marionettes so far, im 60 hours in and think i finished most of the main game, they are good for pulling aggro so you can get a heavy in and they arent squishy. But i prefer to play without ashes cause it feels like easy mode and since im building strength the game really isnt as hard as before when you hit mid game!
My lvl 9 Latenna soloed godskin, astel,magma wyrm wormface and many more with me equipping shabiri woe talis and just running around or stay far away from the bosses. works well with bosses in open world map..you’ll love her 3 homing magic arrows hitting the boss every 3 secs
Great shield soldiers are OP af. The amount of crowd control you would get from them if there were multiple enemies, they somehow do good damage, and if they gang up on a boss it trivializes the fight. That's crazy
Winged Misbegotten eating four fireballs to the face, and then getting stunlocked to death the last few moments of him being alive facing away from the tree sentinel, trying to hobble away poor fella
Aurelia (the spirit jellyfish) is really only for drawing the aggression of enemies, so she doesn't do much damage, but can still build up poison on enemies.
I came here to see the Soljars of fortune in action. But you forgot to put them in the video, even though they are on your thumbnail.. Hmm.. BUT, I didn't know about the Giant Rat summon, and now I want that on instead :-D Thanks for making the video dude
I have a special love for wondering nobles. There's this fun sense of entering into a boss and introducing them with "ARE YOU PREPARED TO FACE MY GOONS!?!?!??!:" Then pop 5 randos on them
Godrick bois are great because one is aggro and one hangs back, so they can stick around for a bit as long as they are spread out. Small rooms and AoE spam is really their only weakness, they are pretty well balanced and easy to get.
they really shocked me on the dmg they can take and yet also give . tbh it was almost like 5 pokemon going against a legendary pokemon lol very entertaining indeed
great video. i still don't get why you keep trying to draw aggro while the fight is still ongoing. especially for summons that are actually fighting. i get the parts when you suicide coz the summon is just sitting there and not drawing aggro to themselves, but for the rest of the time it would have been great if you just let the summons fight without trying to get involved.
It's disappointing to know that leveling up the weak seeming ashes doesn't upgrade them into stronger versions. Like the wandering nobles and noble sorcerer, I honestly expected a ragtag group of badass wannabe warriors and a slowly improving mage but no, they stay exactly the same.
They almost took the boss down on their own and their formation is pretty smart too, damn. One of them aggroes the boss and the rest attack from long range
There are mods that let you give yourself whatever you want in the game, I find it HIGHLY unlikely that he actually farmed out the materials. And I am not even upset, this is just a demonstration, it would be INSANE to farm the mats out for this.
Aww, you didn't show the finish to the Rotten Stray. Not sure if you noticed, but it causes Scarlet Rot on its targets and the boss had it. It lasts for 3 minutes so would have gotten the boss really low, at least.
Something not really showcased in this test is some of these summons will absolutely fling lower poise enemies and bosses around. Kaiden Sellsword has helped me literally keep some bosses stunned for their entire healthbar and even here interrupted some of the bosses moves.
