A brand new Old Ring patch has been rolled out, fixing a number of bugs and balancing issues, as well as weakening some of the game’s most powerful builds.
FromSoftware released version 1.12.3 today, July 4th, and is a surprisingly large update that should fix a number of issues, including some that may have been bothering players.
The patch specifically made changes to two of Shadow of the Erdtree‘s most challenging bosses, the Golden Hippopotamus and Commander Gaius, by changing their placement in their respective arenas so that they don’t immediately overwhelm you as you pass through the entrance.
This should also give players the chance to summon one of their many spirits to aid them in battle, before the bosses overwhelm them in seconds.
In addition to a long list of bug fixes, the Swift Slash ability’s damage and damage animation in PvP have also been weakened, while the Carian Sorcery Sword’s intelligence has been increased, at the cost of its base damage.
The Lightning Perfume Bottle and Frenzyflame Perfume Bottle, two popular weapons among players, have also been significantly weakened. According to FromSoftware, the damage output for each weapon was bugged, causing it to deal double damage “under certain circumstances”, so say goodbye to that overpowered build. You can read the full patch notes below.
Old Ring – Patch notes for version 1.12.3
PvP-exclusive balance adjustments
- The damage and damage animation of the vacuum effect of the skill “Quick Strike” have been reduced.
General balance adjustments
- The Carian Sorcery Sword’s intelligence scale has been increased and its base damage has been slightly reduced.
- The range of throwing attacks for the following weapons has been expanded:
- Smithscript Dagger / Smithscript Cirque
- The placement of the bosses in the rematch against bosses Golden Hippopotamus and Commander Gaius has been adjusted so that they are now in the same position as in the first battle.
Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug that caused the Rolling Sparks skill to deal more damage than expected.
- Fixed a bug where the Rolling Sparks and Wall of Sparks abilities would not deal damage even though special effects were applied to the player.
- Fixed a bug where some special effects of a right-handed weapon would also be applied to the following weapon skills when performed with the left hand:
- The Wild Flame of the Weak Lord
- Discus throw
- Fixed a bug where successfully defending while attacking with the Thrusting Shield weapon type would cost less stamina than intended.
- Fixed a bug where players were unable to cancel the attack recovery of strong two-handed attacks by rolling for certain weapons of the Backhand Blades weapon type.
- Fixed a bug that caused the Lightning Perfume Bottle and Frenzyflame Perfume Bottle weapons to deal double damage under certain conditions.
- Fixed a bug where the Bloodfiend’s Arm weapon’s Arcane scaling was higher than intended when setting an affinity. The Heavy Attack’s stat buildup has also been reduced.
- Fixed a bug where the Gazing Finger weapon’s Faith scale was not being applied correctly.
- Fixed a bug where the damage animation of some Fire Knight Greatsword attacks on players was different than expected.
- Fixed a bug where the attack affinity of some of the Fire Knight’s Greatsword attacks was different than expected.
- Fixed a bug that caused some affinities for the following weapons to be higher than intended:
- Smithscript Dagger
- Smithscript Circus
- Smithscript axe
- Smithscript Great Hammer
- Smithscript Spear
- Golem Fist
- Smithscript shield
- Fixed a bug that caused enemies to heal when Black Knife Tiche’s gradual HP reduction effect, the maximum HP reduction, wore off.
- Fixed a bug where summoned NPCs would behave differently than expected under certain circumstances.
- Fixed a bug that caused the boss Golden Hippo’s unblockable bite attack to connect with players more easily than intended.
- Fixed a bug that caused text to display differently than expected.
- Various other performance improvements and bug fixes.
Possible solutions for unstable performance
- For the PS5 version of the game, the unstable framerate can be improved by using the ‘Rebuild Database’ option in the device’s Safe Mode.
- In some PC versions, Ray Tracing may be enabled unintentionally and cause unstable performance. Check the Ray Tracing setting in “System” > “Graphics Settings” > “Raytracing Quality” on the title screen or in the in-game menu.
- In the PC version, the message “Inappropriate activity detected” can appear without cheating occurring.
To resolve this issue, verify the integrity of the game files before restarting the game. - In the PC version, unstable framerate can be caused by third-party applications that control mouse behavior. Disabling these third-party applications can improve performance.