Ragnarok

Whole game is leaked since a guy started posting spoilers of trophy-achievements. Apparently there's only one new weapon, a few new shield options with some abilities tied to them, and....sigh...

Spoiler:

. Anyone going to pick this up?

When GoW2018 was released on PC I played it for 2 hours until I got bored and dropped it, but when I could actually use the axe in cool ways I did enjoy it (until the boring spongey enemies arrived).

While not currently interested, I'm still hoping the gameplay will be better this time around as I do feel GoW2018 had cool gameplay ideas that can be built upon for a better game.

Are you going to play it?

Nawh. I know for a fact I won't like what it has to offer, so I'm not going to spend money on it. Maybe I'll borrow a copy of a friend down the line.

I agree 2018 had some neat ideas, especially with the axe.

>picking it up
Not a chance.

Read some leaks and it killed any interest I may have in trying this. I tried to play the last game a few months ago and hated it anyway.

>pick it up
Not even to put it into the trash.

I've noticed a lot of non-combat focused reviews turning on Ragnarok, its length, story, and the things it cares about now. With the wash of 10s gone, people are poking the same holes in it as Tlou2, which is ironic. That too was 2 games they squished into 1.

I remember Cory's wife retweeting a tweet of his with all the 10s the game got, and just thinking how manipulative it was. I already said that reviewers were marketers, but here's a message to those who gave it a 9, like Gamespot, to up their scores if they want to be in the "Hall of fame".

I say this because maybe the well has run dry, and GoW6 will "innovate" by bringing the old combat back. It's like Apple rounding the edges one year, and squaring them the next.

Should be noted that GoW2018 was getting a surge of 'dislike' prior to Ragnarok's launch, as players were replaying it in anticipation and found it dull, boring, uninspired, slow and other harsh words. A lot of times these people just flock to whatever is new and join the hive-mind. Time is the best judge I keep feeling more and more. People still play GoW1, and will continue to do so. I doubt we'll get that with GoW2018 or GoWR.

You can MELT fierce ogres with elemental syphon into Hilda charge with draupnir. It gets to them to around 83ish percent stun damage for a grab.

You can also launch wulvers OUTSIDE of attack animations since they gain some more armor. The move that specifically does this is BoC traingle slam. I should note that if you hurt them too much to the point where they transform(not a GODAWFUL DT mechanic rip off) it stops working. So try to not deal too much damage. This is pretty good for ringouts.

You can also launch einherjar warriors(the guys with a hammer and dagger who can counter attack your parry’s,best enemy in the game btw) with the enhanced axe heavy launcher aka ways (outside if attack animation as usual) as well with the heavy Enders although I find that to be pretty dumb since their counter attack is a blue circle and if you parry you have dodge offers still which doesn’t work well against this guy if you want to get heavy finisher off. I found a consistent combo to launch him for a good old wall pin. Use blades Hyperion pull into enhanced axe launcher and it will ALWAYS launch him. Don’t worry about weapon switching since it’s much faster in raggy.

Interesting notes, nice to see some posts about it. I know Firma also is playing it/played it, but he left the forums afaik.

> 3 posts
Just to note, the forum has infinite editing capabilities, so you can always just edit older posts to add new notes if you post so fast in a row. Much easier (also to read).

>Infinete editing capabilities
Will put that into account thanks.

Is it just me or do raggy bosses not play in on what makes the regular enemy encounters so engaging? This isn’t to stay they are bad,they have well designed attack patterns that reward SOME experimentation and skill if the mechanics and do have a decent chunk of depth and are epic. They also have good fight choreography especially thor 2. But something I feel like and I hear this is also a problem zone of the Enders 2 has with its bosses too is that they can at times feel like a dps race due to the fact they don’t have much hit reactions compared to the regular enemy’s. Let’s use a draugurs as a example here,you can launch them,grip them,freeze them with the axe and kick them to other enemy’s for more frost and to turn them backwards for extra stun as well as to kick them to a wall for more damage or keep them there and more,pin them to a wall or to a group of enemy’s(you can do this with serpent snare as well),you can turn them backwards with a decent chunk of attacks,you can ring them out with a variety of ways,they have weakpoints,you can Hyperion pull them and use the combat grapple,you can knock them to walls for more stun,etc. The point is there is a lot of variety with their reactions which makes you not just want to dps them. Then we get to the bosses which can: be staggered,get stunned(which is pretty fucking rare unless a berserker or has daze and is just a glorified stagger),you can slow them down with freeze but not actually freeze them(which just gives you a dps boost for blades and the opposite is true with burn but you do much more damage with the former so freezing them to switch to blades is pretty dumb in my book atleast could be wrong),you can well interior some if their attacks aka gna has a feather attack that can applie status effects to her if you use it on time with a axe throw but that really only applies to her,and that’s kind of it. This in my opinion kind of hurts the replay value for the bosses since there really isn’t much experimentation to be had with them compared to regular enemy encounters. This is why I like the hateful. The hateful is a shitty boss due to having alot of tracking and not great telegraphs time say the least but the thing is,you can atleast launch him which opens up just WAY more possibility’s during combat. You can ring him out,pin him and some more. This adds that much more replay value and I don’t get that from the other bosses and mini bosses. I don’t mind the mini bosses however since they tend to be accompanied by enemy’s which makes them way more engaging since they have that multi tasking and prioritize mindset back and they tend to have really cool arenas you fight them in. Can’t say the same for the main bosses or mini bosses by themselves. I feel like this makes them at times just feel like a dps race rather than actual multi tasking and decision making. This isn’t to say there isn’t I multi tasking there is some. With hirst and most you can punish either of them when they grab atreus for some extra damage,odin has balls you need to destroy(don’t take this out of context please),and that’s pretty much kind of it I think. The only bosses I can see myself replaying are vanadis,thor 1(and maybe 2),odin and that’s pretty much it. I dunno I still have yet to develop my full feelings and want to hear your guys take on this. This is why I think gow 2 has the best bosses in the series.

NOTE: you can combat grapple bosses in raggy but it is more or less something you have to go out of your way to do and I mean, why would you ever do that? You can use it freely on mini bosses though. But can’t pull them in.

Different enemy types are more weak against certain arrow types. Usually it takes like 4 to 5 arrow shots to get a enemy fully hexed but with einherjar it can take up to 2 and at most 3 and if you use the arrows in the shield ones it fully hexes them. For grims it’s a similar story,if you use up to 2 or 3 against them it fully sonic arrows their asses AND grims are very weak to BoC since they can’t run away(unlike the axe where it’s pretty dumb to use it against them) which allows you to do this combo which insta kills them(gets their stun meter full) that being,aim R2 to turn them backwards,combat grapple while pressing the square button 2 to 3 times and then they are done. You can also fully sonic arrow them when the projectile dudes are in the pillars in the arenas to get a full sonic effect off. This also applies to frost and burn since if you use burn against hel walkers it does extra damage and burn and combined with hex it can create a lot of crowd control. Same thing with draugurs and you are able to freeze them rather fast and get multiple into the ice throw state for alot of things. You have a lot of ways to get rid of einherjar boots so that they will stop teleporting. You can throw the axe at their feet,use Hyperion pull,use any launcher actually and it will get rid of that ability for a but(not too long though) and get rid of certain attacks they had. You can even use the axe hold r1 aim to launch einherjar brutes with those boots but only if they got dem boots. And yo uneven fight one in the main campaign so…….. yeah. Dunno why they didn’t go all out with einherjar during the raggy battle. Would have made a lot of cool encounters. Instead they are after the main campaign. You can get rid of einherjar helmets that give them elemental health bars with a axe throw right at the head and it goes out forever. Death from above can launch a wulver who hasn’t powers up yet and get rid of purple einherjar shields fast.

Tips on how to deal with light elves: You can pick up their bombs and throw it at them to still be in control of the fight,if you hit a samurai light elve in the mask to deal a lot of stun damage to stun him he becomes open to serpent snare for ringouts,the light elves that can make a big sphere can be tuned to hit other light elves to launch them . That’s mainly it for now I’m sure I will discover more things about them. They are really good enemy’s and 2nd favorite after einherjar.

Omar73874928271728 wrote:Tips on how to deal with light elves: You can pick up their bombs and throw it at them to still be in control of the fight,if you hit a samurai light elve in the mask to deal a lot of stun damage to stun him he becomes open to serpent snare for ringouts,the light elves that can make a big sphere can be tuned to hit other light elves to launch them . That’s mainly it for now I’m sure I will discover more things about them. They are really good enemy’s and 2nd favorite after einherjar.

Oh nice! I didn't know you could throw back their bombs, that's gonna be helpful on higher difficulties.

Einherjaar are my fave enemies too. All the humanoid type enemies are great imo. I'm currently finishing the post game content and then diving into NG+ GMGOW

Thanks! That post really made my day and yeah new game plus is pretty damn fun. Certain encounters play very differently with you having the spear early on(one that comes to mind is the one with the orge and small girl archers who killed will ng2 style come back with a different behavior but in new game plus you can use the cover in the arena to isolate the orge without him destroying the pillars and use the spear elemental syphon in combination with the Hilda charge which destroys him). Do wish they remixed the encounters in an optional hard mode called “ragnarok” mainly just to give love to many of the obscure enemy types similar to what 2018 did with enemy’s in its post game which was what I thought they were gonna do. But yeah it’s a good ton of fun and bosses/mini bosses gain new behaviors and abilities. Also yeah I think most of the humanoid esque enemy’s are very solid but I do find some to be kind of bland or just add nothing to the roster. The main 2 being raiders and seior. Only raider tyoe I like are the archers and the ones with elemental shield who rush you. The seiors IMO are god awful enemy’s with the amount of move assist they have. I’ve seen a lot of critiques of the game and one that comes to mind is when one guy(think his name was feeble king) criticizes the nokken due to the camera but it doesn’t even have to do with the nokken or camera it mainly has to do with the god awful seior enemy types with their move assist which makes me rage. Seriously they have nothing going on besides from the crater where they can use the environment(mainly a pillar that heals them) to their advantage which is pretty fun honestly. But other than that they are literally a worse versions of hel walkers. Literally. Also should note you can launch revenants in the air in this game similar to wulvers and get them in a infinite with CG in the air. They are much better in this game than they were in 2018 and can be decently fun tbh.

You can use wisps to your advantage against other enemy’s when you stun them with arrows and hit them to other enemy’s. There is also the wisps you combine together to become a ultimate one and if you don’t stop them and they become that you can use draupnir spear throw canceling to constantly abuse hitting them which forced them to get into the ground since usually when you hit their head they go down to give you some breathing room due to how they Harris you with projectiles.

If you are doing a BoC light ender and if you parry you will do the heavy finisher if you have it. Really cool way to play aggressively.

Tips about drauonir spear: if you take an enemy’s element and do the LFE attack from vanquish it becomes imbued with the enemy’s elements. It is kind of useless on draugurs and helwalkers since they take less elemental damage from their same elements but great in other enemy’s elements. You can also freeze someone with the LA with a heavy throw with it and use that move with drauonir spear I said earlier to push them to other enemy’s and such or to drop them. Pretty good strategy imo. You can also throw the spear faster outside of shield canceling by side dodging which is mainly useful if you have dauntless shield which has pretty garbage cancelling. Fuck even stone wall is better than it in that regard. If you use the retreating attack of it, it can make enemy’s trip which is useful against teleporting einherjar since they can teleport and tripping them gets rid of it for a bit. Most runic attacks you do with it get a buff(element you have goes out) if you used elemental syphon before hand. Like I said before it’s fantastic with Hilda’s charge + daze. If you do a let’s say running R1 it puts a bomb onto the enemy which can do a big as detonation attack if you wait for the vibration cue. The light ender for it causes enemy’s to go back revealing their backs for extra stun. Have to experiment with it more to see how good this can be. You can in general(which is a very good tool for movement in this game for BoC running r1) cancel the sprint in this game much faster compared to 4 which allows you to do the running r1 with spear to put bombs on enemy’s even faster and that move is one of the fastest ways to do the enhanced detonation vibration technique. You can also similar to the axe throw the spears at enemy’s head with helmets to get rid of it. The lfe gun move also works in ALOT of enemy’s including brutes and scales from what I remember and have seen from GBGs stream in the game. You can also cancel the rushing heavy with the spear for extra movement. It can also break enemy guards but doesn’t do the uppercut for some dumb ass reason which is sad. But I think it can break teleporting einherjar teleporting boots. And it’s probably the best for launching enemy’s. Here are the enemy’s that give DAZE:
1. All Light Elves
2. All Dark Elves
3. Ogres
4. Most Berskers
5. Some trolls I think
There is most likely more but here is the general.

Learned some new stuff about draupnir, will post later today after some work.

You can cancel odin earthquake attack with death from above or runic attacks and triangle slam, death from above is best imo.

Just to note (and not make you feel alone haha) I am reading the notes, just don't really have anything to say. I'm never playing or buying this game, but it's interesting to read what they added in.

>Reading notes
I had a feeling hah. Mainly because you own the sight I think.

>never playing
If you were I’d suggest buying a PlayStation account online to skip atreus sections.

>interesting additions
I assume the LFE drauonir spear attack got your attention the most.

Wow, can’t believe kuba robbed me of 50 dollars just to talk to shoutout someone he forgot to shout-out. God of war YouTubers have a big grudge against me for some reason haha. Mainly Zesty, kuba and some other folk.

I don't understand that last part, 50 dollars? what?

I gifted him I think like 35 dollars technically. Too embarrassed to talk about it haha. Nothing that bad.

Who is Kuba?

A YouTuber pretty much. He makes theory’s and such. Not much to say about him really.

Tips for the camera, when you see the indicators flashing mega red, do a side step to continue using the combo since it has dodge offset. Use the verticality aka grapple points if you get too cornered in an encounter, pretty basic stuff I know. Use ring outs which the game has a TON of. The game also has alot of crowd control options. Mainly saying this since I have seen a lot of people complain about the encounters being dogshit(aka Reddit) due to the camera. But the game gives you your tools.

BoC tips: if you use the light ender but Larry after, you will do the heavy ender. The aim R2 will make enemy’s go backwards and if you have an enemy like einherjar or helwalkers hexed, it will cause an explosion. The retreating slash gives iframes now and if you hold r2 it will do a quick launch.

Leviathan axe tips: if you push an enemy who you frozen and kick them down, early game it can insta kill. The aiming and hold R1 can launch enemy’s in the air. I already discussed what it can do to the einherjar brutes with boots. It has the best launcher in the game which scales with enemy levels. Up to 2 I think. You can cancel hold R1 with a side step which allows you to pretty much use a flamethrower ice storm thingy. Good for a lot of frost damage. Draugurs take extra frost as well so use it against them. The triangle axe throw can break shields and stagger enemy’s but I have to learn how faultering works in this game. I think it’s similar to doom eternals soft faulters in the sense there is a timer. I’d have to check. You can use the regular traingle attack for an advance movement option, speed martyr has a video on it I think. It’s similar to ninja gaiden dash and jumping if that makes sense. Not much to add sadly for now. Will have to use it a bit more. Will report back when I find out how that faltering works.

The leviathan axe triangle effect stays on for 15.43 seconds.

You can cancel wulver transformation with a runic attack. Will check if it’s possible with axe stagger.

Will say in general don’t spam runics. It’s tempting I know, but enemys will gain armor and there is certain enemy’s that reward saving runic attacks.

Wanna test out relics and see how they work ngl. Will report here if I find any interesting things.

Still crying to this day we didn’t fight vidar on a dragon during the raggy battle and the game used the 2d camera angle one last time. Pretty sure he was said in gow to be the general of the einherjar? Like dude, the general of the EINHERJAR?!?!!??? That would be one badass mf.

Collisions scale in difficulty believe it or not in raggy.

Came up with a challenge run for draupnir spear called spear draupnir.
Rules: Drauonir spear only, no relics are allowed, arrows are allowed, any drauonir spear runic attack that doesn’t have the bombs it usually has is not allowed(only exception being huldra charge), you can only use shatter Star shield, have to use base shield attachment, no use of other weapons, can’t use resurrection stones, can’t use overpowered gear(can only be on the same enemy’s level), can’t use other weapons even if they have elemental shields, can only use base armor(it is upgradable), can’t use enchantments and can’t use tokens in skill tree.

Odin is a really good final boss ngl, can’t wait to replay him.

More tips with BoC, you can get light ender finisher for the blades VERY fast(or heavy one) if you do, R2,R2 then R1 BUT with X around the same time then you will do a very quick knock back for the blades. Should note enemy’s tend to well… but stagger as much as I’d like so be careful for sure when doing it, but if you do the ender and parry, if you have the heavy ender, if you press heavy attack kratos will do that, very good for keeping aggression.
https://youtu.be/ipmvwDNsI3s
This video showcases it pretty well.

Some more tips with it, if you use dauntless shield and have the dmc4 style perfect time charge attack, you gain access to by far the fastest triangle slam access in the game. Want to see how it works with wulvers. Some other shield stuff:
For stone wall, if you parry an attack it doesn’t keep your combo going, but it gives it extra meter for the big AOE, and makes it so that it can’t be overrun during combat. It’s arguably the best shield against einherjar brutes due to the fact it can’t parry, which means they can’t use their counterattack on you and due to their devastating long combos, it charges the shield VERY fast. And if you use the full AOE blast against him, it consistently launches him. And from what I remember in the combat showcase before the game came out, you can even launch the samurai light elves with it. The einherjar brute does have a combo which ends with a blue ring after a lot of dagger pokes, so I will have to see how that works. Nonetheless, it’s imo the best shield to use against those guys. You of course have other ways to deal with him. But I already went over those and this is mostly meant for stone wall shield.

NOTE: for some strange reason a triangle slam with BoC can’t launch in for some apparent reason. Very strange, although the heavy ender can launch him.
If you get a perfect parry with dauntless, it sends enemy’s backwards exposing back, and if you have a wall on top of that ahead, it could deal devastating amount of stun damage. Stun in the game is pretty weak compared to 2018, so this isn’t game changing. Dauntless also is very trash in terms of spear throwing speed, so best to just use side stepping dmc1 rocket launcher style to throw it faster, stone wall shields is decently fast. Shatter Star shield can Larry (with the double tap) ANY attack in the game. Including unblockables and circle meter. It can also send projectiles back. Which only 3 shields(4 if you count the aspids shield) can do(said ones are guardian shield, dauntless and shatter Star shield). It also has, by far, the fastest spear throw canceling in the game. Shit turns into a machine gun. It also is great for canceling attacks, so you can do 1 R1 with axe for eternity and it can melt bosses health bars combined with setting them on fire for extra damage and getting the weapon buff, it DESTROYS bosses/mini bosses and enemy’s. You can also freeze a enemy and use the shatter Star shockwave which will believe it or not, turn the shockwave effect into ice dealing frost damage. Generally kind of useless but I can see it being fun to dick around with.
Onslaught shield can block certain projectile attacks and has Iframes. You can also do your rushing attacks out of it or charge the axe triangle for the stinger type of moves. So it’s also very good against einherjar warrior since you can charge at them with it and use the rush attack to stagger them, and then right away use the heavy launcher attack with axe to launch them. It also has a fantastic spear throwing cancel, 3rd best in the game. It is also pretty decent in terms of canceling attacks if you care about that. It also has a parry, parry’s in this game have a dodge offset window and I forgot to say how the shatter Star shield when parrying a attack gains some extra meter since if you block attacks with it, it will lose the meter you saved up. Gaurdian shield and aspids shield are the same ones but aspids requires far more timing and has the strength of gow 4s og counter attacks. Which were broken but not too broken. The gaurdian shields counter attacks are easier to time but are wayyy less powerful. And tbh, they kind of suck. The counter attack light one barely pushes enemy’s back(dauntless is far better in that regard) and the heavy one trips enemy’s. And while that sounds cool, you already have far better options for tripping enemy’s, so just ignore that shield, worst in the game imo. Pretty much a jack of all trades but aspids is generally far superior. BUT it does have the 2nd best spear throw canceling in the game. Well it and aspis.
Now for some barehanded combat tips, barehanded is FANTASTIC when it comes to grinding rage, especially with valor and wrath. It does a good chunk of stun, but that’s kind of nerfed unless if your against grims(due to sonic arrows destroying grims) you can just do a axe throw to the face and use 3 sonic arrows(far faster than regular enemy’s requirement of sonic arrows) to get them sonic we or whatever its called, and they will get their A to the S to the S blasted to infinity and beyond. You also have some iframes with the rushing attacks but it’s very strict. I would have to experiment with it a bit more to see how useful it can be.

You can ringout orges in raggy in the encounter with brok where you fight 2 of them who are accompanied with grims. The trick is to bait them to jump on a gap, and during it make brok shoot his projectile and they fall to their death. Really fucking cool and makes me miss brok even more. You can also do this with regular enemy’s btw with the blades aim hold R2 attack. Very good for making traps with the hooks. Although requires fast reflexes.

You can ringout the grim mini boss if you go to the ledge and us tatarus rage runic attack.

Also, you can launch hateful which allows you to ring them out or pin them to a wall by using wrath and a couple arrows after the launch. You can end fights with him in seconds with this. Also, some new tips about draupnir, if you use the dash coward attack it gets out the holding attack even faster. And if you do the rushing heavy you can do elemental syphon even faster.

Some tech with fury is that the talisman that buffs your attacks usually, also buffs fury, and it does a TON of extra damage. Will have to check how good it is on bosses.

Another tip for stone wall shield, if you block a yellow attack it gets 2 meter gains out of 4. So if you use it against 2 yellow attacks it fills up fully AND it can launch even heavy enemy’s.

Another tip against wulvers: if you get them to yellow stun state, if you use heavy attacks it gives you health stones for farming.

https://youtu.be/Xg52F0U8qYs
Great video!