Does playing mages make Elden Ring easier than melee characters for newer players?

Elden Ring has the option to play both mages and melee characters. The game provides both sets of characters with ample weapons and magic spells for use. However, there is a common notion amongst new players that magic makes the game infinitely simpler.

While it is true that magic does feel easy, there is a lot more intricacy to it than what players assume in most cases. Melee characters might require a lot better reaction speed, but they are much friendlier and more forgiving.

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Magic might seem straightforward, but melee characters are a lot easier to build in Elden Ring

One of the first aspects that people need to understand when it comes to magic is that managing FP is a lot harder than managing stamina. Unlike the latter, mana (FP) does not regenerate independently.

Players need to allocate charges to FP flasks and use them in fights. However, in Elden Ring, both FP and HP flasks are obtained from Golden Seeds. Therefore, when players play a mage character such as the Astrologer class, they need to reduce the number of health flasks and add it to mana.

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It is also important to remember that while magic users can land spells from a distance, they are not immune from boss attacks. Most bosses in this game, such as Margit, Fell Omen, Morgott, Omen King, Starscourge Radahn, Godfrey, First Elden Lord, and Malenia, Blade of Miquella, are hyper-aggressive.

These bosses will jump on the players irrespective of a melee or mage character and will leave no scope for a cheese. Hence, the reduced number of health flasks will make the mages much more vulnerable to getting one-shot by the bosses mentioned above.

The second crucial idea of magic spells is that most mighty ones are available late in the game. Hence, the cheese strategies that players often see online cannot be developed by newer players.

It is also vital to consider that several spells are locked behind scroll books. These books are scattered all across the world in Elden Ring. Players only need to find them to make certain spells appear in the inventory of merchants.

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All of these complications do not exist in the case of a melee character. The correlation between powering up for classes such as Vagabond or Warrior using just runes is a lot more linear when compared to mages who need to meet a lot of pre-requisites before achieving the necessary strength.

Elden Ring is a lot simpler regarding magic compared to other Soulsborne games. However, it is still complicated for new and inexperienced players as they lack FP management and understanding of scaling for mage characters.