Elden Ring 1.04 Update Is Required To Keep Playing Online, Here's What It Fixes
So if you're tired of Elden Ring news, you can skip this post, but for everyone else, read on, because the game's 1.04 patch is bringing big changes to the online player-versus-player combat metagame, as well as a bounty of bug fixes and balance adjustments that should change things up for players struggling in their adventures in the Lands Between.
The biggest changes for online play are the bug fixes for "Carian Retaliation" and the overall reduction of the strength of "madness" effects. Weapons and incantations inflicting the "madness" status effect have been very strong in Elden Ring's PvP metagame, and it appears FromSoftware felt that they were too strong. Meanwhile, the "Carian Retaliation" spell and weapon art were broken, and did not function correctly in multiplayer; this issue is now fixed.
There's also a vague patch note that says "increased online multiplayer stability." Anyone who plays Elden Ring online will doubtless have encountered extremely abrupt disconnects with the message "a connection error occurred"; hopefully this patch resolves these. Otherwise, most of the rest of the bug fixes appear to resolve edge cases and relatively minor problems, like graphical bugs.
As far as PvE balance goes, the most important patch note is likely the change that says "Slightly increased FP and Stamina growth rate at lower levels." To see the benefit of these changes on an existing character, you'll need to force the game to re-calculate your stats, which means changing one of your attribute points by leveling up, activating Godrick's Great Rune, or equipping an item that gives bonus stats.
Finally, most spells and weapon arts have been buffed, usually with increased cast speed as well as additional poise while casting on many slower spells. Some weapon arts have gained additional hitboxes, while many have gained the ability to cancel out of the casting animation with a dodge roll—a welcome defensive change for magic-focused players.
Aside from the balance changes and bug fixes, this update also brings along some technical and accessibility improvements. Patch 1.04 only mentions "other performance improvements," but in our own informal testing, the game seems to perform much more smoothly, with fewer hitches and momentary frame drops.
Unfortunately, the ray-tracing update that Bandai Namco promised in the first update's patch notes still hasn't materialized, but it's still early days yet for Elden Ring updates. As with previous patches, version 1.04 is a required update for online play. Regardless of your platform, if you have the game installed, the patch is probably already downloading. Let us know what you think of the changes!
