With its 1.07 update(opens in new tab) to Elden Ring, FromSoftware has taken steps to ensure the game's long-term health and multiplayer balance. The biggest change is the decoupling of PvP and PvE weapon balancing, though From has also buffed a huge variety of weapons and spells.
That first change is a long time coming for FromSoft—to my knowledge they've never attempted anything like this for the Souls series or Bloodborne. The capacity to separately adjust weapons for PvP and PvE content is crucial for live service games like Destiny, allowing devs to adjust pain points in one mode without overcorrecting in another. I don't think Elden Ring is in any danger of becoming a live service game, but this is still a welcome change. I like Elden Ring's PvP, but I don't go seeking it out. It wouldn't feel good to have a preferred singleplayer strategy hamstrung because hardcore PvPers found and exploited an annoying trick in a mode I hardly ever touch.
For this first round of PvP-only adjustments, FromSoft has made it more costly to block attacks, increased poise (stagger) damage across the board, nerfed most Ashes of War, and also nerfed a selection of AoE spells.
Other than that, FromSoft has buffed a large number of weapons and spells for both PvP and PvE. I'm a big fan of the Souls series' katanas, but Elden Ring has really been dominated by its signature unique swords, Rivers of Blood(opens in new tab) and Moonveil(opens in new tab). It's a salient critique of Elden Ring that though it has a broad arsenal, players gravitate to a small number of weapons, so this is definitely a move in the right direction. The full list of changes is as follows:
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