Latest Elden Ring Patch Might Have Just Limited Speedrunning

thegamer.com:

Elden Ring's 1.03 patch has nerfed several items that were critical for speedrunning, potentially impacting future records.

Over the past few weeks, we've been reporting the increasingly reduced times in which Elden Ring players have been managing to finish the game, with one player even managing to beat the whole game in under 30 minutes as recently as last week. That looks like the last record we'll be seeing for some time, thanks to the most recent patch for the game.

Related: Elden Ring’s New Patch Is Making Hardcore Fans Look Real Silly

As reported by GamesRadar+, the patch has changed and nerfed several different items and abilities that were allowing players to speedrun the game. Some Spirit Ash summons, such as the Mimic Tear, have seen a nerf, while the Hoarfrost Stomp Ash of War has seen perhaps the biggest nerf.

For those who haven't found this Ash of War yet, the Hoarfrost Stomp is a move that lets players stomp on the ground and freeze enemies in front of them. It was widely renowned as one of Elden Ring's most broken moves, but the patch has seen its damage output massively nerfed. The same can be said of the Mimic Tear, which is now much less overpowered.

This is important because speedrunners have been using a combination of the Mimic Tear and Hoarfrost Stomp as essential tools in their run. Distortion2, one of the most well-known Elden Ring speedrunners and the current world-record holder, can be seen using the Hoarfrost Stomp throughout his runs, and it's now much less effective.

After the patch notes were released, Distortion2 posted an image on his Twitter captioned "RIP Elden Ring speedruns", showing the section of the notes that say that Hoarfrost Stomp has been nerfed.

Although it's a shame to see