I think there's a good reason they put the stat-respec service immediately before the entrance to the Plateau -- while it's not the most difficult area in the game, it's arguably the point where the game tests whether you've been paying attention to the lessons it's been giving.

To be fair, this place might just be bad for me, personally. The spaces in this specific fort are pretty tight, and I'm not that good and getting the perfumers before they spray their exploding stuff at me, hahah. I think they were the main source of trouble for me. That, and poison-spitting multi-armed monstrousity. I somehow evaded dealing with the valkyrie knight, I ran away and her AI just...let her drop down into the swamp, to where the spirit fire-summoning enemies are. Otherwise, I'm pretty fine, I think!
Managed to get rid of both the fire drake in the Volcano Manor (by just spam-tossing pots, kukris, and knives at him) and Godskin Noble (man, did I hate that fight), and even Draconic Tree Sentinel at the entry to the Capital (and pretty easily at that, I guess I was spooked by challenge videos).

So eh, I guess the peasoup fort gathered all of my weak spots in one place and I have to fight them (I don't but I got a prothetic arm and am curious).


As for the respec thing - I was actually thinking about it, but looking at my stats, decided that I won't even be changing that much if I did use it. Plus I've got Radagon's Soreseal as a crutch, I guess.

Sounds like you've got things pretty well figured out, which is good -- the first time through a FromSoft game can be a daunting and potentially very messy experience, but it seems as if the wider range of available approaches in Elden Ring provide a more generous foundation on which to find your footing.

Plus, you've also learned one of the most important lessons FromSoft games can teach: Always look for ways to get the game to do the work for you. Even setting aside exploits that trick the AI into killing itself or dealing damage to itself, there's often handy tricks that can exploit weaknesses you might not have realized the enemies have -- as an example, the ghastly undead amalgamations that lurk around the fort and along the roads in Liurnia can be harmed by area-of-effect healing spells, and can even be staggered if you time a fully-charged cast right.

I am yet to test it, but I wonder if warming stones could harm them. Because, sadly, my character is way too dumb for casting most things (I mainly go for strength/dexterity/arcane, with my main weapon being night rider's flail).

Ability to freely explore definitely helps! I tend to revisit/explore areas when things get frustrating. Sometimes getting some materials and a level along the way is all that is needed to push through!

I think one of my favourite hidden mechanics is that land squirts (sponge things) explode after getting poisoned. Setting up chain reactions can be pretty fun

Haven't thought to test that, though I don't have a ton of warming stones to start with -- I'm not the best at juggling items mid-battle, so my item bar's usually kept to the minimum for ease of access.

Agreed on the exploration. Even setting aside finding the items you need, just taking the chance to step away and relax between attempts at a tough enemy or boss can help you process everything you'd learned on previous attempts -- I tend to limit myself to five attempts before I take a short break, unless I feel like I'm getting close to a breakthrough.

Yeah, the land squirts' weakness is counterintuitive, but a fun discovery. The Caelid variety that belches out Scarlet Rot suffers a similar reaction if hit by an attack that inflicts Rot buildup, too, though there's fewer options for that kind of damage.

I used to use the dragon on the bridge in Caelid (next to Beast Clergiman's place) as a palate cleanser. Dragons are not complicated to deal with, and I knew that I'd die anyway, but it was nice to reset a little after some complicated place/boss. One day I bested him though D:

Feel you on the items though, that's why I use the most items like...before actually entering the boss arena, so I don't have to think too much between trying to survive and figuring out how to actually beat the boss

It's pretty much useless for gathering runes or items at this point, but when I really need to refresh, I tend to head back to the gate leading to Stormveil Castle and fight my way up the road until I reach the castle itself -- there's a great deal of catharsis in returning to the enemies who gave me grief at the start of the game and dealing out revenge with my Moonveil Katana. Plus, it provides a metric by which I can gauge my progress: the farther up the path I can get without needing to toss back a healing flask, the more I've improved.

Oh man, that place gave me a plenty of grief when I started! For some reason I am stuck in mentality of having to kill every single enemy at least once; so when my friend said to just pass them on my horse, my reaction was like "...are you even allowed to do that?!"

But, to be fair, I'm pretty slow on catching up on things like that. I only realised that I entered endgame-ish territory after getting wrecked in castle Sol for at least thre times. No, neither Godfrey the Golden Edition, nor Morgott were signs enough, hahah.

In fairness, riding past enemies is a good recipe for disaster. The last time I did that back in Caelid, I ended up getting magicked to death by an army of invisible spellcasters that I rode past without noticing, after getting stopped by an army of invisible spellcasters I almost ran right into.

Oh god, that sounds terrifying! I think I'll revisit Caelid at a later time, just for my own moral well-being.

Or at the very least, exercise caution when clearing out the town on the east side of the lake of Rot. I mostly got killed by being careless and drawing too many enemies' attention at once -- one-on-one, the mages aren't much of a threat.