I don't know if these numbers are correct, but a 5% defense boost is almost irrelevant.

If you're playing medium load with 20% damage reduction, that's (1,05¹² = 1,79) or a whopping 15% extra absorbed damage after getting all Scadutree blessings. That's comparable to one of Blackguard's crabs or less than the Dragoncrest talisman... and it hardly makes up for enemies hitting thrice as hard, does it.

The cold truth of the matter is that Scadu fragments or not, when those incredibly annoying and long multi-attacks from all directions come at you, you better tap that B button and just pray to sweet young Miquella that you happen to have done so at the right time.

Or maybe build yourself like a fucking tank like the early DS1 meta, I don't know.

Does anyone know what blowing those big horns in the finger areas do? I did it in two areas, but dont know if it did anything...

I don't know if those numbers are correct either. But I've seen a number of people say the Fragments seem to be making a big difference after you get enough fo them. The guide I was looking at also mentioned that a boss would become easy if you've followed the guide to get the fragments up until that piont.

Perhaps there's also an invisible system in place similar to Diablo 4 where level differences between enemies and the player dictate how much damage you deal and recieve, separate from how the stats play into that.
This forces you to level up to deal with higher level enemies, regardless of how high your damage output/negation is.

^ Attack-wise it makes a good difference, the problem is defense (assuming these numbers are roughly correct).

You'll hit for 80% extra damage with 12 blessings while you'll still be taking 80% as much damage. These two things are very different.

It gives you an item if you talk first to the person in the cathedral in Scadu Altus.

Started the DLC with my Paladin build 50 VIG, 30 END, 25 MID, 40 STR, 30 DEX and 70 FAI

No major problems whatsoever, the difficulty is pretty tame and the rage about unfairness is, as I thought, overblown

The NPC and bosses are much smarter and have better movesets. I like the fact some mobs have skills and combos instead of just repeating the same attack patterns. Watching my roomie struggling with Dancing Lion was fun, he's used to spam sorceries like Cometer Azur and Meteor of Asteel in every boss and now he's needing to find options because the bosses were very well thought to avoid those cheap builds. 

The map design is really intricate and a huge step over the base game where the maps are basically open fields. Here I can really see the true Dark Souls philosophy. They manage to made a open-world game with very tight levels and vertically. I'm impressed, they are really the best developers in the industry right now 

Can't wait to find better armor, weapons and talismans 

Yeah I'm not really seeing the insane difficulty here. It's definitely harder than the base game but like the base game if you are having trouble you can just explore somewhere else get stronger and come back.

Idk, I went back to Melania and I'm doing better against her than the Shadow keep red clocked dudes/sheild knights. I guess it's time to give in and get a guide for scadutree fragments. Hopefully that'll be enough. I seen the last boss on stream, seems like it could be the hardest soulsborne boss yet. Seeing Charlie White struggle with him is very discouraging. 

I hated that stupid ass boar commander so much. Would do 10 Bayles again instead of this.

I hope this outdated 2009 Demon's Souls gameplay is definitely dead and buried now for future FromSoft games. It's clear that fast-paced anime-like Sekiro/Bloodborne stuff is where their philosophy design's at.

Asmongold Day 1:

"I think I'll quit, but l'll give it one more chance"

A few days later:

"This is probably the greatest and best DLC I've ever played.
I think the enemy health and damage is totally fine."

(A couple of bosses are shown/mentioned, so beware of spoilers, but the name of the final boss is bleeped out.)

I think this is interesting because it goes with what I was saying about being patient and not forming absolute opinions too soon based on pre concieved notions from the base game. When it's probably intended to be played for longer than that.

Not everyone will feel the same way, but the common denominator for everyone that changed their mind, is giving it more time.

Exactly.