Elden Ring patch 1.17 sharpens parries and buffs greatshields

FromSoftware has released Elden Ring patch 1.17, a day before the Tarnished Pack paid DLC arrives on Friday, August 28. Beyond enabling that content, the update carries a round of balance changes led by parrying and the game's heaviest shields.

The pack costs 4.99 euros and adds two starting classes, the Idus Knight and the Heavy Knight, four armor sets and three Torrent skins hidden in Stormveil, Liurnia and the Altus Plateau. It also drops two NPC invasion events, one in Caelid and one in Leyndell. It's the same content bundled into the Nintendo Switch 2 edition.

On the balance side, the change that touches the most runs is parrying: performance is up across the board, and daggers, curved swords and small shields recover faster after the parry goes off. Storm Wall also stops costing FP entirely.

Shields come out ahead too. Fourteen of them, including the Erdtree Greatshield and Ant's Skull Plate, gain guard boost and lose weight; nine more get the block buff without the weight cut. For a tanky build that's equip load handed back for free.

The Rakshasa's Great Katana moves the other way: there's now a longer delay before a right-hand weapon can swing after using it in the left, and it takes extra damage from other players mid-attack. In exchange, FromSoftware fixed great katana critical hits landing weaker than intended on large enemies.

On PC, two long-standing annoyances are gone: the camera now responds to the mouse during NPC dialogue, and the reset button in the keyboard/mouse settings menu works again. The update is required for online play, and the full list sits in the official patch notes.