Things to mention: 1. I guess it is kinda on me for not summoning for Leda the first time around, I just wasn’t sure where the line should be drawn as someone who generally doesn’t summon. And like I said, I have nothing against others who like to summon, some of my best friends do. 2. I liked Radahn more after my 2nd playthrough and got his moves down better, also I never mentioned how much I like his music, one of my favorites 3. I mispronounced Carian cuz I’m dumb 4. I know golden hippopotamus isn’t mandatory but he is kinda right in the direct path of a way you need to go so I figured I’d count him 5. Ngl, the main thing I have against Romina’s design is that I just don’t like how centipedes look, despite the overall design being cool
@@epsilon1372 How could you not blame him for avoiding summoning at the culmination of the entire DLC's NPC plot-lines? It's like you're trying not to have a good time--and luckly it seems he succeeded.
To be fair, Rellana is absolutely an optional boss, albeit one placed right in the main path. But on my first playthrough I went completely around the castle and got in through the nearby cliff to the exit, all by accident, so she's not that hard to avoid. What confuses me is why Romina gets no cutscene - she's actually mandatory. I wouldn't be surprised if From switched Rellana and Romina's places in the roster for some reason.
I really don't get the Bayle hype, there are so many baffling decisions fromsoft made for that fight. Why can't I target his body/severed leg? Why is the summon sign for Igon IN the boss arena? Why is Bayle so small? The dead Dragon outside is 4x his size and yet Bayle is supposed to be the oldest and vilest. I personally think Bayle is just another bad dragon fight to add to the list of bad dragon fights.
@@ZachStachelski13 Same here... My friend really hyped Bayle so much that when I got to him it was just utterly disappointing. It's mostly just a ctrl+c, ctrl+v dragon fight with like 2 new cool moves (pretty much just like placidusax). Midir is still the best dragon fight atleast for me.
What I appreciate about this DLC how it actually made summoning fun. NPCs actually speak and have multiple voice lines in the middle of combat, sometimes even having amusing conversations too. It felt like they took some lesson's from Armored Core 6's storytelling by incorporating a lot dialogue which is a refreshing change of pace from the usual cold and distant item descriptions you get from postmortem loot.
I really wish they'd reintroduce a mechanic similar to DS2 bonfire aesthetic, because while I love the summoning in the DLC from an atmosphere standpoint, I also want to fight the bosses myself.
it’s great when the npc’s actually work but me and a bunch of people i’ve seen have run into a bug where they can’t move around so i’ve been soloing every boss 😭
Fun fact: Hawkshaw pointed out that the Putrescent Knight’s body is that of a horse skeleton, just without the head. You can clearly see it after it performs its combo attack when off horseback. So this boss is essentially a horse skeleton riding its own skin.
My favorite detail about Messmer’s phase 2 is that when he becomes the Snake, his body will always be where the head ends up, making punishing him after dodging super clean. My personal #1 goes to Bayle, but that’s personal bias(I’m a HUGE Midir fan and yeah he might be eclipsed…)
I think Messmer is great but once he learn him he's a bit boring/linear. You just dodge in on every attack and punish after the combo. Not a very dynamic fight IMO.
I’m on bayle right now and I’ve gotten all of his moves down except the one where he goes up in the air breathes fire from side to side then forward then he slams down. The slam seems like it glitches sometimes and he just spawns down and other times I can see him clearly float down. I also am in consistent dodging the first fire attack and it seems to hit me every time any tips?
@@risingempires473 sometimes if you're too close to the wall the fire that goes on the floor can bounce back and hit you unfortunately :/ it's not the boss' fault its just how fire works
@@thehomeredonethe could’ve at least put a real divine beast with a buffed moveset there so it makes sense lore wise. The one we fought in belurat was just a imitation of the real thing. Now the second encounter is just a push over without any lasting impression. Still enjoyed it tho.
At the very least, the 2nd time around you do have access to a horse and the cover of the arena's outer pillars so you can create some space if needed... because yeah, it is definitely overwhelming as all hell (and all for an extremely underwhelming incantation... rip)
Midra was the best for me. The way you have to go so far out of your way to even wind up in the Abyssal Woods, it feels like you’ve unknowingly made a terrible mistake, like you shouldn’t be here. The abyssal woods itself is just so atmospheric and foreboding, the messages on the floor warning you to turn back, getting JUMPSCARED OFF TORRENT and then when you try to summon him back you can’t because he’s so unnerved. Then you just wander aimlessly through the woods, trying to stick to any semblance of a path, until you reach the manor. You’re immediately “greeted” by the manor caretaker and his chilling oxymorons - “welcome, un-invited guest”. And then you make your way through the manor eventually hearing the scream of an old, decrepit man lying on the floor, he seems harmless, but you just know something is up. His howling remarks of your foolishness further amplifies the feeling of dread and mistake that has built. Then you kill him and he just grotesquely rips this giant sword outve his head, you can almost hear his slimey guts churning in his head as he slowly rips it out and then… Then…..the big reveal, the now headless man slowly turns around to reveal the Lord of Frenzied Flame, Midra, an entity we hypothesised about for two years in the base game, scraping everything we could from different enemies, npcs, and the frenzied flame ending. The fight is mesmerising. His body language, the way he almost saunters and floats around the arena, it feels as though you are fighting a psychopath that has long been contained finally unleashed, unchained, unbounded, free. He almost has an aer of gracefulness to him in the way he moves and swings his sword. He is enchanting, intimidating, and challenging all at once. A perfect boss with an unmatched presence and atmosphere.
The thing that holds him back the most, is how fsir he is. He is so fair, fairer than any other elden ring boss, that he is not that hard and the time experiencing the bossfight could be over fast.
@@Teyupume I thought he was a decent challenge. I was scadu 10 at about 20 tries. He is much fairer and forgiving then Mesmer and such though I will admit.
I love how despite being afflicted with the flame of FRENZY he has the most calm and controlled attacks of all the bosses. The lore the disign and holy crap the OST goes so hard. As far as I know Midras ost is the only one in ER with such heavy bass in it which to me made it seem even more uncanny and feel like holy crap this is a cosmic threat.
You're legit the only person I've seen shit on the Leda fight. I understand not usually using summons, but it was immediately obvious to me that that's the way it's meant to be done. If you don't summon for a non-unique, non-boss fight and find it to be un-enjoyable, that's on you, not the game. Besides, why would anyone be so uptight about not summoning for it? It's a gank fight with NPCs - there's no unique moveset to learn, so go nuts!
Yeah lmao. Its not a boss that you can learn and bestow it. They are going to out number you and your only way would be run away and poke. Which is dumb asf. Just summon
I dont know how anybody can "like" this fight as a fight. As a story moment i like it and it was cool, but as a fight, sheesh. I had level 12 fragments and had to fight 5 10k+ health NPCs, it was frustrating. I got Ansbach after my first attempt but they spawn in really fast and just pile on you while you are constantly rotted. Not my ideal fight lol. If i wanted to be ganked, i'd went online. I know i had kinda low blessing level, but multiple opponents just excarbate the pain.
Radahn has serious visibility problems that even the most climactic fights in ds3 never have not even slave knight Gael. Also in gaels fight his move set completely changes they don’t just enhance his attacks making all of your dodging suddenly wrong when phase 2 starts.
The fact that the fingers meant nothing, and were just there because Metyr was trying to recieve a sign from the Greater Will blew my mind when I found out.
Leda fight was awesome. I'm the same as you in that I don't use summons in these games, but it makes no sense to apply that to this fight. You're expected to use them like you said, and it's not even really a boss to begin with. I think there's a difference between not using summons for legitimate reasons, and not using summons just to not use summons.
I think even despite that the fight is just not super well designed. Dryleaf fans especially causes your camera to go in weird directions and Moore is miserable to fight not cuz he’s hard but because he takes no damage and just stays behind his shield most of the time
for me the Scadurtree avatar was really cool for being one of those "sad" fights, i mean it is us findign this wilting flower at the bottom of the shadowkeep, all alone, and the third phases explosion attack and music really sell the desperate struggle that the boss is doing to survive. and my lovecraftian loving ass loved midra the most, he has some neat designs relating to the king in yellow (honestly all the frenzied flame does) and his music caught me so off guard in phase 2 i was in aw especially at the tuba sections. for me nice video.
Right? I was trying to figure out the vibe she was giving me and realise she looks like a Yu-Gi-Oh! card lol. She kinda reminds me of Black Rose Dragon or Insect Queen lol
Putrescent knight is great. It was frustrated when fighting him, but I walked away thinking about that fight fondly. Definitely underrated. One of my favorite things to do in that fight is dodge the boomerang and then jump attack over the follow up swing. It feels satisfying to pull off.
My main issue with him is the RNG of the flame attack. Sometimes he barely uses it, and sometimes he spams it over and over and over. And that inconsistency is pretty frustrating. The reason why is because I like to play really aggressively, and go for posture damage to break the bosses. But every time he does that attack, I lose basically all progress on breaking his posture as he just regains it all. If I get unlucky because he used the attack 3 times back to back, then I feel a little robbed of my main playstyle. I do like the attack, I just wish it was less RNG based, and maybe based on HP thresholds. Like maybe once at 60% and once at 30% both at guaranteed times so its never RNG based. Or maybe Fromsoft needs to refine the posture mechanic to make it so bosses doing big cinematic attacks like that dont recover posture, so that way your progress towards breaking them isnt undone simply because you got bad RNG and they did a long attack you cant hit them during. I really enjoy the posture mechanic, but I think it needs some polishing up in the souls games. Sekiro was much more centralized around it, but it feels like somewhat of an afterthought in Elden ring. Outside of that though, I did enjoy the boss quite a bit.
Midra is the best fight in not just the dlc, but the whole game. The moveset, ost, and visual effects are masterclasses in what elden ring can provide. Add in the fact they were able to make a boss around the worst status effect in the game, and its not infuriating is insanely commendable
I know you showcased some of Igon’s screaming during the fight but I also think he’s a huge part of Bayle’s buildup even before the dragon priestess. Just wandering around to see some psycho screaming on the floor was great and then seeing that he’s dragged himself up halfway a mountain fuelled by pure hatred was so peak. S tier npc
You forget to say how fucking cool mesmer grab attack looks, and also it's really easy to dodge, but i might have let him hit me twice just to hear the explosion sounds.
I must say that i love Saint of bud design it's so cool as she is spiderscorpion-scolopede-woman-flower-fly hybrid and that one jump attack with red light is awesome
Last night I finished the dlc 100% all bosses first playthrough and man what a banger 10/10. I found "the centre of shadow lands tower" as my final location accidentally and man this shit was half the size of elden ring. It made me laugh "it's the size of limgrave" God damn miazaki 😂😂
I’m so glad that most reviews I’ve seen agree that Messmer’s Assault is like the best boss attack of all time. I don’t even know WHAT makes it so fun to dodge, but once I got it down I just knew that it’s pretty much peak Elden Ring gameplay.
This is the only fight that I allowed myself a summon because this deserved to have the final hit on Bayle. He just hates him so much and I wouldn't want to take that away from him.
I thought all the main DLC bosses were so peak. If many of the bosses were in other games or the base game they would’ve gotten S tier, like Rellana. Shoutout to death knight as well, bro is the drip king.
Bayle is my new favorite fromsoft boss. They finally perfected the dragon fight. That fight everything: intensity, spectacle, OST, difficulty, hype, a fantastic buildup and story, and my GOAT Igon. Absolute cinema
The way I view the Leda fight is from the lens of a test. It checks the player on their interactions with all the NPCs and how they went about it. It test the player’s character for how you choose to change the eventual battle. Let’s use Hornsent as an example, upon your second encounter, mine was after reaching the tower and going back to talk to him and Leda. He will go off to the tower and then Leda goes paranoid and either with or without (without for me) your input goes off to hunt Hornsent. Aiding Leda presumably kills him. Aiding Hornsent will make him a summon for Mesmer and probably make him not aid Leda - someone could probably fact check that. Now summoning him effects his quest, I summoned and he simply left before invading at the church of bud - I am unsure if he does anything differently if you don’t summon him. And that is just one quest that lowers Leda’s pool of allies. You can also take out Moorne either by provoking him by killing the foragers brood or just saying “remain sad forever” or just tell him do nothing by just saying “I don’t know” I’m pretty sure there is a way to get Freyja to do nothing but I wanted her sheild for the collection. (Ansbach item) Then you can gain 2 allies by doing both Ansbach and forgive my butchering of the name if I have Thoiller’s quest which is pretty easy to do by exploring. Dane is the only person here who cannot be dealt with before the confrontation thus duelling him is mainly for the fun dryleaf arts. Quite the test as you can see. And a fight that warrants the use of summons and if you wish to have an extra meat sheild or sheilds a spirit ash can help (I brought the horned warrior to deal with Freyja and to my surprise he nearly won and only fell due to Leda also attacking him before Ansbach got her agro) out number or even the numbers if you happened to for whatever weird reason let everyone become an enemy. That is my perspective on the fight but I can see why many dislike it. And if you read this far I thank you for your time, have a good day or night. (Personally I enjoy it in the same sense as I enjoyed the Radhn festival but I think that was better due to it being only 1 target.)
Yeah, I summoned a Mimic tear and we just wobbled the lad's for a while with our scaleblades. And since I had to deal with the divine lion folk beforehand I'd say I deserve it.
@@kenanperez3151 if he made multiple points like he did, that is indeed not yapping about one thing 😭. Your comment seems hateful of people that don’t summon, just because some people like to challenge themselves don’t mean you need to be a dick 😭
@@strictly_fadesit’s nice that there is someone backing him up on this since it seems like the whole comment section is criticizing him for not summoning. Sometimes I don’t understand the souls community. Noooo you can’t summon for bosses. Except for this one. And that one
Another odd thing about Gaius is the fact that he uses the same music as niall and leonine misbegotten along with the other misbegotten warrior (the one that use the golden order gs),whereas Jori, elder inquisitor, gets his own unique theme,and he is an open field boss, btw unlike Gaius who is a remembrance boss. ( I'm pretty sure someone mentioned that Jori was gonna have his own remembrance as well, hence why the unique theme during his fight) Anyways, I appreciate you for trying to list out at least one positive for every boss. Have a nice day, Chad!
I see everyone complaining about the charge but it's pretty easy to dodge if you sprint and jump to the side same as radahns meteor attack(the one with the 5 comets he throws) just jump left to or right while sprinting
This! You gotta be sprinting to the sides and roll/jump. You can roll it, but its easier to jump cause you don't have to go at a 45 degree angle like when you roll it
I loved the fight with Leda and her allies. It was everything I wanted Roundtable hold to be. A group of people, bound only by their search for a common goal, and undone by their discovery of said goal. Even if gameplay wise it is the worst, the emotional impact and buildup was perfect I agree though, I think the fight should have totally changed depending on if you summoned or not (If you summon, they come as a group, if you don't, one at a time, etc..)
@@jessetroy7761 Idk for sure if I’ll do a dedicated video about the areas. But I’ll definitely be making a review of the DLC where that stuff will get a fair amount of discussion.
@@chadofastoraexcited for that!! I’m really split between Milady (or just any light greatsword) and the backhand blades. The movesets for them are just too clean man
In my opinion, the best way to fight the promised contort is to use the defect tear from one of the furnace golems as it not only allows you to react block the really fast two hit swing but also defect the clone attacks with little to no stamina loss, just dodge the area wide laser attack, because you will 8/10 times get guard broken and then get hit bet another lazer with exta damage.
great list!! glad to see putrescent knight getting some love, it’s such an underrated gem with great flow. that fall into fighting it (and the arena itself) also remind me so much of midir. messmer was also my favorite boss. my god, the flow to that fight approached gael levels for me personally. super fun, challenging but extremely punishable. especially in phase 2- his snake attacks all feel super high risk, high reward. tricky to dodge but with huge openings. i love it.
placidusax drops a remembrance because he's an ancient dragon. when you kill ancient dragons in the main game they don't drop anything. most of them drop dragon stones. when you kill drakes in the main game, all of them give you dragon hearts. bayle is the father of all drakes. idk why but drakes drop dragon hearts while ancient dragons don't
It has to do with the lore of dragon communion. Part of the war between dragons and drakes was that the dragons have cursed the drakes to be hunted for their hearts for the sake of dragon communion. Doing so can turn you more into a dragon. So its for lore reasons. There are a lot more details than just that, but thats the jist of it.
To me, Radahns Giga Combo in Phase 2 is the most fun combo to dodge in all of Souls. Its intuitive, spectacle, the god rays dont matter if youre close, it doesnt do too much damage if you only get hit by 1 or 2 swiped and it just looks AWESOME, as well as leaving a good punish window. Peak Fromsoft for me, along with Messmers Giga Combo and Bayles Lasers. This DLC truly has some of the highest highs ive ever seen.
Bayle´s phase transition reminded me of Demon prince, the rumbling, rearing up with the giant fiery wings unfolding. A great callback to one of my favorite bosses from DS3.
I am pretty sure the Putrescent Knight is some kind of slime-like creature whose head replaces the skull of the horse-- the skeleton is the horse's skeleton riding its own boneless body that is filled with the slime that controls them both.
if anyone has trouble on romina you just have to hug tight. Most of her multi hit moves have far hitboxes and dont hit close to her body, thats why sometimes you can dodge the multihit spin with one dodge. Stick close and dodge to the side opposite to whatever move she uses and shes very doable and fun
I always thought everyone was talking about the gravity spin charge when complaining about gaius, but I do agree now that I know it’s that charge. The timing is tight, but I’ve found consistent success rolling forward and to the right right about when the boar’s tusk is touching or about to touch you, though maybe that’s just because I play with light roll idk lol
I really dont get this "bayle is not a rememberance " thing. No. He is. He is a rememberance boss. He drops a thing that you can turn into two different things you have to choose. They just wanted to make a lore with the big dragon altar and the lady there.
That’s not a bad point actually. But the remembrance icons are just so cool looking in my opinion, and they also provide lore. I love to hold onto them for as long as I can so I can look at them from time to time.
Messmer had so much live up too being so heavily marketed and he delivered so well and so much better than I think anyone could’ve expected his fight is what I can only describe as decadence it’s a master class of game design. I knew he would never be as hard as Melania because the general consensus is that in the base game one of the optional bosses is always the hardest and the DLC. The final boss is always the hardest, but he balances, visuals, difficulty and fun altogether, it’s impossible not to love him
The one thing I really dislike about the NPC fight is that they have more Hp than fucking fire giant and more damage than Malenia. Hornsent is easy to take down but holy shit Dryleaf Dane has so much hp and he's also so aggressive at the same time that it's just stupid. And the fact that they also almost fully replenish their hp is so fucking disgusting.
Thank you man putricent knight is super underrated and definitely one of my favorite bosses and the most fair boss in the dlc imo And cammander gauis is over hated
Messmer was so amazing he converted me to being a fire knight. Now I serve under his banner burning all that the hornsent hold dear. "Those stripped of the Grace of Gold shall all meet death. In the embrace of Messmer's flame."
Bayle the Dread is the boss I had the most fun with, but he is not my favorite boss, that would be Metyr, Mother of Fingers. She is my favorite boss in the dlc because of the atmosphere, where Bayle is a high octane fight that’s keeps you on your feet Metyr is the opposite. It’s not boring more a foreboding feeling. As you appear in the boss arena, you see something in the distance, a weird shape and giant fleshy tubes hanging from the nonexistent ceiling. You start to approach the shape then she wakes up. She looks at you with one beady eye. This strange otherworldly being has spotted you and she starts to attack. A weird mass of fingers. Also she is another boss you don’t kill, she escapes. Bayle on the other hand is a fast pace fight that keeps you on your feet and Igon voice actor is giving 100%. CURSE YOU BAYLE!!! You’re fighting an overwhelming boss who has an anger problem and is taking it out on you. An angry dragon, not just any angry dragon, but one who went toe to toe with Dragonlord Placidusax. Both of them inflicting grievous wounds on each other. Bayle removed two of Placidusax’s heads and is either wearing them or he can’t remove them, I like to think he is wearing them as trophies. You tore off my leg and ripped my wings to shreds, I’m going to take two of your heads. That is awesome.
my main problem with Radhan fight is that my computer have lags during this fight. I've checked and I shouldn't have problems with my computer but lags are still there.
My favorite part about messmers intro is that he starts off with the attitude of a brooding menace but as soon as he realizes youre tarnished you can hear him falter in his faith to his mother through his change in tone
Prime Radahn was the first boss that made me use a greatshield and great spear for the first time. He was fairly easy to beat using that method, providing you manage your stamina well. Haven't got rid of my shield since. Though I would never use one.
Messmer is now my favorite boss of all time. Not only is everything about him in lore, moveset, arena, look, weapons, and music badass, but I never felt like it was bs when I died. I always felt like it was my fault and it made me hyped to learn how to actually dodge his attacks and when I could actually punish. He’s just incredible to fight and makes it fun to learn him. I know some people didn’t like his snake attacks but personally on my final run of him I didn’t get hit once by them and felt like they were pretty fair when I died from them like “yeah I can see how that hit me”. And also I’m a bit bias because I killed him after getting a message appraisal healing me into 2nd phase, not getting hit once during second phase and finishing him with a visceral attack. Overall fucking amazing
25:20 CURSE YOU BAYLE! I HEREBY VOW! YOU WILL RUE THIS DAY! BEHOLD, A TRUE DRAKE WARRIOR! AND I, IGON! YOUR FEAR MADE FLESH! SOLID OF SCALE YOU MIGHT BE, FOUL DRAGON... BUT I WILL RIDDLE WITH HOLES YOUR ROTTEN HIDE! WITH A HAIL OF HARPOONS! WITH EVERY LAST DROP OF MY BEING!
Tbh dancing lion is my favourite cause it reminds me of Ludwig for some reason 1. First boss of the dlc (Technically) 2. Epic theme 3. Similar size 4. Sick looking and sick lore
Messmer is the top 3 bosses in the entire souls series. Base game elden ring bosses are nothing compared to him. And also an amazing video CHAD+ I love your editing. Keep it up
I wound up shamefully cheesing him with Stone of Gurranq from the bridge like a coward. The whirlwind incantation was the last thing I needed before starting NG+3 and I just had no patience. The basilisks spawned on the bridge behind me and they still nearly got me 😂😂😂
He was actually quite fun with summons. Still a bad fight solo but I recommend summoning as it’s fun to watch the squad hold the basilisks back while you take the lion head on
The npc gank fight should have been just Leda since she seems the most devoted to Miquella. A Gideon situation would’ve actually been better than all of them spamming their ashes of war.
@@akuma7773 Ik it’s a mechanic of the game, but I still feel like fromsoft has always ensured to make every boss still reasonably doable without summons, that said, still on me since it’s sorta not a boss anyway
you should stand a good chance to beat any boss without using summons. it shouldnt be used as a crutch to inflate the difficulty of a fight if you dont use them.
I like to see the messmer and putrescent knight love Also, anyone struggling with gaius charge, I found that it was much easier to roll diagonally out of the way at 11 o clock or 1 o clock as opposed to straight through at 12 o clock. It's still annoying how fast it comes out and how often he'll sometimes do it, but I found that adjustment made it much less punishing.
Gaius is actually awesome. Im glad you took a nuanced approach to talking about him because too many people say its outright trash because his 1 charge move. Its the one thing holding him back from A tier for me.
Nah hes garbage for other reasons too. His hitboxes are inexplicably retarded at times. Sometimes I got hit twice with the same attack which was very enjoyable. Thats where my hate for him stems from.
After learning Radahn, he’s not too bad mechanically. Extremely unforgiving, but ultimately fair other than the 1-2-X slash, and fun to duel with once you know the moves. My issue, other than the lore and re-appearance, is the aesthetics. It’s a mess. The holy and gravity magic clash visually, there isn’t enough variety in gravity moves, everything is too washed out and yellow, and the one bloodflame ability is just bizarrely out of place (I get that it’s Mohg’s body). I love the epic over-the-top anime violence of his attacks and his extremely intimidating impression, and the phase 2 intro with him towering in front of the Divine Gate with Miquella gesturing on his back is HYPE, but overall it just doesn’t look great. But yeah mechanically I think he’s actually a good boss.
I think the fight would have been much better if it was Godwin’s body that radahns soul was put in, we could’ve finally have fought every demigod (I think)
Great video Chad!! you never fail to impress me on your video editing, commentary and explanation on the games. You deserve way more subs than you have right now and also don't push yourself too hard if you do not feel like making a video do not make it take your time in making videos true fans will always stick with their favorite youtubers. You are the best souls youtuber in my opinion
I find both Romina and Putrscent knight way fun the Radahn. The AOE and that 3 hit criss-cross slash just feels cheap. Plus the first attack kills my FPS and i need to consistently look away from it. Funnily enough Radahn was nowhere near as difficult as Malenia and pretty much not even close to any of the inner sekiro bosses. Its just a good moveset with AOE tacked on to it, whereas Malenia is just all-round an excellent moveset which is fun to learn and fun to dodge.
Melanias moveset is definitely not all around excellent, Water fowl dance and the spirit clone attack are both BS and they're the only reason the boss is difficult. Melania is the only ER boss that I didn't have any desire to try and beat without summons because the fight wasn't enjoyable to me at all
@@nickkelly3199 WFD is not the best move but its not that bad dude. You can run away from it surprising late, the only time where its bs is when she cancels her stagger into it. Plus the clone attack is bullshit i agree, but its done once or twice through out the second phase whereas Radahn’s criss-cross apple sauce attack is done as part of his basic moveset. Plus the biggest complain about malenia is that some of her move (WFD and clone attack) is unintuitve and pretty much requires googling, well radahn’s clone attack and criss-cross applesauce requires googling too, and he had like 3 variations of the clone attack. Not to mention in phase 2 if you get hit the second swing light of the criss-cross attack sometimes you get frametrap into the next attack. I mean my main grip with malenia is WFD is BS sometimes and the clone attack requires googling, whereas Radahn’s moveset is that on steroids.
@@dudeiii2069 Buddy, Malenia's moveset is NOT excellent, which you would know if you'd actually bothered to learn it. All of her attacks incentivize simply outranging them instead of actually dodging. Slow weapons are awful to use as you quite literally need to wait for her to perform 10 attack combo strings in order to get a couple hits in. With faster weapons you can interrupt her mid-combo, which makes her slightly better, but her moves just aren't that clean to dodge, some have almost no start-up and punish you too harshly for rolling in the wrong direction. The fact that the best way to dodge her moves is simply to walk backwards instead of actually engaging is trash design. That's not to mention her annoying first phase where all she does is slowly walk around you in a circle, not attacking and just waiting for you to do a jumping heavy on her. Extremely dull fight with a slow weapon, still boring but less so with a fast weapon.
@@eg-a2357 I beat her on level 1 so i definitely learned it. Nice of you to just make random assumption. Also what do you mean by all of her attack incentivise spacing? I felt like you’re the one who didn’t learn the boss, there are moves that actually have decent forward momentum and will catch you even if you try to sprint away, and even if you manage to sprint away she either repeats the move or if you decides to running attack here there is a chance she chains her attack into a hyper armor swing overhead swing which results in a trade, whereas if you were to dodge into her during chase down move she continues her normal attack chain and likely ends with the hyper jumping overhead swing allowing for a punish. What else doesn’t allow you to out space? Second phase have her do a hyper armor kick if you try to outspace her attack and the clone attack requires 2 roll backward and 3 rolls forward, you cannot space that either. When you say slow weapon I’m assuming you’re talking about collosal hammers and the optimal strategy is jump attacks and charge attacks for almost every boss and malenia is no different. If you’re talking about weapons like great hammers or greataxes you can just delay your attacks and interrupt her attacks after she dodges very consistently, those are barely considered slow weapons, and they have a lot of stance damage too. For her sweep after her light attack you really can just double dodge diagonally to the right or just space it. Theres nothing wrong out-spacing a boss, idk why thats a bad thing, in fact its kinda nice that a decent part of the boss is spacing, you do a combination of sprint taping to get out of the way and rolls to avoid attacks with forward momentum, i don see how thats bad at all. And if you find the first phase boring you can always just up the pacing by being more aggressive since the boss can actually be staggered. You don’t need to wait a 10 hit combo for you attack, once again spacing and strafing a real thing. And if you find youself stuck in a loop where she keeps doing her chase down attack it means you need to dodge into her rather than away from her for it to stop. In my opinion she’s an exellent boss that allows players to space her attack so you can go for longer moves, you can interrupt her attack (even with great hammers and greataxes) with good spacing. Thats just my opinion, lets agree to disagree I guess.
@@dudeiii2069 I've killed the boss RL1 WL0 no status, I think I know what I'm talking about. If you need proof, look up loopines zweihander kill. Extremely boring first phase, maybe I was a bit hyperbolic when saying "10-hit combos" but you get the point. My opinion has maybe soured a bit since I had to no-hit her first phase in order to save my physick for her 2nd, but I still fail to see how you're finding it fun to sprint around after her every time she disengages. That's not to mention the fact that she can waterfowl after backstepping, meaning you can't even do a running attack and need to simply bait her swing once she gets below 70%. Such an annoying slog of a fight, there's no rhythm to any of it. Her phase 2 is marginally better but now she also has her stupid clone move that she spams alongside waterfowl.
@@duckyduckington9736 Bro, I love DS2. But that game doesnt come near Elden Ring in terms of quality, Fume kinght is a good boss, he is well made. and if we count all of the shit they put in that game, he still no the best in the game, so chill
Great video with balanced thoughts! It’s really refreshing to see someone who can have legitimate criticisms of the Radahn fight while still singing it’s praises and being overall happy with it. Despite my criticisms of it I can’t help but kind of love phase 2 for how fucking insane it is despite frustrations. And when you do get everything right on an attempt or victory run it’s unbelievable and surprisingly smooth
My method on dodging Gaius' charge was running to the right until he was close enough for me to make a quick turn to the left and time the dodge. Worked out for me at least.
When I originally fought Commander Gaius, I fuckin hated the guy. Then I realized that the( admittedly still) bullshit charge can be dodged by just jumping to the right over the hog’s left horn, and then just sticking to his non-dominant side, it actually turned out to be a pretty good boss imo.
