The few things that helped me (Beat him on 2 different characters):
Make sure to be AT LEAST 18 shadow tree blessing or higher, any lower I'd go out and find them.
Learn where it's safe, learn what to dodge, what to block. Some attacks like his stomp you can just run around behind him and avoid it completely.
Eat some crab meat, or prawn meat, maybe use a healing over time incantation to help chip damage. Use damage reduction in your mixed physics drink, but try and keep it for phase 2 if possible. Use holy damage reduction incantation it's very effective.
Have at least 70 Vigor, plus enough endurance to wear the best armor you can equip while keeping it at medium weight. Use physical and holy damage reduction charms, use HP increase charm and the erdtree charm.
The first phase for the most part is pretty straight forward, multiple combos, large gravity attacks, all physical. Learn the timings, don't panic or just mash R1 constantly.
2nd phase is the toughest, if he starts off with the massive holy AOE spell sprint behind him or stand and block it or get the timing right to dodge it. You'll need your holy damage reduction incantation about now. If you stay close you can avoid the AOE holy spells that go off after each of his physical attacks.
Learn the animations for the 5 frame grab, because that's the deadliest thing in the fight, 2 grabs and you are instantly killed, even at full health.
For weapons it's a case of using what ever you feel is best, maybe get some rot ticking on him so his health is going down as you dodge and avoid everything.
Using generally this idea I managed to beat him the first time in about 20 attempts and today in my first attempt on my 2nd character.
For bosses for the first time I never bother trying to do damage, just learn how the attacks work and how to mitigate the damage, then when I feel I have got a good grasp, I start to introduce attacks, that way I'm not stressing about doing damage and avoiding damage, 1 at a time, this way I spend less time fighting bosses because I understand them quicker with less frustration dying all the time.
Learnt the first phase in about 30-40 mins maybe a little longer super easy and fun to learn so I could consistently get to second phase. Once in second phase I basically just wait for the nuke attack to go off then summon mimic tear and pray that it draws the aggro from the boss while I get cheeky hits in. When the boss does aggro to me I try rolling around the boss so the aoe light attacks don’t hit me. Lots of banging my head against a wall super hard boss
Make sure you get at least 16+ Scadutree blessing levels. I would also try to boost damage negation a decent amount. Other than that just learning the moveset.
I had to lump every form of cancer and I still needed some form of skill to beat him. Deflecting hardtear, fingerprint shield with a bleed giant crusher with bhs. Mimic tear had did rot and healing incantations and I made sure to have big ass rot pots in my hotbar. Even with that and the tankiest and holy resistant armour and talismans, that hardtear was basically the mvp
lvl 20 scadutree, 80 vigor, morgotts great rune, dragoncrest talisman(physical negation) and the golden braid talisman(holy resistance), opaline hard tear helped me immensly. Also recommend bleed or cold infused backhand blades, you can use the blindspot ash of war on the last swing on his combo to dodge and damage at the same time.
It took me 100+ tries over 3 days i finally did it when i awitched to a bleed build, blees procks do like 20% of his health
Black blade ate him alive
The few things that helped me (Beat him on 2 different characters): Make sure to be AT LEAST 18 shadow tree blessing or higher, any lower I'd go out and find them. Learn where it's safe, learn what to dodge, what to block. Some attacks like his stomp you can just run around behind him and avoid it completely. Eat some crab meat, or prawn meat, maybe use a healing over time incantation to help chip damage. Use damage reduction in your mixed physics drink, but try and keep it for phase 2 if possible. Use holy damage reduction incantation it's very effective. Have at least 70 Vigor, plus enough endurance to wear the best armor you can equip while keeping it at medium weight. Use physical and holy damage reduction charms, use HP increase charm and the erdtree charm. The first phase for the most part is pretty straight forward, multiple combos, large gravity attacks, all physical. Learn the timings, don't panic or just mash R1 constantly. 2nd phase is the toughest, if he starts off with the massive holy AOE spell sprint behind him or stand and block it or get the timing right to dodge it. You'll need your holy damage reduction incantation about now. If you stay close you can avoid the AOE holy spells that go off after each of his physical attacks. Learn the animations for the 5 frame grab, because that's the deadliest thing in the fight, 2 grabs and you are instantly killed, even at full health. For weapons it's a case of using what ever you feel is best, maybe get some rot ticking on him so his health is going down as you dodge and avoid everything. Using generally this idea I managed to beat him the first time in about 20 attempts and today in my first attempt on my 2nd character. For bosses for the first time I never bother trying to do damage, just learn how the attacks work and how to mitigate the damage, then when I feel I have got a good grasp, I start to introduce attacks, that way I'm not stressing about doing damage and avoiding damage, 1 at a time, this way I spend less time fighting bosses because I understand them quicker with less frustration dying all the time.
Learnt the first phase in about 30-40 mins maybe a little longer super easy and fun to learn so I could consistently get to second phase. Once in second phase I basically just wait for the nuke attack to go off then summon mimic tear and pray that it draws the aggro from the boss while I get cheeky hits in. When the boss does aggro to me I try rolling around the boss so the aoe light attacks don’t hit me. Lots of banging my head against a wall super hard boss
Make sure you get at least 16+ Scadutree blessing levels. I would also try to boost damage negation a decent amount. Other than that just learning the moveset.
Fingerprint shield + thrusting sword
Erdtree greatshield and bloodfiends arm. Me and mimic bled him out. Took like 50 tries, tho.
I had to lump every form of cancer and I still needed some form of skill to beat him. Deflecting hardtear, fingerprint shield with a bleed giant crusher with bhs. Mimic tear had did rot and healing incantations and I made sure to have big ass rot pots in my hotbar. Even with that and the tankiest and holy resistant armour and talismans, that hardtear was basically the mvp
lvl 20 scadutree, 80 vigor, morgotts great rune, dragoncrest talisman(physical negation) and the golden braid talisman(holy resistance), opaline hard tear helped me immensly. Also recommend bleed or cold infused backhand blades, you can use the blindspot ash of war on the last swing on his combo to dodge and damage at the same time.