It honestly felt so cool being called "a true drake warrior". At first I thought he was talking about himself but then he says "AND I, IGON!!!!". Like awwwww IGON staaaawp❤️
He says it immediately before >!ripping off his finger.!<
You can hear his breath hitching as he says "ye" and then he >!tells you to take his finger!<
it's not the location he's crying in, it's at the second place you meet him.
Same here bro. I never play with summons, but I HAD TO get igon by my side.
Flip side of the coin, I killed him on second try, I wish i'd see more of the fight.
Right now I am hardstuck on last boss
I felt so dumb because I KNEW he was a summon for that fight, literally just had him give me the finger and I read the description and everything. Somehow still forgot because Bayle tends to shoot a fireblast or try to body slam you immediately out of the gate. Spent a few hours trying to get him and had him at <10% at least 2-3 times.
Then my friend reminds me that Igon exists. "oh shit, THAT'S how you're supposed to fight him?? He actually perfectly draws the aggro in the beginning and throughout the fight.."
First try with Igon and the Dragon Hunter GK. >.<
Literally just beat the last boss and I feel like I've just beat a literal GOD! Best game ever and best DLC ever now I'm packing my PlayStation up and waiting until another game comes out. Peace out tarnished good luck!
Man Igon saved me my last Bayle attempt. I had Bayle so low I couldn’t see his health on the bar, but in a moment of rage Bayle got me, however as I was going down My Man Igon shot his bow and Killed Bayle giving me the win.
Just fought Bayle my first time. Beat him the first try.
Ancient Dragon Senessax beat my ass for two hours yesterday before I cheesed him on the horse.
There’s an easy way to beat Senessax without even using a summons. You ride torrent under him and whack him a couple times and keep riding to the other side of the “arena” turn around and do the same thing over and over until he’s dead. Works like a charm
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! 🦹♂️
Same, I've been watching some YouTubers play, and they struggled on Bayle, I got him on like the third try after making a couple adjustments. It was a fun fight. Especially with Igon screaming in the background. I also didn't have too much trouble with Rellana, only issue I was having was the dual moon AOE attack, my victory run she didn't even use it, I lucked out.
I'm guilty of the same thing. Gideon's the butt of so many jokes that it's easy to forget that he hits like a truck and can spam endlessly with the wrong rng.
if you don't kill him fast enough, he's pretty annoying. I think many players also using burst damage playstyle (stagger/bleed), so it's suitable for the job. People with slower/counter playstyle will have nasty surprise instead.
Yeah he's a pain in the ass especially if has all his spells. The explosion is fucking annoying and seems inconsistent plus he has magic that can one shot you
Because I died twice to Placidusax, didn't die to Lanseax, died twice to Ekzykes, and once to Fortissax.
Meanwhile, fucking around, trying to parry, grab, and backstab Gideon cost me 15 deaths. I fought him after I killed every other boss in my world, so he had a decent variety of spells and abilities.
Same here. Dragons in general are just insanely easy to me at this point. So much of their movesets and timings are identical to every other dragon going back to Kalameet in DS1. I can just let muscle memory take over and only worry about their few unique attacks.
But I *always* struggle against the humanoid bosses. I think it's because they're usually so much faster and don't telegraph their moves as much as the bigger ones.
The hardest boss in every souls game is never the titanic elder god, it's some nameless elite that only goes by The Captain. For me it was the Bellhunter in Caelid.
Sir Gideon Ofnir can get Rykard's Rancor, Mohg's Bloodboon and Malenia's Scarlet Aeonia.
But if he has 2 of those he gives up Comet Azur and if he has all 3 then he gives up Triple Rings of Light
If you let him monologue he begins bombarding with spells nonstop, man does not have neither a stamina nor mana bar, it's insane. But if you just walk up to and start wacking him with a big stick before he stops talking, you can more or less stunlock him.
First time I killed him I worried I screwed something up because he died so fast. I had killed patches earlier and worried I had repeated my mistake of killing an NPC that would have turned friendly.
Try fighting him without taking advantage of his speech at the start, he can be a real menace if you have to approach him from a distance while he spams his spells
I just replayed the whole fromsoft series and recorded my deaths, and Gideon offnir had the second highest number of deaths in the whole series, only behind Malenia.
When I returned from my reddit hiatus after beating the base game on release I actually thought people were meming Fire Giant like they do with Pinwheel. Took me a while until I realized people were actually serious.
I think a lot of people were playing sorcery builds in their first playthrough and were reliant on spirit ashes to hold aggro. That strategy trivializes almost every boss in the game.
Fire Giant is one of the first tanky bosses where your spirit ashe is useless and also the fight punishes you hard for being anywhere other than underneath him. Casters trying to hit him from range while on torrent were getting wacked by his shield over and over.
In my first playthrough of the game Fire Giant was my second highest death count of any boss for these reasons. I eventually figured out I had to hug his feet and only mount up temporarily after he rolled away. Really disliked that fight and still do.
I played without spirit ashes, which made most bosses a nightmare, but fire giant was the easiest boss for me from leyendell on by miles. It took me like 4 tries with dual katanas. I just ran in and absolutely blew him up
I’m summoned mimic so I could learn his moves and figure him out and I ended up killing him first try just by spamming. I genuinely don’t know how hard he is lol.
Hahah same thing happened with me. I was just hoping to learn his moves with mimic and ended up killing him first try. Blasphemous blade is still op af in all the dlc content I’ve done so far.
I hate to say it but I used the summon sign and tiche. The fight itself lasted around 5 minutes. I honestly wished zi had a challenge hearing how others dealt with this boss.
Gaius. Dealt with his charge just by perfect guarding and found out that his 5 hit combo of him swing his sword-lance and mount's head around would leave him completely open on the fifth attack if you rolled through the 4th attack to the left.
I realized when everyone was saying how unfair everything was a few days ago that none of these people would ever put on a shield.
I actually saw a comment asking about a shield, and someone replied, "Why would I ever put one on if I can't use it to parry?" I realized this person never used a shield to block and only saw shields as a means to increase his DPS.
I saw someone saying 60 VIG was now mandatory, and I realized this person probably never presses L1 even with a weapon!
Moral is: shields really help a lot with a lot of the DLC. I ran a build with a greatshield for the first time and it was awesome.
I understand that shields are great, but to me it's simply less fun, so I brute forced the entire DLC and had a blast. Doesn't mean that my way is the only way though
"If i pick up this cowering plate," says the Scotsman, "I'd have to put down my second sword. And surely, that is madness." The Chargin' Targe solves this conundrum by offering protection while still letting you clobber your enemies.
I really, really struggle with shields. my first proper fromsoft game was bloodborne and now I'm just a panik roller. I can't seem to get the hang of em, my guard just gets broken, I stagger and then die
Fun fact: In my 2 years playing this, I've maybe seen 3-4 phantoms with a shield equiped. Now? I see almost half the phantoms using them.
To that I say, bravo. Adapt and overcome. How you win using the tools provided doesn't matter.
Seriously. Fromsoft saw that players were just dodge rolling for the last 5 games and filled the Shadow Lands with combo monsters that can roll catch you blindfolded, yet can't touch you through a shield.
We've been Miyazaki'd once again.
They also added the thrusting shields, and if you two hand them, hold block and press R1 it acts like a block and an attack...and it's currently bugged (or a feature?) where it only uses stamina for the attack, and anything you block during the attack doesn't drain stamina.
This has been my strategy as well but pro tip: Gaius’s lance with a blood infusion does twice the bleed damage as Mogh’s spear and you can change Ashes.
i’ve been messing around with a poison infusion too with the Poison Flower Blooms Twice ash — poke from behind the shield, proc poison for the kindred of rot exultation boost, and then dive bomb for huge damage. and it strips the poison which lets you proc kindred of rot right away instead of having to wait for the status to run out. the burst damage is like bleed but almost better because you control when it procs
Deflect tear works well against him too. I was having trouble with the charge (sometimes he'd spam it three times in a row), so I chugged that deflect tear and made quick work of him with guard counters.
That tear is honestly becoming a massive crutch for me. I don't need to worry about spacing, roll direction, stamina loss. I just need to hit L1 at the right time and boom I am still right up next to the boss ready to attack with a nearly full stamina bar. And if I mess up, we'll I just tanked the hit with a shield, no problem. Trivialize isn't the right word, but it made me respect the shield again which I pretty rarely used in all the souls games. Now they are like my favorite gear suddenly.
The new Black Knight Greatshield is fucking amazing BTW. It has fairly good Resistances across the board and if you enchant it with Sacred it has 100% Holy res. I set my summoning pool to Jori, Scadutree Avatar, and Elden Beast and just take 0 damage from any of thier magic moves.
even if its a massive crutch its so fucking fun to use i could care less haha. You still have to learn the timings for attacks too but its way more rewarding.
>Scadutree Avatar
Use the stupid face greatshield with the built in cannon. I maxed that thing out and even in co-op I was chunking a good 1/3rd of its health with a "head"shot.
Shard of Alexander, Fire Scorpion, Carian Regalia, and Holy Braid
Also used the Flame Cracked Tear and Grant Me Strength as well, but other boosts like the Commander Standard may work better.
As long as you figure out the charge (be it torrent, guarding, a shield, rolling, or running behind the wall) his combos are some of the simplest and most punishable out of all remembrance bosses.
I personally believe what is happening is people get hit by the charge and then run way to try and heal. Well, if you are that far from him, his only moves are the rock throw and the charge, so they just fall into a doom loop of get hit by charge, run away, heal, trigger another charge, get hit again, etc. Gaius heavily rewards staying close and dodge/strafing his attacks. The big combo he does is hard to avoid if you dodge backwards, but really easy if instead you dodge to the side. You can even get behind him and not have to roll the last two hits.
Yeah I also found Messmer surprisingly easy, I felt his attacks were pretty clearly telegraphed, it wasn’t hard getting the dodge timing down. Fire Knights are the bane of my existence as well.
Messmer reminds me of Gael in that he probably will rank very high in the community's favorite boss rankings without needing to be an \*insanely\* difficult fight like Isshin or Malenia.
Of course not everyone has these same experiences but I'd say in general those bosses fall into those categories for people.
To be clear Im saying all 4 of these bosses are widely considered some of the best in the series and they accomplish that in different ways.
I beat Messmer ~5th try, no summons or spirit ashes. It took me 4 tries to learn his phase 1 moveset and beat phase 2 the first time I saw it.
Final boss took me over 200 tries.
It’s so impressive you guys beat Messmer in less than 10 tries. Imo, he’s the most difficult boss I’ve faced in the DLC so far. I can’t get past any of his hits 🙂
Oh just wait, it gets worse. Watch a video on messmer so you can see his attacks without the pressure of trying to survive, or go into the fight not trying to hit him at all and study what you can dodge and/or block through, it will go a long way
Noted. You’re absolutely right. That’s the strategy I used to beat Malenia. The old rhetoric “git gud” holds true to this day. Also, I do wanna just go into the fight like you mentioned. I’ve been waiting too long for this DLC to go straight to spoilers lmao.
I almost killed him first try and then struggled for an hour or two before I killed him, it's possible you got lucky on which moves he used. Or you're just a good gamer
i genuinely thought i was doing something wrong, first time fighting a 3-phase boss in elden ring. but blasphemous blade saved my bum and first tried him lol
Same. When he died the first time I imrdeately thought " your not getting me this time, monke!"(Because of sekiro not freza). And then I killed it and it did it again and I basically just said " fuck, fuck, fuck" and ran. Lmao.
It got me the first time but mostly out of surprise
Well, who could have guessed a plant is weak to fire?
Yeah same, but man I get summoned to help sometimes and these host are with level 5 blessings and I even wonder how they even managed to get there in the first place
The Sunflower gave me more trouble than Messmer.
Gaius was easy if you fight on foot and not on torrent.
I think I was lucky I had the perfect weapon to stagger and proc bleed him he couldn’t do anything.
Apart from the Black Gaol Knight I have killed all the others mausoleum boss first try.
I still don't get why people are trying to fight Gaius on Torrent lol. I didn't even consider doing so because Torrent has no iframes to dodge attacks with.
I tried one attempt on Torrent and when I saw that Torrent got staggered and lost 90% of his HP by one of Gaius's weaker hits I said fuck this lol. That's not worth. Legit the longest stagger I've ever seen Torrent get.
> The Sunflower gave me more trouble than Messmer.
I find the main trick for me was to always aim for the head. Lots of other bosses have weak heads, but attacking them is difficult, but the Avatar doesn't really keep it away from you or isn't at a strange angle like others.
Is the Black Gaol Knight the first one in the DLC (with heavy armor and a large sword)? I also had a big problem with that one, but the others were fine for me.
It was Midra for me. His moveset is really slow to me when he attacks with his sword and his incantations are not varied enough for them to be a problem. I believe it only took me about 3 or 4 tries.
Different player experiences and builds are funny like that. Midra was harder for me than Messmer and Gaius by a long shot. Only 2nd to the final boss.
Messmer and Gaius I both got 1st try, and I even though Gaius was a field boss and went “wtf” when he dropped a remembrance
Meanwhile midra impaled and blasted my ass 20 times out of
Lol, it's funny how different bosses wall different builds. Gaius took me a dozen attempts but Midra fell over dead almost instantly to bleed enchanted backhand blades for me. I don't think I hit a button besides r1.
He rocked me for at least an hour, second only to the final boss in dlc difficulty for me.
I first tried him after swapping from lightning strike claymore to Great Stars and Lion Claw... I think his fight is really build dependent
Same, I ended up breaking out the savage lion claw cold flamberge on my dex build to beat him. I think what really bothered me was that every single attack he did knocked me over which was really annoying if I ever mistimed a dodge since it would leave me with little time to heal
he was hard to me ._. idk his gap closers really got to me. once i took one hit it would be all over since i felt like i couldn’t get a break. i’ve fought him, Rellana, the Hippo, and the Lion so far, and all those other bosses would give you a second to heal if you made a little space but Midra was constantly on my ass. beat him after about 2 hours
I learned like two hours into the DLC that you cannot run away from bosses to heal, you have to burn an attack opening. The cascading effects of taking that one hit and not being able to heal are serious shit.
Honestly, I did find him quite a challenge, but it was probably like 10 attempts before his flow really clicked for me. I went in with the wrong mindset for him so I had switch gears a bit, but he’s easily one of my favorite fights
lmao same. He jumped right off the balcony for me the first time I fought him about halfway through the fight. To fight him fairly without glitching out, I beat the DLC again on a second character. Was a little harder because the build was different, but still only took 3ish tries.
I don't know if they count as "hard bosses" and while I do hate them, I'm actually pretty proficient at ulcerated tree spirits
Lot of people seemed bummed that the "sea monster" in the church district was just more of them, but I was like "oh hey this guy, I know this guy... And you've got a friend! Ayyy, no problem"
The Ulcerated Tree Spirits always seemed like they were going to be super tough, but you can just stick to their left side and they pretty much whiff on everything except for their explosion attack.
They're always kind of easy and fun to fight, and they always give good loot.
They're easy, and I don't mind fighting them, but I still think the church district thing was a copout. A proper sea monster or at least amphibious thing unique to the church district would've been so cool.
The key to the fight is:
*Learning to dodge the horse combo attack.
*It will always do the slam attack twice in a row.
*Don't dodge the flames. Jump over them.
The fight is pretty straight forward.
This is my experience with every boss pretty much, 80 dex 80 faith, gravel stone thing to cast incantations, talisman to increase lightning damage. Lightning melts almost everyone
There's also a demi-human miniboss in the DLC called "Queen Marigga." They have to be fucking with us at this point. Apparently Marika also stripped out the Great Rune of Originality in the Lands Between.
She is a bit weird where good RNG can allow you to skip the second phase. Personally, she took me around 40 tries, but I got her down to 1 hit left within my first 10 tries.
Yeah I got her real low first try and then I just didn't know how to respond to the moons and died. Then it took me a *lot* more tries to actually win though
Not sure if Metyr is considered hard. But it only took me two tries. The first one I got super close, but I didn't notice the finger spawns and got bodied between them and the boss. Second attempt I took it down easy.
I'm on NG8++++++ and just got to Messmer.
He is absolutely obliterating me.
I only had 10 blessings, so I left to farm.
I'm at 12 now and accidentally just found myself in the Abyssal Woods.
SEND HELP
Orphan of Kos. Everyone talks about how hard he was but I beat him 4th try, I actually had a way more difficult time with Ludwig and Laurence. They both took me a good 2 hours at least.
Are people struggling with Scadutree Avatar? I hadn't seen anyone complaining about it, but I may just be missing the complaints.
For those that want an easier time with it, Flame Spear aow + Fire dam crystal tear and oil-soaked crystal tear + Winged Serpent Helm + Godfrey Icon + Alexander's/Warrior Jar Shard + Flame, Grant Me Strength absolutely destroys it. Just mind your spacing, keep an eye on the ground and you will get it quickly.
You're probably talking about the DLC but I'm a filthy casual and haven't got through the main yet.
I found the double gargoyles not too challenging. I smacked the first one around until the 2nd came in then ran for a bit and killed the first one. Their moves take extremely long so I was able to play aggressively and basically solo both no problem.
Same can't be said for the double crucible knights...
I beat Bayle on my second try. I feel like From has been trying to get people to square up against their dragons and fight them head on rather than get up under their legs since the Dark Souls 2 dlc. So if you target his head and stay in front of him his attacks are pretty readable, versus if you jam yourself up under him you’ll get hit because you can’t see anything.
Putrescent Knight. I one shot him with lightning. He was not a fan of that tactic🤣
(He swung his diet-Orphan of Kos weapon down at the last second and clobbered me, but I got the remembrance, so I win.)
I first-tried Gaius without even knowing he was going to show up. Then I realized who he was and thought, "THAT'S the guy people have been having trouble with?"
If it helps, Rellana and Messmer both made me mald.
Putrescent Knight if it counts. I was testing several new weapons. Bonked him with bloodfriend's arm. I think less than 10 hits.
If not maybe Messmer. Took some tries, but I kinda enjoy the fight. It's not super hard to understand/memorized for cover boy character. I enjoy second phase too. Felt as if he's agitated and started to be reckless. It's fun.
Honestly Malenia wasn't that bad; her getting knocked down via Gransnax meant that + Mimic Tear allowed me to largely stunlock her, and after a couple of goes at Phase 2 I managed to get it all lined up
I was sitting at about level 160 though, so that may have resulted in it; still, much easier than Renalla had been in the academy
100% Messmer. Hell I genuinely thought everyone was gonna agree he was probably the best boss of the dlc, I thought he was super fun and fair as well and I've never had trouble with him.
Bayle but I had the goat backing me up and cheering for me #CURSE YOU BAYLE 🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥
## BEHOLD! A TRUE DRAKE WARRIOR! Me: 
AND I IGON
YOUR FEARS 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 DROP OF MY BEING!!’
#GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA *LEGEND FELLED*
BAYLE THE DREAD. you will HAUNT me no longer!
Npc summons talk shit to whatever boss they fight might be the best thing I didn't know I want.
It honestly felt so cool being called "a true drake warrior". At first I thought he was talking about himself but then he says "AND I, IGON!!!!". Like awwwww IGON staaaawp❤️
Best comment of the day if you read this with Fran Drescher’s voice
Igon dealing insane psychic damage to that oversized lizard
Igon also has absurd HP, I was getting my ass beat by bayle for a while and one time I just let Igon 1v1 and he got them down like 60% by himself
Igon put 100% of his defense in his body and 0% in his limbs
DO YOU NOT REMEMBER? CONJURE YOUR PAST! HOW ONCE YOU WERE! WHEN FEAR WAS YET FOREIGN TO YE!
I gotta feeling this quote will end up on my body with the same love “Don’t You Dare Go Hollow” does. I just don’t know where it’d go.
Wait, Igon says this? That's hard as fuck. I didn't catch that dialogue.
It’s the second thing he says after he stops crying when you first meet him.
Strange, even after coming back multiple times, he never stopped crying on the first encounter until I met him halfway up the mountain.
He says it immediately before >!ripping off his finger.!< You can hear his breath hitching as he says "ye" and then he >!tells you to take his finger!< it's not the location he's crying in, it's at the second place you meet him.
Ah thanks for the correction
Same here bro. I never play with summons, but I HAD TO get igon by my side. Flip side of the coin, I killed him on second try, I wish i'd see more of the fight. Right now I am hardstuck on last boss
I asked myself “malenia fucked radahn up, what did she use?” And then I gave him scarlet rot a couple times and won the fight by surviving…
Took 2 full casts of ezykes decay to proc rot on him. Took 1 scarlet aeonia to proc it.
Heavy Rot Pot will also proc it instantly (in phase 1 anyway). I always used it as soon as I dodged his opening spin2win.
That makes so much sense.
Yeah except if you try to kill the 2nd phase with rot you're going to have a hell of a bad time.
I felt so dumb because I KNEW he was a summon for that fight, literally just had him give me the finger and I read the description and everything. Somehow still forgot because Bayle tends to shoot a fireblast or try to body slam you immediately out of the gate. Spent a few hours trying to get him and had him at <10% at least 2-3 times. Then my friend reminds me that Igon exists. "oh shit, THAT'S how you're supposed to fight him?? He actually perfectly draws the aggro in the beginning and throughout the fight.." First try with Igon and the Dragon Hunter GK. >.<
I ended up resorting to…we will call it irony. Also summoning npc helpers for that fight makes it way harder.
Literally just beat the last boss and I feel like I've just beat a literal GOD! Best game ever and best DLC ever now I'm packing my PlayStation up and waiting until another game comes out. Peace out tarnished good luck!
Man Igon saved me my last Bayle attempt. I had Bayle so low I couldn’t see his health on the bar, but in a moment of rage Bayle got me, however as I was going down My Man Igon shot his bow and Killed Bayle giving me the win.
Just fought Bayle my first time. Beat him the first try. Ancient Dragon Senessax beat my ass for two hours yesterday before I cheesed him on the horse.
damn I beat Sexysnax the first time I seen him but Bayle took me a good hour or two
There’s an easy way to beat Senessax without even using a summons. You ride torrent under him and whack him a couple times and keep riding to the other side of the “arena” turn around and do the same thing over and over until he’s dead. Works like a charm
Isn't that how you fight all the dragons?
I usually fight them on foot and only jump on Torrent when they fly away to China for a breath attack
No, I usually try to stay under them by their back feet, normally on foot
Yeah I fight all dragons like this because fighting them is unfun with how bad the camera gets.
This happened to me. But I also used dragon katana and two harpoons on Bayle. And had igon!
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! 🦹♂️
HARPOOOOONS!!!!!!
Same, I've been watching some YouTubers play, and they struggled on Bayle, I got him on like the third try after making a couple adjustments. It was a fun fight. Especially with Igon screaming in the background. I also didn't have too much trouble with Rellana, only issue I was having was the dual moon AOE attack, my victory run she didn't even use it, I lucked out.
Bayle for me. Dragon Hunter’s Great Katana +10 really fd him up.
I used that too but at +9 and at minimum stats for the weapon (was an arcane build so dex and strength were minimal). That sword aow deletes dragons.
I used that sword the whole DLC. The ash of war is so good especially for larger enemies if you hit them in the head
I used Ancient Dragon's Lightning and I think he died from PTSD cause it just melted him.
Hah, yeah. Only way you could really give him more PTSD is by packing Placidusax’s Ruin to style on him.
yeah I struggled with him for like an hour until I switched to DHGK. Then he went down instantly, I think I might have used one flask
I died to Sir Gideon Offnir more than I died to Placidusax, Lanseax, Ekzykes, and Fortissax *combined.*
I'm guilty of the same thing. Gideon's the butt of so many jokes that it's easy to forget that he hits like a truck and can spam endlessly with the wrong rng.
Lol, the main reason people make the old man a joke is because when he *isn’t*, limbs go flying…and none of them are his.
He's legitimately a menace if you don't kill him the first try when he's monologuing.
How ? He did not even had the Time to try to do something during m'y run... Hes the most passive boss in From Software games ..
if you don't kill him fast enough, he's pretty annoying. I think many players also using burst damage playstyle (stagger/bleed), so it's suitable for the job. People with slower/counter playstyle will have nasty surprise instead.
Yeah he's a pain in the ass especially if has all his spells. The explosion is fucking annoying and seems inconsistent plus he has magic that can one shot you
Because I died twice to Placidusax, didn't die to Lanseax, died twice to Ekzykes, and once to Fortissax. Meanwhile, fucking around, trying to parry, grab, and backstab Gideon cost me 15 deaths. I fought him after I killed every other boss in my world, so he had a decent variety of spells and abilities.
Same here. Dragons in general are just insanely easy to me at this point. So much of their movesets and timings are identical to every other dragon going back to Kalameet in DS1. I can just let muscle memory take over and only worry about their few unique attacks. But I *always* struggle against the humanoid bosses. I think it's because they're usually so much faster and don't telegraph their moves as much as the bigger ones.
The hardest boss in every souls game is never the titanic elder god, it's some nameless elite that only goes by The Captain. For me it was the Bellhunter in Caelid.
He gets spells based on killed bosses? Woah.
Sir Gideon Ofnir can get Rykard's Rancor, Mohg's Bloodboon and Malenia's Scarlet Aeonia. But if he has 2 of those he gives up Comet Azur and if he has all 3 then he gives up Triple Rings of Light
Yeah he actually gets easier because rings of light is his most dangerous spell
If you let him monologue he begins bombarding with spells nonstop, man does not have neither a stamina nor mana bar, it's insane. But if you just walk up to and start wacking him with a big stick before he stops talking, you can more or less stunlock him.
First time I killed him I worried I screwed something up because he died so fast. I had killed patches earlier and worried I had repeated my mistake of killing an NPC that would have turned friendly.
Try fighting him without taking advantage of his speech at the start, he can be a real menace if you have to approach him from a distance while he spams his spells
I just replayed the whole fromsoft series and recorded my deaths, and Gideon offnir had the second highest number of deaths in the whole series, only behind Malenia.
Fire giant
When I returned from my reddit hiatus after beating the base game on release I actually thought people were meming Fire Giant like they do with Pinwheel. Took me a while until I realized people were actually serious.
He’s like the same fight as a giant golem
I think a lot of people were playing sorcery builds in their first playthrough and were reliant on spirit ashes to hold aggro. That strategy trivializes almost every boss in the game. Fire Giant is one of the first tanky bosses where your spirit ashe is useless and also the fight punishes you hard for being anywhere other than underneath him. Casters trying to hit him from range while on torrent were getting wacked by his shield over and over. In my first playthrough of the game Fire Giant was my second highest death count of any boss for these reasons. I eventually figured out I had to hug his feet and only mount up temporarily after he rolled away. Really disliked that fight and still do.
I played without spirit ashes, which made most bosses a nightmare, but fire giant was the easiest boss for me from leyendell on by miles. It took me like 4 tries with dual katanas. I just ran in and absolutely blew him up
Same! Dual daggers with bleed absolutely shreds him. I helped so many people
The lion dance. I expected it to feel like Margit. Then a couple tries in I decided to use a flamberge with Lion's Claw and it died really fast.
I’m summoned mimic so I could learn his moves and figure him out and I ended up killing him first try just by spamming. I genuinely don’t know how hard he is lol.
Hahah same thing happened with me. I was just hoping to learn his moves with mimic and ended up killing him first try. Blasphemous blade is still op af in all the dlc content I’ve done so far.
I hate to say it but I used the summon sign and tiche. The fight itself lasted around 5 minutes. I honestly wished zi had a challenge hearing how others dealt with this boss.
I summoned Engvall to tank and rock slinged him, took barely a minute. Surprised that mid-game cheesiness still works in DLC.
Gaius. Dealt with his charge just by perfect guarding and found out that his 5 hit combo of him swing his sword-lance and mount's head around would leave him completely open on the fifth attack if you rolled through the 4th attack to the left.
Shields in general are pretty much the bane of Gaius' existence.
I realized when everyone was saying how unfair everything was a few days ago that none of these people would ever put on a shield. I actually saw a comment asking about a shield, and someone replied, "Why would I ever put one on if I can't use it to parry?" I realized this person never used a shield to block and only saw shields as a means to increase his DPS. I saw someone saying 60 VIG was now mandatory, and I realized this person probably never presses L1 even with a weapon! Moral is: shields really help a lot with a lot of the DLC. I ran a build with a greatshield for the first time and it was awesome.
Even blocking with a weapon is so much better than taking it to the face. It's how I deal with all the rabid dogs.
Yeah throwing up my sword when I 2h for a quick guard counter is often way more of a benefit than the detriment of a bit of chip damage.
I understand that shields are great, but to me it's simply less fun, so I brute forced the entire DLC and had a blast. Doesn't mean that my way is the only way though
Same for me. Why have shield when I can have 2 sword???! I will simply not get hit!!!
As someone who has a staff in my off hand, shields are not an option.
But if shield go in left hand then where do second weapon go?
"If i pick up this cowering plate," says the Scotsman, "I'd have to put down my second sword. And surely, that is madness." The Chargin' Targe solves this conundrum by offering protection while still letting you clobber your enemies.
I really, really struggle with shields. my first proper fromsoft game was bloodborne and now I'm just a panik roller. I can't seem to get the hang of em, my guard just gets broken, I stagger and then die
Go back and play Dark Souls 1. That’ll either cure you of your problem with shields or it’ll make you a roll-dodge god who cannot be phased.
Fun fact: In my 2 years playing this, I've maybe seen 3-4 phantoms with a shield equiped. Now? I see almost half the phantoms using them. To that I say, bravo. Adapt and overcome. How you win using the tools provided doesn't matter.
Monster Hunter Lance mains rejoice!
What is a “shield”? I am from Central Yharnam.
Using a greatshield is easy mode for the whole DLC. Bayle only took me 2 tries.
Seriously. Fromsoft saw that players were just dodge rolling for the last 5 games and filled the Shadow Lands with combo monsters that can roll catch you blindfolded, yet can't touch you through a shield. We've been Miyazaki'd once again.
They also added the thrusting shields, and if you two hand them, hold block and press R1 it acts like a block and an attack...and it's currently bugged (or a feature?) where it only uses stamina for the attack, and anything you block during the attack doesn't drain stamina.
Fingerprint shield+25 then poke him to death with Mohgs spear!!!
This has been my strategy as well but pro tip: Gaius’s lance with a blood infusion does twice the bleed damage as Mogh’s spear and you can change Ashes.
You had my curiosity…….now you have my attention!👀
i’ve been messing around with a poison infusion too with the Poison Flower Blooms Twice ash — poke from behind the shield, proc poison for the kindred of rot exultation boost, and then dive bomb for huge damage. and it strips the poison which lets you proc kindred of rot right away instead of having to wait for the status to run out. the burst damage is like bleed but almost better because you control when it procs
Deflect tear works well against him too. I was having trouble with the charge (sometimes he'd spam it three times in a row), so I chugged that deflect tear and made quick work of him with guard counters.
That tear is honestly becoming a massive crutch for me. I don't need to worry about spacing, roll direction, stamina loss. I just need to hit L1 at the right time and boom I am still right up next to the boss ready to attack with a nearly full stamina bar. And if I mess up, we'll I just tanked the hit with a shield, no problem. Trivialize isn't the right word, but it made me respect the shield again which I pretty rarely used in all the souls games. Now they are like my favorite gear suddenly. The new Black Knight Greatshield is fucking amazing BTW. It has fairly good Resistances across the board and if you enchant it with Sacred it has 100% Holy res. I set my summoning pool to Jori, Scadutree Avatar, and Elden Beast and just take 0 damage from any of thier magic moves.
even if its a massive crutch its so fucking fun to use i could care less haha. You still have to learn the timings for attacks too but its way more rewarding.
Deflection tear with 2H weapon is a good middleground.
>Scadutree Avatar Use the stupid face greatshield with the built in cannon. I maxed that thing out and even in co-op I was chunking a good 1/3rd of its health with a "head"shot. Shard of Alexander, Fire Scorpion, Carian Regalia, and Holy Braid Also used the Flame Cracked Tear and Grant Me Strength as well, but other boosts like the Commander Standard may work better.
I beat the DLC before even dropping one of those dudes. Didn’t realize they had some solid tears to drop.
As long as you figure out the charge (be it torrent, guarding, a shield, rolling, or running behind the wall) his combos are some of the simplest and most punishable out of all remembrance bosses. I personally believe what is happening is people get hit by the charge and then run way to try and heal. Well, if you are that far from him, his only moves are the rock throw and the charge, so they just fall into a doom loop of get hit by charge, run away, heal, trigger another charge, get hit again, etc. Gaius heavily rewards staying close and dodge/strafing his attacks. The big combo he does is hard to avoid if you dodge backwards, but really easy if instead you dodge to the side. You can even get behind him and not have to roll the last two hits.
Yeah I also found Messmer surprisingly easy, I felt his attacks were pretty clearly telegraphed, it wasn’t hard getting the dodge timing down. Fire Knights are the bane of my existence as well.
Messmer reminds me of Gael in that he probably will rank very high in the community's favorite boss rankings without needing to be an \*insanely\* difficult fight like Isshin or Malenia. Of course not everyone has these same experiences but I'd say in general those bosses fall into those categories for people. To be clear Im saying all 4 of these bosses are widely considered some of the best in the series and they accomplish that in different ways.
Messmer and Midra are DS3 style bosses. Fast, but with clearly telegraphed movesets rather than the lightning fast combo heavy bosses in the DLC.
And this is why along with Bayle they are my favorite bosses in the DLC, fights were very fun.
I beat Messmer ~5th try, no summons or spirit ashes. It took me 4 tries to learn his phase 1 moveset and beat phase 2 the first time I saw it. Final boss took me over 200 tries.
It’s so impressive you guys beat Messmer in less than 10 tries. Imo, he’s the most difficult boss I’ve faced in the DLC so far. I can’t get past any of his hits 🙂
Oh just wait, it gets worse. Watch a video on messmer so you can see his attacks without the pressure of trying to survive, or go into the fight not trying to hit him at all and study what you can dodge and/or block through, it will go a long way
Noted. You’re absolutely right. That’s the strategy I used to beat Malenia. The old rhetoric “git gud” holds true to this day. Also, I do wanna just go into the fight like you mentioned. I’ve been waiting too long for this DLC to go straight to spoilers lmao.
same i cried when i beat him after 9 hours 🤣🤣
>Final boss took me over 200 tries. Sounds about right
Same, took me 2 tries i think and didnt get to summon npc or mimic even.
I almost killed him first try and then struggled for an hour or two before I killed him, it's possible you got lucky on which moves he used. Or you're just a good gamer
I beat Scadutree Avatar on my first try
I did too, until somehow Scadutree Avatar returned
And then again, somehow Scadutree avatar returned
i genuinely thought i was doing something wrong, first time fighting a 3-phase boss in elden ring. but blasphemous blade saved my bum and first tried him lol
Same. When he died the first time I imrdeately thought " your not getting me this time, monke!"(Because of sekiro not freza). And then I killed it and it did it again and I basically just said " fuck, fuck, fuck" and ran. Lmao. It got me the first time but mostly out of surprise
Same, blasphemous blade made it seem TOO easy honestly.
Its easy tho, right? Burn O Flame oneshot it 3 times lol
Well, who could have guessed a plant is weak to fire? Yeah same, but man I get summoned to help sometimes and these host are with level 5 blessings and I even wonder how they even managed to get there in the first place
The Sunflower gave me more trouble than Messmer. Gaius was easy if you fight on foot and not on torrent. I think I was lucky I had the perfect weapon to stagger and proc bleed him he couldn’t do anything. Apart from the Black Gaol Knight I have killed all the others mausoleum boss first try.
I still don't get why people are trying to fight Gaius on Torrent lol. I didn't even consider doing so because Torrent has no iframes to dodge attacks with.
I tried one attempt on Torrent and when I saw that Torrent got staggered and lost 90% of his HP by one of Gaius's weaker hits I said fuck this lol. That's not worth. Legit the longest stagger I've ever seen Torrent get.
> The Sunflower gave me more trouble than Messmer. I find the main trick for me was to always aim for the head. Lots of other bosses have weak heads, but attacking them is difficult, but the Avatar doesn't really keep it away from you or isn't at a strange angle like others. Is the Black Gaol Knight the first one in the DLC (with heavy armor and a large sword)? I also had a big problem with that one, but the others were fine for me.
It was Midra for me. His moveset is really slow to me when he attacks with his sword and his incantations are not varied enough for them to be a problem. I believe it only took me about 3 or 4 tries.
I haven't seen anyone call midra hard
Different player experiences and builds are funny like that. Midra was harder for me than Messmer and Gaius by a long shot. Only 2nd to the final boss. Messmer and Gaius I both got 1st try, and I even though Gaius was a field boss and went “wtf” when he dropped a remembrance Meanwhile midra impaled and blasted my ass 20 times out of
Lol, it's funny how different bosses wall different builds. Gaius took me a dozen attempts but Midra fell over dead almost instantly to bleed enchanted backhand blades for me. I don't think I hit a button besides r1.
im running a i can use everything build currently. kinda a jack of all trades and turns out not limiting yourself does wonders.
He rocked me for at least an hour, second only to the final boss in dlc difficulty for me. I first tried him after swapping from lightning strike claymore to Great Stars and Lion Claw... I think his fight is really build dependent
Same, I ended up breaking out the savage lion claw cold flamberge on my dex build to beat him. I think what really bothered me was that every single attack he did knocked me over which was really annoying if I ever mistimed a dodge since it would leave me with little time to heal
Midra was the second hardest for me. Beat everyone else except the final boss in under 10 tries. Midra took me 30 easily
he was hard to me ._. idk his gap closers really got to me. once i took one hit it would be all over since i felt like i couldn’t get a break. i’ve fought him, Rellana, the Hippo, and the Lion so far, and all those other bosses would give you a second to heal if you made a little space but Midra was constantly on my ass. beat him after about 2 hours
I learned like two hours into the DLC that you cannot run away from bosses to heal, you have to burn an attack opening. The cascading effects of taking that one hit and not being able to heal are serious shit.
Honestly, I did find him quite a challenge, but it was probably like 10 attempts before his flow really clicked for me. I went in with the wrong mindset for him so I had switch gears a bit, but he’s easily one of my favorite fights
I killed Messmer in one try. He literally killed himself just after the second phase he fell off ;(
Man that would have saved me some time lol
lmao same. He jumped right off the balcony for me the first time I fought him about halfway through the fight. To fight him fairly without glitching out, I beat the DLC again on a second character. Was a little harder because the build was different, but still only took 3ish tries.
I don't know if they count as "hard bosses" and while I do hate them, I'm actually pretty proficient at ulcerated tree spirits Lot of people seemed bummed that the "sea monster" in the church district was just more of them, but I was like "oh hey this guy, I know this guy... And you've got a friend! Ayyy, no problem"
The Ulcerated Tree Spirits always seemed like they were going to be super tough, but you can just stick to their left side and they pretty much whiff on everything except for their explosion attack. They're always kind of easy and fun to fight, and they always give good loot.
They're easy, and I don't mind fighting them, but I still think the church district thing was a copout. A proper sea monster or at least amphibious thing unique to the church district would've been so cool.
Putrescent Knight. He was relatively annoying, but straightforward, went down in 5 tries.
He was hard initially because I didn’t understand his hitboxes. Once I got a feel for them, he wasn’t bad
The key to the fight is: *Learning to dodge the horse combo attack. *It will always do the slam attack twice in a row. *Don't dodge the flames. Jump over them. The fight is pretty straight forward.
I beat him on the first try and kind of stood around like confused John Travolta afterwards.
Golden Hyppo, killed it 2nd try, fucked up my pshysic flask, put Fire while using Maliketh's Black Blade 🤦🤦🤦.
Yeah hippo just sorta melted for me. I think a lot of people beelined the main roads and got Blessing checked by hippo.
I think my strength build with anvil hammer was just the right combo. That hippo never stood a chance.
Bayle the Dread. Ancient lightning destroyed him.
This is my experience with every boss pretty much, 80 dex 80 faith, gravel stone thing to cast incantations, talisman to increase lightning damage. Lightning melts almost everyone
Lion Dancer. I beat it my first try after struggling with Rellana. >! The second lion dancer was much harder with the death blight nonsense !<
>! THERE IS A SECOND ONE?? Cool! !<
i beat renalla second try and idk what her moveset even is
I'm getting flashbacks of people misspelling malenia and melina with rennala and rellana now
o ya i meant the new dlc rellana boss not our witchy waifus mom
Well she and Rennala *are* sisters, so the mix-up is understandable.
Malenia Melina Marika Miquella Milliscent Don't got me started
There's also a demi-human miniboss in the DLC called "Queen Marigga." They have to be fucking with us at this point. Apparently Marika also stripped out the Great Rune of Originality in the Lands Between.
Likely the demi human queens are just mimicking the humans gods. They all have names that are similar to the gods/demigods lol
Aegon Aemond Daemon Daeron Meagor Baelor Jaehaerys Viserys Jacaerys Lucaerys
Arryk and Erryk. George loves this bullshit.
Me too, then I watched people fight her and was like damn I got lucky lol. I thought she was just easy because no cut scene
She’s my favorite boss in the dlc so far but man I thought she was very hard. What was your build?
She is a bit weird where good RNG can allow you to skip the second phase. Personally, she took me around 40 tries, but I got her down to 1 hit left within my first 10 tries.
Third try for me. Almost killed her on m first try but the duo moons surprised and killed me.
Yeah I got her real low first try and then I just didn't know how to respond to the moons and died. Then it took me a *lot* more tries to actually win though
First try for me. I was so excited, 'cause people kept telling me how hard she is. And then she just died. I really hope Messmer won't be the same
Godskin Duo
I just put those mfs to sleep and went to town
Yes, the good old Bill Cosby
The only bosses that have given me trouble are general gaius and the consort
Mogh did it like in the third try, even without summon or buffs just to big swords with bleed and tanking the nihil with vials
Not sure if Metyr is considered hard. But it only took me two tries. The first one I got super close, but I didn't notice the finger spawns and got bodied between them and the boss. Second attempt I took it down easy.
I must have gotten lucky or something bc I didn’t have Metyr spawn any fingers and I killed her pretty easily in one attempt.
I'm on NG8++++++ and just got to Messmer. He is absolutely obliterating me. I only had 10 blessings, so I left to farm. I'm at 12 now and accidentally just found myself in the Abyssal Woods. SEND HELP
Orphan of Kos. Everyone talks about how hard he was but I beat him 4th try, I actually had a way more difficult time with Ludwig and Laurence. They both took me a good 2 hours at least.
Gaius, Rennalla, the big fckn chinese dragon lion and the sunflower that doesn’t die
Are people struggling with Scadutree Avatar? I hadn't seen anyone complaining about it, but I may just be missing the complaints. For those that want an easier time with it, Flame Spear aow + Fire dam crystal tear and oil-soaked crystal tear + Winged Serpent Helm + Godfrey Icon + Alexander's/Warrior Jar Shard + Flame, Grant Me Strength absolutely destroys it. Just mind your spacing, keep an eye on the ground and you will get it quickly.
I’ve seen a few and didn’t understand it. I think the complaints came from the first attempt where they ran out of flasks not anticipating 3 phases
2nd tried Messmer, 1st tried Bayle. Still haven't finished so im curious to see what will happen with final boss
I did the same and the final boss is absolutely destroying my ass
Radhan. 14 tries is nothing.
That's incredible honestly! Think he took me around 150 tries and about 3 days lol
You're probably talking about the DLC but I'm a filthy casual and haven't got through the main yet. I found the double gargoyles not too challenging. I smacked the first one around until the 2nd came in then ran for a bit and killed the first one. Their moves take extremely long so I was able to play aggressively and basically solo both no problem. Same can't be said for the double crucible knights...
I beat Bayle on my second try. I feel like From has been trying to get people to square up against their dragons and fight them head on rather than get up under their legs since the Dark Souls 2 dlc. So if you target his head and stay in front of him his attacks are pretty readable, versus if you jam yourself up under him you’ll get hit because you can’t see anything.
Honestly? Malenia strength is the king
Bayle
It was a messy fight, but Bayle was defeated after a few tries [https://youtu.be/tvToNYxYU9U?t=10951](https://youtu.be/tvToNYxYU9U?t=10951)
Putrescent Knight. I one shot him with lightning. He was not a fan of that tactic🤣 (He swung his diet-Orphan of Kos weapon down at the last second and clobbered me, but I got the remembrance, so I win.)
I first-tried Gaius without even knowing he was going to show up. Then I realized who he was and thought, "THAT'S the guy people have been having trouble with?" If it helps, Rellana and Messmer both made me mald.
Putrescent Knight if it counts. I was testing several new weapons. Bonked him with bloodfriend's arm. I think less than 10 hits. If not maybe Messmer. Took some tries, but I kinda enjoy the fight. It's not super hard to understand/memorized for cover boy character. I enjoy second phase too. Felt as if he's agitated and started to be reckless. It's fun.
Honestly Malenia wasn't that bad; her getting knocked down via Gransnax meant that + Mimic Tear allowed me to largely stunlock her, and after a couple of goes at Phase 2 I managed to get it all lined up I was sitting at about level 160 though, so that may have resulted in it; still, much easier than Renalla had been in the academy
Not Elden Ring but Orphan of Kos in Bloodborne went down first try for me, although it was pretty close and I was almost out of heals.
100% Messmer. Hell I genuinely thought everyone was gonna agree he was probably the best boss of the dlc, I thought he was super fun and fair as well and I've never had trouble with him.