Rennala’s is my favorite because it’s one of the instances of pure love we witness in the game. Ranni not only wants to protect her mom’s safety but to protect her legacy, showing people that she’s one of the most brilliant sorcerers of all time. Just clear that Ranni loves and is proud of her mom (“send word far and wide”). And then one of the spells you get from her remembrance was a gift to Ranni. Not to mention that Rennala simply loved her husband, it wasn’t a political bond for her the way it is between say Marika and her consorts. And Rennala is derided as “not a champion” because she was “weak” enough to succumb to love
FINALLY SOMEONE ELSE WHO PLACES MORGOTT AT NUMBER ONE!!!! I’ve been waiting so long for someone to appreciate him as much as I do, it’s probably my number 3 in all of Soulsborne. Just mechanical and story perfection.
too bad you can kill him so fast with a colossal weapon that he is just a complete joke and cant even enter phase 2. but i agree, very fun fight if you dont do that
Rennala is a fascinating example of how different bosses are wildly different based on the player/character build. As a big strength greatsword wielder I didn't have much of an issue with her at all, but some of the streamers I watched who went for magic builds themselves spent hours trying to beat her. And I've said before and will always say again, I think Mohg's theme is the single music track that's stuck with me the most from not just Elden Ring, but all of the Soulsborne games. Awesome, in every sense of the word.
Elden Ring is easily the game with the most prominent differences when you use different builds. Makes it hard to rank, but also makes every ranking more personal, which I prefer.
Another terrific list Billy, and your section on Elemer of the Briar demonstrates why I'm so keen to do a podcast with you. The ones at the moment are so heavily lore-based and then just skip past the bosses with a "this was hard/easy/bullshit" comment. Your detailed analysis of his moveset and tying it in with your experiences of the field boss versions was truly a pleasure to watch. Even if you don't want to do it with me, the Souls content creation community needs someone like you who can talk about these great experiences with the eloquence they deserve!
Besides the one that triggers at 70% health, Waterfowl triggers as a response to aggression, metering your attacks makes her less likely to use it. For me I wouldn't remove her lifesteal I would just make it proportional based on how much damage she dealt with the attack. This would also mean you could block waterfowl if you have the stamina for it. I would also lower the damage of some of attacks, keeping her long stabs, thrusts, and slams as massive damage while her quicker attacks are less devastating. I'd also lower the damage of each individual hit of waterfowl. To offset this damage nerf I'd have her to proper bleed buildup with her katana as the actual weapon does. This would make getting clipped and making tiny mistakes less punishing, but you can't afford it to much or it will hemorrhage you, all the while healing her. This would make her a "death by a thousand cuts" type of fight in her first phase, giving you a little more room to learn her moves while still being extremely deadly and keeping her lifesteal as her unique mechanic. Then in phase 2 the addition pf new moves, rot buildup, and higher damage turns the difficulty up to 1,000,000 to force you to perfect your understanding of her kit. No more little mistakes in phase 2.
You just made my day with that Sandra reference. I'm a massive Fromsoftware fan, AND a massive fan of Survivor, and I can honestly say I never expected to encounter a reference to one in a video about the other. 🤣 Thank you!
Elden beast is my fav boss fight bc you aren’t obligated to fight fast. You can take that fight steady and understand his move sets as the fight progresses and the music is beautiful and the way the Elden beast just floats in the sky as the singer hits the high note 😮💨
Rykard was my favorite boss on my first playthrough! As I got more experienced with Elden Ring's combat on subsequent playthrough I gained much more appreciation for bosses like Malenia and Radagon (the latter of whom is probably my current favorite, Elden Beast included) but Rykard was my first love so to speak, and he's special to me for that reason. The fight with him was the first time in the game I really felt like Elden Ring's bosses had something new to offer that wasn't done better in prior games -- obviously it was very heavily influenced by Yhorm and the Storm King (and probably Divine Dragon?) but the gulf in quality and spectacle made it feel really unique to me. Anyway, thanks for the video!! Enjoyed it a lot as always; keep up the good work :))
You know instead of having space slug hell for a final boss, they could pull a sister friede with Radagon and give him three phases. Phase 1: Normal Radagon Phase 2: Marika takes control Phase 3: Marika and Radagon work in tandem to destroy the player Sadly I wouldn’t be able to give a proper move set and such, because I’m not that talented, but I still think it would be pretty cool, I think
I feel like the Elden Beast needs to be there for the lore though, given the thematic nature of there being Outer Gods who are controlling behind the scenes. Alternatively, they could have done Radagon/Marika, and saved an Elden Beast style fight for the DLC, where they would have had time to edit it to be more fun.
@@BillySYT True, The Lore aspect is super important especially for a souls game. Just wish that they could’ve had a little more time/money to make the Elden Beast better
I feel like Elden Beast aka Space Loch Ness monster would be an awesome final boss/mount in Final Fantasy XIV! I could totally see a group boss moment. Thanks for a great video ☺️♥️
Also more seriously for the starscourge meteor, he goes up and you pick a direction. Doesn't matter which direction. Just pick a direction and run. Works just about about every time.
The meteor spawns wherever you're looking, so you can just point the camera wherever you want him to spawn, wait, and then start running when you first see the meteor
This reminds of how Nameless King's lighting strike works. You just have to not look at him. You turn around so you don't see his model at all and the lighting strikes at his feet
Allright you silly Billy i forgave you from putting midir out of the top 3 but godfrey at number 7! You killed me with that ranking, i need a 30 minute apology video about this!! Cool video btw
I think Malenia would be fine if she took a little longer to charge the Waterfowl Dance, doing perhaps a round sweep before hanging in the air, then starting. With just 1 second longer of reaction time someone whom plays by staying right in her face has more time to run and reach the distance where the first flurry is mostly avoided.
Mohg, Lord of Blood is by far my favourite boss in Elden Ring, his move set just really clicked with me and his second phase is just unforgettable. I remember not caring too much about him in my first play through because I destroyed him with dual bleeding katanas and a summon, but in a different playthrough I used the pair of scimitars you start with on the warrior class, no summons or anything else and forced myself to learn his moves and when I finally beat him, it felt amazing. Morgott is a close second favourite for me though, I love both fights.
Since I already named my favorite boss on your previous video (and worst boss), I’ll do my second favorite, which would be Mohg, Lord of Blood. I think it’s his design that really brings him up for me. You rarely see just pure evil characters in these games, but Mohg is one of them. His design is unsettling, his lore is wicked and creepy, his arena is awesome, etc. Of course the fight itself is still great, but everything else is fantastic as well.
in my oppinion the main improvement to malenia's boss fight is to just cut her cheating mechanics out, meaning her hyperarmour when she is doing most her attacks and during dodges, maybe not to the extent where she can get flinched like normal, but maybe have attacks that would normally knock her down flinch her, because I'm sorry but i have a hard time coping with her being able to shroug off a hit with a greathammer that's as big as her and weighs twice as much. The second bs mechanic is her refusal to die, if you ever got a riposte on her when she was close to phase 2 you noticed that she always lives with 1 hp, which can quickly turn into 10% hp and you needing to use another flask or worse she just kills you, it also prevents her from being 1 shot completely, at least it used to be a thing idk i never personally tried it. also i personally prefer her second phase because you can't poke cheese her like in phase 1 and she has more punishable attacks (or they are upgraded variants of her phase one attacks but she uses them more often)
I reported the riposte thing to Bandai Namco a couple months ago so hopefully it gets fixed. They patched that in because if such a riposte went off, her health in phase 2 didn't get restored to the amount it was supposed to. However, it was just a band-aid that only fixed that particular method of triggering the bug, as a volcano pot will deal her damage during the phase transition and likewise interrupt the healing. So we're just left with the fight being that little bit jankier, unless it gets fully fixed as I hope.
Godfrey is my favorite fight in the game because to me, that first phase is the textbook definition of the dance. It's a back and forth battle of attrition and every attack feels satisfying to dodge
I think you could have made Rykard’s gimmick a tiny bit better if the spear wasn’t totally useless outside of the boss room. I’d make it so that the weapon art still works with the light blade outside, but now it’s FP cost is much higher.
Waterfowl dance DOES come out at definite times. If you don’t sit around later on, she only does it 3 times in the first phase. Besides the life steal, Malenia is one of the most fair bosses in the game in my opinion if you respect her attacks and learn when you can or can’t fully rush her.
Can you point me to an official source that can confirm what you say about Waterfowl? Because aside from the first time she uses it, which is always when you take around 20% of her health off, I've never had any consistency in when she performs the attack.
@@BillySYT Honestly, it’s been from personal experience. I remember guides mentioning that she is generally programmed to do it at 75% (when she unlocks the move), 50%, and then again at 25%. Generally speaking, she will use it 3 times and it’s a matter of baiting it out. On my strength playthrough a lot of the time what I did was get her to that margin of health, then keep my distance and not attack her until she uses it. Afterwards it basically functions in a cooldown until you hit another threshold of HP. There most likely is programming for her to do it more than 3 times in her first phase, but that would really only come about if you don’t kill her quickly enough after the third or if she heals back up a lot. I will admit that this does come from personal experience and second hand resources though. Sorry if that doesn’t come off as reliable then, and sorry if my initial comment was a bit harsh. I just really enjoy this boss lol
27:56 For me, Melania would be one of the best bosses in Fromsoft's catalog if it wasn't for Waterfowl Dance being as monsterously stupid as it is and a few other minor gripes like her poise working different than every other stance breakable enemy in the game (she can just decide to not get stance broken some times) or her stance break animation being comically fast compared to every other boss. I've thought of quite a few solutions that they could have done to make Water Fowl not as stupid to deal with, so... might as well post em here since you asked 1. Slow down the startup animation significantly. This was the solution the devs behind the Convergence mod took, as it gives you more than enough space to see the move and start running as far away from her as possible if she does it up close. 2. Reduce the damage of the first flurry significantly. The fact the initial flurry can genuinely one shot a player who' didn't level vigor heavily is absolutely absurd (for context, most of my builds I've faced her with had 31 vigor... all of them died instantly to the first flurry). If the initial flurry didn't do much damage so the rest of the move could kill you, I feel like that'd make it feel less BS 3. Add a gap in the middle of the first flurry that'd allow you to dodge in the middle of it safely. The fact the first flurry is nigh undodgeable without some very specific movement that most players won't figure out contributes heavily to the move feeling so cheap. Adding some gap in the middle of the first flurry so you'd have time to roll twice to get through it would not only resolve that, but would also likely feel satisfying as hell to pull off. 4. Nerf the tracking on the first flurry so she couldn't catch players trying to roll to the sides as easily. Similar principle to point 3: making that initial flurry feasible to dodge without having her just swerve back into you and tear you to shreds would just feel better to do for the player overall imo 5. Force her to do the dodge parry animation before doing Waterfowl up close. One of the reasons why Waterfowl dance feels slightly more fair in phase 2 is that she tends to do it after her rushing grab attack, which is very telegraphed and automatically creates space so its easier to dodge. Taking the same principle into phase 1, her having to dodge back before performing it would resolve the space issue while also telegraphing it much better for the player overall
I didn't really *experience* Godrick, first I went in with Nepheli to get her questline going and died pretty fast, the second time I was just like "what the hell, let's give him another try to see his moves" and he died. I forgot to even equip the gold-pickled fowl foot. I didn't golden vow and forgot the physick. I just popped out Engwall and yeeted rocks at him. Magic really is OP as hell. Granted, I'm a bit overleveled since I already have 9 flasks total and enough INT for Night Comet / enough vigor to tank 3-4 hits. Many vulgar militia died for this XD
I'd say give him another go if you ever do a new game run, with the intention of learning his moveset. It's super fun (but I get you on the magic. My first playthrough was just glintstone and rock sling)
I used to feel the same way about Malenia but once I sat dwon and fought her with no spirit summons and a greatsword my opinion on the fight has gone up. I still thought waterfowl was bullshit and I still do ro an extent but since I pulled off dodging watterfowl up close multiple times I know its possible so to me I dont really get frusturated when I die to it because I know I can do it. I still think the windup for waterfowl should be longer to allow for you to run away from the first flurry even if your in the middle of an attack when she starts it and I would make it so that her stance can be broken even when shes in hyper/superarmor. Besides that I dont really have any complaints yes the boss requires near perfection but its still fair in my opinion.
I'm aware of that strategy, but it requires insane reflexes and even the slightest hesitation or bad positioning and she'll hit you with the first waterfowl.
LOL I had the exact same experience with Margit outside of Leyndell on my first playthrough XD Fantastic vid dude, absolutely blows my fkin mind the speed at which u can create vids of such high quality x.x
Honestly, I don't really mind Malenia's lifesteal, even in phase 1. My issue with Waterfowl is when she does it at melee range. I wish her initial wind-up was a bit longer in that case, considering the attack really isn't that hard to avoid if there's a bit of distance between you and her.
Cool list. Personally I had 2 fights where I considered them to be the best in Elden Ring and some of my favourites in souls-like. Maliketh, Marika’s Black Blade. I guess it’s my 1st Playthrough build that made him the most enjoyable for me at that time since dealing with Clergy at moderate range is very fun but as for his Phase 2. I cannot overstate how much I enjoyed his fight. His fight felt like a dance with death, especially with his aerial acrobatics, and I love every second of it. Easily one of the best 2nd Phases I’ve ever seen. 2nd Playthrough onwards, I tried close ranged combat against his 1st Phase and he’s actually very fun once you figure out his positioning. Godfrey, First Elden Lord. I absolutely love Godfrey. 1st Playthrough wise, I was having a ton of fun jumping his jumpable attacks and I love how his attack patterns made me memorize the jump roll pattern when it comes to dodging. I regretted killing Hoarah Loux too fast in my 1st Playthrough though, because when I fought him on my 2nd Playthrough with Caestus, I realized just how much of an adrenaline rush and fun I missed on my 1st Playthrough, especially after properly learning all of his moves. His entire fight from start to finish is the pinnacle of fun and my blood started to boil when he either does his Regal Roar or the Earth-splitting fissure from his axe. So yeah, here are my current top 15 rankings for ER bosses: 1. Hoarah Loux, WARRIOR!! 2. Maliketh, Marika’s Black Blade 3. Radagon of the Golden Order 4. Mohg, Lord of Blood 5. Dragonlord Placidusax 6. Morgott, the Omen King 7. Starscourge Radahn 8. Malenia, Goddess of Rot 9. Godrick, the Grafted 10. Togethaaaaa 11. Margit, the Fell 12. Elemer of Briar 13. Lichdragon Fortissax 14. Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree 15. Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon
I heard from a video by a grand champion souls player that posture breaking was the way to go for the major bosses. You know, charged heavy attacks for interrupting long wind ups, jump slashes to punish ground attacks. It’s like sekiro, but the bar is invisible. Of course, that was a couple of years ago, and I now feel that I may have watched the first embers of a flame war ignite before walking away. To potential poise spammers, I wish to give the same wisdom I’d give projectile spammers: it doesn’t matter what you do to the bots, but in a duel, it’s best to have more than one attack in your repertoire. Again, I don’t care if you cheese away artificial opponents, just know that irl foes have more “intolerance”.
So it it assumed that the look of the black flame attacks from the godskin bosses would look like Maliketh’s destined death attacks if the rune of death wasn’t taken from the gloam eyed queen?
Some theories imply that the hammer belongs to Marika rather than Radagon, as he had the golden order great Sword, this is kind of hilarious to me, the idea that the supposed epitome of grace and majesty, the revered queen of the golden order, liked to use a bloody HAMMER of all things.
Margit and other bosses will only use their "combo extenders" if you are positioned poorly when their original combo ends, IE close to them in front of their forward arc. It's even in your video. Margit does his flurry, you end up behind him when he's done so he doesn't break out the dagger swipes.
I wouldn't change anything about malenia's fight, though I do understand your points and think they're valid. To me personally she works fine as she is, she does force you to change your playstyle to have a chance at her but I don't think that's a bad thing, even more so when there are so many opportunities to respec in the game. The thing I love the most about her fight is that even though it took me a whole day to beat her, I never felt it was unfair because she felt predictable enough that it was just a matter of preparing for possible next moves, and that kept me on my toes, and the overall tone of the fight and her voice made me admire her so much I just could never feel super frustrated when I lost to her.
Not sure if you'll see this so late but sprinting and then jumping away from waterfowl dance first flurry is much more reliable than trying to dodge it. It even works when she activates it at close range - I think that when she gets near you she slows down a bit and a jump will carry you just out of range. The timing is still fairly tight but if you're a bit off you'll only take a little chip damage. This was a real game changer for me with this fight.
I read most of my comments (Probably not the best call, but I like to be active in them). Thanks for the tip, I will absolutely not remember it in like 1 year when I face her again for whatever reason, but I appreciate the help xD
Love the surprise Sandra reference! Don’t feel bad about having Malenia and Horrah Loux outside the top 5, I’d rank them out of my top 10. I’ve never had less fun fighting any boss than Malenia, only maybe Sword Saint Isshin and phase 3 Sister Freide. And like you, I just can’t get that second phase of the first Elden Lord. Oh well! Godskin Windmill Slinky Man might be my number 1.
Ive played the games so much now that melania is one of the only bosses that still give me trouble and get me nervous when im close to beating. That might be why i love elden ring bosses they are more rng and that makes them still difficult for me instead of first trying every ds3 boss now
For Rennala, I just want 3 things changed and she could be S tier for me: - shorter runback (stake of Marika or site of grace about where the Carian Knight NPC was) - I actually love phase 1 but I wish it was harder and not so rote. a redesign for phase 1 I could think of is it should only have one cycle of the student book chasing. and then after half health the player is able to deal damage to Rennala's shield and the player has to dodge even harder attacks from the nearby students. idk just anything more would have been nice - for phase 2 I think the spirit ashes should go away faster. it's a cool move but pretty much the only answer is to wait it out while trying to rush her. so I think better design would be to have Rennala still be relatively aggressive while her summons are out, but have the summons themselves just go away after 10 seconds or something. instead of what feels like 20-30s. ultimatel these changes would make the overall fight more harder while still being fair (and less annoying with a quicker runback)
This was my 1st souls game, and the 1st time I played it, The Godskin Apostle TERRIFIED me!! He took me hours to beat just because of how intimated I felt just by the sight of him! Now I destroy him 1st try every time lol 😅
For the bell bearing hunter's AoE, he only does it when he's facing you when he does the shield slam. If he has his back to you when he does his shield slam, he won't do the AoE.
Mate we share a brain. I remember on my playthrough when I got to Morgott I had become increasingly exhausted with the bs Elden Ring often pulls around endgame and I thought, wow, finally a cool boss with no fluff and no nonsense tricks up its sleeve, so I didn't even think of using Spirits. I knew I could do it.
Maybe I’m Incredibly late to this but I replayed the game again for the DLC and realised that they have patched in torrent for the Elden beast fight! So much more palatable now and not as much of a cat and mouse
I don't think that Waterfowl isn't that bad if you think about it. It's only a problem in point blank range and that only happens do to your own greed. Melenia really only uses it if you hit her multiple times and it has a cool down
Not really because when the move becomes available she just kinda walks around in an idle position to bait you into it, the problem is that if you don't approach her you're kinda stuck in place for like 10 seconds and she won't do waterfowl at a distance, so your only option is to go for it and take it in the face or wait for her AI to start attacking again
Godfrey is my absolute favourite fight, it's just so clean, fair and perfectly paced. Hoarax Loux i wasn't a big fan at first, but in my SL1 i learned that the second phase has more in common with the first that you may except, for example his slams, that you've already seen in the first phase, so it's fair for the player to expect to react to it. Mohg is my number 2 for similar reasons, and Placidusax is my number 3 for the fairness of all of his moves and for the scale of the fight which is unmatched for me. Most disappointing fight (not bad) is Malenia just because her core moveset is just so good that it's difficult to process just how badly they fucked up the balance and poise, making her unpredictable and unfair in the worst way possible. Radagon would be my number 4 is he wasn't tied to Elden Beast (Worst main boss in the game). Also unpopular opinions, Godrick is in my TOP 5 and i prefer Margit to Morgott, i think that for the point of the game you fight him, Margit has much more to offer and to teach you, and the arena also offers more strategy. My TOP 10 (Which i also wrote in the previous video) is: 1| Godfrey, First Elden Lord/Hoarax Loux, Warrior 2| Mohg, Lord of Blood 3| Dragonlord Placidusax 4| Beast Clergyman/Maliketh, the Black Blade 5| Godrick the Grafted 6| Margit, the Fell Omen 7| Morgott, the Omen King 8| Lichdragon Fortissax 9| Starscourge Radahn 10| Godskin Apostle
I too thought it would’ve been more epic for the trajectory of the game if you could use Torrent in the final boss fight… I mean that should’ve been a no brainer
My way to balance melania is just make her water fowl either have reduced life steal or no life steal at all and honestly I’ll manage. Cause even if I mess up when I’m close and she gets me with a few hits I can tank some damage and I don’t feel like I have to do over all the damage I get I’m fine with her having life steal on the other moves though
elemer (bell bearing hunter stage 4) can easily be beaten with range attacks.. when you are a beginner i would recommend you the blasphemous blade after defeating rykard or best him with magic attacks.. this guy is just to strong for beginners (like me) and sorry for my bad english.. ps: really good video i love everytjing about it and it‘s clear that this was a lot of work👍🏼 thanks for the video
I half agree with what you say about Malenia. I do think she has a lot of unintuitive moves that arent easily found as to hoe you should handle it. I can agree about waterfowl in phase 1 should be health bar dependent due to the 2 phases. I woudnt say any of the mechanics are actuslly unfair though, just unituitive when learning through a "souls" lense if you're a more casual player. What i mean is the lock on system. Most of Malenia moves, including waterfowl, are super easy to dodge if you dont lock on. The camera moving to match her is ehat messes up the correct dodge windows for many, many people, as it turns your view, thus turning your direction when dodging. She has gauntreed ways to dodge het attacks on any build, along with wuite a few builds that can outright script phase 1 every time without issue, but again it all isnt something youre going to figure out without seriously looking outside of playtime about. Edit: I do think as well that many people struggle because they don't want to change their playstyle for the boss. They don't want to play around specific timings, movements, builds, etc. When malenia is a boss that demands you meet her standards, rather than you opposing your own will to conquer her like every other boss
I think Malenia should be harder in both phases to balance the fight around WFD, it's my favourite boss in elden ring, but i have how unbalanced she is, even tho i don't hate the attack itself, it's harder than anything else in soulsborne games, so it should be surrounded by more difficult attacks and combos. NGL i don't know how to make her harder besides adding some new generic attack patterns in both phases, and in second phase having her spawn some rot pools like in Mogh's fight with some of the rot specific moves. Also remove healing from p1 for sure and raise poise and bleed res, and remove hyper armor from most attacks, which you didn't mention but i feel is a big consistency problem, especially if you do a lot of heavy/jump attacks.
Great video Billy!! Agree with your rankings. I just think they need to make it so you can knock Malenia out of waterfowl dance. If a player uses her weapon, we can get knocked out of waterfowl dance if enough damage is done, why can't she? She should have her poise reduced. Btw Marais is pronounced Muh re (and the e is pronounced like the vowel sound /e/ eee egg)
I have to fight Morgott again. I have slain him firt try because i was way overleveled (as well as for Maliketh). I fight my way back to Leyndell on 100 % right now but it will probably take a while. And i spared Placidusax on my first playthrough so i have something unique to do in the second. From that point i would probably rank Radagon or Mohg as my favorite Boss (Malenia was the best feeling after 4 hours of defeating her). I didnt had a problem with Elden Beast running away, it was an enjoyable fight but it was maybe not so impressive because the internet spoiled me with it. Didnt had any Problem with Malenias healing mechanic either, there was never a waterfowl dance spam and i chipped her bit by bit away.
I do think it would have been best if they wanted to keep elden beast is to keep it separate from Radagon. If You have a 2 phase Radagon phase then when you go to put Marika's head back Eden beast appears and that fight is separate it'd have been best.
My list: 1. Mohg, Lord of Blood 2. Dragonlord Placidusax 3. Godskin Duo 4. Lichdragon Fortissax 5. Starscourge Radahn 6. Godskin Apostle 7. Elden Beast 8. Astel, Naturalborn of the Void 9. Bell Bearing Hunter 10. Radagon of the Golden Order
Bro what, Margit is a great boos. Yeah he's hard as nails but the whole point is to get the players used to the delayed attacks and weird timings. He's the Father Gascoigne of Elden Ring
I mean, I agree. But even though I consider him a great boss, I literally just prefer the rest more. I also wouldn't compare him to Father G, who works on the same system as your hunter in Bloodborne, which adds to the fun of his fight. Margin, very clearly, is much stronger and more overpowered in his presentation and moveset. That works more for some people, and that's totally okay, it just doesn't work for me But hey, I have Morgott at Number 1 so I doubt Margit is upset with me.
Godskin Apostle is too low in my opinion. I have a soft spot for that long boi, he was the first boss I first-tried and was just so much fun. Plus that OST is *chefs kiss*
man i couldn't disagree more with the list but great video as always, you explained your choices very well. my favorite has to be maliketh. yes his first phase isn't nearly as good as the second and on its own it wouldn't be nearly enough to make it my favorite boss in the game but it's still really fun and his second phase is just such perfection that i don't even care that the first phase could've been better. malikeths true form is a top 3 boss in the entire series for me just based on gameplay alone. his animations are the coolest, most badass thing i've ever seen in my life and learning his moveset was fun as hell. i also love how he uses the pillars in the arena and latches onto them i will say, i don't quite get the hype for placidusax. i mean generally i don't like most dragon fights, i don't even like kalameet and sinh all that much, and i will say that placidusax is definitely one of the better ones. in terms of visuals and the pure spectacle he's amazing but i find the actual fight, like gameplay wise, pretty fucking boring. it just takes ages to kill him with melee weapons and the fight pretty much just consists of running behind him the entire time and tickling his legs and tail. i hate that approach to dragon fights which is also why i don't like the older dragons in the series like kalameet. what makes it more frustrating for is that they had the perfect dragon boss in ds3 but then just decided to throw all of that out the window with elden ring and just go back to the boring concept of scratching away at his hind legs and not fighting him head on
i just wanted to say that it is so interesting that you never want to do malenia ever again, where as i think if i could fight malenia over and over without having to go through the entire game again i would. ive done it 3 time. man when i learned to parry her and to dodge waterfowl it became addicting. but i get it though. its kinda like me and demon of hatred in sekiro. interesting how different people have different reactions and opinions. malenia is my favorite boss in fromsoft
Give it a year or two and I'll want to fight her again thinking, "Surely it wasn't that bad?" And then I'll end up reliving the horrors all over again lmao
I actually learned to dodge through malenias waterfowl dance, and if i can do it anyone can because im an average souls player. After learning the timing for it, it felt amazing. The only attack for her that sucked was the clones in my opinion, you lose track of ONE of them and its curtains, and im usually tanky. Id like to think i have great spacial awareness in games but holy hell if one of those guys clips you youre getting fucked in half Maliketh is the one guy i never beat without cheese. Its funny, i can consistently dodge through waterfowel but can't time a parry to save my life
@@BillySYT I happen to fit in the incredibly small venn diagram of "people who do drag" and "people who are obsessed with SoulsBorne games" so your channel is my favorite by a wide margin ❤️
hoarah loux's second phase was disappointing to me because it was too easy to stagger him, and his health pool was so short I only saw his second phase once.
I still think godrick is the best fight in the game, and was perfectly balanced for the point in the game (unless you go off and overlevel, which I think a lot of people did)
Elden Beast wouldn’t be bad if it had a moon presence type mechanic too it. It has around 50 attacks and the story implications are cool, but no torrent turning the fight to a mandatory running simulator after Radagon is just so meh
I was so disappointed by the Elden Beast. The Radagon fight was perfect! The boss design, the FUCKING MUSIC that still gives me goosebumps thinking about it. Radagon gives you so much adrenaline that you unfortunately have nothing to spend it on after. I feel like it was a mistake to put such a slow boss after him. Radagon and Maliketh were two of my favourite fights.
I respect your list. But I don't agree with Melania being unfair when players always have the option of spirit ashes. If you choose not to use them, that's different, but fairness is why we have them. I didn't use them in every fight, but I definitely used them to even the odds (looking at you, Godskin duo!!!). I 100% agree with Morgott for the gold though!
My point though, is that every boss in the game besides Malenia is both balanced for play with & without spirit ashes, as I figured out in my last playthrough. Though honestly, my main issue with Malenia is still that her moveset is overtuned regardless. The constant healing is miserable to watch. Much appreciated for the comment though ^^
@@BillySYT I dug her move set, but the same way I prefer Rrollercoaster that launchs you 0 - 100. What made me most upset by the waterfowl dance is that it didn't look nearly as cool when I did it! I felt Elden Beast and Godskins were more unbalanced, personally. But they were more frustrating to me because they were mandatory.
To balance Malenia, I'd just take away the health drain. I mean its a mechanic that only appears in her fight and no where else in the game. Heck she's the only boss in the series and I'd argue in the genre that has said mechanic that caught me completely by surprise and threw off any strategy I could come up with. I also think she's a bit too aggressive in phase two and her clones are able to snipe you across the arena and kill you instantly. OR, alternatively you could keep everything about Malenia the same, but drastically reduce her damage by 40%. That way her oppressive aggression is more manage-able cause the player can actually survive it and learn to deal with it. I'd bump up her damage during her second phase to instill a sense of "shits about to get real" (something I just can't get enough out of boss fights). But I also like the idea of her waterfowl being limited as its often annoying how much reach it has. And that fact that she can spam it is just aggravating. As for Godfrey, he's essentially Ludwig but in reverse. Why Ludwig started as a feral monster that regained his sanity to face us in a honorable duel. Godfrey starts as an honorable warrior then goes fucking berserk trying to maul you down will sheer might alone. Aside from Malenia, no other boss forfeits their pride in an attempt to win. Still I too find his constant stomping to be annoying. Every boss in Elden Ring just has one thing I hate about them.
I'm so happy Mohg ended up as high as he did, I fucking adore that boss fight And Morgott as well, I mean like, damn, when I first fought him I was FUCKED, like seriously, I died more times to him than to Malenia
Mohg was a fight that definitely took time for me to warm up to. First playthrough, I loved his design but his fight didn't do it for me. Then my bf did a playthrough and he absolutely hated the Mohg fight. But then on this playthrough with a better built, Mohg was just soooo fun. Love the lil Blood boi
There's a difference between "easier" and a fight that feels fair. I think most of her difficulty works fine, but unlike literally every other hard boss in this series, I feel she's punishing in a way that doesn't spark joy lmao. It's an opinion, you don't need to share my thoughts lol
![Ranking the Bosses of Elden Ring! [Part 1]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/gYnT8HULS3U/mqdefault.jpg)
![Ranking the Bosses of Elden Ring! [Part 1]](/img/tr.png)
![Ranking the Areas of Elden Ring! [Part 1]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/p3yKGBLHwiA/mqdefault.jpg)
Rennala’s is my favorite because it’s one of the instances of pure love we witness in the game. Ranni not only wants to protect her mom’s safety but to protect her legacy, showing people that she’s one of the most brilliant sorcerers of all time. Just clear that Ranni loves and is proud of her mom (“send word far and wide”). And then one of the spells you get from her remembrance was a gift to Ranni. Not to mention that Rennala simply loved her husband, it wasn’t a political bond for her the way it is between say Marika and her consorts. And Rennala is derided as “not a champion” because she was “weak” enough to succumb to love
FINALLY SOMEONE ELSE WHO PLACES MORGOTT AT NUMBER ONE!!!!
I’ve been waiting so long for someone to appreciate him as much as I do, it’s probably my number 3 in all of Soulsborne.
Just mechanical and story perfection.
too bad you can kill him so fast with a colossal weapon that he is just a complete joke and cant even enter phase 2.
but i agree, very fun fight if you dont do that
I did half a playthrough with no buffs, summons, or OP weapons, just a broadsword to fight him in a fair fight. Such a good boss
Rennala is a fascinating example of how different bosses are wildly different based on the player/character build. As a big strength greatsword wielder I didn't have much of an issue with her at all, but some of the streamers I watched who went for magic builds themselves spent hours trying to beat her.
And I've said before and will always say again, I think Mohg's theme is the single music track that's stuck with me the most from not just Elden Ring, but all of the Soulsborne games. Awesome, in every sense of the word.
Elden Ring is easily the game with the most prominent differences when you use different builds. Makes it hard to rank, but also makes every ranking more personal, which I prefer.
Radahn space program is one of the best parts of the game. Its both terrifying, steangely beautiful, and hilarious at the same time
Radahn's real father is Woo Guy
Another terrific list Billy, and your section on Elemer of the Briar demonstrates why I'm so keen to do a podcast with you. The ones at the moment are so heavily lore-based and then just skip past the bosses with a "this was hard/easy/bullshit" comment. Your detailed analysis of his moveset and tying it in with your experiences of the field boss versions was truly a pleasure to watch. Even if you don't want to do it with me, the Souls content creation community needs someone like you who can talk about these great experiences with the eloquence they deserve!
Besides the one that triggers at 70% health, Waterfowl triggers as a response to aggression, metering your attacks makes her less likely to use it. For me I wouldn't remove her lifesteal I would just make it proportional based on how much damage she dealt with the attack. This would also mean you could block waterfowl if you have the stamina for it. I would also lower the damage of some of attacks, keeping her long stabs, thrusts, and slams as massive damage while her quicker attacks are less devastating. I'd also lower the damage of each individual hit of waterfowl. To offset this damage nerf I'd have her to proper bleed buildup with her katana as the actual weapon does. This would make getting clipped and making tiny mistakes less punishing, but you can't afford it to much or it will hemorrhage you, all the while healing her. This would make her a "death by a thousand cuts" type of fight in her first phase, giving you a little more room to learn her moves while still being extremely deadly and keeping her lifesteal as her unique mechanic. Then in phase 2 the addition pf new moves, rot buildup, and higher damage turns the difficulty up to 1,000,000 to force you to perfect your understanding of her kit. No more little mistakes in phase 2.
You just made my day with that Sandra reference. I'm a massive Fromsoftware fan, AND a massive fan of Survivor, and I can honestly say I never expected to encounter a reference to one in a video about the other. 🤣 Thank you!
Elden beast is my fav boss fight bc you aren’t obligated to fight fast. You can take that fight steady and understand his move sets as the fight progresses and the music is beautiful and the way the Elden beast just floats in the sky as the singer hits the high note 😮💨
13:47 Okay, this has to be an UndeadHunter reference lmao.
Not sure what you're referring to, sorry lol
Rykard was my favorite boss on my first playthrough! As I got more experienced with Elden Ring's combat on subsequent playthrough I gained much more appreciation for bosses like Malenia and Radagon (the latter of whom is probably my current favorite, Elden Beast included) but Rykard was my first love so to speak, and he's special to me for that reason. The fight with him was the first time in the game I really felt like Elden Ring's bosses had something new to offer that wasn't done better in prior games -- obviously it was very heavily influenced by Yhorm and the Storm King (and probably Divine Dragon?) but the gulf in quality and spectacle made it feel really unique to me.
Anyway, thanks for the video!! Enjoyed it a lot as always; keep up the good work :))
Yayyy!! Underated boss is number 1! WOOOOOOOOOO
You know instead of having space slug hell for a final boss, they could pull a sister friede with Radagon and give him three phases.
Phase 1: Normal Radagon
Phase 2: Marika takes control
Phase 3: Marika and Radagon work in tandem to destroy the player
Sadly I wouldn’t be able to give a proper move set and such, because I’m not that talented, but I still think it would be pretty cool, I think
I feel like the Elden Beast needs to be there for the lore though, given the thematic nature of there being Outer Gods who are controlling behind the scenes. Alternatively, they could have done Radagon/Marika, and saved an Elden Beast style fight for the DLC, where they would have had time to edit it to be more fun.
@@BillySYT True, The Lore aspect is super important especially for a souls game. Just wish that they could’ve had a little more time/money to make the Elden Beast better
46:38 you can avoid the meteor attack by jumping on your horse and sprinting in one direction
29:36 is a brilliant joke pulled the rug under my feet with that punchline
I feel like Elden Beast aka Space Loch Ness monster would be an awesome final boss/mount in Final Fantasy XIV! I could totally see a group boss moment. Thanks for a great video ☺️♥️
Morgott's voice, his lines, his intelligence, his fighting style, his story. Just absolute perfection.
Also more seriously for the starscourge meteor, he goes up and you pick a direction. Doesn't matter which direction. Just pick a direction and run. Works just about about every time.
The meteor spawns wherever you're looking, so you can just point the camera wherever you want him to spawn, wait, and then start running when you first see the meteor
@@minerman60101 That sounds more complicated than man jumps, pick direction, run.
This reminds of how Nameless King's lighting strike works. You just have to not look at him. You turn around so you don't see his model at all and the lighting strikes at his feet
Allright you silly Billy i forgave you from putting midir out of the top 3 but godfrey at number 7! You killed me with that ranking, i need a 30 minute apology video about this!! Cool video btw
I think Malenia would be fine if she took a little longer to charge the Waterfowl Dance, doing perhaps a round sweep before hanging in the air, then starting. With just 1 second longer of reaction time someone whom plays by staying right in her face has more time to run and reach the distance where the first flurry is mostly avoided.
Mohg, Lord of Blood is by far my favourite boss in Elden Ring, his move set just really clicked with me and his second phase is just unforgettable. I remember not caring too much about him in my first play through because I destroyed him with dual bleeding katanas and a summon, but in a different playthrough I used the pair of scimitars you start with on the warrior class, no summons or anything else and forced myself to learn his moves and when I finally beat him, it felt amazing. Morgott is a close second favourite for me though, I love both fights.
This came early, also thanks for making content
Since I already named my favorite boss on your previous video (and worst boss), I’ll do my second favorite, which would be Mohg, Lord of Blood. I think it’s his design that really brings him up for me. You rarely see just pure evil characters in these games, but Mohg is one of them. His design is unsettling, his lore is wicked and creepy, his arena is awesome, etc. Of course the fight itself is still great, but everything else is fantastic as well.
in my oppinion the main improvement to malenia's boss fight is to just cut her cheating mechanics out, meaning her hyperarmour when she is doing most her attacks and during dodges, maybe not to the extent where she can get flinched like normal, but maybe have attacks that would normally knock her down flinch her, because I'm sorry but i have a hard time coping with her being able to shroug off a hit with a greathammer that's as big as her and weighs twice as much. The second bs mechanic is her refusal to die, if you ever got a riposte on her when she was close to phase 2 you noticed that she always lives with 1 hp, which can quickly turn into 10% hp and you needing to use another flask or worse she just kills you, it also prevents her from being 1 shot completely, at least it used to be a thing idk i never personally tried it.
also i personally prefer her second phase because you can't poke cheese her like in phase 1 and she has more punishable attacks (or they are upgraded variants of her phase one attacks but she uses them more often)
I reported the riposte thing to Bandai Namco a couple months ago so hopefully it gets fixed. They patched that in because if such a riposte went off, her health in phase 2 didn't get restored to the amount it was supposed to. However, it was just a band-aid that only fixed that particular method of triggering the bug, as a volcano pot will deal her damage during the phase transition and likewise interrupt the healing. So we're just left with the fight being that little bit jankier, unless it gets fully fixed as I hope.
Godfrey is my favorite fight in the game because to me, that first phase is the textbook definition of the dance. It's a back and forth battle of attrition and every attack feels satisfying to dodge
"I had to wonder, was I just bad at Elden Ring? And the answer was yes, yes I was"
More players need this introspection lol.
LETS GOOOO!!! Time for part 2 :) love your videos Billy!
I think you could have made Rykard’s gimmick a tiny bit better if the spear wasn’t totally useless outside of the boss room.
I’d make it so that the weapon art still works with the light blade outside, but now it’s FP cost is much higher.
Waterfowl dance DOES come out at definite times. If you don’t sit around later on, she only does it 3 times in the first phase. Besides the life steal, Malenia is one of the most fair bosses in the game in my opinion if you respect her attacks and learn when you can or can’t fully rush her.
Can you point me to an official source that can confirm what you say about Waterfowl? Because aside from the first time she uses it, which is always when you take around 20% of her health off, I've never had any consistency in when she performs the attack.
@@BillySYT Honestly, it’s been from personal experience. I remember guides mentioning that she is generally programmed to do it at 75% (when she unlocks the move), 50%, and then again at 25%. Generally speaking, she will use it 3 times and it’s a matter of baiting it out. On my strength playthrough a lot of the time what I did was get her to that margin of health, then keep my distance and not attack her until she uses it. Afterwards it basically functions in a cooldown until you hit another threshold of HP. There most likely is programming for her to do it more than 3 times in her first phase, but that would really only come about if you don’t kill her quickly enough after the third or if she heals back up a lot. I will admit that this does come from personal experience and second hand resources though. Sorry if that doesn’t come off as reliable then, and sorry if my initial comment was a bit harsh. I just really enjoy this boss lol
lmao my dog was in the room when i was stuck on second phase rykard and would actively get scared and run out the room
48:06 glad to know I wasn’t the only one
27:56 For me, Melania would be one of the best bosses in Fromsoft's catalog if it wasn't for Waterfowl Dance being as monsterously stupid as it is and a few other minor gripes like her poise working different than every other stance breakable enemy in the game (she can just decide to not get stance broken some times) or her stance break animation being comically fast compared to every other boss. I've thought of quite a few solutions that they could have done to make Water Fowl not as stupid to deal with, so... might as well post em here since you asked
1. Slow down the startup animation significantly. This was the solution the devs behind the Convergence mod took, as it gives you more than enough space to see the move and start running as far away from her as possible if she does it up close.
2. Reduce the damage of the first flurry significantly. The fact the initial flurry can genuinely one shot a player who' didn't level vigor heavily is absolutely absurd (for context, most of my builds I've faced her with had 31 vigor... all of them died instantly to the first flurry). If the initial flurry didn't do much damage so the rest of the move could kill you, I feel like that'd make it feel less BS
3. Add a gap in the middle of the first flurry that'd allow you to dodge in the middle of it safely. The fact the first flurry is nigh undodgeable without some very specific movement that most players won't figure out contributes heavily to the move feeling so cheap. Adding some gap in the middle of the first flurry so you'd have time to roll twice to get through it would not only resolve that, but would also likely feel satisfying as hell to pull off.
4. Nerf the tracking on the first flurry so she couldn't catch players trying to roll to the sides as easily. Similar principle to point 3: making that initial flurry feasible to dodge without having her just swerve back into you and tear you to shreds would just feel better to do for the player overall imo
5. Force her to do the dodge parry animation before doing Waterfowl up close. One of the reasons why Waterfowl dance feels slightly more fair in phase 2 is that she tends to do it after her rushing grab attack, which is very telegraphed and automatically creates space so its easier to dodge. Taking the same principle into phase 1, her having to dodge back before performing it would resolve the space issue while also telegraphing it much better for the player overall
I didn't really *experience* Godrick, first I went in with Nepheli to get her questline going and died pretty fast, the second time I was just like "what the hell, let's give him another try to see his moves" and he died. I forgot to even equip the gold-pickled fowl foot. I didn't golden vow and forgot the physick. I just popped out Engwall and yeeted rocks at him. Magic really is OP as hell. Granted, I'm a bit overleveled since I already have 9 flasks total and enough INT for Night Comet / enough vigor to tank 3-4 hits. Many vulgar militia died for this XD
I'd say give him another go if you ever do a new game run, with the intention of learning his moveset. It's super fun (but I get you on the magic. My first playthrough was just glintstone and rock sling)
@@BillySYT I'm definitely going for more (I already made a confessor and a Wotan cosplay)
I used to feel the same way about Malenia but once I sat dwon and fought her with no spirit summons and a greatsword my opinion on the fight has gone up. I still thought waterfowl was bullshit and I still do ro an extent but since I pulled off dodging watterfowl up close multiple times I know its possible so to me I dont really get frusturated when I die to it because I know I can do it. I still think the windup for waterfowl should be longer to allow for you to run away from the first flurry even if your in the middle of an attack when she starts it and I would make it so that her stance can be broken even when shes in hyper/superarmor. Besides that I dont really have any complaints yes the boss requires near perfection but its still fair in my opinion.
I have the same opinion
You can dodge the first part of Waterfowl easily by running away when she does it and then jumping away right when she does the first flurry.
I'm aware of that strategy, but it requires insane reflexes and even the slightest hesitation or bad positioning and she'll hit you with the first waterfowl.
Don't know what you're saying about only one tear to counter Mohg. Cerulean hidden will not only prevent the damage, but also the healing.
LOL I had the exact same experience with Margit outside of Leyndell on my first playthrough XD
Fantastic vid dude, absolutely blows my fkin mind the speed at which u can create vids of such high quality x.x
To be fair, I had to overwork in June to make sure I had vids going out this summer. But it's no issue, much appreciated ^^
Honestly, I don't really mind Malenia's lifesteal, even in phase 1. My issue with Waterfowl is when she does it at melee range. I wish her initial wind-up was a bit longer in that case, considering the attack really isn't that hard to avoid if there's a bit of distance between you and her.
I gave you a like based entirely on your "long, long man" joke. Great video and all, just really appreciate the reference!
Cool list. Personally I had 2 fights where I considered them to be the best in Elden Ring and some of my favourites in souls-like.
Maliketh, Marika’s Black Blade. I guess it’s my 1st Playthrough build that made him the most enjoyable for me at that time since dealing with Clergy at moderate range is very fun but as for his Phase 2. I cannot overstate how much I enjoyed his fight. His fight felt like a dance with death, especially with his aerial acrobatics, and I love every second of it. Easily one of the best 2nd Phases I’ve ever seen. 2nd Playthrough onwards, I tried close ranged combat against his 1st Phase and he’s actually very fun once you figure out his positioning.
Godfrey, First Elden Lord. I absolutely love Godfrey. 1st Playthrough wise, I was having a ton of fun jumping his jumpable attacks and I love how his attack patterns made me memorize the jump roll pattern when it comes to dodging. I regretted killing Hoarah Loux too fast in my 1st Playthrough though, because when I fought him on my 2nd Playthrough with Caestus, I realized just how much of an adrenaline rush and fun I missed on my 1st Playthrough, especially after properly learning all of his moves. His entire fight from start to finish is the pinnacle of fun and my blood started to boil when he either does his Regal Roar or the Earth-splitting fissure from his axe.
So yeah, here are my current top 15 rankings for ER bosses:
1. Hoarah Loux, WARRIOR!!
2. Maliketh, Marika’s Black Blade
3. Radagon of the Golden Order
4. Mohg, Lord of Blood
5. Dragonlord Placidusax
6. Morgott, the Omen King
7. Starscourge Radahn
8. Malenia, Goddess of Rot
9. Godrick, the Grafted
10. Togethaaaaa
11. Margit, the Fell
12. Elemer of Briar
13. Lichdragon Fortissax
14. Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree
15. Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon
NOT THE ASIA O’HARA REFERENCE IN AN ELDEN RING VIDEO 😂😂😂
The butterfliesssss
I heard from a video by a grand champion souls player that posture breaking was the way to go for the major bosses. You know, charged heavy attacks for interrupting long wind ups, jump slashes to punish ground attacks. It’s like sekiro, but the bar is invisible. Of course, that was a couple of years ago, and I now feel that I may have watched the first embers of a flame war ignite before walking away. To potential poise spammers, I wish to give the same wisdom I’d give projectile spammers: it doesn’t matter what you do to the bots, but in a duel, it’s best to have more than one attack in your repertoire. Again, I don’t care if you cheese away artificial opponents, just know that irl foes have more “intolerance”.
BRO! The Survivor Sandra reference?! You are a god
If I made one different decision, I'd be making Survivor content instead of gaming content. My other passion lmao
So it it assumed that the look of the black flame attacks from the godskin bosses would look like Maliketh’s destined death attacks if the rune of death wasn’t taken from the gloam eyed queen?
Some theories imply that the hammer belongs to Marika rather than Radagon, as he had the golden order great Sword, this is kind of hilarious to me, the idea that the supposed epitome of grace and majesty, the revered queen of the golden order, liked to use a bloody HAMMER of all things.
Margit and other bosses will only use their "combo extenders" if you are positioned poorly when their original combo ends, IE close to them in front of their forward arc. It's even in your video. Margit does his flurry, you end up behind him when he's done so he doesn't break out the dagger swipes.
I think a better solution to waterfowl is to make it staggerable so the player has to quickly decide whether to attack or run
I wouldn't change anything about malenia's fight, though I do understand your points and think they're valid. To me personally she works fine as she is, she does force you to change your playstyle to have a chance at her but I don't think that's a bad thing, even more so when there are so many opportunities to respec in the game. The thing I love the most about her fight is that even though it took me a whole day to beat her, I never felt it was unfair because she felt predictable enough that it was just a matter of preparing for possible next moves, and that kept me on my toes, and the overall tone of the fight and her voice made me admire her so much I just could never feel super frustrated when I lost to her.
Not sure if you'll see this so late but sprinting and then jumping away from waterfowl dance first flurry is much more reliable than trying to dodge it. It even works when she activates it at close range - I think that when she gets near you she slows down a bit and a jump will carry you just out of range. The timing is still fairly tight but if you're a bit off you'll only take a little chip damage. This was a real game changer for me with this fight.
I read most of my comments (Probably not the best call, but I like to be active in them). Thanks for the tip, I will absolutely not remember it in like 1 year when I face her again for whatever reason, but I appreciate the help xD
Love the surprise Sandra reference! Don’t feel bad about having Malenia and Horrah Loux outside the top 5, I’d rank them out of my top 10. I’ve never had less fun fighting any boss than Malenia, only maybe Sword Saint Isshin and phase 3 Sister Freide. And like you, I just can’t get that second phase of the first Elden Lord. Oh well! Godskin Windmill Slinky Man might be my number 1.
I was telling my brother today morgot is my favorite boss and he laughed at me glad to see someone love morgot too
Elemer is literally Darth Vader if he was a medieval knight
Ive played the games so much now that melania is one of the only bosses that still give me trouble and get me nervous when im close to beating. That might be why i love elden ring bosses they are more rng and that makes them still difficult for me instead of first trying every ds3 boss now
You can dodge the Radahn meteor by hopping on torrent and just riding in any direction away from the landing zone of general Chadahn
For Rennala, I just want 3 things changed and she could be S tier for me:
- shorter runback (stake of Marika or site of grace about where the Carian Knight NPC was)
- I actually love phase 1 but I wish it was harder and not so rote. a redesign for phase 1 I could think of is it should only have one cycle of the student book chasing. and then after half health the player is able to deal damage to Rennala's shield and the player has to dodge even harder attacks from the nearby students. idk just anything more would have been nice
- for phase 2 I think the spirit ashes should go away faster. it's a cool move but pretty much the only answer is to wait it out while trying to rush her. so I think better design would be to have Rennala still be relatively aggressive while her summons are out, but have the summons themselves just go away after 10 seconds or something. instead of what feels like 20-30s. ultimatel these changes would make the overall fight more harder while still being fair (and less annoying with a quicker runback)
This was my 1st souls game, and the 1st time I played it, The Godskin Apostle TERRIFIED me!! He took me hours to beat just because of how intimated I felt just by the sight of him! Now I destroy him 1st try every time lol 😅
For the bell bearing hunter's AoE, he only does it when he's facing you when he does the shield slam. If he has his back to you when he does his shield slam, he won't do the AoE.
Elemer is fairly easily, my 2nd favorite boss in the game, I'm really glad someone else enjoys this boss too
Marget is an incredible first major boss. It forces you to explore and hone your skills. Brilliant.
Margit*
Mate we share a brain. I remember on my playthrough when I got to Morgott I had become increasingly exhausted with the bs Elden Ring often pulls around endgame and I thought, wow, finally a cool boss with no fluff and no nonsense tricks up its sleeve, so I didn't even think of using Spirits. I knew I could do it.
Maybe I’m
Incredibly late to this but I replayed the game again for the DLC and realised that they have patched in torrent for the Elden beast fight! So much more palatable now and not as much of a cat and mouse
I don't think that Waterfowl isn't that bad if you think about it. It's only a problem in point blank range and that only happens do to your own greed. Melenia really only uses it if you hit her multiple times and it has a cool down
Not really because when the move becomes available she just kinda walks around in an idle position to bait you into it, the problem is that if you don't approach her you're kinda stuck in place for like 10 seconds and she won't do waterfowl at a distance, so your only option is to go for it and take it in the face or wait for her AI to start attacking again
Fully agree
Where else would a melee build be against a swordsmen but point blank range?
For Malenia? If Fromsoft removed lifesteal from phase 1 and allowed 100% physical shields to block it, I'd take it and pray too.
WE’RE HALFWAY THERE, BILLY!
Godfrey is my absolute favourite fight, it's just so clean, fair and perfectly paced.
Hoarax Loux i wasn't a big fan at first, but in my SL1 i learned that the second phase has more in common with the first that you may except, for example his slams, that you've already seen in the first phase, so it's fair for the player to expect to react to it.
Mohg is my number 2 for similar reasons, and Placidusax is my number 3 for the fairness of all of his moves and for the scale of the fight which is unmatched for me.
Most disappointing fight (not bad) is Malenia just because her core moveset is just so good that it's difficult to process just how badly they fucked up the balance and poise, making her unpredictable and unfair in the worst way possible.
Radagon would be my number 4 is he wasn't tied to Elden Beast (Worst main boss in the game).
Also unpopular opinions, Godrick is in my TOP 5 and i prefer Margit to Morgott, i think that for the point of the game you fight him, Margit has much more to offer and to teach you, and the arena also offers more strategy.
My TOP 10 (Which i also wrote in the previous video) is:
1| Godfrey, First Elden Lord/Hoarax Loux, Warrior
2| Mohg, Lord of Blood
3| Dragonlord Placidusax
4| Beast Clergyman/Maliketh, the Black Blade
5| Godrick the Grafted
6| Margit, the Fell Omen
7| Morgott, the Omen King
8| Lichdragon Fortissax
9| Starscourge Radahn
10| Godskin Apostle
I do not think I want to hang out with Mohg at pride actually
I too thought it would’ve been more epic for the trajectory of the game if you could use Torrent in the final boss fight… I mean that should’ve been a no brainer
I agree, I love the Elmer of the briar fight.
My way to balance melania is just make her water fowl either have reduced life steal or no life steal at all and honestly I’ll manage. Cause even if I mess up when I’m close and she gets me with a few hits I can tank some damage and I don’t feel like I have to do over all the damage I get
I’m fine with her having life steal on the other moves though
to avoid radahn's meteor, hop on torrent and run away after spawning him, or time the dismount animation
elemer (bell bearing hunter stage 4) can easily be beaten with range attacks.. when you are a beginner i would recommend you the blasphemous blade after defeating rykard or best him with magic attacks.. this guy is just to strong for beginners (like me)
and sorry for my bad english.. ps: really good video i love everytjing about it and it‘s clear that this was a lot of work👍🏼 thanks for the video
I half agree with what you say about Malenia. I do think she has a lot of unintuitive moves that arent easily found as to hoe you should handle it. I can agree about waterfowl in phase 1 should be health bar dependent due to the 2 phases. I woudnt say any of the mechanics are actuslly unfair though, just unituitive when learning through a "souls" lense if you're a more casual player.
What i mean is the lock on system. Most of Malenia moves, including waterfowl, are super easy to dodge if you dont lock on. The camera moving to match her is ehat messes up the correct dodge windows for many, many people, as it turns your view, thus turning your direction when dodging.
She has gauntreed ways to dodge het attacks on any build, along with wuite a few builds that can outright script phase 1 every time without issue, but again it all isnt something youre going to figure out without seriously looking outside of playtime about.
Edit: I do think as well that many people struggle because they don't want to change their playstyle for the boss. They don't want to play around specific timings, movements, builds, etc. When malenia is a boss that demands you meet her standards, rather than you opposing your own will to conquer her like every other boss
I think Malenia should be harder in both phases to balance the fight around WFD, it's my favourite boss in elden ring, but i have how unbalanced she is, even tho i don't hate the attack itself, it's harder than anything else in soulsborne games, so it should be surrounded by more difficult attacks and combos. NGL i don't know how to make her harder besides adding some new generic attack patterns in both phases, and in second phase having her spawn some rot pools like in Mogh's fight with some of the rot specific moves. Also remove healing from p1 for sure and raise poise and bleed res, and remove hyper armor from most attacks, which you didn't mention but i feel is a big consistency problem, especially if you do a lot of heavy/jump attacks.
Also the reason we like Horrah Loux is cause of his intensity and the Jojo reference!!
33: Valiant Gargoyles-E tier
32: Fia's Champions-E tier
31: Godskin Duo-D tier
30: Goldfrey-C tier
29: Mimic Tear-C tier
28: Red Wolf of Radagon-C tier
27: Regal Ancestor Spirit-C tier
26: Magma Wyrm-C tier
25: Fire Giant-B tier
24: Lannseax-B tier
23: Dragonkin Soldier of Nokstella-B tier
22: Godskin Noble-B tier
21: Leonine Misbegotten-B tier
20: Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree-B tier
19: Sir Gideon Ofnir, THE ALL KNOWING-B tier
18: Elemer of the Briar-B tier
17: Astel, Naturalborn of the Void-B tier
16: Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon-B tier
15: Elden Beast-B
14: Commander Niall-A tier
13: Full-grown Fallingstar Beast-A tier
12: Lichdragon Fortissax-A tier
11: Margit the Fell Omen-A tier
10: Malenia, Goddess of Rot-A tier
9: Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy-A tier
8: Radagon-A tier
7: Godrick the Grafted-A tier
6: Maliketh the Black Blade-S tier
5: Morgott the Omen King-S tier
4: Starscourge Radahn-S tier
3: Dragonlord Placidusax-S tier
2: Mohg, Lord of Blood-S tier
1: Godfrey the First Elden Lord-S tier
Finally another Mohg enjoyer
Living in the same household as a Mohg hater is so hard sometimes.
Great video Billy!! Agree with your rankings. I just think they need to make it so you can knock Malenia out of waterfowl dance. If a player uses her weapon, we can get knocked out of waterfowl dance if enough damage is done, why can't she? She should have her poise reduced.
Btw Marais is pronounced Muh re (and the e is pronounced like the vowel sound /e/ eee egg)
I have to fight Morgott again. I have slain him firt try because i was way overleveled (as well as for Maliketh). I fight my way back to Leyndell on 100 % right now but it will probably take a while. And i spared Placidusax on my first playthrough so i have something unique to do in the second. From that point i would probably rank Radagon or Mohg as my favorite Boss (Malenia was the best feeling after 4 hours of defeating her).
I didnt had a problem with Elden Beast running away, it was an enjoyable fight but it was maybe not so impressive because the internet spoiled me with it. Didnt had any Problem with Malenias healing mechanic either, there was never a waterfowl dance spam and i chipped her bit by bit away.
I do think it would have been best if they wanted to keep elden beast is to keep it separate from Radagon. If You have a 2 phase Radagon phase then when you go to put Marika's head back Eden beast appears and that fight is separate it'd have been best.
My list:
1. Mohg, Lord of Blood
2. Dragonlord Placidusax
3. Godskin Duo
4. Lichdragon Fortissax
5. Starscourge Radahn
6. Godskin Apostle
7. Elden Beast
8. Astel, Naturalborn of the Void
9. Bell Bearing Hunter
10. Radagon of the Golden Order
This is the weirdest list i've ever seen
Bro what, Margit is a great boos. Yeah he's hard as nails but the whole point is to get the players used to the delayed attacks and weird timings. He's the Father Gascoigne of Elden Ring
I mean, I agree. But even though I consider him a great boss, I literally just prefer the rest more. I also wouldn't compare him to Father G, who works on the same system as your hunter in Bloodborne, which adds to the fun of his fight.
Margin, very clearly, is much stronger and more overpowered in his presentation and moveset. That works more for some people, and that's totally okay, it just doesn't work for me
But hey, I have Morgott at Number 1 so I doubt Margit is upset with me.
Godskin Apostle is too low in my opinion. I have a soft spot for that long boi, he was the first boss I first-tried and was just so much fun. Plus that OST is *chefs kiss*
why summon a dragon when you can be one i found a mod where you can play as dragon lord placidusax
man i couldn't disagree more with the list but great video as always, you explained your choices very well. my favorite has to be maliketh. yes his first phase isn't nearly as good as the second and on its own it wouldn't be nearly enough to make it my favorite boss in the game but it's still really fun and his second phase is just such perfection that i don't even care that the first phase could've been better. malikeths true form is a top 3 boss in the entire series for me just based on gameplay alone. his animations are the coolest, most badass thing i've ever seen in my life and learning his moveset was fun as hell. i also love how he uses the pillars in the arena and latches onto them
i will say, i don't quite get the hype for placidusax. i mean generally i don't like most dragon fights, i don't even like kalameet and sinh all that much, and i will say that placidusax is definitely one of the better ones. in terms of visuals and the pure spectacle he's amazing but i find the actual fight, like gameplay wise, pretty fucking boring. it just takes ages to kill him with melee weapons and the fight pretty much just consists of running behind him the entire time and tickling his legs and tail. i hate that approach to dragon fights which is also why i don't like the older dragons in the series like kalameet. what makes it more frustrating for is that they had the perfect dragon boss in ds3 but then just decided to throw all of that out the window with elden ring and just go back to the boring concept of scratching away at his hind legs and not fighting him head on
I can't think of a bigger compliment than when someone disagrees with me, but also understands my perspective. Means I did my job right ^^
i just wanted to say that it is so interesting that you never want to do malenia ever again, where as i think if i could fight malenia over and over without having to go through the entire game again i would. ive done it 3 time. man when i learned to parry her and to dodge waterfowl it became addicting. but i get it though. its kinda like me and demon of hatred in sekiro. interesting how different people have different reactions and opinions. malenia is my favorite boss in fromsoft
Give it a year or two and I'll want to fight her again thinking, "Surely it wasn't that bad?" And then I'll end up reliving the horrors all over again lmao
I actually learned to dodge through malenias waterfowl dance, and if i can do it anyone can because im an average souls player. After learning the timing for it, it felt amazing. The only attack for her that sucked was the clones in my opinion, you lose track of ONE of them and its curtains, and im usually tanky. Id like to think i have great spacial awareness in games but holy hell if one of those guys clips you youre getting fucked in half
Maliketh is the one guy i never beat without cheese. Its funny, i can consistently dodge through waterfowel but can't time a parry to save my life
Omg I know you've dropped plenty of Drag Race references but was the "Twirled and swirled their whole lives" an Erika Klash in Dragula reference 👀
SOMEONE FIGURED IT OUT YESSSS
@@BillySYT I happen to fit in the incredibly small venn diagram of "people who do drag" and "people who are obsessed with SoulsBorne games" so your channel is my favorite by a wide margin ❤️
hoarah loux's second phase was disappointing to me because it was too easy to stagger him, and his health pool was so short I only saw his second phase once.
I still think godrick is the best fight in the game, and was perfectly balanced for the point in the game (unless you go off and overlevel, which I think a lot of people did)
Elden Beast wouldn’t be bad if it had a moon presence type mechanic too it. It has around 50 attacks and the story implications are cool, but no torrent turning the fight to a mandatory running simulator after Radagon is just so meh
I finally found someone who thinks Morgott is the best boss in ER🤝
I was so disappointed by the Elden Beast. The Radagon fight was perfect! The boss design, the FUCKING MUSIC that still gives me goosebumps thinking about it. Radagon gives you so much adrenaline that you unfortunately have nothing to spend it on after. I feel like it was a mistake to put such a slow boss after him. Radagon and Maliketh were two of my favourite fights.
I respect your list. But I don't agree with Melania being unfair when players always have the option of spirit ashes. If you choose not to use them, that's different, but fairness is why we have them. I didn't use them in every fight, but I definitely used them to even the odds (looking at you, Godskin duo!!!).
I 100% agree with Morgott for the gold though!
My point though, is that every boss in the game besides Malenia is both balanced for play with & without spirit ashes, as I figured out in my last playthrough. Though honestly, my main issue with Malenia is still that her moveset is overtuned regardless. The constant healing is miserable to watch.
Much appreciated for the comment though ^^
@@BillySYT I dug her move set, but the same way I prefer Rrollercoaster that launchs you 0 - 100. What made me most upset by the waterfowl dance is that it didn't look nearly as cool when I did it! I felt Elden Beast and Godskins were more unbalanced, personally. But they were more frustrating to me because they were mandatory.
To balance Malenia, I'd just take away the health drain. I mean its a mechanic that only appears in her fight and no where else in the game. Heck she's the only boss in the series and I'd argue in the genre that has said mechanic that caught me completely by surprise and threw off any strategy I could come up with. I also think she's a bit too aggressive in phase two and her clones are able to snipe you across the arena and kill you instantly.
OR, alternatively you could keep everything about Malenia the same, but drastically reduce her damage by 40%. That way her oppressive aggression is more manage-able cause the player can actually survive it and learn to deal with it. I'd bump up her damage during her second phase to instill a sense of "shits about to get real" (something I just can't get enough out of boss fights). But I also like the idea of her waterfowl being limited as its often annoying how much reach it has. And that fact that she can spam it is just aggravating.
As for Godfrey, he's essentially Ludwig but in reverse. Why Ludwig started as a feral monster that regained his sanity to face us in a honorable duel. Godfrey starts as an honorable warrior then goes fucking berserk trying to maul you down will sheer might alone. Aside from Malenia, no other boss forfeits their pride in an attempt to win. Still I too find his constant stomping to be annoying. Every boss in Elden Ring just has one thing I hate about them.
damn malenia took 141 attempts? I beat her today for my first time and she took like, 5
(Note I know she's really hard I just find her very easy lmao)
I'm so happy Mohg ended up as high as he did, I fucking adore that boss fight
And Morgott as well, I mean like, damn, when I first fought him I was FUCKED, like seriously, I died more times to him than to Malenia
Mohg was a fight that definitely took time for me to warm up to. First playthrough, I loved his design but his fight didn't do it for me. Then my bf did a playthrough and he absolutely hated the Mohg fight. But then on this playthrough with a better built, Mohg was just soooo fun. Love the lil Blood boi
Malenia is my favorite boss in the series so it kinda sucks to see her so low. Great video tho.
How to Fix Malenia
Call her Tomoe and put her in sekiro.
In from the future mogh is innocent
Margit the fell omen? More like Margret the fell Karen 🤣
Bro making Melania easier as an “improvement” ruins the entire point of melania 😂 especially as an optional boss
There's a difference between "easier" and a fight that feels fair. I think most of her difficulty works fine, but unlike literally every other hard boss in this series, I feel she's punishing in a way that doesn't spark joy lmao.
It's an opinion, you don't need to share my thoughts lol
@@BillySYT it’s an opinion you don’t need to share my thoughts lol. If you can’t put together why she’s optional that’s on you