Things to mention: 1. I guess it is kinda on me for not summoning for Leda the first time around, I just wasn’t sure where the line should be drawn as someone who generally doesn’t summon. And like I said, I have nothing against others who like to summon, some of my best friends do. 2. I liked Radahn more after my 2nd playthrough and got his moves down better, also I never mentioned how much I like his music, one of my favorites 3. I mispronounced Carian cuz I’m dumb 4. I know golden hippopotamus isn’t mandatory but he is kinda right in the direct path of a way you need to go so I figured I’d count him 5. Ngl, the main thing I have against Romina’s design is that I just don’t like how centipedes look, despite the overall design being cool
@@epsilon1372 How could you not blame him for avoiding summoning at the culmination of the entire DLC's NPC plot-lines? It's like you're trying not to have a good time--and luckly it seems he succeeded.
To be fair, Rellana is absolutely an optional boss, albeit one placed right in the main path. But on my first playthrough I went completely around the castle and got in through the nearby cliff to the exit, all by accident, so she's not that hard to avoid. What confuses me is why Romina gets no cutscene - she's actually mandatory. I wouldn't be surprised if From switched Rellana and Romina's places in the roster for some reason.
I really don't get the Bayle hype, there are so many baffling decisions fromsoft made for that fight. Why can't I target his body/severed leg? Why is the summon sign for Igon IN the boss arena? Why is Bayle so small? The dead Dragon outside is 4x his size and yet Bayle is supposed to be the oldest and vilest. I personally think Bayle is just another bad dragon fight to add to the list of bad dragon fights.
@@ZachStachelski13 Same here... My friend really hyped Bayle so much that when I got to him it was just utterly disappointing. It's mostly just a ctrl+c, ctrl+v dragon fight with like 2 new cool moves (pretty much just like placidusax). Midir is still the best dragon fight atleast for me.
What I appreciate about this DLC how it actually made summoning fun. NPCs actually speak and have multiple voice lines in the middle of combat, sometimes even having amusing conversations too. It felt like they took some lesson's from Armored Core 6's storytelling by incorporating a lot dialogue which is a refreshing change of pace from the usual cold and distant item descriptions you get from postmortem loot.
I really wish they'd reintroduce a mechanic similar to DS2 bonfire aesthetic, because while I love the summoning in the DLC from an atmosphere standpoint, I also want to fight the bosses myself.
it’s great when the npc’s actually work but me and a bunch of people i’ve seen have run into a bug where they can’t move around so i’ve been soloing every boss 😭
Fun fact: Hawkshaw pointed out that the Putrescent Knight’s body is that of a horse skeleton, just without the head. You can clearly see it after it performs its combo attack when off horseback. So this boss is essentially a horse skeleton riding its own skin.
My favorite detail about Messmer’s phase 2 is that when he becomes the Snake, his body will always be where the head ends up, making punishing him after dodging super clean. My personal #1 goes to Bayle, but that’s personal bias(I’m a HUGE Midir fan and yeah he might be eclipsed…)
I think Messmer is great but once he learn him he's a bit boring/linear. You just dodge in on every attack and punish after the combo. Not a very dynamic fight IMO.
I’m on bayle right now and I’ve gotten all of his moves down except the one where he goes up in the air breathes fire from side to side then forward then he slams down. The slam seems like it glitches sometimes and he just spawns down and other times I can see him clearly float down. I also am in consistent dodging the first fire attack and it seems to hit me every time any tips?
@@risingempires473 sometimes if you're too close to the wall the fire that goes on the floor can bounce back and hit you unfortunately :/ it's not the boss' fault its just how fire works
The fact that the fingers meant nothing, and were just there because Metyr was trying to recieve a sign from the Greater Will blew my mind when I found out.
You're legit the only person I've seen shit on the Leda fight. I understand not usually using summons, but it was immediately obvious to me that that's the way it's meant to be done. If you don't summon for a non-unique, non-boss fight and find it to be un-enjoyable, that's on you, not the game. Besides, why would anyone be so uptight about not summoning for it? It's a gank fight with NPCs - there's no unique moveset to learn, so go nuts!
Yeah lmao. Its not a boss that you can learn and bestow it. They are going to out number you and your only way would be run away and poke. Which is dumb asf. Just summon
I dont know how anybody can "like" this fight as a fight. As a story moment i like it and it was cool, but as a fight, sheesh. I had level 12 fragments and had to fight 5 10k+ health NPCs, it was frustrating. I got Ansbach after my first attempt but they spawn in really fast and just pile on you while you are constantly rotted. Not my ideal fight lol. If i wanted to be ganked, i'd went online. I know i had kinda low blessing level, but multiple opponents just excarbate the pain.
Leda fight was awesome. I'm the same as you in that I don't use summons in these games, but it makes no sense to apply that to this fight. You're expected to use them like you said, and it's not even really a boss to begin with. I think there's a difference between not using summons for legitimate reasons, and not using summons just to not use summons.
I think even despite that the fight is just not super well designed. Dryleaf fans especially causes your camera to go in weird directions and Moore is miserable to fight not cuz he’s hard but because he takes no damage and just stays behind his shield most of the time
for me the Scadurtree avatar was really cool for being one of those "sad" fights, i mean it is us findign this wilting flower at the bottom of the shadowkeep, all alone, and the third phases explosion attack and music really sell the desperate struggle that the boss is doing to survive. and my lovecraftian loving ass loved midra the most, he has some neat designs relating to the king in yellow (honestly all the frenzied flame does) and his music caught me so off guard in phase 2 i was in aw especially at the tuba sections. for me nice video.
Midra was the best for me. The way you have to go so far out of your way to even wind up in the Abyssal Woods, it feels like you’ve unknowingly made a terrible mistake, like you shouldn’t be here. The abyssal woods itself is just so atmospheric and foreboding, the messages on the floor warning you to turn back, getting JUMPSCARED OFF TORRENT and then when you try to summon him back you can’t because he’s so unnerved. Then you just wander aimlessly through the woods, trying to stick to any semblance of a path, until you reach the manor. You’re immediately “greeted” by the manor caretaker and his chilling oxymorons - “welcome, un-invited guest”. And then you make your way through the manor eventually hearing the scream of an old, decrepit man lying on the floor, he seems harmless, but you just know something is up. His howling remarks of your foolishness further amplifies the feeling of dread and mistake that has built. Then you kill him and he just grotesquely rips this giant sword outve his head, you can almost hear his slimey guts churning in his head as he slowly rips it out and then… Then…..the big reveal, the now headless man slowly turns around to reveal the Lord of Frenzied Flame, Midra, an entity we hypothesised about for two years in the base game, scraping everything we could from different enemies, npcs, and the frenzied flame ending. The fight is mesmerising. His body language, the way he almost saunters and floats around the arena, it feels as though you are fighting a psychopath that has long been contained finally unleashed, unchained, unbounded, free. He almost has an aer of gracefulness to him in the way he moves and swings his sword. He is enchanting, intimidating, and challenging all at once. A perfect boss with an unmatched presence and atmosphere.
The thing that holds him back the most, is how fsir he is. He is so fair, fairer than any other elden ring boss, that he is not that hard and the time experiencing the bossfight could be over fast.
@@Teyupume I thought he was a decent challenge. I was scadu 10 at about 20 tries. He is much fairer and forgiving then Mesmer and such though I will admit.
I love how despite being afflicted with the flame of FRENZY he has the most calm and controlled attacks of all the bosses. The lore the disign and holy crap the OST goes so hard. As far as I know Midras ost is the only one in ER with such heavy bass in it which to me made it seem even more uncanny and feel like holy crap this is a cosmic threat.
@@thehomeredonethe could’ve at least put a real divine beast with a buffed moveset there so it makes sense lore wise. The one we fought in belurat was just a imitation of the real thing. Now the second encounter is just a push over without any lasting impression. Still enjoyed it tho.
At the very least, the 2nd time around you do have access to a horse and the cover of the arena's outer pillars so you can create some space if needed... because yeah, it is definitely overwhelming as all hell (and all for an extremely underwhelming incantation... rip)
Radahn has serious visibility problems that even the most climactic fights in ds3 never have not even slave knight Gael. Also in gaels fight his move set completely changes they don’t just enhance his attacks making all of your dodging suddenly wrong when phase 2 starts.
Right? I was trying to figure out the vibe she was giving me and realise she looks like a Yu-Gi-Oh! card lol. She kinda reminds me of Black Rose Dragon or Insect Queen lol
Putrescent knight is great. It was frustrated when fighting him, but I walked away thinking about that fight fondly. Definitely underrated. One of my favorite things to do in that fight is dodge the boomerang and then jump attack over the follow up swing. It feels satisfying to pull off.
My main issue with him is the RNG of the flame attack. Sometimes he barely uses it, and sometimes he spams it over and over and over. And that inconsistency is pretty frustrating. The reason why is because I like to play really aggressively, and go for posture damage to break the bosses. But every time he does that attack, I lose basically all progress on breaking his posture as he just regains it all. If I get unlucky because he used the attack 3 times back to back, then I feel a little robbed of my main playstyle. I do like the attack, I just wish it was less RNG based, and maybe based on HP thresholds. Like maybe once at 60% and once at 30% both at guaranteed times so its never RNG based. Or maybe Fromsoft needs to refine the posture mechanic to make it so bosses doing big cinematic attacks like that dont recover posture, so that way your progress towards breaking them isnt undone simply because you got bad RNG and they did a long attack you cant hit them during. I really enjoy the posture mechanic, but I think it needs some polishing up in the souls games. Sekiro was much more centralized around it, but it feels like somewhat of an afterthought in Elden ring. Outside of that though, I did enjoy the boss quite a bit.
This is the only fight that I allowed myself a summon because this deserved to have the final hit on Bayle. He just hates him so much and I wouldn't want to take that away from him.
You forget to say how fucking cool mesmer grab attack looks, and also it's really easy to dodge, but i might have let him hit me twice just to hear the explosion sounds.
I know you showcased some of Igon’s screaming during the fight but I also think he’s a huge part of Bayle’s buildup even before the dragon priestess. Just wandering around to see some psycho screaming on the floor was great and then seeing that he’s dragged himself up halfway a mountain fuelled by pure hatred was so peak. S tier npc
I must say that i love Saint of bud design it's so cool as she is spiderscorpion-scolopede-woman-flower-fly hybrid and that one jump attack with red light is awesome
Midra is the best fight in not just the dlc, but the whole game. The moveset, ost, and visual effects are masterclasses in what elden ring can provide. Add in the fact they were able to make a boss around the worst status effect in the game, and its not infuriating is insanely commendable
Bayle is my new favorite fromsoft boss. They finally perfected the dragon fight. That fight everything: intensity, spectacle, OST, difficulty, hype, a fantastic buildup and story, and my GOAT Igon. Absolute cinema
Another odd thing about Gaius is the fact that he uses the same music as niall and leonine misbegotten along with the other misbegotten warrior (the one that use the golden order gs),whereas Jori, elder inquisitor, gets his own unique theme,and he is an open field boss, btw unlike Gaius who is a remembrance boss. ( I'm pretty sure someone mentioned that Jori was gonna have his own remembrance as well, hence why the unique theme during his fight) Anyways, I appreciate you for trying to list out at least one positive for every boss. Have a nice day, Chad!
great list!! glad to see putrescent knight getting some love, it’s such an underrated gem with great flow. that fall into fighting it (and the arena itself) also remind me so much of midir. messmer was also my favorite boss. my god, the flow to that fight approached gael levels for me personally. super fun, challenging but extremely punishable. especially in phase 2- his snake attacks all feel super high risk, high reward. tricky to dodge but with huge openings. i love it.
@@jessetroy7761 Idk for sure if I’ll do a dedicated video about the areas. But I’ll definitely be making a review of the DLC where that stuff will get a fair amount of discussion.
@@chadofastoraexcited for that!! I’m really split between Milady (or just any light greatsword) and the backhand blades. The movesets for them are just too clean man
Bayle´s phase transition reminded me of Demon prince, the rumbling, rearing up with the giant fiery wings unfolding. A great callback to one of my favorite bosses from DS3.
Last night I finished the dlc 100% all bosses first playthrough and man what a banger 10/10. I found "the centre of shadow lands tower" as my final location accidentally and man this shit was half the size of elden ring. It made me laugh "it's the size of limgrave" God damn miazaki 😂😂
Something no one talks about is how the dancing lion will not only sync its phase changes up with the music, but also how it'll try to sync ALL of its moves with the music. It's amazing.
I’m so glad that most reviews I’ve seen agree that Messmer’s Assault is like the best boss attack of all time. I don’t even know WHAT makes it so fun to dodge, but once I got it down I just knew that it’s pretty much peak Elden Ring gameplay.
In my opinion, the best way to fight the promised contort is to use the defect tear from one of the furnace golems as it not only allows you to react block the really fast two hit swing but also defect the clone attacks with little to no stamina loss, just dodge the area wide laser attack, because you will 8/10 times get guard broken and then get hit bet another lazer with exta damage.
I see everyone complaining about the charge but it's pretty easy to dodge if you sprint and jump to the side same as radahns meteor attack(the one with the 5 comets he throws) just jump left to or right while sprinting
This! You gotta be sprinting to the sides and roll/jump. You can roll it, but its easier to jump cause you don't have to go at a 45 degree angle like when you roll it
I really dont get this "bayle is not a rememberance " thing. No. He is. He is a rememberance boss. He drops a thing that you can turn into two different things you have to choose. They just wanted to make a lore with the big dragon altar and the lady there.
That’s not a bad point actually. But the remembrance icons are just so cool looking in my opinion, and they also provide lore. I love to hold onto them for as long as I can so I can look at them from time to time.
Thank you man putricent knight is super underrated and definitely one of my favorite bosses and the most fair boss in the dlc imo And cammander gauis is over hated
The way I view the Leda fight is from the lens of a test. It checks the player on their interactions with all the NPCs and how they went about it. It test the player’s character for how you choose to change the eventual battle. Let’s use Hornsent as an example, upon your second encounter, mine was after reaching the tower and going back to talk to him and Leda. He will go off to the tower and then Leda goes paranoid and either with or without (without for me) your input goes off to hunt Hornsent. Aiding Leda presumably kills him. Aiding Hornsent will make him a summon for Mesmer and probably make him not aid Leda - someone could probably fact check that. Now summoning him effects his quest, I summoned and he simply left before invading at the church of bud - I am unsure if he does anything differently if you don’t summon him. And that is just one quest that lowers Leda’s pool of allies. You can also take out Moorne either by provoking him by killing the foragers brood or just saying “remain sad forever” or just tell him do nothing by just saying “I don’t know” I’m pretty sure there is a way to get Freyja to do nothing but I wanted her sheild for the collection. (Ansbach item) Then you can gain 2 allies by doing both Ansbach and forgive my butchering of the name if I have Thoiller’s quest which is pretty easy to do by exploring. Dane is the only person here who cannot be dealt with before the confrontation thus duelling him is mainly for the fun dryleaf arts. Quite the test as you can see. And a fight that warrants the use of summons and if you wish to have an extra meat sheild or sheilds a spirit ash can help (I brought the horned warrior to deal with Freyja and to my surprise he nearly won and only fell due to Leda also attacking him before Ansbach got her agro) out number or even the numbers if you happened to for whatever weird reason let everyone become an enemy. That is my perspective on the fight but I can see why many dislike it. And if you read this far I thank you for your time, have a good day or night. (Personally I enjoy it in the same sense as I enjoyed the Radhn festival but I think that was better due to it being only 1 target.)
I am pretty sure the Putrescent Knight is some kind of slime-like creature whose head replaces the skull of the horse-- the skeleton is the horse's skeleton riding its own boneless body that is filled with the slime that controls them both.
Messmer had so much live up too being so heavily marketed and he delivered so well and so much better than I think anyone could’ve expected his fight is what I can only describe as decadence it’s a master class of game design. I knew he would never be as hard as Melania because the general consensus is that in the base game one of the optional bosses is always the hardest and the DLC. The final boss is always the hardest, but he balances, visuals, difficulty and fun altogether, it’s impossible not to love him
I always thought everyone was talking about the gravity spin charge when complaining about gaius, but I do agree now that I know it’s that charge. The timing is tight, but I’ve found consistent success rolling forward and to the right right about when the boar’s tusk is touching or about to touch you, though maybe that’s just because I play with light roll idk lol
Yeah, I summoned a Mimic tear and we just wobbled the lad's for a while with our scaleblades. And since I had to deal with the divine lion folk beforehand I'd say I deserve it.
@@kenanperez3151 if he made multiple points like he did, that is indeed not yapping about one thing 😭. Your comment seems hateful of people that don’t summon, just because some people like to challenge themselves don’t mean you need to be a dick 😭
@@strictly_fadesit’s nice that there is someone backing him up on this since it seems like the whole comment section is criticizing him for not summoning. Sometimes I don’t understand the souls community. Noooo you can’t summon for bosses. Except for this one. And that one
I thought all the main DLC bosses were so peak. If many of the bosses were in other games or the base game they would’ve gotten S tier, like Rellana. Shoutout to death knight as well, bro is the drip king.
Messmer is the top 3 bosses in the entire souls series. Base game elden ring bosses are nothing compared to him. And also an amazing video CHAD+ I love your editing. Keep it up
Great rankings, only one I wish was placed a bit higher was Midra because I'm biased LOL. He was my personal favorite, but I really appreciated the Putrescent Knight love. Such an underrated boss and I always have a blast fighting against his whacky, but fun moveset.
placidusax drops a remembrance because he's an ancient dragon. when you kill ancient dragons in the main game they don't drop anything. most of them drop dragon stones. when you kill drakes in the main game, all of them give you dragon hearts. bayle is the father of all drakes. idk why but drakes drop dragon hearts while ancient dragons don't
It has to do with the lore of dragon communion. Part of the war between dragons and drakes was that the dragons have cursed the drakes to be hunted for their hearts for the sake of dragon communion. Doing so can turn you more into a dragon. So its for lore reasons. There are a lot more details than just that, but thats the jist of it.
my main problem with Radhan fight is that my computer have lags during this fight. I've checked and I shouldn't have problems with my computer but lags are still there.
Genuinely you made my favorite Ranking of DLC Bosses so far. Can agree on most of your views and even the takes I do not I don't mind at all because you are able to make your subjective view very clear. Most of the time I get in discussion with people about the DLC is simply because they argue as their pov has to be objectively true wich somewhat triggers me. Thank your for the Video. I enjoyed it very much 😊
Great video with balanced thoughts! It’s really refreshing to see someone who can have legitimate criticisms of the Radahn fight while still singing it’s praises and being overall happy with it. Despite my criticisms of it I can’t help but kind of love phase 2 for how fucking insane it is despite frustrations. And when you do get everything right on an attempt or victory run it’s unbelievable and surprisingly smooth
25:20 CURSE YOU BAYLE! I HEREBY VOW! YOU WILL RUE THIS DAY! BEHOLD, A TRUE DRAKE WARRIOR! AND I, IGON! YOUR FEAR MADE FLESH! SOLID OF SCALE YOU MIGHT BE, FOUL DRAGON... BUT I WILL RIDDLE WITH HOLES YOUR ROTTEN HIDE! WITH A HAIL OF HARPOONS! WITH EVERY LAST DROP OF MY BEING!
I loved the fight with Leda and her allies. It was everything I wanted Roundtable hold to be. A group of people, bound only by their search for a common goal, and undone by their discovery of said goal. Even if gameplay wise it is the worst, the emotional impact and buildup was perfect I agree though, I think the fight should have totally changed depending on if you summoned or not (If you summon, they come as a group, if you don't, one at a time, etc..)
if anyone has trouble on romina you just have to hug tight. Most of her multi hit moves have far hitboxes and dont hit close to her body, thats why sometimes you can dodge the multihit spin with one dodge. Stick close and dodge to the side opposite to whatever move she uses and shes very doable and fun
Messmer was so amazing he converted me to being a fire knight. Now I serve under his banner burning all that the hornsent hold dear. "Those stripped of the Grace of Gold shall all meet death. In the embrace of Messmer's flame."
I like to see the messmer and putrescent knight love Also, anyone struggling with gaius charge, I found that it was much easier to roll diagonally out of the way at 11 o clock or 1 o clock as opposed to straight through at 12 o clock. It's still annoying how fast it comes out and how often he'll sometimes do it, but I found that adjustment made it much less punishing.
I wound up shamefully cheesing him with Stone of Gurranq from the bridge like a coward. The whirlwind incantation was the last thing I needed before starting NG+3 and I just had no patience. The basilisks spawned on the bridge behind me and they still nearly got me 😂😂😂
He was actually quite fun with summons. Still a bad fight solo but I recommend summoning as it’s fun to watch the squad hold the basilisks back while you take the lion head on
My favorite part about messmers intro is that he starts off with the attitude of a brooding menace but as soon as he realizes youre tarnished you can hear him falter in his faith to his mother through his change in tone
Great video Chad!! you never fail to impress me on your video editing, commentary and explanation on the games. You deserve way more subs than you have right now and also don't push yourself too hard if you do not feel like making a video do not make it take your time in making videos true fans will always stick with their favorite youtubers. You are the best souls youtuber in my opinion
I adore Midra personally for his soundtrack playing such a huge part in his fight. Every move he does just feels so in tune with the soundtrack and therefore every move he makes, forces you to play along with it, making it feel like a true dance of insanity. That to me makes him by far the best boss in the DLC alongside how fair he is and with how much clarity his moves are presented and the phenomenal lore surrounding him and his build up. It's a masterclass.
@@akuma7773 Ik it’s a mechanic of the game, but I still feel like fromsoft has always ensured to make every boss still reasonably doable without summons, that said, still on me since it’s sorta not a boss anyway
you should stand a good chance to beat any boss without using summons. it shouldnt be used as a crutch to inflate the difficulty of a fight if you dont use them.
After learning Radahn, he’s not too bad mechanically. Extremely unforgiving, but ultimately fair other than the 1-2-X slash, and fun to duel with once you know the moves. My issue, other than the lore and re-appearance, is the aesthetics. It’s a mess. The holy and gravity magic clash visually, there isn’t enough variety in gravity moves, everything is too washed out and yellow, and the one bloodflame ability is just bizarrely out of place (I get that it’s Mohg’s body). I love the epic over-the-top anime violence of his attacks and his extremely intimidating impression, and the phase 2 intro with him towering in front of the Divine Gate with Miquella gesturing on his back is HYPE, but overall it just doesn’t look great. But yeah mechanically I think he’s actually a good boss.
I think the fight would have been much better if it was Godwin’s body that radahns soul was put in, we could’ve finally have fought every demigod (I think)
Gaius is actually awesome. Im glad you took a nuanced approach to talking about him because too many people say its outright trash because his 1 charge move. Its the one thing holding him back from A tier for me.
Nah hes garbage for other reasons too. His hitboxes are inexplicably retarded at times. Sometimes I got hit twice with the same attack which was very enjoyable. Thats where my hate for him stems from.
To me, Radahns Giga Combo in Phase 2 is the most fun combo to dodge in all of Souls. Its intuitive, spectacle, the god rays dont matter if youre close, it doesnt do too much damage if you only get hit by 1 or 2 swiped and it just looks AWESOME, as well as leaving a good punish window. Peak Fromsoft for me, along with Messmers Giga Combo and Bayles Lasers. This DLC truly has some of the highest highs ive ever seen.
I find both Romina and Putrscent knight way fun the Radahn. The AOE and that 3 hit criss-cross slash just feels cheap. Plus the first attack kills my FPS and i need to consistently look away from it. Funnily enough Radahn was nowhere near as difficult as Malenia and pretty much not even close to any of the inner sekiro bosses. Its just a good moveset with AOE tacked on to it, whereas Malenia is just all-round an excellent moveset which is fun to learn and fun to dodge.
Melanias moveset is definitely not all around excellent, Water fowl dance and the spirit clone attack are both BS and they're the only reason the boss is difficult. Melania is the only ER boss that I didn't have any desire to try and beat without summons because the fight wasn't enjoyable to me at all
@@nickkelly3199 WFD is not the best move but its not that bad dude. You can run away from it surprising late, the only time where its bs is when she cancels her stagger into it. Plus the clone attack is bullshit i agree, but its done once or twice through out the second phase whereas Radahn’s criss-cross apple sauce attack is done as part of his basic moveset. Plus the biggest complain about malenia is that some of her move (WFD and clone attack) is unintuitve and pretty much requires googling, well radahn’s clone attack and criss-cross applesauce requires googling too, and he had like 3 variations of the clone attack. Not to mention in phase 2 if you get hit the second swing light of the criss-cross attack sometimes you get frametrap into the next attack. I mean my main grip with malenia is WFD is BS sometimes and the clone attack requires googling, whereas Radahn’s moveset is that on steroids.
@@dudeiii2069 Buddy, Malenia's moveset is NOT excellent, which you would know if you'd actually bothered to learn it. All of her attacks incentivize simply outranging them instead of actually dodging. Slow weapons are awful to use as you quite literally need to wait for her to perform 10 attack combo strings in order to get a couple hits in. With faster weapons you can interrupt her mid-combo, which makes her slightly better, but her moves just aren't that clean to dodge, some have almost no start-up and punish you too harshly for rolling in the wrong direction. The fact that the best way to dodge her moves is simply to walk backwards instead of actually engaging is trash design. That's not to mention her annoying first phase where all she does is slowly walk around you in a circle, not attacking and just waiting for you to do a jumping heavy on her. Extremely dull fight with a slow weapon, still boring but less so with a fast weapon.
@@eg-a2357 I beat her on level 1 so i definitely learned it. Nice of you to just make random assumption. Also what do you mean by all of her attack incentivise spacing? I felt like you’re the one who didn’t learn the boss, there are moves that actually have decent forward momentum and will catch you even if you try to sprint away, and even if you manage to sprint away she either repeats the move or if you decides to running attack here there is a chance she chains her attack into a hyper armor swing overhead swing which results in a trade, whereas if you were to dodge into her during chase down move she continues her normal attack chain and likely ends with the hyper jumping overhead swing allowing for a punish. What else doesn’t allow you to out space? Second phase have her do a hyper armor kick if you try to outspace her attack and the clone attack requires 2 roll backward and 3 rolls forward, you cannot space that either. When you say slow weapon I’m assuming you’re talking about collosal hammers and the optimal strategy is jump attacks and charge attacks for almost every boss and malenia is no different. If you’re talking about weapons like great hammers or greataxes you can just delay your attacks and interrupt her attacks after she dodges very consistently, those are barely considered slow weapons, and they have a lot of stance damage too. For her sweep after her light attack you really can just double dodge diagonally to the right or just space it. Theres nothing wrong out-spacing a boss, idk why thats a bad thing, in fact its kinda nice that a decent part of the boss is spacing, you do a combination of sprint taping to get out of the way and rolls to avoid attacks with forward momentum, i don see how thats bad at all. And if you find the first phase boring you can always just up the pacing by being more aggressive since the boss can actually be staggered. You don’t need to wait a 10 hit combo for you attack, once again spacing and strafing a real thing. And if you find youself stuck in a loop where she keeps doing her chase down attack it means you need to dodge into her rather than away from her for it to stop. In my opinion she’s an exellent boss that allows players to space her attack so you can go for longer moves, you can interrupt her attack (even with great hammers and greataxes) with good spacing. Thats just my opinion, lets agree to disagree I guess.
@@dudeiii2069 I've killed the boss RL1 WL0 no status, I think I know what I'm talking about. If you need proof, look up loopines zweihander kill. Extremely boring first phase, maybe I was a bit hyperbolic when saying "10-hit combos" but you get the point. My opinion has maybe soured a bit since I had to no-hit her first phase in order to save my physick for her 2nd, but I still fail to see how you're finding it fun to sprint around after her every time she disengages. That's not to mention the fact that she can waterfowl after backstepping, meaning you can't even do a running attack and need to simply bait her swing once she gets below 70%. Such an annoying slog of a fight, there's no rhythm to any of it. Her phase 2 is marginally better but now she also has her stupid clone move that she spams alongside waterfowl.
Messmer is now my favorite boss of all time. Not only is everything about him in lore, moveset, arena, look, weapons, and music badass, but I never felt like it was bs when I died. I always felt like it was my fault and it made me hyped to learn how to actually dodge his attacks and when I could actually punish. He’s just incredible to fight and makes it fun to learn him. I know some people didn’t like his snake attacks but personally on my final run of him I didn’t get hit once by them and felt like they were pretty fair when I died from them like “yeah I can see how that hit me”. And also I’m a bit bias because I killed him after getting a message appraisal healing me into 2nd phase, not getting hit once during second phase and finishing him with a visceral attack. Overall fucking amazing
@@duckyduckington9736 Bro, I love DS2. But that game doesnt come near Elden Ring in terms of quality, Fume kinght is a good boss, he is well made. and if we count all of the shit they put in that game, he still no the best in the game, so chill
Commander Gaius is my personal favorite. But I can agree that charge attack is wonky. It just doesn’t feel right to teleport through the bull. If you don’t you’ll get stun locked into that charge loop 😫
I completely agree with your thoughts on Radahn. There has been a lot of people calling the fight bullshit and saying it is filled with artificial difficulty but I honestly think this is just people’s knee jerk reaction to how hard the fight is. It’s just basically a really long and super punishing endurance fight in the same vain as a boss like Demon of Hatred or Orphan of Kos but at a much faster pace than either of those fights. The fight as a whole is definitely a lot more fair and less artificial with it’s difficulty than Malenia was in the base game. And unlike with Malenia, there wasn’t any part of me that felt like I just got lucky when I beat Radahn. It felt like I actually learned his moveset and got better at the fight which is always the sign of a truly fair challenge in one of these games
Surprising you’re experience was completely opposite to mine beating Radahn for me was a matter of luck and the endure AOW. I keep getting fps drop on his first attack and sometimes where he just decides to cast that big AOE when you’re healing or in a recovery of any kind you’re just gonna get hit. He can do his clone attacks out if neutral so in phase 2 you’re limited to just getting 1 or 2 hits off (depending on weapon speed) because if he bust that out while you’re in recovery frames you’re gonna get hit too. That criss-cross attack is also kinda bs so i ended up just tanking the second hit as well because you need to be light roll with frame perfect dodge to avoid it. When you really think about it the boss moveset is no where near as good as Malenia’s or relanna, i feels like they just add a bunch of AOE to make the boss harder. Also miquella hair blocking like half of his attack start up frames definitely did not help. Funnily enough Radahn was difficult but it was no where near malenia even with all that big AOE. Personally i just prefer bosses with clean movesets and low screen clutter. Edit: don’t get me wrong Radahn is a good boss. The only move that i find bullshit is the crisscross apple sauce, the big funny AOE and miquella’s hair. The rest is fine but the after effect doesn’t add anything either than difficulty, if thats the case then why have it? Difficult fights are only fun when theres a reason for the attack to be difficult, AOE after effects are just there for the sake of being difficult, it doesn’t add anything to the boss.
Yeah I think it's a fair but difficult fight. The only moves I think are a bit bullshit is the second phase version of the attack when he flies up into the sky and sends out gravity rocks since the follow up is insanely tough to dodge, and also the stupid combo when he does two slashes and then a cross slash. It comes out way too fast and after hours and hours of fighting him I still don't know how to dodge it, I always get caught by the first slash when he does it. Honestly I wish that move didn't exist.
Only time will decide the quality of this fight I Guess. I started despising Malenia, then I follow Up loving her just because she was really hard, and now im much more neutral to her, It has things I like, It has things I dont like, and has things that feels as wasted potential.
For context: I play a strength/faith build using the eclipse moon shield and a Magma Wyrm Scaleblade with a mimic tear that I summon at the start of most boss fights. I say most because Messmer is one of the few bosses to make me leave the mimic tear out of the fight. And honestly that alongside messmer being a really well made boss has him up there as one of my personal favorites, along side starscourge Radahn, the godskin duo, the divine dancing lion & Malenia. The reason I like Messmer so much is because like Malenia it felt like I was fighting my opposite, with them being much quicker in attack speed and being able to bypass my shields defences. Not to mention just how cinematic the whole thing felt, with two different ends of the flaming spectrum: Messmers own fire vs the Magma Wyrms lava. Finally I just really like snakes and this guy did not disappoint in any way! Edit: I have recently just beat both the Scadu Tree Avatar & Midra and I didn't even think about using the mimic. The Scadu Tree Avatar because it took me two tries to kill it and it was a fun gimick & Midra simply because he doesn't give you the opportunity to summon it. Even then, I absolutely enjoyed fighting both of them for completely diffrent reasons.
omg another Putrescent Knight enjoyer 🤝, his moves are so freaking good. Horse gank combo is one of my favorites move to dodge in this game by far, this fight really testing your spacing. Like for example, the boomerang throw where he does it with some distance from you, if you can dodge into it and space yourself in his melee range he will do a low sweep that you can jump over and do a heavy jump attack. Or the attack where it slam down its cleaver twice. This attack you can either get into his right side and he will miss does more time for punish window. Or you can just dodge it and get less punish in but safer. Or even his horse gank combo again where if your spacing is bad you will get overlap with their combo. And also some of the few fights that emphasize jumping too, its a unique boss I really appreciate it. Arena is cool albeit its too obvious where they copy this from. Music is so so good setting in peak atmosphere. just only couple thing that I don't like, 1 the horse scream attack is too fast or the telegraph is too subtle to be fair and I suck at dodging it, 2 its a sleep theme area and the boss is not even sleep base he only got froze bite like wtf fromsoft .
Things to mention:
1. I guess it is kinda on me for not summoning for Leda the first time around, I just wasn’t sure where the line should be drawn as someone who generally doesn’t summon. And like I said, I have nothing against others who like to summon, some of my best friends do.
2. I liked Radahn more after my 2nd playthrough and got his moves down better, also I never mentioned how much I like his music, one of my favorites
3. I mispronounced Carian cuz I’m dumb
4. I know golden hippopotamus isn’t mandatory but he is kinda right in the direct path of a way you need to go so I figured I’d count him
5. Ngl, the main thing I have against Romina’s design is that I just don’t like how centipedes look, despite the overall design being cool
I would say about the Leda fight summoning was intended but I also can’t exactly blame you for thinking otherwise.
Even with summons that fight is unforgiving, especially if you add on Freyja
*Corrupted Monk of Sekiro (Not Elden Ring)
@@epsilon1372 How could you not blame him for avoiding summoning at the culmination of the entire DLC's NPC plot-lines? It's like you're trying not to have a good time--and luckly it seems he succeeded.
I've never summoned an NPC before this DLC, but Igon and adding Thollier and Anbasch for story couldn't be passed up.
It is stoopid that rellana not getting a cutscene but a bridge in volcano manor gets one
@@SlippySouls Bruh 💀
Bridge cutscene is PEAK wdym
this is so incredibly true... the best fight of the DLC gets done dirty.
To be fair, Rellana is absolutely an optional boss, albeit one placed right in the main path. But on my first playthrough I went completely around the castle and got in through the nearby cliff to the exit, all by accident, so she's not that hard to avoid. What confuses me is why Romina gets no cutscene - she's actually mandatory. I wouldn't be surprised if From switched Rellana and Romina's places in the roster for some reason.
@@amcname8789 so do most of the bosses of the main game and the bigger ones still get a cutscean
Midra, Bayle, and Messmer seems to be the canon top 3 everywhere and I wholeheartedly agree
@@mike20pr Just too hard to deny their awesomeness
To me messmer was a 9.5 out of 10
Bayle and midra were 9 out of 10
The holy trinity just like isshin, gael, and ludwig
I really don't get the Bayle hype, there are so many baffling decisions fromsoft made for that fight. Why can't I target his body/severed leg? Why is the summon sign for Igon IN the boss arena? Why is Bayle so small? The dead Dragon outside is 4x his size and yet Bayle is supposed to be the oldest and vilest.
I personally think Bayle is just another bad dragon fight to add to the list of bad dragon fights.
@@ZachStachelski13 Same here... My friend really hyped Bayle so much that when I got to him it was just utterly disappointing. It's mostly just a ctrl+c, ctrl+v dragon fight with like 2 new cool moves (pretty much just like placidusax). Midir is still the best dragon fight atleast for me.
Not summoning Igon and not summoning in the Leda fight should be considered a criminal offence.
Igon is what makes Bayle so good, without him he wouldn't be top 3
Yeah its pretty much the point of the Leeda fight, battle royale
The reason the Leda fight is GOOD is because of the avengers moment. Both righteous in their goals, but entirely different methods forced to fight.
@@gak1675 bayle is a top 3 fight because bayle is awesome, Igon is goated in his own right
Yeah fight bayle without igon and you'll start to hate him
What I appreciate about this DLC how it actually made summoning fun.
NPCs actually speak and have multiple voice lines in the middle of combat, sometimes even having amusing conversations too.
It felt like they took some lesson's from Armored Core 6's storytelling by incorporating a lot dialogue which is a refreshing change of pace from the usual cold and distant item descriptions you get from postmortem loot.
Hornsent's intro to Messmer's fight goes so hard
BAYYYLLLLLEE, VILE BAYLLLLLLLLE
I really wish they'd reintroduce a mechanic similar to DS2 bonfire aesthetic, because while I love the summoning in the DLC from an atmosphere standpoint, I also want to fight the bosses myself.
I was watching my cousin struggle to kill Radahn and I had to hear Ansbach go “Ah General Radahn it’s a pleasure to meet you” like 600 times lmao.
it’s great when the npc’s actually work but me and a bunch of people i’ve seen have run into a bug where they can’t move around so i’ve been soloing every boss 😭
Fun fact: Hawkshaw pointed out that the Putrescent Knight’s body is that of a horse skeleton, just without the head. You can clearly see it after it performs its combo attack when off horseback. So this boss is essentially a horse skeleton riding its own skin.
Oh
Oh I don't like that image
Only thing to note is that the Golden Hippo isn't mandatory. You can access Shadowkeep and its bosses through the Church District.
Was going to comment this 👍
There are just 3 required bosses in the dlc
@@Lerbon_Janesyeah Romina, Messmer and Promised Consort
@@Lerbon_Janes Leda is also required
@@mfrunyanno health bar. No boss
My favorite detail about Messmer’s phase 2 is that when he becomes the Snake, his body will always be where the head ends up, making punishing him after dodging super clean. My personal #1 goes to Bayle, but that’s personal bias(I’m a HUGE Midir fan and yeah he might be eclipsed…)
I think Messmer is great but once he learn him he's a bit boring/linear. You just dodge in on every attack and punish after the combo. Not a very dynamic fight IMO.
@@ZachStachelski13 isn't that how you fight radahn too
I’m on bayle right now and I’ve gotten all of his moves down except the one where he goes up in the air breathes fire from side to side then forward then he slams down. The slam seems like it glitches sometimes and he just spawns down and other times I can see him clearly float down. I also am in consistent dodging the first fire attack and it seems to hit me every time any tips?
@@risingempires473 sometimes if you're too close to the wall the fire that goes on the floor can bounce back and hit you unfortunately :/ it's not the boss' fault its just how fire works
@@skiburc2252 Yea absolutely. But to a slightly less egregious degree.
Bro didn’t summon for the followers fight 😭😭
Like it's so sad because with summons it's legit perfect
@@thedarkwolf5637not perfect but still pretty god for an noc boss
If you don’t summon for at least that fight, you’re just doing yourself dirty
Anecdotally, I summoned and found her fight utterly forgettable because it was too easy.
@@chadofastoraBut complaining about a fight where you didn't even do it using the intented method is pretty unfair
Bayle technically has a remembrance, his heart gives you 2 options on what to get. Though they're both dragon communion spells.
Nah man that leta fight as a 3v5 is one of my favourite fights of the dlc
It's my favourite fight in the dlc tbh 🗿 (with 2 summons only obvsly)
My favorite fromsoft boss even it's so unique
The fact that the fingers meant nothing, and were just there because Metyr was trying to recieve a sign from the Greater Will blew my mind when I found out.
You're legit the only person I've seen shit on the Leda fight. I understand not usually using summons, but it was immediately obvious to me that that's the way it's meant to be done. If you don't summon for a non-unique, non-boss fight and find it to be un-enjoyable, that's on you, not the game. Besides, why would anyone be so uptight about not summoning for it? It's a gank fight with NPCs - there's no unique moveset to learn, so go nuts!
Exactly complete horrible decision on him not on anyone else
Summoned on the fight and it’s still just boring so I get it. Same as the tank fight in DS2 just with better story but still not fun gameplay
Yeah lmao. Its not a boss that you can learn and bestow it. They are going to out number you and your only way would be run away and poke. Which is dumb asf. Just summon
I missed like all questlines and had to fight Hornsent, Moore Dane and Leda with Nataan on my side
I missed out on such an amazing fight it seems
I dont know how anybody can "like" this fight as a fight. As a story moment i like it and it was cool, but as a fight, sheesh. I had level 12 fragments and had to fight 5 10k+ health NPCs, it was frustrating. I got Ansbach after my first attempt but they spawn in really fast and just pile on you while you are constantly rotted. Not my ideal fight lol. If i wanted to be ganked, i'd went online. I know i had kinda low blessing level, but multiple opponents just excarbate the pain.
Leda fight was awesome. I'm the same as you in that I don't use summons in these games, but it makes no sense to apply that to this fight. You're expected to use them like you said, and it's not even really a boss to begin with. I think there's a difference between not using summons for legitimate reasons, and not using summons just to not use summons.
@@rayquaza1245 Fair point, idk I just didn’t know where the line should be drawn, like I said I enjoyed it more the 2nd time
I think even despite that the fight is just not super well designed. Dryleaf fans especially causes your camera to go in weird directions and Moore is miserable to fight not cuz he’s hard but because he takes no damage and just stays behind his shield most of the time
Same
It’s the only group fight that I liked. Also, I saw it as an reward for doing all the quest lines so I used summons.
for me the Scadurtree avatar was really cool for being one of those "sad" fights, i mean it is us findign this wilting flower at the bottom of the shadowkeep, all alone, and the third phases explosion attack and music really sell the desperate struggle that the boss is doing to survive.
and my lovecraftian loving ass loved midra the most, he has some neat designs relating to the king in yellow (honestly all the frenzied flame does) and his music caught me so off guard in phase 2 i was in aw especially at the tuba sections. for me nice video.
Midra was the best for me.
The way you have to go so far out of your way to even wind up in the Abyssal Woods, it feels like you’ve unknowingly made a terrible mistake, like you shouldn’t be here.
The abyssal woods itself is just so atmospheric and foreboding, the messages on the floor warning you to turn back, getting JUMPSCARED OFF TORRENT and then when you try to summon him back you can’t because he’s so unnerved. Then you just wander aimlessly through the woods, trying to stick to any semblance of a path, until you reach the manor.
You’re immediately “greeted” by the manor caretaker and his chilling oxymorons - “welcome, un-invited guest”. And then you make your way through the manor eventually hearing the scream of an old, decrepit man lying on the floor, he seems harmless, but you just know something is up. His howling remarks of your foolishness further amplifies the feeling of dread and mistake that has built. Then you kill him and he just grotesquely rips this giant sword outve his head, you can almost hear his slimey guts churning in his head as he slowly rips it out and then…
Then…..the big reveal, the now headless man slowly turns around to reveal the Lord of Frenzied Flame, Midra, an entity we hypothesised about for two years in the base game, scraping everything we could from different enemies, npcs, and the frenzied flame ending.
The fight is mesmerising. His body language, the way he almost saunters and floats around the arena, it feels as though you are fighting a psychopath that has long been contained finally unleashed, unchained, unbounded, free. He almost has an aer of gracefulness to him in the way he moves and swings his sword.
He is enchanting, intimidating, and challenging all at once. A perfect boss with an unmatched presence and atmosphere.
The thing that holds him back the most, is how fsir he is. He is so fair, fairer than any other elden ring boss, that he is not that hard and the time experiencing the bossfight could be over fast.
@@Teyupume I thought he was a decent challenge. I was scadu 10 at about 20 tries. He is much fairer and forgiving then Mesmer and such though I will admit.
I love how despite being afflicted with the flame of FRENZY he has the most calm and controlled attacks of all the bosses. The lore the disign and holy crap the OST goes so hard. As far as I know Midras ost is the only one in ER with such heavy bass in it which to me made it seem even more uncanny and feel like holy crap this is a cosmic threat.
the only issue is his ridiculously low resistances. He has low poise and can be bled and frozen very frequently.
just put the fries in the bag bro
14:00 dont forget the one at the rauh ruins with a deathblight transition that spawns in basilisks everytime💀
Yeah... I was legit sad too when I saw that. Literally ruined my fond memories with the original divine beast
@@thehomeredonethe could’ve at least put a real divine beast with a buffed moveset there so it makes sense lore wise. The one we fought in belurat was just a imitation of the real thing. Now the second encounter is just a push over without any lasting impression. Still enjoyed it tho.
At the very least, the 2nd time around you do have access to a horse and the cover of the arena's outer pillars so you can create some space if needed... because yeah, it is definitely overwhelming as all hell (and all for an extremely underwhelming incantation... rip)
@@mt2r-music I did enjoy it too..... but just why. I would've preferred to fight another wild hippo instead of that.
It definetly a better reuse than the Dragon Slayer Armor being in a random swamp in the ringed city
Bro saw the two summon signs and went “nah I’ll solo it”
Radahn has serious visibility problems that even the most climactic fights in ds3 never have not even slave knight Gael. Also in gaels fight his move set completely changes they don’t just enhance his attacks making all of your dodging suddenly wrong when phase 2 starts.
Tip: dodge forwards
gael's moveset in phase 3 is very repetitive compared to his p1 and 2
@@masonstewart6232no, dodge diagonally
This complaint never made sense to me. Even when dodging incorrectly so the beams were covering him, I could always envision what he was doing.
@friendlyneighborhoodghost1317 exactly this, he's a big man it'd be hard to not see him
Romina, Saint of the Bud looks like the flagship monster for a long forgotten Yu-Gi-Oh! set.
Right? I was trying to figure out the vibe she was giving me and realise she looks like a Yu-Gi-Oh! card lol. She kinda reminds me of Black Rose Dragon or Insect Queen lol
Putrescent knight is great. It was frustrated when fighting him, but I walked away thinking about that fight fondly. Definitely underrated. One of my favorite things to do in that fight is dodge the boomerang and then jump attack over the follow up swing. It feels satisfying to pull off.
My main issue with him is the RNG of the flame attack. Sometimes he barely uses it, and sometimes he spams it over and over and over.
And that inconsistency is pretty frustrating. The reason why is because I like to play really aggressively, and go for posture damage to break the bosses. But every time he does that attack, I lose basically all progress on breaking his posture as he just regains it all. If I get unlucky because he used the attack 3 times back to back, then I feel a little robbed of my main playstyle.
I do like the attack, I just wish it was less RNG based, and maybe based on HP thresholds. Like maybe once at 60% and once at 30% both at guaranteed times so its never RNG based.
Or maybe Fromsoft needs to refine the posture mechanic to make it so bosses doing big cinematic attacks like that dont recover posture, so that way your progress towards breaking them isnt undone simply because you got bad RNG and they did a long attack you cant hit them during. I really enjoy the posture mechanic, but I think it needs some polishing up in the souls games. Sekiro was much more centralized around it, but it feels like somewhat of an afterthought in Elden ring.
Outside of that though, I did enjoy the boss quite a bit.
This is the only fight that I allowed myself a summon because this deserved to have the final hit on Bayle. He just hates him so much and I wouldn't want to take that away from him.
Don't worry about the pronounciation of Scadutree, pretty sure that's just an older way to spell shadow tree
Yup old english
Scadoosh tree avatar
sha-doo is the proper way, but most can say skibidi fragments :V
@@cantandwont6636 Yesh
You forget to say how fucking cool mesmer grab attack looks, and also it's really easy to dodge, but i might have let him hit me twice just to hear the explosion sounds.
Yeah, the impaling sound on the grab made me jump
@@ulrichwayfounder2901 It is pretty cool
I love how the screen shakes when he impales you it makes him seem really strong
I love how he flourishes with the flame as he grabs you for some reason
Right after I killed him, I looked behind me and saw a dude get pulled like 20 feet into the air and die
I know you showcased some of Igon’s screaming during the fight but I also think he’s a huge part of Bayle’s buildup even before the dragon priestess. Just wandering around to see some psycho screaming on the floor was great and then seeing that he’s dragged himself up halfway a mountain fuelled by pure hatred was so peak. S tier npc
I must say that i love Saint of bud design it's so cool as she is spiderscorpion-scolopede-woman-flower-fly hybrid and that one jump attack with red light is awesome
Midra is the best fight in not just the dlc, but the whole game. The moveset, ost, and visual effects are masterclasses in what elden ring can provide. Add in the fact they were able to make a boss around the worst status effect in the game, and its not infuriating is insanely commendable
This version of Radahn feels straight out of an anime
Bayle is my new favorite fromsoft boss. They finally perfected the dragon fight. That fight everything: intensity, spectacle, OST, difficulty, hype, a fantastic buildup and story, and my GOAT Igon. Absolute cinema
Another odd thing about Gaius is the fact that he uses the same music as niall and leonine misbegotten along with the other misbegotten warrior (the one that use the golden order gs),whereas Jori, elder inquisitor, gets his own unique theme,and he is an open field boss, btw unlike Gaius who is a remembrance boss. ( I'm pretty sure someone mentioned that Jori was gonna have his own remembrance as well, hence why the unique theme during his fight)
Anyways, I appreciate you for trying to list out at least one positive for every boss. Have a nice day, Chad!
great list!! glad to see putrescent knight getting some love, it’s such an underrated gem with great flow. that fall into fighting it (and the arena itself) also remind me so much of midir. messmer was also my favorite boss. my god, the flow to that fight approached gael levels for me personally. super fun, challenging but extremely punishable. especially in phase 2- his snake attacks all feel super high risk, high reward. tricky to dodge but with huge openings. i love it.
Loved hearing your thoughts on the bosses man! It would be awesome to see a discussion/ranking on the world design or legacy dungeons
@@jessetroy7761 Idk for sure if I’ll do a dedicated video about the areas. But I’ll definitely be making a review of the DLC where that stuff will get a fair amount of discussion.
@@chadofastoragreat!! Also if you don’t mind me asking what was your fav weapon?
@@jessetroy7761 I’m making a weapon ranking right now actually so you’ll see eventually. What was your fav tho?
@@chadofastoraexcited for that!! I’m really split between Milady (or just any light greatsword) and the backhand blades. The movesets for them are just too clean man
@@jessetroy7761 Yeah I love them as well. Light greatswords are clean af and I love that default skill on the backhand blades
Bayle´s phase transition reminded me of Demon prince, the rumbling, rearing up with the giant fiery wings unfolding. A great callback to one of my favorite bosses from DS3.
@@NiraSader you’re right that probably was an intended callback, the animation is pretty similar
Last night I finished the dlc 100% all bosses first playthrough and man what a banger 10/10. I found "the centre of shadow lands tower" as my final location accidentally and man this shit was half the size of elden ring. It made me laugh "it's the size of limgrave" God damn miazaki 😂😂
@@wvknn2709 Ikr, more like 3 limgraves
Something no one talks about is how the dancing lion will not only sync its phase changes up with the music, but also how it'll try to sync ALL of its moves with the music. It's amazing.
"scadu" as in scadutree is derived from sceadu in old english and can be pronounced as "shadu" and it pretty much means shadow
I’m so glad that most reviews I’ve seen agree that Messmer’s Assault is like the best boss attack of all time. I don’t even know WHAT makes it so fun to dodge, but once I got it down I just knew that it’s pretty much peak Elden Ring gameplay.
Part of it was the learning curve. At first it annoyed me how I couldn’t get it down. But once I did it felt awesome
Honestly, i think bayle is the best boss in the series the best mixture of visual spectacle and technical Enginewity we've ever gotten.
@@dawnweaver2529 He’s up there for sure
In my opinion, the best way to fight the promised contort is to use the defect tear from one of the furnace golems as it not only allows you to react block the really fast two hit swing but also defect the clone attacks with little to no stamina loss, just dodge the area wide laser attack, because you will 8/10 times get guard broken and then get hit bet another lazer with exta damage.
follower’s boss is badass if you summon
"Whenever he's doing the attacks that I'm better at dealing with it can be a pretty fun time" so relatable lol
I see everyone complaining about the charge but it's pretty easy to dodge if you sprint and jump to the side same as radahns meteor attack(the one with the 5 comets he throws) just jump left to or right while sprinting
This! You gotta be sprinting to the sides and roll/jump. You can roll it, but its easier to jump cause you don't have to go at a 45 degree angle like when you roll it
I really dont get this "bayle is not a rememberance " thing. No. He is. He is a rememberance boss. He drops a thing that you can turn into two different things you have to choose. They just wanted to make a lore with the big dragon altar and the lady there.
Can't dupe it tho
You literally dont get a rememberance from him thus making him not a rememberance boss
I would far prefer if he was an actual remembrance boss because then I could actually get a weapon ._.
No he’s not no one cares about your “erm actually 🤓👆” bs
That’s not a bad point actually. But the remembrance icons are just so cool looking in my opinion, and they also provide lore. I love to hold onto them for as long as I can so I can look at them from time to time.
Thank you man putricent knight is super underrated and definitely one of my favorite bosses and the most fair boss in the dlc imo
And cammander gauis is over hated
The way I view the Leda fight is from the lens of a test.
It checks the player on their interactions with all the NPCs and how they went about it.
It test the player’s character for how you choose to change the eventual battle.
Let’s use Hornsent as an example, upon your second encounter, mine was after reaching the tower and going back to talk to him and Leda.
He will go off to the tower and then Leda goes paranoid and either with or without (without for me) your input goes off to hunt Hornsent.
Aiding Leda presumably kills him.
Aiding Hornsent will make him a summon for Mesmer and probably make him not aid Leda - someone could probably fact check that.
Now summoning him effects his quest, I summoned and he simply left before invading at the church of bud - I am unsure if he does anything differently if you don’t summon him.
And that is just one quest that lowers Leda’s pool of allies.
You can also take out Moorne either by provoking him by killing the foragers brood or just saying “remain sad forever” or just tell him do nothing by just saying “I don’t know”
I’m pretty sure there is a way to get Freyja to do nothing but I wanted her sheild for the collection. (Ansbach item)
Then you can gain 2 allies by doing both Ansbach and forgive my butchering of the name if I have Thoiller’s quest which is pretty easy to do by exploring.
Dane is the only person here who cannot be dealt with before the confrontation thus duelling him is mainly for the fun dryleaf arts.
Quite the test as you can see. And a fight that warrants the use of summons and if you wish to have an extra meat sheild or sheilds a spirit ash can help (I brought the horned warrior to deal with Freyja and to my surprise he nearly won and only fell due to Leda also attacking him before Ansbach got her agro) out number or even the numbers if you happened to for whatever weird reason let everyone become an enemy.
That is my perspective on the fight but I can see why many dislike it. And if you read this far I thank you for your time, have a good day or night.
(Personally I enjoy it in the same sense as I enjoyed the Radhn festival but I think that was better due to it being only 1 target.)
I am pretty sure the Putrescent Knight is some kind of slime-like creature whose head replaces the skull of the horse-- the skeleton is the horse's skeleton riding its own boneless body that is filled with the slime that controls them both.
Putrescent Knight and Scadutree Avatar are very underrated. Glad they're getting some recognition here!
Messmer had so much live up too being so heavily marketed and he delivered so well and so much better than I think anyone could’ve expected his fight is what I can only describe as decadence it’s a master class of game design. I knew he would never be as hard as Melania because the general consensus is that in the base game one of the optional bosses is always the hardest and the DLC. The final boss is always the hardest, but he balances, visuals, difficulty and fun altogether, it’s impossible not to love him
I always thought everyone was talking about the gravity spin charge when complaining about gaius, but I do agree now that I know it’s that charge. The timing is tight, but I’ve found consistent success rolling forward and to the right right about when the boar’s tusk is touching or about to touch you, though maybe that’s just because I play with light roll idk lol
Basically his entire rant during the Leda fight: “I don’t summon”
Yeah, I summoned a Mimic tear and we just wobbled the lad's for a while with our scaleblades. And since I had to deal with the divine lion folk beforehand I'd say I deserve it.
He clearly said he doesn’t like how the game expects you to uses summons for that part exclusively. You didn’t listen
@@strictly_fades but my point still stands that it was all that he’s yapping about 🤷♂️
@@kenanperez3151 if he made multiple points like he did, that is indeed not yapping about one thing 😭. Your comment seems hateful of people that don’t summon, just because some people like to challenge themselves don’t mean you need to be a dick 😭
@@strictly_fadesit’s nice that there is someone backing him up on this since it seems like the whole comment section is criticizing him for not summoning. Sometimes I don’t understand the souls community. Noooo you can’t summon for bosses. Except for this one. And that one
This channel is a hidden gem.
@@bumbie1863 Thanks
I thought all the main DLC bosses were so peak. If many of the bosses were in other games or the base game they would’ve gotten S tier, like Rellana. Shoutout to death knight as well, bro is the drip king.
Messmer is the top 3 bosses in the entire souls series. Base game elden ring bosses are nothing compared to him. And also an amazing video CHAD+ I love your editing. Keep it up
I completely disagree with the first one. If u did the npc quests, it becomes an incredible clash that im sorry u missed out on
@@thedarkwolf5637 Ik, like I said I enjoyed it the 2nd time around and wish I would’ve gotten a better experience the first time around
Nah imo its still an npc fight, which are just not really memorable to me.
Great rankings, only one I wish was placed a bit higher was Midra because I'm biased LOL. He was my personal favorite, but I really appreciated the Putrescent Knight love. Such an underrated boss and I always have a blast fighting against his whacky, but fun moveset.
What are the lore implications of Rellana's name backwards being Analler?
Glad someone had a good time on this bosses
placidusax drops a remembrance because he's an ancient dragon.
when you kill ancient dragons in the main game they don't drop anything. most of them drop dragon stones.
when you kill drakes in the main game, all of them give you dragon hearts. bayle is the father of all drakes.
idk why but drakes drop dragon hearts while ancient dragons don't
It has to do with the lore of dragon communion. Part of the war between dragons and drakes was that the dragons have cursed the drakes to be hunted for their hearts for the sake of dragon communion. Doing so can turn you more into a dragon.
So its for lore reasons. There are a lot more details than just that, but thats the jist of it.
Great video, rearly comment but they way you explained your view in such a honest way was really nice. You seem super sweet :)
my main problem with Radhan fight is that my computer have lags during this fight. I've checked and I shouldn't have problems with my computer but lags are still there.
Genuinely you made my favorite Ranking of DLC Bosses so far. Can agree on most of your views and even the takes I do not I don't mind at all because you are able to make your subjective view very clear.
Most of the time I get in discussion with people about the DLC is simply because they argue as their pov has to be objectively true wich somewhat triggers me.
Thank your for the Video. I enjoyed it very much 😊
I used the deflect tear and somehow deflected mesmer’s multi spear attack. I almost fell out of my chair when that happened
Great video with balanced thoughts! It’s really refreshing to see someone who can have legitimate criticisms of the Radahn fight while still singing it’s praises and being overall happy with it. Despite my criticisms of it I can’t help but kind of love phase 2 for how fucking insane it is despite frustrations. And when you do get everything right on an attempt or victory run it’s unbelievable and surprisingly smooth
@@OneMoreMeme_INeedYou Yeah, like I said ranking him was difficult, but there’s a lot to love
25:20 CURSE YOU BAYLE!
I HEREBY VOW! YOU WILL RUE THIS DAY!
BEHOLD, A TRUE DRAKE WARRIOR! AND I, IGON!
YOUR FEAR MADE FLESH!
SOLID OF SCALE YOU MIGHT BE, FOUL DRAGON...
BUT I WILL RIDDLE WITH HOLES YOUR ROTTEN HIDE!
WITH A HAIL OF HARPOONS!
WITH EVERY LAST DROP OF MY BEING!
I loved the fight with Leda and her allies. It was everything I wanted Roundtable hold to be. A group of people, bound only by their search for a common goal, and undone by their discovery of said goal. Even if gameplay wise it is the worst, the emotional impact and buildup was perfect
I agree though, I think the fight should have totally changed depending on if you summoned or not (If you summon, they come as a group, if you don't, one at a time, etc..)
Igon makes the Bayle the Dread fight the best in fromsoft history.
No, he doesn't. An NPC can't make a mid boss great.
Igon takes the fight from 10/10 to 11/10 fr
Lmao someone is Rage baiting much
On a different note: *CURSE YOU BAYLEEE*
@@Al-ji4gd Bro called Bayle a mid fight (its better than Midir or placi)
if anyone has trouble on romina you just have to hug tight. Most of her multi hit moves have far hitboxes and dont hit close to her body, thats why sometimes you can dodge the multihit spin with one dodge. Stick close and dodge to the side opposite to whatever move she uses and shes very doable and fun
Messmer was so amazing he converted me to being a fire knight. Now I serve under his banner burning all that the hornsent hold dear.
"Those stripped of the Grace of Gold shall all meet death. In the embrace of Messmer's flame."
I like to see the messmer and putrescent knight love
Also, anyone struggling with gaius charge, I found that it was much easier to roll diagonally out of the way at 11 o clock or 1 o clock as opposed to straight through at 12 o clock. It's still annoying how fast it comes out and how often he'll sometimes do it, but I found that adjustment made it much less punishing.
The second dancing lion boss is the worst part of the game. Making a boss harder by adding 4 bassilisks to the fight SUCKS
I just used a bow to cheese it since I didnt feel like fighting it again.
I wound up shamefully cheesing him with Stone of Gurranq from the bridge like a coward. The whirlwind incantation was the last thing I needed before starting NG+3 and I just had no patience. The basilisks spawned on the bridge behind me and they still nearly got me 😂😂😂
He was actually quite fun with summons. Still a bad fight solo but I recommend summoning as it’s fun to watch the squad hold the basilisks back while you take the lion head on
Honestly wish I had summoned for that one, but I was so tilted I forgot they existed lmao.
It’s good to see some putrescent knight appreciation. W
midra is the boss i was waiting for. absoloute gold
5:25 great shield saves from that charge
I really liked Leda and the allies. I didn’t even consider it a boss fight tbh just a fight with nova against npcs
My favorite part about messmers intro is that he starts off with the attitude of a brooding menace but as soon as he realizes youre tarnished you can hear him falter in his faith to his mother through his change in tone
CUURRRRRRSSSSEEEEEE YOU BAAAAAAYYYYYYLLLLLEEEEEEE
Great video Chad!! you never fail to impress me on your video editing, commentary and explanation on the games. You deserve way more subs than you have right now and also don't push yourself too hard if you do not feel like making a video do not make it take your time in making videos true fans will always stick with their favorite youtubers. You are the best souls youtuber in my opinion
@@sajidhassansami300 Thanks man, appreciate the support
Wait wtf 😂 Bayle was such a good fight that I gaslighted myself into thinking that he had a remembrance💀
Well you trade his heart at the Dragon Communion Altar to get his incantations so I guess that kinda counts?
I adore Midra personally for his soundtrack playing such a huge part in his fight. Every move he does just feels so in tune with the soundtrack and therefore every move he makes, forces you to play along with it, making it feel like a true dance of insanity. That to me makes him by far the best boss in the DLC alongside how fair he is and with how much clarity his moves are presented and the phenomenal lore surrounding him and his build up. It's a masterclass.
The Leda fight is meant to use summon you can’t blame the game for being unfair because you set some unspoken rule for yourself
@@akuma7773 Ik it’s a mechanic of the game, but I still feel like fromsoft has always ensured to make every boss still reasonably doable without summons, that said, still on me since it’s sorta not a boss anyway
you should stand a good chance to beat any boss without using summons. it shouldnt be used as a crutch to inflate the difficulty of a fight if you dont use them.
Bayle’s 2 laser move is one of, if not the best, boss attacks I’ve witnessed. My jaw physically dropped while trying to avoid it.
@@timebreaker4700 Top tier fs
After learning Radahn, he’s not too bad mechanically. Extremely unforgiving, but ultimately fair other than the 1-2-X slash, and fun to duel with once you know the moves. My issue, other than the lore and re-appearance, is the aesthetics. It’s a mess. The holy and gravity magic clash visually, there isn’t enough variety in gravity moves, everything is too washed out and yellow, and the one bloodflame ability is just bizarrely out of place (I get that it’s Mohg’s body). I love the epic over-the-top anime violence of his attacks and his extremely intimidating impression, and the phase 2 intro with him towering in front of the Divine Gate with Miquella gesturing on his back is HYPE, but overall it just doesn’t look great. But yeah mechanically I think he’s actually a good boss.
I think the fight would have been much better if it was Godwin’s body that radahns soul was put in, we could’ve finally have fought every demigod (I think)
messmer spear build slapped leda and the group, was like killing base enemies
Gaius is actually awesome. Im glad you took a nuanced approach to talking about him because too many people say its outright trash because his 1 charge move. Its the one thing holding him back from A tier for me.
@@Luxuriouswhite FR, he’s super cool and a lot of his moves are great, only gripe aside from the charge is reusing the commander Niall theme.
Nah hes garbage for other reasons too. His hitboxes are inexplicably retarded at times. Sometimes I got hit twice with the same attack which was very enjoyable. Thats where my hate for him stems from.
To me, Radahns Giga Combo in Phase 2 is the most fun combo to dodge in all of Souls. Its intuitive, spectacle, the god rays dont matter if youre close, it doesnt do too much damage if you only get hit by 1 or 2 swiped and it just looks AWESOME, as well as leaving a good punish window. Peak Fromsoft for me, along with Messmers Giga Combo and Bayles Lasers. This DLC truly has some of the highest highs ive ever seen.
I find both Romina and Putrscent knight way fun the Radahn. The AOE and that 3 hit criss-cross slash just feels cheap. Plus the first attack kills my FPS and i need to consistently look away from it. Funnily enough Radahn was nowhere near as difficult as Malenia and pretty much not even close to any of the inner sekiro bosses. Its just a good moveset with AOE tacked on to it, whereas Malenia is just all-round an excellent moveset which is fun to learn and fun to dodge.
Melanias moveset is definitely not all around excellent, Water fowl dance and the spirit clone attack are both BS and they're the only reason the boss is difficult. Melania is the only ER boss that I didn't have any desire to try and beat without summons because the fight wasn't enjoyable to me at all
@@nickkelly3199 WFD is not the best move but its not that bad dude. You can run away from it surprising late, the only time where its bs is when she cancels her stagger into it. Plus the clone attack is bullshit i agree, but its done once or twice through out the second phase whereas Radahn’s criss-cross apple sauce attack is done as part of his basic moveset.
Plus the biggest complain about malenia is that some of her move (WFD and clone attack) is unintuitve and pretty much requires googling, well radahn’s clone attack and criss-cross applesauce requires googling too, and he had like 3 variations of the clone attack.
Not to mention in phase 2 if you get hit the second swing light of the criss-cross attack sometimes you get frametrap into the next attack.
I mean my main grip with malenia is WFD is BS sometimes and the clone attack requires googling, whereas Radahn’s moveset is that on steroids.
@@dudeiii2069 Buddy, Malenia's moveset is NOT excellent, which you would know if you'd actually bothered to learn it. All of her attacks incentivize simply outranging them instead of actually dodging. Slow weapons are awful to use as you quite literally need to wait for her to perform 10 attack combo strings in order to get a couple hits in. With faster weapons you can interrupt her mid-combo, which makes her slightly better, but her moves just aren't that clean to dodge, some have almost no start-up and punish you too harshly for rolling in the wrong direction. The fact that the best way to dodge her moves is simply to walk backwards instead of actually engaging is trash design.
That's not to mention her annoying first phase where all she does is slowly walk around you in a circle, not attacking and just waiting for you to do a jumping heavy on her. Extremely dull fight with a slow weapon, still boring but less so with a fast weapon.
@@eg-a2357 I beat her on level 1 so i definitely learned it. Nice of you to just make random assumption.
Also what do you mean by all of her attack incentivise spacing? I felt like you’re the one who didn’t learn the boss, there are moves that actually have decent forward momentum and will catch you even if you try to sprint away, and even if you manage to sprint away she either repeats the move or if you decides to running attack here there is a chance she chains her attack into a hyper armor swing overhead swing which results in a trade, whereas if you were to dodge into her during chase down move she continues her normal attack chain and likely ends with the hyper jumping overhead swing allowing for a punish. What else doesn’t allow you to out space? Second phase have her do a hyper armor kick if you try to outspace her attack and the clone attack requires 2 roll backward and 3 rolls forward, you cannot space that either.
When you say slow weapon I’m assuming you’re talking about collosal hammers and the optimal strategy is jump attacks and charge attacks for almost every boss and malenia is no different.
If you’re talking about weapons like great hammers or greataxes you can just delay your attacks and interrupt her attacks after she dodges very consistently, those are barely considered slow weapons, and they have a lot of stance damage too.
For her sweep after her light attack you really can just double dodge diagonally to the right or just space it. Theres nothing wrong out-spacing a boss, idk why thats a bad thing, in fact its kinda nice that a decent part of the boss is spacing, you do a combination of sprint taping to get out of the way and rolls to avoid attacks with forward momentum, i don see how thats bad at all.
And if you find the first phase boring you can always just up the pacing by being more aggressive since the boss can actually be staggered.
You don’t need to wait a 10 hit combo for you attack, once again spacing and strafing a real thing. And if you find youself stuck in a loop where she keeps doing her chase down attack it means you need to dodge into her rather than away from her for it to stop.
In my opinion she’s an exellent boss that allows players to space her attack so you can go for longer moves, you can interrupt her attack (even with great hammers and greataxes) with good spacing. Thats just my opinion, lets agree to disagree I guess.
@@dudeiii2069 I've killed the boss RL1 WL0 no status, I think I know what I'm talking about. If you need proof, look up loopines zweihander kill. Extremely boring first phase, maybe I was a bit hyperbolic when saying "10-hit combos" but you get the point.
My opinion has maybe soured a bit since I had to no-hit her first phase in order to save my physick for her 2nd, but I still fail to see how you're finding it fun to sprint around after her every time she disengages.
That's not to mention the fact that she can waterfowl after backstepping, meaning you can't even do a running attack and need to simply bait her swing once she gets below 70%. Such an annoying slog of a fight, there's no rhythm to any of it. Her phase 2 is marginally better but now she also has her stupid clone move that she spams alongside waterfowl.
missed your videos! great as always. liked.
I agree with the list but I think that Midra and Radahn deserve a soft S tier
Messmer is now my favorite boss of all time. Not only is everything about him in lore, moveset, arena, look, weapons, and music badass, but I never felt like it was bs when I died. I always felt like it was my fault and it made me hyped to learn how to actually dodge his attacks and when I could actually punish. He’s just incredible to fight and makes it fun to learn him. I know some people didn’t like his snake attacks but personally on my final run of him I didn’t get hit once by them and felt like they were pretty fair when I died from them like “yeah I can see how that hit me”. And also I’m a bit bias because I killed him after getting a message appraisal healing me into 2nd phase, not getting hit once during second phase and finishing him with a visceral attack. Overall fucking amazing
Rellana on A is a crime, She is Maria, Pontif, Dancer and Fume Knight all together
A is completely fair lol
she is NOT fume knight, fume knight is WAY BETTER than her.
Do not compare good to peak.
@@duckyduckington9736 chill famboy is Just a Nice callback to him
@@luizribeiro2716 "You settled for good over great, you made a decision."
@@duckyduckington9736 Bro, I love DS2. But that game doesnt come near Elden Ring in terms of quality, Fume kinght is a good boss, he is well made. and if we count all of the shit they put in that game, he still no the best in the game, so chill
What makes the Putrescent Knight‘s design even cooler is how the skeleton is actually the mutated skeleton of the horse, riding its own skin
Yeah
You forgot the part where Metyr is a horrible fight
Bayle has actually 2 of Placidusax heads still bitting his neck
Commander Gaius is my personal favorite. But I can agree that charge attack is wonky. It just doesn’t feel right to teleport through the bull. If you don’t you’ll get stun locked into that charge loop 😫
@@joshuatealeaves I think in time we may end up learning a more consistent way to dodge it, but we’ll see
@@chadofastora We’ll figure it out together. You make some of the best souls content on this app. Keep doing your thing bro. We all love it ✌🏻
@@joshuatealeaves thanks
Romina’s two swipes with the tails is jumpable. You jump the first one, then roll the second.
I completely agree with your thoughts on Radahn. There has been a lot of people calling the fight bullshit and saying it is filled with artificial difficulty but I honestly think this is just people’s knee jerk reaction to how hard the fight is. It’s just basically a really long and super punishing endurance fight in the same vain as a boss like Demon of Hatred or Orphan of Kos but at a much faster pace than either of those fights.
The fight as a whole is definitely a lot more fair and less artificial with it’s difficulty than Malenia was in the base game. And unlike with Malenia, there wasn’t any part of me that felt like I just got lucky when I beat Radahn. It felt like I actually learned his moveset and got better at the fight which is always the sign of a truly fair challenge in one of these games
Surprising you’re experience was completely opposite to mine beating Radahn for me was a matter of luck and the endure AOW. I keep getting fps drop on his first attack and sometimes where he just decides to cast that big AOE when you’re healing or in a recovery of any kind you’re just gonna get hit. He can do his clone attacks out if neutral so in phase 2 you’re limited to just getting 1 or 2 hits off (depending on weapon speed) because if he bust that out while you’re in recovery frames you’re gonna get hit too.
That criss-cross attack is also kinda bs so i ended up just tanking the second hit as well because you need to be light roll with frame perfect dodge to avoid it.
When you really think about it the boss moveset is no where near as good as Malenia’s or relanna, i feels like they just add a bunch of AOE to make the boss harder. Also miquella hair blocking like half of his attack start up frames definitely did not help.
Funnily enough Radahn was difficult but it was no where near malenia even with all that big AOE. Personally i just prefer bosses with clean movesets and low screen clutter.
Edit: don’t get me wrong Radahn is a good boss. The only move that i find bullshit is the crisscross apple sauce, the big funny AOE and miquella’s hair. The rest is fine but the after effect doesn’t add anything either than difficulty, if thats the case then why have it? Difficult fights are only fun when theres a reason for the attack to be difficult, AOE after effects are just there for the sake of being difficult, it doesn’t add anything to the boss.
@@jameslough6329 Agreed, the only part that’s literally unfair is that damn 3 hit combo 😭
You are not allowed to control the spacing whatsoever in the fight so if you like casting spells you can just throw your staff in the garbage.
Yeah I think it's a fair but difficult fight. The only moves I think are a bit bullshit is the second phase version of the attack when he flies up into the sky and sends out gravity rocks since the follow up is insanely tough to dodge, and also the stupid combo when he does two slashes and then a cross slash. It comes out way too fast and after hours and hours of fighting him I still don't know how to dodge it, I always get caught by the first slash when he does it. Honestly I wish that move didn't exist.
Only time will decide the quality of this fight I Guess.
I started despising Malenia, then I follow Up loving her just because she was really hard, and now im much more neutral to her, It has things I like, It has things I dont like, and has things that feels as wasted potential.
For context: I play a strength/faith build using the eclipse moon shield and a Magma Wyrm Scaleblade with a mimic tear that I summon at the start of most boss fights.
I say most because Messmer is one of the few bosses to make me leave the mimic tear out of the fight. And honestly that alongside messmer being a really well made boss has him up there as one of my personal favorites, along side starscourge Radahn, the godskin duo, the divine dancing lion & Malenia.
The reason I like Messmer so much is because like Malenia it felt like I was fighting my opposite, with them being much quicker in attack speed and being able to bypass my shields defences. Not to mention just how cinematic the whole thing felt, with two different ends of the flaming spectrum: Messmers own fire vs the Magma Wyrms lava. Finally I just really like snakes and this guy did not disappoint in any way!
Edit: I have recently just beat both the Scadu Tree Avatar & Midra and I didn't even think about using the mimic. The Scadu Tree Avatar because it took me two tries to kill it and it was a fun gimick & Midra simply because he doesn't give you the opportunity to summon it. Even then, I absolutely enjoyed fighting both of them for completely diffrent reasons.
Messmer at #1, and The NPC gank fight / Golden Hippo at the bottom. Perfect list!
omg another Putrescent Knight enjoyer 🤝, his moves are so freaking good. Horse gank combo is one of my favorites move to dodge in this game by far, this fight really testing your spacing. Like for example, the boomerang throw where he does it with some distance from you, if you can dodge into it and space yourself in his melee range he will do a low sweep that you can jump over and do a heavy jump attack. Or the attack where it slam down its cleaver twice. This attack you can either get into his right side and he will miss does more time for punish window. Or you can just dodge it and get less punish in but safer. Or even his horse gank combo again where if your spacing is bad you will get overlap with their combo. And also some of the few fights that emphasize jumping too, its a unique boss I really appreciate it. Arena is cool albeit its too obvious where they copy this from. Music is so so good setting in peak atmosphere. just only couple thing that I don't like, 1 the horse scream attack is too fast or the telegraph is too subtle to be fair and I suck at dodging it, 2 its a sleep theme area and the boss is not even sleep base he only got froze bite like wtf fromsoft
.
that NPC boss being a requirement is going to be such a pain in the ass. at least the godskin duo wasn't a fucking *NPC fight*