[Spoilers] Worst Souls Boss

[Spark City]

Malenia was pretty ruthless, but she's not impossible. I go for a pretty silly longsword + shield build, and I realized fairly early on that while her beyblade ultra spin giga death whirl moved heals her a lot, if you just hold shield and don't move, she misses you with the last two segments of it. After that it just became a battle of attrition. Also figured out that when she turns orange and dive bombs you, you can guard counter it and the timing lines up perfectly to buffer a roll away to avoid the explosion. Get out of the rot, pop a bolus and a flask, and jump attack her. Also prioritized finding spots to guard counter her combos, as 3 of them in a short time frame knocks her down for a critical, after which you can let some stamina regen, and fully charge a heavy attack, and even follow that up with a cheeky light attack for an optimal punish.

 

Also, Bloody Slash is really good on her first phase, hit her with 2 as she's slowly approaching you and she'll skip away.

 

All this to say that I hard disagree that she's the worst-designed boss, I thought she was really cool visually and her moveset is badass, it was just a matter of being creative in finding punishes, like any tricky DS boss. Took me about 4 hours at level 120~.

[proud2bNs]

I'm playing a sorcerer build and found this incredible strat on the internet:

 

I got lucky. My Mimic Tear and I fired an Azur Comet spell at the same time in phase 2 and she was down in ~10 seconds using just one continuous spell. Phase one was just spamming Adula's Blade, as someone here already mentioned.

Edited March 9, 2022 by proud2bNs

[starcrunch061]

Well, I've got many bosses left in ER, but Starscourge Radahn has now taken the putrid throne of worst Souls boss. At least Bed of Chaos had the decency to be quick enough.

 

He looks stupid on his horse, which acts as more of a hoverboard. (Why are so many ER bosses so floaty BTW?). He's awkward to fight (jankiness is the rule in ER). It's just an unpleasant experience all around, and I'm glad I'm done with it finally.

 

I'm not looking forward, though, to yet another poor boss in Malenia (and I've heard that the bosses in the latter half of the game are actually worse than those in the first half). 

Edited March 9, 2022 by starcrunch061

[RecodingGenesis]

I thought the fight was fun af and I loved that the game wanted you to play more aggressively than other bosses in the series typically allow for. Personally I find the gimmicky souls bosses to be the worst (e.g. Storm King, Dragon God, Yhorm, or Rykard)  

[Steven-Spiegel]

On 8/3/2022 at 3:10 PM, Copanele said:

I will share what I used for this ass of a boss, she truly is in the "forget tough but fair, this is ELDEN RING" category. 

45VGR

40END

60DEX

30STR

Bloodhound Fang+10

Mimic Tear +10 (duh)

Tower Shield

Best physical armor you could ever wear

Godrick's Rune equipped

Apply bleed to your sword(i think it stacks? perhaps?), pop a rune arc, summon the Mimic (for some reason his bleed effect lasts longer than you) then go to town. Obviously, pay attention when the boss jumps in the air, you know what's coming for you. Hold that L1 button down like your life depends on it. Both you and your mimic will have the bloodhound equipped so the bleed will be at an all time high.

 

For second phase, hope that your Mimic has at least 50% HP left at minimum. If not...I will just quote Detlaff from Witcher 3:

" If you acknowledge any gods, start praying now."

 

Out of all the bosses out there, this one takes the cake as the most annoying one ? she is more than manageable if you drop the cool kid melee only act and use everything the game is offering you.

Marry me please, I love youuuuu! 3 days on a streak with this boss with my pure str build, only manage to quarter of second life left, with your strategy at the first try I almost did, but on the thir try I finally beat that biatch!

[Copanele]

Just now, Steven-Spiegel said:

Marry me please, I love youuuuu! 3 days on a streak with this boss with my pure str build, only manage to quarter of second life left, with your strategy at the first try I almost did, but on the thir try I finally beat that biatch!

Hah a bit late with the proposal ?? glad my improvised build helped!

[imminent_jargon]

I'm running a boring old strength build, but I actually found this fight really rewarding despite feeling like I wouldn't be super optimized for it. As with some previous posters in the thread, I ended up beating her with a +10 mimic tear and added bleed effect from the seppuku ashes. It was suprisingly easy to stagger her with a claymore, and with the mimic helping building up bleed to cause significant damage was faster than I thought it would be. Getting out of the way of her combos was still tough, but with the ability to stagger I felt I was able to offset her lifeleech ability. 

 

It does sometimes feel like there is a rampant creep of complexity in some of the boss fights with each new From game (added minions, additional stages, etc), but I felt like this was different enough from what they've done in the past to still feel entertaining and challening. 

 

I wouldn't recommend summoning for this fight. I tried it a few times, but most phantoms just get killed right away. 

[Mori]

She is definitely the hardest boss in Elden Ring in my opinion. I spent close to 6 hours on her with INT build and Teshin summon. Her 18+ combo felt so unfair at times, especially when I was using close combat magic (mainly Adula's Moonblade) and was stuck in the cast animation that there was no way to avoid her first barrage of slashes. However if you manage to avoid her first barrage, either by running away or just like shown in the video posted before in this thread, the rest is much easier to dodge or not to die to.

 

I think she feels unfair to so many players because she simply is not having the typical bullshit we as the player throw at bosses.

 

Also, the same guy (Ongbal) posted the very first non-hit/solo Malenia boss fight three days after release. As long as people are able to achieve stuff like this, we just need to get better honestly.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited March 10, 2022 by Mori

[Flynnerigan]

I have to agree with the quality of the endgame bosses. Most of the bosses do incredibly large AoE attacks, have certain attack patterns that are ridiculous to dodge and the fact that some of the later boss can straight up one or two-tap you is just silly. I know there are various cheese strategies that make them all possible but honestly, the fact that you have to respec for some bosses is a problem in itself. 

 

I really enjoyed the game but found myself frustrated by the end. 

[FilmFanatic]

Having taken 3 hours to beat her with my dual katana build and a +10 Mimic, I’ve actually decided to have another go at her in NG+. Instead of respeccing to do a tank build I ended up farming a bunch of levels to have 70+ points in both STR and DEX so I could just switch between the two as I needed so I’ll have another go and see how I fare with a greatshield and Starscourge.

[Ceridane]

1 hour ago, Mori said:

She is definitely the hardest boss in Elden Ring in my opinion. I spent close to 6 hours on her with INT build and Teshin summon. Her 18+ combo felt so unfair at times, especially when I was using close combat magic (mainly Adula's Moonblade) and was stuck in the cast animation that there was no way to avoid her first barrage of slashes. However if you manage to avoid her first barrage, either by running away or just like shown in the video posted before in this thread, the rest is much easier to dodge or not to die to.

 

I think she feels unfair to so many players because she simply is not having the typical bullshit we as the player throw at bosses.

 

Also, the same guy (Ongbal) posted the very first non-hit/solo Malenia boss fight three days after release. As long as people are able to achieve stuff like this, we just need to get better honestly.

 

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I honestly felt depressed when I first saw that video ?

[Sealior]

As a sorcerer magic user the boss i hate the most so far is the Black Knife Assassins. They are so fast and dodge your spells like they are in the matrix. Only way to defeat for me at least is to cheese it and run around all the time and when they jump and miss cast a few spells untill they die.

[Orenn16]

On 3/8/2022 at 2:15 PM, JIMMOTHYY said:

 

If you want to be picky about what the community has settled on, then you can atleast recognize that people are cautious about going past 120 on their main character.

I’m not being picky. Literally being the opposite. I said “nothing has been decided on” where as you phrased your statement like a done deal.

 

I’ve seen just as many if not more folks talk about 150 then I have 120. My point is as I said; nothing is decided on. That’s it.

[iriihutoR84]

I switched to a River of Blood + Mimic build for her. The LT power for that weapon is too good if you have invested a little in FP. After that I did it on my first try. Couldn't do it with my strength build though so I did a full respec. 

 

The worst boss in Elden Ring is the Fire Giant. The gimmick to beat him doesn't function well and demonstrated the terrible physics in this game with him essentially walking on air. It just looks so low budget and janky.

[JIMMOTHYY]

6 hours ago, Orenn16 said:

I’m not being picky. Literally being the opposite. I said “nothing has been decided on” where as you phrased your statement like a done deal.

 

I’ve seen just as many if not more folks talk about 150 then I have 120. My point is as I said; nothing is decided on. That’s it.

 

I didn't say it like it was a done deal, at the time players were settling around 120~ because they weren't sure if everyone was going to migrate to 150. Do you understand that it's easier to go from 120 to 150 rather than 150 to 120?

[FilmFanatic]

Only took me a handful of tries to beat Malenia in NG+. Knowing what to do definitely helped but a greatshield and the Starscourge seemed a lot better than dual katanas and dodging. Also the “community” isn’t going to decide anything. I’m part of the Elden Ring community and I say go to whatever level you choose, not what someone else playing their own game says. I’m currently level 232.

[WardenOfWisps]

I used the claws you get at the start of the game or well towards the start for her. I used a mimic too and if you get her to a wall you can kinda stun lock her. The second phase i got more lucky lol. Took me like 12 tries I think. I also used 2 damage negating talismans and erd tree plus 2. 

Edited March 11, 2022 by WardenOfWisps

[ThirdAwakening]

No way in hell is Malenia the hardest Souls boss. She is critically weak to Bleeds and Stagger, and you can let your Spirit Ash tank her Waterfowl Dance.
 

Many of her attacks (Non-Waterfowl Dance) in both phases are predictable, and she’s one of the only Bosses that’s harder as a Caster than Melee. 
 

Hoarah Loux had way more people dying to him, *and he can rip apart your Mimic easily.

Edited March 11, 2022 by ThirdAwakening

[Foremanskin]

1 hour ago, ThirdAwakening said:

No way in hell is Malenia the hardest Souls boss. She is critically weak to Bleeds and Stagger, and you can let your Spirit Ash tank her Waterfowl Dance.
 

Many of her attacks (Non-Waterfowl Dance) in both phases are predictable, and she’s one of the only Bosses that’s harder as a Caster than Melee. 
 

Hoarah Loux had way more people dying to him, *and he can rip apart your Mimic easily.

Hmm, I don't know where you're getting this from. For example, all my friends struggled the most with Malenia and every streamer I've watched has been stuck on Malenia for the longest. While the second phase of Godfrey is tough, you only have a half of a health bar to go and he has nothing that can straight up one shot you.

[Axeman_Phoenix]

I would suggest going solo with black knife tiche or the mimic tear with a healing\offensive incantation setup
With black knife tiche( i really hope im writhing her name well) she can decimate the boss health with ease while being really evasive , you might need to balance the aggro between you and the summon so it wont go down so fast, for all that is worth these 2 strategies are what worked the best with me

 

Forgot to add i was going with bloodhound dodge for the weapon art and a seal on the left, so i could always dodge the waterfowl dance and just keep throwing random crap at her

Edited March 11, 2022 by Axeman_Phoenix

[Timo425]

5 hours ago, ThirdAwakening said:

No way in hell is Malenia the hardest Souls boss. She is critically weak to Bleeds and Stagger, and you can let your Spirit Ash tank her Waterfowl Dance.
 

Many of her attacks (Non-Waterfowl Dance) in both phases are predictable, and she’s one of the only Bosses that’s harder as a Caster than Melee. 
 

Hoarah Loux had way more people dying to him, *and he can rip apart your Mimic easily.

She seems one of the hardest bosses in the franchise if you don't respec for her, though.

But yeah, if you include respeccing (using the optimal builds), there are surely harder fights...

[stitchesnscars]

On 3/8/2022 at 8:37 AM, enaysoft said:

 he just crushes me in 2 or 3 hits and he flails about all over the place like Haggar from Final Fight. 

Underrated reference, nice.

[NullNihlus]

On 08/03/2022 at 11:56 AM, LOL_Jokke97 said:

Blood katana, mimic ash, dumb luck.

This. Malenia is complete bullshit.

[MatThaRiPP3R84]

that fight looks awesome haha. i started it on a second acc, did limgrave and some of caelid, then started on this acc, and have done nearly everything i can without popping a trophy or locking myself out of anything, I want it as my 225th plat but waiting is torture. 

 

i started as a wretch, took the twinblade to +3 and did everything in ligrave at lvl 5-10 for the challenge. tree sentinel was amazing, took me 20 tries the first time and like 7 tries second time. no horse, only magic weapon buff. brilliant fight, then did both the nights cavalries and the one in caelid.

 

now im gunna go get the moonveil katana from the magma wyrm's cold dead hands and kill that big dragon to level up and use it. then wait till 224 plats to play

 

I'm wondering if the giant in Liurnia will up my weapons past +3 without me visiting roundtable hold. 

Edited March 11, 2022 by MatThaRiPP3R84

[Xugoshi]

On 3/8/2022 at 2:51 AM, IncelJoe said:

  Hide contents

Malenia

is the only thing stopping me from platinum. Bed of Chaos and Royal Rat Authority for better designed than this boss. The amount of health she can heal in one combo is ridiculous, the scarlet rot is annoying and the boss would be better off without it, and attacks like the whirlwind move are hard as fuck to dodge and one shot. Even if the dual katana cheese I'm still dying to the stupidest shit in this fight. Elden Ring's late game brought the game down so much. Dark Souls 2 is more enjoyable

 

 

LOL WHAT!!? I thought you was gonna say godskin duo but I guess not. Malenia is a joke dude! What build are you using? If you do dex build being around level 190 then any boss is history! Also get the mimic tear spirit summon if you're really having a hard time and max it out.  

7 hours ago, ThirdAwakening said:

No way in hell is Malenia the hardest Souls boss. She is critically weak to Bleeds and Stagger, and you can let your Spirit Ash tank her Waterfowl Dance.
 

Many of her attacks (Non-Waterfowl Dance) in both phases are predictable, and she’s one of the only Bosses that’s harder as a Caster than Melee. 
 

Hoarah Loux had way more people dying to him, *and he can rip apart your Mimic easily.

 

This! Her attacks have long windup which makes it easy to avoid!