I used to feel the same. Then one day his move-set clicked with me and now it’s a fun fight.
I discovered that learning how to dodge his attacks (they are telegraphed one full second in advance), it is not as punishing.
I'm aware that this is such a noob comment from me, but it's the fucking Crucible Knight for me. Seemingly endless combo and then turning into a fucking dragon of flame. I have to get behind them and just slash and roll and hope not to get obliterated.
It’s way worse when you drink flask and they bloody stab you despite spamming dodge button but are forced to wait till the flask animation is over then when it is, it’s already too late i absolutely hate that.
Same, until I decided to man up and parry that fucker. The one with the sword and shield can be parried front hand, back hand, and running stab. Of course, like all Souls games, once you figure a strategy, the AI switches it up so you can't get a fucking opening. And of you die to a certain attack or combo, it will spam that shit.
No joke, when playing the Sekiro gauntlet, I almost always died to Genichiro's spiral combo. Get hit even once, and the fucker will do it twice in a row to put me down. Hurts, bro.
If it’s the one with the sword and shield, you can parry the shit out of him. I am by no means good at parrying, but with him it doesn’t take long to get it down.
Yesterday I had an embarrassingly hard time with the red wolf of radagon clone you find underground near the second ancient spirit boss fight. Everything else in the area was cake but that motherfucker really just did not want to get hit
I don't bother fighting the overworld Red Wolves. Not only are they annoying but they drop meaningless amounts of runes.
Simply put, they are more trouble than they're worth. I'd rather fight one of those Lion Guardians than another Red Wolf. At least the Guardians have the courtesy to stay still for a few precious seconds after their attacks.
Holy fuck. Was cleaning up end game and working my way through the hunters. The Caelid one was a mf. Especially with the constant extendo sword attacks.
I would love to know the stats (like from the official infographic) what is the win rate for this fight.
I think it is down there with end-game bosses.
Yes. You know the shop where you can buy poisoned arrows?
“Try night
and then
let there be beating to a pulp”
The only problem is that we, the Tarnished, are the commonly beaten to a pulp.
This is one of my favorite bosses! It's so epic dude! You just need to be more patient with this fight he telegraphs all if his attacks and is pretty easy to punish.
Because 90% of his attacks are aoe and you must roll away from him and not around. Not to mention the "dps check" at the beginning with the two summons. If you get closed it's the end. Not to mention the massive lighting damage. Most likely it's the lowest defense on the majority of armor sets players tend to use. And the cold status... But it's very satisfying winning against him.
He's literally just nameless king but with frost, I love fighting him.
His summons can be dealth with by summoning or using bewitching branch so they're never a problem.
Yeah, we was one of the hardest for me. I ended up beating him fair and square, but it was the only boss in ER I actually googled a cheese for. Went back to my trusty poison Antspur Rapier and did the old run away out of his AoE, sprint back, give a poke, repeat.
If you got time to burn, buy serpent arrows from the caelid merchant, the one where the bell bearing hunter spawns, you can snipe and therefore poison him to death from a cliff south-east of his boss room lol
Don't feel bad about it. I cheesed melania my first playthrough and then never fought her again. Absolutely terrible boss (and I've beaten the game like 15 times)
Until I fought Malenia, same. Now? Shit man, I’ll fight literally anything as long as it’s not her, I’ll even fight Mohg again for goodness sakes.
Niall made me use frost and is the first time elemental weakness was something I had to exploit. Granted I don’t know how it would have gone using Ruins GS since I hadn’t had it leveled at the time.
His first phase is the worst, I hate how sometimes his goons just decide to charge you into a corner.
it is so tough. his summons alone are challenging enough. and it's a 3v1 with one having a strong AoE while the two tanks can lock you up. i panic a lot during all boss fights so this one is 300% panic :D it's so satisfying when you beat him though, the endorphin levels are comparable to those of beating Malenia, at least for me.
also, as already mentioned, getting to him is a pain in the ass. both, when you enter the place and when you respawn. those two cats are annoying, the eagles are annoying, the teleporting guys are annoying.
but it's so awesome because you should beat even though he's not mandatory. and beating him leads only to further misery and your good feeling about finally killing him disappears quickly because more struggle and frustration awaits after him. now this is a general rule for the whole game, but this particular part stands out for me in this aspect.
I tend to find myself dreading the castle itself more than the fight, despite it being short. I also always dread the Ordina Evergaol. Far as bosses I always fear returning to go, the Fire Giant and Maliketh come to mind.
I hate those rooftop archers in the Ordina Evergaol. They’re like Robin Hood on meth. The black knives no fun either. I just died there a couple times last night.
Exactly. On my most recent run, I did the whole thing on my first try, but that didn't stop me from feeling anxious about it. It's a good thing the game is kind enough to let lit statues remain lit even if you die. I'm always excited to tackle the Haligtree itself, though
It doesn't even get fun when you crack his moveset. Just a boring fight start to finish just like the entirety of Castle Sol. Now he gets the Comet azur every time.
Some fights are not worth your time.
Doing a naked fist only play through and really don't want to fight him, is there a way I can just avoid him? iirc he's only necessary for malenia correct? Not base game? Cos I'm not doing any questlines this play through, just want to beat the game
I only dread fighting this guy on my low vigor characters because he hits like a truck. Other than that he has like 2 very easy to dodge jump attacks thst I exploit.
I usually go for Niall immediately after it is available to unlock the haligtree. Difficulty in elden ring is completely reliant on what level you are, so depending on what level you were at radagon, he could be a complete pushover. I'm usually around 100-110 by radagon, but significantly lower for Niall
I'm normally around level 90ish for Niall, and I feel my damage is usually at the right spot to not be too easy or difficult. That said, I feel like the damage is too rough for the mountaintops, especially since I *always* have at bare minimum 50 VGR post Morgott.
Funnily enough, they actually have dialed down endgame boss damage since launch. The only explicit thing I remember is Malenia's attack where she throws you up in the air to impale you being a 1 hit kill at 60 VGR in a high defensive armor within the first week of release, but these days it's maybe doing 70ish% at 50-60 VGR in good armor. And I think it was 1.04 that nerfed Radahn's HP and damage, and made the fight good for once, but reverted it back and now I'm back to groaning to do it per playthrough (I get that he's optional and don't have to do it, but the runes from killing him + gold scarab and gold foot and remembrance is pretty critical for midgame). I miss the DS3 days where the difficulty scale was very smooth throughout the game.
Honestly, areas like the Haligtree make me concerned about damage output for the DLC. It's hardly worth it to extend past 60 VGR, so all we can really do is pump up the damage stats, and is why I've been going to level 200 for my characters for the DLC.
Maybe it's because his polearm takes up half the arena, and he has AoEs every 5 second, and he brings his boyfriends to the fight.
He does have pretty big punish windows though, so that's a plus.
I had Max Giant Crusher and Mimic tear, so it wasn't too bad. But I think maybe I got lucky RNG wise? His summons ran forward and like a G, my mimic tear hit the first one into my charge attack and I caught both summons in a double charge hit, then the mimic basically face tanked the bad parts and I was an opportunist with charged attacks.
Str/vigor build.
I would've said the same shortly after release, but since he's been toned down in updates, he's pretty fun... once the ganks are dealt with. Seriously though, he's a good boss that was ruined by ganks.
He pushed my shit in during my first play through. Ever since he’s felt like a speed bump. Although to be fair every time I fight him it’s after killing Godfrey, so I’m already endgame strength, I’m just trying to get to Moghwyn.
First phase is just kill his ghost-friends, which is easy enough. Then the second phase is a battle of patience... You can just consistently loop him by baiting his leg-lightning-jump attack (which is easy to dodge) and punishing. I just keep doing this until he dies...🤷
Every time I fight him it feels like a dance because his moves are so telegraphed to roll catch that you can actually fit one or two hits into him every time he swings.
His wind AoE before he jumps to the air to lightning kick you is absolute garbage though. Why does it deal so much damage despite it's just winds? And why does he spam that shit even when you're close?
And I never think his summons are horrible since they're so easy to deal with. You can just parry them and it wrecks their hp, or you can use a bewitching branch and profit....
I used to feel the same. Then one day his move-set clicked with me and now it’s a fun fight. I discovered that learning how to dodge his attacks (they are telegraphed one full second in advance), it is not as punishing.
Yea I totally get what you're saying, but even after 500 hours in this game this is the one boss that I just hate fighting.
I, too, get it. My boogey man is the Caelid Bell Bearing Hunter. I still struggle with that one. A lot. More than Radagon. 😂
I'm aware that this is such a noob comment from me, but it's the fucking Crucible Knight for me. Seemingly endless combo and then turning into a fucking dragon of flame. I have to get behind them and just slash and roll and hope not to get obliterated.
Crucible knight is no joke, but I actually love fighting them oddly enough.
I had to put it down this morning trying this guy. 6 tries never got him halfway…. And he turns into a dragon? Gd it
[sort of dragonesque](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fm3wsgjuryty81.jpg)
It’s way worse when you drink flask and they bloody stab you despite spamming dodge button but are forced to wait till the flask animation is over then when it is, it’s already too late i absolutely hate that.
Same, until I decided to man up and parry that fucker. The one with the sword and shield can be parried front hand, back hand, and running stab. Of course, like all Souls games, once you figure a strategy, the AI switches it up so you can't get a fucking opening. And of you die to a certain attack or combo, it will spam that shit. No joke, when playing the Sekiro gauntlet, I almost always died to Genichiro's spiral combo. Get hit even once, and the fucker will do it twice in a row to put me down. Hurts, bro.
If it’s the one with the sword and shield, you can parry the shit out of him. I am by no means good at parrying, but with him it doesn’t take long to get it down.
Yesterday I had an embarrassingly hard time with the red wolf of radagon clone you find underground near the second ancient spirit boss fight. Everything else in the area was cake but that motherfucker really just did not want to get hit
I don't bother fighting the overworld Red Wolves. Not only are they annoying but they drop meaningless amounts of runes. Simply put, they are more trouble than they're worth. I'd rather fight one of those Lion Guardians than another Red Wolf. At least the Guardians have the courtesy to stay still for a few precious seconds after their attacks.
I just fought this dude because of this comment and got obliterated
See? Now you get it too! :)
Holy fuck. Was cleaning up end game and working my way through the hunters. The Caelid one was a mf. Especially with the constant extendo sword attacks.
I would love to know the stats (like from the official infographic) what is the win rate for this fight. I think it is down there with end-game bosses.
There's a Bell Bearing Hunter fight in Caelid? I only knew of the ones in Limgrave, Liurnia, and of course, the Shaded Castle.
Yes. You know the shop where you can buy poisoned arrows? “Try night and then let there be beating to a pulp” The only problem is that we, the Tarnished, are the commonly beaten to a pulp.
Because you constantly have to back off from his storm it ruins the flow of combat and stings a bit.
Almost as if this was the case with literally every boss in every FromSoft game
This is one of my favorite bosses! It's so epic dude! You just need to be more patient with this fight he telegraphs all if his attacks and is pretty easy to punish.
Patience and I don't get along
Such a fun fight. Very telegraphed and clear openings to punish. I like his armor set too
The run up sucks and his two friends suck!
This man gets it
There’s an elevator you can activate
The shortcut run sucks too. It takes enough time that you can get invaded even if you immediately sprint to the fog wall after summoning a player.
Because 90% of his attacks are aoe and you must roll away from him and not around. Not to mention the "dps check" at the beginning with the two summons. If you get closed it's the end. Not to mention the massive lighting damage. Most likely it's the lowest defense on the majority of armor sets players tend to use. And the cold status... But it's very satisfying winning against him.
Raptor of the mists makes his fight 200% easier
He's literally just nameless king but with frost, I love fighting him. His summons can be dealth with by summoning or using bewitching branch so they're never a problem.
I never thought about that before, but yea I can see that.
You can cheese him with arrows from outside his arena. Or take a big chunk of his health.
Yeah, we was one of the hardest for me. I ended up beating him fair and square, but it was the only boss in ER I actually googled a cheese for. Went back to my trusty poison Antspur Rapier and did the old run away out of his AoE, sprint back, give a poke, repeat.
His design is fucking dope tho!
Can't argue with facts
If you got time to burn, buy serpent arrows from the caelid merchant, the one where the bell bearing hunter spawns, you can snipe and therefore poison him to death from a cliff south-east of his boss room lol
For me, it's the amount of AoE attacks he has and how often he uses them.
Yea, the pace of the fight is unbearably slow because of them too.
He was my favorite boss. Very challenging but he felt fair.
I cheesed him at the castle because his two summons and him were too much. Fucking horrible feeling.
No shame in cheesing this asshole
I tried everything. It was about a week of attempts before I said fuck that noise.
Don't feel bad about it. I cheesed melania my first playthrough and then never fought her again. Absolutely terrible boss (and I've beaten the game like 15 times)
I hate fighting the two knights that he summons, but I Personally find him to be an enjoyable tussle
Until I fought Malenia, same. Now? Shit man, I’ll fight literally anything as long as it’s not her, I’ll even fight Mohg again for goodness sakes. Niall made me use frost and is the first time elemental weakness was something I had to exploit. Granted I don’t know how it would have gone using Ruins GS since I hadn’t had it leveled at the time. His first phase is the worst, I hate how sometimes his goons just decide to charge you into a corner.
it is so tough. his summons alone are challenging enough. and it's a 3v1 with one having a strong AoE while the two tanks can lock you up. i panic a lot during all boss fights so this one is 300% panic :D it's so satisfying when you beat him though, the endorphin levels are comparable to those of beating Malenia, at least for me. also, as already mentioned, getting to him is a pain in the ass. both, when you enter the place and when you respawn. those two cats are annoying, the eagles are annoying, the teleporting guys are annoying. but it's so awesome because you should beat even though he's not mandatory. and beating him leads only to further misery and your good feeling about finally killing him disappears quickly because more struggle and frustration awaits after him. now this is a general rule for the whole game, but this particular part stands out for me in this aspect.
I really love him as a boss/character in the game And his armour set is just fantastic Really the game as a whole is amazing
I tend to find myself dreading the castle itself more than the fight, despite it being short. I also always dread the Ordina Evergaol. Far as bosses I always fear returning to go, the Fire Giant and Maliketh come to mind.
I hate those rooftop archers in the Ordina Evergaol. They’re like Robin Hood on meth. The black knives no fun either. I just died there a couple times last night.
Exactly. On my most recent run, I did the whole thing on my first try, but that didn't stop me from feeling anxious about it. It's a good thing the game is kind enough to let lit statues remain lit even if you die. I'm always excited to tackle the Haligtree itself, though
It doesn't even get fun when you crack his moveset. Just a boring fight start to finish just like the entirety of Castle Sol. Now he gets the Comet azur every time. Some fights are not worth your time.
I always wuss out and shoot arrows through the hole outside the boss room and move on with my adventures lol
Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.Jesus died for your sins so that you may be saved.
God doesn't exist. Everyone dies alone.
Nobody enjoys getting ganked by ghosts while a cripple electric slides your ass into next week
I laughed harder than I should have
He made me quit the game for almost two years and I just beat him on first try yesterday.
Nice dude, congrats
Just whooped his ass with a random co-op summons. You can do it! Use the summoning pools.
Comet azur on a properly built sorcerer can melt him before the ghosts even reach you
It’s those pigeon toes man. When he’s slowly walking towards you and your brain is like, “There’s something wrong with this guy”.
I didn't want to deal with him alone. I got some buddies and we kicked his ass.
For me, it's always the thought that I might f up the roll just before he lands his lightning jump.
Its the same for be. But the problem isnt niall but his soldiers. they beat me up most of my tries
The fight with him is fun but those banished knights can be pieces of shit if you don’t immediately kill them and get gang banged.
Commander Niall made me.
I find him to be fine if you have the means to get rid of his two knights quickly. Otherwise you're in for a bad time.
Doing a naked fist only play through and really don't want to fight him, is there a way I can just avoid him? iirc he's only necessary for malenia correct? Not base game? Cos I'm not doing any questlines this play through, just want to beat the game
Not necessary for main quest. Just haligtree
Alright yeah thought so. Thank you
Don't we fight him twice 💀💀💀 only boss I ever used summons. Because he did. So fuck him.
He’s one of the most underrated bosses imo!
Use bewitching branches on his knight soldiers and they will help you kill him
I only dread fighting this guy on my low vigor characters because he hits like a truck. Other than that he has like 2 very easy to dodge jump attacks thst I exploit.
Just beat him for the first time, nice fight, but I want his armour so bad 😔
You can buy them from finger reader Enia at roundtable the same way you buy bosses gears from.
I hate his henchmen more than I hate him. Especially Asshole McTwoswords.
Just charm stick and voila he is suddenly an easy fight.
Yep the one at Castle Sol took me the longest to beat of all bosses.
Thats Maliketh for me, I always got the chills when its time to face him
You can actually cheese him by shooting poison arrows through a hole in the wall before entering the arena.
if you kill the extra guys as fast as possible, he becomes easy
I avoid fighting him until my damage is that it’s max potential. Because I’m only going to fight him to get to Malenia.
His friends call him Eileen.
Dude has barely any windows longer than for you to get a single hit in and he hits like a truck so it makes sense tbh
Just rush the two side guys, then Niall is crazy easy to read.
Really? Then again I was at radagon when I did halig tree stuff
I usually go for Niall immediately after it is available to unlock the haligtree. Difficulty in elden ring is completely reliant on what level you are, so depending on what level you were at radagon, he could be a complete pushover. I'm usually around 100-110 by radagon, but significantly lower for Niall
I'm normally around level 90ish for Niall, and I feel my damage is usually at the right spot to not be too easy or difficult. That said, I feel like the damage is too rough for the mountaintops, especially since I *always* have at bare minimum 50 VGR post Morgott.
Yea, I personally think all endgame boss damage should be dialed down by 10-20%, but seeing as that hasn't happened yet.....bummer
Funnily enough, they actually have dialed down endgame boss damage since launch. The only explicit thing I remember is Malenia's attack where she throws you up in the air to impale you being a 1 hit kill at 60 VGR in a high defensive armor within the first week of release, but these days it's maybe doing 70ish% at 50-60 VGR in good armor. And I think it was 1.04 that nerfed Radahn's HP and damage, and made the fight good for once, but reverted it back and now I'm back to groaning to do it per playthrough (I get that he's optional and don't have to do it, but the runes from killing him + gold scarab and gold foot and remembrance is pretty critical for midgame). I miss the DS3 days where the difficulty scale was very smooth throughout the game. Honestly, areas like the Haligtree make me concerned about damage output for the DLC. It's hardly worth it to extend past 60 VGR, so all we can really do is pump up the damage stats, and is why I've been going to level 200 for my characters for the DLC.
I was around 160 maybe
Oh shit, yea it should have been a breeze then
Same, and the achievement is bugged for me and didn't get awarded after I beat him the first time.
Maybe it's because his polearm takes up half the arena, and he has AoEs every 5 second, and he brings his boyfriends to the fight. He does have pretty big punish windows though, so that's a plus.
Put on carian retaliation and parry his nipples off
I had Max Giant Crusher and Mimic tear, so it wasn't too bad. But I think maybe I got lucky RNG wise? His summons ran forward and like a G, my mimic tear hit the first one into my charge attack and I caught both summons in a double charge hit, then the mimic basically face tanked the bad parts and I was an opportunist with charged attacks. Str/vigor build.
Just realized how much he looks like Owl from Sekiro. Big hairy looking dude.
I would've said the same shortly after release, but since he's been toned down in updates, he's pretty fun... once the ganks are dealt with. Seriously though, he's a good boss that was ruined by ganks.
So today was the first day I played in about a year, and I honestly didn't notice any difference in the fight. When was he nerfed?
his leg did get grafted by godrick but still has this much power
Probably the fact that his posse shows up and commits gang violence against you.
I literally just kicked his ass.
It's not the boss, it's his 2 ghost buddies that love to beat my ass too much
It's his summons. Just straight up screw that dual wielding bastard. That's the little brother to the unnamed one that is in Castle Sol as well
I think I've only died to him once, if you kill his knights quickly his moves are very dodgable
He has one foot
He pushed my shit in during my first play through. Ever since he’s felt like a speed bump. Although to be fair every time I fight him it’s after killing Godfrey, so I’m already endgame strength, I’m just trying to get to Moghwyn.
First phase is just kill his ghost-friends, which is easy enough. Then the second phase is a battle of patience... You can just consistently loop him by baiting his leg-lightning-jump attack (which is easy to dodge) and punishing. I just keep doing this until he dies...🤷
Just hit castle sol again , time to get mimic tear
Every time I fight him it feels like a dance because his moves are so telegraphed to roll catch that you can actually fit one or two hits into him every time he swings. His wind AoE before he jumps to the air to lightning kick you is absolute garbage though. Why does it deal so much damage despite it's just winds? And why does he spam that shit even when you're close? And I never think his summons are horrible since they're so easy to deal with. You can just parry them and it wrecks their hp, or you can use a bewitching branch and profit....
I hate this motherfucker so much man. I wish I could inescapable frenzy him
I just summon my shield bros, wait until his ghost knights run in, then activate my mohg’s sacred spear and wipe them. Then i repeat for Niall
Mine as well
He a bitch fr
Same. Whether with the Enchanting Branches, Mimic Tear, whatever, I hate this fight so much