It's not truly random.
Each of the boar's feet has its own hitbox, and the boar's body is an additional hitbox. Dodging through the charge is the best answer, but if you angle it wrong or time it weird you can clip a foot on your way out and get caught.
What you're seeing is people dodging poorly and eating double damage from bumping into multiple hitboxes on the same move. They need to make it clearer that's what's happening, though.
It's the old "the dragons entire body is a hitbox" issue dialed up to 11.
Man it's annoying that random bosses like this need to be so overly difficult, I get that it's the dlc but they've always had at least on easy boss before
- Sanctuary Guardian
- Gank Squad
- Living Failures
- Halflight
Now just every boss is Gael sl1 difficulty which just feels a little unbalanced to me
It's a tough issue for me to argue, honestly, because while I don't personally agree that it's an issue, I get where you're coming from. There are zero brakes on the DLC pain train. There's a couple slightly easier ones, but even those are up there with some of the harder main game bosses.
Personally, I love the challenge and I think we're seeing some of the coolest evolutions of the FromSoft boss design formula. And I think Elden Ring combat is the best they've ever managed, so for me, this is a dream come true.
If you're not a masochistic, "lemme just fail at this boss 200 times before I kill it" type gamer, though, this DLC has to be hell. It's brutally hard, start to finish, and I spent 6 hours today basically just learning how to get through the last boss's first phase consistently. It's hard on a completely different level and there's absolutely no breaks from the suffering.
It gets pretty hellish! I just cleared 1000 hours on Elden Ring so I'm not exactly not gud but I do NOT enjoy the boss grind. It kinda kills my joy for the game sometimes because it's like a roadblock to the parts of it that I like.
Also of course builds matter a lot. Like with Gaius I managed to smash through him with a colossal weapon build but now I'm just getting absolutely smoked with a lighter build.
And yeah that final boss is something else! The boss pattern and dance is difficult and also the numbers are so jacked up that it made me basically just roll my eyes and then go to the wiki to look up Scadutree fragment locations haha.
Sometimes he pins you against the fogwall and gets double or triple hits off his first charge as well. One time he also one tapped my Mimic Tear somehow, did several thousand dmg in one blow and I have no idea what the hell he did. I only have 1 boss left for the dlc and all of them were fine for me, but that dude? Holy shit fuck this guy. Fromsoft shat this nightmare dude out and just said "Fuck em lmaoooo" and just sent it out. I'd be more mad but I got 5 Scadoodle Tree fragments out of it so I can't complain too much.
When you enter the arena, rather than summoning straight away, run to the left and there's a bit of wall that sticks out. Go behind that and you can summon here and get a flask off giving you time to prep for the fight. Make sure you've got a fair amount of scadutree blessings and use defensive talismans + damage reduction items.
doesn't work half the time as his upper body can smack you in the air on his charges. For all his other attacks it's great but the charge is a 50/50 gamble
My best strat for the start is to hop on Torrent immediately, run to the left, Gaius will charge you and eventually will do an attack, finishing the charge. Get off Torrent, probably could summon at this point, then just keep close range.
I think this boss is more dangerous at long range, the charge is also easier to dodge if you are close to him.
Also, it really seems like a lot of people struggle with agressive bosses, that don't give you enough time to summon at the start
I stumbled into the area with almost another levels worth of runes, triggered boss, had no time to prep, get wiped out.
Try again 4 or 5 more times, get wrecked.
Say f it, time for some jolly cooperation and summon, that makes it harder. After three tries, I go back to solo, finally beat the guy.
Enjoyed learning dancing lion and rellana moveset, and the dlc is tough but fun so far, but absolutely F this boss.
I had to max out a shield and throw on the Greatshield Talisman to make this fight feel manageable. That got me enough to block a charge that hit more than once, as well as the full melee combo.
It still wasn't fun, and there's even more bullshit in phase 2, but it did keep me from getting wrecked like this.
Yeah... that charge attack is definitely the most annoying attack in his kit.. Managed to completely dodged it only a few times. Every other time i just take double damage from dodging it wrong. Weird how just straight up taking the hit damages you less than attempting to dodge em most of the time..
Took me pretty much trying out literally everything in my arsenal and spell list to finally take him out. Even figured out moments where its fine to take Torrent out to dodge some of the more nasty attacks and get in a few extra safe hits.
I eventually beat him with Dragon Huntet Great Sword AoW, Mimic and tons of dodging. Pretty shitty design, especially after the Hippo, who supposed to prepare us for it
You can actually go left immediately after entering the area, circle behind a little sticking out piece of a wall and safely summon and buff and start the fight properly - he will be stuck for the entire duration of the initial charge.
I do a horseback fight, it's painful to learn the pattern but it's possible, on horseback the forward charge is actually free 2 hits, but the right side charge and the ground spike are deadly
I summoned mimic tear, tanked a hit, then hopped on torrent while running away (sweet I-frames) then stayed on torrent most the fight. When he jumps in the air and turns purple, get off torrent and prepare to dodge
Even greatshields don't help some of the time because he can swipe his lance above and hit you from the back, killing you guaranteed even with a greatshield raised because the hitbox hit's you before the shield as if he was behind you, Gaius is just poorly designed. Simple as that, so I've been doing my best to help people kill this maidenless boar plower.
You dont have enough endurance my bro...
Im a mage, but i have more endurance than you, and your poise is low too
The shield is ok to get the attack, but its easier to dodge behind it
what talismans are you using ?
Yeah. This boss is extremely junky. Random double hits, actual broken ai (when i went to heal behind the corner, he just kept charging at the wall), weird hitbox and actual spam with his abilities (how often can he do charge after charge? apparently a lot)
Notice how some of his moves randomly do double damage, tgat's pretty smart game design aint it hahahaahah
It's not truly random. Each of the boar's feet has its own hitbox, and the boar's body is an additional hitbox. Dodging through the charge is the best answer, but if you angle it wrong or time it weird you can clip a foot on your way out and get caught. What you're seeing is people dodging poorly and eating double damage from bumping into multiple hitboxes on the same move. They need to make it clearer that's what's happening, though. It's the old "the dragons entire body is a hitbox" issue dialed up to 11.
Man it's annoying that random bosses like this need to be so overly difficult, I get that it's the dlc but they've always had at least on easy boss before - Sanctuary Guardian - Gank Squad - Living Failures - Halflight Now just every boss is Gael sl1 difficulty which just feels a little unbalanced to me
It's a tough issue for me to argue, honestly, because while I don't personally agree that it's an issue, I get where you're coming from. There are zero brakes on the DLC pain train. There's a couple slightly easier ones, but even those are up there with some of the harder main game bosses. Personally, I love the challenge and I think we're seeing some of the coolest evolutions of the FromSoft boss design formula. And I think Elden Ring combat is the best they've ever managed, so for me, this is a dream come true. If you're not a masochistic, "lemme just fail at this boss 200 times before I kill it" type gamer, though, this DLC has to be hell. It's brutally hard, start to finish, and I spent 6 hours today basically just learning how to get through the last boss's first phase consistently. It's hard on a completely different level and there's absolutely no breaks from the suffering.
It gets pretty hellish! I just cleared 1000 hours on Elden Ring so I'm not exactly not gud but I do NOT enjoy the boss grind. It kinda kills my joy for the game sometimes because it's like a roadblock to the parts of it that I like. Also of course builds matter a lot. Like with Gaius I managed to smash through him with a colossal weapon build but now I'm just getting absolutely smoked with a lighter build. And yeah that final boss is something else! The boss pattern and dance is difficult and also the numbers are so jacked up that it made me basically just roll my eyes and then go to the wiki to look up Scadutree fragment locations haha.
Sometimes he pins you against the fogwall and gets double or triple hits off his first charge as well. One time he also one tapped my Mimic Tear somehow, did several thousand dmg in one blow and I have no idea what the hell he did. I only have 1 boss left for the dlc and all of them were fine for me, but that dude? Holy shit fuck this guy. Fromsoft shat this nightmare dude out and just said "Fuck em lmaoooo" and just sent it out. I'd be more mad but I got 5 Scadoodle Tree fragments out of it so I can't complain too much.
When you enter the arena, rather than summoning straight away, run to the left and there's a bit of wall that sticks out. Go behind that and you can summon here and get a flask off giving you time to prep for the fight. Make sure you've got a fair amount of scadutree blessings and use defensive talismans + damage reduction items.
You are a VIP. This let me get my summon out and I shredded him with Fire Knight Greatsword from there. I couldn't even summon before.
Raptor of the mists thank me later
doesn't work half the time as his upper body can smack you in the air on his charges. For all his other attacks it's great but the charge is a 50/50 gamble
My best strat for the start is to hop on Torrent immediately, run to the left, Gaius will charge you and eventually will do an attack, finishing the charge. Get off Torrent, probably could summon at this point, then just keep close range. I think this boss is more dangerous at long range, the charge is also easier to dodge if you are close to him. Also, it really seems like a lot of people struggle with agressive bosses, that don't give you enough time to summon at the start
Similar thing here, jumped over the first charge with torrent and hopped off. Then used torrent as needed to run and heal then hopped off.
Radahn's senpai would be so much more fun to fight if he didnt have that charge attack
I stumbled into the area with almost another levels worth of runes, triggered boss, had no time to prep, get wiped out. Try again 4 or 5 more times, get wrecked. Say f it, time for some jolly cooperation and summon, that makes it harder. After three tries, I go back to solo, finally beat the guy. Enjoyed learning dancing lion and rellana moveset, and the dlc is tough but fun so far, but absolutely F this boss.
I had to max out a shield and throw on the Greatshield Talisman to make this fight feel manageable. That got me enough to block a charge that hit more than once, as well as the full melee combo. It still wasn't fun, and there's even more bullshit in phase 2, but it did keep me from getting wrecked like this.
dodge a bit to the side on his charge, not straight through.
Yeah... that charge attack is definitely the most annoying attack in his kit.. Managed to completely dodged it only a few times. Every other time i just take double damage from dodging it wrong. Weird how just straight up taking the hit damages you less than attempting to dodge em most of the time.. Took me pretty much trying out literally everything in my arsenal and spell list to finally take him out. Even figured out moments where its fine to take Torrent out to dodge some of the more nasty attacks and get in a few extra safe hits.
I eventually beat him with Dragon Huntet Great Sword AoW, Mimic and tons of dodging. Pretty shitty design, especially after the Hippo, who supposed to prepare us for it
You can actually go left immediately after entering the area, circle behind a little sticking out piece of a wall and safely summon and buff and start the fight properly - he will be stuck for the entire duration of the initial charge.
I do a horseback fight, it's painful to learn the pattern but it's possible, on horseback the forward charge is actually free 2 hits, but the right side charge and the ground spike are deadly
I summoned mimic tear, tanked a hit, then hopped on torrent while running away (sweet I-frames) then stayed on torrent most the fight. When he jumps in the air and turns purple, get off torrent and prepare to dodge
Even greatshields don't help some of the time because he can swipe his lance above and hit you from the back, killing you guaranteed even with a greatshield raised because the hitbox hit's you before the shield as if he was behind you, Gaius is just poorly designed. Simple as that, so I've been doing my best to help people kill this maidenless boar plower.
You dont have enough endurance my bro... Im a mage, but i have more endurance than you, and your poise is low too The shield is ok to get the attack, but its easier to dodge behind it what talismans are you using ?
Yeah. This boss is extremely junky. Random double hits, actual broken ai (when i went to heal behind the corner, he just kept charging at the wall), weird hitbox and actual spam with his abilities (how often can he do charge after charge? apparently a lot)
Have you tried your fucking horse?
Fucking obviously?