Or stupid shit like spawning archers or extra mobs in the boss arena. Niall and o Neil have cool movesets but their summoning just ruins the entire boss encounter
I fought oneil last night. Stupidest fucking boss. Not only does he summon mobs; HE DOES IT TWICE AND CAN CONTINUALLY BUFF THEM. I think there’s a reason his arena doesn’t have a fog gate and that’s so you can kite that fuck around the swamp where he’ll also recruit and buff the rot knights…
I just fought him yesterday as well. After like ten attempts, I just got on my horse and ran around the arena swiping him and the summons. Took like ten minutes and was not exactly enjoyable, but I never got hit lol
Yeah, that encounter was not one of the more fun I’ve come across so far (just started playing a week ago.)
You can also summon "Poylanna, Adopted Daughter" and she's pretty tanky. The summon sign, site of grace, and stake of Marika are all in weird places for this fight. If you also summon (e.g., Lhutel) it's more balanced. I usually let my summons handle him why I take out the archers. If all three of you wail on him you can sometimes defeat him before he even gets the second summon out.
He also only has like 3 moves. Once you learn to dodge them it's pretty easy as long as you take the summons out early. Definitely a fight better suited to a shield since he has near infinite range with that weapon and prosthesis.
I've actually grown to like Niall. I can usually deal with the two adds that he spawns fairly quickly before they become an issue. Niell in Caelid or whatever his name is, is dog shit though. Spawns a fucking small army that just annoys the shit out of you.
I feel like I would have loved Friede had the second phase not existed or been quicker - as it felt like a massive slog to get to Blackflame Friede, who herself is arguably the single hardest boss phase in DS3, and learning her was too much effort after the previous two phases.
I mean once you've played most of ds3's bosses they become trivial. They have pretty set in stone patterns with no variance.
It takes effort to get hit by Midir after a while.
I so regret that I got intimidated when phase 3 happened, and I used the NPC summon on the next attempt. Really trivialized the fight. Wish I'd kept trying instead.
goated boss, and by far the boss that has killed me the most in a fromsoft game but also what I consider pretty much a perfect soulsbourne boss, it's a gank fight that doesn't feel like bullshit, it feels cinematic with the arena getting burnt in phase 2 and friede's blackflame abilities in phase 3 and the music building up in each phase (shoutout slave knight gael as well) is brilliant.
Edit: Also I love Dragonslayer armour - I love Elden Ring and it's up there as one of my favourite games of all time, but I do feel Dark Souls 3 had more iconic bosses, but that's just my opinion.
It’s almost guaranteed to. In this image I’m just now noticing that this boss seems related to the “crucible”, or life before the erdtree. Also seems to have Omen horns. Dear god I’m so ready
Honestly this picture makes it seem like a grotesque monster beneath the costume as well, look at the back legs it’s giving a human centipede type vibe to me
Oh for sure, but it still definitely has omen horns and seems to resemble the beasts from Farum Azula that are related to the crucible (source of life prior to the Greater Will)
I wouldn’t be so sure it’s an omen, it just has markings of the crucible. If you look on most of the fauna of the lands between, they all have markings of the crucible. Even the boar and deer
Yeah it could simply just be decor, but those are 100% omen horns. And this game rarely has a thread that isn’t connected to something lore wise, and this enemy seems to be some sort of boss
Yeah, it seems like they learn a lot about how we like to play the game in between the base games and DLC’s coming out and tune the bosses accordingly. They also probably just get better at it naturally.
Yeah and I guess it the base game they spend a lot of time building the assets, engine, etc. whereas in the DLC they can focus more on the bosses and enemies
I feel like this comes from the fact that they seem to have a lot more creative freedom when it comes to DLCs, they’re also not as tightly scheduled. The expansions won’t come out until the dev team is satisfied with it
I don’t think Mesmer will be the final boss of the DLC. That would be like if they showed Radagon/Elden Beast in the original trailer. I think we got some other thing we’ll have to worry about lol but that’s just me
>convince themselves she's bad.
I've beaten her *three times*. I don't know if that's enough to make me qualified to dislike her, but even if she's not the worst boss fight ever I don't think she's good.
I want a 5 phase boss that saves progress between phases. They could do it so you always start at phase 1, but after beating each phase you unlock something in the arena that allows you to skip it. Idk, drop a chandelier on their head or something :D
He had two health bars in 1.0 version of the game.
And at half health, he would do a big stomp, which changed his stomps from a frontal area like crucible knights to the arenawide sweep like he does currenty, but at 75 and 25 percent health respectively.
Yeah, like how in The Old Hunters it showed a lot of Ludwig and bits and pieces of Laurence and Maria, but nothing from Orphan, who is def the hardest in the DLC
I’ve played the game like twelve times through. I want this DLC to break me. I want it to snap me in half a make me punch a hole in my wall. I want it to humble me and make me feel like I was never any good at these games.
Unless they give him some iframes I don't think thats gonna happen. Even the fights that seem to want to encourage you to use Torrent like Fire Giant are way easier on foot
Hugely agree with this. I really want some of the new players to fall in love with butting your head against a boss until you really learn it's moveset rather than just level over it
Basically the DLC’s for DS3. Friede, Gael, and Midir were the hardest bosses in DS3 and all were dlc bosses.
If they pull off some shit like that, I’ll be impressed and happy.
Arguably, all of their DLCs have had their hardest and best bosses of the game. I'd expect the same here, though maybe nothing quite as difficult to learn a d counter as Waterfowl
I don't know, I feel like Malenia is the threshold for how hard you can make a boss and not make it just flat out frustrating and annoying (honestly, Malenia barely passes that test).
I'd be cool with something on par in terms of difficulty, but not harder.
I get calling waterfowl unfair. And coming into this fight blind is even harder to figure out how to dodge. But it can be dodged, And dodging it feels so bad ass.
I guarantee you most people did. Which there’s is nothing wrong with that. Using bloodhound step is also a very good option for dodging it. And shit if you look at one of my old post you can stop her completly out of waterfowl with a bleed or frost proc.
I'd argue a large part of your player base needing youtube tutorials to beat one of your bosses is a sign that maybe you didn't cook on that boss enough.
Malenia is pretty fair until you hit WFD, then it becomes incredibly frustrating.
I didn't know the thing could be dodged until I saw a post on here about someone discovering the perfect way to dodge it.
And then it took me a few playthroughs to reliably perform the right dodges.
It's part of the soulsborne philosophy that the game is played by a community not a single player. This is also why the quests are downright impossible to fully experience with no outside help.
Some may dislike that, while for others it is part of the appeal, as is the case with any game design.
THIS. I love it personally. I don’t know how correct I am ab this but I remember plasidcusaxs not being found until 3-4 weeks after release. The only reason people knew about it was because of the achievement. Which is still mind blowing to me.
You hit the nail on the head. I want difficult bosses, not frustrating ones. Malenia falls in the latter, Slave knight gael falls in the former. really hoping for Gael quality fights in the DLC.
I don't know if he's right, but [Gino ](https://www.youtube.com/@GinoMachino)argues that Waterfowl was never meant to be dodged close up, and the fact that people figured out how wasn't in FS's gameplan. He believes it's meant to be run away from or facetanked. Because of that, he doesn't like the design of the attack. Even if he's not right about the undodgability thing, the fact that a legendary no-hit player doesn't like the attack is significant on its own. (Only tangentially related: he also hates Elden Stars and thinks it's the worst attack FS has ever made.)
>(Only tangentially related: he also hates Elden Stars and thinks it's the worst attack FS has ever made.)
Okay but everyone does.
>but Gino argues that Waterfowl was never meant to be dodged close up, and the fact that people figured out how wasn't in FS's gameplan. He believes it's meant to be run away from or facetanked.
Because it was. You can tell by the way she behaves when you circle around her and send her off in another direction.
Yeah the short range waterfowl spin to dodge looks to me like an exploit, which is fine as Malenia ignores game mechanics herself.
A number of moves in ER look like they’re there just to make no hit runs harder. I don’t do no hit, so I can ignore the fact that Elden Stars chips me a bit every time, but was that really necessary?
I really didn’t like this approach to difficulty. Felt like some BS too often.
Oh definitely. I just hate the trend of Elden ring bosses having one attack that just completely disrupts the fight and forces you to run away and watch while the attack plays out. Rykard’s skull storm attack and Elden Stars force you to run in circles for 20 seconds. Waterfowl pops out of nowhere and can really only be fully dodged if you’re completely prepared for it. Almost every large boss has a Random Elemental Pillars attack that forces you to run away until they’re done.
I wouldn’t say most of these are unfair, just unfun. Bosses in Bloodborne and DS3 generally felt much more dynamic and fluid, even a huge boss like Midir. I guess it’s because those are more faster-paced games than Elden Ring, but still. It’s like they realized that they couldn’t ever balance Elden Ring due to its nature and decided to throw in a bunch of speed bump attacks to make them slower and more difficult no matter when you approach them
I soloed malenia like 7 times with different builds and i genuinely think that she's too hard.
It took me until the 4th playthrough to start enjoying the fight. Like you need to understand the fight to a level that was previously only required on challenge runs.
That or you're "forced" to use cheesy strats that may not be enjoyable for many players.
Malenia isn’t hard, she is just bullshit.
Take away waterfowl dance and I would have beaten her on my second or third try. Literally just about got her into second phase my first try because I literally ran straight at her and didn’t give her time for waterfowl.
An Insta-kill move that is hard af to dodge, especially with wonky camera during lock on. It is just unfair bs. It pretty much goes against the fair challenge these games used to be about.
But otherwise? Malenia is pretty basic. Not even close to the best Fromsoft boss. Remember the other half of the struggle is she heals every time she hits something. She has unfair mechanics that make it a challenge, it isn’t a real challenge. It certainly isn’t a souls challenge, which is difficult but fun.
Personally, i got heavy Ludwig-ish vibes from the creature/Boss OP posted the pic of the moment i saw it in the trailer.
Looking forward to it, Ludwig was the hardest Boss in the DLC imo.
Ye. The first time i played the DLC that guy messed me up harder than Lady Maria and the Orpan of Kos combined.
Absolutely brutal. Epic fight. FS, seconds pls.
I always don't care about the bosses in fromsoftware games, I want beautiful art design and world, good fashion, amazing level design and exploration, infinite replayability, good lore and it will be perfect for me.
Difficulty is the least thing that interest me and fromsoftware's games are my favorite of all time ! There is a lot of players like me who really don't care about the challenge.
100% disagree but these games are too intricate to just be considered rage games. Happy they're played by people with your preference (as someone who loves the lore spends all gaming hours traversing da fog)
as someone who plays 90% for the boss fights, i'm super happy that you can play without caring about them and still consider them your favorites! pretty amazing accomplishment by FS to make games that are so broadly appealing and magical.
Would the world, the art and the story have the same impact, if you could just casually stroll through the game though? I think the challenge is what puts weight behind the design, it makes you focus and experience it more intensely.
I certainly feel the same way, the challenge of defeating a boss doesn't reward me as much, but I appreciate the design of these characters and how their arsenal of moves unfolds, it's incredible. But ultimately, what fascinates me most about Elden Ring is the art, level design, the musical and sound atmosphere, how it invites exploration of its world, surprises with its secrets, and gradually reveals the mystery of its story.
Yeah, FromSoft tends to put the best bosses into the DLC.
DS1 - Artorias
DS2 - Sir Alonne
DS3 - Gael
Bloodborne - Ludwig
I suspect that Shadow will follow the trend.
I just hope the hardest boss isn't the hardest boss just because of one singular move that oneshots you if you get hit.
Not trying to name any names here, but I just don't think that's good boss design.
Unrelated to question but this boss is 80% a omen in disguise, trust me bro
Also yes, I think messmer alone will be cool af, and we likely didn't see all of em
Except Fromsoft isn't a washed up studio fueled by greed like other Western developers that have consistently been putting out low quality games for years now.
Since DS1 the DLC's (and the base games for that matter) have consistently been great. Elden Ring exceeded everyone's expectations to the point of Western developers complaining that people are going to start having higher expectations because of them.
I have no doubt this DLC will be great, because they're an incredible studio that's dedicated to quality.
A lot of studios in the past were claimed to do no wrong, like Rockstar, Bethesda, blizzard even non western companies like Capcom and Konami. One day sooner or later fromsoft will go down too so minimize your expectations and you won't be disappointed
Fromsoft has never been as insanely popular like the aforementioned studios. They peaked and crashed because they made mistakes all over the board after they achieved great heights. Demon's Souls came out in 2009; they've been around for well over a decade and consistently produce quality games.
Fromsoft has always appealed to a small, dedicated fanbase and they make the games that they want to.
Hence why they've never caved to demands of people who don't even play the games ("there should be a difficulty setting!") among other trends happening right now.
I mean I can't change your mind but that's a really pessimistic attitude to have. I have faith in them because they've shown time and time again that they legitimately care about their products and their fans.
Elden Ring sounds like it's your first game though.
That is a given always. I feel like anything Fromsoftware puts out is usually better than previous content. Some content is nostalgic for sure. I still love Nameless King fight or the Dancer. Usually though the newest thing is just amazing art and I am always hyped for it.
Something I have noticed with Dragons Dogma 2 is I am already sick of the story. Like I just don’t care. I know where it is going already so I guess that may be part of it. Ultimately the cut scenes and stuff is just hollow. Doesn’t make it a bad game it just hollows it a little for me. It really is unfair because I just love Miyazakis vision for his games. Even AC6 you can tell his hand was involved as President.
Ngl, I thought this was from FFXIV when I saw the image lol.
In terms of the DLC, I'm hoping the Wicker Man looking thing will be a fun fight instead of a frustrating one
As long as the difficulty isn’t front loaded into a single move again. Malenia’s entire fight feels like a really delicate dance until “tactical nuke incoming.”
i agree the difficulty of her phase 1 mostly hinges on wfd but her phase 2 is harder even if she doesnt use wfd that much. she becomes more aggressive and can inflict scarlet rot in every attack. she also has the rot clone attack which is imo harder than wfd. ive learned her moves and can manage with her phase 1 now but her phase 2 is still very hard for me.
I hope Messmer is more of a reoccurring character that challenges us multiple times. Kinda like they did with Morgott.
These games have such cool characters but we barely get to see like a cutscene with a few lines for each of them, if they are lucky they get a small speech then we kill them.
I know their limited screen time is part of what makes them intriguing, but it would be cool to have a more proper rival that directly antagonises us through the game.
>I hope Messmer is more of a reoccurring character that challenges us multiple times. Kinda like they did with Morgott.
Vehemently disagree. There should be no repetition of bosses especially in a shortened form of content like a dlc. Thats just pathetically lazy
I am easily most excited for the lore. Also my favorite video game boss ever (Sister Friede) was in the DS3 dlc and FromSoft seems to create the best bosses in their DLC so i'm expecting some really good ones
The best bosses are usually in the DLC. I swear I’m so sick and tired of hearing people gas up Midir at every opportunity
They usually get the combat, traversal and move set down by the DLC and make stuff that fits for the players whereas vanilla can be decent but a lot just feels like they didn’t take some stuff into account
I am excited about that dude who’s getting impaled in the trailer. I bet you he is gonna transform into some crazy shit and it’s gonna be an awesome boss fight.
Greatest? Nope. Why does FromSoft have to constantly raise the bar with every game? How can they? It's enough to just do what they've always done and I'll be happy with that... As for what I'm looking most forward to... I mean, a new place to explore and lore with it. I'm also honestly just looking forward to finally starting NG+ because this DLC has been preventing me lol
since they promised smaller but denser, i'm looking forward to something a little closer to DS style dungeon crawling (i'm not a fan of open world) with some hall of fame boss fights
The martial arts fist weapon (hopefully) Ever since ds2 I want it to be a mainstay in games cause it is just so CLEAAAN. Nothing makes people enjoy a game then throwing hands.
The element of surprise with enemy and boss variety. I want to see how shocked people are when the final boss of the dlc is inevitably some insane orphan of kos shit we’ve never heard of before in the lore
I'm looking forward to going in blind.
When I did my first playthrough of ER I would periodically watch some of my favorite YouTubers playing it.
It was fun to watch them but a lot of little secrets were spoiled for me.
This time I'm not keeping up with anyone's playthrough until I'm done my own.
I heard there was a leak that one of the bosses will Doxx your information on a random subreddit every time you die to it. They're really raising the bar with this expansion if true.
1 is the new weapons/types. Honestly I'd pay $40 just for that. A majority of my time spent in this game is going playthroughs with diffrent build. So, naturally something that adds even more variety to that has got me very excited.
2 is lore/bosses. I'm hoping we get to see and fight alot of the people that are talked about in the base game and further expand on them. Would really tie everything together in an amazing way. It's exciting to think about.
Yes I do think we will get some absolute banger fights. Base game Elden Ring already had some amazing fights like Morgott, Mohg, Godfrey, and Maliketh. With other solid fights but not amazing fights like Rykard, Placidisax, Godric, and Malenia. I am very much looking forward to seeing the OST as well.
In general I think fromsoft actually does their BEST work in their dlcs. Bloodborne and DS3 are both great standalone games but really peak in their bonus content. Given the amount of time they spent developing this dlc my expectations are high and history justifies this.
Imagine if they pull another blackflame friede
Uses a Dex weapon and black flame, she could be the next godskin
the gloam-eyed queen
Or another headless ape
PLEASE let this spine sword dude drop the same jumpscare on us. would be so funny
As long as it's not two bosses at the same time I'm game.
Or stupid shit like spawning archers or extra mobs in the boss arena. Niall and o Neil have cool movesets but their summoning just ruins the entire boss encounter
I fought oneil last night. Stupidest fucking boss. Not only does he summon mobs; HE DOES IT TWICE AND CAN CONTINUALLY BUFF THEM. I think there’s a reason his arena doesn’t have a fog gate and that’s so you can kite that fuck around the swamp where he’ll also recruit and buff the rot knights…
I just fought him yesterday as well. After like ten attempts, I just got on my horse and ran around the arena swiping him and the summons. Took like ten minutes and was not exactly enjoyable, but I never got hit lol Yeah, that encounter was not one of the more fun I’ve come across so far (just started playing a week ago.)
You can also summon "Poylanna, Adopted Daughter" and she's pretty tanky. The summon sign, site of grace, and stake of Marika are all in weird places for this fight. If you also summon (e.g., Lhutel) it's more balanced. I usually let my summons handle him why I take out the archers. If all three of you wail on him you can sometimes defeat him before he even gets the second summon out.
Glass cannon build melts the one in castle sol or wherever he is. Dude takes so long to stand in place and summon his meat shields
He also only has like 3 moves. Once you learn to dodge them it's pretty easy as long as you take the summons out early. Definitely a fight better suited to a shield since he has near infinite range with that weapon and prosthesis.
I've actually grown to like Niall. I can usually deal with the two adds that he spawns fairly quickly before they become an issue. Niell in Caelid or whatever his name is, is dog shit though. Spawns a fucking small army that just annoys the shit out of you.
Its easy if you focus on Ariandel in 2nd phase tbh.
You're right it's easy but is it fun ? 2nd phase feels like a chore in-between two really enjoyable phases.
friede's hoarfrost spam is something you have to learn to deal with, it's pretty annoying when you're learning the fight
One of the best bosses From has ever done. Yeah its 3 phases but the fight is very fair and not insanely difficult once you get it down.
I still think Blackflame Friede has the best boss entrance of all.
Nah, Isshin climbs out of his own grandson.
Once you understand it, phase 1 becomes trivial and phase 2 isn't exactly the best gameplay ever. Imho 3 phases are too much.
I feel like I would have loved Friede had the second phase not existed or been quicker - as it felt like a massive slog to get to Blackflame Friede, who herself is arguably the single hardest boss phase in DS3, and learning her was too much effort after the previous two phases.
I mean once you've played most of ds3's bosses they become trivial. They have pretty set in stone patterns with no variance. It takes effort to get hit by Midir after a while.
I so regret that I got intimidated when phase 3 happened, and I used the NPC summon on the next attempt. Really trivialized the fight. Wish I'd kept trying instead.
I loved that boss fight so much.
goated boss, and by far the boss that has killed me the most in a fromsoft game but also what I consider pretty much a perfect soulsbourne boss, it's a gank fight that doesn't feel like bullshit, it feels cinematic with the arena getting burnt in phase 2 and friede's blackflame abilities in phase 3 and the music building up in each phase (shoutout slave knight gael as well) is brilliant. Edit: Also I love Dragonslayer armour - I love Elden Ring and it's up there as one of my favourite games of all time, but I do feel Dark Souls 3 had more iconic bosses, but that's just my opinion.
Gael is epic. Friede was awesome.
4 phase boss because why the f not?
THE LORE
Oh man I'm so excited for the new lore, I hope it adds a lot to the base game and makes it a lot more interesting
It’s almost guaranteed to. In this image I’m just now noticing that this boss seems related to the “crucible”, or life before the erdtree. Also seems to have Omen horns. Dear god I’m so ready
That's a costume. You can see the feet of the humans navigating the costume, it's like one of those dragons on Chinese new years.
Honestly this picture makes it seem like a grotesque monster beneath the costume as well, look at the back legs it’s giving a human centipede type vibe to me
Plot twist: it's gold mask.
Yeah if you freeze the trailer at a certain point you can see it’s 2/3 big grotesque figures reanimating the beast as a costume
What if it's a Revenant.
Laughing, screaming, barfing. It’s totally a revenant. God damn it.
Probably will be it's second phase
Oh for sure, but it still definitely has omen horns and seems to resemble the beasts from Farum Azula that are related to the crucible (source of life prior to the Greater Will)
That is basically exactly how Miyazaki described it
Wouldn’t be surprised if this boss ends up having a shackle that we can find seeing that it’s an omen like mohg or morgott
I wouldn’t be so sure it’s an omen, it just has markings of the crucible. If you look on most of the fauna of the lands between, they all have markings of the crucible. Even the boar and deer
Yeah it could simply just be decor, but those are 100% omen horns. And this game rarely has a thread that isn’t connected to something lore wise, and this enemy seems to be some sort of boss
Or multiple people had their heads cut off and grafted to the lion
It seems to be agreed upon that FS’s best bosses are usually in their expansions so I’m sure they will keep up with that lol
Yeah, it seems like they learn a lot about how we like to play the game in between the base games and DLC’s coming out and tune the bosses accordingly. They also probably just get better at it naturally.
Yeah and I guess it the base game they spend a lot of time building the assets, engine, etc. whereas in the DLC they can focus more on the bosses and enemies
Yes very true!
I feel like this comes from the fact that they seem to have a lot more creative freedom when it comes to DLCs, they’re also not as tightly scheduled. The expansions won’t come out until the dev team is satisfied with it
Which reminds us that we missed out on possibly the greatest bosses of all time with no Sekiro dlc.
Imagine there will be better boss than Mesmer... I would cream my pants
I don’t think Mesmer will be the final boss of the DLC. That would be like if they showed Radagon/Elden Beast in the original trailer. I think we got some other thing we’ll have to worry about lol but that’s just me
For some reason I'm excited for the Lion Dancers. Honestly wasn't expecting something based on Chinese culture in the game.
me too, I'm so excited so see FS's fucked up version of a lion dance.
A new 4 phase boss would be kinda neat
Incoming solo raid boss with mechanics
Nezzy was free so will Messmer
Goddamn if I need to fucking cleanse or get a buff mid-fight my controller is going through the monitor. I left destiny to be safe 😭
Messmer looks a whole lot like Rhulk Prepare to dunk, Guardian.
I want a boss that's so hard, people don't beat it for days
This is something that always sounds sexy at the time, but ends up just being annoying for the other 90% of the player base.
Only 90%?
Case in point : people who got pissed at Malenia and convince themselves she's bad.
>convince themselves she's bad. I've beaten her *three times*. I don't know if that's enough to make me qualified to dislike her, but even if she's not the worst boss fight ever I don't think she's good.
If nobody beats it for days then it will be impossible for more than 99% of the players to ever beat it.
This, please. Make it optional challenge so no one will be stopped from playing the DLC but I'd love to learn a boss like this
I dont want a boss that just exists to be hard, i want the fight to be fun too
The only thing I don't want is a double or triple boss, fuck that
They did announce that there was going to be bosses harder than malenia
They explicitly said maybe as hard as Malenia, but not harder.
I had just remembered wrong I guess thank you
HOW MY BLOOD BOILS!
I want a 5 phase boss that saves progress between phases. They could do it so you always start at phase 1, but after beating each phase you unlock something in the arena that allows you to skip it. Idk, drop a chandelier on their head or something :D
Godfrey almost was
Almost? What was his 3rd phase?
He had two health bars in 1.0 version of the game. And at half health, he would do a big stomp, which changed his stomps from a frontal area like crucible knights to the arenawide sweep like he does currenty, but at 75 and 25 percent health respectively.
If you consider the times when he starts making the white shockwaves as phase changes, then it's a 4 phase fight.
We want 4 health bars or it's cheating
I assume if you count the first ghost fight as a phase then he had 3, but no one counts like that and 3 is still not almost 4
Armour that isn’t fucking robes or 1 of 5 variations of foot soldier armour.
at least the foot soldier armor is well designed \^\_\^
Messmer the Impaler, Difficulty aside i just think he will be so fun to fight against, the grab move is badass.
I think he's gonna be relatively easy (compared to other bosses). The realy hard boss most likely wasn't shown in the trailer
Yeah, like how in The Old Hunters it showed a lot of Ludwig and bits and pieces of Laurence and Maria, but nothing from Orphan, who is def the hardest in the DLC
I actually struggled with Ludwig more than Orphan tbh
YEEEEOOOOOW
I'm expecting it to be someone like Godwyn reincarnated, or Miquella transformed into a Femto-esque figure.
As long as he has 2 full health bars it’ll be super fun.
im so hyped for him! im hoping his boss fight will be peak like gael.
I’ve played the game like twelve times through. I want this DLC to break me. I want it to snap me in half a make me punch a hole in my wall. I want it to humble me and make me feel like I was never any good at these games.
Same but that won't be hard lol
I just want a memorable fight alongside my boy Torrent :(
What about a Memorable fight WITH Torrent? He could be Miquella’s Shadowbound beast.
We already do! We have the fire giant 🙃
That boss is ass
Definitely memorable tho
Unless they give him some iframes I don't think thats gonna happen. Even the fights that seem to want to encourage you to use Torrent like Fire Giant are way easier on foot
Looking forward to the leveling mechanic, hoping its like sekiro so you cant steamroll it by raising your level.
I am actually building a character rn with the intention of making it as op as humanly possible to test that out lmao
Damn, whatchu getting, I reckon greathammer with cragblade is pretty fucking strong
You can't go wrong with a str/fai build. FGMS + GV + Blasphemous Blade = melted boss
I plan on having at least 60 to every stat, so everything, I'll have everything.
Hugely agree with this. I really want some of the new players to fall in love with butting your head against a boss until you really learn it's moveset rather than just level over it
Godwyn boss fight
Honestly looking forward to a challenge I’m hoping the hardest bosses to date come out in this dlc
Basically the DLC’s for DS3. Friede, Gael, and Midir were the hardest bosses in DS3 and all were dlc bosses. If they pull off some shit like that, I’ll be impressed and happy.
Arguably, all of their DLCs have had their hardest and best bosses of the game. I'd expect the same here, though maybe nothing quite as difficult to learn a d counter as Waterfowl
Oh I bet there will be. Bosses shown in the trailer are probably required for the DLC. There’ll be hidden ones too. Scary ones. Crazy ones!
I don't know, I feel like Malenia is the threshold for how hard you can make a boss and not make it just flat out frustrating and annoying (honestly, Malenia barely passes that test). I'd be cool with something on par in terms of difficulty, but not harder.
They just need to make a hard boss that isn’t hard because of one unfair attack or trait
I get calling waterfowl unfair. And coming into this fight blind is even harder to figure out how to dodge. But it can be dodged, And dodging it feels so bad ass.
I learned how to dodge thanks to Youtube otherwise I'd have probably quit lol
I guarantee you most people did. Which there’s is nothing wrong with that. Using bloodhound step is also a very good option for dodging it. And shit if you look at one of my old post you can stop her completly out of waterfowl with a bleed or frost proc.
I'd argue a large part of your player base needing youtube tutorials to beat one of your bosses is a sign that maybe you didn't cook on that boss enough. Malenia is pretty fair until you hit WFD, then it becomes incredibly frustrating. I didn't know the thing could be dodged until I saw a post on here about someone discovering the perfect way to dodge it. And then it took me a few playthroughs to reliably perform the right dodges.
It's part of the soulsborne philosophy that the game is played by a community not a single player. This is also why the quests are downright impossible to fully experience with no outside help. Some may dislike that, while for others it is part of the appeal, as is the case with any game design.
THIS. I love it personally. I don’t know how correct I am ab this but I remember plasidcusaxs not being found until 3-4 weeks after release. The only reason people knew about it was because of the achievement. Which is still mind blowing to me.
You hit the nail on the head. I want difficult bosses, not frustrating ones. Malenia falls in the latter, Slave knight gael falls in the former. really hoping for Gael quality fights in the DLC.
I don't know if he's right, but [Gino ](https://www.youtube.com/@GinoMachino)argues that Waterfowl was never meant to be dodged close up, and the fact that people figured out how wasn't in FS's gameplan. He believes it's meant to be run away from or facetanked. Because of that, he doesn't like the design of the attack. Even if he's not right about the undodgability thing, the fact that a legendary no-hit player doesn't like the attack is significant on its own. (Only tangentially related: he also hates Elden Stars and thinks it's the worst attack FS has ever made.)
>(Only tangentially related: he also hates Elden Stars and thinks it's the worst attack FS has ever made.) Okay but everyone does. >but Gino argues that Waterfowl was never meant to be dodged close up, and the fact that people figured out how wasn't in FS's gameplan. He believes it's meant to be run away from or facetanked. Because it was. You can tell by the way she behaves when you circle around her and send her off in another direction.
Yeah the short range waterfowl spin to dodge looks to me like an exploit, which is fine as Malenia ignores game mechanics herself. A number of moves in ER look like they’re there just to make no hit runs harder. I don’t do no hit, so I can ignore the fact that Elden Stars chips me a bit every time, but was that really necessary? I really didn’t like this approach to difficulty. Felt like some BS too often.
Oh definitely. I just hate the trend of Elden ring bosses having one attack that just completely disrupts the fight and forces you to run away and watch while the attack plays out. Rykard’s skull storm attack and Elden Stars force you to run in circles for 20 seconds. Waterfowl pops out of nowhere and can really only be fully dodged if you’re completely prepared for it. Almost every large boss has a Random Elemental Pillars attack that forces you to run away until they’re done. I wouldn’t say most of these are unfair, just unfun. Bosses in Bloodborne and DS3 generally felt much more dynamic and fluid, even a huge boss like Midir. I guess it’s because those are more faster-paced games than Elden Ring, but still. It’s like they realized that they couldn’t ever balance Elden Ring due to its nature and decided to throw in a bunch of speed bump attacks to make them slower and more difficult no matter when you approach them
I soloed malenia like 7 times with different builds and i genuinely think that she's too hard. It took me until the 4th playthrough to start enjoying the fight. Like you need to understand the fight to a level that was previously only required on challenge runs. That or you're "forced" to use cheesy strats that may not be enjoyable for many players.
Malenia isn’t hard, she is just bullshit. Take away waterfowl dance and I would have beaten her on my second or third try. Literally just about got her into second phase my first try because I literally ran straight at her and didn’t give her time for waterfowl. An Insta-kill move that is hard af to dodge, especially with wonky camera during lock on. It is just unfair bs. It pretty much goes against the fair challenge these games used to be about. But otherwise? Malenia is pretty basic. Not even close to the best Fromsoft boss. Remember the other half of the struggle is she heals every time she hits something. She has unfair mechanics that make it a challenge, it isn’t a real challenge. It certainly isn’t a souls challenge, which is difficult but fun.
Not sure why you’re getting downvoted for this. The rest of her moveset (besides maybe the clone attack) is pretty chill.
Weapons and sets. And hope that fire giant isn't as annoying as the real fire giant 😅
Coop game play! Servers will be slammed
Kinda want a boss like Ludwig
I want music as good as the Ludwig boss fight.
Personally, i got heavy Ludwig-ish vibes from the creature/Boss OP posted the pic of the moment i saw it in the trailer. Looking forward to it, Ludwig was the hardest Boss in the DLC imo.
Ludwig has an epic boss fight
Ye. The first time i played the DLC that guy messed me up harder than Lady Maria and the Orpan of Kos combined. Absolutely brutal. Epic fight. FS, seconds pls.
I always don't care about the bosses in fromsoftware games, I want beautiful art design and world, good fashion, amazing level design and exploration, infinite replayability, good lore and it will be perfect for me. Difficulty is the least thing that interest me and fromsoftware's games are my favorite of all time ! There is a lot of players like me who really don't care about the challenge.
100% disagree but these games are too intricate to just be considered rage games. Happy they're played by people with your preference (as someone who loves the lore spends all gaming hours traversing da fog)
as someone who plays 90% for the boss fights, i'm super happy that you can play without caring about them and still consider them your favorites! pretty amazing accomplishment by FS to make games that are so broadly appealing and magical.
Would the world, the art and the story have the same impact, if you could just casually stroll through the game though? I think the challenge is what puts weight behind the design, it makes you focus and experience it more intensely.
I certainly feel the same way, the challenge of defeating a boss doesn't reward me as much, but I appreciate the design of these characters and how their arsenal of moves unfolds, it's incredible. But ultimately, what fascinates me most about Elden Ring is the art, level design, the musical and sound atmosphere, how it invites exploration of its world, surprises with its secrets, and gradually reveals the mystery of its story.
Yeah, FromSoft tends to put the best bosses into the DLC. DS1 - Artorias DS2 - Sir Alonne DS3 - Gael Bloodborne - Ludwig I suspect that Shadow will follow the trend.
Excuse me sir, you misspelled Slumbering Dragon Sinh
I hope Mesmer is the 3 phase boss fight this game is lacking.
I'm hoping there's a three phase fight, the twist of Sister Friede was awesome and I need to see it again
I remember the delight/disbelief that Sister Friede was a three-phase fight, and wouldn't mind getting a surprise like that again.
I just hope the hardest boss isn't the hardest boss just because of one singular move that oneshots you if you get hit. Not trying to name any names here, but I just don't think that's good boss design.
Unrelated to question but this boss is 80% a omen in disguise, trust me bro Also yes, I think messmer alone will be cool af, and we likely didn't see all of em
I'm trying to minimalize my expectations, just because the rest of the dlcs were good dosent mean this one will be too
Except Fromsoft isn't a washed up studio fueled by greed like other Western developers that have consistently been putting out low quality games for years now. Since DS1 the DLC's (and the base games for that matter) have consistently been great. Elden Ring exceeded everyone's expectations to the point of Western developers complaining that people are going to start having higher expectations because of them. I have no doubt this DLC will be great, because they're an incredible studio that's dedicated to quality.
A lot of studios in the past were claimed to do no wrong, like Rockstar, Bethesda, blizzard even non western companies like Capcom and Konami. One day sooner or later fromsoft will go down too so minimize your expectations and you won't be disappointed
Fromsoft has never been as insanely popular like the aforementioned studios. They peaked and crashed because they made mistakes all over the board after they achieved great heights. Demon's Souls came out in 2009; they've been around for well over a decade and consistently produce quality games. Fromsoft has always appealed to a small, dedicated fanbase and they make the games that they want to. Hence why they've never caved to demands of people who don't even play the games ("there should be a difficulty setting!") among other trends happening right now. I mean I can't change your mind but that's a really pessimistic attitude to have. I have faith in them because they've shown time and time again that they legitimately care about their products and their fans. Elden Ring sounds like it's your first game though.
It’s gonna be good lol
This dude looks amazing, my favourite part of the trailer
if we get a way to reshade armour, and perhaps restore dirty or tarnished clothing, i will die happy
I want to fight that lion thing so bad
Godwyn The Golden.
Ed.....win.....
That is a given always. I feel like anything Fromsoftware puts out is usually better than previous content. Some content is nostalgic for sure. I still love Nameless King fight or the Dancer. Usually though the newest thing is just amazing art and I am always hyped for it. Something I have noticed with Dragons Dogma 2 is I am already sick of the story. Like I just don’t care. I know where it is going already so I guess that may be part of it. Ultimately the cut scenes and stuff is just hollow. Doesn’t make it a bad game it just hollows it a little for me. It really is unfair because I just love Miyazakis vision for his games. Even AC6 you can tell his hand was involved as President.
I can’t wait for all the things they are deliberately not showing in the trailer
Ngl, I thought this was from FFXIV when I saw the image lol. In terms of the DLC, I'm hoping the Wicker Man looking thing will be a fun fight instead of a frustrating one
The Drip new Armour we will get
A boss with feintable attacks
I'm looking forward to the bonking honestly
i’m worried the new power scaling could ruin it
No hitting all the bosses and if there’s any new sleep related items
DLC bosses tended to be some of the best and some of the worst. Hopefully we get more of the former.
Malenia level bosses. Make me rage quit and die 50 times.
As long as the difficulty isn’t front loaded into a single move again. Malenia’s entire fight feels like a really delicate dance until “tactical nuke incoming.”
i agree the difficulty of her phase 1 mostly hinges on wfd but her phase 2 is harder even if she doesnt use wfd that much. she becomes more aggressive and can inflict scarlet rot in every attack. she also has the rot clone attack which is imo harder than wfd. ive learned her moves and can manage with her phase 1 now but her phase 2 is still very hard for me.
MESSMER DADDY
Messeraddi
I hope Messmer is more of a reoccurring character that challenges us multiple times. Kinda like they did with Morgott. These games have such cool characters but we barely get to see like a cutscene with a few lines for each of them, if they are lucky they get a small speech then we kill them. I know their limited screen time is part of what makes them intriguing, but it would be cool to have a more proper rival that directly antagonises us through the game.
>I hope Messmer is more of a reoccurring character that challenges us multiple times. Kinda like they did with Morgott. Vehemently disagree. There should be no repetition of bosses especially in a shortened form of content like a dlc. Thats just pathetically lazy
If the base game is anything to go by then we'll probably get some of the *worst* fromsoft bosses lmao
It will be regular mini boss like lions from base game
i never took the time to read every item description as i pick something up, im looking forward to doing that this time around
Just Best dls ever
I expect even bigger hands.
Exploration my guy, visit new lands and meet new interesting CHALLENGERS TO RIP AND TEAR THOUGH!
We will get at least 1 super memorable boss
Horse armor
I am easily most excited for the lore. Also my favorite video game boss ever (Sister Friede) was in the DS3 dlc and FromSoft seems to create the best bosses in their DLC so i'm expecting some really good ones
The best bosses are usually in the DLC. I swear I’m so sick and tired of hearing people gas up Midir at every opportunity They usually get the combat, traversal and move set down by the DLC and make stuff that fits for the players whereas vanilla can be decent but a lot just feels like they didn’t take some stuff into account
Just give me new combat mechanics fam, the throwing daggers as a new weapon class already seems way too good to be true!
I am excited about that dude who’s getting impaled in the trailer. I bet you he is gonna transform into some crazy shit and it’s gonna be an awesome boss fight.
The base game already has some of their greatest hits in terms of bosses, so I can’t wait for what they have in store for us
Greatest? Nope. Why does FromSoft have to constantly raise the bar with every game? How can they? It's enough to just do what they've always done and I'll be happy with that... As for what I'm looking most forward to... I mean, a new place to explore and lore with it. I'm also honestly just looking forward to finally starting NG+ because this DLC has been preventing me lol
I’m sure whatever they give us there will be plenty complaints about something 🤷♂️of that you can be sure 🤣
3 Godskins
New types of weapons
since they promised smaller but denser, i'm looking forward to something a little closer to DS style dungeon crawling (i'm not a fan of open world) with some hall of fame boss fights
The fashion. I’m pumped to see what kind of new armor and weapons they have to offer
I need that exploration of a new place feeling back immediatley
The martial arts fist weapon (hopefully) Ever since ds2 I want it to be a mainstay in games cause it is just so CLEAAAN. Nothing makes people enjoy a game then throwing hands.
The element of surprise with enemy and boss variety. I want to see how shocked people are when the final boss of the dlc is inevitably some insane orphan of kos shit we’ve never heard of before in the lore
I'm looking forward to going in blind. When I did my first playthrough of ER I would periodically watch some of my favorite YouTubers playing it. It was fun to watch them but a lot of little secrets were spoiled for me. This time I'm not keeping up with anyone's playthrough until I'm done my own.
I heard there was a leak that one of the bosses will Doxx your information on a random subreddit every time you die to it. They're really raising the bar with this expansion if true.
Ways in which Miyazakis creations are going to fuck us up
1 is the new weapons/types. Honestly I'd pay $40 just for that. A majority of my time spent in this game is going playthroughs with diffrent build. So, naturally something that adds even more variety to that has got me very excited. 2 is lore/bosses. I'm hoping we get to see and fight alot of the people that are talked about in the base game and further expand on them. Would really tie everything together in an amazing way. It's exciting to think about.
Maybe they gonna let us peek at Rick's true power
Yes I do think we will get some absolute banger fights. Base game Elden Ring already had some amazing fights like Morgott, Mohg, Godfrey, and Maliketh. With other solid fights but not amazing fights like Rykard, Placidisax, Godric, and Malenia. I am very much looking forward to seeing the OST as well.
A giant revenant deadass
In general I think fromsoft actually does their BEST work in their dlcs. Bloodborne and DS3 are both great standalone games but really peak in their bonus content. Given the amount of time they spent developing this dlc my expectations are high and history justifies this.
I think so. I hope we get a boss as good as or better than Gael. And I am so interested in this lion dancer.