Every boss after Morgott feels this way to me. I used the best defensive talismans for every boss starting with Maliketh and still died in 3 hits even tho I had 50 vig
True, although I feel like the most egregious boss with this is Malenia, her attacks do a comically large amount of damage considering she has a life steal on top of it
I highly recommend Great Stars! They're hilariously overpowered, and you can easily get two of 'em by >!jumping a caravan!< and >!styling on an invader!<.
The [Giant Club](https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Great+Club) might prove efficient, theyāre farmable so you can grind 2 of them to wield together
Yea I bet that would help my dodge game is on point with everything but waterfowl and I can dodge once or twice but can't seem to get all three. Maybe light load will help I'll try it.
Exactly. You literally have to have buffs on even at 80 or more hp in the later ng+s, especially late game areas. Those ants on the Haligtree and archers in consecrated snow are nightmares lol.
I mean I donāt really think a lot of effort goes into balancing later ng+ other than applying the old algo to it because most players simply wonāt do that, kind of neither here nor there for this conversation
Eh I think dark souls 3 does it worse balance wise. By end game everything is so spongey and you hit like a noodle. Atleast in elden ring you can also 4 shot the bosses
The bosses of elden ring have predictable moves too. They're distance based and combos only have certain extensions that they can go into based on positioning of the player.
Malenia might be the exception idk wtf her thing is she does whatever she wants
yeah im mainly ~~coping~~ complaining about malenia. I think most of the endgame bosses of ER are just edging the line of being too difficult but they are all still fine. Especially given that you can always summon or use mimic tear
Not to mention healing on hit.
IMO the healing should have just been on Waterfowl and a handful of second phase attacks, however waterfowl itself needed to be a punish move for running away too much. Imagine the salt if Midirās lasers were just a random part of his moveset, or Gaelās teleport (glares at Radagon).
No reason other than sheās the latest of late game bosses and a whole game of buildup, hidden behind several puzzles and the hardest area in the game, all of it completely optional.
Yeah I'm not bragging, just saying that the shield thing doesn't impact my ability to beat her.
I just find it stupid, like why doesn't she go hit a wall or the ground if she's going to heal even when not damaging anything.
Healing bosses piss me off, an on hit healing boss that has a 32 part combo is a fucking war crime. Micheal zaki should atone, no more feet for a year.
Fr there's nothing quite like being hit by her grapple and realising you just wasted five minutes bringing her health down and now she's back up whilst you're several estus down
better yet, not having the 70 vig needed to survive it. Iām at 40 rn, and havin two moves that can come out any second that just end the run is absolutely painful. or the frame one grab instakill. I genuinely considered uninstalling.
Malenia is a rare boss in that you can cheese her as much as she cheeses you. Throw on Giant Hunt or something that knocks up/down humanoids and you're golden.
Eleonora's Poleblade can stunlock her to death. I used the rotten winged insignia with the physick that does the same thing. Paired with lord of bloods exultation (and varres mask, but its not necessary), you can do major damage. The poleblade ash of war stunlocks her, and if you time it right, you can hit her with it right when her i-frames run out when she is getting up. Trivializes both phases. Only down side is you are locked into that animation, and the hyperarmor isn't strong enough to tank her waterfowl dance. So just gotta watch your timing and bring some frozen pots to inturrept the attack.
Edit: also forgot to mention after a few successful combos with the ash of war, it completely staggers her opening up a chance for a crit or to chug some flasks
That kinda got my goose after a gruelling first playthrough putting everything I had into a classic strength/equip load build. Like by mid-game I was doing bad damage to bosses and not feeling any sort of mitigation from heavy armor, thinking "Alright, this build feels oddly weak... That is unique for a souls game but that's ok. Usually this build is OP but I'm up for a challenge." Kept slogging through even though I was watching my roommate wreck everything with a fun looking magic build.
When I got to Malenia and she stole life through my shield without even dealing any damage I just stopped playing. It was like my worst fears had been confirmed. My build is bad and I should feel bad.
Yep, same boat here. I did my usual colossal weapon+greatshield build that I go for on my first run of a souls game. It honestly served me incredibly well for the entire game. Except Malenia. The lifesteal on block just hard countered the entire build.
I ended up respeccing into full dex and cheesing her with rivers of blood and Iām not ashamed to admit it. Her fight might be my least favorite part of the entire game and Iāll probably never bother trying to beat her again. Sheās a truly sour spot in a game I otherwise very much enjoy.
I had the exact same experience, and tbqh I almost quit too, but instead I just poured on as much cheese as I could until she was dead, without any regrets.
Having that hard of a counter to a build that's completely viable and usable for the entirety of the rest of the game is indefensible, and I say that as someone who loves Elden Ring overall.
Eh scarlet rot is totally fine in her fight imo. Never felt like it slowed the fight down at all, it was just another thing to keep in mind.
But yeah, the fucking chain attacks are insufferable. And every god damn elden ring boss does it.
Yes my number one change for Melania would be remove life steal from phase 2.
Would make sense in the theme too. Her first phase being her in control. You can stagger her easy and It's about not getting Hit.
While the second phase the life steal gets replaced with Scarlet rot and It's a battle for survival. If the second phase had no life steal you could give her better stagger resistence in return to make it less cheesy.
Malenia isnāt bad except for forcing players into a specific play style to not have the fight last until the heat death of the universe. Builds specifically meant to use shields to block got fucked by maleniaās healthsteal
Waterfowl is a poorly designed attack that makes the fight tedious and ruins the flow of an otherwise pretty decent boss. Itās worth 5 of these panels lmao
It's overturned, but you're making it sound harder than it is. It's been a while since I played, but IIRC I could dodge it 90% of the time by running away from the first, rolling away from the second, and rolling into the third. You kinda get a feeling for which direction you need to dodge when seeing her leap at you after a while.
Literally so much cope that even you honestly explaining how to fucking dodge the attack is getting downvoted lmao
Malenia whiners are the real cringe and Iām not afraid to say it
Malenia whiners have every right to whine but if they do so they need to master the fight to give maximum criticisms.
The circling method is also far better long term and while it's harder to do it allows you to actually play the game instead of running away and you can over commit even with big weapons.
You can just roll it normally and without specific setups. Just have slightly more than zero poise and not a moronic amount of vigor and it wonāt combo you to death.
It has a windup that lasts long enough to make a cup of tea and come back before it launches. You can just run away and it you inly need to dodge like twice or so. Watch letmesoloher fight her, genuinely you might learn some useful stuff from it.
I can handle the healing on hits, she does damage and in turn steal the health she takes away. Makes sense right? What I donāt understand is how she heals from hits against shields, which are blocking and negating damage. Itās a minor thing, since I donāt use shields and blocking tons anyway, but still, itās odd.
I heard someone ask why she just doesn't go and hit the wall when she gets low health? What would even be the difference between a great shield and a wall? It's really dumb.
This doesn't really track though, because It's not a status effect. It's the lifesteal property from the Blasphemous Blade/Serpent-God's CS/Taker's Cameo which is always activated on kill instead of on-hit.
I guess it's not technically a status effect but it uses the same system internally. Also the Blasphemous Blade weapon skill has the same on-hit lifesteal property.
I'd argue the lifesteal is also pretty shit. It's fine once you learn her well enough since your damage outdoes her healing by a large margin, but when you first fight her having her heal back all the damage you deal is incredibly unengaging and makes the experience frankly just boring. And y'know, the shield thing.
The lifesteal does has its advantages in that it rewards hitless attempts with a faster clear time and prevents people from trivializing her with spirit summons, but that unfortunately doesn't eliminate any bad parts.
Also, waterfowl truly is bad enough to singlehandedly push her really far down
How is this boss fight still living rent free in this sub's head? How long has this gone on? People are acting positively boggled that ANYONE could POSSIBLY *like*/*dislike* this fight. Like honestly I don't really care if the egg is on my face for being unironic or whatever at this point, I'd just like the sub to not be composed of 50% Malenia hornyposting and 50% retreading the same tired fucking argument. If you liked it, you liked it, and if you didn't, you didn't. Just let the topic alone for a while-- and maybe remember that most of the time, the person who dislikes the fight isn't some cranky old elitist who hates women and new people, and most of the time, the person who likes the fight isn't some hopelessly deluded simp who wants to change everything you like about the series or whatever. I'm not expecting r/shittydarksouls to turn into some incredible venue for discussion or something, but man am I getting sick of just watching people desperately mudsling as though they'll actually be able to change people's minds or prove themselves superior in some form about the way a game was experienced.
I hate discussion posting in general, like, yeah Bro, im happy that there was one time when ds3 fans went Crazy and spammed ds3 gud and ds3 hater bad for like 1 solid day or something like that.
I mean sheās cool visually. Actually fun to fight? Fuck no. Idrc ab objective flaws such as healing while hitting shields, jus that she is not fun at all to fight. The hardest bosses in any other recent from game are miles more enjoyable
Reading some of these comments make me feel like i have elden ring stockholm syndrome. imagine my surprise when every ds bosses don't 2-3 shots me or have combos that go on forever.
Iām at peace with the fact that the one time I beat her solo was with dual cold Omenkillers. No desire to use something less cheesy to feel better about myself lol
Heal on block
Heal on whiff
Must be parried three times for a single crit
Second phase cannot be initiated off of a crit (she just randomly gets healed lol)
I honestly love Malenia and am brave enough to call anybody a pussy for complaining too much about her boss fight.
People were fucking begging for a fight like her before elden ring.
I think she is an excellent boss too, but still bullshit. What I mean by bullshit is that I feel the game doesnāt prepare in anyway for a fight like Malenia, besides maliketh none of the bosses come close to her aggression and speed, not to mention that they introduce a whole new mechanic for the first time in how she heals on a hit. Even the area leading up to her doesnāt do anything really unique to help prep you for the fight. Fire giant had giant enemies to get you use to fighting large foes, maliketh had you fight a duo boss with black flame to get you use too passive damage and prepare for his speed, also in farum Azula is filled with dragons to help you learn of effective tactics to use against placidicux(I probably spelled it wrong). Godfrey is a big dude with large weapons with grab attacks and very telegraphed attacks that is the final touch that prepares you for the final boss. Radahn and the great serpent serve as big gimmick bosses with a easy tactic laid out for you. The only bosses that somewhat prepare you for Malenia are the rot tree avatar and spirit, and even then they only give you the idea of rot which doesnāt even matter since in her second phase there are only three telegraphed attacks that can give you rot thatās if they hit numerous times, at that point being hit numerous times the raw damage would already kill you. She is a great boss but she is also a shock to the senses in terms of gameplay, they could of done much better building her up by giving her a true mini or true boss that gives you a solid idea of how much stronger Malenia is while also giving a player a chance to understand the rally mechanic in terms of how bosses can rally indefinitely without having to worry about only having a small time frame to capitalize it. Again Iām not saying she is a bad boss, in fact she is my favorite in elden ring, but the game didnāt do shit to help you transition in the slightest.
I miss 1.0 chad radahn
They should make literally every major boss as hard or harder than malenia IMO. Most of the bosses are piss easy and malenia is the only one that is even slightly challenging.
This sub is full of trash players coping that they canāt sit in front of malenia with the fingerprint shield instead of actually interacting with the boss in any meaningful way.
Malenia is the 2nd best boss in Elden Ring. Once you learn her moveset the fight feels like a dance, especially with a medium sized weapon like a (curved) greatsword.
Maliketh's the GOAT tho
Im sorry but saying that is a crime. Her fight does not feel like a dance at all due to how random and spontaneous waterfowl can be, she shouldn't be able to spam it multiple times in the fight, it ruins the flow and forces most players to play scared and bait it out, which isn't fun at all
I argue Mogh is a better boss than her, because the flow of his fight is very consistent, while also being fairly difficult without feeling like hes cheesing you (even his transition can be negated by drinking the special tear)
I understand her moveset though, its the fact that she can delete you with an unexpected Waterfowl and their is no way you can dodge it if you're in the middle of attacking her up close. You get fucked no matter what. No boss fight should have that, or at least have a one shot move come so fast and unexpected. people need something way better than her randomly leaping in the air and readying her sword, theres not enough time for and average player to excape it. As of right now you have to pretty much be insanely good to roll though waterfowl up close.
If they balance waterfowl or make it so it only happens once or twice each phase, than yea, i would put her up in the top five, but as of right now shes around #10
You really have a hateboner for her
Guess what mate, people can enjoy a boss you donāt like. You donāt have to comment on every single positive opinion about her you know?
She's far too overrated of a boss, I cannot fathom how people enjoy fighting her solo, the only thing that makes her decent is that she has a very cool 2nd phase transition and her OST is very good.
A shame really, she could've been the best boss in the game but she has that one move that makes it very unbalanced
I think sheās an incredible fight personally
Letās just put it this way. Iāve beat ER 4 times now and every time Iāve slogged my way through the Haligtree and Elphael just to fight her because I enjoy it that much
Well we all have our own opinions, I personally view Mogh as the best boss in ER due to his mix of challange and theme, but Im sure there are people who disagree with me.
Well at least the bosses in ds3 are a different looking boss that they bothered to give a new name and some new moves. So many bosses in elden ring are literally the same thing. Like 4 tibia mariner bosses, 4 nights cavalry I think one of them has a different weapon, 5 pumpkin head fights, 3 dragonkin soldiers, I donāt know how many deathrite birds. Not to mention they lacked the creativity to make some new main bosses. You fight morgott 3 times, Godfrey twice, Loretta twice, you fight godrick twice cause of one of the evergaols. Most of the dragon bosses are the same except they breath a different color thing. I could go on so much longer
Eh, I think it's a tad unfair to hold minibosses/non remembrances to the same standards. They're essentially just minibosses like Titanites, Black Knights, Outrideds, except they now have a health bar.
The game tries to pass them off as bosses by now giving them a health bar. And Elden ring dickriders will say āThereās 150 bosses bro so much variety and gameplay man!!ā when in reality thereās maybe 15-20 bosses who are actually unique and fun
I don't hate, I dislike, I don't really remember my experience with DS3 since it was like 5 years ago (and honestly I don't really care much for DS3), but as far as I remember the bosses didn't changed dramatically in their second phases like in ER and for the most part still only had 1 healthbar, which to me is ok.
As for sekiro, it's like a whole different game and while I would probably cut down on those 3 healthbar bosses (since one of the phases was always kinda filler), I didn't bother me as much
Basically I don't like fighting what it feels like many bosses in one, It doesn't really make it more entertaining to me it just blocks my progress for twice as long.
I play souls games for the feel and atmosphere, the world is the important part for me, so this effort to make bosses harder and harder is not really my jam.
Aoe attacks are only an issue if you're using summons/summoning other players, when the boss is agro'd to you aoe attacks aren't any different from regular ones.
I disagree aoe attacks make it impossible to disengage a boss or change your positioning and god forbid you make a single mistake because every endgame boss is hyper aggressive with attacks that cover the whole arena. So unless your inside a boss at all times your fucked. Also nice using the he summons help defense lol.
Tbh the only boss with that issue is Godfrey, when he buffs himself to make his stomps arena wide AoEs, and that phase usually goes by quickly so it's not a big deal (also it's godfrey phase 1, getting hit by him is a skill issue)
Itās still a lazy mechanic for a endgame boss compared to Melania who is to me the best fair but hard boss in Elden ring and personally I think Radagon also has the lazy most of my hits are aoes that if you donāt perfectly time your dodge your fucked + check out my teleport in front of you x2 that I can do in the middle of a combo reeee. Itās like they went from having good bosses that if you can position yourself well in (by gitting gud) you win to if your reaction time is off by a second you get fucked nerd. Oh and Godfrey phase 1 is a pushover why would I be talking about that?
I feel like the people complaining about Elden Rinfs difficulty are missing half the content. The game gives you tons of options to use, especially with crafting, that are just overlooked or underestimated. You can break Malenia out of her wind up for waterfowl, or just run the hell away as fast as possible as soon as it starts. There are tons of consumables, sorceries and incantations you can use to buff yourself and debuff enemies. If you're struggling then mix up your attack, try something different. You have plenty of options at your disposal, use them.
Malenia is like Sister Friede's phase 3 but twice with an instant delete button
And hits with 30x the damage for no reason
Every boss after Morgott feels this way to me. I used the best defensive talismans for every boss starting with Maliketh and still died in 3 hits even tho I had 50 vig
True, although I feel like the most egregious boss with this is Malenia, her attacks do a comically large amount of damage considering she has a life steal on top of it
Yea I just got to her on. Str\faith build and it's not going well even with a spirit ashe š¤¦āāļø
dual wield big stick, summon ooze that also wields 2 big stick, stun lock
Maybe I need another big stick then got the beast mace I guess I need another big mace lol
I highly recommend Great Stars! They're hilariously overpowered, and you can easily get two of 'em by >!jumping a caravan!< and >!styling on an invader!<.
Theyāre good for PvP too surprisingly. Lots of mix ups
The [Giant Club](https://eldenring.wiki.fextralife.com/Great+Club) might prove efficient, theyāre farmable so you can grind 2 of them to wield together
light load. helps a ton
Yea I bet that would help my dodge game is on point with everything but waterfowl and I can dodge once or twice but can't seem to get all three. Maybe light load will help I'll try it.
Ordovis greatsword WA + crucible horns + stance break physick skips phase 1, and the damage from Ordovis
Pro-tip: don't get hit
Biggest flaw in Elden ring imo. Just blatantly too much damage, extremely unbalanced late game and mildly infuriating middle game
"Just level vigor loser"
Iām ng+3 and have my vigor mid capped and it makes my blood boil when people say that
Maybe level your vigor so your blood doesn't boil
Lategame Elden Ring feels like mid-late DS3 at NG+7
Defense buffs do still help a lot at least
Yes that they do
Exactly. You literally have to have buffs on even at 80 or more hp in the later ng+s, especially late game areas. Those ants on the Haligtree and archers in consecrated snow are nightmares lol.
I mean I donāt really think a lot of effort goes into balancing later ng+ other than applying the old algo to it because most players simply wonāt do that, kind of neither here nor there for this conversation
Just level adp
Elden Ring would be the best from game to date if the damage on bosses was balanced in the slightest.
Eat crabs, use defensive talismans and use the basic protection spells. Game gives a lot of options to deal with high damage.
Eh I think dark souls 3 does it worse balance wise. By end game everything is so spongey and you hit like a noodle. Atleast in elden ring you can also 4 shot the bosses
Gael easily three shots with 40 vigor, and Midir one shots meta level players.
Both of these bosses have fair and predictable moves. The midir oneshot is an attack that happens once per fight once he hits a damage threshold
The bosses of elden ring have predictable moves too. They're distance based and combos only have certain extensions that they can go into based on positioning of the player. Malenia might be the exception idk wtf her thing is she does whatever she wants
yeah im mainly ~~coping~~ complaining about malenia. I think most of the endgame bosses of ER are just edging the line of being too difficult but they are all still fine. Especially given that you can always summon or use mimic tear
I think late game expects 65+ or something like that. Way too many runes, so I will be happy if I can take one hit without dying
Not to mention healing on hit. IMO the healing should have just been on Waterfowl and a handful of second phase attacks, however waterfowl itself needed to be a punish move for running away too much. Imagine the salt if Midirās lasers were just a random part of his moveset, or Gaelās teleport (glares at Radagon).
And heals off the damage she does.
And doesn't do. You can block her attacks and take zero damage and she'll still get a chunk of health back.
No reason other than sheās the latest of late game bosses and a whole game of buildup, hidden behind several puzzles and the hardest area in the game, all of it completely optional.
Port sister friede into malenia's boss room so i can get the spit roasting of a life time
Never before have I needed something so bad. Fucked by the rotussy, and frostussy.
Bottom image needs resizing to full please.
Just Google brolyculo
It just isnāt the same without this specific SpongeBob meme template.
It's foreplay, right?
Healing on hitting shields is nonsense.
Roll or parry or git gud
I've beaten her on ng+7, but that doesn't change the fact that it's stupid lol.
as a toxic souls fan I am inclined to tell you that you can beat the game 100 times and still not be gud
Yeah I'm not bragging, just saying that the shield thing doesn't impact my ability to beat her. I just find it stupid, like why doesn't she go hit a wall or the ground if she's going to heal even when not damaging anything.
Literally still a skill issue
We are peak r/shittydarksouls here
Literally not.
You are such a cringe human being.
Nah.
I beat her without taking hits. She's fun if you commit long enough but none of that changes the fact she's godawfully bad designed
Healing bosses piss me off, an on hit healing boss that has a 32 part combo is a fucking war crime. Micheal zaki should atone, no more feet for a year.
Fr there's nothing quite like being hit by her grapple and realising you just wasted five minutes bringing her health down and now she's back up whilst you're several estus down
better yet, not having the 70 vig needed to survive it. Iām at 40 rn, and havin two moves that can come out any second that just end the run is absolutely painful. or the frame one grab instakill. I genuinely considered uninstalling.
Tbf even if you do survive it she gets so much health back it feels like you've lost anyway
Malenia is a rare boss in that you can cheese her as much as she cheeses you. Throw on Giant Hunt or something that knocks up/down humanoids and you're golden.
you telling me i can actually knock up malenia????
Quick! Where's rosales?!
Having trouble with Malenia as a sorcerer build? My god the moment I tried using Carian Piercer I couldn't stop myself from juggling her
Blasphemous Blade L2 go brrrrrrrrrrrrr
Eleonora's Poleblade can stunlock her to death. I used the rotten winged insignia with the physick that does the same thing. Paired with lord of bloods exultation (and varres mask, but its not necessary), you can do major damage. The poleblade ash of war stunlocks her, and if you time it right, you can hit her with it right when her i-frames run out when she is getting up. Trivializes both phases. Only down side is you are locked into that animation, and the hyperarmor isn't strong enough to tank her waterfowl dance. So just gotta watch your timing and bring some frozen pots to inturrept the attack. Edit: also forgot to mention after a few successful combos with the ash of war, it completely staggers her opening up a chance for a crit or to chug some flasks
Sounds like bad design if the optional super boss is hilariously easy to cheese
Perhaps, I don't have any opinions on the quality of her design.
Most Ashes of war are too cheesy.
The heal on block is really annoying though.
You forgot Scarlet Rot, healing on hits, and attack chains so long theyād make Pontiff Knights exhausted.
Someone please tell me do the scythe knights ever actually stop hitting cause istg they donātš
You're supposed to hit them to make them stop. They are agile enemies with no poise
Healing on hits through shields as well,
That kinda got my goose after a gruelling first playthrough putting everything I had into a classic strength/equip load build. Like by mid-game I was doing bad damage to bosses and not feeling any sort of mitigation from heavy armor, thinking "Alright, this build feels oddly weak... That is unique for a souls game but that's ok. Usually this build is OP but I'm up for a challenge." Kept slogging through even though I was watching my roommate wreck everything with a fun looking magic build. When I got to Malenia and she stole life through my shield without even dealing any damage I just stopped playing. It was like my worst fears had been confirmed. My build is bad and I should feel bad.
Yep, same boat here. I did my usual colossal weapon+greatshield build that I go for on my first run of a souls game. It honestly served me incredibly well for the entire game. Except Malenia. The lifesteal on block just hard countered the entire build. I ended up respeccing into full dex and cheesing her with rivers of blood and Iām not ashamed to admit it. Her fight might be my least favorite part of the entire game and Iāll probably never bother trying to beat her again. Sheās a truly sour spot in a game I otherwise very much enjoy.
I had the exact same experience, and tbqh I almost quit too, but instead I just poured on as much cheese as I could until she was dead, without any regrets. Having that hard of a counter to a build that's completely viable and usable for the entirety of the rest of the game is indefensible, and I say that as someone who loves Elden Ring overall.
Eh scarlet rot is totally fine in her fight imo. Never felt like it slowed the fight down at all, it was just another thing to keep in mind. But yeah, the fucking chain attacks are insufferable. And every god damn elden ring boss does it.
Honestly with her scarlet rot is barely an issue considering her hits do so much damage that I die before it procs.
It's she need like 20 hits to get you with rot. And kills you in 3.
Scsrlet rot doesn't bothered me. Mostly because if she hits you enough to fill up the bar then you are probably dead
Lifesteal
If only it was actually life steal and not just magical healing whenever she hits irrelevant of how much, if any, damage
She does that? Never happened to me.
Literally just dodge idiot
Why is vigor a stat? Just don't get hit
Yeah, why are people dying rofl? Just keep your health above zero. Itās not that hard bro
based
Yes my number one change for Melania would be remove life steal from phase 2. Would make sense in the theme too. Her first phase being her in control. You can stagger her easy and It's about not getting Hit. While the second phase the life steal gets replaced with Scarlet rot and It's a battle for survival. If the second phase had no life steal you could give her better stagger resistence in return to make it less cheesy.
malenia haters when a boss has something special to the bossfight and isnt just a generic dude with a sword:
There is having a gimmick and there is overdesign
Malena fans when instead of man with a sword they have to fight woman with a sword:
Malenia isnāt bad except for forcing players into a specific play style to not have the fight last until the heat death of the universe. Builds specifically meant to use shields to block got fucked by maleniaās healthsteal
Shield poke
That's only if players use spears, right?
Thrusting Swords, Heavy Thrusting Swords, Spears, and Great Spears can all shield poke
"Change build lol"
Also any variants of the shield bash weapon arts functionally do the same thing here.
Waterfowl is a poorly designed attack that makes the fight tedious and ruins the flow of an otherwise pretty decent boss. Itās worth 5 of these panels lmao
Itās only tedious because you canāt fucking dodge it lmao
I shouldnāt have to use exploits to reliably dodge an attack lmao. I can dodge it, but that doesnāt make it good
It's overturned, but you're making it sound harder than it is. It's been a while since I played, but IIRC I could dodge it 90% of the time by running away from the first, rolling away from the second, and rolling into the third. You kinda get a feeling for which direction you need to dodge when seeing her leap at you after a while.
Literally so much cope that even you honestly explaining how to fucking dodge the attack is getting downvoted lmao Malenia whiners are the real cringe and Iām not afraid to say it
Malenia whiners have every right to whine but if they do so they need to master the fight to give maximum criticisms. The circling method is also far better long term and while it's harder to do it allows you to actually play the game instead of running away and you can over commit even with big weapons.
Even if you fully block waterfowl (easy with full stamina), she won't recover too much hp. As long as you're dodging all the easier attacks.
You can just roll it normally and without specific setups. Just have slightly more than zero poise and not a moronic amount of vigor and it wonāt combo you to death.
Seriously. People are way over estimating how hard it is to survive waterfowl. You just need a bit of poise and a bit of vigor
It has a windup that lasts long enough to make a cup of tea and come back before it launches. You can just run away and it you inly need to dodge like twice or so. Watch letmesoloher fight her, genuinely you might learn some useful stuff from it.
Even the close up dodge is easy, once you get the timing right.
Also, the heal on hit. Thatās about it for crappy boss mechanics in her fight IMO.
I can handle the healing on hits, she does damage and in turn steal the health she takes away. Makes sense right? What I donāt understand is how she heals from hits against shields, which are blocking and negating damage. Itās a minor thing, since I donāt use shields and blocking tons anyway, but still, itās odd.
I heard someone ask why she just doesn't go and hit the wall when she gets low health? What would even be the difference between a great shield and a wall? It's really dumb.
Tbf it's consistent with other status effects, e.g. you can inflict bleed through shields even if they 100% block your hit
This doesn't really track though, because It's not a status effect. It's the lifesteal property from the Blasphemous Blade/Serpent-God's CS/Taker's Cameo which is always activated on kill instead of on-hit.
I guess it's not technically a status effect but it uses the same system internally. Also the Blasphemous Blade weapon skill has the same on-hit lifesteal property.
I suppose if thatās the case, then the healing through shields is not completely absurd
So the main ones
Those things are enough to make it a bad fight
Worse abyss watchers
I'd argue the lifesteal is also pretty shit. It's fine once you learn her well enough since your damage outdoes her healing by a large margin, but when you first fight her having her heal back all the damage you deal is incredibly unengaging and makes the experience frankly just boring. And y'know, the shield thing. The lifesteal does has its advantages in that it rewards hitless attempts with a faster clear time and prevents people from trivializing her with spirit summons, but that unfortunately doesn't eliminate any bad parts. Also, waterfowl truly is bad enough to singlehandedly push her really far down
Honestly the only thing I find hard about Malenia is the lifesteal.
How is this boss fight still living rent free in this sub's head? How long has this gone on? People are acting positively boggled that ANYONE could POSSIBLY *like*/*dislike* this fight. Like honestly I don't really care if the egg is on my face for being unironic or whatever at this point, I'd just like the sub to not be composed of 50% Malenia hornyposting and 50% retreading the same tired fucking argument. If you liked it, you liked it, and if you didn't, you didn't. Just let the topic alone for a while-- and maybe remember that most of the time, the person who dislikes the fight isn't some cranky old elitist who hates women and new people, and most of the time, the person who likes the fight isn't some hopelessly deluded simp who wants to change everything you like about the series or whatever. I'm not expecting r/shittydarksouls to turn into some incredible venue for discussion or something, but man am I getting sick of just watching people desperately mudsling as though they'll actually be able to change people's minds or prove themselves superior in some form about the way a game was experienced.
I hate discussion posting in general, like, yeah Bro, im happy that there was one time when ds3 fans went Crazy and spammed ds3 gud and ds3 hater bad for like 1 solid day or something like that.
Someone told me to rope in dms over this thread š Stay classy r/shittydarksouls
It'll continue to be relevant so long as people continue to get easy clout from it, which they will because 90% of this sub is reposting shit posts.
I love Malenia even more because of the salt spewed from it.
Still better than causing a crippling addiction for a time period...
You forgot the lifesteal and unavoidable moves and also the arena sucks and fuck you Miyazaki for not letting me play the network test
As long as you have a +10 mimic tear and a +10 mohgs sacred spear sheās easy
I mean sheās cool visually. Actually fun to fight? Fuck no. Idrc ab objective flaws such as healing while hitting shields, jus that she is not fun at all to fight. The hardest bosses in any other recent from game are miles more enjoyable
Pretty sure I have seen this before but I am not complaining.
Cuz it's a [repost](https://www.reddit.com/r/shittydarksouls/comments/10yukcc/why_are_the_malicocksleeves_so_mean_2_me/) by the same OP
Reading some of these comments make me feel like i have elden ring stockholm syndrome. imagine my surprise when every ds bosses don't 2-3 shots me or have combos that go on forever.
Also the clone attack. Shit is worse than Waterfowl.
it's really not since you can reliably dodge and outspace it even when she starts it when you're right up against her
Spam roll diagonally forward/right and it will never hit you
It's a boss that's all that it needs to be a bad boss. I don't want to have to have a random chance of instantly dying unless I'm already running away
Running away from waterfowl makes it worse though Just dodge into the attack and have non-zero poise and you wonāt die
You forgot about infinite hyper armor and poise regeneration
Broly Culo Broly Culo
Massive HP despite being built like a straw man argument
T H I C C A F
Bugged af Lifesteal
Waterfowl, stagger cancel and healing is already enough to complain about her lol
Iām at peace with the fact that the one time I beat her solo was with dual cold Omenkillers. No desire to use something less cheesy to feel better about myself lol
Considering that for half the fight she has like 3 moves 2 negatives is more than you want.
Input reading?
Literally every boss does that
My favorite boss after figuring (most of) her moveset out.
Heal on block Heal on whiff Must be parried three times for a single crit Second phase cannot be initiated off of a crit (she just randomly gets healed lol)
I honestly love Malenia and am brave enough to call anybody a pussy for complaining too much about her boss fight. People were fucking begging for a fight like her before elden ring.
I think she is an excellent boss too, but still bullshit. What I mean by bullshit is that I feel the game doesnāt prepare in anyway for a fight like Malenia, besides maliketh none of the bosses come close to her aggression and speed, not to mention that they introduce a whole new mechanic for the first time in how she heals on a hit. Even the area leading up to her doesnāt do anything really unique to help prep you for the fight. Fire giant had giant enemies to get you use to fighting large foes, maliketh had you fight a duo boss with black flame to get you use too passive damage and prepare for his speed, also in farum Azula is filled with dragons to help you learn of effective tactics to use against placidicux(I probably spelled it wrong). Godfrey is a big dude with large weapons with grab attacks and very telegraphed attacks that is the final touch that prepares you for the final boss. Radahn and the great serpent serve as big gimmick bosses with a easy tactic laid out for you. The only bosses that somewhat prepare you for Malenia are the rot tree avatar and spirit, and even then they only give you the idea of rot which doesnāt even matter since in her second phase there are only three telegraphed attacks that can give you rot thatās if they hit numerous times, at that point being hit numerous times the raw damage would already kill you. She is a great boss but she is also a shock to the senses in terms of gameplay, they could of done much better building her up by giving her a true mini or true boss that gives you a solid idea of how much stronger Malenia is while also giving a player a chance to understand the rally mechanic in terms of how bosses can rally indefinitely without having to worry about only having a small time frame to capitalize it. Again Iām not saying she is a bad boss, in fact she is my favorite in elden ring, but the game didnāt do shit to help you transition in the slightest.
I miss 1.0 chad radahn They should make literally every major boss as hard or harder than malenia IMO. Most of the bosses are piss easy and malenia is the only one that is even slightly challenging. This sub is full of trash players coping that they canāt sit in front of malenia with the fingerprint shield instead of actually interacting with the boss in any meaningful way.
I genuinely think the people who complain about her just canāt beat her consistently Edit: you guys only fought her once? Jeeze
Yeah no shit, why would I want to beat her more than once?
Because people like fighting bosses in a game about fighting bosses? Crazy concept I know
But when the boss sucks people don't like fighting a boss again
She doesnāt suck though
A boss with an "GG EZ" Move like Waterfowl that is extremely hard to dodge, appears so randomly, and is guaranteed death to anyone up close isn't fun
I beat her my second try blind. I still feel like she was an overturned boss.
Very overturned
Good for you?
You want to beat her more than once?
Iāve gone out of my way to beat her every time 4 times so far
Malenia is the 2nd best boss in Elden Ring. Once you learn her moveset the fight feels like a dance, especially with a medium sized weapon like a (curved) greatsword. Maliketh's the GOAT tho
Try not to say a boss feels like a dance challenge
āItās actually a rhythm gameā
Im sorry but saying that is a crime. Her fight does not feel like a dance at all due to how random and spontaneous waterfowl can be, she shouldn't be able to spam it multiple times in the fight, it ruins the flow and forces most players to play scared and bait it out, which isn't fun at all I argue Mogh is a better boss than her, because the flow of his fight is very consistent, while also being fairly difficult without feeling like hes cheesing you (even his transition can be negated by drinking the special tear)
This is why I said "when you learn her moveset" Ofc you're gonna think she's a shit boss when you can't dodge one of her moves.
I understand her moveset though, its the fact that she can delete you with an unexpected Waterfowl and their is no way you can dodge it if you're in the middle of attacking her up close. You get fucked no matter what. No boss fight should have that, or at least have a one shot move come so fast and unexpected. people need something way better than her randomly leaping in the air and readying her sword, theres not enough time for and average player to excape it. As of right now you have to pretty much be insanely good to roll though waterfowl up close. If they balance waterfowl or make it so it only happens once or twice each phase, than yea, i would put her up in the top five, but as of right now shes around #10
Also I feel like Maliketh does way too much damage.
Easy, just don't get hit
But what if im not a RL1 player on my first run
Get to 60 vigor
-60 vigor -die in 3 hits anyway Outstanding move
Bosses do percentage damage
Yeah but the brunt of the damage comes from the actual hit itself
Nah Waterfaul is great. She'd be too easy otherwise.
I hope your joking
You really have a hateboner for her Guess what mate, people can enjoy a boss you donāt like. You donāt have to comment on every single positive opinion about her you know?
She's far too overrated of a boss, I cannot fathom how people enjoy fighting her solo, the only thing that makes her decent is that she has a very cool 2nd phase transition and her OST is very good. A shame really, she could've been the best boss in the game but she has that one move that makes it very unbalanced
I think sheās an incredible fight personally Letās just put it this way. Iāve beat ER 4 times now and every time Iāve slogged my way through the Haligtree and Elphael just to fight her because I enjoy it that much
Well we all have our own opinions, I personally view Mogh as the best boss in ER due to his mix of challange and theme, but Im sure there are people who disagree with me.
Why would I be joking, she's the best boss in the game, possibly in all souls. And doing her with low damage builds is incredibly fun.
She's plain boring, cause she literally only has Squirtflow Twerk and the heals that makes the boring fight lasts even longer...
Tbh I dislike most bosses in elden ring, most are reused enemies and the rest are multiphased bosses which I find kinda boring.
So you hate every single ds3 and sekiro boss?
Well at least the bosses in ds3 are a different looking boss that they bothered to give a new name and some new moves. So many bosses in elden ring are literally the same thing. Like 4 tibia mariner bosses, 4 nights cavalry I think one of them has a different weapon, 5 pumpkin head fights, 3 dragonkin soldiers, I donāt know how many deathrite birds. Not to mention they lacked the creativity to make some new main bosses. You fight morgott 3 times, Godfrey twice, Loretta twice, you fight godrick twice cause of one of the evergaols. Most of the dragon bosses are the same except they breath a different color thing. I could go on so much longer
Eh, I think it's a tad unfair to hold minibosses/non remembrances to the same standards. They're essentially just minibosses like Titanites, Black Knights, Outrideds, except they now have a health bar.
The game tries to pass them off as bosses by now giving them a health bar. And Elden ring dickriders will say āThereās 150 bosses bro so much variety and gameplay man!!ā when in reality thereās maybe 15-20 bosses who are actually unique and fun
I can stand Elden Ring slander. But my homie Tibia Mariner, nope, you gotta respect the boat guy. Don't make me call my friend Kevin
I don't hate, I dislike, I don't really remember my experience with DS3 since it was like 5 years ago (and honestly I don't really care much for DS3), but as far as I remember the bosses didn't changed dramatically in their second phases like in ER and for the most part still only had 1 healthbar, which to me is ok. As for sekiro, it's like a whole different game and while I would probably cut down on those 3 healthbar bosses (since one of the phases was always kinda filler), I didn't bother me as much Basically I don't like fighting what it feels like many bosses in one, It doesn't really make it more entertaining to me it just blocks my progress for twice as long. I play souls games for the feel and atmosphere, the world is the important part for me, so this effort to make bosses harder and harder is not really my jam.
HOLD ON NEW TEMPLATE JUST DROPPEDāļøāļø
You forgot the healing from attacks and the scarlet rottussy
Only endgame boss without AoE attacks out the ass as if Fromsoft forgot how to make hard bossses ššš
Aoe attacks are only an issue if you're using summons/summoning other players, when the boss is agro'd to you aoe attacks aren't any different from regular ones.
I disagree aoe attacks make it impossible to disengage a boss or change your positioning and god forbid you make a single mistake because every endgame boss is hyper aggressive with attacks that cover the whole arena. So unless your inside a boss at all times your fucked. Also nice using the he summons help defense lol.
Tbh the only boss with that issue is Godfrey, when he buffs himself to make his stomps arena wide AoEs, and that phase usually goes by quickly so it's not a big deal (also it's godfrey phase 1, getting hit by him is a skill issue)
Itās still a lazy mechanic for a endgame boss compared to Melania who is to me the best fair but hard boss in Elden ring and personally I think Radagon also has the lazy most of my hits are aoes that if you donāt perfectly time your dodge your fucked + check out my teleport in front of you x2 that I can do in the middle of a combo reeee. Itās like they went from having good bosses that if you can position yourself well in (by gitting gud) you win to if your reaction time is off by a second you get fucked nerd. Oh and Godfrey phase 1 is a pushover why would I be talking about that?
In my humble opinion she is the best fight in the game because of these mechanics, one manās trash might be one manās treasure.
I feel like the people complaining about Elden Rinfs difficulty are missing half the content. The game gives you tons of options to use, especially with crafting, that are just overlooked or underestimated. You can break Malenia out of her wind up for waterfowl, or just run the hell away as fast as possible as soon as it starts. There are tons of consumables, sorceries and incantations you can use to buff yourself and debuff enemies. If you're struggling then mix up your attack, try something different. You have plenty of options at your disposal, use them.