Support NeoGAF

[Here For The Free Feed]

NG +5 Lawerence at level 118 was probably the hardest boss in any souls' game I have played. Funny cause most people say he isn't hard at all so no idea why I struggled so bad.

who says that, they are lying.

hes bat shit hard on any level

 

[Melchiah]

NG +5 Lawerence at level 118 was probably the hardest boss in any souls' game I have played. Playing him on NG was much easier but the pool of life he has at NG 5 plus the fact that nearly every attack one shots you, ruined my life; and I'm one of those ego soul players who refuses to summon for help and has beaten every boss. I almost broke a controller to him. Funny cause most people say he isn't hard at all so no idea why I struggled so bad.

I can't imagine how hard he's on NG+5, especially at level 118, when I couldn't beat him on NG+ at level 230. =D Even at my level he could kill me easily.

 

[CalhounBurns]

Well, if you just run to the boss levers, you're bound to miss rewards like gems. I took it as a challenge, and cleared all the rooms in all the chalices (including Defiled), which rewarded me with higher physical attack gems.

Apart from the depth 3 boss of Ailing Loran I have cleared everything up to this point.

RE: Orphan of Kos - this is how close I got on a couple runs before eventually getting him.

I managed to get the first phase down to a science of baiting his leap, letting that go over my head and hitting him with a charge R2 but his second phase is an absolutely nightmare.

 

[Melchiah]

Apart from the depth 3 boss of Ailing Loran I have cleared everything up to this point.

RE: Orphan of Kos - this is how close I got on a couple runs before eventually getting him.

I managed to get the first phase down to a science of baiting his leap, letting that go over my head and hitting him with a charge R2 but his second phase is an absolutely nightmare.

Come to think of it, I recall skipping a room in the Defiled chalice, which had the dreaded butt-naked Watcher, after I heard it's not worth the trouble.

Here's a link for gem farming. The best gems can be found in the depth 5 root chalices.
https://www.reddit.com/r/bloodborne/comments/3469sj/toptier_gem_farming_spreadsheet/
I don't remember which of the first three on the spreadsheet I used for farming, but the Merciless Watchers in the Ihyll chalice are good source for +27.2% physical attack gems. I think the best option is to have Kin damage down curse, since there aren't many enemies in the game that are affected by it, or stamina penalty.

Regarding Kos, getting so close to defeat a boss can be infuriating, just like barely defeating one feels exhilarating. It's the only boss fight, where I've used the Moonlight Sword, and its R2 swipe works well in the second phase. The NG+ encounter was less troublesome for me: https://youtu.be/iI4uOVejx8g


EDIT: The Winter Lanterns just before Kos are also a good source for +22.3% physical attack gems.

 

[CalhounBurns]

Come to think of it, I recall skipping a room in the Defiled chalice, which had the dreaded butt-naked Watcher, after I heard it's not worth the trouble.

Here's a link for gem farming. The best gems can be found in the depth 5 root chalices.
https://www.reddit.com/r/bloodborne/comments/3469sj/toptier_gem_farming_spreadsheet/
I don't remember which of the first three on the spreadsheet I used for farming, but the Merciless Watchers in the Ihyll chalice are good source for +27.2% physical attack gems. I think the best option is to have Kin damage down curse, since there aren't many enemies in the game that are affected by it, or stamina penalty.

Regarding Kos, getting so close to defeat a boss can be infuriating, just like barely defeating one feels exhilarating. It's the only boss fight, where I've used the Moonlight Sword, and its R2 swipe works well in the second phase. The NG+ encounter was less troublesome for me: https://youtu.be/iI4uOVejx8g


EDIT: The Winter Lanterns just before Kos are also a good source for +22.3% physical attack gems.

Thanks for that. I'm not really concerned with farming for gems I just hoped I'd pick some good ones up while progressing to platinum. I suppose I've only done 1 depth 4 dungeon at this point though.

 

[Melchiah]

Thanks for that. I'm not really concerned with farming for gems I just hoped I'd pick some good ones up while progressing to platinum. I suppose I've only done 1 depth 4 dungeon at this point though.

I don't remember which regular chalices granted me good gems, because it's been 1.5 years since I went through them, but the higher depth dungeons give better rewards.

 

[Deku Tree]

All the best gems are RNG boss drops. The winter lantern gems near Kos are the best in the game outside of depth 5 FRC gems. And the winter lanterns have a very high drop rate. 10-15 minutes can of farming them can get you what you need.

Also the higher gems are super OP for NG and totally un-necessary.

 

[Melchiah]

All the best gems are RNG boss drops. The winter lantern gems near Kos are the best in the game outside of depth 5 FRC gems. And the winter lanterns have a very high drop rate. 10-15 minutes can of farming them can get you what you need.

Also the higher gems are super OP for NG and totally un-necessary.

I recall getting some above +18% physical attack gems from elsewhere in the chalices, but my memory could play tricks on me.

 

[Weiss]

Well that's my fourth playthrough.

It's funny how much more I can keep discovering about this game. I had no idea there was a backstep attack because I never used the backstep in combat, and I found the Whirligig Saw and Saw Spear to be among the best weapons in the game.

 

[Jobbs]

Here's a video of it: https://youtu.be/T-zSyYDmG5Q

Oh my god I need to play the Bloodborne DLC. How have I not? I've played through Bloodborne and every Dark Souls thing except for this DLC. Part of the reason I've dragged my feet is that my high level character has a gimpy bloodtinged build because I didn't know better on my first playthrough.

That's the coolest boss fight I've ever seen. Also what is that armor? I neeeed it.

 

[CalhounBurns]

There's nothing wrong with a Bloodtinge build as long as you use the correct gear for it. I think you can probably cheese a lot of things other builds would struggle with using a BT build.

 

[Jobbs]

There's nothing wrong with a Bloodtinge build as long as you use the correct gear for it. I think you can probably cheese a lot of things other builds would struggle with using a BT build.

It's actually a high strength and bloodtinged build. I initially chose it because I thought I'd be doing damage with guns (which you sorta can in certain situations, but clearly I didn't understand exactly what guns were going to be when I first started).

Is there anything cool in the DLC that utilizes these two stats?

 

[CalhounBurns]

The Bloodletter
http://bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/Bloodletter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sEqX4LI2Ec

 

[Akuun]

The aggressive DS3 bosses were very hard for me, because I couldn't rely on parrying like in BB. I had to turn to NPC partners for most of them, and summon another player for the Nameless King.

Nameless King > Champion Gundyr > Abyss Watchers / Pontiff Sulyvahn > Old Demon King

Whereas Aldrich and Dancer were pretty easy even on solo, in contrast to how hard they've been to others. IIRC, I beat both of them on the second try.

I think Dancer is hit or miss depending on the build. She's not very aggressive, so ranged wrecks her, and so do high health pools/regen builds because most of her damage comes from punishing your attempts to hurt her. I had trouble against her because I did good damage, but couldn't reliably block her stuff and didn't have enough health to survive her strong hits. So mistakes from misreading her irregular attack timings kicked my ass.

I totally agree about the parrying bit. I landed parries pretty reliably in DS1 and Bloodborne, but in DS3 I just never got good at it and it was so punishing to fail it. I only really did it a lot against Champion Gundyr because that guy has some serious game if you don't parry him.

NG +5 Lawerence at level 118 was probably the hardest boss in any souls' game I have played. Playing him on NG was much easier but the pool of life he has at NG 5 plus the fact that nearly every attack one shots you, ruined my life; and I'm one of those ego soul players who refuses to summon for help and has beaten every boss. I almost broke a controller to him. Funny cause most people say he isn't hard at all so no idea why I struggled so bad.

Anyone who says he's easy is intentionally being that "well, ~I~ found him easy~~~" jerk. He's not a terribly fun boss to fight (unlike ludwig/maria/ook) but he is very difficult because of sheer stats. So much damage, so much health, and so on.

Like you said, he has so much damn health, nearly every attack oneshots or twoshots you, and he has deceptively large hitboxes because everything is an AoE. First phase is pretty much a marathon run due to the health pool, and the second phase is a not-at-all-fun game of "stand in his blind spot until he does the only one or two attacks in his moveset that you can actually safely punish" that lasts goddamn forever.

 

[grmlin]

Anyone who says he's easy is intentionally being that "well, ~I~ found him easy~~~" jerk. He's not a terribly fun boss to fight (unlike ludwig/maria/ook) but he is very difficult because of sheer stats. So much damage, so much health, and so on.

Like you said, he has so much damn health, nearly every attack oneshots or twoshots you, and he has deceptively large hitboxes because everything is an AoE. First phase is pretty much a marathon run due to the health pool, and the second phase is a not-at-all-fun game of "stand in his blind spot until he does the only one or two attacks in his moveset that you can actually safely punish" that lasts goddamn forever.

I don't know. I had so much trouble killing Ludwig and Orphan, like, SO MUCH TROUBLE, and was expecting the worst with Lawrence.

Killed him second try, because I got stuck in the scenery in the first.


It was in NG though, maybe that's the reason? I'm pretty sure the next time I'll fight him, it will be the complete opposite, lol

 

[Akuun]

I don't know. I had so much trouble killing Ludwig and Orphan, like, SO MUCH TROUBLE, and was expecting the worst with Lawrence.

Killed him second try, because I got stuck in the scenery in the first.


It was in NG though, maybe that's the reason? I'm pretty sure the next time I'll fight him, it will be the complete opposite, lol

Maybe something about your playstyle and weapon choice made it easier for you.

For me, something about fighting him in that shoebox of an arena (seriously, is that room really way smaller than Amelia's room or is Lawrence just that much fucking bigger than Amelia?) and his big AoE attacks made him a pain in the ass for me. I thought I did okay in the first few attempts, and then something happened then I ended up getting wrecked by him for a good while before I finally got him.

I still put him below Ludwig and OoK in difficulty, but I would never call Lawrence easy.

 

[grmlin]

Maybe something about your playstyle and weapon choice made it easier for you.

For me, something about fighting him in that shoebox of an arena (seriously, is that room really way smaller than Amelia's room or is Lawrence just that much fucking bigger than Amelia?) and his big AoE attacks made him a pain in the ass for me. I thought I did okay in the first few attempts, and then something happened then I ended up getting wrecked by him for a good while before I finally got him.

I still put him below Ludwig and OoK in difficulty, but I would never call Lawrence easy.

I used a Church Pick, it destroyed him very fast. I'll go into the DLC with the Pizza Cutter next, I'll report how it goes in a few days

 

[psyfi]

Well that's my fourth playthrough.

It's funny how much more I can keep discovering about this game. I had no idea there was a backstep attack because I never used the backstep in combat, and I found the Whirligig Saw and Saw Spear to be among the best weapons in the game.

I'm in my first playthrough and have used nothing but the Threaded Cane and Blade of Mercy. Reading this page I'm also realizing that I rarely use the R2 attack, and I never use the charge attack. Am I missing out on something important there? The Blade of Mercy has a sweet spin attack when you use R2 while sprinting, and I do use that sometimes.

 

[grmlin]

Something else.

Did I miss a patch or something that fixed the PS4's rest mode with Bloodborne? If I remember correctly, and Dark Souls 3 still does that, it always failed after resuming the PS4 with a notification, that the connection to the servers was lost. The game threw me back onto the start screen then.

This does not happen anymore.

 

[Akuun]

I'm in my first playthrough and have used nothing but the Threaded Cane and Blade of Mercy. Reading this page I'm also realizing that I rarely use the R2 attack, and I never use the charge attack. Am I missing out on something important there? The Blade of Mercy has a sweet spin attack when you use R2 while sprinting, and I do use that sometimes.

I ran Cane + BoM too.

Charged R2 on most weapons will lead to a backstab if you land it on someone's back.

Untransformed Blade of Mercy is very fast for this, and you can sometimes get backstabs on people doing slower moves if you do a dodge that places you right behind them. This is one reason why I like the untransformed form of the BoM, and was a huge help when fighting Logarius.

Transformed BoM can do R2 > L2 for a double handed slash + similar slash that pulls you away. Or you can do R2 > R2 > L2 for a longer version of the same combo.

Untransformed Cane charged R2 is slower than the BoM's, but has better range.

Transformed Cane R2 has a huge range and arc, making it excellent for zoning out multiple enemies at a distance. I also sometimes use this to sneak in hits on bosses when I'm trying to keep my distance.

The transformed cane's jumping attack has very long forward range.

 

[grmlin]

I'm in my first playthrough and have used nothing but the Threaded Cane and Blade of Mercy. Reading this page I'm also realizing that I rarely use the R2 attack, and I never use the charge attack. Am I missing out on something important there? The Blade of Mercy has a sweet spin attack when you use R2 while sprinting, and I do use that sometimes.

Combos, especially these including transforming the weapon, can be very powerful.

I use charged R2s mainly for backstabs. With the correct timing it can be very powerful on certain enemies, too.


Beside that, it's always good to have a crowd controlling weapon like the cane with you. And remember that serrated weapons get a significant bonus against beasts (which helps a lot with some bosses).



I enjoy the Pizza Cutter a lot, but have a Beast Cutter in my offhand for the range and extra beast damage.

 

[psyfi]

Wait... I don't think I know about back stabs. Are they just like in Dark Souls??

Edit : I googled it. Damn I had no idea! Thanks for all the info yall.

 

[StoppedInTracks]

Ok remember that list above how I beat majority of the bosses on first try?

It's useless as I am literally stuck on the first Defiled boss (the fucking Witch). I simply cannot beat her. I am LVL108 for Christ sake she should be a pushover but she one-shots me. I have 3 +10 Weapons and it does not make a difference as long as she kills me in one combo.

Jesus I hate the Chalice dungeons

 

[Morrigan Stark]

It's actually a high strength and bloodtinged build. I initially chose it because I thought I'd be doing damage with guns (which you sorta can in certain situations, but clearly I didn't understand exactly what guns were going to be when I first started).

Is there anything cool in the DLC that utilizes these two stats?

Yep, the Bloodletter! It's a bit late in the DLC though... For dex/BT you can also use the Bowblade. The dex part isn't that important and it's only for the untransformed sword mode, the bow mode is pure BT. You can get that fairly early if you murder the NPC that carries it, or you get it normally a bit later on.

Also, a repeating pistol with bone marrow ash and high bloodtinge is quite devastating, you can nuke some bosses with that.

 

[CalhounBurns]

Defiled Watchdog down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNXRPyyVpMM

Amygdala seems much harder.

 

[Melchiah]

Oh my god I need to play the Bloodborne DLC. How have I not? I've played through Bloodborne and every Dark Souls thing except for this DLC. Part of the reason I've dragged my feet is that my high level character has a gimpy bloodtinged build because I didn't know better on my first playthrough.

That's the coolest boss fight I've ever seen. Also what is that armor? I neeeed it.

You definitely need to play the DLC, if you enjoyed the main game. There are four more bosses there, although one of them is a new version of an old one.

I haven't really tried a Bloodtinge build, but I've heard good things about Chikage, and Evelyn is pretty good at a high BT level.

That's Harrowed set, you get it in the last area of the DLC.

I think Dancer is hit or miss depending on the build. She's not very aggressive, so ranged wrecks her, and so do high health pools/regen builds because most of her damage comes from punishing your attempts to hurt her. I had trouble against her because I did good damage, but couldn't reliably block her stuff and didn't have enough health to survive her strong hits. So mistakes from misreading her irregular attack timings kicked my ass.

I totally agree about the parrying bit. I landed parries pretty reliably in DS1 and Bloodborne, but in DS3 I just never got good at it and it was so punishing to fail it. I only really did it a lot against Champion Gundyr because that guy has some serious game if you don't parry him.

I played on strength build with Dark Sword and shield. That also contributed on making the game harder to some extent, as I had gotten used to skill build in BB, and having a light weapon with a long reach (Threaded Cane).

Dancer wasn't that aggressive, so it definitely made her easier for me. Whereas Champion Gundyr was infuriatingly hard for me without parrying. The NPC partner helped a bit, but he always died halfway through the fight.



EDIT:

Ok remember that list above how I beat majority of the bosses on first try?

It's useless as I am literally stuck on the first Defiled boss (the fucking Witch). I simply cannot beat her. I am LVL108 for Christ sake she should be a pushover but she one-shots me. I have 3 +10 Weapons and it does not make a difference as long as she kills me in one combo.

Jesus I hate the Chalice dungeons

Equip HP increasing and damage decreasing runes, that might prevent you from getting one-shotted. She's very easy to parry, and corner-fuck afterwards.
Here's a video of how I did it: https://youtu.be/mcePUbPDcFM

 

[CalhounBurns]

And that's Defiled Amygdala down! Feels so good. At first she seemed impossible, I wasn't lasting 30 seconds. The first time I managed to go 1 minute I killed her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-84n8LBZ4o

RE: DSIII bosses - the ones I really struggled with were Nameless King, Champion Gundyr, Dragonslayer Armour and oddly enough the big tree. I think the Dancer went down on about the 5th try, Pontiff and Aldrich in 2 and I got Soul of Cinder first try. I used the Drang Hammers for the majority of the bosses. All vids on my YouTube (including Bloodborne bosses).
https://www.youtube.com/user/0rien/videos?shelf_id=0&view=0&sort=dd

 

[Orochinagis]

Nameless King is a paint to deal as a caster, he moves pretty fast for the spell to be even casted

 

[Weiss]

Oh god fuck the Defiled Chalice dungeon. So fucking terrible.

It's the most blatant example of fake difficulty Souls has ever seen.

 

[CalhounBurns]

And it's done!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gYM7DqW01s

Yharnam was not the pushover I was expecting her to be. She's got quite a lot of health and her attacks hit really hard.

Pthumerian Descendent and Headless Bloodletting Beast went down in a few tries each. PD I just got really aggressive and stayed in his face with the Kirkhammer sword - getting a couple hits then quick stepping around him - rinse and repeat. HBB I stayed by his legs with the Whirligig + fire paper which made short work of him.

All in the Platinum wasn't as hard as I was expecting it to be. Not saying it was easy but tonight I expected to spend the whole night trying to beat Watchdog, but I've gone right through without getting too stuck on any of it.

Feels great to have done it though. I love this game and I've never felt like I'd truly completed it, knowing I didn't have the platinum.

 

[psyfi]

Congrats on the plat.

 

[Goldboy]

And it's done!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gYM7DqW01s

Yharnam was not the pushover I was expecting her to be. She's got quite a lot of health and her attacks hit really hard.

Pthumerian Descendent and Headless Bloodletting Beast went down in a few tries each. PD I just got really aggressive and stayed in his face with the Kirkhammer sword - getting a couple hits then quick stepping around him - rinse and repeat. HBB I stayed by his legs with the Whirligig + fire paper which made short work of him.

All in the Platinum wasn't as hard as I was expecting it to be. Not saying it was easy but tonight I expected to spend the whole night trying to beat Watchdog, but I've gone right through without getting too stuck on any of it.

Feels great to have done it though. I love this game and I've never felt like I'd truly completed it, knowing I didn't have the platinum.

Congrats. I got stuck on the Watchdog for a few hours straight on my plat run, but Defiled Amy and Headless Bloodletting Beast went down in a couple tries thankfully. One of the most satisfying platinums to get.

 

[Orochinagis]

Oh god fuck the Defiled Chalice dungeon. So fucking terrible.

It's the most blatant example of fake difficulty Souls has ever seen.

Need more vit to be less crappy, forced me to go 45 vit

And it's done!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gYM7DqW01s

Yharnam was not the pushover I was expecting her to be. She's got quite a lot of health and her attacks hit really hard.

Pthumerian Descendent and Headless Bloodletting Beast went down in a few tries each. PD I just got really aggressive and stayed in his face with the Kirkhammer sword - getting a couple hits then quick stepping around him - rinse and repeat. HBB I stayed by his legs with the Whirligig + fire paper which made short work of him.

All in the Platinum wasn't as hard as I was expecting it to be. Not saying it was easy but tonight I expected to spend the whole night trying to beat Watchdog, but I've gone right through without getting too stuck on any of it.

Feels great to have done it though. I love this game and I've never felt like I'd truly completed it, knowing I didn't have the platinum.

I hope you can get the platinum theme , I am still waiting for mine

 

[Triggerhappytel]

I took a week or so off and came back tonight to do some more Chalice Dungeons. Only got two trophies left before the Platinum - get all Hunter weapons and defeat the Pthumerian Queen. I believe I need to defeat Gerhman to get one of the weapons in NG+, so I'll probably do that then roll back to an older save as I want to tackle the DLC on my first time through, not NG+. However these Chalice Dungeons are burning me right out so I'll probably get the Plat then go to a few other games and come back to this in a couple of months to finish The Old Hunters.

 

[Orochinagis]

I took a week or so off and came back tonight to do some more Chalice Dungeons. Only got two trophies left before the Platinum - get all Hunter weapons and defeat the Pthumerian Queen. I believe I need to defeat Gerhman to get one of the weapons in NG+, so I'll probably do that then roll back to an older save as I want to tackle the DLC on my first time through, not NG+. However these Chalice Dungeons are burning me right out so I'll probably get the Plat then go to a few other games and come back to this in a couple of months to finish The Old Hunters.

If you eat all umbilical chords you can defeat the last boss then warp out or die on the hidden boss to get the last weapon

 

[psyfi]

Anyone want to help me out with Amygdala sometime in the next 6ish hours? It's my first run, not NG+ or anything.

 

[Weiss]

Anyone want to help me out with Amygdala sometime in the next 6ish hours? It's my first run, not NG+ or anything.

Here's a tip if you want one.

Spoiler

If you feel like risking it, then when you get into Amygdala's last phase it's a good idea to hide under her and constantly bait her to do her jump. If you dodge at the last second you'll be invincible and be able to score some free damage on her head.

 

[Orochinagis]

Anyone want to help me out with Amygdala sometime in the next 6ish hours? It's my first run, not NG+ or anything.

Normal amygdala?

 

[Triggerhappytel]

If you eat all umbilical chords you can defeat the last boss then warp out or die on the hidden boss to get the last weapon

Ah cool, thanks. Never thought of that. I take it there's no side effects from consuming them?

Anyone want to help me out with Amygdala sometime in the next 6ish hours? It's my first run, not NG+ or anything.

If you haven't done this yet I'll be playing about 13 hours from now and I can help out. Fire me a FR on Telminator-2 if you're interested.

 

[psyfi]

Normal amygdala?

If you haven't done this yet I'll be playing about 13 hours from now and I can help out. Fire me a FR on Telminator-2 if you're interested.

Oops, didn't see these replies till now. In 13 hours I'll be giving a presentation on the sociopolitical movements surrounding gender and their impact on public health. Honestly, Amygdala is scarier, haha.

 

[jviggy43]

I just want to thank everyome here for assuring me about lawerence lol.

Also on my blood tinge character, simons bowblade absolutely destroyed amygadla. No idea what your stats are but that thing when aimed at her head makes the entire fight trivial.

 

[CalhounBurns]

I hope you can get the platinum theme , I am still waiting for mine

How long have you been waiting?

 

[StoppedInTracks]

After 14 deaths and 100+ Blood Vials wasted I finally killed the first Defiled boss - the Fire Witch.

My stats did not matter (50 VIT), my equipment did not matter: full Bone Ash armor that gives best Fire Resistance, +15% Health Runes, +4% All DMG Resistance, my weapons did not matter: Ludwig +10 or Axe +10. No matter what I did when she landed a combo I was dead. Sometimes it wasn't even the combo but the first slash in the second phase. I was DEAD. DEAD. 865 HP to 0 HP in one blow.

It was really infuriating... I was dying with 14 Blood Vials left. I never did SL1 runs in any Souls games so having a boss fight that basically requires you to not get hit was something new for me. And I hated it.

Worst part of the fight, besides the OHKO combo, was that 90% of the times I dodged her attack I could not punish her. Axe was too slow, Ludwig has shit reach etc. I was so desperate that I was trying different weapons for the first time in the game. Amygadala's Arm +6 is somehow the fastest weapon possible - the R1 comes out instantly and has a huge arc - but even that hit her 50% of the time depending on when I dodged.

So I didn't know what to do.

In the later fights I was able to stay alive for 15 minutes and just could not damage her at all. Then I somehow managed to combo her with Ludwig's R1 for 1300 dmg. Interesting (I never used Ludwig, never even upgraded it - before this fight). So after a couple more tries I came up with a strategy: bait her "flame fan" attack and quickly dodge behind her and combo for 1000+ dmg then dodge back as fast as hell.

This was my winning strategy after 2 hours!!!

Bait her flame fan attack - NEVER ATTACK UNTIL SHE USES IT - and combo. I was down to 0 Vials and 20% Health left - typical for Souls games - when I managed to land the last, winning combo. It was then or never. I was so tense when she started running around cause that meant certain death if I got hit and that also meant she will never use the flame fan attack until she stops running!

Why did I switch to Ludwig, might you ask? Why specifically for this fight? Well so it happens that I found a +24% crescent blood gem (cursed) an hour or two before (in Ailing Loran?) and the only melee weapon it fits for me was Ludwig. So after upgrading it to +10 and switching my main runes from my main Axe it outperformed the Axe +10 by a total 100 points of ATK (!!!).

---

And LOL are you kidding me?!? The 2nd Defiled boss is the Fire Dog?

.............................

Luckily I noticed that Ludwig scales with Dexterity pretty well so I am building DEX as well. 41 STR/ 19 DEX gives me 609 ATK on Ludwig and 465 ATK on Axe.

 

[CalhounBurns]

I beat the Keeper of the Old Lords with Kirkhammer. I was having trouble landing hits on her as well because she would dodge back too fast after her sword swings so I just started dodging twice - once to dodge her attacks and then once more towards her to keep up with her as she dashed away. I'd combo the second dash with an R1 attack. Anytime I got her back to the wall I'd just unleash the fury (which would stunlock her) until I was nearly out of stamina and dodge back.

I do find that with the human bosses the best way to beat them is just play aggressive and stay in their face.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

All you guys have all these strategies and I tend to just wail on enemies and duke it out until I'm dead or they're dead. The closest I've come to a proper strategy was probably either Rom (attacking it directly wasn't working so I took ages to clear out all the little spiders and took cover behind a pillar whenever she cast that bloody meteor spell), or last night I fought the boss of Ailing Loran Chalice 1 (Beast-Possessed Soul with fire magic) who proved pretty challenging and I died to it a few times.

 

[Melchiah]

My stats did not matter (50 VIT), my equipment did not matter: full Bone Ash armor that gives best Fire Resistance, +15% Health Runes, +4% All DMG Resistance, my weapons did not matter: Ludwig +10 or Axe +10. No matter what I did when she landed a combo I was dead. Sometimes it wasn't even the combo but the first slash in the second phase. I was DEAD. DEAD. 865 HP to 0 HP in one blow.

That's odd, because I don't recall her killing me so easily. My vitality was at the same level, and I also had similar runes. I might have used physical DMG reduction +3% rune, instead of the fire one, and I think I had +10% health rune. I was around 188 level at the time though, so my overall defenses were higher.

Here's my stats at the time:

 

[CalhounBurns]

All you guys have all these strategies and I tend to just wail on enemies and duke it out until I'm dead or they're dead. The closest I've come to a proper strategy was probably either Rom (attacking it directly wasn't working so I took ages to clear out all the little spiders and took cover behind a pillar whenever she cast that bloody meteor spell), or last night I fought the boss of Ailing Loran Chalice 1 (Beast-Possessed Soul with fire magic) who proved pretty challenging and I died to it a few times.

I dont do it for every boss but it seems necessary for some, especially the further down you get in the chalice dungeons. And it's part of the fun when it's required, I think. Defiled Amygdala just felt like a tedious necessary cheese but getting through Defiled Watchdog was really enjoyable. I feel like if I had to do that fight again it would be no problem now I know how to do it.

Ailing Loran Beast Possessed Soul I think I beat first time just slapping it down with the Beast Cutter R2 combo.

 

[Red Liquorice]

Keeper of the Old Lords is like a mini Maria. She basically says 'please parry me, please parry me.' I have a little 'combo' I do with her and Maria where I'll get a couple of R1 hits in then a transform attack then gunshot to parry because they usually try and attack immediately.

Not saying they're easy, I've died to them plenty, but they are asking to be parried. Stay in her face, dodge around her pyromancy and parry sword attacks.

 

[Corky]

I think I finally want to try a different (see: actual) build for once. I want be ultimate bad ass with LHB, any tips or guides?

Edit; wops I actually meant HMS, so a nice Holy Moonlight Sword build

 

[StoppedInTracks]

That's odd, because I don't recall her killing me so easily. My vitality was at the same level, and I also had similar runes. I might have used physical DMG reduction +3% rune, instead of the fire one, and I think I had +10% health rune. I was around 188 level at the time though, so my overall defenses were higher.

Here's my stats at the time:

No offence but you are 80 levels higher. That gives you better defence, right?

---

Woohoo Defiled Fire Dog down at the second try. He was much, much more manageable than the Fire Witch because *surprise, surprise* he did not one-shot me.

It was still a long fight - baiting his puke attack *OR* the dash at you. Those were the only moments where I could safely attack him - either one R2 of Ludwig or two R1s. Of course I managed to stagger him two times but both of these times was after his lava puke so he lied down inside the lava, bah. No viscerals for me. 90% of the fight was me running backwards and dashing like a madman.

What a crazy intense fight!