Well, I did a bit of a grind to get my stats up, and once I was consistently getting well into phase 2 on my own, I used an ember, got my buddy Gael (friends to the end... literally!) and we took Elfriede and Ariandel down.
It's a three-phase fight. Phase one you don't get any help from Gael, whose most crucially important ability is that he can see Elfriede even when she's invisible. The big risk of using an ember on this fight is that if you slip up and die on the first phase, summoning Gael is wasted as he doesn't show up until phase 2.
So you need to play defensively. I used Magic Shield and a Black Knight Shield to just absorb her attacks (though if she does the dragging hook attack, which I think she does any time she goes invisible and you don't interrupt her, it'll get past your shield. Friede has Bloodborne-level dodging abilities, so you need to pick your time to strike quickly. If she goes invisible, there are some hints, both in sound and little footfalls where she jumps to that can help you spot her and interrupt her big attack, but if you don't have enough time, just roll around like an idiot and you might not get hit. I got through this phase pretty consistently, but the trick was to do so while conserving resources like Estus.
Phase 2 is a bit Ornstein & Smough like, which makes having Gael make it a ton easier. Ariandel is actually pretty easy to dodge and if you wail on him you can get him to stagger, score crits, and the like. The key is that when you're going two-handed and slamming him, be sure to watch out for Friede's attacks. Still, especially with Gael on distraction duty, this phase is not too bad.
Now: Phase 3 is the nasty one.
Friede is if anything faster here than she was in the first phase and her darkflame abilities hit like trucks. Part of the reason you want to get through phase 2 as quick as possible is that if you've summoned Gael, you'll want him to survive as long into this phase as you can manage. Having him drawing fire from Friede will make it massively easier to get hits in on her and not constantly be playing defense. While in phase one she'll allow you to dodge backward and heal pretty frequently, here she's pretty relentless. Gael died on my successful run when she was about one hit from death, but it took me another few attack cycles to safely strike her.
Anyway, downing Friede will create not just her standard boss bonfire, but also another bonfire at the end of the chamber where you can go to the Dreg Heap, where the Ringed City DLC begins.
My first impressions: Ok, so Dark Souls takes place in a fairly post-apocalyptic environment already. It's all about ruin and undead that have hollowed and... it's not a good world to exist within. The Dreg Heap makes Lothric seem like a thriving paradise. Most enemies I encounter are crumpled up or hollowed out in a more literal sense. One massive creature that could stagger me while I was blocking with a single hit seemed to be grown over in roots and had just a hole in reality where its head should have been.
And things hit HARD. I've fought Lothric and Friede, leveled up to the point where I could manage to survive a couple hits from them. I've done a bit of a level grind. I'm SL 100. These guys are not messing around.
So we'll see how this goes.
No comments:
Post a Comment