So, I got my Moonveil/Cold Uchigatana Samurai character to and now through the whole Haligtree part of Elden Ring, right up to Malenia, the deservedly-considered hardest boss of the game. Realizing I had caught up on that with my Arcane-focused Dragon incantation-based character, I switched over to him. But then, just trying to clear a dungeon in the Mountaintop of the Giants (I want to say it's a heroes' grave, but the only one without those bastard chariot constructs) I realized how frustrating I had found that build.
So, that character got respecced (I think he's the character I have the fewest Larval Tears left on - hoping that if we get some DLC, we'll get a whole bunch more) to use Rivers of Blood. This build focuses almost entirely on the katana Rivers of Blood's Corpse Piler weapon art, which has you slash forward in a 3-part combo in a relatively short but wide arc, dealing I believe fire damage (and maybe slashing damage) and building up bleed on targets hit by it.
Now, this being an earlier character, I killed Mohg before I got the invasion that gives the White Mask (I think... I should double check whether I just killed the one invader,) which gives a damage boost when something nearby has the blood loss effect go off. However, I do have the talisman, Lord of Blood's Exultation, which does the same. As usual, I've cribbed this build from Fextralife, a really definitive wiki for the game (and other FromSoft Soulsborne games).
And so, today, after about a half-hour of attempts (each of which was like 3 minutes - so I guess ten or so tries?) I took down Malenia. The key here was just burning her as quickly as possible, using a Mimic Tear to double my bleed build up.
Two things make Malenia so difficult. The first is that her healing can set you back significantly. This incentivizes pouring out damage as quickly as possible. The other is her Waterfowl Dance, which is insanely hard to dodge and will basically automatically kill you given the rapid damage it puts out.
In fact, Waterfowl Dance also pushes you to pour on damage as quickly as possible, as you want to kill her before she decides to use the ability. I can dodge the initial blow (which I think does more damage) about one in four times, so I'm much happier if I can get her down before she can do it. The Mimic Tear can actually tank this once or twice, so if you're lucky, she might target the Tear - she'll heal up a bit, but you aren't dead.
The good news is that Malenia doesn't have the best poise, so with that damage-pouring, you can sometimes interrupt her attacks or even get a critical on her.
And it's for that reason that this feels almost like the first "legitimate" kill I've gotten of three.
Ok, fair, the first time was pretty legitimate. I was on my Intelligence-based spellcaster (I later respecced him to use the Darkmoon Greatsword, but he's still got like 70 or 80 Int) and just chipped away at her with Stars of Ruin. What made this feel "cheap" was that on the second phase, she used the attack she always starts phase 2 off with a second time - an attack that is relatively easy to dodge, but forces melee characters to stay away from her for a good 5 seconds or so while you wait for her Rot-flower to dissipate. But as a ranged caster, I could just pummel her with Stars of Ruins from a safe distance for that full time with impunity.
The second time, I was playing my Strength/Faith dual greatsword build with Blasphemous Blade. Here, the moment I pushed her into phase 2, I staggered her and started a critical hit, but the cutscene began to play. The game clearly knew that I was supposed to be critting her at the moment, and somehow seemed to understand that her health should be very low at that point, so when the cutscene ended, I finished the critical hit animation while Malenia was stunned mid-air and dropped before making her usual Rot-Bloom-Dive attack... with 1 HP. I was able to close distance on her quickly and get off a hit, and got credit for the kill.
So, this third time, being on a melee (or at least short-range) character, I didn't get to take potshots (I did have a fire incantation that I tried using on earlier attempts, but I decided it was better to just buff with Flame, Give Me Strength when I got those moments of calm, or to pop a flask) when she did her rot-bloom dive, and so I felt as if I was really just bringing my build's basics to the fight.
With Malenia down, I figured that I was pretty sure I'd gotten Corhyn/Goldmask's quest far enough and decided to trigger the final phase, and I wound up taking Maliketh down in a single attempt (bleed works quite well on him).
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