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Awesome video. Mohg is probably my boss fight in the base game (it would be Malenia but she's just too difficult for me to enjoy, very similarly to the final boss of the dlc, THAT THING IS A MENACE) and he is an excellent gatekeeper to the dlc in my opinion.

Could have uses crystal tear to break his curse.

I'd love to see more analysis on bosses in this game, the good, the bad, and the Inbetween. I find so many critical discussions around this game to be really bad. There are the people who speak negatively of the game, not understanding how it works and its core appeal. A lot of them look at Elden Ring as Dark Souls 4 or Sekiro 2 looking for that experience, when Elden Ring is just Elden Ring. There are also the many more people who just blindly sing the praises of the game with a lack of understanding for deeper mechanics or they're just saying the same things older FROMSOFT fans have been saying about the previous games (and some of them let some really bad decisions slide, but every FROMSOFT game has fans like that).

Its moghgwyn time

Mohg is S-tier because he is gate keeping those 68% who will be unable to play the DLC.

Mohg might be my favorite base game boss. So I have a few thoughts on him. One fun thing is that some of his attacks can simply be ducked under with certain ashes of war and the recovery animations from jump attacks. Meaning more damage and less dodging. He also has this weird quirk with his Bloodtalon Flame attack. As you note you can simply strafe around it. BUT if you orbit too far around his model can snap to your position and blast you. Which operates the exact same as Margit's delayed slam attack! Do with that what you will. My favorite aspect of his fight is the bloodflame he gets on his staff in the 2nd phase because it forces you into the "fun zone". You either have to dodge right in front of him or already be far away. You can't just spam roll back because even if the staff misses the bloodflame wont. My least favorite aspect is when he drops bloodflame at his feet. I mean its not "bad" but I hate waiting for him to move. HOWEVER you can poke him with longer weapons while hes standing in it. Its just tricky because a lot of weapons have forward momentum that will push you into the hitbox. Also it doesn't really feel like a strategy so much as a "work around" or abusing a quirk in the combat system. I also think the Bloodflame Talon attack is visually confusing. It doesn't look like it can be strafed. It looks like you're going to walk right into claw marks. In fact most playthroughs I see people just trying to Iframe it. Just one of those things, I think. I also don't love that you need to have already found a singular random item in a big open world to deal with his Nihil. I don't HATE it but it also didnt feel good having to google it on first playthrough. At least Margit shackle and the Maliketh's item werent so "necessary". How are you liking the DLC? Edit: I also love how... consistent(?) his movement feels. There's a sluggish flow to it rather than a jarring "fast-slow-fast-slow".

Fighting Mohg on like 7 different builds for the dlc made me realise how good he is and how every playstyle is viable. That’s the sign of a great boss

Smh bro isn’t good enough to dodge nihil

01:28 "This player will need the stats and armor requisite to tank enemy attacks" -> Shows a naked player dodge attacks. I'm not very convinced there.

who else watching this after getting smacked up by rellana

wish this came out when I just started 😭

Great tips. Way to break it down to make it easy to understand. I would recommend getting ready of the text on black screen gaps with no audio. Bad for retention.

Super good vids. Keep up the good work!

Thank you for your breakdown of strafing and positioning, as well as having the great example footage in the background!! This was super helpful and informative.

I realized the example of strafing I gave in the Black Knife Assassin fight might be hard to notice. I really should have done some slow motion, so I apologize. If you look at around 06:15 starting a bit before at 06:14, you'll notice an extremely rapid forward stab that the BKA executes. There are several more examples in the footage, for example at 06:38. Again, although it's super quick, you'll notice I don't roll and instead glide very slightly to the side. This is what I reference in the video. If you attempt to dodge, there's a followup for which you simply can't input a second dodge with sufficient speed to evade. This honestly isn't a big deal in a regular playthrough, but this video is from a no-damage run, so it was crucial that I avoid it, and holding down B and moving rather than tapping B to roll was the best way I found for dealing with it.

This poped into my recommendations, really well put-together video! Keep it up As for me, strafing never felt natural and always felt too risky, but now I see that its just a tool that I don't use and therefore have a more difficult time. Thanks!

Nicely done. If you are into pvp. please consder making a guide for that since you lean more on the philosphical side it would be interesting to see you talk about different strategies and the psychology at work during Pvp.

Very nice video, one more small suggestion, a lot more attacks can be jumped or jumped + strafed than initially clear. For eg. One of the infamous moves with insane tracking is Malenia's lunging thrust. That attack while easy to dodge roll cannot be strafed. However a side jump can dodge it and make a Jumping Heavy opening. Similarly Waterfowl's initial hitbox is close to the ground and can be jumped. When one learns these jumping dodges, you can really style on the bosses.

thats a lot of boss fights

An extra tip for new players learning the game is to gain extra practice in co-op. It can be nice to take a break if the obstacle you’re facing is too frustrating at your current level/skill

Pretty good points. I personally have to make use of everthing when I play. A bit of blocking a bit of dodge rolling armor etc. I cannot commit to one particular style in entirety. My reactions to boss movement can be a bit erratic at times. Also do you play on PS or PC?

Achievement unlocked: saying "rapidity" twice in one video

Good to see channel growing. Already knew most of these but watched anyway!

but didnt explain how to actually parry

👍

completing sekiro definitely helped me out of this one

You know you can jump Smaraags shockwaves from his stomps? Jumping gives a more generous timing than dodging and lets you turn it into a jump attack too. Nice work.

I actually really like Renalla P1 for the atmosphere and music. I'm fine with keeping it as is. P2 on the other hand could have been sooo much better. Design her like an AC6 boss, give her more spell variety, more agility so we aren't constantly running back in towards a stationary object, and take away the summons. Only issue with this is Souls combat only has 2 dimensions, not 3 like in AC6, the jump makes some variety but not really. Give us 3D Souls Miyazaki. Or you could design her the other direction and build the fight around the summons, but instead of the summons being 1:1 copies of enemies, make it more like Malenia's clones attack. Maybe she summons Agheel for 3 seconds to do 1 breath attack, then summon BHK for a quick combo. All this while Renalla is still right near the player so we can still punish while interacting with the summons, but also so Renalla can still cast spells with obvious windups, akin to Darklurker. But instead the summons end up just being you dodge once then sprint directly at Renalla and hope they don't chase you. Honestly my biggest issue with this fight is how immobile she is, like give her a Carian Slicer or Blade or something to get her to engage the player. Also her being staggerable but dodging away is just so awkward, and ruins any sort of flow to the fight. Red Wolf is so underrated its not funny.

This is a good take on Rennala , and i do Agree. 👍 A well designed magic boss must have a combination of spells & melee to keep the encounter more interactive ( less monotonous) and therefore give the player a sense of accomplishment.

Not so sure I agree that Red Wolf is a good boss but balancing between ranged and melee to help mitigate the problems with Rennala is a decent take. I think I would have preferred if Moongrum (the Carian Knight) was a non-NPC boss protecting Rennala, who can no longer bring herself to fight. "Man in armour" fights sometimes get shit for lacking creativity but they are much easier to understand the attack patterns of (compared to a wolf) and, in this case, incredibly lore friendly.

Crystal Sage unironically one of hardest bosses for me in SL1 run

Rennala (phase 2) is exactly what I expect from a pure spell caster boss. Constant casting and has some for of minion/familiar/summon to keep you off them. Whether her fight was executed well or not is a matter of opinion. I see the points you are trying to make with red wolf, but red wolf is not a 100% consistent fight. The RNG in his attack patterns can really ruin the fight if you are unlucky. I personally think Loretta would have been a better example. Though neither her or red wolf are pure spell casters, so they aren't 100% comparable to Rennala.

I think they could have done something about the scaling. I feel like whenever I go to Academy right after Godrick fight and a bunch of dungeons here and there she is a bit too much to handle and if I level a bit too much she becomes incredbily easy. A lot of people complain about pacing issues in souls game but it becomes even worse in ER due to open world design and the freedom as well the possibility of getting lost and going to a totally random area only to come back and find that you are way over levelled now for something you missed earlier. As for Renalla I like her first phase but for the second phase she doesn't have enough get away tools if you are on the continuous offense. And her fight is also RNG heavy. Sometimes she would get a chance to get to second phase but other times she would just be reduced to zero hp. As for red wolf I had and still have a hard time reacting to his melee and charge attacks. I can still manage him because I don't do no hit or RL1 runs but for casuals like me his moves are a mixed bag for me. I would say he is an okay boss better than Renalla but except for the Lore implications he doesn't stick out for me.

I think ive seen a Renalla boss fight that utilizes the carrian swirds in her movset from one of those total conversion mods.

I have a question. Would you consider elden beast a magic boss?

While I do agree that FROMs' 'Mage" are typically pretty poor. Rennala is EASILY my favourite boss in the whole game. It's probably because she is close to what I personally want from a mage Boss (though I'll admit I'm not exactly typical in the bosses I like sometimes). I would also consider the red wolf more of a 'spell-sword' which isn't really my thing when it comes to mages.

Have to go with the opinion of fellow Red Wolf hater here that its fight is generally awful imo, especially the lesser Red Wolf that doesn't have the magic sword attack. Constantly spamming frame trap projectile that requires you to dodge in a specific way that does not even allow a window for a punishment afterward. And most importantly, constantly disengage far away from the player at the speed that is impossible for the player to catch up to him. The only redeemable quality of Red Wolf is its 3 hit sword combos are quite satisfying to dodge, but the lesser one doesn't even have it to begin with. I don't know if you have gotten to Loretta or not but imo, she is an example of a good caster boss. She will spam projectiles if you stay afar but they have poor tracking so sprinting is often enough to evade it while also letting you close the distance. When up close, she will engage you in melee combat with quite an enjoyable moveset that can be evaded by having good positioning. She will occasionally disengage from you but she does it slow enough that you can catch up to her by sprinting. Even her most annoying attack, the homing magic swords, has slow enough velocity so you can react to them without feeling too overwhelmed. In short, you can only engage with Red Wolf when it brings the fight to you, meanwhile for Loretta, you can bring the fight to her

Good job at dodging that super quick slash from the Cleanrot Knight. That attack is very difficult to react to.

I am a crystal sage enthusiast. It brings me back to the good old forest temple days

Red Wolf is definitely pretty unappreciated.

Magic bosses always give me trouble on my first playthroughs. I died to crystal sage more times than I did Gael and Pontiff combined. Rennala killed me more times than Radahn, Morgot, Fire Giant, Godskin Duo, and Mohg, Lord of Blood. I don't have anything to say about dark souls 1 and 2. Dark souls 1 was incredibly easy for me, and dark souls 2 is dark souls 2. On my second playthroughs, every boss I've listed (except Godskin Duo. I've never struggled with Godskin Duo) gave me a lot of trouble, while the magic bosses go down without much trouble. Red Wolf of Radagon is one of the bosses that gave me trouble on my second playthrough. In conclusion, Red Wolf of Radagon is a great magic fight. Have a wonderful day.

I think the Red Wolf of Radagon is one of the most god awful cancerous fights in the game. It is just inexcusably terrible. Particularly some of his attacks than can frame trap you which is straight up inexcusable. I hate everything about this boss. Bar for bar I would take Renalla over Red Wolf any day. I've beaten both bosses melee only RL1 multiple times. Renalla can be quite RNG and it's extremely annoying if you're going for hitless. The same applies to Red Wolf though... The thing is that at least Renalla is somewhat good on a casual run. I quite enjoy the P1 due to the atmosphere. I agree that mechanically its not great but it's a puzzle boss... It doesn't need to be. Even though I'm a big fan of the highly mechanically complex fights like Morgott and Maliketh I have to acknowledge that every fight can't be that... There needs to be variety. It gave me a little taste of Demons Souls again and I appreciated that as a long time fan. P2 is probably the best caster fight Fromsoft has ever done although that isn't saying much...🙄 One major complain I have is that when she summons the game will automatically break your lock on even if she's fully in frame and will not let you lock onto her again. Why? This is extremely disorienting... Also, sometimes she will just bug out and not summon at all. This can make the fight incredibly RNG. Overall She's not great I agree. She's like high C low B tier and the aesthetics are doing a lot of heavy lifting there. At the end of the day though at least she had that. Red Wolf is just discount Sif made 10x more obnoxious and annoying. I just disagree that there's any redeeming qualities about it or that it should be the example of anything.

They technically already made plenty of great “mage” bosses-in Armored Core 6. If you think about it, bosses like Balteus, Ibis, Ayre, etc. are pretty much mages with mech skins. They’re primarily ranged, can use energy blades, shoot lasers, can levitate, and use a variety of other cool projectiles, and they’re well balanced and exhilirating.

Your observation about that second swing being undodgeable at mid-range reminds me of I think it was the fireball attack by Demon of Hatred. As I tried and retried, I remember observing that at a certain range, the attack was undodgeable - the blast radius was simply too large to get out of in any direction, and the solution was to not allow that situation to occur at all; don't be in that range at any time when he is liable to start up that attack. This imo is not something new, it is a return to form to the ethos of Demon's and Dark Souls 1. Boss fights in those games hinged heavily on situational awareness and disciplined patterns of execution. If you got yourself backed into a corner, it may well be there's nothing you can do but hope the boss chooses not to finish you. This message was especially clear in the O&S fight where the position of the player in the room in combination with that of both enemies could sometimes mean after a hit, you can put your controller down, as the stun chain death spiral is inescapable. I think in BB and DS3 they moved drastically away from this ethos, removing limitations with an mentality more like, "You can do anything and always turn around a battle at any time if your reflexes are good enough!" I personally find that to be an inferior ethos, and was elated that Sekiro and Elden Ring started a process of phasing back in elements of the older combat design, even if intermixed with the new. Bosses in Elden Ring have more of that trollish, obnoxious, rule-breaking quality to them that bosses from the traditional souls games had, which forces players to engage in some level of problem-solving to overcome them, rather than just reflex training. It's for this reason that I think Elden Ring bosses at large are superior to DS3 bosses at large, full stop.

In another vid you talked a lot about gael [peak] and said how elden ring clearly took from him but didnt go into detail much there. I feel like you could elaborate about how combat design wise, elden ring picks up where ds3 DLC leaves off. Margit is already more dynamic and requires the player to engage in more ways than previously. Previous bosses, like twin princes, seem simpler and more one note, but forces you to engage with that single note more [cuz its endgame ofc]

The combat summed up: Dodge roll simulator

CosPlaying as Sekiro makes me want the deflect like mechanics in game. I am glad they are bringing it in the DLC as a tear.

Doing no hit or doing little damage really helps you appreciate some bosses move sets. Also having the clean rot block thingy would be super cool.