Margitgud Tips For Those Struggling

[Xengre]

I just got around to fighting Margit on my first run which is a SL1 +0 Weapon run so these tips could be more effective or slightly tweaked for leveling players.

Start the fight with Margit at -50% (approximately) HP, or maybe more:

- To accomplish this get the item "Margit's Shackle" from Patches. It allows you to tether boss to ground 2x in phase 1 of the fight.
- Use Margit Shackle at start of fight when near Margit
- Charge attack 3x causing Margit to stagger.
- Let stamina charge to near or full and then riposte
- Perform no action as stamina recovers while boss gets up and to avoid messing up strategy.
- The moment boss is fully up and doing anything other than dagger attack use Margit's Shackle
- Charge attack 3x to stagger Margit
- Let stamina charge to near or full and then riposte
- Get 1-2 hits as Margit stands back up, dodge if staff swung, and continue to hit while hammer being summoned until boss begins spin attack.
- Dodge and hit Margit 2-4x
- You can back up and summon at this point if you need extra help. Summoning at start might also work but I did not use Spirit Ashes in fight and cannot confirm impact if done early. Otherwise, continue fighting as is and skip the waste of time easy first phase.

Extra details:
- Partial charge attacks will not work
- IMPORTANT: as boss is getting up take no actions and let stamina recover as much as possible as the second attempt is stricter timing than the first due to stamina and if you do not do it exactly due to attempting extra hits you will reduce strategy's consistency.
- Might not work for every weapon but I tested several and it worked with every single one I tested.

I haven't seen anyone mentioning a way to realiably do this and it actually is useful for many bosses. I found out, myself, when I went exploring all over every direction except Margit, apparently, and during testing found charge attacks were very effective at inducing staggering. I actually first noticed on the horseback men which, btw, can be stagger attacked and then back off and rinse/repeat to easily beat them (does not work on night horse boss do not do it). This lead me to attempting it on many other optional bosses and it is practical on quite a few of them.

Do not attempt charge attacks during second phase. The boss seems to have increased resistance to being staggered, though not impossible, and the stagger effect is similar to bleed and others in that it wears down the more time between hits, be it charged or normal, but at a far faster rate which isn't ideal for phase 2's many combo and often distanced movement of the boss.

Daggers thrown do not require rolling unless quite close. You can "walk" sideways to avoid them saving stamina. If too close you must roll as they will likely hit even if you try running, instead.

Many of her attacks can be avoided by dodging to her left, or even running if you are comfortable with it and react early enough (if you are the type to slow react don't do this, just risks taking free damage). If you do this on the right attacks such as some of her overhead attacks you can have reign on several free swings without punishment (note: her hitboxes are actually buggy and will sometimes randomly hit you when doing this but it is so rare I would attempt it anyways). This does not apply to the 3-hit combo that ends with staff stabbing into ground (best method for that is probably to parry that combo, but I didn't want to cheese parry boss so I haven't confirmed). That is probably the worst attack that many aren't noticing causing them real issues with draining their Estus, not the longer multi-hit spinning combo. Do not dodge left for this attack. For the multi-hit spinning attack it can be dodged just fine by dodging into/away from it, not either side direction as you are likely to mis-match timing with where the attacks are.

Boss is susceptible to bleed so if you are doing coop you can run several players using bleed weapons which will not only stack due to multiple bleed sources but counter the buffed boss HP due to more players.

I did not test it as I felt it would be cheating and atypical for the average boss experience (wanted to try boss how most would for this one) but I heavily bet weapon Ash "Flames of Redmanes" would prove extremely effective for staggering boss, possibly even in second phase. As I played through the numerous other bosses I found this weapon art to be especially potent at staggering bosses and powerful normal mobs like bears. It seems to be a bit better than a charged R2 but you could combo the two to save FP. It also grants very good AR (attack rating) early on if not running a bleed build (or bleed resistant enemy) while being very easy to get.

Margit does not 1-shot you. Guys, I haven't gotten to play much like some an did explore areas meant for later when most normally wouldn't so I'm a bit late getting to Margit but the amount of complaints I've seen about being "1-shot" by bosses in this game, including Margit only to find Margit would not 1-shot you even if SL1 naked makes me question a whole lot of the vocal complaints I'm seeing on here, specially as Margit isn't even what I would think could be classified as "hard" even when accounting for my difference in skill level from the avg player. Her combos and attack speed aren't that crazy, either. However, if you feel a boss' dmg is too high you should level Vigor. The higher your HP is the more likely you will be able to find a chance to recover and continue powering through the boss despite mistakes.

This entire stance is assuming Spirit Ashes are never used, because if they are this boss is a joke. Even if you don't use the stagger method or shackles the first phase is so simple if you are struggling with that you need to practice. Die if you start phase 2 and go back to perfecting phase 1 because phase 2 will only confuse you as it is an extension of phase 1 and frankly, phase 1 is a joke. Need I also point out +0 weapon and SL1 character?

Again, some of this applies to other bosses as well but keep in mind the stagger effect decays far faster so if you are fighting a mobile boss it probably will not work.

I hope this helps some people, either with Margit or to git gud in general.