So what's the best way to avoid Malenia's initial Aeonia in Phase 2?

[Fried Noodles]

Cuz I sprinted straight at and under her, and she just came crashing down perfectly on top of me. ;)

I was having better luck before just spamming BHS to avoid it but I thought I might try to do it without looking like my L2 button was broken and stuck.

[MULTIPASS]

Move away from her and roll when she lands, then keep moving away. Depending on how close you are, you may need to roll again when it explodes.

[Smoking Chihuahua]

Panic roll across the room screaming like I did lol

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by Donny Jepp:

Panic roll across the room screaming like I did lol

I can guarantee this works a surprising number of times.

[Hemnlyr]

Take off target lock then run forward at the wall

[paladin181]

Run forward, hang a sharp right once you're underneath her. She'll miss you every time. Alternately, try throwing a frost pot or two. If it connects, she will be knocked out of the animation.

[Fried Noodles]

Originally posted by Hemnlyr:

Take off target lock then run forward at the wall

That might be it. I was just reviewing my video. I was still in target lock.

Originally posted by melfice181paladin181:

Run forward, hang a sharp right once you're underneath her. She'll miss you every time. Alternately, try throwing a frost pot or two. If it connects, she will be knocked out of the animation.

I'll possibly give that a go... or maybe resort to Dodge or BHS spam.
I want her to finish her Aeonia animation. I have a present for her once she's sitting in her giant rot flower...

Aeonia Fail in the last 5 seconds of this poo-run.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOaW1uaNf74

[Sabaithal]

I-frame through it. Its tracking seems to negate any attempt at outpacing it. Though rolling towards the direction its coming from seems to help.

Remember that it hits TWICE. The first is right after it hits the ground.

The second is...a second or two after that. There's no indication of that unfortunately (poor design) so you just have to learn the timing for the second one. Ideally you should already be trying to gain distance by the time it hits.

[sergantuss]

you roll in opposite way when she jump on you(timing can be hard for a first tryes but you will get there)

[Fried Noodles]

So... Seppuku either doesn't carry over from the 1st Phase to the 2nd Phase. Or there's some other interaction that I'm not familiar with.
Maybe if you Seppuku your weapon and then change to a different weapon the Seppuku goes away before the 60-second duration is up?

[MULTIPASS]

Originally posted by Fried Noodles:

Maybe if you Seppuku your weapon and then change to a different weapon the Seppuku goes away before the 60-second duration is up?

Yes, if the weapon ever leaves your hand it loses any buffs. This includes 2-handing a weapon in the other hand even for a second.

[Fried Noodles]

Originally posted by orksmith:

Yes, if the weapon ever leaves your hand it loses any buffs. This includes 2-handing a weapon in the other hand even for a second.

Darn!
I almost never use buffs so I didn't know about this.
All my weapons are 'Magic' affinity, so I am not allowed buffs or greases.

I thought I was being clever by pre-Sepukku'ing my Claymore before delivering the final shot to Malenia's first phase.
But I have to switch my mainhand weapon back to my Misericorde to Bloodhound Step away from the Scarlet Aeonia. Because I'm too bad at avoiding it otherwise!

[SleepyEyez]

Scarlet Aeonia has bad tracking. In any video game, a natural counter to any attack that has bad tracking is "side-stepping" or "misdirection" or whatever the fancy name you can come up with.

Bad tracking means the rotation speed of the boss is slower than the min-maxed movement speed of the player. To min-max the player movement, stay close to the boss and orbit the boss so the orbit is the smallest, i.e. the player's travel distance is the smallest.

That's why people just run past the boss when Scarlet Aeonia takes place, because when the player runs past or orbits the boss, the player forces the boss to rotate-track, and the boss tracks very poorly - the closer the player is to the boss, the worse Scarlet Aeonia's tracking is because the innermost orbit has the shortest travel distance for the player to traverse.

This "side-stepping" or "misdirection" technique is used in all sorts of video games. For example, Malenia's Water Fowl has been proven to also be able to be side-stepped or misdirected by exploiting the tracking speed.

[Rivaldman]

The precise way is to stay calm, dodge the smash and freely walk away.
The better way is to dash around before she smashes.

[Elazul]

RUN FORREST RUN! :P

[Xelane]

I always just waited about 3 seconds and then ran towards her as she began to dive. I've never been hit by it this way.