I can't figure out Crucible Knights.

[MrDugan]

All the enemies I see complaints about like Runebears and Dinodogs and all that, I got it. They don't bother me, zero fear unless there's a bunch all at once.

A single crucible knight is a whole load of massive BS though, at least that's what it feels like right now. I was in the capital, with about 100 enemies waiting to respawn between me and the nearest grace site, like 10 minutes away unless I rushed past everything if I died and had to get back.

A single crucible knight, hanging out in a small space. Almost dead. I have 50ish vig, tree sentinel set, talismans for life, damage negation for physical and elemental, the works. I can take a hit. Medium load, so no fat roll. I have taken maybe one hit this whole fight and healed it back up. Full health. This dude pulls a nearly zero windup attack at point blank range in the middle of me hitting him (animation locked in the hit, so no rolling away from it, even though I was hitting the roll button.) that turns my entire health bar yellow instantly.

It doesn't feel like it's "fair as long as you're really good." It feels like complete and total BS. I don't understand what I'm supposed to do other than be frame-perfect for the whole fight, which I know is going to be everyone's answer.

The icing on the cake is that on the run back, I stupidly tried to rush it, got hit with that OP perfumer bolt barrage from a paige, made it through a door to heal and got hit THROUGH the wall with a second barrage before I could heal. 200k runes gone because enemies get to attack through walls or one-shot my entire health bar.

I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to do about any of this. Every Crucible Knight fight is like this for me. They are harder than any of the bosses I've fought, any other enemy. I know they're broken because I've let my mimic straight up solo other minor bosses, and yet I've seen a single crucible knight pound a +10 mimic into dust and still have 1/3 of its health bar left. What am I missing other than the same tired old "git gud"?

[Mirona]

its the same problem as always. people refuse to learn and try to force what they think of how to play the game onto every enemy.

so lets see what i mean. there are a few main mechnaics in the game but most players refuse to learn or use them besides r1 spam and rolling.

just to name a few core mechanics we have:

rolling in 3 states - light - medium- fat - the only way of defense for most people sadly
block small medium and greatshields
guardcounter - new improved version of a blocking tool
parry - old but golden standart for players that want to improve
r1 spam - the usual culprit
charged attacks
jump attacks
crouch attacks
dodge attacks
offensive spells
support spells
ashes of war
status effects like poisons frenzy etc
consumables

i propably miss some but i think i get across my point

soooo
we have different enemies and each has some weakness. we cant use every mechanics depending on our build but most is available for everyone.
next thing is to find out what is the best way to kill enemies reliable. RELIABLE

you can kill most every enemy in the game with bs ways or overllvling but i want to talk about how to go about enemies and that reliable. mastering ways to do it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiLF8P5Yd_U

here is how you reliably do any crucible or tree knight. and what you see in this video is a totally underpowered character outperform one of the so called "strongest" or "overpowered" enemies in the game. with any normal character that has leveled and has any other weapon and upgrades can do this with maybe 4-7 parry and not 20+. you can also do mistakes as you dont get oneshot when lvling up. note also that there is a reason in this video i use a parry buckler and not any parry tool. and this may look hard at first but i can tell you i can do this in my sleep. not because its hard but because once learned its RELIABLE

if you want i can tell you a way of dealing with every enemy in the game RELIABLY and without any cheese or exploits or ♥♥♥♥♥ strats by using one of the tools provided by the game. and not just spamming rolls and r1. or maybe offensive spells. and i will rarely tell you to parry.

and yes 2 at the same time are harder but not a big deal when you already mastered them. only means better timing when to strike and when to back off

you can just now make a bandit and run there yourself in 5 minutes. and to learn them i would recommend you to unequip the dagger. just parry and fist riposte. its not about killing the knight. its about learning him. do this for 30-60 minutes and you will think of them as kokes from then on. and while learning it does not matter how often you die. and your goal is not to defeat the knight now as fast as possible. your goal is learning.changes everything

STOP REFUSING TO LEARN AND BLAMING THE GAME

[Friends with Benedicts]

How da ♥♥♥ did u got a tree sentinel set?

Crucible knights are really hard my friend, I cant give you any tips as I beat them with sheer knowledge. I now know their movesets so intuitively that I kill them all.

Wait until you face 2 of them in the same room those ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. My tip for that fight is to always run to the opposite side to attract one to attack you while the other will be left somewhat behind. It was a long fight for me since I could land 1-2 hits PER ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ MINUTE, but I managed to kill them with patience.

After that, all crucible knights that were alone were like piece of pie.

And all the other knights were trash by that time. Honestly the only 2 enemies I constantly avoid no matter what are those stupid giant birds (not the deathbirds) and those long arm giant bears which have insane speed, huge dps and health and drops NOTHING OF VALUE and are a total waste of my ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ time.

[Friends with Benedicts]

For the sword one wing attack, you need to wait till he started his dash because its slow and if you dodge early you cant iframe his attack.

For the staff one, the timing is completely different. His wing attack needs to be dodged as soon as it looks like he is going down, because he lands his hits REAL QUICK.

Also, NEVER DODGE BACKWARDS against the staffed one. You need to dodge him sideways, and it NEEDS TO BE IFRAME, otherwise he'll get you on his swing.

I never used shield against bosses so I cant give tips about shield behavior on these

[Friends with Benedicts]

Oh yeah, dodge and jump attack. Jump attacks will usually dodge high attacks from enemies because your toon is likely crouched. Its ludicrously op imo, and CKs do a lot of high attacks

I also learnt to crouch+attack real fast, sometimes dodging attacks.

[Sabaithal]

Trying to block crucible knight attacks is unwise unless you use a GOOD greatshield. And by good, I mean a base guard boost of 68 or more (preferably upgraded as much as possible, to provide a higher guard boost).

And even then, don't try and block chain attacks, or the shield bash.

[Mirona]

going for any other way than parry is less reliable with crucible knights.
different enemies different ways. sure you can beat them by learning and avoiding their stupid long combos and get a tiny window for 1-2 attacks. but it will be much longer and dangerous. people always have this perception of parry being hard. it is not with the right aproach and enemy. parry is about risk reward. barely any enemy in the game has a good risk rewards value where parry is the way to go. people try to parry most lame as soldiers. get hit and think parry is hard or worthless.

parry is about stopping enemies that have so much hyper armor or poise that you cant stop them.

and as the crucible knight has extensive combos that cant be stopped you have to deal with tiny windows and inbetween massive dangerous combos. parry is high risk but in case of the knight extremly high reward. dont try to parry soldiers or imps. its possible but not worth it. try to parry bell bearing knights. crucible knights. some bosses. enemies that cant be stopped otherwise.

and dont use medium shields with parry. only use the parry buckler. it has the most parry frames in the game and has a faster wind up time than any other parry tool. also the requirements for the buckler are low. and the buckler can be gotten early in the game. the buckler has a unique parry. some other parries like golden parry come close but its still worse. any build can use and switch to the buckler when needed and it can be gotten from gostoc the merchant in stormveil castle after getting the rustly key he opens his shop. cost only 1500 runes and only needs 13 dex. its a pure parry tool and nothing else

[Morton Koopa Jr.]

Publicado originalmente por Mirona:

going for any other way than parry is less reliable with crucible knights.
different enemies different ways. sure you can beat them by learning and avoiding their stupid long combos and get a tiny window for 1-2 attacks. but it will be much longer and dangerous. people always have this perception of parry being hard. it is not with the right aproach and enemy. parry is about risk reward. barely any enemy in the game has a good risk rewards value where parry is the way to go. people try to parry most lame as soldiers. get hit and think parry is hard or worthless.

parry is about stopping enemies that have so much hyper armor or poise that you cant stop them.

and as the crucible knight has extensive combos that cant be stopped you have to deal with tiny windows and inbetween massive dangerous combos. parry is high risk but in case of the knight extremly high reward. dont try to parry soldiers or imps. its possible but not worth it. try to parry bell bearing knights. crucible knights. some bosses. enemies that cant be stopped otherwise

Keeping them at distance and using a long range spell is far safer than parrying if a person isn't good at parrying.

[Friends with Benedicts]

Publicado originalmente por Mirona:

(...)

parry is about stopping enemies that have so much hyper armor or poise that you cant stop them.

(...)

ER seems to share Sekiro's system in a way that if you do too much attacks with poise damage without taking any in return, the enemy will knee regardless. I was powerstancing starscourge and the CK duo did kneel after taking 50%HP dmg without me taking any in return. That was enough to waste one of them and the other just took a huge beating after that.

[paladin181]

That knight in the capital? Sneak by him and there's a shortcut to the left. But parrying them is easy mode. The only one I haven't killed in my newest play through is the on in Nokron accessed from the Four Belfries. He has way too much HP (would take more than 15 parries to kill) for me to waste my time on him atm.

[Mirona]

Publicado originalmente por Morton Koopa Jr.:

Publicado originalmente por Mirona:

going for any other way than parry is less reliable with crucible knights.
different enemies different ways. sure you can beat them by learning and avoiding their stupid long combos and get a tiny window for 1-2 attacks. but it will be much longer and dangerous. people always have this perception of parry being hard. it is not with the right aproach and enemy. parry is about risk reward. barely any enemy in the game has a good risk rewards value where parry is the way to go. people try to parry most lame as soldiers. get hit and think parry is hard or worthless.

parry is about stopping enemies that have so much hyper armor or poise that you cant stop them.

and as the crucible knight has extensive combos that cant be stopped you have to deal with tiny windows and inbetween massive dangerous combos. parry is high risk but in case of the knight extremly high reward. dont try to parry soldiers or imps. its possible but not worth it. try to parry bell bearing knights. crucible knights. some bosses. enemies that cant be stopped otherwise

Keeping them at distance and using a long range spell is far safer than parrying if a person isn't good at parrying.

absolutely not unless you have already totally overlvled them.and people wont get good at parry when they go about it the wrong or not at all. the problem is not parry but the refusal to learn it. running away means also you need alot of room and you need so strong spells that you can ignore that they have shields and massive absorbtion. make a astroleger or whatever spell caster class and do what i did in my video as a caster. show me that and do it reliably with a not overleveled char. the whole point in this video is about that this char is bad ♥♥♥♥ weak. with any normal char. lets take the first creucible knight as an example. i did it in the video with 10 vigor and a +0 dagger. before exiting limgrave you can have a +5/+6 weapon and without any problems even 30 vigor already. and some talisman like the hp return from crits in limgrave. now you will execute that crucible knight. most people run away from that limgrave crucible knight and return 50 lvl later. you didnt beat him then. you overleveld em

[Sean Maxhell]

I don't know, after my first playthrought, the others I killed every crucible knight at first try.
Some runebear are still a pain in the ass.

[Morton Koopa Jr.]

Publicado originalmente por Mirona:

Publicado originalmente por Morton Koopa Jr.:

Keeping them at distance and using a long range spell is far safer than parrying if a person isn't good at parrying.

absolutely not unless you have already totally overlvled them.and people wont get good at parry when they go about it the wrong or not at all. the problem is not parry but the refusal to learn it. running away means also you need alot of room and you need so strong spells that you can ignore that they have shields and massive absorbtion. make a astroleger or whatever spell caster class and do what i did in my video as a caster. show me that and do it reliably with a not overleveled char. the whole point in this video is about that this char is bad ♥♥♥♥ weak. with any normal char. lets take the first creucible knight as an example. i did it in the video with 10 vigor and a +0 dagger. before exiting limgrave you can have a +5/+6 weapon and without any problems even 30 vigor already. and some talisman like the hp return from crits in limgrave. now you will execute that crucible knight. most people run away from that limgrave crucible knight and return 50 lvl later. you didnt beat him then. you overleveld em

lol, I was around RL 66 when I fought the crucible duo. Is that considered overleveled?

[Mirona]

rolls and just light attacks are a huge part of the game. or spells. but there is so much more ways of dealing with ♥♥♥♥.

the biggest gamechanger btw and i see nearly no one use is correctly are guard counters. 50% or any normal enemy in the game can be trivialised with a medium shield that has nearly now requirements. talking imps dogs inselcts soldiers etc etc. all these enemies are extremly weak to correctly used guard counters. and yes these weak enemies can be dealt with in many ways. but guardcounters are extremly realiable. its just an example

[Mirona]

Publicado originalmente por Morton Koopa Jr.:

Publicado originalmente por Mirona:

absolutely not unless you have already totally overlvled them.and people wont get good at parry when they go about it the wrong or not at all. the problem is not parry but the refusal to learn it. running away means also you need alot of room and you need so strong spells that you can ignore that they have shields and massive absorbtion. make a astroleger or whatever spell caster class and do what i did in my video as a caster. show me that and do it reliably with a not overleveled char. the whole point in this video is about that this char is bad ♥♥♥♥ weak. with any normal char. lets take the first creucible knight as an example. i did it in the video with 10 vigor and a +0 dagger. before exiting limgrave you can have a +5/+6 weapon and without any problems even 30 vigor already. and some talisman like the hp return from crits in limgrave. now you will execute that crucible knight. most people run away from that limgrave crucible knight and return 50 lvl later. you didnt beat him then. you overleveld em

lol, I was around RL 66 when I fought the crucible duo. Is that considered overleveled?

being lvl 66 and using spells to beat the crucible duo means you had to run away and deal with them propably for a 10 minute fight. ofc it is doable. but its dangerous and unreliable. there are countless ways to deal with certainj enemies. but what i try to make people understand is that there is no enemy in the game that cant be trivialised. i can do the crucible knight duo in like 1-2 minutes reliably first try always. and i am not a god. i am pretty good but being good in souls has little to do with skill. its about knowledge, experience and execution. the point is finding a way to stop most of their attacks and reliably and fast deal with them. running away is not reliable and fast and therefor dangerous. and when you had lvl 66 while being a caster mean you propably were a glass cannon. you will propably get 1 or 2 shot from the duo. and you actually think its the most reliable way to deal with them ?

also not everyone is a caster. but EVERYONE can use a parry buckler. anyone has a lvled weapon. sure pure melee builds perform better in a parry battle but even mages have some form of upgraded melee weapon even though they may not deal that much damage with it like a pure melee build. the big advantage about parry is not letting them dictate the fight. you do

and the thing that also is a barrier with parry is that you have to leanr attacks. and that is not worth it with most enemies in the game. but there are some enemeies like the crucible knights or bell bearing hunters that are so weak to it and so strong otherwise and return so often and they make the exception. they are worth the effort to learn them. and the later tree and crucible knights only add very little to their moveset. the tree knight is easiert to parry than the crucible knight anyways and the crucible knight only gets some fire attacks later. and the bell bearing hunter stays the same over many encounters

[Morton Koopa Jr.]

Publicado originalmente por Mirona:

Publicado originalmente por Morton Koopa Jr.:

lol, I was around RL 66 when I fought the crucible duo. Is that considered overleveled?

being lvl 66 and using spells to beat the crucible duo means you had to run away and deal with them propably for a 10 minute fight. ofc it is doable. but its dangerous and unreliable. ?

It is not dangerous, nor is it unreliable. Again, this fight is how I finally learned how to deal with crucible knights. And after this fight, I was able to handle every crucible knight so far (e.g. nokron, the evergaol) safely.

I am sharing an alternative option for people. I have no idea why you are being this argumentative about it.

You provided your insight about parrying. I just added a quick follow up to let people reading know, that if they are not good at parrying, they can do what I did. That's the only reason why I replied to you.

lol but you immediately "accuse" me of being overleveled, and then when I give you my level (bc I screenshotted my stats after certain boss battles), you say that I am just plain wrong?

And then you make up more presumptions because you can't seem to accept that someone else has a different experience? I am not a caster. I'm a str user. My faith and int have both been capped at 17.

You may not think running away from them is reliable. I think it is. Which means though some ppl may benefit from your advice, some people would benefit from mine.