The hardest boss in the game is not Malenia.

[Uncanny Moskvich]

It's Maliketh. This boss is pure cancer. He spends 80% of his phase airborne and unable to be struck with melee and most magic. Most windows to attack him are negated by him AoE nuking his vicinity or screeching at you and sending you flying across the arena.

Malenia's difficulty tones down by a lot when you learn how to dodge waterfowl dance.

[TyresTyco]

I tend to agree. But once I learned the parry timings with that item you can get by killing bernahl in azula. He became a pushover.

It's hard at first. But after mastering the parry. Oh boy. Mali turned from 9/10 difficulty into 2/10.. where his first form is 100 times stronger.

[Alryne]

he's easy if you dodge towards him

[Blackraptor]

Maliketh: first try (maybe I just got lucky?)
Malenia: 250+ attempts before I called it quits
Yeah I beg to differ

[CourtesyFlush09]

Without the Blasphemous Claw, he's definetly one of the hardest bosses in the game.

With it, though, he becomes MUCH more manageable and easy. That's why I love the fight; if you explore a bit and find the item, the game rewards you for it.

[John Titor]

Need help? Password?

[Uncanny Moskvich]

Originally posted by Blackraptor:

Maliketh: first try (maybe I just got lucky?)
Malenia: 250+ attempts before I called it quits
Yeah I beg to differ

So you got killed by waterfowl dance 250+ times. I only get killed by waterfowl dance when I'm sloppy and not paying attention.

[SubTonic]

Maliketh is a weird boss, because I find his first phase (Beast Clergyman) to be harder than his second. Clergyman is a tough moveset to figure out, whereas Maliketh feels more like a proper dance with clearer openings to attack. Harder than Malenia, though? Absolutely not, IMO. Malenia is quite possibly the hardest boss From has ever made, but I think that was their intention. A boss to surpass even Isshin and Friede in notoriety.

[Washing Machine]

Finished him mid air with bow once. Looked ridiculous how he was somersaulting up there then jankily warped down to ground to his death animation.

[1100011]

Maliketh can be parried, and has large openings. Is now my favorite Soulsborne boss.
Malenia: decided to finally beat her during the Christmas holidays. No dice. Played DS*, BB, Sekiro, no problems. First time ever I needed a trainer. Malenia is truly the embodiment of scarlet rot (details have been discussed to death).

(edit: I know about the Blasphemous Blade, decided to try solo without cheese)

[Kha]

Malekith was EZ for me. Unless they nerfed Malenia's waterfowl (as they ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ should, a boss fight's difficulty shoukd NEVER hinge on one ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ attack) then she should definitely still be harder.

I'd much rather deal with Maliketh jumping out of range constantly rather than Malenia's "Oh, what's that? you made an attack? Well I'm just going to read that input and start using waterfowl mid-attack so you can't escape it anymore and either die instantly or heal me for 25% HP" BS. Gave up on Malenia entirely after countless tries and just mimic'd it.

What makes it worse for me is that outside of waterfowl dance, Malenia would've easily been my favorite boss, had everything I'd ever wanted in a human sized boss, and it's all ruined by 1 attack.

[Sabaithal]

Maliketh is more difficult I agree, but also more fun. It takes a while to get used to him (and its not like you're losing much, the respawn point is right there with no enemies in between) but his attack patterns are fun to to dodge around once you finally get the hang of them.

Malenia on the other hand just relies on flowstopping gimmicks (without proper telegraphs) to make her dangerous. Literally, I stop, dodge a few times and go "You done? Can we get back to fighting?" when dealing with her.

[Daegon]

His second phase is unfair, it does a lot of damage and he stills inflict dot damage over time.
I spend like 3 hours trying to beat Maliketh in my first run, but I beated Malenia in just 3 tries.

[Blackraptor]

Originally posted by Uncanny Moskvich:

Originally posted by Blackraptor:

Maliketh: first try (maybe I just got lucky?)
Malenia: 250+ attempts before I called it quits
Yeah I beg to differ

So you got killed by waterfowl dance 250+ times. I only get killed by waterfowl dance when I'm sloppy and not paying attention.

The majority of my deaths, yeah. That move is such pure BS, if you have to watch youtube tutorials to follow the exact dodge steps and equip specific ashes/gear to cheese the fight, maybe its objectively poor design.

[1100011]

Originally posted by Uncanny Moskvich:

So you got killed by waterfowl dance 250+ times. I only get killed by waterfowl dance when I'm sloppy and not paying attention.

Do you have a way to somehow prevent close-range waterfowl, or did you master the circling around dodge? We lesser gamers would like to know :)

edit: quick / bloodhound step left seems to be the easiest method:
Close Range Quickstep Dodge Of Malenia`s Waterfowl Dance, by Tomax Hunter.
There's a link to 11 other ways, including block first flurry, 1 o'clock, 1 o'clock, 6 o'clock.
Can verify block -> dodge is very easy to use, but the shield adds to your weight usually causing you to midroll
(light roll has been improved in the latest patch, may be the better option).

Edit 2: Malenia's moveset demo & how and when to punish:
Elden Ring - Malenia RL1+0 by thedtvcop
He had to deal with close range WF a number of times (obviously he's good enough for the circle strafe dodge).

edit 3: small epiphany: Malenia's a Sekiro dropout, obviously the tarnished needs shuriken to drop her from WF. (freezing pots need perfect timing and stop working when the boss's resistance to frost increases.)

[CourtesyFlush09]

Originally posted by Blackraptor:

The majority of my deaths, yeah. That move is such pure BS, if you have to watch youtube tutorials to follow the exact dodge steps and equip specific ashes/gear to cheese the fight, maybe its objectively poor design.

It's because she's a discarded Sekiro boss - straight up. She can even cancel her own attacks mid-animation to deflect yours (which no other enemy can, effectively breaking the game's rules).