Waterfoul dance legitimately ruins the Melania fight

[Thomas Devlin]

Melania could be such a great fight, she's hard because she's actually hard unlike bosses like Mohg that punish you for existing, but waterfoul dance is just complete ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, this isn't even coming from a place of anger, I genuinely believe it ruins a good fight. I've gotten to a point where I can reliably dodge it without taking damage, but only if she decides to do it in a good spot, your ability to dodge this attack is up to RNG, up against a wall? it's going to kill you, she does it at point blank range? it's going to kill you, out of stamina? it's going to kill you, still recovering from a heavy hit? it's going to kill you. And she can do it whenever she wants as many times as she wants, she just does it in place of her normal attacks, I just gave up and quit after I finally got killed by her *fifth waterfoul dance in a single phase*. Honestly they should have never buffed waterfoul dance during play testing, I legitimately think that was a mistake

[Señor Brown]

Originally posted by Thomas Devlin:

Melania could be such a great fight, she's hard because she's actually hard unlike bosses like Mohg that punish you for existing, but waterfoul dance is just complete ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, this isn't even coming from a place of anger, I genuinely believe it ruins a good fight. I've gotten to a point where I can reliably dodge it without taking damage, but only if she decides to do it in a good spot, your ability to dodge this attack is up to RNG, up against a wall? it's going to kill you, she does it at point blank range? it's going to kill you, out of stamina? it's going to kill you, still recovering from a heavy hit? it's going to kill you. And she can do it whenever she wants as many times as she wants, she just does it in place of her normal attacks, I just gave up and quit after I finally got killed by her *fifth waterfoul dance in a single phase*. Honestly they should have never buffed waterfoul dance during play testing, I legitimately think that was a mistake

What's your build?

[This PC]

Tired, old topic. And if you're talking about 1.10 patch, waterfowl being buffed is probably an unexpected consequence of the poise adjustments.
Though like, something you might not know, waterfowl is triggered by heavy aggression.
Take your time with her, don't combo her face, and she will do it less (This is only relevant in phase 1).
She's meant to be frustrating and hard, she is an optional boss after all. ^^''

[Lynfinity]

https://youtu.be/KjdyPsz7oBM

[Wild]

Personally, I feel like waterfowl is her whole identity, without that, I don’t think there would be much to her, even in phase 2. But I also don’t like waterfowl, so I don’t like her very much.
And yeah, most of the fight is arranging yourself in a way to be able to always react accordingly to waterfowl
So trying to not to be near the wall, keep in mind her cooldown for waterfowl and time it in your head, and of course, space yourself so hitting her doesn’t stun her for a millisecond, and she pulls out the waterfowl right in front of you.

[Efreet]

Originally posted by Wild:

Personally, I feel like waterfowl is her whole identity, without that, I don’t think there would be much to her, even in phase 2. But I also don’t like waterfowl, so I don’t like her very much.

Definitely agree...
A lot of the worst fight in the game are made this way to be memorable, the unfairness of the fight did a lot of marketing for the game.
Similar situation for Radahn, the fight is really stupid but the absurd fight coupled with the fact you can summon a whole army makes it memorable.
I just finished the game and i can barely remember most of the other bosses.

[SnakeshyperTTV/Kick]

Two words light roll. Also don't panic roll It is easy to no hit her or play like you are no hitting her.

[Evilsod]

I'll take Waterfowl Dance over Alecto's "Imbued Helmsplitter" any day. That attack is the definition of utter bs. If she uses it while you're in close range, it seems near undodgeable and will almost certainly straight up instakill you.

[This PC]

Yep, waterfowl is her identity, it's part of her lore as well.

[Señor Brown]

Originally posted by Evilsod:

I'll take Waterfowl Dance over Alecto's "Imbued Helmsplitter" any day. That attack is the definition of utter bs. If she uses it while you're in close range, it seems near undodgeable and will almost certainly straight up instakill you.

Sprint into long jump away from the AoE usually works for me.

[Evilsod]

Originally posted by Señor Brown:

Originally posted by Evilsod:

I'll take Waterfowl Dance over Alecto's "Imbued Helmsplitter" any day. That attack is the definition of utter bs. If she uses it while you're in close range, it seems near undodgeable and will almost certainly straight up instakill you.

Sprint into long jump away from the AoE usually works for me.

That's the issue. Usually.

Sometimes running past her seems to work, others she just snaps to your spot and you're dead. Sometimes running away seems to work, others the distance she moves seems to be far further than normal and you're dead.
And god forbid you're halfway through an attack when she decides to do it.

Alecto has twice the hp of almost every boss and that one move forces you to either cheese the hell out of her or play so damn slow and cautiously that the fight is frustrating as hell.

At least Waterfowl gives you chances to dodge through it.

[BenzoSt]

Yes I agree with OP. I approve of Malenia being an extremely difficult boss to defeat, but the fact that waterfowl dance is both extremely deadly and also counter-intuitive to defend against whereas many of Malenia's other attacks are fairly easy to dodge and inflict comparatively little damage makes this potentially amazing battle less enjoyable. If only waterfowl dance were more reasonable and her other attacks were stronger, this battle could have been as epic as the fight against Slave Knight Gael in DS3.

[Sonnenbank]

since this topic could aswell be 1.5 years old i can post my over 1 year old guide

use barricade ash on an upgraded shield
and GG waterfowl doesnt rely on anything but your fast reflexes
100% up to your skill then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26hf9-PfeFs

7.33 is a perfect example of a unexpected close range waterfowl
dealt with barricade ash

[Norm Macdonald's Ghost]

Originally posted by Thomas Devlin:

Melania could be such a great fight, she's hard because she's actually hard unlike bosses like Mohg that punish you for existing, but waterfoul dance is just complete ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, this isn't even coming from a place of anger, I genuinely believe it ruins a good fight. I've gotten to a point where I can reliably dodge it without taking damage, but only if she decides to do it in a good spot, your ability to dodge this attack is up to RNG, up against a wall? it's going to kill you, she does it at point blank range? it's going to kill you, out of stamina? it's going to kill you, still recovering from a heavy hit? it's going to kill you. And she can do it whenever she wants as many times as she wants, she just does it in place of her normal attacks, I just gave up and quit after I finally got killed by her *fifth waterfoul dance in a single phase*. Honestly they should have never buffed waterfoul dance during play testing, I legitimately think that was a mistake

I asked ChatGPT to give a response to this complaint. This is what it said:

Originally posted by ChatGPT:

Git gud, scrub. Beep boop.

[1100011]

Necromancy! I'll join in:

best explanation on dodging close range WTF Ive seen by far . No circling around but: position, dodge the first swing, immediately dodge back. The light roll now has more distance, which may help in pulling this off (explaining why it hasn't been mentioned before).

The circle around dodge has timing that is difficult to learn, this one may be easier.

With update: can't believe they buffed it

& comment: it would really help if we had enemies spamming WFD, so it wouldn't come as a surprise oneshot well into phase 1. An invader in a lake of scarlet rot is not the optimal way of familliarizing yourself imho.

[This PC]

They didn't buff it, or at least didn't intend to, I haven't seen Malenia since 1.10, but if she's stronger, it's an unintended consequence of the poise changes, I believe.