About Radahn

[Arkt]

A boss that invalidates 90% of weapons, spells and builds is not a well designed fight. Especially in a game like Elden Ring that prides itself on exploration and having a huge build variety. If your only response to this is git gud or to simply switch to meta build X you are just proving that point. Can I smash my head into a wall for hours to get it eventually? Yes. But at the end of the day a video game should always prioritize one thing: Fun.

[Haru]

Originally posted by Wheee333ee33e3e:

Originally posted by Haru:

If you want help or advice, it's better to ask people directly, with build details or video footage. Moaning about difficulty doesn't get people anywhere. 99% of the 'hardcore elitist thugs' are the same people that like seeing other people succeed. Git gudding really isn't all about dodging, especially in this content, where only a fraction of people are going to figure out how to dodge roll through literally everything.

I created 3 threads asking for help for this boss, and even didn't candidly as a joke thread in the last one. I had to bump all 3,and the most replies it got was maybe 3, none gave helpful advice.

After I beat him and complained, some knob had the gall to drop in and say I'm complaining because I didn't understand all the boss's attacks, like where were you and all the other knobs when I asked?

Speaking of that, where were YOU? Don't see you helping anyone out with advice. Also, easy to put it back on the player with onerous requirement like a YouTube video, when your "advice" would probably be something obnoxious like roll to the right.

As a easy question, tell me how to evade his double sweep x slash? All people have been saying to that question is either parry or do a frame perfect roll, sure thing bro, if most people could do that, we wouldn't be here asking you. Even the hitless community are having issues with a lot of his attacks, and lmsh is having massive issues, I doubt some random scrub on steam forums can even do anything they claim to do.

Parry, dodge or tank it - or have a spirit ash take his attention. If you're after no hitting help, I don't have a lot to add. I'd need to know more about the build you're using. It's not obnoxious advice if it's the correct advice and it's hard to know what you're doing wrong based on descriptions alone.

[LoVeSuns]

♥♥♥♥ boss, ♥♥♥♥ dlc. Nothing even after him, too. Some people tried to tell me From makes better DLC than CDPR LMAO what an absolute joke

[Baka]

Originally posted by LoVeSuns:

♥♥♥♥ boss, ♥♥♥♥ dlc. Nothing even after him, too. Some people tried to tell me From makes better DLC than CDPR LMAO what an absolute joke

I thought it was pretty good. No Ranni was pretty lame though.

[Wheee333ee33e3e]

Originally posted by Haru:

Originally posted by Wheee333ee33e3e:

I created 3 threads asking for help for this boss, and even didn't candidly as a joke thread in the last one. I had to bump all 3,and the most replies it got was maybe 3, none gave helpful advice.

After I beat him and complained, some knob had the gall to drop in and say I'm complaining because I didn't understand all the boss's attacks, like where were you and all the other knobs when I asked?

Speaking of that, where were YOU? Don't see you helping anyone out with advice. Also, easy to put it back on the player with onerous requirement like a YouTube video, when your "advice" would probably be something obnoxious like roll to the right.

As a easy question, tell me how to evade his double sweep x slash? All people have been saying to that question is either parry or do a frame perfect roll, sure thing bro, if most people could do that, we wouldn't be here asking you. Even the hitless community are having issues with a lot of his attacks, and lmsh is having massive issues, I doubt some random scrub on steam forums can even do anything they claim to do.

Parry, dodge or tank it - or have a spirit ash take his attention. If you're after no hitting help, I don't have a lot to add. I'd need to know more about the build you're using. It's not obnoxious advice if it's the correct advice and it's hard to know what you're doing wrong based on descriptions alone.

That's terrible advice. Of course parry, dodge or tank. What else am I going to do? Just stand there naked? You might as well say hit the boss till he dies.

This proves my point, you ask for specific advice on a specific attack and the pro gamers just go lmfao, parry, dodge or tank.

[Heroic Ryan]

I enjoyed the journey up to Radahn but Radahn himself I didn't enjoy. My main issue with him is that there's way too much visual clutter on the screen with the laser lightshow and the way he teleports in to his attacks makes them hard to read which caused a serious issue for me in terms of learning.

[Temný Otrok]

Beaten him with Bolt of Gransax +10, mimic tear and the NPC summon.
Took couple of tries, but even with my really bad dex/lightning build I've beaten him.
Saw people goin' mostly that tanky build with a shield, but I've seen people beating him with his own weapons (from the Redmane castle fight), saw those spiky balls with frost and even someone who used Tooth Whip and managed to beat him.

But yes, the fight seems pretty ... well, all over the place with really small places to breathe.
Def. no my favorite, but not that bad, Commander Gaius on the other hand was the most boring and frustrating fight in the whole DLC imo.

[Persona Au Gratin]

Originally posted by echo_ML:

Originally posted by toughnails:

RL1, 0 blessings, no shields or statuses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeBOIYnVq54

Once again proving their point. You shouldn't need to change a build or setup to beat a boss. This isn't armored core. Radahn is objectively unfair unless you use a specific couple of counters.

I like how the person outright said they use a build relying on Shield Counters... and this incredible nerd just goes "No Shield" lmfao.

[IconianCat]

gotta agree with op. ive spent the last 3 days for a total of around 14 hours trying to beat radahn im a pure caster build not using comet azur. ive tested virtually every reasonable spell in the game excluding gimmick spells and the stuff like carian phalanx for obvious reasons.

there is quite literally zero way to beat radahn as a pure caster. and im only exaggerating in the sense that if you wished, yes you THEORETICALLY could beat him by using swift glintstone shard at 80 int with lusats staff, primal glintstone blade, golden braid, beloved stardust and dragoncrest greatshield talisman, with armor of solitude on and whittle him down 413 damage at a time out of his 45k plus healthbar. yum... riveting gameplay.

but no seriously, realistically speaking hes is objectively unkillable with a specialist sorcery build NOT focusing on cheesing HIM specifically. im at RL 209 right now with 80 int, 50 vig, 40 mind, 50 endurance mid rolling in heavy armor. there are only three spells you can cast fast enough to even be relevant in the fight and they are swift glintstone shard, glintstone cometshard and carian slicer.

why do i not include the smaller glintstone projectiles? because they all have only marginally better casting times with beloved stardust than cometshard unlike swift GS which is hands down the fastest cast in the game as far as i know. and i am literally casting at the speed cap of the game because beloved stardust simulate NINETY NINE 99 virtual dexterity for casting speed.

let me repeat this in clearer terms, radahn is SO FAST that fromsoft has to give sorcerers a CHEAT talisman that maxes the THEORETICAL casting speed limit on dexterity into the STAT HARDCAP for you to cast THREE sorceries with relative safety. and no im not counting glintstone icecrag because its damage is roughly HALF of what cometshard is, its MORE expensive point per damage wise to the same impact and it has half the range meaning you need to get uncomfortably close to radahn as a ranged caster.

you need a CHEAT talisman that is border on DEBUG tool level just to cast THREE sorceries fast enough that you wont get facerolled by radahn combo locking you. this is obscene.

i respecced FOUR times trying to put together a sorcery/caster build to make this work and invariably i am left with the same problem even IF i can manage to get to phase two i will ALWAYS be left in a 1v1 with him because no spirit ash in the game has enough resistance to survive the holy explosions added onto his attacks. he invalidates the entire spirit ash system for casters. even if an ash does exist that has high holy defense, radahn ALSO has a kit where half of his moves IGNORE GREATSHIELDS. i tested this with greatshield skeleton soldiers, the gravity pull still damages through the shields, the stomps deal FULL damage, the spikes he calls up from the ground deal full damage to spirit ashes for some reason through shields. anything that survives to phase two just CANT block the holy beams either so even if by some miracle of RNG your summons survive to phase two he will melt them in SECONDS cause every attack in phase two has holy light rays tacked on.


lets not forget that golden braid is a MANDATORY talisman for this fight because of the novas and attack enhance and the giant shockwave of holy magic radahn can use. so the fight from the outset puts talisman heavy builds at an immense disadvantage. basically everyone already needs dragoncrest, sorcerers need beloved stardust to even have spells to cast, if you want to use damage or make your FP last you need lusat's staff or glintstone primal blade or both to offset lusat's 50% FP cost increase. radahn has a 60% resistance to magic give or take maybe closer to 45%. so his armor value is also shafting you.


hes a nightmare for sorcerers, its not even CLOSE to the level of difficulty hop with malenia and i used this build to beat malenia AND messmer. and even with messmer i only had to respec twice and it was to work out an armor/vigor solution. ive respecced FOUR times with radahn and i am hit with the exact same wall.


this is like making a boss thats physically too fast for strength builds to hit with colossal weapons and then adding a bunch of consumables and talismans that physically speed up the animation of the attack to let them hit the boss. the only way anyone seems to know of to beat radahn in theory with sorcery is mass buff stacking with consumables and spells both on offense and defense so you just 5 shot nuke his entire healthbar.



hes not fair for casters even remotely.

[Nostromo]

After many tries, I've finally beated him. First phase is amongst the best bosses I've ever fought. Second phase is so obnoxious and horribly made that I felt no satisfaction in finally beating him. It's the first time that something like this happens to me in a souls game. Usually there's a sense of accomplishment, the heart keeps on beating, it's an amazing feeling. I felt absolutely nothing when he went down. Which is a pity, as the dlc is great and all previous bosses were highly enjoyable.

[Naewyng]

That's true. As much as people absolutely hate to admit it, the ONLY fromsoft game where literally every single weapon is viable (talking about pve) is dark souls 2.

All the others have just objectively crap weapons that you just can't use in most situations.

[Lunar Shower]

He's a tough boss for sure, could even see why some might call him unfair in some regards, though as a whole...? He's definitely beatable, and realistically, I wouldn't want him to be any less challenging overall given that he's the final bit of content this game will ever get boss wise, befitting of final boss difficulty, and that of a God in lore no less.

I wouldn't even say he has among the most BS attacks in the game as a whole (little still beats waterfowl in how much it kind of just outright breaks the game), the only one of his even in second phase that truly does cause issues is the night unavoidable attack he can do with both swords (minus some specific situations with elevation coming into play).

Aside from that, he's most definitely beatable by every build variation in the game, melee, sorceries, incantations, there really isn't much that CAN'T beat him, its just more about learning the fight itself. I've seen casters dunk on him, so realistically not even sure what some of the people in here are talking about when it comes to that, but obviously you're not gonna get an excellent shot at casting anything with heavy wind up, just like melee is going to be hardpressed to find good opportunities to land things like Charged R2's and what not. Hell, incantations have one of the BEST builds for trivializing him since they can quite literally one shot the boss, just as they can any other boss in the game.

This is all assuming too that you're STRICTLY forcing yourself to solo the boss. There's other ways to minimize the difficulty, only many are too proud to utilize them for themselves. I think if anything, this DLC is really just kind of filtering certain players that *think* they're better than they actually are at the game, or at least have a bigger ego than they might realize with some of the actual insane amounts of whining you'll see some bosses rack up in this DLC, namely Rellana, Messmer, Gaius, and of course, Radahn. Even seen some people whine about the Divine Dancing Lions, and I can DEFINITELY understand some frustration with the second one, the only required one really isn't that much of a challenge beyond the first few attempts I'd argue.

All in all, I'd be shocked if someone found a build that, aside from being one that is for memes or truly just challenge run material, wouldn't be able to beat Radahn in some form or another. Maybe a build with all 1's for attributes including HP/Stamina would find itself truly unable to beat this boss, but ultimately I just don't see a case where its not going to be feasible for a lot of people to succeed here.

Really though, for those that want to argue that its not friendly to the "average" gamer, I'd argue the base game is going to filter them just as much if they're taking the approach of not summoning or looking up any form of guide to beat the game/bosses. Elden Ring as a whole, if you MAKE it so, is not at all for an average gamer, that much is clear with how difficult some bosses are solo, however, its still a game that's only as difficult as you make it, and really probably the easiest Soulsborne title there is when you dip into all of its mechanics, all the more considering how much work certain spirit ashes can do for you, and the amount of health some NPC summons have (of which there is a ton in this game in general, even in the DLC, though you might also have to do some questlines to get much of them towards the endgame.)

[Persona Au Gratin]

Originally posted by Lunar Shower:

He's a tough boss for sure, could even see why some might call him unfair in some regards, though as a whole...? He's definitely beatable, and realistically, I wouldn't want him to be any less challenging overall given that he's the final bit of content this game will ever get boss wise, befitting of final boss difficulty, and that of a God in lore no less.

I wouldn't even say he has among the most BS attacks in the game as a whole (little still beats waterfowl in how much it kind of just outright breaks the game), the only one of his even in second phase that truly does cause issues is the night unavoidable attack he can do with both swords (minus some specific situations with elevation coming into play).

Aside from that, he's most definitely beatable by every build variation in the game, melee, sorceries, incantations, there really isn't much that CAN'T beat him, its just more about learning the fight itself. I've seen casters dunk on him, so realistically not even sure what some of the people in here are talking about when it comes to that, but obviously you're not gonna get an excellent shot at casting anything with heavy wind up, just like melee is going to be hardpressed to find good opportunities to land things like Charged R2's and what not. Hell, incantations have one of the BEST builds for trivializing him since they can quite literally one shot the boss, just as they can any other boss in the game.

This is all assuming too that you're STRICTLY forcing yourself to solo the boss. There's other ways to minimize the difficulty, only many are too proud to utilize them for themselves. I think if anything, this DLC is really just kind of filtering certain players that *think* they're better than they actually are at the game, or at least have a bigger ego than they might realize with some of the actual insane amounts of whining you'll see some bosses rack up in this DLC, namely Rellana, Messmer, Gaius, and of course, Radahn. Even seen some people whine about the Divine Dancing Lions, and I can DEFINITELY understand some frustration with the second one, the only required one really isn't that much of a challenge beyond the first few attempts I'd argue.

All in all, I'd be shocked if someone found a build that, aside from being one that is for memes or truly just challenge run material, wouldn't be able to beat Radahn in some form or another. Maybe a build with all 1's for attributes including HP/Stamina would find itself truly unable to beat this boss, but ultimately I just don't see a case where its not going to be feasible for a lot of people to succeed here.

Really though, for those that want to argue that its not friendly to the "average" gamer, I'd argue the base game is going to filter them just as much if they're taking the approach of not summoning or looking up any form of guide to beat the game/bosses. Elden Ring as a whole, if you MAKE it so, is not at all for an average gamer, that much is clear with how difficult some bosses are solo, however, its still a game that's only as difficult as you make it, and really probably the easiest Soulsborne title there is when you dip into all of its mechanics, all the more considering how much work certain spirit ashes can do for you, and the amount of health some NPC summons have (of which there is a ton in this game in general, even in the DLC, though you might also have to do some questlines to get much of them towards the endgame.)

The problem with thinking that all someone wants to do is kill the boss and “overcome hardship” is that they clearly are resorting to dirty tricks that people can clearly see makes solutions unsatisfying. The action is worse. “Use this summon.” Of course I would use that option that I find completely uninteresting and that From Software just completely indulged themselves in. The funny thing is I’ll get a spirit ash as a reward and roll my eyes.

It’s just not the point. The action is worse and we’ve turned the wheel and now “dodge take turn naked roll” is suddenly joined by “from can make any difficulty decision they want and nothing matters.”

I want to be very clear, there was zero need to nerf Malenia with this design philosophy. Hey, as long as there’s a solution you can spec into!

[Fistraiser]

I remember a lot of people cried about base game radahn getting nerfed
Kinda funny they give you a buffed version of him and now everyone mad XD
Thats karma for you i guess ;P

[Naewyng]

Originally posted by Fistraiser:

I remember a lot of people cried about base game radahn getting nerfed
Kinda funny they give you a buffed version of him and now everyone mad XD
Thats karma for you i guess ;P

Base Radhan wasn't nerfed, his hitboxes were just fixed (they were really bad and extended several meters past the 3d models).

[IconianCat]

Originally posted by Fistraiser:

I remember a lot of people cried about base game radahn getting nerfed
Kinda funny they give you a buffed version of him and now everyone mad XD
Thats karma for you i guess ;P

base game radahn both pre and post nerf still had a coherent moveset that left openings and counterplay for all build types in different ways. phase 2 radahn outright doesnt have coherent openings and has more particle spam than the entire base game combined.