Malenia

[Dr.Acula]

I've played through the Elden Ring main game 4 times and recently started my fifth. And I think most people know the horror that is the Malenia fight (mostly because of Waterfowl Dance). Every time I fought her I never really felt like I truly defeated her.

First time => she ended up dying by Tiche while I was in the air stabbed by her Katana.
Second to fourth time => Each of these three kills took hours to accomplish (some with and some without ash summons) simply because most of the time I got killed by WFD. And I only got lucky in one try that the stars aligned and I had the right distance to avoid WFD and kill her then.

I just want to say that to this day even after basically having fought her for in all battles for over 10 hours in total I've never fully overcome WFD. I've seen videos on how you're supposed to roll or how you can use freezing pots and all of it failed...until...

I've faced her now a fifth time and I was dreading the encounter. I lost a hand full of times but then I just tried something else and it just clicked. Why try to dodge and survive WFD when I can basically just stop her from using it by hitting her even more (kinda brute force)? I used Bloodhound Fang (my personal favorite weapon and not because of L2) with freezing grease while reducing incoming damage and increasing poise and just straight in her face. She jumped up at her usual 60-70% mark and just got another hit to the face either proccing cold or bleeding (or get staggered). Repeated that similarly in phase 2 and she went down pretty quickly. Overall I think I killed her within 10 attempts this time and it just felt like the first actual true victory - no ash summons and no praying to survive it somehow with luck. Just a straight up fight and I actually won.

I still hate waterfowl dance as a mechanic though.

[BREAD :D]

Nice job! I still haven't beaten Malenia without summons, but I'm going to try to this time. (Just started my 2nd playthrough) I agree, WFD is the most annoying thing I've ever went against.

[Mou bu]

To imagine that we face it in its weakest form.

[Dr.Acula]

Originally posted by I Like Bread (::

Nice job! I still haven't beaten Malenia without summons, but I'm going to try to this time. (Just started my 2nd playthrough) I agree, WFD is the most annoying thing I've ever went against.

A combination of bleed, freeze and stance break procs really seem to be the most effective way. You can even increase the stance break chance by using things like Stonebarb Cracked Tear.

As I said this kind of approach was a first for me in this playthrough. I've even more actively used items like grease which. I always considered consumables as really annoying in soulsborne games because of how clunky they are to use during fights (switching through that stuff is always causing me headaches). Still at the start or right before a fight starts there are good chances to use them.

It is kinda funny though that even though I managed to defeat Malenia in pretty few tries and even managed to defeat Maliketh on first try this run I had considerable problems with Radagan and the Elden Beast. I tried to use the mount (now that you can) but kind off dropped that idea when I got hit and killed multiple times by the freaking energy projectile attacks (the 4-strike combo he does).

[BREAD :D]

Originally posted by Dr.Acula:

Originally posted by I Like Bread (::

Nice job! I still haven't beaten Malenia without summons, but I'm going to try to this time. (Just started my 2nd playthrough) I agree, WFD is the most annoying thing I've ever went against.

A combination of bleed, freeze and stance break procs really seem to be the most effective way. You can even increase the stance break chance by using things like Stonebarb Cracked Tear.

As I said this kind of approach was a first for me in this playthrough. I've even more actively used items like grease which. I always considered consumables as really annoying in soulsborne games because of how clunky they are to use during fights (switching through that stuff is always causing me headaches). Still at the start or right before a fight starts there are good chances to use them.

Yea my last build was STR/Bleed and I used the stonebarb cracked tear and strength knot. I didn't think about frost though.

[Fanshi]

now for the 6th time maybe its time to learn wfd

[Fanshi]

Originally posted by Dr.Acula:

I just want to say that to this day even after basically having fought her for in all battles for over 10 hours in total I've never fully overcome WFD. I've seen videos on how you're supposed to roll or how you can use freezing pots and all of it failed...until...

the methods with circling or rolling are a meme created by er echo chamber, they are hard and unnecesary

run away with a jump (when her feet touch the water or something, just feel it out), roll through the 2nd flurry, then do whatever for last 3 and 4 (i count 4 flurries, the 1 long at the start, some people say its 2)

[Dr.Acula]

Originally posted by Fanshi:

the methods with circling or rolling are a meme created by er echo chamber, they are hard and unnecesary

run away with a jump (when her feet touch the water or something, just feel it out), roll through the 2nd flurry, then do whatever for last 3 and 4 (i count 4 flurries, the 1 long at the start, some people say its 2)

I know how you are supposed to deal with it but it's basically like the whole parry aspect. I know you can parry and I know how it basically works (even that different shield sizes have different timings) but I can't do it. I've tried it various times and fail about 9/10 times.

it's the same with Waterfowl Dance. I know what I'm supposed to do but 9/10 times I will still fail on avoiding it. So attacking her with stuff that can interrupt WFD just raises the chances of survival to 8/10 times which is considerably better.

[glyphic]

Originally posted by Mou bu:

To imagine that we face it in its weakest form.

What do you mean? Surely Malenia's weakest form was when Bloodhound Step had iframes against Waterfowl Dance.

[Succulent Green]

Managed to beat her solo the other day by using Queeleighs greatsword - Flame art infused.

Golden Vow
Flame give me strength

Flame shrouded cracked tear
Oily hard tear

Made a nice barbecue out of that ginger. . .

[German Shepard]

basically here are ways that can help you dodge the first barrage of waterfowl, which is essentially the biggest problem tbh :
vow of the indomitable : enough iframes if timed correctly (generous)
Bloodhound step : enough iframes and distance travelled
light roll : light rolloing allows you to dodge it effectively, trade off is you need to be under 25% encumbrance, thus less armor for you
my personal favorite : jump
when malenia jump in the air, you RUN backwards as long as you can, then you do the following
* if she is too close to you still, you jump JUST BEFORE she starts slashing
* if you are a decent distance from her, you jump after she slashes TWO TO THREE times
i hope you find this useful fellow elden lord, DONT GIVE UP SKELETON, YOU GOT THIS I BELIEVE IN YOU

[Artek [General]]

I've defeated her recently as RL80 +15.
4th encounter.
Took only some 15 attempts....

WFD is still bullsh*t, yep. Instant win / free damage for her, especially if she pulls it point blank for no reason, there is no escape - even Quickstep doesn't help.
I only defeated her because she didn't use it once in 2nd phase, opting for spamming the flower instead. It's honestly amazing how much better of a boss she is without it - I had genuine fun and back and fourth with her and victory still felt as fulfilling as ever.
WFD should've been nerfed years ago, the fact that it isn't is dumbfounding to me, this cannot be how they intended it to be.

[Dr.Acula]

Originally posted by Artek General:

WFD is still bullsh*t, yep. Instant win / free damage for her, especially if she pulls it point blank for no reason, there is no escape

I swear that in prior play throughs when I actively tried to "beat" WFD with dodging, blocking and so on I had situations where i expected her to pull the move, kept her at good distance and she didn't use it for 2-3 minutes. As soon as I went into close combat while being in a striking animation suddenly she goes straight into air the right in front of me.

It's quite literally as if the "AI" was waiting for me to get close enough so it can pull WFD with maximum effectiveness.

So this time I basically just tried a "slap her around until she stays down" approach and it worked considerably better than I expected.

[cl656]

it's only difficult as a melee character. An int wizard just needs to use invisible magic and learn to dodge water dance, which is fairly easy. All you need to do once she starts that up, is to keep your distance the first two attacks, then just before the third attack that homes in on you, stop locking onto her, and dodge towards her a few times.

[Welbert Asker]

waterfowl is very easy to deal with, man

I am more scared of the clone attack in phase 2 because Malenia doesn't give you a lot of opportunity to learn this attack. I still get clipped by the last clone

waterfowl is just something you want to anticipate. outrun the first flurry with a jump at the end, then roll into her with perfect timing. or use shield to block the first flurry, then roll into. she will heal a bit but you'll be alive

[Artek [General]]

Originally posted by cl656:

it's only difficult as a melee character. An int wizard just needs to use invisible magic and learn to dodge water dance, which is fairly easy. All you need to do once she starts that up, is to keep your distance the first two attacks, then just before the third attack that homes in on you, stop locking onto her, and dodge towards her a few times.

Well too bad my role-playing character is not a wizard and a brave two-handing knight, eh?