how do I dodge this garbage waterfowl dance?????

[a person]

This is my first playthrough, wanted to fight every boss so I knew what to do in ng+1 against them and get their remembrance first playthrough for their weapon. I am fighting malenia rn, breezed through most of her with mimic tear a few times but didnt kill her, decided I would just do it without mimic tear because it felt like a cheese too much to me, and I also used mimic tear to kill maliketh and felt like I just cheated myself out of a good fight because I took him down too fast. Some video I watched talked about how all you have to do is just "run away from the first waterfowl, dodge through the second, and then dodge again through the third, and if your far away enough, she hardly will even reach you" which really makes me mad after actually fighting her. No, you cant just "run away" from the first waterfowl. Wanna know why? because it takes about a half second after holding the dodge button to actually start running, which is time i NEED to dodge that move, and since im up and close with her, and expecting another move I can dodge then get a hit in, she catches me totally off guard, and since sprinting is unreliable, I just gotta dodge it but that is not a very easy task either as one dodge doesnt get out of the onslaught, just gives u some i-frames, I usually get vigor checked and am super low health or dead. it also doesnt help that she heals like a sixth of her healthbar every time she hits me, it is genuinely a progress stopper in the fight. it also isnt very fun how she gets to heal all she wants but I am slowly losing more flasks as she just gets more health. I get most of this was just a rant about the whole thing but seriously, is there a reliable way to dodge this move?

[Key]

Originally posted by a person:

Some video I watched talked about how all you have to do is just "run away from the first waterfowl, dodge through the second, and then dodge again through the third, and if your far away enough, she hardly will even reach you" which really makes me mad after actually fighting her. No, you cant just "run away" from the first waterfowl.

Give me a couple of minutes.

Edit: Never mind, was gonna record it and the slow it down but I'm not getting home anytime soon. Regardless, yes, you just run directly away from the first one, there's plenty of examples on youtube. If you aren't running in time, it's because you're racting too late, work on reacognizing and reacting faster to the move.

If she starts it while you're too close, unlock and run in a circle under her, then proceed as usual.

[Dollmaker]

Somewhat, you basically gotta circle around her first flurry, but if you want a easy way out (Who cant blame you) use Bloodhound Step or Vow of the Indomitable.

[aqua493xd]

git lucky

[Seijana]

I found what worked was to run directly away when she winds up, run from the first flurry, dodge away from the second, dodge in towards her for the third and then keep dodging away from the fourth.

I won't say git gud because it's a stupid, unfunny and boring ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ phrase but I will say the rest is just practice. Oh, and if you're not confident dodging Bloodhound's Step works well.

[miep miep]

The easiest way is to interrupt her by triggering bleed or freeze on her, when she jumps up to do the attack. So using freezing pots to throw at her works well. Or this

Originally posted by Dollmaker:

Somewhat, you basically gotta circle around her first flurry, but if you want a easy way out (Who cant blame you) use Bloodhound Step or Vow of the Indomitable.

You can also use a shield to block parts of the first waterfowl and then dodge the rest normally. Either way water fowl is a stupid attack that doesnt belong in the game. It just doesnt fit the overall gameplay.

[Seijana]

If you block anything from her won't she heal anyway?

[Chris1]

She doesn't do waterfowl that often. If you really can't dodge it just block. It's better she gets a small amount of health back rather than you staring at the "you died" screen again.

[Artimise Flare]

Watch this, and you can see there is indeed a timing for it. It's just very small, or so it appears.

https://youtu.be/_tOfAdBvQRQ?si=dwjZiKXrWqkLD5Ux

[Key]

Originally posted by Artimise Flare:

Watch this, and you can see there is indeed a timing for it. It's just very small, or so it appears.

https://youtu.be/_tOfAdBvQRQ?si=dwjZiKXrWqkLD5Ux

That's a bad example cause Ongbro is using BH Step in that one.

[Artimise Flare]

Originally posted by Key:

Originally posted by Artimise Flare:

Watch this, and you can see there is indeed a timing for it. It's just very small, or so it appears.

https://youtu.be/_tOfAdBvQRQ?si=dwjZiKXrWqkLD5Ux

That's a bad example cause Ongbro is using BH Step in that one.

Missed that part, but that is used for the initial burst as far as I can tell, he then dodge rolls the follow ups. so i think it's still useful for figuring out the follow up timing at least.

[Artimise Flare]

Here's a better example, I've linked it at the precise moment he dodges it without using Ashes of War.

Light equip load may be required to achieve this though, since if I recall the mechanics correctly, you dodge farther, faster and use less stamina when you have a "Light" equipment load. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong please)

https://youtu.be/4LK9zd-NwKI?si=tCnt_IFWDh0BZvWw&t=30

[Mccoone]

if youre point blank and she does it you cant run away, you have to circle under her while she rises and throw off her tracking, its a massive pain in the ass and quite finicky. Id suggest putting vow of indomitable on some shield and switching to that to iframe through it

[dandinks]

Fingerprint stone shield easily blocks the whole attack, she regens health on hit so if you want to use a shield build I recommend a bleed lance with over 102 poise (erdtree sentinal armor with bullgoats talisman works great), this will let you guard counter spam as her follow up attacks will not stagger you out of the counter, 2 guard counters in a row let you do a critical, spam these until you win, mimic tear actively nerfs this build as it lets her heal more often

[Toast]

Slap her with a frost pot. Cancels her out.

[Herbalacious]

It depends how close/far you are from her, but if you have time to throw a freeze pot she'll fall and is probably the best option.

If you're up close point blank remove target lock and just run in a circle around her trying to get behind her 1st rush then move towards her (lock back on here) and get ready to dodge thru her 2nd rush then dodge away from her 3rd one and just keep walking backwards to avoid the delayed last aoe.

It sounds stupid hard, but once you do it'll be one of those 'huh' moments.