Chaos Witch Quelaag

[The Monkey]

Any tips for dealing with her? Am currently using the Drake Sword but it doesn't feel effective anymore.

[Rodrigo_Zx]

wait before she uses that lava attack, roll alway and then punish
or you can maintain a good distance and resort to crossbow/magic attacks

[nomoreblues]

Drake Sword is hidden for a reason - it has range like a dagger and doesn't impove at all with your stats and it has a poor moveset.
GG for noticing - honestly!

Did you upgrade Drake sword at least once - theres a dragon scale in blighttown?

In general you need to avoid getting damage. So avoid greed, hit once or twice and retreat. The sides are a bit safer to approach than back and front. Unlocked hitting spider feet is just as effective as hitting her face but sometimes more easy to do and retreat.

Be aware of her AOE explosion - move away in time

[The Monkey]

If I wanted to replace the Drake, what would you recommend? Have put pts into Str so far, none in Dex

[SulkySoba]

Take advantage of when shes puking lava, roll into her sword slashes, get away when she starts to charge her explosion, gg, profit.

[nomoreblues]

Originally posted by The Monkey:

If I wanted to replace the Drake, what would you recommend? Have put pts into Str so far, none in Dex

katana like iato, longsword, halberd, claymore seem most comfortable to me - not too heavy and slow.
But try them first, check out the movesets, it's good to have something that reaches/pokes (like 1h R2s with longsword or clay).
In DS a lot more depends on getting experienced and also upgrading your weapon than on the choice itself

What recommended are also dex or dex/str weapons so if you insist on favoring str it might be better to use clubs or axes.
You can't go wrong if you like melee to focus both str and dex but don't forget vit and end

If you're down there already you might want to try kill that Boss with Drake, it is well possible still I 'm sure. If you're patient enough to focus on new weapon first you should get it to +5 at least at this point which migt take some time and ressources at this point.

Good luck anyway!

[The Monkey]

Thank you all for your replies. Praise the sun!

[Nuclear Kangaroo]

i made a str build too, but since i was a pyromancer i mostly used axes, by the end game i was relying on the greataxe which is pretty sweet and you can find it before blighttown in the depths

[Histfire]

Originally posted by The Monkey:

If I wanted to replace the Drake, what would you recommend? Have put pts into Str so far, none in Dex

If you can use the Longsword, use that. it is a good all-rounder. Or, the Bastard sword. I was using those for a while. If you can, get hold of the Man-Serpent Sword, that sword is dope for Str based characters and has a great moveset.

[zadymek]

Originally posted by The Monkey:

Any tips for dealing with her? Am currently using the Drake Sword but it doesn't feel effective anymore.

Pick up an Estoc and stab her to death? That's what I'm doing ;) But OK, this is the ultra hyper duper extreme pro mode".

The safe tactic is to spam Longbow shots at the feminine part of the boss to stagger it repeatedly.

You can also go with the Shortbow but that will effect in every second shot staggering the boss so you will have to run away more often.

The efficient melee tactic would be to keep the 4m distance and when the boss jumps or "dash up" (signalling the lady is preparing her sword) simply evade the attack and then hug to its front and hack - 9/10 attacks won't hit you, and you can roll-attack to make it 10/10. And you will eventually provoke a lava spit this way, when you can just run to its side and literally hack at will as long as your stamina allows (two hjanded for maximum effect).
BTW Applying Gold pine resin at the beginning of the fight will make short job out of this boss.

There is this ultimate the boss will do everytime the female part gets exhausetd (you'll see
what I mean). If you aren't very skilled at rolling / keeping the safe distance, or you may accidentally stuck beneath the boss - just lock on the boss to be turned in the right direction and block it. Even basic Heater Shield will decrease its monstrous damage to laughable 30%. And if you stucked under the boss you can easily follow up with Estus ;)

Generally flanking the boss is safe here.

Oh, and don't come close tho lava spits, their hitboxes are bugged at times, you can get badly burned from 1m away.

PS You do already know the boss is immune to flames, right?