I don't understand the logic with the first boss.

[Burusagi]

Shodden Knight.

Sometimes you can roll through him, other times he is seemingly an impassable wall.

What gives?

[Burusagi]

Anyone?

[Stevepunk]

It's the same with all rolling. The roll is a bit short when it comes to large enemies. If your roll finishes inside a boss then it should pop you out the other side, but the way it's designed it puts you on the nearest side to where your roll would have finished.

Which often means that you just roll against them when you meant to roll past them.

[Burusagi]

That doesn't seem to be the case.

The boss simply shifts between passable and impassable at random; my roll distance remains the same throughout the fight.

[gungadin22000]

It is indeed not the case.

You can roll through bosses effortlessly WHEN THEY ARE CHARGING UP THEIR ATTACKS. If not, you will just roll into their shoes for a good kicking.

So wait for the Sodden Knight to lift up his sword and then roll through him.

[Burusagi]

That's... awkward, and will take a lot of internal unlearning from Dark Souls to get used to...!

[Zulric]

Easyest way to roll through enemies is to roll when youre literally touching them (not in a sexual way), its guaranteed then. If not then youre doing something wrong.

[BlackjackGT]

Interesting info, thanks. I just got the game yesterday.

In 2 hours across various characters, I still can't beat that sucker. The closest I got was the mace/shield class guy, and spamming the Grenadeo grenades, which got me close -- got his health down to maybe 10% but he proceeded to slap me around like a pinata -- but it feels like I can't really block more than one big attack from Boss, and like the op described, getting the hang or rolling through this guy has been beyond me.

I guess my debate now is whether to admit I suck and get a refund while I still can (2 hours gameplay being the refund limit I think), or persevere. :) I dig the basic gameplay so much I really want to persevere. I just have this nightmarish vision of spending 20 hours on the first boss going nowhere.

Actually, I guess the refund policy says "less than 2 hours," so apparently I'm already stuck with it, lol.

[FunkyDan]

Not sure if you're checking, But if you're having problems with the Sodden Knight, Try making a Chef, They start off with a weapon thats great for the festering banquet and have a pretty good initial roll, You'll want to replace the pan right after the banquet though as it quickly becomes useless due to its abyssmal 6.0 Damage.
EDIT: Should have mentioned this in the initial post, The chef is basically the deprived of this game, For all us dark souls enthusiasts that know what that is.
EDIT 2.0: I should have mentioned what to replace the pan with, Right at the start of bandits pass drop through the platform below you and pick up the pitch fork, It pretty much trivializes the early game!

[Stevepunk]

Originally posted by Funky Dan:

the pitch fork, It pretty much trivializes the early game!

I never used the pitchfork because I was still stuck on the level 0 dagger my cleric had, but I eventually learnt to put distance between myself and enemies with the greathammer (and later the one with high base damage - level 3 greathammer).

It was night and day between the two. With the greathammer I could 1-2 shot enemies and they couldn't hit me due to the range, but with the dagger I was reliant on either a perfect parry or landing 100's of hits, while taking some hits myself.

Greatweapons basically rule this game - they have the range and the stopping power (if you need to have a shield for enemies that do lots of small fast hits (witch of the lake, queen of smiles, fake jester) then put it in your second weapon set and switch between them, but as long as you keep your armor light you should be able to do a decent roll with your great weapon of choice)

Just remember that you need to be close or have the enemy moving towards you to effectively roll through them, or do a double roll.

[Stevepunk]

Originally posted by gungadin22000:

It is indeed not the case.

You can roll through bosses effortlessly WHEN THEY ARE CHARGING UP THEIR ATTACKS. If not, you will just roll into their shoes for a good kicking.

So wait for the Sodden Knight to lift up his sword and then roll through him.

It's definitely the case. Their hitbox is larger when their weapons are lowered so you need to take that into account. If they stand up straight and raise their arms then of course their hitbox will be smaller and they will be easier to roll past.

[SundownKid]

Easy way to kill the first boss: Find the Stone Merchant, buy pitchfire, put it on your weapon and use it on his back. He will die -extremely- fast.

[Karinanima]

One thing i know i did was getting the Knight's HP to around 25% down with a single Birian Firepot, a napalm-like grenade.
I guess it was an invincibility-frame-bug but i did it.
Still lost for other reasons.
I only did it once.

Another thing that really annoyed me at the Knight were his RNG-heavy attacks.
Like he does an attack and with no chance of accurate prediction he does another while you attempt attacking him because you think he has to recover from the first strike.

Or when he does the electricity-attack, you jump and he does a jump-attack while you are still airborne.
How are you supposed to dodge that?
You can not roll through the electricity.
And even if you press (on XB360-controller) Y to suddenly do a fall-attack, he just lands his sword on you.
I am doubting that he is entirely skill- and read-based, he got the bad kind of RNG in his attack patterns.

[FunkyDan]

Yea i get what you mean about his second phase, The trick i remember using (Havent played in a bit due to monster hunter coming out) is controlling my jumps, If your jump is large enough to avoid the lgihtning but land soon after you'll have time to avoid the leap.

[Karinanima]

Originally posted by Funky Dan:

Yea i get what you mean about his second phase, The trick i remember using (Havent played in a bit due to monster hunter coming out) is controlling my jumps, If your jump is large enough to avoid the lgihtning but land soon after you'll have time to avoid the leap.

I defeated him already but still, his patterns are hella annoying.

[FunkyDan]

Originally posted by Dark Fishking:

Originally posted by Funky Dan:

Yea i get what you mean about his second phase, The trick i remember using (Havent played in a bit due to monster hunter coming out) is controlling my jumps, If your jump is large enough to avoid the lgihtning but land soon after you'll have time to avoid the leap.

I defeated him already but still, his patterns are hella annoying.

Totes.