Pure Vessel advice?

[Pear Spin On]

I swear to god its up to luck half the time wether you avoid his attacks or not. I havnt even gotten past his first phase. It really seems like there's no chance to avoid his pulnging attack (the one where the swords come out of the ground) with skill. You just need to get lucky. Am I missing something? I'm not getting better. I'm just getting lucky when I do well.....

[MegaFayeX]

Yeah, its brutal, but doable. If you're not already, I HIGHLY recommend spamming shade soul while hes doing the attack you're describing, as well as when he creates bombs or uses void tendrils. This can get you some much needed damage without having to risk getting close too many times.

For the diving attack you're describing, dash out of the way if he jumps over you. Theres a very brief moment before the swords pop out were you see beams of light shoot up. These beams do NOT hurt you, but tell you where the swords will appear. The timing is extremely tight, but you should be able to get in between two of these before the swords pop out. After that, pop off shade soul a couple times.

Heres what seems to work well for me:

Dashing lunge: Jump over, then slash downward to avoid this attack, and deal some damage. If timed right, you can get a second slash backwards as you're falling.

3-hit sword combo: This attack sucks. If you see him winding up, just double-jump and dash behind him. You can try to get a hit in, but its pretty high risk.

Projectile knives: This one is actually pretty easily avoided if you stay grounded and dash THROUGH them, towards the enemy. You should have time to get at least one slash in.

Any other places you're having trouble?

[Mr. Beartato]

Dashing lunge: Depending on your position, you can either run away from him, shade cloak through him, or jump over him. It depends on your position, but generally jumping is the easiest.

3-hit sword combo: I pretty much always shade cloaked it and then dashed after him to hit it, but that timing can be very tricky. If you're a bit further away it can be better to jump over him and then dash and just not hit him.

Plunging attack: I'm terrible at dodging spikes that shoot from the ground, but jumping made it a fair bit easier for me since they're broad at the base and thinner in the air.

Projectile attack: Shade cloak through them or just stay far away and see whether you have to jump to dodge them. I think staying away is safer if you rely on shade cloak to dodge attacks.

I think the most important thing for PV is training your reaction times though. He's /very/ fast and it took me a lot of time to learn how to dodge his attacks properly & respond quickly enough. Plus, the timing for shade cloaking can be super tricky as it only barely recharges in time if you use it properly, and won't be recharged at all if your timing is off. Hence, jumping is a lot safer/easier.

[the drink]

Dashing lunge: double jump or time your nail pogo

3-hit sword combo: Nail pogo or dash through him (or double jump if you reallly want to play it safe)

Plunging attack: Dash away and position yourself away from the spikes, double jump helps out quite a bit

Projectile attack: Pay attention to the sound he makes for the attack, if you hear it, jump and dash with your shade cloak up

Parry: If you hit his parry, just dash through him with shade cloak, do not dash away from him or nail pogo because he will definitely hit you

He has 2 other attacks but they are relatively easy to dodge (like very easy to dodge)

Practice at the hall of gods whenever you can until you can beat him several times. He's pretty fun to fight against once you get the hang of it.

[baldur]

I don't think there's luck involved. I can reliably beat PV and skilfully get away from that attack. Just keep practicing, you'll get there. Stay close to him. You can get a big amount of hits in when hes doing that attack (use steady body). If you think this boss is luck based, wait till you get to the final boss of the DLC.

[Spectrum Legacy]

I see a lot of mentions about jumping away from attacks on this boss, but I just stay on the ground the whole time (except during the void tendril-attack). I've managed to kill him with sharp shadow only, just dashing through him while practicing in the hall of gods. Once you know the speed of each of its attacks, you can dash through him reliably. I think that's why sharp shadow helps here a lot, since the boss times the attacks in such a fashion that you can always have the void cloak ready for a perfectly safe dash. Or at least that's my experience so far.

Fastest comes his parry-riposte, dash through immediately or with just a couple of frames delay. Second one is the dash/lunge, delay your dash once you hear the sound cue (as if it charged his lunge, then a very brief moment of pause during which you can start dashing through). Then it's the vertical dash+broadswords, just don't get caught in the splash and dash away or move away even and try to stay between the swords. I guess jumping here helps as others mentioned, they are indeed broad on the floor. His 3 hit combo is slow, you have to wait a bit until he starts it, so don't dash too early (same goes for the projectile attack, you have to wait out until the lowest projectile is already well on it's way as not to appear out of dash inside of it).

Since I use sharp shadow, I like to stay close to him to dish out melee damage and then dash through his attacks to damage him further. However if you are further from him, you can dash away from most if not all of his attacks.

[rephian]

Originally posted by Unspeakable Cringe:

I swear to god its up to luck half the time wether you avoid his attacks or not. I havnt even gotten past his first phase. It really seems like there's no chance to avoid his pulnging attack (the one where the swords come out of the ground) with skill. You just need to get lucky. Am I missing something? I'm not getting better. I'm just getting lucky when I do well.....

Watch some videos on YouTube, you'll see that most of the players hit him from above. I think it it the safest and also fastest way. The only thing I did differently was to use steady body and stand very close to him when he spawns lances from the ground. In this way, I can land a lot of hits safely.

[Jukebox]

Originally posted by Unspeakable Cringe:

I swear to god its up to luck half the time wether you avoid his attacks or not. I havnt even gotten past his first phase. It really seems like there's no chance to avoid his pulnging attack (the one where the swords come out of the ground) with skill. You just need to get lucky. Am I missing something? I'm not getting better. I'm just getting lucky when I do well.....

PV is a lot like NKG where until you figure out his pattern enough and can read him quick enough, you'll feel awful until you can read him quick enough.
However, once you start reaching that point of being able to recognise his attacks, and finding good ways to counter his attacks of course, you'll start to feel better about the fight, I'm sure.
I felt it was utter balls until I started to read his attacks fast enough to act accordingly, much like NKG.
For the spikes, just remember they always start from PV himself. Thus, you can always be in the same place in relation to him and you'll be fine. I personally pogo him during his spike attack, as its the safest place to be, up in the air.

[esco1979]

Something that no one else has said here that makes a MAJOR difference: keep away is your best bet with him. It gives you that extra split second you need to react to his attack. Use the 3 notch costing range increasing charm. Only hit him once or twice at extreme most then DASH AWAY FOR YOUR LIFE! Watch him... and react. When he does that explosive attack, dodge the initial blast then dash in and chop him up more than 1-2 times. Or if you notice him about to do his spray of pure spikes very early in the move, dash thru them, and then you might be able to get in 3 hits. Quick nail helps here too. Use shade soul blasts when you have the soul to do so and see an opening from a far distance.

Becomes of his AI and short warm up on his moves coupled with their horizontal motion, the fight becomes way harder when you try to get tons of hits in on him at once. He really doesn't have a lot of health if you use the strength increasing charm (which you should be doing anyway).

Keep in mind: you sadly cannot jump cancel a dash. So make sure NOT to be waiting so long to get away that you don't have ample time to both dash then jump.

[DJDiceZ]

Originally posted by Spectrum Legacy:

I see a lot of mentions about jumping away from attacks on this boss

Jumping away did it for me. Don't wait for him to attack before he does. Just get a few hits in and jump away with a single full jump, you can decide your next move accordingly with what he does.

Some might prefer to just shadow dash through him, but that requires good timing. Whatever works for you.

[Jukebox]

Originally posted by DJDiceZ:

Originally posted by Spectrum Legacy:

I see a lot of mentions about jumping away from attacks on this boss

Jumping away did it for me. Don't wait for him to attack before he does. Just get a few hits in and jump away with a single full jump, you can decide your next move accordingly with what he does.

Some might prefer to just shadow dash through him, but that requires good timing. Whatever works for you.

To add to your point about dashing, I personally found it a valuable resource I only used against his thrown nails. Was due to my lack of skill methinks, but just a point that shadow dash is very vauable in here; can potentially be wasted on dashing through him.

[menderbug]

Originally posted by Spectrum Legacy:

Once you know the speed of each of its attacks, you can dash through him reliably.

I also prefer shadow dashing over jumping, but when he does the 3-strike attack right after a dashing lunge, I think the timing for the shadow dash to refresh is super tight. It works sometimes, but very rarely for me. I'm currently trying to retrain myself to jump over the dashing lunge so that I've got the shadow dash ready for the spike spray or the 3-strike attack when I need it.

[Pear Spin On]

Hot damn I did not expect this many answers. Thanks to all of you!