Pure Vessel question

[Doctor Fetus]

I really struggle with that guy. I can beat him from time to time but after 4 or 5 hours of practice ONLY against him i still can not beat him consistently. 1 win out of 5 tries is my best result so far and you want something more in the 4th pantheon and i dont even talk about 5th.

Is that normal, i mean do people really spend hours practicing against him before beating the related pantheon or maybe i just suck and it is not my level of challenge, lol?

[Matcha]

I will practice related bosses for several hours before go to pantheon, too. Pure Vessel cost me roughly 8 hours or more, now I have over 50% winrate against him.

The charms I used is unbreakable strength, mark of pride, quick slash and unbreakable heart. But quick slash is not for him, it's for the pantheon.

I'm very bad at this kind of game. Yet I used to believe I can still complete the hardest challenge and achievement in game by practice a lot, but now when playing this DLC, I start to feel something is impossible to do no matter how hard I try. Perhaps I shouldn't buy this game from the beginning.

[khandha]

Originally posted by Doctor Fetus:

I really struggle with that guy. I can beat him from time to time but after 4 or 5 hours of practice ONLY against him i still can not beat him consistently. 1 win out of 5 tries is my best result so far and you want something more in the 4th pantheon and i dont even talk about 5th.

Is that normal, i mean do people really spend hours practicing against him before beating the related pantheon or maybe i just suck and it is not my level of challenge, lol?

I used Stalwart Shell, Quick Slash, Mark of Pride and Unbreakable Strength. I wasn't really keeping track but there's 4 days between my 3rd pantheon acheivement and the 4th, and probably spent ~2 hours a day practicing him... so a lot, haha.

Probably going to take me a month to finish pantheon 5
I'm cool with that though. I was able to beat Radiant Sisters of Battle today so I'm making progress, even if it's slow.

[GeminiEclipse]

I feel like that's normal for people who are on his level. It takes a while to get up to his speed. To build the muscle memory for his actions and how to react. Even then there's little room for error.

I use sharp shadow instead of stalwart shell or heart. However sometimes if he does two quick attacks the dash isn't up in time. And sometimes if he gets staggered by the dash I get hit, so it's a risky one to use.

[Mr. Beartato]

I completed Pantheon 5 and to be very honest Pure Vessel took more practicing for me than the final boss did. I lost at least 6 Pantheon 5 runs to PV.. and just 1 to the final boss, the run where I first reached him.

Some bosses are just harder for some people than for others.

I feel like PV is one of those bosses that, once they "click" and you really figure them out, they suddenly become very easy - but before that time they will consistently kick your ass.

[Spitfyre37]

Originally posted by Mr. Beartato:

I feel like PV is one of those bosses that, once they "click" and you really figure them out, they suddenly become very easy - but before that time they will consistently kick your ass.

Yeah, NKG is one of those. I spent roughly 12 hours of fighting NKG the first time before i even beat him, but at this point i can do him almost completely hitless.

[John Darksoul]

After I unlocked him in the hall I beat it with a lifeblood build after few tries, but obviously lifeblood is not viable in the pantheon. I tried different builds that may be viable for the pantheon until I found the one that may actually do the trick (a spell build). So yeah, it took time, I had to practice and try stuff out in the Hall.

[RocketPotatoL62]

it took me around 4 hours to defeat PV consistently, by the end of it I fought him for fun and beat him without taking damage a couple of times. He is much like NKG in that regard

This was my charm loadout: Strength/Mark of Pride/Quickslash/Steady body

the biggest part of the fight is recognizing his tells to know which attack he's going to use, so you can act accordingly. He's fast.

Don't try to stay in the air too long or be offensive, you want to counter/dodge everything he does (like NKG)

If he does the lunge, pogo on his head and hit him again on the back as you land.

If he does the tripple slash combo, pogo on his head as much as you can safely.

If he parries you, your only safe option is to shadow dash through him to avoid the slash.

If he does the pocket dagger attack, do a quick hop and shadow dash through the projectiles. The furthest you are from the attack, the easier it is to dodge. I prefer staying at the center for this attack since I'll already see what his next attack is soon enough.

If he jumps into the air and does the downward smash, you're going to want to be very close to his face so you can hit him a ton of times with steady body/quickslash. If you mess up the timing, go to the nearest gap for a dodge then hit pure vessel 1-3 times at the end of the attack. (If you master doing this, you'll be able to beat PV much more consistently since it takes a lot of health off of him)

If he does the focus attack, dash away, avoid the orbs, and unload a few magic projectiles on him. 1-2 is safe, but unload 3 once you feel confident he's not going to counter you asap. It's easy to get caught in his next attack after the focus.

His void attack is a tricky one, since it can often be mistaken for other attacks. Be careful about the tell and try to pogo off his head and quickslash his back a couple of times.

With all this in mind, you'll be able to save your lifeblood from the bindings in pantheon 5 for the real challenge at the end.

[Doctor Fetus]

I really like that trick with beating PV in his face while he uses his pillar attack but it reqires insane positioning and timing. I also saw ppl doing that without steady body by hitting him while holding up button.

I find quick focus being very usefull in this battle, you don't use it as you take next to no damage and need no healing in this battle or there are different reasons?

[RocketPotatoL62]

Originally posted by Doctor Fetus:

I really like that trick with beating PV in his face while he uses his pillar attack but it reqires insane positioning and timing. I also saw ppl doing that without steady body by hitting him while holding up button.

I find quick focus being very usefull in this battle, you don't use it as you take next to no damage and need no healing in this battle or there are different reasons?

quick heal is a trap and a crutch, you might as well lose it if you have any plans of beating pantheon 5. It'll make you improve tremendously, focusing on countering your enemies is surprisingly easier to learn than learning when you could heal outside of staggers.

Edit: This is coming from someone who spent their entire first save relying on quick focus

[Doctor Fetus]

I actually thought about beating the 5th pantheon, but after spending somewhat like 8 or 10 hours to beat the 4th one and still having it somewhere in the future i started thinking i should not. Not here not now. The forth pantheon is already one of the hardest things i ever did in pc games, honestly.

Also quick heal doesnt make you unvilnerable to PV, you just get a little more room for a mistake. To me this is better than mastering some incredibly accurate moves allowing you beat him consistently as soon as such moves become routine. You must be just a different type of a player that me.

[RocketPotatoL62]

Originally posted by Doctor Fetus:

I actually thought about beating the 5th pantheon, but after spending somewhat like 8 or 10 hours to beat the 4th one and still having it somewhere in the future i started thinking i should not. Not here not now. The forth pantheon is already one of the hardest things i ever did in pc games, honestly.

Also quick heal doesnt make you unvilnerable to PV, you just get a little more room for a mistake. To me this is better than mastering some incredibly accurate moves allowing you beat him consistently as soon as such moves become routine. You must be just a different type of a player that me.

Personally, I find having more margin for error is less valuable than having higher DPS/ Range, since most fights where said margin for error is actually valuable barely allows you to heal outside of the stagger.

I wasted so much time trying to master a charm build that allowed me to maximize heals against NKG, when in the end, learning how to hit him safely when coming back to Godmaster took no time at all in comparison.

This doesn't apply to everyone, but quick focus/healing in general usually just results in me getting hit again. Unless I know the opportunity is safe, I've taken to only healing during staggers/transition moments.

Having the extra room for error only makes the learning experience take longer, which doesn't really matter as much when just playing the base game. It's definitely useful, but isn't worth 3 charm notches in the endgame imo.

[Doctor Fetus]

I think you are correct if we consider a 5th pantheon run. Either you can beat bosses like PV and NKG with next to no damage (and thus you dont need any healing charms) or you just risk to die to any of those and successfully ruin a run and healing won't help. If you refer to 5th pantheon by saying "lategame" i totally agree with you.

However i still think quick focus can help for a "casual conquest" of the first 4 pantheons including PV fight. It seem easier that way, at least for me.

Btw i just beat PV in a pantheon and completed it lol. Pure Vessel is offically my new favorite boss in PC games of all time, this guy was amazing :D