Dancer of the Boreal Valley

[DefiantSauce]

I've beaten the game 3 times, and coming back to this boss again makes me feel as though it doesn't belong in Dark Souls. This and Champion Gundyr, while amazing and fun fights, are almost too quick for Souls. Dancer has 10-swing combos; that would have its place in Bloodborne, but not here.

[Adachi Ame]

Ehh... Considering the False King in Demons Souls was pretty fast(F***ing megadashes I tell you.), Capra Demon was also pretty quick, Ornstein was pretty darn quick, just to name a few examples.

[TheEvilNoob]

Things change. DS3 is faster and so it needs faster bosses. I think those bosses are fun personally.

[Limp Squirrel]

i agree with the OP though, the Dancer just exacerbates the already pressing issue of over-reliance on dodging. I have a greatshield with 74 stability. In previous games that allowed you to block heavy attacks from bosses without breaking poise. In DS3, bosses like the dancer with her long, hard hitting combos, always leave you vulnerable after the 3rd swing.

Ornstein was nowhere as fast, neither was the Capra demon. Even if they both were, they would do bursts with relatively long pauzes in between. The dancer, not so much, it's a constant barrage of attacks.

The souls games used to allow a lot of build freedom, but DS3 really dropped the ball in that division because of the useless heavy armor/weapons. It';s just Bloodborne 1.5, a milk ring dodge fest.

[Lord Motav]

Yeah, it's a bit upsetting that you cant really use any weapon or armor you want. You need a longsword and a dodge button. Blocking just hurts you by draining all of your stamina that you'd use to be dodging.

[Adachi Ame]

Originally posted by DefiantSauce:

Originally posted by Adachi Ame:

Ehh... Considering the False King in Demons Souls was pretty fast(F***ing megadashes I tell you.), Capra Demon was also pretty quick, Ornstein was pretty darn quick, just to name a few examples.

Most of Ornstein's fast moves, like his charge, only hit once and had a long recovery time. Dancer is able to do extremely long and fast combos without having to recover, and they don't have much startup as well (Ornstein's charge is very heavily choreographed). Capra was slower than Ornstein, if I remember right, and I never played Demon's Souls or even seen any playthroughs, so I can't comment on that one lol

It doesn't bother me that much do to the nature of the boss. She is a dancer, dancers are suppose to have fleeting and fluid movements, blades dancing through the air like spectacular lights, giving a sense of both grace and deadly. Gundyr is just Hard Mode Tutorial Gundyr, him in his prime, and there is always that one dangerous guy in the souls game old king doran in demons souls, King Thordan in DS2(In that he would oneshot you just like doran) and Gundyr hard kind of matches this.

The Dancer is in a sense a boss variation of the original owner of the Hornet's Ring, Dance and Fleet-like movements. Plus it is a change from all the female bosses being a just a variation of casters.

[Vinyl Scratch]

I dunno, I found her pretty easy.
I have the Pursuer's Greatshield (whatever it's called in this game I forget atm) and was able to tank through most of her attacks...When stamina got low, I just rolled out of the combo.
I'm still just using the Battle Axe I started with as well, so you don't need fast weapons either.

[!?!]

The only problem with dancer is her instakill grab grabbing you out of your i-frames.

[Adachi Ame]

Originally posted by DefiantSauce:

Originally posted by Adachi Ame:

It doesn't bother me that much do to the nature of the boss. She is a dancer, dancers are suppose to have fleeting and fluid movements, blades dancing through the air like spectacular lights, giving a sense of both grace and deadly. Gundyr is just Hard Mode Tutorial Gundyr, him in his prime, and there is always that one dangerous guy in the souls game old king doran in demons souls, King Thordan in DS2(In that he would oneshot you just like doran) and Gundyr hard kind of matches this.

I don't care what the concept of the boss is; it still has to obey the rules of the game. She's unreasonably fast for a Souls game. Her first phase is fast enough. I'd argue that the first phase could be her 2nd phase, and she'd be much more balanced and enjoyable

Who the heck is King Thordan? Do you mean Vendrick? I know Vendrick hits hard. I think you might be thinking of Final Fantasy lol

All the -ans I tell you. and yes I do play ff14(Taking a bit of a break from it.)

[Black Snake]

Originally posted by Lord Motav:

Yeah, it's a bit upsetting that you cant really use any weapon or armor you want. You need a longsword and a dodge button. Blocking just hurts you by draining all of your stamina that you'd use to be dodging.

Says you.... I'm wielding an Ultra Great Hammer and making great headway through the game........ on my 3rd char (Second Char was pure magic (no weapons)) and first was a miracle dex build

builds are still 100% viable.

[Funpire]

Originally posted by DefiantSauce:

I've beaten the game 3 times, and coming back to this boss again makes me feel as though it doesn't belong in Dark Souls. This and Champion Gundyr, while amazing and fun fights, are almost too quick for Souls. Dancer has 10-swing combos; that would have its place in Bloodborne, but not here.

Fine, take it the ♥♥♥♥ out. Seriously, I just want to get my SL9 non upgraded toon past this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ monster. Really tho... I gave up. SL1 run can scratch itself lol.

[Limp Squirrel]

Originally posted by Black Snake:

Originally posted by Lord Motav:

Yeah, it's a bit upsetting that you cant really use any weapon or armor you want. You need a longsword and a dodge button. Blocking just hurts you by draining all of your stamina that you'd use to be dodging.

Says you.... I'm wielding an Ultra Great Hammer and making great headway through the game........ on my 3rd char (Second Char was pure magic (no weapons)) and first was a miracle dex build

builds are still 100% viable.

how far are you exactly? And a build being viable implies that you can beat everything with that build, not thrash through the game with your greathammer and swapping to a katana or dark sword for bosses. If you do, your build isn't viable.

[Black Snake]

Originally posted by Squidcake:

Originally posted by Black Snake:

Says you.... I'm wielding an Ultra Great Hammer and making great headway through the game........ on my 3rd char (Second Char was pure magic (no weapons)) and first was a miracle dex build

builds are still 100% viable.

how far are you exactly? And a build being viable implies that you can beat everything with that build, not thrash through the game with your greathammer and swapping to a katana or dark sword for bosses. If you do, your build isn't viable.

Just finished irithyll dungeon (spelled that wrong), and heading to the capital. And I completely agree about the build thing. I love playing with certain builds and armors and playing through the entire game using only that. The sorcery only build was pretty hard and required me to R2 with my catalyst very often. But with my good old Vordt Hammer, I'm surprised how easy the game is. Some bosses are thrashed in just a few minutes

I couldn't believe I destroyed phase 1 of the watchers in 17 seconds.

[Limp Squirrel]

i killed all those bosses with my Zweihander, but after hitting the Dancer, the Princes, Oceiles, it started going bad. They were too fast, constantly got interrupted, damage was subpar.

[⛧ Innsmouse ⛧]

Originally posted by DefiantSauce:

I don't think any bosses in Bloodborne are even as fast as Dancer. The only ones that come to mind are the Orphan and maybe Gehrman (possibly Gascoigne). She has less than 0.5 second startup on some of her massive 15-hit combos; it just does not fit the slower pace of a Souls game at all

Not to mention she has the reach of about half the arena, and can cut through pillars

Orphan is a never ending wailing nightmare who's attacks have varying distances and startups.

How is this compared to Dancer? All her big attacks have startups that are pretty easy to notice.

Personally I like that Dark Souls 3 doesn't let you just hide behind a greatshield and tank ALL hits, You should block once or twice and if the attacks continue, MOVE.

Originally posted by Squidcake:

i killed all those bosses with my Zweihander, but after hitting the Dancer, the Princes, Oceiles, it started going bad. They were too fast, constantly got interrupted, damage was subpar.

Try swapping to a greataxe. I've noticed Ultras aren't all that great for bosses.

[Black Snake]

Originally posted by WeLiVeR:

Originally posted by Squidcake:

i killed all those bosses with my Zweihander, but after hitting the Dancer, the Princes, Oceiles, it started going bad. They were too fast, constantly got interrupted, damage was subpar.

Try swapping to a greataxe. I've noticed Ultras aren't all that great for bosses.

That would defeat the purpose of a build if you switch the weapon midway just to make things easier