Did they nerf mini-bosses or buff dodging since release?

[Aurani]

I beat the game 100% on release and now years later I felt like replaying the game.
But something feels off, I do not recall being taught to dodge counter in the training area, dodging seems to actually work now and enemies no longer have perfect attack tracking.
When I played on release it was impossible to dodge Chained Ogre's grabs as he would just magically turn 180deg on the last frame to grab you, and now I'm watching him charge right past me every time.

[Alexoferith]

Hi, there. I have been playing this game not long after released, i.e. before the final update to ver 1.06. As you have described, the Chained Ogre's grab can still "homing" into you if you dodge at the wrong time, usually a bit too early. After spending over 3,000 hrs in this game, I cannot precisely point out when is the exact moment to dodge. Nearly all moves now are more or less executed subconciously. However, I always put some distance between the Ogre and my Sekiro. If you are too close, even dodging at the right moment will not work for you, i.e. he will still grab you. By keeping between 1.5 to 2 of Ogre's bodily length (estimate of course, by eye), it will be easier to dodge his flying grab attack, even can dodge backward.
However, it is true that they have nerfed some of the bosses. If you search this forum, there was a list of what exactly they have done for the ver 1.06 update. I only read a bit as it was rather long.
I can only remember that the Dev. has also buffed up or nerfed some of the combat arts. They said that they wanted to more or less balancing them to give players more options in terms of playing styles by combining different prosthetic tools and combat arts. This way should provide more experience in playing the game. One of the combat art, high monk was nerfed quite significantly. The Dev. had reduced the amount of posture damage it dealt.
Oh, don't know you if you know that the Dev. has added a new combat art to the collection. You can only get it by completing the Gauntlet of Strength - Divine Heir. And just in case if you don't know it. The gauntlet of Strength has nothing to do with your current Attacking Power. And anything you used during the fight will be replenished when you rest at the idol after completing each fight. Oh, there is a new "Inner" version of Genichiro, Owl and Isshin, i.e. each of them has new move.
Hope this is helpful to you. Good luck and have fun :)

[frostmourne]

what the actual ♥♥♥♥ you did there for 1/3 of a year, man, are you good?

[Sabaithal]

How exactly are you supposed to fight Chained Ogre anyway? Gameplay flow wise, he's the enemy I can't really figure out.

He's introduced pretty early on to demonstrate basically "not everything can be deflected." The problem is...Sekiro combat and tactics against this guy just didn't work when I tried it, no matter how many times I tried it.

I reverted back to dark souls tactics instead, and killed him in like 2 or 3 tries. Really was quite jarring to the learning curve to have to forget everything I was being taught up until that point to progress. It also took too long, since I basically just hacked away at his ankles while dodging to side every time he twitched for like 2 minutes nonstop.

[Crypto Gamer]

Chained ogre you can just bait a few of his attack combo hit 1-2 times run away and repeat bait and hit like a DS 1,2 boss.


Most hitboxes are very good in Sekiro.......

Chain ogre has afaik 3 different grabs moves likely 1 has questionable hitboxes so teleporting into his grab hitbox is common.

Easy way to kill chain ogre use invisible sugar(you loot some nearby) perform a stealth blow for first healthbar.

Use a NON charged NON oiled fire version flame vent once this will "fire scare" him so you can safely hit him a few times.

Once he recovers from "fire scare state" flame vent again this will burn him allowing a few free hits while he is in pain from burning.

Many hits in a short period will stagger him allowing more free hits in.

In case scare+free hits stagger him then+more R1 free hits and once he recovers from stagger state then flame vent so then free hits while he is in "burn pain state".

Once burn status ends repeat the scare+burn+stagger or scare+stagger+burn pain state punish.
As you only need to kill 1 healthbar this will likely kill him in 2 chains.

Eventually you will learn how much R1 you can get away with abusing his"pain" states.

Free hits means he can NOT attack back you are 100% safe.

Few of this attack like the jumping kick override his pain state animation.
So need to learn them when you can scare or burn him.

You can also hit and dodge most of his attacks and circle dodge around him if you know the timings like a dark souls 3 boss.

I think his stagger health bar(poise) resets in 7 seconds so make sure he is dmged at least once every 6 seconds so you can cause stagger him.