Midir Guide (no shield, no summon)

I've noticed a shocking amount of people find Midir extremely hard so I've decided to share my experience and sum up this little guide for this boss fight.

First things first, he is definitely hard, among the hardest in the game. It is mainly due to the fact that he has high HP, high damage, high resistances and some very annoying moves. But I've learned him and I never die to him anymore even on high NG+ cycles.

I'm gonna sum up some rules for this boss fight and then go through his attacks and finish with some words specifically for some builds.

Rules

• Don't try to get underneath him - he receives more damage to his head and you can't telegraph his attacks when you're below him + some of them you can't actually dodge here.
  
  
• Time windows are quite short - either heal or attack, don't greed for both & don't greed for too many hits, take it slowly and steadily.
  
  
• Gold Pine Resin works nicely as dragons and wyverns are often weak to lightning. Green Blossoms are also recommended for some extra stamina regen. Red Bug Pellet & Black Bug Pellet can be used to increase your Fire & Dark damage absorptions.
  
  
• If you're looking for a good defensive ring for this fight - I'd go with Ring of Steel Protection as his physical damage attacks are the most often used in my opinion. You can consider Fire Stoneplate Ring & Dark Stoneplate Ring as well.
  
  
• Similarly to the King of the Storm - it's mostly better NOT to lock your camera (but it's kinda subjective here more than on KotS)
  
  
• Your best position is face to face in front of his head - from there you can see and dodge everything he does.
  
  
• When he's low HP he usually lets himself get riposted - don't miss this chance but be aware that it might not always finish him off.
  
  
• After some attacks he gets tired for few seconds - best time to hit him or heal.

First Phase Attacks:

• Midir stands up and starts spitting fire right underneath him when you're close to him - you must learn to react to this as fast as possible, the best way to dodge this is to SPRINT (not rollspam but SPRINT) the ♥♥♥♥ outta there - away from him or to the side, NOT below him.
  
  
• Midir stands up and starts spitting fire right underneath him when you're away from him - if he does this fire thing when you're clearly out of the fire range, he'll follow up with a laser - best way to play this out is to wait for the fire to end outside of its range and then SPRINT to a side of his head as quickly as possible, the lasers will not hit you if you're close to him (just in front of his head)
  
  
• Midir rises up slightly and hits twice with front legs - this attack has a long windup so don't panic roll and wait for him to actually slam for the first time. The second slam is much faster. He usually follows this up by spitting fire below himself - dodge the slams and sprint out of there, you get your chance to attack after the fire ends.
  
  
• Midir bites twice with mouth - this attack is pretty quick but you can telegraph it by the fact that he opens his mouth widely and slightly moves his head to one side. Double roll this because the second hit comes very fast too. He usually follows this up by spitting fire in front of him - dodge the bites and stay close to him on the right side of his head (from your point of view).
  
  
• Midir shouts loudly and jump-bites - one of the easiest moves to telegraph because he always shouts before jumping. Careful not to roll too soon, wait for his actual jump, then either use an invicibility frame or roll to the side where he can't hit you. If he hits you - it's a grab attack with a super high damage.
  
  
• Midir flies up and away from you and starts spitting fire on the ground below while flying towards you - you must be able to recognize this attack as quickly as possible because you need to SPRINT below him to the other side of where he aims the fire (he mostly aims it below him and to the right side from your point of view, so just run below him and to the left)
  
  
• If you happen to be behind him - he whips his tail... this attack has weird hitboxes sometimes so watch out, it's better to not get behind him at all.
  
  
• Fire appears in Midir's mouth but he doesn't stand up for one of the two first mentioned attacks - he is about to run towards your position while spitting fire ahead of him. He always does this twice in a row while in the second phase. You can get hit both by his fire and by his legs so watch out for that, it's best to roll below him and slightly to a side of him but don't get hit by a leg.
  

Second Phase Attacks:

• Midir stops his activity and starts channeling dark stuff around himself - he is about to blow up with Dark damage - get the hell away from him, just run away. Not hard to dodge, people just often get greedy to hit him when he's channeling - not worth it. He always starts the 2nd phase with this.
  
  
• Midir rises up and slams the ground with his front right leg then summons dark affinities (little things that fly towards you) - just roll the leg away from him and then double roll to a side when the affinities are about to hit you - by double rolling you dodge all of them without getting hit.
  
  
• Midir starts channeling lasers in his mouth, stands up and starts firing lasers all around - the hardest thing to dodge in my opinion. The lasers go like this:
  
  1. Straight line in front of him, high range
  
  2. From your left to your right in mid range
  
  3. From your right to your left in mid-close range
  
  4. From your left towards your current position if you're far from him, high range (he only does it straight in front of him if you're close)
  
  5. Straight line in front of him, high range
  
  You basically have two options how not to get hit - you stay away from him and just roll the 1st, 4th and 5th to a side OR you try to get close below him (to a side) asap while dodging the 2nd and the 3rd (that's mostly what I do). These lasers deal damage twice, have wide hitboxes and knock you to the ground.

Different Builds

Strength Builds - take something large so you don't find yourself not having enough range to hit his head. Always go for one single hit, don't greed for more. I absolutely annihilated him with Quakestone Hammer. If you have high Vitality, I recommend looking for an armour with high Dark damage absorption to be able to survive his lasers if you can't roll them.

Dexterity Builds - he is completely immune to bleeding (R.I.P. Bleed players) but it's okay to do him with some medium range dexterity weapon (I did Onikiri & Ubadachi). The shorter your weapon, the more times you'll miss your attacks due to his head being too high or too far. You have a chance to get a riposte sooner than on low hp though.

Sorcerer Build - Pestilent Mist is amazing here since it eats away % of max HP. I recommend just spamming this and sometimes throw in a dart or a soul arrow, don't try to do long casting spells. Don't use dark sorceries either as Midir is resistant to dark damage.

Pyromancer Build - the hardest among these, your fire & dark spells won't do much here. Even toxic mist is useless as he is immune to it. I recommend allotting all flasks to Estus and just smash him to death with a weapon, don't tickle him with your spells.


I hope I've made it understandable for you guys and I also hope you'll find it helpful. Good luck with Midir hunting. May the flame guide thee, Ashen One!

[mass_shadow]

Pestilent Mist is *SILLY* on Midir. Absolutely destroys him.
Use the Witchtree branch and/or Sage's Ring for faster cast speed, maybe summon someone else so you can stack mists (only one per player, but you can have more than one out at a time with more people) (also completely optional as this is a "no summon" guide)

[Dame Puffball]

I remember struggling so much when i was new but once you get used to him, Midir's a complete joke. Barely more difficult than Vordt and it's only because he has more health.

[Space Station 13 Enjoyer]

I had to do the DLC on my char that was on NG 15 at the time when the DLC released initially.
Beat midir second try with a refind astora greatsword build using leo ring. His head is very weak and his patterns are easy to avoid. Stay under his front feet/near them and he's a joke.

[Alphaine Nine]

I beat him with my Fist build muah ha ha ha

[ELITA ONE]

Nice!

[silent]

<3

[Kosmonaut_Kat.TTV]

Faith builds are also useful.

[Boondoggle]

I found Midir pretty hard at first but then over my many playthroughs i developed my own method which is just go balls deep and attack every chance you get on his head and it works for me. Now I would say he is about a medium difficulty compared to some other bosses

[Gehennasfire]

For miracle builds use lighting arrows but make sure they hit his head otherwise they do half damage

[meh-nah]

The stay in front of him strategy never worked for me, I'd rather hit head, dodge forward the arm attacks hit rear leg/ cast mist if you're doing mixed build run to the tail hit tail dodge tail swipe repeat.. it just seems easier idk ..