Ultimate guide for those having trouble with Malenia still:
- When she hangs in the air slowly, she's about to do her rapid fire attack. You can't dodge it, you need to RUN away. The first bursts of attacks will fail to keep up with you. Then she'll leap forward to catch up. Dodge TOWARDS her as she comes at you, and keep moving that way. Her last bursts of attack will fail to track you as you pass behind her. It may seem like the most bullshit attack ever, but it's actually 100% dodgable if you do this.
- She has very low poise. Don't R1 her, use R2s, jumping R2s, and weapon arts to keep her staggered. This will also give you stance breaks after several hits for even more damage. If you have one of the launcher weapon arts like Stamp, you can even toss her into the air like a ragdoll, which is absolutely hilarious, leaving her extremely vulnerable when she hits the ground. If you decide to use a summon or other players, try to time your attacks to hit one after the other, in order to take advantage of the stagger. Her poise is so low that if you have two other players, it's actually possible to stunlock her for her entire healthbar in both phases.
- She is super parryable. Don't be afraid, you can use the buckler parry or golden parry to make it super easy, just wait to see her melee attack animations starting and press L2. She takes a couple parries to break her stance (kind of like a Sekiro boss), but then you get the riposte for massive damage.
- In phase two, you should be very happy when she does her big flower AoE attack. All you need to do is run back, wait for her to land, and then pile on ranged damage from a safe distance, since she's vulnerable and completely locked in place while she's in the flower. If you're a pure melee character, consider bringing some throwing items that scale well with your stats or a ranged weapon art, so you can take advantage of this.
- She has no resistance to physical thrusting damage, and low elemental resistance to bleed and cold. If you feel like you just need more damage, consider upgrading weapons that will give you these damage types, or just slather some bleed/frost butter on your favorite weapon, if it doesnt have an innate element. Do not try to use poison, rot, or death. Sleep kind of works, but it's not worth it imo.
- Lastly, don't put your back up against the wall. Keep moving, and if you get the chance to stagger HER when she's up against the wall, take it. She can get caught against the edges of the arena when she trys to do her sidesteps after you hit her, which will mean she goes nowhere, and stays right in front of you for another easy hit.
She is definitely one of the harder bosses, but honestly, a lot of that difficulty is just intimidation factor. Once you try specific strategies rather than reaction panick rolling, she becomes very doable for players of any skill level. Don't get tilted!
My biggest disappointment is the music. I can immediately think of a ton of it from the DS series and Bloodborne, but nothing except the main theme springs to mind for ER.
Not just the main theme. Godrick's theme is amazing, Malenia phase 2 is beautiful, Ancestor Spirit's music is fantastic. Final bosses all have great music, although part of that is a version of the main theme.
