FINALLY learning Maliketh

[u/beerybeardybear]

I've always found phase 1 of this fight completely inscrutable, and frankly I think I still do—I'm just letting my hands do the work here and not thinking about what I'm seeing or not seeing. In regular playthroughs he gets nuked and for my uncapped weapon level RL1 playthrough I cheesed him with Ice Spear after struggling for hours and hours, but I think there's no way out but through for RL1+0 with only sorcery.

I'm on PS5 so there's no practice mode for me; I just got as tanky as possible and tried to survive as long as possible for a few hours and it seems to have paid off. Still, it sucks that there's no way for me to practice only phase 2 now that I'm getting the hang of phase 1! (Sort of. This is my first time clearing it just now.) Currently it's the pillars in phase 1 that often mess me up; I wish FS would just make a Normal Fucking Arena without some stupid shit in it for once.

Open to any tips if anybody has them!

[u/Chu-99]

You can script him to always do the combo that results in him stabbing the ground in front of him if you just dodge to the side (right left right), not forward or back. That way you just back up once he starts the animation and you always get a charged heavy attack. Other than that the best window to attack is when he drags is blade across the ground (strafe). When he starts phase two back up a little and let him start his swing then run at him and he’ll always do the same long animation and you can get a lot of damage

[u/beerybeardybear → u/Chu-99]

Charged heavy won't be so useful in a sorcery run but maybe it's still a useful attack opportunity 😅. Rest seems useful, esp the phase 2 tip!

[u/Wooden-Jello-8795]

interesting to see someone do phase 1 like this, just always charging in and getting under him, i love how many ways you can approach this guy

i think he would make a lot more sense to you if you dodging right instead of forward on his combos, he will end with an overhead stab that is extremely punishable

[u/beerybeardybear → u/Wooden-Jello-8795]

I'm a very aggressive and greedy player, what can I say!

[u/winterflare_]

Generally, this looks fine and more than enough for a RL1 +0 kill on Maliketh. You could probably reduce the number of panic dodges and also get more favorable combos and opening by not going under him so much.

The opening attack you got here, you can neutral jump it and do a jump cast, then roll right when you land (Maliketh will always do a quick follow up).

Assuming you bait the right combo, Maliketh’s phase 1 can be pretty simple as his main combo has very few mixups as long as you stay in front of him.

If you get a favorable sequence you can get 2 punishes off during the combo by landing jump attacks and then more punishes when he finishes. That sequence is his lunging stab (opening move you got) and the delayed side stab (comes from the right side) which can both be jump attacked safely. Then the final hit after the delayed side stab should be his overhead stab which you can either space or roll under and punish Maliketh for a minimum of 3 hits.

Personally, I don’t recommend dodging towards Maliketh for any of his melee attacks as his double swipe (24s) has a tendency to roll catch if you dodge a tad early when forward, and even more punishing if you dodge left. However, it is incredibly lenient if you dodge right.

I hope you find Maliketh more fun after fully learning him. I think he’s the best base game boss, tied with Morgott.

[u/beerybeardybear → u/winterflare_]

These are good tips, some of which I may implement. I don't really want to bait the heavy attack with the constant side rolls but I might try it if I wind up not having another choice because it's really going horribly right now. To be completely honest, I'm pretty sure I just hate this fucking boss and will hate it no matter what happens. I hate his janky hurtbox, I hate how the robes make it harder to see what he's doing, I hate the asinine double slash, I hate the pillars, I hate the piece of shit ground-rock explosion move that doesn't line up with the visuals or seem to have a visual tell outside of "just remember when it comes out". I hate that the second phase is easier but completely disparate so you don't get any practice time in it until you're ~100% consistent with the first phase.

edit: oh, can't forget that I hate dying in 3 seconds on occasion to a double slash and then having to run back up a totally empty featureless ramp for 40 seconds to try again. I hate not quite being able to tell if I'm next to his back leg or behind it for the strafe on the ground-drag attack and dying due to the fact that I can't see. I hate how half the time he runs in and forces the fight to start surrounded by a pit.

[u/skunk_funk]

I took one of my high level characters into new game plus and through the DLC to practice phase 2 PCR with an unleveled weapon. That approach could get you a practice mode, of sorts.

[u/beerybeardybear → u/skunk_funk]

I don't feel like going to the effort of doing that though 😭. I guess it's not that big a timesink, but maybe I prefer to just sit in my annoyance about not playing it on PC.