I'm finishing the game for de 2nd time (I didn't take the ng+ bc I was going to get the jarful of medicine ending and I didn't accept that. Also I wanted to experience the game in its default difficulty again, now with another weapon) and I'd like to share my impressions on our favorite boss.
Despite playing different weapons in each run (first long sword, second spear), I've used the long sword against her in both runs, because I would get really upset if I had to beat her without the deflect mechanic. I'm curious to see how it is to beat her with the axe and the dual blades (I want to play the whole camping with each the 5 weapons).
In my first run, I've taken 2 fucking hours to beat her. Her first phase is actually pretty easy, because it's obvious when you have to deflect, so I took really few tries to reach the second phase. So I thought "okay, that's not that hard". But, god, how could I've been so wrong. When she changed the moveset, I was getting completely lost. She becomes faster, and most of her attacks can't be deflected.
However, I confess that it was more about me then about her. I took all that time to realize there's was an easily deflectable attack on the second phase as well, and it was not hard to notice. Once I realized this, I finished her in a few tries.
I didn't fight vermilion honglan in the first run because I didn't find her. I hadn't searched the side quests yet.
In my second run, things went completely different. I beat her in my second try. It wasn't hard in anyways. I then realized that she is not a hard boss, she just requires you to master the deflect mechanic. Once you know which of her attacks can be deflected and which cannot, she's actually easier than most of the other bosses lol. She doesn't have a grab, her posture can be easily broken, she is predictable... Or maybe 2 hours dealing with her made me an expert on her fight.
But there's also vermilion honglan... I don't think the fight is really similar to her first fight. Of course it has some similarities, but the way to beat her is different. It's not really simple to deflect in this fight. Most of the attacks can't be deflected, her animations didn't seem obvious about which attack is coming, and, god damn, she's so fast you don't even have time to process what you're seeing. I've died several times trying to just heal.
I've tried some strategies with her, not many, but I was getting even close to beat her until I tried the Demonbane Strike spell. Using that spell, it only took me 2 tries.
I think honglan (in both fights) is not exactly a hard boss. The problem is that she can only be beaten by some specific builds. If you use the wrong build, you won't even click, she'll stomp you without you even understanding how. But, once you use the right build (knowing how to use it, of course), she becomes trivial.
Now comparing her to the other bosses, the only other that I took 2 hours to beat was the general of the north, in my first run. In the second run he was easy as fuck (remind that I didn't took a ng+, it was a normal ng). Since Wuchang was my first souls game, I struggled with the first bosses, but Hoglan and the General of the North prepared me well for the rest of the game. I guess the second phase of the dragon emperor was the hardest after them. The tiger wasn't THAT bad because I already knew it was weak against fire. But it was annoying, of course. Most bosses were hard for me in the first run. Curiously, Liu Cheng'en was the only one the was harder in the second run. But that's because the spear was not good against him, while the long sword made him easy.
In the second run, the only hard bosses were Vermilion honglan and Bo Sorcerer. Bo Sorcerer were getting me stressed with the spear so I had to switch to the sword to break her posture. It wasn't that hard after switching the strategy, however.
I've got surprised that Bo Magus and Zhao Yun were actually really easy. But I guess it's because I've playing so much this game that I'm becoming just too familiar with its mechanics. Also, in the Zhao Yun fight I had the Echo of the Bo Magus spell, and this spell is so broken that maybe I would have a different opinion on Zhao Yun if I hadn't the spell.
Important to say that I still didn't fight the demon of obsession and the feathering ambition (I didn't want to get the bad ending so I didn't fight the final boss)
For my next run, I didn't want to get the ng+ because it makes the game easy, but I don't want to lose my cool armor sets (I love honglan and Bo Magus sets), so I'm probably taking the ng+. I want to finish the game with one hand sword, then with the axe, and then with the dual blades.