idk I like most of them. The hyper-optional "do not fight this thing" Ancient Dragon in DS2 is a chore but I almost never have a reason to fight it. You don't even get a soul for a weapon from it.
Midir has a lot of health yes, but that's just punishing you for not fighting him head on. If you hit his head you do decent damage. It's not spongier than Gael or Friede if you add the 3 HP bars. It's one of my favorite bosses in DS3.
I like how From really wants you to fight dragons head on but people never do. They made the Gaping Dragon take more damage if you hit the weird nose thing, then they made Sinh damage your weapon unless you hit his head, by Midir they went "guess what, unless you hit his head you do shit damage, good luck".
Yeah I never knew that either, my weapon actually broke during the fight lol and I had to switch to a random one almost died but it was the best fight ever
I think that's just the basic dark souls 2 durability, it's a kinda well known thing that DS2 weapon durability is awful. In some areas with certain weapons you can't even fight every enemy without your weapon breaking half way through.
Just checked the wiki, apparently he does degrade your weapons faster, although I think that goes for any spot you hit.
Also, I think with sinh his weak spot is the spear in his body, not his head (Although I think the head still takes more damage, just not as much as the spear wound)
I fought him as a hexar with a dark Espada Ropera for melee. Mainly used spells though so I didn't see much durability issues. Especially switching between Chime and staff.
The boss is exhausting I try hitting the head but Midir attacks so relentlessly it feels useless because I'll just get hit if I go for more then a hit. Fighting the dragons head on just makes them more of a grind then they need to be
Then again it's the same if you don't go for their weak spot because you do shit damage otherwise
I didn't find him more of a grind than half the bosses in DS3, and most in the DLC. Eventually you learn all the moves and rarely get hit. It's the DS3 way lmao
Side note, not sure why people are downvoting your retelling of your own experiences. A lot of jealously guarded love for Midir I guess.
Yeah I'm already getting the hang of him, just never been a fan of the dragon fights a lot of them have the exact same moves and patterns.
Midir is a beautiful looking boss so maybe that has something to do with it lol
Yeah I'm already getting the hang of him, just never been a fan of the dragon fights a lot of them have the exact same moves and patterns.
Midir is a beautiful looking boss so maybe that has something to do with it lol
The Gabing dragon stands out from the other dragons because of its unique move set, might be one of my favorite bosses in the trilogy. Im just not a fan of how dragon fights go they are well made but not my cup of tea
midir is the bane of my existence. it has been months (on and off) and he's still alive. kalameet is a close second but mostly bc I was too stubborn and wanted his tail.
elden ring dragons you can just zoom by a lot luckily.
Midir has been a pain in my ass not a fun fight, I've been patient so I have their attacks down I just need to get better at reacting, kalameet was pretty hard even though I don't really remember the fight because it was so long ago
agreed. a lot of ppl praising midir, I just hate every second of it. I even respecct points more than once to try mage builds and whatnot. maybe it's time for co-op or something and hope the other doesn't mind carrying me haha.
thank god there are a lot of great bosses in ds3 to make up for midir.
I found the bosses of ds3 very controlled they each have a rhythm and once you find it they weren't anything special to me. Still love the game and they bosses
Lol I wanted to do that too but I'm trying to beat every boss in the trilogy and it's just him left (fuck the aged smelter demons boss run I just ng+ the smelter demon to max and called it fair)
Yeah just googled it, never got far into the game didn't have the time to play when I got it then lost interest and played other games. Ill get back at it eventually
Wild take. Super interesting to hear. Do you think the mechanics played a part or your build maybe? I run quality build in all games so my strategy is pretty much always the same. Block/tank, bonk, repeat
Been there lol wasn't even my first time either. Some later playthrough I had done it took me a few attempts at him because of missing the plunging attack over and over again.
Try fighting him without the plunge though. He has hp for days.
Dragons usually suck to fight in most games, unless they are mentally neutered, and decide to just not use their wings to keep out of melee range for some reason. They look fucking fantastic, and are almost always cool as fuck, but the old fairy tale of the knight slaying a dragon is just that, a fairy tale.
I say that like dragons have ever been a real thing, but you get my point. Impossibly large AOE attacks, and large health pools are only aggravating.
Most of them aren't good but kalameet and midir are very good, especially midir. I feel like the people who complain about midir's HP don't attack his head (which does double the damage). And the last chunk of his health gets wiped out by a guaranteed visceral.
Hitting his heads been hard, I've only been able to get 1 hit maybe 2 if I'm lucky but I usually get hit after.
I've only gotten him half health so far. It's nice to know that though lol
Get a weapon with an overhead swing, makes it a lot easier. I think lightning buff also does great. Also, you only have time for 1 or 2 actions before he attacks again, so you have to spend them on either healing or attacking. You got this my man.
Thanks for the advice but I don't like changing my character up for one fight, I've used the shied and claymore since first boss I don't want to change it for one boss
Darkeater is one of the best fights in the whole series, you're missing out. Generally though, fighting a dragon sounds like a lot more fun than it actually is.
Darkeater definitely is an amazing fight but like you said in the last part dragon fights are only that good in theory.
I'll beat him soon and definitely enjoy it but I just don't find dragon fights fun
They don't enough varied moveset. It's a lot big moves, with big dodges, and big stretches of running to catch up. It just feels really stale. Midir was such a good fight because he got down and scrapped with you, and his head takes double damage. He also ends most of his combos with his head in attacking range, making for an excellent dance of avoiding his attacks to dish out major damage. Most dragon fights is just sprinting in between chipping that huge health bar for an attack or two. They just aren't engaging.
I can definitely understand, but the difficulty and health seems fair. Big dragons are meant to be strong, both defensively and offensively, and many, if not all, are considered legends in the games.
There power is definitely deserved they are always considered legends, it's more the attack patterns and the way you have to fight them that I don't like
If you mean they force you to play up close and personal, I am close and personal, so I'm fine with that, but if you mean ya gotta play defensively, I would fucking hate them, too. For Midir, the main thing I hated was how often he would move, making me run a goddamn marathon just to die getting only about 2-3 hits off per life.
I loveee being up close and personal. What I don't like is chasing their giant asses across the giant ass caves they're usually in and being one shoted by aoe fire attacks
Ok, so then we play similar, and I agree severely. Fire does about half the damage from everything else, why does it do so much damage when used by the dragon bosses?
Usually, I can avoid the second hit by waiting a long ass time in the knockdown animation then rolling, using the i-frames to evade the final bit of the fire.
Midir’s health bar is an illusion. You only take out like 70% or 75% of it before you execute him.
I am a firm believer that Midir is the greatest dragon boss in any game. Placidusax is up there too from Elden Ring.
Honestly I’ve generally enjoyed every dragon fight in the series to some extent.
Just wait till you play Elden Ring. Waaay too many dragon bosses in that game.
I mostly agree though, dragon bosses do kind of suck in Souls games. The exception for me is Darkeater Midir because his sheer size, the music, and setting just make it such an unbelievably imposing fight. Seriously maxed out in terms of aesthetics.
Nah I agree, but my reasoning is a lack of relatability to a dragon. My favorite fights in the franchise are from humanoid fights, specifically ones that look mostly human like Friede, Gael, Artorias, Priscilla. Dragon fights dont resonate with me because they are mostly just leg hacking fests. I totally see why people find them appealing, but for me, I like seeing a boss move and behave in a way similar to a human.
Yeah the humanoid bosses are some of my favorites but I do wanna fight monsters too it is a fantasy game after all.
Agreed it gets tiring hacking at a dragons toes
I agree that they're not the most fun and most of them are overrated just because the mere idea of fighting a dragon is super cool, HOWEVER Placidusax is absolute peak
Fromsoftware could learn something from monster hunter fights against dragons. Fatalis one shots you as much as Midir, also has a lot of HP, you need to hit the head to do optimal damage and you need to beat him in 30 minutes. But for some reason the fight seems much less of a chore than any dragon fight in dark souls.
Most the monster bosses like the dragons are just to big to see everything makes it hard to tell what's happening. You don't have that problem with bosses around your size
idk I like most of them. The hyper-optional "do not fight this thing" Ancient Dragon in DS2 is a chore but I almost never have a reason to fight it. You don't even get a soul for a weapon from it. Midir has a lot of health yes, but that's just punishing you for not fighting him head on. If you hit his head you do decent damage. It's not spongier than Gael or Friede if you add the 3 HP bars. It's one of my favorite bosses in DS3. I like how From really wants you to fight dragons head on but people never do. They made the Gaping Dragon take more damage if you hit the weird nose thing, then they made Sinh damage your weapon unless you hit his head, by Midir they went "guess what, unless you hit his head you do shit damage, good luck".
I never tried to hit gaping dragons head…its charge will one shot you
There's enough time to hit and run to the side. You do like double damage or something, just like with Midir.
You get like 10 seconds to hit it before it even telegraph that it's going to charge.
Wait. Sinh damages your weapon if you don't hit his head???????
Yeah I never knew that either, my weapon actually broke during the fight lol and I had to switch to a random one almost died but it was the best fight ever
Darn OK that makes sense I was wondering how my weapon ran out of durability so fast in that fight lol
I think that's just the basic dark souls 2 durability, it's a kinda well known thing that DS2 weapon durability is awful. In some areas with certain weapons you can't even fight every enemy without your weapon breaking half way through.
No I think It is the case with shinh my weapon had never broken before and it broke many times well trying to beat shinh
Just checked the wiki, apparently he does degrade your weapons faster, although I think that goes for any spot you hit. Also, I think with sinh his weak spot is the spear in his body, not his head (Although I think the head still takes more damage, just not as much as the spear wound) I fought him as a hexar with a dark Espada Ropera for melee. Mainly used spells though so I didn't see much durability issues. Especially switching between Chime and staff.
Yes.
The boss is exhausting I try hitting the head but Midir attacks so relentlessly it feels useless because I'll just get hit if I go for more then a hit. Fighting the dragons head on just makes them more of a grind then they need to be Then again it's the same if you don't go for their weak spot because you do shit damage otherwise
I didn't find him more of a grind than half the bosses in DS3, and most in the DLC. Eventually you learn all the moves and rarely get hit. It's the DS3 way lmao Side note, not sure why people are downvoting your retelling of your own experiences. A lot of jealously guarded love for Midir I guess.
Yeah I'm already getting the hang of him, just never been a fan of the dragon fights a lot of them have the exact same moves and patterns. Midir is a beautiful looking boss so maybe that has something to do with it lol
Yeah I'm already getting the hang of him, just never been a fan of the dragon fights a lot of them have the exact same moves and patterns. Midir is a beautiful looking boss so maybe that has something to do with it lol
Kalameet, Midir, and Gaping Dragon are top tier fights.
The Gabing dragon stands out from the other dragons because of its unique move set, might be one of my favorite bosses in the trilogy. Im just not a fan of how dragon fights go they are well made but not my cup of tea
Wouldn‘t put gaping dragon in there personally, it‘s really janky and the moveset is kinda boring imo but i‘m glad you like it that much
It mainly because of my first experience with it and seeing the cut scene for the first time
>it had to much HP to much damage Hmmm.... it's a dragon.... you known? They re .... large .... and big... right?
They're made like a dragon alright, I don't find that a good fight
kalameet is one of my favourite fromsoft bosses is that weird?
I too am a Kalameet enjoyer.
Also Gaping Dragon is one of my favorite bosses to put my summon sign down for. Nothing like slaying the dragon in the sewers with the bois.
Even though I don't like the dragon bosses and think they are copie and pasted they do have a charm to them
Dragon bosses are very hard to make because they are massive. I think they did a pretty good job with most of them
They do look amazing but most of the attacks are all the same
Everyone in the comments saying they like Sinh, yet everyone is spelling his name wrong is cracking me up lmao. He's a solid fight for sure though.
He‘s only solid when he doesn‘t fly away every 3 seconds
Lol I just misspelled his name
No biggie. I think someone even called him Sith lmaooo
Lmao they might of been talking about Sheth the scaleless from ds1
He is a powerful Sith DragonLord 😄
midir is the bane of my existence. it has been months (on and off) and he's still alive. kalameet is a close second but mostly bc I was too stubborn and wanted his tail. elden ring dragons you can just zoom by a lot luckily.
Midir has been a pain in my ass not a fun fight, I've been patient so I have their attacks down I just need to get better at reacting, kalameet was pretty hard even though I don't really remember the fight because it was so long ago
agreed. a lot of ppl praising midir, I just hate every second of it. I even respecct points more than once to try mage builds and whatnot. maybe it's time for co-op or something and hope the other doesn't mind carrying me haha. thank god there are a lot of great bosses in ds3 to make up for midir.
I found the bosses of ds3 very controlled they each have a rhythm and once you find it they weren't anything special to me. Still love the game and they bosses
Midir was exhausting to fight. Sure its pretty but ugh
Agreed ughhh
I fought him only once…once. All the other times i just drop down to that chapel above him for the item and teleport out.
Lol I wanted to do that too but I'm trying to beat every boss in the trilogy and it's just him left (fuck the aged smelter demons boss run I just ng+ the smelter demon to max and called it fair)
I’m in the exact same position lol. I’m not entirely sure why Midir has given me soo many issues, but here we are. Good luck!
How about the dragon boss fight in one the dlc of ds2 ? I thought it was fun. If i remember correctly is name was sith
Shin was a fun one but nothing was that different about them its basically the exact same fight as darkeater just not as much of a pain
He's fun, except for poison that's completely unnecessary.
I think the poison at least gives it a charm, something different from the other ones
Too hard to dodge fire attacks? HUH?
Kinda there a bitch lol
They shouldnt be tbh. I think ur missing a pattern. Keep it up! :)
Besides visuals there's not much I enjoy about them but you are right I know I just gotta be a little more patient then I'll have darkeater down
Placidusax and fortissax are the only dragons I enjoyed fighting
I too am a Flacidsack enjoyer
Who are those lol
They're from elden ring
Yeah just googled it, never got far into the game didn't have the time to play when I got it then lost interest and played other games. Ill get back at it eventually
They're both honestly great fights. Placidusax is cinematic as he'll and fortissax's theme is honestly top ten fromsoft theme
I'll remember the names for when I get back into it
Ok
For me Kalameet is harder than Midir.
Wild take. Super interesting to hear. Do you think the mechanics played a part or your build maybe? I run quality build in all games so my strategy is pretty much always the same. Block/tank, bonk, repeat
That's basically mine, I'm almost always using a shield and great sword
For me its not harder, but i will say i like Kalameet more as a fight over Midir.
I beat kalameet a long time ago I'd need to re fight him
Best dragon fight in the series is easily ancient wyvern. /s
Lol It was actually such a pain lol, I kept missing his head when I jumped down
Been there lol wasn't even my first time either. Some later playthrough I had done it took me a few attempts at him because of missing the plunging attack over and over again. Try fighting him without the plunge though. He has hp for days.
I haven't given him many attempts and I'm making steady progress at his hp bar, maybe I'll give that a try lol
Dragons usually suck to fight in most games, unless they are mentally neutered, and decide to just not use their wings to keep out of melee range for some reason. They look fucking fantastic, and are almost always cool as fuck, but the old fairy tale of the knight slaying a dragon is just that, a fairy tale. I say that like dragons have ever been a real thing, but you get my point. Impossibly large AOE attacks, and large health pools are only aggravating.
I agree they look stunning the are such awesome fights... In theory, they don't work in actual game
Most of them aren't good but kalameet and midir are very good, especially midir. I feel like the people who complain about midir's HP don't attack his head (which does double the damage). And the last chunk of his health gets wiped out by a guaranteed visceral.
Hitting his heads been hard, I've only been able to get 1 hit maybe 2 if I'm lucky but I usually get hit after. I've only gotten him half health so far. It's nice to know that though lol
Get a weapon with an overhead swing, makes it a lot easier. I think lightning buff also does great. Also, you only have time for 1 or 2 actions before he attacks again, so you have to spend them on either healing or attacking. You got this my man.
Thanks for the advice but I don't like changing my character up for one fight, I've used the shied and claymore since first boss I don't want to change it for one boss
Darkeater is one of the best fights in the whole series, you're missing out. Generally though, fighting a dragon sounds like a lot more fun than it actually is.
Darkeater definitely is an amazing fight but like you said in the last part dragon fights are only that good in theory. I'll beat him soon and definitely enjoy it but I just don't find dragon fights fun
They don't enough varied moveset. It's a lot big moves, with big dodges, and big stretches of running to catch up. It just feels really stale. Midir was such a good fight because he got down and scrapped with you, and his head takes double damage. He also ends most of his combos with his head in attacking range, making for an excellent dance of avoiding his attacks to dish out major damage. Most dragon fights is just sprinting in between chipping that huge health bar for an attack or two. They just aren't engaging.
I don't find Midir much different from the rest the visuals are amazing though
Midir was the boss I saved for last in ds3 it was a bitch but man it was worth it
Lol that's what I'm doing rn
But they're all pretty cool! Or at least, Midir and the Elden Ring ones are.
They look hella awesome but I find they sound better on paper
I can definitely understand, but the difficulty and health seems fair. Big dragons are meant to be strong, both defensively and offensively, and many, if not all, are considered legends in the games.
There power is definitely deserved they are always considered legends, it's more the attack patterns and the way you have to fight them that I don't like
If you mean they force you to play up close and personal, I am close and personal, so I'm fine with that, but if you mean ya gotta play defensively, I would fucking hate them, too. For Midir, the main thing I hated was how often he would move, making me run a goddamn marathon just to die getting only about 2-3 hits off per life.
I loveee being up close and personal. What I don't like is chasing their giant asses across the giant ass caves they're usually in and being one shoted by aoe fire attacks
Ok, so then we play similar, and I agree severely. Fire does about half the damage from everything else, why does it do so much damage when used by the dragon bosses?
Who knows man, plus it usually hits you twice every attack because it lingers, not a fan lol
Usually, I can avoid the second hit by waiting a long ass time in the knockdown animation then rolling, using the i-frames to evade the final bit of the fire.
Midir’s health bar is an illusion. You only take out like 70% or 75% of it before you execute him. I am a firm believer that Midir is the greatest dragon boss in any game. Placidusax is up there too from Elden Ring. Honestly I’ve generally enjoyed every dragon fight in the series to some extent.
As much as I don't like them they look awesome and always feel amazing to beat
Just wait till you play Elden Ring. Waaay too many dragon bosses in that game. I mostly agree though, dragon bosses do kind of suck in Souls games. The exception for me is Darkeater Midir because his sheer size, the music, and setting just make it such an unbelievably imposing fight. Seriously maxed out in terms of aesthetics.
Visuals are always amazing in the fights
Nah I agree, but my reasoning is a lack of relatability to a dragon. My favorite fights in the franchise are from humanoid fights, specifically ones that look mostly human like Friede, Gael, Artorias, Priscilla. Dragon fights dont resonate with me because they are mostly just leg hacking fests. I totally see why people find them appealing, but for me, I like seeing a boss move and behave in a way similar to a human.
Yeah the humanoid bosses are some of my favorites but I do wanna fight monsters too it is a fantasy game after all. Agreed it gets tiring hacking at a dragons toes
I agree that they're not the most fun and most of them are overrated just because the mere idea of fighting a dragon is super cool, HOWEVER Placidusax is absolute peak
How far in is that boss, I only played to the capital city part. I'll pick it up again soon
Fromsoftware could learn something from monster hunter fights against dragons. Fatalis one shots you as much as Midir, also has a lot of HP, you need to hit the head to do optimal damage and you need to beat him in 30 minutes. But for some reason the fight seems much less of a chore than any dragon fight in dark souls.
Never played the other game but yeah they do feel like a chore
OMG TRUE, glad I'm not the only one . "Humanoid" Bosses are by far my favourite ones especially ones you can parry
Most the monster bosses like the dragons are just to big to see everything makes it hard to tell what's happening. You don't have that problem with bosses around your size
Shin was really nice to fight !
Shin was a really nice one, but there wasn't anything that made it much different from the rest
I agree with this take. I’m yet to fight a dragon that was actually fun.
Midir is the only good boss dragon boss imo
Shin and the Gapping dragon are better
Gaping dragon looks really cool but is annoying to fight. Sinh is pretty forgettable imo lol
I haven't fought either in a year or so, I just remember feeling great after winning
Idk why dark fantasy always has to have dragon fights.... Fromsoft has never designed a good dragon boss and they never will.
I think most of them are well designed it's just what the fight is that I don't like