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| Elden Ring **CHALLENGED**
YES INDEED, gather round young bumfires this is my tale | | 1 |  | Talking Heads
Remain in Light
THE CHALLENGE:
Every boss I fight can *only* be attacked using a weapon skill assigned with an Ash of War. L1, R1 and R2 are banned.
Only L2 is allowed (*unless* this has a skill-specific follow-up with R1 or R2, in which case fair game).
No inherent weapon skills are allowed! Only Ashes of War found as drops or obtained in the game can be used to determine a weapon skill! If a weapon can't be modified with Ashes of War, it's a no-go!
No strict rule on summons, but I will avoid them unless otherwise noted.
And now the best part - **each Ash of War can only be used on one boss** ! That's it - after a victory, it goes off the weapon and into the item box. Byebye!
The GOAL is to complete the game (i.e. kill the Elden Beast) but uh something something MaleniaMohgAstel extra bonus points yeah okay | | 2 |  | Talking Heads
More Songs About Buildings and Food
I literally never use Ashes of War for anything usually, and since this EPIC QUEST requires me to make us of, uh, almost every viable one of them and a few outside choices, consider this an extended questly REVIEW for your own Elden Ringing needs and strats. Some good strats have emerged so far - and some terrible ones. So uh without further ado lfg listisjams? Bosses are in roughly the order they were killed | | 3 |  | Hum
Downward Is Heavenward
Margit
AoW: Impaling Thrust
What it do: Big normal stab attack with decent poise damage and a sexy animation
My early game was a pretty rushed experience running around Limgrave and grabbing as many viable ashes as possible - I wanted a fair fight against Margit, which meant not overlevelling and not deliberately using a trash ash against him on the conservative save-the-best-for-endgame ethos that would guide literally all bosses hereafter.
Impaling Thrust isn't exactly op, but as its speed and power were both roughly equivalent to fighting with R2 only, I'd say it's viable for the majority of bosses in general. It certainly felt balanced for Margit - he put up a good fight and I had to watch his openings more carefully than usual, but he went down without any major issues.
Strategy rating: 6/10. Good ash, but the whole point of a first compulsory boss is to confirm you know how to use R1 properly. Fighting Margit without it felt wrong somehow. | | 4 |  | Unwound
Repetition
Godrick
AoW: Spinning Strikes
What it do: helicopter spear go whirr around your head
I... still don't know how good/bad this ash is lol. I found my character was a little underlevelled after Margit, and with no bosses to kill (was not risking wasting ashes this early on) and no inclination to farm, I took the easy way out and slaughtered sad dad Edgar for his Banished Knight's Halberd +8. As a surprise freebie, this came with the Strikes ash already slapped on (default for this weapon is Charge Ahead or whatever).
I'd heard a minimum of outright positive things about this ash, so figured I'd hold onto my strongest options (Unsheathe and Wild Strikes at this point) and see what it could do. Poor Godfrey got royally shredded - he gives you so many openings that this spin-to-win ash had a lot of scope against him. Is it secretly underrated, or was this just a lucky pairing on an overlevelled weapon? Uh...
Strategy rating: 7/10. This was a high risk/decent reward ash, and Godfrey left himself open too often. Very easy to get greedy, but once I had a clear sense of how much I could get away with, this was a neat fit | | 5 |  | Tom Waits
Rain Dogs
Crystalian (Liurnia Mine)
AoW: Ground Slam
What it do: hit ground mak earthquak
Given the high probability of having to upgrade alternative weapons in the game, the smithing stone store you get from this guy was a must. This ash would have been entirely useless against literally any other boss om the list in an evenly levelled fight but uh yep, pretty sure the whole thing was over in 3-4 hits RIP
Strategy rating: 10/10 ngl this was the only point where I felt I'd straight up insulted the game | | 6 |  | Spangle Call Lilli Line
Purple
Red Wolf of Radagon
AoW: Spinning Slash
What it do: it is a slash in a semicircle in front of you!!!
No fancy bullshit here - this boss is fast and has low healthy, so I was happy to pick up a modestly decent AoW and use it in as close a fashion as I could to standard R1 spam wherever openings appeared. Took a few shots to nail the timings, but I soon rang the the death kennel for ginger doge lfg
Strategy rating: 5/10 this is literally the same as every fight you've ever had with this boss, just slightly clunkier. Nothing beats R1. | | 7 |  | Life Without Buildings
Any Other City
Rennala
AoW: Charge Forth
What it do: drop your spear to waist height, point it forward and GO GO GO
Rennala was uhhh a little scary on paper, since it was still early enough for me to be worried about FP - didn't want to sacrifice too many flasks to FP restoring flasks, but her minions in Phase 1 obviously ate up a ton of my bar (especially since Ashes of War aren't really the ones for dps, meaning that it took me on average THREE tries to kill her phase 1 form - that's 9 hits on her minions and about the same on herself!)
I chose Charge Forth purely because it has a lowish FP cost and I didn't expect its long animation to be viable against harder bosses. I therefore can't take credit for coming up with THE PERFECT COUNTER to Rennala, but holy fuck this melted her.
First up, since the ash involves a physical attack, you can still use it for decreased damage even at zero FP (not exactly an issue for the minions) - so no need to waste any cerulean tears before phase 2. More importantly though, in phase 2 this ash knocks Rennala flat EACH AND EVERY TIME it makes impact, meaning that she was essentially perma-stunlocked and the harder part of the fight turned into a straight cakewalk as soon as I landed the first blow. Saw this ash as a liability at first (and still do for other fights), but it was so effective for this strat that I'd consider it canon to any version of this run anyone tries from now on)
Strategy rating: 10/10 this should be the only way to fight Rennala | | 8 |  | Midori
Second
General Radahn
AoW: Barrage
What it do: get bow shoot arrow fast go many arrow short time
Uh yeah no apologies for this one, I cheesed the hell out of Radahn with a mix of poison and bog standard arrows and the hardest part of this fight was getting on and off my horse. He's the only boss in ER where the (NPC) summoning element feels balanced and well-integrated - love the pressure he puts you under when you have to resummon your army, and he holds his own against them to the point that it never feels like a cheese as long as you take every opportunity you get to dish out your own damage - boy did I. Died early on from a stupid mistake on my first try, melted him on the second.
Strategy rating: 8/10. Barrage's and speed were a great counter to Radahn, can't rate any higher given that I used summons, but I'd be down to try soloing him with this strat in a future run | | 9 |  | Neko Case
Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
Draconic Sentinel
AoW: Mighty Shot
What it do: shoot an arrow it is mighty
Cheesiest shit of all time lfg. Fighting this guy on foot with anything other than the fastest ashes in the game was an absolute no-go (though in hindsight, I might have tried Hoarfrost Stomp on him hmm). Both bows in general and poison very specifically become decreasingly useful as the game progresses, so this seemed an opportunity to put the second of the two viable bow ashes to good use. I think I got it the right way round with this for Draconicboi and Barrage for Radahn - Mighty Shot is a great ash for sniping, and with the range extension talisman, I pulled off a solid hitjob here. Onwards onwards
Strategy rating: 7/10. Not the most efficient, but certainly effective and low risk. I used regular arrows for extra damage instead of relying purely on poison - fight wasn't boring as such | | 10 |  | advantage Lucy
Fanfare
Royal Knight Loretta
AoW: Spinning Weapon
What it do: hold your weapon directly in front of you and make it rotate like a propeller
Loretta was yet another minor boss where I didn't want to waste a serious ash, and Spinning Weapon has trivial enough reputation that I figured I'd get rid of it. This fight was... fine. I know her moveset fairly well and there are plenty of openings, so while this wasn't exactly a great strategy, the fight posed little issue. Don't remember much about it.
Strategy rating: 5/10. No great merit to this skill, no great inconvenience. Was just glad this skill was useful for anything at all. | | 11 |  | Portishead
Dummy
Night's Cavalry (Liurnia South)
AoW: Gravitas
What it do: magical blue stabby stabby into the ground, creating a low damage 360 degree AoE attack (with extra damage if close to the epicentre) and pulling all enemies caught by the blast closer to you
OKAY SO a lot of people rag on this ash/gravity magic in general for being a situational gimmick spell, and my response is YES but have you ever tried taking on the entirety of Fort Faroth with it at level 30 (do this! it's tricky but a whole lot of fun, felt like I was playing Skyrim or some shit - one of the freshest moments of the playthrough). Yeah!
Entertaining as Gravitas was throughout the early game, its damage and optimum range are far too low to be viable against serious bosses, so I decided to use it on this horse bozo in exchange for the very much op Ice Spear AoW he drops. I was overlevelled for him at this point, but it still took a few tries - all I had to do was duck his flail and blast (it just next to) his horse's arse, and next thing anyone knew there was blue magical gunk everywhere and the boi was on the ground. Took a bit longer than usual obviously, but as deliberately inefficient strats with (I'm so sorry baby) throwaway ashes go, this was pretty painless.
Strategy rating: 4/10. Although the gravitational force of the spell was a modestly smart counter to the boss' mobility, this is a stupid fucking way to fight a cavalry boss when in any other scenario you can just get your own horse. Still very fun, no regrets. | | 12 |  | Killing Joke
Extremities, Dirt & Various Repressed Emotions
Mimic Tear
AoW: Storm Stomp
What it do: you stomp the ground and it makes a gust! Which deals the world's lowest ever AoE damage lfg
This one was hysterical. No shame about it - I went into this fight unarmed and naked so that I could cheese the Mimic and put one of my otherwise totally inviable garbage ashes to good use. Although the Mimic Tear is optional, I wanted him out the way so that a) I could carry on with Ranni's quest and offload one of my slow ashes onto Astel and b) I could pick up the Black Whetblade in case I needed bleed weapons later on.
This was by far the longest fight I've ever had with him, and also the lowest risk - the biggest issue with this fight wasn't so much his damage (his fists literally made no impact on my health bar) and more the risk of running out of FP. Watching him play hopscotch as I windquaked his unclad arse was an, uh, unique experience that has probably boosted my love for this boss as a whole. Get you a game that lets you footfart your naked clone to death.
Strategy rating: 1/10 for practicality, 10/10 for meme value | | 13 |  | Crystal Castles
Crystal Castles II
Godfrey Golden Spirit Boi
AoW: Glintstone Pebble
What it do: shoot magic pleb spell dart
Am I running out of cheese uh uh uh shit. Conserving worthwhile ashes that don't leave me open to an immediate counterattack from heavy bosses who can dish it out quicksharp and have tiny openings (UGH this game and its entire second half) is taking its TOLL on my integrity.
Strategy rating: 7/10. Half of you have probably done this already. It's viable and easy and very fucking boring and it stucks | | 14 |  | Sweet Trip
Velocity : Design : Comfort
Godskin Apostle (Caelid Divine Tower)
AoW: Hoarfrost Stomp
What it do: you stomp the ground and a frosty pattern sweeps ahead of you at an arc of approx 90ish degrees. Inflicts frostbite buildup and then explodes for AoE damage
Ngl this was a massive error - firstly in that the reason I took on this totally optional boss in the first place was that I misremembered it as dropping the Black Flame Tornado AoW (you get this from the Godskin Duo), secondly because I did not even have a concrete plan for what to do with Black Flame Tornado if I did get it, and thirdly because I underestimated how useful Hoarfrost Stomp would be and kinda wasted it on this boss.
As some of y'all will remember, Hoarfrost Stomp used to be the gamebreaking AoW speed runners were using soon after release, but then Fromsoft nerfed it into the ground - poise damage and damage damage are small fry now, the point that I assumed it would be inviable for endgame bosses and saw the Apostle (whose moveset isn't exactly prohibitive for a solo run) as a fair trade - I initially tried to get "liability" slow cast AoWs like Storm Assault and Loretta's Slash out of the way on him, but he was able to counterattack too quickly for this to work without waiting for uncommon openings.
Hoarfrost Stomp actually worked like a charm - it wasn't exactly the fastest for dps, but its fast cast speed, relatively safe casting distance, low FP cost and wide AoE area easily made up for this - the Apostle often tried to dodge it, only to land on the edge of its range, and phase two (where he tends to stay still and power up diva attacks) was hardly an issue. I wonder if this was actually the ash to use for Morgott - he moves around way more, sure, but his low hp wouldn't be able to handle the stomp. As it was, I traded a highly convenient ash for a nice but not nearly as convenient 95k runes. Meh.
Strategy rating: 7/10. Took a bit of patience and demanded high familiarity with his moveset, but this was low risk and reliable damage. Would recommend - just not for this challenge run. | | 15 |  | Massive Attack
Mezzanine
Morgott, King of the Gnomes
AoW: Spectral Lance
What it do: you throw a ghost javelin. damage is not good, but range and poise reduction are big
AoW #2: Poisonous Mist
What it do: you make a cloud - it is mist! poison.
Ugggggggggggggh up until now this run had felt more like a fun gimmick than a masochistic challenge, but holy shit did this turn the tables.
As the game's final midway hurdle, Morgott basically takes a highly versatile moveset, a ridiculous level of mobility and an aggressive af AI, balances it with a relatively modest healthbar, and asks the player if they're able to deal a LOT of damage very quickly. Those who answer in the affirmative (ie anyone with a well-levelled weapon and access to both R1 and R2 buttons) will find him a brisk skill check - anyone else gets to find out why this fight is designed as anything but an endurance gauntlet. Morgott spams too much too fast to favour attritional strats, and his relentlessness, combo spam, and absolute paucity of meaningful openings all mark the first major case of ER's tendency to actively require split aggro for a balanced fight (aka summon or die). This is a running theme for most of its iconic lategame fights and is single handedly responsible for the mediocrity of its boss roster compared to any of the three FromSoft games that precede it. Ugh.
As a cocky boi weighing up a strategy, I had to make a decision here - treat Morgott as a serious threat and sacrifice a precious dps-oriented ash like Unsheathe or Double Slash (or a still more precious big hitter like Lion's Claw or Flaming Strike), or make the most of his not unreasonable health bar and ensure I had all the right tools at my disposal for the Fire Giant and Godskin Duo (both SCARY fights for this run - don't even start on Malekith, Malenia, Mogh or Godfrey 2). I chose to suffer here so that I'd suffer just a tiny bit less later on.
I initially tried to face Morgott with slow melee ashes like Storm Assault and Loretta's Slash, but these were far too unreliable - the guy's openings are crazy tight and he was able to counter me practically every hit. Ranged combat it was - I tried Glintblade Phalanx, which essentially turned the fight into a dodge simulator, but this didn't do enough damage and I couldn't cope with the bullshit he dishes out in phase 2. I liked how reliably Glintblade Phalanx staggered him though, so I switched to Spectral Lance (which has solid poise damage and iirc the longest range of any spell ash) and used Poisonous Mist on a dagger in my second slot to make up for the spell's damage. Morgott both staggers and poisons fairly easily, so with a little attention I was able to wait until he got close before landing the staggering hit and use the opportunity to seethe at him with my misty misty dagger and also the majority of my irl pores
To say this was torturous would be the world's rankest understatement, and I have already suffered too much for this shit to learn a new language or accidentally break a record over it. Fuck. I haven't had this frustrating a time on a Souls game since the Blood-starved Beast forced me to unlearn all my DS1/2 vet turtle reflexes and I ragequit Bloodborne for multiple months. On paper, my strat is just about viable, but it requires you to maintain control of boss distance and the flow of combat more often than not. I got it to work reliably for Phase 1, and THANK FUCK because Phase 2 melted me over and over for well over 4 hrs. Aggression has a lot to do with it, but the simple fact that Phase 2 Morgott is far more prone to dodge ranged attacks put paid to any advantage I might otherwise have been able to maintain. Even at level 75(ish) and with the Banished Knight's Halberd at +16, my odds of getting him below 75% health were less than 1 in 5. My final battle had me scoring a lucky stagger at just above the 75% mark and layering on poison just in time to make sure the fight was winnable as a survival challenge - even then, he spammed me on the ropes for the entirety of his remaining 20%, drained my entire healing supply and was easily capable of one-hitting me at the last. I stood my ground and used one last spear to headshot him just before the poison ran its course. If he had killed me before it landed, I probably would have caved and summoned Melina. Fuck.
Strategy rating: 2/10. Will give this strat on point each for a) being somewhat original, and b) somehow ultimately working, but if you ever try this run, ignore everything I've said and Lion's Claw this bitch the moment you encounter him. This was not worth it. PAIN. | | 16 |  | Neko Case
Blacklisted
Fire Giant
AoW: Wild Strikes
What it do: swing your weapon round and round and round many times, huge hyperarmour, low FP cost big damage
Soooo while not quite in the same category of FEAR as those to come, the Fire Giant had been hanging over me this whole run as the biggest endurance test I was likely to face - which is scary because longer fights need more heals, but also more FP restores, so I was ready for some serious flask pressure. The Fire Giant leaves some of the easiest openings in the game in phase 1, but phase 2 requires something fast enough to get away with dive bombing him over and over. Hmm
The reality of it was not nearly as bad as I worried - after an unsuccessful trial with Stormcaller (doesn't have the right damage), I beefed up the Lordsworn Greatsword and slapped on a community fav AoW that I have literally never even thought of using before because lol that flailing animation do be goofy. Phase 1 was a pushover - my worries about not being to attack from horseback quickly dissipated as soon as I realised how easy it is to dodge him from the ground, and after a little practice to hone my intuition and reflexes as to where and when his hovering fireballs were likely to explode, I found myself coasting through this in 1-2 mins a try. Wild Strikes just doesn't let up, and he leaves himself open for so long that I got some insane combos out of him.
Phase 2 is always a nightmare with this boi, but I realised how to play it more aggressive than usual (turns out you can just hug him when he goes volcano mode, if you're smart enough to dodge the firestorm he casts beforehand - which is much easier if you're not on horseback, ie a smaller target). I had my weapon on bleed affinity, so this was all about maintaining pressure for the occasional big burst of damage. Required fluid switching between horseback and foot, and I died a few times from cockiness and poor judgement of distance, but he went down without too much stress
Strategy rating: 6/10. Would actively recommend this for Phase 1; not the most practical for Phase 2 - other than his punishable volcano window, horseback + R1 is still the way for this | | 17 |  | Pram
Helium
Astel Borne Plutonium Methhead
AoW: Stamp (Sweep)
What it do: stamp the ground, go into power mode, do a sweeping forward slash
I've always considered Astel the easiest of the late game bosses (including Loretta, though maybe ignoring Gideon), so I went for a solid-damage slowish-use AoW that I didn't think enjoyed any specific advantage against anyone - I was right, and this restored a very welcome measure of difficulty to an encounter I'm used by now to breezing through.
Astel is best fought with a dps build, which this strat was decidedly the opposite of. Whoops. Landing hits was possible, but I had to be on constant tenterhooks to dodge whatever magic-based counter he had lined up (his huge gravity AoE was a constant fear, though I got pretty sharp at dodging this - rings of darkness, not so much). My stamina bar was a struggle at points, maintaining pressure on him was rough given how easily he punished even the slightest botched timings (that stamp wind-up is agonising!) and I ended up a LOT of damage for what proved a battle of attrition. High pressure! High thrills! I won after a few shots simply because he leaves too many punishable openings, but this gave me more of a workout than I expected and I'm glad for it.
Strategy: 4/10. If you're gonna fight Astel heavy-style, use a stronger or faster option (Lion's Claw would completely flip the table). Stamp was the worst of all worlds, but can't say I regret it. | | 18 | | Water From Your Eyes
Everyone’s Crushed
Commander Niall
AoW: Storm Blade
What it do: shoot a blast of wind from moderate range. Then another. And another. It is an air gun
This guy seems neither particularly regarded nor feared by the community, but shit fucking damn he almost singled handedly killed my last challenge run (Do Not Ever Pick Up An Item -mode) and I find his lightning a pain to deal with. Easy with fast weapons, not so much with slow ones - his openings are many, but almost always brief. Conversely, I've always found the difficulty of the knight posers he summons at the start a tad overstated.
Working out a strat for this was a bit muddy - I gave Stormcaller a shot at first, but while it trivialised the summons (recommended!), it was to slow to punish him reliably and too low damaging to end the fight fast enough. I then tried Raptor of the Mists as a wildcard (disastrous) and then grabbing the Greatsword from Caelid and seeing what it could do with Stamp (Upward Slash). This was epic! I was able to dominate the early fight - enough to realise that of the two summoned knights, only dual swords guy is dangerous (his partner is a turtling little chickenshit and can be largely ignored). If you leave one knight alive, Niall won't go until lightning mode until he hits half health (and getting him there becomes a breeze because he plays very defensive). Stamp was a bit slow to damage him and then dodge reliably, but my hits were so big that it wasn't an issue trading damage.
I could probably have won this way after just one or tries, but then I realise that Stamp was a pretty viable AoW for a whole load of bosses, and that Niall was one of the last bosses in the game with AI incapable of dodging, so my conservative brain took over, my macho Stamp ash got replaced with a cowardly wind bullet, and I ended up cheesing Niall to his grave.
This was not the hardest, especially with the strat of lolling only one summon, but it wasn't much fun either. Damage was reliable and cheap, but pretty slow too, and although the range allowed for risk-free hits, Niall pretty much exclusively attacked me via jump attacks, so a lot of tight dodge timings were needed. Not the most satisfying victory, but at least this ash got some good use.
Strategy rating: 5/10. Weird blend of easy and inconvenient. The fast cast time was pretty great, but it wasn't an enjoyable fight. Viable if you ever need a cheese for this fight, but I'd honestly just use a bow or normal magic | | 19 |  | McKinley Dixon
Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?
Godskin Dodo
AoW: Bloody Slash
What it do: a bloody fuckin slash
From this point, we are cracking out the big guns, and oooh baby, Bloody Slash is S-tier. Got me a sexy snakey Nagakiba to use it on, and with a measely 15 ARC (the only stat is scales off), I was doing 1200 damage a hit - that's 6 hits per Godskin Flunky. Here we fucking go...
Needless to say, this fight is still one of the hardest in the game - one small mistake can end it all at any given point, especially given that every use of Bloody Slash requires a not insignificant chunk of your own HP (though it somewhat makes up for this with a miniscule FP cost - I only needed one cerulean flask for this whole fight). Bloody Slash has good but not luxurious range, and I was trading damage for pretty much the whole fight - there was some proper anime-style MESS going down there. It was a race... AGAINST TIME!
Bottom line is that I did top much damage for this to be the hardest version of this fight - haven't found it so manageable without summons since I tried it with Comet Azur. Over 50% of my deaths were in the first 20 seconds as I tried to hit a ballsy opening - the majority of the others were when I had killed the Apostle and went toe to toe with the Noble (who I've never had cause to master in the same way). I kept going - it was just a matter of time...
Strategy: 8/10. Can't rate any higher given how careful you have to be with the AoW health, drain, but the damage and FP off this thing were godlike. Mix this AoW with jump attacks and you'll make short work of these bunks | | 20 |  | Murcof
Remembranza
Malekith the Black Blade
AoW: Lion's Claw
What it do: forward flip that finishes with a vertical weapon slam. more practical than it has any right to be, insane hyperarmour
Okay, so this on paper was bloody scary, but bearing in mind that a) I had access to regular weapon reinforcement up to +24 thanks to the smithing stone dropped by the Duo and b) I was siting on something like 6 Larval Tears, this is where I was really able to start hacking the game. Up comes the Greatsword, down go the smithing stones, away goes my ragtag build (up til now it had been Vigor an Strength first, Mind and Dex second, and a lot of stray points plugged into Int and Arc to help proc bleed or frostbite), and one respec later, my character is an absolute monster of a strength build with above-average FP pool. From this point onwards, my defence (inherent defence stats scale HIGH with strength) is high enough to trade hits with most bosses, and my hits are doing huge damage.
The Beastpriest was a fairly reliable win as such - most of my hits did end up as damage trades, but with a little aggression I was able to end his part of the fight quickly. Lion's Claw has deceptively fast speed and decent range, and given that I was doing 1k damage a hit, the main challenge here was less survival than using too many flasks on stupid mistakes. Malekith himself is obviously one of the hardest fights in the game - you go hard on him, end the fight as soon as possible or die, and often die anyway because his speed and ranged attack are both obscene and landing hits is never a given. It took me a few shots to work out what the right windows to CONNECT my attacks were, but once I got there he melted. Two hits and he staggered, one more and he was on the ropes, one more - endgame. Phew.
Strategy rating: 7/10. This AoW is so good that I can't not recommend it, but I don't think it had any specific advantage against the Beast. There's no easy strat for Malekith, but taking him on with this ash alone is definitely an option you should consider if struggling - just make sure you use a thicc weapon | | 21 |  | Citrus
Pits Are the Pits (25 Gold = Rare = Debris...
Loretta Knight of the Haligtree
AoW: Flame of the Redmanes
What it do: big frontal arc flame AoE
This was another fun fight! Loretta has a very balanced moveset but just isn't strong enough to give most players at this point in the game a run for their money - similar to the Carian Manor version, I played this as a dodge-heavy battle of attrition and ended up appreciating the design more than usual.
The original plan was to finally get rid of Stormcaller here, but going close quarters against a highly mobile boss turned out to be a no-go given the low damage output. Flame of the Redmanes (previously a terror of PvE, but since nerfed into the floor similarly to Hoarfrost Stomp) was another ash I'd been looking to get rid of, and since fire damage scales with strength for whatever reason, I figured it was time to make use of my hulk build while it lasted. The results were pretty good tbh - 500ish damage a hit, and solid range. I suffered at first from playing the fight too conservatively, but Loretta has many more punishable openings that I initially realised - after a few touch and go runs, I was keeping her on constant pressure through the first half and holding my own through the second. Her moveset is pretty easy to learn, but this was as much about knowing how long her cast times were as knowing where to dodge. Good fight, felt my skills were thoroughly but fairly tested.
Strategy rating: 6/10. Flame of the Redmanes allows you to keep a safe distance at points and can be used often enough to maintain great pressure if you know what you're doing, but the skill floor here is quite high and the damage is low enough that you've got to be able to hold out confidently. Viable but not necessarily recommended | | 22 |  | Drexciya
Harnessed The Storm
Gideon High Priest of the Incels
AoW: Stormcaller
What it do: make a whirlwind AoE around your character, doing recurrent damage and staggering any humanoids within its reach
Not gonna lie, I had no long-term plan for this guy, and Stormcaller was a last minute improvisation when I remembered he existed. I've gone on a lot about this ash a lot throughout this list because I think it's underrated and almost viable for a lot of significant boss encounters - two big reasons for this! First, its dps is excellent for an AoE ash, and its FP cost is pretty low, but more importantly, it's a rare AoE that does pure physical damage and hits repeatedly. This means that whatever scaling, status or type adjustments you make to your weapon apply directly to the AoW damage - as opposed to the majority of AoWs, which scale off a) your base damage and b) whatever stats would normally determine their damage type. This meant that if I was using it on the Nagakiba (which has inherent bleed buildup) with the cold affinity, I would proc both haemorrhage and frostbite just by standing next to whichever enemy!
This was less useful against large foes with generous openings than I'd hoped (ctrl+f Stormcaller for unsuccessful attempts), but using it on my Greatsword with blood affinity against an enemy as flimsy as Gideon meant that I could stunlock trap him like a rat whenever I got close to him and shred his health at a pace of my choosing. His AI is very hyperactive and oh boi does he love to dodge when I spam this (this offers next to no actual protection if I'm close enough but is highly gratifying to watch), so this fight was mainly a matter of watching him run away and then closing the gap as quickly as I could. Get him against a wall, and oof. Ouch. Poor guy.
Strategy rating: 9/10. There are probably faster and safer ways to end this fight, but this was extremely entertaining and it's an easy enough battle that you don't need any more of an upper hand. Basically the Mimic Tear boss strat on crack. I feel sadistic. It fucks. | | 23 |  | Miles Davis
Milestones
Godfrey Former Lord of Steroids
AoW: Square Off
What it do: basically Unsheathe but for short/medium swords - assume a stance and follow through with a low cost power hit
This ash is BUSTED! What the hell! For some reason, I think there's less awareness around this than for Unsheathe, despite it being far more commonly encountered in-game: every knight you've ever seen pull a heron-statue pose and flare their blade before railing you has been Squaring Off. It takes not long to cast, has high but not unreasonable poise once you're mid-swing, and does a ton of damage if you spam it (which you CAN and SHOULD!) I'd originally upgraded my Lordsworn's Straight Sword to use Blood Blade (which would probably have roasted phase 2, but was too slow against phase 1 to be worth it), and then tried Square Off for the hell of it. Instant table-flip - but also, a really fun fight! Godfrey is never gonna go down in a hurry, but I had a ton of openings to play with and hacked my way through the fight quickly enough not to worry about trading damage frequently and generously. Very high octane shit! Thorough familiarity with both phases' movesets was a must, but both are very fairly telegraphed and well-designed so I'm not complaining. Tbqh, all those gripes I said I had with ER's bosses back on Morgott? I think that might just be him (...and Mohg, and Watercrane Dance, and kinda Malekith though at least his HP and defence are balanced). Godfrey is an awesome fight and I feel I got the best out of him in all senses here.
Rating: 8/10. There is literally no boss in the game you can't nail with this. Can't rate any higher because it required a lot of scary up-close n personal time with the boi in pro-wrestler mode and forced a lot of solid dodge action in phase 1, but it staggered each in THREE consecutive hits so I'm not complaining. | | 24 |  | Krallice
Crystalline Exhaustion
Fallingstar Beast (Crystal Mine)
AoW: Hoarah Loux's Earthshaker
What it do: BIG FUCKING STOMP SHOCKWAVE
The next few entries are going to a quick roundup of bosses I was way overlevelled for, all holding useful items. The Fallingstar Beast guards the first Sombre Smithing Stone bearing and uh, it got absolutely obliterated. Maybe 3-4 hits and boom? This ash is hilarious and covers a stupid wide range and can be used on any melee weapon. Use it lol
Rating: 9/10. Unfortunately there's no way to get this ash early in the game, but I would love to see how it fares in a balanced matchup against this guy - will go to his Mt. Gelmir counterpart first thing in NG+ | | 25 |  | Dissection
Storm of the Light's Bane
Night's Cavalry (various)
AoW: Loretta's Slash
What it do: jump in the air, go magic, land slash with halberd
This ash does moderate damage for a long fucking windup I don't recommend it unless you're going hard on anime souls
Strategy rating: 5/10. Night's Cavalry are easy this late in the game, but the ash had no specific advantage here
AoW #2: Prelate's Charge
What it do: slam your hammer into the ground, run forwards for literally 100 miles, pull up for a fire attack
This ash does pretty pathetic damage, but is absolutely BUSTED against human opponents - it goes, and goes, and goes forever and with enough stamina you can basically stagger and shunt your foe to the far side of the map. The charge has pretty great tracking and consumes low FP. Would trivialise Malenia if the damage were higher. Could probably have used it against Gideon
Strategy rating: 4/10. Hitting the horse was easy enough, hitting the rider much less so. Because the horse be fast, there was a LOT of sustaining the animation and using it to run in circles. Funny fight, just not very efficient.
AoW #3: Rings of Darkness
What it do: you are Astel and you make evil magic rings on the ground for AoE damage (three of them!)
This ash is kinda neat in that you make yourself a target and bait mobile foes into the AoE radius. Pretty useful against the horseboi, but I was overlevelled enough not to tell how it would fare in an even matchup
Strategy rating: 8/10. Cool AND fun way to fight this boss on foot | | 26 |  | Kalmah
Swamplord
Godskin Apostle (Windmill Village)
AoW: Poison Moth Flight
What it do: coat your weapon in poison, big slow slash toward
This ash has a godawful reputation, which I'm going to assume has to do with its damage because the poison build-up and range were both fine in my book. Cast speed a bit slow, but this guy is a midgame boss and I melted him without issue
Strategy rating: 5/10. Poison is viable against this guy, though he's easy enough that why bother. No major issue here, but then again I know his moves too well by now | | 27 |  | Slipknot
All Hope Is Gone
Erdtree Spirit (Weeping Penisula)
AoW: Sky Shot
What it do: shoot an arrow in the air. Wait 5 seconds. If your enemy hasn't moved it will maybe hit them
This is uh
This is the worst ash in the game lmao
This was one of the weakest tree spirits and I was using fire arrows for extra damage
And it still took ages
I had to lose aggro and stay out of his range and then wait for a cooldown, but also make sure I shot before he started retreating because with even the slightest movement this fucking misses
Not fun.
Strategy rating: 1/10. Don't ever use this ash unless you're an archer build and want to get one surprise hit at the start of a fight | | 28 |  | Black Flag
The Process of Weeding Out
Ulcerated Tree Spirit (Mt. Gelmir)
AoW: Prayerful Strike
What it do: huge mace slam, restores your health on impact
This ash is actually kinda great, and I definitely would have tried it on Morgott or whoever if I'd been rocking a hammer earlier on the game. Cast time is reasonable, damage is good, heal is very useful especially if you use it on Great Stars like I did
Strategy rating: 7/10. Good ash in any context, though not specifically this one. Felt like a waste on this poxy treeshit, but what can one do? | | 29 |  | Iced Earth
Burnt Offerings
Mohg, Lord of Blood
AoW: Phantom Slash
What it do: using a polearm, emit a ghost clone who slashes forward with a big slash - and then follow through with the irl version. Attacks do equal damage and can be used at considerable range
Oh shit baby yes, this fight was proper go hard or go home territory. I tried a bunch of strats and nothing worked, so I figured the best way to win this was to a) use the Purifying Tear to ignore his blood curse fuck magic and dish as much damage as possible, b) use bleed affinity Lord of Blood Blood Talisman (Mohg is actually weak to bleed lmao) and c) use the highest damage/longest range ash possible to keep up an offensive from wherever. Phantom Slash is powerful af and also a lot of fun to use - can be spammed for HIGH damage, used conservatively when this is wise, and also used to trade reliably, since you can launch an attack, take a hit, and still have the ghostly half of the attack connect from a generous range of distances. Damn!
Going toe-to-toe with Phase 2 Mohg was still a tall order, although he's grown on me - used to think his beast phase was bullshit, but I now think his moveset is pretty balanced with the exception of the fucking BLOODFLAME that covers literally the whole arena. Cool that shit down! Whether or not I would have won in a fair fight never quite emerged, owing to one lucky attempt where I got him down to approx 25% health by the time he was done cursing and cruised the rest of the fight for an easy win. Gg?
Strategy rating: 8/10. Dps is probably the way to go if you play the way I did, but Phantom Slash is awesome and I love love love the range and damage advantages it gives you and would highly recommend it for pretty much any situation. Favourite new AoW discovery of the run, would take this over Lion's Claw or Flaming Strike etc purely for the moveset | | 30 |  | Iron Maiden
Somewhere in Time
Dragonlord Placidusax
AoW: Black Flame Tornado
What it do: make a big fucking tornado out of nasty fucking black flames. Huge cast area, slow windup, absurd damage, lingering damage after impact
Having never used this ash before (despite having mained the Godskin Peeler for half my first ever playthrough lmao), I considered this strat a ballsy long shot likely to rely on incredibly tight openings to have even a vague chance of success.
And then
Uh
Ngl this was by far the easiest Placidusax fight I've ever had, including my first playthrough where he glitched at 33% health and just sat there while I hacked him to pieces. Next to no skill required for this (though I did have one very lucky dodge through his laser attack) - just go behind him, melt his arse, run round before he fries you, bait a frontal attack, repeat. That's literally it. Get good at dodging his invisibility attacks? Otherwise just spin that magic fuck circle. Black Flame scales with Faith, in which I had a grand ol' level of 6. No regrets.
Strategy rating: 10/10. Makes a sorry joke of the endgame. Either don't do this, or absolutely do. | | 31 |  | Children of Bodom
Blooddrunk
Esgar, Blood Baby
AoW: Lightning Ram
What it do: Do many roly polys, zapping whatever you touch with lightning
Not gonna lie, this ash is too low damaging and too slow-rolling to be much use for anything, and I still had very little issue against Esgar and his stooge dogs. On my first attempt I forgot how to make it roll multiple times and got bit. On my second attempt I made him flee like a vole. Not a very efficient option, but gratifying in that both you and your prey look highly undignified and it's modelled after literal lightning sheep
Strategy rating: 6/10. Silly option, but gwan... | | 32 |  | Strapping Young Lad
Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing
RADAGON ELDEN LORD and ELDEN BEES
AoW - Giant Hunt
What it do: huge lance-type LUNGE forwards and up
So um yeah pain and suffering and endurance. It always goes this way. Radagon initially comes off as a ball-buster, and then you remember his moveset after two pointless deaths, and then he's mildly annoying, and then suddenly he's a trivial inconvenience. Proper Genichiro energy ngl. This fight being fuckin LONG meant that my heal starve was probably the realest issue it's been all game - finding an AoW that did BIG damage and used lowish fp was an issue here. I went with Giant Hunt because it makes it extremely easy to hit the Elden Beast from a close-mid distance, because it does high poise damage, because it works on my busted greatsword/strength build and because it can take Radagon down in like eight-nine hits (two of which are free at the start of the fight, one more does a stagger, the next one after that is obvs free, and then the rest is as quick as you can make it)
Elden Beast was a RNG marathon as per usual, and keeping my damn HEALS up was a tight tight concern - with this build in a normal playthrough (ie full number of healing flasks and no fp starve), it'd have been leisurely. As it was... trying to do this under moderate time pressure when it KEEPS RUNNING AWAY was a proper terror. Its melee attacks were too bad because (worst case scenario) I was still able to trade, but Elden Stars and - especially - that fucking celestial rain of porcupine quills had me in the ropes. I got him though. Of course I did. This ash is stacked
Strategy rating: 7/10. You can stagger Radagon just as easily with jump attacks or R2s, so I wasn't feeling a huge advantage here, but hmm damn if you're out to fight the Elden Beast with melee only and need to land those HITS where they count, this ash might well be worth a shout | | 33 |  | Fall Out Boy
Believers Never Die: Greatest Hits
[update 16/07/24]
filled in the rest of the list with phone memos - think that just about accounts for the rest of the run, minus Malenia (who I got with Double Slash --> basically equivalent to hitting her with a standard R1-driven bleed build, with slightly more poise damage and slightly tougher openings. Did the trick but didn't offer a huge advantages)
Looks like I took down a few more minor bosses when I was done, to clear out the rest of the arsenal. Ended up using Flaming Strike on an Erdtree Avatar or something? Smdh | | 34 |  | Material Girl
Izumi Hazuki End of Days
The REAL CHALLENGE was reviving this build for the DLC, realising I had about 3 useable base game ashes left in my inventory, and having to work out a way to take out the (!!) hard (!!) roster of new bosses using primarily DLC ashes...
...or so I thought. Not gonna lie, sailing has been smooth so far. Don't have the energy to document this at length anymore, but here's the rub of it:
Rellana --> Poison Flower Blooms Twice (6/10 not a particularly wise way to fight Rellana, as this ash has you dive bombing her repeatedly and trading a lot of damage, but it's powerful enough to get the job done regardless. Found it easy to poison her (after which the ash gives you crazy high bonus damage) and could work in a couple of staggers at a push, but I died a lot on this one - would recommend the ash if you were complementing it with a normal moveset. Fun fight)
Black Knight Edredd --> Blinkbolt (1/10, taking any boss on with an ash primarily intended as a dodge is obviously very stupid, but I needed the crucible wings ash this guy drops. Cheesed him from the top of the ladder, and it still took ages)
Ancient Dragon Man --> Lifesteal Fist (5/10 pretty easy way to get this leftover, otherwise useless ash out of the way, took a while to learn the timings but he went down easily once I wasn't eating too many of hits winding up)
Golden Hippo --> Wall of Sparks (5/10, I hate this fight, and although I did enjoy essentially dynamiting the hippo repeatedly, it was mobile enough to make getting it into the explosion hitbox a real pain. Not worth wasting a better ash on this one though)
Messmer --> Blind Spot (8/10 immensely enjoyable fight. Blind Spot's in-built dodge counters his lunges fantastically without taking out any of the challenge: watch those timings, and this is a really fun way to play. Got to be pretty confident and aggressive to spam it enough to work off bleed and stagger without getting killed quickly, but well worth it)
Dryleaf Dane --> Piercing Throw (4/10 and yup, counting this as a boss fight. Piercing Throw is a pretty useless throwing knife attack, so this fight was an easy opportunity to trade it for the fist nuke ash Dane offers upon defeat. Not a hard fight per se, just very inefficient)
Commander Gaius --> Aspects of the Crucible, Wings (10/10, not sure wtf happened here as this was easily one of the hardest fights in the game on my first run, but the crazy long reach of this is a great counter to his hog mobility and the jump seemed to dodge many of his gravity attacks. Went into the fight unprepared to test the waters (was fat rolling off the wrong armour setup) and still scraped a first-time win somehow. Maybe it was a fluke, but this is huge and you should try it)
Lion Dancer --> Scattershot throw (3/10, was overlevelled for this fight but died a few times and found it hard to whittle it down. This is a good DPS/status ash, but I don't think either of these things are particularly helpful here -- gimme those big hits next time)
Putrescent Knight --> Flame Spear (6/10, probably the most punishing fight so far. This ash works best on charge attacks (a full, point-blank hit from which will take off approx 1/6th of his healthbar), but finding the space to land one is very hard and I still suck at dodging this guy. Took about as many tries as Rellana but was harder to convince myself it was the right way to go about things)
to be continued | | 35 |  | Alora Crucible
Oak Lace Apparition
Romina --> Eruption (6/10, fire+magma do melt her, but the openings were not fun here)
Promised Consort Radahn --> Savage Lion's Claw (6/10 would rather have gone with the original, but this eventually worked. Broke my own rules and used Mimic Tear, despise this fight and still had a miserable time with it)
Midra --> Swift Slash (7/10 pretty fun fight (having found it extremely un-fun attempted with Overhead Slash or Spinning Gravity Thrust)
Finger momma --> Spinning Gravity Thrust (2/10, horrible openings and total pot luck as to whether or not I'd be trapped in an animation while she crushed me. This was a dumb idea!)
Finger momma man --> Dryleaf Whirlwind (9/10 too easy)
Bayle --> Wing Stance (7/10, this ash is good against anything, and airborne lunges to stun him/quick slashes to bleed him did the trick. Worked first try)
Scadutree Avatar --> Flame Skewer (9/10, extremely easy type weakness and a quick attack time)
Various Erdtree Avatars pre-NG+ --> Carian Sovereignty, Rain of Arrows Savage Claw, Raging Beast, Overhead Slash
Crucible Knight Siluria --> Palm Blast (7/10, another great ash that I wasted here, easy fight etcetc) | |
JohnnyoftheWell
08.19.23 | lfg updates imminent | Purpl3Spartan
08.19.23 | 1. Get wax cutter
1. Get blasphemous blade
3. ????
4. Win | JohnnyoftheWell
08.19.23 | that is not challenge ! that is build ! | Purpl3Spartan
08.19.23 | True | botb
08.19.23 | Did they ever nerf the dodge ash? I abused the fuck out of that on my playthrough… haven’t touched it since I beat it but I’ll go back when the dlc hits | JohnnyoftheWell
08.19.23 | they gave the standard quickstep ash a nerf in a recent patch - dunno about the bloodhound one (never used it, and since both are useless for this run i never checked) | botb
08.19.23 | Errrr bloodhound step | JohnnyoftheWell
08.19.23 | was it really that useful outside of, like, the malenia fight? | widowslaugh123
08.20.23 | This is a music website | Avagantamos
08.20.23 | nice touch on no unique ashes of war. the Rings of Light from the Halo Scythe carried me through so many fights | PotsyTater
08.20.23 | This is masochistic as fuck proud of you | Trebor.
08.20.23 | "Errrr bloodhound step"
lol yeah I can't imagine playing the game without all the based weapon arts | twlight
08.20.23 | This all sounds miserable | twlight
08.20.23 | Post the list when you have beaten elden beast with only r2. | JohnnyoftheWell
08.20.23 | tbh this has mostly been fun af - has made the game fresh for me and given me ideas for future plays. 5/11/12/14 were particular highlights
next update however will be absolute piss | AsleepInTheBack
08.20.23 | Good luck this sounds masochistic, particularly if you do malania/mohg, and even then godskin duo and maliketh = yuck | botb
08.20.23 | I ran it through with the biggest 2h sword I could find and bloodhound step and the shit was sweet ¯_(ツ)_/¯ | JohnnyoftheWell
08.20.23 | update: 15. masochism now in fucking session. | AsleepInTheBack
08.20.23 | Godfrey Golden Spirit Boi
Boss name needs changing to this official like | AsleepInTheBack
08.20.23 | What do AoW damage scale with? The weapon base damage plus a particular stat? | JohnnyoftheWell
08.20.23 | VERY good question, mainly because It Fucking Depends. some only scale with base damage (fuck you, Spectral Lance), but most scale of stats. iirc Glintstone Pebble etc will scale with your weapon + INT only, whereas attacks that are essentially 'normal' attacks from your weapon should scale with whatever it already scales with. but it depends on the ash lol fml. so far, damage hasn't been that much of a priority - speed, range FP cost and poise damage (in that order) are what pull their weight, quite rare to find an ash that doesn't deal viable damage otherwise
affinities are interesting too, because they usually do apply to otherwise physical AoW attacks (e.g. you can go cold and then use Stormcaller as a mini Zamor Ice Storm) | AsleepInTheBack
08.20.23 | I see. I do not envy you lol the faff of having to work out what’s viable and what stats to pump points into is giving me vicarious anxiety help. Then again some of the descriptions so far make this sound not entirely terrible hmm. I wanna do an ER challenge run i just need to figure out what.
Feel like it’s one of the hardest FS to do something dumb like this on due to length but then there’s so much content : build versatility/items that it’s suited to wacky shit like this which helps. Hmm. | JohnnyoftheWell
08.20.23 | ER gives you so much more to work with than most from games, but the lategame bosses not being optimised for solo fights reaaaaaaally sets it back compared to all the others lol. I honestly don't anticipate the late game being *that* much harder than it would otherwise, just really feeling a midway pinch atm.
Other challenge I'd consider trying would be Shabriri's Woe talisman + summon damage only vs. bosses (possibly with the same rule as this for not reusing a summon) | ramon.
08.22.23 | fun read, godspeed | Dedes
08.22.23 | Good luck on fucking Maliketh lmao
Bitch chain combos at mach 9. Better off going hand to hand with a silverback gorilla irl than to face off Maliketh without a busted weapon art | JohnnyoftheWell
08.23.23 | UPDATED
it is time for Maliketh, and based on what i tested yesterday, this is gonna be fun | AsleepInTheBack
08.23.23 | Oooooh boi you gonna die
Maliketh always flummoxed me I could never get the positioning down and then panic rolled and then died | AsleepInTheBack
08.23.23 | dragonlord placidusax when? is there an AoW that can actually deal enough damage to get through that chonk before no FP flasks and deth? | Ryus
08.23.23 | everyone is playing baldurs gate now get with the times | JohnnyoftheWell
08.23.23 | Double Slash is secretly op for this run - isn't rated particularly highly in AoW discourse because it's basically a fancy R1 replacement (with v low FP) cost, but that is exactly what you need for a boss like Placidusax. Saving it for Malenia atm because it + Nagakiba + cold infusion is basically as close as I'm gonna get to replacing Rivers of Blood with her, so am gonna have to play with options there. Got my Elden Beast and Godfrey strats pretty much figured at this point, not sure about Mohg or Radagon though | JohnnyoftheWell
09.05.23 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB2sMEs7gyM
of course this FULL RANKING OF ASHES list fucking drops the moment i've basically wrapped the run s m d h
basically done with this, will final_update soon as i've downed Malenia | JohnnyoftheWell
07.16.24 | updated mainly for personal reference when I do this again in NG+ and avoid repeating NG pairings but
those DLC fights with new ashes do be something. ctrl+F messmer and/or gaius for the best new hacks |
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