I think you're a little off in saying that radahn wasn't fair to "Strength/Heavy" builds. The cross slash was actually fairly easy to dodge with a fat roll (you stay low for so long he just whiffs you) and the sword slashes themselves do little stamina chip if you have a greatshield, or a buffed (scholar's shield/barricade shield) medium shield. Medium/small shields also have access to parries which can put a stop to a lot of his shenanigans. (including the cross slash if you're crazy) As for the light beams, the dlc also gave tank builds the pearl shield talisman, which including infusions could block close enough to 100% of the holy damage to make it a notably smaller issue. The beams still tend to eat up stamina quite a bit, but still. While I'm sure some people don't want to count this (which is still a fair criticism), the deflecting tear was also added and that combined with shields or basically any colossal weapon/sword and some greathammers can dunk on him pretty quick.

My favourite boss in ds3. Took me many attempts but the song is beautiful and the dynamic is great

Sulyvhan was less hard that the dancer for me. Yes, he have terrible combo but if we stick to dodge to always getting behind him, we can avoid most of the damage.

I parried Margit 3x! I used the evergaol boss in the western peninsula to figure out how to parry. Switching to the smaller shield definitely helped!

Messmer the goat wins again

for some reason my first playthrough of SoTE had me thinking of DS2 more than anything, just faster and more refined, the tech wasn't quite there yet for flowy & choreographed fights so DS2 still felt a bit turn based and stiff

Can't you just stand close to dodge metyr's beam?

For Ebri--I mean Metyr, the laser sweeping attack is not that bad for me. You just need to find the gap between the laser and the circle beneath her. I use this section of the fight to rebuff since she stays in the air for a long time, and since i'm a Faith build, I got at least 3 buffs to apply and it's hard to do so when the battle has already started, so I enjoy openings like this. The only issue is that when the attack first starts, you dont know where you are in her perspective, and you could be unlucky and be in an area where the laser is pointing downwards. That's my only complaint. I enjoy the boss otherwise. I will say when she does her phase transition it took a long while to learn how to avoid the shockwave. I still hate Gaius design-wise, even tho the charge is manageable. He just doesn't excite me at all.

Messmer #1 and Dancing Lion #2

They fumbled so hard with Metyr. A borderline undodgeable move, AND she spawns some of the worst enemies in the game. She's the only main boss that I skip on repeat playthroughs. The fact that she's locked behind a long ass quest line makes her even worse

Gaius above the Lion is crazy. I am not a Gaius hater and think he's pretty fun but ultimately mediocre all things considered. But while the camera in the Lion can be bad at times, everything else about him is so well-considered and unique (there is seriously no other boss like this in From's entire catalogue) that putting a non-entity like Gaius above him is unthinkable to me. The design is great, but the most impressive thing about it to me is how music is used as an actual gameplay element; it's not just that the phase transitions sync up with the music, but that the rhythm of the moveset which would be otherwise quite unusual is made legible through it. I noticed that in SOTE special care was put into making the music sync up more closely with the tempo of many of the bosses, but the lion is definitely the most developed and successful example of this and I hope this kind of design is further developed in later projects. This is not to mention that it's refreshingly a boss that doesn't play into the typical two phase structure that has become pretty played out by this point (Scadutree Avatar also tried to subvert this expectation in a creative and narratively satisfying way). I like how all the elements encourage different ways of playing around the same moveset, and how the phases develop into each other and then combine at the end. The Lion is, in my opinion, probably the most unique boss in Elden Ring and I think it shows a potential avenue for their boss design in the future, which otherwise feels like it's reached the outer limit of its formula with Elden Ring. Also, MIDra about Peakllana, crazy! But it just goes to show how people weigh different things differently when it comes to bosses.

I dont want to come across as negative, but, every attack bar metyr's obviously that you've said is undodgeable are actually consistently dodgeable.

fair analysis. however you said that messmers soundtrack leaves a lot to be desired while commander Gaius has literally no unique soundtrack and is the only rememberance boss without one. i was bewildered when i found out he had a remembrance after killing him

I think you should try jumping putrescent knights swings a lot more, as that’s what made it skyrocket for me as a boss fight

Glad to see the love for Radahn, even tho he is my nr 1

3:01 "Lack of fluidity in his movements"? That smelly flesh fella is nothing BUT fluid movements😂

Personally I find Bayle absolutely horrid alongside every other dragon in this game aside from placidisax. My dislike of dragon fights goes all the way back to ds1 with kalameet, I don’t think there’s any fun way to fight enemies that big unless you introduce a gimmick like the serpent hunter in the rykard fight. When enemies are that huge and sometimes extremely mobile like midir and Bayle the camera can become an issue. Midir actually has a massive boss arena so it’s not as much of an issue there, but still the spacing required to be next to his head when he finishes attack strings always causes you to be backpedaling while dodging all his attacks. With Bayle it’s much worse because his arena is still too small for his boss fight. When you walk in it looks massive but Bayle can cover ground quicker than any other dragon fight they’ve done and the second he puts you in the corner the camera becomes an absolute mess. I also dislike the amount of AOEs he has on his attacks, rather than dodging through attacks in a way that feels like you character is actually dodging them, you’re basically just timing your dodges to get your I frames lined up with his attacks when it lands. There’s a lot of attacks like this in these games like Godfrey’s stomps, rhadans golden expulsion, radagons golden slams, but with Bayle it’s literally 80% of his moveset especially in the second phase. He’s not the worst boss nor is he the worst dragon (they literally put the worst dragon in the game right before him), but those reasons I listed don’t let me enjoy him like everyone else does but I think a lot of people rate him highly because of how cool and epic he is. If we get more massive dragon fights in the future I hope they implement a couple changes, most importantly I hope the camera backs up a lot more than during normal gameplay. There’s moments in elden ring where the camera will back up for you, I’m not sure why it doesn’t do it even more for bayles fight. Or if they introduced a gimmick like the serpent hunter that allows you to fight the dragon in front of it as intended without having to worry about being directly under its head when it finishes an attack chain.

>Midra and Consort above Rellana Brother

atleast we agree with the top 3

Even after all the nerfs, I still dislike Consort Rhadahn, and feel that he was made without an understanding of what makes Elden Ring bosses good. All of his combo starters are so quick that the main way he hits me is by reaction checking me. He doesn't really have any sort of branching combos or positioning based follow-ups. He just has really long combos that go on forever. His range and tracking are so oppressive that you have very few opportunities to strafe stuff or bait out favorable follow-ups. For example, he doesn't have any attacks he does if you get behind him, he just turns 180 degrees and does a stomp or one of his massive sweeps. Miquella's hair in phase 2 is infuriating because it keeps you from seeing Rhadan's arms if you're behind him, so he will start up a fast attack while facing away from you, turn to hit you mid swing, and you can't see any of it. The attacks he does at 18:48 is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Lastly, he's a 120 stance boss with only a 6 second stance regeneration timer, instead of the typical 9 second time for 120 stance bosses. This makes stance breaking him super difficult and inconsistent, especially when you factor in his overly long combos.

4:02 Not trying to be rude but I just find it so weird and interesting how people interpret it as orphan of “kose”. Like Micolashes has 2 iconic voice lines saying the name correctly and then the fishing hamlet preacher reiterates the name before you fight it. Then after you fight it if there’s any doubt, the final cutscene will say its name again. And even then, if you just look at the letters it seems the natural way to interpret it would be the right way. I guess it’s similar to people looking at Mohg and Radahn’s name and saying Mog and Radan despite the names being said to them.

Messmers assault. But meteor and nuke are both cool as well.

DS3 combat is pretty repetitive and boring, just roll 1-3 attacks and r1 spam.

I honestly prefer Putrescent Knight over Rellana

Interesting video, I've changed my mind in a couple placements as well. For me it's something like from best to worst Rellana Messmer Midra Dancing Lion Gaius PK Romina Scadutree Avatar Bayle PCR Metyr Also, I watched with ear buds and I am getting a ringing from the background. Just a heads up idk if you did something different with the audio. Great video though!

Should have mentioned that everything after Metyr is at least A-tier IMO. It's a really strong lineup, so it's tough to put them in order when the differences can be pretty marginal.

I agree with a lot of this list but disagree with a lot as well, though all of these rankings are reasonable and expressed well. I think Gaius is quite underrated, but I would rank putrescent and sunflower over him. I think Radahn is rated too high. I think he is an 8/10, IMO the only nerf he needed was the cross slash and the visual clutter, all the other nerfs negatively impacted the fight, and I am a UGS main. That was my only real issue with him. He feels almost slow motion now. Still great though. I really agree about the Rellana cutscene criticism, she's mechanically the best ER boss but her presentation is so bad. Her arena is boring af as well.

20:11 Regarding the clone attacks being inconsistent: Since you present footage of his meteor clones, I'm going to assume you're talking about that. After the patch they actually made all the overhead clones consistently rollable, which means, that you don't have to outrange them anymore as you do, therefore allowing for a very tight no hit dodge even up close to a wall. It requires 3 back to back rightward rolls (not counting the light pillar ring afterwards) Running is probably more stamina efficient, so it can be treated as a good option if you want to buff or heal while the meteors are up or as a last resort.

I think you articulate really well what both Midra and PCR have going for and against them, definitely agree with your thoughts and placements of them (even if I think I could swap them depending on the day). Also, holy cows! Seeing Gaius getting some recognition feels surreal after the DLC release. I think Romina and Putrescent definitely rank a bit higher for me, though.