Ranking the Bosses of Dark Souls II [Part 1]

Part 2 - • Ranking the Bosses of ...
The black sheep of the Soulsborne Universe, what can I say about Dark Souls II that hasn't already been said, good or bad? Well, it was my first Souls Game, and while I certainly have some strong opinions you'll be seeing in the video, I say them all out of love.
Without Dark Souls II, I never become a Soulsborne player. And these 41 bosses formulated my early Souls years, so it's like returning to an old home. Sure, it's the Scholar edition & not my baby base-game, but maybe... Maybe things will be the same?
Join me as I rank the Dark Souls II bosses from Worst to Best!
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Intro: 0:00
41: 1:25
40: 3:30
39: 5:24
38: 6:45
37: 8:04
36: 9:19
35: 10:45
34: 12:37
33: 13:54
32: 15:09
31: 16:19
30: 17:40
29: 19:13
28: 20:22
27: 22:04
26: 23:50
25: 25:47
24: 27:25
23: 28:53
22: 30:38
21: 32:12
Outro: 34:08
#darksouls2 #soulsborne #eldenring #countdown #ranking

[@BillySYT]

My best friend is roasting me for saying strength builds are the only way to play Dark Souls II - That was a generalization, of course, and people who play dex are valid, and I AM aware of how strong dex is in these games. I used to run Dex Builds long ago... But like, for PVE, especially in Scholar with the serious amount of enemy ganks, a strong strength weapon can one-shot most enemies, and if not one-shot them, then do the patented bonk to stun them so you can bonk them again. BONK.

[@talende]

+10 Rapier + Leo ring + RoB + Flynn’s + 40 dex = have fucking mercy!

[@tomasstargamer6308]

Ironically the Magus lore is actually quite cool, what it is it's that Tseldora pretty much fell due to the madness of the Duke and a plague and illness occured, so Vendrick wanted to help the cove and thus sent a bunch of royal soldiers, while on his part, Lord Aldia sent one of his Warlocks (Magus), so he and the priests settled on the church and tried to help the afflicted with their magic while the army defended the place. Also we'll sure be clapping our hands a lot in the DS3 ranking with Logan, Gwyn, Priscilla, Ornstein 3, Artorias, Gwyndolin, Seath and Sif.

[@lisagaughan7154]

Seath?

[@tomasstargamer6308]

@@lisagaughan7154 Oceiros, the literal Seath fanboy that turned into a scaleless dragon with crystals.

[@lisagaughan7154]

@@tomasstargamer6308 oh yeah, forgot about him.

[@lisagaughan7154]

In all fairness, those are all great fights with the exception of Oceiros, Sage and Aldrich.

[@michaelbarker6732]

wait which fight is sif?

[@notaspider4084]

i really do like the covetous demon. clearly wasn't meant to be a complex or challenging boss in any way. he's just a funny guy 😀

[@BillySYT]

What's weird is there was clearly care put into the boss - His grab attack unequips all your armour/weapons & the way you can feed him corpses, you don't programme that in to a boss you don't care about.

[@fuzzywuzzy843]

Right??? Covetous demon is kind of adorable in that way!

[@notaspider4084]

@@BillySYT i think they were just going for a pathetic-but-charming blubberfuck with personality and they nailed it

[@TheSuicune7]

Every Souls game has a “golden goofball” boss that I unironically love. DS2’s Covetous Demon got that honor by just flopping around the place the entire battle 😆

[@georgemesser3262]

@@TheSuicune7for me it’s iron golem in ds1 cause he looks so threatening but he’s clearly been on the booze for months when you fight him because he doesn’t know where you are and his stagger for months

[@chrislevack405]

LMFAO "Billy is Gay Counter" absolutely slayed me. I DIED

[@crow1460]

I absolutely despise the Ancient Dragon, i consider it in the same tier of Bed of Chaos, maybe even worse, but Lud & Zallen at the bottom is very reasonable 😂

[@BillySYT]

Ancient Dragon is easily worse than Bed of Chaos for me, because at least with Bed of Chaos, once you learn the fight & how the AI works, it can be over very quickly. Ancient Dragon is a time consuming slog no matter what, and while I haven't had to deal with it myself, it's boss runback is infamously tough with all the Dragonkin.

[@akechijubeimitsuhide]

Even the Ivory King clearly had a favourite, since Aava is in the main area while the other two kitties were yeeted into Reindeer Fuckland.

[@stradify1]

Ancient Dragon is my pick for worst souls boss of all time

[@BillySYT]

For the next few weeks, we're delving into Drangleic to tackle the bosses of Dark Souls II! It may be the weakest game in the series, boss-wise, but that doesn't mean it's bad by any means! Please enjoy~!

[@tomasstargamer6308]

Honestly, I've always found DS2 bosses better in average than 1's, I may be quite biased due to 2 being my first Souls but for me the best bosses in 1 were Artorias, Gwyn, Sif, Nito and Manus, I am not much of a fan of the Super Londo Bros (I mean they quite literally have a completely bugged move with Ornstein's dash, and Smough's fat behind completely covering Ornstein and O attacking through S is not that fair), and I played the trilogy 2-3-1 (Remastered took so long to be in a sale...) so also most of the bosses in 1 were much easier to me. Meanwhile I really like Pursuer, the very underrated Skeleton Lords, Velstadt, Darklurker, Mirror Knight, the Sinner, Throne Duo, Sinh, Alonne, Aava and Ivory, so double from 1.

[@Beautiful_Lankmeister]

For the ancient dragon. Stand in between his back right big toes

[@winterdragon2004]

I've recently beaten every boss in this game, and I have to say that for as many boss themed videos I've seen, no one ever mentioned Lud and Zallen's seemingly iron skin. My FUGS ended up breaking 2/3rds into the first cats health bar, so I had to rummage through my inventory to equip my two halberds while the cats were bearing down on me, and those two were close to breaking before I landed the final hit

[@BillySYT]

I wasn't sure if the weapon durability issue was a thing with them, but you're totally right. I know I mention in it Part 2 when it comes to Sinh and his corrosive scales, but it was very fucked of FS to include the same gimmick on these two.

[@doginaboat3756]

literally playing SOTFS for the first time as you upload this after playing the original years ago and wow now I completely understand (& agree with) L&Z at the bottom

[@BillySYT]

L&Z are just pure pain. If the boss runback wasn't so bad, I'd have them a bit higher, but even then I vastly prefer Aava as a singular fight. Wish they'd made L&Z their own thing, give them something more significant to differentiate them ^^

[@toaderdaniel6790]

Based on your videos, I subscribed :) Hope your channel will get bigger. You seem to make those type of videos that are entertaining and well edited.

[@stevedixon9734]

Keep at it. You’re gonna get subscribers

[@allotheabove123]

Great video as always Billy. You took the words out of my mouth when it comes to Lud and Zallen. I've been doing a series marathon and ranking the all the bosses and areas as I go. I'd never played any Souls DLC before I so I wanted to kill every boss but after ONE failed attempt on Lud and Zallen I gave up. Its just not worth dealing with the Frigid Outskirts. If the fight was unique or interesting I'd have done it but I'm not gonna put myself through all that for a gank reskin I just fought a few hours earlier. Rather than bash my head against the wall against those 2 i moved onto Bloodborne instead. Feel like that was the right choice for my mental health lol.

[@BillySYT]

Absolutely no shame in refusing to do a boss if the requirements are bullshit. If you ever go back to Frigit Outskirts, my only advice is to just follow the right wall and pray

[@billymurphy1402]

nice vid 👍

[@miyazakisimping]

28:40 the way the old dragonslayer runs after you is so unintentionally funny

[@Blandy8521]

I think the best way I can sum up the Giant Lord is that I use him for farming souls

[@TatoGato]

Best souls game let's gooooo

[@BillySYT]

My first souls game, such fond memories

[@miyazakisimping]

I've been watching from soft content from several different channels basically every day. I've seen these rankings so many times. Yet, your content has a very distinct and entertaining style, that it feels refreshing. Keep it up!

[@BillySYT]

Much appreciated. I just like talking about topics I enjoy ^^

[@talende]

Have you tried the rapier/mace combo? Rapier is a good weapon to stab some meaty foes and when you stumble upon armored dudes you whack them with your mace.

[@BillySYT]

If I have the heart to play Dark Souls II again, I'll give it a shot ^^

[@Jmyers5090]

Solid list! The only big swap I'd make is putting Throne Watcher in top 20 and Demon of Song in bottom 20. It's got a pretty unique design but the fight SUCKS

[@BillySYT]

Without spoiling my Demon of Song placement for next week's video, I think the design really does the heavy lifting for me. Somehow I like fighting it, and appreciate that it's not a hard fight, because I wouldn't want a hard fight after the Shrine of Amana.

[@MoonlightGr8Swrd]

the gay jokes are funny and relatable at the same time lmao

[@eythorl97k74]

I feel so bad for you that 35k viewers aren't subed so subed.

[@BillySYT]

Gracias, much appreciated ^^

[@n00423e]

As a spanish i love the the spanish words that he suddenly use

[@talende]

No dex? And you call yourself gay?! 😅 I agree that covetous is far better than the ones you ranked below it. At least it has a fun gimmick with the unclothing.

[@TrollfaceDarkBruhLmao]

So cool :)))

[@shiroamakusa8075]

I actually would rate the single Dragonrider much higher. He's a big dude in armor who swings a large weapon...who comes after an entire stage filled with big dudes in armor swinging large weapons. He doesn't even do anything beyond that. He could spew fire, imbue his weapon with magic, change the layout of his arena, have crazy combos...nope, nothing. He might as well be a basic enemy and I find that's worse than having any sort of terrible gimmick because that's at least something.

[@lucaspepper7614]

I like DS2 bosses only for lore and aesthetic, but I really didn't have fun in a gameplay perspective with almost any of them.

[@lyokochaeyeon]

So I always get confused with the gaint souls gimmick, so 2 soles are by boss battles being the giant lord and anicent dragon and the other 3 are just found ???

[@BillySYT]

The other three are found via the Giant Memories in Forest of the Fallen Giants. At the end of each of the memories is a dead giant, and you take their souls ^^

[@ginrodino8542]

Lud and Zallen is the only boss I never bothered actually fighting. The boss itself is meh. Definitely losing points for the clone of Aava aspect, but I didn't even want to ATTEMPT that area leading up to them. I'm not going through an area where I have to squint IRL to even be able to focus on anything going on.

[@someonethere8126]

My take is you kill ornstein in ds1 and in ds2 it's the armor fighting with a corpse inside so it's not a hard boss and in ds3 it leaves the corpse because it knows it's better without it

[@Hopeful_Husker]

I started DS2 (Scholar version) a couple weeks ago after my Grim Reaper DS3 run (finally got Gael and Midir!). I’m gonna beat the game, but I’m not sure how I feel about it. Definitely a LOT slower than DS3 and even DS1. It makes me think: If we are the Bearer of the Curse, what if DS2 is the curse? 🤯

[@BillySYT]

Easily the slowest game in the franchise. It makes all of your movements more deliberate, but it's also a major turn-off for people who prefer the faster pace of literally every other game. My advice is to level ADP to at least 20, so you get decent dodge rolls & heal speeds, then go nuts and see how you do. It's very easy to level early since bosses give a surplus of souls.

[@shidanslair]

20:11 It isn't good, but I has some unique mechanics that make him more memorable than many other bosses, so I'd also put him somewhat high on my list.

[@bruschetta7711]

I know it's not really important to a bossfight rating in terms of gameplay, but you should mention the soundtrack if it's worth doing it

[@BillySYT]

For certain fights, I definitely like to talk about Soundtrack - Dark Souls III will probably be where I really get into that side of things. I just don't really associate the soundtrack of DS2 with their in-game moments, for some reason?

[@bruschetta7711]

@@BillySYT i agree with you there, but some OST especially on some of the dlc bosses are pretty great

[@fartchannelremoved8305]

I still think I like every boss in this in this game. It can be bias because this is my favorite soulsborne and I'm just obsessed with the lore. Oop I forgot gank trio and Luz and zallen, FUCK THEM

[@dhampirsilver1260]

DS2 lovers are the best critics of the game. A lot of the people who dislike it are just bad at moving from DS1 mechanics

[@BillySYT]

For sure. I adore Ds2 as my first game, but I can also objectively see the flaws while still having a big soft spot for it

[@dhampirsilver1260]

@BillySYT since it was our first we grew accustomed to the slower combat and more dangerous enemies between bosses when compared to DS1 and 3. And sometimes DS2 jank does my absolute nut in, but the positives outweigh for me 😄

[@ivanalanis475]

You just CAN NOT LOVE the Covetous demon 😂😂😂😂

[@knotvocalcovers5436]

Watching him fight the ancient dragon HURT! WHO fights the ancient dragon like that??? Once you find out the foot strategy, why would you EVER fight it any way?? It's not even really a cheese cause you're perfectly within range to be attacked. He's just so slow you can walk under his foot slam, lol.

[@BillySYT]

Oh no, it's almost like it was my first time fighting that boss and I purposefully avoided looking up cheese strats, and even with your complaints, I still beat him first try 🤷‍♂️ Play the game how you want to play it, but please don't go into videos assuming everyone is out to beat bosses via the cheesiest methods.

[@nayyarrashid4661]

From Soft at least managed to redeem the Reindeer at least with a spectacle of a fight with ancestral spirit in Elden Ring. Also the rat king covenant was the most DnD thing Dark souls ever did and that was plain stupid. Something that doesn't fit real fit with the dark souls universe.

[@SteamPaladin]

i'd be shocked that ancient dragon took you 20 minutes but you were using a strength build so that explains it pretty well. ds2 rewards dex over anything else. particularly rapiers and twinblades. try using one of those next time, you'll take a fraction of the time (and energy)

[@BillySYT]

I've done dex runs of DS2 quite a few times, but I always skipped Ancient Dragon because I couldn't care for the hassle of fighting it. I probably should try the twinblades out though at some point - I've only heard godo things.

[@SekhmetMorgan]

the awful runback shouldnt count that much imo and while it's a reskin x2 which DS2 does a lot, it's still not as awful as "Congregation" aka room of enemies called a boss, worst DS boss ever imo!

[@BillySYT]

If you look at it from a purely factual perspective, I agree with you. But I always rank these bosses with a loose sense of opinion because I know I'd rather fight congregation over the bosses I ranked below it, even if Congregation is easily like the worst from a design perspective.

[@coreyhofmann7170]

I'm like 72% sure Aldia was actually added to base ds2 in a patch?? So you playing so much of ds2 with Nashandra as the final boss and saying Aldia feels weird..how dare you >:((. But also I agree lol, I don't think he feels out of place as a character or even showing up at the end, but as a boss after Nashandra it's odd? I think it would've worked better if you even just moved onto another area and fought him there, he doesn't look like he belongs in that arena lol.

[@Mikhael.R]

Honestly the worst bosses in DS2 are the boss run backs. And those ice horses can go to hell. Also all hail Sasha Colby, our true lord and saviour.

[@BillySYT]

Dark Souls II boss runbacks are the worst. And somehow most of the awful runbacks were, at one point, paid DLC. Which is just the cherry on top.

[@finalground5419]

Nah solaire my god

[@SteamPaladin]

dude i played ds2 before ds1 and i fucking loved old dragonslayer. and when i walked into anor londo for the first time, ornstein ran straight into smough's ass the entire fight, and then when he was huge i was like. this is fucking boring by comparison. either nostalgia is a hell of a drug, or...

[@BillySYT]

It comes down to personal opinion, but even if the AI of Ornstein in DS1 is jankier, I find his moveset faster & his damage output is more threatening in DS1. By comparison, the Old Dragonslayer barely puts up a fight and his moveset just feels very uninspired beyond the sprinkling of new magic they added in.

[@crow1460]

Ornstein & Smough have separate AI, which is something DS2's gank fights rarely have, and the arena kicks ass too, they're still the best gank fight FromSoft has ever done by far. Old Dragonslayer is a really REALLY lazy reskin. No comparison.

[@tomasstargamer6308]

@@crow1460 The best "Gank" in Souls imo is Darklurker, O&S have too many things that brings them down, like a literally bugged attack, being attacked through Smough or Ornstein being hidden by him, to Smough randomly blocking stuff because it hit the hammer..

[@LordNexusTheFir]

Saying Ds2 is more about quantity than quality the same can be applied to Elden ring but 5x harder 😂. DS2 was made by the B team, has a better story plot u can follow, better features that get removed from future titles & doesn't copy past assets & enemy types from previous games & sell it at the price of new 😂. Remember half of Elden Ring is copy pasted & some enemies are literally past enemies but with a new name & different skin. Imps are Ds3 thralls, Trees are asylum demons etc. Oh & enemies/bosses didn't feel the need cheat to be relevant 😂 like a certain Gideon & Malenia who so obvious can only last cause they dont have to follow regular game mechanics like any other boss or player.

[@BillySYT]

KZbin, one of only two sites where you can say one thing and get someone in the comments arguing about something completely different. Idgaf about Elden Ring takes, this is a DS2 based video.