Why Mogh is S-Tier: Boss Analysis & Explainer!

I've wanted to add Mogh to my boss analysis roster for quite some time, and no-hitting him to enter the #shadowoftheerdtree DLC for #eldenring gave me the perfect excuse. I hope this video both explains what aspects of the fight make it so excellent for me, and provides a framework for thinking about its combat for those who may be struggling. Check out the videos I mention as well!
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#gaming #gaminganalysis #gamingguide #bossfight

[@EXQUIS1T3]

Fighting Mohg on like 7 different builds for the dlc made me realise how good he is and how every playstyle is viable. That’s the sign of a great boss

[@jermergerg]

Totally agree :)

[@EXQUIS1T3]

@@jermergerg and more importantly, none felt cheesy. He was equally as hard yet forgiving on every build (except for blasphemous blade) and never did I feel like "oh if it was that other build it would've been easier"

[@nayyarrashid4661]

Mohg is S-tier because he is gate keeping those 68% who will be unable to play the DLC.

[@austin0_bandit05]

That's a weird reason to like a boss. Personally, I'd rather those players master Mohg and get to experience the DLC with me

[@nayyarrashid4661]

@@austin0_bandit05 It was in a lighter vein.

[@austin0_bandit05]

@@nayyarrashid4661 Oh, I see.

[@EdyeGuevara]

I'm happy that he was chosen to be the entrance of dlc, having to help people defeat him & watch their emoticons reaction , makes mogh all the more special to me. ❤

[@amcname8789]

I'm certainly not very good, but Mohg is one of the only bosses I feel genuinely pretty confident in. He was among the toughest of my first playthrough (like you, because of the timing and how much damage he dealt in phase 2). I remember when I genuinely thought his delayed bloodflame talons were undodgeable lol. He's truly a wonderful balance of aggression and passivity, and he rewards you for taking the initiative without near-immediate retaliation like some other bosses feel like. It's funny that he's relatively easy to just heal right in front of because his attacks are delayed enough to dodge.

[@austin0_bandit05]

Mohg might be my favorite base game boss. So I have a few thoughts on him. One fun thing is that some of his attacks can simply be ducked under with certain ashes of war and the recovery animations from jump attacks. Meaning more damage and less dodging. He also has this weird quirk with his Bloodtalon Flame attack. As you note you can simply strafe around it. BUT if you orbit too far around his model can snap to your position and blast you. Which operates the exact same as Margit's delayed slam attack! Do with that what you will. My favorite aspect of his fight is the bloodflame he gets on his staff in the 2nd phase because it forces you into the "fun zone". You either have to dodge right in front of him or already be far away. You can't just spam roll back because even if the staff misses the bloodflame wont. My least favorite aspect is when he drops bloodflame at his feet. I mean its not "bad" but I hate waiting for him to move. HOWEVER you can poke him with longer weapons while hes standing in it. Its just tricky because a lot of weapons have forward momentum that will push you into the hitbox. Also it doesn't really feel like a strategy so much as a "work around" or abusing a quirk in the combat system. I also think the Bloodflame Talon attack is visually confusing. It doesn't look like it can be strafed. It looks like you're going to walk right into claw marks. In fact most playthroughs I see people just trying to Iframe it. Just one of those things, I think. I also don't love that you need to have already found a singular random item in a big open world to deal with his Nihil. I don't HATE it but it also didnt feel good having to google it on first playthrough. At least Margit shackle and the Maliketh's item werent so "necessary". How are you liking the DLC? Edit: I also love how... consistent(?) his movement feels. There's a sluggish flow to it rather than a jarring "fast-slow-fast-slow".

[@jermergerg]

Dude I agree with SO MUCH of what you said. My least favorite parts are also the bloodflame at his feet. Sometimes he walks right out of it and it's cool, but other times he hangs out in it, which is pretty disruptive and annoying. And trust me, doing the hitless run, I have PLENTY of experience over-strafing the fireball and getting blasted because he turns around. In fact, I found that not only do you not *need* to run for this strafe, it's actually much more hazardous to run than to walk for this very reason.

[@jermergerg]

Also, haven't started the DLC! I had to leave my house the day it came out :( I got home this afternoon, blasted through Mogh hitless, wrote and made this video, and now I'm ready to enter the DLC!

[@austin0_bandit05]

@@jermergerg Get that shit going 😂. Look forward to your thoughts. Its been a rough rough experience. My ass is still raw

[@uryenatienza4093]

I'd love to see more analysis on bosses in this game, the good, the bad, and the Inbetween. I find so many critical discussions around this game to be really bad. There are the people who speak negatively of the game, not understanding how it works and its core appeal. A lot of them look at Elden Ring as Dark Souls 4 or Sekiro 2 looking for that experience, when Elden Ring is just Elden Ring. There are also the many more people who just blindly sing the praises of the game with a lack of understanding for deeper mechanics or they're just saying the same things older FROMSOFT fans have been saying about the previous games (and some of them let some really bad decisions slide, but every FROMSOFT game has fans like that).

[@MgMast3r]

This boss was my nemesis last year on my 1st playthrough. Not only did he wreck my ass for 2 hrs, but towards the end I summoned my mimic to test a set-up on it, thinking I'd suicide so to try it w/o it again, but then I looked away when he was somewhat low to talk to someone for just a few moments, and the mimic ended up finishing him off when I WASNT EVEN LOOKINg, thus leaving me with a big middle finger until the next time I decided to replay, which is only happening a year later now and since I've yet to reach him I guess he still is my Elden Ring Nemesis. Malenia had nothing on this guy for the build I was rocking, (str/faith, using some fire incants, and part of my dmg was holy, employing some burst set-up combos via incants + heavy poise dmg AoW), cause I enjoyed having breathers to have time to rebuff and her phase one gives you plenty of that, while phase 2 even tho' it got much harder due to her constant pressure, she's still staggerable + exposes herself greatly with Scarlet Aeonia so it didn't force me much out of my comfort zone of "play defensively & observe 1st, then go more aggro but still take regular breathers, then just wait for a bigger opening in which to launch a devastating combo." Mogh, particularly in phase 2, not only didn't allow me that due to constant pressure from all the bloody fire steadily eradicating any safe places you could find for a breather, but he's also quite tanky to all elemental dmg, and VERY tanky vs fire (40% negation to elements/ 80% fire) yet just 10% vs any physical, resilient to most effects besides bleed, and also doesn't stagger from even collosal weap hits while staggering you with every single hit. Due to that, and something else I'll mention in a bit, is why I'm still conflicted about how I feel towards this boss. Like, I love the thematic & the spectacle of the fight that you mentioned, but then I also saw how a friend did it rockin' a heavy dual wield bleed build, with arcane/seppuku & all that jazz, and he could basically hit trade with him repeatedly as he DPS'd him down so fast that it was unreal. After I looked up Moghs stats on the wiki, and thinking how he plays, my one big issue is that he seems to be a DPS check boss - kill him ASAP and the arena won't have time to become this hellish landscape of constant hemorage build up & fire dmg ticks. This kinda feels like he tunnels you into only specific builds or playstyles, whereas even at Malenia I felt like I had tons of options. That or, as you said, a test of your mastery of the base mechanics, which I guess can start taking a backseat the more powerful your character becomes, the fancier & stronger the tools u'r using, etc, w/o u realizing it, but not for this guy unless it's specific ones so yea, it's kinda like a "back to school with ya" boss, for better or worse :) On my 2nd playthrough big playthrough now, new char, a spellblade, and while I 1st timed Mogh-junior in the sewers, the fight was still messy, he punished most of my carian close & mid-range spells, and they did way less dmg to him than I'd like given the cast times & resource cost. I just ceased all spell casting & went melee with my rapier and just sticking to him & constantly being aggro seems to work better indeed. Also, sometime else I noticed: the fire prelate with the whip's moveset, one you find in giant mountains at the beginning, seems like a elitemob-mogh-wannabe, using wide aoe sweeping attacks, staggering with most hits, while he dont stagger, fire + bleed, and more aoe. I sparred with him a few times to farm his set, and noticed that if I stick close to him while just strafing it can avoid a lot of hits, just like Mogh-junior. So I guess that's the winning strat vs big Mogh as well, altho' I dread his phase 2 still xD The one thing I'm counting on even there is that I got some decent stance break combos, even as a spellblade rapier user, so guess I'll see. Good vid on this bloody bastard, even tho' I hate his guts!

[@Wilhelmthewide]

Awesome video. Mohg is probably my boss fight in the base game (it would be Malenia but she's just too difficult for me to enjoy, very similarly to the final boss of the dlc, THAT THING IS A MENACE) and he is an excellent gatekeeper to the dlc in my opinion.

[@epsilon1372]

Its moghgwyn time

[@aarondoubert2635]

Just finished my first playthrough, probably an hour ago, and Mohg is my favorite fight by far. It took me 9 tries but once he clicked with star fists that final try was the most fun I've had in the entire game. Kinda dissapointed in elden beast and radagon, but mohg was a blast

[@hhowdy]

Elden Rings delayed combat makes it feel so much more rewarding when you actually kill the boss

[@jamiesullivan6602]

I gotta work on my strafing!

[@wednesdayapril5435]

Mohg was such a enjoyable fight my first playthrough and is still my personal gold standard fight for the game that the next boss i fought (malenia) made me soo disappointed in comparison. Last year I legit replayed the game once just to beat up mohg again then stopped playing till the dlc dropped.

[@EdyeGuevara]

Mogh! Is definitely S tier 🙌 His moveset pace is slow but deliberate. This is one of the very few bosses that reminds us of Slave Knight Gael, he definitely follows his footsteps & has learned from one of the greatest souls bosses.