gaming Dark Souls - The Best & Worst Bosses

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,239]

The Dark Souls franchise is quite legendary at this point. Its gameplay and world pulls people in and keeps them playing. Then the difficulty smacks them in the eyebrows and a world of hurt begins. Not sure why it targets the eyebrows specifically but I digress.

 

To me, the difficulty doesn't exactly come from the standard enemies. I mean, some are definite threats, especially in numbers, but I feel the real difficulty comes from the bosses themselves. Some aren't that difficult if you learn them, others are masochism simulators. While many of the bosses are quite good, there are some that I feel fall quite short of the others, whether be due to design, cheap tactics or just not being fun to fight in the slightest.

 

So that is where this thread comes in. For you, what are the best and worst bosses of the Dark Souls series?

 

I recently beat Dark Souls 1 and I am now continuing DS2, which I actually started before playing DS1. Then I played DS1 and I just continued that instead until I finished it. So I have not finished 2 and haven't played 3, so there is that.

 

I'd say for the best, I have to go with a few different ones:

 

Crossbreed Priscilla: An optional boss located in the Painted World of Ariamis, at first I thought I would absolutely hate this one. Why? Simply because she is invisible! I was like, whaaaaaaaaaaaaat? How the hell can I even fight this? Then I noticed that she was hitting snow around as she moved at times. I was thinking, okay, that lets me see her a bit but it still doesn't......wait...snow...SNOW! Then I noticed her footprints in the snow itself. This actually made for an awesome fight to me. It required environmental awareness instead of the traditional focus on the boss itself and I enjoyed that.

There also wasn't snow everywhere on the ground so it required strategy in movement too. Really cool. No, that isn't a pun.

 

Gwyn, Lord of Cinder: AKA the final boss in the game. Gwyn is another I thought I would look back on in hatred, as he did kill me quite a few times and I was very frustrated, but it wasn't him killing me that made me angry, it was having to run all the way back to him to try again. So it wasn't the fight itself that bothered me, it was the damned running. The fight itself though, looking back, is actually quite good. For the record, I fought him without a phantom and without parrying. I fought him old fashioned style, which was probably the most difficult way to go about it. That is why I liked it though. The fight was so intense, but it had the piano medley in the background that made everything somber, peaceful. Once I defeated him, I immediately thought about what I just fought through and I appreciated it a lot.

 

Great Grey Wolf Syf: Oh wow what a fight. This boss isn't here just because of how good the fight itself is, but the environment and atmosphere in which you fight in is superb. Syf so has an incredibly majestic yet intimidating appearance and has a giant sword to boot. Basically a perfect example of Dark Souls intimidation.

 

Now for what I consider to be bad. Thinking about this for a while, I think there are only a couple I would consider bad for different reasons.

 

The Four Kings: The Four Kings does get a bit of credit in that it wasn't entirely what I thought it would be. You start out by fighting one of the 'kings' and in time, more will spawn in, and if you take too long, you will have ot fight 4 of them at once. Interestingly enough, you are not fighting '4 kings' but rather a constant spawning of 4 entities that all contribute to the same health bar. While that is cool, what I hate about the fight is that it is entirely dependent on DPS. If you take just a little too long and allow the others to spawn, you will quickly be outnumbered and swarmed and most likely destroyed. The only way to prevent this is to kill the first and then recurring kings as quick as possible which will keep it as a 1 on 1 fight. This extreme focus on simply doing tons of damage and nothing else made it an unfun fight as it required no thinking. Even blocking and dodge rolling is not preferable as you need all of your stamina to do hits. Truly an example of 'only damage matters', probably the only boss that is like that in the game. Also, the Abyss environment was bland and boring. It was just darkness and that's it. Wowee.

 

The Bed of Chaos: Nope, this isn't some boss that is a pillow fight to the death, but that would have been better. The Bed of Chaos is, in my opinion, the worst boss in the entire game. His design is kinda cool, but everything else sucks. You don't fight him really, you just run from one point to another, dealing a single hit to a certain weakpoint, run again, hope you don't die instantly by cheap pitfalls, avoiding his generic arm swipes that do way too much damage and then run to the center, again hoping not to fall to your death and reach a certain thing, hit it and he dies. This boss wasn't fun and wasn't really challenging either. Just some big tree guy that relies mostly on instant death nonsense and no real strategy. Absolutely dreadful. Oh yeah, and you had to run back to him to fight him again if you died cheaply due to the instant kill. Fun.

 

 

[PoisonClaw 8,153]

Oh, I just finished marathoning the first two Dark Souls games, so this thread was practically made for me! I could just post my list of bosses ranked by favorite, least favorite, hardest, easiest and downright unfair, but instead I think I'll make specific mention a few specific entries. I'll start with some of my least favorites:

 

Capra Demon is concentrated "unfair" in a nutshell, let me count the ways. 1) He can hit you before you're done walking through the fog gate, which can be impossible to dodge unless you have lightning reflexes 2) He's fought in a tiny, cramped room that is only marginally bigger than the length of his clubs, meaning he can hit you from just about anywhere and 3) Those stupid DOGS! They mess you up more than Capra himself, so taking them out is paramount if you want to stand any chance. Even on NG+ buffed up with top equipment allowing me to breeze through and ring both bells in a few hours, he still killed me more than once.

 

Ruin Sentinels are a complete and total pain. Not only is the way to them loaded with enemies that love to attack in swarms and can kill you in two-three hits, but having to fight three Sentinels at once is maddening. Even if you kill the first one up on the ledge, the other two have very small windows to attack, since the other seems to wait just until the first has finished his attack before make his own attack. If Blight Town was the "Make it or Break it" moment of DS1, then the Ruin Sentinels are this for DS2. 

 

The King's Pet, Aava is one of the only bosses I feel no shame in calling in help for.  She hits like a truck, there's a blizzard going on so your vision is clouded, her tells are unclear and her hit box is so wonky, especially for her bite attack. There where more than a  few times I clearly dodged her, but she still hit me somehow! She's so bad I didn't bother with Lud & Zallen, which is basically her combined with the Maneaters (AKA, the worst and unfairest boss from Demon's Souls) and fought in the worst area in the series.

 

Now that those are out of the way, time to list some of my personal favorite fights:

 

He might be a Demon's Souls boss, but the Storm King is one of my favorite fights in that game, mostly for the catharsis of being able to take out those flying sting rays that have been sniping you the whole area, with a sword that splits the very air itself when swung to boot! Then, once you call all the little ones, big daddy Storm King majestically flies in from the horizon to the response of "Oh [BLEEP]!"  from the player.

 

Fume Knight, a.k.a the traitorous Raime is undoubtedly the hardest boss in the entirety of DS2. He's fast, hits like a Semi and offers very little recovery time. Then he ramps things up to 11 when he ditches his longsword and bathes his Stone Greatsword in black fire and is on you like a fly to flypaper and can kill you in two hits. Basically, you have very little margin for error, to the point if you screw up once you're already dead. But, even if it took me SIX HOURS to beat him, there is no feeling like that final run, when you've memorized his moves you might as well be dancing around him, your palms are sweating, eyes watering and you're breathing heavily to the point of hyperventilating, before striking that final blow and bringing this knight to his knees.

 

And finally, my all-time favorite fight of the entire series, bar none, is the fight with Knight Artorias. This is a legendary figure that has been built up for the majority of the game, and his fight is possibly the most perfect encounter I have ever experienced. Not only is this fight dripping with atmosphere, but Artorias is no slouch, proving he's worthy of his status and bolstered by the Abyss. However, unlike Fume Knight, Artorias offers the perfect level of difficulty, one where it's imperative you learn his moves and tells and only strike once you have a clear window, but doesn't punish you as severely if you make a mistake. There's a bigger margin for error, but not too much that it becomes easier. You need to be on your toes at all times, or Artorias will cleave you in half with his Greatsword (which he is wielding in his non-dominant hand, thus handicapping himself) faster than you can breathe.   

[Yamato 1,347]

 

 

Capra Demon

I won't lie, I cheated my way through this fight. Just stood on the other side of the fog wall and threw 70-something Black Firebombs over it.

 

 

 

Great Grey Wolf Syf...  how good the fight itself is 

I guess it must take something out of it when you do nothing but stand at his ankles and swing. Wasn't too much of a fight for me.

 

 

 

Fume Knight

THIS GUY THOUGH... I made the mistake of wasting my smelter wedges and couldn't kill all the idols around him, so he was being healed throughout my entire fight. Absolutely brütal... Still managed to kill him somehow and it felt pretty goddamn good, but man was it nasty.

 

I think I'll break down my list by game, just a best and worst for each.

Dark Souls:

 

Best: I gotta say my favorite from the original Dark Souls has to be Smough and Ornstein: the Dynamic Duo, if you will. This was, at least to me, the ultimate "git gud" moment in the Dark Souls series. A truly challenging fight, at least on a first playthrough, that left me feeling extremely satisfied and more than a little relieved after it ended.

 

Worst: Gonna have to double up here with Ceaseless Discharge and Capra Demon just for sheer cheese-ability. Both can be defeated without even actually fighting them. I mean, I get that it adds a level of choice, but when a valid strategy to a fight is "run away and just let him fall off the cliff" or "chuck firebombs at it from outside the boss room" it just feels kinda cheap. Like seriously, I feel dirty.

 

Dark Souls II:

 

Best: Fume Knight, hands down. Tough as shit boss fight first time I fought him (admittedly partially my fault) but damned if I didn't feel pretty good after I beat him. Second go around with my other character was a little easier, but only because I knew what I was doing that time. Still nearly kicked my ass on NG+ and NG++, even when I was packing some seriously good equipment. 10/10

 

Worst: Dragonrider. Complete and total pushover. Seriously, why is he even a boss?

 

Dark Souls III:

 

Best: My favorite has to be the Abyss Watchers. Not particularly hard apart from crowd-control, but DAMN WAS THAT SHIT COOL. Between the fight itself and the accompanying musical score I was blown away the first time I fought them. Unfortunately they turned into total pushovers in NG+, but I'll never forget that first time.

 

Worst: Deacons of the Deep. While there is some fun to be had mowing down legions of priests, the only real difficulty here is hitting glowy guy enough times before the lights go out. Get yourself some Winged Knight Twinaxes and spin your way to victory.

[DEAD_ACCNT 46]

Best boss was at the end of the game in my opinion.

Don't know his name.... 

Worst and ugly boss was that Cat-Spider thing. 

Edited January 18, 2017 by ApplejackEQG

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,239]

I have a new addition to the worst bosses list and this time it is from Dark Souls 2. That boss fight, is against the Throne Watcher and Throne Guard. Sticking with Dark Souls 2  tradition, this fight is only difficult solely based on cheap tactics. For one, you have to fight two of them, which I believe this is like, the third time this game has done that. So creative. The bosses themselves are not difficult to fight on their own at all. It is the fact that there's two of them constantly swinging. If that wasn't bullshit enough, you apparently have to focus on both at all times, because if you kill one and then don't kill the other quick enough, the other gets revived. Cheap. But wait, there's more stupid shit! When you drop either of them below half health, the one that is below half will randomly give their sword a temporary electric property, which does insane damage when not blocked and still does good damage even when blocked. Now, add this to the fact that there are two of them. The cherry on top is that the outer edges of this fight beyond the door wall, is nothing but one big pitfall. Another classic, cheap tactic for instant death. Something DS2 is very familiar with.

 

I am having more trouble with this cheap fight than I did with Ornstein and Smough in Dark Souls 1, and that is considered one of the hardest fights in the entire series. Then again, that fight was designed way better than any boss fight in all of DS 2 so I guess I am not surprised. All of this is really making me hate this game. There is no real strategy to this fight, it is just hoping that the RNG has mercy on you with how often they swing at you. That's it.

 

 

Best boss was at the end of the game in my opinion.

Don't know his name.... 

Worst and ugly boss was that Cat-Spider thing. 

Final boss of DS1? That is Gwyn. That is a fantastic battle. Way better than anything I have seen in DS2 so far.

[honk friend 1,966]

The Bed of Chaos

him

Someone didn't pay attention to the story

 

For me, my ranking for DS1 bosses probably goes as follows:

Artorias > O&S > Seath > Gwyn > Sif > Nito > Quelaag > Pinwheel > BoC

The ones I haven't included I either haven't fought in any playthrough or just didn't find them interesting enough to include

Artorias is probably the most difficult and perhaps the least formulaic boss I've fought in any souls game. Formulaic isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's extremely satisfying to be able to overcome a difficult boss with a 100% success rate, but it does get boring after a while. Artorias is really good at keeping me on my toes and the only time I've ever managed to cheese him was by speccing for full Havel's with fast rolls. Same goes for O&S, though O&S I managed to cheese with Wrath of the Gods.

Seath, Gwyn, Sif, and Pinwheel are my favorite bosses lore-wise, but only the first 3 really pose any sort of challenge and pinwheel goes down incredibly fast even on a relatively low-leveled character.

Quelaag is easy but bullshit in her own right, BoC is just bullshit.

 

As for Dark Souls 3, I'm gonna have to say

Soul of Cinder > Champion Gundyr > Dancer > Abyss Watchers > Oceiros > Aldrich > Pontiff Sulyvahn > Lothric and Lorian

This is a bit of a different case of ranking. I love the first 3 just about equally, beat Abyss Watchers consistently enough for me to be sick of them, have a love-hate relationship with Oceiros because his whole shtick is that he's tanky AND deals damage, fucking hate Aldrich because his actual fight is boring and his character is simply terrible, and Sulyvahn and L&L are just way too formulaic to justify their difficulty.

Really, I love Dark Souls 3, but I feel like it tries way too hard to be Bloodborne.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,239]

Someone didn't pay attention to the story

Don't care.

 

Also, as a general notice I did defeat the guards. Had to have a phantom. That fight is just dumb. Still consider it one of the worst. I hope DS 2 has better bosses at some point.

[honk friend 1,966]

Don't care.

Well you should care

Dark Souls has some of the strongest lore I've seen in an RPG

[Ando333 135]

DS1:

Artorias > O&S > Manus > Kalameet. TBH I don't really like DS1 bosses. I think these are the only decent ones.

 

DS2:

lolno

 

DS3:
Sister Friede > Champion Gundyr > Soul of Cinder > Pontiff Sulyvahn > Abyss Watchers > Nameless King

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,239]

I can add a new least favorite to my list and this is from Dark Souls 3: Aldrich, Destroyer of Gods.

 

The name alone kinda builds this guy up to unreachable levels, but the fight itself was just dumb. I appreciate that they wanted to try something different with him, but they went overboard with it. His main strategy is spamming magic attacks and teleporting away like a wimp. Exactly what I expected a destroyer of gods to do. /s He also occasionally swings his big weapon at you and I swear the arc of that thing makes no sense. Fought him multiple times and I could never quite pinpoint where that damn thing hits, it would always seem to go clear over me but still hit me. Not cool. I also just wasn't a fan of his design. Again, they did try something different for sure, but it was just....not interesting. He's like a weird sorta snake body kinda monstrosity that is all messed up looking...I guess?

 

Easily my least favorite boss fight so far in DS3.

[yeet 2,026]

@PoisonClaw you clearly haven't fought the blue smelter demon if you think the fume knight is the hardest XD

 

seriously tho, worst boss is probably the bed of chaos, as it isn't hard, just frustrating, cause you gotta run about everywhere then the boss dies in like two hits. like the fuck i came here for a fight and all you did was swing a giant arm and break the floor.

 

one of the best would be the ruin sentinels for me, it's a challenge to get there and the fight is three of the sentinels at once, which seems quite cheap but it makes you watch the whole area, rather than focusing on one boss which there usually always is. you gotta whittle them down slowly until you're done.

 

I'd argue that champion gundyr is both the best and worst boss, because he's there kinda to test what you've learnt to the extreme, and at the same time he is literally a walking rape machine within armour who just cheaps the fuck out of everyone and everything.

 

on an added note, i don't get why everyone always complains about the capra demon, he was one of the easiest bosses of the entire series for me, i read about him being really hard and was dreading it but i finished the fight in about 30 seconds and i was kinda disappointed he was so pathetic. 

[honk friend 1,966]

I can add a new least favorite to my list and this is from Dark Souls 3: Aldrich, Destroyer of Gods.

 

The name alone kinda builds this guy up to unreachable levels, but the fight itself was just dumb. I appreciate that they wanted to try something different with him, but they went overboard with it. His main strategy is spamming magic attacks and teleporting away like a wimp. Exactly what I expected a destroyer of gods to do. /s He also occasionally swings his big weapon at you and I swear the arc of that thing makes no sense. Fought him multiple times and I could never quite pinpoint where that damn thing hits, it would always seem to go clear over me but still hit me. Not cool. I also just wasn't a fan of his design. Again, they did try something different for sure, but it was just....not interesting. He's like a weird sorta snake body kinda monstrosity that is all messed up looking...I guess?

 

Easily my least favorite boss fight so far in DS3.

He's certainly down there, in part because his actual fight is easy as shit and in part because he ate my favorite trap waifu

[Holiday Agnaktor 1,435]

 

 

I can add a new least favorite to my list and this is from Dark Souls 3: Aldrich, Destroyer of Gods.

You're not alone.

My friend did a soul level 1 playthrough of DS 3, and he hated Aldrich. Every single attack would one-shot him, and Aldrich just kept running from him, so he died a lot.

I didn't like the fight either. It was just a lot of running around, looking for an opening, smacking once or twice, and getting out again. Not that fun.

 

So. Favourite bosses.

 

On number one I've got Pontiff Sulyvahn.

He's really tough to fight, and he also looks cool. I've only beaten him solo once, and I'm not sure how I managed to pull that off. Once this guy starts swinging, he doesn't stop.

 

Two goes to Champion Gundyr.

I'm a shield kind of guy, and Gundyr tears through shields. So this was a tough battle for me. I got myself a greatshield, upgraded it to +9 or something, and even then I couldn't block a combo from him. It was by far the most intense and fun fight I've had in DS. (Though number one still goes to Pontiff for being scarier.)

 

 

Least favourite!

 

My least favourite is the Four Kings.

I've played DS 1 up until these guys. I just couldn't fight them properly. The lack of ground and other things to see where I am really throws me off, and I can't really deal with the spacing. So I kinda had to stop playing DS 1 because I got stuck there.

 

Second least favourite is the Capra Demon. The only way that I could beat him was by running past him, past the dogs, up the little staircase, and then kill the dogs coming up the stairs. And then I just had to shoot him with my longbow a lot.

[PoisonClaw 8,153]

@PoisonClaw you clearly haven't fought the blue smelter demon if you think the fume knight is the hardest XD 

 

Oh, I did. Compared to Fume Knight and the first Smelter Demon, Blue Smelter was a cakewalk. The path to him is harder than he is, which I spent over an hour clearing out until I had a straight shot to the boss. After that, Blue Smelter only took three tries, helped that facing the first Smelter Demon dozens of times helped build up my muscle memory for them.

[yeet 2,026]

Oh, I did. Compared to Fume Knight and the first Smelter Demon, Blue Smelter was a cakewalk. The path to him is harder than he is, which I spent over an hour clearing out until I had a straight shot to the boss. After that, Blue Smelter only took three tries, helped that facing the first Smelter Demon dozens of times helped build up my muscle memory for them.

Not sure how you managed that, fume knight was a fucking breeze compared to blue smelter, I couldn't even beat him. XD

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,239]

Well, this didn't take long. I have found yet another one of the worst bosses in this series and that easily is The Nameless King. This fight has tons of huge problems but here is a simply obvious one: IT IS NOT A BOSS FIGHT. It is TWO boss fights. You have to defeat his damned Wyvern every single time, and then actually fight him. This is pure nonsense. Simply slapping another fight before the real fight doesn't equate to difficulty, it just creates repetition where it is not needed and that repetition will create completely needless frustration. I get that this guy is a beast, I know that the fight with him is supposed to be insanely hard, but goddamn, I want consecutive attempts at actually fighting HIM, not his stupid pet.

 

On top of that, the Wyvern fight highlights tons of issues, like how the fight itself causes the camera to mostly go into a seizure or the fact that he has a fire attack that is basically impossible to avoid. I attempted to avoid it many, MANY times, getting a running head start more and more, and I could NEVER avoid being hit by it.

 

This fight is optional, but now I see why. It is horribly designed and not fun in the slightest bit, so I am not going to bother with it. Sure, some people have beaten him, but is it worth it? Nope. The fight itself relies on insanely cheap tactics and the insanely dumb tactics of 'two phases' to create artificial difficulty out the wazoo. Dark Souls 3 has a lot of different issues and one of those big problems is that From Software clearly got cared away with many parts of it. This fight in the absolute peak of that and I think it will make me stop playing the game altogether now. I have already beaten the game, I don't need to beat this worthless and cheap piece of shit boss fight.

[Discordian 6,013]

Since I suck ass at dodging and parrying bosses like Gwyn and the Four Kings are the absolute worst for me.

 

The Pursuer was also an asshole until I learned his pattern. He's actually slow as shit but he's intimidating when you first see him.

 

I'm also really bad against groups so bosses like the Congregation, the Maneaters and (sometimes) the Capra Demon tend to wreck me. Phalanx is the only "group" boss that's super easy because of its weakness to fire and the fact that they mostly tend to stay together.

 

My favorite fights are the ones that are super atmospheric. Maiden Astraea (dat music), the Moonlight Butterfly, False King Allant, the Dragon God, the Storm King, Looking Glass Knight, Giant Lord and Nashandra.

@@Frosty Frost,

 

Pyromancy makes the Capra Demon so much easier, particularly the dogs. My strategy was run up the stairs > pyromancy anything coming up the stairs > drop when the Capra Demon gets to me > run up the stairs and get a drop hit on him since he'll be stunned for a second from dropping off the stairs after you > rinse, repeat.

 

As for the Four Kings, I had to cheat. Full set of Havel's armor and just attacked the closest King full force. No dodging, no blocking, nothing. With a full set of Havel's you'll (almost?) never get stunlocked or knocked around so you can attack and heal with Estus as much as you need without interruption. Just gotta watch your health so you don't die.

 

It was the only way. THE ONLY WAY.

[Mister Asmodeus 28]

My least favorite boss has to be the Bed of Chaos, if you can even call that a proper Souls boss. Holy hell. We interrupt your regularly scheduled action RPG to bring you a poorly-designed platforming section! Prepare to die many, many cheap deaths!

 

I think my favorite boss was Ornstein and Smough. A perfect example of a fight that's tense and insanely difficult without ever becoming unfair. Much unlike the above boss. I think they compliment each other perfectly, one being big and hard-hitting, with the other being quick and nimble. Perfect tag team boss, and one of the only multi-bosses in the series where I felt like the challenge was fair, and I wasn't just getting ganked.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,239]

 

7 hours ago, Mister Asmodeus said:

My least favorite boss has to be the Bed of Chaos, if you can even call that a proper Souls boss. Holy hell. We interrupt your regularly scheduled action RPG to bring you a poorly-designed platforming section! Prepare to die many, many cheap deaths!

 

I think my favorite boss was Ornstein and Smough. A perfect example of a fight that's tense and insanely difficult without ever becoming unfair. Much unlike the above boss. I think they compliment each other perfectly, one being big and hard-hitting, with the other being quick and nimble. Perfect tag team boss, and one of the only multi-bosses in the series where I felt like the challenge was fair, and I wasn't just getting ganked.

The Bed of Chaos is one I simply cannot understand how it made it into the game. It is just so boring and cheap that I can't even consider it a boss, more like a pointless diversion. O&S though, defeating them, with Ornstein being defeated last, was one of the most satisfying things I have ever done in any game. It felt sooooooooooooooooooooooooo goooooooooooooood. :3

[honk friend 1,966]

21 minutes ago, Kyoshi said:

And you also might want to look at the date in which I posted that. Since then, I have defeated The Nameless King twice on my own and over 70 times helping others take him out, all without using a shield. I have him down like a science. The thing is, what I hated most about the fight was the fact that you would have to fight the Stormdrake every single time. And my complaint to this still holds true, I find it to not be good design. The fight against the Stormdrake isn't fun, it is just tedious. Even though I can destroy him any day of the week, I still find the stormdrake to be a pointless fight. I think the fight should just be with the King himself, as that is when the fight becomes fun and interesting. So perhaps you should think before you speak. 

It would be bad design if they just let you fight him separately from phase 1. The entire purpose of the king of the storm is endurance, he's GOING to leave you in phase 2 with less estus and supplies so you have to learn to be less reliant on healing. He'd just be another phase 2 soul of cinder otherwise, and I don't see how that would be more fun or interesting than what we have now. Also I will say, he has easily the best boss arena in the game.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,239]

2 minutes ago, Kitty~ said:

It would be bad design if they just let you fight him separately from phase 1. The entire purpose of the king of the storm is endurance, he's GOING to leave you in phase 2 with less estus and supplies so you have to learn to be less reliant on healing. He'd just be another phase 2 soul of cinder otherwise, and I don't see how that would be more fun or interesting than what we have now. Also I will say, he has easily the best boss arena in the game.

I can beat the Stormdrake phase without using an Estus at all at this point and I still find it to be tedious. Lore-wise it is cool and kinda tragic, but I just don't find it to be interesting, whereas the Nameless King himself is my favorite boss fight in the entire game. 

[Celli 4,332]

I've only finished the first game, but I'll get to the other two eventually.

For best, I'd have to go with Ornstein and Smough, such an awesome fight, and probably the only gank fight done right. For runners up, Gwyn and Artorias.

Worst, bed of Chaos for sure. Though not as bad if you cheat the fight by destroying both shields and reloading the game both times.

[Mister Asmodeus 28]

4 hours ago, Celli said:

I've only finished the first game, but I'll get to the other two eventually.

For best, I'd have to go with Ornstein and Smough, such an awesome fight, and probably the only gank fight done right. For runners up, Gwyn and Artorias.

Worst, bed of Chaos for sure. Though not as bad if you cheat the fight by destroying both shields and reloading the game both times.

Oh hey, someone agrees with me.

I almost had to rage quit at the Bed of Chaos. I'm simply impatient, and that boss pretty much requires multiple tries, even by people who are more hardcore into Souls than me.

Platforming + Souls = Trash

[Celli 4,332]

38 minutes ago, Mister Asmodeus said:

Oh hey, someone agrees with me.

I almost had to rage quit at the Bed of Chaos. I'm simply impatient, and that boss pretty much requires multiple tries, even by people who are more hardcore into Souls than me.

Platforming + Souls = Trash

Yeah. The fight is super unfair, so it doesn't deserve to be fought fairly.

[Passion 3,478]

Considering that The Ringed City has been out for quite some time now, and that I do not want to start a new thread when I can Necro the old one, let's just roll.

I haven't really played DS2 and I do not remember Demon's Souls/Bloodborne anymore that much, so I'll just focus on DS1 for nostalgia's sake and on DS3 since it is now complete.

 

DS1 3 best (including expansion):

3. Crossbreed Priscilla - the only boss I regret ever have killed in DS series. She wasn't bad by any means, she didn't desire power. She was just... there. Living in her own world, ALLOWING YOU TO LEAVE. You never had to lay a hand on her really, it was your personal choice to become an absolute evil and slaughter her in her own world, to be honest. After killing so many, it was like a serious blow to my conscience when I've heard "But... why...?" or something around those lines. I literally thought back then "What have I done...?" Marvel, really.

 

2. Black Dragon Kalameet - dragon. 'nuff said. Kalameet is one of those fights where you go "Alright, how do I even scratch this thing?" in your first playthrough. Sure, he can be manipulated and player controlled more or less easily, but otherwise it's a rather action packed fight. You're against a dragon which you've kinda pissed with the help of a certain giant, and it's going to let you know that it actually is pissed. The only downfall of this fight for me was Kalameet sometimes spamming his AOE attacks forcing you to wait it out, what a bit broke the mood.

 

1. Dragonslayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough - probably the most iconic duo of the series along with one of the best, and most annoying at once, fights in DS universe. Ornstein and Smough were the REAL first duo bosses you had to take seriously. Let's face it, Bell Gargoyles weren't really that much of a threat. Here you have to choose, either you fight the quick one and focus on absolute agility, while doing all you can to avoid AOE from Smough, either you focus Smough, being patient in fighting him and hope that Ornstein won't spear rush you to death. The fact they both had different resistances also allowed you to choose whichever you think you'd be better off without first. A fight where choice actually mattered.

 

3 worst:

3. Pinwheel - hard to be considered a boss. In all honesty, Pinwheel is located beyond a zone that does not really favor low lever, inexperienced players. The catacombs not only are annoying without holy damage, of which you learn a bit into the game already and you need to play for a moment to get a grasp on enchants, but also filled with some actually tough enemies and places. Like Wheelcart Skellys for the very first time, or even the giant, quite tough regular skeletons. Once you beef up your character in zones that are easier, you come across Pinwheel. It turns around. Before casts a single spell or attack, is dead. End of Pinwheel. I think DS designers forgot to add him some... I don't know, HP? I don't really even know how his attacks look because he's ALWAYS literally DEAD before he does ANYTHING.

 

2. Moonlight Butterfly - while majestic and climatic given the zone, the entire fight boils down to: "Hide or evade missles. Wait. Wait. Wait. Kill it when it landed. Proceed." It's straight out boring and absolutely pointless. I'm not sure if I recall, but it's probable to actually avoid it alltogether and take the long way around? Really don't remember the forest anymore, I was always getting lost there. Nevertheless, it feels more like a full-stop in adventure rather than anything else.

 

1. Bed of Chaos - as explained by OP. Not only there's no real combat altogether, but wonky camera of DS 1 actually makes you GUESS when the bed of chaos is attacking. Because you cannot run while observing it, since it's most definite pit fall to your death. And it wouldn't be so bad, if not it's ridiculous ability of swooping you off the edges of map, forcing you to retry the attempt of getting through the sector... and getting swooped down again.

 

 

DS3 worst:

3. Yhorm the Giant - it's either you have Siegfried on your side and he does all the work for you really, either you do not fight on your own terms and your own weapon, as you have to use that annoying stick that lies near the throne to deal any real damage. Focus on dodges only and charge the weapon to no end, or watch Siegfried kick his butt completely. Sure, lore-wise it's nice to see that Siegfried actually wants to free his old friend, but this fight either drags out endlessly, either is finished without any sweat, even on your first try as long as you've finished the quest line.

2. Halflight, Spear of the Church - do. Not. Get. Me. Started. Halflight is one of those fights that doesn't have to be necessarily hard, but can turn into a nightmare easily. Let's start with facts, while she can be staggered with regular attacks quite easily, she has the ability to buff her poise quite high, making that stagger a dream. Her attacks deal an actual ton of damage if you get caught, AND she has some quite annoying ranged attacks as well. However, she's just an NPC. One of the many, many, MANY you've already defeated, not counting the invasions you've survived or died to. There's no real thrill to this fight. And this would all be well, but here comes the summoning factor. During this fight, either NPC healer (who is tough as hell and heals both boss and herself at once) can be summoned, either... another player. While this concept is not new to DS, other players are obviously much, much harder to defeat than any boss in the game, as they will use any opening and opportunity to end you. And, considering you can belong to Spears of The Church after defeating Midir, they actually HAVE a reason to NOT let you win this fight this time. They are also given a skill that is a tad annoying in the long run to use for free with quite short cooldown if they want to. Alltogether, this turns the fight into more of a hassle without too much of a climatic feeling to it.

1. Ancient Wyvern - "Damn, look at the size of this thing! It'll be awesome to fig-" *ded* "Okay, what do I do, I probably gotta run here, then here..." *wyvern ded* This isn't a boss fight, this is once more just "run from point A to point B and don't care". I literally ignored ALL the mobs on the way, climbed the ladder and killed it instantly in my second run. Because why waste time? If you want to call it a boss fight, then give me an actually boss. In this light, the giant shooting arrows from the tower at white trees is a boss as well. Full fledged one. And, not to mention, you are soon enough attacked by second Wyvern again which... ...isn't a boss! How interesting. And that second one glitches out and can't hit anything. Very often.

 

DS3 best:

3. King of the Storm/Nameless King - by many believed to be one of the hardest bosses in DS3, if not the hardest. At least for melee strategy users. To me, definitely the biggest pain. The atmosphere around the fight is quite nice, it's not hollow and empty like the Abyss with Four Kings, it's actually dynamic and thrilling. King of the Storm, what would be more suitable for him than the storm itself and him trashing lightnings at you? While the first stage is a bit annoying, as camera can sometimes be against you IF you use autoaim on Wyvern and cannot see King making his attack, the second part of this fight is a real test of skill. You can't go ham on this guy, his attacks are quite quick, his patterns, while predictable, really erratic. He might be performing a combo anywhere between 1 to 5 hits altogether, during which you might think he has finished it twice already. You need patience, real patience and skill in doding to get through this fight. This boss has given me more deaths alone than all the other bosses in entire DS 3 ALTOGETHER.

 

2. Darkeater Midir - Dancer of the Boreal Valley (majestic and tough fight at first) and Armor of the Dragonslayer (climatic) were contestants to second place, but Midir won. It's silly, considering the story is the same. You meet a dragon, you piss it off (again), it really shows it's pissed off. This fight is spectacular, to say the least. Midir is not as "stiff" as Kalameet, he has a variety of attacks (though he mostly prefer spamming his charge and flames whenever possible) and is TOUGH. He has the highest HP pool and resistances in entire DS3, what makes the fight long. You could consider it to be dragging out again, however it's too action packed to allow you to think that. Midir is a good challenge on mastering boss control however, what's a bit saddening. Keeping left to his head and smacking him on it usually triggers him to attack you in two-three easy to dodge melee attacks and free damage. BUT, if you cannot position yourself properly, you're facing a dragon that's going to show you how much it doesn't like you anymore. And hey, he's hard but optional (even hidden, in fact). Kudos for thinking about people who don't always enjoy all the fights.

 

1. Sister Friede - music. Climate. SCYTHE. Surrounding. One of the most eye-candy fights ever. Friede is an enemy you will die to your first run no matter what, most probably due to the fact that probably nobody really expects a third stage fight after the second one is done. And her third stage does not mess around. But beating her, especially without any summons, is one of the most satisfying things I've ever experienced in DS. DS franchise is known for having weak basic version bosses, and quite hard expansion ones. Friede is a great example. Solo fighting her is wonderful, apart from second stage when you have to evade father like... three or four times? The remaining time of this battle is nothing but an epic duel between you and her, nothing more. First stage is absolutely climatic. Quiet, wonderful soundtrack to a world of endless winter. Even the music seems cold. Friede's silhouette and behaviour as cold as the surroundings. And then you're hit with second stage, where music goes crazily amplified and epic, stage full of fire and rage, making you think that the hardest part has now begun. And then, there's third stage, when all you've thought is proven wrong and you kinda wish you were fighting two enemies once more rather than one. To me, it's probably the best designed DS3 boss combat experience ever.