The feeling of relief when you have her health almost drained and then your attack knocks her to the ground.

Died a.lot. Faith build (46) with 35 Dex, 25 Strength, HP 40, Mind 36, End 32.
Tried mostly with Black Knife Tiche, Bloodhound Sword, Swarm of flies, Lord of blood talisman, but often easliy got rhough phase 1 and never made it far in phase 2 (maybe 1/4 healt left at best). Just couldn't keep er alife in spite of healing spells.
Then switched to Mimic, first with a mix of frost and bleed and staying with the Bloodhound sword.
But the final setup: replaced the Mogh talisman with Endurance talisman, added a lightning spear instead of Swarm of flies, Black Flame Ritual, Glintstone breath (frost), Troll's CGS with a frost special attack.
Stayed agressive trying to benefit from Mimic's frost and black flame attack and protection trying to get her stunned. Same in 2nd phase but also frequently healing Mimic, but being really agressive helped minimise the long-range attacks and the flower.

> Heals upon hitting the player

> Extremely lengthy combo attacks

> Inflicts an ailment that passively drains the player's health

This design is possible to beat, but due to all three of the above mechanics working in tandem, there is no way to win a battle of attrition with this boss. You have to keep her staggered and stunlocked while blitzing her to death as quickly as possible. The methods are admittedly varied (Bleed, Frostbite, Fire, dualwielding, Ash Of War spam, Tiche summon, Dragon Communion Incants) but the fight's flow is always the same: Either you utterly dominate her, or you lose. Whoever grabs tempo first and keeps it is the winner.

Some players enjoy this type of gameplay, where you brew a build that annihilates a boss before said boss can do anything. Those are the players who like Malenia. Foe those who prefer back-and-forth tempo trades (as is the norm for Soulslike boss fights), Malenia is frustrating to lose to and unsatisfying to defeat.

I am in the latter category. I hope FromSoft never makes a boss like this again.

Black Flame Tornado got me through this fight and I think is the great way to go if you don't want to lean on summons or respec into a bleed build. Use Flame Grant Me Strength and Flame + Faith boosting physick and equipment to max your damage. And unless you want to spend hours memorizing frame-perfect roll timing, swap to a bloodhound step dagger when you see her hover to avoid getting waterfowled, one-shot by her phase transition, or ganked by the phantom summons.

Even with the healing and Scarlet Rot, this fight would've been amazing if it weren't for Waterfowl Dance

Does anyone else think we will fight Malenia again in the DLC since the speculation is that it's related to Miquella and from the description of her incantation it states "It has bloomed twice already. With the third bloom, she will become a true goddess" We'll meet an even worse version of her?

Killed her before Maliketh. Is that normal for the average player?

So, I’ve been practicing parrying her attacks and for the most part I’ve been able to successfully parry her parryable attacks, except for one. I don’t think it’s mentioned on this page but it’s simply just 2 very fast sword swings that you would need ultra fast reflex to be able to parry or even dodge. And I don’t see any pattern that could help me predict such a move.

This boss is hard just to be hard, not to be fun. Gael and Sister Friede, were a hard fight, but it was fun, and fair.

I found, after much trial and error, that it worked better when dodging water fowl dance, to first run away, but then roll towards the centre of the attack, rather than away. Every time I followed the guide, I would take the brunt of the attack, caught on the edges, and it would mess me up. Rolling towards her, I might take a couple of hits, but often took none. Only on the last flurry did I dodge away to the right, to not get caught in the finish. Still took ages, but at least I finally did it without summons (although I had to use rivers of blood and completely change my build).

The combat information's tips and strategies for Malenia recommends anyone finding her exceptionally difficult should consider a respec so they can use ROB. But I've just noticed that Mohg's sacred spear and Morgott's cursed sword aren't mentioned at all as being viable or otherwise to use against her. I got the sacred spear and cursed sword from their respective remembrances but before I respec so I can use them in NG+ I'm hoping anyone who has used either weapon to beat Malenia or anyone who found them a bad choice for this fight will reply with their experience of using them against her.