She took me 4 trys

This is just cheap, utter bs fight with broken mechanics change my mind. Whole game should be named one hit KO AoE

im so happy i finnaly beat her. for some reason i was better on my school laptop than on console lmao. btw a tip for dodging waterfowl: if shes passt 75% hp then try running to her sometimes and then if she jumpes up for waterfowl immediatly run backwards. after she does the second flurry and is about to do screwdriver dodge under it from the front. then just run a little more backwards and you've done it

So, I finally beat her after a number of attempts spread out of the last few days. She's still getting health from shield hits and WFD is still very punishing. While I play what I call a sword and board medium weight utility build, I had to make several adjustments in order to be viable against her. 1: I switch to post-nerf ROB as even though it isn't an easy button anymore, it still does bleed and fire to which she's weak. 2: I switched over to light (<30%) armor to allow for better rolling. This was critical to have a chance at avoiding WFD. 3: I summoned Black Knife Tiche. I usually don't use spirit ashes or human summons unless there's multiple opponents or they're cheating. I feel that a shield hit restoring health and WFD being off cooldown is cheating. -- Have to say, I enjoy difficulty but didn't enjoy this boss. Although I'm sure opinions will differ here, half the fun of being in a RPG is playing a role. Mage, tank, rogue... the moment you have to stop being what you were in order to beat a boss makes this less of an RPG. This goes double if you have to respec before taking on a boss because your build isn't viable.

This has to be the worst fight in from soft games.
Everything is wrong with it.
Broken poise, 1 hit inescapable move that is spammed, extreme hyper armor, healing on hit, 2 phases of complete BS.
I really hope they hear these complaints and never do this fake difficult again. Using moves designed for Sekiro in dark souls system is not brave or creative it’s cheap and stupid. The only thing difficult is that broken move that either kills you or restores half her health.

I just beat her with 2 Mohgwyn's sacred spears, no summons. (I posted the kill on youtube "Olya vs. Malenia" if you want to watch.
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This was not the boss I enjoyed. I played DS 2, 3 with dlcs, Sekiro and Bloodborne, I've seen some hard bosses, but for me this boss is the only one that I find to be unfair.
The reasons are all the same as already stated by other players on this page - breaking the rules other bosses follow.
Plus the fact that WFD is Way More difficult to dodge in medium weight than it is in any way fair.

Recommend light rolling her. Something that helped with waterfowl up close is to dodge to the left for the first flurry and dodge towards her for the next two flurries. I simplified that a lot but that's just the jist of it. Some of the times you will get nicked and if you aren't paying attention you will eat a flurry to the face. This is coming from a really casual player.

But what really irritates me is her seemingly infinite hyper armor and shadow clone attack. Guarantee if she was able to be stance broken properly the fight would be more manageable.

Turns out you have to meet her aggression with aggression. Doing a faith caster build with Bolt of Gransax just wasn't working. I swap to dual bleed whips and kick her teeth in.
But yeah like a lot of people say this fight just doesn't feel good. The AI can just swap on a dime and put you on near guaranteed death situations. I understand this is the endest of end game bosses but still there's just too many gimmicks at plays here. Crazy attack range, lifesteal, long distance dodges, mid combo dodges, crazy attack speed, huge damage, and 2 phases that you have to deal with. Tbh I think this fight would feel better with all that bs if phase 2 started at 50%. Yeah you could just buff up, eat the flower damage and wail on her but hey I'd think it'd add a "desperation" kind of feel instead of the general "..." feeling this fight gives.

My name is Melania, blade of Miquella and the rules of this game don’t apply to me…

I don't have the patience to learn this bossfight. It's like Friede, but worse and honestly only thing to blame is that Elden Ring likes that enemies hit HARD!

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.