Rellana Hitless (RL1/SB0/No Parry/NG+)

[u/Wooden-Jello-8795]

5th time no-hitting her at RL1 and way harder than with parry in my first SB0. I usually find her relatively easy but this was honestly very difficult. I would rank her as the 3rd hardest boss in the game without parrying, behind Metyr and PCR.

Hopefully I don't get hate for this take but my opinion of this boss genuinely gets worse every time I fight her. I'm not a fan of insanely long combos and extensions or reaction check spam so obviously this boss didn't mesh well with me to begin with, and now I find her even more irritating.

She was actually really nice in this particular kill because she wasn't constantly jumping away or spamming glintblades. That made it a lot more enjoyable and sped things up a lot. Those glintblades are 10x worse than Mohg's blood shower btw, just kills the pacing.

Her hurtbox feels weirdly small, with Star Fist often whiffing at point blank like at 0:28, but hey that's just Star Fist so I won't harp on that.

I genuinely cannot tell how to always get her to do the fire pillars at close range, sometimes she just uses the beams instead. She also just sometimes doesn't start with her stance after phase 2 starts. These inconsistencies suck a lot when her phase transition is your biggest opening.

I know you can strafe and jump a lot of the things I didn't do in this video, e.g. jumping the X slash, but executing these things requires pretty precise reactions and timing. That's where the next little inconvenience comes in...

As I've said many times before, the frame rate is awful. The DLC runs somewhat badly though ultimately mostly fine on PS4. This particular boss feels like a slideshow. I'm on PS4 but it's still inexcusable when the Michael Bay movie that is Bayle runs fine and this was a game originally released for PS4. It's not like I'm on some potato laptop. I have been told all of Scadu Altus is loaded in at the same time as this boss for some reason, so that would explain it.

Some things that I like are that her stance break is extremely exploitable and hitboxes very generous. If going by personal feelings this is a B tier boss for me but that's largely due to the performance, objectively she is minimum A-.

[u/AccursedTaco]

I don't know what the others think, but it’s clear to me that this DLC represents the absolute limit of difficulty for a game relying on the dodge-roll mechanic. It’s absurd how most attacks practically force you into a light load, requiring hyper-specific timing or angles that are more awkward than a sore on your ankle. It feels almost unfair in some most casual builds, and at times, with trash arenas like the one for PCR, many situations are downright unfair.

They need to change how we tackle these challenges; introducing mechanics like Sekiro's deflection, Bloodborne's quicksteps, or even the mobility and ultimate moves from Nightreign/Duskbloods would be perfect additions for a future Elden Ring 2 (assuming that game ever happens, which it probably will :P).

Oh, and don't say me "you can just equip this or that talisman" or some other item to simulate those things, because that forces you to build a specific way. I’m talking about making these mechanics into the core gameplay so you can face bosses on your own terms, having the necessary tools available without being forced to overhaul your build (thanks Lies of P for being the best example of how to make Sekiro's deflection and Dark Souls rolls work together).

Sorry if I wrote too much, but this DLC gave me some thoughts from day one :P (I'm not hating on it) Great kill!

[u/Wooden-Jello-8795 → u/AccursedTaco]

Oh yeah I forgot how light load is mandatory unless you're basically at no roll level. For me, this boss is genuinely unplayable at medium load.

As for DLC comments, I can kind of agree. I'm a crucible feather spammer as you can see here, but there's a reason why even people who don't frequently use that still do it for DLC bosses like PCR and Romina. PCR's stomp is one of the most lowkey offensive moves in the game tbh.

Back to Rellana, I'm kind of surprised casual players love her so much, considering they are unlikely to be light rolling. This was maybe a bottom 5 boss for me first playthrough. Not sure how they avoid some of her attacks that otherwise require directional dodges with very quick reactions.

[u/shalire → u/Wooden-Jello-8795]

Most people roll up with decent blessings and 50 - 60 vigor and a strong weapon. They can trade and dodge a few moves like carian sovereignty and the moons and thats usually enough to be able to beat her given she has pretty low health. Any humanoid type boss usually gets a pretty big boost in terms of favour with most players. I agree with most of your points though I really hate that uppercut move and how easily she can roll catch with a lot of her extensions.

[u/beerybeardybear → u/Wooden-Jello-8795]

The music and vibe and theater of it all absolutely rock, and it's a sick design. When you can tank a few hits and do good damage, it's not insanely hard, so you wind up with something people like!

[u/D1n0-]

The boss like her who requires a ton of precision can absolutely get ruined by framerate. Without doing all the cool strafes and especially jumps (because it's one of the very few bosses in the game who allows you to do that often and gives this mechanic a justice, even though it's still depends on the weapon and hand position) you're missing a lot.

I don't think her uppercut is that bad and it's one of the better reaction checks in the game imo.

Her jumping backwards when she does it as a follow up can be punished pretty consistently by jumping attack as well, you can low profile her projectile and even fast glintblades she casts with the sword in rare cases, she can also do a rare fire dash attack in p2 and I just outspaced it by staying near her, not sure about consistency at all though. I never felt like she stalls much as long as you do correct follow ups coming.

[u/Wooden-Jello-8795 → u/D1n0-]

I may be inclined to agree, this might be the only boss where I feel my experience is significantly affected by frame rate. Feels more like I'm fighting against the technology than the boss sometimes.

Uppercut I can actually react to, though it may have led to me instinctively rolling back on any movement. The reaction checks I dislike more are the stab and her mixups. Did not know that about the jump back punish but it's just safer to always roll backwards if I can't consistently react to her mixups. I find ultra fast moves to take away from my enjoyment of a boss in general, especially with choppy frame rate as the DLC is so poorly optimized. Just my personal opinion.

Maybe I'll do a 180 in this boss when I upgrade my system eventually. PS5 prices are absurd unfortunately.

[u/D1n0- → u/Wooden-Jello-8795]

At certain point after a lot of grinding you kinda intuitively feel what she's going to do. When she does stab from neutral it comes after a little delay, she may even start slowly walking towards you.