I hate this guy. He’s tough, a pain to get to, and you have to lose a human effigy every time you want to fight him – it doesn’t really get any worse. In my own humble and personal opinion, this is the most difficult boss in Dark Souls II. Luckily, he’s optional. So unless you’re looking for some classic ‘Souls’ armor or some unique spells, this guy is completely avoidable. I just wanted to be able to say I did it.
I like being highly mobile in this fight, I dropped and swapped gear to get below 30% burden. I use dual +10 rapiers to maximize damage in little bursts. The key to this fight is to watch both of him at all times and only attack when it’s absolutely safe. If you get greedy at all, you’ll die. He does tons of damage and if he staggers you, the other him may finish you off. So yea, at about 50% life he will split into two – both equal in power and both damageable.
When he casts the dark portal spell, watch which his spell goes into because it will always come out the other. Get a sprint on and roll the second it’s about to land. The AoE is huge and will chunk you. He has a close fire nova around him, run like hell if he charges it. He has a quickish soul arrow attack you have to keep an eye out for. When a red circle goes up above his head get ready to roll from three fireballs. When he hovers in air, get ready for a laser beam, similar to Nasandras (I say Lisandra in the video, a League of Legends easter egg?). After the laser or the melee attack, punish him. If you’re quick, hit him once before he melees.
When you have a Human Effigy on the line, each death is that much more painful. The amount of blood pools in his lair is a testament to his difficulty.
