![latest[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/L6YBX6P.jpg "latest[1].jpg")
is this the only case in the souls series where players need to truly git gud?
>first form works like cleric beast except adds small AoEs to the end of attacks, meaning you can't abuse the long recovery frames of the cleric beast. On top of this, it rewards smart dodging, not just abusing I-frames
>second form has huge swinging attacks in addition to phase 1 attacks that change up your dodges from being distance-conscious to being reactionary on the whim
>third form changes the battle to be the most frantic one against a fire enemy since flamelurker, heightening your senses even higher than phase 2
>all 3 forms use the space of the arena perfectly
>has high health so each phase is emphasized well
>best pallet swap in the series hands down, only one coming close being champion gundyr
>high health and intelligently designed AoEs make him one of the few bosses in the series to not get butt fucked by summoning
yet when he's brought up, most people go SHIT BOSS FUCK AOEs TOO MUCH HEALTH REEEEE. I assume most of the anger comes from casuals who rely on summoning, but there are also those who cry without needing crutches
>get to him
>Oh this will be easy, another cleric beast
>mfw 1 hour later
bloodborne is much a souls game as dark souls 2 is
>>339080459
So they're both souls games to their core? We already know this.
>>339080459
so 100%?
He's okay, but feels really disappointing after fighting the Orphan of Kos. Whereas the Orphan gave the player the opportunity to use all sorts of different strategies and mechanics to beat him (staggering, viscerals, backstabs, magic, shooting his projectiles before he can throw them), Laurence is just another attack-dodge-attack style monster. He doesn't have any stagger frames or any really vulnerable moments so he just becomes a sorta generic case of bait-and-punish.
Also like every large enemy in the game, the camera is clearly not designed to compensate for his massive frame, especially not in such a small area.
>>339079774
Funny enough, my game ended up glitching and I never had to fight him during my playthrough because he never sprang to life.
I don't care what you say, Laurence is a fucking bullshit, horribly designed boss.
>>339081045
please explain why, I explained in the OP why I think he's great
>let's put this really important character into the DLC!
>let's be absolutely uncreative and just visually reskin the cleric beast and add flame effects
>let's be mechanically uncreative by giving him a simple typical beast moveset in his first phase and add tons of AOE's in his second phase!
>Let's be even more uncreative and instead of making him mechanically more aggressive and different to compensate for the wiser players at this point of the game, let's just give him a fuck ton of health that players can chip down on
>let's make his third phase even worse, by giving him a shitty lava trail effect and even more constant aoe's so players will get stuck in corners or have to dodge the ridiculously powerful, ridiculously long lasting swipe attack!
>laurence is a good boss guys, I swear!
It's interesting you mentioned champion gundyr, because that wasn't really even a palette swap, it's literally the same character, but that boss was still handled far, far better than Laurence was.
>>339081173
*by same character I mean thematically, not as in, literally the same boss mechanics
>>339081045
I like Laurence, I'm just more miffed that he is basically Cleric beast on fire. If Vicar Amelia got her own model, Laurence should've gotten his own.
>>339081289
I consider him a pallet swap because of different movesets
>>339081123
I don't even feel like typing out every point as to why, but it mostly is due to the lava and the camera. Also generally being unable to tell what the fuck he is doing half the time when he's just flailing body parts like nuts.
The standards for gitting gudder have been lowered IMO. I'm strugglin on my NG+2 SL1 playthrough to cream the 4kings though and it's weird because I usually have no trouble with them.
>>339081409
>Also generally being unable to tell what the fuck he is doing half the time when he's just flailing body parts like nuts.
I actually like this, makes it more reaction based
>>339079774
No it's not the only case.
But he gets too much shit for being 'unfair' or 'cheap'.
Half the difficulty of him is due to people thinking he's just cleric beast on fire. But then he starts falling over in phase 2 and extends his jumps (which becomes a horizontal dive), and or flails erratically.
>>339081045
I don't care what people say the Champ is a bad bossfight. DS2 tier hitboxes and tracking
>>339080917
try going back there with his skull...
