I totally see what you mean with stagger. Once it clicked that stagger isn’t just a bonus like parrying, and that there are enemies you’re supposed to be staggering to deal damage to. MAN. It changed the momentum of my playthrough completely
Some enemies like the crystal knights in the swamp REQUIRE a guard break to do more than 10 damage per swing too, or get a striking weapon and slowly beat the f out of their armor till it breaks
Yeah I agree, once I learned that I had a lot less trouble with the game and now I rely alot on the R2s and I really was an R1 spammer in the other Souls games
Personally for me with the "what is the coolest way to fight the boss" thing you mentioned, the method of fighting the dragon purely on horse was the coolest method to me. The fantasy of a horse and rider as one weaving though a dragon's attacks is a awesome fantasy at I just straight did not dismount.
Agreed! In fact the cool moment for me was staggering him and then doing a leap off of Torrent to get the riposte, then getting back on before he could retaliate. I get enough epic moments on my feet in dungeons, I want Torrent to be part of the glory when I fight overworld bosses.
Somewhat similar here. I just took this as an opportunity to learn how mounted vs unmounted bosses feel and this one felt like a warrior's trial on horseback. Plus, I was modeling a character on the concept of a Dragoon (from both real life and final fantasy) so it just made sense.
The coolest way to fight the boss is always the hardest. If someone killed it SL1, no horse, with a wretch build and only a club, that's obviously the best, because it's the greatest challenge. Doing the whole fight on horseback might be fun, but it's so insanely easy that there's no respectable achievement whatsoever
Agheal gave me something I have wanted in a game since I was a child but never got until him. The feeling of being a mounted knight slaying a dragon. Unironically, thank you Elden Ring.
Also both mounting AND dismounting Torrent have lengthy invulnerability frames, so it's easy to use that alone to avoid damage and it further incentivizes switching between on foot and mounted.
This is really good to know for the future. I don't like horse combat nearly as much as ground combat but going from one to the other sounds really fun.
That just feels cheesy to me. Immersively you'd get hit. You're clearly there not dodging anything. Taking advantage of any I-frames that don't involve dodging or blocking (or a magic spell that shields you or something) is exploiting. Once you have to exploit a boss in a none immersive manner to beat it then the boss already wins IMO. Which is why I always fight them "fairly". No overpowered weapons. No cheap ranged magic or cheesing I-frame. Just a sword, a shield and will of steel. Sure, I exploit blocking but that's immersive and makes sense. You got a shield. It's designed to take hits. Did Dark Souls new game +8 that way. I'll do it here. I will earn those bragging rights. Do the immersive breaking stuff and overpoweed weapon thing the first time if you think you can't handle it yet. But at some point when you're up to new game + whatever (better do it on +8 too) make sure you take a weapon, don't exploit I-frame (baring dodging and shields) and don't use OP gear/spells (no shield spell for my shield. It's unfair for the enemy TBH). Do every secret and hidden boss you can. Some are pretty well hidden. Course, if you use torrent before a fire breath attack it's fair game. Better yet beat the dragon on foot after you level up a bit. The only problem is the sudden downwards fire breath attack. If you're fighitng purely on foot (for a boss) then it comes down to resistence. A shield might block it too but the damage will still get through. So shield, fire resistance spell, fire talisman (it's found early on). Beyond that it's a matter of having enough heal flasks, which is going to be easy enough on new game +2. Easy enough. If only becuase the downwards blast isn't too common. What's going to make you pull your hair out is the rot dragon with the scarlet rot debuff. Good luck fighting that one on foot. Have to use items to help cure it I suppose. The good news is it won't kill you right away, unlike enemies with curse attacks. Wonder if there's a curse dragon? Also, get into the habit of trying to fight the dragons on foot regardles. Because once you come across a super tough dragon boss that's inside a nightmare (quest related) I don't think you can use Torrent. There are going to be enemies with breath attacks in confined spaces where you can't use Torrent. Treat him as a luxary. Not a necessity. It will push you to do better and adapt. Torrent is worth using but I stop short of abusing and exploiting. Otherwise I'm playing on "easy" mode. This helped save my skin when I come across other enemies with fire attacks. If I had played it too safe I might not have been as prepared. Basically Torrent is kind of a trap when it comes to the boss dragons. Sure, you can cheese it on horse. But then you don't have the experience for other fights because you enver exposed yourself to enough danger. It's more balanced when you fight a tree sentinel boss though. They can punish mistakes more easily. Likewise there will be times you can't use Torrent against that kind of enemy. So keep that in mind. See what i mean about Torrent being more of a luxury when it comes to bosses?
I think you neglected to mention one aspect of the area you fight the dragon in: the rocks. Me coming from Dark Souls 3, specifically the dlc's, I first thought this was going to be Midir all over again. I ran in trying to get close but I would always get hit by the fire even when I rolled away as far as I would with Midir. After a few trys I accidentally hid behind a rock as I was closing in and it then clicked in my head that I could use rocks as cover. I experimented a little more and found that crouching behind rocks guaranteed safety from the fire turning the battle from camping under him to running cover to cover to close in on him and getting away to hide and repeat the process. This allowed me to completely ignore Torrent and beat the dragon while still having fun. I hope more bosses have gimmicks like this since it's fun to use the terrain to your advantage.
reminds me of the first hydra in ds1, where if you approach it from Sif's side of the forest, you can absolutely decimate it with long range attacks without much danger to you
Thanks. I'm sure this will come in useful for me. I don't want to have to keep summoning the horse to run away. it's just another set of inputs I need to drill into muscle memory, which in turn is even more anxiety. If I can fight him totally on foot, this would be great. I have not gotten used to using the horse at all yet.
@@themagnus2919 That's why you only use it to cover for the fire. I would hide when not close to him, wait for the breath attack, then rush in and avoid the bite and tail attacks.
The value of breaking an enemies stance can also be seen with the land octopus. You do almost no damage to them, but heavy attacking its head and/or chopping of its arm tentacles quickly breaks its stance and does a bunch of damage. Anothe example are the stone giants and their glowing weakspots. You can heavy attack to those to make it fall over.
Thats more of resistance/weakness points. Like how fire giants are weak to leg attacks. They fall over(pose breaks) allowing to follow up with strong attacks, you can get the same thing to happen if you target the body but it takes longer. Similar to the dragon hitting its head vs legs or body.
no damage... if you don't attack the head that is the weak spot of the octopus, + you can cun it's limbs, reducing greatly the aggresivity and damage output
For those who dont know: You get i-frames during the mount/dismount animations for Torrent! The jumping dismount has fewer i-frames because you can chain an attack into it, you also have to watch out for long combos & long attacks like Agheel's breath attack because those will deal damage after you're done mounting/dismounting. It takes some practice but I've "dodged" attacks by mounting Torrent & I feel like such a badass when I do it.
@@LegendCatx I wouldn't really call it abusing the mechanic, the game was very clearly built to have Torrent be used very fluidly like that. He's a tool to manage spacing in combat and you're not really playing the game if you aren't using him like that :P
Agro and Epona were the only memorable horses I could think of in video games before Torrent. Now there are three, and between them I think Agro is still my number one. It says a lot because I adore Torrent. Super useful and an adorable goat pony thing. :) You can’t not like Torent
I'm relatively new to soulsgames, having only played a chunk of Dark Souls age ago, so I went into Elden Ring pretty much blind except for your Deprived video. Killed Agheel last night with relative ease thanks to Torrent. I'm not sure if it's the years of playing Monster Hunter, but Agheel had moves that reminded me of Flying Wyverns (this would explain my attempts to superman dive)
@@unionjack3836 The moves I noticed were a Tigrex like spin. The fire breath attacks had very similar tells/patterns to Frostfang Barioth. The armwing attacks are somewhat similar to swipes Flying Wyverns do. Plus addition of said armwings puts Agheel closer to a wyvern in my head
@@Tossen98 I kept anticipating a hip check when I noticed the similarities. Especially when I got him past half, "For sure they make him galaxy hip check me here."
I'm a souls vet and pretty stuck in my ways, alas this boss seemed super hard at first. the thing that actually tipped me off was how far away from me he would land after an aerial attack, making me use my entire stamina bar just to sprint back to him. just awesome gamedesign that there are so many hints that point you in the right direction, yet it always makes you feel like you yourself made the discovery
Yeah and it gets more like that the further into the game you go (the game wants you to mix blocking and dodging against some bosses e.g. Godrick the golden/grafted
@@K40005 Godrick was such a pain in the ass with the amount of roll catches i straight up tortured him to death by the end of it. the jellyfish summon is not to be underestimated...
One thing I am definitely guilty of (and this video made me realize that, so thank you very much for that! :D) is that I go into the open area boss fights in an either-or mindset. Either I fight the dragon purely on foot or purely on horseback. I will definitely try to combine both styles in the future though! Also Agheel really made me appreciate the game's mechanics (and the developers) even more because the totally smooth transition of Agheel's attacks and behaviour when switching between unmounted and mounted combat feels so well-made and tight. For example Agheel's fire breath attacks all get a greatly increased range when you are on Torrent and he flies and moves in wider areas. Also at one point I was on Torrent, spamming dodge to boost away from the wide arcing flame attack and the speed of Torrent and the fire breath's tracking was so well matched that Torrent basically almost scorched his tail for over five seconds, that's how close it got to me. Made me feel like I was playing a scene straight out of an badass action movie.
do we have to summon the horse via 2 buttons, or is there a quicker way? so far I've been pressing triangle/y and then the d-pad command that I have him set to. I assume this is the way we're supposed to summon him?
Like the video, though I do think doing the full fight on Torrent is super engaging from a spectacle standpoint. Even if not optimal play. Elden Ring does one of the best jobs I’ve ever seen of implementing this kind of battle. It’s a big show-off moment for the game. It’s hype to be fighting this huge dragon entirely from horseback as an early game fight. Dodging flame as you dash between its legs and across its wings. And the pristine hit boxes and combat mechanics make it work incredibly well.
I feel that ER got the feel of fighting a traditional dragon right more than any other game. The hectic rush of adrenaline as you narrowly avoid his fire with torrent and the grand scale of fighting a being much stronger than you.
THIS, Fromsoft have been trying to perfect dragon fights in almost every game the've put out, Some bosses were bad, some were good, But I feel like Elden rings capture the TONE of what these boss fights should be. They capture the TONE, The feeling of what fighting a dragon should be and I love it
sorry but no, FS dragon fights are pretty much garbage to what capcom games was doing for years. try monster hunter or dragons dogma, thats games with proper dragons. FS games are best with "fair" duels vs knights who feel more or less similar to player like artorias, fume, maria, gherman.
@@sanderkiki Yeah, but MH, and by extension most fantasy games but ESPECIALLY MH, a dragon, or dragons, tend to be, more or less, and with rare exception, the exact same dragon as any other with a skin change and retheme, a handful of attack animations, and a specific weakness and specific way to bring them down. Once you look at the clearly telegraphed theme, choose the corresponding weapons and armor, and/or collect the story macguffin, they tend to be far less threatening, and the victory becomes very cheap. Fromsoft's dragons all tend to be their own entities with their own unique moveset per individual, each with a wide range of totally unique attacks, strengths, and weaknesses and multiple strategies you can use to beat them even when using the least effective equipment, so long as you have the necessary player skill and learn how they fight. But however you take them down or whatever their weaknesses are, they are ALWAYS a massive threat to you, and defeating them, even taking advantage of those weaknesses and equipping yourself at the best, is a test of skill and strategy every single time... a dear-bought victory after an adrenaline-pumping fight where one misstep is the end for you because, whatever you use or wear, you are still a squishy little monkey taking on a building-sized mountain of armored scales that flies and breathes fire hot enough to melt the armor right off you. Fromsoft dragons are more of a threat than MH dragons ever really are, and give off the grand threat and granduer and unsurety you are up to the task in a way MH dragons, and ones from most fantasy games don't... which, of course, greatly increases the pride and rush of joy when you win. In MH, when you see a dragon, it's just another thing to kill in a game full of things to kill. With FS, when you see a dragon, you pause, and feel that fear, and that doubt, because you know engaging it is taking on a serious foe, and you are very likely going to die, many times, whatever you do, before you beat it. Essentially, MH dragons are often anticlimactic, while FS dragons NEVER are, they're always a climax in themselves. This means that MH, and most fantasy genre games, more or less, have always done dragons WRONG, and FS has always done them better. And you are just so used to badly done dragons you think that's actually doing them right.
This new perspective on the new mechanics is exactly how i percieved mikiri counter in sekiro, its a mechanic you are borderline forced to learn, but once you master it it makes the game so much cooler and immersive
I've only fought 1 main story boss so far (Margit) but Agheel is my favorite yet. It fulfills every fantasy you had as a kid about battling a dragon on horseback. I love this game so much lol
Never thought about it like this but it makes sense, I kinda struggled with agheel but my friend who is new to souls as a whole did him first try because he instantly went for the horse approach i just thought about that a few times after dying. Really interesting observation you made there
Can confirm: strafing Agheel on horseback for 20min will get the job done, but you won't feel very rewarded for it at the end. Mounting Torrent as described in this vid is also big brain because you get pretty ridic s when summoning him.
Fighting Agheel on horseback can be very fast, I stayed close, chased him around and slapped his wings with light attacks and used charged attacks on his head with my starting Uchigatana, the bleed and posture break killed him in just a few minutes.
It's been 20 years since I first heard "The elemental Stars" and I still get chills every time I've heard it since. And on topic, you're right -- I've enjoyed the game more when incorporating all the available tools at my disposal instead of just R1R1R1R1
It’s still early, but he already has a 50-60 percent completion rate like Gascoigne last I checked. Interested to see where it’s at once things average out in a month or two
@@JBrandonMercer123 margit was brutal for me but i was like level 18 or so. i like that you can gauge the difficulty yourself on alot of stuff due to it being open world
Something that I found extremely helpful with Agheel was actually using the environment. The ruins next to the cliffside with the giant crab inside is almost entirely flameproof. Agheel will still target the player, but unless he breathes into the openings the flames don't spread far enough to damage you. I utilized this in combination with Torrent to avoid taking damage. Once he was done attacking I'd rush out on Torrent hop off and get in as many hits as possible on his head, which was made easier by the fact that you could almost guarantee he'd be facing the ruins since you're inside. It didn't make the fight trivial due to the distance some of his flame attacks can cover, and you also have to kill the giant crab inside, but it was a strategy I didn't expect to work until I tried.
There’s a tricky spot in the weeping peninsula full of bats that was giving me hell until I spotted a chunk of ruin leaning against the cliff that made a perfect shelter to keep the bats from attacking from above! It made the whole situation much more manageable.
I've been loving these short essay video's you've been making on early Elden Ring. Leave it to fromsoftware to use the whole of Limegraves as a sort of continuous tituriol area to passively teach you that this is not like any of their games before it. Yet that seem like such a fromsoftware thing to do.
The coolest way to fight him is to stay mounted the entire time dodging and slashing him but by bit, and when he takes off flying and you run while watch him burn the battlefield it feels so cinematic like something out of God of War
I love how you look at these starting bosses like a game designer trying to coax a player into the most fun form of play. These lessons are very important from the the early game bosses, but I hope if you continue this series there are plenty more of these things to learn from future bosses (even in the late-late game)! 👍
I was initially frustrated by this fight. Agheel climbed the f'n cliff for Pete's sake, making me chase him to engage. I learned that I simply had to bait him back down. It took me a bit to get the timing (On Torrent/Off Torrent) but I eventually got him. I went from frustrated to, "that was fucking epic!" 🤣
Just beat that beautiful beast... I feel accomplished. Upon on my faithful Goarse, I fought the beast, dodged attacks, and after several deaths, obtained its heart. Farewell, Agheel, you were a great first dragon to fight.
I fucking love they finally fully embraced parrying and stagger mechanics. Always felt like a side thought before with DS1 being comically easy to get backstabs. Now it feels like a fully fleshed out and intended mechanic of the game
This reminds me of the Giant Ape boss fight in Sekiro, that was the point I realized that they gave you infinite running _for a reason._ Up until that point it didn't feel like it had much significance outside of QoL, but that boss fight proved (at least to me) that it was an intended tool to use from the start. From that point my approach to Sekiro became completely different from that of Dark Souls and I was much better off for it.
I have learned and applied a ton from Sekiro to this game. I just shinobi'd my way through Redmane castle last night. Sneaking, distracting, dropping diversions, and executing everything. It was nerve wracking but really fun!
one might say that the lesson there is every single thing, no matter how trivial it may seem, is intentional. These games are so well put together specifically because the "fluff" has real purpose.
I learned the "stance breaking" lesson when I just started and fought the Tree Sentinel world boss after just getting out of the tutorial cave. My halberd wasn't cutting it, so I switched to my longsword. My shield was leaving me vulnerable, so I two-handed. Started using the "Square Off" skill, and found that a couple of those uppercuts let me posture break him more often. This lead to me figuring the optimal punish I had available (charged r2 into jumping r2). Beat him using that. Now I'm trying to get "Square Off" for my greatsword.
"Square Off" is available as an Ash of War, but it can only be put on Straight Swords ("one-handed" swords), so unfortunately, it can't go on your greatsword.
If you want to posture break with relative ease with a greatsword, I do recommend ash of war 'glintstone pebble', available in stormveil castle, sorcerer Rogier ( the church right in front of rampart tower) You can either spam L2 or follow up with an R2 for a piercing attack That skill posture breaks like crazy
or easy jsut depends on how willing you are to bore yourself they have almost no counter to you just attacking their right wing everytime they start to fly just run away with torrent afterwards go this his right wing and just start hacking away
while all of this is true, I fight with this in my mind 'where is the best place to attack?' agheel's lock on suggests its legs but i know bosses like this always have complex attacks waiting for you, its going to be hard to avoid all attacks on horseback. And I found out he has one move that makes him stand still for a long time, the horizontal flame wipe, which I can use to my advantage ( which helped me fight godrick) And to add to that, I have found out its forearm/wings have relatively simple attack patterns and they space out a lot, you are also the safest there as you can immediately run away when agheel does the wide flame arc in front of him the only drawback was it wasn't lockable as a point of reference, which forces you to fight on horseback, with a free fov I guess i took a different lesson because since then I have been trying to learn horseback battles more without loking on, it gives me more freedom in terms of movement and attack timings.
It’s pretty easy to fight him like midir, even without a mount. The only difficult aspect is running up to the dragon again after he inevitably relocates
Yeah there's not much of a difference with midir, it even has many of its moveset animations. Not sure why this video is claiming differences with DS3, which was actually the first one to get away from previous clunky dragon fights and make you stay in the front, dodging claw attacks and punishing the head for bonus damage. I think fighting it on foot is mostly more consistent too, since you can start running backwards and to the left as soon as it lifts from the ground, avoiding all fire attacks
@@DiatribeCondominiali decaying dragons are thus far the only thing to give me any real issue, and i say this as i'm playing through a maidenless run. so i am base level, horeseless, and spiritless to boot
@@logansaxby7224 patience and practice will get you there, i promise. the odds are stacked against you, so you need to be familiar with your offensive options and their limitations, and even more familiar with enemy behaviors. try to be flexible, adaptable, and determined. when it comes to these dragons, your best bet is to aim for the head, and to be mindful of their breath attacks
I totally see why people feel cheep using only horse back to fight some things, but I really got into a jousting spirit. Especially fighting other horse back enemies and dragons. Something about conquering the field on my horse makes me feel like a true fantasy hero.
I just fought two tree sentinels at once on horseback. Dodging their attacks and rushing in for a counter all on horseback, while long, was a lot of fun, especially when I finally killed them, and happened to not get hit.
It’s not cheap really depending on the weapon you use it still takes skill to aim the blade appropriately and avoid enemy attacks. After all cavalry was a real thing in medieval times
Funnily, Agheel was actually the LAST boss I fought in the entire first starting area. The reason? I didn't see anything interesting at his spawn point so never walked near it. Also Torrent has accidentally made casting builds even more boom or bust than ever before. Seriously, its IMPOSSIBLE to die if you're casting on horseback. Nothing can catch you and you can run circles around enemies clearly triple your level and whittle them down.
only obstacle to that strategy is your FP. I've had cases where I've put all my flasks into FP, gone up against bosses far beyond me, and simply run out of FP forcing me into a basically suicidal melee if I want to finish the fight.
I went for a faith build and for nearly 20 hours in the game I couldn't even find the item you need to cast the incantations. I still can't find it in fact. I switched to a strength based character and now I'm leveling up at twice the rate I was before.
The moment where I really saw the true benefit of stance breaking was when I fought one of the flaming giant statues. I was dealing low damage hacking at his ankle with my magic blade, but 2 charge attacks from my katana downs him for a crit to the chest, dealing like 1/5 of the health, and I can stunlock him since he's so slow to stand up.
This was my favorite boss fight so far, granted I'm still 5% of the game however, this made my dream come true of fighting a dragon with a horse. The magnitude of the fight is thrilling, as if you are the person themself fighting a huge ass dragon while running away from those breath attacks paired with amazing angles.
Incredibly well spoken and well made video. You have my respect and aggreance, especially with one of the last lines in how we incorporate into our play styles. I've noticed that how I played in the beginning, like a DS vet, is very, VERY much different than how I play now. Thank you for the share
Funnily enough my first try I was completely on foot. The second try I was mounted for a short while until I got bored and just used torrent as a getaway from fire method. It is definitely a great boss for getting the feel of the new mount mechanics, especially the s you get when mounting and dismounting.
yeah, I've been trying to center my combat style around posture breaking because it just really clicked for me. It's a fun mechanic that adds that little bit of extra depth to the souls formula to make it way more dynamic.
Stagger and posture break. Jumping R2s became my go-to for the ancestral soldiers when I figured out it was a guaranteed stagger. And charged R2s for the giant legs. And some running around jumping R1s worked nicely for some other bosses... Though I'm using greatsword, so that may vary a lot.
Turning the volume down on that golden sun track so the bell sounds don't play audibly and you get basically just the long chord sounds is honestly kinda genius here
I know I’m probably in the minority here but I actually REALLY enjoyed fighting him on Torrent mostly. He was one of the first bosses I defeated and it just felt so amazing to have fluid mounted combat against a huge F-off enemy. However, I did feel the sense of it not being so fun when I was using Torrent against the Tree Sentinel
The real question is how do we use the mechanics that Elden ring gave us for multiplayer combat vs bosses like this. I already went though a majority of the game already and some bosses are easier to fight solo like (Ulserated tree spirit) and bosses like Godfrey Are easier with people. What I'm trying to say is how can we identify bosses that are like Agheel.
You just kind of have to observe their attacks and decide what strategy would be best. Enemies that move a lot, are mounted themselves, or have huge AoE attacks might be better fought mounted.
While I do agree that using the horse is a good idea, when it comes to multiplayer, it's not possible to use a horse. So I just a bit of a gripe with that.
Falls to pieces if you're a Faith caster too. Those non-homing spells don't hit anything on the horse unless you ride straight at them point blank (then you immediately get whammed because spells don't trigger stagger mechanics, or so rarely as to not matter), Or if you use anything that isn't a med/large sword or a halberd, cause the swing arcs on the rest are awful on horseback, The scythe for instance has basically no hitbox til like the 3rd swing of its mounted combo.
I think the amount of people who approach Agheel on foot is close to zero. The encounter is in a massive wide open area, which is impractical to explore on foot, so the player is likely already riding when the dragon arrives. Also one will almost certainly have noted the benefits of mounted combat while fighting smaller regular enemies before they got to the encounter area on the map. It’s actually praiseworthy how unintuitive confronting Agheel on foot the game makes the player feel.
Calling him just an "ok" boss after all that, and with his designs and animations, seems a little shitty to me. He's a great boss, even if he's not "le ebic dark souls 1 on 1 duel with an obnoxiously difficult opponent and thats all we want in these games" boss. You spending the entire video explaining why he's so great and then calling him ok at the end really grates on me hardcore lmao, really made the video go from excellent to kinda obnoxious right at the very end. Buncha negative nancies on the internet I swear, can't end a youtube gaming vid without throwing some pointless hate out there for the kiddies.
It IS an OK boss. Standard tail swipe, stomping, fire. Whoopdie fukin do. No surprises here. THAT dragon from Sekiro? That was NOT standard. Seems you dont have perpective.
Bro literally said he was “ok”. Doesn’t mean he has to not like him. He says right off the bat he does. Not necessarily as a boss fight. But as a way to teach the player. Also the irony of you calling people “negative nancies” online while proceeding to dog on this guy for making a simple statement is the purest form of irony and lack of self awareness. Grow up bro.
man i love your videos, i really do! i killed tree sentinel, agheel and margit all on the first day without a guide, but how you break down and analyze those bosses is very relaxing to watch!
Greetings, fellow Hunter! Seems like you’d also enjoy the Dark Souls games. Each one of them has at least one dragon boss, although Elden Ring’s dragons are by far my favorites.
I'm going to have to try this after work. I'm 50 hours in and have managed to Dark Souls my way past the second big boss (Just taking a lot of time to explore and do side content, and a couple of extra chars, hence the large hour count). I was thinking that I was just missing something, but now I know for sure. I genuinely feel stupid because the game has been trying to teach me this whole time, but I've been doing well enough that I didn't worry about it. Thanks for the content! Good touch on the Golden Sun in the background, I see you.
Love your philosophical takes and breakdowns. For me its really obvious the two starting areas Limgrave and the Weeping Peninsula has an immense amount of careful design elements, more like a long built in post tutorial. Every mob, dungeon, secret is like a primer for the rest of the game. Its really reflects well on the game design. Also shows restraint which is so rare in gaming industry now, and its a breathe of fresh air for me. Now that I am preparing for NG+ I see even though the game can seemed restrained, the reality is there is so many combat possibilities its mind blowing, its so deep.
I may have decided to go against Agheel a bit late. I spent basically the entire fight mounted, but I was using charged attacks with the flail to get big damage and using some pretty strong summons to help distract him. And then I just rode in under him as much as possible, especially when he was flying. If he was shooting flames I'd ride around them or jump over them. As others have said, fighting him as a "mounted knight against a dragon" indeed felt good. It was over in a few minutes, not 20, because landing entire charged attack comboes with a flail is real strong.
It really was an amazing feeling donning my Vanguard helm, raising my spear, mounting Torrent, and dueling with a dragon like I was Saint George. It helped that Agheel, even as the first dragon in the game (though not the first one I encountered due to my roundabout path of exploration), is an appropriately terrifying enemy, who literally roasted me several times before I won a desperate, tense struggle, exulting in my triumph with the knowledge that I could officially call myself a Dragonslayer.
The music that starts at 1:28 is from the original Golden Sun RPG for GBA That shit just sent me on a nostalgia trip into my childhood, I loved those games!
I have been doing exactly this with a lot of enemies. I did not saw any guide nor people playing, is kinda mindblowing how well crafted the tutorial stuff in this game works. It reminds me of the famous 1-1 mario tutorial.
Very insightful video. I myself struggled quite hard against the "retreat and spew flames in a huge aoe in front of him" attack until I realized we were supposed to use torrent mid fight! I don't know why I was so stubborn about it, but I adamantly refused to use steed for boss fights until it was necessary xD
In regards what you said to the gameplay reveal, they also seemed to end every trailer on the running jumping attack on Godrick, even further hinting at posture breaking imo
I totally see what you mean with stagger. Once it clicked that stagger isn’t just a bonus like parrying, and that there are enemies you’re supposed to be staggering to deal damage to. MAN. It changed the momentum of my playthrough completely
I'm starting to realize this as well.. 10 hours in. Lol
29 hour mark, time to change perspective.
Some enemies like the crystal knights in the swamp REQUIRE a guard break to do more than 10 damage per swing too, or get a striking weapon and slowly beat the f out of their armor till it breaks
Yeah I agree, once I learned that I had a lot less trouble with the game and now I rely alot on the R2s and I really was an R1 spammer in the other Souls games
I dont know how to stagger with magic
Personally for me with the "what is the coolest way to fight the boss" thing you mentioned, the method of fighting the dragon purely on horse was the coolest method to me. The fantasy of a horse and rider as one weaving though a dragon's attacks is a awesome fantasy at I just straight did not dismount.
Same for me. Timing charge attacks with a longsword while charging between the dragons legs and leaping at it's head was so much fun
Right? I was losing my mind with how cool it was to finally fight a dragon in one of these games while on horseback like a proper knight
Agreed! In fact the cool moment for me was staggering him and then doing a leap off of Torrent to get the riposte, then getting back on before he could retaliate. I get enough epic moments on my feet in dungeons, I want Torrent to be part of the glory when I fight overworld bosses.
Somewhat similar here.
I just took this as an opportunity to learn how mounted vs unmounted bosses feel and this one felt like a warrior's trial on horseback. Plus, I was modeling a character on the concept of a Dragoon (from both real life and final fantasy) so it just made sense.
The coolest way to fight the boss is always the hardest. If someone killed it SL1, no horse, with a wretch build and only a club, that's obviously the best, because it's the greatest challenge. Doing the whole fight on horseback might be fun, but it's so insanely easy that there's no respectable achievement whatsoever
Agheal gave me something I have wanted in a game since I was a child but never got until him. The feeling of being a mounted knight slaying a dragon.
Unironically, thank you Elden Ring.
Mix it up with an awesome soundtrack and you have a memory of a lifetime
And so early in the game too. Really sets the tone for the adventure to come.
Saaaaaammmmme omg that fight was so epic
Can't we talk to them and have them as breeding partners instead?
... What? They can look after thier subjects pretty well.
@@yoketah You haven't played Mount & Blade I guess 😊
Also both mounting AND dismounting Torrent have lengthy invulnerability frames, so it's easy to use that alone to avoid damage and it further incentivizes switching between on foot and mounted.
This is really good to know for the future. I don't like horse combat nearly as much as ground combat but going from one to the other sounds really fun.
not lengthy enough to save me from a man comet.
Wait that has s?!
That just feels cheesy to me. Immersively you'd get hit. You're clearly there not dodging anything. Taking advantage of any I-frames that don't involve dodging or blocking (or a magic spell that shields you or something) is exploiting.
Once you have to exploit a boss in a none immersive manner to beat it then the boss already wins IMO. Which is why I always fight them "fairly". No overpowered weapons. No cheap ranged magic or cheesing I-frame. Just a sword, a shield and will of steel. Sure, I exploit blocking but that's immersive and makes sense. You got a shield. It's designed to take hits.
Did Dark Souls new game +8 that way. I'll do it here. I will earn those bragging rights.
Do the immersive breaking stuff and overpoweed weapon thing the first time if you think you can't handle it yet. But at some point when you're up to new game + whatever (better do it on +8 too) make sure you take a weapon, don't exploit I-frame (baring dodging and shields) and don't use OP gear/spells (no shield spell for my shield. It's unfair for the enemy TBH). Do every secret and hidden boss you can. Some are pretty well hidden.
Course, if you use torrent before a fire breath attack it's fair game. Better yet beat the dragon on foot after you level up a bit. The only problem is the sudden downwards fire breath attack. If you're fighitng purely on foot (for a boss) then it comes down to resistence. A shield might block it too but the damage will still get through. So shield, fire resistance spell, fire talisman (it's found early on). Beyond that it's a matter of having enough heal flasks, which is going to be easy enough on new game +2.
Easy enough. If only becuase the downwards blast isn't too common. What's going to make you pull your hair out is the rot dragon with the scarlet rot debuff. Good luck fighting that one on foot. Have to use items to help cure it I suppose. The good news is it won't kill you right away, unlike enemies with curse attacks. Wonder if there's a curse dragon?
Also, get into the habit of trying to fight the dragons on foot regardles. Because once you come across a super tough dragon boss that's inside a nightmare (quest related) I don't think you can use Torrent. There are going to be enemies with breath attacks in confined spaces where you can't use Torrent. Treat him as a luxary. Not a necessity. It will push you to do better and adapt. Torrent is worth using but I stop short of abusing and exploiting. Otherwise I'm playing on "easy" mode. This helped save my skin when I come across other enemies with fire attacks. If I had played it too safe I might not have been as prepared.
Basically Torrent is kind of a trap when it comes to the boss dragons. Sure, you can cheese it on horse. But then you don't have the experience for other fights because you enver exposed yourself to enough danger. It's more balanced when you fight a tree sentinel boss though. They can punish mistakes more easily. Likewise there will be times you can't use Torrent against that kind of enemy. So keep that in mind. See what i mean about Torrent being more of a luxury when it comes to bosses?
@@taramaforhaikido7272 good argument, however your mother had i-frames while fucking your father
I think you neglected to mention one aspect of the area you fight the dragon in: the rocks. Me coming from Dark Souls 3, specifically the dlc's, I first thought this was going to be Midir all over again. I ran in trying to get close but I would always get hit by the fire even when I rolled away as far as I would with Midir. After a few trys I accidentally hid behind a rock as I was closing in and it then clicked in my head that I could use rocks as cover. I experimented a little more and found that crouching behind rocks guaranteed safety from the fire turning the battle from camping under him to running cover to cover to close in on him and getting away to hide and repeat the process. This allowed me to completely ignore Torrent and beat the dragon while still having fun. I hope more bosses have gimmicks like this since it's fun to use the terrain to your advantage.
reminds me of the first hydra in ds1, where if you approach it from Sif's side of the forest, you can absolutely decimate it with long range attacks without much danger to you
Thanks. I'm sure this will come in useful for me. I don't want to have to keep summoning the horse to run away. it's just another set of inputs I need to drill into muscle memory, which in turn is even more anxiety. If I can fight him totally on foot, this would be great. I have not gotten used to using the horse at all yet.
Hiding behind the rocks doesn't protect you from his other attacks.
@@themagnus2919 That's why you only use it to cover for the fire. I would hide when not close to him, wait for the breath attack, then rush in and avoid the bite and tail attacks.
You can fight him exactly like Midir. It works quite well
The value of breaking an enemies stance can also be seen with the land octopus. You do almost no damage to them, but heavy attacking its head and/or chopping of its arm tentacles quickly breaks its stance and does a bunch of damage.
Anothe example are the stone giants and their glowing weakspots. You can heavy attack to those to make it fall over.
Thats more of resistance/weakness points. Like how fire giants are weak to leg attacks. They fall over(pose breaks) allowing to follow up with strong attacks, you can get the same thing to happen if you target the body but it takes longer. Similar to the dragon hitting its head vs legs or body.
4 hits with a Claymore breaks it's stance. Reposte. Hit it while it recovers, and by that time you'll stagger it again 😂
no damage... if you don't attack the head that is the weak spot of the octopus, + you can cun it's limbs, reducing greatly the aggresivity and damage output
For those who dont know: You get i-frames during the mount/dismount animations for Torrent! The jumping dismount has fewer i-frames because you can chain an attack into it, you also have to watch out for long combos & long attacks like Agheel's breath attack because those will deal damage after you're done mounting/dismounting. It takes some practice but I've "dodged" attacks by mounting Torrent & I feel like such a badass when I do it.
I didn’t know they have iFrames, i’ll try to abuse that mechanic. Thanks dude
@@LegendCatx I wouldn't really call it abusing the mechanic, the game was very clearly built to have Torrent be used very fluidly like that. He's a tool to manage spacing in combat and you're not really playing the game if you aren't using him like that :P
@@adamleblanc5294 i understand what you mean, yes i use him just as intended in the game.
There are just some situations where you can’t avoid harm by normally riding so this can be a helpful addition 😂
That’s how I dealt with radahn it’s such a cool and useful mechanic.
Playing this game makes me call out "Agro!" subconsciously more times than I'd like to admit, and that's a good thing.
Agro and Epona were the only memorable horses I could think of in video games before Torrent. Now there are three, and between them I think Agro is still my number one. It says a lot because I adore Torrent. Super useful and an adorable goat pony thing. :) You can’t not like Torent
Definitely feeling the SotC influences.
@@stewforwords This game's open world 100% makes me feel like i'm playing SotC
@@Deadestest what is SotC? You have made me interested lol
@@rockybacigalupi444 Shadow of the Colossus
I'm relatively new to soulsgames, having only played a chunk of Dark Souls age ago, so I went into Elden Ring pretty much blind except for your Deprived video. Killed Agheel last night with relative ease thanks to Torrent. I'm not sure if it's the years of playing Monster Hunter, but Agheel had moves that reminded me of Flying Wyverns (this would explain my attempts to superman dive)
A dragon moveset reminded you a wyvern moveset, how is that xD
@@unionjack3836 The moves I noticed were a Tigrex like spin. The fire breath attacks had very similar tells/patterns to Frostfang Barioth. The armwing attacks are somewhat similar to swipes Flying Wyverns do. Plus addition of said armwings puts Agheel closer to a wyvern in my head
@@unionjack3836
Agheel actually fits the mold of an MH wyvern better than an MH Dragon/Elder Dragon because his wings and arms/foreclaws are the same.
Imagine Agheel hip checking and chain 180’ing
@@Tossen98 I kept anticipating a hip check when I noticed the similarities. Especially when I got him past half, "For sure they make him galaxy hip check me here."
I'm a souls vet and pretty stuck in my ways, alas this boss seemed super hard at first. the thing that actually tipped me off was how far away from me he would land after an aerial attack, making me use my entire stamina bar just to sprint back to him. just awesome gamedesign that there are so many hints that point you in the right direction, yet it always makes you feel like you yourself made the discovery
Yeah and it gets more like that the further into the game you go (the game wants you to mix blocking and dodging against some bosses e.g. Godrick the golden/grafted
On foot or on horse?
On horse it's easy to fight the dragons without getting a single hit once you know their attacks.
@@K40005 Godrick was such a pain in the ass with the amount of roll catches i straight up tortured him to death by the end of it. the jellyfish summon is not to be underestimated...
@@Psychoangel-d23 don't worry it only goes down from there
@@Psychoangel-d23 just go in there with a +5 jellyfish and +10 katana lmao
One thing I am definitely guilty of (and this video made me realize that, so thank you very much for that! :D) is that I go into the open area boss fights in an either-or mindset. Either I fight the dragon purely on foot or purely on horseback. I will definitely try to combine both styles in the future though!
Also Agheel really made me appreciate the game's mechanics (and the developers) even more because the totally smooth transition of Agheel's attacks and behaviour when switching between unmounted and mounted combat feels so well-made and tight. For example Agheel's fire breath attacks all get a greatly increased range when you are on Torrent and he flies and moves in wider areas.
Also at one point I was on Torrent, spamming dodge to boost away from the wide arcing flame attack and the speed of Torrent and the fire breath's tracking was so well matched that Torrent basically almost scorched his tail for over five seconds, that's how close it got to me. Made me feel like I was playing a scene straight out of an badass action movie.
I am definitely guilty of that either- or mentality as well. Fought Agheel completely on horse back
Time riding torrent, there’s I-frames
do we have to summon the horse via 2 buttons, or is there a quicker way? so far I've been pressing triangle/y and then the d-pad command that I have him set to. I assume this is the way we're supposed to summon him?
@@D00M3R-SK8 you can just put him in your slots and press square depends on what’s comfortable
I noticed this too. Its like the fire is right on your ass constantly. Really some crazy attention to detail
Like the video, though I do think doing the full fight on Torrent is super engaging from a spectacle standpoint. Even if not optimal play. Elden Ring does one of the best jobs I’ve ever seen of implementing this kind of battle. It’s a big show-off moment for the game.
It’s hype to be fighting this huge dragon entirely from horseback as an early game fight. Dodging flame as you dash between its legs and across its wings. And the pristine hit boxes and combat mechanics make it work incredibly well.
Yeah, and don't forget magically double-jumping to hit the dragon's head every now and then.
I feel that ER got the feel of fighting a traditional dragon right more than any other game. The hectic rush of adrenaline as you narrowly avoid his fire with torrent and the grand scale of fighting a being much stronger than you.
And then you get more experience after the fierce battle top.
THIS, Fromsoft have been trying to perfect dragon fights in almost every game the've put out, Some bosses were bad, some were good, But I feel like Elden rings capture the TONE of what these boss fights should be. They capture the TONE, The feeling of what fighting a dragon should be and I love it
sorry but no, FS dragon fights are pretty much garbage to what capcom games was doing for years. try monster hunter or dragons dogma, thats games with proper dragons. FS games are best with "fair" duels vs knights who feel more or less similar to player like artorias, fume, maria, gherman.
@@sanderkiki Yeah, but MH, and by extension most fantasy games but ESPECIALLY MH, a dragon, or dragons, tend to be, more or less, and with rare exception, the exact same dragon as any other with a skin change and retheme, a handful of attack animations, and a specific weakness and specific way to bring them down. Once you look at the clearly telegraphed theme, choose the corresponding weapons and armor, and/or collect the story macguffin, they tend to be far less threatening, and the victory becomes very cheap.
Fromsoft's dragons all tend to be their own entities with their own unique moveset per individual, each with a wide range of totally unique attacks, strengths, and weaknesses and multiple strategies you can use to beat them even when using the least effective equipment, so long as you have the necessary player skill and learn how they fight. But however you take them down or whatever their weaknesses are, they are ALWAYS a massive threat to you, and defeating them, even taking advantage of those weaknesses and equipping yourself at the best, is a test of skill and strategy every single time... a dear-bought victory after an adrenaline-pumping fight where one misstep is the end for you because, whatever you use or wear, you are still a squishy little monkey taking on a building-sized mountain of armored scales that flies and breathes fire hot enough to melt the armor right off you.
Fromsoft dragons are more of a threat than MH dragons ever really are, and give off the grand threat and granduer and unsurety you are up to the task in a way MH dragons, and ones from most fantasy games don't... which, of course, greatly increases the pride and rush of joy when you win. In MH, when you see a dragon, it's just another thing to kill in a game full of things to kill. With FS, when you see a dragon, you pause, and feel that fear, and that doubt, because you know engaging it is taking on a serious foe, and you are very likely going to die, many times, whatever you do, before you beat it.
Essentially, MH dragons are often anticlimactic, while FS dragons NEVER are, they're always a climax in themselves. This means that MH, and most fantasy genre games, more or less, have always done dragons WRONG, and FS has always done them better. And you are just so used to badly done dragons you think that's actually doing them right.
This new perspective on the new mechanics is exactly how i percieved mikiri counter in sekiro, its a mechanic you are borderline forced to learn, but once you master it it makes the game so much cooler and immersive
Exactly what I was thinking. The mikiri counter helped make Sekiro my favorite FS game in terms of combat mechanics
I've only fought 1 main story boss so far (Margit) but Agheel is my favorite yet. It fulfills every fantasy you had as a kid about battling a dragon on horseback. I love this game so much lol
100% agree. Agheel was so much fun.
Hahaha I'm on the same boat
Laughs in Darkeater Midir
Never thought about it like this but it makes sense, I kinda struggled with agheel but my friend who is new to souls as a whole did him first try because he instantly went for the horse approach i just thought about that a few times after dying. Really interesting observation you made there
Can confirm: strafing Agheel on horseback for 20min will get the job done, but you won't feel very rewarded for it at the end.
Mounting Torrent as described in this vid is also big brain because you get pretty ridic s when summoning him.
Fighting Agheel on horseback can be very fast, I stayed close, chased him around and slapped his wings with light attacks and used charged attacks on his head with my starting Uchigatana, the bleed and posture break killed him in just a few minutes.
nah i fuckin loved hacking at his ankles on my horsey :3
I felt very rewarded. Maybe cause this was my first boss of my first souls game lmao
It's been 20 years since I first heard "The elemental Stars" and I still get chills every time I've heard it since. And on topic, you're right -- I've enjoyed the game more when incorporating all the available tools at my disposal instead of just R1R1R1R1
you should look at margit next. im sure hes gonna be everyones gen ashina or father gascoigne
He’s been kickin the crap outta me for sure. Very fun tho. I def still gotta work on learning the mechanics
It’s still early, but he already has a 50-60 percent completion rate like Gascoigne last I checked. Interested to see where it’s at once things average out in a month or two
@@monodoro
Interesting. Where do those numbers come from?
Didn't find Margit very difficult, but I was probably over leveled. Crucible Knight, on the other hand, was extremely difficult (both times) for me.
@@JBrandonMercer123 margit was brutal for me but i was like level 18 or so. i like that you can gauge the difficulty yourself on alot of stuff due to it being open world
Something that I found extremely helpful with Agheel was actually using the environment. The ruins next to the cliffside with the giant crab inside is almost entirely flameproof. Agheel will still target the player, but unless he breathes into the openings the flames don't spread far enough to damage you. I utilized this in combination with Torrent to avoid taking damage. Once he was done attacking I'd rush out on Torrent hop off and get in as many hits as possible on his head, which was made easier by the fact that you could almost guarantee he'd be facing the ruins since you're inside. It didn't make the fight trivial due to the distance some of his flame attacks can cover, and you also have to kill the giant crab inside, but it was a strategy I didn't expect to work until I tried.
There’s a tricky spot in the weeping peninsula full of bats that was giving me hell until I spotted a chunk of ruin leaning against the cliff that made a perfect shelter to keep the bats from attacking from above! It made the whole situation much more manageable.
@@joshmay2944 Yea, it's pretty cool just how useful the ruins and large rocks can be in overworld fights. They've saved me plenty of times.
A victory is a victory in Fromsoft games
I've been loving these short essay video's you've been making on early Elden Ring. Leave it to fromsoftware to use the whole of Limegraves as a sort of continuous tituriol area to passively teach you that this is not like any of their games before it. Yet that seem like such a fromsoftware thing to do.
The coolest way to fight him is to stay mounted the entire time dodging and slashing him but by bit, and when he takes off flying and you run while watch him burn the battlefield it feels so cinematic like something out of God of War
I love how you look at these starting bosses like a game designer trying to coax a player into the most fun form of play. These lessons are very important from the the early game bosses, but I hope if you continue this series there are plenty more of these things to learn from future bosses (even in the late-late game)! 👍
I was initially frustrated by this fight. Agheel climbed the f'n cliff for Pete's sake, making me chase him to engage. I learned that I simply had to bait him back down. It took me a bit to get the timing (On Torrent/Off Torrent) but I eventually got him. I went from frustrated to, "that was fucking epic!" 🤣
Just beat that beautiful beast... I feel accomplished. Upon on my faithful Goarse, I fought the beast, dodged attacks, and after several deaths, obtained its heart. Farewell, Agheel, you were a great first dragon to fight.
I fucking love they finally fully embraced parrying and stagger mechanics. Always felt like a side thought before with DS1 being comically easy to get backstabs. Now it feels like a fully fleshed out and intended mechanic of the game
I still think Sekiro did the very best at these mechanics, but I’m glad Elden Ring is at least partially embracing them.
after watching this video i now understand that i wasn't supposed to just run around and hack at his legs while on torrent
This reminds me of the Giant Ape boss fight in Sekiro, that was the point I realized that they gave you infinite running _for a reason._ Up until that point it didn't feel like it had much significance outside of QoL, but that boss fight proved (at least to me) that it was an intended tool to use from the start. From that point my approach to Sekiro became completely different from that of Dark Souls and I was much better off for it.
I have learned and applied a ton from Sekiro to this game. I just shinobi'd my way through Redmane castle last night. Sneaking, distracting, dropping diversions, and executing everything. It was nerve wracking but really fun!
one might say that the lesson there is every single thing, no matter how trivial it may seem, is intentional. These games are so well put together specifically because the "fluff" has real purpose.
I learned the "stance breaking" lesson when I just started and fought the Tree Sentinel world boss after just getting out of the tutorial cave. My halberd wasn't cutting it, so I switched to my longsword. My shield was leaving me vulnerable, so I two-handed. Started using the "Square Off" skill, and found that a couple of those uppercuts let me posture break him more often. This lead to me figuring the optimal punish I had available (charged r2 into jumping r2). Beat him using that.
Now I'm trying to get "Square Off" for my greatsword.
"Square Off" is available as an Ash of War, but it can only be put on Straight Swords ("one-handed" swords), so unfortunately, it can't go on your greatsword.
If you want to posture break with relative ease with a greatsword, I do recommend ash of war 'glintstone pebble', available in stormveil castle, sorcerer Rogier ( the church right in front of rampart tower)
You can either spam L2 or follow up with an R2 for a piercing attack
That skill posture breaks like crazy
The dragons in this game are no joke especially on the east side of the map, they're so powerful man it's honestly frustrating lol.
Or easy, just depends on your build.
or easy jsut depends on how willing you are to bore yourself
they have almost no counter to you just attacking their right wing
everytime they start to fly just run away with torrent afterwards go this his right wing and just start hacking away
while all of this is true, I fight with this in my mind 'where is the best place to attack?'
agheel's lock on suggests its legs but i know bosses like this always have complex attacks waiting for you, its going to be hard to avoid all attacks on horseback.
And I found out he has one move that makes him stand still for a long time, the horizontal flame wipe, which I can use to my advantage ( which helped me fight godrick)
And to add to that, I have found out its forearm/wings have relatively simple attack patterns and they space out a lot, you are also the safest there as you can immediately run away when agheel does the wide flame arc in front of him
the only drawback was it wasn't lockable as a point of reference, which forces you to fight on horseback, with a free fov
I guess i took a different lesson because since then I have been trying to learn horseback battles more without loking on, it gives me more freedom in terms of movement and attack timings.
It’s pretty easy to fight him like midir, even without a mount. The only difficult aspect is running up to the dragon again after he inevitably relocates
Yeah there's not much of a difference with midir, it even has many of its moveset animations. Not sure why this video is claiming differences with DS3, which was actually the first one to get away from previous clunky dragon fights and make you stay in the front, dodging claw attacks and punishing the head for bonus damage. I think fighting it on foot is mostly more consistent too, since you can start running backwards and to the left as soon as it lifts from the ground, avoiding all fire attacks
@@DiatribeCondominiali decaying dragons are thus far the only thing to give me any real issue, and i say this as i'm playing through a maidenless run. so i am base level, horeseless, and spiritless to boot
40 hours in and I still can't figure out how to beat this guy or any of the bosses really
@@logansaxby7224 patience and practice will get you there, i promise. the odds are stacked against you, so you need to be familiar with your offensive options and their limitations, and even more familiar with enemy behaviors.
try to be flexible, adaptable, and determined.
when it comes to these dragons, your best bet is to aim for the head, and to be mindful of their breath attacks
For my playthrough, he got stuck on a ledge and I finished him off with a crossbow.
I totally see why people feel cheep using only horse back to fight some things, but I really got into a jousting spirit. Especially fighting other horse back enemies and dragons. Something about conquering the field on my horse makes me feel like a true fantasy hero.
I just fought two tree sentinels at once on horseback. Dodging their attacks and rushing in for a counter all on horseback, while long, was a lot of fun, especially when I finally killed them, and happened to not get hit.
@@TrueLimeyhoney I'm sorry.... two?
@@sherri3218 welcome to leyndell!
It’s not cheap really depending on the weapon you use it still takes skill to aim the blade appropriately and avoid enemy attacks. After all cavalry was a real thing in medieval times
@@sherri3218 guts theme kicks in
Funnily, Agheel was actually the LAST boss I fought in the entire first starting area.
The reason?
I didn't see anything interesting at his spawn point so never walked near it.
Also Torrent has accidentally made casting builds even more boom or bust than ever before.
Seriously, its IMPOSSIBLE to die if you're casting on horseback. Nothing can catch you and you can run circles around enemies clearly triple your level and whittle them down.
only obstacle to that strategy is your FP. I've had cases where I've put all my flasks into FP, gone up against bosses far beyond me, and simply run out of FP forcing me into a basically suicidal melee if I want to finish the fight.
@@Eclipsed_Embers
That's the downside.
I went for a faith build and for nearly 20 hours in the game I couldn't even find the item you need to cast the incantations. I still can't find it in fact. I switched to a strength based character and now I'm leveling up at twice the rate I was before.
@@themagnus2919 you can buy a sacred seal fairly early in the hub and you can get another one from a quest line.
@@themagnus2919 do we tell him abt the seal that scales with strength
The moment where I really saw the true benefit of stance breaking was when I fought one of the flaming giant statues. I was dealing low damage hacking at his ankle with my magic blade, but 2 charge attacks from my katana downs him for a crit to the chest, dealing like 1/5 of the health, and I can stunlock him since he's so slow to stand up.
I beat him on foot. When I faced the dragon near Raya Lucaria, it dawned on me that it could be easier to use the horse to go fast
Hail, fellow on-footer!
This was my favorite boss fight so far, granted I'm still 5% of the game however, this made my dream come true of fighting a dragon with a horse. The magnitude of the fight is thrilling, as if you are the person themself fighting a huge ass dragon while running away from those breath attacks paired with amazing angles.
Incredibly well spoken and well made video. You have my respect and aggreance, especially with one of the last lines in how we incorporate into our play styles. I've noticed that how I played in the beginning, like a DS vet, is very, VERY much different than how I play now. Thank you for the share
Funnily enough my first try I was completely on foot. The second try I was mounted for a short while until I got bored and just used torrent as a getaway from fire method. It is definitely a great boss for getting the feel of the new mount mechanics, especially the s you get when mounting and dismounting.
Really didnt expect such a wonderfully introspective mini essay when i clicked on this 3min video. Thanks man
yeah, I've been trying to center my combat style around posture breaking because it just really clicked for me. It's a fun mechanic that adds that little bit of extra depth to the souls formula to make it way more dynamic.
Stagger and posture break. Jumping R2s became my go-to for the ancestral soldiers when I figured out it was a guaranteed stagger. And charged R2s for the giant legs. And some running around jumping R1s worked nicely for some other bosses...
Though I'm using greatsword, so that may vary a lot.
I honestly really enjoy fighting dragons like Ahgeel on Torrent, it gives me that classic Knight vs Dragon story feeling
Learning to weave between mounted and foot combat was amazing. Watching you communicate my experiences is a joy.
I seriously adore this game. Also, your name is from Scandinavian mythology, right? The messenger squirrel on the Yggdrasil, if I'm not mistaken : )
Turning the volume down on that golden sun track so the bell sounds don't play audibly and you get basically just the long chord sounds is honestly kinda genius here
I know I’m probably in the minority here but I actually REALLY enjoyed fighting him on Torrent mostly. He was one of the first bosses I defeated and it just felt so amazing to have fluid mounted combat against a huge F-off enemy. However, I did feel the sense of it not being so fun when I was using Torrent against the Tree Sentinel
The depth to this game is simply remarkable.
The real question is how do we use the mechanics that Elden ring gave us for multiplayer combat vs bosses like this. I already went though a majority of the game already and some bosses are easier to fight solo like (Ulserated tree spirit) and bosses like Godfrey Are easier with people. What I'm trying to say is how can we identify bosses that are like Agheel.
You just kind of have to observe their attacks and decide what strategy would be best. Enemies that move a lot, are mounted themselves, or have huge AoE attacks might be better fought mounted.
Omg, that golden sun soundtrack caught me so hard off guard. Thank you sir for unlocking a long lost memory.
While I do agree that using the horse is a good idea, when it comes to multiplayer, it's not possible to use a horse. So I just a bit of a gripe with that.
Falls to pieces if you're a Faith caster too. Those non-homing spells don't hit anything on the horse unless you ride straight at them point blank (then you immediately get whammed because spells don't trigger stagger mechanics, or so rarely as to not matter),
Or if you use anything that isn't a med/large sword or a halberd, cause the swing arcs on the rest are awful on horseback, The scythe for instance has basically no hitbox til like the 3rd swing of its mounted combo.
Hearing this Golden Sun lighthouse music again out of nowhere. Freaking chills, man. Chills.
I think the amount of people who approach Agheel on foot is close to zero. The encounter is in a massive wide open area, which is impractical to explore on foot, so the player is likely already riding when the dragon arrives. Also one will almost certainly have noted the benefits of mounted combat while fighting smaller regular enemies before they got to the encounter area on the map. It’s actually praiseworthy how unintuitive confronting Agheel on foot the game makes the player feel.
It’s a masochist run for sure
Source: am a masochist.
ruclips.net/video/lvEMtqScvh0/видео.html
This is like Amygdala in Bloodborne. It's head goes down for an opening after an attack.
Calling him just an "ok" boss after all that, and with his designs and animations, seems a little shitty to me. He's a great boss, even if he's not "le ebic dark souls 1 on 1 duel with an obnoxiously difficult opponent and thats all we want in these games" boss. You spending the entire video explaining why he's so great and then calling him ok at the end really grates on me hardcore lmao, really made the video go from excellent to kinda obnoxious right at the very end. Buncha negative nancies on the internet I swear, can't end a youtube gaming vid without throwing some pointless hate out there for the kiddies.
It IS an OK boss.
Standard tail swipe, stomping, fire.
Whoopdie fukin do.
No surprises here.
THAT dragon from Sekiro?
That was NOT standard.
Seems you dont have perpective.
Congratulations you played yourself
Bro literally said he was “ok”. Doesn’t mean he has to not like him. He says right off the bat he does. Not necessarily as a boss fight. But as a way to teach the player.
Also the irony of you calling people “negative nancies” online while proceeding to dog on this guy for making a simple statement is the purest form of irony and lack of self awareness. Grow up bro.
man i love your videos, i really do!
i killed tree sentinel, agheel and margit all on the first day without a guide, but how you break down and analyze those bosses is very relaxing to watch!
I forgot his name, but the rider that shows up at night and drops the Bulwark ashes, gave me my mounted combat 101, good teacher.
As a monster hunter player I cream my pants when I saw that I can hunt a dragon.
Greetings, fellow Hunter! Seems like you’d also enjoy the Dark Souls games. Each one of them has at least one dragon boss, although Elden Ring’s dragons are by far my favorites.
Fighting that dragon on horse back, racing the raging fire breath across ankle deep water- fulfilled soooo many childhood fantasies
I'm going to have to try this after work. I'm 50 hours in and have managed to Dark Souls my way past the second big boss (Just taking a lot of time to explore and do side content, and a couple of extra chars, hence the large hour count). I was thinking that I was just missing something, but now I know for sure. I genuinely feel stupid because the game has been trying to teach me this whole time, but I've been doing well enough that I didn't worry about it.
Thanks for the content! Good touch on the Golden Sun in the background, I see you.
Kudos for using Golden Sun music!!! It brought back great memories.
Lol "quickly get on the house when we see him start to breath fire". Bruh I thought him on the horse the whole time and I loved it
Never thought I’d hear Golden Sun music in this day and age
I have to say love the use of music from golden sun 2 for your video.
Dude. You been pumping so much content leading up to the game. And now i feel like i barely see any videos out from you
Great video! Also can't help but say I absolutely love that song you played. Golden Sun has an amazing soundtrack!
Really enjoying your “_______ teaches you _______” videos!
Giving you a +1 entirely of that Golden Sun music. That takes me waaaay back. XD
Thanks a lot for not stretching this video up to 10 minutes!!!
Aside from your deep, thought provoking analysis... I'm really fuckin loving the Golden Sun OST. Well done my dude.
Man, that Golden Sun music was just so good to hear while watching Elden Ring.....
I love how on my computer, Torrent always takes a while to show up, and it's never consistent
Love your philosophical takes and breakdowns.
For me its really obvious the two starting areas Limgrave and the Weeping Peninsula has an immense amount of careful design elements, more like a long built in post tutorial. Every mob, dungeon, secret is like a primer for the rest of the game. Its really reflects well on the game design. Also shows restraint which is so rare in gaming industry now, and its a breathe of fresh air for me.
Now that I am preparing for NG+ I see even though the game can seemed restrained, the reality is there is so many combat possibilities its mind blowing, its so deep.
Torrent is kinda op lol. Hit and run tactics with him work for most over world bosses quite well
I love fighting on horseback in this game. I beat him entirely using only Torrent and it felt so epic.
I mean cutting the back of Agheel's legs on Torrent until he staggered and feel down was pretty cool.
Thumbs up for the Golden Sun music. Such an amazing OST, I was blown away when I realized it was the same guy who composed the dark souls OSTs
I may have decided to go against Agheel a bit late. I spent basically the entire fight mounted, but I was using charged attacks with the flail to get big damage and using some pretty strong summons to help distract him. And then I just rode in under him as much as possible, especially when he was flying. If he was shooting flames I'd ride around them or jump over them. As others have said, fighting him as a "mounted knight against a dragon" indeed felt good. It was over in a few minutes, not 20, because landing entire charged attack comboes with a flail is real strong.
And here I am the guy who just rode around while his wolves tanked and chopped his legs until he was dead
Agheel wants you to use barricade shield and miss his tiny little ankles with your toothpick.
It really was an amazing feeling donning my Vanguard helm, raising my spear, mounting Torrent, and dueling with a dragon like I was Saint George. It helped that Agheel, even as the first dragon in the game (though not the first one I encountered due to my roundabout path of exploration), is an appropriately terrifying enemy, who literally roasted me several times before I won a desperate, tense struggle, exulting in my triumph with the knowledge that I could officially call myself a Dragonslayer.
The music that starts at 1:28 is from the original Golden Sun RPG for GBA
That shit just sent me on a nostalgia trip into my childhood, I loved those games!
Just wanna say i love your content
Keep up the good work
I have been doing exactly this with a lot of enemies. I did not saw any guide nor people playing, is kinda mindblowing how well crafted the tutorial stuff in this game works.
It reminds me of the famous 1-1 mario tutorial.
Huge respect for the golden sun OST, that brought me back HARD
@1:45 that throwback to the Elemental Stars/Mt Aleph music from Golden Sun!
Every comment you made about fighting agheel on foot almost completely matches with darkeater midir’s boss fight
Love the golden sun soundtrack in the background! ❤️
I appreciate the Golden Sun, Sol Sanctum theme...always takes me back...
Very insightful video. I myself struggled quite hard against the "retreat and spew flames in a huge aoe in front of him" attack until I realized we were supposed to use torrent mid fight! I don't know why I was so stubborn about it, but I adamantly refused to use steed for boss fights until it was necessary xD
I personally really enjoy the mounted combat so I’ve been fighting all field bosses using torrent
this game will be looked back on with great nostalgia
really insightful take, keep up the good content!
Is no one going to mention the casual Golden Sun track that drops in halfway thru the vid? Nostalgia.
seeing all the comments on how many different ways people beat these bosses is such a cool thing to see and shows just how great of a game this is
Ratatoskr: "Use the new mechanics and integrate them in your playstyle to be more efficient."
Everyone: *jumping strong attack goes brrrrr*
I managed to get my hands on Lightning Spear pretty early on, and spamming it on horseback has made all the dragons a cakewalk so far.
In regards what you said to the gameplay reveal, they also seemed to end every trailer on the running jumping attack on Godrick, even further hinting at posture breaking imo
Aah, Golden Sun music really tickles the old nostalgia bone...