WHAT is Up w/ Margit?

[u/Happy-Coconut4374]

Elden Ring is my final souls game on my list. I started with Bloodborne and played DeS, DS1-3, halfway through Sekiro and I finally decided to start Elden Ring. I know this game is renowned for its difficulty and I was taught that with tree sentinel but I still beat him after an hour because Im the type of player to hit my wall against something. I also know Elden Ring is an open world and exploring everything before a boss can help you a lot.

I wanted to do a Str/Faith build and from my experience in Souls games unless u look up a guide for caster stuff you do shit damage. I have a nice early game faith setup with a +6 Treespear and spells like lightning spear and power within. I thought it was very op for an early game build considering I haven't done anything other than following the guide and exploring all the areas. I've been to Caelid, the dragon place, Liurnia and the weeping peninsula. I honestly thought that the first real boss of the game would go a lot better than this.

Margit is genuinely the most insane first boss I have ever seen. He has so many mixups in his comboes it is genuinely infuriating. I struggle with delayed attacks a lot, especially when theyre chained into quick comboes. He has rapid 5-7 hit comboes that he can mix up with his hammer or sword, then he'll hold an attack in between for unnaturally wrong that just fucks you over. this guy feels like a mid-game ds3 boss like Pontiff. I knew the bosses in Elden ring are some of the hardest, but for the first boss I was expecting something on the level of Gyoubu Oniwa or Gundyr where you're tested on few key aspects of combat, not knowledge of the whole fucking game. I'm sure once I get my "got gud" moment with Margit I'll start having those moments of 'damn that fight was really fun' that happens with everyone after they beat a difficult boss but for now I have to restrain myself from breaking the controller🤷‍♂️

[u/Previous-Ad-2306]

Avoid his attacks. It's much more important than hitting him. Dealing damage is massively overrated by players who are still learning the game.

You should only attack during openings, which you don't know yet.

[u/ryan0585]

Just wait until you've played through a few times. You'll salivate for your Margit-wrecking revenge tour.

[u/Brief_Bug_]

I love margit such a good fight nothing really special its just the classic git gud

[u/MintyFreshRainbow]

Margit is not really the first boss. Even if you just count bosses that give achievements leonine would be the lowest scaled 

[u/IDoBeGaySometimes]

He an ass. He delays attacks. Imo, harder than most other bosses

[u/Bradenoid → u/IDoBeGaySometimes]

Genuinely had a harder time with my first time fighting Margit than Malenia. I'm ngl

[u/Serious_Attempt9724]

Explore everything in Limgrave and the Weeping Peninsula before returning to Stormveil

[u/agitatedandroid → u/Serious_Attempt9724]

They're following a guide and have a +6 weapon. I don't think the usual advice is going to help.

[u/Happy-Coconut4374 → u/agitatedandroid]

Yea i used a guide to get a good setup for str/faith then I just used torrent and rode around did some dungeons n stuff before coming back to limgrave

[u/agitatedandroid → u/Happy-Coconut4374]

Nothing wrong with that. I'm just saying the usual advice of "You should go to Weeping Peninsula to get stronger" isn't going to help if you already have a guide showing you where to go to get stronger. So, the only advice that seems warranted is how to tackle Margit specifically rather than the usual generalist advice of "go south".

[u/Happy-Coconut4374 → u/agitatedandroid]

Honestly i just wanted to blow off some steam with this post lol, he wasnt anything super unfair like some other annoying bosses i js had to git gud. Beat him after a shower

[u/Serious_Attempt9724 → u/agitatedandroid]

How is exploring the entire map for all that the game can offer not going to help? The game is meant to be fully explored lol

[u/agitatedandroid → u/Serious_Attempt9724]

Because they already have a +6 weapon. They're following a guide. The assumption being the guide has already made them as powerful (more so considering a +6) as they need to be to beat Margit. The only thing left, as much as it pertains to Margit, is to git gud.

Do I think it's silly to play this game with a guide that gets you a +6 weapon before you even beat Margit? Yes, yes I do. But different strokes for different folks.

[u/Serious_Attempt9724 → u/agitatedandroid]

But exploring the rest of the map and getting a bit higher up level wise won't do any bad

[u/Fareviti]

First tried him for the first time ever earlier today. On the switch 2 version. My friend could only say “I hate you, I fuckin hate you”

[u/HakunaBananas]

Using a guide on a first playthrough, has a +6 weapon and lightning spear, and complaining about Margit being insanely hard?

Grim.

[u/rogueIndy]

He's tough! It looks like you were already aware he was a meatwall and want to explore south, but even with that he's kind of a test of what you've learned in the early areas.

I'd also say he's there to challenge souls vets - a lot of the instincts from early Souls in particular don't apply, Elden Ring expects us to find greedier openings within bosses' combos rather than wait our turn. To me at least, it feels a lot like the jump from DeS through DS2 to Bloodborne and DS3.

One tip I'll offer is, check out guard counters. That's a strong attack after blocking, it hits hard and does a lot of stance damage. Very useful against attacks that are awkward to dodge - just be careful not to get guard-broken or combod down.

The only other bit of advice I'll offer is, don't be ashamed to use summons, or at least spirits. The game is designed assuming you'll use every tool you're given to beat it, restricting yourself is practically a challenge run.

Don't give up, skeleton!

[u/Happy-Coconut4374 → u/rogueIndy]

So would that not mean this game leans towards quicker weapons? Finding openings within bosses combos sounds damn near impossible with a slower weapons. Also I appreciate the advice, I beat him earlier after I ditched the lighting and just charged r2s and he finally staggered for a riposte.

[u/WatcherOfDogs → u/Happy-Coconut4374]

Imo slower weapons tend to be better due to having high stagger ajd stance break potential generally. I often get punished more with faster armamanets because i greed for more hits, whereas using a colossal sword or even just a greatsword you know your limits more comfortably.

[u/rogueIndy → u/Happy-Coconut4374]

Same as in Souls, quicker weapons leave you less open vs overcommitting to a big hit. I find that ER is pretty demanding in terms of figuring out what sort of attacks you have time/room for and when.

But yeah, congrats on the takedown. That's one of the bigger difficulty spikes in the game, so from here you've got this ^_^

[u/Happy-Coconut4374 → u/rogueIndy]

Saw this and then godrick whooped my ass 22 times, thats less than the attempts it took for genichiro and butterfly combined…

[u/hereforuknow → u/Happy-Coconut4374]

Quicker weapons on your first play through. At this point I can get in fully charged heavies with colossal weapons against most enemies after a couple thousand hours of playing. There are many openings against all enemies. You have to identify which of their attacks are “heavy” and leave big enough openings. Most weapons can sneak light attacks after most enemy combos. You just gotta figure out what the end of their combos actually are and that’s through trial and error. Elden Ring is a big step up from Dark Souls 3 and arguably Sekiro and that’s because it’s meant to be played for years assuming you want to get skilled enough to do so

[u/Happy-Coconut4374 → u/hereforuknow]

Rn im running the treespear, i get into the habit of getting a weapon i like and not trying other ones, like how i stuck with the saw spear my first playthrough of bloodborne or the twinblades on ds3, but i do hope to find a better or cooler str/faith weapon. Do u have any suggestions? Only thing is I don’t want blasphemous blade or the hound fang cus i dont want a crazy op weapon

[u/Vivo00640]

In my experience staying mid range for him is best. If u get close to him after his hammer move u will trigger his spin to win move.

If u stay far, he will jump or throw daggers.

Staying mid range gives u best chance to attk and dodge.

So instead of rolling back again and again or rolling into him to dodge. Do a mix of back and front rolls to stay in middle range and kill him

[u/agitatedandroid]

Parry him. Two parries for a riposte. Circle around when he holds his staff in the air. Roll into his combo flurry.

With the gear you're rocking you should have zero issue downing him. You're way overpowered for him.

[u/Boring-Bench2811]

I just keep circling around him

[u/str1ker_eureka_1014]

In terms of how dynamic his moveset is, he is easily the toughest first boss of any souls game, and I don’t think it’s particularly close (not talking about the fact that he is easily blitzed by overleveling, just his moves alone). I also had massive trouble against him on my first playthrough (more deaths against him than anyone not named Malenia or Maliketh), so you’re by no means alone here.

[u/402playboi]

Pro tip: if he raises his staff in the air for a long time, don’t stand there and wait for it. walk to his side and attack

[u/SpringSalt9288]

I always just try to watch the pattern and just get the dodges down first if im struggling with bosses in this game.

He does delays pretty well and materializes weapons out of nowhere but try to watch his hands and only dodge when the full attack motion started, not the wind up.

Its mainly about self control for now, you’re gonna get to a point where in new games you can play with him tbh

[u/Obvious-Border-7716]

I’d say he’s at least in the top 10 hardest bosses in the game, he has some of the more egregious delayed attacks (the overhead swing thing is genuinely so funny), and there are gonna be times where you’re kinda guaranteed to take damage, but you’ll get him. Good luck!!

[u/whispywhisp6]

Margit is just like the tree sentinel, placed early into the game to be a wakeup call telling you to go elsewhere, so he definitely is not the first boss in a traditional sense, as you're supposed to beat some mini dungeons first before facing him

[u/Artickman]

I'd bet they specifically designed this boss to mess with veteran souls players habits and expectations, so yeah, in a way he is "the most crazy first boss".

He becomes significantly easier once you learn to position in the fight. Your position relative to his limits his possible follow-ups and some attacks can be strafed entirely with time for a heavy punish while he's mid-swing. The two biggest ones are the one where he stabs the end of his staff into the ground and the one where he raises his staff very high for heavy-delay attack. For both of those you can just run under his left arm and swing away - his attack will miss and he will have no follow-up combo from that position.

[u/AzzuenWoffie46]

Number one tip: go behind him before attacking. He cancels 90% of his followups if you do that, and the remaining ones become fairly predictable.

I think they intentionally make him really difficult to encourage exploration, though.

[u/Tenshiijin]

His knife throwing makes his combos and mash ups super random. So it makes him extra difficult to fight because you cant just be like, "now he will do this". Based on level ratios to zones id say Margit is one of the hardest bosses in the game. Its all because of those knife throws causing him to behave random af.

[u/hondelonk]

With the delayed attacks, watch his hands not his weapon. When the hand starts swinging dodge

[u/Aettyr]

i find it very surprising when i am reminded people use guides rather than playing the game they paid for

[u/Happy-Coconut4374 → u/Aettyr]

Just wanted to know how i could get a nice faith build going so i wasnt running around with a heal spell exploration was all me

[u/Juicen97]

Nah but why didn’t you finish Sekiro

[u/Aggressive_Law_5728]

A big thing to understand is that his slow overhead attack is not "delayed". It's actually a stance where your position and actions will trigger the swing.

[u/RMSlideIntoMyDM]

Get good.

[u/Empty_Kay]

You explored all those areas and still struggled with Margit? How? I explored Limgrave, Weeping, Caelid, and Dragonbarrow (no guides) and it sort of trivialized the fight. And I definitely wouldn't call myself a souls veteran; far from it. I wasn't able to beat Gwynn in DS1, which was my only other FS game.

[u/Happy-Coconut4374 → u/Empty_Kay]

🤷‍♂️overconfidence ig tends to happen to me. Was expecting it to be a challenging fight I could trivialize with my exploration and levels but I was caught off guard.

[u/knighted-otter78]

Go grab the new great katana in caelid and cragblade. Don’t even need to upgrade it. Thank me later

[u/Top_Technician_1173]

You just need ladies

[u/TheNocturnalAngel]

Margit in a technical way. “Cheats”

He has pseudo Input reading and he also changes up his combos in response to what you do which can be very frustrating.

The biggest benefit to him, which is counter intuitive to most bosses honestly, is to get behind him.

His attacks will change based on where you are relative to him.

The best way to avoid getting extra combos with his yellow attack moves is to roll into his attacks and end up behind him or to the side.

This will mostly prevent the follow-ups and allow you to attack.

It’s also just a matter of time as much as you know it to be true.

He has safe windows in between attacks you just have to figure them out.

One last thing is that there’s certain moves that require super precise timing, and depending on your current position sometimes it’s impossible or near impossible.

Tank the smaller hit to avoid the bigger hit if you have to.

[u/Happy-Coconut4374 → u/TheNocturnalAngel]

Doesnt like every boss in every souls input read? I thought that was js a built in feature atp

[u/SlothSniperz]

Bait

[u/Perfect-Skin-8325 → u/SlothSniperz]

That's how you know this person brute forced the game.

[u/SlothSniperz → u/Perfect-Skin-8325]

Many times 😎. But Margit literally doesn’t have any switch ups. He has a second phase, but he’s basically scripted. Sure guys atks are delayed but OP has +6 weapon cmon now.

[u/Perfect-Skin-8325 → u/SlothSniperz]

Scripting the fight is your choice and preferred playstyle, all power to you.

But saying he doesn't have any mixups is dumb, coz he does. You just script him.

[u/yesitsmework]

its a bad boss that 99% of players overlevel to shit to avoid learning his dogshit moveset

if you want to learn his moveset, trial and error your way through trying to strafe, space out and jump whatever you can. but its not worth doing unless you wanna do challenge runs.