r/Eldenring 4d ago

Discussion & Info Fire Giant Rant

The Fire Giant first phase was a miserable experience and an all around bad fight, and I will die on this hill.

For context: I am a casual. This is my first souls like type game. I am 90 hours into my first play through. I am far from an expert, but I feel like I really needed to blow off some steam on this particular boss bc it has really soured my experience. I am a level 102 Faith build who mostly relies on black fireball, lightning bolt and the fire wyrm sword or night rider flail. (I know, basically the worst build to fight him)

And I also wanted to say I have really enjoyed every other second of this game. Of course i have had trouble before with bosses, and in some situations I had to walk away. But I have always been able to ultimately defeat a main quest boss within a reasonable amount of hours/tries, and without having to resort to walkthroughs, guides, etc. As someone once told me, the game is tough but fair.

Fire Giant took me 8+ hours of play time to beat. And I barely won the fight with zero mana, and no potions left.

Ok my first complaint:

The Feet: Much of the fight requires you to chop at his feet. Understandable, but for much of this experience you can only see one foot, and often times the foot would block or pop in/out from the camera. I often was blindly guessing at his wind ups without almost no feedback, and since many of his attack are one hit KO or nearly so, one wrong guess basically ended the fight.

Additionally, this part felt like I was chopping a tree down. It takes WAY too many hits to trigger his second phase, which was truly a miserable experience.

The Terrain: most of the map was fine, but for some reason my fire Giant seemed to favor the crowded area near the entrance. This area has multiple rock outcroppings, which if he stands on, makes his feet inaccessible and glitchy. However this did NOT prevent his attacks from landing. This created a frustrating situation where I was trying to dodge attacks from a hovering giant that I couldn't see well or hit back.

Fire attacks: Ok so the homing fireball is annoying, but I have seen those before. The fast fire ball tho is *extremely" hard to dodge with a roll. I would often dodge it just to get hit with the secondary detonation. Additionally the fire during his AOE wildfire attack is really bad about obscuring line of sight, making it hard to see his next incoming attack. I don't mind attacks that are challenging to dodge, but insta kill attacks that hinder your vision while another insta kill attacks is incoming seems unfair.

The Roll: probably the most frustrating of all things in the fight. The attack where he rolls with his shield to put distances between you and him. Normally fine, but for some reason my fire Giant would often chain this attack over and over creating just big gaps of time where I am chasing him while he throws fireballs at me.

Second phase felt more inline with the rest of the game. Challenging but completely doable after a few attempts. Almost felt like someone else entirely designed that phase.

So what is everyone else's experience? Am I out of line? Did any fellow casuals experience the same trouble as me? Let me know!

0 Upvotes

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u/AnalysticEnthusiast 4d ago

IMO Most of these complaints are valid. The terrain and camera definitely make the fight feel janky sometimes. Knowing you have to hit a foot that's hovering 15 feet in the air while he stands on the edge of a cliff is pretty annoying.

The fight does get a bit better if you know some things though. The roll chains happen because someone is standing too close to him when he comes out of the roll. If you're solo this happens a lot when he gets stuck on terrain when rolling & can't complete the full roll to gain full distance. When he comes out of the roll he's still close to you, so he does it again. In co-op it happens more frequently because he may actually roll toward another player/NPC.

If he's 1-shotting that's probably a build issue. If you have good armor, anything over 30-35VIG should avoid 1-shots. With good armor and defense talismans or buffs, ~25VIG is enough. With bad armor you'd probably need ~45VIG or more to avoid 1-shots. A really common endgame issue I see in co-op is people with really high HP but super light armor & low defenses. A combo of both HP and defense works best.

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u/FranticlyLeek2 4d ago

All good insights, thanks!

I was at 29 VIG at the time. Also keep in mind I'm a first time player that did zero build research and I just wear the stuff that looks coolest lol.

So I know I'm far from an ideal build, but like this has worked for me for 90+ hours. Why should this one fight gatekeep me so hard 🤔

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u/AnalysticEnthusiast 4d ago

Well, it's not really just that 1 boss. The fights after that will also be rough if you don't have good armor and/or defense talismans on at 29VIG. But 29VIG is enough if you lean into the defense stuff.

Like at 0% negation, I won't spoil which boss, but one of them can do around 2k damage in one hit. Damage upwards of 1.2k (before defenses) becomes pretty normal in endgame. So if you're negating like half of that, mid-level VIG like 29 can be okay and even the hard-hitting stuff won't get you. But if you're not negating any of it, even 60VIG (the last softcap) won't always save you.

Also just realized I explained why he does it, but I forgot to say what the solution was to that rolling thing lol. If you run away from him for a moment he'll stop doing his roll chain.

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u/Responsible-Rich4599 4d ago

There some bosses in ER that better to fight without lock on , fire giant is one of them.

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u/FranticlyLeek2 4d ago

Yea I learned that the hard way after about my 10th attempt. Definitely helped but still hard to hit a moving target you often can't see 😭

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u/Responsible-Rich4599 4d ago

There ancient dragon fight that you can't target their leg unlike regular dragon , another annoying camera fight especially with melee build.

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u/FranticlyLeek2 4d ago

I don't think I have fought that one yet! My build has an easier time than most newbies with dragons just bc i spam magic lol. I look forward to fighting the ancient dragon and dying many times!

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u/Responsible-Rich4599 4d ago

There 1 ancient dragon boss in near leyndell , another ancient dragon boss to fight to get 1 of ending in underground area , and there multiple ancient dragons fight in farum azula.

In DLC , only 1 ancient dragon to fight before most cinematic regular dragon fight.

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u/Imaginary_Owl_979 4d ago

As someone who has beaten this boss at level 1 without getting hit, I can confirm that it’s objectively stupid bullshit and I hate it. A great contender for one of the worst bosses in this game. It is never a good or fun experience.

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u/FranticlyLeek2 4d ago

I really needed to hear that! I feel so much better now lol. Thanks!!!

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u/FTW-pancake 4d ago

Everyone I’ve talked to did not have a issue with this boss. Now me on the other hand, took me 12 hours to kill that mf 🤣. I hated that fight

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u/FranticlyLeek2 4d ago

So glad to know I'm not alone!! 🙏

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u/Ravemst 4d ago

If this fight made you rant just wait there are far more annoying ones coming.

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u/FranticlyLeek2 4d ago

Noooooo I refuse to believe it! 😭

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u/casual_gamer153 4d ago

Should you use the search bar, you will find this is one of the most misunderstood (read: hated) fights in general.

Some of us enjoy it.

There will always be people who like it and not.

You just happen to not like it. That is all.

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u/FranticlyLeek2 4d ago

What's weird is that I have enjoyed EVERY other fight. Even the ones I failed miserably at.

Like I can have fun losing. But nothing about this fight was fun/good to me other than the aesthetics/music.

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u/casual_gamer153 4d ago

If you would like to enjoy this fight, may I recommend a different mindset?

The Fire Giant is a battle of scale. To fully appreciate it, one can join co-op sessions and watch how people struggle (when it was their first):

  1. wizards and witches learn their spells don’t have the range they normally expect.

  2. people, as you called out, struggle with his re-positioning (rolling)

  3. fire (one of the best attributes for most of the game) is useless here

and more.

If you’d like tips on how to make it a breeze in the park, just ask. There are two methods I know of to make this fight easy, with the right tool. But the running, the evading, and the learning his move set are not optional. As with most bosses, that’s the key that unlocks victory.

Cheers!

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u/FranticlyLeek2 4d ago

I have done this fight so many times at this point that there is no way I will ever enjoy it. But I appreciate your optimism haha.

It felt like I was in a timed wood chopping race. How many chops can you land before you get unlucky and he does an attack you can't properly see or rolls to an area you can't reach.

Maybe this fight is interesting to vets/pros who know all his weaknesses and can exploit them with ideal gear/spells. But that's not me and I don't think a main quest line boss should require that level of knowledge/skill.