How to Beat Maliketh the Black Blade
14 April 2024 at 12:31:55
Details:
Health: 10,620
Resists: Holy, Sleep
Weakness: Poison, Rot, Bleed, Frostbite
Immune: Madness
Rewards:
220,000 Runes
Remembrance of the Black Blade
Best Strategy
Strategy 1: Status Effects (Phases 1 and 2)
Finding an opportunity to cast spells with lengthy wind-ups, such as Rot Breath, can be difficult, especially in phase 2. However, in both phases, using a Spirit Summon to distract the boss while you fire this out can trivialise the fight. Compared to other end-game bosses, Maliketh doesn't have much health, especially considering he doesn't regain any health between phases like Malenia does. So, if you manage to activate Scarlet Rot on Maliketh, the fight is likely over if you can stay alive.
Using Black Knife Tiche is the recommended summon for this. She can very nearly solo the boss herself, especially if you don't summon her until the second phase, so she is useful to have in your arsenal.
Making use of Rot Breath is a great option here, but failing that, or along with it, you can use bleed. Maliketh has slightly higher resistance to bleed than rot, but not by much, and he can be absolutely destroyed by spamming Swarm of Flies from a distance, cutting large swathes of health from his already small health pool.
Maliketh does not have exceptional resistance to bleed or frostbite, so you can make use of these if you are well-equipped with fast weapons that can cause these status effects. Dual wielding the likes of curved swords or twinblades, bleed on one and frostbite on the other, will allow you to make devastating, fast jump attacks that will very quickly build up these effects, rapidly depleting Maliketh's health.
Strategy 2: Parry (Phase 2 only)
By defeating Recusant Bernahl in Crumbling Farum Azula, you can get access to a special item called the Blasphemous Claw. This has the ability to parry Maliketh's attacks, but only the ones that cause his sword to glow yellow. When this happens, activate the Blasphemous Claw from your hotbar as if you were parrying his attacks, and he will be briefly incapacitated. He may blindly slash forward a few times during this window, but you will have a lot of opportunity to get some hits in here.
Bait out his attacks and concentrate on pacing, and wait for those attacks that cause his sword to glow yellow. Those are the ones you can parry and punish.
Strategy 3: Spellcasters (Phases 1 and 2)
Maliketh can punish attacks that have a length cast time with ranged attacks in both phases, so it is important to use quick-fire spells. Annoyingly, the Beast Clergyman and Maliketh can both also dodge projectiles in a similar fashion to many humanoid enemies, so it is important to choose the right spells.
The strongest recommendation here is Night Comet. This is one of the best spells in the game, and can achieve some of the highest projectile damage if cast while dual wielding the Staff of Loss. Even with one, it deals great damage, especially when charged with the Godfrey Icon. Since this counts as a Night Sorcery, it is perceived as invisible to enemies, meaning they will not dodge it. You can spam this at the Beast Clergyman and Maliketh for great, consistent damage.
Movepool
Phase 1:
Bestial Sling: The Beast Clergyman can use the same spell that you learn from him in Caelid, and will do so in three ways. The first is straightforward; he will grab some rocks and throw them at you. He can also stab at the ground in front of him before doing this, or do a twisting leap before throwing rocks at you to throw your timing off. These attacks come out at high speed, so dodge sideways to the left earlier than you would for most other attacks.
Stone of Gurranq: The Beast Clergyman may pull a boulder from the ground and throw it at you. This deals very high damage and knocks you back, but is easy to see coming and travels fairly slowly through the air compared to his other attacks. The projectile is quite large, and therefore trickier to dodge than you would think, but dodging sideways should avoid the damage.
Beast Claw: The Beast Clergyman will slam his hand into the ground, and when he releases it a shockwave will burst out towards you, or in a circle around him. You can jump over the shockwave, or roll forwards to avoid it, but dodging sidewards or backwards will likely get you hit.
Earth Rupture: The Beast Clergyman may slam both of his hands into the ground and raise them up, causing large rocks to rise into the air. These will then crash down after a short duration. Both stages of this attack deal high damage, and are best avoided by keeping your distance.
Melee Combos: The Beast Clergyman can attack with a wide range of very fast slash and stab attacks from his dagger. These can come in swift side-to-side swipes, a slash and a stab forward, a single lunge and stab, or a slash and back jump. All of these make him challenging to fight in melee range as they have little to no warning, but if you are fast, all of them can be avoided most effectively by dodging forward.
Phase 2:
Jump Slash Combo: Maliketh can very dextrously flip into the air before slashing his sword at you from a distance up to three times, sending crescents of black blade magic in your direct. These will deal high damage, damage over time, and cut your max health pool. Dodge forwards for each slash, and prepare for the follow-up.
Explosive Slam: Maliketh can do this from a single jump, or follow up from one of his combos with this attack. He will slam his sword into the ground, perched on top of it, followed by a wide explosion of slashes that will deal many hits of moderate damage. This will likely kill you if you take the full hit.
Double Spin: Another alternative follow-up to Maliketh's jump slash combo. He will run forwards and slash twice in a very wide arc, dealing high damage. Dodge twice in quick succession to avoid this attack.
Sweep and Slam: Maliketh may sweep his sword forward in a wide arc before holding it overhead and slamming it down for very high damage. Dodge the initial attack, pause, and dodge the slam before punishing.
Sweep and Slam Combo: Maliketh may perform the Sweep and Slam attack before then following up with two vicious, circling swipes that end with a stab into the ground, causing an area explosion of slashes that can kill the player if caught for the full attack. Dodging the normal swipes and getting behind him will allow you to avoid the explosion in front of him, giving an opportunity to get some hits in.
Roar: Maliketh may suddenly let out a loud roar, briefly knocking you back with a stun. This is quick to recover from, can be dodged, and can be blocked to reduce the impact, but it deals no damage.
Parryable Attacks: Any attack that causes Maliketh's sword to glow yellow can be parried, but not by conventional means. You must have the Blasphemous Claw, obtained from Recusant Bernahl in Crumbling Farum Azula, equipped on your bar. Use this to parry the glowing yellow attacks, and you will get an opportunity to punish, but be careful of the untargeted slashes Maliketh performs while this is in effect.