How to Beat Queen Rennala
6 March 2024 at 13:36:43
Details:
Health: 3,493
Resists: Magic
Weakness: Physical, Status Effects
Immune: Parry, Critical, Sleep, Madness
Rewards:
40,000 Runes
Great Rune of the Unborn
Remembrance of the Full Moon Queen
Best Strategy
Preparation:
Depending on how early or late in the game you decide to tackle Rennala, you may find yourself facing a bit of a challenge. She has two phases, and the second phase has a varied moveset with powerful enemy summons as well - all of this is made more frustrating by the fact that Rennala will repeatedly reposition herself and fire very powerful sorceries at you. So, we are going in with some heavy firepower. Find yourself a good, fast weapon that can deal a lot of strikes in a short period of time; the Twinblade, found in Dragon-Burnt Ruins within the Agheel Lake area of Limgrave is a good option. Alternatively, dual wielding curved swords works wonders here. Next, go to Fort Haight in South East Mistwood, also an area of Limgrave, and elminate the knight there. He will drop the Bloody Slash ash of war. Now, slot this on your weapon of choice with the bloody affinity, and you will have a fast, high-damaging option with big bursts of bleed damage. This will make short work of Rennala.
Phase 1:
This phase of the fight isn't necessarily difficult, but is designed to weaken you a little in time for the proper fight. The faster you get this part out of the way, the less hassle you will have to deal with. Rennala herself is floating in an invulnerable bubble above, and in order to harm her, you will need to deal with the students around the room. All you need to do is find the right creepy students on the floor and kill them, which only takes a hit or two. The ones you are looking for have a glow around them, and they will periodically fire purple book projectiles at you. When you locate and eliminate three of these students, Rennala will float to the ground, and her bubble will burst. Now you can deal damage directly to Rennala, but after a short while, she will regain her shield and blast the area around her to deal high damage, so be sure to get clear of that. If you play aggressively, you can get Rennala down in just one rotation of this phase, but the most it should take is three or four. Once this is done, you will be able to move onto phase 2.
Phase 2:
Here, you need to play aggressively. It is easy to fall into the trap of trying to play too carefully here, but that leaves more room for error, and Rennala's attacks can deal a huge amount of damage if you get caught off guard. Avoid Rennala's attacks, close the gap, and absolutely spam your attacks on here. If you are fast and keep up the damage, you may very well stunlock her for the entire fight, and it's easy to put her down with one combo if you go for the Bloody Slash ash of war route. Using this strategy will probably get Rennala down before she has chance to summon any adds, but if she does manage to summon any, you will need to step back. Simply outpace them and they will disappear after a while. The main threats are the dragon and the bloodhound knight, so be careful, and remember that while Rennala does tend to be more passive while her summons are around, she may still decide to throw a spell or two your way. As long as you keep up the pressure and play aggressively, you will have Rennala down in no time. If you plan to use a spirit summon of your own, then do so right before you go into phase 2, and then finish Rennala off. The summon will follow you into the next phase.
Movepool
Phase 1:
Telekinesis: One of the students may telekinetically move one of the lamps in the room and throw it at you, or drop a chandelier from the ceiling above. Be aware of your surroundings and either use the bookcases for cover or dodge the attack.
Fire Rain: A relatively low-damage attack that is easily avoided. A small area may start to be covered in fire raining down, which will deal gradual damage over time. This is designed for area denial, so just try to avoid those areas.
Fire Breath: One of the students may begin channelling a stream of fire towards you if you stay too close for too long. It doesn't track very well, so just avoid it by outdistancing the student.
Light Bursts: If you have broken Rennala's shield at least once, she will begin sacrificing some of the students in the room on occasion. They will float up, turn into glowing headstones and then fire light at you. Avoid this at all costs, as it deals high damage.
Light Explosion: Once you have broken Rennala's shield, you only have so long until she creates an explosion of light in a small area around her and regains her shield once again. Be sure to get well clear of the blast radius.
Phase 2:
Spinning Weapon: Rennala will rapidly spin her staff in front of her over several seconds. Rennala may use this as a distraction while she levitates backwards, or may stay still. This will deal consistent high damage if you stay in its area, and is best avoided by dodging backwards.
Boomerang: Similar to above, Rennala will spin her weapon, but this time she will throw it outwards towards you. It will travel in an arc and then return back to her, and can hit you on the return journey as well.
Comet Azur: This is Rennala's most devastating attack. After charging for a significant amount of time, she will send out a beam of magic over a long duration that deals extremely high damage. Getting caught by the full hit of this can very well kill you, so be sure to avoid it. Doing so requires you to dodge at the very last moment as the beam fires, and then keep doing so sideways until the ability ends.
Glintstone Arc: Rennala will summon an arc of crystals above which will fire at the player one after the other. Staying mobile and moving sidewards will usually be enough to avoid this, but remember to dodge if you can't quite outpace them.
Glintstone Pebbles: Similar to Glintstone Arc, but summoned in front of Rennala instead. This is avoided in the same way; run sideways, or dodge through them at the last moment.
Rennala's Full Moon: This is Rennala's signature move, and deals devastating damage. She will transform briefly into a small moon type projectile and then slip out the back of it. It will then move forward at rapidly accelerating speeds and must be dodged to avoid a massive hit along with a hefty debuff to your magic resistance. When this projectile hits you or misses you, it will explode for area damage, so make sure you dodge well clear of the blast radius.
Shattering Glintstone: Rennala will summon a crystal in front of her that will burst and shoot projectiles. Once you get the timing of how long it takes for the crystal to explode, you will find it easy to dodge through the projectiles and avoid the damage.
Summon Ally: This is one of the tougher mechanics of Rennala's fight, but only if you take too long to kill her. She will slam her staff to create a rune on the floor, knocking you back and summoning an ally. This can be a group of wolves, a troll, a bloodhound knight or a dragon. Rennala will only do this when she gets to below 60% health, and each one will remain for a set amount of time before despawning. Kite these adds and re-engage Rennala when the coast is clear. Beware of the bloodhound knight's leaping attacks that may require a dodge in addition to kiting, and the same goes for the dragon's fire breath.