How to Beat the Hushed Saint
Details
Location: Forsaken Fen
Resists: Poison, Wither, Physical
Weakness: Fire, Bleed
Summons: Damarose, Kukajin, Pieta, Stomund, Tortured Prison, Iron Wayfarer
Rewards
Remembrance of the Hushed Saint
10 Umbral Scourings
1 Vestige Seed
How to Beat
The Hushed Saint is a difficult challenge to contend with, since you don't have a huge amount of opportunity for upgrades in the game so far. Playing overly aggressively will likely cause you to die quite fast, so instead, play conservatively and respond appropriately.
Do this by baiting out the Hushed Saint's attacks. Most of his overhead swings, jumping attacks, charged attacks and swiping melee combos have a pretty hefty recovery time all things considered. Be sure that, when you dodge these attacks, you do so by strafing around the Hushed Saint to position yourself to his side or directly behind him.
If you do this at the end of his combos, you will have ample time to perform a fully charged heavy attack. This is likely to cause him to stagger slightly, disrupting his pacing and allowing you to control the fight.
Remember that you cannot harm the Hushed Saint while he is on horseback in phase 1. However, if you feel like making use of the environment, use your lamp. You will see that there are many umbral parasites scattered around the arena. These don't directly buff the boss in any way, but siphoning one with your lamp while the Hushed Saint is next to it on his horse will cause the horse to spook and throw him off, allowing for melee combat to continue faster.
Not getting greedy with your attacks is absolutely essential for beating the Hushed Saint. He can combo long-windup attacks and quick attacks quite well in the second phase, and staying calm and knowing when to strike is important.
Movepool
Phase 1:
Sweep: The Hushed Saint will ride past you at high speed, performing a savage sweep with his halberd. You must dodge at the very last moment - too early and you will get hit. Dodging to your right is easier.
Halberd Throw: The Hushed Saint will ride around the edge of the arena and throw his halberd at you, which deals high damage and has a small area of effect. Dodging while the halberd is in the air will avoid the damage.
Thorn Blast: The Hushed Saint will ride his horse up to you and stop. It will raise its front hooves and slam them down, creating an expanding shockwave of thorns. Dodge forwards through them to avoid the damage.
Dismount: The Hushed Saint will leap off his horse and throw his halberd. Dodge the halberd as you would normally, and then prepare for melee combat. During phase 1, the Hushed Saint can only be damaged while he is not riding his horse.
Swipe Combo: The Hushed Saint will attack with delayed swings of his halberd in combos of up to three hits. These are easy enough to avoid by dodging into each attack.
Overhead Slam: The Hushed Saint will raise his halberd over his head and slam it down, creating a small area of effect. This is best avoided by dodging to the side around him, giving you an opportunity to punish the attack.
Thrust: The Hushed Saint will raise his shield and thrust his halberd up to three times in front of him. This has poor tracking, and if you dodge the first hit and position yourself to his side and back, you can get some hits in while he completes the attack, missing you entirely.
Lunge: The Hushed Saint can lower his halberd to his side to charge up a forward lunge. This attack will have him move forward a fair distance, but has poor tracking. As soon as you see him lower the halberd, get around to his side and get some hits in.
Backwards Slam: If you are behind the Hushed Saint, he may choose to hold his halberd across him before spinning round and slamming it behind him. This will deal high damage and has a small area of effect at the point of impact. Dodge to the side and continue attacking.
Phase 2:
Summon Horse: The Hushed Saint will beat his shield against his chest and summon his horse, who will charge at you after a delay. Dodge this as you would dodge the mounted halberd swipe.
Ambush Slam: The Hushed Saint will disappear into the water and, after a delay, burst out, jumping high and slamming his halberd down at your location. You can avoid this by dodging around to the back of the Hushed Saint as soon as he bursts from the water, allowing you to get a hit in.
Ambush Swipe: The Hushed Saint will disappear into the water. You will see thorns travel a short distance, indicating where he is repositioning to. After a short delay, the Hushed Saint will burst from the water, rushing forward with a spinning swipe. You can lock on quickly and dodge forward to end up behind the Hushed Saint, allowing for a punishing hit.
Shield Slam: At any point during a standard melee combo, the Hushed Saint may slam his shield down for a large area impact that deals a lot of damage. You can avoid this by dodging around behind him, but it is difficult not to get caught by the edge. If you are successful, the recovery from this attack is punishable.
Shield Stab: The Hushed Saint will create icicles on the edge of his shield and stab you with it twice, followed by a halberd swipe. This attack builds up frostbite rapidly, and if this activates, you will get a burst of damage and your stamina will be cut in half for a lengthy duration.
Thorn Blast: As in phase 1, the Hushed Saint can create an expanding circle of thorns. He does this by charging his shield and thrusting it into the ground. It is avoided by dodging forwards through the edge of the circle, as in phase 1.