How to Beat the Lightreaper
Details
Location: Upper Calrath (Final)
Resists: Wither, Smite, Holy
Weakness: Fire, Burn, Ignite
Summons: Pieta, Paladin Isaax, Andreas of Ebb, Kukajin
Rewards
Remembrance of the Lightreaper
Lightreaper's Umbral Scouring
Lightreaper's Flesh
27 Umbral Scourings
1 Vestige Seed
How to Beat
The Lightreaper is widely considered to be one of the most substantial challenges in Lords of the Fallen, and with good reason. He has powerful ranged capabilities, savage and never-ending melee combos, deals very high damage and is highly mobile.
Umbral Parasite:
The first thing you need to do is slay the Umbral Parasite in the arena, but you can't do it during the fight. Before the fight, when you are looking at the boss door, look to your right while in Umbral. You will see ladders and platforms leading to a walkway above the boss door. Make your way up there and find the Umbral Tumor that you can Soul Flay, which will destroy the parasite in the boss room. This stops the Lightreaper from regenerating his health.
During the dragon phases, on its fourth pass each time, which will always be a slam down, the Lightreaper will jump off the dragon, landing behind it. If you dodge forwards through the slam, you will find yourself right next to where the Lightreaper lands, affording you a valuable opportunity for some free hits before he starts fighting.
Now, the recommended strategy is to keep your distance from the Lightreaper as well as you can. You can keep using ranged attacks while the Lightreaper is closing the distance, and he will dodge roughly half of them, which is still plenty of extra damage.
The Lightreaper has a couple of ranged attacks which are easy to see coming and easy to dodge if you are used to them. These are the arc projectiles and firebombs. Other than that, keeping your distance should bait the Lightreaper into using his gap-closer attacks.
These will be dragging his sword across the floor before slashing at you or performing his long-range spinning combo. If you dodge both of these to the side while locked on, you will end up right behind the Lightreaper, affording you a window for a couple of hits before you back away.
The Lightreaper is weak to Smite, so using a holy weapon like Pieta's Sword is a great way to go here. You will get nice bursts of extra damage from this.
It is also highly recommended to make use of Poison during this fight, if you have it. The Lightreaper will make you work for your hits, and having some extra passive damage going in between these windows will work wonders for you. Septic Heave is particularly strong, since enemies don't tend to dodge this attack.
Movepool
Mounted:
Fire Breath: The Lightreaper's dragon will fly across the arena in a straight line, breathing fire downwards. Sprint to the side as is comes, and dodge as the fire trail gets to you.
Pounce: The Lightreaper's dragon will hover in the air for a moment before slamming down at your location. Dodge forward to avoid the hit.
Fire Arc: The Lightreaper jumps back and fires an arc-shaped projectile forwards that moves quickly. He can do this up to three times. You most dodge forward through each projectile at the very last second. Dodging too early will get you hit by its deceptively long trail.
Spinning Attack: The Lightreaper charges for a moment before performing a long-distance spinning combo that deals a lot of damage. Dodge to the side as he gets to you and close in to attack him in the back.
Projectiles: The Lightreaper will perform a spinning attack upwards into the air that will fire three projectiles at you very quickly. Dodge forwards to avoid the projectiles.
Fire Blast: The Lightreaper channels a blast of fire that spreads outwards from his location very quickly. Dodge forwards through the edge of it to avoid the damage.
Fire Trail: The Lightreaper will drag his sword along the floor in a random direction to create a trail of fire before lunging at you. Dodge the lunge and don't step in the fire.
Melee Combo: The Lightreaper is capable of performing a very wide range of different melee attacks in different orders, depending on random decision and player positioning. Almost all of the swipe attacks are done with both swords, so dodging too soon will get you hit by the second sword. Lunge attacks are easy to avoid by dodging sideways. Where possible, keep out of the Lightreaper's range altogether.
Last Ditch Attempt: When the Lightreaper dies, he will summon his dragon above him which will crash down into him, creating a very fast shockwave of fire in an attempt to kill you one last time. Dodge forward through the shockwave.