The Ruin Sentinels fight is extremely difficult

So I bought Dark Souls 2 during the steam summer sale and started playing it. I got through the first few bosses easily enough, but now I've completely hit a brick wall when it comes to these guys. I have summoned phantoms to try and help me, I've read guides, but I just can't do it. I can consistently kill the first one easily enough, but I'm just fucked when I fight the other two. I've wasted almost all of my humanity restoring items to summon phantoms (and like I said, I still lose even with help), and now I'm just beginning to lose interest in this game.

I just want some advice, what in the FUCK should I be doing as a sorcerer against these guys?

And if anyone feels the urge to say "Welcome to Dark Souls" or something cute like that, just don't post anything.

I would say to pretty much try and kite them, dodge rolling away from their attacks and getting in an attack when you can. If you've got people helping it's best to try and split them up, 1v1'ing each. Or possibly have the other dude tank multiple ones while you wail on them with magic.

NEVERMIND!

I JUST beat it. That was a rough fight, god damn. I ended up summoning every damn phantom I possibly could.

A mod can delete this thread now.

As a sorcerer, after I killed the first one and dropped down, I kept walking backward around the edge of the room, taking shots only after big whiffed attacks. I used a shield, and for me it worked far better to stand still and block their spinning attacks (they do relatively little damage when blocked) rather than trying to dodge them. Everything else can/should be dodged pretty easily, though. Just take your time, watch their telegraphs, and don't take big risks.

@random45: Congrats !

Know that, for me, those were the hardest fight in the game. I know a lot of people had an harder time with other bosses, but if you can kill them, I'm sure you can complete the whole game.

@random45: Don't forget you always have the option of going somewhere else and coming back for them when you're a bit more powerful. They are technically an optional fight.

Also oftentimes if you start getting into patterns, getting frustrated and making more mistakes then you normally would. Sometimes just taking a break for the exact same fight and tryign to take it on later with a fresh start, fresh mindset, and unfrustrated can be all it takes.

For general strategies, try to stay on the the first platform as long as possible and wait on it for the second guy then do as much damage to him as you can before the second dude shows up, then jump down and heal while they get down.

As a sorcerer, once you're down, keep backing up, all the time. Move backwards around the room in a circle, rolling back as necessary, toss in a spell only when you know it's safe (when both sentinels are in recovery). Generally magic is one of the easier ways to play the game, so it might have eased you into it a bit too much without preparing you for enemies that get on your ass more aggressively.

Finally, consider starting the game with a new melee character for a bit, just to get a better feel for dodging, blocking and generally being in melee range of melee enemies. Then once you go back to your caster you will have an easier time with aggressive enemy like the sentinels fight.

They were the first time I ended up summoning someone in.

For future reference, the fight is rather easy.

First, you need a strike weapon, they are susceptible to them. Also, stop trying to block them. This is not Dark Souls, it's Dark Souls II. It demands more movement and skill. Start dodging them.

Rather easy from that point on. Each hit should take off about 1/8th of their health or so.

Man, the more I think about this game, the more upset I get...

They rely on throwing multiple bosses at you to amp up the difficulty a little too often.

Didn't read all of the comments, sorry if someone already mentioned it. But, you can save your humanity items by getting summoned and help others beat bosses. Succesful summon - humanity restored.

I think it's fun. I like the challenge.

Actually the bosses are often cake walks. I can link you a recent vid I posted where I killed the covetous demon without even getting hit and it is just one of many easy bosses. Ruin Sentinels (like most of the game) are rough until you understand how to fight them. 1: use bludgeoning weapons or magic. 2: Don't leave the platform until the first one is dead. 3: Summon if possible, and summon people who look like casters or are holding bludgeoning weapons. 4: If you have summons and they are aggro'd on you just kite them and let the summoned help rape them from behind. 4: Even if you are solo offline summon Bellclaire and just use the red eye ring to hold aggro while using a good shield, she will destroy them for you.

I was actually surprised I beat them on my second try alone. The first time I summoned someone and died. Patience, timing and bit of luck are the ingredients needed to get by in a souls game. Sometimes it comes sooner and sometimes later.

I killed them my first try after accidentally falling down off the platform and fighting all 3 at the same time.

I was also playing as a sorcerer, trying to beat bosses without levelling up too much. I got stuck on the Sentinels for a while and said fuck it and spend a few hours farming for souls until I got enough to raise my STR to wield the 100% block shield. After that it was a piece of cake.

@dudeglove: I'm pretty sure both (probably all three) Sentinels can throw their shields.

I expect further outrage in maybe a week or 2 when this guy reaches Drangleic Castle...

The Ruin Sentinels there were annoying as well, but you could pull them into 1 on 1 fights which makes them much more manageable. The Ruin Sentinels boss was a wall which, once passed, makes the rest of the game feel much easier to handle. Much like Ornstein and Smough from the first game, but it occurs significantly earlier in the game.

I seriously had no trouble with any of the later bosses, able to beat them in only a couple of tries. This was the only boss that gave me any sort of hassle.

I'm playing as pure a magic-user as can be (starting to get to the point where that's a fault, because I'm such a glass cannon that some boss hits can one-shot me). It's been awhile since I fought them, but I definitely summoned phantoms at the time because it was before I starting trying to reel in my urge to get help with every boss. With the Ruin Sentinels, it would certainly have been a rough time (especially at that level...)

I think the big problem I had, and from what I saw other people trying to do when being summoned, is that urge to stick to that first platform out of fear of drawing out the other two sentinels prematurely. Especially as a mage who is probably going to get one-shotted by the wide arc of attack on that narrow platform, my strategy was to take a few pot-shots with some soul arrows and then jump off (eat the fall damage). I can't remember what happened during my own fight very well (I fought that boss over and over via summoning), but we were still able to take out the first guy before the other two, and then it became a matter of dodging and trying to separate them for a more one-on-one fight.

I can't count the number of times I died, or the person whose world I'd been summoned into died, because that first guy just wrecked everyone trying to stay on that narrow platform.

I'm there at the moment - they are extremely annoying. Compared to the previous bosses the difficulty is way worse. I can dodge almost all of their attacks except the one large swing that seems to hit me every time. I am probably making it harder for myself not summoning or using a shield though.

Nah, it's just one of those bosses that is designed to make you want to play with other players. There's a few bosses in Dark Souls 2 like that.

@49th: My rule with Dark Souls bosses is that if they give you an NPC to summon for the fight, then at least go with that (the fact that it's oft necessary for character arc progression also legitimizes it). Even in DS1, I always summoned Solaire for the fight against Ornstein and Smough, because fuck that fight (especially NG+).

What kind of character are you playing?

@andrewb: It's a dex build using the Heide Sword for now. I only have points in end, str, dex, and adaptability. I played Dark Souls as a str character using the Zweihander and beat every boss solo, so I kind of want to do the same here, but it's a little more difficult with the lower damage.

I wasn't even aware that NPC summons had storylines so I have already missed out on that.

During this fight I had one of the coolest online experiences. My controller on PC has an issue where it sometimes randomly disconnects (giving an 8-12 second period where I cannot do anything). This happened during this fight with the Sentinels as me and the summoned guy were on the bottom area both 1v1-ing a sentinel each. Clearly this guy saw that I stopped moving (or my health was deteriorating as I was taking hits instead of dodging and blocking every hit) and ran over, hitting the Sentinel I was fighting and then ran to the other side of the room. He took the aggro of both Sentinels to allow me to move again and heal. Props to whoever that was.

Heide isn't terrible for this fight but you will have a tough time taking out the first sentinel on the platform and taking as much as possible off the second before jumping down. And dealing with all 3 involves a little bit of luck..

I would recommend getting 2 maces (blacksmith) or two clubs (hag) and upgrading them for a bit. Level up or redistribute your levels just enough to powerstance the maces/club. learn the timing on the powerstance L2 and go to town.

You may want to invest in some holy water to throw on the second sentinel before he jumps up for extra damage.

This strategy is pretty foolproof. If you aren't beyond summoning the NPC it actually turns the fight into a cakewalk.

I'm going to leave it open because I think a lot of people will have had similar experiences. I definitely did, I spent days stuck on this boss. I think this was mainly because I had somehow managed to completely miss Heide's Tower Of Flame and No Mans Wharf - so there were several zones of items and experience that I was having to play without.

Well that was a satisfying fight. No armour, no summons, final destination.

The thing that helped the most, aside from dodging better with no armour, was being way more aggressive. I noticed if you hit them 4 times in a row they get staggered, then you can get another hit in, heal or just recharge stamina. You usually have enough time for 4 hits between attacks. This is especially helpful when the second sentinel jumps onto the platform because he ends up with around half health by the time the third one arrives. Then just be extra careful when fighting them below, once you kill the second one it is easy.

@49th said:

Well that was a satisfying fight. No armour, no summons, final destination.

The thing that helped the most, aside from dodging better with no armour, was being way more aggressive. I noticed if you hit them 4 times in a row they get staggered, then you can get another hit in, heal or just recharge stamina. You usually have enough time for 4 hits between attacks. This is especially helpful when the second sentinel jumps onto the platform because he ends up with around half health by the time the third one arrives. Then just be extra careful when fighting them below, once you kill the second one it is easy.

congrats. with dual mace powerstance they get staggered in ONE hit :)

Funny how this boss seems hard the first time and once you get the hang it's not so bad. Whereas the Gargoyles after are easy the first time, but man, I think they were the toughest boss for me in NG+.