I'm trying my darnedest to reach the large fire ember in Demon Ruins, but those burrowing rockworms continually block the path. I can 2 shot the Taurus Demons easily enough, the Capra Demons are no big deal, but these rockworms keep getting me with their grab move and eating me (insta-death).

They have no defence against ranged, but I'm too low on arrows to kill all of the ones in the way. Besides, with my low dex, it would take hundreds of arrows which I'd rather not do.

Besides, I feel like nearly all enemies should have a way to defeat using melee. Does anyone have a good melee strategy for dealing with these guys?

The grab move has proven unavoidable so far, but maybe I'm just too encumbered by armor.

Poison them one at a time and wait it out.

If I remember correctly I triggered the worms descending from the ceiling, then immediately started attacking one of them and rolled out of the trap asap. Once you're behind them you shouldn't really have a problem killing them, their attacks are not that fast.

Just sprint past them. They don't attack or hurt you until several seconds after their immersion animation from the ground/ceiling. Then after getting the chest with the ember just attack them from behind. Also, basically anything you think is a hard hitting enemy can be wasted with an Iron Flesh spell. Those worms barely do any damage with that spell active, even when they get you with their grab attack. I did it without Iron Flesh on my first play through with a +10 Divine Greataxe and the strong jump attack. The ol' in an' out.

I seem to recall just rolling past them somehow after sprinting past everything, grabbing them ember and just using a homeward bone. I'm not exactly sure how it happened as i think they are supposed to completely hinder you from moving past until you kill one, but something is definitely possible.

Thanks, I think all of these strategies could work for me.

I did get surrounded by the 4 rockworms and was able to run back and escape without having to kill one to create an opening. So I know escaping is possible. Killing those 2 from behind was simple enough. But I would get killed by the other two facing me. Guess I could just try running past those ones too (once they finish an attack animation).

If that grab move is an insta-kill, your VIT or armor might be too low for that point in the game. I just did this last night and the grab move was doing maybe 1/3 of my healthbar, but I have quite a bit invested in my armor and VIT. Just attack them once, immediately dodge back, then hit them again when they crash into the ground after failing to grab you. Just don't get greedy or they will kill you for sure.

@mason: What? those worms are stupid..... you are can always be far away from their attack range , the best strategy to ill them would be to hit them once or twice , they begin their animation so you just walk back and away from it , attack animation ends , you hit it again , rinse repeat.

I killed them with a long range melee by luring them into trying to grab me, roll back. Hit, rinse repeat. Worked pretty well if i recall right.

I used a demon spear to kill them.   It has enough reach to tag them without them getting angry at you.

You can sprint past them and destroy them from behind. Do you have the Dragon Great Sword? The one you get from cutting off the ash lake dragon's tail? It's R2 double handed attack is a ranged thing. Or the Drake Sword 2h R2 also is a ranged attack. You have options!

All this advice is great but have you tried doing something really crazy like.... going back to a merchant and buying more arrows?

A spear and the blocking poke while just out of attack range will work wonders. Just don't back into the ones behind you and this should take them down.

I used a claymore. The R2 thrust attack could be done from a safe distance and then I could roll out before any attacks got to me.

Run like fuck and then run back like fuck

@Marz said:

I used a demon spear to kill them. It has enough reach to tag them without them getting angry at you.

I can vouch for this, used the same approach.

Been stuck there a couple of hours ago and all I did was just to keep standing there and then try to get behind them. Just don't panic (which I did the first time and that got me killed) since they don't do much if you're standing right in the middle.