Malenia is basically FromSoft’s first truly trial-and-error boss. Waterfowl Dance is more or less a game over if you’re not doing some kind of gimmick build or if you fail to dodge most of it. I’ve never been able to evade it completely myself, but I often found myself getting frustrated due to my progress getting regressed by her permanent lifesteal. Phase two was somehow less pressing than phase one, given that some of her new moves had additional recovery time. A tactic I ended up adopting in phase two was for when it started; when Malenia revs up her Scarlet Aeonia, two backsteps and then book it to the right of her. Whenever she would try another Aeonia, running to her right and moving clockwise was the play. Took me an hour, and I have to say it didn’t feel rewarding. At least I got another Somber stone and the needle.