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How To Dodge Waterfowl Dance, the Fancy Way (not a troll)

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2024-07-22 10:10:11

First Things First

To dodge Waterfowl, you need to be rolling towards Malenia, not away from her. Rolling away keeps you in the Waterfowl hitbox and risks massive damage if your i-frames end before that stroke does.

This is odd, but I genuinely recommend unequipping armor so that you light-roll during the Malenia fight, because light rolls cover enough distance to get out of Malenia's range both for Waterfowl and for her other attacks, making her significantly easier.

If you can't lock down the timing, try analyzing it in videos of pro Malenia fights (either watch Let Me Solo Her or search for "RL1 Malenia no weapon upgrades"). A good way to practice is to try tapping your finger or making a "ch" noise in sync with the Waterfowl strokes in a video.

If you have less than 1,000 HP, your first order of business should be leveling up Vigor — either go grind runes, or respec more into vigor at at Rennala.

The Individual Strokes

Stroke 1Once you see Malenia rise up into the air to prep Waterfowl, you have two options.

Option 1 — the simplest one — is to simply sprint away to get past the distance Stroke 1 travels, rendering you completely safe. Note that a light roll moves faster than sprinting in its first half (but slower in its second), so that might help you cover more distance.

However, if you don't have enough time or enough distance to sprint away (maybe you were caught off-gaurd), you need Option 2: strafe behind her, and dodge directly away as she starts the stroke. If done perfectly, she'll end up behind you, unable to approach further; however, you might get grazed by two hits or so if you don't do it perfectly — nothing of too much matter, though.

Stroke 2Align yourself outside of the Waterfowl range, and roll diagonally forwards and either right or left as she starts this stroke. Don't roll straight ahead — because she's on the ground for this stroke, that risks you booping into Malenia and getting stopped dead inside the hitbox.

Alternatively, for extra fanciness, walk to the left, and then roll straight forwards. Walking left will perturb the lock-on just enough that you won't boop Malenia, and with this trick, you'll be left closer to her at the end of your roll. This is a good thing, because you can now avoid her next stroke for free by sprinting straight towards her — no rolling required.

Stroke 3/4Get as close in front of her as you can, and roll straight towards her as she starts the third stroke. Since she's coming down to the ground, she might go straight over your head if you're close enough — possibly even allowing you to avoid rolling in the first place, if you want to be extra fancy, and especially if you did Stroke 2 the extra-fancy way.

Do NOT roll diagonally, though — she curves her path on the fourth stroke, which will catch you if you roll left.

PunishingAfter stroke 4, Malenia does a "phantom" fifth stroke a moment after, which can catch you if you go in for the punish too early. Instead, wait out the phantom stroke, and then punish with a running jump attack (alternatively, you could roll through the phantom stroke and do a roll attack). You might not be able to land a follow-up, though — check if she got staggered before you commit to a second attack.

If you have any questions or feedback, please ask/tell me in the comments!

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3285669116

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