I’ve been struggling with the Risen battleaxe regular mob guy. He has a very quick move where he two-hand hits you with the shaft of the axe and then while you’re down, he does a big swing and hits you while you’re still on the ground. The first hit is very quick - more like a shove and it takes half my health. The second hit takes the rest. So I set about grinding to upgrade my armor and weapons because although he can two-hit me, I have to hit him at least 10 times to kill him. I went from a level 18 to a level 21, pushed my primary weapon (one handed sword) up to the point of requiring silver (I haven’t found silver yet), and bought another one-handed weapon that requires level 21 (and upgraded that as well). I got better armor and upgraded that, keeping myself below heavy weight. I head back to pick a fight with the axe guy and what do you know, he can still two hit me. I still take 10 hits to kill him but my weapon is faster now. So does the game just scale perfectly with you as far as damage goes? I’m confused. I’ve been killed way less from bosses than these dudes. Same with the Cerim Crucible - it hasn’t gotten any easier with levels, weapons, or armor. If I’m going to get two-hit anyway, I may as well take off my armor and just be faster. I’ve seen a couple of videos where people are one-hitting bosses. I’m avoiding spoilers so I don’t know how they’re doing this but I assumed that I would get stronger over time. Could it be that I’m moving through the game too slowly? I’m a level 21 and have been playing the game for 45 hours. I’ve beaten Warrick The Torn, Falstead Darak (both), The Riven Twins, and Nith Leviathan. Not giving up, just wondering if I should push for level cap or just keep plodding along.
I have the same issue with the “axe guy”! I m pretty sure this is not what the game is intended to accomplish, and hopefully they will fix it asap.
defence wise, I think you might need to put on some armor to survive the crucible(800 and above armor at least will allow you make some mistakes against echo knight). Also you might wanna get as much plague resistance possible.
Damage wise, put more points on the stat(s) your main weapon is scaled with and infuse elemental or damage gem on your weapon will also grant formidable damage bonus.
cheers.
Buy “blink” spell, and use it to avoid his attacks, if you can’t do it with roll.
my armor is about 180, fabric. HP is about 220 without buff.
I can make 3-4 mistakes in a row against a knight.
You probably need to collect 800 armor to get every hit from him 
Alright, that kinda explains some things. My HP is only 55 which in comparison seems ridiculously low. However, I still am not seeing a difference between my builds in damage taken/given when I was level 18 with tier 1 equipment and level 21 with tier 3 equipment. It was not an insignificant grind to level up but I see no appreciable increase in offense/defense which makes me think that I might have been better off putting points into health. Taking 2 hits back to back and dying from one mistake makes fighting these guys not worth the effort. I’ll level up more HP and see how that goes. The Cerim Crucible echo dudes are also 2-hitting me so I’ll need to get better.
I have the same sentiments with the two-handed axe guy. That shove can come out of nowhere. Same with when shield enemies do that shield bash.
In my first character I’ve since focused on a claymore build. It has a pretty good range that makes up for its slow attacks. I can just keep away, where that shove attack can’t reach me. I still get hit with it every now and then when there’s multiple enemies. It helped that I pumped a lot of points into the health attribute (a usual thing I do when I play a souls game for the first time), I have 134 health.
In my second character I decided to go twin daggers and keep my character on the fast weight category. It allows me to dash in, attack once (which is already two hits due to it being two daggers) then dash away. Or I can just keep positioning myself behind him and whittle down his health. I had an easier time but it’s probably also because I know his moveset at this point.
at level 21, 55 hp is really ridiculously low. Put 10 points into HP, the rest on items +% to HP.
Regarding the items of the first tier and the third - this is strange, need to see the numbers, but the difference should be colossal.
For example, dual daggers of the first tier have 4 damage.
Third tier 20 damage.
Plus scalability from stats. And plus properties with additional elemental damage, the gem will also can add damage.
By the way, there is no point in taking stamina more than 30, there is a +1 increase. 20 is the normal, 30 is for reserve.
The weapon needs to restore stamina if it is fast.
If not, then restore stamina from parrying.
And it will be much easier.
Well, this is my experience, but overall it feels normal. And then think specifically about weapons and armor.
try not ‘tryhard’ confronting and be greedy to combo the guy, let him do his thing, these guys like to charge and just let em do it, after their charge there’s a designed big window for you to land hits, don’t hit him yet, instead, walk towards his back and go for backstab, ez pz.
If you wanna be precise and just go legit fight, you should not be greedy, land 1 hit and just roll, keep building that poise damage, when you have enough focus try to use your rune ability to stun, then go for 1 or 2 hits, then roll away.
Axe guys are generally nice, wait until you fight one of those shield guys with a long-ass lightning spear or big-ass hammer in the crucible, guy lunges and then negates everything. I call that a pain in the rear(for me as a dual-dagger enjoyer). Have to backstab everytime
Can you get backstabs on every enemy? I’ve tried on bigger dudes to no avail.
doesn’t work on mini bosses afaik, but works on the mobs for sure.
Echo knight, the boss at the last floor of crucible. Are you sure you can take 3-4 hits with 180 armor and 220 hp?
Thanks, I’m aware.
Don’t think that I’m just standing there and doing nothing. I talked about mistakes made.
The attacks are different. I don’t remember if I can withstand three of his purple shots, but three spear hits are easy.
Plus 45 hp buff
Maybe try heavy armor and shield instead of doing that agile character fantasy like most. Cloth and leather are not for tanking which you should try if you cant dodge enough.