Elden Ring Update Makes the Hardest Boss Even Tougher
Elden Ring's most notorious boss, Malenia, is now even tougher to fight following the release of the game's latest update. That wasn't a result of a direct buff like we've seen other parts of the game receive, however. Instead, it seems there's a bug involving the Malenia fight that makes it so that the boss can lifesteal off of players even more than usual thus dragging the fight on longer and leaving fewer openings to finish the first and second phase. FromSoftware has not yet commented on the state of the bug, but these sorts of issues have been fixed relatively quickly in the past, so it reasons that this mistake will be patched out soon enough as well.
The bug in question was showcased by Elden Ring's Malenia-fighting phenom Let Me Solo Her in the video below that shows them battling Malenia for the umpteenth time, but this fight had an extra layer of difficulty to it. While fighting the player, Malenia was able to heal off of attacks that whiffed entirely and dealt no damage. When you take into consideration the fact that she's got the multi-hit Waterfowl Dance attack, that's a lot of healing from attacks that aren't even landing.
That meant the fight took way longer than it normally would, but Let Me Solo Her still came out victorious. Other players less knowledgeable of Malenia's moveset and the best tactics to beat her, however, may not be so lucky whenever she's healing off of players without hitting them. Malenia can thankfully be stunlocked by a number of different methods in Elden Ring, so for those who still plan on fighting her before this bug gets fixed, you'll hopefully have summons or tactics yourself that can prevent her from lashing out with these phantom hits.
Others within the game's subreddit have noticed this bug as well. Those who've died against Malenia may recall that her attacks – particularly the Waterfowl Dance move – sometimes heal her after killing a player as if the player was still alive. It's thought that's partially to blame here along with related network issues, but again, FromSoftware hasn't yet publicly acknowledged the bug to say what's going on.
Look for this issue to be addressed in the next Elden Ring update whenever that one may release, but until then, be wary of fighting or helping with Malenia battles.