Maliketh, the Black Blade

Legend boss, the second phase of Beast Clergyman. The loyal shadow of Marika, guards Destined Death.

Location: Crumbling Farum Azula

Drops: 220000 Runes, Remembrance of the Black Blade

Combat Information:

Health: 10620 HP

Defense: 120

Stance: 80

Parryable: No, but can be staggered with a well-timed use of Blasphemous Claw

Is vulnerable to a critical hit after being stance broken

Damage: Standard, Slash, Pierce, Holy 

Drops: 220000 Runes, Remembrance of the Black Blade

Damage Negation / Resistance:

Standard: 35

Slash: 35

Strike: 35

Pierce: 35

Magic: 40

Fire: 40

Lightning: 40

Holy: 80

The negation numbers are the % of your damage that gets blocked. For example, if a negation is 60, 40% of that damage by that type will go through and 60% will be negated. Bigger number = less damage. A negation of 100 means no damage goes through, and a negation of -100 mean the enemy takes 2x damage from that source. 0 means damage goes pretty much as is.

Poison: 351 / 449 / 739 / 1196

Scarlet Rot: 351 / 449 / 739 / 1196

Blood Loss: 574 / 864 / 1321

Frostbite: 574 / 864 / 1321

Sleep: 2277 / 2277

Madness: Immune

The resistance numbers are the buildup amount to trigger it. For example, if a resistance is 100 you must deal 100 points of the given buildup to trigger it. Note that these go down over time, and increase each time the effect procs. The values after the "/"s indicate the increased resistances after each successive proc.

Fight Strategy:

Beast Clergyman & Maliketh, the Black Blade are one and the same boss consisting of 2 phases, taking on two different forms with different names throughout the fight. At exactly 50% health Beast Clergyman will transform into Maliketh, the Black Blade. As a mage, he is weak to Gravity Spells and easily stunned with it! Use the Rock Sling gravity spell & the Meteorite Staff (both found in Caelid in the big red lake around Street of Sages Ruins). This gravity spell will stun the boss after 4-5 repeated hits. As a melee character, this fight will rely heavily on dodging and it’s best to not have a heavy load (medium load is fine), so either have enough Endurance to bring down your Load Percentage or put on lighter armor. With heavy load your stamina will drain too fast and your dodges will be too slow for this fight. The first phase is fairly easy, he does use a mix of short-range melee attacks and some medium-range projectile attacks, as well as an AoE attacks that summons rocks from the ground and brings them crashing back down. All of these are easily evaded by dodging sideways or hiding behind the pillars. Summon some strong Ashen Remains, ideally the Mimic Tear (and have them upgraded) to distract the boss. This will make the first half quite easy, and in the best case have your Ashen Remains survive until the start of the 2nd phase. With a mage simply spam the Rock Sling spell while your Ashes distract the boss, after 4-5 hits he will get stunned and you can take down his health pretty quick with this one spell. As a melee char, land a few quick hits while he focuses on your Ashes. The real “fun” starts in the 2nd phase which is actually one of the harder boss phases in the game. Learning his move set and when to dodge is essential to survive, because a single combo can instant kill you even with 99 max Vigor and heavy armor. He hits very hard, reaches far, and is very jumpy. Ideally your Ashes are still alive to distract him at the start, allowing you to get some quick damage in while he focuses on your Ashes. When he focuses on you, you’ll want to stay close to him to bait him into melee attacks. He will use those more often when you are close, they have fewer hits and are easier to dodge than his 5-hit ranged attack. Dodge his melee attacks and land a few hits, repeat. As a mage you’ll want to dodge backward to get some distance and use the Rock Sling spell again immediately after he misses his combo, hopefully stunning him, then you can spam Rock Sling for massive damage. When he does his ranged projectiles attack, he will throw 3 projectiles, followed by a sweep that deals two hits. You can hide behind pillars from the 3 projectiles or dodge each one sideways just before it hits. But the sweep he uses immediately after is really tricky as it cuts through the pillars and will damage you if you just stand there. You should do at least two dodges just before he hits with it, the reason being that he likes to do two spins when he lands which deals two hits. Dodge a couple of times, but make sure your first dodge is just before hit lands on the ground, dodging too early will get you hit. It takes a few tries to get the timing down. This double-sweep can instant-kill you if hit with two sweeps. Learning to dodge this move is annoying but crucial for survival. After he misses any combo you always have a short window to land some hits, be that melee or magic. Try not to lose many flasks during the 1st phase so you have plenty of health flasks left in the 2nd phase. Even as a mage bring mostly health flasks. You should also have found 30 Golden Seeds to get the max amount of 14 Flasks and found all Sacred Tears to reach maximum Flask level, to have an easier time here. The good thing is he doesn’t have super much health, just the 2nd phase is quite annoying and harder to dodge.