Kill the Asylum demon on the first encounter (you don't go and pick your weapons)
So basically you use your **** broken weapon or your fist
Or you take the firebombs as your starting gift, about 4-5 should do it
first time killing her i had the black knight greatsword.. i managed to hit her tail (or so it looked) about 3 times and no luck.. tried a few other times with different weapons (different characters/runs) but just never seemed to be able to get it
She's the only boss that doesn't even attack you until you attack her.
She doesn't want to fight. Hell, new player might not even find her without wiki on their first playthrough
"Who art thou?
One of us, thou art not.
If thou hast misstepped into this world,
plunge down from the plank, and hurry home.
If thou seekest I,
thine desires shall be requited not."
She is also the only boss that doesn't attack you straight away and let's you escape by plunging down the arena (like in the last panel).
Basically:
"Who art thou?
One of us thou art not.
If you accidentally stepped to this world,
jump down from the plank and hurry home" Can't remember exact words
Then she also says that if you are seeking her, your wishes shall not be granted. or something
On my first char i tried him like 20 times and couldn't beat him.
On my second i managed to kill him on about the 10th try.
On my third char when i reached him i was like "YOLO i'll just put a ring of life protection on and try him once"... and actually beat him, on the first try.
Haven't beaten him ever since (I think I'm on my 6th char now)
As I recall, me and my friends did some science and came up with wearing no armor for maximum speed and some potion which provides massive fire resist or damage resist, I don't know what it is, never played the game besides this boss. Anyway, make a mad dash around that first fire blast and attack his front feet. When he starts flying and rains down with his AOE fire blast simply run away from him. After a few tries you can learn to time attacking his feet and leaving to get out of range of the AOE. Once he lands, stand a in front of him; it'll prompt him to do that same fire blast he does when you go through the door, and just run past and attack his feet again. He'll fly up again, AOE, ect. ect. and you just rinse and repeat that until he's dead. The potion is there for insurance.
To put it simply i've NEVER played either Souls game and after a few minutes of frustration, my friend passed the controller to me to try. We figured out the pattern before too long and I eventually beat him. Apparently he's THE hardest boss in the games, idk, but he's got a very simple pattern you can follow with no armor.
Is there a better, faster way? Maybe, but it worked for us.
I think the only reason he's the hardest is because if you get hit by the flame breath, it will pretty much kill you outright regardless of how much fire resistance you have.
You can only survive if you've basically stat-dumped into vigor, and even then it'll nearly wipe you out.
I haven't really attempted to fight him. I prefer to just talk to him to get that key he drops and move on.
Yeah, If I made a mistake and got hit by the AOE it'd nearly kill me, but i'd just use whatever that potion was and it would heal me completely, I think. If you're desperate for the details I could text my friend, but I think you just need to be quick and follow the pattern.
He's a one trick pony, if you know what to do and do EXACTLY that, then he is easy, otherwise he's a freaking pain; personally i think the annoying part is running back to him...
All bosses in Dark Souls 2 were like that, except they were easier than Ancient Dragon. In comparison to the rest of the bosses, Ancient Dragon was difficult, but he was pretty easy. As you said, the run-back was a nuisance, the fight is long by itself, and then you have to consider repairing your gear between runs. These are things Dark Souls 1 and Kalameet didn't force you to deal with; Ancient Dragon is trying not to be hard by design, but it's hard because it takes so long to do. It's forcing you to tire.
Now Kalameet, that guy was tough, especially if you were going for the tail.