Elden Ring DLC: Bayle the Dread
This is my favorite boss in the DLC (we'll see how the final boss goes). Actually, considering Placidusax was my favorite boss in the game, I think this guy is a better dragon fight than Placidusax. So it might even be my fav fight in the game. As a dragon fight it's actually incredible, I've never played DS3 but I know Midir is highly regarded as the best dragon fight because of how hard, but fair his attacks are and how you can actually fight him head-on instead of circling around to his tail the entire fight.
Bayle is the same, and he actually punishes you for going behind him with his downward fire attack. The ONLY attack I don't like is the basic fire attack he spews in a straight line. It's especially worse when you're further away, it seems like he just tracks you so weirdly even if you're preemptively running/rolling. The way to solve this is to try and close the distance on him at all times, and if you're really close to him, it actually is a massive window to punish him (I killed him on this attack). It's still a pretty annoying attack tho, but everything else is incredibly fair and consistent to dodge as long as you're fighting him head-on.
So far this is the hardest boss I've fought in the DLC aside from 30 FPS Rellana (she probably wouldn't be that bad if Castle Ensis wasn't a lagpool). Idk how hard the final boss is yet, but despite the DLC being way harder than the base game in general difficulty, I don't think any boss has been exactly harder than Malenia. Some have come close, I think Bayle and Rellana (with lag) def come close, but Malenia's still on another level
also idk why bayle has no remembrance but bosses like gaius and scad avatar do, ik you can trade the heart for a choice between 2 of his spells but still this dude literally fought and severely injured Placidusax he needed a proper remembrance 💀