Honestly, I cannot believe this boss hasn't been addressed by FromSoft yet.
I am all for challenging fights where I get better by trying, but this boss, is the bane of my existance every single run that I make. I will never 'get better' at it. Its always going to be a matter of how can I cheese it this time. When a majority of your playerbase is telling you this is a problem, maybe its time to stop and look back at what you created, and wonder if its well designed.

Normally, I am fiercely against nerfing anything. But this is one of the very few cases where I feel this boss fight needs to be adjusted. I get it. He is a giant. He should be fearsome and all that cool stuff. Super cool lore and super cool set up, indeed. Nothing wrong there.
But mechanically, this boss just doesn't work, at all.

This boss on a regular playthrough, has 43k HP. This is litteraslly more than Elden Beast on an NG+7 run. This is ridiculously over the top. Yeah, he has weak points. Phase one is mostly mostly. I can accept making a mistake and getting one shotted. That's fine. Its on me for sure.
Phase 2 is where I draw the line. His 'weak points' are utter ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. His the hands? SURE. Let me get closer to some giant frick who can roll me over whenever he pleases, one shotting me in the process. His hands are contantly moving and nearly impossible to hit. His face, ain't better at all.

I will NEVER like this boss. Its a pure tedium, and every time it makes me want to just stop playing entirely. There's nothing fun in wailing at him forever. Its boring and its insanely lazy design.

This boss would be mostly fixed if they dropped his health even by just 25%. I can deal with the insane damage. I can deal with the camera, what I am not going to bother with, is the stupid HP he gets to have, for free.

I agree with you 100%
But I also beat him on my second try...
So I don't know if it was dumb luck or if I am "gud"

EZ boss.

Don't use lock-on. (for ANY large enemy for that matter)

Attack places that are safe. In his second phase don't bother with his hands unless you have the obvious opportunity. Otherwise just focus on those legs.

Always equip your best Flamedrake and Pearldrake talismans.

Originally posted by nfinite.recursion:

EZ boss.

Don't use lock-on. (for ANY large enemy for that matter)

Attack places that are safe. In his second phase don't bother with his hands unless you have the obvious opportunity. Otherwise just focus on those legs.

Always equip your best Flamedrake and Pearldrake talismans.

Sadly, you aren't really teaching me anything. Been playing since demon's souls on PS3. I am long past locking on in most cases, unless casting a spell or needing something specific done.

Phase 2, wailing on his legs just takes an eternity for no good reason. Once again, its not about it being hard. Its about it being unfun and lazy.

I'd agree with you during my first playthrough. But after I beat ER and went through all the Souls games and got a bit better he was much much easier on my next playthrough.

Though his roll is really dumb, by the time you catch him he just rolls away again.

But you do get Alexander summon and can have a +10 spirit ash by then too which should help.

Originally posted by Diarrhea Blaster:

I'd agree with you during my first playthrough. But after I beat ER and went through all the Souls games and got a bit better he was much much easier on my next playthrough.

Though his roll is really dumb, by the time you catch him he just rolls away again.

But you do get Alexander summon and can have a +10 spirit ash by then too which should help.

My damage is honestly more than enough to cover for Alexander. Its super weird, now the one move he never uses he keeps spamming and its been what kills me all the time. His darned fire breathe. I made 30 something character, never seen that move being used. Now he just uses it non stop, repeatedly even and this ♥♥♥♥ has the most ridiculous range I have ever seen.
I watched it go all the way back to the fog door while he stood all the way to his spawn point. That's ridiculous.

Originally posted by The Ultimate Despair:

Sadly, you aren't really teaching me anything. Been playing since demon's souls on PS3. I am long past locking on in most cases, unless casting a spell or needing something specific done.

Phase 2, wailing on his legs just takes an eternity for no good reason. Once again, its not about it being hard. Its about it being unfun and lazy.

Well I can certainly see that. Though I dispatch him pretty quickly. If the devs want to be lazy with a big HP sink, I can be lazy too by putting Bloodflame on my weapons. He can bleed out and I don't particularly care. One of the few bosses along with Malenia that I actively try to use bleed on, no matter the weapon chosen for that playthrough.

Originally posted by nfinite.recursion:

Originally posted by The Ultimate Despair:

Sadly, you aren't really teaching me anything. Been playing since demon's souls on PS3. I am long past locking on in most cases, unless casting a spell or needing something specific done.

Phase 2, wailing on his legs just takes an eternity for no good reason. Once again, its not about it being hard. Its about it being unfun and lazy.

Well I can certainly see that. Though I dispatch him pretty quickly. If the devs want to be lazy with a big HP sink, I can be lazy too by putting Bloodflame on my weapons. He can bleed out and I don't particularly care. One of the few bosses along with Malenia that I actively try to use bleed on, no matter the weapon chosen for that playthrough.

I know that bleed is an option, but the question that I want to ask is, is me needing to swap out my themed build just for him good design? In a game that is priding itself in player choice?
Like I said, it should be a fairly easy fix. You can have either insane damage and regular HP, or medium damage and insane HP. You can't have both and call it a day just because 'he is a giant so we justified it with a creature model'.

I think some bosses are worse in Elden Ring than prior titles. But I have to admit, I don't get the hate for Fire Giant. He's one of my favorite fights. There are also quite a few opportunities in phase 2 to get damage in, such as his elbow slam. If you can handle the dripping sarcasm, here is guide of his moves and how to handle them. I personally would only recommend using Torrent to close the gap when he rolls away. I find this fight much harder from horseback

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HfCzmTgh0g

It honestly pains me to say this. As I always admired FromSoft's game design in general. Hell, I even absolutely adore Blighttown and Shrine of Amana. Never felt overwhelmed in any of those, always felt like I got better everytime I got there.
But the end game in ER feels like they had to rush it out of the door.
Fire Giant, Godskin Duo, Malike(really depending on the build for this one IMO), Hoarah Loux(just spams the field non stop with room wide AoEs).
Its just.. weird.

Originally posted by Krazy Wallet:

I think some bosses are worse in Elden Ring than prior titles. But I have to admit, I don't get the hate for Fire Giant. He's one of my favorite fights. There are also quite a few opportunities in phase 2 to get damage in, such as his elbow slam. If you can handle the dripping sarcasm, here is guide of his moves and how to handle them. I personally would only recommend using Torrent to close the gap when he rolls away. I find this fight much harder from horseback

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HfCzmTgh0g

My latest cheese on my previous Faith character was just to spam the WA from Black Knife and say buh bye. Then reapply, and flee again.

I just don't lock on to him and stay behind him in second phase. When he roles away I use torrent to get back behind him. It doesn't hurt to have a good regular weapon that you can add an ash of war with bleed on it, against him also.

Need help? Password?

As a blanket rule, I hate oversized bosses. Fire giant yes, and also ulcerated tree spirits, dragons and golems. And it's always the same thing, their size messes with the camera and makes it hard to tell what they're doing. Especially if you lock on and move into melee. What's worse is that almost all big boys also have a tendency to hurl themselves from one side of an area to another whenever you get close, both making them annoying to chase down and making the camera wig out even more than usual.

That said, Fire Giant went down fairly quick with Alexander and Tiche distracting him. I did have to build up a non-fire weapon instead of the Scale Sword I had been using, but the dude's a FIRE giant. High fire resist is assumed. Even then, I ended up hurling incants in his general direction more than actually hitting him. The summons do work.

all you have to do is attack the left leg, really not that hard. when he rolls away, use ur horse to get back to his leg. Repeat. Actually an easy boss. and dont use lock on.

the way i deal with fire giant is to not lock on, like some have said, and stay in front of him for the second phase. just roll into his attacks so you're ready for a punish on his hands. compared to the other rememberance bosses, his moveset is pretty bare bones. from there you just have to be patient.