Ah, Firesage

I am having a tough time with Firesage right now, and truth be told, I have had a tough time with the last couple bosses. And this is after breezing through some of the mid-game bosses (where breezing = taking less than 5 times to beat them).

I was watching some videos on YouTube by people who beat him, and with only one exception, they all had more than 8 bars of health (where 1 bar has 5 little subdivisions).

I have 4 1/2 bars of health.

I assume it's possible with 5 bars of health, but since I am not a Turbo Twitch Boy who can play the game blindfolded and drunk and beat it on SL1, do I just need to bite the bullet and increase my health a little?

I really don't want to, but I am wondering if a lot of my recent difficulty with bosses is related to the small-ish amount of health I have. I plan on playing through this game at least twice.

I am SL70 with INT 50, 25ish endurance, 20 dex and a few odd points in other things.

Do you have the ring of favor? that might help a bit and maybe better armor....

Sounds like you havnt raised your health at all, might be a good idea to start now.

Also get behind him, its the safest place.

Klosterheim wrote:I am having a tough time with Firesage right now, and truth be told, I have had a tough time with the last couple bosses. And this is after breezing through some of the mid-game bosses (where breezing = taking less than 5 times to beat them).

I was watching some videos on YouTube by people who beat him, and with only one exception, they all had more than 8 bars of health (where 1 bar has 5 little subdivisions).

I have 4 1/2 bars of health.

I assume it's possible with 5 bars of health, but since I am not a Turbo Twitch Boy who can play the game blindfolded and drunk and beat it on SL1, do I just need to bite the bullet and increase my health a little?

I really don't want to, but I am wondering if a lot of my recent difficulty with bosses is related to the small-ish amount of health I have. I plan on playing through this game at least twice.

I am SL70 with INT 50, 25ish endurance, 20 dex and a few odd points in other things.

With int that high you should do the following:

Use Crest Shield +5
Enchant with it Great Magic Shield
Equip Logan's Catalyst (or another, logan's it's the best).
Enter the fog gate, block his first attack, then walk towards him and get behind him, after that just spam Homing Crystal Soulmass and Crystal Soul Spears/Soul Spears. Really, that boss it's easy to beat with a magic build.

Check the guide I wrote in the firesage page of the wiki:

http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/Demon+Firesage

Look at "Mage Strategy".

My character has on 5 bars of health and I beat the firesage fairly easily just pay attention to his moves they are about the same as the stray demon when he lifts his weapon un he is going to slam it on you so dodge it or block when he slams his weapon against the wall he is doing an AoE attack block that too and two hand your weapon if it helps but know when to un two hand. when he flies roll away he is going to sit on you. then attack whenever you can.

What weapon do you use? If you are proficient with anything with a bleed effect I believe he is quite vulnerable to this. Try to land quick hits to raise the effect faster.

The crest shield does wonders in this boss fight. If you're close enough to him when he's going to throw a magic bomb then just run behind him, but if you can't get 100% behind him in time or his back is against a wall then just stand in front of him, un-lock, and turn around to block the explosion. It also helps to have less 25% equip weight or the flip ring. Ideally you want him to do the butt stomp or the ground pound explosion, so stay close to him and strafe left. When he jumps backwards just chase after him and repeat.

imo this boss has significant differences from stray demon so players should not confise the 2 of them. First off all fiseage is better played from the front not the back. Normally the only time you will manage to get to his back is when he is doing the hammer slam which deals magic damage and which takes some time hence you have the time to reach his back. The rest of the time he will be jumping across the room like crazy so you might as well forget his back, he will be turning and facing towards you all the time. Except for the hammer slam and the butt slam all his attacks will miss you if you are directly in front of him. Also another difference from the stray demon is that his hammer slam does not have a 360 degree angle so if you stick to his butt while he is doing it you are ok. So once you enter the room you must quickly run/roll right on his belly to avoid getting hit and check what his next move is.
If he does the hammer slam you run/roll to his back and land a combo.
If he swings the hammer you just stay on his belly and hit him.
If he jumps away you quickly follow him and stick to his belly again.
If he lifts up in the air you take a few steps/one roll back and once he lands you hit him.

Hopefully he will be lifting up and slamming his butt down all the time so the fight will be extremely easy, you just move in/out and land some hits till he dies.

Recommended gear is anything with good magic defence, but definitely not anything that gets you above 25% equip load.

Good luck!

An upgraded Heater Shield will make him very easy. Block, cast magic attack, repeat.

this boss is really easy, killed in my first try
it's hard at ng+ tho

I lost 1 million souls to this guy so don't feel bad about losing 5 times to him. Watching him is the most important, and since you are a caster do not let yourself get pinned to the wall! Use the corridor as an advantage, keep your distance, cast when he's open and kite him. Bleed also does well against these bosses since most weapons won't do too much damage. Priscillas Dagger has 500 bleed so it may be rather useful. (But I have NEVER got it to cause bleed on any enemy or boss)

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

I have tried all kinds of armor combinations, but currently, I am wearing the Big Logan hat with Xanthous for everything else. That puts me just under 25%.

My shield is a +10 Eagle, but I have switched to the Grass for the last couple attempts. My sword is a +10 Iaito, but I have concentrated more on spells than sword play. Ironically and embarrassingly, I tried spells on the Stray Demon but wasn't having much success, so I switched to circle strafing with my Iaito and ended up winning fairly easily. Maybe I should try something similar in this case.

(For a while now I have wondered if I should have made a melee character ... I seem to have more success with it, generally speaking.)

I have also had some trouble getting behind him. I think the main reason is because I felt the need to keep some distance to cast spells and it wasn't always easy or possible to get behind him. All those roots don't help. Your feedback has been helpful in this area in particular.

I will let you know how it goes.

I too have had my own troubles trying to solo him and my suggestion is forget about trying to dance around him and use the long room to your advantage. You'll need either the DWGR or be under 25% load and equip the mask of the child (if you have it) and the grass crest shield for max stamina regen. Then pick your heaviest damage dealing weapon and run from end to end in that room taking a swipe or two at him every pass

Hmm, what about a firesage cosplay... Uber fat and red and ugly, naked with Dusk crown and Demons cat xD
Fight fire with fire!

all of this guy's guides are excellent...even if he does get hit by the Taurus both times

Wow, that was quick. I beat him in the very first try tonight.

First, I dropped the grass shield and used the crest shield. I also dropped the Xanthous shirt and leggings and replaced them with the black hemmed shirt and my red sorcery dress. I'm not saying this is optimal, but given my weight, it enabled me to further up my overall magic resistance and stay under 25%.

Second, I used a Magic / Melee approach to the battle instead of Magic only. I was much, much more aggressive with getting in close on his right thigh bone and just hacking at it with my Enchanted Iaito.

Here is how it played out:

1. After exiting the fog, I immediately cast homing crystals and prepared to block the first attack. I blocked the first attack and the crystals fired off and did some good damage as I sprinted towards the dude.

2. I stayed close. Whenever he hovered, I backed a way a little. Whenever he jumped back, I re-cast Homing Crystal and then charged that pocket that's just between the belly and the leg itself. Whenever he did the Wave attack, I raised my shield and took it. The wave attack was the only attack that I felt like I never countered effectively, but I survived.

3. When I got him down to a third, I went combo crazy with my Iaito. That was it.

In retrospect, it was a short battle. I only cast the homing spell twice.

As an aside, I realize now that whenever I have entered a boss battle recently, I have suddenly become a lot more conservative (example: use more magic, stay back more) and I think that hurts my effectiveness. Not only does my play become more one dimensional, but I also don't have a lot of practice with magic only.

New resolution: I am going to dance with the strategy that brought me to that point and only try something different after it clearly fails.

Anyway, I am happy, and I once again appreciate everyone taking the time to offer advice.

Actually you can be at 50%-75% equip load and still win (I did) you just have to be really good with a shield

You may already know this but the firesage is just a warm up the real boss coming up is the centipede demon and the Bed of chaos.

Be sure to cut off the centipede demon's tail it drops the orange charred ring

You dont need to cut tge tail/limb of. Its a 100% drop on death. (Assuming you dont get it from cutting a limb off.) infact its easier not to as the limb becomes another enemy to fight.

ChizFreak wrote:
With int that high you should do the following:

Use Crest Shield +5
Enchant with it Great Magic Shield
Equip Logan's Catalyst (or another, logan's it's the best).
Enter the fog gate, block his first attack, then walk towards him and get behind him, after that just spam Homing Crystal Soulmass and Crystal Soul Spears/Soul Spears. Really, that boss it's easy to beat with a magic build.

Check the guide I wrote in the firesage page of the wiki:

http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/Demon+Firesage

Look at "Mage Strategy".

One question about this, every time I step through the fog w/ a buff of any sort the fog will cancel it out, does this not happen to everyone?

Other than that, this is a solid strategy to beat firesage. He's really a super easy boss for an int build, just keep your distance and learn how to dodge his attacks and you're good to go.

Or... just summon a buddy to take his attention away while you spam magic.

magic weapon is definitely not cancelled by the fog. havent tried anything else so far

Robotech wrote:magic weapon is definitely not cancelled by the fog. havent tried anything else so far

Yeah, I've only tried it on defensive buffs like magic shield, magic barrier, and flash sweat.

I hate how homing soul masses don't go through the fog gate--would make Capra a lot easier for mages!

ARSP wrote:
You may already know this but the firesage is just a warm up the real boss coming up is the centipede demon and the Bed of chaos.

Amazingly, I killed the centipede on the first try. I was pretty charged up after beating the Firesage, and the bonfire was close, so I just ran into the centipede fog door and hacked at him with wild abandon, not expecting to win. But I did!

I am not as confident this will work with the bed of chaos ...

No, charging blindly at the bed of chaos won't quite work!

But if you check the wiki, you'll find some good guides.

Yarxov wrote:You dont need to cut tge tail/limb of. Its a 100% drop on death. (Assuming you dont get it from cutting a limb off.) infact its easier not to as the limb becomes another enemy to fight.

It does but it's health is so low I killed it in one hit so it doesn't make the boss fight any harder.