Elden Ring DLC fan requests include “a harder boss than Malenia,” no dragons

gamepur.com:

Elden Ring DLC seems inevitable, and now that we’ve seen hints of a new map and ray tracing support in the latest patch, the theories and requests are rolling in. Some sort of new map is guaranteed with the expansion, and fans are wondering just what kind of boss will occupy that territory.

This prompted Reddit user FinancialEnd4694 to ask if the DLC “should have a hard boss than Malenia.” Several responses are affirmative, especially since FromSoftware games have traditionally saved the hardest bosses for DLC (Dark Souls’ Artorias and Bloodborne’s Orphan of Kos come to mind). One response even brings up the wild three-phase fight against Sister Friede and Father Ariandel at the end of Dark Souls 3’s Ashes of Ariandel — they, somewhat jokingly, want to see a battle with four stages. Others point out that because Elden Ring gives players so many tools to take down bosses, ramping up the difficulty will encourage more experimentation with Spirit Ashes and summons.

One commenter, desus-of-the-rain, also requests that no new dragon bosses be added in the DLC. There certainly are many dragon bosses in the base game, and as another commenter points out, Dragonlord Placidusax is one of them. Its inclusion would seem to negate the need for another, stronger dragon in any future content.

Most of the discussion in the thread centers on Malenia herself, as she’s generally considered the hardest boss to defeat in the game. There’s subjectivity to that opinion of course, considering we’ve seen players beat her in under 30 seconds and even take her on with Level 1 builds. Even so, many tend to struggle with her Waterfowl Dance attack, which consists of several leaping, high-speed sword slashes.

This DLC discussion was prompted by