-Review- Alecto, Black Knife Ringleader - No Damage, No Summons, No Magic Tricks & No HUD

Alecto, Black Knife Ringleader is an excellent fight that I have technically reviewed already however in that review of the Black Knife Assassin I take damage and the move set isn't as developed so look at this as my definitive view at the boss concept. This is coming from a no rolling perspective for a personal challenge and also to extend the fight for analyzing purposes. This boss contains some of the best telegraphed attacks I've seen in Elden Ring so far except for the basic attacks which were a little too awkward for me to utilize a parry tool however I had a lot more fun finding free space to back stab after attacks.

My strategy was to keep an eye out for specific attacks that contained a slow enough recovery time for either a back stab or a jump attack which in the end had a fine balance of both. The attacks I enjoyed seeing the most were the Destined Death and grab attacks due to the satisfying timing and visual reads. From what I understand the Destined Death attack is the only new move added for this fight and I believe this is the final Black Knife fight in terms of depth however if I'm wrong I'll look into possibly another review though this will more than likely cover enough if that's the case.

The jump attacks were also especially fun to punish though they seem to either happen frequently or hardly at all so it wasn't one hundred percent dependable. One punish opportunity was compromised due to a jump attack that liked to only initiate when I attacked after the Blade of Death so I avoided following up entirely since my primary weapon's recovery time was too slow to avoid the jump attack. The Destined Death is an attack design I've noticed a few times already in Elden Ring like in Maliketh and Malenia however I feel this is it's best execution in comparison of those fights.

This boss also likes to idle a bit much but at least it's not the worst I've seen and sometimes whenever the boss would retreat it would go to the rocks on the edge of the arena which doesn't create the most positive outcomes. I haven't been the biggest fan of this whole retreat aspect the bosses have in Elden Ring and it feels like I'm playing Monster Hunter having to chase the fight around sometimes which doesn't engage me personally.

Overall I really enjoyed this fight. It has a lot of fun combat fundamentals that creates that magical moment of “Let me try that again” attitude. I just wish the fight had a bigger role in the main path because it beats a few boss on that roster.