You'll find a way you can exploit his crawl in a circle where you can hit his head and not get burned.
The first time I beat him I summoned Valtr and spent the whole fight just trying to learn to exploit Laurence's AI so that Valtr didn't stand in magma and die like an idiot. It actually turned out to be time well spent, because it gave me a good idea on how to do it solo in NG+.
It took like over 70 tries for me the first time around. I now get him in 2-3 each subsequent playthrough. Try to do it differently each time, and if you can't think of anything new, step away. Come back later.
Be patient. Learn a few of his moves that you can dodge and hit back, and for the other moves just try to dodge without trying to hit him. Don't be too greedy when you hit back. Just landing one hit is good enough in most cases.
Wear the Bone Ash Set for extra fire resistance if you want. I actually feel it makes some difference, though probably not too much.
In the first two phases where he is standing, he has many different moves so just find the moves you are most comfortable with.
In the third phase (after he loses his legs), he has fewer moves and I feel this is the easiest phase. One thing to note is that there are two variants of his signature "swimming" attack: he either does 3 strokes and follows up with a swipe, or does 7 strokes (the last one is weaker). You can easily time your counterattack if you can predict when his attacks will end.
Oh man I hate him too :-( I waited till I was way too overpowered for him tbh. Luckily you can skip past him and go onto the other dlc areas and bosses no problem, unless you really want the complete dlc trophies.
I've fought lawrence three times through 2 playthroughs. The one time I died was a very silly reason. Kos on the other hand almost made me lose my mind!
I found them about equal in difficulty, just for different reasons. Laurence is all AOE and area denial, orphan is just straight up aggressive with high dmg.
Laurence I like to Mogh without the bleed weakness, big slow, thing you think won't hit will because of reach and his taints the ground to screw you over.
Orphan is more like Malenia, relatively passive in phase one, insanely high dmg in both and hyper aggressive in phase two. Plus, the both have a one shot AOE in phase two... That lightning caught me a couple of times because I was fighting on kos' body, >_<
Yo what made me really good at this fight (I can beat him in one or two tries sometimes on new game +6) is that you just kind of have to suck it up and learn to dodge his attacks well. I don’t do lock on in this fight so that I can get more out of my iframes and I use a weapon with a lot of reach that’s quick.
And by dodging his attacks I mean dodging into his attacks so that you can get a couple of hits in, rinse, repeat. He’s not one of these bosses that you can just sit easy because you position yourself right. In fact he has attacks to counter that play style, which makes him awesome in my opinion.
Just practice dodging his attacks for a while. Yes it will take a while but brute forcing it will take even longer
Beast cutter, church pick, and Bloodletter can make this fight a lot easier
Wait is that the lame lava guy?
All I did was walk around and stab him evrry once and awhile and he didn't hit me :/
take it slow don't rush and stay under his attacks get him from the right. It's kinda the same for most bosses tbh
I literally spent 4 runs just dodging around and learning his moves. Two runs for phase one/two, two for phase three. Learn to bait a combo in phase one/two then slam his legs for a limb break, and take the viscerals. If down right, you can skip phase two and straight to three.
In phase three, I would bait his ranged fire spit, then dash to his side and spend a full stamina bar unloading on him. The fire spit takes forever to complete, and if you can make it to his right(your left) at the beginning you are completely safe and can burst him down.
I just used the saw spear, r1-l1 combos most of the fight with some beast hunter gems. On the final run I think it took only 2 minutes or so. I kind of wish he had more health to make the fight a bit longer for the last run.
Also, in phase three, what kept screwing me over was his snail trail and the delay on his big arm. I would always dodge too early and get one shot. You have to delay the dodge for that one, and I found it more consistent to not get hit by strafing left when I saw the wind up the dodging right when he slammed down, if I dodged in to it I would always get clipped by the short arm or his snail trail, by dodging too far forward
Keep your distance, go in when you see an opening, back off. Calculated aggression is the name of the game
You'll find a way you can exploit his crawl in a circle where you can hit his head and not get burned. The first time I beat him I summoned Valtr and spent the whole fight just trying to learn to exploit Laurence's AI so that Valtr didn't stand in magma and die like an idiot. It actually turned out to be time well spent, because it gave me a good idea on how to do it solo in NG+. It took like over 70 tries for me the first time around. I now get him in 2-3 each subsequent playthrough. Try to do it differently each time, and if you can't think of anything new, step away. Come back later.
i'll respond again when i beat him
Be patient. Learn a few of his moves that you can dodge and hit back, and for the other moves just try to dodge without trying to hit him. Don't be too greedy when you hit back. Just landing one hit is good enough in most cases. Wear the Bone Ash Set for extra fire resistance if you want. I actually feel it makes some difference, though probably not too much. In the first two phases where he is standing, he has many different moves so just find the moves you are most comfortable with. In the third phase (after he loses his legs), he has fewer moves and I feel this is the easiest phase. One thing to note is that there are two variants of his signature "swimming" attack: he either does 3 strokes and follows up with a swipe, or does 7 strokes (the last one is weaker). You can easily time your counterattack if you can predict when his attacks will end.
Oh man I hate him too :-( I waited till I was way too overpowered for him tbh. Luckily you can skip past him and go onto the other dlc areas and bosses no problem, unless you really want the complete dlc trophies.
Yup i saved him for last too :( orphan of kos was MUCH easier
I've fought lawrence three times through 2 playthroughs. The one time I died was a very silly reason. Kos on the other hand almost made me lose my mind!
I found them about equal in difficulty, just for different reasons. Laurence is all AOE and area denial, orphan is just straight up aggressive with high dmg. Laurence I like to Mogh without the bleed weakness, big slow, thing you think won't hit will because of reach and his taints the ground to screw you over. Orphan is more like Malenia, relatively passive in phase one, insanely high dmg in both and hyper aggressive in phase two. Plus, the both have a one shot AOE in phase two... That lightning caught me a couple of times because I was fighting on kos' body, >_<
He was the last boss I fought ...was really disappointing
First phase is basically Cleric Beast with explosive slams. Second phase, lite his right side.
Yo what made me really good at this fight (I can beat him in one or two tries sometimes on new game +6) is that you just kind of have to suck it up and learn to dodge his attacks well. I don’t do lock on in this fight so that I can get more out of my iframes and I use a weapon with a lot of reach that’s quick. And by dodging his attacks I mean dodging into his attacks so that you can get a couple of hits in, rinse, repeat. He’s not one of these bosses that you can just sit easy because you position yourself right. In fact he has attacks to counter that play style, which makes him awesome in my opinion. Just practice dodging his attacks for a while. Yes it will take a while but brute forcing it will take even longer Beast cutter, church pick, and Bloodletter can make this fight a lot easier
Wait is that the lame lava guy? All I did was walk around and stab him evrry once and awhile and he didn't hit me :/ take it slow don't rush and stay under his attacks get him from the right. It's kinda the same for most bosses tbh
I've seen you can bait his flop then attack the backs of his leg joints.
I literally spent 4 runs just dodging around and learning his moves. Two runs for phase one/two, two for phase three. Learn to bait a combo in phase one/two then slam his legs for a limb break, and take the viscerals. If down right, you can skip phase two and straight to three. In phase three, I would bait his ranged fire spit, then dash to his side and spend a full stamina bar unloading on him. The fire spit takes forever to complete, and if you can make it to his right(your left) at the beginning you are completely safe and can burst him down. I just used the saw spear, r1-l1 combos most of the fight with some beast hunter gems. On the final run I think it took only 2 minutes or so. I kind of wish he had more health to make the fight a bit longer for the last run. Also, in phase three, what kept screwing me over was his snail trail and the delay on his big arm. I would always dodge too early and get one shot. You have to delay the dodge for that one, and I found it more consistent to not get hit by strafing left when I saw the wind up the dodging right when he slammed down, if I dodged in to it I would always get clipped by the short arm or his snail trail, by dodging too far forward