Malenia's Great Rune | Elden Ring Wiki

Literally made to kill you

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"and her Great Rune should have been the most sacred of all." It was made bad for lore reasons and is definitely not the first time Miyazaki has done something like this.

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This is such an intensely poorly designed rune. It's supposed to encourage you to be more aggressive, but
1. The healing potential is reset after getting hit a second time
2. Actually getting the hits that heal very rarely heal you enough to recover all of the health you lost
3. You only have five seconds to heal the damage (which includes actually recovering from the hit, especially if you're knocked down), meaning unless you're recklessly aggressive to the point of putting yourself in an almost guaranteed position to take more damage, you're not going to heal it back, at which point problem 1 will happen since you'll get hit, and most disappointingly:
4. Your only other healing source is debuffed by an INTENSE -30%

This rune is designed to get you killed. You're incentivized to make yourself vulnerable to heal yourself, you're punished for making yourself vulnerable by not getting to heal yourself if you get hit and if you don't make yourself vulnerable, you just have a passive debuff on your healing being nerfed insanely hard. This is the only great rune that has a passive debuff that goes along with it and I cannot stress how much you should avoid putting it on.

The only way this would be usable is if they removed the flask penalty and buffed it to have two of the following properties:
a. not have the healing potential reset after getting hit
b. removing the 5 second limit on healing potential, or
c. GREATLY increased the healing per hit

Otherwise, into the garbage it goes. Sorry, Malenia.

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Mohgs rune is arguable better since it doesn’t DEBUFF you when you activate it.

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adding a downside to a rune that wouldnt even be worth using without it is insane

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Waaa bloodborne waa

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30% reduction to healing flask is insane detriment, worst rune of them all

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Most disappointing item in the game. Useless. It’s a liability. It could change gameplay for the better. We know how fun Bloodborne was. This is like spitting in the face of Bloodborne enjoyers. True shame.

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I think it's weak for a lore reason. it's meant to be so weak to show the destruction the Rot brought. It took so much away from it's victims, like Melania, or Millicent. Yes, it gave some power in a strange way, but it took so much, it wasn't worth what they gained.

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Miyazaka scammed me again.

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Only useful for a bloodborne cosplay

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I'm gonna teach you how to make this rune useful. First off:

Armour: Bullgoat set
Talismans: Greatshield talisman, Godskin's Swaddling Cloth,
Incantations: Blessing of the Erdtree, Golden Vow

And then powerstance some quick weapons that have many hits. Like twinblades, rapiers, straight swords, daggers, etc.

"Behold, plump sort! Could this be a god?"

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This should be a basegame feature, and the great rune buffs it's power.

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I would be surprised if even .1% of players had this rune on, it needs a serious buff.

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Are we truly the Elden Lord ? Or we just a Foul Tarnished ? I feel like we are just a shittier version of everything, remember Scarlet Aeonia incantation ? When Malenia uses it, she levitates 50 meters above the ground and then just nuke everything when she lands, and the nuke is massive, meanwhile, we as a Foul Tarnished, levitate 3 meters above the ground, touchable by every single enemy and vulnerable to being cancel out of the spell, just why ? I'm disappointed. Not to mention the garbage design of Revenant and the stupid and a buggy mess of Chelona's Rise puzzle.

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its pretty much useless, worst great rune in the game

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Bloodborne moment

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Malenia's great rune < Root Resins
#Changemymind

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So, this thing has a niche use that sees the light of day mainly on stupid challenge runs. Namely, it can be used to negate Rykard's lava.

If you are doing a challenge run that locks you out of using Serpent Hunter and HP% damage, Rykard can be more of a pain in the ass than Malenia due to his gigaenormous healthbar, so it's very likely that you'll be putting him off until you realize there is no more remembrance bosses left aside from him and Radabeast and you have nowhere left to run. Malenia's GR can make beating Serpkard with a cipher pata for 40 minutes a little less painful by mostly removing the need to worry about damage from lava. Most of his attacks will whiff, but you'll still have to occasionally dodge a jump or 40 flaming skulls on their way to explode your ass.
Godskin swaddling cloth probably can do the same, though I didn't tested it, and doesn't requires a rune arc, but it takes a talisman slot.

So, yeah. It is...certainly a way to use Malenia's GR. You will use it that way only on challenge runs, because outside of that you usually don't have to worry about Rykard's lava and can just use shunter. If you are playing the game normally and want heal-on-hit this badly, then you are better off using GSC, even on a hyperaggressive build that would in theory benefit from Malenia's GR. GSC takes a talisman slot, but it doesn't requires a rune arc, doesn't requires you to be hit first, doesn't has a time limit and doesn't reduces flask healing.

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Only fun I have had with this rune is when using taunter's tongue at low levels. Niche use, though in that niche, the rally has more value.

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This great rune is really disappointing, it's obtained near the end of the game, it's not kept to NG+, and even if it were, it's greatly nerfed, making it pretty useless.

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A Hoonter must Hoont

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Honestly, the Great Rune itself should give you Malenia's heal-on-hit ability. Perhaps not as potent as hers, but still useful enough to get you through the endgame. Also, as an added bonus, it could raise your DEX stat by 10. It'd be akin to a +1 Prosthesis-Wearer Heirloom talisman (from both a mechanical and a lore standpoint).

I like the idea of a Rally mechanic though, so have that be a Talisman. You'd find it atop the Isolated Divine Tower where you activate Malenia's Rune.

Make the amount of health restored correlate to the weight of your weapon, so heavier weapons will restore more health per hit (which is great since you're more likely to trade hits with a slower but stronger weapon). Lighter weapons wouldn't restore as much each hit, but if you stay aggressive and fast it'll even out. It shouldn't be too OP, but considering how heavy-hitting endgame and higher NG+ enemies can be, I think it could be a bit more powerful.

Also, lower the Flask penalty a bit. Perhaps instead of 70% recovery, it could be 85% (90% if we're feeling generous, but that might be a bit too lenient).

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The rally from Bloodborne sounds great on paper, but is technically pointless in an edgame where everything 2-shots you.

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Wow, it gives you a shitter rally system than the one in Bloodborne. Neat.

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> Only obtainable towards the very end of the game
> Requires you to fight the hardest boss in the game
> Kneecaps your regular healing as long as it is active
> Effect is mediocre, only functions during a very tiny window, and even then only really shines on specific build types

The VERY least they could've done is have this not cost a Rune Arc or make it useable in invasions/colosseums, as it sits there is zero incentive to use this over any other Great Rune.

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Bootleg Rally from the bootleg Bloodborne boss. Seems legit

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So it gives you bloodbornes mechanics?

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Great runes should be kept going into NG+

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Tips for colossal users that want to get something out of this great rune: there are few options that can give the fast attacks this rune demands, but they are almost perfect for a trade-hit game. Maliketh black blade's ash of war is like a stronger, shorter waterfoul dance, so it should do the trick. Golden land also seems like a good choice and doesn't require as much faith to chakka chakka your enemies. Eruption also works, as long as they stay in the lava pool. Prelate's charge works too, but eats up stamina. Waves of darkness, only in groups but gives you some space.

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you'd think this would be a fusion of the winged sword ring, millicents prosthesis and the godskin cloth, the secondary aspect making the dex req for her katana seem less ludicrous but no let's make it a shite version of bloodbornes best and most well designed mechanic.

good job fromsoft

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Boss: has full hp restoration as long as she hits you
Player: you can heal 1 attack...I guess...
Classic FromSoftware

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With this rune, PC players now have Bloodborne at home

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If you get it asap you can fight either of the 3 starting shard bearers you would leave alive, both mohgs, Rykard, red sword guy, fortisax, fire giant, placidusax, godskin duo, maliketh, gideon, godfrey and final boss with it. Now is it worth doing tho? No, not really, the rune requires a build to be viable, costs an arc to activate and you dont really get to restore HP fast enough on either of these bosses, in general gameplay if you want hp restore just use rykards rune and taker cameo. Also you know, you have to kill Malenia for it.

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If it didn't nerf your flask then I'd actually use this thing. Like Rykards but usable in boss fights. Oh well, just another reason for me to skip Malenia on every playthrough from now on.

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Regardless of its uselessness, I have it as a badge of honor. Proving I beat the hardest boss in Elden Ring.

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Everyone's out here arguing over whether or not it's good or bad, doesn't even matter. You get this from essentially the last boss in a run. What is the point of an ability that you get at the end of the game, that doesn't even carry over into NG+? So I can what, kill Gideon with it? That's the real reason it sucks, not because it's bad, it's super fun on the right build, but you just don't get to use it for 90% of the game.

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Everyones complaining about it but this great rune is bad for lore reasons. It's telling you malenia wasn't being carried by her rune and her will to resist the rot is what makes her strong. It was supposed to be the "most sacred" great rune but the scarlet rot ruined it and rendered it useless. The only positive aspect of it comes from her own will being infused with it. It also gives more context to the shattering, she fought radahn while weakened, with a non functional great rune, and still didn't lose.

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You beat the hardest boss in the game and get the worst great rune. Thanks Miyazaki.

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"Cuts flasks of crimson tears healing by 70%"

Players who use erdtree heal with 14 cerulean flasks: "I fail to see the problem"

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BloodBorne's Rally mechanic: The Great Rune

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Bloodboon ritual is so stupid with this. You'll heal from an entire group of enemies and proc the pink bar recovery for as many hit of each stage of the three stabs.

NIHIL (pair with high poise armor and bullgoat talisman to be unstaggerable while stabbing the air)

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Someone else already mentioned this: "You get back 100% of your phantom health bar on a riposte"

My final answer is to limit yourself to getting hit ONCE while at the same time breaking the stance of your target.
So pretty much Lion's Claw/Piercing Fang/Unsheathe(heavy)/Square Off (heavy)/Giant Hunt/Warcry halberd build.

If you think you'll break something's stance with your next weapon art, then I think it's perfectly fine to equip this rune and just play for the challenge.

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You can make some amazingly stupid actions with this, and Elden Stars.

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This and the godskin swaddling cloth seem to ignore the penalty to (all) healing that black flame protection and the great rune here have as demerits.

What you and I can do with this information:

1. Use BFP
2. Have the Godskin Peeler
3. Have fun with endure and the peeler's unique running/full charge heavies.

And where spells are concerned

Pest threads is definitely king against large targets. The spell will proc Malenia's great rune and that's for as many times as every projectile interacts with enemy hurt boxes. This can be pretty good if you pair it with endure / hp cap boosters / dragoncrest greatshield talisman.

The last thing of any real note would be how this rune decides to pay out with for health returns.

Where the rune is concerned all attacks have some kind of "value" and some are much higher/lower than you'd have any reason to expect.

The Dragon king's cragblade works pretty well with this rune too. "Thundercloud Form" will return decent chunks of health while this great rune is active. Unfortunately the godskin swaddling cloth doesn't really seem to care, so they wont stack. But it's strong enough even without that talisman.

Blood tax and this rune: The health recovery _from this ash_ is another one of those things that doesn't really seem to mind the penalty from BFP.
And since Malenia's Greatrune can only restore your health up to the cap determined by the last hit received it works together with the swaddling cloth and blood tax.

I'd also consider prayerful strike for this great rune. With the Great Stars and heavier armor.

TL;DR

Great Rune actually great and sometimes better than Morgot's. Use it with BFP/Dragoncrest Greatshield talisman
and your pick of whatever isn't a flask of crimson tears to heal you.

I should say that having 99 faith, and the erdtree talisman with 14 cerulean tear flasks is worthwhile with this rune.

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You know the phrase "It's better than nothing"? I feel like this is WORSE than nothing due to the flask penalty. Bringing back Bloodborne's Rally is such a cool idea in concept, but in practice there are simply too many differences in the design philosophy between Bloodborne and Elden Ring for the mechanic to work properly. Maybe there's a build out there that makes this Great Rune actually good (something that abuses Hyper Armor?) but I doubt I'm going to be the person to figure it out.

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Great concept but it’s basically crap unless you’re using very fast attacking weapons, even then might not be worth the flask handicap and only having a tiny window to capitalize on the rune’s effect.

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Wouldn't be so bad if it went all in on this for Bloodborne. Reduced healing from your crimson tear, but gives you 50% more estus (rounded down) and makes you drink it faster... bonus points if you inject it in your leg :)

As others have said, having runes carry over to NG cycles would be great. It's not like Rune Arcs are not punished for continuous poor play. This would be then like a fun alternative mode for Elden Ring.

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At least those great rune looks pretty.

but i wonder if you combine it with ash of war blood tax, does it increase the healing, or the only way to regen from this rune, only with regular attack?

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"why isn't this great rune good?"

it's bloodborne rally. it isn't going to work on every single build the same, think about it. this rune is incredible for builds that can get damage out very quickly while focusing on evasion, i.e. a weapon with quickstep or bloodhound's step. these skills allow for that fast paced combat and can let you get back that health percentage very easily.

on a build that focuses on tanking hits (such as great-weapon builds that rely on using poise to tank through hits and deal large damage to compensate) then obviously this wouldn't be a good rune, due to the damage you'll be taking intentionally not having much worth being healed by either regen or a flask. but on builds like the evasion-focused ones i mentioned earlier, this rune is basically a good way to no longer need a crimson flask.

if you're upset about the crimson tear flask nerf that comes with it, just put on the crimson seed talisman and it entirely negates it. if you're just upset you don't have a great rune that gives you power equal to the actual Empyrian demigod herself, then take a step back and think about the same reasons why Hand of Malenia doesn't give you the same reach and hyper armor that Malenia's own Waterfowl Dance gets: it'd break the heck out of the game.

it would make it way too easy if every single hit you landed regardless of weapon or otherwise gave you a ton of health back. it would make so many talismans irrelevant and would mean that using your healing flask, an essential mechanic to not only the game but the Souls series as a whole, would now be useless in the face of Free Health On Hit. not to mention how ridiculous it'd be in PVP... imagine balancing THAT.

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I wish this rune was more like a stronger version of the crimson bubbletear, where it healed you to 50-70% Health when you reach 0% Health, like Malenia's phase transition. Although, it might be annoying for pvp.

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Bloodborne at home:

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Even paired with Godskin Swaddling Cloth and Blessing of the Erdtree, the healing you get still isn't all that great.

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did not drop for me

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Does this work with magic? For example Carian slicer? Will it work just as it does with melee?

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Missed opportunity not making this work in pvp, I get that there's a lore reason for the way mohg's works but like come on

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Only great rune that actively makes your character weaker. Your healing flasks are reduced to 70% efficiency for a negligible bonus that's weaker than crimsonwhorl bubble tear or blasphemous blade L2.

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It should heal you as a 1 to 1 health to damage ratio and not require taking damage to activate. someone please make a mod that does this until we get it in the base game.

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This rune is From spitting on your face after leaving you black and blue on the pavement from the Malenia fight.

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crimsonwhorl bubbletear is stronger than this

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What really messes with me is that Malenias self heal effect heals whenever she hits someone while this one has a time limit. If malenia had the time limit, kinda like she’s just a Bloodborne protagonist, it would make the fight so much less irritating, and if the rune just healed you whenever it would be worth the agony and the Rune Arc.

Hey, at least her remembrance is cool

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This desperately needs a buff

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They added a Bloodborne mechanic without keeping the speed. Pretty fun but needs a buff, something like go all in on the Bloodborne and make quickstep the default roll while using it

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They added a Bloodborne mechanic without keeping the speed. Pretty fun but needs a buff, something like go all in on the Bloodborne and make quickstep the default roll while using it

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worst great rune in the game

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"The Flask of Crimson Tears is reduced to 70% of its normal HP recovery amount while this Great Rune is active"

Sorry, but if you guys need to nerf it this bad, then it shouldn't have been a health restorative style effect in the first place. This great rune just sucks all around.

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This thing is just not good man.

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You don't have to complete forum azusa to get to the tower. I'm on my first playthrough and got there without completing it.

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"If you want to use Malenia's Great Rune, you will need to activate it at the Isolated Divine Tower which can be accessed via waygate from the Divine bridge. [Map Link] After completing Crumbling Farum Azula"

Either I'm reading it wrong or this is not entirely correct because I could access the isolated divine tower from Divine bridge waygate after defeating Malenia and activate the great rune before going to Crumbling Farum Azula, except for that one instance at The Four Belfries.

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How to access the Divine tower needs to be changed, I accessed the Divine Bridge before I ever unlocked Altus Plateau. I've also beat Malenia and collected her rune without even setting foot in Crumbling Farum Azula

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Maybe the point of this Rune is to use it with Guard Counters. The blind swordsman who trained Malenia is also depicted on the Curved Sword Talisman which increases damage of guard counters. And Malenia herself usually plays back and lets you make the first move, channeling the Blind Swordsmans technique. So imagine you guard, you take chip damage, you Guard Counter, and now youve hit the enemy and healed back the damage you took while guarding. Sort of exactly as how the Blind Swordsman did it. Dont get me wrong - This is the worst Great Rune in the whole game and the fact you get it at complete end of the game and it doesnt go to NG+ makes it completely Pointless, Youre better off using Morgotts great rune to just increase your HP if you worry about health so much. But yeah, This might be intended for the Guard-Counter playstyle.

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Stuff like this makes me wish the great runes transitioned between NG+, because at least then you could have more bosses to try and use this on. But having it locked behind a boss that many people complete last means you'll rarely have time to even try this great rune. Not to mention that it debuffs your flask, which feels a bit harsh.

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What's the point of this? You can't use on pvp, it suck ass on PvE, it's end game rune so by the time you got it there's gonna be very few bosses left to even use it on. Mediocre Regen with a lot of restrictions. Think they wanted to balance it so bad worrying that it could get broken, that they made it a completely trash

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The epitome of the “unlocking final boss as a playable character” meme

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rally system from bloodborne but worst

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How does this work with skill like Prelates Charge on a Great Stars? Does it only work with regular Melee attacks?

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This Great Rune should be rebalanced imo. It should function pretty much identically to Malenia's with none of the caveats or healing nerfs, and instead just decrease the % healed per hit

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You severly limit your Crimson flasks, and if you don't have a Weapon that hits fast reliably, you won't get your lost HP back.
This is what you get for ordering what Malenia is using from Wish

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This great rune feels like a spit in the face to everyone who's beaten malenia. The most difficult boss in the game with a margin of error so slim, it would make a piece of paper jealous. Malenia is already a slog to go through. But the rewards she gives are straight ass. The only good item she has is her katana, because you get to grief other players with waterfowl. The incantation is only good on weak enemies and dumb ass players, boss don't give a **** about the risk of scarlet rot, so they're more than fine fisting you while you wait for the animation to be over. And then there's this. Her heal effect, but if it wasn't her heal effect and sucked straight ass. Yes, you can make a build to make it usable, but if you have to make a build around making a great rune useful, it's not that good (unless it's to boost the capability, like rykards.). It's the only great rune in the game that imposes a penalty for having it active, which is already a con. But the heal effect is so bad compared to just using a flask, that it feels like an all risk, no reward. I like the idea of having bloodbornes rally in elden ring, but this game isn't built around that. Most bosses in this game have high damage attacks that make aggression way too risky, with the entire endgame being near impossible to do aggressive style (coincidentally, the endgame is when you'll actually get this great rune). And because this game has a roll, not a sidestep (bloodhound step doesn't count because it limits build variety), doing a follow up attack becomes somewhat of a rarity. A shame that malenia gets to have the best version of lifesteal she doesn't deserve, and players get a great rune not deserving of their time. If only malenia's frustrating difficulty could be backed up with the rewards.

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Honestly your better off with rykard great rune with cameo ring and what ever else u want to add health, much higher amounts of health and u don't get a flask nerf

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Easily the worst great rune in the game, makes crimson flasks heal for roughly 200 less health in exchange for a less efficient rally. Not to mention theres already weapons that heal upon each hit without damage having to be taken first.

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The roll damage from the briar armor set triggers the healing, which makes this rune almost useful if you spam rolls after a hit.

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The roll damage from the briar armor set triggers the healing, which makes this rune almost useful if you spam rolls after a hit.

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Kind of bad. The healing per hit is very low, so unless you have a way to do continuous hits that deal extremely low damage, you're not going to be able to heal enough to offset the flask nerf. I frequently find myself just killing the enemy before I have the chance to get even half the health I lost back.
At this point, just use Blood Tax if you want regen per hit. It's fast, doesn't have a limited window of opportunity, and doesn't require you getting hit to activate its healing property.

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This works really well with Night Maiden's Mist, especially if there are multiple enemies inside it. For whatever reason, it also triggers when you're taking damage from it (though it has no effect).

They really didn't playtest this one, huh?

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A failed way to include Bloodbornes rally system here. You get the rune way to late to be usefull, and the fact that it nerfes your flasks is absurd. Its the BLESSING of a GREAT RUNE. Every other rune gives you a strong buff with no downside, Malenia's rune is just trash.
Its like malenias's lifesteal at home.
Never used this rune again after my 1st try -_-

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Does anyone know if this triggers on status ticks or spell hits or if it's only weapon hits?

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should persist into multiplayer likes mohgs rune. i want to use this in invasions so bad

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If you manage to do critical when the rune is being active(after you get hit and your HP turn pink) you will get entire of your lost hp back in single action.

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At the point of getting this, you've already had much easier access to:

- Crimson Dagger talisman (critical hits restore HP)
- Taker's Cameo (killing enemies restores HP)
- Blasphemous Blade / Takers Flames (killing / hitting enemies restores HP)
- Rykard's Great rune (killing enemies restores HP)
- Serpent God's Curved Sword (killing enemies restores HP)
- Prayerful Strike AoW (hitting enemies with L2 restores HP)
- Great Stars (hitting enemies with any attack restores HP)
- Butchering Knife (hitting enemies with any attack restores HP)
- Deathbed Dress (summoning Mimic Tear and chillin' for a while restores HP)
- Icon Shield (taking a nap in the corner restores HP)
- Blessed Dew talisman (Taking a nap in the corner restores HP)

None of the above mess with your flasks, nor do any of them have limits on how much HP they can restore (besides your maximum HP obviously).

It's like they didn't actually want people to beat Malenia - arguably the hardest boss in the game, for all the wrong reasons, and none of the rewards you get from it are nearly as good as what you've already come across, with the great rune being the most egregious example IMO.

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Only if there is a way to fight malenia early... Even if you intentionally avoid all the not required boss fights to fight malenia early, it still takes a lot of time and requires killing several important bosses. You may want to try using this great rune on them to have some fun but nope.

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Doesn't even make sense for the rally mechanic it to be in this game when it's not even built around it.

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Could be handy for a mage if it activates when using Phalanx spells to get in a bunch of hits quickly. Get hit, cast spell, run in, restore HP without engaging.
If it doesn't work with spells... shid.

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What happens to rune arcs in your inventory if you go into NG+?

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The rune effect fits very well with the boss who gives it to you, because both are total trash

Just use godskin talisman and the crimson dagger talisman for your bloodborne run

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Bad rune, it would have been decent if it was earlier into the game but at the very end of it? Bad

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Horribly designed rune

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Hitting enemies with the roll of the briar set counts as a hit and gives you health back

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Bloodborne

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Astounding how a boss meant for Sekiro has a Great Rune meant for Bloodborne and somehow it's the worst of both worlds in this game

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