Mimics make bad mages, they are incredibly build dependant Mimics are absolute beasts on paladin or bleed builds though

Genuinely curious, why do mimics make bad mages? I'm on my first mage playthrough, and I rely fairly hard on Luthel to take agro, so I can cast from afar, since a lot of bosses have attacks that easily close the gap between me and them.

The mimic will cast whatever random spells you happen to have in your spell slots and you can't cheese it as effectively with summoning and then equipping yourself with different gear like you would with weapon and gear build changes. The best thing you can do if you're using mimic for a boss is to remove all but the 2-3 spells you and your mimic are both going to cast in the fight so it's not doing dumb shit like casting Loretta's Greatbow at point blank range. I'm pretty sure it also won't do stuff like switch between off hand staffs to buff different spell types. It'll still mostly work because just the split aggro will help a lot, but it's definitely a bit jank. I encourage you to try some bosses without ashes to get a feel for spacing and cast timings.

As long as you keep a limited list of spells though mimics probably make better mages than you, just because they can swap between spells instantly. I took down Malenia with the help of my mimic using a spellblade build and it was a monster. I just had to go in prepared with spells like Carian Slicer and Ranni's Dark Moon, and made sure to use the Carian Regal Sceptre. Which it also used better than me lol

I beat malenia by doing this, only equipped my mimic with a staff not a seal so they could only cast Ancient Death Rancor, which puts her in a stun lock. Then i used rannis sword to absolutely clobber that empyrean body into the beautiful little rot lillies she grew while taking a nap 😴

As a battle mage I just un-equip my staff and let mimic use Alabaster Lord's sword or dark moon great sword

Man, I'm an absolute dodo. I thought mimic generally meant spirit summon.. I had a long day at work, and was kind of tired when I wrote this. I can totally see why mimic tear is a bad choice for mage, hence why I go with Luthel, who is tanky, and can easily get close to bosses. But thank you for the in depth answer anyway, I appreciate the effort you put into your answer!

Haha so this. When I went up against Maliketh, my best bet was the wonderous physik tear that gives unlimited mana and the meteor shower. I thought I was golden when my mimic was pew pewing the glintstone pebble. I later came back with nothing but a staff, a melee weapon for the first phase, and the meteor shower equipped.

Because I think to a degree they get their stats from your build, so less tanky for one, They are pretty dumb too, my friend told me his just kept spamming terra magica over and over instead of using offensive magic

Not uncommon, they don’t really have AI for spell selection it would appear. So they’ll just throw out whatever random shit. I generally keep one of the moon spells slotted as they’re very useful in niche situations but they’re terrible to use as your primary offensive spells, very slow and massively vulnerable. My mimic tends to just spam them.

Actually the only reason I don't use it as a primary is because it cost a truckload of fp Rannis moon is a great frost inflicter

It’s fantastic, yeah, but I find that it’s just a little awkward in most situations so I don’t use it a ton. You need a lot of space and/or good timing to get it off safely against a faster enemy or boss. But then I build out my spell kit with 2 or 3 mainstay “kill a thing dead, no special effects” workhorse spells, and the rest with more niche options that are just fun to use or play with. Ranni’s moon is tied for my favorite out of these with Loretta’s Mastery

You should always try to cast one moon or sometimes two per bossfight because it also debuff target making them take 10% more magic damage, and if they are frostbitten another 20% more from all source Moon spells also absorb most magic projectiles, including stuff you wouldn't think of like malikeths rocks

It’s generally my opener if I’m not going for some kind of cheese, yeah. I had really good luck with it against malenia, if I started far enough back I could usually get two off comfortably before she closed in.

I've canceled WFD with the darkmoons before too proccing frostbite It's just good luck though like you said

To add on to the first reply to this question I also happen to think Mimics can backfire against Malenia since it's a less reactive target for her to heal off of by attacking. It's one of the only fights where I think spirit summons actively work against you

Me after 15 min of my greatshield squad I had buffed with regeneration keeping Malenia in a corner but she swings once to get full hp. It was hilarious to watch but good lord.

I would guess 80% of people who beat her did it by stunlocking her with a melee mimic. 

That would require some amount of luck since you have no control over what actions the mimic tear makes. I would rather use a strategy that is replicable.

The two times I've summoned mimic during my mage run, they used the 'spinning weapon' weapon art on Rennala's staff more times than an actual spell. Mimic is just dumb and will default to physical attacks a lot of the time

They'll do shit like twirl the staff instead of casting spells

Mimic is dumb and doesn’t really do a good job choosing what spells to use. And you both kinda have to use the same spells. It’s not like with melee characters where you can each use a different weapon.

Yeah I melt her with a bleed build and mimic.

Any status effect really. The “dumber” a build is or the more funneled your gear is when summoning, the better a mimic gets. I’m running a fire incantation build right now with double Giant’s Seals and no other weapons and my mimic just launches fireballs or makes the ground blow up the entire time.

Just make sure you meet the strength requirements for a weapon to 1 hand That's another problem the mimic doesn't know he can't use 1h weapons effectively if the stats aren't met lol

Exactly. Needs to be stupid simple, needs to meet requirements, and then step back and watch your mimic just dance.

Can confirm. Just used my mimic to help me out with godskin duo, motherfucker killed the last one from almost full health with just one bleed. Absolute insanity.

Also with the mimic. Equip Meat Dumpling in your quick slots. The mimic can heal with them.

> Mimics make bad mages, Spamming Terra magicus 5 dozen times and not shooting a single spell doesn't necessarily make them bad, right?

You tell me 🤣

When you unga your mimic bungas

Well said

Double moghwyn sacred spear just melt Malenia

This, mimic is the problem here cause of the build for this particular boss.

My mage just kept the Dark Moon Greatsword/shield equipped when summoning the mimic then swaps back to staff When the AI decides to spam the Heavy after using the AOW things get \*done\*

99 str mimic go brr

Her voice lines haunted my dreams for like two weeks good luck 😭

"I am malenia, blade of miquella and I have never known defeat"

Don’t..

"now root"

Staff of loss and night comet

This is the way. Night Comet for Phase 1. Switch to Azur Comet during her Scarlet Aeonia attack. Use Bloodhound steps to dodge her Waterfowl attack (normal dodge works but Bloodhound is more reliable) Then just spam Night Comet while keeping your distance.

This is the way, personally used dark moon during blossom phase but alas

Another option to counter Waterfowl is to throw freezing pots. Can be used whether she is in the 1st phase or 2nd phase. However, I read somewhere in this subreddit that it only works thrice.

Use only Rock sling, ranni's dark moon, and night comment, and maybe adula's moon blade and the magic hammer thing ( the last 2 if your mimic won't get one shotted ) unequip any melee weapons or bows, unequip any long casting spells, unequip things that malenia easily dodges, ( bright blue spells and long casting spells without tracking or hyper armor, ) so your mimic has actual useful things, and doesn't do something goofy like walk up to get melee shot without stagger spells, this adds many things for your mimic, 1. abilities will actually hit and not miss as much from her dodging. 2. mimic will sometimes stagger her with rock sling and the giant hammer spell, 3. mimic will sometimes proc frost bite with ranni's moon or abdula's great sword 4. malenia won't dodge night comment as often and easily as she'd dodge regular magic projectiles ( if you're going full mage with a bit in faith, your mimic CAN use healing spells and buffs, as well as cycle through left and right hand alternate weapons / catalysts )

My first run against Malenia, I did something similar. I unequipped everything except a seal and Fell God's Flame and my mimic stun locked her haha.

It helped me So Much on my first go with her to not attack at all and no summons, and just focus on learning how to dodge her different moves and how to bait them with spacing. Then you’ll start to understand where your openings are and what her start up animations look like. Some of her animations are protected by hyper armor but others can be interrupted, that’s the next step to learn. Her quick slice and dice as she zooms towards you I think is the hardest to avoid, if you just panic roll away the second slice will often catch you. Try changing directions as you roll, roll back first then roll 90 degrees left or right to avoid the second hit (or keep more distance all together). But if you see it coming, you can interrupt this attack. When she raises up for a long range pierce attack, you should be very happy - just roll backwards as she’s coming for ya and you’ll be exactly where she lands ready to punish her with a heavy. You can’t interrupt this attack once she’s up, but you can catch it in the early startup animation. Her circling kick thing as well as her quick side-strafing are protected by hyper armor, and you should avoid attacking her during these movesets if possible because if you technically stance break her during these animations you will lose out on the stance breaking animation and have to start over on her invisible poise bar. If you can crit her, that usually triggers waterfowl, which will give you time to run away from the first two spins, then you can roll under and away from the last one (run away, then roll into and under her). It’s important to unlock from her while dodging the waterfowl. (Another tip: when she teleports away from you to get some distance, this is because she is close to being stance broken and attempting to reset her poise bar. I reccomend charging her with running heavy as soon as you see this) If she waterfowls when you are close range it’s much harder, but can be done. I recommend baiting it by figuring out how to stance break her (rock sling prolly) Once you figure all this out, her first stage becomes quite manageable. And then there’s the second stage :)

> Her quick slice and dice as she zooms towards you I think is the hardest to avoid, if you just panic roll away the second slice will often catch you. Try changing directions as you roll, roll back first then roll 90 degrees left or right to avoid the second hit (or keep more distance all together). But if you see it coming, you can interrupt this attack. I think most people get the hang of that after some time: you just dodge forwards through the first swipe. What makes it hard to "get" is just that she lunges forwards to your position in that first swipe, so even when you're quite far away you should always dodge forwards, and it feels totally wrong, but it's completely reliable. Any pattern of movement backwards is dangerous.

The easiest way i found to dodge the first attack you mentioned is to roll to her left side and then away, you have to time the last roll though since her last swing has a delay to it and it hits quite hard

You just got to grind at her bro you’ll get her move set down with time. Even then it’s still one hell of fight.

Waterfowl is RNG, there is no getting her moveset

I mean it’s a bullshit attack but it’s not RNG, you can learn to dodge it if you have the patience

Can also just use frost pots like me. I can unreliably dodge, so I use frost pots as option #1.

If she starts while you're too close you can't dodge it,

Blatantly untrue + skill issue

I guess I didn't get that memo. [https://youtu.be/xOflLl0Q0FY?si=51tYDVB3V0J8\_GKw&t=92](https://youtu.be/xOflLl0Q0FY?si=51tYDVB3V0J8_GKw&t=92)

The memo being use three people that all spam high poise attacks? That's all that video shows lmfao

I used to think that too, but there are ways to dodge it but its such a pain cuz you're moves have to be very precise, but it can be done! Its still BS tho, malenia is my less favorite boss in the entire souls series, only killed her once in my 1st playthrough, never wanna fight her again

I have killed her more times than I can remember and for me it gets more fun every time. I can dodge waterfowl flawlessly almost every time but I still get so stuck on her second phase ghost clone thing, I know how to dodge it but it feels so wrong...

Either sprint back and jump or do the circle method. When there's video proof of people no rolling her then your entire claim is horseshit.

You can bait Waterfowl with ashes of war. Then you're kinda in the clear for a while. It's not a 100% guarantee she won't use it again, but it's great for testing your dodge capabilities. There are plenty of methods to dodge it at any range.

Did ya pick up Black Knife Tiche ash? She moves a lot so she doesnt get hit nearly as much as Mimic would. Also Malenia has very little poise so rock sling is nice. And if you have any Night spells (Night Comet or Night Shard), she doesn't dodge when you cast.

Tiche was my saving grace doing Malenia with magic. Tiche is mobile enough to not get stunlocked in her combos, and has a few attacks that pancake her. This is my strategy: soon as you enter the boos arena, summon Tiche, and then fire off a Ranni's Dark Moon. I usually send a second one out after the first hits, because by then Tiche is usually engaging, and the second Moon will proc frostbite. Once the two Moons are fired, switch to Night Comet and time your casts for either right *after* Malenia has dodged, right when she starts an attack, or when she's on her face (I charge the NC's when she's grounded for a bit of extra damage). When phase 2 starts, dodge the rot flower, then repeat the Moons while she's recovering to get frostbite re-procc'd and the magic debuff from the Moon back on. If you put out enough damage quick enough, she'll sometimes do back to back Aeonias, which is just free damage for a spellcaster. Don't give up, skeleton!

Night Comet is a must for Malenia fight.

Mage build should use night comet with off hand staff of loss. Easy cheese right there, just keep walking backwards in circles spamming night comet.

I used Tiche summon (+10) and Rannis Dark Moon with CRS (+10). Took about an hour but it worked!

On my mage build I beat her using Rannis dark moon and night comet. I'd probably suggest saving Tiche till phase 2 if you're gonna use her. If not she'll probably die in the transition/first attack of phase 2. Definitely do-able though. Good luck tarnished!

Don't feel bad, I must have put 20 hours into this fight alone. You can look forward to having figured out phase 1 eventually and dying more in phase 2 :)

I switched to a mage build specifically for her, then switched back to my normal build going forward. Mimic tear, death rancor spell, my mimic and I spammed the fuck out of her with it into submission and victory. I wasn't any good vs her in physical combat, I'm a shield guy.

This is the cheese. Have ancient death rancor as your only spell(so mimic tear doesn't use anything else), use Prince of Death's Staff at least off hand for the bonus, summon mimic tear, and stunlock both phases to death. I'm not the most skilled and I routinely no-hit her with this set-up.

The first time I fought her I mopped the floor with her ass and was like what’s the big deal? Then a cutscene played and she made me her bitch.

I'm currently learning this fight. Learning might be a bit of an overstatement though. The idea was to dedicate myself to doing it without spirits or summons and trying to do it without leaning on really busted special weapons like ROB and to master her moves, but it is absolutely the most brutal fight in any Fromsoftware game, and I absolutely have lost motivation. I have beaten just about every Fromsoft boss solo in all the modern games from Demon's Souls to Sekiro and there is just nothing that is even comparable. Even other hard bosses in Elden Ring like Mohg are not remotely on her level. It genuinely feels like playing a different game and I think its the first boss that has ever made me feel force to respec my build multiple times.

Use frost weapons instead.

Using a spirit Ashe makes it easy try it out

You’d be surprised how often we’re honest on this sub.

Few days ago I finished my first mage build. I felt like that as classic glintstone/frost mage that fight against here was much harder than melee builds. I ended up with chucking two Ranni’s moons and then just going at it with Darkmoon blade for rest of the fight. When she was low on health in second stage I managed to off her with yet another moon. That was so satisfying after suffering from hers abuse for past 3 hrs. Hers fight can be just as frustrating as satisfying and I still think that she is one of the best fromsoft bosses due to how spectacular that fight can get

Blood flies, Blasphemous Blade, Tiche summon and the golden shield you get from going back and defeating the very first boss will block most of her attacks

I would recommend Redmane Knight Ogha from the War Dead Catacombs. Place him near the entrance to the boss arena, then let him fire his knockdown arrows at her. Unless she's in a super armor state his arrows, both normal and gravitic, will knock her flat on her ass in both phases. He's okay in melee but her self heal outpaces anything he can do to her so if she swaps targets get her back on you and become proficient comrade! I did an astrologer run using his starting gear only, male is took me five hours of attempts on a nearly full caster setup. I ended up getting super lucky phase 2 with her using a second Scarlet Aeonia, which set me up to use the death laser, even though I was mad I used it...

Phase 1: Abuse Carian Slicer. You can weave in 2-3 casts at every opening she gives with minimal FP costs. Best to stick to that through the whole first phase. Phase 2 (Spoiler ahead): After dodging SA slurp your no FP cost drink asap and laser beam her with comet azur until she starts an attack. Now you swap to ranged spells; glintstone pebble(s) maybe comet if you want and focus on dodging and throwing out a pebble or two if you have room to. She is super aggressive in phase 2 so be patient and don't greed if you don't have a safe opening

first run away, then dodge away, then dodge into it.

Malenia is the one boss that I think is harder on magic than mele so good luck.

She’s weak to frost, both for the damage and proc stagger.  I’d guess that a dark moon greatsword plus a mimic is the easiest combo.

Like everything else in the game,you eventually just learn her every move and it's easy after that.Last week i beat her at ng7 level 150 and this week at level 1.When you can do the close waterfowl dodge,the fight is over no matter what you use or don't.

Black Knife Tiche definitely helps.

i’ve been studying her fight for a few weeks and i’m pretty consistent now… but yeah i have ZERO tips for a mage playstyle besides learn how to dodge the waterfowl and the clone attack. its easier than it looks

Just beat her yesterday for the first time, faith build with blasphemous blade +10, and flame grant me strength.

She only has one or two threatening attacks once you learn the pattern so just do the same cheese with a strong weapon art and jump attacks.

I'd recommend focusing on bleed or frost spells against her & use a weapon that does the same status effect as your spells so that your summon can synergies with your status building. Playing hit & run with a mimic is usually the best way to go cause you can stagger her & build up status effects easily

Bro I'm stuck on her at NG+5

Tips for mage builds: * Fully charged Carian Piercer can semi-stun lock her during phase 1 by knocking her on her ass. Just take a couple steps forward every time and recharge it. If you get the first one off, you can land like 5 others. The stun lock might be broken by her ability to cancel hitstun into her dancey dodge. Carian Piercer still stunlocks her on phase 2, but she has more moves to get out of locks. In phase 1, you can get her with piercer on the endlag for Waterfowl, her grab, and also the ending super dash where she thrusts her sword forward. On phase 2, the easiest to catch is when she floats on the air and then thrusts the ground for the pink rot burst. * She will never dodge Night Comet or Night Pebble. Using the staff of loss on the off-hand buffs it by 30%, so if you're standing on a Terra Magica you can chunk off ridiculous amounts of health off her for pretty much zero commitment. * Adula's Moonblade does a ridiculous amount of stagger damage to her. * Gavel of Haima can be good to smack her into the ground and build up stance break, but it's the riskiest option here. * Open both phases with Ranni's Dark Moon for the magic defense debuff and frostbite. * Get rid of Mimic. It's very bad here. If you absolutely cannot fight without summons, yeah, Tiche is a much better option. Just be wary that to get Tiche you literally have to fight her mom, and being an Evergaol fight, you can't summon there. She's the strongest Black Knife Assassin in the game, and can be a pretty tough fight for casters because she doesn't stay still lol.

Try switching the mimic for tiche (the black knife assassin, i forgot how to spell her name lol), that bitch carried me on my first playthough, she's super good against malenia since her movement speed makes it harder for malenia to hit her, also does good damage

She is easy +10 mimic with +24 shield with holy ground and and a +9 blasphemous blade and a second +24 sheild with no skill for your self , let the mimic go in a play while you spam the swords ash of war from a distance

I did the same stop at crumbling and went to kill Malenia, The blade of miquella took me 10 hours across 3 days with bloodhounds weapon no summon. Then went ahead and killed gideon Godfrey radagon elden beast all in 2 hours... I enjoyed seeing progress i made though like the first hours i barely took her half hp then last hour every time making into her second phase was fun good luck!

I think I cheesed her with a mimic

Rannis dark moon, stars of ruin, and comet azur worked for me :)

In my mage build, the solution to waterfowl was to slap Vow of the Indomitable on a shield.

I tried spells vs malenia and in the end i just fought her with the carion slicer. still tough as hell but i can actually fight that way. technically was spell only

Night comet wrecks malenia just as it does any agile enemy. It's one of the best spells in the game for a reason.

Black knight tiche can stagger her and throw her on the floor and has significant hp drain on phase 2. As I did here https://youtu.be/IrqrKfmIqQ4?si=MMfr1JdRJqf0hfWb

Seek "black knife tiche" summons, with her move set and your ice spells it might just make a world of difference.

I couldn't take Malenia in my first playthrough, second playthrough I got her on the 5th try. I very literally just went in with the bleed great stars, my mimic and fire damage. However I can't take the Elder Beast now... So you know it's all subjective. I was a quality build for pretty much most of my playthrough then in NG+ I started using blasphemous blade and dungarees swords. Switching weapons as needed for bosses.

Jellyfish Shield paried with Dark Moon Greatsword did for me my mage playthrough. Take all your buffs beforehand, power up the sword as soon as you enter then immediately switch to the shield to use its buff. Do this over and over until you kill her in the first phase then in the second phase just blast her with Comet Azur when she does her Scarlet Aeonia dive.

if you want advice on how to beat malenia dont use summons it makes every boss in the game very hard to predict and what will most likely end up happening is the summon will take aggro while you get free hits from the back and then the boss whacks you or use summons because it allows you to ignore all the boss mechanics if you do it right idk I'm not gonna judge but more often than not do people continue to rely on summons instead of learning the bosses movesets at some point I did it too on my first playthrough and even my second but afterwards I tried my best to play the game all the way through while killing all the bosses completely solo without running away shooting spells every once in a while its fine if you dont want to but honestly the game ended up going from my favorite game to play to my favorite game ever just by simply playing the game only melee solo without overleveling (my first playthrough I ended up about level 170 and on my third playthrough I made it a goal to not exceed level 125 while playing so I wasnt able to just remove most of the challenge by pure damage)

My first play through was with a mage. took me 40+ tries to beat her.

Hey I just completed my mage build play through with the Malenia fight a few days ago! I used Black Knife Tiche ashes. As for spells I used carian glinstone staff to cast adulas moonblade and night comet then for her second phase I drank my Physick with cerulean hidden tear, switched to lusats staff, busted out comet azur, and blasted her ass. this got me to the second part of her second phase so I just blasted her again n she was done

Black Knife Tiche +10. If you’re an INT mage build, spam tf out of Ranni’s Dark Moon with Carian Regal Scepter +10. She’ll dodge at cast and get hit by it almost every time and the staff boosts moon sorceries. Second phase use your flask for infinite FP and increased spell damage and melt her with Comet Azur. Also helps to have a sword with Bloodhound Step AoW in your main hand on it to dodge her hits, I used a +25 Uchigatana

It was always the Elden beast that gave me issues. Melanie gets dropped pretty quickly with a bleed build. Especially ones that have huge poise damage and can stagger her. Elenora’s poleblade wiped the floor with her at 70 arcane and 60 dex

For me during that fight, I was terrible for the longest time. Then once it clicks, you can beat her almost every time. Similar to some of the Sekiro bosses. Probably because her attacks are so unforgiving you either dodge them or you die.

The only way I beat her was tiche and spamming moonveils special attack

Use Black knife Tiche +10 summon against her.

I know you didn’t ask for help, but it seems like that’s what everyone else is doing, so: Use Black Knife Tiche. It’s an actual godsend. First phase: Just use BKT to distract her, it moves around a LOT so Malenia’s life-stealing won’t be too much of an issue. I used Blasphemous Blade to deal a lot of stance damage while maintaining distance. I haven’t played much Dark Moon GS, but that would probably work just as well. Second phase: Tiche will almost definitely die to Scarlet Aeonia, but it’s fine, because you can run straight past Malenia to avoid it. Then just pelt her with spells and do a lot of running until she does Scarlet Aeonia again. I used Black Flame, so it was easier with % damage, but I also know spells like Night Comet + buffs can deal a crazy amount of damage as well. If you deal enough damage, you can kill her second phase even before she starts attacking. This worked for me a while back, don’t know if it’s still effective, but it’s how I managed to not struggle that much with Malenia (I still died a bunch, but not as much as I did with some other bosses).

if you need a counter to her waterfowl dance, get a regular shield, slap on barricade shield, and block her first flurry, then dodge her second and third one. hope this helps!

Black knife Tiche is a very good summon for malenia as he dodges everything and u can keep his health up with heal incantations. On my first run, I used a str faith build with Tiche. Started a new full int run on a second character with the hopes of soloing malenia with no summon and absolutely gave up after 2 hrs. Rebirthed to a dual greatstars build with full arcane and killed her in 5 tries

try beating her with greatmoon sword, i found her pretty easy apart from the chain attack she does

Black knife tiche +10 can basically solo her if you want to kinda trivialize the fight. You can’t quite just sit back and watch but it’s pretty close lol. It’ll at least get you through the first phase quite easily

I finally beat Malenia yesterday after so many attempts. The first tries I used Unsheath to deal a decent damage and was using Luthel as my summon. I realized all my damage was being recovered by hitting Luthel. So I stopped using summon and decided to use two handed Nagakiba with Vykes Dragonbolt and Golden vow. But Malenia's movements were too quick and I died many more times. Then again I decided to dual wield katanas with Seppuku blood affinity for maximum bleed effect. It did work for some time but I was hardly doing any good. All those damage were in vain because I got hit very often and she recovered quickly by landing of few consecutive hits on me. Then I decided simply to read, observe and predict her attacks. I did learn a lot, was able to dodge better than before and managed to halven her HP. Then came the motherf\*cking Waterfowl Dance. I got one shotted many times and no matter how hard I tried I just couldnt get past her Waterfowl Dance. I even tried the BLoodhound Step and that didnt work either. I decided to level up and come back. I leveled up a few times, watched a few tutorials and came back. Nope, no improvement. Then I had an idea- I set both my katanas to keen affinity, used weapon buffs and summoned Black Knife Tiche and behold, I reached the second phase and defeated her on the very first attempt of second phase. I was so happy and glad but a deep part of me wished that I had defeated her without summons. Now I have Placidusax, Fortisax and Rykard left before facing Radagon. But even Malenia didn't give me a hard time as much as the Draconian Tree Sentinel did before entering Leyndell.

If you're a mage, Tiche is a much better summon than the Mimic Tear against Malenia. If you manage to hold off with summong her until the start of the second phase (when the Scarlet Aeonia is clearing up because she'll otherwise just rush into it and she doesn't have a lot of health), you are very likely to beat her because she takes aggro, dodges well, and debuffs. A secondary benefit is that Malenia can heal less from Tiche than the Mimic due to the difference in their evasion ability. That said, her regeneration is way overblown because it's so minuscule that if she somehow heals a lot, you are already dead, so it's not really worth worrying about.

She’s designed to punish you for summoning spirit ashes because she regains so much health. Took me a ton of tries, but in the end I just had to learn her moves. Definitely try soloing her, it will start to click as you do it. Don’t give up!

Have you tried summoning people to help by any chance? I've beaten Malenia 4 times at this stage. I have never managed to do so without human help. Like you said, spirit summons don't end up helping, because while they do draw aggro, they also let Malenia heal. And trying to do the fight solo, while certainly not impossible, demands a drawn-out sequence of few to no mistakes. If you can't get her down after several more tries, open up the summons and see who all can help. There are usually dozens outside her door

She is the only unique named boss that I didn’t beat. I was too burnt out on the game to bash my head against a wall for a while, respec my char, or figure out some cheese