Elden Ring: How to beat the Sanguine Noble

Sanguine Nobles are Mohg's Lord of Blood's servants who protect the grounds of the Rose Church (shown), the Consecrated Snowfield's portal to Mohgwyn Palace, and function as the boss before obtaining the Bloody Helice weapon. They're also one of the more difficult non-boss adversaries in the game, with massive damage output. Standard melee combos ranged assaults, and AoE effects are all available to Sanguine Nobles. Most of the time, they'll use a three, four, or five-hit combo to get in your face. The Nobles will stop any combo use if you run far enough away from them while they're attacking, regardless of how early or late in the string they are. Your bleed gauge will fill by around one-third every time the Noble strikes you with its weapon, and despite the modest nerf to bleed in patch 1.04, you'll still lose nearly half your health from a single proc.

The Sanguine Noble throws two Reduvia daggers at a time from a distance. If you get hit by a dagger, it won't do much damage, but it will fill your bleed gauge by about a quarter. The Noble will occasionally throw daggers at close range, making it virtually hard to evade them. At mid-range and beyond, a few steps to the left or right is all it takes to avoid a dagger throw. The Sanguine Noble's final attack is to splatter a wide pool of blood in front of them, dealing mild DoT damage and filling your bleed gauge. It also overburdens you, so if you're near a high load equipment burden, you'll start fat-rolling until you leave the pool. As you try to flee, the Noble is unaffected by any of this and will continue to assault.

Sanguine Nobles have only one defensive option: do not attack if they cross their blade and dagger in front of them. If your strike can be parried, they'll parry it and riposte right away. Although the riposte doesn't do much damage, it does induce blood build-up and leaves you exposed as you get back on your feet. It's better to wait until he starts attacking again rather than risk losing health for no reason.