A Fiery Heart Set Ablaze | Where Winds Meet - Goshawk (Legend, No Potions)

LET THE SPARKS FLY! 🔥 Goshawk is up there now as one of my favorite world bosses next to Moongazing Maiden because this is a really cool and cinematic fight! Not only is his moveset varied and fun to engage with, but the sparks of fire that come off his weapon and when parrying in the Fire God phase are incredibly cool and very visually appealing. For a boss that’s not a part of any campaign and doesn't have any significant story relevance other than having a relationship with Grandmaster Halcyon (at least that’s what’s implied) they went all out with him! As for the fight itself Goshawk almost feels like an outlier to the other Hidden Mountain bosses with his moveset and mechanics in a good way. He’s not overly complex but a lot more varied than other bosses with a tempo that was more challenging to get into, but in a good way. For me Goshawk was one of those bosses where the initial learning curve started off steep but gradually leveled out with practice. Because of this, I found myself enjoying his fight more over time and getting a good feel for his moveset made for a very satisfying combat flow that most of the other HM bosses haven’t been quite able to capture. A lot of his attacks have similar animations and there are some movements he’ll do that make it seem like he’s doing one thing but all of combos are very fair, telegraphed and reactable. He does knock you back a lot which made capitalizing on punishes a bit tighter but there was still enough time to get them. Another aspect of this fight I have to mention is his unique “Searing” gimmick where he gains a fiery health bar that naturally depletes as he attacks and when you parry. In phase 1 this doesn’t really change his moveset until the end but in phase 2 he gains an entirely new set of combos. My first compliment to this phase is the opening 6 AoE waves. I like this attack simply because it utilizes jumping and as far as I can tell, they can’t even be iframed as I tried dodging but to no avail. Outside of this he’ll normally cycle between a 4 hit combo and a 6 hit combo, the latter of which is my favorite attack to parry in this phase. For a while I wasn’t able to distinguish a difference in the start up for these attacks but noticed there is a distinct animation he’ll do for the 6 hit combo where he raises his weapon in the air, something he won’t do for the 4 hit combo. This phase always ends with a 5 hit spark attack so in general most of it is fairly scripted. He can go into this phase again towards the end but the only difference is a slight variation to the opener from the beginning of phase 2. While I do like the Searing mechanic for its unique properties and the new attacks he gains, I’m a bit indifferent on how these phases encourage purely defensive play. Attacking him during these Searing phases does chip damage but it’s so negligible it won’t make a difference so there’s not much point in attacking, the only reason I did here was to maintain momentum since I naturally play more aggressive. While I’ve expressed before I don’t mind “parry check” type bosses, being able to play aggressively and get in damage windows is still important and that’s not really present in these phases. Again this isn’t a super big gripe and doesn’t even really bring the fight down at all but it’s still something I wanted to mention. Also for for some reason I also lost the empowered attacks for the drunken fists when entering the Searing phase. Not that it mattered too much but still a bit weird. Overall though I think Goshawk is a great fight and is even a contender for the best boss in Hidden Mountain right now. Very fun, engaging and unique moveset that tests your parry skills while also providing some amazing visuals and cinema gameplay! 🔥 #wherewindsmeet