Fume Knight SL1 CoC No Rolling/Blocking/Parrying v2

So, this weapon is probably the most obscure one I've used on this run thus far: The Royal Dirk. It's a DS2 only weapon you get from Chancellor Wellager (the ghost dude in Drangleic Castle) only after killing Giant Lord. It's a dagger, but it's got nice range and also has 140 counter damage, which is cool. With its R2s, it definitely felt like how thrusting swords tend to feel to me in the non-DS2 games: it was quick but didn't really deal a lot of damage. I think this weapon was a lot better for phase 2 than for phase 1, since I felt like I got a lot more value out of it's fast speed there. As for the boss itself, I think I actually struggled with it more than Aava, despite that being very much the other way around in my first run. I think that has to do with Claymore being better against Aava than the Royal Dirk was against Fume, but I also died a lot to the backhand slash before remembering I needed to unlock to dodge it consistently. I also really felt out Royal Dirk's openings, trying to make the most of its speed, but that would frequently get me killed in Phase 1. This boss can also be irritating as hell at times, constantly blocking and idling. Overall, it's a fun fight though, one that really feels satisfying to get better at. Maybe once this run's over I'll come back and toy with more highly restricted no sprint stuff on this fella.