Those 2 are in optional areas of the game, in DLC ones especially. Designed from the start to be difficult. I agree that the blue smelter paths are very annoying to get through but the 2 cats area is very open and you can summon to distract the reindeers.
You don't have to summon anything, you can just keep running, and running for 4 minutes every time you wipe in a boss fight isn't difficult to do, it's just annoying and frustrating.
They're annoying to go through but not nightmare inducing. And you have options for both cases to make the traversal easier.
Frigid Outskirts is not difficult. It's simply obnoxious, and it all has to do with the fact that the cats are so fucking far away from the coffin. I timed it while not fighting any enemies, light rolling, wearing the Cloranthy Ring +1, and darting straight to the cats with the optimal path. It took four minutes and fifty-six seconds. Spending five whole minutes running to a copy/pasted boss that there clearly weren't meant to be two of is absolutely terrible, and makes it the worst area in the DaS series. The Loyce Greatsword is pretty good, but apart from that, there's absolutely no reason to even consider going there.
I'll repeat, it's not a matter of difficulty, running forward and dodging when the enemies try to ram you isn’t that hard to do.
A whole lot. A setup like this is useful for putting a big dent in a boss, but that's about it. In NG+ it might be useful, but that's about it.
I assume you just mean the asset reuse. Because Elden Ring doesn't really have boss runs. Every dungeon either has a stake of Marika or a boss so easy you deserve the walk of shame if you manage to die to it.
Talking about the runups, not the bosses, pay attention men.
Weird, I've never had a weapon break fighting them but then again I always leave them next to last before Ivory King and keep a brightbug just for them. Fighting both at the same time is a pain the ass so I try to go nuclear on the first one.
