Maliketh deserved a better boss setup! Poor thing was designed to be hated

Maliketh is one of my favorite bosses, but the setup around him is weird. After beating the DLC, I replayed the base game and found Maliketh more tedious than the Dancing Lion.

Learning boss movesets is key in FromSoft games, but Maliketh’s design clashes with the usual QoL improvements they made in ER. It’s clearly meant to signal that bosses from here on are different, but it falls flat.

Issues:

• Runback – Not hard, just boring and repetitive.
• Phase 1 – Feels bland. Unlike Radagon, it’s not satisfying even when I lose to Phase 1 boss (EDIT 1: poorly worded)
• Phase 2 – Too fast and punishing; players die before learning his moveset, leading to reliance on YouTube guides and cheese builds.

It also disrupts the story’s pacing. My first win as a mage felt fine with ranged attacks and a tanky ash, but as a Paladin, it was brutal. Pretty fitting to have this setup considering how he is a pawn in this lore but damn! I don't know if you guys feel the same.

EDIT 1: Just beat the boss again, I understand the glass cannon design now. Maybe this is one of the bosses that beginners won't appreciate but like a fine wine you'll grow to like it.