Bloodborne BL4 Boss Guide - Laurence, the First Vicar [READ THE DESCRIPTION]

This video is part of a full BL4 guide that I wrote, which can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z...

Laurence is also considered one of the hardest bosses in the game and one that people have the most trouble with at BL4 due to its enormous healthpool and damage. A valid recommendation for Laurence is to switch your set for the Charred Hunter set that I recommended you to get from Old Yharnam if you’re having too much trouble with his damage. Charred Hunter set has one of the highest fire resistances in the game, so it helps a lot against Laurence. You can also switch out your Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis Rune (2) for the Great Lake Rune (2) you got from Upper Cathedral Ward to further increase your defenses. However, if you’re not having that much trouble, you can just keep using what you already have equipped.
Every time you enter Laurence’s fight, he will always start with a scream and walk towards you, then do his slam into explosion attack. With this in mind, you can consistently deal 1500+ damage to him in this opener; buff yourself up with a Bolt Paper and a Beast Blood Pellet and run up to him - he will do the slam and you can just run past it as he slams behind you. This attack actually consists of two openings. As he slams, you hit his leg with R1L1 and back off a little while untricking your weapon (press L1 again). He’ll take his hand off the ground, causing an AoE explosion (which is why you have to back off a little, the radius of this explosion goes up to his leg so you’ll get hit if you stay there); after the AoE, turn back and R1L1 his leg again.
After this opener, Laurence will always either hop back or do a backhand attack to you. He usually does the former, but always be prepared to dodge if he does the latter.
Still regarding the opener, if you farmed gems from Winter Lanterns and have higher damage output, you can break his leg in this first attack and, if you do so, he will always hop back and do another slam into explosion - which means you can always consistently go for the other leg and break it too, making the fight a lot faster.
Since I recommended 15%/18%/18% gems for the whole guide, I’ll still write as if you didn’t farm gems at all.
After the opener, the fight starts. Unlike what most people think, Laurence actually has THREE phases. He starts off by having pretty much Cleric Beast’s moveset and at around 80%HP he gets completely new follow-ups, new attacks and his AI becomes more aggressive.
Since the first phase only goes on for his first 20% of HP, it ends pretty fast if you break his legs, so that is going to be your focus at the start. Always focus the leg that you hit the most at the start, and then start focusing the other one down. Every limb break is a big opening for huge damage.

!!THIS IS THE BIGGEST WRITE-UP YET, SO I'LL SEPARATE INTO TWO MORE COMMENTS DOWN BELOW!!