Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon

Ending the DLC with a toxic-y, fiery bang

    Imagine you've just spent what accumulates to a couple hours, and thirty tries, to defeat Elana, the Squalid Queen. Imagine how excited you'd be when you finally did beat her, and were very anxious to start exploring the next area in the brand new DLC. Imagine the feelings that quell up when you walk through the giant Dragon wall and enter the small chamber behind it, only to find a bonfire and a giant fog gate. Now, imagine that immediately after that frustrating, time (and item) consuming boss battle, you had to jump into another very tough boss battle (that you end up dying in 20+ times). Welcome to Sinh, friends!
    Maybe that opening paragraph is a bit dramatic, but this is essentially what I felt. I was a bit dismayed to immediately have to fight another very difficult boss. And the realization that this was the final boss of the DLC made it a sad event all around. Despite that negativity, this is a pretty good boss battle to end the DLC with, but holy hell, it's rough for melee builds. Thank god the bonfire is about five steps from the fog gate, at least.
    Once you beat Elana, as mentioned, the giant Dragon Mosaic opens up, and leads to a small cave area. It's got a bonfire, and the fog gate. There are two NPC summons here as well. Once you walk through the gate, you're in the boss room. If the fog gate and bonfire aren't tip-offs for another boss battle, this huge, enclosed, "boss-looking" room certainly is. The room is a giant lair, with columns lining a pathway to the back of it. There's rocks and crags jutting up from the ground, and high up on the ceiling. It's a great looking room. Here's the scene the moment you walk through the gate:

Total boss vibe

    If you walk about halfway through the room, suddenly, something in the back shifts, and, well, I'll let you see for yourself:

Aw shit

    Sinh rises up from his slumber, roars, stands on hind legs, and bellows fire with a strange green tint. He hops forward, and this nightmare battle is on. I've seen a lot of people online liken this fight to the Kalameet battle from the Artorias DLC from the first game, and I would say that's fairly accurate. Except Sinh is way goddamn harder. I took out Kalameet solo, after probably a dozen or less tries. I found that to be a very enjoyable, yet tough, battle (the reason I go by "kalameet" on Instagram. Also, it sounds cool). This battle with Sinh is ruthless. Allow me to outline his attacks now. If you are in front of his face, he'll swipe, very quickly, with his clawed hands. This is damn near impossible to dodge. At least for me it was. It's also barely telegraphed, and it hits hard. If you back up from him a bit, he will either shoot fire from side to side, or will perform a long-range head swipe. Both these attacks are simple to dodge: for the fire, just run to the side of him that he doesn't start the fire from (so, if he starts shooting fire on his left, run to his right); for the swipe attack, a simple roll backwards does the job. If you are on his side, he'll try to move back, as to get you close to his face. He will swing his tail as part of a combo of attack he does, but he doesn't seem to do this often (note that you can also cut his tail off. I really miss getting weapons from cutting off boss's tails in the original Dark Souls...). He will also stand on his hind legs and shoot fire directly beneath him, and he'll even turn his head and shoot fire behind him.

Not slumbering any longer

    But Sinh isn't content to just stay standing on the ground. Oh no, sir. He loves to fly up in the air. While airborne, he has several more attacks at his disposal. He'll shoot fireballs down, which are very easy to dodge. If you are underneath him, or close to his underside, he'll slam down on the ground with his body, injuring you. He also likes to swoop down and fly low to the ground, with his head leading the way. This attack I found extraordinarily hard to dodge, for whatever reason. He will also do this attack while shooting fire in front of him. This one was easier to dodge, for some reason. I think that might be all of the attacks. But, the fun doesn't stop there. Look at the below picture. I mentioned it above, but notice something a bit off about that fire?

This is probably my favorite picture I have taken of DSII so far

    See how that fire is kind of green at the end, there? Well, good news, because his fire is toxic! When he breathes any kind of fire, and you get hit by it, your toxic level will rise. He will also leave behind lingering clouds of toxic as well. Admittedly, this wasn't a huge factor in his difficulty, but it can be a game-changer when you get toxic'd, and have precious few seconds to use your poison moss. Compared to the other boss that has toxic status effects, that stupid Royal Rat Authority battle, the toxic here is barely a problem. Still, be prepared.
    As I mentioned, this battle is pretty tough for a melee build. I feel that if you were a strong magic user, this battle is probably not too tough, as you could just sit back and whip magic (I think lightening works best) at him. He does fly quite a bit, so that makes it even easier. But, no such luck for buff, weapon-swinging guys like myself. My basic strategy was to run up to the side/back of Sinh, and attack there. DON'T stand anywhere near his face or his front. It's tough to get totally behind him (near his hind legs), because he constantly backs up, but being on his side works well enough. He has a hell of a lot of health, so it's going to be a long battle, which, again, works against melee builds. That's longer you have to be near him, constantly in danger of getting sliced up by his powerful front claws. Sometimes you can get underneath him and hack a couple of free swings, too. When Sinh flies up, I wanted to run to him, and be underneath him or near him. Being far away from Sinh while he is in the air seems to be a bad decision. So to recap, my strategy was: run to his side/back, attack here, make sure you stay away from the front, and just run to him when he flies. Super easy, no? No.
    I had to summon two guys to beat Sinh. So, two out of the three new DLC bosses I had to summon help for. Oh well, that's how it goes, huh? I'm sure the next time I play through it, I'll be able to beat either Elana or Sinh on my own. But just know, even with two player phantoms assisting me, this was still a tough battle (same with Elana). Summoning doesn't reduce this battle to a laughable cheese-fest. I will say Sinh teleport-lags a decent amount when you are playing online with others. This is a fun battle to do co-op though, because you still need to keep your wits about you, and pay attention. He has a tremendous amount of health when you summon two other phantoms, so it's still a long battle. There was one attempt where I summoned two guys, and got Sinh down to half his health before both my summon phantoms were killed. So now it was me, fighting him solo, while he had the extra health that fighting with phantoms grants him. I damn near almost killed him too, and I'm convinced I would have killed him that attempt if I had been going solo the whole time.
    Once you beat Sinh, you receive the titular Crown of the Sunken King, and the DLC is effectively over. I haven't done it myself, but once you receive the crown, and you also have the Ashen Mist Heart, you can go back into Vendrick's memory and talk to him (you do this in the room you fight him in, after Velstadt. I think you have to have killed him though). I assume after all three DLCs you can go and talk to Vendrick and learn more about the story. This is a very cool add-on. Also, the lore surrounding Sinh, and Shulva, Sanctum City, is awesome. It's quite tragic, really. Check it out if you want online (or discover it yourself. I did a mix of both, but much more on the "read it online" side).
    So, guys and gals, that's all I have for the first chapter of DLC. It's been a fun ride, and I'm very excited for the next chapter, I believe it's "Crown of the Old Iron King", out on August 26. Look for another overview post, along with separate boss posts for all the bosses (I assume another three or four). Hopefully I'll have it finished sooner than I did with this DLC. Coming up, I'd love to be able to finish Batman: Arkham Origins and get a B-LOG SLAYING post up about that (this DLC interrupted my playthough of Batman) before the Old Iron King DLC comes out. Otherwise, I might go to a few shorter SNES games in the coming months to get through. Keep an eye out (I know you all are!)

(UPDATE 8/8/14): Whoopsy, totally forgot the death count/difficulty/rating! Here they are!

Times I died: 22
Difficulty: 9/10
Rating: 9.5/10 (very interesting lore behind Sinh)