OK got back into it, lots of family stuff going on. Still can’t come close to killing Astel, Naturalborn of the Bad DS Players (in Ranni’s quest.) I enter, dodge immediately, summon my +10 Mimic (that took a lot of focused harvesting!) and I’ve got my +9 Moonveil and my Meteorite Staff (I’ve got the Carian Regal Staff but only up to around +5 so it’s still inferior to my Meteorite staff, plus I’m slinging rocks and the Meteorite Staff add a bonus to Rock Sling.)
So, enter, dodge, summon Rich Little (my mimic) and lock on Astel’s head and try to throw rock sling in between trying to dodge. Have to get closer first to get in range of Rock Sling. It seems like I’m not really doing a lot of damage. But he’s sure doing a lot of damage to me. I even tried to close in on him and do some Moonveil specials - that was a good way to get grabbed in his mandibles.
I know the correct way is to dodge, stay back, and just hit him with Rock Sling. Looks easy in videos. But I’m not even close after about 10 tries. Not getting closer. I assume the only path forward is to just keep trying to learn how to dodge his moves?