I have read a few tips on the internet, but none of them really helped me. However, I figured out a good strategy to make the combat much easier, so I wanted to share it. Apart from the usual tips like using relic oil and Quen I recommend this:
- Use a runestone on your sword that makes him bleed. It can deal quite a lot of damage to him.
- Now this is the most important strategy: The Pedell is most vulnerable when he has slammed his shovel into the ground and you can provoke him to do that frequently. Just throw an Igni firestorm at him and then immediately dodge or roll away, because then he will most certainly ram his shovel into the ground. Afterwards he will be stuck for a few seconds giving you the opportunity to land up to 4 fast attacks on him. So try to use the Igni firestorm as often as possible to provoke this attack, when you have a close but safe distance to him. This allows you to cause a lot of damage to him within short time.
- Before the Pedell rams his shovel in the ground it glows blue, so you have a short time window to roll behind his back. In that area his attack will not cause damage to you and you can immediately start hitting him before he frees himself. Only if you are in front of him in blue glowing cone-shaped zone you get damaged.
- It seems like the Pedell gets stronger and more damage resistance each time he steals life by hitting someone. So if he manages to score too many hits and if you notice him becoming extremly strong, then reload the savefile instead of fighting against an extremly strong enemy.
- During combat the Pedell summons ghosts near the graveyard, after the area is filled by some black smoke. Then he will farm them for his lifesteal. So try to fight him in a place that is more distant from the graves, which gives you more time to kill the ghosts before the Pedell does it. Also cast an alternate Yrden sign (magic turret) near the graveyard, which will kill a few ghosts automatically for you since they can be killed by only one hit.
- Use a runestone on your sword that makes him bleed. It can deal quite a lot of damage to him.
- Now this is the most important strategy: The Pedell is most vulnerable when he has slammed his shovel into the ground and you can provoke him to do that frequently. Just throw an Igni firestorm at him and then immediately dodge or roll away, because then he will most certainly ram his shovel into the ground. Afterwards he will be stuck for a few seconds giving you the opportunity to land up to 4 fast attacks on him. So try to use the Igni firestorm as often as possible to provoke this attack, when you have a close but safe distance to him. This allows you to cause a lot of damage to him within short time.
- Before the Pedell rams his shovel in the ground it glows blue, so you have a short time window to roll behind his back. In that area his attack will not cause damage to you and you can immediately start hitting him before he frees himself. Only if you are in front of him in blue glowing cone-shaped zone you get damaged.
- It seems like the Pedell gets stronger and more damage resistance each time he steals life by hitting someone. So if he manages to score too many hits and if you notice him becoming extremly strong, then reload the savefile instead of fighting against an extremly strong enemy.
- During combat the Pedell summons ghosts near the graveyard, after the area is filled by some black smoke. Then he will farm them for his lifesteal. So try to fight him in a place that is more distant from the graves, which gives you more time to kill the ghosts before the Pedell does it. Also cast an alternate Yrden sign (magic turret) near the graveyard, which will kill a few ghosts automatically for you since they can be killed by only one hit.
