Isa



''Isa is a one hundred foot colossus, made of pure ice and rage. His powerful breath summons blizzards and his fists smash the ground with the weight of a thousand icebergs.

''Even Niflheim’s weather reacts to Isa’s mood. As he gets angrier, the temperature drops and the snowstorms thicken, transforming the Winter region into a truly hellish battleground.''

Isa is a Jotun of ice and cold, who attempts to crush Thora with his sheer force and control over the weather. His namesake is the rune representing ice, power and stillness. He is the Jotun associated with Niflheim (the Nine Rivers and Jormungandr's Lake) and the third Jotun Thora fights, assuming you follow the order suggested by the game.

Attacks

 * Isa's basic attack is a heavy smash that covers the area in front of him and is denoted by a shadow. This leaves him vulnerable for a moment.
 * After taking a lot of damage, Isa will fall to the ground and become vulnerable. However, if he falls on you he will inflict damage and push you back. His fall location is also marked with a shadow.
 * Upon losing some health, Isa starts unleashing a fierce howl that creates a whirlwind beam of frost. He slowly sweeps this beam from one side to the other. Getting caught in it can inflict enormous damage. The further away from Isa, the bigger the beam is - at close range, it can easily be avoided with a dash, but at long range it can become almost impossible to dodge.
 * Isa also starts doing a trampling sprint that raises a wave of snow in front of him. This can be avoided by sidestepping or by passing between his feet while he is preparing himself. He commonly uses this to get out of melee range in order to unleash his whirlwind.
 * At about half health, Isa howls to the sky, raising up an ice storm. This causes the area to become slippery, making it very hard to maneuver. This makes it far harder to avoid Isa's attacks.

Strategy
The battle against Isa starts out laughably easy. It is very simple to run circles around him and through his legs to avoid his melee attack while attacking him, as he starts off very slow and clumsy.

After taking a lot of damage, Isa will occasionally fall down. This is a good moment to hit him with some normal attacks followed by a power attack, but be aware that if he falls on you you will take damage.

The battle does not become much harder after Isa starts using his charge and ice breath. As long as you stick close to Isa (make sure not to leave him alone after his charge attack), his long, uninterruptible ice breath is a very convenient window to inflict some hurt on him.

However, once Isa reaches half health and the blizzard comes into play, the fight turns hellish. The slippery movement will slow you down significantly, making it far harder to avoid Isa's attacks, notably his ice breath, which can easily shave off most of your health if it catches you at a long range. It is also much harder to catch up with Isa after his charges, and even avoiding his basic melee becomes a gamble. You will still want to remain within melee range as much as possible.

It is possible to power attack the icebergs around the arena to send them careening towards Isa. Using this strategy makes his melee a non-issue and his charge a lesser threat, but puts you at a very significant risk of being nailed by his ice breath.

Heimdall's Shield is a useful God Power in this battle, mainly in the event you find yourself unable to avoid a frost breath.