I'll always pimp for my boy Kristoff. Bro is tanky as fuck and really the most important part of ashes in solo play is just helping pull agro from time to time. Even on the toughest fights he'll usually last to the very end at like 10-20% health.
Screw that level 1 shit, I aint git gudding that much. Doing an ashless all boss run. I'm up to Renalla with all of Limgrave bosses and most of Liurnia bosses down in about 8 hours so far.
Should have done Renalla long before Leyndell, so yeah jump on that. Can also do parts of Caelid before Leyndell if you haven't already. Get a pearl drake and bolt drake talisman for his lightning shit so it doesn't one shot you
I one shot tiche with my 2hand unga bunga, which is the also the 1st time I fought her at all. Then playing through with DMGS and she kept cleaning my clock
For me, dragon type enemies have always been the easier of the Elden Ring bosses. I one shot Fortissax the first play through and only took a couple runs for Plucidisax.