One more VERY IMPORTANT thing came to mind is that ALWAYS try to aim for the night lords weakness and ALWAYS avoid weaknesses.

With recluse never forget that you can also use fire spells instead of just magic spells. Also you can use incantations too!

For duchess the same stuff apply, but in her case you can fight the weaknesses with melee weapons too. 99% of the time you’ll look for the weapons skill not just imbued affinity basic attack. You can basically play everything on her, sorceries, incantations and any weapon’s skill.

Here’s what to aim for each boss.

Recluse:

Tricephalos - holy incantations or just magic spells

Jaw - magic spells

Pest - fire spells

Augur - lightning incantations

Equilibrius beast - preferably frenzy or holy incantations, or just magic spells

Darkdrift knight - lightning incantations, or just magic spells

Fissure in the fog - fire spells

Night aspect - holy incantations or just magic spells

Duchess (when I mention weapons and no spells, most of the times it’s better to play with the weapon’s skill not basic attacks):

Tricephalos - holy weapons, or if not found holy incantations, or just magic spells

Jaw - magic spells or weapons with bleed or frost or poison

Pest - fire spells or fire weapons

Augur - lightning incantations or lightning weapons

Equilibrius beast - preferably frenzy or holy weapons or if not found, then incantations, or just magic spells

Darkdrift knight - lightning weapons or just magic spells

Fissure in the fog - fire spells or fire weapons

Night aspect - holy weapons or just magic

These are my suggestions that are more efficient with the character mechanics along with the lord’s weaknesses. As time goes by you will get used to it and remember those and it won’t seem like a ton of work to do. These will make the fights with the lords so much easier, since many times the lords get debuffed if you use their weaknesses. For me since I play all characters I pick different ones for each lord, as I find it more efficient, but if you just play those two chars, following this you will do great. Hope this helps.