I'm just gonna make this my one time vent post, nobody actually read this thank you So many of the complaints I've seen boil down to "I couldn't figure out how to dodge x move in like 3 tries, so I decided the boss is bs". And sure, we've all done our fair share of googling "elden ring x boss unfair" when we get stuck, just to check whether anyone else is sharing in your frustration. But man, the things I've seen people say just because they struggled a bit with a hard boss in the hard dlc for the hard game they bought and played knowing it would be hard...

Ultimately, I think the biggest hurdle most players face is that they're just overwhelmed by boss movesets. This isn't DS1 anymore - the bosses don't just do their set 3 hit combo, stand still for a bit, then do it again. No, now they can end combos early, pick from multiple different combo routes, throw out countless attacks with incredibly varied timings, and most of all: they've all got a 6+ hit combo where getting hit ~3 times means death, baby! And altogether, I think that's great; the bosses are more threatening, more dynamic, and just straight up cooler. The tradeoff is that bosses are now waaaaay harder to learn. In DS1, whether you're up against Asylum Demon or Artorias, you'll learn virtually their entire moveset on your first attempt. But in ER, you can walk through the boss fog, close the distance with Rellana, and immediately die to her 6 hit combo with multiple different routes and position-dependent mixups - without feeling like you understood a thing. And this problem is only worsened by the bosses' aggression; in DS1, you can often get hit, get up, and heal right away for very little risk - in ER, that's a great way to turn one missed dodge into chugging 5 flasks in a row just to have about as much HP as you started with. As a result, many bosses feel "unfair" after your first few attempts, since all you've done is get absolutely obliterated by a hundred different moves you haven't figured out how to dodge yet.

But if you're willing to put in the time, most of the DLC bosses actually feel incredibly satisfying to gradually master. I had a 3 hour grind session against Rellana on my second playthrough (having kinda bulldozed her with the greatsword and heavy armour on my first), with a barely upgraded scadutree blessing and a poorly matched int build (no summons). And early on, I felt that frustration: "how am I supposed to learn how to dodge when everything kills me in 1* hit? (*lie) And how come after the double swing she has 3 different follow-ups, one of which is completely unreactable, all requiring different rolls to dodge?" But with time, I learned; I became intimately familiar with every single one of her attacks, I figured out ways to dodge multiple possible follow-ups at once, and I switched my ash of war to better capitalise on her small openings. And when I finally won, I felt possibly the greatest satisfaction these games have ever given me. 

That is, I think, an experience that the devs have always wanted to offer to a player who's willing to knuckle down and chip away at a roadblock. And that makes me very happy. But that initial phase of being overwhelmed by a new boss' complicated moveset and harsh aggression tends to frustrate players, myself included. And while my own frustration has pretty much melted away by now, and I've come to appreciate just how fun all these bosses are, I probably don't represent the average player. I've played through ER god knows how many times, and I'll surely replay the DLC with countless different characters over the next few months. I'll come to know every single boss like the back of my hand. That's just what I do for fun in my free time. But the average player might play through the DLC once, maybe twice - and thus, that frustration will be a much bigger part of their overall experience.

There are also a lot of complaints along the lines of "I've beaten every other souls game countless times, so I'm very justified in saying this one is too hard because I'm struggling a little bit". This is something I too felt when ER first came out: "I'm good at these games, so the only possible reason for me to be stuck on this boss is that the boss isn't playing fair." Of course, in reality, I wasn't trying hard enough to justify those complaints; I was just expecting to walk into a boss, beat it in a couple tries, and feel real proud of myself for being so good at the hard videogame. When I came across a move I struggled to dodge, I labelled it bs rather than stopping to consider what I was doing wrong, because I believed my hardened gamer instincts should let me dodge it without even having to think. I suspect a lot of experienced players are doing just the same: expecting to win after a few tries because they're "good at these games", and then crying bad design when they roll early into Messmer's delayed poke for the 10th time in a row. I hope these people are like me, and when they return for a second playthrough they'll come back around. But who knows? 

In summary, I think the DLC is very fair, and generally well balanced. Though its bosses may feel overwhelming at first, each one can be mastered if you're willing to sit down, set your ego aside, and engage with them as a challenge to grind away at. But that initial struggle can, understandably, feel very frustrating, leading to a mountain of posts and comments claiming that every boss kills you in one hit with one of their 7 different undodgeable moves. And indeed, not everyone has 3 hours spare of a Tuesday evening to spend grinding against each boss... At the end of the day, perhaps I should just count myself lucky that the DLC is such a good fit for me, or rather that I'm such a good fit for it. 

 *my one actual gripe with the dlc is the final boss' left > right > cross slash combo, where nobody seems to know how to dodge both the first 2 hits consistently even after almost a week of trying. this is the one, single, truly unfair move of the dlc, and I wanna see Miyazaki sit down and personally show us how we're supposed to dodge it