As from dlcs go I actually had a much harder time enjoying this one over the others. Areas felt incomplete and empty, lots of main game copy paste content or even dlc copy paste content like the stupid hippos. The tedious easter egg hunt for skibbidy fragments and weird power scaling. And the atrocious final boss.
Overall I still enjoyed it and the map was beautiful to look at and fun to explore but it feels like a concentration of all the main games flaws. There's very few fun things to find in the world lots of crafting trash and upgrade materials, surprisingly few useful spells weapons or armor some just flat out worse than whats available in the main game. The skibbidy level scaling felt strange, i struggled with the dlcs bosses until i hit skibbidy level 17 and suddenly they melt within a few hits, i don't really know how many i need for each fight.
The boss fights that are there are solidly enjoyable, messmer is probably the most fun one to fight. The furnace golems are the STUPIDEST thing from has ever made, painfully tedious and very frustrating copy paste trash thats just a waste of time.
Final boss i had to respec cos no matter what i tried i got minced in the second phase. What worked? Fucking fingerprint shield and pokey stick. The most unenjoyable gameplay method of sitting behind a shield and its really effective. If i don't use that i need frame perfect dodges and perfect focus for 10 minutes or longer with bo opportunity to make mistakes. First phase was fine but wtf am i supposed to do in the second phase? Be perfect?
I enjoyed most of the DLC, I think I came in at level 160-70ish with a straightforward strength build, so I started feeling really strong when I got some shadow fragments. I tried to be thorough, and ended up finding all but 3 before looking up the map and they were all on hidden paths that I missed. I ended powering through most bosses, so I can't pass judgement on them. I died to Rellana like twice. I thought there was some really cool or even just funny equipment out there, when my seamless coop buddies reach the lamenter I think we'll have a fun time with the transformation. Verdigris armor is the first super heavy tier that isn't atrociously ugly. The great sword from crossbow guy became my main weapon. Heavy Backhand Blades ended up being really powerful, I used them on Radahn and Melania in base game.
Radahn is atrocious, not fun for reasons everyone knows. I did have an easier time with top tier defensive talismans, which I had to go back to base game to get the Dragon Greatshield Talisman, but this does not fix the fight.
I went through most of the DLC not meeting the things I disliked about the base game, like big bears as normal enemies, until I suddenly did. I am always annoyed by FromSoft npc quests as well, the lack of ability to reload sucks when you accidentally kill a forager or are unsure about a choice or miss some obscure content. I killed Messmer first try, and the Hornsent's summon sign doesn't show up the first time.