Abyss Watchers (4-5 deaths) - Died mostly due to O&S lock-on syndrome. Also was barely using my shield at this stage in the game, which would have helped enormously. - Yeah, the biggest problem I have with Abyss Watchers in general is how chaotic it can get in the first phase with multiple Watchers running jumping in and out of your vision. Second phase is easier because of not having to focus on jerking your camera all over the place to see where every Watcher is. Doesn't have much health, either, so not too frustrating.
Pontiff (7-8 deaths) - Couldn't get his phase 1 combos down right and oddly had an easier time in phase 2. In fact, I think his phase 2 only took me two tries. - On NG I honestly just started blocking and doing one-two hits after any attack and it seemed to work out fine afterwards. Second phase obviously takes quite a bit more caution but if necessary I'd just wait until they do the jumping attack since there's so much recovery on it that it's a safe 3-4 swings, and possibly more.
Aldritch (8-10 deaths) - I didn't see that she spawns magic missiles in her phase 2 teleport until the 5th time I died that way. They would hover off-screen so I had no idea they were there until one time when I rolled away during a teleport and watched her spawn them from a distance. That's my bad, really. Otherwise, her phase 2 arrows are basically instant death if you misjudge when they'll end. - I actually find Aldritch really easy in both phases. It's just particularly annoying if you find yourself at a distance from him and he just keeps doing long-range attacks that you have no room to attack during. So it can be a lot of running around for no reward and a boring fight as you're just waiting for a long-ass melee attack to get your hits in (which is why I recommend sticking close to minimize the chance of ranged attacks happening). Second phase arrows are absolutely easy to avoid. You just run. Don't roll. It's never fast enough. The only absolute bullshit situation I can think is if he does the big magic shots while you're running from phase 2 arrows. Then it's a crapshoot whether you live/get hit or not, because you almost always have to roll the shots, and rolling is not fast enough to avoid the arrows.
The above three I'd consider fair. For the most part it was my fault, though Pontiff's reach is a bit too ridiculous on his thrust attacks. The bellow two, however....
Dancer (20+ deaths) - The hitbox on her grab is straight up broken. I would have to either dodge away at the very start of her telegraph or dodge twice mid-way through after finishing my attack animation. Ironically I had the most success attacking her at the start of the animation and panic dodging just as her hand came for me. But that's just phase 1.
Phase 2 is just odder BS. I really don't mind that she has really tricky moves with misleading tells. That's fine and honestly pretty cool. However, she simply does too much damage per hit. She has multiple ways to kill the player for making a single mistake. That's just too much. Considering how tricky her combos are, you should be able to tank a little more of her hits than that.
She was much more frustrating for me than Ludwig was in BB, and that's saying a lot. - Agreed on grab hitbox. I'm not a big fan of the Dancer, to be frank.
Gundyr Champion (12-15 deaths) - Basically Gwyn on crack. I actually got incredibly good at fighting him, the only problem is that he perfectly highlights how wonky and broken enemy tracking is. In order to beat him you have to predict how spot-on he's going to land his punishing moves (kick and shoulder check, mainly). Sometimes he can spin like a ballerina and hit you 1/10th of a second after finishing another attack animation. Other times he biffs a shoulder check so hard he's actually out of range for a counter attack. He could have been a really interesting boss if they chilled out on the auto-lock tracking bullshit and just gave him more circle-strafe punishers. - Yeah, I dunno what they were on with a number of bosses and enemies in this game that have attacks with absolutely ridiculous tracking.
The rest of the bosses in the game went down in 1-2 tries (Dragonslayer Armour kept knocking me off the cliff though LOL). - I also got knocked off the bridge by him shoving me with his shield. I couldn't get mad at that death. That said, I think I may have 1-3 more left. - Should be correct. It's kind of impossible to miss more than maybe two-three bosses in this game and you already made it to the secret area, so... I just beat the big dragon in the secret area (which was a goofy fight) and ended there for the night. Pretty sure I just have the rest of that zone and the Archives left.
EDIT: Hilariously, some of these difficult bosses are a complete joke in co-op. I have solo'd them all so far, but have sunbro'd plenty. I co-oped the Gundyr fight a few times after beating him last night and he was literally x20 easier, if not more.
EDIT #2: I could also be at a disadvantage due to my build. I went Dex/Faith thinking it would hold up like it did in DS1, but I am starting to think that's not the case. First of all, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, to get decent damage out of spells you need to completely commit that stat over all others which basically fucks hybrids. Okay, that's fine, I get a lot of use out of Lightning Weapon + Oath, but it would be nice to have an opportunity to re-buff at any point during the harder fights. Some of them (especially Gundyr) offer no chance to re-apply any kind of buff, which kind of throws a wrench in my build. I can get them to phase 2 faster! Great! That's usually when they're at their hardest! D: - Can't speak from experience on that kind of build. I just pumped Strength for a while and generally only used heavy-ass hammers/axes. But I don't think I'd be opposed to the notion that it's kind of harder to get a pyromancy or magic character going compared to just being able to pump Str or Dex and going melee all the time.