That's the great thing about the respec items this time around. Sure, it's not as if you could ever truly be stuck with inferior stats, but the climb does get steeper and steeper, nevermind replays that allow you to take wildly different approaches without starting with a fresh character.
... Man, I need to look up some A
D
strategies. I'm practicing as a phantom, and I do fairly well, but then I still get hit sometimes anyway. But like I said the biggest flaw with these optional bosses is that it seems like they have a really, really stupid and basic pattern, but if you get hit once you're either dead or nearly dead.