After about 75 hrs I finally beat it, feels good bros. I still have a few things to do before going to NG+, primarily take down Ancient Dragon and Vendrick.
Am I better off trying to melee AD with lightning defender sword/ claymore, or pelt him with lightning spears? I've seen some vids where you can stick to his hind legs, and he won't ever do the AOE fire thing.
We have pretty much the same setup: +5 Lightning Defender's Sword and +5 Dragon's Chime with 24 Great Lightning Spears at my disposal, to be exact. 40 STR and 50 FTH are the pertinent stats.
I took him on with my Spears alone. I found that running in to whack him with the D's Sword wasn't nearly as efficient and could really screw you if you had to bolt from the AoE attack. At a relatively close distance, the Spears were doing around 130 damage each. Starting with 24, I had to use a couple of Amber Herbs to see the fight out.
Best tips I can give you:
- Try to bait the simple forward flame by staying more or less in front of his nose (slightly to the left or right), but with a bit of distance between the two of you.
- When he does this, MAKE SURE that you take a split second to determine the way the flame will be sweeping in - left to right, or right to left - and run the other way.
- ALWAYS know where you'll have to run in case the AoE attack rears its ugly head. He's usually not dead-centre, so one end of the arena will be safe and the other will lead to your fiery death.
- Don't hang too far back. The spread of his forward flame is extremely difficult to outrun on the outskirts. Always run back to him after the AoE flame.
Good luck!