The first time I went to the Tomb of the Giant, I fell through some cracks and I had time to saw the screen change to "Demon Ruins" before I died... xD That was pretty amazing. Of course, I didn't even make it back to my 20k bloodstain (which was a lot a the time! also pre-patch where enemies were not nearly as generous), as the wheel skeletons got me before I made it back there, so I said "screw you, Tomb" and returned to Firelink.
Again this was pre-patch, so no lantern from the necromancers even if I had killed them all. I came back there only wayyy later, possibly after getting the Sunlight Maggot, but maybe I didn't even have that because I remember the initial trek to the first bonfire being outright terrifying.
Maybe, but its stat investment are very high, there's no way you can use it properly without grinding if you get it early on. So that's why I never used the black knight gear.
....What? How so? The "bigger" (e.g. more powerful) the spell, the lower the number of casts. Crystal soul spear, for instance, has only 4 charges.
...Farm? Wot? You can buy old and fresh spice from the singing lady in Latria almost at the very beginning. Eventually you'd easily get tons and tons of old spice for infinite magic spam, from Soul Ray to Firestorm. Dark Souls was a major nerf in comparison.
And even if you prefer farming the items over farming the souls to buy the items, the mindflayers drop them constantly, easiest farm ever.