Welp, rescinding my gigachad card now. Leda, Hornsent, Moore, and fucking Dryleaf Dane DS2 gank squad reprised. I came close to soloing them, but it just wasn't worth the time waiting for a good run where I killed the first two, and the last two didn't spam holy attacks. I ended up summoning Thollier and some other dude I don't recognize, the fight was over as quickly as it began. I don't think my DMGS int build helped things, because apparently in PVP it got nerfed pretty badly but I've been too lazy/stubborn to respec.
And now I know what everyone is talking about regarding the final boss. God damn he is tough, but learning his moveset has been fun so far. Managed to progress to phase 2 a couple times, and am getting absolutely lit up. Going to work at it a bunch more, but I am sure I'll probably use a spirit ash by the end. I loved the DLC but don't want to drag out the experience too much, and would prefer to move on to digesting all this lore.