Thanks. I finally managed to get him this morning! Just barely won though. 23 HP left, Estus flask empty and used an Ember for healing late in the fight... One Ashen flask left. Used the Pestilent Mist strategy in combination with Sunlight Spears and Tears of Denial (which triggered twice, I think, during the fight) -- cast using Crystal Chime+5 and unequipped my sword to stay under the 70% weight threshold. 8 Estus / 7 Ashen Estus split. SL143. Ring of the Sun's First Born, Morne's Ring, Sage Ring, Estus Ring. Dragoncrest shield (for fire defense) + Crest shield (for Dark defense) that I meant to switch to for the second phase, but didn't. Armor was a random collection of whatever seemed like it might help -- most significant piece was the Winged Knight Armor; I look really goofy. Started game as Deprived and played early game as Dex fighter before switching to mostly pyromancy mid-game. Highest stat is currently 40 Faith -- I did some grinding to get there from 35 to free up a ring slot for an earlier strategy that didn't work. (The 3 guys who drop down on top of the Archive are worth about ~21K souls each with my best grinding gear equipped and are vulnerable to Rapport -- best grinding location I've found so far.)

I'm sure the guys who live and breath this game will be like "Lol, git gud scrub" but it's my first playthrough and I'm just happy I managed to pull it off at all. :p