DLC bosses

So. I've been playing through the 3 DLCs, back-to-back-to-back. I solo'd every boss in the main game (except Darklurker, who I haven't gotten to yet), and beat many of them on my first try. In the DLC, I've solo'd (in this order) Smelter 2, Fume Knight, Sir Alonne, the hollow trio, and Sinh. (I summoned NPC help for Elana because I was this close to throwing my controller through the TV.) I wouldn't say I'm an amazing Dark Souls player or anything, I definitely suck at PvP for example, but I do enjoy the challenge of solo PvE.

The DLC bosses have been interesting. The fights are challenging; I feel good when I defeat each one. But getting to each new boss, I feel my morale dropping more and more. Now I'm at Aava and I just don't know if I have any left to continue.

I think the problem is that they're all kind of going the same way: die 10 times just learning their timing and when it's safe to attack, die another 5-10 times because of dumb mistakes, then finally beat the boss in a 10-minute fight but take away nothing in terms of lessons that can be applied to the next one, since the next one will have totally different timings and openings.

Maybe this speaks to the difference between DS1 and DS2 for me. In DS1, I felt like I was always learning something about the game that I could take and use in the next area or on the next boss. Artorias in particular was a hard fight that also made me feel like I learned a lot about how to fight in general. In DS2, I feel like I'm just learning something about this specific area or this specific boss that is not much use once I'm done.

Aava has been really frustrating so far---he hits me while I'm recovering from my attacks, he seems to be able to hit me out of my roll with some of his jumping attacks, and since I'm dead in two hits I'm dying a lot. I guess I'm still in the "learning timing and when it's safe to attack" stage. But what am I going to gain from getting through that stage? It doesn't feel like much.

Anyway. I guess those are my reflections on DS2 after 100 hours in. What have you all thought about the DLC?

Horsefuck valley is the lamest thing they could have added, it ruined that third Dlc for me. I thought they did a good job with the boss design but I like that style of gameplay; learning patterns and trying to play cleanly

Its true that Aava doesn't really offer too many lessons but I feel like if you've learned your lessons properly you should know that the first time you fight a boss who looks different its best not to attack at all. I think the first time I fought Aava I was just dodging and healing trying to understand her patterns, I don't remember if I beat her on my first or second try but I probably spend 20 minutes just dodging/healing because I had a hard time understanding how she works. I don't know how easy this is to pull off since I personally had a huge bunch of divine blessings which others might not.

Burnt Ivory King is the most disappointed I've been in a boss design since Bed of Chaos. Maybe since the Dragon King in Demon's Souls. I threw myself repeatedly against Fume Knight and Aava, over and over again until I learned what to do. After hitting that first wall it stopped being frustrating and started being fun. I've beat every other boss in the game solo. After three attempts just trying to get the BIK to show up, even with all four Eleum Knights to help me out, I didn't even want to try anymore. Fuck that.

@maedhros925: To me Ivory King was the best of them all. I won't say why for the sake of not spoiling it, but design wise, I thought it was the best of them all. As far as Dragon God goes then I was also kinda disappointed at first until I realized that it's more of a puzzle then straight out combat.