Recommend a fast weapon, and whatever you need to get stamina regen up. I had a DEX/INT build and a magic rapier. Took him down with the old poke 'n' roll, nothing else. I took out all the idols beforehand, which of course changes the math considerably vs leaving them. With this setup he wasn't easy by any means, but also not notably harder than other bosses in the game. I can see how he would be pretty taxing if you're using more of a tank setup though.

Strategy and whatnot aside, I really liked the design put into the character and the fight. Super standout and memorable. Up there with O&S for iconic bosses, all hype is deserved..

Finally beat him on third try. I kept getting killed by being greedy, trying to get more than 1 hit in after his attacks. Generally the most time you have is exactly one hit, then immediately start dodging again.
The "hug the ***" strat that works with other bosses doesn't work so well here because he'll hit around his back with his smaller sword with absolutely no delay, to say nothing of his sweeping attacks.

Okay, I failed about 10 times trying to keep Carhillion alive. Does he even give you anything for keeping him alive? Couldn't find an answer online

I like to enter in his arena with velstard helmet, because he goes to 2 pahse and give a time to hit him and I juat have to care for the second phase

Just beat him for the first time.

Ngl, I thought that whole bit about forcing his second phase by using Velstadt's helm was typical souls community crazy talk, but it really helped out considerably.
I could generally consistently get him down to half health, but phase 2 was a problem for me, when I could actually reach it at all.

Sometimes I'd get caught in a combo in phase 1 and die right at the start, too.

Switching from my usual loadout of Vengarl's set, Watchdragon Parma, and Curved Dragon Greatsword to the Llewellyn set and just 2 handing the Drakewing UGS really seemed to help improve my mobility and conserve my stamina. I got the hang of phase 2 pretty quickly after that.

Thanks for the help.

Maybe goes without saying, but it really pays to clear all of the Ashen Idols. Even leaving one active basically forces you to cut the arena in half or risk him healing himself.

****ing tough boss fight, but holy **** was it good.

Pretty easy to handle with dark orb and the NPC summons, or a human summon if you can get one. His attacks are fairly easy to read once you know them.

Bro, I was bored the entire game, I finally get to this ****er after hearing that he's a really good boss, first try him and man what a ****ing letdown this game is

****, this boss filtered me hard back then

Remember when this boss was infamous for his high damage delay sttacks that wait until they think you will roll?
Now every boss in elden ring does it 3 times over. Ahh, simpler times.