I thought it might be useful to post a quick boss battle guide for Knight Artorias - the second boss from the Dark Souls DLC. I played through this boss on two different character classes: a pure warrior, and a sorcerer. The guide I have posted below will include general tips from both characters, and what worked best. I will also briefly go through his attack set, but there may be some attacks which I am forgetting.
Artorias has various attacks but the most powerful of which are his AoE, and leaping attack. Usually when you first enter the arena he will leap towards you, you'll need to roll to dodge this but don't roll too early as he can adjust his positioning in mid-air. Once you're up close Artorias will typically do a chain of swiping attacks, so don't think he can't hit you if you're behind him. Wait until he finishes his chain and you will have an opportunity to counter attack or roll away and heal. He does sometimes link more than one chain attack though, so watch out for that! He will also occasionally jump away after performing a chain attack so don't rush to try and attack him again.
As I mentioned before Artorias also has a deadly AoE attack, but it's very obvious when he's about to do it, and can be easily dodged. He will crouch down and become shrouded in purple mist, just roll backwards a couple of times to get out of range. You can hit him with ranged attacks whilst he's powering his AoE, however he will be more resistant to damage including sorceries.
Be careful as he sometimes does his leaping attack from across the arena if he is focused on you. Again, be sure not to roll too early, and if you successfully dodge it you will have a good opportunity to land a couple of close-range attacks. If you are at medium-range he will also do a lunging attack, holding his sword stretched out in front of him. This can be easily dodged by rolling sideways and you may have a brief opportunity to attack him afterwards depending on the speed of your weapon.
There are usually a lot of white soap signs outside the white mist door, so be sure to reverse hollowing at the previous bonfire and summon some other players in to help. This makes the fight a lot easier, especially if you have a sorcerer firing ranged attacks. If you are short on humanity, more can be purchased from the nearby merchant Chester across the small stone bridge for 10,000 souls each. You can also leave your white soap stone mark down to earn extra souls and humanity, and learn Artorias's move set.
A good tactic is for a warrior to get his attention first and focus on dodging and blocking his attacks. If Artorias turns his attention onto the ranged players, it's not too difficult to dodge his attacks and block until somebody else gets his attention again. On my warrior character I was using the Greatshield of Artorias and this seemed to block his attacks very well - I wasn't losing much stamina at all. In case you don't have high endurance or a shield with high stability, you can purchase green blossom from Chester the merchant which significantly boosts your stamina recovery speed during battle.
A final note for co-op is for the host to remember to keep an eye on the other players' health and use estus to recover if necessary, especially if a summoned player is taking all the attention.
Once you have defeated Artorias you will get his soul, this can be used to forge a unique greatsword using a +10 sword - the Abyss Greatsword. It can also be given to Lord's Blade Ciaran if the player returns to the arena later on after re-zoning or saving, quitting and loading. She will award the player with two unique daggers: the Dark Silver Tracer, and the Gold Tracer. I would however recommend killing Ciaran as she drops a unique armour set - the Lord's Blade set, and the two weapons mentioned above; you also get to keep the soul of Artorias!
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