Still loving this game, but I had to use a guide for some quests otherwise I might never have finished it within any reasonable amount of free time, am now very close to the end with the self imposed usual delay I always have in Souls games for levelling things up a lot before NG+.
Mostly using Radahn's colossal sword +10 in 2 hand stance as you get the benefit of dual wielding 2 weapons but only the weight of one, albeit a heavy one. At 60 str it's very powerful for double hit L1s. Even for melee it's worth raising the 15 int to wield it as you can get some good spells not much higher than that and can use the +5 Int charm too. Though R2 only hits with one of the swords for a weird reason. With about 45 vig, 40 poise and heavy armour you can stand and trade for at least a bit using Radhan's Sword with most all mobs and quite a few bosses. I keep an upgraded Brass shield on me too as it's the lightest shield that can get the top block value. Other than pure melee have used scarlet rot to cheese an NPC boss and some of Radhan, also have a nice +5 bow for pulling mobs and carry a strength scaling faith charm to cure poison and some buffs.
Mimic+ 10 also a very powerful ashes, almost too powerful, though there's still a few bosses that annoyed me like old school Dark Souls games, but then that's all part of the Soul's game appeal, the huge rush after beating a tough boss, it's still there in Elden Ring.