For Aldrich the arrow rain in the second stage can be dodged by running to the right of the rain and circling around it. You have to have a fair bit of endurance to run this long, but it has the added advantage of baffling the homing wisps-he usually doesn't cast soul spear while the rain is out, although he did once and he missed anyway while I was running.

protip for pontiff, right before his second bound hit your parry button

for many bosses, repeated headshots will stagger them and let you do extra damage or a critical attack.

for other bosses, theres an advanced move called "the b button" or "dodging" for expert players

There's also a secret item called Estus Flask.

yup thats right XD

pro tip
kill them before you die

Thank you for the correction man!

The 2 key ingredients to beating Pontiff are Iron Flesh and a Parrying Shield. Now just spam parry until 1 lands.