How hard is the DLC in SL1

I finished the SL1 for the base game and honestly it was not so insanehard than I thought but especially the late game bosses and Soul of Cinder where preatty hard.

So far the Upgrade of Weapons and adding some good rings was enough to enhance your build and thus keep up with the scaling of the difficulty of the areas/enemies/bosses

But in the DLC there are no more ways to upgrade the builds and the only ring that may help is the FAP-Ring +3 (dont really have a spot for Chloranthy and Havel enables heavy armor which also dont seem worth it)

Friede, Demon Prince, Gael and Midir are already hard enough in normal runs so I can Imagine how insanely hard they probably be in a SL1 run.

So I would like to know from others that may already tried or completed the DLC with SL1, is it really insane hard or is it on the level of Soul of Cinder?

Are there ways to further upgrade that I dont have in mind?