I think I can't beat Maliketh ever again, except for with luck. Am I missing something?

So this is my second playthrough since about when the game came out. from the get go, I realized my reaction speed isn't good, but with my prior knowledge I prioritized vigor early and wasted no stats in things I wasnt going to use​​.

I collected all the flask upgrades I could find (without skipping legacy dungeons or their bosses before moving on to the next region) and kept my main weapon upgraded as early as possible. with that I was able to overcome all bosses I encountered within 5 tries, most even in just one try, without overleveling or overupgrading, despite my difficulties reacting to attacks. I mainly used my Knowledge about staggering and poise breaking enemies to create clear windows for myself to attack and beefy vigor usually helped me get​​ there.​

my first road block was fire giant, but thankfully his tells are greatly telegraphed and with a mixture of torrent and on foot combat I managed to manage distance well enough to defeat him also in under 10 tries.

now maliketh is not getting better. Im 50+ tries in or so and all I get is dodges that sometimes work by chance, but usually he just kills me before I even realize he's attacking let alone recognize what he's doing. I've tried in so many different ways with and without mimic tear even, which seems useless in phase two, but it seems to come down to the boss not being possible to defeat when you can't react to the attacks. the timing demanded - especially of combos - seems so unforgiving​​​​​. when he does 5 strikes in a row I can dodge 0-2 of them, without me even attempting to attack and my attempts are so short I don't learn anything. its not like I get to maliketh cleanly either, its roughly a 1 in 3 chance and bruteforce myself through him, but he at least mostly doesn't​​​ outright kill me instantly so I sometimes get enough damage for phase two.

I use a +25 reed katana with swords dance and I have 60 vig.

I'm aware of the parry item but that's like the last thing that would help someone who can't react to the attacks. I beat ds2+dlc and ds3 base game but they felt so much more telegraphed and rhythmic than this.

I feel like maliketh is the first (and maybe the only?) boss to suddenly demand lighting fast reflexes and unlike any other boss before him, after some research he seems to not offer me any alternative approaches. Is there anything left I can do before I quit? if I just don't get to finish the game because I'm too bad Id be kinda bummed.