I haven't even made it through half the base game let alone the first DLC content, so I'm not in any hurry to pick up another even if everyone was to say it's amazing.
I did finally figure out how spirit ashes work and holy cow does it feel broken. I think it's taken bosses that I haven't just outleveled from having to spend 10-20 attempts to learn and semi-master to being able to kill them either first or second attempt.
How much content does the Shadows expansion add roughly speaking? I'm still going through the game mostly by trying to complete everything that I find (even if most of the rewards aren't all that valuable) so I'm putting in a lot of hours. I assume anyone who plays through with a new character skips a lot of side content to unless it has a weapon, spell, item, etc. that they want and that if you're good at the game you don't need to spend hours on a boss, but I'm still having a blast exploring the world. Even going back to areas I swear I'd picked over before often turns up things I'd missed.
Also, is it worth picking up all of the older titles in the Souls series? I don't mind games that are a lot less open world, but my understanding is that that areas in those games are a lot more contained or akin to something like one of the big castle areas in Elden Ring.
I'm also fighting the temptation of starting a second character. One of the downsides of exploring everything is finding a lot of cool looking stuff that's clearly not for you. I have some items that will let me respec, but I haven't found where I'm supposed to be able to use them yet so I haven't quite pulled the trigger making a second character yet either.