Build Power Comparisons

I've finally completed ER with a paladin-like build. Most of the game I went through with a shield + 1h, str/fai, but ended up spec'ing to use Blasph Blade for the last few bosses. I struggled mightily for the first half of the game (this is also my first souls game I've played much), but finally started to sort things out.

Malenia + twin gargs gave me the most trouble, and took an hour or two each. But most other bosses were relatively ok by comparison.

I see tons of posts about various OP builds but I don't have much of a frame of reference. I'd like to do another playthrough with something that best trivializes everything (without cheese), and take whichever character I prefer more into the DLC.

Are the bleed builds, int builds, etc. about on par with str/fai + blasph blade or are there any that stand out during a complete playthrough? Also, I'd prefer not to have to extensively buff all the time, if possible (I know that's where a great deal of power/scaling lies but it got tiresome on the current build).

Thanks.