Ashes of Ariandel can be described in a sentence:
"I beat this lousy piece of fanservice and all I got is a cool scythe and a PvP arena"
There, those are my thoughts... Okaaaay, I'll go into detail! Getting into this DLC happens really early. An NPC happens to have a scrap of the painting and you get sucked into it ala the Painted World from Dark Souls 1. This area is messy, for lack of a better word. Heavy hitting Millwood Knights, these crazy clawed creatures, Corvians. Fuck Corvians! There's so much frustration packed into what is essentially a super linear DLC that involves you finding a crank to pull that opens up the main boss of the DLC. Unfortunately, said boss is a rough one.
Sister Friede is the eptiome of difficulty =/= fun. As nice as it was to learn her, the fight was ultimately dreadful. Getting hit with that third phase after you complete the chaotic second featuring Father Ariandel and his giant bowl of liquid cheese, you're thrust into panic when Friede begins standing up and dark flames sprout from her body! When I finished the fight all I could think was, "Oh thank GOD." unlike any other boss before it.
But the journey doesn't end there. After foreshadowing into the next DLC, taking a ladder up to see a painter at work, I hit the side of a bridge and slide down into the Depths of the Painting. While it seemed scary at first with the colossal confrontational cold crustaceans, the boss - or should I say- PvP arena keeper was off to the right, away from them. And said fight was pretty underwhelming. Slim guy with a cool shield, then a giant wolf to smack the crap out of after hitting his friend down to a certain pool of health. After slaying the big wolf and the guy, I get... Champion's Bones.
All this gets you is a PvP arena, if you want to do Dark Souls 3 PvP. Aside that, the only other thing I picked up in Firelink is Friede's Scythe with her soul, which'll be saved for a DEX character in another playthrough. After this, I set on to the Dreg Heap, and I'll fill ya all in on how that went once I finish!