you need patience. the minute you panic and start trying to slash him down is when you're gonna be spending ce on revives.

I used to do pretty badly on my first couple runs, but now i can sometimes get him into second stage without even taking a hit.

so far i only use curse and fire. poison as my last resort. don't get flustered when you mistime a charge attack (when he spinpushes you just as you unlesh).

second stage is quite easy actually. my charge did 155x3 and even though it took a while, i killed it without any posion. he actually killed himself when he spun into an exploding block rofl.

Since you can't attack him while he spins, that's a decent time to spend a few seconds killing adds, assuming you know when/where he's going to end up (it's not too hard to tell once you've done it a few times.) If you're solo, the adds don't take much (generally two faust swings will clear a group for me), and they can drop hearts and other stuff if you find yourself in a pinch. Might not be the best option every time if you want to charge your calibur, but it can be a good idea occasionally if you find yourself swarmed a lot. I generally use Vile Striker/Faust on my JK runs so I don't charge and it's a fast switch.

Curse vials don't usually like to drop for me, but when they do I save them for the spinning phase unless I have several.

Remember, you don't have to constantly be damaging him. Like John said, don't panic. Particularly in solo, it helps to take a second to dodge/bump adds/reposition and the like.

Well i soloed that bugger too many times... recently i solo him in 30 secs tops...

Fang of vog
Vog cub armor
Vog cub cap
Crest of almire, swiftstrike buckler

Ignore the rest of the weapons

You only need the fang of vog... Charge attack on him for 450 plus damage x5 depending on your distance plus burn, dosent take a genius to figure out he wont last long against such damage

The vog cub armor is to prevent the fang of vog from biting back at you too much.. seeing how using the charge attack has a high chance to burn the enemy [normal attacks burn on any hit too] and..... you....

for me the fight isn't about gear, but have at least 4 star to make it easier, probably can do it 3 star or lower as with most things in this game if not all
(probably better to have at least a 4 star sword though, light not heavy)
it's all about potions and when to use em.
start off with poison, hit him with the longest combo you can, shield for his spin, but when you shield back up a bit, you want to not only block his attack but push adds away, gives you less of a chance of getting hit
should be able to push him to berserk if you don't stop, only need to worry about poison for now

if you know when he is going to berserk it is better, but if not just wait till he does and then stun, instead of full combos do two swings (or one, depending on sword) and curse before his next berserk, throw in poison when you have the chance

few things:
when stunning, make sure you use it right after the berserk, if you stun in the middle it will only prolong his next berserk, like a stunlock on the boss that only serves to ruin you (time is most important, faster the better)

potions should only come out after shield PUSH and berserks

miss a curse potion and lose the fight (not true but makes it a lot harder, those potions do a lot of damage when he gets angry)

if you feel up to it drop the health vials and grab fire or w/e you feel like for extra damage, faster the fight goes the less health you lose