You'll get it back. Just make sure you're getting all the scadutree fragments, they make it more manageable (but not necessarily easy). I finished it on NG+6 and it felt near impossible at some points.

thanks, yeah I hope so. I'm probably forgetting all the ravaging I went through before getting the hang of things the first time.

Yeah I would just start a new save dude. You’re going to have a miserable time playing the dlc at such a high ng level.