Board Thread:Dark Souls/@comment-11991696-20130711220139/@comment-24405902-20140109063736

Hereticalthoughts wrote: He's actually not that great a fighter, considering that any player with a half decent grasp of how the game works can take him. :P

The lore info hinted at Solaire's gear as being the material itself and no special armor and upgrades and such, suggesting that he relied on skill alone to get as far as he could. The farthest being the final boss if you prevented Solaire from going insane. The Chosen Undead is pretty much a god tier anyway because he/she can beat pretty much anyone in the game so comparing Solaire to the player is kind of unfair.