Tips for Dark Souls III for a beginner of sorts?

[Agozer]

You could say that I'm a sort of a newcomer to the Soulsborne series, even though I own all the games in the series. Despite owning all of the games and having played them all, the only one I've ever completed is Bloodborne. Having said all that, I haven't played the mainline Souls games all that much despite trying to get into them several times in the past.

Basically Demon's Souls kicked my ass from the get-go, Dark Souls handed my ass to me at the second boss, and Dark Souls II: SotFS just laughed at my pitiful attempts way before the first boss even. So I recently got my copy of Dark Souls III: The Fire Fades Edition, so I decided that I'm going to really try my best at it. "My best" apparently, isn't good enough. I guess my problem is that I'm not accustomed to playing defensively after Bloodborne. What I need is tips to what to keep an eye on in terms of classes or playstyle, since DS3's first boss seems to wipe the floor with me after he transforms.

I also can not reliably kick for the life of me. For what it's worth, I always play the first class (Knight I believe).

I can already hear to cacophony of the Dark Souls master race ready to swarm me; berating me for not "gitting gud" enough, liking Dark Souls II, not really understanding what "Praise the Sun" entails and generally playing the games out-of-order. All this despite loving the hell out of Bloodborne, and understanding its mechanics really well.

[kamikazekeeg]

I've basically done the same, I dabbled in Demon Souls, Dark Souls 1 and 2, beat Bloodborne, and then I beat Dark Souls 3.  For me, I just found the best thing to do is to play defensive.  Well armored, sword and shield combo.  I rarely did any of the more complicated abilities that might be there, such as parrying and what not, as I was never good with that.  Just build up your defense enough, focus on any accessories that enhance your carry weight, and I think the specific skills were...Strength and maybe Vitality/Endurance? It's been awhile, but primarily to play heavy and still be able to roll if you have to, you gotta get that Strength way up there and on the quicker side.

Maybe not the best help, I haven't played Dark Souls 3 since last year, so I'm probably forgetting anything else helpful lol

[arkaneer]

Focus on one weapon you like and learn it well.

I played with the fire long sword the whole game and it served me well. I think it had a thrust move which had good reach.

When you get stuck, just grind souls and over level a bit.

Stay relatively light. You want speedy fast rolls with lots of i-frames in boss fights.

Don’t be afraid to summon help for bosses. It trivializes many of the boss fights.

[Cartagia]

I followed the same path you did, but I kind of just forced myself to power through the troubled areas.  You would think that beating Bloodborne would prepare you for the Souls games, but it actually kind of does the opposite.  The aggressive play style that BB encourages is very frowned upon in the Souls games.

My best advice would be to take it slow.  Play very defensively but patiently.  Do not be afraid to summon help (NPC or player-wise).  Parrying is super useful but not required.  At least not in DS3, which is probably the easiest of the main trilogy, so it is a good place to start.

[ignition365]

Seriously though.  Just keep dying until you get it.  Personally, I've played DS3 for all of a couple of hours and through listening to my wife's cousin, I wound up screwing myself.  Probably going to delete my save and start over because I can't proceed without beating a particularly hard boss that I am under-equipped to fight.

Story wise, I can hardly see any connection between any of the games.  Not that Demon or Blood are part of the Dark Souls chronology.  So playing out of order doesn't matter.

[rayne315]

seriously the best help I can give you is to whenever possible use your souls to level up. what stats you put them into is entirely on you and your playstyle but if you die with a lot of souls in a new area it may be very difficult to recover.

learn the area your in. at first kill everything you can for souls and for the ability to run through the level unimpeded so you can get used to pathing, learn what you can run past and how to bait attacks so you can run past for quicker boss attempts. for bosses play your own playstyle (helps you enjoy the fight more while you die) just make sure you make notes of attack patterns, tells, and safe areas from attacks. there is no such thing as a good souls player. just someone who is good at memorization and taking advantage of enemies AI's.

[shfan]

The first boss (particularly after he transforms) is a real challenge, talk about being dropped in the deep end. Before the transformation it's important to keep to mid-range and wait for an opening before getting in there and landing a few hits. Have a few goes at just observing, dodging and then getting a few hits in without expecting to beat him - it's important to learn attack patterns. The second stage of the fight can be made a lot easier by recognizing at what point he's likely to transform and staying closer to him - the moment the transformation occurs you can steam in and lop some of his health bar off before he can even wind up his first attack.

You will definitely need to change your play style - I'm at the last area of Demon's Souls and have beaten Dark Souls II & III but really struggle with Bloodborne (got to the whatyoucallit spider after struggling for ages on the three snake guys then got stuck again). That's probably 90% of your trouble.

With Dark Souls you don't need to "Git Gud" so much as persevere and change tactics. You will either overcome the bosses (sometimes with help from summoned phantoms) through rushing them, failing that you will notice an improvement when you learn their attack patterns and manage to damage them more before succumbing. If that isn't happening then a total change of tactics may be necessary.

General tips:

As mentioned, level level level, that's not possible yet (if I remember correctly?) but once the main game starts you'll be able to start bulking up your character and harvesting souls to do so more and more.

Armour has only a very limited effect on damage taken - resistances are more useful when choosing your set-up.

Don't encumber your character with heavy armour and a heavy weapon - light armour = better rolls and lighter weapons means quicker, more numerous attacks. As your character beefs up you'll be able to wield heaver items more effectively.

Explore, enjoy, then level up some more!

[Agozer]

I did actually manage to beat the first boss finally, then went to the Firelink Shrine, then back to the first area to beat the Crystal Lizard (at least that's what it's called in an item description). Persevered and won against that after a few tries, and now I have a creeping fear of dragons when I try to explore the High Wall of Lothric.

In the end Iudex Gundyr perhaps wasn't that hard, but his transformation certainly raises the stakes considerably, because it's very difficult to see his sword arm when he's transformed. Also, his transformation has a deceptively wide hitboxes for certain attacks. I begin to see that retrying bosses is far easier than in Bloodborne because your Estus Flask is replenished every time you die. Also, the games do really seem to be about keeping our shield up and attacking after blocking.

As far as Bloodborne goes, the most troublesome bosses for me were the Blood-starved Beast and Martyr Logarius, not the mention the Final Boss before the actual Final Boss.

[arkaneer]

I did actually manage to beat the first boss finally, then went to the Firelink Shrine, then back to the first area to beat the Crystal Lizard (at least that's what it's called in an item description). Persevered and won against that after a few tries, and now I have a creeping fear of dragons when I try to explore the High Wall of Lothric.

In the end Iudex Gundyr perhaps wasn't that hard, but his transformation certainly raises the stakes considerably, because it's very difficult to see his sword arm when he's transformed. Also, his transformation has a deceptively wide hitboxes for certain attacks. I begin to see that retrying bosses is far easier than in Bloodborne because your Estus Flask is replenished every time you die. Also, the games do really seem to be about keeping our shield up and attacking after blocking.

As far as Bloodborne goes, the most troublesome bosses for me were the Blood-starved Beast and Martyr Logarius, not the mention the Final Boss before the actual Final Boss.

High Wall of Lothric is quite a good soul farming area early on 

Martyr Logarius...I shudder when I hear that name...he kicked my ass about two dozen times. I just couldn't seem to get the timing right on him.

If I wasn't playing Monster Hunter, all this Souls talk would make me jump back in!

[shfan]

I begin to see that retrying bosses is far easier than in Bloodborne because your Estus Flask is replenished every time you die. Also, the games do really seem to be about keeping our shield up and attacking after blocking.

As far as Bloodborne goes, the most troublesome bosses for me were the Blood-starved Beast and Martyr Logarius, not the mention the Final Boss before the actual Final Boss.

I will be retrying Bloodborne when I get it back from my nephew, not looking forward to the first few hours of getting readjusted, just hope to be able to play it well enough. Blood-starved beast was really tough, not reached the Martyr yet, but fingers crossed

If I wasn't playing Monster Hunter, all this Souls talk would make me jump back in!

Don't blame you, feel like beating Demon's Souls and retrying Bloodborne now

[buraddorun]

Don't underestimate the power of rolling! Yes, shielding at the right time can save your life, but rolling at the right moment can completely avoid attacks and get you out of a jam. But yeah, the best advice, as non-helpful as it sounds, is just to keep at it. You will die a lot, but as you do, you will learn enemy attack patterns and figure out how your weapons work. And don't feel like you have to follow any specific "build" that someone tells you to make. Just build up your character's stats based on how you want to play and learn to use your strengths and weaknesses. The Souls series are some of the most rewarding games ever created in my opinion. They are at the top of my all-time favorites list. Have fun, bud!

P.S. It's handy to use long-range attacks in some cases. Whether you dabble in Sorcery, Pyromancy, or just use items like daggers or equip a secondary weapon like a bow, having some long-range fight ability can come in really handy at times.

[deftommo]

Play around with a few weapons you like, find one that works best for you, and maximize it's damage by just focusing on the stat that it scales with (or two stats for some weapons).

Don't worry about armor, learn to roll.

Pyromancy is your friend even if you're not a magic-focused character.