Noobie here looking for tips!

Hi all,
Been playing Dark Souls for just a few weeks now. Still trying to figure things out.
Currently up to the point where I have to fight the gargoyles on the top of the parish.
Haven't tried it just yet as I'm trying to level things up and figure out how to survive invaders.
I've been avoiding being in human form as much as possible because every time I go human, someone invades my game within minutes and kicks my butt in short time. I've yet to even land a blow on anyone.
Can anyone give me any tips an how to actually beat an invader? Because at this point, it's no fun being invaded when you can't even put up a fight.
I started with a bandit class and have built up my Endurance (26), Strength (23), and Vitality (22). My overall level is 38 I believe. Got Chainmail armor and leggings (both at +3) and Balder Helmet and Gaunlets (both at +2). My weapon has mostly been a battle axe+5 but I just got the Drake Sword last night. I also got the Knight shield at +5.
I have no magic anything yet. Not even sure how to go about magic yet.
Any advise anyone could give as far as build or dealing with invaders would be much appreciated!

The only real advice I could give is to just not give up on the game. It is a difficult game, but the more you play it, the more you'll come to understand of it.

As for a build, like anyone will tell you there is no BEST build. Just don't go all over the place with stat points like putting points into every stat, try to focus on just a few like vit/end + str/dex or something of the sort.

Best of luck!

Yeah, I've been trying to stick with Endurance, strength, and Vitality. I also added a couple to Dexterity so I could use the bow to get the drake sword.
My biggest problem has been invaders. I feel like I'm wasting my humanity. I become human so that I can summon some help with the gargoyles, but I get invaded and killed before I even have a chance to summon anyone. Then I need to spend lots of time trying to get another humanity to go human again. It's very frustrating. Especially when I don't really have any interest in fighting them. I just can't seem to beat anyone. Not even getting any hits in.

Invaders in the parish tend to be cheaters who use glitches to get equipment that they shouldn't have access to yet. The best thing to do would be to beat those gargoyles and move to another area. As for tips on handling invaders, they're all different so it's hard to say exactly what you need to work on without knowing how they're killing you. There's one universal rule though: NEVER let an invader get behind you! Backstabs usually lead to instant death at low levels.

Stay in offline mode until you beat the gargoyles. While in Offline mode, be human. You can summon 2 NPC's to help you in the fight. 1 is located right before the fog doors. The other is found on the way up to the fog door. There's two ladders you have to take. Before the second ladder, turn around walk to the other side, you'll see another sign.

Don't bother trying to fight off those invaders. They are overpowered (most likely). Once you get out of that area though you won't run into too many of those players.

Common issue at the start of the game (also noticing that these are your first posts, welcome to the forums ), they will have much better equipment than you at this point (usually due to malicious methods). As a result, they will be very difficult to beat, unless you are good at kicking hem of cliffs . As PPG-3 said, playing offline or hollow right now is your best bet. Later on, things will get better .

Just thought of another useful tip that you may not have noticed yet. If you follow the link to the wiki at the top of this page, you'll see a little chat box on the left side. Click the chatango link there for a bigger version of the chat. There's usually 800+ people in there, and many are happy to come help out new players, including a few who have characters specifically built for killing the griefers who invade in the parish. If you're having troubles getting to the gargoyles in human form, you can probably find someone willing to drop a summon sign right in front of the elevators.

EDIT: Offline mode works too, but summoning an anti-griefer for help is a lot more fun!

Yeah, definitely offline or hollow till you beat the gargoyles then its a little better as far as humanity goes. I would also reccomend putting some stats into faith so you can at least use heal. That spell really comes in handy and in order to use miracles you have to have a talisman in your hand with the spell attuned and then just push the correct button. Definitely came to the right wiki in order to survive and prosper in this game though lol

Thanks for the tips guys (or gals). I appreciate it. I'll try getting by the gargoyles in offline mode and see how that goes.
And yes, these are my first posts. Thanks for the welcome.

One more question.
I notice you guys use a lot of abbreviations on these forums. I'm having a hard time understanding what people are talking about at times. Is there some kind of legend somewhere that shows what all of your abbreviations mean?
I know what PvP and PvE means. That's a start I guess! lol

Check the new player help guide in the key on the left to get some handy abbreviations

Hmmmmm,
I don't seem to have a key on the left. And I don't see any new player help guide anywhere.

Edit: I found it! Thanks!

Which bonfire are you at while trying to beat the parish gargoyles? If it is the one near the sunlight altar/drake bridge, there are three rats down the ladder nearby. You can farm them for humanity items to make your overall experience much easier. Your Vit is pretty high, so what I would do is start from that bonfire, head up the stairs to the down ladder on your right. Roll down (don't use ladder), and then immediately turn and kill the three rats. Then climb back up the ladder and reset them at the bonfire. It will be slow going at first, but a way to make it a bit faster is to use the first 10 humanity items you get from them, as each extra humanity up to 10 that you carry increases your item drop rate, resulting in more humanity drops over time.

It's a little tedious, but I always farm up at least 20-30 humanity items there before moving on.

Also, you should have the white soapstone at this point. You could try being summoned there by dropping your sign (don't need to be human to do this) - sl 38 is high for that area but you may get some summons. You can leave it down while you farm the rats. Once summoned, you will be able to run through the level and even face the gargoyles basically consequence free, giving you more experience and confidence for when you want to beat them in your world.

I haven't been able to get to the bonfire you are talking about. There is a gate blocking the way. But I can see the bonfire through the gate.I do know where the rats are though. I came up that way after traveling under the bridge to avoid the Hellkite and to cut off his tail to get the drake sword.
I'm at the bonfire just above the blacksmith.
Should I be able to open that gate? I haven't tried getting by the Hellkite on the top level of the bridge. Is that the way to get to the gate from the other side?
Either way, I can get to the rats still. But I get poisoned almost every time I go through there. I end up having to use 4 or 5 Estus Flasks to stay alive until the poison wears off.
Thanks for the humanity tip though. That will come in handy.

You can still get to the rats pretty easily from the bonfire in the burg, if you kicked down the ladder underneath the bridge with the Helkite, then you can climb up from there and be at the rats after you beat those two hollows

Yes, the way to get to that bonfire is by running past/under the drake on top of the bridge. Here is my preferred way:

Start at the bottom of the stairs under the center of the bridge (near where you presumably shot the drake's tail off to get the drake sword). Run up the stairs onto the bridge, and immediately sprint straight across the bridge to the alcove on the other side, ignoring all the hollow soldiers. The drake will very likely spew fire down the length of the bridge but you should be safe in the other alcove. Keep your shield up and face towards the dragon just in case. If you get set on fire, drink estus to heal up. The fire should kill all the hollow soldiers on the bridge.

Wait for the fire to die out, and just stand there. After 15-30 seconds, the drake will get bored and leap out onto the bridge. The moment that it lands, turn and sprint between its legs, then hug the right side of the bridge as you run towards the doorway and the bonfire beyond. You will likely get set on fire again, but if you hug the right side of the bridge you should survive at your level. Do not stop to heal, keep running. Enter the doorway, and immediately head to your right through one of the two doorways there. do NOT try to activate the bonfire yet, as the dragon can breathe fire again into that room.

Run up onto the platform with the broken statue, which is known as the sunlight altar (you can join the Warrior of Sunlight convenant here, praise the freakin' sun). Wait a few moments and you should see the dragon fly away overhead. Important note: it is only gone temporarily, and if you head back out onto the bridge too far, it will come back and start this all over again.

Once the dragon is gone, go back and light the bonfire and rest there. Near it to the left of the gate will be a switch you can turn on to raise that gate, which will stay up permanently. Now you can farm rats like crazy from that bonfire. If they poison you, don't worry about it, as resetting at that bonfire will cure the poison (obviously, do drink estus if the poison may kill you before you reset). With a little practice you should be able to kill those three rats every 20-30 seconds, resting at the bonfire each time.

Cobrasno1, you don't need to play offline, just summon help ASAP, and having someone to play with makes things much easier so if you ever need anything ask around on here, I'm sure many people would be willing to help.

Awesome tips guys! Thanks a bunch!

What a difference it is on this forum compared to the Skyrim forum. That one is loaded with jerks. This one seems to have lots of helpful and understanding people who are willing to help. Thank you very much!

This forum seems nice at first but mention anything about using dirty tactics (ganking, min maxing, griefing, etc) and it turns inro a witchhunt. xD

ganking, min maxing, griefing, etc

What exactly do these mean?

Ganking is when you 'farm' invaders, you summon phantoms and then wait for invaders to come, then you 3v1 or 2v1 them (85% of the time for the win)

Min/maxing is using Giants armor, Mask of the Mother, ring of Favor, etc, it's using an incredibly OP (over-powered) armor set to gain an unfair advantage. The armor is usually accompanied by a Lightning rapier and Hornets ring (Boosts criticals) to One hit kill (OHK) opponents (humans)

Griefing, is using the BB (bottomless box) glitch to get end-game armor and weapons to a low level character, and then invading the first area, its pretty much screwing over new players.

"Deletes whole post as he realizes that Yarxov ninja'd him" Good description .

Caesars Explorers see all :3

Yarxov wrote:Ganking is when you 'farm' invaders, you summon phantoms and then wait for invaders to come, then you 3v1 or 2v1 them (85% of the time for the win)

Min/maxing is using Giants armor, Mask of the Mother, ring of Favor, etc, it's using an incredibly OP (over-powered) armor set to gain an unfair advantage. The armor is usually accompanied by a Lightning rapier and Hornets ring (Boosts criticals) to One hit kill (OHK) opponents (humans)

Griefing, is using the BB (bottomless box) glitch to get end-game armor and weapons to a low level character, and then invading the first area, its pretty much screwing over new players.

Ah, I see. I'd say that I've been getting Min Maxed by my invaders then. It always seem like they have some kind of magic on there weapons and they take all 800+ of my HP in one hit every time.

Could possibly be getting Griefers too but I don't know how to tell. The invaders are glowing red. To me it makes it touch to tell what kind of armor they are wearing. But I know most of the time they're wearing stuff I haven't seen in the game yet.

Won't get a chance to play again until Saturday. But I'm going to farm some humanity from the rats as suggested and then go human again and try to beat the gargoyles with some NPC helpers.

I'd summon some other players to help me out but I don't seem to be getting any summon signs anymore. Probably because I've killed the Black Knight and Chenellor already. Either that or I've leveled myself too high for the area.

If youre getting hit for 800 in the burg its definately a griefer!

If your PSN I can give you a hand, teach those bastard griefers who's boss xD

Yarxov wrote:If youre getting hit for 800 in the burg its definately a griefer!

If your PSN I can give you a hand, teach those bastard griefers who's boss xD

I am PSN. My ID is the same as here.

cobrasno1

I won't get to play until Saturday though. Band practice tonight and Fantasy Baseball draft tomorrow night.

Add me as a friend on PSN if you'd like. That way you'll see when I log on. I could use all the help I can get! lol