So I never have finished DS, I want to one day. So starting over I went with the wanderer class for the first time, usual going with knight or warrior. I recall hearing Vinnie say dump everything in Dex and a few in vit, because you get the full power of the weapon, or something like that. I've kept the starting weapon and +5'd it, it's been great up until blighttown. Any tips you guys can give, or should I start over?!?

Get your Endurance to 25 and your Vitality to 20 if you're having problems in Blighttown. The starting class doesn't matter. The weapon you are using doesn't really matter. If you plan on using a DEX weapon check the wiki to see what weapons have a good DEX scaling stat and try out their moveset. DEX weapons are generally fast, but they don't deal as much damage as the strength weapons.

I don't believe you could have messed up your stats so much that you'd need to start over.

It's not your stats or your weapon, it's just Blight Town. Fuck Blight Town. There's a pretty cool katana there if you search around a bit (and make a crazy jump) that scales with DEX. It's also nice to have a ranged option to deal with the poison shooting pricks. Luckily, bows also scale with DEX.

If you dumped points into Dex then just make sure you are using a weapon that scales with Dex. Curved swords are good for that. Put points into Dex, End and Vit and you'll be quite strong as long as you are using the right weapon.

Going through Blight towns not that hard for me, but the boss just wasn't taking that much damage. Last time I had the drake sword and took her down fast. Right now vit is at 16, end at 17 and dex is 25. I just worry since I struggled with that boss more than before I may have hurt myself in the long run.

ahhhhh regretting now using the drake sword. Yeah I felt the same way. So what weapon are you weilding?

You can kill the merchant in Undead Burg to get the uchigatana, I think that's one of the best DEX weapons, at early levels anyway. Level that up to +5 or higher if you like. You might also consider a ranged strategy with all that DEX. If you're still having issues you can reverse your hollowing at the bonfire and kill black phantom Maneater Mildred, who you can then summon at the fog gate. She keeps Quelaag occupied.

You really should have put at least +15 into frame rate before venturing into Blighttown...you're screwed!

One tip: it's possible to upgrade your weapon from +5 to +10 if you have found the Large Ember, which you can then give it to Andre the blacksmith. The ember is found in The Depths.

Another tip: a simple way to add a little more damage to your weapon is to apply a weapon buff. There are consumable items, called resin, that can do this. You can buy some resin from someone you meet at the very end of Lower Undead Burg. Some more resin can be acquired in Undead Burg, The Depths, and deep inside Darkroot forest.

@crithon: I have the uchigatana, I just don't have the strength to wield it yet. 2 more lvls of grinding until I can there.

@savage: As long as I've been playing this on and off since launch, I can't believe I never knew about the resins, I'll be doing that ASAP. I did know about the large ember, just haven't gotten it yet.

@hippie_genocide: My weapon I'm using right now is the starting scimitar, it does the job, but it isn't going to forever.

@mb: XD that was golden ... wonder if games should really do that

One issue I had with Dark Souls is you could have three weapons fully upgraded, be high level, and still have trouble killing certain enemies. I'm not sure if they've resolved this in DS2, but iDS felt like a game that didn't really let you have fun using the weapons and armor that you preferred. Easy mode, just like in Demon's Soul, is using magic of course.

As for blighttown, you can skip that whole part using the shortcut from that forest area bonfire, the one near where havel is. It's pretty easy to do Just run run run till you get to that cave bonfire before Quelaag.

Or, if you have the master key, there's a gate you can open at the bottom of the elevator from firelink that is much quicker.

@mrhadouken: I love that weapon, the movement was what I wanted in Dark Souls. Although it's good to keep a repair box and just repair it like every bonfire you visit, and then upgrading isn't too difficult either.

You'd need the master key for that and if you had the master key you could simply go out through new londo ruins to valley of drakes to get that way...

@belegorm: I already mentioned the master key, but you don't need the master key to do the shortcut as I described it initially.

I had a lot of trouble finishing DS on my first characters. In the last restart I only went for dex, vit and str and a fully upgraded zweihänder and silver knight armor. Finished it in about 23 hours. The game isn't that hard if you just min/max and stick to a plan. But, in my opinion, it was more fun to try everthing out and stumble your way through it, made for a better sense of discovery.

@freakin9: that's the only way I'll go through blighttown. This time I'm going to go ahead ring the second bell and make my way through the depths after.

dude trust me it will all work out in the end. Step 1 : don't use the drake sword. It's a crutch and you'll hit a wall eventually where it won't be any good and you'll need to grind to bring a weapon up. Step 2: decide what combo you want dex/faith , dex/ int etc I stuck with dex/strenght/pyro and ended slvl 104 with stats all over the place vit : 29 End : 30 Strength : 30 Dex 40 Int 16 and like 8 faith. Ascended Pyro + 5 and I'm just about to finish my first game and planning to go into Int/Vit/End in the NG+ if I do it. Step 3: don't do completion runs, you might end up slvl 104 and still not on NG+ haha.

@notlupus: I have the drake sword but I'm not going to touch it. I'm really just pumping Dex,end and vit.

Don't start over unless you really want to. You can totally finish the game with your current build. Falchion +5 doesn't do much damage with the stats you have. You can still kill that boss though. You can dodge everything he/it can throw at you. If you really prefer doing more damage right now, you're probably best of grinding a bit to the point where you can wield that Uchigatana that you have. It's actually a really good weapon. Then go to Andre and get it to +10 (you should be able to; I'm assuming you did the Depths). You'll do significantly more damage with your stats and the Uchigatana is great if you intend to keep pumping points into DEX.

I found a ton of new stuff in the cemetery. But unable to wield any of them effectively. I apparently need to repair my scimitar so have been using the short sword in the meantime. I did manage to kill the armored boar and make it into the church. Eventually I made it to a giant gargoyle who made me its bitch. I honestly didn't think I'd like this type of game but I was wrong. I really like it. But the damn giant rats in the game. Jeez those things were frustrating.