With Demon's and Dark Souls, I used to completely panic about invasions and play offline (or hollow/phantom form). As I became a seasoned player, I know I would have found the online fun, but never really engaged with it. Old habits die hard.

With dark souls 2, I'm changing my ways. The online has been great. Really great. I actually wish invasions weren't so rare, so I do a lot of duels.

Even so, I prefer the first Dark Souls. So I decided to go back on PC, and finally put some time into the PvP / Co-op.

...

What a colossal disappointment. There isn't a single non-twinker to be found. I'm level 5 in undead burg, with starting equipment, and every single summon is equipped with optimal end-game gear. I don't want overpowered partners.

Same with PvP. Out of the 6 times I've been invaded, I couldn't do more than 10 HP of damage to any of them. I could easily outmaneuver them and get my hits in, but the damage output is so low that it's futile. So I eventually suicide (Crestfallen warrior would be proud).

So either everyone is doing a SL1 run, which I highly doubt. Or cheat engine has ruined the experience. Either way, what a bummer. I guess I missed my chance to enjoy it years ago.

Yeah that's too bad. I just finished DS two weeks ago on the 360 and didn't run into much of that. When invaded I did usually get defeated, but I got a few kills in as well. And my co-op buddies seemed strong but not completely overpowered.

@mason: Years ago might be exaggerating a bit. But yeah you have missed the window. If you level up to 120 there is probably some legitimate players still in that bracket. But co-op without preparing with friends is dead, and early invasions are twinks, and the forest is full of hackers or people who leveled to 400 and dual wield dragon teeth or some other dumb shit.

Dark Souls still has the best PvE though! So if you wanna give it a shot, just play up to NG+ and try the waters in level 120 PvP. That's your best shot I think. Though I don't blame you if you go over entirely to the sequel like a lot of people have done.

I guess I could dust off one of my old NG+ characters, and try with them.

I just would have loved to play through the entire game with a fresh character, while remaining human the whole time and sampling all of the covenants. I think I still might, and just accept bullshit invasions as part of the experience. It's not like I care about dying and losing progress anymore.

It's weird though. A couple of invaders dropped some extremely good items for me, before trying to murder me with their OP build. I assume they're playing out some power fantasy where they're this benevolent killer with god-like control over my fate. I'm more like "Whatever gets you off buddy. Can we get this over with?"