Just a PSA for those going for a STR build.

TURN YOUR DRAGONRIDER SOUL INTO THE DRAGONRIDER BOW.
I'm up to the Undead Crypt now, and still no sign of any bows that have STR scaling like the Dragonrider bow does (granted, I still haven't found any of the Greatbows).
There are just some areas that will absolutely destroy and frustrate you to no end if you don't have any sort of ranged capabilities. Or maybe I'm just bad at the game, either way, up to you really.

I did not get it till end game but it can be very useful.

@evilsbane:

How the hell did you get past the Shrine of Amana if you did it melee? I salute you if that was the case.

@adequatelyprepared: This is exactly what I did. Add in magic arrows and go to town on everything in Armana.

It's pretty damn good, hafta admit. Plus, while it's significantly later in the game, you can get a Greatbow from getting the old king soul upon beating the Iron King boss after using an ascetic, or in NG+ of course. Though besides its 30 strength requirement, it does also require 20 dex.

The Allone (?) Captain Knights in the Iron Keep can also have a chance of dropping their greatbow, though it's more of a dex weapon it seems. It scales in both strength and dex at C, but it requires 20 strength and 25 dexterity. Because it's within the same vicinity as the old king soul anywhoo, any strength builds should definitely strive for the old king great bowinstead, if they have the dex to spare.

I got naked and evaded like a ninja.

I did basically the same thing. I had absolutely no range capabilities except Flame Swathe, which given it's casting time and limited range didn't exactly help much haha. It was the most frustrating thing I've ever done in a souls game.

Coming back to this area as a caster on my alternate playthrough, I beat the entire zone on a single life with no issue whatsoever. If I ever go back with a melee character, I'll probably do just what the OP suggested.

I did like the OP and it was the best decision, that bow saw a LOT of use in my playthrough. Though once you get your hands on the Avelyn, it has the potential to be even better. But that's significantly later in the game.

I used to use the Dragonrider Bow +5 but I found it to be too heavy and cost too much stamina to use. I switched to the Hunter's Blackbow since I can get twice as many shots off from a full stamina bar and it weighs less. It doesn't deal as much damage per shot and is more of a dex weapon but I was at 40/40 well before that point.

I did melee it, it was stupid hard the only thing that saved me was Havels Shield having such high resist so I could block most of it, but there were some spots that were insane for my build rapid fire spells eating me alive. Not to mention I kept getting invaded by magic casters but they proved to be pretty easy targets because with my weapon I was staggering them to death.

@adequatelyprepared: I just rolled a lot. I traded the soul for the shield...bad choice.

Yeah, don't even think about trying the late game without ranged weapons. Doesn't matter what build you have, you're gonna hate yourself if you don't sort that out as soon as possible.

rebel's shield (over 90% magic resist) and a lot of patience got me through with 100% melee

But dude, I would have to put more than 6 points into dex to use that thing. Why the fuck would I want to do that when I can just lightning spear/great club/gyrm axe EVERYONE to death?

@getz: not necessarily true if you get ok at rolling. I'm by no means a DS ninja, but i got naked with my dragonrider greatshield (i think?) and +10 ultra greatsword and managed to dodge through the shrine of amana and most of the late game stuff without too much difficulty. That shrine was definitely one of the hardest parts of the game for me though.

The persuer constantly gives me struggles.

I did many deal with Gavlan for a ton of poison arrows. Killed those Amana mages with a shortbow. It was great.

If you're rolling a STR build, you could use crossbows as a ranged weapon, since unlike DS1 you can actually free-aim crossbows now, and all crossbows require STR as the main stat (granted, they don't have any stat scaling, but they are still a viable option).

I've been rocking an Avelyn+10 since I found it, that and heavy bolts are ripping fools apart.

Okay, okay, maybe I should rephrase my original statement. If you are going for a melee STR build and you are not crazy and really REALLY want to do the whole game melee, I highly recommend finding SOME form of ranged capability. I just used the Dragonrider Bow as an example because it's pretty cheap to get, you can do so early, and it has pretty good STR scaling for a bow (plus it's kind of the best option for the Dragonrider Soul at that stage in the game, you can get the TwinBlade from the second one, and the shield is surpassed by other shields you find pretty quickly). I feel as though Dark Souls 1 was way more melee-only friendly (except for those archers on the rooftops in Anor Londo, Christ), that's the way I did it.

I don't usually use bows... but ok. I'll give it a shot.

Yeah, that dragonrider bow is badass.

@adequatelyprepared: I did melee only the entire game. I only picked up a bow in NG+ as an option for PvP. It's just that the cost of leveling is so low that you should have already hit the softcap for your main stat before Drangelic Castle. The rest of those levels got to go somewhere so a few into dex are probably inevitable.

Yeah short of making an area go NG+ level it is the best strength bow in the game. It is arguably still the best strength bow regardless simply because it takes less dex to use but I think 2 points isn't a big deal especially since most weapons scale with both.

It's doing almost as much damage as by large club, which is fucking ridiculous, as my club is currently +5. Definitely recommend getting it.