So I finally took the plunge and purchased Dark Souls today. Played a good four solid straight hours (or so) before finally calling it quits. Game's kicking my ass, and I feel like I'm making a steady progress, but I can't help but feel like I perhaps picked the wrong class.

I originally rolled a Hunter because I felt like I'd be a little more comfortable staying elusive whilst melee fighting, and the "starting with bow and arrow" was a big draw. The problem is that, at about the three hour mark, I ran out of arrows and thus was left fending for myself with melee skills. I'm actually halfway decent at parrying and reposte-ing attacks and staying out of enemy ranges while striking from the outside, but I just feel somewhat ill-equipped to stand toe to toe with many of the enemies I'm currently going against (I'm still in Undead Burg). Mostly, I feel like I've fell behind on damage output.

I've made some rookie mistakes. I've lost a good amount of souls and humanity at this point. So my question to you is... should I just start over? I feel confident that I could get to around my current point in about half the time if I re-roll a character, so I'm just considering going back and beginning again. What do some of the veterans think? I know I know, it's tough to try and guess what somebody else would want to play as, but I'll try and give you some guidance.

• I enjoy the melee. Particularly, I like to evade and hit hard when I get an opening.
• I'm not opposed to using magic, I just don't want it to be my main mode of attack.
• I want to be able to consistently deal damage with melee. I know I'll have to level up my strength as the game goes on, but I'd prefer if I didn't fall behind so quickly.
• I did like using a bow... I just don't want to have to rely on it.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

You could restart as a Warrior or Knight, both of which are mostly melee but you can easily upgrade to be proficient with the bow and with magic. I would recommend a warrior, as he starts with lighter armor...

Be a man. Pick Deprived.

The Knight has strong defense and deals a nice amount of melee damage at the beginning. You won't be able to roll as well because of his heavy armor, but I think rolling in this game isn't as useful as it was in Demon's Souls.

the bandit, fast movement, good health and the strongest of the starter classes

No. The hunters starting spread is second best for a dex melee build (which sounds like the character you want), so unless you've pumped a bunch of points into faith or something, you should be fine.

@musclerider:

I actually was really thinking of picking Deprived early on while researching the game. I now realize that was probably a ridiculous idea.

@HODGEY3000:

Bandit seemed the next logical choice if I actually did start over.

@Chop:

I most likely will give it a couple more hours as Hunter, but what I really need is a merchant to sell me some arrows. I hear there's an undead merchant somewhere near the first(?) bonfire in Undead Burg (the one you eventually kick the ladder down to to get back to the dragon bridge), but I'm not sure where it is. Anybody know?

@ImperiousRix: Go down the staircase to the right as soon as you exit the building with the bonfire and take the first path to your left.

@Chop:

Thanks, broseidon! Gonna go check it out now.

@ImperiousRix: The path to the merchant is hidden in the stack of boxes by two skeleton knights holding shields and spears. Roll through them and you'll uncover the staircase.

Also, it may be incredibly foolish, but I found that starting as a pyromancer, upgrading dexterity to around twelve and then specing towards melee isn't half bad. They have decent base stats and start at a low level, so you can make the most of leveling up. Plus they start with the refillable fireball.

It sounds like you'd enjoy the thief! I rerolled a thief after playing warrior for about 20 hours, and I find the melee so much more fun! he's faster and backstabbing is seriously satisfying. And he can learn basic magic. I have the "magic weapon" spell that enchants your dagger.

I recommend the Pyromancer for you.  This will allow you to cast some pyromancy spells, which are pretty low-maintenance and don't require you to make any significant investment of souls in order to have decent attacks.  A lot of things are weak to fire as well.  Because the Pyromancer starts at level 1 with balanced stats, you can develop him in any direction you like.  I would suggest that you put your points into dexterity, which will enable you to be effective with a bow.  As soon as you make it to the Firelink Shrine you should make a suicide run into the nearby graveyard to find the Winged Spear.  This weapon scales excellently with your dexterity stat, and will serve you well until you can find a curved sword (another dexterity-focused weapon), which seems to be the weapon type which best suits your desired playstyle.
 
Or you could just start off with a Wanderer and work in the bow and spells as you come across them.

*UPDATE*

So yeah, I started over as a Bandit and GOOD LORD is it so much easier. I just blew through most of the Undead Burg in about an hour and have pretty much caught up to where I was before. Going to take on the Bell Gargoyles and then might head back into the Burg for some exploration...

I have been playing as a hunter for 8 hours now and am doing great, well as good as anyone can hope to do. To each there own, that's what i love about this game!

@DarthOrange:

Yeah, I liked playing a Hunter just fine -all that Dexterity certainly helps- but I found that I was mainly an elusive melee fighter through what I played and was only using ranged weapons to lure guys out into one on one combat and not to deal damage.

Now with the Bandit, I'm light on my feet, I'm pretty resilient, and best of all I hit freaking hard. I'm loving it thus far. Only died once, and it was when I was underneath the Dragon Bridge and some dirty rat (pun intended) pushed me off the ledge.

I re-rolled as a knight, and it starts out a little rocky but it really starts coming together. I think the trick is to make a plan early on how you want to build your stats, so you don't spread them too thin. I'll admit though, I'm pretty indecisive, I think about re-rolling almost every time I play.

I suggest bandit or pyromacer. Maybe knight if you want to get the heal miracle or want some extra health.

@figurehead00:

Yeah, I'm the same way, which is why when I "re-rolled" I decided to keep a very specific plan in mind for my early levels. Last time, it seemed I was just trying to be too much of a jack of all trades.

@TooWalrus:

Nah, there's no actual "rolling". Each class has base starting states. I just like using the "rolling" term more than saying "choosing a new class to play as".

@MentalDisruption:

Yeah, I ended up playing Bandit and pouring my early levels into reinforcing Strength and Endurance. So far, I've been liking the melee juggernaut I seem to be.

@ImperiousRix: Be sure to watch pumping tons of points in endurance, I think the point of diminishing returns is relatively low like it was in Demon's Souls.

Anyone try just pumping DEX and END and focusing mainly on shield and a halberd/spear, kinda like a spartan style? If so how's it working? I keep thinking about trying that.

Do halberds have strength or dexterity as their base stats? That's where to focus. Spears are mostly dex and make great weapons in general, I have heard good things about halberds too but they're slower. Personally, I like pumping strength and endurance so I can use shields with really high stability and heavy armor and still move moderately fast (Havel's Ring helps) and use strength based weapons to kill bosses and spears on weaker enemies.

@Xtrminatr:

I'll probably focus up on Resistance and Strength next. Or maybe Dexterity as that's a bit low at the moment.

@ImperiousRix:If you're making an str based character, don't raise dex unless you need to meet a weapon requirement. It won't help you as much as just focusing on getting strength or endurance higher. I haven't really run into a reason to raise resistance either, but that's just me. Try not to spread points out too thin because as you get higher in soul level it's going to take a ton more souls to raise your stats.

@musclerider said:

Be a man. Pick Deprived.

In the QL it seemed deprived was nude, had a shield and a bludgeon weapon. What's the benefit of that one? Or is it the hardest to use? I imagine it would have faster evasive rolls. What about its starting stats?

@SuperfluousMoniker: I'm pretty sure, and I could be wrong, that halberds work off of dex. That's what made me think of it. I really like the idea of being quick, and fighting right outside of most things' reach. What you were describing with strength is kinda what I've been going for with my knight. Havel's Ring seems like it would make it a lot better, though I'm going to have to figure out how to suck less to take it from him. The handful of times I've tried he's smashed me good.

@Gerhabio:

It's the toughest to start with because of its lousy equipment, but it has straight 11's across the board on all stats. Which means it can essentially become anything or do a little bit of everything.

The easiest start is a knight with a quick two points into faith which will let you get extra healing spells very early on as well as the poise on the nights armor making you much for defensive than any other character with a shield. I would suggest you keep the character you have and get the winged spear out of the graveyard and two hand that bitch. Just keep on trying to make forward progress and your character will end up exactly where you want it. :)

@Gerhabio:It's supposed to be for experts, but honestly there is absolutely no reason to use deprived. The level it starts at and having it's stats all be 11 is just wasted points that could have been used specializing. No one should try to make more than a couple of their stats high, so it really doesn't benefit you more than just picking a class which specializes in what you want.

@SuperfluousMoniker: Yeah, I didn't think about that. I'll probably just stick with my end/str knight for now and actually see something other than the Undead Berg for once, save the shield/halberd thing for another playthrough. I'm just hoping to find a better shield than the Hollow Shield soon.

@SuperfluousMoniker: Okay, cool. I'm glad to know I'm not crazy/missing something. I was pretty surprised by how good the Hollow Shield is compared to pretty much every other shield I've found so far.

Im rolling naked wanderer

Boss Status........buts its also why im still stuck at the undead parish............

@SuperfluousMoniker: Oh by the way, I was totally wrong about halberds working off dex, D's in strength and dex.