It took me about a week to finally beat the game (I could only play in the morning for 2 hours max before work an hour on break and 4 after work before passing out) And I highly recommend the wiki app It really helped me with looking stuff up and what not I was pretty confused when I first started playing And I started as a Mage so it was a little interesting to learn the ropes But after my first play through it took me maybe 3 hours to reach the last boss again (farming souls at giant lord so I can reach 300+ (currently 240 now) The game is really all about learning your preferred and most effective way of taking on a challenge then adding to it When I first played through I could only really put effort into intl because I had so few points and that's where the starting stat is the highest for sorcerers [b][i][u]however[/u][/i][/b] Around halfway through the game on NG I farmed for crystal soul spear and soul geyser For which I now have 7 copies of each And used moonlight greatsword until I hit NG+ wherein I rearranged my stats so I could have this -blam!-ing amazing ultra great sword [spoiler]Fume UGS[/spoiler] in one hand and my staff [spoiler]Of Wisdom[/spoiler] in the other that would have about 15 casts of CSS [spoiler]crystal soul spear[/spoiler] and 9 casts of SS [spoiler]soul spear[/spoiler] As well as having the crown of the iron King (replenishes 20% of spell use every 2 minutes, perfect for little to no bonfire runs) And for a time I tried lighting instead of magic but the damage just wasn't there [spoiler]even with dragon chime +5 and 60+ faith[/spoiler] So I went back to intl over faith and life couldn't be easier [b][i][u]TL:DR VERSION[/u][/i][/b] the point is that this game has limitless possibilities you just need to take some time to find them, it's all about adapting the way that you adapt to the game, following someone else's interests are easy but finding your own way is what makes the game enjoyable It may take you a day to figure out what it is and even then be cautious but still once you beat the game and all dlcs if you do a NG+ you'll have the time of your life moping the floor and having a blast with bosses and enemies that can OHKO you if you aren't careful