Typically I start off all souls games with a brute build and simply focus on raw physical power. It's one of the easiest playstyle to understand allowing you to think more on the battle over other builds. When you fully get the hang of that then I'd probably look into more advance builds such as mages building around moonlight and ect. That's just the way I play and it works for me. Experiment if you want. There are a few respec stones every play through.