i'm level 27 lol, i did about 500 dmg per swing against him.

im level 6

i'd help but i'm too high of a level

I'm level 36, but I've been pumping all of my souls into levels. I was told that's a bad idea after the fact. <_< I have the Drake Sword, but all of my armor is standard; nothing is upgraded. Where do I need to go to find better gear? Should I just start upgrading basic armor for now? If so, is there a good place to farm Titanite Shards?

you can purchase titanite shards from blacksmith andre before darkroot gardens.
as for gear, what kind of build do you plan to use, a heavy build, light build? it all depends what you're aiming for.
i'm playing a heavy char so i went with highest def armor and good amount of poise.

as for weapons, drakes is a nice starter weapon with the 200 damage base, but it doesn't scale so it'll always do that amount of damage, which later in the game does progressively less and less.
i would recommend you pick a weapon you like with a move set you like and then upgrading it from there.
an easy upgrade path would be getting a lightning weapon, those will get you through your first playthrough easily.

i'm currently using a +5 lightning claymore and like i said, i did 505 dmg to that gaping dragon per swing lol, you probably saw me swing away at the boss really fast.
i do admit though i have low stats since i didn't pump much into endurance or vita, but i also take a lot less damage than a person using light gear with low/no poise.

i never farm titanite shards cause you can simply buy them, as for large shards, you can either buy them from the vendor in sens fortress or wait till you get to anor londo and buy from the giant blacksmith.

I'm looking to pick up a lightning katana any idea where? Also, what about the gear? I guess I could go either way now. Just sitting at fire shrine figuring out what to do haha.

you can pick up the laito in blighttown
or join forest covenant and buy either the uchigatana or washing pole from shiva in blighttown as well.

those are the only 3 katana style weapons in the game.

and i repeat, i don't know what style you plan to play so i can't recommend any gear until you figure it out yourself

What do you mean by style? Are you referring to spellcaster vs melee? If so, I prefer melee. I'm not sure what my options are beyond that.

sit there and tank
mr. teleport lagging backstab ninja
block and counter
nonstop attack with elemental damage

etc...

to elaborate more on that, i'm assuming you plan to go pvm or pve, i wouldn't go pvp until you know exactly what's out there but hey i won't stop you either.

anyways:

tank build (high def/poise and life you kind of just sit there and exchange hits with whatever comes your way)
agi/dex build (lower/low def usually not much if any poise. you go for quick attacks with dodging/parrying/backstabs)

but of course you can also do hybrid builds where you compromise some mobility for more damage/defense or vice versa defence/damage for mobility.

e: you can also make item specific characters, like i plan to use my character later to wield moonlight greatsword so i'm spending my stats accordingly.
you might make a build that utilizes a specific weapon, doesn't have to be unique, but each weapon has a different requirement, and sometimes wasting soul levels is stupid.

This post was edited by aznblader1 on Jan 1 2012 07:59pm