DS 2 was my least favorite of the games as well as my least favorite to get 100 % on , but to me its still a Souls game , and still so much better than most of the garbage out there . I mostly agree with what you said , but you get pretty used to coping with the game ' s difficulties . DS 2 puts less emphasis on what level you actually are as you ' re playing the game and expects you to level up more than you did is DS 1 i think . My NG character is somewhere around lvl 260 , and I haven ' t leveled since the DLC on my first NG cycle . I ' m not sure what my point was going into that , but next time you play get a big big sword and build around swinging it at things Like DS 1 that works for almost every situation . 100 % damage shield are a little tricky to find in early game now , but I remember there ' s a nice shield dropped by a miniboss in heides tower you can use . Once you ' re confident enough you can go find another big sword and power stance them , a feature unique to DS 2 ! Probably my favorite thing about DS 2 is swinging for some silly amounts of damage with zweihanders in both hands .