I have I had black armour edition since launch and I can start by saying the pre order bonus weapons are not ruining the game, first of all they are not very usefull and I never used them because they were to weak. I'm not saying this is a bad thing , Cred to the devs for not making the game any easier for people who preorder.
Now about the actuall game, I'm on a new game ++ and have completed the journey twice. I have spent over 60 hours and done everything you almost can in both playtrough. But you discover new things like ds1 all the time. The game is fantastic in so many ways and feels like a Souls game which was I wanted. The world is huge and u can fast travel to any bonfire u lit , by doing this the devs sacrificed the way the original dark souls world was connected. Almost every place were connected to each other but here in ds2 its not as much as connected because you can fast travel. Sure there are some path and areas connected to each other but I felt ds1 was better in this regard. I felt the game was easier to beat than ds1 but maybe that was just because I had learned the game mechanics thanks to 100+hours in ds1. I have only 3 trophies left then platinum and I will dive into the game as soon as I post this, I highly recomend this game because it is really good. I have a lot of games I can choose to be playing but I have spent a lot of hours in this game, I have infamous second waiting for me but that will have to wait until I'm completly done with ds2!

Also I wanted to say, I know a lot of people hated the game got downgraded in terms of graphics. But honestly this game looks fine and the soul series has never been needed of Great grahics. Im not saying the game looks bad but I'm just sayin stop hating on the devs. Im prretty sure the downgraded because the wanted to the game run better on a old hardware. Ds2 runs even better than ds1 so not complaint there. The game is very poolished, I never encountered a bugg or glitch even after 60+hours so cred to the devs for that. I dont think I have anything more to say , just a lot of love for the game and the rest of the series. Hope we see another game on ps4/x1 in a few years or ds2 remaded for ps4, I would defiently buy that!

I do the same thing. I like helping tanks, blast the crap out of the bosses while they distract them. 3 casters together is a lot of fun too. The aiming does need a complete overhaul though, free aiming with a target cursor would help to aim where the enemies are going. Free aiming is possible but only by walking towards the target (which you don't want to do with bosses) and vertical aiming is extremely sensitive.  A button to shoot towards where the camera is pointing would work. R2 with stafs and charms should do that.
The lock on needs a different button too, or turn off re-center camera. Many times the lock on fails and I get turned around in the process, very disorienting.

I'm lvl 140 already, taking my time. Experimenting with spells mostly, attunement at 40 now for spell slots, faith and int up to 32. I need 42 to use spells I already have. It's getting very expensive to level, bonfire aesthetic and co-op helps. I generally don't move on until I have examined every bit in detail and have a good mental map of the area.

You sould look into getting binoculars if you haven't.  You can use those in your offhand to aim spells, but there's no reticule so you're just generally aiming using the center of the screen.  Not perfect by any means, but it's something.  

Yeah you have tanks, mages and then the sad all dext build that i went for. Rolling costs too much stamina to keep on spamming very annoying especially against bosses. That makes the benefit of having a light fast weapon useless when you can get only one stike off.

I'm level 76 and still at the iron keep, wow you passed me by a lot. 

I finally beat the game, after first killing the King.

I have to say, the ending is disappointing. Just like in other Souls games :/

Though I read that if you beat the game again in NG+, a different ending plays out.

Hahaha, I'm playing both at the same time right now. I'm not an invader in DS though. In DS2 however, i'm doing very well in PVP.

This. Smelter Demon is actually one of the few bosses i actually had a little bit of trouble with. I'm playing strictly Melee and with the right equipment it is definitely possible. Make sure you have a couple Small Orange Burr's with you. They will help.

Smelter is really a tough boss the first time around you face it, especially for melee classes. Gyrm's Greatshield trivializes that battle though.

Heck, Gyrm's Greatshield +10 trivializes Ancient Dragon as well, as you can effectively block both ticks of damage from it's AoE fire breath attack, making the fight one of the easiest in the game

Chloranty ring helps, I lose my stamina way to fast as well rolling around, plus eg lightning spear uses a third of my stamina bar. At least the one strike I can get off with spells is usually a decent hit thanks to all the upgrades.

I got a lot of souls farming for large titanite and titanite chunks. After clearing Black gulch of all enemies a second time with Bonfire easthetic, and doing co-op there (left my sign down while killing the hands) I had over 350k souls to spend. That goes fast. I also cleared out Harvest valley and Earthen keep for materials. Same again in Iron keep. Covetous silver and gold serpent rings speed things up to, plus I found Gavan again, had lots of stuff to sell.

I still haven't found pillars of flame area effect pyromancy (not the actual name), although I see people using it in co-op. I would have been useful against the boss in Doors of Pharros. What a crappy zone btw, annoying toxic + poison attack, too many lock stone places and annoying forced pvp. I stayed online for the messages to see what lock stone mechanisms are useful, and thus got summoned. Run up to closest enemy and get killed to go back. I never got invaded there (apart from an AI invader) so is it other players that summon me? Annoying.

The boss was impossible. 5 or 6 fast moving toxic+poison rats that rush at you, and a huge rat boss that jumps all over the place spazzing out the camera and leaves you guessing what you're looking at. Plus he hits for 2/3 my health bar in a pretty unavoidable path. Not really any time to heal, or hit with all of them coming at once. If it wasn't the boss that killed me in 5 seconds, it was the toxic+poison.
I got creative, used a spell effect lengthening ring and laid down a path of lingering flames (static fire orbs that explode on contact). Then pulled the first rat with a fire orb, turn around run through my traps with all the rats trailing. That gets rid of all but one, and does some decent damage on the boss too. Then roll like crazy and try to stay between the boss's legs, wait until he pauses for a second and either heal or throw another fire orb, get rid of that last rat. After that it gets manageable. Beware in the end he starts urinating a huge pool of acid. I got him on the 12th attempt but died in the acid with half my gear broken, didn't count. After repairs and a human effigy to get some more health, another quick failure was followed by sweet victory. Take that spazzy camera.
The reward, a chance to enter the rat covenant, no thanks! I did get a nice spell by trading its soul with Straid in the Bastille.

Next is Tseldora, damn rock trap got me. Can't wait to play more.