Oh man I've fucked up big time! I didn't realise the Achient dragon was friendly so I fired arrows at him and now I have to fight him to get the item to carry on in the game but I can't do it! The dragon literally beats me in one hit every time I go to fight him and I've attempted it easily 20 times now, I'm slowly losing patience with it now. Anyone got any tips on how to beat? His attacks are just too damn strong and there isn't any player summon signs to help me out either besides the AI one that is useless.

Redeem your sins and the dragon will be friendly again ( I think). Talk to Cromwell the Pardoner in the Brighrstone Cove and ask for pardon. Remember though " we must never forget our sins " :p

The Ancient Dragon is my favorite boss fight in the game. If you want revenge, you need to stay under him and keep attacking the back legs, when he moves his wings just before he flys, immediately run toward the tail direction to avoid the flame.

Awesome! Thanks for the tips mate, I'll first try to fight him because I've lost all my souls now so it isn't such a big deal now, but if it takes me more than 5 attempts I'll take the cowards way out and redeem my sins :) 

BoneFire ascetics won't work unfortunately. Bountiful Sunlight miracle for example is only available for purchase in NG++, the other way to get it is to get rank 3 in Blue Sentinels covenant, you need to kill 500 guilty hosts or invaders... That would require about a year to accomplish. Seriously, what were they thinking.

Yeah still possible tho, but immense PvP grinding, i guess there are players that love to PvP gives them something to aim for :), ill be playing through 3 times :)

so how do you guys think about the physical scaling ? in case you still do not know, strength scales almost twice as much as dex, here is a complete guide that pretty much spots on with my own tests. my guess is that this is done to balance scaling's DPS, since stregnth weapons are alot slower and consumes more stamina, a C scaling in strength gives about as much damage bonus as an A scaling in dex, and a S in dex is not even as good as a B in strength.

it doesn't necessarily make strength weapons better than dex weapons, moveset and stamina consumption are still more important than pure damage, especially in PVP when poise is still broken (seriously, how could a single R1 from a one handed dagger stun full havels O_O), but as far as quality weapons are concerned, there isn't much point left in the 27/40 (or it's equivalent) unless you want the option to use dex weapons, I tried quality builds twice and they both ended up became strength builds, a 50/20 is perfectly viable for most 'quality' weapons.

I have a pure dexterity character (using the Spotted Whip) and yes, the physical damage of dex builds have been toned down. However, I think that dex this time around has been designed to go along with poison and bleed damage.  As for quality-like builds, I plan to experiment a bit more with dual-wielding dexterity weapons (I have two berserker blades, which I'll need at least 27 strength and dexterity to use in power stance).  I'm still not sold on dual-wielding, but I'll give it a shot.

Scaling is fine and well balanced imo. Dex characters are pain to kill in PvP, they move and attack way too fast. Washing Pole coupled with buffing spell do a very respectable amount of damage in a wide range too. The last thing they need is even more damage, especially with the poise being completely useless against them, they surely has the leverage against strength build.

Personally, I have a grudge against Dex characters. I have below-average internet connecting, I suffer from about 0.5 second delay. When I fight them I get hit even if I'm out of range, I get back stabbed way to easy ( not as easy as in the first game of course ) All I can say is... Thank god for Gower's Ring of Protection, hah. Just give my effective poise back and I'll show them xD

dude, dual wielding is AWESOME. I wasn't sold on it either until I tried it, it does massive damange and stun locks the shit out of everything, even the bosses, a signle L2 from 2 maces can stun lock Ruin Sentinels and Flexile Sentry right away, so you can just mash them to death without even worried about them fighting back, sure you can't parry but you don't even need to, power stance L2 can ususally do more damage than ripostes, the down side is stamina management and fast enemies, all your attacks consume tons of stamina so if an enemy surivives your attack and fight back right away you may not have enough stamina to roll, and fast enemies (like Alonne Knights) would easily get the first hit on you because you have no shield and it's a pain to try and roll through their attacks.  I died a lot while dual wielding but when I was alive I would destroy everything, it's a high risk - big reward kind of play.

Finally completed it yesterday, really enjoyed the game but I didn't find the world as creative and memoriable as demons and dark 1. The game was definitely easier aswell but not too easy I think From Software have got the difficulty balance just right for the first playthrough.

Also did anyone think those final 3 bosses in the throne room were stupidly easy for final bosses??
Overall the game is really good though and I look forward to a 3rd dark souls or 2nd demon souls. It's now time to get back to FFxiv on t PS4 now :)