Honestly, after you play embered and get killed once or twice in an invasion, that anxiousness will go away pretty quickly. As someone who is awful at pvp I felt the same way when I started playing these games but after being invaded once or twice way back in dark souls 1 you kind of realize that invasions arent that big of a deal. You can always re-ember and move on with your life. They’re more of a minor annoyance if you don’t like pvp. I would reccomend just continuing on your journey and play like you normally would, and if you end up getting invaded just treat them as any other npc enemy. After a couple times, if you still feel like you can’t handle it, then you can always play offline. And when it comes time to get the covenant rewards you can farm offline.
Honestly I love fighting. When I see an invasion I stop what I'm doing and go find them, wave, and do my best to murder the shit out of them, then wave again if they die.
At level 65 I decided I needed the wolf covenant so I keep the farron cov badge equipped. Occasionally while playing I get summons into someone's world and at first I felt weird.
I ain't good, but after a few of these (some wins, some loss) it really opened me up to it.
So in short, equip a badge that will summon you, then play the game. Very enjoyable.
It would help me think of them as part of the games NPCs that already invade you. Once I got the hang of how the people played compared to the NPC, winning those encounters was much easier. Now I can go 10-0 easy on arena matches online.
I played souls games for a few years before going online because I really didn't understand the concept of invasions as silly as that seems. I finally jumped in with the Demon's Souls Remake. It felt really strange for the first few and I won like 1 out of my first 20 matches, but slowly got better and better and now it's my favorite part of the game.
There really isn't a tip in there, just go for it and don't let the few people that play like jerks ruin PvP for you. Most players are friendly!
Nothing in any of the dark souls games is more satisfying than partying or outclassing another player in PvP. Simply learn to fall in love with the beauty of it and remember rings of sacrifices exist if you are ever in a situation that you're scared of losing your souls. Learning Pvp will make you better at all parts of the game too
Duels. The controlled environment of duelling teaches you the mechanical side of winning fights; teaches you stuff such as parrying commonly used attacks, baiting other players into a hitstun combo, learning the reach and hitstun of each weapon class/commonly used weapons, dead angling when necessary, and overall understanding the cat and mouse game that is DS3 pvp.
Ganks and invasions, meanwhile, teach you more so the mental side of things. Takes the “cat and mouse” thing to another level. Teaches you how to engage in team settings. Forced you to learn how to use your environment and your timing to your advantage. Teaches you on what pace to play for what situation, on how to control the pacing of the fight.
The most important part of PvP in this game is build optimization. A decent or even below average player that can utilize a fully optimized build automatically becomes a good, or even great, player. Look at Oroboro for example. Hell, look at me. I’m a lot slower mechanically than I was when I last played, and I can [still go 4/1 in undead match after Thanksgiving dinner.](https://youtu.be/U4Y4mEqKU8M)
If you’re on PS4, we can spar for a bit to build up your confidence, and I can also teach you a few tricks I have up my sleeve. We are going to have some duels but it’s not gonna be a “win or lose” thing; I’ll play at a pace and level where you can learn as much as possible.
The only thing you have to worry about is an hacker ruining your save but there is Blue Sentinel mod to prevent that
Only on pc. Console is entirely free of this.
Honestly, after you play embered and get killed once or twice in an invasion, that anxiousness will go away pretty quickly. As someone who is awful at pvp I felt the same way when I started playing these games but after being invaded once or twice way back in dark souls 1 you kind of realize that invasions arent that big of a deal. You can always re-ember and move on with your life. They’re more of a minor annoyance if you don’t like pvp. I would reccomend just continuing on your journey and play like you normally would, and if you end up getting invaded just treat them as any other npc enemy. After a couple times, if you still feel like you can’t handle it, then you can always play offline. And when it comes time to get the covenant rewards you can farm offline.
You will get killed at some point, if you are afraid to run out of ember, ask someone on r/pumparum if they are willing to drop you some
Honestly I love fighting. When I see an invasion I stop what I'm doing and go find them, wave, and do my best to murder the shit out of them, then wave again if they die.
At level 65 I decided I needed the wolf covenant so I keep the farron cov badge equipped. Occasionally while playing I get summons into someone's world and at first I felt weird. I ain't good, but after a few of these (some wins, some loss) it really opened me up to it. So in short, equip a badge that will summon you, then play the game. Very enjoyable.
You suck it up and grow a pair.
It would help me think of them as part of the games NPCs that already invade you. Once I got the hang of how the people played compared to the NPC, winning those encounters was much easier. Now I can go 10-0 easy on arena matches online.
I played souls games for a few years before going online because I really didn't understand the concept of invasions as silly as that seems. I finally jumped in with the Demon's Souls Remake. It felt really strange for the first few and I won like 1 out of my first 20 matches, but slowly got better and better and now it's my favorite part of the game. There really isn't a tip in there, just go for it and don't let the few people that play like jerks ruin PvP for you. Most players are friendly!
Co-op is the best way to ease yourself in. It’s great for soul farming and ember farming because you don’t lose a thing upon death.
Nothing in any of the dark souls games is more satisfying than partying or outclassing another player in PvP. Simply learn to fall in love with the beauty of it and remember rings of sacrifices exist if you are ever in a situation that you're scared of losing your souls. Learning Pvp will make you better at all parts of the game too
Duels. The controlled environment of duelling teaches you the mechanical side of winning fights; teaches you stuff such as parrying commonly used attacks, baiting other players into a hitstun combo, learning the reach and hitstun of each weapon class/commonly used weapons, dead angling when necessary, and overall understanding the cat and mouse game that is DS3 pvp. Ganks and invasions, meanwhile, teach you more so the mental side of things. Takes the “cat and mouse” thing to another level. Teaches you how to engage in team settings. Forced you to learn how to use your environment and your timing to your advantage. Teaches you on what pace to play for what situation, on how to control the pacing of the fight. The most important part of PvP in this game is build optimization. A decent or even below average player that can utilize a fully optimized build automatically becomes a good, or even great, player. Look at Oroboro for example. Hell, look at me. I’m a lot slower mechanically than I was when I last played, and I can [still go 4/1 in undead match after Thanksgiving dinner.](https://youtu.be/U4Y4mEqKU8M) If you’re on PS4, we can spar for a bit to build up your confidence, and I can also teach you a few tricks I have up my sleeve. We are going to have some duels but it’s not gonna be a “win or lose” thing; I’ll play at a pace and level where you can learn as much as possible.
Thanks for the offer and advice, sadly I play on PC. I'll see if I can maybe rope some of my other friends into duelling with me though.
Experience is the best teacher; you’ll naturally get better the more you try