Grinding DkS

[Exia91]

Dear Escapists,

I checked several Dark Souls relating threads, but they do not seem to answer my question. It seems to me that the threads gave a vague idea of what to do, but in a very ambiguous way.

As the title says, my question is about grinding.
One thread concerned grinding, and I noticed many people saying the OP should start over because he grinded? or that bosses scale with grinding so it is useless to grind?

Especially the first question about starting over because of the grinding, made me wonder and worry about my game.
I am an explorer, I check every nook and cranny, I climb buildings and walk around each place several times. This resulted in my having to kill many mobs several times and I accumulated a huge amount of souls. I invested this in leveling my Character (not my gear). As it stands, I am lvl 65 and I killed a shitload of bosses...

Spoiler

(In alphabetical order)Asylum Demon, Black Knights (3x), Bridge Wyvern, Butcher(in Depths), Capra Demon, Channeler (2x), Gaping Dragon, Giant Cats(Darkrood Garden), Giant Rat(Depths), Grey Wolf Sif, Havel the Rock(2nd kill after Asylum Demon), Hydra, Mecha Boar, Moonlight Butterfly, Titanite Demon, Tower Knight

.... I farmed most in the Forest Covenant before Sif. I struggled some time to defeat him. As you may see in the list (no Bell Gargoyles), I have yet to ring the First and Second bell.

So far I love the game (about 20h in already), I walked up and down many roads and accumulated enough to level up where I am. I enjoy the fighting and discover a shitload of things, which I believe is awesome.

I am happy with my purchase, though I wonder about the grinding.

As said in the other thread, is grinding/leveling up really needed and did I do something 'wrong' by being this high of level, while still having to do a Lot in the game before it is finished?

In short: Does grinding ruin DkS? Does it matter if I did it?

 

[Skin]

No. It does not ruin anything. You will get your shit smashed in vsing Orny and Smoggy no matter what level you are.

My one piece of advice to any Dark Soul player is this: exploit the game as much as you can because it only exists to fuck with you. Also, take that as a warning, because you might spend 100 hours on a character only to realize you fucked up somewhere and DkS being DkS just laughs in your face while fucking your wife.

You will most likely make another character, unless you are in some sort of rush to get to NG+. Don't worry though. By time you get round to your new character, things won't be so painful. You will still die, but not constantly.

My first playthrough, to kill the Taurus demon took me 6+ hours. Now I can speed run it in 10 minutes or less.

But trust me, Orny and Smoggy will smash your shit in.

 

[AlternatePFG]

Nah, grinding is fine. Leveling helps but you can't simply beat the game by leveling a ton. As long as you aren't looking to be summoned/PvP, there is nothing wrong with grinding a bit and overlevelling. You just simply don't have to grind souls to succeed.

 

[Skin]

Yeh, and remember, people do finish this game on SL1 and there is a reason for that (*cough* overpowered items).

Once you hit 40 vit and 40 endurance, you don't need anymore stats, unless you want to specifically use an item that requires stats. Or you want to riposte literally anyone and insta-kill them with your bandit dagger.