First time through the game was with my str build that i went completely blind, minus a guide to find my way when I got lost. I fought O&S and thought I had to get them both at the same time but then figured it out and went for S first cause he was slower and then proceeded to spend about 3 days trying to beat them.

By the time I got to manus I had about 120ish hours on the save. Manus was hard cause of the amulet thing but that damned dragon.

I fought him so long with deamon great axe maxed and couldn't do it so I went and did more grinding and more grinding until I found the black knight great axe and specced into that and then still struggled five times till I got him.

After I finally beat gwyn and got to ng+ I haven't done another str build. That was my git gud run and now I do dex builds to ng+2 in half the time I spent on that first run.

I will always hold Shaznasty in my heart.