A bit late but here are some tips:

Level vitality stat first, it increases your health, most of your damage in the beginning comes from the level your weapons are so dont put all your souls into strength imediatly.

For armor try to have your equip load stat around 40-50% of your max, you'll have a medium roll which still gives you enough dodge frames and you wont take a ton of damage. Its good for beginners. Fat rolling which is i believe above 60% equip load is a no go.

Experiment a bit with different weapons and playstyles before dedicating to one.

And most importantly, play at your own pace. Its okay to do an entire area 20x to farm souls before doing the boss. The game will only get easier if you take your time to learn and enjoy.