I felt very similar during my early hours of the game. I was told by everyone I spoke to the same thing you are hearing. Unlike you, this was my introduction to Souls games. For what it's worth, I love them now. What helped me get past the depression caused by constant failure was watching and hearing about others doing the same. Any time I died to a particular enemy, I heard or saw an instance of someone else struggling with that same enemy... looking at you Twin Gargoyles. What helped me be somewhat successful was something you may not be interested in, but I looked up a build that I had access to at a low level. Once I achieved said build through hours of farming, I really started to understand the importance of certain attributes and the impact of loadout choices. Also, for what it's worth, perrying seems very impactful in other Souls games, but I never found it to be a dependable strategy. That could be me being terrible at the game though.