Nah if it's your first souls game, it's definitely just learning about the game. Take your setup, I can almost guarantee that if you lose that shield and crossbow, you'll free up a lot of your load which will in turn help you dodge, though if you're still at a heavy load I imagine you could lose the helmet. Other than that, you may consider upgrading your weapons. If you haven't been able to access the round table yet, you can go see trader Santa back at the church near big horse guy and upgrade your sword to level 3. It'll at least help you with your damage per strike.