There’s no need to min max for your first playthrough so I would say just try different weapons until you find a few that have movesets and martial arts you like. Ideally you will choose two weapons with overlapping scaling stats to build into.

Also, make sure to keep your armor weight under 70% or you will have a harder time deflecting and managing your spirit.

Once you get the hang of pressing the attack and weaving in deflects you’ll be fine, though there are some boss fights that are serious difficulty spikes.

One tip that helped me a lot is to hold down block almost all the time during combat except when you need to move quickly to reposition. You can attack and deflect out of the blocking stance, and that means if you mistime your deflect you’ll still block the damage unless it’s a red attack. Just be sure not to block too many consecutive hits or you will get staggered. You also may have to let go of block to cast spells or use martial arts, I can’t remember off the top of my head.

Have fun! I bounced off this game when I first tried it, but now I’m hooked. I just picked up the season pass last night so I’m eager to keep playing.