Well, just giving out my 2 cents. I started out with a temple knight class, and man, the game was really brutal in the beginning. I find the halberd pretty unwieldy if I were to use it in one hand, and most of the time I get caught by attacks in the midst of my swing. Maybe I am just not good at using the weapon, but imagine my delight when I got the winged spear. At first I tried it out and dislike it because of the ugly attacking motion,. (Crouching and poking, urgh)
However, I got so tired of using halberd that I finally decided to switch weapon, and the only melee weapon that I can switch to was the spear. So, at the time I kinda forced myself to use it, and once I familiarized myself with it, I was surprised by how noob-friendly the weapon was. The game difficulty decrease by a lot once I was familiar with the weapon. You guys should know the reason why, the decent range of the spear + the ability to block while attacking is a godsend for a noob like me at the time.
So, after I finished the game on the first run(I just did), I was reminiscing back of the painful times when I just started the game knowing nothing, going around killing NPCs and dieing in body form and stuff, I was just thinking it will be great if noobs like me at the time could know earlier of the benefits of such weapon.
So, heres my first contribution on what I think is the best weapon a beginner should start with.
Weapon: Winged Spear
Location: 1-2 ( the bridge where the dragon breathe fire on you) I died trying to take it, but it was worth it.
Pros:
1. Very good range, can poke enemies before they get into their melee range.
2. You can attack while blocking! You will have the impunity of attacking without worrying about counter-attack. (dont work for enemies like greatsword redknight who will just breakthrough your guard)
3. It looks good. (lol)
4. Very easily obtained. Just keep running and grabbing the items on the bridge, suicide is a must I am afraid unless you kill the red dragon first.
Cons:
1. No slashing
2. Lock on is a must most of the time, or you will be stabbing air.
3. Not ideal for a few boss fight. (Maneater, flamelurker, for me I dunno why but I miss like crazy although I am locked on, I can only hit if I am at kissing range)
For the next weapon, I was kinda exposed to the blueblood sword. I kinda got it by accident, I finished world 5 pretty early because I was trying to get my dark silver shield as early as possible. And I didnt even get my broken sword from world 5 actually, I got it from farming the herbs from world 1-1. The guy right before the phalanx gate drop it for me. I was curious about what the broken sword is, so I google it and voila, blueblood sword. So, I go and forge it and try it out, it took me a long while to farm enough soul to use it though, I was playing magic/melee build at the beginning, so none of my stats match the 18/18/18/18 requirement, but hey its my 1st character so I was curious and might as well try it out since its kinda like my first "ultimate" weapon.
Again I was surprised by the versatility of the weapon. The blueblood sword got a really great arcing sweep that can hit multiple enemies and its my favoured weapon to clear out crowds, and the R2 stab is great as well, can substitute for the spear in tight spots. And blueblood sword is very long, and I think people who never used it before will be quite surprised by its range, I would say its only slightly shorter than the winged spear range. And another great thing is the speed! Its really fast! Another plus is that you will be playing a luck build and that means tons of drops. I got around 15 luck at the moment and every run at the start of 1-2 drops me 3-4 splinters of hard/sharp stone and 1-2 large splinters. And I think all this factor makes for a great beginner weapon.
Weapon: Blueblood sword
Requirement: Broken Sword(1-1 dreglings, 5-2 very near the meat cleaver bitch) + Pureblood Demon Soul(Maiden Astrea, really easy boss, just snipe her to death)
Once you get the materials, head down to Ed and forge it. (Need to kill flamelurker to unlock)
Pros:
1. Great range for a longsword, try it out and you will know.
2. Very fast swing.
3. Swing hits multiple target in range.
4. Very high damage with weapon enchant. (White sticky stuff, light weapon spell, greatly shown in maneater fight, I killed the first maneater before the 2nd maneater spawn with a BBS+light weapon combo)
5. Luck requirement makes it attractive to me because not only you get great damage from BBS, you get more drops.
Cons:
1. You need an incredible spread of stats to equip it. 18 STR/DEX/FTH/MAG might turn some people off because if you started off like me without planning for the weapons, it takes damn long farming for the souls to put this sword on. For me I had to farm the 4-2 world reapers quite a number of times to fit the requirement.
2. You need to kill flamelurker. ('nough said)
3. If you intend on getting the broken sword from the swamp, you need to tread very closely to the BP. And I hate the GOD DAMN swamp. I didnt pick up the sword from there because I was busy trying to finish the stage as fast as possible, and never return there again. I only return there for the selen vinland quest and thats all.
Next weapon that really make the game easy for me was the Lava Bow. Its pretty, low requirement of stats, and it deals big damage without needing a high DEX, and everytime it hits the enemy stumbles allowing you to spam that R1 button for some enemies.
Weapon: Lava Bow
Requirement: Any bow+7 + Hard demon soul(Boss of 2-1)
Got the materials? Head down to Ed again. And yes, you need to kill that flamelurker.
Pros:
1. High damage output without requiring much stats(Perfect for BBS build. For the other build, the DEX might be a problem. Easily one of the bow of the game for non-pure dex build. )
2. Stuns enemies with the fire.
Cons
1. Need to kill flamelurker.
2. You have to give up the firespray spell which I think is a very very good spell.
Another weapon worth mentioning is the Crescent Falchion+1 in 4-1, that helped a great deal with my flamelurker fight and it makes Tower Knight a joke.
Weapon: Crescent Falchion
Locations: 4-1(Behind the black skeleton, just use magic against this guy, or sidestep his lunging sweep and backstab him)
Pros:
1. A very strong weapon at such an early stage
2. Absolutely destroys Tower Knight.
3. Helps a lot in Flamelurker fight if you havent yet gotten a magic weapon and you plan to melee.
4. Easily upgraded to +4 because you can easily farm the reapers in 4-2.
5. Mana regen, 1
Cons
1. Damage is pretty low end-game.
2. Its a falchion, kilij is much much better.
3. You need to kill a black skeleton to get through to the item. Another option is to lure it and run through to quickly grab the falchion. But a full manly approach is best, lol.
Other tips:
Unlocking Ed the blacksmith.
In 2-1, while exploring you will hit one area with 3 firesword lizardmen. Dispose of them and instead of heading into the tunnel next to them, head straight and you will see some crates there. Destroy the crates and you will meet up with 2 hammer wielding lizardmen, dispose of them again and head out into the open. You will notice a staircase to the left where you will find a lever nearby, activate it and the lift next to the lever will begin to operate. Take the lift down right to the basement and voila, you will find Ed.
Flamelurker tips
Go online and get some help, it helps a great deal. One guy distracting, one guy doing the damage. But to do this you have to sacrifice your world tendency. And stick to soul arrow or sword with magic property. It deals a lot of damage. MY soul arrow with 18 MAG deals around 130 damage to him with a silver catalyst.
And other veterans can contribute as well, cause I am afraid this is the only 4 weapons I am familiar with. Hope the beginners find this useful.
Cheers.