The first From game I really played was Bloodborne, but I’d heard about the invasions and all that, so I was constantly expecting some fucker to jump in and start smashing me to bits. There’s a bit after the first proper boss, you follow the bridge(?), up into a courtyard, graveyard type place, and(I thought) I got invaded by a couple of other players. For ages I was pretty pleased with myself because I beat them first try – turns out they were just a couple of the one-off NPC enemies that occasionally turn up. It was only about two thirds of the way through the game that I realised I’d been playing offline the whole time.
I’m not into PVP or PVE online gaming at all, although I dipped my toe into Destiny and was bored out of my mind by it, so I tend not to play Soulsborne games online. They’re tense enough for me as it is, and I play a lot of other stuff too(usually have about four or five other games on the go at the same time), so I’m never going to bother adapting my play to the online PVP game.

Meh play how you want, i go by the situation. I won’t estus during an invasion unless they are using a healing spell/effect then i might do the same or if they try to gank me before finishing off the pve. I don’t do very well tbh and only once has someone had to heal in a fight with me but i still think playing it by ear is the most honorable thing to do. I mean at the end of the day the game is built around the idea of corrupted souls and whatnot so complaining about what anyone does asides from outright cheating is kind of moot.

your absolutely right. healing if you get invaded is accepted and is a no brainer. healing in fight clubs and in arenas is dishonorable. i remember when you could heal with estus in the arenas. that was stupid af

This is correct, I forgot to take those part out of the guide after doing some research (I had written it a while back). I’m actually planning on doing a more comprehensive guide on Dark magic and hexing by itself, and I will link to it from here. Thanks for helping out.