Thanks! I think I have more or less completed this area by now, gotten tons of upgrade-materials and have used it to upgrade my sword to a Quality Sword, which sounded awesome. Also got a big shield that im not strong enough to wield, so I guess my next souls are into strength. I think this level was much easier than the first one, but I guess im just getting better? The magicians are pretty dangerous if not careful though. Awesome game!
Quality's OK. Good for early on if you don't know where you want to focus stats, but not super suitable for the long haul. The upgrade paths are as follows:
Hard/Sharpstone: Basic upgrade path, doesn't confer any special bonuses
Quality: Moderate boost to both DEX and STR scaling (Takes both to C, I think)
Crushing: Boosts STR scaling by a lot, eliminates DEX scaling
Sharp: Boosts DEX scaling by a lot, drops STR scaling
Dragon: Increases base damage, adds fire damage, eliminates all scaling (Not really viable long term, but situationally useful)
Tearing: Adds Bleeding, increases DEX scaling, lowers STR scaling.
Mercury: Adds chance to inflict Poison status
Fatal: Ups your riposte/backstab damage, lowers base damage.
Moon: Adds magic damage that scales to MAG stat.
Crescent: Adds MAG scaling magic damage and MP regeneration, eliminates DEX and STR scaling.
Blessed: Adds FTH scaling magic damage and HP regeneration, lowers DEX and STR scaling.
Sticky: Greatly increases DEX scaling on bows, lowers STR scaling, increases range.
Dark: Increases a shield's magic damage reduction, resets guard break reduction to that of the shield's base stat.