LaoKidBC

I'd say screw Royal and pick up a club and turn it into Meat Cleaver (need Swollen Demon's soul), one of the best weapons in the game due to its stat scaling. Don't focus on going magic+melee because you're really going to gimp your character online.

You can turn your winged spear (has to be plus 7, also you need Lead Demon's soul) into a Scraping Spear and armor break black phantoms that invade your game (people will be stupid enough to attack you and you can poke em while their in animation), giving you a huge advantage when breaking their shield, they take damage when they block.You can literally mop enemies going 2 handed with Meat Cleaver because the knock back hits enemies down and you can continually drop em and your swing will probably hit multiple enemies.

You should focus on end, str, dex, and faith. Main stats used for bows and your meat cleaver which should own. Vitality, you can upgrade once you feel satisfied enough with your other stats. If you feel like that a sudden change is too difficult, I guess you should stick with Ithian's advice.