If you have played Dark Souls 3 for an extended period of time or pay attention, you have probably experienced the pain of invading or at least heard complaints about it. There are some very legitimate complaints about invasions, but this was they game we were given. You don't have to play it if you don't like it. In my opinion, invasions in DS3 are some of the most fun I've ever had in a game. Killing 2-5 gankers is a really rewarding achievement, especially in a game as difficult as dark souls. I have a few ideas and tips for you if you are looking to start invading, get better, or just hear some ideas that I've had success with. I'm going to break this up into multiple parts so it's easier to digest and separate.
SOUL LEVEL:
This is a question that a lot of people have: what level do I take my character to? That is completely up to you, but in order to get the most invasions you are going to want to cap your level somewhere that YOU like invading. It's really that simple. I personally have characters at 70, 100, and 120. The invasion range is +-10 soul levels AND +-2 weapon levels so logically you can go up or down 10 levels from my levels and still get solid results.
Taking your build to level 70 can be considerably easier for invasions than 120 because you HAVE to sacrifice some stats in that level. You just don't have room to be completely optimized. Chances are the players you are coming up against have no idea what PVP is, or are building to 120. Either way, their stats are going to be all fucked up at 70. The reason 70 is better than say, 30, is that you can have your stats and weapon at a level where you can kill phantoms fairly quickly. You only want to take your weapon to +8 if you plan on invading at level 70. This will allow you to invade the people with maxed weapons, but you won't be excluded from the people with +6 weapons. At certain points in the game, titanite chunks are few and far between so this seems to be the optimal upgrade point for invading people who are blindly playing through the game and where you get the most damage and most invasions.
The 100-120 range can be considerably harder to deal with. You don't have to make very many sacrifices at these levels and fighting 4 invaders with all ultra weapons or have a caster in their midst or everyone has tears of denial cast....the list goes on. These invasions can be fucking difficult. However, you can still have some success if you're pretty good and they can still be a lot of fun. Just be aware that unless you have certain builds, the gankers are going to be ridiculous sometimes...I mean seriously. It's like they think they are playing halo or something, they need a team to win, and they are going to go to dark souls nationals for the team championship. It can be really dumb. If you also want to do duels and have a complete build this range is the one you want to take your characters to.
