Yeah, I took a ride from that nest. That place looked kind of scary so I lit the bonfire and got out.
Then I went back to Heide and helped with some bosses and then got some help, first on the one that leads to the second bonfire. Then I screwed up and got killed on the other one even though it was pretty easy with 3 people.
The problem is that put me a little hollow so I couldn't summon. So I helped yet again but this time it didn't restore me to human. Odd that it happened the first time, but not now.
Anyway, then I made a big mistake. I thought burning a human effigy at the bonfire was the way to return to fully human form as it always offers to burn one of those. Nope. It turns out burning an effigy at a bonfire eliminates all summons and invasion activity for the area. And for quite a while too. It has been 3 hours or so and I still can't place my summons or find any. Of course I wasted another effigy getting to human (by just using it) before I realized this. I thought maybe I had leveled up too far to ask for summons but they were everywhere else - just not in Hiede's.
So then I thought, screw it, I'll go do something else. Even with the cat ring, I cannot get down that hole in Majula. When I was nearly human and had a near full health bar I could make the first drop with a tiny sliver left. Then I went down a few more and stepped on to what I thought was a beam (a common thing to jump to in the other games). But it broke and I fell. Then when I returned I couldn't even make the first jump since I lost some health. I have the cat ring equipped too...
So then I moved on to the Wharf thing, which isn't too bad. I still haven't found the merchant or a second bonfire yet, but I did kill a bunch of things (there's so many there my sword almost breaks each run) and
. It isn't too bad though - not nearly as bad as, say, Blighttown.
In any case, before I blew it at the Dragonslayer boss, I ran around for a long time fully human and had no invasions. It seems like that activity must be more focused into the covenant areas in this game like it sort of was in Dark Souls (whereas it was more random in Demon's Souls).
Then I went back to Heide and helped with some bosses and then got some help, first on the one that leads to the second bonfire. Then I screwed up and got killed on the other one even though it was pretty easy with 3 people.
The problem is that put me a little hollow so I couldn't summon. So I helped yet again but this time it didn't restore me to human. Odd that it happened the first time, but not now.
Anyway, then I made a big mistake. I thought burning a human effigy at the bonfire was the way to return to fully human form as it always offers to burn one of those. Nope. It turns out burning an effigy at a bonfire eliminates all summons and invasion activity for the area. And for quite a while too. It has been 3 hours or so and I still can't place my summons or find any. Of course I wasted another effigy getting to human (by just using it) before I realized this. I thought maybe I had leveled up too far to ask for summons but they were everywhere else - just not in Hiede's.
So then I thought, screw it, I'll go do something else. Even with the cat ring, I cannot get down that hole in Majula. When I was nearly human and had a near full health bar I could make the first drop with a tiny sliver left. Then I went down a few more and stepped on to what I thought was a beam (a common thing to jump to in the other games). But it broke and I fell. Then when I returned I couldn't even make the first jump since I lost some health. I have the cat ring equipped too...
So then I moved on to the Wharf thing, which isn't too bad. I still haven't found the merchant or a second bonfire yet, but I did kill a bunch of things (there's so many there my sword almost breaks each run) and
summon a ghost ship
In any case, before I blew it at the Dragonslayer boss, I ran around for a long time fully human and had no invasions. It seems like that activity must be more focused into the covenant areas in this game like it sort of was in Dark Souls (whereas it was more random in Demon's Souls).