---Stagger/Guard Break
* Staggering an enemy means, he stops doing what hes doing and plays an "ouch" animation, which gives you time to hit again
* Guard Breaking an enemy means, you can start a "crit" attack (with a special animation) when directly in front of them or behind them (sometimes theres an orange glow)
Both states can usually be reached easier with heavy attacks / heavy weapons. Thats why you often see people with 2 colossal weapons. Because once you hit the first time, there often is no retaliation any more. This even works on bosses to a degree, but you have to trade a couple of hits for every guard break. I dont like this playstyle, but its legit. Its usually all STR/VIT with some END for stamina.
---Shield/Thrusting Weapons
All pure thrusting weapons (rapier, spears, estoc) can be used while blocking with a shield. The higher the "guard boost" stat of the shield, the less stamina you have to "pay" when you block an attack. You usually look for a "physical 100" shield (which blocks 100% of a physical attack you receive) with as high guard boost as possible. Brass shield is good early on. You will need END for all the stamina consumption. A weapon with blood loss for damage works nice, since you wont be able to up STR/DEX enough. I liked the Cross-Naginata with frost, but a Spear with any Blood Ash works (especially Seppuku). The Antspur Rapier (from behind the Shaded Castle) and the Fingerprint Shield (from below Leyndell) make the game trivial. My first playthru was STR/DEX/FAI Spear/Shield with heals. I really liked the Brass Shield + Tree Spear for the beginning. Tree Spear heavy R2 is great for guard break.
---Sorceries
Mages can start pretty strong with Rock Sling and the Meteorite Staff from Caelid and quickly build up to Comet Azure with the no FP physik. Its easy enough for stats with INT/MND. With summons, this makes most boss fights trivial as well.
These three builds are easy to get into and work well - without being cheese builds. You won't learn boss mechanics or dodging/parrying tho, since you wont need to (mostly). Which - by many - is thought of as the only way the game is meant to be played. So you wont "git gud".
In my experience anyway.