I love playing Dark Souls II - this game provides me a challange with boss-fights, hazardous environments, tough enemies, but the main threat here is another player. A player is unpredictable, and you have to adapt your strategy every time you battle with another DSII player. And while my first invasions were an exitment, and I was losing in mostly fair fights...which are become rare, when you get your Soul Memory tier up to the sky.

Why? Because people stop playing Dark Souls II in order to win.

What is winning anyway? Is that a process, when you just shoot Climax and the start of the duel, when opponent bowing to you? Or summon a bloodbro/dragonbro with bunch of sunbros/whitebros to gank the s**t out of him? Or using a cheap broken meta builds, like Crystal Ice Rapier with magic?

The answer is no, it's not winning. Despite your clear intention to win battles, you are not winning. In fact, you losing the point of playing the game. Dark Souls was about unfair situations, but with some skill and strategy you always can make a plan how to deal with those situations. And using the things I wrote before makes you a very bad player, because you want to win, not to play. Here are some tips before we move to other important stuff.

First of all - get over your fear of losing a battle. You know what Dwarf Fortress motto is? "Losing is fun", and it can be applied to DSII as well. Losing is a process of game, which can show you, that you made a fatal mistake, and you can learn from your mistake to, forgive me, git gud. If you lose a battle nothing major will happen to you. Don't be afraid of losing. It's actually fun sometimes.

Second - say "no" to meta and cheap builds. Sometimes, yeah, you need upper hand in knowing, what things are OP with patches, what got nerfed, we all can understand that...just don't let this get out of hand. Jester body + Havel other's + Red Twinblade with dark buff = pretyy much you will lose to that guy. Mage with Crystal Ice Rapier? You will lose to him too. Havel Mage? You got the idea - don't get too far with that "upper hand", you still want to play game, not win it.

Third, not the last - show some respect to other players. It's a very rare thing today, and showing respect before and after battle is a good way to go. Don't be as**ole, "Bow" at least.

So, what we learn today? Broken build and overusing meta = bad. Using meta a little - acceptable and sometimes necessary. Showing respect = good. And do not be afraid of losing.
Let's get moving to other situations.

So, what is invasion? Invasion is a process when someone gets into your game in order to give you a ticket to bonfire. You can play offline and burn Human Effigy, but what if invasion happened?
I will define some rules for Invader and Host. Invader is someone who invades a game, and Host is someone who get invaded during process. Let's get started.

For Invader:

• Do not attack Host if he's engaged with NPCs. Your job is to kill host, yeah, but that's too easy for you when Host get attacked by monsters AND you. If he wants to heal, give him time to heal, and start the fun. You can "Bow" to Host while he's healing/buffing.
  
• If Host have sunbro/whitebro, attack them first. Choose them by gesture "Point", one at a time - you have limited time, like 10 minutes (which is enogh) (thanks to Slothy the Sunbro for pointing the exact time), they don't (if white isn't a shade), so everyone can stand back and watch. Deal with one guy? Heal yourself and contunie with another.
  
• If arbiter spirit/bloodbro invaded before/after you, you have several options. First - let the new summoned foe initiate a fight with Host and stand back. Second - help the Invader if he's assaulted by Host and his ally-plantom (remember, we don't do 2v1). Third - do not attack Host if someone is already on him. You have plenty of time to do your job.
  
• Stealth-kills are allowed. You here to kill Host, so you can use greatbow to push Host from cliff, or use illusions to blend with environment. But one rule here - if you failed at stealth kill, try to kill Host in normal way - appear, "Wave" and/or "Bow", proceed to fun part.
  
• Don't forget to "Wave"/"Welcome"/"Bow"/"Duel Bow". "Decapitate" can be used only when you dealt with gank squad.
  
• Try not to finish Host with projectiles. While projectiles are allowed, finishing Host with them is not cool at all.
  
• If Host is AFK, try to resist the urge for easy kill. You can have fun with him - throw Corrosive Urns, place shiny Prism Stones around him, try to get him near the edge of the nearest cliff, or drop some stuff and leave.

For Host:

• Find some place to fight Invader, do not try to run away from him. Black Separation Crystal is last resort option, and must be used rarely, in very dire situations.
  
• If you have ally phantom, let him fight the arbiter/bloodbro, and stand back for a fight. Engage in fight only when Invader want to get you. If you have two bro's, let them fight with Invader one at a time.
  
• Ganks-spanks? Really? Spawn-kills? Don't do that s**t. Ever. The only excuse to gank someone is by doing this properly, like in a video below. Really awesome way to gank, especially if you drop some stuff as reward and define the arena.
  
• Hiding as NPC or as illusion is allowed. This can make tons of fun, when Invader is passing by you.
  
• Greet the Invader with gestures. Not "Decapitate", this will look silly when Invader will give you a free teleport to bonfire.
  
• The controversy about summoning phantoms for help while invaded. Clearly, I can't define if that's good or bad, but let's do one rule - if you summoned phantom, stand back, heal up and watch the fight. When your summoned ally is down, you have to deal with Invader all by yourself, and give him time to heal is a respectful move.
  
• Drinking Estus/using miracles for heal/using lifegems is not allowed unless you have Invader, who literaly craches you with several strikes. If you feel you can't take him down without healing - heal a little and fast. If you feel, you can take him down, then do not heal.
  
• Never go AFK if you are not in Majula. Take off the summoning rings, burn human effigy (but better travel to Majula), but do not go afk in other locations and conditions.

General rules for both parties:

• Using bows/greatbows/projectiles is allowed. But do not spam them like chaingun, please.
  
• Show some respect after fight, especially when both parties were fighting fair.
  
• Leaving stuff for Host/Invader is good. Leaving stuff for Host/Invader to lure them - acceptable.

Now we got with invasions, finally. But what the deal with summoned foe's?
This is what I call "duel".

What is duel? Duel is a process of summoning hostile phantom into your world. This process is like contract - you and summoned Invader must both agree on several terms, which are the following:

• When you summon Invader, you agree that you want to fight him. When Invader is summoned, he agrees that he wants to test his might against Host in fair fight.
  
• When you summon Invader, you agree that you will fight fair - no ganks spanks, no spawn-killing, just you and Invader. Invader, on other hand, agrees on same terms of fair fight 1v1.
  
• Projectiles are not allowed, especially in finishing opponent. You are testing your pure skill, pure weapons and armor.
  
• Both parties can buff, and while buff is in process, no actions must be taken against any duelist.
  
• Duel starts after both parties show some respect to each other - "Bow" or "Duel Bow". Duel ends with respect too - use "Bow"/"Duel Bow"/"Prostration".
  
• The signal to stop duel due to circumstances is to cancel target and empty your main weapon hand and stand still for a while.
  
• No healing during duel, it's main sacred rule.

Now the bacis rules are dealt with, let's head to some situations, which can happen during duel:

• When you got invaded by arbiter/bloodbro, both parties must END DUEL AT ONCE. The Host must deal with invader on it's own, or send the summoned player against Invader. Do not attack Invader 2v1. After you dealt with Invader, heal yourself, buff, respect, proceed to duel again.
  
• Never. NEVER. EVER. Summon two red phantoms to fight you and your summoned ally. 2v2 fight are pure chaos. Black Separation Crystal out of the Host world if you spot the coming 2v2 fight.
  
• If you see a gank squad coming your way, while you were summoned as duelist, run away to safe location, remember the name of Host and use Black Separation Crystal. Next time you see Host name you can separate right away. Engaging 2v1 is tough, 3v1 very tough and nearly impossible.
  
• This can happen - when you duel an Invader/Host, you can be no match for him. A way to go is to show how superior the other duelist skill is by "Prostrarion", heal Invader/Host, proceed with duel once more. If duelist gets better at duel with you, you can kill him or stop the duel to heal up and repeat duel again. The reason stop duel is to, forgive me again, git gud.
  
• If one of the duelist have less HP than other one, proceed with damaging yourself in order to equal HP.

The rules about duel are the same, when it comes to BoB or BS arena. No healing, no projectiles and general respect are required. Remember - you playing not to win, but to have fun and eventually lose, which is a process of the game.

Now let's head to fun part - the Fight Clubs.

We'll talk about hackers next time, but that guy was awesome and made some really fun fights. Thank you, awesome stranger.
Now, there's already a Guide to Hosting Fight Clubs Right by Caramel Frappe, which I used to create cool fightclubs, so you can read his guide to make a good FC and read about some general issues and hints.
Let's talk about Fight Clubs a little:

• FC traps. Those are the worst traps ever made, especially on Iron Bridge. Do not make a traps ever, especially if you misleading people to Fight Club. Frappe in his guide warned people about them, I want to warn you again.
  
• Killing FC Host is unacceptable. Even if he's looking like this.
  
  
• Attacking Host on intention = you get tagged for free ticket to bonfire. Attacking as Host = same. If you attacked not on purpose, use "Mercy" gesture and "I am sorry" carving.
  
• Projectiles are not allowed for dealing damage or finishing opponent. FC is still works as duel, but you have to fight against another bloodbro.
  
• When arbiter invades Fight Club...I hope he's ready to get his butt kicked. This is the only situation when you can gank invader, because every party - expect arbiter - is interested in keeping Host and Fight Club alive.
  
• Don't make a tense atmosphere in Fight Club. Sneath the weapons, don't go behind people's back's. don't caste anything.

Other tips, hint and info about FC you can find in Frappe guide, let's head to...

There are some guides for coop, but we are talking about behavior, not some boss tips and assist builds. So, here we go:

• If Host got invaded, as summoned ally you need to deal with Invader 1v1. If Host attacks Invader - disengage from fight and stand back. If Invader ignores you and want the Host - well, you have 2v1 him, nothing can do about that.
  
• If Host get invaded, and there are plenty of sunbros/whitebros, do not gank the Invader. Let him deal with other summons 1v1, just wait your turn.
  
• If you were summoned to gank spank, use Black Separation Crystal. There is no honor in participating. But...
  
  1.30, show the exact situation and very interesting solution about ganks spanks.
  
• Showing respect during fight is still important.

I think,you got the general idead about co-op behavior.

You got the idea. First we talking about builds.
As you can saw on previous screenshot, I am using blacksteel katana and Black Dragon Armor. Someone can say "Casul!", but it's not true. It's pretty hard to hit enemy with THAT katana, and stunlock last for only TWO strikes in row, because the third strike doesn't get to enemy. Black Dragon Armor doesn't have poise at all, have some decent armor, and if I f**k up, I can survive several strikes in row, and eventually can be defeated. That's what my build is - IT CAN BE BEATEN. And I got my a*s kicked a lot, because I want to play a game, not to win it.

I saw a lot of rapier-users, Havel Mages, stunlockers with twinblades, Santier Spears, and other pretty broken stuff. If you want to play a game, you need a weakness that enemy can read and try to exploit, such as low poise, low armor, fatrolling, low mobility and etc., you got the idea. Jester chest + Havel others + twinblade/Santier Spear = nearly ultimate win. Don't do those builds. You will have more emotions when you nearly get the winning by using all your skill and strategy, instead of using meta.

About meta. It's out of hand. I can understand when your weapon got nerfed and you reading patchnotes and wiki's to find replacement, but when you are using your knowledge to create an ultimate nearly impossible to beat build...it's another story. Be good at game by playing it, not trying to win it. Because you can't win this game, there are no 1st places, no leaderboards, nothing. It's just you and the world, struggles against each other other and trying find ally.

About buffs, I will show you one video, it describes the whole situation:
While buffing is OK and allowed, don't get too far with those.

And now the fun part. Hackers. I know two types of those:

• A hacker with unlimited health, stamina and spell uses. Boring, the only way to kill him is to use gravity. But he can still oneshot you and engage his warp-drive on order to kill you.
  
• A fun hacker. He's cosplaying boss/enemy, uses many abilities, but he can be beaten. He provides you a challenge, and we can respect those. Really, we can:
  
  Those are awesome. Report them if you like, but my opinion? Those fun hackers should be in our community, doing their awesome job in order to fresh our experience. Because you won't normally see a flying barrel, saying "Hello":
  
  Those are your bro's.

That's basicly all I wanted to say, let's head to end part.

That's it. I wanted to post this a pretty long time ago, but I wanted to hold this guide in order to see, if the situation can get better.

It did not. Our loved game is swarmed with those, who want to win game, not to play it, as I said it a several times ago. Our game is full of people, who thinks ganks are awesome and broken meta builds are the way to go.

I know you will read this guide too, and I hope you will listen to me, listen to community. Because our game is dying, especially after SotFS launch, and many people are leaving because the fed up with that bulls**t I posted before.

It is our responsibility to make our game good, make fights better, fulled with joy of winning and respect to those who beat us in fair fight. Our game won't last long, servers will shut down eventually, and the only thing we can do - is to make the end of original Dark Souls II good. Pay respect for all players, and eventually end this game on high note, having good memories about playing it.

Because that's what matters - memories, expirience, emotions, tense and fair fights, losing and winning, respect. I know, there are many people out here that plays DSII to play, not to win, and I really want to say them - thank you.
Thank you dragonbro, that was dueling me four times, nearly killed me every try and tought me well how to fight.
Thank you Heide guy, that showed me respect while I was losing to you completely and gave me a second chance.
Thank everyone, who were playing with me and enjoyed fights with my dragonbro.
Thanks all of you for my expirience and good memorable fights.

I hope that this guide will be not forgotten and abandoned. Thank you for reading this, and especially if you will follow those rules in order to make out game and community a better place.

PS Thanks to Andrise for helping me with some parts of the guide and main motto - "People stopped playing DSII, because they want to win DSII".
PPS This is my personal view of current situation. You have all the rights to disagree with me and have another opinion, and I am OK with that.