In my opinion I think the most important thing is to figure out what kind of weapon you want to use. Whenever I play a Souls game I gravitate towards the biggest sword I can get (which is great for Elden Ring because you can get the best massive sword in the base game right at the start if you know where to go, without killing a single enemy). Lots of beginners tend towards dexterity weapons such as katanas. Rivers of blood and moonveil used to be the meta builds, but even after several nerfs they’re still very good. Magic can be ridiculously overpowered but I find it to be the least fun, at least for me.

Increasing HP early on is very important. Level up enough to have minimum stats for whatever gear you want, then level vigor exclusively until at least 30. Even then, continue to level it up occasionally. I think 60 is the soft cap where after that the levels have diminishing returns, so end goal should be 60 vigor.

I’ve got lots of hours in the game and got all achievements on multiple accounts so feel free to ask any more questions you have.