How high soul level until Blighttown?

I am at SL30 with my warrior, I just killed the gaping dragon and Blighttown is looking like its too much for my character. To start with, I ran into fat poisonous guys with clubs and the only way I could kill them is by climbing up the ladder and luring them off the edge. Then I ran into some slimmer zombie things that take several hits to kill. That seems like too much for a regular enemy. Then I got hit with really potent poison as I was walking along even though I don't think I was attacked nor did I see a poison cloud. And I can't remember where to buy lotus' to cure poison. Meanwhile, the ruins underneath the fireshrine have these ghosts that make unblockable attacks and can't be damaged. Where is the next logical place to go now?

I always over lvl so I wont answer the "What lvl should I be question". I know I was around 50-60 my first time through Blighttown. Ok now onto the poison fatties , those guys actually arent to bad on a melee class but you will need a few things. Need high poise and a good high stability shield , you dont have Eagles yet , but you will soon . For now use the Balder Shield has good stability. If you dont have it , try and get your humanity to as close to 10 as you can and go back to Undead Parish and kill the Balders around and in the church for the shield. The ones with the bigger shield are the ones that drop it. Now for poise , there is a ring in Darkroot garden that boosts your poise by 50 , it is called the Wolf Ring. Just type in Wolf Ring on the wiki and it will tell you how to get it. Also do your best to fight the fatties one at a time , try and pull them with a bow.

Ok now to the crazy poison , there are enemies in Blighttown that shoot Toxic blow darts. They are pretty easy to kill once you find them , but can hit you from pretty far away. The plant needed to cure the toxin effect is also in Darkroot garden. It drops off the Ents there (the tree things). The plant you need is called Blooming purplemoss clump , stock up on those. If you have lots of souls to spare , you can buy them off the Undead Merchant Female for 1000 souls a peice.

In conclusion , personally I would lvl a bit more , but blighttown is where you should be. If you dont want to lvl more then just do the above and have a lot of patients lol , cause you will have some long fights ahead.

Oh also what are your STR and DEX stats at? Maybe we can help you with a suggestion for a more effective weapon.

In this game, your gear matters more than your level.

What weapon are you using, and what is it's bonus?
What are your stats?

Do you want spoilers, or a general guide? I hate ruining anything for anyone. Be careful you don't ruin the difficulty of this game and the enjoyment by getting a step by step guide.

30 is about right for Blighttown. Both my co-op guys there are sl 30 and they get pretty good action. Upper Btown is just a b1tchbarrel of nasty, no way around it. You normally only have a +5 weapon, so most enemies take many hits to kill, then add the poison clubs and the damned toxin darts... man, awful, awful place. I was super patient my first couple times through and I managed to pull the enemies one by one, but I still died a lot.

Well, he could go back and get a weapon to +6; that's what I normally do.

My character is more STR oriented. I only upgrade DEX when required to use certain items. With that in mind, am I better off with a long sword + 6 or raw long sword?

For the moment probably Raw, but in the long run +6. Go +6. Raw is almost never a good idea.

You may enjoy a bastard sword from the Blacksmith; but that would require you to level that up as well.

Longsword only has a C scaling in STR; you'll be better with something that scales better, but longsword has a good moveset.

And a word of advice: stop levelling up str when you hit a 27 in str.

When you 2hand a weapon, your str is treated as 1.5x STR so a 27 str = 1.5x27= 40 str (well, 40.5 but it rounds down). After 40 STR, you get vastly diminishing returns.

These are just some options as far as weapons go. I know I used the Battle axe a lot on my first play through. Also the Club and Reinforced club are pretty good. Club has an A in STR scaling. If you are ok with a slightly heavier weapon , you probably have the Claymore by now. If not its pretty easy to get and is a great weapon. You could also buy a Bastard sword from Andrei which is very similar.

I just ran through Blightown at level 35. So your level is fine. I strongly recommend the spider shield(found in the depths). It has 100% physical block plus it is the only shield that blocks 100% toxin(the strong poison)

For your weapon,just go with what you're most comfortable with. Go the +6 normal rout. raw is one of the worst paths in my opinion...

I could only get the claymore after looking up how to get it; I don't think I would have figured that out by myself. The only way I acquired it under my own power was through killing the dragon.