I never really understood what was so hard about the Capra Demon

I killed him on my first try, on my first character. It was even my first Souls game. What was so hard about him?

People tended to take him head on and not realize you need to dodge. Also mistakenly locking on one of those stupid dogs tends to make you turn your back on him at the worst possible moment, when that happens it really only takes one good hit to kill you :/

It seems like the outcome depends highly on which way you run at the start of the battle. You have only two real options, right or left.. and it seems like every time I go right I get all 3 of them on me and rolling does nothing. Really the hardest thing about the battle is not getting ganked the minute you walk into the area, once you are out of that narrow passage the battles easy.

lol this must be a joke right

how many times have you faced the capra demon if only that one time thatr is not an accurate event sample. try again on a new toon and tell us how it goes.

Actually, NG+ I got killed by the Capra Demon on my first run at 340 because of what I said in my first post, however in NG at like 20 I beat him my first try with no incidents. I find him really random at times.

The dogs were what got me at first. Then I simply went up the stairs and killed the dogs. Jump down from the stairs and attack the Demon, and sure enough, I won.

If you're able to get through the traffic right off the bat then you'll most likely have no issues with this fight. On the flip side, if you aren't able to get out of the starting zone then you're probably going to die or have a lot of issues.

The dawgs.

It all comes down to poise. If you have modestly good poise, you can tank the dogs and you'll be just find. If you have zero poise, one dog bite ends everything. I think a lot of us were pimping zero poise when we first fought Capra, so he seemed really hard. Also, if you never look online (I don't during my first playthrough), you don't expect the dogs.

In conclusion: the dawgs.

It's the dogs. Early game, you'll get ganked and have little to no poise, dogs eat up poise for some strange reason like the mosquitos do. And then one swing from capra and you're dead.

Even then it's a matter of being careful dodging and blocking well, even when you go up to the arch at the top of the stairs at what seems like an impossible point he can hit you through the floor.

In my opinion the boss is made hard only because it is well thought out, two dogs to gank you for a big hit from the capra, and a small arena to make avoiding capra and healing more difficult, the boss itself is not the issue in the fight really.

Capra probably killed me 20 times before I got him. I'm playing a pure caster and its my first experience with a souls game...lol. I knew what I needed to do but still kept getting ganked over and over. After I finally got him, I proceeded to kill his punk *** 20 more times time via Jolly Coop!

I didn't look online on my first playthrough, and I had zero poise – didn't even understand the concept. I didn't know that below 25% equip-max would make you faster, or the importance of shield stability.

I saw a message outside the boss fog dor to "try rolling". So I did, but 9 times out of 10, Capra would hit me midroll. Then I tried sprinting to get up the stairs, but the dogs would stop me most of the time.

I spend several hours on that fight, and have never been more relieved when I finally beat it.

Only rivalled by O&S in frustration.

My only issues with Capra Demons are their two handed jump attack that can change direction mid-air.
Not joking, I have seen these guys change direction mid-air.

Is your first time fighting him after patch 1.05? They made him significantly easier with that patch. His hits don't tear right through a shield, and only 1 dog comes right at the start with him.

my only issue is when he decides to do his double sword hit that covers the whole little entrance way, preceded by a jump, you can't get away every time

that and normal progression, you aren't really set up to handle that kinda hit, its usually a one-shot