I've been a huge fan of the series ever since a friend got me to play the first one. It's a bit of a shame that your first Souls is the third one, as it really adds to the feeling of certain moments if you're familiar with the first one. Also, although Dark Souls 2 is a decent game in and of itself, it's excrement compared to the other two, especially the third one which is the best in my opinion. But I strongly second your recommendation of this game.
That isn't to say I don't have complaints of it, though. Specifically, I have two. Firstly, many of DS3's bosses fall a bit short. Bosses like Vordt of the Boreal Valley, Old Demon King, Gundyr, and a few others just feel a bit uninteresting and lacking in challenge, and Deacons of the Deep is honestly pretty excrement. But at the same time, I'd say DS3 also have the absolute best bosses in the whole series. My absolute favorite is Pontiff Sulyvahn, whom I think is absolutely amazing both in terms of the fighting and lore-wise.
Oh, I do so love this game. As for you Necross, I greatly recommend you to pick up the first one as well; it's great. But skip DS2 unless you can get it for a very low price. The magic of Dark Souls is that it manages to be both very difficult and at the same time very fair. Except DS2, which is just hard.
I know both games already, pretty thoroughly. I haven't played them but the whole reason I enjoyed DS3 is knowing as much as I did about the first two prepared me quite well.
I will eventually pick them up probably. And I did experience recognizing old areas from DS1 when I played DS3.
I have to disagree on the bosses aspect though, I liked all the bosses, as they were all quite polished and had lore related to them. Some were less challenging, especially deacons, but I get the lore implications and why they are there. And I gently-carressing Love Gundyr, super bad ass, even if I never lost to him once.
Currently I am like level 183 I think, don't have my gaming PC right now so I can't check. Almost through NG+. I wear Gundyr's Armor, and Smough's legs for the lols, and I use Smough's hammer. I use shield of want for soul farming, have a Simple gem infused Caestus for Mana regen and parrying, and I also use a Dragonslayer Greatbow.
Rings are pretty standard for my heavy/tanky build, Havel's ring +1, Silver serpent +1 (For farming, swap for Steel Protection+1 for PVP), Ring of Favor +1, Life Ring +1
My only regret is being high level makes it hard to get darkmoon covenant items. Another reason I dislike the Meta, I wanna grind and get the occasional invasions.