No ranged weapons for players, only melee weapons with varying reach. Enemies hase some limited range weapons but nothing a quick dash forward and a strike can't fix
I have to say in genral some of the mobs in this game are actually a bit harder than most souls mobs, altho that might be due to the still slightly too long attack animations which cannot be cancelled out of and need to be commited to once initiated.
Armors actually do make quite a difference, and differentiate by speed (lower stamina consumption, therefore more endu to dodge around) vs. heavier armor and some (surely not all) decent set bonuses.