was i not supposed to fight tree sentinel

[Parli9]

I spent 4-5 hours fighting tree, sentinel, and albeit my friend did tell me of a greatsword in a chest in the village just up ahead, it was still siginificantly harder than the other boss i fought, Tree sentinel took about 60-70 attempts, and the other boss took 4 attempts, a couple of people told me I wasn't actually supposed to kill him.

Also on a side note, is the gold axe thing he dropped good, I've only played 1 soulslike before and it only lasted 6 hours.... so idk whats good or not.

[Sirius]

It's more of an idiot filter than anything else.

It's there to teach you a lesson - sometimes, you can go around things.

That you used 4-5 hours fighting it makes it pretty clear that you didn't understand the lesson.

Good for you that you finally killed it though.

[TGC> The Games Collector]

Sure you can fight him, but it's not a priority.
It's an optional field boss. It doesn't affect the main questline in one bit.

There's plenty of those in the game, they do sometimes drop good loot.
Usually you can sneak or speed past them and fight them later on.

No idea if the halberd is any good, I'm doing the classic sword&shield thing.

[Greywander]

As Sirius says, the point of the Tree Sentinel is to teach you that you can go somewhere else if a particular challenge is too tough. You're supposed to come back later when you're stronger.

In general, holy damage is considered to be not so good, mostly due to several end-game bosses being resistant to holy damage. I'm not saying it's a bad weapon, I'm just saying there are some things you should consider. It also can't be infused; for a first playthrough, it can be helpful to use an infusable weapon so you can change out your skill or damage type depending on the situation.

What kind of build are you going for? It's generally better to focus on one damage stat and choose a weapon and/or infusion accordingly.

STR increases your physical defense and is required for a lot of great and colossal weapons. Use a Heavy or Fire affinity.
DEX increases spellcasting speed and is required for a lot of bows and nimble weapons. Use a Keen or Lightning affinity.
INT is mostly for sorcery, though you can slap a Magic affinity on a weapon to make it decent.
FTH is mostly for incantations, though you'll have access to both Flame Art and Sacred affinities for weapons.
ARC is more of a specialized build. Take any weapon with innate bleed buildup and slap an Occult affinity on it (this makes the bleed buildup scale with ARC). Put a few points into FTH to use incantations with the Dragon Communion Seal.

I don't recommend a hybrid build for your first playthrough, unless you max out your main stat before finishing the game (more than possible if you explore every area). If you do so, then you might consider a Quality affinity (STR+DEX), Cold affinity (STR+DEX+INT), or a Blood or Poison affinity (STR+DEX+ARC).

One last tip: raise your Vigor. 60 is optimal, 40 is acceptable. But you can double, triple, and even quadruple your HP for a much smaller investment than it will take to double your damage.