I was salty before about being outplayed by a buffed santier (and one guy that switched to it after I beat him easily twice before) but if you don't waste a lot of the souls to deaths or unneeded items/upgrades I think strength melee is viable being able to outclass other builds in health, roll speed/distance through END, ADP and/or allowing heavier armors, and stamina (which is probably the most important part).
Avoiding damage is the priority otherwise you're going to lose out. But, I've won a majority of matches simply through pressuring opponents into attacking, rolling, blocking, etc.; and leaving them without stamina for when I still have enough to let one or two attacks off.
My biggest weakness at this point is accidentally draining my stamina bar completely for when I need to chase them down to stop them from healing.