Oh Dark Souls 2, dare may I ask what console. I'm kind of in the same boat myself with finals and with Dark Souls 2. It's like a drug to me.
As for infinite effigies well there is a way but it requires a lot of bonfire asetics, lots of them, so many that there is no point in doing it really, plus with the Ring of Life Protection, it makes human effigies not worth much to you, at least if you have the souls to repair it every time you die.
So many builds I have to work on still though. I have like six or seven planned out.