Growing up on Lordran Invasion Tour

I had a lot of fun with my "Growing up in the Forest" invasion runs, that I've decided to do a similar tour through Lordran (concluding in Anor Londo).  This one will be a bit more complicated (and hopefully more fun).

Here are the rules:

• The build must be the same build throughout the entire run (this is the hardest aspect, and the most fun part).
  
• The SL will be based on https://soulswiki.forumotion.com/t18310-average-sl-of-hosts-by-are-final-update .  I will do 1 lower than the average/median.
  

  Spoiler:

• Items/spells/armor/weapons, etc: Only what you can get be doing that level (and, the previous areas as indicated by the progression) or, on the way to that level.
  
• No farming longer than 20 minutes (for shards/weapons/armor, etc).
  
• Start off with 0 Humanity and Souls.  You keep what you earn.  
  
• No hard humanity or healing of any kind (other than spells)
  
• If the host or his phantoms are clearly over-leveled, or have weapons outside a reasonable range from that level, it is OK to bring out your elemental weapons/ascended flames, etc.
  
• 10-20 host kills per level
  
• I may also do other levels past Anor (as indicated by the progression above).  Once past Anor, then any weapon/spell/armor can be used, but he SL rule stays the same.
  

Any ideas/suggestions?

Looks fun.  The farming requirement will bias you towards only a few weapons, however.

If you're limiting your build to 1 build, that means that you'd have to use weapons and armor attainable by the burg.  Potentially valid armors:

1.  Chain
2.  Starting gear
3.  Hollow warrior/soldier

Weapons:

Rapier
Estoc
Reinforced Club/Club/Mace/Morning Star
Spear/Winged Spear
Zweihander
Shortsword/Longsword/Broadsword
Short bow/Light xbow
Dagger

Well, that's not bad actually (and not all-inclusive), especially if you allow ascending a weapon available in the burg once it's area-appropriate.

IMO this will make a SL10 run pretty easy:

http://mmdks.com/4ii3

Obviously you'd put more reasonable things on when actually invading SL10.

Anor Londo:

http://mmdks.com/4ii6

Izalith (no idea why people tend towards this last):

http://mmdks.com/4iib

Lemon club is freaking nasty BTW .  With PW a staggerstab would kill pretty much anybody. This is assuming we can use same build but different equipment later. If not, just leave the sorcerer's hat on.

i've got a sl 25 ready for the depths, but it has a +10 mace it got from the catacombs and a pin wheel mask, my armor is upgraded to +4 so thats fine, but is the mask ok, and really i kinda want to stick to the depths.

I was thinking of going with my normal build: Reinforced club, rapier, and swapping the shotel for the RC once I get to Sen's. But, a Zwei seems appealing too.

And, for the burg (before Taurus), I will likely keep my starting armor.

The farming rule is designed to prevent excessive farming, something a newer player wouldn't do.

I've always wondered, how do you deal with gankers or even just simple 1v2 situations with a rapier and shotel combo? That's great for 1v1, but unless you can just backstab at will it seems very difficult to win over gankers with a rapier. Even the crummy ones like to front/back sandwich and fish for their own BS.

I guess in a lot of areas you can just camp dangerous areas that are in their way (narrow platforms in Sen's, ladders, cliffs, near enemies in Anor Londo assuming they aren't already cleared). I've won a few forest invasions via someone getting a little too close to a mushroom parent :p, but the forest also has ledges to abuse. Is that how you do it?

If the host has help, then I get help from the enemies in the area. I usually don't set up traps however. I prefer the direct approach. I find the Rapier/Shotel to be very effective because it works on the 2 most common types of attacks that low level players do: R1 Spam (which means parry), or turtle (which means Shotel). I also like the RC for the stunlock and bleed.

The Zwei is very handy for the sweeping R1s and stunlock too. Just the weight is too much for low level builds.

I'd keep farming to a no-no. Just say: I'll kill any enemies that I cross by, but not go out of my way to farm them. Then allow yourself to buy as much of anything you like from merchants(so long as your souls permit it).

The number of times you invade in each location should probably be dependent on traffic. 10 for areas where there are bound to be very few hosts(ie Lost Izalith), 15 for mid-traffic areas(ie Lower Burg), and 20 for places where there's an invasion every minute(ie Anor Londo).

I see your point on the farming. Early on, no farming is required. But, once I get to Sen's, then the weapons will need to become more powerful, and the only way I can do that is to farm stones.

About the number of invasions - that will be subjective too. I can move on once I'm satisfied I've invaded enough times. My usual number, in previous runs, is 10 or 20.