PVP Advice from Experienced Players...

im new here but here goes

as an invader, never bow (emote) unless youve used a red sign soapstone
doing so is totally idiotic imho as you have just given ur enemy a free BS opportunity. you are invading for a reason and that is to kill your designated target, giving any advantage to your target means certain death in most cases

another one would be.... use everything you have to get the upper hand over your opponent. whether it be BS mastery or simply using the environment, as long as you get the job done then you are victorious whether your enemy says your useless and/or cheap (remember its you who got away with his souls and not the other way around)

i would like to give pvp advice on how to handle certain builds with certain builds (hope that doesnt confuse anyone) but since Dark souls is a very flexible game in terms of playstyle, id just say..... send me a message of your build and the enemy build that you are particularly concerned about, ima just analyze it for you and just send you the results (also better if you send your pvp area of choice)

...... honor players are mostly the losing players. why? cuz of all the rules you bind yourself to, estus chugging is legal since it is why you have it in the first place, running away doesnt mean your a coward but a smart tactician ready to retaliate at the moment your pursuer('s) make a mistake, and there is no such thing as a "cheap tactic" once you accept that everything is a proper way to kill each other, then and only then will you understand the mechanics of which this game was built on..... NOTHING IS FAIR

thats all for now and i hope most of you guys understood what im trying to say xD

A: your logic is faulty, by operating within bounds you improve yourself when you break them as long as you practice "gloves off" as well.

B: by the logic presented in your statement *everything* is fair.

C: You have no numbers posted and verified to back up your *honorable players usually lose* claim.

D: This is not an "honor bashing" thread. Please keep your advice objective.

E: Aside from the above complaints, sound advice.

I'm not an expert, but these are things that have improved my pvp experience.


Put the shield down. Hiding behind it gets you killed and if you can fight without it, having it makes it that much more useful.

Use "fun" weapons. Sure, I'll get more wins 4 shotting everyone with a lightning claymore, but those few times I win with an enchanted whip make every loss worth it.

If you enter a 3v1, have fun and draw the fight out. Someone's bound to mess up and take your blade to their back.

Fight naked.

If you're at a low level and encounter someone with a weak weapon, practice parries.

Learn to do things like pivot backstabs, but don't use them.

If you invade and everyone seems to be using the same weapon, switch it up.

Upgrade every weapon you have the stats to use, never know when you'll get bored of that lightning claymore and wanna try out the gargoyle halberd.

Make as much builds as you can, this will make you discover new things.
It will give you versatility and keep you interested in the game more.

Always wear a clean set of undies.

That and if you are using weapons with a special attack that drains Durability always carry repair powder. Don't break your only weapon mid fight haha.

LOOOOOL @ your avatar!!!!

ErrJon6661 wrote:I'm not an expert, but these are things that have improved my pvp experience.


Put the shield down. Hiding behind it gets you killed and if you can fight without it, having it makes it that much more useful.

Use "fun" weapons. Sure, I'll get more wins 4 shotting everyone with a lightning claymore, but those few times I win with an enchanted whip make every loss worth it.

If you enter a 3v1, have fun and draw the fight out. Someone's bound to mess up and take your blade to their back.

Fight naked.

If you're at a low level and encounter someone with a weak weapon, practice parries.

Learn to do things like pivot backstabs, but don't use them.

If you invade and everyone seems to be using the same weapon, switch it up.

Upgrade every weapon you have the stats to use, never know when you'll get bored of that lightning claymore and wanna try out the gargoyle halberd.

Not just I, but im sure other members here would agree with me when i say this but your first point is wrong in so many ways.

Poise 41+: You are ready for every fight.
Poise 40: You are pro and it's time to prove it.
Poise 39-: You are an idiot.

Weapon-switch-stunlock-evasion, shield-spam, 4x stamina recovery and rollingspree aside, Poise below 40 will give you absolutely nothing but a disadvantage no skill can overcome, especially at this level of lag.
If you won some 1on1s with 0 poise and feel like standing above my statement, ask someone to pick a rapier and mash R1 for the entire duration of the fight, then have fun.


What's the biggest advice I can give is: fight pros. Rather fight the same person who uses 2-3 builds multiple times and LEARN HARD than fight 100 completely random people and have learned nothing from the second match onward. At least if you really want to -improve- (,parry-training and similarities aside).


If anything I said was written down already, sorry.

T-King-667 wrote:

ErrJon6661 wrote:I'm not an expert, but these are things that have improved my pvp experience.


Put the shield down. Hiding behind it gets you killed and if you can fight without it, having it makes it that much more useful.

Use "fun" weapons. Sure, I'll get more wins 4 shotting everyone with a lightning claymore, but those few times I win with an enchanted whip make every loss worth it.

If you enter a 3v1, have fun and draw the fight out. Someone's bound to mess up and take your blade to their back.

Fight naked.

If you're at a low level and encounter someone with a weak weapon, practice parries.

Learn to do things like pivot backstabs, but don't use them.

If you invade and everyone seems to be using the same weapon, switch it up.

Upgrade every weapon you have the stats to use, never know when you'll get bored of that lightning claymore and wanna try out the gargoyle halberd.

Not just I, but im sure other members here would agree with me when i say this but your first point is wrong in so many ways.

These are things that improved my experience. They may not work for everyone. But for the style of play I have chosen the first point especially has improved my win/loss ratio.

wew, what i meant when i said nothing is fair is that you will always have to deal with something that are against the odds no matter the situation o.O

and when i talked about honor players (not bashing, just sayin lol) its because of this honor that they try to bind themselves to that gives them huge disadvantages which every newbie in pvp should try to avoid

Another advice is pick a weapon and get good at. If you are using it and realize it doesn't work for you, then change to a different weapon. Once you find one that works, then stick with that weapon for a while. This will help you concentrate more on foundations of pvp fighting and less focusing on learning a new weapon.

Things I've learned in PvP/Various strategic approaches to not getting pwned:

When opponent casts DMB and Power Within, promptly **** pants. After getting pwned, immediately attune Great Magic Barrier. Like a champ. Ten minutes later, decide attuning Great Magic Barrier is a wasted slot since you haven't needed it since. Replace GMB with something "more useful". Next fight, dude casts DMB and Power Within. Hate yourself while getting pwned.

Tired of getting stunlocked to death? Me too. When I spawn in to a dude decked out in Giant's, two handing a Greataxe/Sword, I think to myself, "thank god I practiced all that roll BSing."

If you keep a pyro glove/talisman in your offhand and you aren't currently casting something with it, KEEP IT HIDDEN. Two hand until you're actually going to use it. It's like telling the baddies, "hey, I'm about to use this thing, but you already know that." And then I think, "hey, I'm about to school you for it. Thanks for the tip."

You're going to get jumped by two or three dudes at a time A LOT. It's always going to happen, and it's always going to be frustrating. But oh, man... the few times you're able to squeeze out a win in a 3v1... I could ride that high FOR DAYS.

Experiment playing with/without lock-on. Having lock-on is great because it's easy to track your opponent, and your movement is always relative to their movement. However, being locked on limits you to attacking in an essentially "forward" motion, i.e. in the direction of your opponent. More importantly, it also attacks in the direction that your opponent WAS a second ago. Now he's somewhere else, and now there's a sword in your butt. Playing without lock-on is hard at first, but it makes your behavior REALLY UNPREDICTABLE. In what direction will he swing next? WHO EFFING KNOWS?! Half the time even you won't know. That's how unpredictable and awesome it is. Plus, you'll get tons, and I mean TONS of dead-angles playing this way. And dead-angles are MANLY.


That's it for this post, but I'll add more later.

Welcome to the forums Damage!

Thanks, man. Figured it was about time.

Up late trying to pvp. I'm still a bit new at it but usually find myself getting ganged alot. So I tweaked my faith co-op build to deal with multiple enemies. I use the Gargoyle's Halberd 2H power attack to sweep the area and pull out Wrath of the Gods alot. Also have a Large Club Occult style which has a nice power charge up sweeping attack. I keep myself relatively light with a Dingy Robe plus 10, stone helm and leggings, and tattered manchete gloves fully upgraded. Wolf Ring for poise and Ring of Favor and Protection. Have 19 Attunement for plenty of miracles and pyromancy when I feel down for it.

But yea, not sure if anyone has any other advice for taking on multiple phantoms. Pretty happy with my build. Usually lose but I always give em hell.

That's all that matters. Even if you lose, make 'em work for it.

momurderer_2501 wrote:Up late trying to pvp. I'm still a bit new at it but usually find myself getting ganged alot. So I tweaked my faith co-op build to deal with multiple enemies. I use the Gargoyle's Halberd 2H power attack to sweep the area and pull out Wrath of the Gods alot. Also have a Large Club Occult style which has a nice power charge up sweeping attack. I keep myself relatively light with a Dingy Robe plus 10, stone helm and leggings, and tattered manchete gloves fully upgraded. Wolf Ring for poise and Ring of Favor and Protection. Have 19 Attunement for plenty of miracles and pyromancy when I feel down for it.

But yea, not sure if anyone has any other advice for taking on multiple phantoms. Pretty happy with my build. Usually lose but I always give em hell.

I like the attitude dude. You're build seems pretty primed for 2/3v1 situations. I'm not sure how skilled you are at pvp but I've got some tips for multiple enemies.

First off, backstabs. Lots of them. You can take most people out in one or two in a lot of cases. Plus you're invincible during the animation.

Next is ripostes, most people crap their pants if they see you do this.

Spells like wog, chaos fireball, firestorm, toxic mist and acid surge are great crowd control if you use them right.

Your halberd is a great weapon to use, sweeping weapons can hit multiple enemies as you already know.

There's not shame in running and setting up an ambush/trap.

Lastly, dung pies. If you can throw them into a toxic induced panic you can gain the upper hand.

momurderer_2501 wrote:

But yea, not sure if anyone has any other advice for taking on multiple phantoms. Pretty happy with my build. Usually lose but I always give em hell.

Check out the link in my Signature, For the Glory of Alvina. It's a forest hunter thread that is practically dedicated to talking over ways to fight against the gankers.

Thanks guys. Great advice in the forum. You're all like a bunch of miniature Buddhas. I need to work on ripostes. I dig the Effigy shield but usually go with the Eagle shield so I need to step out of my comfort zone.

Want to be good at pvp, make friends, help friends and fight them.
It is very cool having people to practice with.

Know movesets and their strengths and weakness.

IE (in explanation) the zweihander has great range and power with its basic sweep but its easy to parry or poke punish and eats stamina while the rolling r1 is fast and will outrange most spears but has a narrow hitbox and the jump attack is very powerful and knocks players down but a miss will almost always end in a back stab, ect, ect.

Fire Whip is a good counter against players who are trying to roll BS you. You have to predict when they will roll and use it just before they begin to roll. The flames catches them when they are right beside you, or even behind you (it lags sometimes). You can lure them by using Great Combustion, as roll BS is a good counter against it. Use GC from far away, wait for them to roll, when they finished rolling use Fire Whip (hoping they roll again thinking it just GC). It should catch them in the flames of Izalith!!!!

Is there some advice for mainly sorcery users? I've mainly been trying to avoid most direct fighting and using homing mass comboed with a spear when they are in mid roll to try and get the other guy before invincibility frames come back.

I haven't used sorcery enough to know really. My guess is dodge like a pro and keep your distance.

I see some people combine CHSM and a MLGS 2H R2 (staggered, to get them when they roll).