2nd Playthrough - Need Build Advice

Okay, so I bought and played through DS last year and have now started a second playthrough, having played DKS in between. In my first DS playthrough I was a knight and pretty much just went for the tank approach, focusing on VIT and END and sticking with a sword and shield for most of the game.

On this second playthrough, though, I've started as a soldier and I want to move in a slightly more STR/DEX-based direction and explore some different weapons and equipment. I've only done a little world-exploring so far, the only boss I've killed being Phalanx. Here's my current status:

Male

Soldier

Plate Helmet
Coat of Plate
Plate Gauntlets
Plate Leggings

Crescent Falchion +1
Spiked Shield

Vit 17
Int 10
End 17
Str 14
Dex 14
Mag 8
Fai 10
Luck 10

SL 20

What I'm looking for is some advice on how to proceed with my build, mostly for PVE but also ideally a build that is at least capable in PVP. As I said, I'm leaning in a STR/DEX-based direction, focusing on melee, although I'd also like to build up either my INT or FAI so I've got some magic as back-up.

I've looked at a list of existing builds recommended by people but nothing really grabbed my attention so I thought I'd see if I could get some opinions here. Any advice on potential stats, weapons, equipment and magic you think I should aim for would be appreciated. Thanks.

I think the Dex and Str scalings stop being effective at 40, like DkS. So if you want a 40/40 there's an upgrade path that has same scaling for both stats, although it's C.

Noted about the 40 cap on DEX and STR scalings, thanks. Not sure what you mean by "it's C", though - could you clear that up for me?

Also, any opinions on INT vs. FAI? Is it worth losing out on the offensive capabilities of the better spells by focusing more on miracles?

Faith gets a lot of defensive miracles. There's one offensive like WoG from DkS, but it's a bit slow. I still want to make a Dex/Faith build, so I might try it. Well the scalings are pretty much like DkS, you know the letters, S being the best scaling, C mediocre scaling and E the worst scaling. It means that the higher your stat (Dex, Str, etc.) the more powerful your weapon will be. In DkS A scaling usually get 4~5 AR increase per stat, while C could get 2~3 AR increase per stat. It depends on the weapon too.

Ah, of course, I'd forgotten about the letters.

I learned more spells than miracles in my first playthrough, so I was thinking of focusing more on miracles this time. Without the offensive long-range capabilities of some of the spells, is it worth me picking up and upgrading a good bow instead, so I've still got long-range attack capability? If so, are there any you'd recommend?

Compound Short Bow is one of the best for PvP. If you have high Str try the White Bow, although I don't know if the shooting speed of the bow varies by its size.

Hmm, just checked the wiki for the White Bow and its basic damage and range do look mighty tempting, even if its scaling doesn't seem so impressive.

Regarding armour, are there any light but effective pieces of gear you'd recommend? I'm looking to replace my starting gear with something lighter as soon as I have some decent options.

If female then Magicians set with the Three Cornered Hat on if male... Shamans set with Magistrate hat on - absolute pimp!!! or it looks nice with Dark Silver and Shamans also

btw all about the Lava bow xD

I leveled up my build. I was researching how much scaling increase per stat would I gain up to 40 Dex. I have a Hiltless which has S scaling, the increase was 8 AR per Dex point. After 30 Dex it drop to 2 AR per Dex point, so it seems 30 Dex is the most effective stat cap.

Edit: Also the wiki says that 50 Vit is 1500 HP, like DkS.

TehInfamousAmos:

"Magic Lava Pimp". Got it. Seriously though, thanks for the tips.

WyrmHero:

Thanks for the DEX update. The Hiltless looks very cool, I'll have to try that out at some point. Although I used a sword on my first playthrough, a Hiltless would be different enough to warrant a try. I'll see how it goes when I get my hands on it.

30 is the cap for Magic too, after that, the Insanity Catalyst and a S scaling weapon increased by just 1 AR.

Try Dual wielding Katanas - you can Pushlock enemies easily, Sharp Uchigatana +5 and Mercury +5 in the other hand - if you try and kick with Katana you push and it stuns the enemy, it creates an almost unescapable stun lock unless you know the secret to escape

TehInfamousAmos
I'm definitely interested in at least trying out dual Uchigatanas and was wondering what upgrade paths would be a good choice. Sharp and Mercury sound good.

Also, I'd read the term "pushlock" in a couple of threads and wasn't exactly sure what it was, so thanks for the explanation on that.

WyrmHero
So is Insanity Catalyst definitely worth using? Is the added spell damage worth the loss in max MP?

Also, if I focus on miracles over spells, is it worth going to the trouble of trying to get my hands on the Talisman of Beasts?

yes... get ToB use glitched Cursed weapon... so you dont have magic for ToB but you have the intelligence to cast cursed weapon - it drains 1hp per second rather than 1% of your hp it still adds the same damage etc .

Looks like I'll have to achieve PBWT at some point then and go find BP Scirvir in 2-2. Although I wouldn't mind doing the Mephistopheles quests instead, since I didn't get the chance in my first playthrough as I didn't really experiment with World or Character Tendencies.

I looked up the Cursed Weapon spell on the wiki, which took me on to enchantable weapons, but it doesn't seem like there are many weapons you can actually enchant. The only ones which appealed to me were Hiltless and to a lesser extent, the Blueblood Sword - I'm not really interested in massively bulky weapons such as the Meat Cleaver or Dragon Bone Smasher.

you can buff any sharp weapon or normal or quality - basically anything that doesnt have extra dmg eg dragon or blessed added to it

@Dog That's exactly what I'm trying to decide. Yesterday I was PvPing and I forgot how powerful Second Chance is. So I did Mephistopheles quest to get one, and I began to increase Faith just to see how much Spell Assist it get with minimum Faith (18) and 30 Magic. It has 139 Spell Assist compared to the Insanity cat which has 187. Increasing the Faith stat did not increased its Spell Assist, the only difference I noticed was that not meeting the minimum requirements affects your spells power, not Light Weapon's AR. The spells were considerably weak (about 4 damage on skeletons). So the talisman is very effective is you are going to use Cursed Weapon. Also with Insanity cat Light Weapon gets ~60 more AR than with the talisman.

So I can buff a Sharp Uchigatana? Sounds good.

Thanks for the update on the ToB, WyrmHero. So am I right in thinking that even if I focus on miracles over spells, it's still viable for me to put enough points into INT or MAG so that I can use at least a couple of decent spells at the same time, such as buffing spells like Cursed Weapon? I'm just trying to make sure I don't lose focus and end up with an aimless, Jack-of-all-trades build.

(Thanks again for all this advice, guys, I appreciate you taking the time to help me out).

Another note on Talisman of Beasts. I was playing with a calculator I found. Increasing Faith doesn't increase Light Weapon's AR, but increases spell damage. This means you can use spells efficiently with 30 Faith. You still need to increase Magic if you want Light Weapon to be more powerful.

http://sites.google.com/site/darksoulstats/demon-s-souls-calculators/catalyst-talisman

Thanks for the calculator link, I'll definitely be going for the ToB.

I like the look of the Light Weapon spell too, it seems to me that it would be generally more useful than Cursed Weapon because of the combination of physical and magical damage.

I believe that the winged spear would do you well. it's a very good weapon with C/C for a str/dex build

For intelligence and faith I'm your man


Scale both up to 44/44 and use the ToB. At that level it outdamages the insanity catalyst AND you don't lose half of your mp. If you want to use a sword or a spear still then you can use light weapon which will deal insane damage at 44.

Post any questions that you have about this please.

If I were going to do a mage build, I wouldn't even increase Magic. I would increase Faith as it's a more efficient stat and use the ToB. The only thing that is going to be weak is Light Weapon. And seeing how horrible Spell Assist scales with Magic, I'm a bit frustated with that stat as it does not have the perks that Faith has (Magic Defense and Att slots).

Magic greatly increases damage. Also since the mag adust of the ToB is C in faith and C in magic it needs both to outdo a talisman or a catalyst damage or effective wise(not sure if healing miracles scale with mag adjust)

my current ToB build can deral over 300 damage with fire spray!!

44 faith and magic

40 intelligence

15 endurance

rest in vitality

kris blade +5

monk's head collar

ring of magical sharpness

It can get well above 500 if I go nuke and use clever rat's ring and the sword that increases damage(Morion Blade?)

Thanks for the advice, BoilerFan. I've picked up a Winged Spear but haven't used it yet. I did use a Lightning Spear in DKS and that worked pretty well for me.

I was tempted by the Tearing upgrade path for my first Uchigatana, which I've just picked up, but I'm going to stick with Sharp so I can enchant the weapon.

Magic-wise, I haven't started putting any points into my choices yet but I think I'll unlock a few attunement slots, buy a few Miracles (and a basic spell or two) and then go from there. I'm not going for a full-on mage build but I will be experimenting with different types of magic.