Rifter7 wrote:you may view them as crutches, others view it as gimping yourself.
please don't assume a player is bad and has to rely on a crutch when in reality they want to have a good defense or offense and better themselves at the most mechanical level in order to compete with other like-minded players.
when someone levels the playing field, most of the time it starts with what they do. they're going to fortify their assets, increase their firepower or outsmart them strategically.
what they're NOT going to do is intentionally weaken themselves and make up an excuse as to why they lost due to intentional sabotage or boast about how good they are for taking illogical risks and calculations and winning against an opponent they'd beat on fair ground anyways.
it's just silly. they're not crutches. spamming kunai's out of your mouth at someone or hiding in a group of three vs a temporarily defenseless player is a crutch, stepping your game up to take that and anything else on isn't.
The build i said I didn't like was (which I specifically mentioned)
-2500ish vit
-Full giants armour or havels except for MoM
-An elemental Claymore which, starting as a warrior, requires merely 3 levels in strength for 485 damage and a very nice moveset
-DWGR
http://mugenmonkey.com/darksouls/?c=2051896351285845
Someone who has made this build is no't trying to level the playing field by increasing their offence/defence, they've deliberately gone out of their way to make a crutch build. From experience, this same person is the one who will continuously backstab fish (which I don't have a problem with by the way), walk through any attack because their poise is high enough to backstab you, and then chainstab you if you let them. After beating you like this, this same player will then use the 'come at me, bro' gesture indicating that they think they won because of a high level of skill....
(Quite why they need pretty much the best defence and highest vit possible to continuously backstab eludes me, but that's another thread.)
A new player using some of these in a combination is fine, I agree with you there because individually these items are all very good. However likewise, it's also unlikely that a new player would have enough knowledge of the game to put all of these items together, and certainly not in a min/max fashion. 99% of the time I see this build it's used as I describe above.
The illogical risks/sabotage you refer to is presumably builds that are unusual or more fun? I don't see this as either. PvP'ers get comfortable with seeing the same builds over an over again. Coming to the table with something completely unpredictable is what I would call outsmarting them strategically. In pretty much all of the builds I make I always make sure I have the correct stat investment to use an arsenal of weapons to keep my opponent on their toes. This is particularly helpful if you end up facing the same opponent over and over again as they won't know what to expect. For example playing my dual pyro toon last night, I invaded the same spawn-camper several times. In the first few matches I parried, and the riposted with Great Chaos Fireball. The last time I fought him, I parried him and then pulled out my Chaos Gargoyle Halberd +5 and punished him for spawn camping. He didn't expect this, it was strategic and it isn't a crutch. He even messaged afterwards to say GG.
You can be strategic and level the playing field without gimping yourself as you call it.
by 
