My new build (Lord Xystus VI) - Opinions?

This is only my second toon since I got the game release day. I did a stupid amount of experimentation with my first build (almost 200 hours and just started NG+ :affraid:). Kind of ashamed to look at his stats haha. Here is the build I am currently working on for PVP. I'm open to all criticisms, tips, comments etc.


Lord Xystus VI
SL 125 Pyromancer

Vit: 40
Att: 16
End: 40
Str: 24
Dex: 16
Res: -
Int: -
Fai: 50

R1: Fire Flamberge
R2: Darkmoon Talisman
L1: Black Knight Shield
L2: Bare Fist

Armor:
Paladin Helm
Black Knight Armor
Havel's Gauntlets
Xanthous Waistcloth

Rings:
Ring of Favor and Protection
Dark Wood Grain Ring

Spells:
Wrath of the Gods
Gravelord Greatsword Dance
Great Heal
Great Lightning Spear


Obviously I'm going for somewhat of a faith build and the pyromancer is the class I started with. I'm currently at SL 92 as a high ranked Gravelord Servant (about 30 to 40 EoD invested) and almost to the end of NG so it's still under construction. I've been switching between the Gravelord GS, Fire Flam, Fire Uchi, and Fire Wash Pole bc I love all the extra stats that come with the damage dealt. Tried to keep the weight/defense ratio pretty balanced so I wouldn't have to use Havel's Ring and interchange the DWGR to adapt to different situations. I've been getting my @$$ handed to me in PVP probably due to my lack of skill in PVP or in building a focused toon. How can I make him stronger? Should I scrap it and start from scratch? Thanks!

I think Occult will always do more damage than Fire at 50 Faith. Also, why not go +15 and buff with slb or dmb if you're going for faith? The real strength of a faith build is in the buffs, not the miracles or scaling. +15 Washing pole buffed at 50 Faith? It's beastly, plain and simple. None of your miracles save wrath are very effective in PvP either.

Other than that, it seems good. Flamberge is effective, I think you've got enough poise, (aim for 53) ring of fap is always a good choice, etc.

Welcome to the forums! If you want a more detailed view of your build use this - http://mugenmonkey.com/darksouls/ Its a charcter builder. Amkes comparing damages and the like much easier.

@God: Praise the sun! I never even considered that. Thanks a lot. It's good to know that I won't have to scrap anything. What are some miracles you've found to be effective besides SLB? I've actually gotten pretty good hits in PVP with the greatsword dance especially when I'm 1 vs 2 or 3. My poise is a comfortable 57.

R of FAP always gives a good chuckle.

@DoughGuy: The text of the build was created with the mugenmonkey generator. It's so convenient.


The motor that controls the disc-spinner on my PS3 broke yesterday so it might be a while until I can get back to the grind.

Why 24 Str?

id scrap faith if your not buffing its just a waste

24 Str for the Gravelord Greatsword. Toxic makes some people panic.

And I'm not going to scrap faith altogether. I still have room to start taking advantage of buffs.

I would say:

Normal or crystal Flamberge

SLB or DMB

Str to 16 or 20 (if you are using the Washing Pole)

Dex to minimum requirements as well

Occult or Divine back up weapon. Bow, spear, whatever you want. You'll use it once your buff runs out.

At least 2 WoGs to make use of the tasty 50 Faith.

Gravelord Sword could be your backup weapon as well.

Thanks Wyrm. I plan on stacking the WotG, but at the same time, I feel like a cop out because I've been noobed to a pulp with it. Whatever works I guess. haha

It makes so much more sense to me to go with divine or occult weapons and take advantage of the 50 faith. I like the sound of occult. Never really bothered with it simply because I was not aware of its advantages. I just read that occult reinforced weapons do bonus dmg VS players and NPCs of good alignments (Way of White, Princess Guard, etc). Is this true?

Yup. Occult does more damage to White/Gold Phantoms and divine does more damage to Red/Blue phantoms

Nice! It said like 10% more. I'll take what I can get. I think having both Div and Occ will be advantageous because I might not always be the one who knocks.

Yeah, it's not a massive increase, but every little helps! Occult also scales better, so I usually go with that. Occult Gargoyle's Halberd is a good choice, I use that weapon a lot an my faith build. Occult Great Scythe is also very good for PvP if you can learn to use the dead angles from the jumping attacks properly.

It doesn't look like a +15 Wash Pole or Flam is much better than what I had. I must be missing the whole point of the buffs.

They're really only effective with a high faith stat. Use Sunglight Blade as an example; with 40 faith, SLB will add 343 magic damage on top of the physical damage of your weapon. SLB adds 1.8 x the magic adjust of your talisman in damage

-Darkmmon Talisman at 40 faith = 191 magid adjust
-1.8 x 191 = 343

Darkmoon Blade is much stronger however, and also scales with covenant level. So having a max covenant lev of +3 means that DMB will do 2.1 x the magic adjust of your talisman. At 50 faith (which would be recomennded for a buffing build) thats a whopping 474 magic damagae added to your total damage rating. Waaay better than elemental weapons

Hold on while I clean my brains off the wall. I'm dumb. Thanks a bunch. Too bad I killed Gwyndolin. Gonna have to wait for NG+

Here's my tweeks( http://tinyurl.com/87jqvgj )Pretty good for only your second build. I didnt touch stats cause i figured they were already set in stone. I highly suggest you try this set up out, the sage robe only needs Twinkling tinite so getting it to +5 doesn't cost much. I, and others im sure, believe that the silver knight shield is a better overall shield(slightly better stability and more reliable defense) compared to BK shield. BK shield is amazing against pyro builds however. With the set up i have here you could actually switch the hollow hood for Mask of Mother, but you would lose any style you might have had(but would have 1829hp). If you didnt want to use a spear you could use a uchigatana or some other 5lbs or less weapon(that you have the stats to use), you would have to adjust the armor combo a tad though. I suggest you make that weapon a lightning +5 or Chaos +5(req. 10 humanity for full dmg). Well yea, theres my two cents :pirat:

Wow. Thanks! The effort is much appreciated and I definitely agree with you on the SK Shield (especially since it's lighter with a high stability :face:), but as Omega said above, 50 Faith is pointless without a buff to take full advantage. I want to steer clear of any sort of diminishing returns meaning I don't want to get weaker as I increase my faith all the way to 50 without any use for it. However, Xystus is only like SL 92 with 30 faith at the moment so I still have lots of room to tweak.

I never initially intended to join the Darkmoon Blade because I wanted to take an "evil" approach, but I've found PVP as a Gravelord Servant or Darkwraith pretty challenging. Lots to consider.

While reinforcing a weapon to Chaos +5 with 10 humanities seems a great way to punish in PVP, I've never been able to consistently hold onto 10 humanities. Reinforcing Occult +5 seems like a strong way to go since I feel like a lot of people have high defense against elemental but not holy stat boosts.

I'm not really concerned with "style" in regards to how my armor looks because I initially used a +5 Xanthous Crown SOLELY for intimidation purposes, but I've found little to no practicality to the phallic-shaped headdress. As long as armor's weight and defense are balanced enough where my DWGR can be used effectively for this build, I'm satisfied.

If anyone else has similar faith builds (or any builds for that matter ) they would like to share, please feel free to post them. It'd be nice to find more inspiration and bounce ideas around. I'm also interested in making a tank/strength/pyro build so if you have any thoughts, POST POST POST!

Ghadis_God wrote:I think Occult will always do more damage than Fire at 50 Faith. Also, why not go +15 and buff with slb or dmb if you're going for faith? The real strength of a faith build is in the buffs, not the miracles or scaling. +15 Washing pole buffed at 50 Faith? It's beastly, plain and simple. None of your miracles save wrath are very effective in PvP either.

Other than that, it seems good. Flamberge is effective, I think you've got enough poise, (aim for 53) ring of fap is always a good choice, etc.

I agree about the buffs, but my faith build has gotten just as many kills due to miracles (not WoG) as it has with my SLB buffed BSS. So don't go discounting Force, Emit Force, etc.

@OP if you plan on getting active in PvP and maybe participating in forum events you need to cap at 120. Since you're obviously not churning out builds through BB glitch like many of us each one you make needs to count, so no sense preventing yourself from going to Fight Club or participating in the wars.

Also I'll look over your build and see if I can't improve it, will post a link to it in a bit.

Also note, if you killed Dolin and looted the chests in his room you have Sunlight Blade and you need to use it immediately because it's sickeningly awesome.

Silmeria the Valkyrie

http://mugenmonkey.com/darksouls/?c=1841078907883813

I get a little weird with my builds because well, I'm weird. I trimmed you down to 120 and since you said you were currently SL92 I was hoping you could still tweak that Fth stat down a bit. Then I made you fast roll with 58 Poise

http://tinyurl.com/6w67z7z

There aren't any magic bolts Fed.

WyrmHero wrote:There aren't any magic bolts Fed.

Don't understand this statement. That is a divine light crossbow with heavy bolts, or at least its supposed to be.