Character Builds
From Wikidsouls
Since the character customization of stats and equipment is so vast, it can be overwhelming for some players. This section contains some sample builds that players can follow in order to create characters of certain archetypes. Each build will have a description of its playstyle as well as suggested stat builds and suggested equipment and strategies.
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Warrior (Heavy Melee)
Summary
- Uses heavier weapons for damage, which are usually strength based. Also tends to use heavy shields for blocking since some of the heavier weapons will weigh down lower endurance characters, making dodging less viable.
Best Weapons
- The best weapons for a heavy melee build will be any weapons that scale quickly with strength, which tend to be the heavier two-handed weapons. These weapons also tend to have a high strength requirement to wield. And using greystones, many weapons can also be given the “Crushing” upgrade, which vastly increases its ability to scale in damage with strength.
- Dragon Bone Crusher
- very high damage at max upgrade level
- gives fire resistance
- can easily knockdown any human-sized enemy
- can be found in Pure White 2-3
- very heavy at a weight of 20
- Bramd
- very high damage at max upgrade level
- gives poison and plague resistance
- dropped by Black Phantom Garl Vinland in Pure White 5-3
- extremely heavy with a weight of 36
- Meat Cleaver (for characters with higher dexterity and faith)
- scales very well with strength, dexterity, and faith
- does magical and physical damage
- created with the Adjudicator’s soul and several different weapons
- cannot be upgraded
- Purple Flame Shield
- easily one of the best shields in the game
- high fire damage reduction
- large resistance to guard break at higher upgrade levels
- fairly light for its heavy defenses
- found in the dragon’s nest of 1-1
Suggested stat build
- The important numbers for Strength are 22, 30, and 36, which are for the Purple Flame Shield, Dragon Bone Crusher, and Bramd, respectively. Everyone should use the Purple Flame Shield, but choice of weapon is dependant mostly on preference. Beyond the strength required for wielding the heavy weapons, it also increases their base damage. After increasing strength, endurance and vitality are important. Endurance to be able to use heavier equipment and still remain mobile, and vitality for more hitpoints and higher item weight capacity. Endurance also increases a player’s Stamina, up to a max of 160 stamina at 40 Endurance. Leftover stats can be placed in Faith and Intelligence in order to cast a few healing miracles. A little Dexterity would also be helpful in keeping bow damage tolerable for whenever ranged attacks are necessary.
Additional tips
- Clearing 4-1 as soon as possible would be very helpful. A Regenerator’s Ring can be acquired there, as well as the soul of the Adjudicator to make a Meat Cleaver if the character has enough Faith to wield it properly. After that, you should clear through 2-3, making sure to increase World Tendency as much as possible to ensure the path to the Dragon Bone Crusher is open. Any hardstones should be used to upgrade the Purple Flame Shield, and Colorless Souls or Greystones should be reserved for the player’s weapon of choice. Due to how heavy most of the more powerful weapons are, it might be wise to forego the heavier armor until Endurance is higher in order to allow the character to dodge effectively.
Rogue (Light Melee)
Summary
- Mainly uses dexterity based weapons to deal damage. Wears light armor to improve mobility for dodging. High dexterity build also allows for increased damage with bows. Utilizes light off-hand weapons and shields for parrying and riposte attacks.
Best Weapons
- The best weapons for a light melee character are any weapons with the Sharp upgrade, or any of the unique weapons that scale well with dexterity. Daggers also work nicely due to their light weight, and their increased damage with backstabs and riposte attacks. Due to the relatively high dexterity this build uses, bows will also deal great damage at a safe range.
- Sharp Uchigatana
- highest attack power melee weapon for dexterity builds when maxed out
- has wide attack arc when wielded in one hand
- a very narrow arc when wielded two-handed (good for tight corridors)
- found next to Vanguard in 4-1
- Magic Sword Makoto
- deals good damage even without upgrading
- deals a lot of bleed effect damage, especially after upgrading
- same attack properties as the uchigatana
- drains the user’s hp while equipped
- found in Pure White 4-2 in the pit that Patches kicks the player down to
- Hiltless
- not as much bleed damage as Makoto, but scales better with dexterity
- uses the uchigatana attack properties
- deals damage to the user with each attack
- found in the slug area of 4-2
- Sharp Secret Dagger
- deals high damage on normal attack with higher dexterity
- very high damage on backstabs and riposte attacks
- daggers are a whole are very cheap in materials to upgrade
- found in a cell in 3-1
- Parrying Dagger
- increased parry window when used in offhand to allow easier use of riposte attacks
- Dark Silver Shield
- light shield that allows the use of parry
- fully guards against physical damage and magical damage
- obtained from Garl Vinland in 5-3
Suggested stat build
- The most important stat for this build obviously is dexterity. However, while dexterity is important, strength should be leveled up to at least 18 in order to be able to wield the katana-type weapons one-handed. From there on, dexterity and vitality should be the main stats increased. Endurance is not really necessary due to the use of lighter weapons and lighter armor in order to maintain mobility. Extra stats can go into the magical stats for some supplemental spells and miracles. However, a bow should be used for ranged attacks instead of magic since they do well with higher-dexterity builds.
Additional Tips
- As most of the best weapons for a dexterity build and the Regeneration Ring are all located in the Shrine of Storms, it is best to do that area first. This build will start off significantly weaker than other builds, but due to the low upgrade costs of daggers, it is easy to catch up. It is very important when starting out that weapons being used are upgraded since they are naturally weaker than the heavier weapons. Someone going for this build should also be sure to practice using parry and riposte since it is very effective against characters that lean more towards the heavy melee builds and daggers deal significantly more damage with riposte attacks and backstabs.
Assassin (Ranged Stealth)
Summary
This build is entirely based on "Stealth", and because of that, the Thief´s Ring should be worn 99% of the game. You can find it easily at the Boletarian Palace, just behind Ostrava, to get to it, you need to jump from the upper staircase. With the ring worn, you are almost invisible to most enemies, allowing you to a lot of another possibilites, like a easier kiting, backstabbin and etc.
Suggested stat build
Here is a list of what you should increase, and in which order:
Luck 8
With a Luck of 8, you can get the same drops that a 99 Luck build, since with it, the only differance is the drop rate of normal drops, like Spices and Grasses, making it a very useless investiment.
Vitality 8
With this build, unless you are under Warding or Protect spells, most attacks will kill you in one hit, which can be very "scary", but with a low HP you can spend more Souls at other stats, plus, with a low HP, getting your life to 30% to activate the Clever Rat´s and/or the Morion Blade is very quick, and Hypermode can very useful be at New Game+.
Endurance 8
Rolling is really important for you to dogde enemies, and to do that, you need your Equip Burder to be at less 50%, with a light equip and a low Endurance doing so it´s possible.
Intelligence 30
God´s Wrath is a great Miracle, but it requires 100 MP to be realised, so with Intelligence at 30, without any equipent boost, you can perform it twice.
Strength 22
22 is the minimum requirement for the Purple Flame Shield, which is the best shield for this build.
Dexterity 30
Per point till DEX 30, you get a bonus of +6 damage, but after that, only +2, so it´s better to stop there and use better arrows instead of increasing this stat.
Magic and Faith
You should increase both of them gradually, it is recommended to keep them close to make use of the D/-/C/C rating of the Talisman of Beasts, who can be used to perform both Miracles and Magics.
Main Weapons
You should get the Sticky Compund Long Bow +5 as quick as possible, since it will be your main weapon, with it, you can do a impressive damage from afar.
The Purple Flame Shield is by far the best shield for this build, and it´s really easy for you to get one.
Any good light melee weapon is great too, weapons like the Cresent Falchion, or the Moon WInged Spear do great here.
And last, the Talisman of Beasts, is a great equip, and should be collected from Black Phantom Scrivir as quick as possible, since it will be worn the entire game.
Additional Tips
This build is a sort of double-edged sword, it can deal a lot of damage with Magics, Miracles and with your trusty bow, but on the other side, almost all attacks will kill you in one hit, being it a Flame Toss from a Fat Official, or even a strike from a punny slave at NG+, and remember, don´t take lightly any enemie, or else it will kill you.
Also, a last tip, this build works great with the Hypermode given from the Clever Rat´s Ring and from the Morion Blade, and since both can stack, you can deal insane damage with one arrow.
Cleric (Defensive Caster)
Fighter Mage (All around AND specialized build)
Summary
What I mean by an All around AND specialized build is that this character can use every weapon in the game (for the most part), use them effectively, and still be able to specialize in one stat. This will be for a Mage that can cast hard hitting fireballs after knocking you down with a Dragon Bone Smasher.
Suggested stat build
This stat build will be based at level 107, since that is the usual dueling soul level area.
Vitality- 22 This stat is semi-important because you need to be able to survive at least two strong hits. You should have around 800 or so HP in Body form and less in Soul. The reason why this stat is low compared to a lot of people is because you should always have Second Chance active with this character. It has saved my life more times then I can count.
Intelligence- 19 Against a majority opinion, having a lot of intelligence doesn't give you a major advantage. You might have more MP and more Magic slots, but you also sacrifice points that could otherwise be used for damage boosting or other stats. In this case the Magic stat.
Endurance- 19 You need this to be at a mediocre level. Sure, all stuff costs stamina, but there is something called Stamina management which I am not going to explain here. You can check out the PvP section if you want to know. Otherwise this amount of stamina should give you enough to run up to someone, attack, and roll away to regenerate stamina. You use magic in this build anyways, so stamina is for close range battles.
Strength- 22 The reason this is so high for a magic user is because it allows two-handing of Dragon Bone Smasher and other High-Strength requirement weapons. It also keeps them effective at this level because people don't have THAT high of HP.
Dexterity- 18 The reason this is at 18 is to be able to use the Blueblood sword, -brants, and the Northern Regalia. I don't use those weapons that rely on tendency because of their limited range and slow attack. The Blueblood sword is pretty good if you "enchant" it, other then that this Dex stat is just minimum requirements to use all Dex required weapons.
Magic- 62 Pumping this as high as possible without compromising the above attributes is key for you to do enough magic damage (or damage in general) to kill your opponent. You would rather kill someone in 2 shots instead of 3, and that is enough reason to pump this stat up (not to mention the weapons you can use).
Faith- 18 This stat is 18 because that is the minimum requirements of using the Talisman of Beasts. Second Chance should be the only miracle you use, so this is a no brainer.
Luck- 8 You don't need this stat if you don't plan to use the Blueblood sword.
Main Weapons
Dragon Bone Smasher - This weapon is good if you want to get time to recuperate using spices or grasses. The damage is good for low levels and you can chain a Fireball right as they try to stand up if you get it right.
Meat Cleaver - Same concept as above, except it's two-handed combo is deadly.
Any Crescent/Moon weapon you can make. Quick weapons or long reach weapons are good (examples are Uchigatana or Miridan Hammer for quick weapons, Claymore and Hammers for long reach weapons)
Soul Ray Firestorm Fireball
Additional Tips
-You don't have much health. Keep Second Chance on as much as you can. -Knock your opponent down and Fireball him. -Magic is good for range. -Use healing items discretionally. -Hypermode works well with this build.
