What are your Dark souls 2 builds?

[Dandark]

So Dark souls 2 has been out on consoles for a while now. The question I have for those who have played it is simple.

What rings you got?

Or what builds to be more specific. How have you decided to equip your character? I originally tried to go with heavy two handed strength weapons since I enjoyed them so much in the first game but I found myself not enjoying them as much in this one.

I have now actually gone into dexterity weapons instead. Im trying to keep my character using a medium roll with elite knight armour and am currently using a black night halberd. Im hoping to get a katana at some point so I can try that but the halberd has been working wonders for me so far.



So what how have you been building your characters Escapists?

 

[Legion]

My first build was a Faith/Knight who for some reason looked like Elsa from Frozen (I hadn't even seen the film at the time which is strange).

Armour: I started as a Cleric so had the Archdrake Robe. Seeing as this didn't come with the rest of the set I began with the basic starting boots and gloves upgrading to the Elite Knight Gauntlets and Leggings later. I didn't wear any headgear. Once I got to the place I could complete the ArchDrake set, I did so.

Weapons: I started with the Mace and simply upgraded that. I used the Drangleic shield as it's the earliest one you can find that has 100% physical defence. I also used Lightning Spear and various healing Miracles. Later in the game I switched to a lighter shield that still provided the full defence.

Covenant: Heirs of the Sun (AKA The Warriors of Sunlight). After each boss fight I'd put the sign down and help another person defeat it.

Rings: These varied as my character got better. Generally speaking I kept the ring from the Covenant as it boosted miracle strength. I often kept the Faith ring on as +5 Faith is always nice. I spent most of the time with a Ring of Life Protection as paying for it to be repaired was preferable to using up all my Human Effigies. Apart from that I'd normally use the one that increases physical attacks and switch them out for specific enemies (anti-poison, magic etc.).

Stats: I started off mostly focusing on Strength and Faith, but in the later game I redid my stats to focus more on Faith but having just enough Strength to get by. Seeing as I was using a one handed Mace at +10, Strength wasn't too much of a deciding factor anyway and I wasn't struggling to hurt enemies with it. I also needed to balance out my other stats a bit.

My second and current build is a Pyromancer (melee with a Strength focus too), but I am still fairly early in at this point.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

My first character I used the shortsword and mace most of the game. It wasn't until near the end I picked up 2 attunement slots for flame swathe and firestorm. Around that time I changed my weapons to the mastodon halberd and the Mirrah greatsword for variety.

I used the Heide face mask you get in the Blue cathedral, and the Alva armor most of the game until I got the Throne Watcher chest and legs, and the desert sorceress gloves. I was using Havel's shield until I decided to try out the defender shield and respec my extra str to dex. I will respec back because dex is rather pointless in this game unless you are obsessed with poison and bleed. Even then, its not that great.

I had the dragon rider bow with poison arrows for Amana/the Abyss. I used the 3rd dragon ring, the ring of life protection, and the silver/gold +1 serpent rings. On bosses I swapped to the Ring of blades +1 and Chloranthy ring +1

I had 25 vigor, 20 endurance, 38 vitality, whatever attunement gets 2 slots, 45 str, 35 dex, 8 int/fth. I didn't have a problem with much in the game aside from the Ancient Dragon.

I tried several other characters out, but never got much further than 3 or 4 bosses in. Sorcery was boring and the casting sound was annoying since you heard it 2-4 times on every enemy. You can only fire so many variations of the generic blue projectile before you have to stop. I've seen higher level spells, and the only good ones are soul geyser and soul vortex.

I might try hexes, as I never even used the dark magic from Oolacile. They have a greater variety of applications, but idk if I'll enjoy them.

I made another new character today, a cleric for once, and I'm pumping up faith. I got the saint set on, got my mace, my Drangleic shield and I'm loving it. I always liked lightning spear, and its better than ever. Plus, I like how I just ring my bell for heals like I'm calling my HP back.

Ding! Heals are done! ^_^

I just got emit force. Its not as I remember it, but more projectiles are always handy. I just miss when force and emit force knocked guys back. I did that plenty with firestorm though, and I'm planning on using pyromancy and fire/lightning weapons on this character. I'm thinking of using the Dragonslayer Axe, the Archdrake Mace, or the Heide Greatlance when I get it.

Or a Thunder Mastodon Halberd, or the Defender Greatsword idk.

 

[asdfen]

longsword dual wielding, two handing or with shield is good has no lock on issues and a good variety of moves and is fast enough for safe play
large club/great club are awesome for R2 attack that knocks most of enemies in the game down sometimes 2 -3 at a time but you will have to learn to play without lock on as it just doesnt want to work with lock on
halberd is very nice beginning weapon but I only like it 2 handed
drangelic shield is great till you are able to find a greatshield and is found very early in game the other 100% physical alternative is royal shield from mcduff smith
30 vigor is good for NG for being able to take at least 1 hit and not die
havels armor is good for NG to shrug off most of the trash attacks
havels shield is the best item in the game in terms of the power it brings to your character I have 3 of those 1 normal 1 magic infused and 1 fire infused.
sorcery is terrible till very late game or NG plus but then it is overpowered. basically there is a single spell in sorcery line up that I found useful and it is found at very end of the game as well as the best catalyst. very boring very unbalanced
faith build with lightning spear is good all around for everything bosses and trash and stuff resistant to magic and you can get a lot of useful faith spells early on unlike sorcery.

 

[Arean]

Haven't gotten it yet, as I'm waiting for the PC version, but I've been doing a lot of planning.
I'm really excited for Dual Wield to finally be viable, so I'm planning my first run with a Swordsman using light armor, Dual wielding Warped Sword/Manikin Sabre. Will probably just keep the Swordsman starting armor as it looks amazing, and use the Anti-degredation ring.

Planning to rack up int on the same character in NG+, and try Dual Wielding Blue Flames with sorcery and CMW.

 

[White Lightning]

Thanks to this Soul Memory nonsense I've got a high DEX build barfing hexes all over the place. I use Ornsteins Spear and Resonant whatever it's called I haven't bothered remembering and Forbidden Sun. GG everyone everywhere.

I'm gonna make a dual wielding or twin blade build next but how close I stick to it I don't know.

 

[DuhLayy]

I used a Varangian sword most of the time that I played with an Old Whip in my left hand. I had Drangleic armor on, and used a few spells here and there. I mainly leveled up Strength and Dexterity. I didn't finish the game as I rented it, but I plan to buy it soon. I'm not sure how far I was into the game, I was in the Earthen Peak or something like that, fighting that chick with the poison pool around her. My setup worked pretty well up until that point.

 

[gonzo20]

my main is a dex faith with lightning uchi +10, with sunlight blade people just get destroyed, also use the various miracles form sunlight spear to healing, full faraams armor +10 because fasion souls and throne defenders sheild cause its one of the best medium sheilds.

my next character is a str pyromancer, flame swathe is so dam good, its crazy op, cant wait to get forbidden sun

 

[gonzo20]

I used a Varangian sword most of the time that I played with an Old Whip in my left hand. I had Drangleic armor on, and used a few spells here and there. I mainly leveled up Strength and Dexterity. I didn't finish the game as I rented it, but I plan to buy it soon. I'm not sure how far I was into the game, I was in the Earthen Peak or something like that, fighting that chick with the poison pool around her. My setup worked pretty well up until that point.

you can actually remove that poison pool and then shes really easy after that

 

[PrimitiveJudge]

My build is straight up INT spell casting. Soul geyser is worth it too, if all the bolts hit, it can knock about a third of a bosses HP out right off the bat. I use the Drangleic shield, a fire enchanted mace, fully upgraded Black Witch staff, fully upgraded Black Witch gear and my rings are: Chloranthy ring +1, Third Dragon ring, Clear Bluestone ring and Southern Ritual band.

Stats:
VGR 20
END 17
VIT 14
ATN 22
STR 16
DEX 7 I think
ADP 8
INT 65
Faith 22

still have not beat the game yet. When I get to NG+ I will concentrate more on Faith, VGR and ATN so I can throw some hexes in my magic dominance.

 

[Rozalia1]

My first build was a Strength build that makes use of a Mastodon Halberd, which has like a 95% win rate in PVP...seriously most people just can't handle the whirlwind of doom, and even those that roll get caught the second time as you merely need to wait for them to roll all over the place before you spin them right round.

Second build I'm running with now is a Faith build with the Thorned Greatsword, which is from what I've seen pretty bad in PVP, but a lot safer in PVE so I'm using it to get the platinum.

 

[ExtraDebit]

Been a sorcerer in DS1 and I thought I'll keep to the tradition. I can't tell you how painful the experience was, this game is very poorly balance in pve with magic. About 90% of the game you'll be doing 150dmg to boss with soul spear which you only have 3 cast of while watching melees doing 400dmg and above.

Then when the game almost end, you'll get a spell called soul geyser which spike your damage potential 10 fold but you only get 1 cast of it without ring and 2 cast with ring unless you farm it with ascentic, it effectively put most boss at 50-60% hp before you need to cast something else.

Do yourself a favor and roll a melee, faith or hex build. If you wanna play a caster like me, then do with hex build. It's fast cast, do alot of damage, have alot of cast (dark orb) and better homing than faith.

After beating the game and reflecting, I realized with the developers were going for pertaining to casters. Int builds have more cast of weaker spells, longer range with better homing and faster cast. Faith builds have less cast but stronger spells, slower and with almost no homing. This translate to hex as well since their's 2 school of hex, both int and faith.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

A good old fashioned fisticuffs build with mad strength and dex. It's pretty funny actually. Fighting all kinds of beasts and just punching them to death. It is also surprisingly effective.