The best faith caster I managed to put together

[grandma_moses]

Hey guys, just wanted to share my faith caster build. Incantations underwent major changes when compared to DS3 and they look and feel better than ever.

My goal with this build was to get a character that deals as high damage as possible while still respecting the 80 stat softcap, to get a character that has decently fast casts to punish those windows of opportunity while still having a burner cast that deals insane damage should it ever go off, and to get a character that isn't glued to one specific type of damage, should there ever be a resistant boss in the way.

If I had to guess, I'd say that around 65% of the game feel easier as a decked out caster while 35% feel harder. Before you are decked out ( ~lvl 100ish), the caster will struggle with some fights due to flask shortage when allocating mana flasks. The caster will also struggle for damage until the build is almost done, by which point the damage will feel ridiculous.

So, let's get to it, all fit for lvl 150.




Starting class: Prophet

Stats I changed: Vigor 40 / Mind 35 / Strength 12 / Endurance 15 / Dexterity 30 / Faith 80




Head: Incantation Scarab - cheaper casts, yes please. Will help when struggling for casts in the early-midgame.

Chest, Gloves and Trousers: Fashion Souls, although I recommend 1-2 Black Knife parts.





Talismans: The big four I found for my playstyle, which is charging little and just hitting the spell often: Flock's Canvas Talisman, Faithful's Canvas Talisman, Lightning Scorpion Charm, Ritual Sword Talisman. Keep the Flame Scorpion around for lightning resistant mobs.




Spells: After some testing and quite a lot of wasted smithing stones, I found the overall best, most versatile school of damage to be lightning based, meaning specifically the Dragon Cult incantations. Having a 'main damage' school helps with our choice of seal later on.

Lightning spells I use at lvl 150: Lightning Spear ( quick damage ), Fortissax Lightning Spear ( hardest hitting lightning spell against bosses ) and Ancient Dragon's Lightning Strike for AoE or duo bosses and for farming Mogh's spot.

Fire Spells to switch to if the boss is resistant to lightning: O Flame, grant me strength ( always have it on when dealing fire damage ) and the simple Black Flame or Catch Flame, depending on taste. Don't forget to switch your talisman when dealing fire damage to a boss.

Other spells: Golden Vow ( no brainer, always have it on ), Blessing's Boon to help with Coop.




Seals: Seeing as you can equip two seals and get the passive benefit of both, I found the best combination for high faith damage builds to be the Erdtree in your casting hand with the seal buffing your spell type in your offhand. In our case that would be the Gravel Stone Seal. Testing shows this combination to deliver the highest lightning damage.




Weapons: The goal was to specifically get rid of weapons, but you will need some to carry you through early-midgame when your casts aren't strong enough yet and your FPs aren't as plentiful. Any appropiately upgraded weapon will do, but I went with 12 strength to be able to dual wield the Straight Swords 'Golden Epitaph' and 'Coded Sword'. Around lvl 100 you will notice that you rarely if ever use them anymore.




Last thing: Flasks. I don't have FP problems anymore, so I go with the flask that gives lightning damage ( essential ) and raises my HP ( this one depends on your taste - HP raising deactivates your Sword Talisman ). For allocation, I found a standard of 10-4 to be a good split with a bit of 'reserve' should things go sour.




So, there you go, fun build. Be warned again, it takes a while to get going but then it's really god fun. Thanks for reading, see you around.