early game faith?

[Guidsmaster]

feels pretty underwhelming so far, at least compared to melee and sorcery. i rushed pure faith, got the cipher pata tho was still using a morning star until i levelled the cipher a bit. have a bunch of lightning and fire spells, but the damage isnt that great despite all my faith and upgraded seal, and the fp cost seems pretty restricting. Aside from catch flame which does great damage against certain enemies, especially with its low fp cost, im generally just melee attacking cause the spells dont seem worth it.

Any tips on what a good early faith build/loadout looks like? guessing its something like 30-40 faith, ~20 vigor and ~20 mind? I went wretch, pumped vigor to 20 and faith to 30. raised arcane to 17 (which ill respec asap since i didnt realize dragon incantations were mostly based off of arcane despite the larger faith requirements). raised str to around 14-16 since ultimately im hoping to use some of the str/fth weapons and this amount let me use the turtle shield. using cipher pata and godslayer seal (had better fth//incantation scaling than finger seal, and also boosts godslayer incantations), though im anxious to switch off this weapon

[Guidsmaster]

yeah paladin type build was exactly what i had in mind for the mid-late build, but i wanted to start off with pure faith to experience the early game with it, as starting off with str/dex and then delving into faith would have basically been the same early game as my melee character. as mentioned though, due to restrictive fp costs and low damage, i just ended up as a poorly built melee character, though im still scraping by. I just unlocked respeccing so ill be pulling off of arcane to add a bit more dex and str and give some fth scaling weapons a shot.

Once i get access to some more spells and talismans ill put the focus back into faith/mind

really appreciate all the replies folks

[Krono]

Originally posted by WatcherRat:

So much this, for Faith builds. I run it on my Confessor and it completely changed the game (after struggling with it quite a bit, with this as my first Souls-type game). Halo absolutely made some tougher fights I'd struggled with a cakewalk, and really helped me learn a lot more of the game without it being a hopeless struggle since I could actually kill things suddenly.

The thing was a bit painful to grind for though, I wasn't joking or exaggerating when I said it took an hour. I have catastrophically bad luck when it comes to this kind of thing, so I got like 30 of their other drops before I finally got the scythe

[Guidsmaster]

Originally posted by Krono:

The thing was a bit painful to grind for though, I wasn't joking or exaggerating when I said it took an hour. I have catastrophically bad luck when it comes to this kind of thing, so I got like 30 of their other drops before I finally got the scythe

the trick is to tell yourself you're actually farming for one of the other drops, and then you'll get the weapon right away. i guess the few points i put into arcane wont have been 100% wasted after all (just 99.91%)

[Watcher Rat]

Originally posted by Dreams of Fury:

(talisman doesn't appear to work for cast speed though it says both sorceries and incantations)

I did see a thing that said the talisman appears not to affect any Dragon incantations, so that might be what you're seeing? Can confirm, it definitely affects Lightning Spear.

[Dreams of Fury]

Originally posted by WatcherRat:

Originally posted by Dreams of Fury:

(talisman doesn't appear to work for cast speed though it says both sorceries and incantations)

I did see a thing that said the talisman appears not to affect any Dragon incantations, so that might be what you're seeing? Can confirm, it definitely affects Lightning Spear.

Yea but even then it feels like it takes an age to cast, iv stuck to pyromancys for my primary offensive ranged spells cause they dont need the cast time imo and the side effects are worth.

[Dank Sidious]

Originally posted by vadeN:

Originally posted by Dreams of Fury:

(talisman doesn't appear to work for cast speed though it says both sorceries and incantations)

It really does work, it's very noticable with Lightning Spear.

Yeah it is really visible on lightning spells. You have to be blind not to notice that.

I wonder though is it only talisman that's "bugged" or does high Dex actually effect hose dragon spells?

Originally posted by Dreams of Fury:

Yea but even then it feels like it takes an age to cast, iv stuck to pyromancys for my primary offensive ranged spells cause they dont need the cast time imo and the side effects are worth.

I feel like those non-charged lightning spears come out really quick. I'm currently at 29 Dex without using the talisman.

[Krono]

Originally posted by Pääpeelsepuuppi:

I wonder though is it only talisman that's "bugged" or does high Dex actually effect hose dragon spells?

Hard to say, the dragon incantations just seem slow as balls in general. A bit situational in their use because of it, I basically just use the scarlet rot one when I know I have a good few seconds on a boss.

Or when I have an invader stuck in a corridor or something.

[SirSmokeALot "Raptor" [505th]]

rather spec into arcane and use a bleed weapon+ dragon incantations, if your wep scales with arcane which u can make by turning it into a blood weapon it will do crazy bleed dmg, and the dragon cummonion seal scales also very nice with arcane and boosts the dragon spells, as talisman i would recommend lion roar which buffs breath attacks for the dragon spells, the one that buff incantations aswell and the erdtree favor for more hp and stamn and equip load

[XGear]

Are we playing the same game? Im pure faith build and all the fire incantations do alot of dmg, Im not having any trouble killing anything around.

[VadeN]

Originally posted by Pääpeelsepuuppi:

I wonder though is it only talisman that's "bugged" or does high Dex actually effect hose dragon spells?

Honestly, i think it's not meant to speed up casting of the dragon incantations since the initial "cast" is kind of instant, it's the dragons animation that slows down the casting.

[PK_Thunder]

Faith works VERY well early game. Two black flame spells come by fairly early, it's easy to raid into Caelid to get Flame Grant Me Strength, and in general the dragonbreath spells all kick massive amounts of ass. The rot breath in particular is absurd and can easily trivialize a lot of fights.

[Guidsmaster]

Originally posted by XGear:

Are we playing the same game? Im pure faith build and all the fire incantations do alot of dmg, Im not having any trouble killing anything around.

hmm i havent messed much with fire spells. as i mentioned, catch flame has done pretty awesome damage against certain enemies, but the lightning spells i have do about as much damage as my +3 cipher pata, and i get 3-5 casts depending on the spell. havent tested too much with black flame yet, seems decent against mobs but again i get 3 casts per mana bar. once i hit 20 mind im guessing that will go up to around 5 casts per, which will make it a bit more reliable. bosses haven't really been an issue as i just meleed them down, but when each mob was taking 2 casts to kill, it was basically a mana flask per mob and a half. will try out the fire spells more tho, ty for the tip.

Originally posted by PK_Thunder:

Faith works VERY well early game. Two black flame spells come by fairly early, it's easy to raid into Caelid to get Flame Grant Me Strength, and in general the dragonbreath spells all kick massive amounts of ass. The rot breath in particular is absurd and can easily trivialize a lot of fights.

haven't ventured into caelid yet, but ill be sure to pick that up and give it a shot, ty! In terms of the dragonbreath spells, once i saw that they and the communion seal mostly scale off of arcane, i figured i probably wouldnt be able to make much use of them unless i broke away from my originally intended build. will check them out though, ty

[Dank Sidious]

Originally posted by vadeN:

Originally posted by Pääpeelsepuuppi:

I wonder though is it only talisman that's "bugged" or does high Dex actually effect hose dragon spells?

Honestly, i think it's not meant to speed up casting of the dragon incantations since the initial "cast" is kind of instant, it's the dragons animation that slows down the casting.

I think you are right. The animation style of those dragon spells are a bit different. IT's as if you cast the dragon "avatar" and then it does it's own thing, which is sort of separate from how spells are usually cast in this game.

[Vyadhi]

I love my pure faith build. Rotten breath carried me through some harder fights and with the one fire buff incantation (forgot the name) stuff like black flame does pretty good dps. I used winged scythe with sacred scythe for a big chunk of the game then I started using blasphemous blade and was amazed. A lot of people don't like BB though and consider it cheating so its not good to bring up -shrug-

[Dreams of Fury]

Originally posted by Dragon Prince Salamandes:

A lot of people don't like BB though and consider it cheating so its not good to bring up -shrug-

Hows it considered cheating when its a tiny maybe 5% heal on kill and its ash of war is far easier to dodge/punish than many others ashes....probs one of the most fair weapons in the game imo