Is it a bad idea to have a 'well rounded' build?

[Nicostromo]

Ill start by saying that this is my first souls game, I initially started leveling up strength and vigor, and endurance. But now im finding myself leveling up everything else to the point where it is all starting to near the same level. Should I be dedicating myself to one style such as a STR build or Magic? Ive been thinking about doing the rebirth thing, but im not sure yet.

For reference im a level 50 now.

[IchigoMait]

Don't worry you get plenty of rebirth stuff later on as loot lying around or first time drop from an enemy.

[Kain]

Yes, jack of all trades make for poor builds. Stick to something and only add points to something you want to use. For examplez if you're an Str build, focus on that, but let's say you want to cast Fire Grant me Strength, just level up until you do. Then focus back on Str, unless you're a quality build, but even then you shouldn't focus or mage attributes.

[wererabbit]

You must learn the ways of the min/maxxer, and never multi-class or someone will complain vigorously. (There is no level cap in the game, do what you want.)

[0wnz0r]

u can be well rounded but u still wanna focus on one main stat for a while. u dont wanna be in a high level area doin no damage. weapon upgrades will be ur main source for damage for a lil while tho so i wouldnt be too worried about it.

make sure u complete raya lucaria tho, thats where u can unlock the ability to respec.

to clarify, focus on one stat til u get to maybe 40-50, then u can start to focus on other stats as long as u keep ur weapon upgraded.

[ImHelping]

As a guy who is always tempted by this sort of thing. It depends.

12-15 faith is hard to regret because 12 faith is the point of "Able to cast rot cure" and "Able to cast 'get a little bit more magic resist for a while" spells.

14-16 DEX is hard to regret even if you prefer larger melee weapons. because many cool melee weapons want dex on the side (like 17 for that bloodhound sword everyone is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about), or just being able to barely use proper bows to tag dogs and "obvious ambush bait fodder guy" to get their attention farther than a dart can.

Default mind is horrible even if you hardly use weapon arts and spells, and I'm saying that as a guy still stubbornly slumming it with 10 mind = 68 FP for now.

and so on.

It can help if you Google up a stat planner and just stare at not what you convinced yourself will be "Your end goal level", but seeing what hurts to miss out on most 20 levels below your goal, and fiddle around from there.

Always plan around less than what you were told is "So easy to get" so you don't end up putting off what you really, really, REALLY wanted (or needed) because you gave into the temptation to have 40 stamina instead of 25 (oh god, why does 25 stamina empty out so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fast even when I ignore shields) before you raised your Vigor to 40 or your core offense stats to meet a requirement.

Regardless, you are gonna want (eventually) 40 vigor MINIMUM because even that things still hit like a truck. Not even bosses, just "Regular recycled enemies but they are in a new area now *shortsword footsoldier stabs harder than Margit* Even 30 gets potentially two-shot by recycled fodder. like the vulgar militia guys who basically tickle early on, but in Caelid if they tap you twice will activate giga bleed and empty out your health bar, or cast beast claw for 80% of a 30 vigor health bar.

[Nauct]

Early your weapons wont scale much your stats, but when you start to get upgraded weapons your stats make all the difference.

[Enderspoons]

I finished off the game with 25+ in every single stat, with a lot extra into Vigor (for having the ability to not be forced to restart an entire fight every time I made a single mistake) and a little more into Strength (for stat requirements).

You'll be... mostly fine, but your damage potential is going to be stunted. You may find yourself needing to fall back on spirit ashes and high powered Ashes of War to prop your build up.

[Eventide]

A "well-rounded" build where you focus 2 things can work very well. A "jack-of-all-trades" build.. not so much. The game really focuses on magic so I'd suggest picking int or faith as your secondary then str or dex as your main. The most popular is dex and faith or swap the two in priority. Faith gives you so much versatility and support (for you and others). Dex increases cast time, so it just naturally goes well with a magic build.

Just because the game focuses on magic though doesn't mean you need to do it. You could easily do a "quality build" which is str/dex. Either way you're always focusing 2 combat stats as your primaries then vigor as a secondary. Everything else is tertiary.

As has been said, vigor is extremely important if you don't want to be one shot by everything. Mind is important even if you don't use magic because more weapon skills is always nice. Endurance is good if you find that you need more equip load for heavier armor (don't really worry about stamina much honestly).

Another thing to note is just pay attention to what weapon(s) you want to use. Get their base stats, then increase the stat that it scales off the most. Like if it's a weapon with A scaling in dex then dex should be your main stat.

Also, there's like I think a total of 15 rebirths in one playthrough? So you have plenty of time to really work on your build and tweak it if you want.

[Drukaris]

general rule of thumb
- stick to 2 damage stats (faith, int, arcane, dex, str)
- always level vigor
- and pick one between mind and endurance (mind for spells, spirits and weapon arts - endurance for big boy armor) and level the other one just as needed

[NimBold]

Just like others said, if you level up everything, you will lack damage when you go forward in game. Because weapons have one or two major scaling factor. For example if a weapon has D scaling for Dex and Arcane and E on STR, you mostly get damage from Dex and STR and a little bit from STR. So it's better to have 20 levels on DEX and Arcane and 11 on STR instead of 17 - 17 - 17.
My recommendation is to choose your playstyle first. If you want heavy weapons, go for STR builds and maximize your damage. If you want to do percentage damage base, go for bleed builds which use Arcane and Dex mostly. Or if you want to spell caster, try searching for INT FTH builds.
In souls games you need to maximize your damage output. Period.

[Mikamus]

A solid shield and decent stamina will allow you to do generally anything.

[Silvy]

Originally posted by Nicostromo:

Ill start by saying that this is my first souls game, I initially started leveling up strength and vigor, and endurance. But now im finding myself leveling up everything else to the point where it is all starting to near the same level. Should I be dedicating myself to one style such as a STR build or Magic? Ive been thinking about doing the rebirth thing, but im not sure yet.

For reference im a level 50 now.

The best thing you can do in order to have a good time is to only pump STR/DEX/FAITH/INT until you have the minimum requirement's of wielding a weapon/skill. The rest should all go into Vigor until you hit 60 (which is the soft cap). Focusing on Weapon Scaling is not very rewarding , especially in the early/mid stages of the game, as scaling barely gives any damage. Relying on statuses and raw damage through upgrades is better.

As a side note: You will also always do MORE DAMAGE in the long run if you dont die to a boss in 1 or 2 hits.

And if you truly wanna become unkillable start using Bloodhound's step.

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by Mikamus:

A solid shield and decent stamina will allow you to do generally anything.

And never forget. Even if you do not normally use a shield. Having that little bit of spare equip load, and a weapon you can one-hand if you need to? Real great in cutting down death by Dogs (Well, ones that can't essentially glitch through your attempts to block anyways).

Flattening trash filler enemies two-handing is cool. Not dying on a staircase to a rats your attacks swing over the head of due to hitbox antics, also cool.

[Bro, die!]

Just wing it for your first souls game, explore it all. You can respec later if you want, a limited amount of times. Just enjoy it, i bet your build is very comfortable and safe which is nice for a first time

[Zerolimit]

Here is my two cents you can do all round but it will take longer much longer to feel like the build is coming together best to have one or two main attack stats and put points into vigor because you will survive better and if your not worried about pvp level up as much as you want but there is a level range where you can get help via signs (this restriction is bypassed by password).