Vyke's PVE Build

[uNewt]

I love the vibe of vyke's, but I'm honestly not sure how to build around it. I like life-steal and shields, but not sure if I can go that route without defeating the purpose of the spear. Any suggestions on what stats to focus or which talismans to use?

[psilocybe]

Madness is pretty much a PvP exclusive status ailment..

So what you're looking at is raw damage of the spear.
What is vyke's.. pierce damage? I think the talismen with a spear on it, should help.

I'd also run it with a shield, if you want an easier time in PvE.

[Svendson]

Vyke used dragon cult incantation, so you can go with that too

[LuckyCheshire]

I'd go with a dex/fth hybrid build with a lightning focus. He was originally called the Dragonspear after all. So Lightning Spear and some of the heavier spells like Ancient Dragons' Lightning Strike will be your main ranged attacks. For talismans, you can go with the Lightning Scorpion obviously, the Spear Talisman, the Flock's Canvas, and the Green Turtle. You can keep your distance that way, and use the spear to keep enemies off of you or finish them off.

If you want to do more of a sword spear and board, how I would build that would end up being more of a PvP focused build because of the high madness focus. Anyway, for the theme I would grab the Fingerprint Shield and give it Shield Crash with maybe Lightning infusion (or something else, I haven't tried that infusion yet to see i it's any good). Then for talismans I would focus more on weapon skills, and grab Alexander's Shard, the Greatshield Talisman, the Carian Emblem (more of a priority in PvE), and either the Green Turtle, the Spear Talisman, or just one of the weight reducing talismans to offset the shield. In combat, you can switch back and forth between poking and bashing with the spear and shield, and switching to two-handed to use the Frenzyflame Thrust.