Which weapons and armor would you recommend upgrading?

[Thomas00999]

I just started chapter 4 and I had not upgraded a single thing ... but now Im not sure what to even upgrade? Is there a weapon and armor that youd say is "better" or more worth upgrading? Thanks.

[Azeltir]

Definitely the Initiate's Candlestick for mage builds. I also prioritized the Initiate Hat and the Elegant Dress.

[Thomas00999]

Originally posted by Azeltir:

Definitely the Initiate's Candlestick for mage builds. I also prioritized the Initiate Hat and the Elegant Dress.

Thanks for the reply. Problem is I almost completely neglected magic up until now ... I have like 150 hp and 135% melee damage so im mainly going with melee weapons. To be honest though the damage itself is not that good as I mostly rely on the combination of poison and bleed debuffs using rings and the starting knife. Aside from that Ive been using whip for a while and recently I have found a spear for when i need to keep some distance. Aside from that Ive not been doing anything crazy. Thats why Im asking if anybody has suggestions for something more efficient. But maybe not magic.

[Ǵ̶͓̂͑lí̴̤̀̄́tcĥ̸]

Personally, I would go with Gentleman's Suit and Punishment Cage, and then use both flesh rings, Eclipse Ring, and Gold Skull Ring. Vampire Locket. This will get you a lot of %bonus damage for melee, as well as 100% curse rot damage resist (you will still lose HP, there is no immunity to Curse Rot) and then keep leveling up vigor and violence as well as some Warding (100 curse tolerance so Gold Skull ring matches Ruffian Ring's melee increase of 20%), maybe put some in poise as well because once you get the Book of Burdens, even with high poise you can easily get stunlocked.

This build used to work with just the Eclipse Ring letting you use a different helmet (like Cowboy Hat or whatever) but the recent patch reduced Eclipse Ring's curse rot damage resist from 90% (which is about the same as 100% in terms of HP loss) to 50%, so now you need at least the Christmas Ghost Robes or the Punishment Cage alongside the ring - and I'd go with the Cage so you can keep the other stats from the Gentleman's suit (less poise damage taken, less fire damage taken, 15% melee damage added to hitting an enemy in the back and 10% vampirism, which alongside the Vampire Locket gives 30% vampirism alongside some other minor buffs).

With this build, you will spend most of your time curse rotted which inhibits spell and some artifact/left hand tool usage but maximizes Melee damage as well as gives you some good damage resistances with higher curse. Not much in the way of poison, paralysis and bleeding resistance though so you can put some stats in those if you wish, but honestly the boost to these resistances is marginal enough that you don't need them in any NG cycle with this build, and they don't really help with the Book of Burdens due to enemy damage output being kind of crazy, so I wouldn't bother.

Also constant curse rot means you might as well just keep things like the Flight Codex (high run speed), Lantern Familiar and Nightingale Doll constantly active. Evasion Codex won't do anything while curse rotted though so it's not really necessary, and same with Perception Codex since, well, max curse.

The constant HP loss even with the 100% rot dmg resist is...intimidating at first, but it's not too tough to keep up with if you constantly visit merchants to replenish restoration stock, and the vampirism also keeps you alive. You'll get used to it.

Like I alluded to before though... Book of Burdens is a different beast altogether and you likely won't want to stick with a pure melee build during that challenge. It's... well, you'll see.

I put 200 into HP, got my poise to about 40 (helps at least let you take 1 hit before staggered, although Book of Burdens ... changes things), Curse Tolerance to 100 (mainly to make better usage of the Gold Skull Ring), and put the rest into Violence (over 300% base for now, equipment buffs increase it beyond 500% for now). I'm level 63 at the moment so I may start going back and forth between Vigor and Violence with future levels so I can clear Burdened Mode better.

As for weapon, I used Whip up until NG+ where I got the Starry Greatsword. Whip's poise damage was just too good to pass up and it did decent bleed damage, but also enough of a boost in %dmg from the rings and so forth to be a good melee weapon that was quick enough and had the range to keep most stuff at bay easily in the first game cycle as well as keep my HP full with Vampirism. Starry Greatsword is a little slower and a little less poise, but has great Curse Damage and higher physical damage as well, so I am using that now. None of the other melee weapons did it for me, because Enemies get Hyper Armor to prevent stunlocking them (unlike your character) so their speed became meaningless against many later game enemies and my physical damage killed them before the bleed and etc. procced anyway, so I focused purely on physical damage and range with a weapon that hit just fast enough to nearly stunlock (they'd get about a step in or an attack if too close to me and be staggered again after that, many of them would have attacks interrupted, etc). This also meant in terms of grease, flaming for flat fire damage was my go-to (with Whip, can't grease the Starry Greatsword), alongside violent pills from the Nurse in chapter 3.

Here are my stats while curse rotted with the above setup:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3230761887
Those 11 deaths? Yeah, Book of Burdens. I don't recall ever dying prior to getting that book.

Here's my Starry Greatsword stats while curse rotted:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3230757983
You can use 4 more levels on whatever if you forego bringing Warding to 100 (from base 60), and replace the Gold Skull Ring with the Ruffian Ring, that way you still gain 20% melee damage (Gold Skull Ring at 60 Curse Tolerance is only 17%). I mainly chose to use those 4 levels because I prefer just sticking to being curse rotted as opposed to trying to maintain only 70% cursed for the flesh rings (just less annoying than constantly juggling ward candles and making sure I don't go below 70% curse), as well as the ability to keep Flight Codex, Lantern Familiar and Nightingale Doll active always, and no necessity for Perception at all + constant access to curse chests which help in Burdened Mode, cuz you WILL die in that mode, at least until you're like level 100 or something (not sure what the actual cap even is). Up to you. If you never want to be curse rotted then you may end up with a different build entirely.

FINAL EDIT:::
Done editing, whew.

[Thomas00999]

Wow. Thanks for a very detailed answer. It looks like the game really opens up after NG. The build you described sounds super fun but Im afraid I may be missing Gentlemens suit armor and I suspect it might have been obtainable in chapter 1 or 2. If thats the case then I prolly cant get it until NG+. Is there a next best armor you would recommend to finish the first playthrough with?

[Ǵ̶͓̂͑lí̴̤̀̄́tcĥ̸]

Yeah it was chapter 1/2, I don't recall where but it's one of the first new armors you usually get, if not the first. You could try using the Alice set and building mostly luck, with the Critical Ring and Savior Ring, which double damage dealt and half damage taken respectively, based on how much luck you have. Alice Dress also reduces damage taken and it does stack with the ring, so you can alleviate a ton of damage with those two - Alice Wig gives 25 luck. Carry the Bible around with that (50 Luck), grab the Lucky Necklace (75 Luck), and put a lot of level points into health, luck and melee damage etc. Try to get those rings and the dress to essentially 50% chance or close to it, and the other two rings are up to you. More melee or whatever. You can use the Bloody Ring with that for the 40% and just keep your bleeding in check, it's essentially the same as Curse Rot damage with my build. The only issue is no Vampirism, but you could try the same build with the Vampire Locket but you'd lose out on 75 Luck, lowering the chance for the rings and Alice Dress to work, but might be worth it.

The luck/crit build alongside the Vampirism build I mentioned above are two of the strongest melee builds in the game currently, outside of maybe getting REALLY lucky with some good random rings in the Ruins.

[Elboat]

I have 1200 luck ATM and lemme tell you it's worth it. You get SO much stuff and the Alice armor/saviour ring have 86% chance to proc.