Strength or Dexterity for pyro?

[Mad Marduk]

Should I go with strength or dexterity as a pyromancer? What are the pros and cons? Right now I am at Andre, have 16 of str and dex, am staying below 25% equip load for now, and am sitting on 50,000 souls that I need to spend. I already upgraded my pyro rags and heater shield to +3 and I got lucky with having a balder side sword drop on the first knight I killed and I upgraded that to +5. I have the drake sword but haven't been using it since i've been advised that it would stunt my learning of the game combat at this point.

[Coach]

I would go with dex. You can use bows, and your spell casting speed is increased. Strength however, lets you use greatshields. The 3rd option is to go for neither and get a chaos weapon which scales from humanity, so you can pump a lot of points into VIT & END.

[Stinkoman]

DEX also helps your casting speed as well.

[Mad Marduk]

What do greatshields do that is better than normal 100% block shields? I am assuming dex and str weapons are in the same general damage range and that the only difference is which stat scales them?

[Bones]

Greatshields have high stability.

There isn't much difference between dex and str builds when it comes to pyromancers. Int and faith are clearly better with dex owing to weapon buffs but pyro doesn't have that utility. Pyromancer also starts with low dex so it can work efficiently as a str build. It really doesn't matter much either way so I would just choose what you like more.

[Cornp0p]

Go dex. I am currently playing that build and I am finding that dex weapons like Laito have a very nice synergy with pyro. Also a bow is really nice to whip out for ranged kills, but the damage is a bit mediocre. I am only at Anor Londo so perhaps that will change.

[Stinkoman]

Greatshields have higher stability plus they get "heavy block" which means you can block some enemy attacks that would otherwise knock you over. The Iron Round Shield (medium shield) also gets flagged for heavy block, so you can use it in PVP to parry as well.

[Bones]

Originally posted by Stinkoman:

Greatshields have higher stability plus they get "heavy block" which means you can block some enemy attacks that would otherwise knock you over. The Iron Round Shield (medium shield) also gets flagged for heavy block, so you can use it in PVP to parry as well.

You're thinking of deflection. It just determines how much an attack rebounds off a block.

[AnKalameet]

For a pyromancer, dex is probably just a liiiiiittle bit better because a high dex stat will shorten the casting times of certain pyromancies. Just don't level dex over 45. It really depends on whether you like strength weapons or dex weapons, though. All up to you.

[Chegg]

Dex is fur scrubs m8. If you choose dex, noone would like ya. one point into dex is fine but any more and ur a scrub. then you can use a bass cannon in one hand and your pyro gluv in the ova. and of course u cant forget ur giant armor and mask of the father. why not throw in a grass crest shield for gud measures m9. put all ur points into end, vit, str then u will be the very best lik noone eva was. git urself some blackflames while ur at it m420 then u will be complete for a scrub rekin machine. done m9

[Deadbubble]

Originally posted by Wiglaf777:

What do greatshields do that is better than normal 100% block shields? I am assuming dex and str weapons are in the same general damage range and that the only difference is which stat scales them?

You ever used Artoria's Greatshield? You can tank literally anything with that thing. I killed Kalameet my first try without much trouble by simply turtling behind it.

[SundownKid]

No use for Dex for pyromancy. Sorcery/faith is much superior for dex since it has weapon buffs. Casting speed increase is negligible.

Pyromancers start with low dex for a reason. They are supposed to be strength characters using axes and stuff which fits their swamp origins. Heavy weapons don't benefit as much from buffs since they're slower so they better fit pyros.

[AnKalameet]

Casting speed increase is not negligible. It's actually very useful on castings with longer cast times. Being able to get off a Fire Tempest quickly can be very helpful sometimes. It only seems negligible on casts like Great Combustion that already have a fast animation anyway. It's up to him in either case.

As for dex and strength weapons being "in the same damage range," no. Dex weapons almost uniformly have lower ARs than strength weapons. The advantage to them is being able to swing quicker for less stamina. Strength weapons, on the other hand, are slower, heavier, and require more stamina to swing, but generally hit harder, with longer reach.