Cleric Build

[Kyoshi]

Hey guys, needing some help with clerics on dark souls, so thought i'd ask the community, since got good help with other matters here.

http://mmdks.com/5hfm Currently using the character planner, this is what i've come up with for a SL120 Cleric, but im not sure where to go from here, as i would like him to have some poise without being out of the light category.

So basically, can anyone make any changes to my attempt to see if i can have poise and stay in light category? also not sure on covenant to be in, though stats are probably only thing im sure of keeping the same.

Thakns in advance community :)

[Maechen]

For a start for some poise, change Havel's ring to Wolf Ring, even without Havels you will fast roll with only 15 or so weight. You could probably find a couple of pieces with wolf ring to get to the next poise breakpoint. IE holow soldiers waistcloth( which looks terrible but is the best poise for weight item in the game)

For covenant I's go darkwraith or forest hunter..or maybe darkmoon if you dont mind waiting for invasions. I'd also drop a force iteration and put a little more in Vit...1193 is really low..a hornet ring backstab could 1 shot you.

[axelmonster]

You can easily add 2 or 3 pieces of decent armour to your setup.
For example, cleric helm, elite knight gauntlets and greaves. Or havels greaves and elite knight gauntlet. Lots of options. Unless you really want to ninjaflip, you can replace the DWGR with Wolf ring instead. 1 piece of Havels and the wolfring gives you a poise of 68, more than enough.
Your max weight if you want to keep lightroll, without more endurance, is 28.125, so you have 12 weight left to play with. For the miracles you've selected you'll have to be a sunbro, at least to get them.

[Smug Kot]

Thats a bad build... really is bad, you dont have enought faith to make miracles really do something, low vit, 40 dex is enought, etc.

[Maechen]

Originally posted by axelmonster:

You can easily add 2 or 3 pieces of decent armour to your setup.
For example, cleric helm, elite knight gauntlets and greaves. Or havels greaves and elite knight gauntlet. Lots of options. Unless you really want to ninjaflip, you can replace the DWGR with Wolf ring instead. 1 piece of Havels and the wolfring gives you a poise of 68, more than enough.
Your max weight if you want to keep lightroll, without more endurance, is 28.125, so you have 12 weight left to play with. For the miracles you've selected you'll have to be a sunbro, at least to get them.

Yeah, would need to be a Sunbro...if you go Sunbro you might as well get Sunlight Spear too. Personally I'd change both rings as well FaP and Wolf ring i would use. Spear miracles are hard to land so it's not really a viable glass cannon build, unless you are really good. So 1500ish helth, even still a little low especially for the forest, but you have some beathing room.

You could always just go 40 dex/30 fth/40ish vit/40 ish end and 3xWoTG and buff a katana or BSS, but I'm guessing you want to play as a caster.

Actually forget sunlight spear,faith too low.

[Kyoshi]

the idea of this wasnt to be focused solely on casting, but to keep a decent speed, only dex weapons were viable, as they can hurt well without making you a 2nd smough. also, i read that with cast speed, 45 is were it stops being benifical, which is why its there.

also, the armor and irngs were just an example of what i wanted, not actuall end game decisions, and the low faith was because only sunlight spear requires that, and since i planned on pvping, Sunbro cov wouldnt have been an option.

i know im asking a lot here, but if someone could give me an example build of what they think needs to be improved from mine, as each build i make im trying to understand all the variables more and more.

Thanks in advance again community :)

[Michael]

Is that an PVE or PVP build, or something inbetween?

Some suggestions:

• According to http://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Stats#Dexterity, the cast speed of Wrath of the Gods is not increased with a high Dexterity. So 40 should be fine unless you want the fast Force spells.
  
• Assuming you want to play PvP, you don't really need six spell slots and two Force spells and two Lightning Spears. 4-5 slots should be fine.
  
• I'm personally not a big fan of Sunlight Blade. A smart player will just dodge until the buff wears off and you can't switch your weapon without ending the buff. But if you're good at dead-angling with the scythe, by all means, go for it.
  
• Rofap & Wolf are arguably more useful rings than Havel's & DWG for this build.
  
• 14 Str is enough for the Scythe, btw

[Smug Kot]

The build is straight bad for PvP anyway.

[Kyoshi]

thanks for feebdack 0x5f3759df, a lot of what you said is really useful.

But i think a point people are overlooking is that the gear and weapon choices arent final, they were just to give examples of what i was after, for example havels and DWG were just to show i wanted to be in light category. (although bit about spells was useful, as im still noob with them)

None of this is meant to sound harsh btw, but i guess i didnt convey that point very well. Hopefully anyone could give good gear and weapon suggestions, as the dude this is meant for is still only about 30 odd, still low lvl so anything can be changed if need be.

[Michael]

Originally posted by Kyoshi:

None of this is meant to sound harsh btw, but i guess i didnt convey that point very well. Hopefully anyone could give good gear and weapon suggestions, as the dude this is meant for is still only about 30 odd, still low lvl so anything can be changed if need be.

Nice dex weapons for this build: Great Scythe, Gold/Silver Tracer, Falchion, Balder Side Sword, Katanas, Silver Knight Straight Sword, Ricard's Rapier, etc.
There are many possible good choices for a dex build. Just use whatever you like and aim for 16 Str and 40 Dex.

Armor: Go for at least 53+ poise and fast roll. Use either wolf ring + light armor or havel's ring + medium-heavy armor.

Spells: Wrath of the Gods is a must. Sunlight Blade and Great Lightning Spear are useful, Great Magic Barrier is somewhat situational and Tranquil Walk of Peace is arguably op and results in hatemail.

[Kyoshi]

cool, thanks for the weapon and stat suggestions.

With other stats, what attune, Vit, End and Faith should i have? Also can you suggest any good armor pieces to use without havels? as i would like to have 2 ring slots vaiable rather then be dependant on anything.

Again, thank you for feedback and hope you can put up with questions a little longer, since i've nvr played a cleric fully b4, so would like to get it good 1st time :)

[Michael]

So, I made an example armor and stats setup: http://mmdks.com/5hou
The Knight Gauntlets + Hollow Soldier Waistcloth combo has 13 poise. So you get 53 poise with the wolf ring and won't get stunned be greatsword attacks. The rest of the armor is just my personal preference.
That's a slvl 119 build, so if you want to go all the way to slvl 125, you have some extra points you can put in Vitality, Attunement and/or Strength, depending on your playstyle.

[Kyoshi]

Cool, that looks really good, and i would only put in 1 more point as i was told 120 is a good lvl to stop at.

Only 2 things i'd likle to ask if you permit. that being is there a different armor to use besides hollow soldier/warrior? nvr been a fan of them. the other being would it be wasteful to go for 5 attune slots? just curious on the 2nd one.

[ZakisFluffy]

Originally posted by Kyoshi:

Cool, that looks really good, and i would only put in 1 more point as i was told 120 is a good lvl to stop at.

Only 2 things i'd likle to ask if you permit. that being is there a different armor to use besides hollow soldier/warrior? nvr been a fan of them. the other being would it be wasteful to go for 5 attune slots? just curious on the 2nd one.

You can try to mix and match other armor if you don't like hollow soldier/warrior. The reason why many people suggest it because it has one of the best wieght to poise ratio in the game.

Wasteful for having 5 attunement slots, really depends on you.
Generally people don't have more than 5 attunement slots due to it being hard to manage and the fact that you don't utilize all your spells as pvp is fast paced.
For example, having two slots for force is redundant, you're not going to be able to use them all in a single match. Plus no one is gona stand around for you to hit them with it.
Lightning spears is situational and rather hard to land, plus with that faith, you wont be doing that much damage with it. Maybe have just one as a backup for range tactics such as kiting or finishing off someone who is trying to heal.
When i say hard to manage, imagine a situation where you backstab someone, he barely has any health left. A simple WotG as a follow up will seal the deal, but then, you couldn't switch to WotG fast enough as you got too many attunement slots to scroll through, or maybe you fumbled and scrolled a little too fast. etc. If you don't have micromanaging problems, then this wouldn't be a facter. But for me, it was a hassle playing on a mage with many different spells. In the end, i made it a spell sword and relied more on melee.

As others pointed out, issues with your build is the low health and poise.
Low health plus your choice of armor would make you quite easy for BS fishers.
Poiseless + your choice of weapon is pretty dangerouss. Most vets who see a light armored wielding a slow weapon with no wolf ring aura would just menu swap to a curved sword or something fast. They'l just tank your hit and spam you into a stunlock.
Plus majority of the pvpers have a backup. It's pretty common to see a club wieleding character take out a gold tracer once they know your poise is easily broken.

[Michael]

Originally posted by Kyoshi:

Only 2 things i'd likle to ask if you permit. that being is there a different armor to use besides hollow soldier/warrior? nvr been a fan of them. the other being would it be wasteful to go for 5 attune slots? just curious on the 2nd one.

You can basically use whatever armor combination you like and feel comfortable with :)
If you don't like getting stunned by certain attacks, keep the poise breakpoints in mind: http://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/poise
The mugenmonkey character planer has an armor optimizer feature that calculates the best armor pieces for your character.
And it's usually a good idea to upgrade your armor, if you have enough spare titanite.
If you don't like the waistcloth, you could try (Elite) Knight Gauntlets + Gargoyle Helm for 14 poise, for example. ( + Wolf Ring => 54 poise)

[SarcFa]

This is what I'd do for that build: http://mmdks.com/5i1e
Scythe can be swapped out for uchi, iaito, any curved sword, or any other dex weapon that is ~5 weight or less.
Decreased att slots to 4 from 6. Great magic barrier is great if you ever fight other casters, but can be swapped out for any other spells. Sunlight blade is good but as mentioned above it has it's negatives. WoG is essentially the best offensive miracle but it can swapped out if you are good with the lightning spears, or want to force backstab combo.
Giants' is one of the best physically defensive armors in the game, and those three pieces hit the 2h greatsword running attack poise breakpoint (56). 99 humanity cause you'll want that for the extra defense. Upped the faith a bit and changed the talisman to a better scaling one for that level. Grass crest for the stam regen. And lowered str by 2 since you don't need 16 for a lot of dex weapons.