How are Knights?

[SkyCake]

Heya! Below is kind of why I'm wondering.

How are knights? I know your starting class doesn't completely dominate your build/playstyle, but for the sake of personal enjoyment, I would play the based on class archtypes. So, if I played the knight, I would wear the heaviest armor and use the biggest weapons. Is slow and heavy fine for this game? Currently, my play has been with a Pyro wearing the lighter armor to keep from being too slow (mostly rolling). But, if enemies hit so hard so even in the heaviest and bulkiest armor I'd find that rolling is still how I would play, I don't see the point in heavy armor. I don't know though, since I have little experience in this game. End-game in the bulkiest armor, is it enough to justify slowing myself for it? Or, will enemies still shred it up? Thanks.

So, I'm really enjoying this game! I decided to start as a Pyromancer, because fire is generally fun and matches my playstyle (pretty and DOTs) for most games. I've been building my character as kind of a quick attacking, flame throwing, well-rounded (ish) melee fighter. I got to the Capra demon fight, and now I'm having trouble. I may be there too early, and recently learned about upgrading armor and weapons. Currently, the demon will nearly one-shot me. I'm confident I could beat it if I upgraded my gear and a couple of more tries.

Thank you! My last thread was full of positive and helpful posts, completely changing the sterotype I've heard of the DS community.

[JuiceySpice]

knights are nothing special play thief or wanderer for fast weapons, bandit for heavy weapons, pyromancer is generally the best though

[toroid]

Depends totally on your own preferences and playstyle. Newer players usually use a big shield and heavy armor to mitigate the damage they receive while learning the game, so that they can have some room to make mistakes. The Capra fight can be pretty tricky if you aren't intimately familiar with it. Being mobile may be more helpful in that fight.. but if you get stunlocked it's over. So having poise is also helpful against Capra. So it just depends on how you prefer to play.

[Grad]

Yeah slow and heavy is a valid playstyle as long as you have a high stability shield with it because you won't be rolling much. Down the line if you get higher level you can offset the fatrolls with a better roll with END, but unless you wear havels ring and have 50+ END you won't be fastrolling. The armor does play a huge role in your dmg mitigation if hit, but i think as long as you use a high stability shield you can breeze through the game. Most greatshields are perfect but people are put off by them because of their weight and find rolling easier. It's really a matter of playstyle.

[SundownKid]

Knights are pretty bad, I'd say. They start with heavy armor, but low endurance, meaning they will be fat rolling around if you try to keep all their armor on. You don't even need heavy armor for the parts of the game where the classes are relevant, since you'll be using small weapons anyway.

Pyromancer is pretty much the best class to start as. They start with the most total stat points, they have fireballs, fire- and poison-resistant armor, and can be built into any type of character. You can easily swap out the bad shield early on in the game.

Now as for the Knight ARCHETYPE, that is a really good archetype to use. Strength weapons are some of the best for PvE so a Strength/Endurance/Vitality focused character can steamroll the game, second only to the Sorcerer for pure destructive power.

I just wouldn't start as Knight. I would start as Pyro and later on get the Elite Knight Armor or whatnot.

[SkyCake]

Thanks, everyone! Haha, the DS community is great, another sterotype proving to not hold up!

I didn't know Endurance changes the speed of your rolls, thank you for the knowledge! I also didn't know great shields were a thing, and now I'm even more interested in a going a more heavy, but slow route. I guess I'll give it a go! I don't think I'm good enough or far enough in the game to really know how useful heavy armor is, but you all have made me feel like it's still a viable gameplay choice.

So, I'll make a new character (knight) for now and go for a different playstyle than my Pyromancer. Eventually, I want to play a sorceress, but I'm waiting until I beat the game once to kind of give myself more incentive. Plus, if I get tired of one playstyle, I can just switch characters to have a different one. Woo!

[SundownKid]

Mainly, heavy armor is for when you use heavy weapons, e.g. high-strength ones that take a while to swing such as Greatswords and Ultra Greatswords, Greataxes, etc. That's so enemies don't break your poise when swinging.

It's rarely worth sacrificing enough weight to Fat Roll. But Mid Rolling is viable if you need the poise to use a certain weapon.

[Grad]

Originally posted by SkyCake:

I didn't know Endurance changes the speed of your rolls

It doesn't, it just helps manage roll/movement speed in relation to your current equip load.

The roll and run speed of the player will vary with the amount of equipped weight.
Equip Weight above 100% of total Equip Load leaves the player unable to roll and run.
Trying to roll or backstep at this weight will stun the character.
Equip weight above 50% and up to 100% of Equip Load gives slow movement, and causes the player to 'fat roll'.
Equip weight above 25% and up to 50% of Equip Load gives medium movement.
There are also two different speeds to medium rolls, above and below 37.5%.
Equip weight equal to and below 25% of Equip Load gives fast movement.
Equip weight below 25% also has 4 individual speeds:
The fastest speed is achieved at 0% equip. The only weapons with no weight are Dragon Body and the Pyromancy Flame.
The other speed ranges are from 0.1% to 8.3%, 8.4% to 16.6%, and 16.7% to 25%.

Equip Load can be further increased by utilizing some items.
Havel's Ring increases max equip load by 50%.
Ring of Favor and Protection increases max equip load by 20%.
Mask of the Father increases max equip load by 5%.
The items stack, for a total of 89% increase to equip load when all three are worn.

[SkyCake]

Thank you so much for the breakdown, Creamy Goodness! Also, nice name!

[freed]

Sorry to come in a bit late, but if you really want to go off of starting classes, then Knight is not that great for beginners. Even though you have a little more HP, it's not gonna really matter. I recommend going with a quicker class, such as Warrior. Excellent class for beginners, and yet hits hardest, along with being pretty quick.

Just don't forget your class does not affect your later gameplay, as you'll go your own way.

Vitality and Endurance soft-caps at 40, and then find your dream weapon and get your str and dex to the required stats, and depending if you want to use magic, int and faith.

Sorry for my low hours in the game, I've bought this game around a month ago as before I've only been playing offline cracked until then; simply decided to buy it before Scholar of the first sin's release, in order to practice online play lol

[JuiceySpice]

Originally posted by SkyCake:

Thanks, everyone! Haha, the DS community is great, another sterotype proving to not hold up!

in pvp the community is pretty grusome be careful when you go human

[SkyCake]

I haven't had any encounters in PvP, yet. But, I also don't mind the invasion thing. If I die, I die. Oh well! I always heard that the DS community is a bunch of elitist jerks, but so far my experience with the DS community has been positive and helpful. If the PvP community is gruesome, so be it!

Of course, every community has the good and bad. My experience with DS just hasn't been as bad as everyone I've heard talk about it makes it seem.