How advisable is it to reinforce gear in this game?

[RedSwirl]

I went through almost all of Demon's Souls with basically all of my starting gear, plus a sword that I found in 1-1, but reinforced a few times.

I'm at around soul level 30 in Dark Souls right now and haven't switched much gear since finding the Elite Knight suit. I'm still using the Drakesword which is by far the strongest weapon I have but I'm thinking of reinforcing one of my other weapons that weighs less. I only just recently beat the Gargoyles.

[Marsson]

Don't reinforce the drake sword, it's kind of an beginners trap. The Elite Knight set is one of the strongest sets in the game when fully upgraded, but it takes some time to get there. Overall it's strongly recommended to reinforce the gear you favor the most in this game.

[cua_bien02]

Originally posted by Marsson:

Don't reinforce the drake sword, it's kind of an beginners trap. The Elite Knight set is one of the strongest sets in the game when fully upgraded, but it takes some time to get there. Overall it's strongly recommended to reinforce the gear you favor the most in this game.

Also for a more sturdier build fully upgraded Paladin's set is awesome.

[Stedios]

I have not upgraded armour at all, i was a thief and pumping up the thief suit seemed pointless, just put points on my weapons, dagger lightning, spear lightning and silver spear.

[Audio]

If you have picked up the Dingy set after Lautrec leaves; I would highly suggest to upgrade the chest piece. I myself would say it is easily one of the best in the game if you're going for agility. Light weight with great defense to elements and standard physical damage. If you've got that on then you have room in your equipment burden to get some pretty heavy legs, like Havels or Giants +5.

[Stedios]

i tend to use gold hemmed suit, i do have the dingy one, and i wear Havels suit when bosses are to tough and hit to hard

[8bucks50]

I think it is worth mention that it is DEFINITELY worth reinforcing your gear. Being SL30 and having only rung one bell (right?) you are due for some better gear IMO. I'm SL40 and quite a bit ahead of you "storywise" but the difference being that I've spent a lot of souls on upgrading my gear. I would love to be putting points into my stats but up to this point it seems like I've been playing it just right since my weapons seem to do some good damage to these later enemies.

[Panic Fire]

Gear > Stats

Your gear will fall into 2 categories

Scaling

Static

Static Gear

As the name describes is gear that your stats don't effect. Generally this would be armor and elemental weapons like a fire longsword for instance. This gear doesn't scale with stats thus only needs the minimum stats to equip.


Scaling Gear

This is gear such as a non elemental weapon or shield. These weapons scale with stats thus the higher the stats are the more dmg you do.




Both are very good choices but lets look at the pro's and cons of each



Static Gear

Pro
Does not require a large stat requirement
Can be used with a very low soul level
Can focus on other important stats
If you know what you are doing you can have a fire weapon before the first boss (master key not required)

Con
Requires you to get to locations new players may have difficulty reaching on the first play-through
Will do less damage over all than a scaling toon.
Does dmg in multiple categories (ie physical and elemental/magical) This greatly decreased dmg because of how armor works.


Scaling Gear
Pro
Can do the most dmg in game
Does primary all psychical dmg thus will do more dmg vs split dmg (scaling gear does include magical dmg as well but will put that aside fore now)

Con
More points into your scaling stat means less points into utility stats like stamina and hp for the same soul level



Summary

Despite the time it takes to reach elemental weapons (fire/lighting) New Players would probably fine the game significantly easier building around elemental weapons.

To do this on must simply figure out which weapons they want to use and in what stance. For instance a two handed zweihander build would only put enough points into str so that he can use the zweihander with both hands. All other points would go into stamina/and hp as well as magic/miracle stats. Non scaling toons simply put there points into str/dex/int/faith till they can wield the weapon they need to wield (primarily str and dex though)

[RedSwirl]

Originally posted by Audio:

If you have picked up the Dingy set after Lautrec leaves; I would highly suggest to upgrade the chest piece. I myself would say it is easily one of the best in the game if you're going for agility. Light weight with great defense to elements and standard physical damage. If you've got that on then you have room in your equipment burden to get some pretty heavy legs, like Havels or Giants +5.

I don't even know what either Dingy or Lautrec are, so I probably haven't made it that far yet.

[SarcFa]

Originally posted by RedSwirl:

I don't even know what either Dingy or Lautrec are, so I probably haven't made it that far yet.

Lautrec is the golden knight that you either save in the Parish or just shows up in firelink down the stairs near the bonfire. Telling you about the dingy set would be spoilers.

[NeoprenePenguin]

If you can reinforce your gear or buy titanite to reinforce your gear, do so before leveling up.

[Aishikai]

On a scale of 1-10, 11.

[Kmo_9000]

It depends on your build. For my current build I'm making a magic character so I need a weapon that scales with INT.

In the swears there is a hallway with Giant Leaches on the ceeling and a bonfire at one end. Basically I'm farming them for the Green shards they drop to upgrade my magic weapons. They also drop Large Titanite Chunks if you are upgrading a strength weapon and armor.

The dark souls wiki is also a useful source of infomation, every new player should check it out.