best stats to increase

[Makoto730]

i recently defeated a boss and not sure which to increase. is vigor important? and im not planning to use much spells and only sticking to some pyromancy

[zaboju]

Vigor is one of the most imprtant stats in games of these series. Lvling it helps you to survive your mistakes. If you do not level it on some point enemies will start to oneshot you. You should also know that lvling adaptibility is also important in this game because it gives you more Invincibility frames while rolling and backstepping.It is highly advisible to lvl it up until your agility will be near 100 at least (attunment also affects it but in inferior way). Other stats are situational and you should lvl them in order to fit your playstlyle. Just look for weapons stats and increase what you want to fit in your build.
You may also find useful information about stats for example here:
http://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/Stats

[Baby_Cookie[WOLF]]

adp
if you don't get hit to begin with you don't need vgr
then there is the softcaps and hardcaps

vgr 20-25 ( enything over is hardly worth it )

end 20 ( anything over it is hardly worth it )

adp 30-40

str and dex ( based on what you use ) ( str focussed 40-20 ) ( dex focused 20-40 ) ( quality 40-40 ..... pretty much only usefull if you scale mediocre on both stats ) ( if a weapon excells in one and you plan to use that weapon, focus down on the one :) )

vit ( whatever is required to keep under 50ish percent equipload ) ( the lower the better but anything below 50 ( even 70% ) is doable

att
int
fth
are only relevant if you go miracles or magic ( dedicated ) if you go cheap backup magics then keep it on lower priority

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and yes
just keep the wiki on standby :) it's there for a reason :)



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as for damage in general
weapon upgrading is the way to go
dex and str don't add to much to it in the end ( unless you have some s-scaling but str hardly has s-scaling weapons in its category )

other then that

in order to fire a bow you don't need the actual requirements for it
you can fire a bow with sup-par dex ( it won't do any real damage but it's still viable for pulling enemies from groups )

in order to parry with let's say a buckler, you don't need the actual requirements for it
wielding it with sup-par dex will make it worthless in damagereduction ( it already is by default anyway :p ) but you can freely use it to parry to it's full effect

so if you go str dedicated, that doesn't eliminate these tactical weapons :)

[Baby_Cookie[WOLF]]

then again

108 hours
mostly played in the last half year ( so it's not like there is a 3 year hiatus since your last time )
it would be rather safe for us to assume you already know this :p

( unless you are typing in name of the accountholder but aren't the person themselve )
( which is possible :) )

[Makoto730]

i guess i made some big mistakes as i am already 100 hours in but my adaptability is 6. feel too lazy to start over

[Dr. Frasier Crane]

Get a soulvessel (cellar in majula mansion) and respec at the old women. Amazing you've poured in 100h with adaptability at 4, get it to 32 so agility becomes 105, then you can actually roll way easier without taking damage.

[TrueArchery]

Vigor, it keeps being good beyond the softcap despite what people say. Level it to 50. The "you don't take dmg if you don't get hit" line is quite stupid honestly because you take dmg all the time in this game. You could argue "don't level adp because you don't need more iframes during rolls if your rolls are on point" aswell yet it'd be a silly handcap to not level it, but as seen it's obviously possible to beat the game without any Adp investment. HP and iframes are just ways to make the game more forgiving, since this game is all about punishing your mistakes, making it more forgiving is an essential part. Not doing this is essentially just gimping yourself for no real reason.
A good breakpoint for Agility in PvE is 96, 99 or 105. I prefer 99 Agl, it equals the Bandit's base Atn and 25 Adp. If you've more Atn - you probably have considering that you plan to use Pyros - you don't need as much Adp.

Str and Dex add some pretty significant AR, but scaling letters are kinda garbage. After infusions they're completely worthless and even uninfused they don't tell you that Str scaling is superior to Dex scaling. Like, a C/C scaling is more like a B/D. The Claymore gets 2/3 of its scaling from Str, only 1/3 comes from Dex. A Clay needs 20 Str. At +10 and 20 Str you get +40 Str scaling, at 40 Str it's +70. That's 30 AR for 20 points of investment, nothing crazy but quite a bit - and many weapons scale better with a stat than the Clay.
"True" quality weapons have like C/A or better.
Spreadsheet with all scaling values (uninfused):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16VTSt4YkfppS1YZuK8kYj0WS_Mo4vuNxnGHf2StmQic/edit#gid=2117584104
In a nutshell, scaling gains aren't that great unless a weapon has a scaling value of around 50 or better. Leveling over 40 in Str or Dex usually isn't worth it.

If you use Pyromancy - its base dmg is good, but it gets better when you level Int and/or Fth. 60 points combined in those stats, distribution is irrelevant, are the softcap.

btw, not meeting stat requirements for a shield will result in ♥♥♥♥♥♥ block values (like already mentioned) and also a longer parry-animation, so it isn't the BEST idea... the active parry frames seem to be unaffected tho, it's just a longer overall animation, so more startup-/recovery-time.

When you're "done" with your character, just pump End. It keeps giving 1 point per level after 20, there is no further softcap, and more stamina is always worth it.

[Baby_Cookie[WOLF]]

in the end it's all up to the concept of farming really

technically a ng run shoudln't require you to go over sl 150 ( you probalby shouldn't even reach 150 to begin with )

this however results in choices... you cna't go allout on str+dex+vig+adp with only a limited amount of levels :p

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but then agian, what really stops you form going over 150 other then your own believes
nothing :p

you can easily farm yourself onto sl 250 for a ng..... and you'll have so much more vgr in combination with adp to work with

it's all up to how much time you want to spend


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i never had any use for boss souls or solid souls for that matter
going trough every area once ( no farming ) without soulboosting gear gives you enough souls to finish the game propperly ( from my experiences )

( in case of farming for an itemdrop... always done with agape to keep controll over the sm )

doesn't prohibit you from actualy popping those solid souls though :p
by end game i have qutie the amount of potential levels that remain unused :)