Strength faith build?

[DuelShockX]

I'm new to DS2 and came straight from Ds1. Looking for tips on what stats I should lvl up for strength and faith build now that there are other new stats too.

[DonVISIONe]

obviously strength and faith.

but it depends on how far u want to go with ur lvl i guess so u should stop at 40 str. first id say.
u can use most weps 1h with 40 and powerstance some other weps which dont require that much

as for faith the max u may want to is 50 for dragon chime but u should have atleast 30 but then again it depends on what spells u want to use.
there are spices which can reduce the stat in int. or fth. for a spell u need to cast.

also there is the stat adaptability. u should put some points in to it aswell since u get more agility with it which will increase ur iFrames during rolls and backsteps = longer invincibility time.
attunement also increases agility and ofc ur cast slots.

for further info check the wikis, fextralife or wikidot.

[DuelShockX]

I know I'll be mainly focusing on faith and strength but what other sub stats (endurance, vitality) will I need to lvl up to what extent

[Seferofe]

You'll be needing a lot of endurance if you're gonna run a ultra weapon build. Luckily there's also the dragon rings that can help with that. Vitality depends on your armour, though again you'll need at least a bit if you're going for a heavy weapon. Of course attunement is a must depending on the amount of different miracles you wish to use.

You'll want at least 96 AGL, which is boosted by leveling up adaptability and attunement. Doing this will give you a good bit of i-frames for when you dodge.

It's hard to tell you exactly what stats to level up, seeing as we don't know specifically what you want. Do you wish to be more tanky, as in taking a hit to deal damage? Or do you prefer avoiding damage at all costs, while attacking when it's safe?

[A Regular Italian Plumber]

Unless you plan on simply buffing your weapon and healing, dont bother with faith. Faith has been nerfed into the ground.

Lightning spear has had its damage and casts cut into a fraction since release (3 casts down from 10 and around a 30% damage nerf) and most faith scaling weapons have seen significant nerfs as well.

Str, Dex, or quality builds are much more powerful in this game.

[Seferofe]

Originally posted by HeWhosKnownAsIAm:

Unless you plan on simply buffing your weapon and healing, dont bother with faith. Faith has been nerfed into the ground.

Lightning spear has had its damage and casts cut into a fraction since release (3 casts down from 10 and around a 30% damage nerf) and most faith scaling weapons have seen significant nerfs as well.

Str, Dex, or quality builds are much more powerful in this game.

While yes, faith has been nerfed since release, but that doesn't make it useless. If OP plans to put a lot of stats into faith it can be very powerful. Though I do have to agree that lightning spear is terrible, however there is emit force, which while dealing slightly less damage it has more uses and an AoE.

Miracles are very powerful if you heavily invest into, like any other thing. I did a pure miracle caster and only had problems with running out of casts. Also Heavenly thunder is extremely useful, especially in water areas seeing as it creates an AoE whenever it hits water.

Of course it's not overpowered, it requires a lot of levels put into it, but I think it's still reliable. Especially early on when you have near to no estus.

[Hippopotamus]

Why do lightning spear have only 3 uses at lowest attunement? It seems ♥♥♥♥ due to that reason alone.

[A Regular Italian Plumber]

Originally posted by Seferofe:

Originally posted by HeWhosKnownAsIAm:

Unless you plan on simply buffing your weapon and healing, dont bother with faith. Faith has been nerfed into the ground.

Lightning spear has had its damage and casts cut into a fraction since release (3 casts down from 10 and around a 30% damage nerf) and most faith scaling weapons have seen significant nerfs as well.

Str, Dex, or quality builds are much more powerful in this game.

While yes, faith has been nerfed since release, but that doesn't make it useless. If OP plans to put a lot of stats into faith it can be very powerful. Though I do have to agree that lightning spear is terrible, however there is emit force, which while dealing slightly less damage it has more uses and an AoE.

Miracles are very powerful if you heavily invest into, like any other thing. I did a pure miracle caster and only had problems with running out of casts. Also Heavenly thunder is extremely useful, especially in water areas seeing as it creates an AoE whenever it hits water.

Of course it's not overpowered, it requires a lot of levels put into it, but I think it's still reliable. Especially early on when you have near to no estus.

Never said useless, just pointed out its pretty much only good for weapon buffing and healing. Faith weapons are objectivly weaker than regular str dex or quality ones. Per point faith is not as powerful as other builds and requires heavy stat investment to even break even.

Also emit force is physical damage, the best part of lightning was most bosses were weak to it so. Also it has 1 more cast at 4, in addition to scaling less with faith than lightning spear. It's really not that much better.

[A Regular Italian Plumber]

Originally posted by Gordon Freeman:

Why do lightning spear have only 3 uses at lowest attunement? It seems ♥♥♥♥ due to that reason alone.

They used to do a ton more damage and have 10 casts per attunment.

Faith was the ♥♥♥♥ at launch, my first playthrough was with a faith str build. I wouldnt bother trying it again tho.

[TrueArchery]

Oh god, it's this discussion again. No, Miracles don't suck. They'd be OP if they had the same offensive possibilities as the other schools because they're undeniably the best support-magic-school (buffs, heals, heals-over-time).
They still have enough oomph to make Sunlightspear one of the strongest spells in the game and the AoE-ones are very good aswell.
It's a slow start when you do pure miracle runs, but at the end it's going to be very powerful.
All the inherit Lightning-weapons are still very good and damaging.

You want 40 Strength and 50 Faith. Vitality depending on the stuff you want to use. As said, Dragon Rings and Royal Soldier's Ring are options to consider.
16 Attunement + Southern Ritual Band +2 is usually enough.
Don't make the mistake and think that Sacred Oath is good for a hybrid-build. It's solely for pure spellswords and/or very high leveled characters. The solt-requirement is too huge.
50 Vigor is what you should aim for.
92 Agility, later up to 105.
Int - obviously don't bother.
Endurance to your liking, but since you're going to use heavy and stamina-hungry stuff (unless you go for like Estoc and Gargoyle Bident which I assume you do NOT mean by going Strength) lots of it never hurts. I'd go for 20 and then raise it later when you got your HP and damage-stats up.

[Hippopotamus]

Estoc scales with strength tho? Also 3 casts is ♥♥♥♥. Ain't no one going to be bothering with that crap.

[clkwrks]

To put things into perspective lightning spear and emit force do about the same damage as great soul arrow, lightning spear has just 3 casts, emit force has 4 but great soul arrow has 15. Great soul arrow only requres 14 int., lightning spear requires 22. Even before the nerf these miracles were only comparable to great heavy soul arrow or heavy soul arrow. Faith was never OP, and certainly isn't now.