Is it better to buy gear or leveling up?

[deuce]

I am kinda new so not really sure what I gotta do. I killed the Last Giant and the boss that comes after the old knights. But I did progress a little after those areas too. I have old knights set only without leggings. Broadsword and a kite falcon shield or smth like that lol. I have upgraded my shield sword and 2 pieces of armor oh and I am a knight.

[deuce]

I am level 35ish probably and next level up costs like 3k souls

[RabidBurp]

Take down a few bosses and you should rack up enough souls to buy gear AND level up.

[MobiusPizza]

Upgrade weapons > lvl up > upgrade shields/armor

[Yal]

Weapon upgrades generally are better than levelling up when it comes to get more power, but they're subject to how much upgrade material you have... it's better to spend souls than risk losing them, so try to upgrade gear first, level up second, and then buy stuff for any leftovers. The Broadsword is good enough to last you through the whole game, but you probably will want to replace your armor and shield at some point (e.g. when you unlock McDuff's smithy in the Bastille and can get the Royal Kite Shield). Also, there's almost no reason to upgrade shields, so don't waste material on that.

[Object of depression]

Originally posted by MobiusPizza:

Upgrade weapons > lvl up > upgrade shields/armor

Yeah, I'd say upgrading your gear is the most important thing to do.

[Liquids__]

There is No need to upgrade armor until late, late game IMO. In fact, wering less armor or the light armor just for the elemental resistances is ideal as your stamina will regen faster at lower equip weights, and your roll will get further with lighter equip weight as well, which can't be overstated (to me, low is ~30% or so in this game). I'd rather have a level or two more HP as a buffer than a small increase in defense from spending souls on upgrading some rando armor, hands down, everytime.

You need a weapon and should upgrade it if you are struggling (i can ususally go quite a while with the unupgraded fire longsword to get to my target weapon), but getting to 96 AGL is otherwise a priority for me, as is having enough HP to survive a little stunlock or a big-damage mistake when i wasn't at full HP to begin with.

[Brandon]

I prefer to not do a lot of upgrades unless I already know the game. It sucks when you upgrade armor and weapons and then find something better a few hours later.

[Airk]

i dont upgrade armor until late game, and even then just my favorite fashion pieces.

sword upgrading is the most important.
you can easily beat this game butt naked with a +10 sword. and you can +10 a sword within an hour of where you are.
all weapons are viable. so if you like the sword you got, keepit and upgrade it.

truley, everything is usable, so just go with whatever looks/feels cool to you and dont sweat it.
theres also a TON of upgrade materials in this game, so you can upgrade lots of stuff. youre not stuck with one weapon

[deuce]

Is it possible to get through the game without upgrading weapon until I find the weapon that fits me? I have tried a couple but seems like broad sword is the most fitting but I would like to use something else since it looks like oversized dinner knife.

[Airk]

Originally posted by morniin:

Is it possible to get through the game without upgrading weapon until I find the weapon that fits me? I have tried a couple but seems like broad sword is the most fitting but I would like to use something else since it looks like oversized dinner knife.

i mean sure its "possible" but....
it wlil have the most impact on gameplay IMO.

[deuce]

Yea I mean I played for like 13 hours already and now I am going to start a new save because I have wasted metric ton of good stuff and upgrading my sword was not one of them. I think I will get the Greatsword since I am a Berserk fan lol. It's fairly close too.

[Gaming Gamer]

Originally posted by morniin:

I am kinda new so not really sure what I gotta do. I killed the Last Giant and the boss that comes after the old knights. But I did progress a little after those areas too. I have old knights set only without leggings. Broadsword and a kite falcon shield or smth like that lol. I have upgraded my shield sword and 2 pieces of armor oh and I am a knight.

Leveling up is definitely a better option, None of my armor is even upgraded and i don't feel like i'm on a disadvantage (I've beaten everything from the base dark souls 2 game and 1 of the 3 dlcs and i didn't have a problem with bosses doing too much damage to me, well maybe beside the last 2 bosses of the old iron king but i feel like it's meant to be that way.) If you are going to upgrade an armor set however, i recommend upgrading the tankiest set you have, which for most people is the drangleic set, vengarl or havel set.

[hanachirusato]

Yes, don't upgrade armour... I see so many glass cannons in coop, those who are dead after a mob's combo while you just like: Huh? You hit like a girl, mob!
Upgrading armour is good when you've firmly chosen it, of course. Otherwise, you will just waste souls and material on pieces of weapon or armour replaced by something else found later in the game.
It's better to invest in something that is always needed. Like... Health, Streamina, Agility... Still, defence is important. Drangleic gauntles and leggings are one of the best in the game in terms of defence/weight. You will probably never part with them, so would recommend to level up them first.

[Lu2]

chose wisely, if you want compete in pvp . use agape ring properly and get to the shuva repair tree for free repairs. dont lost-waste souls

[TrueArchery]

Upgrade weapon/shield/casting tool > leveling > upgrade armor. Not that it really matters, upgrades are dirt cheap. They're also by far the best damage increase in the early and midgame, infusions are too. Scaling isn't important at all, hp and stamina matter a whole lot more, getting a few Adp levels is worth the investment too.

Originally posted by morniin:

Is it possible to get through the game without upgrading weapon until I find the weapon that fits me? I have tried a couple but seems like broad sword is the most fitting but I would like to use something else since it looks like oversized dinner knife.

Yeah but it's just skyrocketing the difficulty for no reason, upgrade materials aren't rare goods at all.

Originally posted by Punymeyer:

I prefer to not do a lot of upgrades unless I already know the game. It sucks when you upgrade armor and weapons and then find something better a few hours later.

Same regarding this, upgrade materials are common so any form of psychological pressure is just stupid.

Originally posted by Lu2:

chose wisely, if you want compete in pvp . use agape ring properly and get to the shuva repair tree for free repairs. dont lost-waste souls

Haha, exaggeration^10. There's no reason to ever worry about SM, unless you want to stay at a very specific invasion/coop spot for a long time. Casually playing through the game and wasting souls here and there doesn't matter in the big picture, you're going to be in the same tier. Outside of high skill duels in which a newcomer would get rekt 100% of the time, the "competition" is very casual anyway.