Most OP build?

[David Benioff]

Heya guys,

I'm trying to plan out a new playthrough (melee only for me, not a fan of casting in any of these games).
My usual setup (when i'm trying to demolish the game) is to grab the rapier asap, get it to +6 by heading to lost bastille and then grabbing chunks in harvest valley.

Can anyone think of a better build? I'm kinda in the mood to optimize it more and steamroll some more :D

[JellyPuff]

Originally posted by David Benioff:

Can anyone think of a better build?

Not if you refuse to use any spells. Refer to my post on the "Dumb Builds"-thread, where i'll go into more detail. (EDIT)

But here's something, that comes somewhat close: Ring of Blades + Flynn's Ring + Vanquisher's Seal.

Vanquisher's Seal is the max rank Company of Champions reward and makes your bare fists OP (and able to be powerstanced). Then just softcap VIG, 30-ish END and enough ADP to get to 105 AGL and once that's done, you can start working towards softcapping STR to make you even more OP.

Starting Gift: Bonfire Ascetic.
Farm "Rhoy the Explorer", an offline-mode exclusive NPC invader, for Awestones: Get down the Majula Pit asap, kill Royal Rat Vanguard at Grave of Saints, burn the Ascetic at Harval's Resting Place-bonfire (near the Grave of Saints entrance) and while you are a member of the Company of Champions, you will always trigger the scripted invasion for Rhoy the Explorer near the small ladder connecting the 1st and 2nd level of the area (he spawns near the 2nd bonfire).
Just lower one of the bridges close to his spawn (requires Pharros Lockstone) and knock him off by 2H-bumps with a shield. Awestones are being put directly into your inventory when he dies and he will always give one (though he has a small chance to drop another one on his body). You need 50 Awestones/50 Kills for Vanquisher's Seal, so it might take a while.

[Hydef]

Start as Knight with Bonfire ascetic.
Grab Morning Star to more easily destroy Heide Knights.
Beeline to No Man's Wharf, grab the Greatsword. Grab Royal Soldier's Ring there too.
Chloranthy Ring +2 via Bonfire Ascetic'd Executioner's Chariot.
Grab the Avelyn in the Undead Crypt, infuse with Lightning, use with Lightning Bolts.
Grab Havel's armor in The Gutter, key is in the Black Gulch.

add Crystal Magic Weapon in Dragon Shrine to really mop up the endgame and DLCs.
Become unstoppable.

Focus on Vig, Vitality and Str until you hit softcaps and enough to wear all the gear, then pump Endurance. Add rings to taste.

This is the build I used in my last playthrough and it was by far the most powerful I've done in this game. PVE was a joke and its really good in PVP as well.

[NightmareGats]

Climax

[Jej]

Get Greatswords as quickly as possible. Upgrade them as they get S STR scaling after a certain point.

Power stance them.

Congratulations, you're now the destroyer of worlds.

[Castyles]

Ice Rapier. It's end game, though.

So just cheat it, if you want to? Servers are not coming back, anyways.

The Estoc is pretty OP, too. And it's available right at the beggining.

[David Benioff]

Originally posted by JellyPuff:

Originally posted by David Benioff:

Can anyone think of a better build?

Not if you refuse to use any spells. Refer to my post on the "Dumb Builds"-thread, where i'll go into more detail. (EDIT)

But here's something, that comes somewhat close: Ring of Blades + Flynn's Ring + Vanquisher's Seal.

Vanquisher's Seal is the max rank Company of Champions reward and makes your bare fists OP (and able to be powerstanced). Then just softcap VIG, 30-ish END and enough ADP to get to 105 AGL and once that's done, you can start working towards softcapping STR to make you even more OP.

Starting Gift: Bonfire Ascetic.
Farm "Rhoy the Explorer", an offline-mode exclusive NPC invader, for Awestones: Get down the Majula Pit asap, kill Royal Rat Vanguard at Grave of Saints, burn the Ascetic at Harval's Resting Place-bonfire (near the Grave of Saints entrance) and while you are a member of the Company of Champions, you will always trigger the scripted invasion for Rhoy the Explorer near the small ladder connecting the 1st and 2nd level of the area (he spawns near the 2nd bonfire).
Just lower one of the bridges close to his spawn (requires Pharros Lockstone) and knock him off by 2H-bumps with a shield. Awestones are being put directly into your inventory when he dies and he will always give one (though he has a small chance to drop another one on his body). You need 50 Awestones/50 Kills for Vanquisher's Seal, so it might take a while.

Wait so using fists only becomes OP using this method :O?

[David Benioff]

Originally posted by Hydef:

Start as Knight with Bonfire ascetic.
Grab Morning Star to more easily destroy Heide Knights.
Beeline to No Man's Wharf, grab the Greatsword. Grab Royal Soldier's Ring there too.
Chloranthy Ring +2 via Bonfire Ascetic'd Executioner's Chariot.
Grab the Avelyn in the Undead Crypt, infuse with Lightning, use with Lightning Bolts.
Grab Havel's armor in The Gutter, key is in the Black Gulch.

add Crystal Magic Weapon in Dragon Shrine to really mop up the endgame and DLCs.
Become unstoppable.

Focus on Vig, Vitality and Str until you hit softcaps and enough to wear all the gear, then pump Endurance. Add rings to taste.

This is the build I used in my last playthrough and it was by far the most powerful I've done in this game. PVE was a joke and its really good in PVP as well.

Oh I like this! Sounds versatile and fun :D thanks!

[David Benioff]

Originally posted by Jej:

Get Greatswords as quickly as possible. Upgrade them as they get S STR scaling after a certain point.

Power stance them.

Congratulations, you're now the destroyer of worlds.

Hmmm I definitely want to do another greatsword build - you've convinced me :P

[David Benioff]

Originally posted by Castyles:

Ice Rapier. It's end game, though.

So just cheat it, if you want to? Servers are not coming back, anyways.

The Estoc is pretty OP, too. And it's available right at the beggining.

hmmm I remember reading that the ice rapier was better than the rapier, but it didn't work out that way for me. Do you know what a good build would be for it?

[JellyPuff]

Originally posted by David Benioff:

Wait so using fists only becomes OP using this method :O?

Yes. Equipping Vanquisher's Seal basically turns your bare fists into even stronger Caestus. Bare Fists have less scaling overall and rely on STR more, but their base AR is almost double. You can powerstance them, too, but i've found you have more DPS if you just "2H" them, which looks funny.

Also, your bare fists never break and you don't have to worry about upgrading them. The only downsides to bare fists is their low range and poise-damage, which kind of annoying against some enemies. You can't buff them either.

Originally posted by David Benioff:

Hmmm I definitely want to do another greatsword build - you've convinced me :P

"Greatsword" is very strong in the base game, especially early on, since it's very high base AR and you can loot one at No Man's Wharf (you only need 14STR to 2H it). But you don't really need more, than one, since one 2-handed should cut through most base-game bosses like butter, especially with RoB/Flynn's and Lightning Pine Resin applied.
Powerstanced L1 is stronger, but you'll often only get enough of a window of opportunities for one of these against bosses. Although, powerstanced L1's for ultras are one of the few, which can benefit from the quickattack-exploit. If you do this attack while toggling the powerstance (L1+Y at the same time), you'll skip a big chunk of the attack's start-up frames.

Edit:

Originally posted by David Benioff:

hmmm I remember reading that the ice rapier was better than the rapier, but it didn't work out that way for me. Do you know what a good build would be for it?

Click the link in my first post. The main reason, why it's OP is that it infuses well, which helps abusing it's counter-damage value, especially in combination with spellbuffs, which scale with total base AR, which is very high on the Ice Rapier. Counter damage in DS2 is completely bonkers, hence why most katanas are also OP. Most thrusting swords have 140 counter, which is a 40% damage bonus applied during counter attacks (another ~12% with Old Leo Ring) after everything else (scaling, rings, buffs, etc) and most katanas have 150 (+50% damage).

The only other weapon, that i would consider OP for PvE, but doesn't abuse counter-damage (as much), is the Red-Iron Twinblade, preferably lightning-infused, but dark works too and speedrunners like to switch between a dark and lightning infused one, depending on the boss' resistances.

[Koros Antavo]

You can quickly add Flynn's ring to bare fists. Flynn + RoB + Vanq + Stone Ring = high damage and poise break

[JellyPuff]

Originally posted by Koros Antavo:

You can also cosplay npc's. Friendly summons or invaders. Ever wanted to be Bradley of the Old Guard for your fellow adventurers? Or scare them with the visage of Forlorn?

This is a thread about OP builds specifically and not about subjectively fun or dumb ones. And since i'm already backseat moderating: Edit > Multipost.

[Koros Antavo]

Fair enough.

I've spent such a long time challenging myself that I forgot what is OP.

[Koros Antavo]

Thursting weapons are meta, but strike weapons is where it's at. Demon's Hammer is absolute devastation, and you can get it early if you're lucky. Powestanced maces is beast mode, and you can actually roll while wielding them.

I know, you don't like magic, but... Pyromancies don't cost anything. Stack Poison Mist and Toxic mist, and everything around you will melt. Applicable to all types of builds.

[Senki]

dual maces until you find red iron twinblade. Then red iron twinblade will melt everything.