Best setup for physical defense?

[Nintony]

22 Vigor, 20 endurance, 22 vitality, full dragonslayer set and the silver knights in anor londo still kill me in 2-3 hits. Not even the lightning attacks they use, and not even ng+. just regular playthrough.
Am i doing something wrong here or is this game just plain broken compared to ds2?

[Gian]

Welcome to Dark Souls m8, still, why mention the Silver Knights instead of the Pontiff ones? They seen to hit a lot harder and have a more troublesome moveset.
Nway, Steel Protection ring, Havel's Set and Shield, weapon is your choice, though, I would carry the Dragon Slayer Axe and Lothric Knight Sword as backup for foes that cannot be staggered, if you are going for Dex, Katana and Spear will do, although, A Dex Build shouldn't be tanking nway in the first place ...

[Inigo]

Basically, don't bother. Armor is ♥♥♥♥ in this game. It requires VERY heavy armor to notice a *tiny* difference, and Equip Load (along with luck) is a bit of a dump stat since the gains are super not worth it.

[Darkeshi]

don't tank hits, roll and attack

[BlazeRomulus]

No matter your armor, you will always die if you intend to tank hits without blocking them with a shield.

Armor does help, but not as much as you would think, for instance with 20 vigor and a heavy armor i can survive a direct heavy hit from the dancer, without it, i can't.

It's just enough defense so you don't can afford to make a mistake or two.

[Red Phantom]

22 vigor is pretty low. Also, the damage reduction you get from armor is basically nothing. Like Darkeshi said, the object is not to get hit.

[BlazeRomulus]

Originally posted by In Favilla:

22 vigor is pretty low. Also, the damage reduction you get from armor is basically nothing. Like Darkeshi said, the object is not to get hit.

anything past 22 vigor won't net you a good ammount of health.

[Nevict]

Is armor really so useless in this game? Maybe i should re-think my build then...

[GrayHound]

Lol, 22 VIG. I have 35 and that usually prevents parry insta-kills but only by a little bit.

[Nintony]

not to get hit
when the silver knights have infinite reach with their rapid-hitting lightning spears
this game is shid

[Skiptro]

Originally posted by Blaze:

Originally posted by In Favilla:

22 vigor is pretty low. Also, the damage reduction you get from armor is basically nothing. Like Darkeshi said, the object is not to get hit.

anything past 22 vigor won't net you a good ammount of health.

27 is the first softcap, will put your hp at 1300 while embered and 1000 if not.

Also Vit determines your resistances which caps at 40, if you want to take a big hit you have to increase Vit.

[Inigo]

My playstyle is my playstyle, *but*.

I found that putting HP to 1K and leaving it there is enough to clear the game easily. It lets you eat 2-3 bad hits and survive, maybe 4 if it's a combo or not too strong.

IIRC the Armor protection was something like each 10 of armor gave you 1% damage reduction. So if you fought your way up to 300 you'd "only" be taking a third less damage from attacks - but for what it costs to get there, armor, equip load and rings, it's super not worth doing that.

IF you want to be survivable, try to learn dodges\timings for rolls and push Stamina. Stamina lets you swing weapons more often (more damage) or retreat in danger, it is the single most important non-combat stat in the game.

I find shields in this game to be really ♥♥♥♥. Even the high stability shields (high stab = less stam dmg when blocking) tend to drain your meter in 2-3 hits tops, so I'll only ever use "effect" shields (bonus stam regen, souls, that kind of stuff).

[76561198279848403]

steel protection +2, and whatever armor you think looks good. the highest defense you can have (not counting loyyds ring) is around 50%, which will require havels, smough, or some other idiot looking armor that weighs far too much.

[[Lethalvriend]]

At most you'll have like 30% reduction with armors (assuming the UI indicates percentage based reduction, I haven't bothered looking into it). Most armors will get you maybe 10-20ish vs physical/strike etc. Ds3 is all about dodging. If you have 20 vigor + ember + life ring + ring of favor you'll have a ton of HP though and nearly nothing will 2shot you with that.

[Inigo]

But also, bosses have attacks that will either bypass your guard entirely (grabs) or just smash it with comboes or HUGE force. For instance, a late-game boss is fought on a fairly wide bridge. Even while blocking, HE CAN PUNCH YOU TWENTY FEET AWAY. It also kills 90% of your stamina bar - the danger here is that you are punched to instakill off the bridge.
Some will also do massive sweeping 5-8 attack comboes that you CANNOT defend as it WILL go through your stamina - so dodging is a better idea.

[Anelyn]

I'm at ~1700 hp embered with 20+ % absorb on all physical dmg and a buffed (lightning or dark) silver knight can 3-4 shot me (depends if it's a 2h or 1h weapon, if they use a charged R2 or weapon art etc), 138 defenses vs physical as well, on NG+.

That's how dmg is in DS3. You aren't supposed to tank hits, even with havel's and iron flesh. You either block and counter, dodge or parry.