Way of the Demon, looking for a Build, Living Weapon?

[Daemeous]

So I never played on PS4 and I'm on PC now, reseraching stuff about this game is kinda hard given how most everything is 8+ months old, with the newest being 6 months, that's a lot of patches. With so much stuff it's hard to tell if a build is actually even viable anymore. So far I've used Katana and Spear and I wanna try out another weapon. I've been looking at Dual Katana, Kusarigama and Odachi, just now found a nice looking Taro Tachi with CTA(Strength) AA-, Skill Damage (Moonlit Snow) and an Accessory with CTA(Strength) too, so I'm thinking about giving an Odachi build a try but almost everything I see is Living Weapon based and I've stayed away from that type of build because it seems too...gimmicky.

I'm looking for builds that let me fight my way to bosses and kill them, and from what I gather you can't do that with a living weapon build due to the time limited nature of them and how unlimited living weapon builds got patched out. Am I missing something on this? Are they just good for boss killing or are they viable in general with just a few mobs kills to get your gague full then as long as you keep the killtrain rolling it's all good to the boss? How about helping people in co-op?

Going into WOTD was like hitting a brick wall as everything almost doubled in level, I'm looking at taking this Odachi and 4 Tatenashi 1 Master Swordsman (with a Tasakini Magatama) but if anyone else has any other suggestions I'm all ears. Cheers guys, I'm loving this game so far, so glad I've got a weekend free to get back into it!

[DooG Is Eternal]

Dragon ninja build is actually fun for the fact you can fight either normally or just spam lw all day when you got tired of some stage.

Some mobs in the dlc in wotw or wotn really is just too punishing to fight normally, that quad sword yokai... So lw makes it easier.

Just needs to farm the jin ninja guy from the dlc for your first set and along the way to wotn you will get plenty of pieces to upgrade without even internationally trying to farm it.

Just go youtube look for the build by pwargaming.

Personally im using a mix set with 6 dragon ninja and 4 pcs amtesura .

[Daemeous]

Damn...that actually looks interesting...VERY squishy though but I like the Shurikens idea and the larger dodge window (seriously, it seems like this game punishes dodging and rewards blocking, in Dark Souls I always preferred blocking even though dodging was stronger in that game than this one, but here, I always find myself trying to dodge even though it's weaker). I've already done my time with a Katana so I'll try it with a Kusa, thanks a lot man!

Although I never played the DLC enough to get to that point, time to go back and find him!

[Lv 20 Bolting Bot]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Daemeous:

(seriously, it seems like this game punishes dodging and rewards blocking, in Dark Souls I always preferred blocking even though dodging was stronger in that game than this one, but here, I always find myself trying to dodge even though it's weaker)

I mean, not really. If you only block in this game, expect to be destroyed. It's more like this game encourages a mix of dodging/blocking whereas Souls encourages purely dodging and rarely parrying for certain kinds of enemies.

[AH-1 Cobra]

Here you go TC:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmOSC2eP7hQ

A similar build to that can work with scaled-down gear. 2 of the 3 sets you use can be obtained in Divine.

Also, for LW builds, you need to have a stock of amrita stones, etc soulstones. Put them on your bar and use them when you need your amrita gauge charged.

[Daemeous]

Appreciate the help. Yeah, block isn't the be all and end all, especially not in lighter armour, but try high toughness and dual katana/tonfa it's hilarious what you can block and the small amount of Ki lost. When I get around to giving the Ryu Cosplay build a shot (working through the DLC now on Strong) my block is going to suck, light armour and low parry weapon

I've seen that video, it looks good, a fanatics/susano build would be the natural go to for a Living Weapon build but your answer, about the amrita stones seems to suggest that it's not viable for typical level play but more Abyss (which I've not stepped foot in yet) and arena style fights, so more endgame than I am now, unless I just want to sprint through levels skipping everything, I guess...

[AH-1 Cobra]

You only need to kill a few mobs to fill your amrita gauge. You could use suppa scrolls and backstab 3-4 yokai and your gauge is full. Use catwalking + tiger running + quick change + suppa scroll when you're not in LW. You can stealth kill a bunch of mobs.

Kusarigama is a very good weapon for just general killing stuff in missions. It's got an OP moveset. Wide, sweeping AOE attacks, and long range grab moves. Lots of moves for breaking parts on yokais, etc. It's just a very safe weapon to use if you space mobs out.

[Daemeous]

Oooh...now THAT is really an appealing idea! I'm level 250 now so I think I'll need more to get enough Spirit and Dex but damn, now I'm really torn!

[AH-1 Cobra]

Also, side areas in the abyss, most areas you can pop a suppa scroll + catwalking and run right to the kodama without fighting anything. Even run around yokai fog if you stick to the sides, and not run directly through it. There are some boxed in 'waves of enemies' areas, but for those you could just use LW.

Even the annoying '4 armed yokai' fall victim to the catwalking + suppa scroll backstab gimmick. Then use high or low stance X combo to finish them off.

[Daemeous]

Honestly, I've not even looked inside the Abyss so I know nothing about it other than it's the endgame progression mechanic and a way to upgrade Divines. I assumed it was just an arena thing. So I was just saving up my cracked cups until I'd finished all the NG+ cycles

[AH-1 Cobra]

Ironically, you don't even need to raise spirit past what's required for full bonuses from your guardian spirit to run a LW build.

[Daemeous]

Really? I'm sporting Kara-Jishi now and there's no way I can make it last a full boss fight, even if I dodge every attack and play smart, it just drains too fast, even with the +time Omnyo traits and an accessory.

Also thanks a lot for your continued help mate, really appricate it!

[AH-1 Cobra]

You're supposed to use living weapon when you're at critical HP, so the tenacity stat gives you a buff. It increases the bar pretty considerably, and makes attacks do less damage to your LW bar.

A few things I'd change over the LW build in the video, gear wise:

- Weaken weapon isn't that necessary.
- Pierce guard % isn't necessary either. I'd only use this mod in conjuction with Bisha's Centipede.
- It's worth getting elemental reduction on guarding to 100%, so give up attack inheritable on one armor piece for it. You can block elemental attacks for zero ki, zero damage, and you don't get hit with the status effect either.

I prefer + parry to replace one of the above mods, so blocking attacks is better. Blocking is just too good in later difficulties when you can block attacks for little ki reduction that might otherwise OHKO you. Combined with +100% elemental reduction on guarding, it's very good. If you're not really sure about a fight, blocking is usually a good idea. Especially if you get put in a pinch where you just got dropped out of LW mode, and you're looking to scramble for a win somehow.

Also, I think pumping Body to 200 after pumping dex to 200 is better than 200 dex + 200 skill. There are a few attacks you can survive with 200 body that you might not otherwise. And the scaling difference between body and skill for kusarigama isn't that huge.

On the few mobs I tested it on, mobs that could OHKO me without weaken weapon on them (WoTN), could still OHKO me even after landing it. Also there are some (red) enemies where debuffs give the reverse effect, and weaken weapon just gives them an attack buff instead. So the way I see it is I'm using a mod that still makes most mobs OHKO me before or after it lands, with the potential to buff the damage of some mobs when I do land it.

[Daemeous]

Ahhh, I thought the only point of being Critical was to activate (Critical) bonuses on gear, that makes a whole lot more sense!

I knew about the Weaken Weapon and Piece Guard (though the short time I used Kusa it made almost as much of a mockery of human enemies as Spear does (get over here, get tripped up, get killing blowed) so pierce guard wouldn't be high on my list of prioirities either. I really don't have that many +attack inheritable items actually, in spite of drowning in gear and having to stop every couple of missions to get rid of it, haven't even got a CTA inheritable either. I'm gonna guess this is due to the game still being "young" on PC (or me not being at endgame yet), since CTA Inheritables would probably spread like wildfire like the revenant population.

I'm still on early WOTD and don't even know when the cap goes up to 200 stats yet, let alone have the points for that (257 now), cheers again!

[Siameasy]

while that pwargaming build is op its also super boring, cheesy and removes almost all the challenge and fun from the game... "oh i'm up against a something that might be a challenge *spam shuriken until ki is broken and foe falls on ground - stab - repeat*

...seriously i'd just finish the story/achievements and play something else rather than play the game that way.