Early Pyromancer guide

Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls 2 - Scholar of the First Sin lack a Pyromancer starter class, unlike their predecessor. This guide is meant to help players get the gear they need to follow this path with some bonus gear to boot.

Intro and disclaimers.

Hello!

I'm rpvarela, just a DS2 - SotFS player and I made this guide to help players down the Pyromancer path as soon as possible. Please notice that this is about a Pyromancer character and not about pyromancy as a whole.
The point here is becoming a Pyromancer early in the game.

Also notice that this guide assumes you have some experience with the game. Some parts of this guide will be properly explained, but the more basic content will simply be mentioned instead.

With that out of the way, let's get started!

Getting Started: Classes and Items

Selecting your class

The coolest thing about Pyromancies is that they have no stat requirement in order to be used! The only thing you need is enough attunement slots to carry them around.

With that in mind, it's safe to say that any class can work as a Pyromancer, but there are a few things one may want to consider:

• Pyromancies scale with Intelligence and Faith and will increase in damage with these stats.
  
• Pyromancies scale with the catalyst being used, meaning your Pyromancy Flame directly affects spell damage as you upgrade it.
  
• Despite scaling with both Intelligence and Faith, the bonus provided to pyromancies by upgrading the catalyst with Fire Seeds is far superior to that of your stats, so focusing on these stats aren't really a necessity unless you either want sorceries and miracles (respectively) in addition to Pyromancies or are going for a "pure pyro" build.

Class Highlights

Some class highlights, concerning the Pyromancer:

Bandit
Starts with a hand axe, much like the original Pyromancer, for those who want to get some of the old feel of the class right away. Very low on Attunement however.

Deprived
Has nice well-rounded stats that can get you going in whatever path you choose with ease, but starts with no gear.

Sorcerer
Highest attunement of any starting class, but weak at melee combat.

Cleric
Second highest attunement of any starting class, also competent at melee combat, starting with a mace.

Explorer
Third highest attunement of any starting class, poor overall stats, but starts with many consumables.

Needed equipment

Before you even start with this guide, the following is required and/or recommended:

• A few Homeward Bones (some can be found on a corpse near the Victor Stone in Majula)
  
• Silvercat Ring
  
• Multiple healing items (lifegems/estus flasks)
  
• Enough health to survive longer falls.

Getting the Silvercat Ring

The Silvercat Ring is the only way available early in the game if you plan on descending into the pit in Majula. It can be purchased from Sweet Shalquoir at Majula for 13,400 souls. Expensive, but needed for this guide, so get farming! Your best bet is to just clear the Forest of the Fallen Giants and use the souls you get from the bosses (actual souls and boss soul items) to pay for the ring. This is important because you will need to visit The Lost Bastille next, so killing the Pursuer boss (or his first encounter) is the way to go.

Hunting for items

There multiple ways you can accomplish this guide's objectives and I will discuss my preferred methods in this section:

Getting a Fragrant Branch of Yore

You will need one of these to gain access to some Pyromancies early on. Your best alternatives for this are buying one from Merchant Hag Melentia (Located in the Forest of the Fallen Giants or Majula, after defeating The Last Giant and exhausting her dialogue) for 12,000 souls or getting it from a chest in The Lost Bastille (coming from The Tower Apart bonfire).

Both have their pros and cons, but I prefer getting it from The Lost Bastille. Here's why:
Getting it from Melentia does require less grinding in order to get the needed amount of souls, but will leave you with less souls to buy pyromancies, other gear you may want or level up. I wouldn't recommend it, specially considering you already need to spend 13,400 souls on the Silvercat Ring in order to get the rest of the items.

Going for the Lost Bastille does require clearing the Forest of the Fallen Giants completely (i.e. defeating its two bosses), but the branch is free, plus sheer amount of souls you will get by clearing the forest will help you in getting your pyromancies and even fire seeds.

In case you want the branch located in The Lost Bastille, the video here will show you how to get to it. Keep in mind that this chest is guarded by a Pursuer, however.

Using the Silvercat Ring

For the next items of this guide, you will need to visit The Gutter. This can be done skipping Grave of Saints entirely by using the Silvercat Ring you purchased earlier from Sweet Shalquoir. Follow these steps shown on the video to safely get to The Gutter from Majula.

Getting a Catalyst

The catalyst required to cast Pyromancies is a Pyromancy flame. There are two different flames you can choose from: The Pyromancy Flame and the Dark pyromancy Flame. Now, while the regular flame is better than the dark one in almost all cases, it does require clearing both Heide's Tower of Flame and No-Man's Wharf in order to get it, which kinda defeats the point of this guide, as you want the Pyromancies early on.

The Dark Pyromancy flame has worse scaling and the bonus damage granted while you are hollowed isn't really noticeable most of the time, but it is easier to get, so we'll go with that.
Watch the video here to learn the exact location of the Flame. Once you get it, use a homeward bone to return to the Upper Gutter bonfire.

TL,DR for this subsection is: Go for the Dark Flame, but don't waste your fire seeds on it. Save them for when you get to the regular one

Getting the Tattered Cloth Set

No Pyromancer would be complete without this set, as it is the same used by Pyromancers in the previous game. If you don't care about the looks, you can skip this step, but for those who really want to get the "Pyromancer feel", it's a must.
Again, although we have more than one option for acquiring this set, there is a clear superior option if you're aiming for an early game Pyromancer build: You can farm Dark Stalkers (those monsters that are afraid of torches) at No-Man's Wharf, which isn't recommended as you have to clear Heide's Tower of Flame and deal with the low item droprate or you can get the entire set from a corpse at The Gutter, which is much easier, so that's the option that will be shown in this guide.
Watch the video for the location. Once you get it, use a homeward bone to return to the Upper Gutter bonfire and then warp back to Majula.

Getting Pyromancies

Now that you got your catalyst and a cool looking armor set, all that's left are actual pyromancies to cast. This is accomplished by doing two things: Freeing Rosabeth of Melfia at the entrance to The Shaded Ruins and levelling up your Attunement stat at the Emerald Herald in order to have sufficient slots to fit all your spells in.
From Majula, travel to The Shaded Ruins entrance and use the Fragrant Branch of Yore you got earlier to unpetrify her. Talk to her until she asks for equipment, give her something to wear (I recommend the near useless imported set every class starts the game with) and exhaust her dialogue so that she moves to Majula.

DON'T PULL THE LEVER NEXT TO HER WHILE SHE'S STILL THERE.

You will release a stream of zombies and basilisks that could end up killing her.

Once she moves to Majula, feel free to use the souls you got to buy whatever Pyromancies you want from her and save the rest so you can level up your attunement (using souls from the bosses you've defeated is a good idea if you don't want the weapons that come from them).

Conclusion

So that's pretty much it.

You now have a working, Dark Souls 1-inspired Pyromancer build with some basic spells, matching gear and enough souls to get a few achievement levels.

Here's a summary in case you want a quick reminder:

- Start a new character.
- Clear The Forest of the Fallen Giants and get the Fragrant Branch of Yore from the chest in The Lost Bastille.
- Return to Majula, buy the Silvercat Ring and drop down to The Gutter, bypassing Grave of Saints.
- Get the Dark Pyromancy Flame and the Tattered Cloth Set.
- Free Rosabeth and buy Pyromancies.
- Level up your attunement stat until you have enough slots.

Have fun and don't forget to like/recommend this guide if it was helpful to you! :)

[Dradon]

you can also do the jump at the second bonfire in forest of fallen giants to get the Frangbranch

[Zopheir]

Great guide man. Will there be one for Faith?

[godkillsgod]

You can also get the Fragrant Branch of Yore at the Gutter since you are already going there for the dark pyro flame and the set.

[Gresay]

Нихуя не понял, но заебись!

[TrueArchery]

Alternatively you could cheese Dragonrider, go to the Wharf, grab the Branch there, speak to Lucatiel, let her (and probably Bradley of the Old Guard if he isn't stuck somewhere in the level - but you can always disconnect him and reload the game after you opened the shortcut so that you don't have to guide him through the whole level) kill the Flexile Sentry, get the normal Pyromancy Flame after that boss and enjoy.

You don't get the Tattered Cloth Set this way, but hey. Unless you started as a Deprived you still got at least okay starting armor. And this "problem" will be solved the following way:
(read post below as there's a letter-limit :c)

[TrueArchery]

You should get a second Branch soon (from Hag, most likely, as you still have a bunch of souls from the Dragonrider and Flexile S.), get the Lion Mage Set and Chloranthy Ring +1 in the Shaded Woods (+get the Branch back from the chest with the Mage Set), free the crow-woman-smith (forgot her name) (+get your branch back yet again), and THEN finally spend your branch on the Warlock Mask in exactly this area which boosts your Int a bit and looks fresh. When you've picked a Bonfire Ascetic as a starting gift, you can kill the Scorpioness and ascetic her again for the Southern Ritual Band +2. Maybe you can smack Manscorpion Tark (?) for the 2nd Dragon Ring, too.
All of that doesn't take much longer and you're top prepared.

Thought I could just add that.

[Spoopy]

If you aren't new to the game, you can use a bonfire ascetic on the saltfort and get Flame Weapon.

[HAHA funny fish hat (DG)]

I liked the guide. Though I just got the regular one and knew where the Dark Flame was, I rushed for the Brotherhood of Blood right after freeing Rosabeth in order to get the Firestorm.
Since Skellies are weak against fire it was a decent grind. The only problem were the regular enemies.
Oh, and I think you should mention that Spell Herbs are almost a must if you are doing a long run! Anyway nice guide!

[Hena]

Fucking heretics

[Vinyltavia]

I'd like to add an additional note if you're going to the gutter that if you have no health or anyway of dealing with it, you need some health and to be able to farm 3 of the 4 lion warrior pieces as this will bypass the need to spend souls for the ring or gilligan for ladders.
That is all