Board Thread:Dark Souls/@comment-24278205-20131211042602/@comment-96.48.25.0-20131211122613

From your current "build", I feel like you pretty much pumped souls into whatever stats you felt you needed at the time, which is perfectly fine as a PvE play. There is no need to be technical and to stick to some Slvl guide lines if you aren't interested in PvP.

I wrote a long post on the which is the best weapon for the the specific build thread, feel free to check it out.

A few personal observations:

My own opinion is that your Vit, Str, and Dex are all high enough for a PvE NG (first game) run through. I can't be sure of what weapons you are going for, but other than meeting weapon req. and getting more scaling, you probably don't need any higher unless you are going for a pure Dex build. (btw, as an afterthought, I can't help but to think you were going for the Dragon Slayer Spear for some reason)

For first runs, it's helpful to get 12 Faith and learn Heal, it will supplement your flasks use when you haven't learned Kindling or get enough Fire Keeper Souls to ungraded it yet.

For magic use, I am going to assume Int 16 is for Great Heavy Soul Arrow. If you like magic, it's helpful to get more damage out of it, so get Crown of Dusk and Bellowing Dragoncrest ring for the 40% bonus damage. Since you are in the Archives, I hope you bought the ring before the merchant Griggs leaves Firelink shrine. If you are interested in more magic (from your description, you might have missed Homing Soul Mass and the first or second Soul Spear purchase, if so, that could be a big loss for a sorcery build), saving Logan (before killing Seath) and getting all the good spells from him is probably important if you are interested in pursuing this path farther.

Important Sorcery gear:

Crown of Dusk, Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring.

Catalyst progression:

Int 12 - 26 Oolacile Ivory Catalyst

Int 27 - 40 Socerer's Catalyst (if you like, swtich to TCC at 32)

Int 32+ Tin Crystalization Catalyst (the Strongest but Halves your casts, so if you need to, use Dusk's ring to compensate)

Int 41+ Logan's Catalyst (only if you want full use of your casts since it does a lot LESS damage than TCC)

Important spells:

Homing Soul Mass - Int 18 -31

Soul Spear - Int 36

Crystal Soul Spear - Int 44 (strongest single shot spell, using TCC and all the bonuses at Int 50, deals 1353.66 damage, it's difficult for weapon AR to do that)

Homing Crystal Soul Mass - Int 24 - 31

Crystal Magic Weapon - Int 25

Quick weapon/armor suggestions, if you are interested -

Velka's rapier, Int + Dex scaling, does bonus Occult dam, great use + Hornet ring.

Anything Enchanted will do the highest bonus damage at max stats (compared to everything else), so feel free to experiment anything up to +4 Enchanted. Claymore, Lucerne, Great Scythe, Gargoyle's Halberd all do decent damage and under 6 weight units. Read the other post for more details.

As for Katanas, with your high Dex, it might be more worthwhile if you go with Standard +14/+15 path and then use Crystal Magical Weapon.

As for Armors, a +10 Dingy Robe from the Ash maiden can't be beat as a soft armor. It checks off all the important boxes. +5 Painting Guardian armor/shirt is also not bad, since it's lighter and you can wear heavier stuff elsewhere to compensate. +5 Favor Gauntlet or +5 Paladin's Gauntlet are decent choices, for low weight + a bit of poise, 5 units and 7.6 units respectively. I've being using Black Sorcerer pants/gloves lately because it's only 1 unit and isn't really that bad. If you don't mind weight or giving up a ring slot with Havel's ring, you can go something heavier. That's entirely up to you. Have fun.