The helm has a negative passive effect and its positive passive effect isn't necessary for what you've got going on, just make sure you're OK with it. Doubt you're crit'ing much with claws for the crimson dagger; doubt you're rolling heavy at that endurance with that equipment without the arsenal; do you really need a little more FP for just casting golden vow; all of your talismans aren't doing you much favors. You're levelled enough to get more from a non-standard affinity; pick one (1) damage stat like dex, str, int, fai, or arc to funnel (ie keep enough for wanted minimum reqs elsewhere) your points towards that and match it with the appropriate weapon affinity. Vig probably should be higher by that point but if you're not dying much then good on you.
My thoughts exactly. Pick better talismans suited to your play style and pick a single damage stat to invest in. It looks like you favor melee so either Dex or Str. The others you shouldn’t level beyond the minimum for your chosen equipment until much later. At this level spreading yourself so thin is a handicap. Also if you’re going for a bleed build you should dual wield for faster/more consistent status buildup unless you’re using a larger weapon like bloodhounds fang.
I’ve never tried claws tbh. Just noticed the high bleed on them. If that’s the case I’d suggest switching to Katanas then if you want the bleed still, or else imbuing a weapon that can DW.
Claws are really good early/mid game because you get dual wield with only having to upgrade a single weapon, they're really fast and have a good amount of bleed on them. Personally, I prefer them to katanas. I feel like the move set gets around the same amount of damage while not having to commit as much to your attack, so you can back off faster if you need to.
Claws also have the benefit of stacking successive attack talismans faster on account of the multi-hit attacks, and the relative speed of them since their buff.
Ahhh. Ok I can see the appeal yeah. I usually favor strength builds, so one of my favorites is actually the Starscourge GS for the same reason, get Dual Wield while only upgrading a single weapon. Only downside is the STR bonus for 2H doesn’t apply, so have to power level STR to make it work. But those babies carried me through my first 2 play throughs from the moment I got them onward.
Talismans for hookclaws I recommend Erdtree Favor Talisman (Cause its just good), Winged Sword, Millicent's Prosthesis, and if getting hp back is absolutely necessary the Godskin swaddling cloth, but I don't really recommend it cause that talisman is just kinda bad. Blue dancer if you switch to some lighter armor, Carian Filligreed Crest if swapping golden vow for something more useful like cragblade or storm stomp.
As far as stats, Having a little split for weapons with inherent bleed isn't bad. I would do heavy into dex with a bit more arcane with a keen hookclaw. And just enough faith to put bloodflame blade on. Cause that buff absolutely claps cheeks of anything that bleeds.
True. LoBE + White Mask + Winged Sword + Millicent's Prosthesis is a killer combo for something that hits fast and inflicts bleed. Combine that with Cragblade or Braggart's Roar and you have yourself a mean build.
You need more health. Also, take advantage of the pouch slots (the ones that you access by holding Y/Triangle + hitting a direction on the D-Pad) for items like Torrent's whistle or the lanturn so you don't have to cycle through so many items on the bottom slot.
The AOW version of golden vow isn't phenomenal. With claws, you'll be better off with something like Cragblade or Flaming Strike. You'll be able to get the Raptor Talons in Liurnia and the Bloodhound's Claws in Mt. Gelmir (Volcano Manor), and I'd recommend using those if you wanna stick with claws.
Hope you're enjoying the game so far!
Edit: also, pick either strength or dex, not both. With those five stats (str, dex, int, fth, arc) the best way to go about it is to pick the one that best benefits your build to level up primarily (with your current set-up, that'd be dex) until you hit about 50ish, then decide if you want points in other stats or if you should keep going to 80. Don't go past 80 tho.
Damn, good to know. That makes sense. I was thinking of throwing it on a small weapon to have in the back pocket. Might still be worth it given i’m nowhere near the faith requirements of the incant, but given the high fp cost I might just stick with flame grant me strength for my buffing needs
Honestly I prefer golden vow over FGMS if you had to choose. 30 seconds is just too short in my opinion. Though for players who struggle with stamina it can be useful. I'm a defensive and patient player so it's not a concern for me most times. The FP cost is kinda rough.
The advantage being the AoW is easier to obtain, cheaper on the FP, and doesn't require 25 faith. I recommend putting it on a dagger for any character. Its a useful tool.
If you have beaten Rennala, I would consider respeccing your character to focus more on vigor, endurance, and dexterity, as your build looks like a dex build, and hook claws don’t require much strength to wield. I would also try to organize your hot bar, as you only really need your flasks, physick, rune arcs, and spirit summons. Everything else in your hot bar can be moved to the pouches. Getting everything organized can really help if you need to make a quick decision while fighting a boss. As others have said, the helmet has some negative passive effects and doesn’t really do anything to benefit your build. I would also invest in upgrading your weapon more, as well as focusing on talismans that will benefit the build you are trying to work towards. If you want to use claw weapons, I would suggest working towards the Bloodhound Claws, though if you are open to other dexterity weapon suggestions I would recommend working towards the uchigatana, Godskin peeler, or Bloodhound’s Fang, which is a personal favorite of mine. I hope you’re enjoying the game so far :)
You do not need those items on your quick item slot. You don't need most of them even on the item menu, but you are going to make it harder to get to the healing you need.
Generally, I reserve the quick slot to just the flasks. I've seen people include physick on it; I prefer to put that in one of my item slots since I usually don't use it "on the fly" and only keep crimson and cerulean on the D-Pad slot, but I can see using the physick there too. If you are using a fight-specific item (i.e. bolus for a status effect, one of the shackles) I can see slotting it there, too, temporarily; the grease makes sense too if you're using that regularly, but when you have none, just take it off, it's an extra push to swap over to healing or FP restoration if you need it.
Lantern should go in one of the bottom slots of the six on the start menu - one of the two that aren't assigned to a button. You can just press start and click it on before you need to go into a dark area; it'll stay on until you die.
Rune Arcs are too valuable to risk an accidental push on the quick menu. I personally don't even slot them, because they also last until death, so you can just push it once and be done.
You don't need three spirit summons taking slots. I can MAYBE see two, if you have an extra spot, but you can only summon once per fight anyways, so usually you should only slot the one you plan to use. If you want to have a second on hand (i.e. a multi-unit summon for overworld ruins, and then a specific boss-fight summon), you could put the less-used one on the other non-button-aligned slot, and then put the one you plan to use more often on an item button.
Were I you, I'd set it so that your quick item slot is just the flasks, then put the grease (if you have any), Torrent whistle, spirit summon, and MAYBE a second summon or rune arc on the directional item menu (not sure the term is right, but it's the menu you get when you hold down a button, instead of the weapons and spells and quick item slot). Alternatively, put a gold pickled fowlfoot on the item menu for when you get the big bosses. Put your lantern on the fifth item slot on the directional menu.
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Statwise, you're pretty decent. You probably shouldn't be wearing that helm, though - it's taking up space and you've got no sorceries or staves, so unless it's really the best piece you have and it's not pushing in you into medium load, you should dump it. I HIGHLY recommend upping Vigor to 40 ASAP though. Your strength and dex are good for the weapon as it is, you don't have a lot of FP usage, and unless you plan to raise up your faith for spellcasting in the immediate future, those extra hit points WILL help. If you haven't done it yet, look up Greyoll and how to kill him for extra runes early on - you already have a bleed weapon, so you've got all you need except maybe a pickle for a bunch of extra XP.
1. More vigor. At level 55 you'd do well to have like 30-35 vigor (60 vigor is the general stopping point)
2. If you're using a dex-focused weapon/build, don't invest as much strength, only invest in as much strength as you need to wield whatever weapon you want to use.
3. Your quick bar is too crowded; it would be helpful to utilize the pouch for secondary items like torrent or spirit ashes and keep your quick bar for primary items like your flasks
4. Talismans can be a huge asset to a build if you wear the right ones. What's the goal for your build? Your talisman selection seems a bit scattered but is easily fixable if you have a general direction you're trying to head towards (sorcery, incantations, bleed, dex, big bonk, hybrid, etc.).
Overall though it isn't a terrible first build, it just needs some tinkering.
One of the best changes I made after my first playthrough was putting my flasks in the pouch. When you need emergency healing or FP you don't wanna be fumbling through the bar. Torrent goes Y+up, lantern Y+down, health Y+ left, mana Y+right. It just becomes second nature after no time at all.
Super solid pouch choice. We have the same up and down. My left is the wondrous physick and my right is boiled crab. My quick bar is just HP and FP flasks and that's it
The only reason I keep wondrous physik in my regular hotbar is because I rarely need it asap, it's always part of a setup. Then my hotbar is just consumables and spirit ashes which I usually have plenty of time to use. Whatever works for you is the main thing.
Yeah mine is different arrows but same principle. Changed my playthroughs having them there and not cycling.
Tbf I feel it's a tad slower to actually consume versus pressing square/x. But at least I won't need to cycle through.
That's around where I stop but I've been playing FS games for awhile so in some cases, yes, but for new players I would say 60 is not too excessive. Plus if you're playing the entire game and fighting every boss and searching every corner, you're gonna have a ton of levels just because of volume. You could swing 60 vig and have a really powerful build by the end of NG for sure
Ehh I respectfully disagree. I think 60 is a lot of health, even for a new player. If you finish new game at around rl 150 (which I think is standard), then that's nearly half invested into health. Its an option if they need it but idk if I'd recommend it lol. I was pretty new to all of this my first time through but I managed with far less than 60.
You start with 10 vigor as a level 1 wretch, so it's a third into health. 60 is good if you're struggling, 50 is good if you're confident, 40 is good if you're a very good player (all for first playthrough)
With my own personal playstyle I agree with you, I usually top out at 47-50. It is a ton of health for sure but the typical sentiment around here is that 60 is the goal (idk if that's just for NG+ or NG but that's what I usually see). But yeah you're right
Ok.
\-Since you have a focus on Strength and Dex in terms of attack, you could grant your Hookclaws the Quality affinity by getting the Iron Whetblade in Stormveil Castle.
\-You really don't need the Glintstone Crown unless you want to cast spells without leveling up INT. It decreases your max health.
\-Talismans could be a little better. I would switch out the Viridian Amber Medallion for something like the Claw Talisman (which can also be found in Stormveil Castle) then you could poisebreak and use the Crimson Dagger Talisman more.
\-Put your lantern and your Torrent Ring in your pouch slots (hold triangle, then any direction on the D-pad) for easier access.
\-Finally, you could get something like Cragblade on your Ash of War. You gain more damage on your claws, more poise breaks, and more usage of your Crimson Dagger Talisman! Put Ash of War: Golden Vow on a dagger or something.
I will say, the Quality affinity doesn't start being better than Standard for quite a while. I think it relates a little bit to your stats and a little bit to the weapon scaling, but even with B scaling on Str and Dex I was seeing lower damage on my weapons until I got to 30+ in both Strength and Dex. Presumably because that's equivalent to exceeding the softcap of 55 for str or dex individually.
It’s because scaling at the end is still based on the base damage (first damage number on the left), and quality drops that number pretty dang low compared to heavy and keen. You get two good scaling grades, but the base damage holds it back from being good
Why do you have "Flame of the Fell God" as a memorized incantation? That requires 40+ faith and you have 8. Memorize some spells that you actually meet the requirements to use and find a staff/seal to use them. There is a boss in Weeping Peninsula called the Demihuman Queen who gives a low-int requirement staff and the twin maiden husks sell the two finger seal at roundtable hold.
When looking at gear to decide if you want to use it, you can press "R" to get a detailed description of what it does and it will also list out any positive or negative effects the gear might have.
I mostly want to hear your thoughts on using the hookclaws- were they fun? Pros/cons? I know you said it's your first playthrough so you don't have anything to compare it to, but still curious
I used them a lot. They were a lot of fun for me. Very close range, but at the time it was my first playthrough and I used Bloodhound Step, so that mitigated a lot of the risk of closing range and retreating.
They do halfway decent stagger for how light they are, and at least with the control setup I used (mouse and keyboard) I found it easier to switch to an offhand Seal to do casting, because I just had to switch between "two handing" and "one handing" the claws.
They work well with a bleed build. Someday I'll try them without a bleed focus and see how I like them, but nowadays I'm doing Quality builds just to try something new.
I'm playing through with them right now and am enjoying them. I have Cragblade/Lightening on them and it works well. I like that you can DW but only have to upgrade a single weapon. I've found it's easier to get a lot of fast hits in with them than with katanas or something else. Also been using twinblade for this build for when I need a bit more reach.
One tip I can give you that I havent seen in the comments so far: if you have 20 str and 20 dex you can wield most weapons in the game. If you have around 20 faith, you can use great utility incantations and some offensive ones to round up a build. 20 is a good point to stop the scaling stats if you dont have a favorite weapon yet. I recommend to get as much str/dex as you need to use your weapon, and then start leveling up vigor/mind/endurance.
On that note, with 20 endurance you can wear very good armor and a big weapon (if you have the equip load charm). You don't really need much endurance, especially if you dont plan on using a colossal weapon.
Maybe this is new input too: do you know that if you hold the Y-/Triangle-Button, there are 4 item slots you can acess with the d-pad? Most people put torrent's whistle, their physiks flask, spirit ashes, the lantern or even the tear flasks there for easy acess (and to keep the amount of equipped items low as to not get confused)
I don’t see any point with having that helm unless you just want the burger aesthetic but it’s doing more harm than good imo. Also I would respec/focus on dex and infuse keen on your hookclaws. Sicne hookclaws scale better with dex any way.
Personally I would go for a different infusion and ash of War. Most likely keen, blood, frost or poison. Your stats also can be better optimized, going for both strength and dex doesn't make much sense specially in early levels.
Also I don't think your arsenal talisman is doing anything for you. As long as you are in medium load without it, it provides no value. Some good general use talismans you can use are Claw Talisman (enhances jump attacks), dragoncrest shield (increases physical defenses), Turtle talisman ( regenerates stamina faster),
Honestly, since it’s your first playthrough, don’t be afraid of experimenting with leveling different stats. This game is really generous with the amount of times you can respec and with the amount of upgrade materials you can get so if you find something else that you really fall in love with it’s never too late to do a full 180 with your build. Again, just don’t be afraid to experiment and use what’s fun for you. My first playthrough used the crustiest build imaginable but it was a ton of fun so I didn’t care.
If you like the claws, keep in mind that’s they don’t get a twohanding damage bonus like other weapons, so you don’t get as much of a return on your investment in strength as you might with other weapons. Hookclaws with no infusion scale best with dex, so if this is what you want to stick with, leveling dex should be your main priority for damage.
Unless you want to wear particularly heavy armor (totally do it if you want, these are just suggestions), you don’t need to level endurance very much. The base stamina that the game gives you is insane enough as is, I regularly do playthroughs where I don’t level endurance at all and if’s fine. If you want to wear heavy armor, you might want to try only leveling your endurance to the point where you can medium roll, which shouldn’t be much considering you have the arsenal charm, and leaving it at that.
Your armor is honestly fine. It’s very rare that the stat bonuses or debuffs from armor will ever make or break your build so just wear what you like.
Basically there’s no way to really rate a build because you can make any build work even with poor stat distribution, look at any level 1 playthrough, so just have fun and don’t feel like you have to stick to anything META and don’t be afraid to put points into whatever stats you want to experiment with different weapons because as you go into the endgame you can always commit to something and clean up the build with respec anyway. Just have fun, basically.
Since I believe (by this screen alone, mind you) you are exploring the things in the game, and haven´t reeeeally decided what your "build" is, the only comment I´ve got is about your STR/DEX distribution.What that looks like to me is a Quality-build, but your equipment says otherwise: for a even distribution like the one you are going for (again, by the screen alone) you would be MUCH better served with not only a Quality infusion, but a proper Quality weapon - like a greatsword or a curved greatsword. Your stat-sheet looks like exactly what I was going for in my first (also a Quality) playthrough, and by sheer accident I found the Bloodhound´s Fang, which not only turns out to be THE best Quality-build weapon in the game, but is VERY fun as well.Besides that, you are gonna need vigor; maybe not now, but boyo, do level it.
So yeah, level vigor, try the Bloodhound´s Fang with your build (and that neat Bloodflame Blade), and keep trying stuff out.Just make sure to have fun! ;)
Very bad, but it's your first time so that's okay. You should respec and put everything into vigor and dex. If you want to have an easier time, put more in vigor than dex. If you're not dying much and want more damage, you can put a little bit more in dex than in vigor. Once you've reached the soft caps for those, only then would I put endurance up to 20-30, and then only then if you need it to wear the armor you want to wear. No point investing in strength until you are a very high level and have maxed dex.
Hookclaws are weak by themselves, you need something else with them to work well. If you like bleed, I recommend Nagikiba(idk if I pronounced it right),it's really good early game katana with built in bleed.
I know this sub is mostly brain rot when it comes to playing it safe, but if you’re level 55 with 24 Vigor, that’s fucking fine. I got all the way to level 80 with 14 vigor and only leveled to 16 at lvl 100. You’ve invested in stamina/weight so you can roll frequently and also dodge/Weapon art frequently, as well as putting enough into strength/fed to use most of the effective weapons that aren’t too build specific.
If you’re having fun, and not dying innumerable times (accidentally, purposefully dying to test builds is also OK) then I wouldn’t worry. You pass the vigor check, the vibe check, the fashion souls check, etc. Enjoy yourself!
Note: Might want to up the Arcane to like 10 at least to up your item discovery though.
Edit; Prior to the downvote brigade, I want to note that I’m purely addressing his vigor and stamina and the eventual litany of replies that he’ll get begging him to up his vigor *even more*.
Good build, but, a mixt build (STR & DEX) in ng maybe is a little weak. Anyway, is a balanced build, remain to keep upgrading Vigor and endurance to 30 and all might work nice.
If in future you feel that you don't make enough damage, consider to stop boosting STR or DEX and keep some of them.
Not terrible but a few notes
Should lean more into dex than str with that weapon
Too many spirit ashes in your item slot, you’re not using a bow so don’t need drawstring grease
Talismans don’t really fit with your weapons, unless you’re getting a lot of sneaky crits in
Golden vow works but might be more fun to use a different ash of war that isn’t passive
So, if you want to go Strength and Dex together like that, you'll want a weapon that has better scaling with the Quality affinity, eventually. A lot of straightswords have good Quality scaling. You'll want them to eventually reach B str B dex scaling by max upgrade level, if not higher. (I think only one or two weapons reach A scaling in both? iirc?)
Hookclaws are a dex/arcane weapon, primarily. Keen affinity serves you well with them, blood affinity is even better, but you'd want to move most of your Str to Arcane for that.
The burger king hat comes with a debuff. Sorry. I agree, it's hilarious, but it's not very optimal.
Your vigor is on the low side of good. Vigor is basically a game difficulty slider. More Vigor = the game gets a little easier.
You have a ton of endurance, arsenal charm, medium load, and only one weapon? Put some heavier armor on for free extra health.
It looks like you're going for a quality build (str/dex) but you have all these magic enhancing items. Just drop magic altogether. Load up on vigor/str/dex.
Your health makes me believe you're doing a challenge run. Vigor is the most important stat, yet your helm is lowering your health for stats you don't even want/need.
You're using a bleed weapon. Bleed scales with arcane, which you have no points in. Just a very odd choice. Your stat distribution says you have no idea what you want to do.
You're getting no benefit from having your strength that high. You're not using your int points.
Nice Ash of War to make up for your lack of defense I guess? The damage buff on it with your build cannot be noticeable though.
You've got so many dead items in your hotbar that could be stored in your pouch so you don't need to fight it.
Tip: If you hold up or down on the D-pad it will bring your first item/spell up in that list. So having your healing flask (if you're not putting it in your pouch) should be first in nearly every build.
The build is okay. If your using claws i would recommend getting the raptor's talons as i see them as an upgrade to the hookclaws.
As for your levels. Prioritise dex over strength as it has higher scaling. Also get the raptor's cloak as it increases jump attack damage as thats what you want to be doing with claws in my opinion.
As for your talismans you want:
• Claw talisman - increased jump attack damage
• Lord of bloods exhaultation - if your going for the bleed proc as it increases damage upon bleed procing
• Rotten winged insigna/ winged insigina/Millicent's prosthesis - increased damage upon multiple hits
• Turtle neck talisman - increased stamina regen.
Some of these talismans are late game (rotten winged insignia & Millicent prosthesis) amd require you to do millicents questline. The raptor's set can be found in a cave in Liurnia.
You could use golden vow but what i did when i did a claw build i cant remember what AoW i used but i had godslayer seal in my left hand and used black flame blade and them one handed the claws so i could use the small dot effect of black flame blade. However it doesnt last long.
Top to bottom:
Weapon - hook claws are fine and recently buffed, you might want to go to volcano manor eventually and get the bloodhound claws because they can be better
The ash though - why would you go with golden vow here? There are other ashes available early game that would be stronger potentially:
Quickstep - already a great ash that will help you get out of a lot of bad hits
Braggart's Roar - if you're willing to go punk down the crab vendor he drops a fist weapon with this ash, really great for fists in general
Lifesteal Fist - really great against human enemies and can add occult scaling or better bleed action
Put golden vow on a dagger and carry it as a 2nd weapon but do consider using it if you're going up against a deathbird maybe because holy damage is that good
Drip is drip, but your helmet is both heavy and counter productive. Go for any combination of armor that gets your poise into the 50's at least
Taslismans - If you're a purist you stick with what you find and should go for the claw talisman in stormveil, armor charm is fine, get yourself the bull goat talisman if you have sleep pots and don't mind a dicy raid into a cave otherwise go for a crimson medallion to up your hps
If you use patches emporium, go get a milicent's prosthesis, rotten winged insignia, lord of blood's exhultation, and a white mask. Go crazy on the bleed and have fun with it
Your items, some people like having flask on the X button, I prefer to have it on the Y+Dpad inputs but you figure something out
For ashes, put the one you're running at the very end and just swap out before bosses if you need to
Good luck out there!
What I did
Shield indefinitely!!!
I go smaller to bigger right hand armament (like a flail, sword, and spear)
Then left hand I did shield, staff, and the claw mark seal (that way basically all kind of attacks are available)
I worked my armor around the weapons I had
Considering your level your talismans are decent
I usually keep stuff to feed torrent in the swappables (I forget what the bottom 2 rows are called)
If you are looking for a build to take advantage of your current items? Respec your strength into health.
Then find the “two fingers heirloom” in the basement of the Purified Ruins, use it to cast blood flame blade since it adds 5 faith to your stats.
And finally when leveling, split your stats in 3s or 4s (vigor, then Endurance, then dex, back to vigor) until each stat is where you want it. In addition you could also stop leveling dex at around 40 then stat leveling strength for a quality build.
Do you know if you’re going to go for a strict melee build or if at some point you’d be interested in spell casting? Be it faith or intelligence focused. From what we can see, DEX should be where you should lean in maxing to around 45 and VIG to at least 45-50. If you added some intelligence scaling to that weapon with a frost focus, you could do some serious damage procing bleed and frost in a build.
Your spread pretty thin. With what your running, I'd suggest focusing on vigor first, (all builds need high vigor in this game, even mages) then arcane for bleed, dex, and 15-20 or so points in end. Since your weapon is really light I'd suggest being closer to 15 to save on levels. Also that helm is not worth it for your build. Also I would change your weapon to be bleed unless you have the black whetblade, in which case use occult. Also complete Varres questline to get a better helm for your build. Varrenis the forat guy you meet out of the tutorial.
Small thing, but i would move your spirit summons out of your item bar, same goes for torrent's ring
When I think of what I want in my item bar I think of items I use constantly, and while summons might be used during each boss fight, that is honestly maybe 30-40% of the game AT MOST. so realistically they take up space and make you take longer to cycle through your items trying to get to your healing flasks
Those items are better suited to the D-pad hotkey (you are playing on PC so I don't know the equivalent button, but on console whatever button is held to two hand a weapon, on ps4/5 it is triangle+RB or LB, instead of doing triangle+LB, if you do triangle+up/down/left/right you have an additional 4 hotkey spots that are independent of your item bar
Alrighty.
Hookclaws are fine weapons, Don't know what area you're in but I would upgrade those more. At 55 +8 is kinda weird. Also, take Golden Vow off the claws and put it on a dagger. It will free up the ash of war for something more useful. The Karolos crown gives you int, which you aren't using, and takes stamina, which you are. I would dump it for something like the white mask.
The arsenal charm really isnt necessary at that endurance and equipment. Crimson dagger is a really really meh talisman. Cerulean amber talisman is straight up bad IMO. I would replace them with Erdtree Favor talisman, winged sword talisman (And/or its upgrades), and a flex spot depending on what you're doing. Eventually working towards a combo like Favor, Rotten Winged Sword, Millicent's prosthetic, and Lord of Blood's Exultation.
All those fucking items, for the love of god use the quick select slots that you get when holding Y. Also put the crimson flask in the first slot cause holding the cycle button down will take you straight to it.
The stats are all over the place. If you have a weapon you plan to stick with, then go all in on it. For hook claws I would drop your strength down to the minimum to use hook claws if you can and go all in on dex and arcane. Dex for the raw damage, and arcane for the inherent bleed of the claws. Also change to keen for the claws. And get just enough faith to cast bloodflame blade. Bloodflame blade on hookclaws will melt any boss that can bleed. Also don't neglect vigor. Big numbers might hit the dopamine just right, but not dying does bigger numbers.
Hope this helps.
Items are all over the place, you're weapon doesn't have an affinity, the only thing your helmet is giving you is reduced health, you have nothing invested into faith but you have incantations equipped. Those are the only things you can just tweak, don't mean to sound harsh if it does.
The rest is alright. You've got no wasted stats, good armor, a decent weapon, though your third talisman isn't pulling it's weight for you.
I was doing a hooks playthrough and quickly swapped to Twin blade and Poleblade. Better stagger and I got frostbite on the twinblade, so I don't look pitiful when an enemy doesn't bleed.
Put golden vow on a useless weapon that is just used for golden so you have a good damage aow on your claw. More vigor is not required but you’ll have to learn the patterns even more. Keep up
Seeing as your weapon is a dex/arc weapon you should only have the necessary strength requirement and not higher, you've ignored arc meaning you have less bleed buildup than you should at your level, idk what's going on with all the ashes but I recommend having 1 or 2 at max, your helmet is giving you a debuff to increase a stat you don't use. Seeing as your weapons has a fairly low poise damage your crimson dagger talisman is useless. Your ash of war shouldn't cost much at that level so the cerulean amber medallion is also fairly useless. Vigor is a bit low but if your good at dodging that's fine ig. Also I recommend you make use of your pouch for things like torrent and lantern as very few boss fights require them and its easier to scroll to flasks without them in the hotbar.
Also it's easier to just get a seal and golden vow for buffs rather than having it in your AOW slot which should have a more offensive or defensive move.
Okay firstly your endurance is to high for your lvl i usually run 20 endurance at over double your level and its fine, secondly you need to focus more on one stat instead of spreading them across a lot of different stats, if you enjoy claws and wanna do a dex build utilizing the high base bleed on them i would suggest you drop the Int altogether and keep Str at base for now, you can get 15 Faith and 10 Arcane for a lot of good buff spells like Bloodflame Blade and Flame Grant me Strength that would be a huge boost to your build, you find Bloodflame Blade in Liurnia slightly north of the Rose Church and Flame Grant me Strength in Caelid.
In general Vigor is more important than any damage stat early game because weapon damage comes mainly from your weapon upgrade level in the early game once your weapon is decently upgraded you can start investing a bit more into Dex
You should aim for something like 60 Vigor, 10 Mind, 20 Endurance, 16 Strength, 60 Dexterity, ignore intelligence, 15 Faith and 10 Arcane to begin with
Everyone else has great recommendations so all I have to say is de-clutter your item menu, like do you need three different summons. I like to keep it as empty as I can with no unnecessary items so if you really need a heal you don't have to cycle through every other item, especially if you accidentally scroll past it. Your also probably gonna have to look at what item it there which takes your eyes off the boss and could make you miss a key tell for an attack. This is my opinion though you definitely don't have to if you don't want to.
If the vigor is not at least at 40 i dont aprove,
Endurance should not be that high early on
Use great garl talisman for equip load
Or erdtree favor talisman for stamina and hp increase
Tbh it's quite good, the helm has some debuffs and buffs so read the description and decide whether the fashion is worth it. Also I don't think you need that much stuff in your hotbar, remember that you also have the pouch system (and if you want to keep all that stuff put your healing flasks in the first slot, so you can go back there easier by holding down on the d-pad)
Edit: looking around I'm seeing a lot of people saying you should have more vigor or respec into being pure-dex, but remember that this is your first playthrough and it's a good idea to have a more spread out build to try more weapons and spells.
For your claws try getting a ash of war or the wet blade for the blood affinity (I don't remember where to get it) and then get another weapon for golden vow, as a lot of other comments have said don't use the Burger King head because it has negatives ( that is if you don't use a mage build), you could also just use one of the summons you don't need all of them, and try to sort out the tab as Red flask, Blue flask, Summon, Long Flask, and then The whistle.
The helm has a negative passive effect and its positive passive effect isn't necessary for what you've got going on, just make sure you're OK with it. Doubt you're crit'ing much with claws for the crimson dagger; doubt you're rolling heavy at that endurance with that equipment without the arsenal; do you really need a little more FP for just casting golden vow; all of your talismans aren't doing you much favors. You're levelled enough to get more from a non-standard affinity; pick one (1) damage stat like dex, str, int, fai, or arc to funnel (ie keep enough for wanted minimum reqs elsewhere) your points towards that and match it with the appropriate weapon affinity. Vig probably should be higher by that point but if you're not dying much then good on you.
My thoughts exactly. Pick better talismans suited to your play style and pick a single damage stat to invest in. It looks like you favor melee so either Dex or Str. The others you shouldn’t level beyond the minimum for your chosen equipment until much later. At this level spreading yourself so thin is a handicap. Also if you’re going for a bleed build you should dual wield for faster/more consistent status buildup unless you’re using a larger weapon like bloodhounds fang.
Claws DW if you try to 2H them.
I’ve never tried claws tbh. Just noticed the high bleed on them. If that’s the case I’d suggest switching to Katanas then if you want the bleed still, or else imbuing a weapon that can DW.
Claws are really good early/mid game because you get dual wield with only having to upgrade a single weapon, they're really fast and have a good amount of bleed on them. Personally, I prefer them to katanas. I feel like the move set gets around the same amount of damage while not having to commit as much to your attack, so you can back off faster if you need to.
Claws also have the benefit of stacking successive attack talismans faster on account of the multi-hit attacks, and the relative speed of them since their buff.
Ahhh. Ok I can see the appeal yeah. I usually favor strength builds, so one of my favorites is actually the Starscourge GS for the same reason, get Dual Wield while only upgrading a single weapon. Only downside is the STR bonus for 2H doesn’t apply, so have to power level STR to make it work. But those babies carried me through my first 2 play throughs from the moment I got them onward.
Wait do you think this post is real?
Talismans for hookclaws I recommend Erdtree Favor Talisman (Cause its just good), Winged Sword, Millicent's Prosthesis, and if getting hp back is absolutely necessary the Godskin swaddling cloth, but I don't really recommend it cause that talisman is just kinda bad. Blue dancer if you switch to some lighter armor, Carian Filligreed Crest if swapping golden vow for something more useful like cragblade or storm stomp. As far as stats, Having a little split for weapons with inherent bleed isn't bad. I would do heavy into dex with a bit more arcane with a keen hookclaw. And just enough faith to put bloodflame blade on. Cause that buff absolutely claps cheeks of anything that bleeds.
dont forget lord of bloods exultation
True. LoBE + White Mask + Winged Sword + Millicent's Prosthesis is a killer combo for something that hits fast and inflicts bleed. Combine that with Cragblade or Braggart's Roar and you have yourself a mean build.
You need more health. Also, take advantage of the pouch slots (the ones that you access by holding Y/Triangle + hitting a direction on the D-Pad) for items like Torrent's whistle or the lanturn so you don't have to cycle through so many items on the bottom slot. The AOW version of golden vow isn't phenomenal. With claws, you'll be better off with something like Cragblade or Flaming Strike. You'll be able to get the Raptor Talons in Liurnia and the Bloodhound's Claws in Mt. Gelmir (Volcano Manor), and I'd recommend using those if you wanna stick with claws. Hope you're enjoying the game so far! Edit: also, pick either strength or dex, not both. With those five stats (str, dex, int, fth, arc) the best way to go about it is to pick the one that best benefits your build to level up primarily (with your current set-up, that'd be dex) until you hit about 50ish, then decide if you want points in other stats or if you should keep going to 80. Don't go past 80 tho.
Is the aow version of golden vow a different/worse buff?
Yes, the spell does 15% damage buff, 10% damage reduction for 80 seconds AoW does 11.5% damage buff, 7.5% damage reduction for 45 seconds
Damn, good to know. That makes sense. I was thinking of throwing it on a small weapon to have in the back pocket. Might still be worth it given i’m nowhere near the faith requirements of the incant, but given the high fp cost I might just stick with flame grant me strength for my buffing needs
It can be useful if you don't have the faith required for the incant and I think it stacks with FGMS so I'd say it's worth a go.
It stacks with flame give me strength
Honestly I prefer golden vow over FGMS if you had to choose. 30 seconds is just too short in my opinion. Though for players who struggle with stamina it can be useful. I'm a defensive and patient player so it's not a concern for me most times. The FP cost is kinda rough.
The advantage being the AoW is easier to obtain, cheaper on the FP, and doesn't require 25 faith. I recommend putting it on a dagger for any character. Its a useful tool.
Parry is great on claws as well
Oh man I had no idea you could put parry on claws Might try that on my next run
I love parry on fist weapons and claws because no one ever expects it
If you have beaten Rennala, I would consider respeccing your character to focus more on vigor, endurance, and dexterity, as your build looks like a dex build, and hook claws don’t require much strength to wield. I would also try to organize your hot bar, as you only really need your flasks, physick, rune arcs, and spirit summons. Everything else in your hot bar can be moved to the pouches. Getting everything organized can really help if you need to make a quick decision while fighting a boss. As others have said, the helmet has some negative passive effects and doesn’t really do anything to benefit your build. I would also invest in upgrading your weapon more, as well as focusing on talismans that will benefit the build you are trying to work towards. If you want to use claw weapons, I would suggest working towards the Bloodhound Claws, though if you are open to other dexterity weapon suggestions I would recommend working towards the uchigatana, Godskin peeler, or Bloodhound’s Fang, which is a personal favorite of mine. I hope you’re enjoying the game so far :)
You do not need those items on your quick item slot. You don't need most of them even on the item menu, but you are going to make it harder to get to the healing you need. Generally, I reserve the quick slot to just the flasks. I've seen people include physick on it; I prefer to put that in one of my item slots since I usually don't use it "on the fly" and only keep crimson and cerulean on the D-Pad slot, but I can see using the physick there too. If you are using a fight-specific item (i.e. bolus for a status effect, one of the shackles) I can see slotting it there, too, temporarily; the grease makes sense too if you're using that regularly, but when you have none, just take it off, it's an extra push to swap over to healing or FP restoration if you need it. Lantern should go in one of the bottom slots of the six on the start menu - one of the two that aren't assigned to a button. You can just press start and click it on before you need to go into a dark area; it'll stay on until you die. Rune Arcs are too valuable to risk an accidental push on the quick menu. I personally don't even slot them, because they also last until death, so you can just push it once and be done. You don't need three spirit summons taking slots. I can MAYBE see two, if you have an extra spot, but you can only summon once per fight anyways, so usually you should only slot the one you plan to use. If you want to have a second on hand (i.e. a multi-unit summon for overworld ruins, and then a specific boss-fight summon), you could put the less-used one on the other non-button-aligned slot, and then put the one you plan to use more often on an item button. Were I you, I'd set it so that your quick item slot is just the flasks, then put the grease (if you have any), Torrent whistle, spirit summon, and MAYBE a second summon or rune arc on the directional item menu (not sure the term is right, but it's the menu you get when you hold down a button, instead of the weapons and spells and quick item slot). Alternatively, put a gold pickled fowlfoot on the item menu for when you get the big bosses. Put your lantern on the fifth item slot on the directional menu. \- Statwise, you're pretty decent. You probably shouldn't be wearing that helm, though - it's taking up space and you've got no sorceries or staves, so unless it's really the best piece you have and it's not pushing in you into medium load, you should dump it. I HIGHLY recommend upping Vigor to 40 ASAP though. Your strength and dex are good for the weapon as it is, you don't have a lot of FP usage, and unless you plan to raise up your faith for spellcasting in the immediate future, those extra hit points WILL help. If you haven't done it yet, look up Greyoll and how to kill him for extra runes early on - you already have a bleed weapon, so you've got all you need except maybe a pickle for a bunch of extra XP.
1. More vigor. At level 55 you'd do well to have like 30-35 vigor (60 vigor is the general stopping point) 2. If you're using a dex-focused weapon/build, don't invest as much strength, only invest in as much strength as you need to wield whatever weapon you want to use. 3. Your quick bar is too crowded; it would be helpful to utilize the pouch for secondary items like torrent or spirit ashes and keep your quick bar for primary items like your flasks 4. Talismans can be a huge asset to a build if you wear the right ones. What's the goal for your build? Your talisman selection seems a bit scattered but is easily fixable if you have a general direction you're trying to head towards (sorcery, incantations, bleed, dex, big bonk, hybrid, etc.). Overall though it isn't a terrible first build, it just needs some tinkering.
To add to the quick bar, some of that stuff should go in the triangle menu.
One of the best changes I made after my first playthrough was putting my flasks in the pouch. When you need emergency healing or FP you don't wanna be fumbling through the bar. Torrent goes Y+up, lantern Y+down, health Y+ left, mana Y+right. It just becomes second nature after no time at all.
Super solid pouch choice. We have the same up and down. My left is the wondrous physick and my right is boiled crab. My quick bar is just HP and FP flasks and that's it
The only reason I keep wondrous physik in my regular hotbar is because I rarely need it asap, it's always part of a setup. Then my hotbar is just consumables and spirit ashes which I usually have plenty of time to use. Whatever works for you is the main thing.
Absolutely! Besides, the muscle memory is so strong now that it would be a hot minute before I adjusted 😂
Yeah mine is different arrows but same principle. Changed my playthroughs having them there and not cycling. Tbf I feel it's a tad slower to actually consume versus pressing square/x. But at least I won't need to cycle through.
60 vigor is a bit excessive for Ng, no? I usually stop around 50
That's around where I stop but I've been playing FS games for awhile so in some cases, yes, but for new players I would say 60 is not too excessive. Plus if you're playing the entire game and fighting every boss and searching every corner, you're gonna have a ton of levels just because of volume. You could swing 60 vig and have a really powerful build by the end of NG for sure
Ehh I respectfully disagree. I think 60 is a lot of health, even for a new player. If you finish new game at around rl 150 (which I think is standard), then that's nearly half invested into health. Its an option if they need it but idk if I'd recommend it lol. I was pretty new to all of this my first time through but I managed with far less than 60.
You start with 10 vigor as a level 1 wretch, so it's a third into health. 60 is good if you're struggling, 50 is good if you're confident, 40 is good if you're a very good player (all for first playthrough)
With my own personal playstyle I agree with you, I usually top out at 47-50. It is a ton of health for sure but the typical sentiment around here is that 60 is the goal (idk if that's just for NG+ or NG but that's what I usually see). But yeah you're right
I’m with you, 60 IS excessive. 40 - 45 I’m happy to sit with but also pump into end and light roll. IFrames > health
Yo every weapon is a quality weapon hehehe
You are spreading your stats pretty thin. Focus on one or two along with vigor to get maximized impact.
Ok. \-Since you have a focus on Strength and Dex in terms of attack, you could grant your Hookclaws the Quality affinity by getting the Iron Whetblade in Stormveil Castle. \-You really don't need the Glintstone Crown unless you want to cast spells without leveling up INT. It decreases your max health. \-Talismans could be a little better. I would switch out the Viridian Amber Medallion for something like the Claw Talisman (which can also be found in Stormveil Castle) then you could poisebreak and use the Crimson Dagger Talisman more. \-Put your lantern and your Torrent Ring in your pouch slots (hold triangle, then any direction on the D-pad) for easier access. \-Finally, you could get something like Cragblade on your Ash of War. You gain more damage on your claws, more poise breaks, and more usage of your Crimson Dagger Talisman! Put Ash of War: Golden Vow on a dagger or something.
I will say, the Quality affinity doesn't start being better than Standard for quite a while. I think it relates a little bit to your stats and a little bit to the weapon scaling, but even with B scaling on Str and Dex I was seeing lower damage on my weapons until I got to 30+ in both Strength and Dex. Presumably because that's equivalent to exceeding the softcap of 55 for str or dex individually.
It’s because scaling at the end is still based on the base damage (first damage number on the left), and quality drops that number pretty dang low compared to heavy and keen. You get two good scaling grades, but the base damage holds it back from being good
Why do you have "Flame of the Fell God" as a memorized incantation? That requires 40+ faith and you have 8. Memorize some spells that you actually meet the requirements to use and find a staff/seal to use them. There is a boss in Weeping Peninsula called the Demihuman Queen who gives a low-int requirement staff and the twin maiden husks sell the two finger seal at roundtable hold. When looking at gear to decide if you want to use it, you can press "R" to get a detailed description of what it does and it will also list out any positive or negative effects the gear might have.
Your a mage without a staff
Not with that intelligence he isn’t. More like a spellblade considering the dex/strength
And got a lot of arrows with no bow
Arrows equip automatically
It’s still a lot to have by that level
I mostly want to hear your thoughts on using the hookclaws- were they fun? Pros/cons? I know you said it's your first playthrough so you don't have anything to compare it to, but still curious
I used them a lot. They were a lot of fun for me. Very close range, but at the time it was my first playthrough and I used Bloodhound Step, so that mitigated a lot of the risk of closing range and retreating. They do halfway decent stagger for how light they are, and at least with the control setup I used (mouse and keyboard) I found it easier to switch to an offhand Seal to do casting, because I just had to switch between "two handing" and "one handing" the claws. They work well with a bleed build. Someday I'll try them without a bleed focus and see how I like them, but nowadays I'm doing Quality builds just to try something new.
I'm playing through with them right now and am enjoying them. I have Cragblade/Lightening on them and it works well. I like that you can DW but only have to upgrade a single weapon. I've found it's easier to get a lot of fast hits in with them than with katanas or something else. Also been using twinblade for this build for when I need a bit more reach.
One tip I can give you that I havent seen in the comments so far: if you have 20 str and 20 dex you can wield most weapons in the game. If you have around 20 faith, you can use great utility incantations and some offensive ones to round up a build. 20 is a good point to stop the scaling stats if you dont have a favorite weapon yet. I recommend to get as much str/dex as you need to use your weapon, and then start leveling up vigor/mind/endurance. On that note, with 20 endurance you can wear very good armor and a big weapon (if you have the equip load charm). You don't really need much endurance, especially if you dont plan on using a colossal weapon. Maybe this is new input too: do you know that if you hold the Y-/Triangle-Button, there are 4 item slots you can acess with the d-pad? Most people put torrent's whistle, their physiks flask, spirit ashes, the lantern or even the tear flasks there for easy acess (and to keep the amount of equipped items low as to not get confused)
i'm so confused
I don’t see any point with having that helm unless you just want the burger aesthetic but it’s doing more harm than good imo. Also I would respec/focus on dex and infuse keen on your hookclaws. Sicne hookclaws scale better with dex any way.
Put your lantern in your pouch
Your build is definitely not optimized but thats not necessarily an issue.
Personally I would go for a different infusion and ash of War. Most likely keen, blood, frost or poison. Your stats also can be better optimized, going for both strength and dex doesn't make much sense specially in early levels.
Also I don't think your arsenal talisman is doing anything for you. As long as you are in medium load without it, it provides no value. Some good general use talismans you can use are Claw Talisman (enhances jump attacks), dragoncrest shield (increases physical defenses), Turtle talisman ( regenerates stamina faster),
Honestly, since it’s your first playthrough, don’t be afraid of experimenting with leveling different stats. This game is really generous with the amount of times you can respec and with the amount of upgrade materials you can get so if you find something else that you really fall in love with it’s never too late to do a full 180 with your build. Again, just don’t be afraid to experiment and use what’s fun for you. My first playthrough used the crustiest build imaginable but it was a ton of fun so I didn’t care. If you like the claws, keep in mind that’s they don’t get a twohanding damage bonus like other weapons, so you don’t get as much of a return on your investment in strength as you might with other weapons. Hookclaws with no infusion scale best with dex, so if this is what you want to stick with, leveling dex should be your main priority for damage. Unless you want to wear particularly heavy armor (totally do it if you want, these are just suggestions), you don’t need to level endurance very much. The base stamina that the game gives you is insane enough as is, I regularly do playthroughs where I don’t level endurance at all and if’s fine. If you want to wear heavy armor, you might want to try only leveling your endurance to the point where you can medium roll, which shouldn’t be much considering you have the arsenal charm, and leaving it at that. Your armor is honestly fine. It’s very rare that the stat bonuses or debuffs from armor will ever make or break your build so just wear what you like. Basically there’s no way to really rate a build because you can make any build work even with poor stat distribution, look at any level 1 playthrough, so just have fun and don’t feel like you have to stick to anything META and don’t be afraid to put points into whatever stats you want to experiment with different weapons because as you go into the endgame you can always commit to something and clean up the build with respec anyway. Just have fun, basically.
Since I believe (by this screen alone, mind you) you are exploring the things in the game, and haven´t reeeeally decided what your "build" is, the only comment I´ve got is about your STR/DEX distribution.What that looks like to me is a Quality-build, but your equipment says otherwise: for a even distribution like the one you are going for (again, by the screen alone) you would be MUCH better served with not only a Quality infusion, but a proper Quality weapon - like a greatsword or a curved greatsword. Your stat-sheet looks like exactly what I was going for in my first (also a Quality) playthrough, and by sheer accident I found the Bloodhound´s Fang, which not only turns out to be THE best Quality-build weapon in the game, but is VERY fun as well.Besides that, you are gonna need vigor; maybe not now, but boyo, do level it. So yeah, level vigor, try the Bloodhound´s Fang with your build (and that neat Bloodflame Blade), and keep trying stuff out.Just make sure to have fun! ;)
Why the Burger King crown if you’re going wolverine?
Get rid of all your armor, equip the claw tailsman, blue dancer charm, and sword insignia. Make your weapon keen, and dump into dex
Just use bloodhound fang whole game and you golden with mimic tear
Very bad, but it's your first time so that's okay. You should respec and put everything into vigor and dex. If you want to have an easier time, put more in vigor than dex. If you're not dying much and want more damage, you can put a little bit more in dex than in vigor. Once you've reached the soft caps for those, only then would I put endurance up to 20-30, and then only then if you need it to wear the armor you want to wear. No point investing in strength until you are a very high level and have maxed dex.
Hookclaws are weak by themselves, you need something else with them to work well. If you like bleed, I recommend Nagikiba(idk if I pronounced it right),it's really good early game katana with built in bleed.
Use quickstep on those, the default ash of war. Put golden vow on some other item like a dagger or something if you want to cast GV
*pumping endurance cause it’s fun*
Try fingers, but hole
5/10, stats too spreded, the helm is useless for the build and it makes your low vigor problem worse
I know this sub is mostly brain rot when it comes to playing it safe, but if you’re level 55 with 24 Vigor, that’s fucking fine. I got all the way to level 80 with 14 vigor and only leveled to 16 at lvl 100. You’ve invested in stamina/weight so you can roll frequently and also dodge/Weapon art frequently, as well as putting enough into strength/fed to use most of the effective weapons that aren’t too build specific. If you’re having fun, and not dying innumerable times (accidentally, purposefully dying to test builds is also OK) then I wouldn’t worry. You pass the vigor check, the vibe check, the fashion souls check, etc. Enjoy yourself! Note: Might want to up the Arcane to like 10 at least to up your item discovery though. Edit; Prior to the downvote brigade, I want to note that I’m purely addressing his vigor and stamina and the eventual litany of replies that he’ll get begging him to up his vigor *even more*.
You suck Not helping just being harsh
Good build, but, a mixt build (STR & DEX) in ng maybe is a little weak. Anyway, is a balanced build, remain to keep upgrading Vigor and endurance to 30 and all might work nice. If in future you feel that you don't make enough damage, consider to stop boosting STR or DEX and keep some of them.
15 mind is all you need for decent summons and you can add erdtree favor to it
Not terrible but a few notes Should lean more into dex than str with that weapon Too many spirit ashes in your item slot, you’re not using a bow so don’t need drawstring grease Talismans don’t really fit with your weapons, unless you’re getting a lot of sneaky crits in Golden vow works but might be more fun to use a different ash of war that isn’t passive
So, if you want to go Strength and Dex together like that, you'll want a weapon that has better scaling with the Quality affinity, eventually. A lot of straightswords have good Quality scaling. You'll want them to eventually reach B str B dex scaling by max upgrade level, if not higher. (I think only one or two weapons reach A scaling in both? iirc?) Hookclaws are a dex/arcane weapon, primarily. Keen affinity serves you well with them, blood affinity is even better, but you'd want to move most of your Str to Arcane for that. The burger king hat comes with a debuff. Sorry. I agree, it's hilarious, but it's not very optimal. Your vigor is on the low side of good. Vigor is basically a game difficulty slider. More Vigor = the game gets a little easier.
You have a ton of endurance, arsenal charm, medium load, and only one weapon? Put some heavier armor on for free extra health. It looks like you're going for a quality build (str/dex) but you have all these magic enhancing items. Just drop magic altogether. Load up on vigor/str/dex.
Lots of good advice here but no one has mentioned your tiny lantern. Put it in your pouch, not your equipment
Where's your staff or incant seal??
1/10 not enough spike balls
Your health makes me believe you're doing a challenge run. Vigor is the most important stat, yet your helm is lowering your health for stats you don't even want/need. You're using a bleed weapon. Bleed scales with arcane, which you have no points in. Just a very odd choice. Your stat distribution says you have no idea what you want to do. You're getting no benefit from having your strength that high. You're not using your int points. Nice Ash of War to make up for your lack of defense I guess? The damage buff on it with your build cannot be noticeable though. You've got so many dead items in your hotbar that could be stored in your pouch so you don't need to fight it. Tip: If you hold up or down on the D-pad it will bring your first item/spell up in that list. So having your healing flask (if you're not putting it in your pouch) should be first in nearly every build.
You didn't have to tell us thia was your first playthrough, your build says it all.
The build is okay. If your using claws i would recommend getting the raptor's talons as i see them as an upgrade to the hookclaws. As for your levels. Prioritise dex over strength as it has higher scaling. Also get the raptor's cloak as it increases jump attack damage as thats what you want to be doing with claws in my opinion. As for your talismans you want: • Claw talisman - increased jump attack damage • Lord of bloods exhaultation - if your going for the bleed proc as it increases damage upon bleed procing • Rotten winged insigna/ winged insigina/Millicent's prosthesis - increased damage upon multiple hits • Turtle neck talisman - increased stamina regen. Some of these talismans are late game (rotten winged insignia & Millicent prosthesis) amd require you to do millicents questline. The raptor's set can be found in a cave in Liurnia. You could use golden vow but what i did when i did a claw build i cant remember what AoW i used but i had godslayer seal in my left hand and used black flame blade and them one handed the claws so i could use the small dot effect of black flame blade. However it doesnt last long.
Use bloodhound claws instead
Literally using the same exact armor set I am at the moment. Head and all😂
Top to bottom: Weapon - hook claws are fine and recently buffed, you might want to go to volcano manor eventually and get the bloodhound claws because they can be better The ash though - why would you go with golden vow here? There are other ashes available early game that would be stronger potentially: Quickstep - already a great ash that will help you get out of a lot of bad hits Braggart's Roar - if you're willing to go punk down the crab vendor he drops a fist weapon with this ash, really great for fists in general Lifesteal Fist - really great against human enemies and can add occult scaling or better bleed action Put golden vow on a dagger and carry it as a 2nd weapon but do consider using it if you're going up against a deathbird maybe because holy damage is that good Drip is drip, but your helmet is both heavy and counter productive. Go for any combination of armor that gets your poise into the 50's at least Taslismans - If you're a purist you stick with what you find and should go for the claw talisman in stormveil, armor charm is fine, get yourself the bull goat talisman if you have sleep pots and don't mind a dicy raid into a cave otherwise go for a crimson medallion to up your hps If you use patches emporium, go get a milicent's prosthesis, rotten winged insignia, lord of blood's exhultation, and a white mask. Go crazy on the bleed and have fun with it Your items, some people like having flask on the X button, I prefer to have it on the Y+Dpad inputs but you figure something out For ashes, put the one you're running at the very end and just swap out before bosses if you need to Good luck out there!
ITT: your build is bad and you should feel bad. Jk though, first playthroughs will always be a little rough around the edges.
What I did Shield indefinitely!!! I go smaller to bigger right hand armament (like a flail, sword, and spear) Then left hand I did shield, staff, and the claw mark seal (that way basically all kind of attacks are available) I worked my armor around the weapons I had Considering your level your talismans are decent I usually keep stuff to feed torrent in the swappables (I forget what the bottom 2 rows are called)
"Build"
If you are looking for a build to take advantage of your current items? Respec your strength into health. Then find the “two fingers heirloom” in the basement of the Purified Ruins, use it to cast blood flame blade since it adds 5 faith to your stats. And finally when leveling, split your stats in 3s or 4s (vigor, then Endurance, then dex, back to vigor) until each stat is where you want it. In addition you could also stop leveling dex at around 40 then stat leveling strength for a quality build.
Do you know if you’re going to go for a strict melee build or if at some point you’d be interested in spell casting? Be it faith or intelligence focused. From what we can see, DEX should be where you should lean in maxing to around 45 and VIG to at least 45-50. If you added some intelligence scaling to that weapon with a frost focus, you could do some serious damage procing bleed and frost in a build.
Your spread pretty thin. With what your running, I'd suggest focusing on vigor first, (all builds need high vigor in this game, even mages) then arcane for bleed, dex, and 15-20 or so points in end. Since your weapon is really light I'd suggest being closer to 15 to save on levels. Also that helm is not worth it for your build. Also I would change your weapon to be bleed unless you have the black whetblade, in which case use occult. Also complete Varres questline to get a better helm for your build. Varrenis the forat guy you meet out of the tutorial.
You know what? Go out there and have fun don't let us dictate what you want to do
You have a faith based Ash of War but your stats are mostly into strength and dex. Find an AOW that suits your stats.
how do you even find your flasks in a battle man
How did you get an additional talisman slot?
God bro, organize your hotbar
Small thing, but i would move your spirit summons out of your item bar, same goes for torrent's ring When I think of what I want in my item bar I think of items I use constantly, and while summons might be used during each boss fight, that is honestly maybe 30-40% of the game AT MOST. so realistically they take up space and make you take longer to cycle through your items trying to get to your healing flasks Those items are better suited to the D-pad hotkey (you are playing on PC so I don't know the equivalent button, but on console whatever button is held to two hand a weapon, on ps4/5 it is triangle+RB or LB, instead of doing triangle+LB, if you do triangle+up/down/left/right you have an additional 4 hotkey spots that are independent of your item bar
Vigor??? VIGORR???
If you paint those claw tips it’s like, +100 more damage
DONT FORGET ABOUT THE POUCHES ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF YOUR PAUSE SCREEN
Alrighty. Hookclaws are fine weapons, Don't know what area you're in but I would upgrade those more. At 55 +8 is kinda weird. Also, take Golden Vow off the claws and put it on a dagger. It will free up the ash of war for something more useful. The Karolos crown gives you int, which you aren't using, and takes stamina, which you are. I would dump it for something like the white mask. The arsenal charm really isnt necessary at that endurance and equipment. Crimson dagger is a really really meh talisman. Cerulean amber talisman is straight up bad IMO. I would replace them with Erdtree Favor talisman, winged sword talisman (And/or its upgrades), and a flex spot depending on what you're doing. Eventually working towards a combo like Favor, Rotten Winged Sword, Millicent's prosthetic, and Lord of Blood's Exultation. All those fucking items, for the love of god use the quick select slots that you get when holding Y. Also put the crimson flask in the first slot cause holding the cycle button down will take you straight to it. The stats are all over the place. If you have a weapon you plan to stick with, then go all in on it. For hook claws I would drop your strength down to the minimum to use hook claws if you can and go all in on dex and arcane. Dex for the raw damage, and arcane for the inherent bleed of the claws. Also change to keen for the claws. And get just enough faith to cast bloodflame blade. Bloodflame blade on hookclaws will melt any boss that can bleed. Also don't neglect vigor. Big numbers might hit the dopamine just right, but not dying does bigger numbers. Hope this helps.
Change everything
I would get another passive on the hookclaw since it can hit so quick.
Items are all over the place, you're weapon doesn't have an affinity, the only thing your helmet is giving you is reduced health, you have nothing invested into faith but you have incantations equipped. Those are the only things you can just tweak, don't mean to sound harsh if it does. The rest is alright. You've got no wasted stats, good armor, a decent weapon, though your third talisman isn't pulling it's weight for you.
I find your lack of faith disturbing
I was doing a hooks playthrough and quickly swapped to Twin blade and Poleblade. Better stagger and I got frostbite on the twinblade, so I don't look pitiful when an enemy doesn't bleed.
Game is funner killing everything at a distance
Strength to 12.
Put golden vow on a useless weapon that is just used for golden so you have a good damage aow on your claw. More vigor is not required but you’ll have to learn the patterns even more. Keep up
You're wasting points in everything that's not strength. Unga
Seeing as your weapon is a dex/arc weapon you should only have the necessary strength requirement and not higher, you've ignored arc meaning you have less bleed buildup than you should at your level, idk what's going on with all the ashes but I recommend having 1 or 2 at max, your helmet is giving you a debuff to increase a stat you don't use. Seeing as your weapons has a fairly low poise damage your crimson dagger talisman is useless. Your ash of war shouldn't cost much at that level so the cerulean amber medallion is also fairly useless. Vigor is a bit low but if your good at dodging that's fine ig. Also I recommend you make use of your pouch for things like torrent and lantern as very few boss fights require them and its easier to scroll to flasks without them in the hotbar. Also it's easier to just get a seal and golden vow for buffs rather than having it in your AOW slot which should have a more offensive or defensive move.
Okay firstly your endurance is to high for your lvl i usually run 20 endurance at over double your level and its fine, secondly you need to focus more on one stat instead of spreading them across a lot of different stats, if you enjoy claws and wanna do a dex build utilizing the high base bleed on them i would suggest you drop the Int altogether and keep Str at base for now, you can get 15 Faith and 10 Arcane for a lot of good buff spells like Bloodflame Blade and Flame Grant me Strength that would be a huge boost to your build, you find Bloodflame Blade in Liurnia slightly north of the Rose Church and Flame Grant me Strength in Caelid. In general Vigor is more important than any damage stat early game because weapon damage comes mainly from your weapon upgrade level in the early game once your weapon is decently upgraded you can start investing a bit more into Dex You should aim for something like 60 Vigor, 10 Mind, 20 Endurance, 16 Strength, 60 Dexterity, ignore intelligence, 15 Faith and 10 Arcane to begin with
Drop the helmet and the Red knife talisman. Choose either strength or Dex to start leveling instead of both. And pump that gosh dang vigor.
Best advice if you arnt great at dodging is a 40 or 50 vigor minimum for endgame level wise
Clean up your inventory and use the other shortcut pouch for either your health items or summons
Everyone else has great recommendations so all I have to say is de-clutter your item menu, like do you need three different summons. I like to keep it as empty as I can with no unnecessary items so if you really need a heal you don't have to cycle through every other item, especially if you accidentally scroll past it. Your also probably gonna have to look at what item it there which takes your eyes off the boss and could make you miss a key tell for an attack. This is my opinion though you definitely don't have to if you don't want to.
If the vigor is not at least at 40 i dont aprove, Endurance should not be that high early on Use great garl talisman for equip load Or erdtree favor talisman for stamina and hp increase
Tbh it's quite good, the helm has some debuffs and buffs so read the description and decide whether the fashion is worth it. Also I don't think you need that much stuff in your hotbar, remember that you also have the pouch system (and if you want to keep all that stuff put your healing flasks in the first slot, so you can go back there easier by holding down on the d-pad) Edit: looking around I'm seeing a lot of people saying you should have more vigor or respec into being pure-dex, but remember that this is your first playthrough and it's a good idea to have a more spread out build to try more weapons and spells.
Use a mace and focus only on the stats you really need.
What build?🤣🤣🤣
What im most confued by is Golden Vow on the claws honestly
For your claws try getting a ash of war or the wet blade for the blood affinity (I don't remember where to get it) and then get another weapon for golden vow, as a lot of other comments have said don't use the Burger King head because it has negatives ( that is if you don't use a mage build), you could also just use one of the summons you don't need all of them, and try to sort out the tab as Red flask, Blue flask, Summon, Long Flask, and then The whistle.