SL 120 Kensai Mage
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Build summary Build dedicated to the Moon Uchigatana (Baldur's Gate 2 die-hards may get the reference)
Recommended starting class(es) Knight
Recommended Soul Level

Recommended stats (Leave at default (**) if not raised)

Vitality 24
Will/Intelligence 14
Endurance 40
Strength 32
Dexterity 32
Magic 40
Faith **
Luck **
Recommended equipment

+5 Moon Uchigatana
+10 Knight Shield
Lava Bow + Fire Arrows
Talisman of the Beast
(Optional) +5 Dark Silver Shield
Use whatever rings are best for the occasion.

As for armor, whatever you particularly feel like, with that much endurance, should be fine. Stamina regeneration is something to consider, for with heavier armor it comes back more slowly. Notice however, that vitality is an untouched stat—you'll have low health anyways, so while higher armor helps, it will probably be more beneficial to focus on not being hit or blocking what you can.

I stuck with leather and an assassin's mask (since I felt the leather helmet looked dumb).

Recommended spells/miracles

Warding
Evacuate

Gameplay tips and progression

For stat progression:
Strength to 18
Dexterity to 13
Intellect to 14
Magic to 40
Dexterity to 32
Strength to 32
Endurance to 40
Vitality to 24

The Vitality is actually optional, I had 14 points left to spare, so you -could- get Dexterity to 40 and Strength to 38 as well to get some more damage out of it.

PVE:
There's really not a great deal of complexity to this build. Moon weapons are, to me, the most powerful weapons in the game. The Uchigatana is simply the best weapon for this purpose—the next highest damaging weapon is a Kilij, a weapon that does -not- have the distance of an Uchigatana. You'll be abusing that distance frequently.

Why not use a Flamberge, the highest damage Moon weapon available? Because it's massive, slow, and inefficient.

What it ultimately comes down to is that a +5 Moon Uchigatana does so much damage that you can trivialize almost every encounter. Lava Bow and Fire Arrows are your long range option—since Fire Arrows scale off magic and the Lava Bow scales off all three stats, you'll find yourself doing massive damage with the bow against almost all targets outside of level 2 (And even then, you trivialize level 2 with a moon weapon).

There isn't an enemy in the game that the Moon Uchigatana doesn't absolutely dominate.

Bosses:
Know the fights, utilize Warding. Warding trivializes most boss encounters for this build as there's little worry about dying outside of magic oriented damage. As a general statement though, I completed much of the game through either bowing the boss down or tanking it with Warding and simply hacking away until it was dead—still be cognizant of your health and the bosses abilities though. Minimize damage taken, keep track of about how long Warding has left and reapply it as needed.

If you'd like to be very thorough, the +5 Dark Silver Shield ensures you can handle any magical oriented damage coming your way.

How to get Started
I'd recommend going to level 4 first to grab the Crescent Falchion and Uchigatana. From there, after you beat the first boss or just leave, head to level 2 and clean the place out. You get copious amounts of sharpstone and hardstone throughout, so definitely get your lava bow and uchigatana +6 ready from here. Once you have those in place, move on to level 3 and get your moonstones.

It takes a bit to get rolling, but once you do you're solid.

Focus
I've seen several Faith builds and Magic oriented builds with Moon Uchigatana's, but they seem to neglect that Moon weapons still get a good amount from strength and dexterity.

The highlight of this build is that in melee combat I don't think there's any way to output as much damage as an optimized Moon Uchigatana can. There isn't really much magic usage outside of warding and (optionally) evacuate for farming.

There's really not much else to say, the build just dominates. You should be able to one shot just about every mob in the game in your first playthrough as well as two or three shot every enemy in the second playthrough.

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