Build summary | A powerful mage disguised as an agile knight; effective vs. PvE & PvP. |
Recommended starting class(es) | Royalty, Knight |
Recommended Soul Level | 120 |
Recommended stats (Leave at default (**) if not raised) |
|
Vitality | 40 |
Will/Intelligence | 24 |
Endurance | 29 |
Strength | 20 |
Dexterity | 14 |
Magic | 50 |
Faith | 18 |
Luck | ** |
Recommended equipment |
ARMORS: WEAPONS:
RINGS: EXTREME DAMAGE: The effects of the above-mentioned equipment stack for extreme damage! |
Recommended spells/miracles |
SPELLS: -Warding (greatly decreases damages received) or Second Chance (auto-revive at half HP. I prefer this one.) -Poison Cloud (helpful in PvP. cast it when the invader is down or is healing.) |
Gameplay tips and progression |
INTRO: This is the build I used in my first game, and still using in my subsequent playthoughs until I Demon's Souls. To show how effective this build is: In my first game (PvE), I was only killed a total of 8 times (excluding my accidental falling off cliffs and crevices) Demon's Souls is NOT that hard like many people claim it to be even in Pure Black Tendencies—thanks to this type of build: -Red Dragon (1x) - I did not run the first time I went to World 1-2. During invasion (PvP), I invaded/was attacked by black phantoms a total of 34 times (in my first game)—I only died 5 times. I even helped 4 friends clear their NG++++ files… One of them died 3 consecutive times in World 1-3 (area with 3 Red-eyed Knights), but I survived all the onslaught. I even land the last hits in most of the boss encounters. BUILD OVERVIEW: 1. make a balanced character in PvE. Strong magic + Northern Regalia/Uchi/Magic Sword Makoto can help you adapt in almost all circumstances. 2. cause fear (thus ,the name "Terror") to new players as well as to mages. Seeing a character in heavy armor (thus, the Gloom Armor) + big sword (Northern Regalia) usually give panic to new players and lightly-equipped characters… They will think you are very powerful. lol 3. surprise melee fighters in PvP. Seeing you in heavy armor and Northern Regalia will make melee fighters think you are one of their kind, thus, they will be confident to attack you toe-to-toe. When they are already in the right distance, shower them with Fireball or Ignite for multiple heavy fire damage. 4. likewise, this build is optimized and designed for pure white character tendency until you upgrade from Demonbrandt to Northenr Regalia. If you prefer the Uchis, Crescent increases in damage as you increase your Magic and has MP Regen. Moon is more effective against faith builds, while Magic Sword Makoto has bleeding effect. 5. also, despite wearing a heavy armor, your character would still be able to roll and move quickly, which will also give added "terror" effect because people usually thinks heavy-armored guys move slowly. STARTING: EQUIPMENT: -Heater Shield has 100% physical defense. Later, upgrade to Dark Silver Shield+5, which has 100% physical and spell protection at the expense of weakening your spell damage. -Talisman of Beast (ToB) allows you to cast both Spells and Miracles (Second Chance). It is also quite a effective in Spells as compared to Wooden Catalyst. Insanity Catlyst (iCat) is out of the picture because this build is prefers to use spices to replenish MP (which are very cheap) instead of using stats to increase Intelligence (MP) that could be used already for other stats. -Demonbrandt can be obtained early in the game. At pure white character tendency, you can have a melee weapon with a whooping 400+ base damage, depending on your stat. In NG+ or if someone will give you a Soulbrandt, you should upgrade it to Northern Regalia, which is optimized in either pure white or pure black character tendency. At SL120, your character will have 500+ base damage if you have pure white or pure black character tendency. If you want to use Uchis, instead, use "crescent" because it is optimized by higher Magic and has an inherent MP Regen. On the other hand, "moon" deals more damage to faith builds. Magic Sword Makoto causes bleeding effect to the enemy. -Kris Blade+5 (used with ToB when casting Spells) will increase your Spell damage by (iirc, 30%) at the expense of lowering your magic defense. Use it with caution when facing fellow mages. MINI-WALKTHROUGH/PROGRESSION: Jump down the area below (you will see Ostrava fighting several dreglings). Do not help Ostrava. Let him fight all the enemies until nothing is left or he was killed. The purpose is so Ostrava will be very easy to kill so you can pick up (and not miss) the Mausoleum Key that will be used later to get the Demonbrandt—your main weapon until you get Northern Regalia or your maxed out Uchis/Magic Sword Makoto. Now, try to clear the area until you open the huge gate early in the stage. To avoid risk of going back to square one, DO NOT try to go near the nesting place of the 2 dragons even if it is tempting to get the items there. You can just go back later to retrieve it (they are not in the nest in Pure White World Tendency). Return to the huge gate where you will fight your first boss, Phalanx. (Stay away from Phalanx and his henchmen and hit them with Soul Arrow. If you have no more MP, use a Fresh Spice to refill it. Alternatively, you can use Firebombs (you can buy from the dregling merchant in the same stage). Just make sure you always have your Heater shield up to avoid the spears of the boss. After beating him and his tiny minions, you will now go back to the Nexus. Repair your equipment, and upgrade your stats. Focus on increasing your Vitallity and Magic for now. Increase your Intelligence to 18 to have 3 spell slots and 119 MP. Next, clear World 1-2 and beat Tower Knight for his Iron Soul. Next, clear World 1-3 and beat Fool's Idol for her Doll Soul. While clearing this stage, be sure to save Sage Freke that is incarcerated in one of the cells. After clearing this stage, go back to the Nexus. Optional: You may want to clear World 5-1 and defeat Leechmonger to get his Wriggling Soul. Back at the Nexus, look for Sage Freke to exchange your Iron Soul and Doll Soul to learn Warding and Soul Ray, respectively. If you got Wriggling Soul, exchange it to learn Poison Cloud. Now, it is time to go back to World 1-1… Go to the place where the Red-eyed Knight is… Hit him with several Soul Ray and he is dead. Open the door with the Mausoleum Key and you will see Old King Doran. Attack him whatever way you want (He will not attack you). After you damage his HP by around 25%, you can get the Demonbrandt for free (You need 19 Strength to effectively wield it.). Next, we will try to kill him for his equipment (Old King's Set)! Keep attacking him until you bring his HP close to 50%. After which, he will become hostile to you so run when he is following you. Equip Thief Ring and Ring of Magical Sharpness and be patient to hit him with Soul Ray even though the damage you deal is quite disheartening. If you learned Poison Cloud, it would be very helpful in this fight. Alternatively, you can backstab him whenever he is walking away from you and then run away. After you kill him, you will get the lightest (in terns of equip burden) piece of heavy armor in the game and the only one of its kind that has no stamina penalty. You can use Doran's armor set as your main equipment for now. The said equipment set is advantageous against fire so World 3 is a good place to clear while wearing it. Next stop, World 3. Clear it all the way to World 3-3. Flamelurker in World 3-2 will give you the Red Hot Soul, which you need in order for you to get the "upgrade" service of Blacksmith Ed in World 3-1. It is there where you can upgrade your Demonbrandt and other unique weapons and shields. After you beat Dragon God in World 3-3 to get his Dragon Soul, you will be able to unlock World 1-3 (the gate in World 1-2 Archstone). Also, you can learn Fireball from Sage Freke using the Dragon Soul (avoid Firestorm for now). After you did all of the above, everything is already up to you. Until you get your final equipment and the required stats to equip it, you will most probably have the following setup: ARMORS: WEAPONS: RINGS: CAUTION: NOTE: I am not claiming this is the best build, but it is quite reliable and effective based on my experience in both PvE and PvP. If you have tips to improve this build, feel free to share it. =) (Looking forward to Dark Souls…) |
Terror Mage Knight (SL120)
-The final build is unisex, but the use of Ancient King's equipment set is restricted to males only.
-In my first game, I died 8 times against the bosses; not 5 times.
-You can only learn Fireball (from Freke) OR Firestorm (from Yuria) in one playthough. You need to replay the game if you want to learn both. I prefer Fireball because it is easier to use and has a splash effect, though Firestorm is the most powerful spell in the game. Ignite may be bought from Yuria using Hard Soul from Armor Spider in World 3-1.
ive been Working my butt off for the last few hours to get even the demon brandt now i finnaly got it and its worse then me mercury rapier +1 why is this D: + Old king doran reseted from 50% to full hp without me dying im pretty pissed off atm
-I just noticed… It should be Intelligence 24 and Endurance 25; not the other way around.
-You may opt to reduce Magic by 1 to make it 59 and add that 1 point to Endurance to make it 26. Doing so will allow you to equip Gloom Greaves instead of Black Boots while still keeping your quick rolling ability.
Some things to consider:
-gloom armor has a stamina penalty whereas the king's set/ binded set does not. Your short stamina bar would benefit greatly from lighter armor that doesnt have a penalty.
-60 Mag is very high, but the wooden catalyst is rather weak, especially with diminishing returns. You would be better off with slightly less MAG and 18 FTH to use the ToB.
-min faith means you cannot use second chance. Warding only decreases physical damage, any magical damage will go straight through, which is what you're weak to anyways.
-Do you really want to use NR 1H? i would decrease it to 18 if you don't, which gives you more room to play around (increase END).
-Moon vs Crescent damage depends on who you're up against. Crescent will deal more damage to regular builds and against warding, but moon will deal more damage to those with high magic defense (not by much i might add).
Lastly, I liked the overall concept of this until i read "Scraping Spear (PvP)". Everything else would net you a +1, but that one thing makes it a 0 from me… sorry
Thanks for the comment. I appreciate it. I do not have a chance to try other builds due to limited time. This is just what I am using and I am just sharing. =)
As to your points,
-I would have loved King's Set, but Gloom set looks cooler and it has higher defense power.
-I'm not really good the specifics of the weapons, but if that is the case (wCat vs. ToB), i think i would consider being Soulsucked and increase my Faith. My question is, if I use ToB, will it not affect the potency of my spells 'coz I am basically a spell user (not miracle user)? I increased my Mag a lot in order to buff my spell power as high as possible.
-Yeah. I'm very weak against magical damage, that's why i decided to add Dark Silver Shield+5 in my build… I think it is really one of the main weaknesses of spell users.
-Yeah. I want NR 1-handed 'coz i'm not good with 2-handed weapons. I'm more confident with a shield in one hand.
-Now.. Moon vs. Crescent.. I do not really know.. I only used Moon Crescent 'coz a friend gave me this small program letting me compute the damage of weapons based on my build. The result is, the bst weapon for my build is the Moon weapon.
-May I know what turns you off with the Scraping Spear?
Astrichthyes ive read a lot of your comments, u talk a lot about cowardace and fight styles being fround upon bla blah blah. That tells me that u lose a lot, u can't go into a fight expecting everyone to play by your version of fairness its a simple rule in life. A truly skilled player can adapt to the chalange.
@IfOni_Inu: I actually don't lose a lot. I simply do not like cheap tactics. Yes, i consider turtling to break equipment a very cheap tactic, but i overcome it with ripostes that net me the win anyway. it's just a dumb way to win.
I have just finished my first playthrough using this guide, and was very impressed. I have made a couple of other characters and beaten the game but this was by far my best.
However, I did change a couple of things
-the black boots and boots i swapped for the Ancient King's gauntlet and leggings
-I used the fragrant ring to gain back mp, because i didn't have very much to begin with.
-While i have the scraping spear, i have to agree with Astrichthyes, I don't really like the spear.
During pvp, I absolutely loved the high magic, and you were right, melee based characters approached me to go head on head, when i would run back and blast them with magic.
Again addressing the amount of magic you have total, do you just carry around tons of spices? I found it frustrating at times to have so little mp. Enough that i switched my secondary weapon to the phosphorescent pole, so during calm times i could regen more mp.
I really love you build, and it is very good at both pve and pvp. But i still don't quite get how you could be a mage-based with no mp regen. It seems like you would have to spend half your total money on spices, so how do you do it?
Thank you for appreciating my build. It's not the best, but I find it quite effective. As for your concerns:
-About MP: Yes, I decided to rely on spices instead of spending the extra points to Intelligence (to increase MP)—Might as well put it to other stats… After all, spices are cheap. After reaching SL120, you do not really have any use for souls. Also, for PvP, you won't be spending more than 10 Old Spices on average. However, you need to be cautious of your MP. You do not want to be spamming spells and lose MP when the enemy is running after you. In PvP, Old Spice > Phosphorescent Pole + Fragrant Ring. However, in PvE, you can do it if you want to economize on souls. xD
-About your boots and/or gloves: Ancient King's is a good alternate to the Black Set.
-About Scraping Spear: This is a trick a friend shared with me in PvP. Scraping Spear causes average damage, but in a long battle (Note: Experts will not let battle take so long… They want to kill you as fast as possible so they can look for their next prey ASAP), it will take its toll on your enemy because it easily destroys equipment durability. Once his equipment and weapons' durability is zero, he will be almost helpless against you. Unless there are issues about it that I do not know, I want to know why the Scraping spear turns you off.
(Note: The build is not only a mage build, but also a knight/melee buildand quite a capable one at that. I could have instead used the stats I put in Endurance (to equip Gloom Armor) to Intelligence (to increase MP) and make a more efficient mage build, but I want the "terror" effect and the little added defense given by the Gloom ArmorThat explains why the build has little MP compared to other mage builds. The stats are limited so I have to balance its distribution based on my purpose.)
Thank you again. =)
Thank you for this build! I am trying a magic-build for the second time and I really love the very high magic of this build. Like your experience, melees are trying to close in to me when I run, then I'll just blast them with spells and in 2-4 hits they are dead. I have no problem with little MP because, as explained by the author, it is all about proper timing. My only problem is the low stamina. I cannot really use my shield against heavy melee hitters so, I think the shield is really just against magic. Against melees, you just evade. A very solid build overall. +1.
I just knew how to edit a contribution here so, here are the pertinent changes:
-I reduced Magic from 60 to 50.
-Increased Endurance from 25 to 29 (to, somehow, counter the stamina penalty of Gloom equipment)
-Increased Faith from 12 to 18 (decided to use ToB instead of Wooden Catalyst allowing our Terror Mage Knight to use Miracles (particularly, Second Chance) without affecting much of our Spell damage.
-Gave a clearer explanation regarding the use of particular equipment.
-Listed the equipment that would maximize the power of our Spells.
I forgot to add Morion Blade, which adds 50% more damage @ 30% HP. It stacks with Clever Cat's Ring and may be used in exchange of Kiris Blade +5.
scraping spear is just a cheep dirty PVP wepon for people who cant win so just f**k with other peoples equipment so they get an easy fight
-Okay, okay. All my negative ratings came from that Scraping Spear so I'm scraping it out from this build.
It's unfortunate this build is being given negative ratings just because you use a weapon, which is a part of the game. I don't care what other gamers use. It's like saying, it is cheating to fight a friend who has a spell build if you are using a faith build because you will have an edge and makes your fight easier. I've fought many Scraping Spear users before. I don't mind it because that is their strategy… I always win anyway… I still have to meet my killer Scraping Spear user. ;)
-Finally added Morion Blade in my extreme damage setup.
-Made few corrections, and explained the weakness of this build and how to address it.
-Corrected a formatting error.
-Decreased Magic by 5 to cap it @ 50 to to stop all diminishing returns proponents from spamming negative rating to this build.
-I stick in 20 Strength because I always want my shield on even when I'm using Northern Regalia because I am not good in fighting without a shield on.
55 mag is just ridiculous. diminishing returns hit full force at 50, so there's no point in exceeding that. Your intelligence is way too low to have reasonable spell-casting ability as well. Lower strength to 18 because you should only really be using NR/SB in 2 hands anyway. I would rate this down because the stats are not at all primed for what you wish to pull off.