Ink's Dark Knight/Dark Ninja WIP Build

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Build summary	Hi-Dex + Magic Hybrid DPS Class.
Recommended starting class(es)	I started with Thief.
Recommended Soul Level	120
	Recommended stats (Leave at default (**) if not raised)
Vitality	30
Will/Intelligence	25
Endurance	40
Strength	22
Dexterity	35
Magic	30
Faith	10
Luck	16 or 18
Recommended equipment	I'm using 3 combos of weapons, all purely situational 1) Dual Wielding: Moon Kilij +4/Crescent Estoc +4 (great range, stabby and parries nice) 2) Sword and Boarding with Dark Knight Shield +5/ Moon Kilij +4. Why the Knight Shield? Its light, fast and less Strength req than the Purple Flame. I mulled it over, I know the PFS is superior, but thats in my next playthrough. 3) Lava Bow w/ Fire arrows 4) Sharp Uchi +3 or Sharp Flamberge +4 (grinding for stones as we speak ;) 5) Silver Cata: oopsed on this playthrough, but get the Insanity Catalyst. I bought a spell by accident. DON'T GET HOMING SOUL ARROWS! You should have a good stock of weapons you can try out, but this is what I stick with mostly.
Recommended spells/miracles	In order of most important first. Warding Soul Ray Light Weapon Cloak Evacuate. Thats why I have 10 Faith in the build. Life saver. I have others, but hardly use them. D:< Stupid Homing soul arrow! See Recommend Equipment section on that.
Gameplay tips and progression	I started as a hunter class about 2 weeks ago, after reading the forums, the wiki and experiencing the game for a bit I started a real build. I re-rolled as a thief. I'd recommend thief, it gives you stealthy light armor, a decent luck stat for the BBS and a shortbow that you could start upgrading towards your Lava Bow right away. This is a low strength class so I'd forget about the WB for now. Fire arrow damage does stack, tested, so anything that isn't fire retardant is going to get hurt. Most of your damage is coming from a ranged distance early on. After killing Phalanx head straight to 4-1 and get the Crescent Falchion right away. (behind the black skelly on the left after first trap) Yeah, your going to get :pwned a lot but if you can snag it early its a great starting weapon. Next I went straight to 3-1, the tower of latria. Grab everything you can and try to free Freke right away. There is a nice Mercury Rapier on a ledge that gives you a great headstart on Dual Wielding with poison power. I'd put some points in Int now so you can at least unlock a slot for cloak, also make sure to get through the tower knight to get Warding. Its a life saver. After that its straight back to 2-1 until you kill Flamelurker. You should have the bow upgraded and enough strength the 2-hand the Lava Bow. Its your best friend. Once achieved your done with 2-3, its… Back to the Shrine of Storms. Don't be scared, you can do it and when you unlock Graverobber, stock up on fire arrows and stones for your Crescent Estoc. If you upgrade both the Falchion and Estoc as your new DW's then you get a nice + MP tic while fighting. Saves on spamming spices. Which reminds me, its about time you went back to… The Tower of Latria to finish 3-1, and 3-2. Remember that Kilij you got earlier? Now its time to upgrade that or a Uchigatana to Moon +'s. I like the speed and tighter swings of the Kilij over the Uchi, but its up to you. 18 Int yet? Got some points into magic? Good, now you should have enough to carry around Warding and Soul Ray. Now pump some points into Vit and Endu, ignore dex if you want for now. Once you can take a hit and lay some out, pump up your Dex and Magic, bring strength to 22 and go to town. At this point you should have killed Yurt for his armor and saved your NPC's. You have 2 sets of armor, one is your black leather, thats the Ninja mode, the other is Yurts ominous Gloom Armor, for that Dark Knight mode. As you now go any path you want, you have some choices. Either your going to have to take some hits in close combat you can, you can also stealth around, kill stuff from a distance. I've had some luck in DK mode against some experienced invading black phantoms. So this build has some pvp potential. Keep some secret throwing daggers slotted on you. Between that and the bleed in your burst damage will keep them on their heels. If they run, whip your bow out and start shootin! Again, I am a relatively new player and this is a work in progress. I'm working out some kinks and keep checking back for changes as I work through this awesome game. I'm alway open for suggestions, make sure you rate this build and post comments please. Have fun and thanks for reading! PS: Some of the points I put in Int was for extra slots, you can keep it at 18 if you want but you want to be able to carry Warding and Light Weapon. Magic stat, Dex, Vit and Endu are your main stats. If you want to go the BBS route, you can swap those out for luck stat. GOOD LUCK! :)

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