Build summary | 2 variations of a PvP-honed Meat Cleaver Build utilizing Light Weapon: Red/ Blue Eye Stone Phantom | Host |
Recommended starting class(es) | Temple Knight, Knight |
Recommended Soul Level | 127 | 136 |
Recommended stats (Leave at default (**) if not raised) |
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Vitality | 45 | 45 |
Will/Intelligence | 15 | 15 |
Endurance | 35 | 40 |
Strength | 26 | 26 |
Dexterity | 30 | 30 |
Magic | 30 | 30 |
Faith | 20 | 24 |
Luck | ** | ** |
Recommended equipment |
Note: This build is similar to Astrichthyes' LW Cleaver (SL127-142) as far as stat spread is concerned. The concept of this build is slightly different. I'd encourage you to rate up his build if you like this one as well, since his was quite the inspiration. Another Note: Pay no attention to my other MC build pages, as this has a more revised stat spread. EquipmentRight Hand Primary:
Right Hand Secondary:
Left Hand Primary:
Left Hand Secondary:
Rings - Body Form:NOTE: When playing in Body Form and fighting Phantoms, it is suggested and recommended that you do not wear any rings (excluding RoHS since it has no direct effect in battle). This is because BPs have no free ring slots (both slots are taken to equal you in power as a host). The ring setups below are for PvEing in Body Form.
Rings - Soul Form:
Armor - Males:
Armor - Females:
Consumables:
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Recommended spells/miracles |
Spells and MiraclesSpells:
Miracles:
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Gameplay tips and progression |
Gameplay StrategyHere I will provide you with some tips and strategies to acquire the Meat Cleaver ASAP and use it with efficiency. To make things simple, I will list step-by-step instructions on how I recommend playing through different levels: The Basics1. Complete Boletaria Palace (1-1). Rescue Prince Ariona Allant (Ostrava) as you will need him later on. Buy a Club from the Dregling Merchant. You will need it for later on. Cut the two chains you will encounter on the second staircase and get the Old Spice as well as the Jade Hair Ornament and Old Raggedy Robes. Dupe the Old Spice when you return to the Nexus if you plan on duping. Grab the Shards of Archstone that you will find on the side-path near the dragon's nest. To make things easier with Phalanx, grab the 4 Turpentine you'll find after pulling the lever to open Phalanx's room and turning left. 2. If you've started the game online, you may be able to raid the dragon's nest (sometimes I will still do it while they are there, trying to incinerate me.) The two items that will be of top priority to grab if the dragons are still there will be Purple Flame Shield and Ring of Great Strength. Obtaining these items is optional. Return to the Nexus and invest all the Souls you have accumulated into Strength. Cap this at 22 for now. 3. If your World Tendency is at Pure White and you have started the game as a female (I'd recommend it because your final armor is easily obtainable) then return to 1-1 after having defeated Phalanx. The gate on your left when spawning from Boletaria Palace Archstone should be open. Be wary of the Black Phantom Dreglings, as with your low Vitality, they can be lethal in swarms. Try to get them to spawn one by one. After you've cleared them out, draw out Executioner Miralda from her lair. Simply Powerpush her down her own pit, and reload your game. Her Armor and Ring should be in a little flame at her spawning point. Grab this and wear as much as you can, making sure that you can still roll quickly. 4. Begin 1-2, rescue Prince Ostrava and receive his gift of Dark Moon Grass. If you are planning on duping, dupe this once you've completed 1-2. In the middle of the first section of the Lord's Path you will find a Winged Spear. Grab this and block the Red Dragon's flames with your Purple Flame Shield, and you will survive. Now continue running. On your way, get the Wooden Catalyst on the second tower; you will need this for later on (you'll be using it frequently in the mean time as well). 5. If you'd like to, you may Soul Farm at this point using the Tower Knight Archstone as a spawning point, killing the two Blue-eye Knights for around 450 Souls each. Using these souls, buy a Claymore from the Dregling Merchant in 1-2. This will help you with boss fights in the next world as opposed to using the Winged Spear. 6. If you have souls left over (or why not farm some more?) use them to learn the Spell Enchant Weapon from that grumpy annoying magician in the Nexus. This will have immense effectiveness on the enemies you will encounter in your next level. 7. Forge on to Stonefang Tunnel. Farm the first Crystal Lizard that you encounter. This will be enough ore to either upgrade your PFS, Claymore or Winged Spear depending on what type of stone you received. DO NOT upgrade Claymore to higher than +3. 8. Complete Stonefang Tunnel (this should be a complete breeze with Winged Spear, PFS and Enchant Weapon). Make sure to activate the elevator that leads to Blacksmith Ed. 9. Go to 4-1 (you could actually do this before you do 2-1) and grab the Crescent Falchion+1 guarded by the [http://demonssouls.wikidot.com/black-skeleton Black Katana 10. 2-2 up next. Flamelurker will be the easiest boss you can imagine if you are nimble, have your PFS upgraded to at least +2 (I would avoid investing many stones into this as it will serve you little good after this level.) Make sure to enchant your Claymore if you decide to use this instead of the Crescent Falchion+1. 11. You should have quite a decent amount of Souls accumulated at this point. Split them into Vitality, Endurance, and Dexterity, with most invested into Endurance. Stamina is your most valued asset. 12. Now that you are well-prepared, head off to 4-1. You might as well throw away your Winged Spear. Use your Claymore, Crescent Falchion, and PFS here. Grab the Adjudicator's Shield along the way. It will be guarded by a second Black Katana Skeleton. Adjudicator itself is quite an easy boss to defeat. Simply drop down to the bottom floor as you enter the room, and circle him in a counterclockwise dircetion, attacking before he turns and makes a squeaky noise. Collect his Swollen Demon's Soul. 13. Once you've returned to the Nexus, invest all of your Souls into Faith and Strength, or until you reach 26 Strength (depending on which variation you will be using) and 16 Faith. Soul Farm if you must. 14. Now that you have 26 Strength, 12 Dexterity, and 16 Faith, bring that Club that you bought from the Dregling Merchant to 2-1. Forge… the Meat Cleaver! Getting Ready For PvP1. Now that you've gotten your basic setup, there are two options that you have:
Should you decide to complete one of the above two options, the other should be done right after. 2. Defeat Storm King. Just grab Storm Ruler as quickly as possible, equip it, run into the eroded castle, and swing away at the Storm Beasts and Storm King. Collect your Pure Cloudstone and Storm Demon's Soul (you'll only need the Demon's Soul.) Upon returning to the Nexus, buy a Short Sword from Blacksmith Boldwin. Invest all spare Hardstone into crafting a Short Sword+8 and then Morion Blade. 3. In defeating Storm King, you've essentially completed two tasks in one motion: forging Morion Blade and unlocking the large door used to advance from the Tower Knight boss room. Complete 1-3, making sure to go back and rescuing Biorr and Yuria along the way. When coming across the second Fat Official near the gate, open it and rescue Ostrava once more. Beware, there are formidable foes that he is dealing with. The best way to deal with the Red-Eye Knights is to Backstab them while they're distracted by Ostrava. Then talk to him to collect your Pure Clearstone. I recommend duping all types of Clearstone for this build. This level like all others in World 1 is pure Physical and Fire Damage. Consider investing points into Dexterity and Vitality. When fighting Penetrator, try not to swing your Meat Cleaver wildly when Biorr and Penetrator are in close combat - you might turn Biorr into an enemy. 4. Here is where things get drawn out. You're going to have to complete all of World 3, Tower of Latria. Your goal is to obtain Yellow Demon's Soul, so getting a friend to dupe it for you will make things a lot simpler for you. In this case, the only goal you must fulfill in 3-1 will be to rescue Sage Freke. You'll need the Special Key found behind the Fool's Idol Dregling who begs you not to kill him (KILL HIM). Might as well beat Fool's Idol while you're at it. Not mandatory. 5. Upon returning to the Nexus, invest your Souls into Intelligence until you reach 15. Now go to Sage Freke and use Penetrator Demon's Soul to Learn and Memorize Light Weapon. 6. Forge the Insanity Catalyst from your Wooden Catalyst using Yellow Demon's Soul. Forge your Claymore into a Quality Claymore+5. You now have your basic PvP setup: RH1 - Meat Cleaver RH2 - Quality Claymore+5 LH1 - Talisman of Beasts/ Insanity Catalyst LH2 - Morion Blade. Acquire and Upgrade all other recommended equipment in whatever order you'd like. What Happens When I Fight That Guy…?Here, I will address the advantages and disadvantages that this build possesses against other builds and how I have discovered is the best way to cope with both your strengths and weaknesses. Blueblood Sword BuildsA tricky match-up for most others, the BBS has quite a surprising reach. Outreach them. Though you are slower, you can return their Stunlock while dealing more damage per swing. Stay nimble and do not let your Stamina run low in a fight with these guys especially. Your Groundpound can be especially helpful to offset their pattern. Bait them and fish for Ripostes. Faith BuildsTheir high Magic Defense provides a solid barrier against Light Weapon. Try using one of your faster weapons on these guys, such as your Claymore or Midran Hammer. If they pull out a Great Axe, go with Meat Cleaver and strike when you know that you have the opportunity to outreach. Mage BuildsThese prove much easier to defeat than others. Light Weapon is especially effective due to their low Magic Defense, and your substantial amount of Faith is efficient in keeping you alive longer against their Spells. Be sure to equip Dark Silver Shield+5. Compliment the Meat Cleaver with Knight Sword perhaps, to actually be able to block/strike effectively with DSS. Dexterity Builds
Strength Builds
Now Why Those Stats?The various stats provided will be explained here. VitalityThis should be a given as 45 Vitality provides you with the standard amount for PvP. Intelligence15 Intelligence provides you with 100 MP, needed to cast Second Chance and Light Weapon using Insanity Catalyst (it halves MP). Endurance40 Endurance is like 45 Vitality: standard for PvP. This caps Stamina, gives you your fair share of Equipment weight, and provides better defenses against Plague and Poison. It is possible to lower this to 38 or even 35 if you think that you can handle the low Stamina. Dump the extra SLs into Strength - it will give you the biggest bang for your buck. Strength26 Strength allows you to one-hand the MC, which might not seem useful at first. However, the real gain here is the ability to Riposte consistently (as opposed to inconsistently trying to switch to two hands before Riposting.) DR hardly even kicks in anyways, and investing the 6 extra points into any other damage stat would only increase your AR by ~5. DexterityDexterity is capped at 30, because after that the gains you receive from it are lesser than the gains from Faith or Magic. MagicLight Weapon scales with this stat obviously, but DR (Diminishing Returns) kicks in after 30 in punishing amounts. I would not recommend raising this past 30. FaithThe higher the base Magic Damage of your weapon, the more powerful Light Weapon will be. This is what makes Blueblood Sword users so deadly. Meat Cleaver has an "A" rank in scaling with Faith, which increases its Magic Damage in return. Faith encounters DR around 20, but invest 4 SLs and get it to 24 (just enough for the extra miracle slot). LuckThis stat should never be raised on any build with the exception of the BBS. If you haven't realized, this is not a BBS build. Pros and ConsPros:
Cons:
Well, thanks for wasting the last fifteen minutes of your time reading this. Hope some of you people out there enjoy the Meat Cleaver as much as I do. |
Light Weapon Meat Cleaver Build
Instead of 20 fth, bring it down to 16 and add to str. You only gain 2AR per point until you're between 20 and 30 for fth, whereas you gain 3-5AR per point from str. NR is your best backup by far, moon weapons coming at a close second.
K, I'll add that… It would bring LW Damage down since MC will have a smaller amount of built-in Magic Damage, but the AR gains from Str would outweigh that I suppose. Personally, if I were to put the extra 4 points from Faith somewhere else, it would be End and Vit, mostly End.
NR is the beat backup if you're good with the moveset, but my personal preference is Hiltless and Stormruler, since Hiltless can be buffed and only falls short of a Dex build's by ~35 AR. Stormruler because it gives you just about an instant rebuff so that you don't even need a secondary fighting weapon. Overall though, NR is probably the best choice, just not my personal favorite. :P
EDIT: you gain 2-5AR from str. My 125 version of the build has 671 AR buffed and (I believe) 427 unbuffed. It might be cool to also mention that a bbs only has ~330-340 unbuffed (<250dmg/hit) and 570-580 buffed :) the mc can deal anywhere from 350-600/hit unbuffed plus the added benefit of hyperarmor, godly range, and 1%hp regen/hit. The riposte is deadly too and almost guarantees an ohko, whereas the bbs may only deal 600 damage unbuffed.
I know this variant has 690 buffed AR, not sure about the unbuffed AR. Ripostes are fun with MC on this build. xD I've never hit an unbuffed riposte though… Does it normally ohko?
Am I late to the party:)? Good build. Another possibility-SL135 phantom red stone duels. Meat Cleaver build with sharp or fatal estoc as backup:Strong physical damage, especially stacked with foes, PBCT using curse. Crushing MC build using pure and utter physical damage.
Temple Knight starting class.
Vit-50
Endurance-40(can shave few points, if you want to make it a SL 128-30 build and good at keeping track of endurance)
Dex-50(can take few points if you want to take it even further down towards the 125 arena.
Strength-30
Intell-18
Faith-16
Mag-Default
Luck-Default
"We are the dreamers, we are the dreamers of our dreams"
-Wonka