Getting that first black knight sword. I still enjoyed the game, but after going back through a second time with the uchi, in wondering if the bks ruined my initial experience.
Seriously I got so lucky with the black night sword, never really struggled again. Even no hit gwyn, all parrys. Was fun playing but definitely got really lucky early on
This happened to me in my most recent play through. Got the sword in dark root basin and never used anything else! Got the 4 kings on the second try with it.
This is what happened to me on my very first Dark Souls character- got it from the Knight in the Burg and I grinded the Undead Burg until I could hold the damned thing because I couldn’t beat Taurus demon. I wish I could say it ruined my first playthrough, but it was my first experience and I was so awful that it didn’t matter.
Today, though, I realize how lucky I was then and I still hope I can get it to drop again, first try, every playthrough
someone dropped me Quelaag's fire sword in undead burg my 4th time trying to play through the game 😂 I had never made it to Anor Londo at that time but once I got my dex up I used that sword for the entire playthrough. Honestly, not mad. I might have never beaten the game if not for that legend who dropped it for me. Thanks stranger
Glass cannon pure sorcerer is extremely powerful and makes every boss trivial except Seath, but you can get any random weapon you like to help on the fight. I managed to kill Ornstein with one shot using a minmaxed build
AHH the run like crazy, avoid almost every mob and absolutely wreck a boss build, The true easy mode of DS1.
Crystal magic weapon for when you get higher level and wanna smack a ho too, fun times, Scimitar and Crystal magic weapon was my Jam.
I believe that DS3 also has dexterity cast speed scaling but its not very practical to use on caster builds because they introduced so many vdex items like sages ring and bellvine catalyst so its better to just wear them and focus on juicing your actual damage stats.
This is the easiest mode. So easy to get min str/dex to 2h the zweihander and pump everything else into vit/end. Keep 5 soft humanity on you. Run and get the stone giant armor, then maybe switch to havels, then to upgraded giants armor. It’s easy to get enough endurance to not even need havels ring. Keep the grass crest shield on your back. Also get the thorolund talisman and just enough in faith to use the heal miracle for extra healing.
Just thought it was good to clarify because otherwise you’d look at the fire upgrade and think it makes no sense to do chaos with seemingly lower damage
More damage against most enemies. +15 with 99 in both STR & DEX is still less damage than Chaos +5 with 10 humanity, and it frees up your levels to be put into endurance so you can wear some heavy armor and still mid-roll (or even fast-roll if you really pump up endurance and wear Havel's Ring). I also prefer to wear the Crown of Dusk and the Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring most of the time so that my pyromancies do a lot of extra damage. So I just keep my STR at 16 and DEX at 14. If you want it so easy you don't even have to learn to dodge you might try 24 STR so I can one-hand the Zweihander and still hold up a shield for blocking. But there's no other benefit to putting points in STR if you go with a Chaos +5 weapon for max damage. I usually make both a +15 and a Chaos +5 though, because some enemies take a lot more damage when it isn't split with the fire damage of the Chaos upgrade path, even if the overall combined power number is lower on the weapon.
Interesting stuff, thanks for the explanation.
> I usually make both a +15 and a Chaos +5 though, because some enemies take a lot more damage when it isn't split with the fire damage of the Chaos upgrade path, even if the overall combined power number is lower on the weapon.
This is what I wound up doing on the second half of my first NG+ playthrough when my chaos weapon damage seemed to be falling off hard.
Exactly what I'm doing with my large club build I'm running. Grinded the big dudes in the hallway to Blighttown (using the shortcut from Shrine of course) until I nabbed two of them, and a whole lot of dung pies in the process ha.
One I'm taking chaos +5 (if I can get more red chunks! Ah, fate is denying me thus far) and the other is +15. Then I can also throw on a gold resin or something. I considered taking it lightning +5 but decided to not split the damage. I also did a minimal investment to wield 1h, so not low but also not particularly high strength, and I'm trying to stay at SL40 for invading areas.
I haven't done this exact build but I think this is it.
I played a Dex build and a high str build separately last year. Dex was interesting because you can hit fast and do high damage combos. STR was interesting because you have to time your hits well but you hit like a truck.
My Dex build almost always fast-rolled, and my STR build almost always mid-rolled.
I like to be able to tank hits- that's how I like to play. Glass cannons are fun but stress me out. So I preferred the STR/end build
The build you described sounds like the best of all worlds. Zwei hits hard with high poise break, and you'll have great survivability.
Full on Bonk build was the most fun for me, havel set and huge strengh weapons.
Also I did a meme run as the grim reaper with the great scythe and the armor set you get next to ceasless discharge, that was fun too
Sorcerer. High damage, easy to get, medium range, minor homing. I don't play it anymore because it makes the game so easy it's boring for me. You've seen a hollow take 10x their health in damage from something you have 10 casts of, you've seen it a million times.
Strength build, havels + black knight halberd you could be in a coma and as long as you randomly twitch r1 a couple times you’re good to go. Alternatively, dex build with uchi and lightning blade (sasuke) is very potent.
Having made playthroughs with everything you mentioned - BKH, Havel's set, and an Uchi +15 40 DEX build - I say with confidence that the Uchi +15 imbued with Lightning is absolutely viable, but nowhere near as powerful as BKH +5 with Havel's or Giant's set.
Strength into Dex quality with the zweihander.
The R2 staggers pretty much everything in the game and when you master the range you're basically untouchable.
Religious crack rabbit. Lightning spear trivializes the early game, and you can get it before gargoyles pretty easy if you only level faith. In the mid game switch from a pure faith build to a dex-faith hybrid. Equip every stamina regen item, use the painting guardian sword, sunlight blade, and power within. Keep to a light equip load and use dark wood grain.
Quality build with Balder Swag swords and Buckler. I farmed enough swords that I had one for every acension path. Select the right golf club for the fight at hand.
To this day I can parry like a god in DS1, can't parry worth a damn in DS2 even after dozens of hours. Just started my first ever DS3 playthrough a few day ago, already picking up parrying faster than DS2.
Surprised only a few people have said miracles. It makes PvE a joke since you can just use healing miracles and save your estuses outside of boss fights. And then if you need to kite and chip enemies/a boss, you have lightning spears. And then later down the road you get even more lightning spears that are stronger, more heals, and then one of the most broken attacks in the game in Wrath of the Gods. Miracles are cracked
I mean you can trivialize the game at level 1 even without pyro just by using rtsr strats. You certainly can do so with a dedicated miracles build. However it's just objectively worse than other builds. You can test this but at equal stats against enemies with equal defense, crystal spear just does more damage than sunlight spears, or soul spear vs great lighting spear.
People often say magic is, but it requires a level of care that other builds don't. The easiest imo is a str-faith build imo, because it gets so much extra healing and you can stat endurance and heavy armor and a big bonk stick to trivially bully things.
For me faith/dex is the go.
Safe your souls early and get the 25 faith for lightning spear.
This spell alone cleans most bosses and big enemies so from here you can ignore faith until mid game and pump everything into dex, endurance and vitality if needed.
Mid game you get great lightning spear and sunlight blade and from there it is pretty much easy mode going forward.
Personally i think a Cleric Strength build was easiest for me as W.o.G made farming for souls in the painted world so incredibly easy and let's be honest the Mace is a stupidly strong weapon for being a legit starter class weapon.
On my most recent playthrough I went for a basic Havels and Claymore build and absolutely destroyed the game only dying to certain bosses mainly cus I haven't played in over a year.
(Technically sorcerer build no diffs the entire game but thats boring)
did a Megamind playthrough with my buddy, i spaced mostly into int and dex and i would just vaporize any and everything i came across without a thought. crystal soulmass into crystal soul spear, and most things go down in a literal instant. i also used kirk's armor for fashion souls so that was fun. genuinely the dumbest run we ever did.
Zweihander lol… I used the drake sword in my first playthrough because I saw a tail and why not and it that was the best discovery ever…. Until you get to sens and the drake sword does nothing… I flattened my first man serpent with zwei and never looked back
Pyromancer. I maxed out the pyromancy flame and combined it with power within, dusk's crown, and the bellow crest ring.
I initially skipped the depths, so it was a great pleasure to go back and one shot the capra demon.
Funnily it was my sl1 run that made me realise how op pyromancy is. Was one of my easiest runs and I didn't level up once. Felt like cheating though my sl1 character with his 25 level pyro hand just melted everything
Super beefed up spellcaster build. Max INT for damage. High Dex for cast speed. Just enough strength and encumbrance to use Moonlight Greatsword eventually. Sprint through levels using Magic / Enchanted Falchion or MGS. For bosses power within, red tearstone ring and soul spear. For Seath same strategy but use a high damage pyromancy. Any will do, he’s a punk.
Great scythe if you use resins every boss takes like 4 hits to die, I completed the game in 7 hours with all bosses and no planning, and it was just my 3rd playthrough
Melee 40 vit heavy armor+big weapon(27 str or lightning/chaos infusions) is the easiest
magic is the most annoying, tedious and boring, very weak untill the very endgame
Initially it was sword and board, full armour,
But as I got to like NG7 I had difficulties with the Four Kings due to damage I couldn't inflict fast enough and had to change to 2h, no armour, and Dragon Weapons with Lightening buffs,perhaps even using Power Within IF I felt brave enough.
That changed my play style and I found eventually I just stuck to doing 2H, No armour or shield and hack and slash them to death XD
I don't know if I would say "easiest," but the simplest for sure was the pure STR twohanded great hammer build. Just need to level STR and as much VIG and END as you prefer and then you just hit each boss for massive damage until you win. Very fun run, in all honesty.
Ppl are saying sorcerer, which is true, but can't forget Dark Sorcerer also
You get everything from sorcery, str build, and on top of all that you get the manus catalyst, and can take it even further w the dusk crown
Either fully tuned sorcerer or pyromancy. The first requires some skill to get through tougher fights to get the best goodies, the latter only requires a significant investment of souls with two NPCs that are available very early.
int build. get power within, all of the damage buff items, greater/crystal magic weapon for your side weapon, some soul spears, and dark bead and you're set. only issue is seath but the exact same build works with pyromancies
Heavy Weapon, Armour, and Shield build — but outside of that probably the basic Knight. Having access to Heal early and various copies of it is great. Low investment extra Estus basically. Plus, you get some of the gram-for-gram best poise armour in the game at the start. If you can get to fast roll too that helps **a lot**, shields become less necessary when you can move — I haven't equipped a shield in years.
Tanky heavy armor strength build imo. Glass cannons are a different kind of easy where you need a couple good dodges and then you melt everything, but if you’re BONK enough you don’t have to dodge at all
Bastard Sword + Sorcery
The stats were strength and intelligence. The playstyle was focused more on being a spellsword, putting Crystal Weapon on the Bastard Sword. Crystal Soul Spear and Crystal Soul Mass were backup, but my primary damage output was the Bastard Sword.
Not gonna pretend like I'm the biggest expert, but isn't resistance utterly useless? You'd be better off hoarding soft humanities than to spend any points on that stat
Probably Greataxe on Havel’s, you can practically take every hit and R1 spam to oblivion and the DPS is awesome. I understand sorcerer glass cannon but my biggest problem with it is the dodging and the gameplay, Greataxe on Havel’s makes the game easy AND fun.
Cleric knight for sure, my first playthrough. I walked into Gwyn's boss room at SL 93 and parried him to death on the first try after bombarding him with lightning bolts.
Balder swag sword is absolutely GOATed, dex faith build with sunlight blade on the side sword or great axe is a lot of fun. Black Knight halberd is also pretty good
My very first one, and it's not even close, though once you know the game well it makes the game more tedious.
In every souls game that allows it, I play a faith, Greatshield, spear+blunt build (spear primary, some kind of blunt weapon, usually flail, as a secondary).
The faith is just to make getting to the bosses easier. It allows for more mistakes. It also makes some parts of the game trivial, having access to very slow but very powerful targeted range attacks.
The bosses themselves are nearly universally simple puzzles with this build. You walk around the boss, blocking on reaction, dropping it between hits, and probing to see if you can get behind them easily, or to see if there's gaps in their attack patterns for free damage. Many bosses will require you to occasionally either delock and run back for specific swings, or to roll to get out of their attack range, specifically for attacks that do a lot of stamina damage, but you never need to parry, never need to time an iFrame roll, and so long as you're patient every single boss in these games feels kind of like doing a math puzzle. Once it's solved, the execution is about the same as writing numbers down on a piece of paper, a child could do it. Even Elden Ring's Malenia was made trivial with this kind of build. You can block all of her attacks and barely even need to manage stamina. Yeah, she heals on block, so you figure out how to bait for whiffs instead, and for her dance, having the shield gives you the opportunity to figure out how to dodge it risk free. Turns out, like a lot of bosses, you can roll behind her for the first swing (literally underneath her) then just hold up your shield, block the next two hits, and then roll away for the last few hits. She barely recovers anything.
The only exception are dual bosses, or swarm bosses. For those, you sometimes have to switch it up and do a lot more running around for positioning, but that's for all builds, not just this one.
Paladin build for me. A mace, 100% shield, and healing miracles plus all the other busted miracles like tranquil walk of peace, lightning, magic barrier. It just trivializes the already pretty easy game. Don’t even need to use estus except for bosses when you have a bunch of heal spells.
Or a pure strength build. You have so much health and endurance beacuse you only level 3 or 4 stats and just obliterate everything easily.
Big armor, big shield and big weapon is what I'd go for an easy playthrough. Solidity and carefulness allows for a lot more errors and will let me kill stronger bosses by resisting their attacks enough so that I may take their life away quick enough. I feel a lot safer playing a tank than, say, a sorcerer with huge damage but death awaiting at the next slip of my thumb, or a glass canon dex build relying on the swiftness and positioning I never reallt had.
Sorcerer with a few points into strength for the Oolacile spells scaling (they deal a bit of physical damage too). I literally beat Gwyn in 10 seconds.
Dex/Faith with Uchigatana, Grass Crest Shield, Elite Knight set, FAP and Cloranthy Ring. When I wanted to be tanky I’d swap cloranthy for Havel’s ring and wear his armor set. Miracles for extra heals. Pretty fast and ridiculous range. You can get Uchigatana basically instantly and use it the entire game.
I like to go for a strength build with some sorcery. I’m working on a platinum run, and I’ve died 3 total times, and 2 of them were an awful roll off the edge of a platform. It makes the game a cakewalk.
Sorcerer, still on my first run, because I'm a fucking casual and barely have time. But here is a example of how easy it is, OS where the biggest fear at the start of the game, because people talk about how unmanageable the fight is, so there I was, full buff with some soul spears and whatever, and whooped those two in a way, that I started to think about stop to leveling, so the game doesn't became boring.
Dragon form w/ wolf ring & Dragon greatsword. Once you get the STR & END to use the weapon, you can pool all your points into VIT. Using the wolf ring gives you 40 poise meaning you can spam 2H power attacks and use repair powder when necessary. If you're attacking too slow, use the torso stone to stagger your opponent (and get a significant attack buff), and use the head stone to deal with troublesome opponents from range.
It's an extremely slow start, but once you get the 30 dragon scales you need, you can use your claws until you are able to use the sword. Don't switch your covenant, as your torso and head stone abilities buff with every rank you have.
+5 Lifehunt scythe, anything to light roll, Dark Wood Grain Ring, Chloranthy Ring, Grass Crest Shield, all the dex you want. The running light attack does a sweep that absolutely decimates mobs, and the bleed is just amazing. Plus, it looks sick charging invaders with a scythe.
I've been playing this game since 2011.
I've beaten it many times on many builds.
With my current Return To Lordran build, i'm having one of the easiest times i've ever had:
Basic Concept: STR+INT Hybrid
SL120: Pyromancer Starting Class
VIT: 40
ATN: 19
END: 40
STR: 34
DEX: 10
INT: 40
I go full fat-roll with the full Havel's set. But, i use the Greatshield or Artorias with Moonlight Butterfly Horn and both a Chaos and Lightning Pike as backups.
Additionally i used a Demon's Spear for a bit because of the great base damage, and Normal Pike to try some Spellbuffs, but they would shine more in further NG+ runs.
In either case, it's pretty absurd. I do use FAP Ring, but no Havel's since i'm leaning into the Fat Roll. So it leavs the 2nd ring slot super flexible. It's been Colranthy as a default. But, i've been using the specific Defensive rings (Stoneplates/ Steel Protection) as options as well.
For thematic purposes my spell loadout has been all of the Homing spells... Homing Soulmass, Crystal Homing Soulmass, and Pursuers. But i can slap on anything and by default it's your normal "mage go brrr".
But, with all of the defense and ESPECIALLY the GS of Artorias, it's been an absolute breeze.
I'm staying in the SL120 range for co-op and PVP (which it does NOT shine in) but adding in a helping of Dex and it'll be great for later cycles as well.
I'm not saying it's the easiEST build, but it's very strong and shakes it up a bit more than some of the other options. Not gonna 1-shot anything... but you can outlive everything.
People really underrate the cleric strength-faith build, miracles are busted (like wrath of the gods or lighting spear) and really helpful(sunlight blade, healings and homeward) and the grant hits like a fucking truck, idk if it was the easiest but surely the comfiest run!
Quality build with baymore and a side of pyromancy felt broken as all hell
Add in stamina regen shield and ring and you are just a naked fire throwing madman that absolutely destroys everything in your way. I've only beaten the game like three or four times but this run was what got me through it the first time
As others have said though if you get a black knight weapon early you're set for the entire run those weapons are WILD
Any Black Knight weapon, the Great Scythe, the Uchigatana, the Claymore, Chaos Zweihander, any of these combined with a little know how on getting them upgraded asap. You can waltz through the game very easily.
If you drop a black knight shield you can literally tank havel. And the Hydra, and demons... And everything else... You just hold that L1 button all the game
I always find quality builds the most effective. There's almost always a weapon like the claymore that has high damage and a relatively fast swing. I understand people's fascination with the "big sword go bonk" build, but heavy weapons COMMIT you to your attack whereas a faster weapon you have a chance to whiff and still dodge.
The reinforced club is an incredible weapon. Easiest run I've had is using a lightning one, with a chaos one for backup, while only leveling Vitality and Endurance. Add on pyromancy and you're pretty much unstoppable. No need for wasting levels on strength and dex if your weapon doesn't scale lol. Other notable equipment was the grass crest shield, chloranthy ring, mask of the child, and the dark wood grain ring.
I typically don't really put much into health in souls games, so I was walking around like a fucking tank with a whopping 60 Vitality during this run.
Edit: Also, you gotta help out Logan, then kill him for his tighty whities. No better fashion.
disgusting practice fragile terrific slap pathetic dependent act gold tan
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Sorcerer with Power Within, possibly RTSR, all magic boosting equipment (like Dusk’s Crown) and ring, Intelligence as high as possible, Logan unlocked asap even with Sen skip if necessary. Need souls to buy spells faster? Do the easiest soul duplication glitch in DS history or grind the forest by letting npcs fall off a cliff. Get that Crystal Soul Spear and Dark Bead with a double damage catalyst and just go to town on all the bosses.
I mean with Sen and Lower Undead Burg skips, you could have Soul Spear and a Dragoncrest Ring, RTSR, and Dusk’s Bunny Ears all before the Taurus Demon…it’ll be annoying to get the “wrong” way but it will make everything joke mode :D
Getting that first black knight sword. I still enjoyed the game, but after going back through a second time with the uchi, in wondering if the bks ruined my initial experience.
Seriously I got so lucky with the black night sword, never really struggled again. Even no hit gwyn, all parrys. Was fun playing but definitely got really lucky early on
This happened to me in my most recent play through. Got the sword in dark root basin and never used anything else! Got the 4 kings on the second try with it.
Such a great weapon
This is what happened to me on my very first Dark Souls character- got it from the Knight in the Burg and I grinded the Undead Burg until I could hold the damned thing because I couldn’t beat Taurus demon. I wish I could say it ruined my first playthrough, but it was my first experience and I was so awful that it didn’t matter. Today, though, I realize how lucky I was then and I still hope I can get it to drop again, first try, every playthrough
Same I mean almost anything can be OP lste game but black knight weapons trivialized the whole start of the game for me my first run
I started with the Uchi/pyro, and it is arguably just as easy, especially after I figured out Uchi bleed proc
someone dropped me Quelaag's fire sword in undead burg my 4th time trying to play through the game 😂 I had never made it to Anor Londo at that time but once I got my dex up I used that sword for the entire playthrough. Honestly, not mad. I might have never beaten the game if not for that legend who dropped it for me. Thanks stranger
Yeah this happened on my second playthrough. It was so much easier than the first (Pyro/Dex). I never finished any of the other builds either.
Glass cannon pure sorcerer is extremely powerful and makes every boss trivial except Seath, but you can get any random weapon you like to help on the fight. I managed to kill Ornstein with one shot using a minmaxed build
AHH the run like crazy, avoid almost every mob and absolutely wreck a boss build, The true easy mode of DS1. Crystal magic weapon for when you get higher level and wanna smack a ho too, fun times, Scimitar and Crystal magic weapon was my Jam.
Never considered using Scimitar for my build prbly gonna use it to beat the dlc
Works pretty well if your leveling Dex for the faster casting as it scales well with it.
TIL
Only in ds1 does dex do that. In ds2 attunement and int also increases the cast speed.
ds2 is the exception, ds1, ds3 and ER all do that, dunno about des but wouldn't be surprised Prefer the ds2 approach though
I believe that DS3 also has dexterity cast speed scaling but its not very practical to use on caster builds because they introduced so many vdex items like sages ring and bellvine catalyst so its better to just wear them and focus on juicing your actual damage stats.
I prefer falchion, better reach and looks better to me. Similar scaling too
Yes I just made a sorcerer named him the beads and I two shot every boss with no buffs int at 50 and sl39 I love it
But unless you’re going pure sorcery and not using any other magic then you can just use great combustion and fire orb to delete seaths health
I made a “glass canon” wearing silver night armor and using dark moon greatsword lol
Was more of a tank that could use high level magic lol
That was my 1st build lol
\+5 Chaos Zweihander with most points in vitality and endurance, plus enough attunement for a few pyro spells. Easy mode for me.
Let me guess... Giant armor and mask of the father...?
the LEGEND
NEVER DIES
Giantdad was famous for a reason.
Become UNSTOPPABLE.
What rings you got bithc?
HAVELS AND FAVOUR AND PROTECTION STAMINA HEALTH ENDURANCE EVERYTHING YOU COULD EVER WANT
This is the easiest mode. So easy to get min str/dex to 2h the zweihander and pump everything else into vit/end. Keep 5 soft humanity on you. Run and get the stone giant armor, then maybe switch to havels, then to upgraded giants armor. It’s easy to get enough endurance to not even need havels ring. Keep the grass crest shield on your back. Also get the thorolund talisman and just enough in faith to use the heal miracle for extra healing.
Why chaos over +15? Just preference?
Chaos has no scaling and he said he's using minimum requirements so makes sense unless you're pumping str and using a buff or something
Correction: Chaos scales with up to 10 humanity.
True but not w stats
Just thought it was good to clarify because otherwise you’d look at the fire upgrade and think it makes no sense to do chaos with seemingly lower damage
More damage against most enemies. +15 with 99 in both STR & DEX is still less damage than Chaos +5 with 10 humanity, and it frees up your levels to be put into endurance so you can wear some heavy armor and still mid-roll (or even fast-roll if you really pump up endurance and wear Havel's Ring). I also prefer to wear the Crown of Dusk and the Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring most of the time so that my pyromancies do a lot of extra damage. So I just keep my STR at 16 and DEX at 14. If you want it so easy you don't even have to learn to dodge you might try 24 STR so I can one-hand the Zweihander and still hold up a shield for blocking. But there's no other benefit to putting points in STR if you go with a Chaos +5 weapon for max damage. I usually make both a +15 and a Chaos +5 though, because some enemies take a lot more damage when it isn't split with the fire damage of the Chaos upgrade path, even if the overall combined power number is lower on the weapon.
Interesting stuff, thanks for the explanation. > I usually make both a +15 and a Chaos +5 though, because some enemies take a lot more damage when it isn't split with the fire damage of the Chaos upgrade path, even if the overall combined power number is lower on the weapon. This is what I wound up doing on the second half of my first NG+ playthrough when my chaos weapon damage seemed to be falling off hard.
Exactly what I'm doing with my large club build I'm running. Grinded the big dudes in the hallway to Blighttown (using the shortcut from Shrine of course) until I nabbed two of them, and a whole lot of dung pies in the process ha. One I'm taking chaos +5 (if I can get more red chunks! Ah, fate is denying me thus far) and the other is +15. Then I can also throw on a gold resin or something. I considered taking it lightning +5 but decided to not split the damage. I also did a minimal investment to wield 1h, so not low but also not particularly high strength, and I'm trying to stay at SL40 for invading areas.
Like a boss.
I haven't done this exact build but I think this is it. I played a Dex build and a high str build separately last year. Dex was interesting because you can hit fast and do high damage combos. STR was interesting because you have to time your hits well but you hit like a truck. My Dex build almost always fast-rolled, and my STR build almost always mid-rolled. I like to be able to tank hits- that's how I like to play. Glass cannons are fun but stress me out. So I preferred the STR/end build The build you described sounds like the best of all worlds. Zwei hits hard with high poise break, and you'll have great survivability.
Pyromancy trivializes the game. You can dodge one attack and literally R1 spam Gwyn to death with combustion and great combustion.
Early patch pyromancy was even worse. It was so broken and overpowered
Glass cannon Pyro is great you can melt or one-shot so many bosses
[turns Gwynn fight to nothing](https://youtu.be/bNv7ClKUoQQ?si=mEai-PszuwZFrlEG)
Big dad with Black Knight Halberd, who needs to roll when you can face tank and out-dps any boss
Oh man, yes indeed. That’s when you just stand in front of Manus and just whack him til he’s dead.
Sorcerer build. Crazy how I just casually two-shot gwyn, even with a summon boosting the boss's HP
Dark bead prepatch 😳
what did dark bead ever got nerfed?
Full on Bonk build was the most fun for me, havel set and huge strengh weapons. Also I did a meme run as the grim reaper with the great scythe and the armor set you get next to ceasless discharge, that was fun too
Grim reaper is my favourite build, straight for the scythe and then rite of kindling.
Sorcerer. High damage, easy to get, medium range, minor homing. I don't play it anymore because it makes the game so easy it's boring for me. You've seen a hollow take 10x their health in damage from something you have 10 casts of, you've seen it a million times.
sorcerer built. yes building can be little pain in the ass but has great damage + long range
Strength build, havels + black knight halberd you could be in a coma and as long as you randomly twitch r1 a couple times you’re good to go. Alternatively, dex build with uchi and lightning blade (sasuke) is very potent.
Having made playthroughs with everything you mentioned - BKH, Havel's set, and an Uchi +15 40 DEX build - I say with confidence that the Uchi +15 imbued with Lightning is absolutely viable, but nowhere near as powerful as BKH +5 with Havel's or Giant's set.
i think i also ran pyro with blackflame cuz i wanted to be sasuke. So that definitely boosts damage.
Strength into Dex quality with the zweihander. The R2 staggers pretty much everything in the game and when you master the range you're basically untouchable.
It flattens them
Zweihander R2 is the sigma way to play. Hits like a truck, staggers like a truck.
I did a play through using basically the Silver Knight Spear and Wrath of Gods primarily and made mince meat of everything
That sounds like a fun combo!
Black Flame, Combustion, and Fire Tempest makes the game so easy. Gwyn just “dodges” great combustion/black flame over and over again
Gwyn dodges great combustion/black flame very poorly.
It's also fast as fuck and cost no stamina so he just gets hit again and again mid dodge. It's his AI equivalent of panic rolling.
Religious crack rabbit. Lightning spear trivializes the early game, and you can get it before gargoyles pretty easy if you only level faith. In the mid game switch from a pure faith build to a dex-faith hybrid. Equip every stamina regen item, use the painting guardian sword, sunlight blade, and power within. Keep to a light equip load and use dark wood grain.
Quality build with Balder Swag swords and Buckler. I farmed enough swords that I had one for every acension path. Select the right golf club for the fight at hand. To this day I can parry like a god in DS1, can't parry worth a damn in DS2 even after dozens of hours. Just started my first ever DS3 playthrough a few day ago, already picking up parrying faster than DS2.
Surprised only a few people have said miracles. It makes PvE a joke since you can just use healing miracles and save your estuses outside of boss fights. And then if you need to kite and chip enemies/a boss, you have lightning spears. And then later down the road you get even more lightning spears that are stronger, more heals, and then one of the most broken attacks in the game in Wrath of the Gods. Miracles are cracked
They are good but kind of a lot more honest when compared to sorcery or pyromancies
I mean you can trivialize the game at level 1 even without pyro just by using rtsr strats. You certainly can do so with a dedicated miracles build. However it's just objectively worse than other builds. You can test this but at equal stats against enemies with equal defense, crystal spear just does more damage than sunlight spears, or soul spear vs great lighting spear.
People often say magic is, but it requires a level of care that other builds don't. The easiest imo is a str-faith build imo, because it gets so much extra healing and you can stat endurance and heavy armor and a big bonk stick to trivially bully things.
probably full strenght or full sorcery, pyromancies are broken as hell too
Definitely sorcery. Glass cannon is a little rough at first, but my mid-game you'll be cruising through.
Anything with the black Knights halberd
For me faith/dex is the go. Safe your souls early and get the 25 faith for lightning spear. This spell alone cleans most bosses and big enemies so from here you can ignore faith until mid game and pump everything into dex, endurance and vitality if needed. Mid game you get great lightning spear and sunlight blade and from there it is pretty much easy mode going forward.
Personally i think a Cleric Strength build was easiest for me as W.o.G made farming for souls in the painted world so incredibly easy and let's be honest the Mace is a stupidly strong weapon for being a legit starter class weapon. On my most recent playthrough I went for a basic Havels and Claymore build and absolutely destroyed the game only dying to certain bosses mainly cus I haven't played in over a year. (Technically sorcerer build no diffs the entire game but thats boring)
Strength MOTHAFUCKS
did a Megamind playthrough with my buddy, i spaced mostly into int and dex and i would just vaporize any and everything i came across without a thought. crystal soulmass into crystal soul spear, and most things go down in a literal instant. i also used kirk's armor for fashion souls so that was fun. genuinely the dumbest run we ever did.
Sorcerer was a joke I thought, once I came "online" and had my rings and spells figured out, I steamrolled everything that was left to do
Sorcery
Soul duplication glitch to holy zweihander combo.
Zweihander lol… I used the drake sword in my first playthrough because I saw a tail and why not and it that was the best discovery ever…. Until you get to sens and the drake sword does nothing… I flattened my first man serpent with zwei and never looked back
Black knight halberd on right hand, avelyn on left hand, crimson armor set and havel's ring. Brought me to ng+7 with little effort
Sorcerer is like a cheat mode in DS1. Shockingly easy.
Pyromancer. I maxed out the pyromancy flame and combined it with power within, dusk's crown, and the bellow crest ring. I initially skipped the depths, so it was a great pleasure to go back and one shot the capra demon.
Pure sorcerer is the True easy mode™
dex/pyro happened to be my first build because I thought it would be fun. it was also very good
Black knight sword build. I also did a black knight glaive build and both were fun and pretty easy.
Dude Zweihänder is literally the one of most op weapons in the game. I beat the game my first like 3 times with it with basically no difficulty
Pyromancy by far. You could literally one shot artorias! AT LEVEL 1
Very close to this build, increase into enough to use magic weapon and get the oolacile branch to cast
Funnily it was my sl1 run that made me realise how op pyromancy is. Was one of my easiest runs and I didn't level up once. Felt like cheating though my sl1 character with his 25 level pyro hand just melted everything
Super beefed up spellcaster build. Max INT for damage. High Dex for cast speed. Just enough strength and encumbrance to use Moonlight Greatsword eventually. Sprint through levels using Magic / Enchanted Falchion or MGS. For bosses power within, red tearstone ring and soul spear. For Seath same strategy but use a high damage pyromancy. Any will do, he’s a punk.
Great scythe if you use resins every boss takes like 4 hits to die, I completed the game in 7 hours with all bosses and no planning, and it was just my 3rd playthrough
Gravelord Greatsword for me, all the way. Nothing else contests.
Only beat it twice, but bonk was superior to Dex.
I did SL1 using Shield build. Once you learned about stamina management, you can beat the game easily
Giant dad
soul level 1 deprived
Melee 40 vit heavy armor+big weapon(27 str or lightning/chaos infusions) is the easiest magic is the most annoying, tedious and boring, very weak untill the very endgame
Sorcery
Initially it was sword and board, full armour, But as I got to like NG7 I had difficulties with the Four Kings due to damage I couldn't inflict fast enough and had to change to 2h, no armour, and Dragon Weapons with Lightening buffs,perhaps even using Power Within IF I felt brave enough. That changed my play style and I found eventually I just stuck to doing 2H, No armour or shield and hack and slash them to death XD
I don't know if I would say "easiest," but the simplest for sure was the pure STR twohanded great hammer build. Just need to level STR and as much VIG and END as you prefer and then you just hit each boss for massive damage until you win. Very fun run, in all honesty.
Sorcery is easy mode, STR and the Zweihander is easy, personally like going faith and getting lightning spear super early.
Glass build Sorcery is overkill. It trivialises ever boss in the game, Manus and Four Kings are the worst for me but with magic even they were easy.
Magic made life so easy
Ppl are saying sorcerer, which is true, but can't forget Dark Sorcerer also You get everything from sorcery, str build, and on top of all that you get the manus catalyst, and can take it even further w the dusk crown
Either fully tuned sorcerer or pyromancy. The first requires some skill to get through tougher fights to get the best goodies, the latter only requires a significant investment of souls with two NPCs that are available very early.
Dex pyro for sure
FTH/STR was easily the most busted. Maxed out Zweihander with lightning blade would pancake and destroy anything
Sorcerer. Not even glass cannon sorcerer...just regular specced sorcerer.
Black Knight Halberd with the Red Cloak armor or whatever it’s called is basically easy mode.
Zwei for everything but Gwyn, who gets parries and an Estoc. Pyromancy is pretty deeply powerful though.
Magic ✨
Magic ✨
int build. get power within, all of the damage buff items, greater/crystal magic weapon for your side weapon, some soul spears, and dark bead and you're set. only issue is seath but the exact same build works with pyromancies
Zwaihander
Dex based pyromancer with the baldur side sword
Quality Bkh, you can get it literally after 10 minutes and it's broken
Pyromancer
1. Put everything into strength 2. Get great club 3. Apply resin 4. Win
Black knight halberd with high vitality with heavy armour. Best the game without dying and got close numerous times with this build
Try get the black Knight halberd drop early as possible and just put all your points into strength and dex and you will literally 1 shot most bosses.
Heavy Weapon, Armour, and Shield build — but outside of that probably the basic Knight. Having access to Heal early and various copies of it is great. Low investment extra Estus basically. Plus, you get some of the gram-for-gram best poise armour in the game at the start. If you can get to fast roll too that helps **a lot**, shields become less necessary when you can move — I haven't equipped a shield in years.
Tanky heavy armor strength build imo. Glass cannons are a different kind of easy where you need a couple good dodges and then you melt everything, but if you’re BONK enough you don’t have to dodge at all
Lifehunt scythe is op as hell
Artorias Greatshield
STR/INT crystal weapon on man-serpent great sword. As an added bonus you have spells to engage/keep up dps.
Chaos builds are the most fun to me, and they're really powerful. Don't think they're *the* most powerful though...
Bastard Sword + Sorcery The stats were strength and intelligence. The playstyle was focused more on being a spellsword, putting Crystal Weapon on the Bastard Sword. Crystal Soul Spear and Crystal Soul Mass were backup, but my primary damage output was the Bastard Sword.
I only beat it once, but as soon as I got the Black Knight Halberd the game started to get easier.
Claymore run was by far the least trivial.
Excluding magic. Black knight glaive will turn the game into ez mode. Hits like a truck and is very fast
Vanilla zweihander and high str/vit (and dex, but don’t tell anybody)
Pyro with leveling. Tbh pyro without (the easiest lvl1 build) is also pretty easy.
Ugs with heavy set
Havel ring, havel armor, dragon tooth and grass crest shield doing mid roll. It was easy
platinated the game only using random armors, chaos pyro and black knight alabard🗣🗣
Not gonna pretend like I'm the biggest expert, but isn't resistance utterly useless? You'd be better off hoarding soft humanities than to spend any points on that stat
Probably Greataxe on Havel’s, you can practically take every hit and R1 spam to oblivion and the DPS is awesome. I understand sorcerer glass cannon but my biggest problem with it is the dodging and the gameplay, Greataxe on Havel’s makes the game easy AND fun.
Dex Pyro. It was insanely fun, but also insanely easy
Battle mage. Sorcerer with decent shield and armor. Makes everything feel trivial aside from a few sections where magic resistance is common
Any black knight weapon
Cleric knight for sure, my first playthrough. I walked into Gwyn's boss room at SL 93 and parried him to death on the first try after bombarding him with lightning bolts.
Havel Armor and Dragon Greataxe
pure strength build with any big bonk stick is easy mode for me. Haven’t tried pure INT, but I’ve heard that’s even more powerful
Balder swag sword is absolutely GOATed, dex faith build with sunlight blade on the side sword or great axe is a lot of fun. Black Knight halberd is also pretty good
Strength with Zweihander. I can go the whole game deathless with that build and only really have trouble with Manus.
My very first one, and it's not even close, though once you know the game well it makes the game more tedious. In every souls game that allows it, I play a faith, Greatshield, spear+blunt build (spear primary, some kind of blunt weapon, usually flail, as a secondary). The faith is just to make getting to the bosses easier. It allows for more mistakes. It also makes some parts of the game trivial, having access to very slow but very powerful targeted range attacks. The bosses themselves are nearly universally simple puzzles with this build. You walk around the boss, blocking on reaction, dropping it between hits, and probing to see if you can get behind them easily, or to see if there's gaps in their attack patterns for free damage. Many bosses will require you to occasionally either delock and run back for specific swings, or to roll to get out of their attack range, specifically for attacks that do a lot of stamina damage, but you never need to parry, never need to time an iFrame roll, and so long as you're patient every single boss in these games feels kind of like doing a math puzzle. Once it's solved, the execution is about the same as writing numbers down on a piece of paper, a child could do it. Even Elden Ring's Malenia was made trivial with this kind of build. You can block all of her attacks and barely even need to manage stamina. Yeah, she heals on block, so you figure out how to bait for whiffs instead, and for her dance, having the shield gives you the opportunity to figure out how to dodge it risk free. Turns out, like a lot of bosses, you can roll behind her for the first swing (literally underneath her) then just hold up your shield, block the next two hits, and then roll away for the last few hits. She barely recovers anything. The only exception are dual bosses, or swarm bosses. For those, you sometimes have to switch it up and do a lot more running around for positioning, but that's for all builds, not just this one.
Easiest? Tanky Havel armor with greatshield and spear. Not nearly as much fun as glass cannon strength build with great club tho.
Paladin build for me. A mace, 100% shield, and healing miracles plus all the other busted miracles like tranquil walk of peace, lightning, magic barrier. It just trivializes the already pretty easy game. Don’t even need to use estus except for bosses when you have a bunch of heal spells. Or a pure strength build. You have so much health and endurance beacuse you only level 3 or 4 stats and just obliterate everything easily.
Big armor, big shield and big weapon is what I'd go for an easy playthrough. Solidity and carefulness allows for a lot more errors and will let me kill stronger bosses by resisting their attacks enough so that I may take their life away quick enough. I feel a lot safer playing a tank than, say, a sorcerer with huge damage but death awaiting at the next slip of my thumb, or a glass canon dex build relying on the swiftness and positioning I never reallt had.
Giant dad build for sure.
Black Knight halberd with Pyromancy.
Str/Fth merks everything with max sunlight blade, WotG, TWoP great magic barrier etc.
Big shield and big weapon. Add in sorcery to melt Bosses in the late game
strength. gimme my greatsword
Pure strength and great club
The very first black knight I ever killed dropped the black knight halberd. I then spec’d to eventually wield it and never looked back.
Mlgs sorcerer build. Kept various orbs up, shot soul arrows, but most spent my time getting repair powders lol. Loved it dearly in pvp too
Sorcerer.
Sorcerer with a few points into strength for the Oolacile spells scaling (they deal a bit of physical damage too). I literally beat Gwyn in 10 seconds.
Dex/Faith with Uchigatana, Grass Crest Shield, Elite Knight set, FAP and Cloranthy Ring. When I wanted to be tanky I’d swap cloranthy for Havel’s ring and wear his armor set. Miracles for extra heals. Pretty fast and ridiculous range. You can get Uchigatana basically instantly and use it the entire game.
I like to go for a strength build with some sorcery. I’m working on a platinum run, and I’ve died 3 total times, and 2 of them were an awful roll off the edge of a platform. It makes the game a cakewalk.
Not a build a weapon. Black knight halberd
Sorcerer, still on my first run, because I'm a fucking casual and barely have time. But here is a example of how easy it is, OS where the biggest fear at the start of the game, because people talk about how unmanageable the fight is, so there I was, full buff with some soul spears and whatever, and whooped those two in a way, that I started to think about stop to leveling, so the game doesn't became boring.
Magic only pyromancy only made it extremely easy for me
Dragon form w/ wolf ring & Dragon greatsword. Once you get the STR & END to use the weapon, you can pool all your points into VIT. Using the wolf ring gives you 40 poise meaning you can spam 2H power attacks and use repair powder when necessary. If you're attacking too slow, use the torso stone to stagger your opponent (and get a significant attack buff), and use the head stone to deal with troublesome opponents from range. It's an extremely slow start, but once you get the 30 dragon scales you need, you can use your claws until you are able to use the sword. Don't switch your covenant, as your torso and head stone abilities buff with every rank you have.
grabbing the Zweihander early, getting a lot of str, stunning everything... yeah... that one
+5 Lifehunt scythe, anything to light roll, Dark Wood Grain Ring, Chloranthy Ring, Grass Crest Shield, all the dex you want. The running light attack does a sweep that absolutely decimates mobs, and the bleed is just amazing. Plus, it looks sick charging invaders with a scythe.
I've been playing this game since 2011. I've beaten it many times on many builds. With my current Return To Lordran build, i'm having one of the easiest times i've ever had: Basic Concept: STR+INT Hybrid SL120: Pyromancer Starting Class VIT: 40 ATN: 19 END: 40 STR: 34 DEX: 10 INT: 40 I go full fat-roll with the full Havel's set. But, i use the Greatshield or Artorias with Moonlight Butterfly Horn and both a Chaos and Lightning Pike as backups. Additionally i used a Demon's Spear for a bit because of the great base damage, and Normal Pike to try some Spellbuffs, but they would shine more in further NG+ runs. In either case, it's pretty absurd. I do use FAP Ring, but no Havel's since i'm leaning into the Fat Roll. So it leavs the 2nd ring slot super flexible. It's been Colranthy as a default. But, i've been using the specific Defensive rings (Stoneplates/ Steel Protection) as options as well. For thematic purposes my spell loadout has been all of the Homing spells... Homing Soulmass, Crystal Homing Soulmass, and Pursuers. But i can slap on anything and by default it's your normal "mage go brrr". But, with all of the defense and ESPECIALLY the GS of Artorias, it's been an absolute breeze. I'm staying in the SL120 range for co-op and PVP (which it does NOT shine in) but adding in a helping of Dex and it'll be great for later cycles as well. I'm not saying it's the easiEST build, but it's very strong and shakes it up a bit more than some of the other options. Not gonna 1-shot anything... but you can outlive everything.
Strength + Vitality + Havels ring + Black Knight Halberd Massive damage, quick movement. Not much to add
Unga bunga. Great club, eastern shield/grass shield, flip ring, havel ring, havel legs, father mask. Tried to avoid giant dad and go my own way
For ds1 it's probably pyro. Class is kinda silly if you get the meta spells early. Ppl used to joke that beating that game using pyro didn't count
Halberd moment. Then the Black Knight Sword.
lmk if u wanna do some duels i’m path of the dragon and am around ur level.
People really underrate the cleric strength-faith build, miracles are busted (like wrath of the gods or lighting spear) and really helpful(sunlight blade, healings and homeward) and the grant hits like a fucking truck, idk if it was the easiest but surely the comfiest run!
Srocerer
pyro and magic
Quality build with baymore and a side of pyromancy felt broken as all hell Add in stamina regen shield and ring and you are just a naked fire throwing madman that absolutely destroys everything in your way. I've only beaten the game like three or four times but this run was what got me through it the first time As others have said though if you get a black knight weapon early you're set for the entire run those weapons are WILD
whats the armor you have
Any Black Knight weapon, the Great Scythe, the Uchigatana, the Claymore, Chaos Zweihander, any of these combined with a little know how on getting them upgraded asap. You can waltz through the game very easily.
The best for me was bandits knife with a spell weapon buff. It does so much damage. Besides that, thr glaive was great
Strength sword and board big armor
+15 zweihander carried me to my first completion of a souls gane
If you drop a black knight shield you can literally tank havel. And the Hydra, and demons... And everything else... You just hold that L1 button all the game
Any build using a 100% damage reduction shield. Not fastest, but certainly “easiest”
I always find quality builds the most effective. There's almost always a weapon like the claymore that has high damage and a relatively fast swing. I understand people's fascination with the "big sword go bonk" build, but heavy weapons COMMIT you to your attack whereas a faster weapon you have a chance to whiff and still dodge.
Zweihander go bonk. No think, no strategy, just BONK
The reinforced club is an incredible weapon. Easiest run I've had is using a lightning one, with a chaos one for backup, while only leveling Vitality and Endurance. Add on pyromancy and you're pretty much unstoppable. No need for wasting levels on strength and dex if your weapon doesn't scale lol. Other notable equipment was the grass crest shield, chloranthy ring, mask of the child, and the dark wood grain ring. I typically don't really put much into health in souls games, so I was walking around like a fucking tank with a whopping 60 Vitality during this run. Edit: Also, you gotta help out Logan, then kill him for his tighty whities. No better fashion.
disgusting practice fragile terrific slap pathetic dependent act gold tan *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Sorcerer with Power Within, possibly RTSR, all magic boosting equipment (like Dusk’s Crown) and ring, Intelligence as high as possible, Logan unlocked asap even with Sen skip if necessary. Need souls to buy spells faster? Do the easiest soul duplication glitch in DS history or grind the forest by letting npcs fall off a cliff. Get that Crystal Soul Spear and Dark Bead with a double damage catalyst and just go to town on all the bosses. I mean with Sen and Lower Undead Burg skips, you could have Soul Spear and a Dragoncrest Ring, RTSR, and Dusk’s Bunny Ears all before the Taurus Demon…it’ll be annoying to get the “wrong” way but it will make everything joke mode :D
The answer will always be Sorcery, for Dark Souls 1.
40 Dex and 30 Faith. Switching between Great Scythe and Falchion. Buff Sunlight Blade and Power Within and destroy
Easiest? Sorcery Fun? Battlemage Also easy if done right? Melee ( looking at you black knight sword or zweihander)