"Alrighty Captain Ragequit what exactly did you mean with that absolutely cryptic and self advertising explanation of your guide?" Well dear reader, I mean that From Software took my hopes of separating character guides by their main stat, cut them out, and presented them to Rosaria's Fingers, who violated them. Repeatedly. You see this edition of Dark Souls allows for a lot more liberty of playstyle and a lot less liberty in your sixth build. Most weapons are no longer as heavily tied to stats, which kills any attempt I might make at generalizing the way a person plays based on their stat build. Stats are now MUCH more important when calculating things like resistances and style of play is much better based off of weapon choice with a build to suit, as opposed to following a general build archetype and tweaking it to benefit your favorite weapon. Weapons this time around are more varied, more customizable, and many have lower stat requirements, which, again, begs the question: WHY THE NAME OF GWYN IS THERE SO MUCH ESTOC SPAM? And furthermore, how does Captain Ragequit's guide help his dear readers move beyond it? Well, To do that, I've decided on a different format this time around, and one that is perhaps a tad bit more general, and a tad bit more devoid of jokes about Vikings and death metal. This would be less ironic of course if From didn't let us start the game as A LITERAL ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ VIKING.

I swear that's the name of a punk or emo song somewhere. Black eyeshadow and tenor vocalists notwithstanding, PVP builds are much more focused builds than PVE. While PVE builds are focused on eliminating risk of damage and getting through the game however possible with enough time to prepare, PVP builds are made with a different goal in mind: Making the best possible use of your character's limited stat points to be as effective as possible with absolutely no prior knowledge of the enemy or enemies you will be fighting. Excellent guides as to exactly what every stat in game does already exist, and so I will not delve into them here. Instead, I will provide highlights and basic information as it applies to PVP, along with some general rules.

The Bank Stats are important to all characters. they provide the resources to use all of the other stats and equipment. They should never be wasted and never be underspent.

Vigor: Vigor is your HEALTH stat. VITALITY IS NOT. Vigor will, in general, allow you to not die horribly in one hit. Points in Vigor are never wasted.

Vitality: Vitality affects EQUIP LOAD. This affects how much you can carry. You don't need this if you plan on using lighter armors and weapons.If you plan on using a greatshield, a giant hammer, and expect to run around in a giant metal suit, then this stat will keep you from moving like a tub of lard. Roll limits that determine fast and fat rolls are 30%, 70% and 100% equip load.

Endurance: Endurance effects STAMINA. Points in endurance are almost never wasted, as they let you sustain attacks, sustain blocks, and lets casters reposition (Run away while squealing like Gwendolln) and even form the cost of some spells.

Attunement: Attunement unlocks SPELL SLOTS, which are used to equip spells, and also increase FOCUS points, which are used to cast spells. They also allow the use of weapon arts like Stance and Spin Bash. More attunement means more special attacks. The first three spell slots are unlocked at 10, 14, and 18 attunement, and this stat can be considered wasted if those spell slots are unused.

The Combat Stats are the core combat stats of the game, and will generally dictate your playstyle and your damage dealing ability.

Strength: Lets you meet strength requirements for weapons and grants bonuses for strength scaling, while ensuring nobody tries to take your lunch money. Strength that is used to meet the requirements of your favorite weapon is never wasted. Strength that is not used for requirements or scaling effects is wasted.

Dexterity: Dexterity increses CAST SPEED and allows you to meet dexterity requirements for weapons while stealing your lunch money back after somebody inevitably takes it. Dexterity not used for requirements or scaling effects is wasted.

Intelligence: Intelligence is required to cast sorcery spells and pyromancies, equip and scale with certain weapons, and is probably the reason your lunch money was stolen in the first place. Fortunately, you can use it to make even more lunch money with little risk. Chip Damage and Spell Spam!

Faith: Faith allows you to equip miracles, which encourage you to get up and get your lunch money back before the dirtbag that stole it gets away. As with the other combat stats, faith lets you meet requirements for weapons and scales with certain weapons and talismans. Faith not used for miracles, requirements, or weapon scaling is wasted.

The Unloved Stats
Dark Souls 3 has no useless stats. Just Unloved stats that most see as either a nusiance or a useless waste. they are a bit like Logan's pants at the end of the first game. They are always there, potentially very useful, but are eventually abandoned and used only used for their secondary utility and are therefore always full of crap. Logan's trouser's notwithstanding, as I'm almost certain they didn't, Luck, Hollowing, and Poise are all very important stats when used correctly, and should be considered important stats for PVPers.

Luck: affects the character's ability to inflect bleed and poison, and scales with very particular weapon types. Absolutely not a dump stat, but often treated as such. Luck can and should be used with the luck scaling weapons of the game, as well as the many and varied Bleed weapons.

Hollowing: A stat that has the odd side effect of making your face look like raw hamburger with an ass print in it. Hollowing is a special stat whose mechanics I cannot reveal without spoilers for the game's story, but I can say that they benefit a very particular weapon enhancement by increasing Luck AND scaling with it, and at high levels can prevent friendly spawns. It pairs with luck and is a neccessary stat for bleed builds.

Poise: Poise is something of an oddity in Dark Souls 3. Poise gives characters with heavy weapons more hyper armor frames, which allows them to continue attacking without staggering. It is tied to armor and generally increases with heavier equipment. It is useful for attacking relentlessly with an ultra greatsword and should not be underestimated.

Picking a starting class has always been a tough choice in Souls games. Everything is awesome and everything SUCKS at the same time. Fortunately, for the purposes of PVP, character choice can be distilled into one easy question: "What does your character SUCK at?" You read that right. Starting up a PVP build forces you to actively suck at a particular aspect of the game. Accepting that you are Casul is the first step towards deciding to GIT GUD. You have to do this as a player, and your character must do this too. The reason is something called a Dump Stat. Every class except Deprived has Dump Stats. Skills that take a hit so that you can suck less at everything else. Dump Stats are important because the PVP community traditionally organizes at four soul levels. Competition is most frequent at 50,75,100, and 125 Soul Level. Like an athlete, your character has to watch his weight and not eat too damn much. Choosing not to suck at anything is definitely an option, but bringing all of your stats to a fight with perfectly balanced builds can be tricky. With that in mind, choose your own failures!

Dump Stats

Knight: Intelligence, Faith, Luck
Knights allow for an easy start with well balanced stats that lean towards melee and can easily grow into light spellcasting for a little versatility. They are often the best starts for quality melee builds, as well as more dedicated strength or Dex builds utilizing a basic spell or two.

Mercenary: Faith, Luck
Mercs are similar to knights and lean towards Dex and Attunement. They are more open to spellcasting, and less beefy. Picking between the two usually means having an end build in mind first. Mercs for lighter weapons and more magic, knights for heavier weapons and less pretty lights. Better dispositioned to magic, they also make wonderful Dexterity builds that forgo bleed

Warriors: Intelligence, Faith, Attunement, Dexterity
LITERAL ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ VIKINGS THAT CANNOT USE FIVE SYLLABLE WORDS! Warriors are terribly bad at spellcasting. Literally everything about it. If you want a pure melee build of any variety, look no further. As high vigor builds, they also are the best start for tank builds.

Heralds: Intelligence, Endurance
Heralds are balanced hybrids with solid starting equipment and immediate use of miracles.They aren't the best choice for specialized builds, but are great for starting quality hybrids centered around Faith.

Theives: Vitality, Strength
Theives start at a lower level and specialize in Luck. Because they otherwise lack specialization, and have relatively low strength, they are ideal for heavily mixed hybrid dexterity and magic builds, and often make good starts for bleed builds.

Assasins: Varied and interesting attack patterns, Respect, Faith
These dirtbags are responsible for Estoc Spam. They can be built into almost anything because they specialize in nothing, and don't even carry the respect of a hard start. Consider for a first playthrough, or when a hybrid build would be better served as an assasin than a Deprived.

Sorcerer: Vigor, Endurance, Vitality, Strength, Faith
Literally the opposite of a warrior. Choose if you suck at fighting. These guys are good starts for magic users that are not only dependent on faith, and who do not use heavy weapons.

Pyromancers: Dexterity, Vitality, Luck
Pyromancers are good starts for builds focused on casting, who are willing to limit dexterity, or who are undecided about which kind of magic to use, or who focus on Dark magic.

Cleric: Dexterity, Intelligence, Endurance, Vitality
Clerics are goody-two shoes meatheads who cannot see that Aldrich is a ♥♥♥♥. Patches hates them for a reason. They are the absolute best start for casters focusing on faith who will incorporate strength into their builds. They may also be built into the elusive strength bleed build, an odd choice.

Deprived: Clothing, Weapons, Shame
Barely cover your junk as you beat heavily armored behemoths to a pulp. This class is the most balanced by design, and can be built into anything, but lacks any kind of specialization. They are the perfect start for "mundane" builds- tricky quality builds that incorporate pyromancy. Just make sure to level up vitality because you cannot unequip their giant brass balls.

As a general rule, it is usually wise to choose at least two dump stats unless you have a means in mind to utilize all of them. They need not be absolutely minimized, but starting with a stat low allows you to increase it later, while starting with a stat higher and never utilizing it will result in more wasted potential, which is... unhealthy when facing down somebody who avoided wasting stats.

Admit it. You wanted to know which weapons to use for your specific build, didn't you? Well, too damn bad. Infusions, upgrades that change weapon scaling, mean that a dexterity focused character can get B scaling with a mace and a mage can get A scaling with an ultra greatsword. Viable weapon choices are really hard to nail down to specific builds beyond their weapon requirements. With that being said, understanding the nuances of different weapon types can keep you from being eaten alive like Gwendolin at the last Cathedral Family Cookout.

Straight Swords: Examples include the basic Long Sword, Dark Sword and Anri's Straight Sword. Straight swords are very fast, repeatable, and are frequently used for spamming or landing quick hits between rolls. They lack range and stamina damage, and are usually used in conjunction with a very effective shield. They lack hyper frames, and sword spam can be brought down with either parries or a shield bash. Their stance moves are hard to land, and for this reason twinswords are very popular.

Axes and Maces: Examples include the mace, morningstar, battleaxe, and Thrall axe.Axes and maces, wth the exeption of the Thrall Axe, tend to be powerful and slow, and inflict either slash or strike damage. They have even lower range than straight swords and similarly require shields, but do much more stamina damage. and are better utilized in fast single strikes as opposed to combos. Their skills, Perserverance and warcry, give short live buffs that can be applied mid combat.

Greatswords: Examples include the Claymore and Wolf Knight Greatsword. Greatswords trade significant speed for better damage and reach as compared to straight swords, and are viable in either one or two hands. Most greatswords have the weapon art stomp or stance, both of which can be used for fast opening attacks with hyper armor. Stomp is especially effective for baiting opponents into a strong attack.

Curved Greatswords: Examples include the Carthus Curved Greatsword and Murakumo. Curved greatswords lack some of the range of greatswords, inflict slash damage, and have fluid, easily chained attacks and guard breaker combos. They break poise and guards, and are generally a better alternative as compared to single curved swords. They can, however, be reaction parried and are easily dodged.

Ultra Greatswords: Examples include the Astora Greatsword and Profaned Greatsword. Ultra greatswords are very popular. Whether players use them for their hyper armor, their great damage and range, their extreme power, or are just overcompensating for something, Ultra Greatswords bring a lot to the party. They tend to be slow however, so be prepared to tank some hits. Reaction parries are also very possible with greatswords. watch for the offhand Ceastus.

Greataxes and Great Hammers: Examples include the Black Knight Greataxe and Spiked Mace. They are not fancy. They are not refined. Most of the time they are not even sharp. Greataxes lack some range as opposed to Ultra Greatswords, but make up for it by being opressively heavy and powerful. They have smaller hitboxes but can absolutely ragdoll foes. Speak gently and carry a big stick. It doesn't have to be pointy (But it can be).

Hlaberds: Examples include the illustrious Gladys (glaive), Gundyr's main squeeze, and everybody loves Lucy(lucerne). Halberds boast mediocre damage and scaling, but make up for it with impeccable range, a versatile moveset, various damage types, and easily chained combos. Halberds are a far more refined alternative to greatswords, and generally reward more cautious play, as they are easily punished if handled too agressively, but excellent at keeping enemies at bay. Anybody who enjoyed using spears in PVE is going to find Halberds very inviting in PVP. Their weapon art is a flourishing spin that is difficult to dodge but easy to punish with a backstab if it is out of place.

Thrusting Swords and daggers: These groups of weapons are much more difficult to play in PVP because they require several chained attacks and lack hyper armor frames. They are exceptional in the hands of expert parriers. The Estoc is clearly the most powerful of the bunch, in exchange for any shred of respect any of your friends may have once had for you. I don't recommend these weapons for PVP, as there are simply better alternatives and These weapons will tend to make the "indelible stains" in those trousers of yours come back with a vengeance. Anybody who disagrees is probably a master of parrying and could beat me sensless with a broken straight sword, or an Estoc spammer, who deserves to be beaten senseless with a broken straight sword.

Curved Swords: Examples include the Scimitar and Carthus Shotel. These weapons are very light and fast and excel at attack spam. Some can ignore shields and some make good offhand weapons. Curved sword playstyles rely on a either paired weapons or a good shield and fast movement. Their weapon arts involve powerful combos, and are best used after a series of blows to keep from getting parried and to break guard.

Reapers: Examples include the Great Scythe and Pontiff knight Scythe. They function like slower katanas, have similar damage and larger range, and have a difficult to land weapon art. They are something of a skill and humiliation weapon, despite good scaling. Their best quality is that they ignore the damage reduction of shields and blocks to such a large degree that even greatshields can be largely ignored.

Katanas: examples include Darkdrift and the beloved Washing Pole. Katanas have fast, rangey running attacks and a versatile, if predictable moveset. All of them inflict bleed and are excelllent choices for Hollow and Luck builds. They chain attacks extremely well, but are easily punished and parried however, and easy to position against. Their Hold ability allows for a quick slash or parry, and generally puts opponents on edge.

Paired Weapons: Examples include the Sellsword Twinblades and Drang Twinhammers. Paired weapons are fast, relentless, and require significant stamina to keep chaining, but allow for punishing combos and when two handed are difficult to counter. Some, such as the Dancer's Swords, can even stunlock foes to death. Like other one handed weapons, they often require a good shield to close, but once there can cause significant damage.

Shield considerations: Blocking is actually pretty uncommon in PVP. Hyper armor frames generally mean that heavier weapons have an easy time trading blows. Lighter shields are preferred for parrying heavy weapons, as tanking hits with medium shields frequently leads to a guard break critical. Greatshields are the only really viable option for sustained blocking, and then rely on their weapon arts and heavy investment in stamina to minimize the likelihood of a guard break.

Offhand weapons: Dark Souls PVP places a lot of value on hyper armor and heavier weapons, as it allows for trading blows and bashing down turtlers. This means that favored weapons are often slow and clunky, and faster opponents can stunlock if given the opportunity. At the expense of being able to block, offhand weapons provide the means to fill gaps in a slower fighter's moveset. Offhand weapons include the painting guardian sword, ceastus, claw and whip weapons.These weapons all have similar characteristics. They are all very light. They offer very fast and complimentary movesets if they can be doublehanded, and they can all perform quick attacks and parries when placed in the off hand. As a general rule they are not very powerful weapons, but allow for a more varied moveset while still providing defense.

Spells are something of a nusiance in PVP this time around. Purely offensive spells from all different schools can be underpowered, easy to dodge, easy to punish, or a combination of the three. Thus, even for dedicated caster builds, magic is a compliment to melee combat, not a replacement for it. Sorceries, miracles, and pyromancies all fall, for the purposes of PVP, into four distinct categories.

Weapon buffs apply to your weapon. These buffs, such as magic weapon or Flame Arc, can only be applied to conventionally upgraded weapons and some special weapons. They are best for hybrid builds, as they allow the use of intelligence and faith stats without sacrificing weapon scaling. As an unexpected side benefit, they make your sharp stick shiny!

Body buffs like Deep Protection or Carthus Beacon buff the player themselves, and can be applied alongside weapon buffs. They let you perform a nice little dance before combat, and can give unique advantages depending on which buffs are used. This includes things like damage buffs, buffs to resistances, health regen, as well as statuses like invisibility. As a fully expected side benefit, they make YOU shiny!

Offensive spells are things like Soul Spear or Fireball. Offensive spells compliment a melee weapon by allowing for unexpected attacks and staggered hit timings. They also provide a caster with the apex of shininess. Spells this time ariound have very little tracking, and so should not be used unless something else is occupying the other player's attention. Soul arrow, Farron dart, and even Homing Crystal Soulmass can be sidestepped from range.

Utility spells are spells like Heal and Shockwave. They are situational, and help round out situations which may not be exceptionally shiny. Healing spells and even carressing tears can give an unexpected boost and turn the tide of an otherwise losing fight.

Fair warning, this section is going to include a fair amount of sanctimonious whining and anecdote involving either my or another character getting stabbed in the face. It does not contain any information on how to build a better character, and following it does involve hurting your chances of winning. Patches absolutely does approve of this section of the guide and really would hope that everyone excluding himself follow it to the letter. With that aside, here is a list of long standing, community honored rules that are more like guidelines anyway.

Starting honorable PVP combat is very simple. Introduce yourself. Say Hi. We of the PVP community prefer to get to know you before fighting you to the death. Many gestures are accepted, all bows, legion ettiquette, even call over and welcome gestures are fine. I remember being invaded by a Mad Phantom. We laughed. We cried. We watched the sunset. Then the bastard brutally stabbed me in the face. He was a pretty cool guy.

By longstanding tradition, buffs are applied at the start of combat. Allow your opponent to buff himself. Once. All buffs and items are available. Even if you did not build for spells, carrying a few resins to buff your favorite weapon is never a bad idea. I prefer to buff weapons myself, and frequently have a choice as to what my enemy smells when I stab them in the face.

This is not a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ frat house. We are not so well behaved. That being said, chugging Estus, while tempting and technically possible, is highly discouraged for honorable duels. After Estus is chugged, all rules of ettiquette tend to go out the window and tactics become base and cheap. Face stabbing is forthcoming. Such players deserve to be debased and humilitated. If you bow and then allow yourself to commit this kind of error, trade an Undead Bone Shard to Picklepee. He has a shield that you simply deserve to use.

Healing and FP restoring infusions, rings, and spells are not equivalent to chugging Estus. They are a part of a players build and require ring slots, spell slots, and stats that could have potentially been used elsewhere. All are fair game at any time during a fight and are not a violation of ettiquette. Users of said items and spells may use thier choice of shield.

When invading, wheter using the red eye orb or soapstone, both players are entitled to a fair, on-on-one fight. If possible close to a bonfire. If players are, In fact, not entitled because This is Dark Souls and Git Gud, one may in fact be a Filthy Casul. An invader may, in such case and at his discretion, hide behind mobs, attack from the shadows, and generally make an ass of himself. A player fighting such an invader may call in a blue sentinel, or perhaps use a giant tree seed. I once had an invader fight me, lose, retreat, and proceed to wave gleefully from behind about four Lothric Knights and assorted peons. I proceeded to use a giant tree seed. Our marauding hero was then promptly stabbed multiple times in the face by all of the NPCs that he had positioned to protect him. It really is in your best interest to fight fair. Unless you are a Sentinel. Or a Watchdog. Or an invader. Or a player. Basically all group fights are a no holds barred free-for-all. Picklepee has a special defensive gift for all of you.

As much as I hate them, as much as I wish it wasn't true, as much as I have repeatedly and viciously berated both the items themselves and the players that use them....
Estoc and Dark Sword are not poor ettiquette and fair game. There. I said it. Moving on.

If you go to a populated PVP arena with the intention of engaging in PVP, bring cover to the party! Winners in PVP, whether the player or the invader, get soul rewards based on the number of souls in the inventory of the deceased. PVP arenas are all very close to bonfires, and as such carrying even a large number of souls is a very safe practice. Higher soul counts lead to better rewards for everyone, and make PVP more rewarding, as well as cover the costs of all item buffs used. Bring lots of souls to planned PVP events.

Along the same vein, fight clubs are a very common PVP occurrence. They happen mostly after the Pontiff Sulyvahn bonfire, and follow some very special rules.

First: Follow the rules. They are actually enforced at fight club events. Unless you can honestly beat four Dark Spirits. That are specifically leveled AND geared for PVP. At once. With no rules followed. Good luck.

Second: No ganking fights. While the entire purpose of some covenants revolves around ganking, organized PVP duels are about beating your opponent fair and square. Mad phantoms have some leeway here because they are crazy, but still may not strike other players. For a description of what will happen if you break this rule, see the first rule.

Third: Be polite to the host! Hosts in fight club events are not targets. Most of the time they are specifically there to summon more phantoms to fight. If the host wants to fight, he will enter the ring and bow. The penalty for breaking this rule is the same as the first two, so be sure you can kill the host in one hit if you do.

There are some wonderful facets of PVP that managed to fit in my guide like Priscilla in Anor Londo. They simply failed, and this section is my own Painted World of Ariamis. Minus the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crows.

-Conventional infusions only change base scaling. they will not add scaling where none existed.

-Common weapons with high Strength and Dexterity requirements will often benefit from refined infusion. Consider your end build, not the base weapon.

-Luck is useless as a combat stat without Bleed or Poison.

-Hollow Infusion always beats Lacerating Infusion for dedicated bleed builds

-Lightning infusion always beats Blessed Infusion for high faith builds

-Raw, Deep, and Fire infusions are not off the table, but are only reasonable for tank builds that only invested in basic requirements.

-Equipped Hollow weapons and shields raise luck up to five points depending on hollowing, boosting both scaling and bleed.

-Infusing shields will lower their defensive properties. For certain shields, Simple, Hollow, or Blessed Infusion is often worth it.

-Offhand weapons are a great lightweight way to carry these enchantments too.

-Tears of Denial is expensive AND infuriating.

-A Simple shield and Farron's Ring can make weapon arts very frequent

-This combination fits pure melee builds like Patches at an asskicking convention.

-Using the same loadouts as everybody else makes you predictable. We have all fought FUGS spam, Estoc Spam, and Dark Sword Spam.

-Hold Y to two hand your off-hand for even more unexpected fun.

-If you consistently get beaten in PVP, consider using a weapon with a different moveset and playstyle. Not only will using a rarely seen weapon throw enemies off guard, but you may find a hidden gem that performs far better than expected. Holding an arena with a Corvian Scythe or Thrall Axe is doable.

-I did glaze over a lot of specifics as far as the game's crafting system and available weapons and spells are concerned. This was intentional. Excellent guides exist for infusions already, and I did not want this guide to ruin the fun of finding and exploring different weapon options. Wikis are available for players looking for information on exact scaling and damage output, and are put together by contributors far more dedicated than me.

-To the caster that absolutely whupped me yesterday with nothing but spells and a large FP pool: Nice.

-The defensive gift from Picklepee mentioned in this guide is the Porcine Shield. It should honestly have been a reward for emptying either estus flask and failing to make a player kill after an invasion.