Description
Do you really want to be that wimpy mage that everyone looks down on? No!
So follow this build if you want to trade blows in the trenches while still putting out insane magic damage.
The Moonlight Greatsword carves through hard steel like butter. This build will drop tank enemies faster than any other (save pure mages) while still being able to hold its own against all other variations of Dex and Str builds.
It takes all of the strengths of Caster builds (pure magic damage) while disregarding all of a caster build's weaknesses (squishiness).
Prepare your inbox for hatemail.
Stats
| Starting Class | Sorcerer |
|---|---|
| Level | 150 |
| Vigor | 40 |
| Endurance | 30 |
| Vitality | 10 |
| Attunement | 12-20* |
| Strength | 18 |
| Dexterity | 18 |
| Adaptability | 13 |
| Intelligence | 50 |
| Faith | 4 |
Weapons
RH= Magic Moonlight Greatsword +5, potentially an Enchanted backup weapon
LH= Magic Staff of Wisdom +5, Preferred Shield (I like my Magic Gatekeeper's Shield. Low weight, parries, 92% physical reduction, 87% magic reduction.
Equipment
Hexer hood (Only necessary if you want an extra casting of CMW)
Everything else is personal preference. (If you want heavier armor/backup weapons take points out of Att/Vig/End and put in Vit as needed.
Rings:
Bracing Knuckle ring +2 - The MLGS breaks QUICKLY if you are spamming R2s. This is almost a must.
Ring of knowledge - If you want to use this ring to supplement 45 base Int up to 50 and put those 5 points somewhere else, be my guest.
Cloranthy Ring +2 - An all-around great ring for PvP. Melee fighting is endurance hungry.
Lingering dragoncrest ring - Longer CMW enchant.
Slumbering Dragoncrest ring/White ring - Being a ninja-assassin/melee/mage.
Dragon ring - Extra Hp, Equip load.
Old Sun ring - Anti-stunlock.
Spells
Crystal Magic Weapon - self-explanatory .
Preference - 20 Att gives 4 slots, so be creative (pyromancy, Soul Greatsword, Homing Crystal Soulmass are all good, unoriginal options).
Tips
Master this MLGS combo: 1HR1, 1HR1, 1HR2.
The first two quick swings will stunlock the enemy and do around 1k damage. They will proceed to spam the roll button, trying to roll away from what they anticipate will be the third 1HR1. The 1HR2 will catch them right at the end of their roll.
This combo will easily bring people down from 100-0, doing upwards of 2100 damage if need be, depending on enemy armor.
You may want to bring an Enchanted weapon as backup physical damage in case the enemy has high magic resist (this is rare)
Keep in mind this is not a terribly efficient caster build. Your cast speed will sit at around 70-80 if you follow this build exactly. This is too low to be effective at casting. Because of this, don't try to be a caster. This build is all about dishing out MELEE Magic damage. You honestly don't need to be firing crystal soul spears. (You could use them for cleanup, but that's what the MLGS R2s are for.)
*So don't be afraid to drop ATT down to 1 or 2 spell slots and buff your ADP or VIT. I just prefer the 4 slots to have some sort of versatility to mess around with. (think Chaos Firestorm/ Chameleon type stuff) 4 Att slots is NOT optimal for this build.
Enemy players usually find this build very frustrating. Please don't be that cocky douchebag who sends bragging messages or chugs estus after a successful invasion.
It is also very easy to be successful with this build. If you are stomping face with this build, please refrain from thinking that you are the greatest thing since sliced bread. You're not. You're min-maxing with stupid amounts of pure magic damage.
With this in mind, realize that this is one of the better builds to attempt to climb the ladder in the Brotherhood of Blood covenant due to the nature of the covenant.
COUNTERPLAY:
If you are facing someone using this build, please realize that, while challenging, this build is not impossible to beat.
First, you must realize the situation you are in. This build uses a weapon with a fairly high swing speed and a damage type that with slice through 90% of armors in the game like butter.
Realizing this, DO NOT TRY TO TRADE AGAINST THE MLGS (Unless you are a mundane Santier spear build. That build can easily outtrade any other melee build in the game.)
To outplay the MLGS, one must play passively, dodging swings until the (probably bad) player leaves himself open to a counterattack or uses all of his stamina.
More specifically, understand that this build's weakness is its lack of versatility/variety.
The MLGS has:
1HR1s - fast, broad horizontal swings). These are most commonly used to stunlock the enemy into submission.
2HR1s - Slower, more powerful, vertical swings.
1HR2s and 2HR2s - the crescent moon projectile blasts. Keep in mind that the 1H versus 2H blasts have different charge up timings. also keep in mind that THESE BLASTS ARE ABLE TO BE USED CONSECUTIVELY IN-COMBO. Unlike previous games in the soul series, where the MLGS had 1 R2 animation for both 1H and 2H, Dark souls 2 MLGS has secondary 1HR2 and 2HR2 blast attack which follows the first much like a normal combo would.
Overall to beast this weapon - learn its patterns while dodging and wait for openings. Good luck.
"If you are stomping face with this build, please refrain from thinking that you are the greatest thing since sliced bread. You're not. You're min-maxing with stupid amounts of pure magic damage"
This made me laugh, good build. Does magic damage stop at 50? I know it was in Dark Souls, but I had it in my head that 40 was the cap this time around.
Hey yeah, to be honest 40 is probably a better cap. since CMW doesn't scale with intelligence, you only lose out on about 20 damage from scaling on your MLGS. With the CMW buff in mind, you probably only miss out on about 50 damage per swing.
I made the switch from 50 int to 35+intelligence ring (40) and I must say the extra HP/Endurance is nice. The damage drop is more noticable than I expected, but I think the trade off is worth it.
Thanks for the feedback!
hexers hood required int 20 and 20 faith, you have to build faith 4
is no longer enchantable.
What is the point of infusing Moonlight Greatsword with magic? It maintains S scaling, and even if that did get better it shaves off 80 base damage. Perhaps I am doing this wrong, but it doesn't seem like a good idea.
There are different tiers within scalings. Not all S's are the same. Provided you have at least 40 int, the magic mlgs will outdamage the regular one because of the higher tier S scaling.
Why can't the dark souls 1 build/wikidot search results be more like this. On there, it's all 'don't change your psnid/this is a half-finished build' type of deal. To me, ds1 is much harder than ds2, so i think people should put more effort into their ds1 builds than ds2 builds. Still, awesome build!