Ornstein Build, your thoughts and suggestions.

Hello forum, up untill recently I have taken a break from Dark Souls to play DCUO with a friend for the last few weeks, and now I am prepairing to return to Lordran. My questions are these; 1. with an Artorias Build already done, thanks to my level 380, I am now contemplating a Ornstein Build (spear and all). I would like your imput on what stats to use and Miracles/Magic. (my expected soul level will be 100-120 as I feel like I usually go to high with my other chars). 2.If I should attempt to make him a viable PVP fighter (doesnt have to be an amazing one just one who can fight and win on occasion) or stick to PVE and co-op 2.1 if Co-op which Covenant if any? 3. shoud I stick with NG or go Higher? 4. is there any shield that looks relatively good with the Ornstein armor set? if not what replacement might I use? Thanks for your input, but please if you don't have something constructive or at least related could you please not waste my time and yours insulting me.

Best Regards Conrack, the Betrayer.
"Soon all of Midgard will call me master"

What platform are you playing on? I only ask because I have a Smough build that I would love to do like some forest co-op with an Ornstein build if I get the chance. That would be great.


I'd definitely say leo ring/DSS. Maybe invest in a decent great shield for pve. High endurance is nice for spear builds too. If you're going for pure Ornstein I'd say Princess Guard and if any spells at all the miracles associated with that covenant.

Plus if you decided to go for a FTH investment you could go for the lightning chucking miracles and add some viability to the whole Ornstein lightning thing.

I'm Ps3,

I feel if I have some levels to spare once I get up there I may add faith for the lighting bolts, but sadly they are near useless against players.

Any recomendations for a endurance limit?

Well once you hit 40 you stop gaining stamina and only gain equip burden increases, and if you're going to be using Orny's stuff you won't need anywhere that high as far as equip burden goes. I'd shoot for somewhere between 30 and 40. Also if you want to go pure Orny it means no shield during pvp, which means you'll want high VIT, which is what I did with my Smough toon, but I use a shield when I'm just PvEing. I'd also shoot for at least 30 VIT, but you probably want to go higher than that, with his armors. Aside from that I'd just say bulk up on STR, DEX, and FTH, because they'll all make your spear stronger. Focus on DEX and FTH with STR bringing up the rear, because it scales the least with it.

I'm on ps3 also. My Smough is SL120. If you actually do it we can totally do some O&S co-op.

If it were me I'd ultimately go for something like this.
But because DEX and FTH both scale the same with the DSS you could always go higher FTH and lower DEX for more miracle/DSS lightning power. Or you could go high STR/DEX in order to have a better chance of guard breaking.

You could always just say screw the Leo ring too and go with the RoFaP and try to get him fast rolling. If you really learn how to do it the Leo ring counters can be deadly with spears, but so can a fast rolling toon, and the VIT bonus doesn't hurt either.

Sweet, I hope to, on PSN I am Eric_Kriegor, It will be a couple of days before I can even start up my playstaion though, (finals have been roughing me up), on paper I think I'll try for 30-32 end for now and go from there, and for Vit probaly closer to 40.

Thanks so much for your Input. This is the part about forums I love.

Yeah, yeah I've got finals right now too so I'm trying to not get super caught up right now too. Sure, no problem. I think most of us love build experimenting. It's one of my favorite parts of the game.

Well, because you can't upgrade his armor, the defense will be pretty low. Also his weapon doesn't scale very good so I'd say...

Armor - Ornstein's of course

Weapons - Right hand: Dragonslayer Spear obviously
Left hand: Any talisman

Rings - Leo's Ring and Havel's Ring

Miracles - Ligtning spear

for stats, I'd go 40 Endurance, 40 Dex, 35 Strength, 20 Faith, and 40+ Vitality(or however much stats you have left over

Conrack wrote:I'm Ps3,

I feel if I have some levels to spare once I get up there I may add faith for the lighting bolts, but sadly they are near useless against players.

Any recomendations for a endurance limit?

I've had a number of kills with it in my PvP Orn build (pre-patch when DWGR was OP). Your oppononent may not think you have a ranged attack and forget about it in the heat of battle, and it can be just enough to floor them.

Leo Ring isn't very good, but it is what Orn uses (it only affects physical damage and DSS is split damage making it less effective).

If you plan on 2H the spear, stop at 27 STR and 40 dex as you'll get diminishing returns after that.

Depending on how loyal you want to stay to the Orn build, I would do this (MugenBuild):
27VIT
12ATT
47END
24STR
40DEX
11RES
8INT
33FTH

Dragonslayer Spear, Canvas Talisman (I had Ivory by mistake in the Mugen build)
Orns Armour
Havel's Ring, Ring of Favor and Protection
Gives you fast roll, which is very helpful if you're not going to have a shield. If you want a shield, it'll be too hard to hit fast roll, so may as well go for medium (which would be fine as well).

This build is very viable in PvP using grass to help stamina regen and you don't need a shield with the range of the DSS. Just dodge arrows/magic and poke away.