Quintessential "Build Help" Thread

I realize these are common so I apologize in advance and issue genuine thanks to anyone willing to post advice. That being said:

I have decided to make one last build to bridge the gap between now and the release of Dark Souls II and really want to challenge myself. I'm not an especially great player, so I'm not doing anything insane, but from Firelink onward I'd like to use nothing but Rapiers and Chain Mail. I'm alternating between the basic Rapier (backstabs) and the Estoc (everything else) but I will clearly require Ricard's Rapier for boss battles and the bigger baddies such as Capra Demons and the like. After much deliberation, I have settled on Darkmoon Blade as my buff, but don't plan on using weapon buffs outside of the aforementioned boss/miniboss battles. As such, I'm not trying to make my build super Faith heavy, and would rather focus my statistics on Dexterity, Endurance and Vitality. Still, I don't want to get steamrolled by bosses and was curious what a good level of investment might be for Faith?

if you plan to mostly use your rapiers then you should only really get 30 faith, just enough to use the spell, at least until late in the game where you have a bit more flexibility with souls. assuming you are going with a knight as the starting class(since they have even starting dex and faith, as well as good attunement), 30 faith and 40 dex would put you at level 53, with 14 vit and 10 endurance. all in all, thats not bad at all for a rapier build. this gives you plenty of levels to spend before the artorias and lord soul areas until you out level Co-op for them. about 22. so thats would be a full 22 points to either split between end and vit, or even a little more into faith for that little extra OOMPH to your attacks. 

all in all, if you are comfortable with your vit and stamina at any point, throw the rest into faith unless dex is below 40. dex and survivability should be your first concern, so if DMB is all you plan to use faith for, hold off on leveling it too much until around the time you are getting it.

Just out of curiosity, if I betray Way of White and join another covenant, does that make me unable to cast any miracles purchased through them?

No, that won't stop you from casting miracles, regardless if they were bought from them or are related to them in some way.

In fact, I'm pretty sure Way of White doesn't have any punishments for doing anything, so go do whatever you need to do.

Alright, very cool. Glad I found this place, always seem to get the answer I'm looking for. Thanks for all the responses!

no problem. and yeah, this place is awesome. they know everything and someone is always willing to help.