New Player Help

Hey I just recently started playing DS, I decided to make my starting class a cleric and had a couple of questions.

1- What equipment (armor / weapons) is optimal (or most recommended) in order to get through PvE while still performing solid in PvP?

2- I'm well aware that you can acquire some OP items rather early in the game if you choose the Master Key as a starting gift, also for PvE should i bring my faith up to 25 right away, join the Sunbros and get the lightning spear? In all the videos I've watched it seems as it does rather good damage against bosses and tough enemies.

You probably should do the Sunbro rout since that'll give you a way to do high-damage without TOO much work. Plus, co-op is fun as HECK. I'm in Sunbro on my pyromancer, and I'm just collecting the medals to count how many people I've helped So far, around 60 haha!

Weapons you'll want. Personally, I love the halberd. My favorite is the gargoyle halberd. I really love the reach XD, but you should look on the wiki to see what weapons scale well with Faith for what you'll want in the long run.
If you just want a normal weapon, the Uchigatana is pretty popular, but it does some pretty small base damage, and all it's damage is in it's bleed. Meaning it does the majority of it's damage to things you can hit 5 times in a row.
Another popular weapon is the balder side sword. Usually called the Swag Sword. It's a rapier, so it's like a "spear sword." Does pretty good damage, is pretty fast, and can be used behind your shield if you so desire.
In the end, it's all about what move set you want if you want a "normal" weapon. Halberds, straight swords, rapiers, axes, greataxes, etc all have different move sets. It's all about what you prefer, because once you upgrade the weapon to max, they all do about the same DPS (if you take away the scaling factor).
So, I'd probably upgrade a normal weapon to a high Divine or Occult so it scales with faith, and just pick a weapon with a good move set. But I've never done a healer, so I wouldn't know how well the damage is on a Divine or Occult. I just know Lightning is usually best for a non-scaling character like Pyromancer haha!

I see your point, should i invest heavy into dex also in order to speed up my casting or would 20-25 dex be ok for that purpose?

I just recently learned about this "Dex speeds casting" idea. So I have NO idea. Someone else is going to have to answer that question, I'm afraid.

Just checked on the wiki and it says that it does, i will have to try this out as it seems like a +, specially when using lightning spear or wrath of god. One last question, to be able to buy the wrath of god miracle do i just need to ring one of the bells and go to firelynk shrine and buy it off of Rhea* or is there something more to it?

I believe this video will show you how it affects casting.
Btw, I am quoting Tolvo with the imbedded video. Took it from an earlier post he posted about this question.

Like I said, I've never done a healer or any faith build. Soooo, I can't answer that question. The wiki should have the answer to where you can find that spell. I doubt you get it from ringing the bell. I haven't gotten it, and I've rang both of them.

For PvE the Sunlight spears are absolutely great, as well with 3 more faith from the twenty five you can get WotG from Reah which is great for PvP, though most just spam it. In regards to armor that is common in both, Giant's, Black Iron, and Havel's set are very common. How heavy do you plan on having this character be? A really great set I think is the upgraded Knight/Elite Knight. The Elite gives more defense, but weighs a bit more. The regular Knight set actually gives you more poise though.

EDIT: No need to credit me Zeplin haha, the real credit goes to the guy who actually made the video.

Yeah. They had to nerf the Elite Knight Set's poise! GAH! And I didn't notice that sentence in the wiki that mentioned "pay attention to your poise because it may be what it was before the nerf depending on your country/region." So I upgraded my elite knight chest to +8 and the helmet to +5. I guess it ain't too bad, but it feels like a waste of chunks. =/

... That was COMPLETELY off-topic. Oh well. *send*

Thanks for the replies guys.

Well i just got my guy up to 25 faith yesterday and I'm getting set to pump dex while using an uchigatana +5 regular (or is it called raw) just rang the first bell at the church, wearing the Sunbro armor +2 on chest legs and arms, and gargoyle helm +3. I also have the sword of artorias +3 for a nice dmg vs undead. Question though.

1- If i upgrade my uchigatana to divine then it'll start scaling with faith right? It's doing this advisable?

Well there are two ways to go about it, one will give you more damage but require you to either be of a Covenant, or kill a certain boss. You can get your faith to 30 and use DMB, or SLB. DMB does more damage at high ranks, but you need to be a Darkmoon to use it. SLB you'll have to kill Gwyndolin to get, meaning you won't be able to use DMB or be a Darkmoon until you get into the next game.

Divine scales with faith and Str/Dex on your weapon. There is also Occult, which causes higher Faith scaling but lowers your Dex/Str scaling even further. So, if you aren't interested in buffing Divine would be useful to you. As well it also makes skeletons stay dead when you use Divine weapons on them.

What are your stats at right now? What sl (soul level) are you?

@Tolvo

At the moment I'm sl22

Vit[11] Attunment[12] Endurance[10]Strength[14]Dex[14]Resistance[11]Intelligence[8]Faith[25]

Psn?

For this guy it should be under

I-IXIXIXI-I

What level do you want to cap your character at?

Well i want to hit 99 in faith, dex, and vit just for the heck of it

You aren't going to do much online with this character then, because it is based off of your level so you will be way over levelled. You'll still find some people, but not nearly as often as say, SL120-225 range.

I have a SL 478 and that is on NG+++++ only time i get pvp is when darkwraith invades which is quite often actually, thats vit 99 End 99 strengh 50, vit 50, intel 50 bit of a hardass, but i use him to push the limits of the offline game soo if you want to get your toon that high it is possible and u will still get invaded and if you sin loads you can also get some darkmoon action and also if you join forest covenant or blades of the darkmoon using there rings you can invade a lower level player, though it is highly unfair having a godlike toon invade people even if there Gankers

OR you can ignore all of these people, stay away from the wiki, and have your first playthrough be as confusing, challenging and rewarding as from intended.

how brutal are the first few hours of gameplay!!!! dayumn