by Rynn Sun May 27, 2012 7:23 amBefore I left for a very short vacation from the forums, I posted a build that I was working on that primarily used daggers, and I planned on using pyromancy to punish people if I parried them. It has had quite an evolution however, and here is how it's changed <3.
http://tinyurl.com/6whw82l
Before let's continue, I'd like to remind all of you... I don't exactly play by a silly rulebook, and so any limitation I put on myself, I've got no problem removing without even batting my eyes if deemed unnecessary. I'll use TWoP to keep a person in place, and I'll also use WoTG without batting an eye if a person is being stubborn and not moving. Thusforth we reach the balance this build sits on. I think any person attempting to play by the honor standard should have the tools unnecessary to forget the honor standard on hand. I always try to build any serious build I make with the tools unnecessary for this, and I carry them on hand.
So the first thing to know about this build, is it makes you look like a freaking tool <3. The armor setup is somewhat overdone, but it's the lightest armor to poise ratio you can use to get 77 poise. This is absolutely a benchmark value and I try to hit it with -all- my builds. That's not important though.
I chose to use a DMB dagger, and I made some observations. The Bandits knife swings slower, and is in fact easier to parry then the Dagger and the Parry Knife. The Dagger and Parry Knife also weigh half a pound less. If my intent is anything but to backstab, I'd reccomend using these instead. With 77 poise, you can do 1890 damage before a zweihander hits you the second time. With 77 poise and 2143 HP, this means you can survive 4 hits, and do 2700 damage before those 4 hits collide.
This means you can spam R1 and kill any weapon/stat combination EXCEPT
Black Knight Greataxe with 66 STR, two handed, from a opponent with 1800 HP or more.
Heavy Weaponry, DMB, + PW.
Spamming R1 is likely to get you killed from any opponent that understands parrying, so there is a viable solution you can attempt to circumnavigate this. If your facing an opponent that has even once attempted to parry you, then upon the next "opening" where he attempts a parry, toss out a WoTG, to punish the parry. The WoTG is actually counted as counter damage and will do significantly more damage. Cast it again the next time he tries to parry. While more risky, I found a heavy attack would be outright missed by the parry 90% of the time, allowing me to do 400 damage right through their attempt to end me. Please note this build is not build around parrying or backstabbing, even with DMB on you'll only do 600 damage with a parry. A riposte might as well be used to mock them. Upon performing a riposte or backstab however, spam R1 while they are standing up. Daggers attack insanely fast, and there is an incredibly high chance that just like a combustion their attempt at dodging will result in them being hit anyway. This builds only major weakness is estus chugging, and if you're willing to do something "cheap", chugging can easily be punished with the Chaos Rapier.
Primarily, this build is the definition of attrition. The DMB or SLB dagger does about 230 chip damage every 2 seconds, and can outright kill a person whom tries to tank the blows in less then 3. The dagger takes nearly no stamina to swing, and it's difficult to parry from the "blocking" position, so unless they bling parry the first swing, an attempt at parrying after blocking a blow results in taking 120-400 damage (depending on shield) immediatly, with no attempt at success. It takes spamming parry 3 times in a row to "catch up" to your swing and actually get a parry. That's 480-1600 damage, depending on the shield. (As mentioned, wrath of gods for parry spammers!). With 2143 HP, you can tank a nearly unlimited amount of blows while pumping out a truly unmatched amount of DPS that litterally no other weapon in the game can beat. (The bandits knife is not only easier to parry, but even with the bleed effect manages to usually inflict less damage per second).
26 more points in dexterity are honestly wasted, and should not be used. The extra 90 or so AR you receive doesn't benefit your DPS enough to really effect many battles. Be wary of parry knives or other 'special' parry animations, they catch the knife 100% of the time, they can't miss the parry due to the rate of your attacks.
http://tinyurl.com/6whw82l
Before let's continue, I'd like to remind all of you... I don't exactly play by a silly rulebook, and so any limitation I put on myself, I've got no problem removing without even batting my eyes if deemed unnecessary. I'll use TWoP to keep a person in place, and I'll also use WoTG without batting an eye if a person is being stubborn and not moving. Thusforth we reach the balance this build sits on. I think any person attempting to play by the honor standard should have the tools unnecessary to forget the honor standard on hand. I always try to build any serious build I make with the tools unnecessary for this, and I carry them on hand.
So the first thing to know about this build, is it makes you look like a freaking tool <3. The armor setup is somewhat overdone, but it's the lightest armor to poise ratio you can use to get 77 poise. This is absolutely a benchmark value and I try to hit it with -all- my builds. That's not important though.
I chose to use a DMB dagger, and I made some observations. The Bandits knife swings slower, and is in fact easier to parry then the Dagger and the Parry Knife. The Dagger and Parry Knife also weigh half a pound less. If my intent is anything but to backstab, I'd reccomend using these instead. With 77 poise, you can do 1890 damage before a zweihander hits you the second time. With 77 poise and 2143 HP, this means you can survive 4 hits, and do 2700 damage before those 4 hits collide.
This means you can spam R1 and kill any weapon/stat combination EXCEPT
Black Knight Greataxe with 66 STR, two handed, from a opponent with 1800 HP or more.
Heavy Weaponry, DMB, + PW.
Spamming R1 is likely to get you killed from any opponent that understands parrying, so there is a viable solution you can attempt to circumnavigate this. If your facing an opponent that has even once attempted to parry you, then upon the next "opening" where he attempts a parry, toss out a WoTG, to punish the parry. The WoTG is actually counted as counter damage and will do significantly more damage. Cast it again the next time he tries to parry. While more risky, I found a heavy attack would be outright missed by the parry 90% of the time, allowing me to do 400 damage right through their attempt to end me. Please note this build is not build around parrying or backstabbing, even with DMB on you'll only do 600 damage with a parry. A riposte might as well be used to mock them. Upon performing a riposte or backstab however, spam R1 while they are standing up. Daggers attack insanely fast, and there is an incredibly high chance that just like a combustion their attempt at dodging will result in them being hit anyway. This builds only major weakness is estus chugging, and if you're willing to do something "cheap", chugging can easily be punished with the Chaos Rapier.
Primarily, this build is the definition of attrition. The DMB or SLB dagger does about 230 chip damage every 2 seconds, and can outright kill a person whom tries to tank the blows in less then 3. The dagger takes nearly no stamina to swing, and it's difficult to parry from the "blocking" position, so unless they bling parry the first swing, an attempt at parrying after blocking a blow results in taking 120-400 damage (depending on shield) immediatly, with no attempt at success. It takes spamming parry 3 times in a row to "catch up" to your swing and actually get a parry. That's 480-1600 damage, depending on the shield. (As mentioned, wrath of gods for parry spammers!). With 2143 HP, you can tank a nearly unlimited amount of blows while pumping out a truly unmatched amount of DPS that litterally no other weapon in the game can beat. (The bandits knife is not only easier to parry, but even with the bleed effect manages to usually inflict less damage per second).
26 more points in dexterity are honestly wasted, and should not be used. The extra 90 or so AR you receive doesn't benefit your DPS enough to really effect many battles. Be wary of parry knives or other 'special' parry animations, they catch the knife 100% of the time, they can't miss the parry due to the rate of your attacks.
