The Guide will primarily be covering the stats governing each build, not the gear. Mainly because I am a firm believer in gear being all about personal preference. While there are items that are objectively Better than other items, this is the same game series that people can beat in under 2 hours with a broken straight sword. So with out further disclaimers let's move on to the guide. The only way to have an effective build is to prioritize a stats, not be a jack of all trades. So for your first ever play through you should only level up 3-5 stats. The stats are as follows Vigor- Increases your maximum health Attunment- Increases your number of Spell Slots as well as your maximum amount of FP and Casting Speed. Vitality- Increases your maximum Equip Load Endurance- Increases your Maximum amount of Stamina. Dexterity- Increases your damage with Fast Weapons, as well as your casting speed, and reduces fall damage. Strength- Increase Damage with heavy weapons and the like. Intelligence- Increases the Effectiveness of Sorceries, Some Dark Magic, and Some Pyromancies Faith- Increases the Effectiveness of Miracles, Some Dark Magic, and some Pyromancies. Luck- Increases various elemental damage resistances, item drop rates, and some weapons Scale with Luck. Below are some builds with stats listed in level of priority. Melee: Strength build Vigor, Strength, Endurance, Vitality Starting Class: Knight, Warrior, Cleric, or Deprived Dex Build Vigor, Dex, Endurance, Vitality Starting Class: Mercenary, Assassin, Herald, or Deprived Quality build Vigor, Strength & Dex, Endurance, Vitality Starting Class: Knight, Warrior, Cleric, Mercenary, Assassin, Herald or Deprived Luck build(yes there are luck scaling weapons) Vigor, Luck, Endurance, Vitality Starting Class: Thief, Warrior, or Deprived. Magic: Sorcery: Vigor, Intelligence, Attunment, Endurance Starting Class: Sorcerer, Assassin, Mercenary, or Deprived. Miracles: Vigor, Faith, Attunment, Endurance Starting Class: Cleric, Herald, Warrior, or Deprived. Pyromancy: Vigor, Dex, Attunment, Endurance. (Pyromancy damage is primarily increased by leveling up your Pyromancy flame with upgrade materials, how ever Pyromancy spells can still scale off of Intelligence and faith as well) Starting class: Pyromancer, Sorcerer, Cleric, Herald, Assassin, or Deprived Dark Magic: Vigor, Int & Faith, Attunment, Endurance. Starting Class: Pyromancer, Sorcerer, Cleric, Herald, Assassin, or Deprived Fellow Souls Veterans Feel free to add to this post in any way you see fit. And help out down below. Edit: Weapon Scaling and Infusion. All weapons have a character stat that they scale with the best, scaling is when your character attributes increases the damage of your weapon. The higher the scaling rank the more of a bonus you get. The Ranks are as follows. S- Highest Rank, Weapon scales extremely well with the stat in question. A- Second Highest Rank B- Third Highest Rank C- Third Lowest Rank D- Second Lowest Rank E- Lowest Rank, weapon scales horribly with the stat in question. In order to improve a weapon's base damage and scaling you can either infuse it or reinforce it. Reinforcing your weapon is the simplest way of increasing its damage and scaling, the maximum number of times you can reinforce normal weapons is 10. Special weapons can only reinforced 5 times. To reinforce a weapon you'll need larger and larger pieces of Titanite. (Shard, Large Shard, Chunk, Slab) Infusion is another story entirely. Infusion requires gems, each gem changes the base attributes of a weapon. Don't worry you can undo infusion and you can both reinforce and infuse a weapon. However a weapon can only have one type of infusion active at any time. Gems are as follows Shivering Stone- Removes infusion Refined Gem- Balances Str&Dex Scaling, reduces Base Damage. Raw Gem- Removes all scaling, increases Base damage. Fire Gem- Removes all scaling, decreases base damage, adds Fire Damage. Heavy Gem- Increases Strength Scaling, decreases Base Damage. Sharp Gem- Increases Dexterity Scaling, decreases Base Damage. Poison Gem- Removes all scaling, decreases Base Damage, adds Poison Damage. Crystal Gem- Removes Str&Dex Scaling, Adds Intelligence Scaling, Adds Magic Damage, decreases Base Damage. Blessed Gem- Removes Str&Dex Scaling, Adds Faith Scaling, adds Health Recovery, decreases Base Damage. Deep Gem- Removes all Scaling, Decreases Base Damage, adds Dark damage. Dark Gem- Removes Str&Dex Scaling, adds Faith&Int Scaling, adds Dark Damage, decreases Base Damage. Blood Gem- Removes all scaling, adds Bleed Damage, Decreases Base Damage. Hollow Gem- Removes most Scalings, adds Luck Scaling, gain more Luck while Hollow, decreases Base Damage. As a disclaimer I will that the base damage reduction for infusion is not noticeable if your weapon scales well off of your stats well. In fact often times you do far more damage with an infused weapon than a non infused weapon. And the Most important thing you need to know is to Praise the Mother-blam!-ing Sun \[T]/ [spoiler]also git gud[/spoiler]