Found loads of different builds and weapons to be effective. In the right hands, almost anything's viable and deadly. Personally, I have about 4 favorites, though: [spoiler]Quality build had to be about the most versatile, left plenty of room for lots of vigor and endurance while sticking to meta, and allowed for me to swap out to different weapons depending on the opponent, although a straight sword usually works well for a wider variety of fights. Typically just ran around with a refined dark sword, dragonrider bow, caestus, and shield of want. Was a tad boring, though. Pyromancer with caestus and chaos dark sword was a PVE monster and could devastate people super quick. Only problem was landing spells - it wasn't 100% in that department, but did insane damage when it did hit the mark. Quality/Faith build using Lothric Knight Greatsword got really old with all the buffs required, but holy hell could it reach a sick AR. It was almost always a OHKO in PVP, but it had weaknesses as well: estocs, rapiers, fast opponents, opponents with high resistance to lightning, etc. Most fun I've had is with the hollow luck/bleed build I've been running the past week or so. I mainly use Anri's Straight Sword but sometimes swap out to other weapons like Astora's Greatsword, Warden Twinblades, caestus, light crossbow, hollow shield, etc. This build has to be my favorite so far - plenty of speed, damage, Vig, End, and even enough vitality for fashion souls. It's been super effective in PVE. Have yet to lose in PVP yet, so I'd say it looks to be highly effective in PVP as well. It's just a very versatile, swordplay based, undead knight in shining armor kinda build - seriously fun build.[/spoiler]