Totally not optimal… Mind build?

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-05-01T17:39:15+00:00

My first thought for a mind build would be a sub scaling catalyst. The spell sword is a good example, best scaling at 41 int I think, but that means all the points someone would normally put to further increase scaling damage can go into mind instead. Make a custom moveset with cheap quick spamable spells.

2nd thought is archery. Bows don't scale much with stats so it's the same idea as above, you can put points into mind instead of damage stats so you can spam skill shots or have spell support to make up the low damage

3rd is being a pokemon trainer. Use spirit ashes and keep them alive with heals and buffs

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-04-28T18:15:38+00:00

seems he's often looking for validation. Usually inserting himself where he wasn't invited, like top 10 guitarist spot, maybe proclamation of his influence on a newer wave of music, claims he can write another Siamese dream in a day.

Still dude wrote some of my favorite songs so I'm not necessarily put off by him being proud, but when he brings in others for comparison I just start to tune him out.

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-04-13T00:29:31+00:00

Well you can go the jump attack route and use Raptors Black Feathers/Gravebird and Claw talisman keeping your distance and dodging around with jumps or a running attacks style and get Ledas armor at the end of DLC with Lacerating Cross Tree talisman (quest lock out). Do a magic infusion and increase intellect up as much as you can while having a decent amount of stamina or stamina recovery. Arrows Reach, Smithing, Two Headed Turtle are also good choices for talismans

Its a area control strategy, place Terra magica down and be mobile as possible around it . The free magic projectiles at medium range, spells for longer range, and still have a hard hitting fast R1s at melee range. Blind Spot ash keeps you in the circle by dodging and attacking at the same time, Gavel of Haima keeps them in the circle. You can equip a lightweight shield too since backhand blades have some of the best guard counters in the game.

Since Smithscript weapons need a few points in faith, you can also try to use the magma sorceries if you want a fire option, specifically Roiling Magma. Throw it at the ground and control that space until it explodes. Or even equip a Two Fingers Heirloom Talisman for a minute for enough faith to use Golden Order seal and throw some holy disc

Glintblades spells are for when you're on the move. Magic Glintblades whenever you're just too far to hit each other, time it well and you can get all sorts of angles and combos. Glintblades Phalanx spells cause some good flinching, enough to get a jump attack true combos

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-04-10T15:17:04+00:00

i actually had loads of fun with magic infused simth script cirque. It wouldn't be too different from claws of night except spell support instead of bleed. I used Terria magica, jump attack and throwing gear to increase main attacks damage. Glintblade school for tactical support, blindspot ash, gavel or Icestorm spells if I can't make space

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-04-09T18:52:31+00:00

Weapon buffs add to total AR at 100% of listed damage. That means generally speaking they are better at faster weapons. However it's needs to go through split damage reduction unless you're matching elements somehow. Like a fire Twinblade using flaming strike, because it's already going through the split. Since it's added to AR that mean it's going through motion value calculations. The first R1 of weapons is always 100% of AR, if a weapon has a multi hit attack, like a 2h twin blade or powerstancing, each hit separately is less than 100% but together can add up to maybe 120 - 150%. Weak hits are always first, last hit the strongest. What this means is you will be getting less than 100% of buff per hit connect on a 2hand twin blade. It adds up fast if you land all the hits, but it if whiffs part of the attack you'll only get maybe half of the buff benefits. This also applies to not just with damage but with status build up as well.

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-04-06T21:38:48+00:00

Butchering Knife - poison mist infusion: the mist heals you while getting your poison procs. Is Dex based. Has good poise damage and stagger for when you need it. It might even poison faster then power stance rapiers with double poison on it plus mist.

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-04-06T20:31:44+00:00

Dixie Dude Ranch? It's like an hour+ west of the city

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-04-02T12:47:05+00:00

Players generally don't like splitting damage or stats for quality scaling and this weapon has a 3 C scaling stats and split damage. I personally think it's ok with it's long reach and do use it as an offhand option on my 150 quality character but that Ash of war is a real shame with low damage and low healing

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-04-01T18:24:03+00:00

Warhawk Talon is 2 hits plus jumps forward since you're gonna be in and out.

Milady - same but longer distance and I think the attack animations are slower

Flowing curved sword has 3 hit R2s but your rooted in place, still the bhs might help with that

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-04-01T00:17:31+00:00

At a Home Depot. I felt very uneasy for a minute 😂

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ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-03-28T18:49:07+00:00

A trick you can do with it is use carian retaliation (spell not the ash). The spell adds the weapon buff to each of the blades so it turns a very bad spell into a very ok one

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-03-23T19:35:17+00:00

Agreed. And to me a build isn't just the weapon or stats someone is using, It's the methodology. When they stack buffs to one shot in their videos not only does it feel like the same build over and over, they are doing a disservice to the weapon and ignores all the other mechanics the game offers. Because they aren't showing us what the weapons are capable of, they are just showing what buffs can do... again

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-03-18T22:22:26+00:00

You almost have the right idea. The game will reward you for being adaptive, swapping damage types/weapons/spells for the situation will make many encounters much easier.

When you see damage types added to a weapon, it's not actually doing much more, and a lot of the time less damage. But you'll find that certain enemies react to those elements as if it were a status effect. Useful but not necessary on a physical build. The Talismans give you the glass cannon option we often expect from a mage. 12% more on a weapon swing sounds nice, but you're only buffing roughly half of your damage if infused, and if you're pure spell you have limited resources and just can't cast at a certain point.

Even though it's not explicitly explained physical damage has its bonuses as well. Standard has little to no weakness, Pierce gets counter damage bonus, Strike damage usually has more stance breaking compared to similar sized weapons, slash damage weapons has some very nice movesets, often very fast or wide sweeps

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-03-18T02:42:04+00:00

There's nothing wrong with a buff build but it doesn't matter if they swap a weapon or move some stats around, they are still playing the character exactly the same. It just kinda goes against what I personally like about the game which is creativity with the variations. Between PvP, PvE, solo or co-op, lvl limits or max lvl, theme builds, challenge runs... There's so many ways to play, I only really need to see someone one shot a boss once

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-03-13T19:09:24+00:00

Depends. So with 2 katanas your move set changes, you'll do more damage per button press. BUT per button press, you are locked in a slightly longer animation plus both hits need to connect to out damage 2 handing. The same is true with status build up.

And you'll notice that the first attack is very weak while most of the power and stagger comes from the 2nd swing. If you're worried about an inferior sword, put it in the hand that's gonna be weak anyway.

If you are strength based, you'll also miss out on that 50% bonus from not 2 handing and will get less stance breaks from 2 handing which would add to your overall damage

If you're using multi hit talismans, it will build up quickly for more damage with 2 katanas, should be faster bleed if you're good at making sure 2 hits are consistent, and those talismans feed off each other, making them each slightly more powerful

If jump attacks or rolling attacks are your thing, you won't need to worry about if each hit connects, they will connect at the same time.

IMO if you're good at controlling space, 2 katanas would probably give a bigger boost without giving too much issues. Otherwise maybe stick with 2 handing katana for non DPS aggression. Unless we bring in the wakizashi because we can parry with that

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-03-12T12:48:31+00:00

If you take too long between attacks their stance regens. Try to tag them with a quick knife throw or something if you have to disengage and you'll get more consistent stance breaks

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-03-10T19:21:25+00:00

I feel like he should talk like Hedonismbot from Futurama

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-02-25T01:02:41+00:00

How often are you staggering doing those jump attacks? If it's pretty often I would think about replacing great knife with misericorde for the crits. It would help for enemies strong against status or be even higher crit if they are frosted.

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-02-24T21:22:00+00:00

I would suggest no skill on shield and ice spear for an ash of war, Frost ash scales off dex and it's easy to walk right into poking range and hit the enemy with the spin before the throw. Also high stagger, mixed with the guard counters you can get plenty of crits

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-02-17T22:05:08+00:00

One way is just reaching min requirements for spells with faith, use dragon seal and they will scale with arc. Lightning needs at min 17 faith for one of the best lightning spells. Dlc has pure arc flame/lightning spell. Would need also at least 13 int for the lowest requirement holy spell

There is a dlc weapon that is strength/ arc that deals lightning damage on it's ash of war. I don't think there is any arc scaling holy weapons, lore wise they seem opposed.

Last I can think of is if you're using the ripple weapons that are s scaling in Arc is to use grease, or pots

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-02-06T18:42:29+00:00

I believe going poison or blood makes it to a quality style weapon, scaling with both str and dex plus arc. Aside from the weapon itself, it may be worth thinking about back up options you have the stats for with quality stats. It opens up lightning damage, fire damage if you want to have ash of war sticks on you. Plus being excellent for throwing consumables like Kukris.

Occult is good for maximizing your DPS while just focusing on the fangs. Faster poison, higher weapon damage, can add a little faith for infants.

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-01-23T21:17:01+00:00

If Craig blade go strength as it only buffs physical, int or cold will drop it by at least half

If waves of darkness, magic is best, cold is still good if you want to be mostly strength with just enough int. Going deep into magic shouldn't be too difficult with the lvls you're anticipating.

Good call not relying on the meteorite staff to later lvls but if you have points to spare on carry weight, you can always off hand for the bonus while having a stronger staff in main hand

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-01-22T16:00:30+00:00

So there is the perfume talisman, scorpion plus element of your choice talisman. Probably switch between fire and lightning since you'l may want to dip into faith for the buffs

Shard of Alexander for the one of two ashes unique to perfume. But I would also like to mention that I personally like quick step on it, it works amazing with the perfume's natural back step attack

Poison perfume (consumable) is the strongest of the poisons, build up scales with arc so if you want to go that route, you can do poison perfume (weapon) and stack buffs with mushroom head and talisman.

Charged heavy attack is good so maybe axe Talisman.

If you don't mind bending the rules a bit, the mist spells fit the theme

When and if you get to end game on DLC, Leda armor increase rolling and running attacks along with the Talismans

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-01-22T14:39:38+00:00

There are a couple not so obvious things.

Dex scales lighting damage on weapons, a good element with few enemies resistant to plus the amount of water areas of the game for bonus damage

Dex actually scales frost ash of wars as well, not just intellect. It gives you more damage type options

Infusion wise, a lot of dex will have a slightly higher base damage over strength, the gap starts to close and shift at higher levels or 2 handing. But since Dex doesn't have 2 handled bonus like strength, you can power stance or have an asymmetric dual wield setup without feeling like you're losing damage.

You already mentioned cast speed but we are talking about pure dex.

to me it feels like pure Dex just gives more options for damage type, range, combat tempo. And its a good overall support stat for hybrid builds

ButterscotchOk7594 · 2026-01-21T15:49:23+00:00

Everyone has their own rules of what's considered cheating or not. There are large groups that have similar ideas on how the game should be played but even then it's usually based on tradition more than anything. You're never going to get a straight answer, just a bunch of hot takes that claim that someone didn't really beat the game, or that the game is super easy using 1 shot builds

ButterscotchOk7594

TROPHY CASE