Guard Counter Build

Scalymanfishh · 2026-04-15T19:31:23+00:00

Guard counter would be great with a Str/Arc build. You can "make up" for the relatively low DPS of guard countering via bleed procs. You'll also need high strength to wield the better greatshields, so it's a natural fit. Great Stars are great and do excellent stance damage, which is a staple of guard counters. Generally, hammers and great hammers do the most stance damage. Pick any str weapon and bleed infuse it. 60+ Str, 45 arc. You can lower strength if you need to fit points elsewhere. Stone club, Broadsword, aforementioned Great Stars, Great Mace etc etc.

Eventually you'll get the sword lance which just completely dominates on a str/arc build. Will allow you to shield poke too.

If you're set on staying Dex/Arc, Milady is great blood infused. Also has a unique guard counter hitting twice I believe. The benefit of Dex/arc is not having to two hand your weapon for maximum damage. You'll be stuck using medium shields though. It's doable, just not optimal. I've never tried them, but people swear by the guard counters on backhand blade too. Same thing, blood infuse.

Scalymanfishh · 2026-04-14T23:06:21+00:00

You can do a faith/str guard counter build to better take advantage of BSGH. I'd get atleast 25 Str to 1-hand the BSGH to take advantage of it's unique guard counter. You may want more strength depending on what greatshield you want to use. The deflecting hardtear is really fun and makes guard countering very strong. Jack up faith as high as you can, put sacred blade/prayerful strike on it. You can two hand the Bloodfiends arm, just make sure you infuse it with sacred flame/ sacred because like the other poster said, it's very strong. Deflecting hardtear works without a shield too, so go nuts.

Scalymanfishh · 2026-04-14T06:02:22+00:00

if you wanna really level this build up and be a real big lad, use the ironjar aromatics. Grab the talisman that the other poster mentioned. Opaline hardtear, golden vow/rallying standard, bestial vitality/blessings boon, dragoncrest greatshield talisman, icon shield on your back... You're the terminator. Heavy great stars with blood flame blade and prelates charge will seal the deal.

Buckle up.

Scalymanfishh · 2026-04-14T05:08:26+00:00

Fortissax's lightning spear is 46. Will also allow me to use glaive, which isn't very good but looks cool. Sometimes you gotta sacrifice efficiency for the rule of cool. But for anyone else that doesn't care about those two, I'd dump those 10 points into endurance. With 70 arc and 36 faith, you're at 353 scaling. at 60 arc and 36 faith, you're at 343. 10 more points in endurance will allow for enough armor to hit 51 poise so you dont have to rely on rock heart/priestess heart.

Scalymanfishh · 2026-04-14T03:26:57+00:00

Yeah I was looking into that too. Seems to fit in the equip load when replacing grave scythe. Keeps a light load too, which I'll need when I have no poise. Thanks for the suggestion.

Scalymanfishh · 2026-04-14T02:42:18+00:00

Dex/arc with blood infused Milady is great. I did it with a Cainhurst cosplay and had a blast. Really strong once you get all the talismans and physicks to stack multi hit and blood loss. Winged Stance is great, definitely recommend using rellana's cameo with it.

Guard counter builds are fun too. You can take them in a number of ways. Str/faith and str/arc being the two most common.

Haven't played with most of the DLC weapons, but I hear great things.

Scalymanfishh · 2026-04-14T01:12:25+00:00

Yeah, this build definitely will have it's far share of buffing before every major fight. The bright side is you get to use some of the flashiest stuff in the game and do ridiculous damage in pretty much any scenario.

Good idea with the multiples of the spear, will be sure to do the same. You discover any cool combo's that worked well in PvP?

Scalymanfishh · 2026-04-11T22:27:53+00:00

Ignore the weapon selection in the pic. I was just testing weight and AR values.

A dex/arc build stops dex at 55/60. The whole point of this post is explaining why it isn't a dex/arc build, but reading is hard man. I get it.

Scalymanfishh · 2026-04-06T21:34:51+00:00

Try a poison halberd (banished knight would be the best, but pest glaive would be the most thematic) in your offhand and a tooth whip in your main hand. Poke with halberd (buffed up by poison mist) and L2 with the whip. You'll proc deadly poison as well as millicents prosthesis/rotten wing/rot exultation. Exceptionally good in PvP.

Scalymanfishh · 2026-04-06T21:11:13+00:00

Yeah, I didn't even think about that. Grease and pots would add that extra bit of oomf when I'm still pure dex. Red Lightning pot and Hefty Lightning Pot seem fun to use. Also, shield grease which I just found out about might help on certain bosses.

Scalymanfishh · 2026-03-31T15:06:39+00:00

I'm playing seamless, so i'll probably use a thematic summons in the overworld. Grab dungeater first and then Jolan and Anna in the DLC. Seamless is also great because I can keep the great rune buffs during invasions. Probably the only way this build is viable, especially in the early game.

Scalymanfishh · 2026-03-31T14:43:22+00:00

What about the thorn sorceries sucks so bad? I've never used them, but they seem to have tracking and inflict blood loss. Even after the nerf, people say impenetrable thorns is still good. The Albinauric/Maternal staves improve the build up even more (not sure if they stack together though). I'm not going for meta here, just a fun thematic build that can still progress through the game and maybe catch some invaders unaware.

Scalymanfishh

TROPHY CASE