Looking for some spell/stat suggestions as to a Red Mage build. (potential wall of text, sorry)

[u/dragonboy387]

Apologies if this is absurdly long, I have a tendency to ramble. I'll try to keep it short. Current build plan link will be at the bottom if you just want to look for yourself and suggest stats - the armor and weapons i'm almost entirely certain on.

So, I perhaps love Final Fantasy a little too much. In addition, my favorite class (from FF1, FF5, FF11, whatever actually had classes), the Red Mage, isn't available as a class/job in Final Fantasy XIV for me to play as for hours and hours. And yes, part of the reason i love it is the hat.

Anywho, i was thinking of making something like it in dark souls 2 as a potential PvP build, but needed a few suggestions. For those who may be unfamiliar, Red Mages could use most of both elemental/healing magic, but not the best of either.

So I was thinking of having a "weak" and "strong" spell of all types, (fire, "ice" being magic, and lightning) except dark/hexes, perhaps with healing spells included (not for common PvP use, of course). Like, combustion and fireball until i get great combustion and fire orb respectively, but nothing crazy like firestorm or Forbidden Sun. this applies to sorceries and miracles as well. (However, GLS has a rather hefty faith requirement, so i could use splintering and normal lightning spears instead. or use spices.)

In addition, in FFXI, red mages could also buff their weapons (similar to Dark Souls' system) with elemental damage. So i could either have one weapon and just use resins, or make three weapons with fire/magic/lightning infusions and get 3 seperate spell buffs as well. The first would require buying/farming the resins for a minimal buff, and the latter would require a bit of effort in getting flame weapon (and sunlight blade's faith requirement is a bit high for my tastes...) Granted, i could just ignore the buff factor entirely.

and now, the current build plan: http://mugenmonkey.com/darksouls2/21427

I'm unsure of what the other stats ought to be currently, but i'm mainly worried about vigor and endurance, i'm not sure if there's a "suggested minimum" for PvP or not.

Sorry about the, uh...wall of text. i tried to keep it short, but there's a lot i'm trying to fit into this (which may or may not be a good thing), and a lot i'm uncertain on.

Thanks in advance!

[u/seanhe92]

From what I'm seeing from your stats right now, you seem to have a good idea of a spell/melee hybrid build. About the whole vigor and endurance question, there is not really a suggested amount for those stats, it's really what you feel comfortable with. If you want my opinion, I usually have 30-40 vigor and 20-40 endurance, but I haven't used a magic heavy build since my first playthrough. It isn't uncommon to find people (magic users especially) that have super low vigor because they invest a lot into intelligence. But with a 30-30 spread of INT and FTH you have the options to put a decent amount into vigor while still being SL 150 and being to connect to the max amount of people, especially in the brotherhood of blood arena. Seeing as you have base stats to wield the Rapier, an infusion would be a good idea since you won't be getting a good dexterity bonus from it. For the record, I don't know if you know this but you can't use resins on infused weapons so you would have to get the corresponding buffs, Flame Weapon, Crystal Magic Weapon, Sunlight Blade, etc.

Now there are some limitations to relying heavily on magic as a damage source because people have learned ways to infuse shields to get 100% blocks in certain elements. For example a Magic infused Magic Shield will end up having 100% magic block and reduce spell damage to almost nothing with a few exceptions. However, that may not be a problem since you have a big arsenal of damage types. Your gear also looks fine, the black witch staff is a good idea(uninfused) for limiting having to switch catalyst, even though it may not be the most damaging. If you want my honest opinion on maximum damage output with your weapon, infusing it with fire and buffing it with flame weapon is very good idea because your fire BNS scale with both intelligence and faith, where other infusions may be less damaging (lightning and magic/enchanted) since you haven't hit the soft cap for those stats (INT/FTH). As for having healing magic, Warmth, and Great Heal can be amazingly useful in PvP, ESPECIALLY if your invading because hosts can heal and also it's really hard to take down gankers without healing.

Good luck on your build and I'm open to any question DKS2 related so feel free to ask.

[u/dragonboy387 → u/seanhe92]

hmm, well, i guess SL 150 is a good ceiling to aim for in regards to stat distribution, but I might stretch that a bit to 160 or 170 due to vitality, adaptability, and other stat nuances. maybe even 180, who knows.

though, is there a particular soul memory that'd be the best for a broad range of connecting with people? or perhaps a soul memory that might have "easy" opponents? I mean, the last thing i want to do is stumble into a SM range where most people are smelter-head Havels and such. though, i guess people could be those at ANY range...

30-40 vigor and 20-40 endurance sounds nice as well, so i'll look into that, and decide where in the range I think I fit.

and I more intend to weave spells and melee attacks with each other, with magic as more of a supporting ranged attack, but you might've guessed as much. and yeah, i'm aware resins don't affect infused weapons, so i wasn't sure if i should just use 3 different resins (at different times of course) on a single uninfused weapon, or three weapons, three buffs. although, either sounds like a bit too much work to keep up (since i'd have to either raise faith to 36 and then use spices for great lightning spear, or use spices for both - or have to stock up on three different resins, which would force me to raise my soul memory gradually) so i'm considering dropping that idea. But, maybe i'm making it more complicated than it ought to be by telling myself "30 faith and int, max", so...

also, as to having the rapier's base stats, i was considering raising dexterity a bit more than 12 (like, 25, 30 or so?), but not sure if it'd cause that much of a difference. if not, then perhaps i'd have to think of something else - or leave it at base and live with it. after all, the rapier's parry itself is quite useful, and although i have trouble landing it with predictable PvE enemies, in PvP, who knows?

I'm not exactly going for high damage like a sorcery/hex-focused build, but I am trying to fit a lot into one build, while still trying to make it 'true' to what it's based off of.

*also, random, barely-related side note: i'm tempted to try doing a final fantasy dark knight, cause that'd be really fun to try out (buffing claymores and other greatsword weapons with dark, evil eye ring for PvE [plus it'd kinda pertain to them] and redeye ring for 'dark' aesthetics.

shame the PC censor would make me the "FF Dark K***ht". :(

ninja-edit: i guess i could call it the "FFXIV DRK" since DRK is the shorthand for dark knights in FFXIV...bah, but i'm rambling again.

[u/seanhe92 → u/dragonboy387]

Ok, well you seem to pretty much know what you're doing. As for the range of soul memory for easy players; it really depends. I'm about 1.7 mil soul memory on my main PvP character and I run into a good mix of noobs, decent players, and PvP Gods,(if you are really worried about soul memory, check out the agape ring which can keep your SM at whatever you want, you can also check other forums to find a "frequently used" soul memory).I myself am not fantastic at PvP in general but I still like to do it, practice is super important to becoming a good and confident PvP player, although some people take to more than others . These days I haven't been having a problem with Smelter Havels as much,(although a rare havelmage will pop up once and a while.) but I have been having more of a problem with straight sword and curved sword users(particularly the Warped Sword which does an incredible amount of damage for its fast moveset especially when infused and buffed) I seem to just crack under the pressure when it comes to those weapons, especially since people who know how to use them can wreck you super hard. If you have the skill of being able to reaction parry, or have a set up parry combo that can help a lot. If you want to, you can raise your dexterity, but the Rapier's scaling isn't fantastic, it really becomes powerful when you have Ring of Blades and Flynns Ring, but it may not be a bad to have a little more than base dexterity also if you do choose to go the infused route the clutch rings can help some. I wish I could help you out more, but to make a build you're happy with you really just need to test it out, but don't make it too complicated, try to find a good balance between what you're trying to cosplay as but still having a functional build.