The 10 Best Dark Souls 3 PVE Builds(1)

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The Dark Souls series is infamous for how difficult it is, making even the most patient of players throw their controllers at the wall. With a game that requires so much patience, it can be beneficial to use a powerful build to make the game less frustrating.

Creating a build in Dark Souls 3 can be intimidating when starting out. A large range of stats, items, and spells can make finding a build somewhat difficult. To help you create a good PvE build, each build in this article had its stat and gear breakdown reorganized. They're now listed in tables at the start of the entry, making it much easier to parse. We've also done a review of some of the builds on this list, noting alternate weapons or rings you might want to use.

, giving you a solution to every problem you'll face. The versatility on offer is some of the best you can find in Dark Souls 3.

5/10Paladin

Stats And Gear

Paladins focus heavily on Faith and Strength, casting lightning spells and healing cantrips in between melee attacks. They serve as a great gish or spellsword class in Dark Souls 3, allowing you to carve through enemies with a large sword while throwing an occasional lightning bolt or healing miracle. This is similar to our last entry, except this build focuses more on Strength instead of Dexterity.

Due to Ashen Flasks and a dedicated mana resource being introduced in Dark Souls 3, you'll need to either scale your Attunement or sacrifice a few Estus Flasks for Ashen variants. Don't let that discourage you. With a 60 Faith stat and the Sunlight Talisman, you can output some powerful Lightning Spears and healing miracles. Sunlight Spear and Lightning Stake will shut down most enemies, while healing miracles will be comparable to an upgraded Estus Flask. Since it's a hybrid build, you'll want to be using rings that enhance your miracles and cast speed to prevent the build from feeling clunky. If you value utility but love melee combat, this build is for you.

4/10Quality Build

Stats And Gear

If you're indecisive about what to play, it's hard to go wrong with a quality build. Quality builds are those that invest equally into Dexterity and Strength to scale a weapon's Attack Rating as high as possible. In practice, this means you can use virtually every weapon in the game.

You can use any weapon you enjoy; just be sure to infuse it with a Refined Gem. If you care about min-maxing, the best weapon for a quality build is the Hollowslayer Greatsword, a boss weapon obtained after killing the Curse-Rotted Greatwood—one of the first bosses you'll face. It scales absurdly well with both Strength and Dexterity, reaching an Attack Rating of 516 when both stats are 40. It also has a great moveset with a healthy mix of hyperarmor (preventing you from getting stunned mid-animation) and swings. If you don't like greatswords, feel free to use any weapon that scales somewhat well with either or both stats. Once again, a Refined Gem will do wonders for this build.

3/10Pure Strength

Stats And Gear

If casting spells doesn't sound appealing, try out a pure Strength build. Allocate at least 60 points into strength and watch as you one-shot all but the toughest of mobs and bosses.

Greatswords are a fantastic weapon of choice for this, with weapons like the Black Knight Sword and Lothric Knight Greatsword having good movesets and great scaling. Ultra greatswords like the Fume Ultra Greatsword allow you to wield weapons twice their size and deal ridiculous amounts of damage. If you can stand the slow playstyle, this is one of the best builds any player can use. Use rings that enhance your Stamina pool; you're going to need it.

2/10Pyromancer

Stats And Gear

With a series focused on linking the fire, it's surprising how pyromancy took a backseat to sorceries and miracles. Thankfully, Dark Souls 3 gives this school of magic a time to shine.

With 40 points in both Faith and Intelligence, pyromancy will deal significant damage and outclass most hexes.Plenty of great damage pyromancies, such as Floating Chaos and Black Serpent, allow you to deal with nearly any situation. Power Within and Flash Sweat are also some fantastic buffs if you want to create a hybrid build. You can even use the Demon Scar to cast pyromancies while cutting through mobs with a burning curved sword. Versatility, damage, defense, this build has it all.

1/10Sellsword Twinblades

Stats And Gear

There's a reason the community calls these pair of curved swords the "Sellsword Winblades." The damage this pair can dish out is nearly unmatched in Dark Souls 3's PvE content.

Funny enough, it's also the easiest build to get going on this list. Pick the Mercenary class, and you'll already start with these blades. Focus on obtaining a Sharp Gem in the early game, then infuse the Sellsword Twinblades. From there, increase your Dexterity stat to 60. You'll be outputting as much damage as some greatswords twice as quickly. It's the reason why so many speedrunners and PvE players use this weapon over others. Equip any rings that increase your Dexterity or Stamina.

Dec-12-2022