Mastering the Dark Souls 3 Faith Build: An Expert‘s Guide
As a long-time Souls player with over 500 hours of experience running faith builds, I‘m here to share everything I‘ve learned about mastering the cleric life. This expanded guide dives deep into optimizing your holy warrior from start to finish.
Choosing the Right Starting Class
While Cleric lets you access miracles sooner, Pyromancer turns out better in many cases thanks to balanced starting stats. Here‘s a comparison:
| Class | Early Pros | Early Cons | Best Build Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cleric | Highest starting Faith | Lower health, stamina, equip load | Glass cannon |
| Pyromancer | More vigour and attunement | Weaker offensive miracles initially | Tanky cleric |
Pyromancers can wield better armour and weapons early on while still using fire spells to deal damage at range. This makes the opening areas much easier compared to squishy Clerics.
By level 50, Pyromancers can match Clerics in faith for lightning spells while having more survivability. This works better for most players.
Leveling Priorities and Benchmarks
Allocating your levels properly is crucial to staying on track. Here are two solid builder frameworks to follow:
Glass Cannon Cleric
| Level | Vigor | Attunement | Endurance | Vitality | Strength | Dexterity | Intelligence | Faith | Luck |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 10 | 14 | 10 | 8 | 12 | 14 | 7 | 16 | 11 |
| 50 | 20 | 30 | 12 | 11 | 16 | 18 | 8 | 60 | 7 |
| 100 | 27 | 30 | 25 | 11 | 16 | 18 | 8 | 80 | 7 |
| 125 | 35 | 30 | 30 | 11 | 16 | 18 | 8 | 99 | 7 |
Focused on maxing out miracle damage potential at the expense of defense. Tears of Denial is heavily relied on for survival.
Tanky Lightning Cleric
| Level | Vigor | Attunement | Endurance | Vitality | Strength | Dexterity | Intelligence | Faith | Luck |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 15 | 12 | 12 | 15 | 14 | 12 | 8 | 14 | 11 |
| 70 | 39 | 25 | 25 | 18 | 20 | 16 | 8 | 60 | 7 |
| 120 | 44 | 30 | 34 | 31 | 24 | 18 | 8 | 60 | 7 |
Still hits the 60 faith soft-cap but prioritizes vigor, endurance and vitality instead. Can wield heavier armor and weapons as well.
Offensive Spells Breakdown
Here are all the key lightning based offensive miracles available to faith builds:
| Spell | FP Cost | Range | AR | Scaling | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lightning Spear | 5 | Medium | 487 | S Faith | Irithyll Dungeon |
| Great Lightning Spear | 8 | Medium | 580 | S Faith | Kill Dragonslayer Armor |
| Sunlight Spear | 10 | Very Long | 676 | S Faith | Kill Nameless King |
| Stake Lightning | 30 | Very Short | 690 | A Faith | Smouldering Lake |
| Lightning Storm | 45 | Medium | 504 | B Faith | Kill Nameless King |
| Lightning Arrow | 14 | Very Long | 470 | B Faith | Archdragon Peak |
Sunlight Spear and Lightning Storm hit the hardest but cost a ton of FP. Stake and Arrows offer excellent efficiency instead.
Essential Rings and Armor
These equipment pieces will amplify your miracles and provide protection:
Rings
- Sage Ring +2 (+50 virtual Dex for cast speed)
- Morne’s Ring (+12% miracle damage)
- Ring of the Sun’s First Born (+20% miracle damage)
- Ring of Favor +3 (Vitality/Endurance/Health up)
Armor Sets
- Lothric Knight Set (Great lightning absorption, cape)
- Dragonslayer Set (Excellent magic/lightning defense)
- Silver Knight Set + Spellproof Drygore Ring (Cancels out magic)
Viability Against Bosses and Meta Builds
While challenging early on, faith builds can annihilate bosses and popular meta builds by end game:
- Midir: Over 2000 damage per Sunlight Spear to the head
- Gael: Over 50% health destroyed by a single Lightning Stake
- Sellsword Twinblades: Outraded and one shot by Sunlight Spear
Faith casters are slow burn builds that become incredibly potent in the right hands. Hope this guide helps maximize your holy firepower!
