Dark Souls 2 Dex Character Help!

Hi there team!

I'd like to ask for some community advice with my second trip into Dark Souls 2.

I'm coming from playing through about half of the game with a magic character and wanted to try a Dex based build. I'm pretty competent with the mechanics of playing the game (Combat, exploration, puzzle solving) -but I'm pretty naive to the attribute mechanics and thus require some learning! If anyone can recommend some good literature to read as well as help me build to what I'd hope to play I'd really appreciate it!

I'm looking to play a ranger like character, comparable to the dungeons and dragons archetype. I'd like to be able to wield light weapons or spears, dodging enemies in conjunction with using a bow. I found that while immensely powerful and easy to use, the magic characters ignored a lot of what make this game interesting to me. Most encounters involved me understanding and studying the mechanics of the enemy from afar and then just running away and easily dispatching them with various soul arrows and the like and I felt like I was cheating and soon lost interest.

Thank you for your time!

You'll need to research the Dex weapons you want (scaling stats and moveset) to use because there's a bunch of them. If you have a specific level cap in mind you'll want to put most of your stat points into being light, dodgy, and hard hitting with your Dex weapon. If you don't have a level cap in mind then there's no point in making a build as you can just put 30-50 points into every stat and call it a day.

If I was building a character like this, I'd start as a Swordsman since they have reasonable initial stats, playstyle, and gear for this type of build. I'd aim to quickly acquire something like a pair of shortswords and a shortbow to complete my initial weapon set. The Swordsman receives 1 free shortsword at the start of the game and another can be picked up very early on in the Forest. A shortbow can be found pretty early in Lenigrast's shop or dropped by early bow-using enemies.

For leveling stats, I'd first make sure my STR and DEX were sufficient to dual-wield my weapons of choice. (Remember that you need to exceed a weapon's STR and DEX requirements by at least 50% to dual-wield it.) I'd then get my ADP up to 20 to give me some decent survivability. That would be the bare necessities for getting the character rolling. Over time, I'd drops points here and there into VGR and END, but not raising either higher than 20. I'd get ADP up to 30 for even better dodging, and of course STR and DEX up just enough to meet the dual-wielding requirements for new weapons I'd want to use.

I would entirely ignore VIT (as Rangers don't wear heavy armor) and INT. Maybe after reaching a relatively high level, I'd begin to bump FTH up a little and get 16 ATN to mirror a Ranger's late and limited spell gain.

Get those rapiers son there amazing !

A lot of people early on will use the Dragonrider's Bow. Don't do that. It's not only the slowest bow, but it also uses the most stamina per shot. It's not worth the upgrade items either. I remember upgrading to a better bow, then another better bow and then finally settling on the Lightning Bow of Want as the best bow. The Bow of Want is really an end game only bow though (It needs high Dex and Faith to be really effective and requires the soul of the final boss) and I don't remember what my mid game bows were.

Dex raises your poison and bleed attributes, so you might want to have a weapon that takes advantage of that, even if it's just a secondary weapon that you use for specific situations like PVP. The poison whip with additional poison refinement is a particularly common item among PVP dex builds.

I haven't played in about four balance patches but I use the Black Witch Robes because they are super light and have (or had) by far the best elemental defenses. You need that mobility for the melee enemies and defense for the ranged enemies. You can balance out your physical defense with heavier legs and gloves.

Thanks for the advice guys!

So Swordsman as starting class. How much faith will I be needing? My most dominant stat is going to be Dex>ADP>STR>VGR>END>Faith?

For a min maxed build I'd start off working towards 40 Dex, 18 Adp, Str to match the requirements for your gear of choice and End to the point where you can do a dodge and do 3 attacks with your primary weapon with one bar of stamina. After that whichever stat adds on most damage to your weapon should be scaled up. When that soft cap gets hit add more stamina and HP.

I'm playing a ranger and I's say you're better off giving them a decent amount of strength (about 30) as well. I've had a great amount of success with the seabow (farmed from the vikings in No Man's Wharf). And you need a decent amount of STR for the Alonne Knight bow, which is great for bosses and larger enemies.

40 DEX and 20 STR will allow you to use and duel wield most weapons, 20 END and 20 ADP minimum, after that you can just kind of add stats to whatever you feel you need. If you want to use miracles you need some ATN and FTH, if you are dying a lot increase VGR, and if you want to use better armour increase your VIT. Generally these stats don't go over 20 though.

The Heide Knights drop good weapons, polearms are always fun and duel wielding katanas is just cool.