When I first fired up Dark Souls I played it safe with a knight in heavy armour, wielding a huge sword and a good shield. Tons of points into vitality, endurance and strength. However, as an much more experienced player I feel like going into Dark Souls 2 a little less cautious. Maybe with a dual wielder, or 2 handing without a shield. That's what I've been having the most fun with in Dark Souls lately, anyway. Playing around with different weapons in my offhand never gets old! Maybe even a shield less caster with a long sword in one hand and a catalyst in the other (Gandalf style).

What are you guys going for right out of the gate? And for the beta testers, what have you tried and what do you think of the options this time around?

Since I pre ordered this thing I can't contain my excitement. March is a long way away...

I liked the changes to sorcery and it definitely made me interested in trying that out first. I might do that.

There is always the appeal of fast rolls and huge weapons though... so I might do that...

Then again, running around with resistance pumped up super high and laughing as the enemies couldn't do much, if any, damage was also quite appealing... I might do that...

Good thing I have until March to decide. Unfortunately I have to wait until March to play :(

I will probably play a conservative melee-build first because I enjoy the combat system, probably a STR build. For the second playthrough I'll pick sorcerer or dual-wield guy.

For the beta I picked the Warrior for the same reason: conservative melee build to explore the game and to study enemy attack patterns etc. Also, he looked badass.

Probably a strength build first and then either a dex or magic build.

Strength.

I'm always bad at predicting what character I'm going to create for games like these. I'll probably opt for the sorta class that can heal oneself, specialising in the traditional 1H+shield, like I did with both prior Souls' games. But I'm sure I'll be testing other playstyles as the game goes on, and dual-wielding in particular looks like a lot of fun.

I'm going to go Dex/Faith like usual. I like having a heal/homeward and Dex usually has a pretty great mix of ranged DPS and melee DPS options.

Vinny's playing has shown me that strength and heavy armor can actually work, so maybe I'll give that a go this time around. Although, I freaking love bows in gaming, and maybe this time they'll actually be worth a damn. Decisions, decisions!

big fat strength build

Dual wielding appeals to me after playing a ton of DaS1 either two-handing or otherwise not using a shield, but it might not end up being something I'll enjoy for a first playthrough. If I can't make that work I'll probably try a Strenght/Faith build, I liked those in the past and they'd probably be good for Co-op.

Probably a fast-rolling strength build.

I like building a Cleric Knight and assuming it will have something similar (if not the same) I would still play that way in the new one.

Now that heavy weapons can literally launch enemies into the air and send them flying, I'm going to two-hand the largest weapon I can find and slam some home runs.

Nothing is better than huge ass claymore with a strength build and heavy armor. I really liked the stone armor in the Dark Souls hopefully they have awesome armor skins.

The same as last time. Most armour, biggest hammer.

Probably go down sorceries again, although I am interested in mixing it up with a dual weapon build. Probably go Catalyst/Sword main hand and Shield/Sword off hand. Going to need some serious endurance for that though.

I'm gonna go for the "accidentally stumble into the Black Knight Sword at the first available chance and destroy everything until NG+" build. But seriously, I hope they don't have drops like that in 2. It shouldn't be "up to chance" whether or not you get a game-breaking weapon. My entire first experience with that game was a walk in the park. Killed most bosses, including the 4 Kings, on my first try. Not the 'Dark Souls' experience you want. Every weapon I got was no match for my Black Knight Sword. Finding awesome weapons was irrelevant.

That said, I'll aim for Str-focused, with Dex for weapons as I need it, and the rest dumped into Endurance like usual. Vitality is for chumps.

edit: and Tiny Head, of course.

I think I'll go for a strength build first? Maybe? I'm torn because all of the stats are useful now. It's a choice between agility and resistance; all your actions are faster including rolls, parrys, raising your shield, using items, etc. or you have high physical defense meaning you can take the hits when you aren't blocking.
I also loved my sorcerer who did 1k+ damage with spells and had Velka's Rapier as a backup. I don't know I don't know I don't know.......I mean, there's a spell called magic greatsword.

I was a wanderer in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, so that. Dex and some endurance for hella dodging. Got hella dodges bro.

Light armor with small or medium sized weapon. Whatever looks good and is effective. Standard weapon reinforcement. High Agility and stamina. Female.

V-Bomb smash! (I dunno)

I had a very good time with a dual swordsman, with a shield at the ready I went straight from the first bonfire to oneshotting the Executioner's Chariot boss, only putting points into Agility. I'll use that for a cookiecutter base for my solo play target of beating the game.

When it's time for connecting online and making a new character for summoning and PvP I'm going Int/Faith, as long as it starts to kick ass. I'm not a stranger to putting points exclusively in Int and kicking ass in PvP.

There are good ideas and posts in this thread, but just don't forget about Agility. It's GOOD. Running faster = you feel better. Dodging = helping. More frames that work your way. Health is nice but you shouldn't be tanking.

I don't think I'm going to spend much time dual wielding. Only because it's disadvantageous in reality and I'm a stickler for realism.

Even in a dark-fantasy game that has you fighting dragons, skeletons, and lizard men as a soul/undead?

Knight.

I like to get up close and personal with my work, I like to get nasty with it, then go full force as violently as possible.

Something with a magic focus probably, because I really like the changes made to the magic in the beta.

@yummylee: Yes. I wish the swordplay and other physical stuff were more realistic in general. Even Link blocks not with the edge but with the flat of his (Biggoron's) sword and carries his shield not with his hand but with his forearm. He jumps to the side because it's more practical than rolling.

Dark Souls' fantasy elements are fairly realistic within the universe. There isn't a lot that exists just because.

resistance only!

I guess it depends if "Insert Black Knight here" drops "insert Black Knight weapon here" or not.

I loved my pyromancer/dex character in Dark Souls, so a lightly armoured fast character with a magical hint sounds rather awesome to me. If I can get an awesome looking, fast sword, then that would be perfect. At one point though, a dual wielder will have to be tried out.

@zeik: What were the changes they made in beta? I'm going through Dark Souls 1 as a sorcerer now, so I might consider going down that route too.

A bad one. I want to be able to use as many weapons and as many spells as possible the first time around so I know how to spec int eh future.

I'll be some kind of berserker character again. Heavy two-handed weapons and low armor/no shield.

@soldierg654342: Yeah that's usually the most fun approach, makes your first character kind of a hassle when it comes to NG+ though.

Ill end up making a similar build to both my demon souls and dark souls character. Just enough strength and dexterity to wield all the weapons I want and a lot of endurance so I can wear decent armor with no movement penalty. Then the rest goes to vitality.

ill have a lot of fun trying out the weapons, i dont want to know what im going to end up with

Going for a cleric knight , with a halberd (loved the moveset) a shield , a second hand halberd (worked in the beta for faster attacks) and if there is a bleeding weapon enhancement path , that , and with faith stuff (I do hope we get Wrath of gods again :P) also this time with the hexen part of miracles its going to be more interesting. And depending on the weapon scaling that is the stats I will put levels on , altho wont ignore endurance and hp and faith obviously , if I go for the bleeding weapons i will need to put stats into dex as well (again if the stats are kept from the beta) . Will not put much stats on to agility , I liked the "slower" movement of the base cleric as is (unless this changes a lot from the beta). Its going to be a little of a mismatch but I never been into min/maxing in rpgs (as you can see this is not a PVP focused build). Second character will probably be a sorcerer ... never been into magic in Souls games but the sorceries in DKS2 were really cool looking to pass up. Then I will play a knigth.

either heavy/strength or an allrounder with spears i think.

all heavies no medkits

I'll probably try either a pure magic build or an archer, just because I know those builds were tough/underpowered in Dark Souls and I want to see if they've made them viable.

I'll start idealistic, with armor that actually lets me dodge, followed by me going "screw it" and going full poise tank.

Pure magic was extremely viable and powerful in Dark Souls (for pve at least).

Yeah that is definitely the way to go. Gotta find out which weapons and gear you prefer before you can construct a build around them.

@arbitrarywater: But then every boss will be like Kalameet and say "fuck your poise house"

I should REALLY play through the Dark Souls DLC. Watching Vinny stumble through it isn't the same as stumbling through it myself, though I'll be honest when I say that playing a DEX focused character running around with the Chaos Blade is not the most powerful build out there.

Magic now has light and heavy attacks as well as the ability to two hand your staff, just like melee weapons. Light/1-handed spells are quicker but do less damage. Heavy/2-handed spells are slower and consume more stamina but can do notably more damage. (You still use up one charge of magic regardless.)

You can manually aim spells when 2-handing a staff, just like a bow.

Several spells, like the basic soul arrow, have some light homing ability, so you can just point it in the general direction of an enemy and it will usually hit.

Both Sorcery and Pyromancy are now boosted by intelligence.

Leveling attunement now increases your spell speed instead of dexterity. It also increases at consistently incremental levels, instead of just 40/45.

There are items that can restore magic charges.

I might be forgetting something else, but they definitely made a lot of changes. It seems much more well designed this time around.

@arbitrarywater: DLC is the best overall section out of either game, even Demon's Souls nostalgia freaks (as someone who played Demon's Souls before Dark Souls ever came out mind) like it so that means it must be the most amazing thing ever. It's like as good as Demon's Souls was in their fractured minds; that's completely impossible! In short, it is utterly amazing.

I plan to be the strongest, heaviest motherfucker I can. I almost always play games that way, and I'll probably switch to a full on glass cannon Intelligence build for my second character.

Fuck if I know.