So first time through ds and i really think i screwed things up. I only have a longsword +9 and my stats are in the pic.

Just wondering if its time to restart or is there a respec mod? What are my options?

I'm hardly an expert, but to my knowledge there is no real way to 'screw up' a build. I mean, people are beating the game at levels below 15, so I figure gear works into the equation more than stats.

Well, I suppose you could mess up a late game build by placing all of your points into a single stat, diminishing returns and all that. But 46 is far from late game.

Stat wise it looks like a good build to me, as long as you're using strength based weapons instead of dex. You haven't put any points into useless stuff like resistance. It's be good to see your equipment in order to be able to tell for sure.

They only way to screw up a build is if you have one in mind to begin with. Unless you are trying to use certain equipment at a specific level, there's no real "screwing up."

Also, everyone's first build is terrible.

The worse that could happen is that you over-level for an area and can't summon as a result.

It doesn't look horrible, I'd just level up strength more so you can do more damage. I recommend laying off Endurance for a bit. Just go farm for souls for a bit. You'll really want your strength to be high so you can use better weapons, the longsword isn't all that great.

I don't see anything wrong with it. I'd probably hold off on the Vit and End for a bit and start increasing either Str or Dex for damage, but I don't see anything that makes me think its unplayable. I came in expecting to see you had raised resistance or something. 46 is only just approaching the halfway point for most people, so its definitely not too late to bend your build in a different direction if you're not happy at the moment.

I am curious though, if you could respec what would you change? Just wondering since I'm not seeing anything glaringly wrong with what you have at the moment.

@tahnit: You can't really "screw up" a build in Dark Souls. You'll still be able to beat the game.

As others have said, start pumping strength. And you could probably try to pump up your armor closer to 50% load to increase your survivability. Also, what area are you working on ?

I was thinking a faith build for divine weapons. I have been messing up my weapon upgrades because i thought divine would be stronger but turned out my plus 9 longsword was better. I was thinking if i started in on divine and used faith to up that damage that might work.

Should i just farm souls for a few hours and then fix my stats or restart?

@tahnit: Faith is a tough road to go down. I''d say it's the most difficult build actually. Miracles are no where near as useful as Sorcery or Pyromancy. If you go with Divine weapons then you won't get any bonus damage from your strength or dex stats. It's better to use a standard weapon and use a miracle to buff it. A lot of the covenants have miracles associated with them so join as many as you can. The Darkmoon Covenant has the best weapon buff in the game but you'll need 10 soul of reprisals to get it.

If you wanted to then you could salvage a faith build easily since you haven't putt a lot into strength yet and in fact it may help since some divine weapons require a higher amount of strength. When I farmed a bit I ended up beating the game around level 100 so that's 50+ skill points to put into other things.

I'm no Dark Souls expert, but that doesn't look too bad. Also, you can beat the game with just about anything, so yeah.

Divine Weapons scale with Strength and Dexterity. Kind of well, actually. Better than Magic and Enchanted at least.

Personally, I would say that if you want to use a Faith Longsword, you should keep your Normal +9 and grab the Astora Straight Sword. The problem with reinforce down specific paths is that you can end up putting all your eggs in one basket and screwing yourself. That, your you can make yourself a suite of Longswords (Normal, Divine, Lighting, Chaos) since you shouldn't put all of your eggs onto one split-damadge weapon.

I have the astora straight sword, but dont have the stats to use it. also its damage is way lower.

Its just getting hard to level now. 10000 per point and maybe i should start over with a build in mind. I dunno just weighing my options i guess.

If you're in anor londo then you could farm the giant guards, they drop 1500 souls everytime and there's a bonefire right there so you can respawn them easily. That's what I did.

But if you're not into that then just create a new character and see how far the new build gets you. Now that you've been through the game once it's easy to get through the initial starting areas and get your build where you want it.

That looks like a generic build to me. NG can be done with absolutely any build including non builds; NG+ is where build sort of matters or expedites annoying things. 99 Resistance, now there's a real man's build.

You really don't need to restart. Your stats are fine. Good, even. Stats matter in Dark Souls, but they aren't everything. You can become stronger without leveling pretty easily. Also, even though you're requiring more souls to level, moving forward in the game means encountering enemies/bosses that give you way more souls.

You might want to try a new weapon if you're having difficulty. Where are you in the game? That could help us understand what weapons are available to you. If you've made it to Sen's Fortress, then start farming the Man-serpents for the Man-serpent Greatsword, so you can really make use of your investment in strength.

Looks totally fine to me.

Also, Longsword is a completely viable weapon, especially if you're going for a quality build (40 str/40 dex).

@tahnit: Then go with a Divine weapon, as they don't have Faith requirements.

Restarting is certainly an option, though, if you still feel like you can't play the way want with your current build. Before you restart, I would recommend you check out the Character Planner so you don't have this problem again.

No you seem fine, boost up dex a bit, keep it even with strength if you want to keep using the longsword.

The longsword is actually my favorite weapon in the game, so yeah... you're fine dude.

I like the longsword because of the long range stab.

I just killed queelag and unlocked sen's fortress

I don't see what you mean, your stats look fine.

Just don't use slabs unless its on a weapon you want to keep, that's my only advice here. Just in case.

Edit: I saw your comment about divine. Divine and faith build. I'll just tell you a faith build is ultimately not worth it and you are better off holding off on faith stat until later in the game. You will only need a divine weapon in one area, other than that you will get better use out of other weapons.

I am just speaking from my experience. I recommend using a mace and upgrading it divine and don't use it other than that one area where it makes life easier.

@tahnit said:

If Dark Souls was a free-to-play game, you'd be looking at the store right now. :P

Have you tried pyromancy? Put two points in Attunement to raise it to 14 for an extra slot, and buy some flame "spells" (Don't put points in INT for pyromancy. makes no difference).

You could bulk up some more. Mobility mechanics threshold are at >= 25%, >= 50% and <50% of your total equip load. If you're ok with the way you move at 50% equip load, bulk up some more to 51 if you have items that can do the trick.

Find some new items, explore around, and try different things to see if it changes your game. If you're stuck, check a wiki for help. I wouldn't trash your game because you've hit a plateau.

You're more than fine then, should be able to get through sen's fine with your current build, which will give you a good few levels to boost your damage potency.

I moved from a +10 longsword to a Balder Side Sword at around the point your're at in the game. Bit longer reach, and scales well with Dex; which I hadn't put many (as in 1 or 2) points into at that stage.

Ended up finishing the game (Which I just did - Yeeessssss!!) with it.

Basically looks like my build. Without the right gear it may seem underpowered at times, maybe.

You need more strength, but other than that its a solid build.

Like others have said, your build is fine. I don't know enough about divine builds to give any advice though.

I think the only advice I'd give is to use a different weapon. You don't have to, but it'll only get harder from here.

@tahnit: As others have said. Your build is fine. I'd like to add that in this game, there's absolutely no need to chase the perfect build unless you're planning to dive deep into the competitive multiplayer portion of the game. Don't be afraid of wasting a couple of points to try out new weapons or spells.

That looks good. I expect restarting would only make it worse. Most of your power comes from equipment anyways.

Looks okay. Just find appropriate weapons and armors to go with it.

Just an update. Modified my build now to be focused on dex for weapon scaling. Fell in love with the Iaito for its bleed effect and upgraded it to +10 so far. Also rocking havells ring and the ring of favored protection that i cant take off. So i put on havells armor and i am loving the protection.

So im doing much better :)

way to go. I choose the same build as you. Those Samurai Swords are powerful and fast.

Ýeah, I still like katana's best. They are pretty fast and still do considerable damage while also inflicting bleeding. Not to mention: they have a pretty big range. You can also look into getting the Uchigatana. It does slightly more damage than the Iaito, but also has a different moveset. I used both in my last playthrough. I upgraded one to +15 and one with lightning.

@tahnit: What's the title of the latest breaking brad demon souls? Something about letting go, can't remember and to lazy to go look but just let go. Who the hell cares what your build is especially on your first play. I understand not wanting to waste souls in an unnecessary way but souls are souls, you will find them love them and lose them so fuck it.

You have a great amount of vitality and endurance so you can tank up pretty well. Once you get to Anor Londo, which with your stats shouldn't be too far off if you aren't there now, you can farm the 6 sentinels in the first area pretty easily for 1500 souls per (9k total.) Going by your Endurance you might want to find a set of heavy armour and roll as a tank. The Steel Set might be good.

As for weapons, maybe ascend your long sword to lightning since that has a lot of people vulnerable to it and bring another longsword up to +10 for anyone not bothered by Lightning. They're so light you could carry two, a shield and a talisman/pyro hand/catalyst (since you can't cast and hold up a shield at the same time.)

Looks alright to me, and if you're anything like me you'll probably be tempted in to starting fresh with a new character some day anyway. A first run through Dark Souls is always gonna be more about learning all the ropes and intricacies than about doing it "right" or worrying about very specific builds.

Happy to hear it's going better for you - I was going to post that your build looked pretty good actually, you just needed to find the right weapon.

If you're liking the Iaito, here are some weapons you should really try out - in order of general consensus (in terms of how good they are):

1. The Great Scythe - This is the highest DPS dex weapon in the game, and certainly up there with the highest DPS weapons in the game full stop. It has great reach, hefty bleed and pretty much all of its moveset across 1h and 2h is good - the only caveat is that like other pole-arms, it's hard to use in tunnels. As a bonus, it's easily picked up from the Catacombs (you just need to get half way, roll off a ledge and walk to the left to pick it up off a corpse - just youtube it).
2. The Uchigatana (as mentioned by zevvion above) - my go-to weapon in tight corridors or when I need something with a really quick animation, it's in pretty much every top-10 list out there and edges out the Iaito in pure damage, especially when up at +14/+15. Shorter range but similar bleed and better animations imo.
3. Here's a spot I'm putting a bunch of weapons which are all good but not quite as much so as the two above; the Balder Side Sword, the Falchion / Scimitar, and the Claymore (especially since you already have some points in Str)

Honestly, if you're happy with the Iaito then stick with it, that sword is more than capable of taking you through the rest of the game. However, if you're a power-gamer like me and like having the "best weapon", I would consider using the above options in its stead.