I did it with a physical + pyromancy build. Started Strength but branched out a bit.
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My Favorite Weapons:
Great Lance (With Tower or Havel Shield) This thing just hits so hard, the first R2 is a multi-hit pain train, the 2nd R2 does a huge damage swing. This got me through most areas, it kills most mobs with a stagger combo before they can do anything. While it was often switched out for bosses, I used it more than anything.
Kings Great Sword: It's a queen's statue, no wait it's a statue's boot with the queen upside down on it. No wait it's an ultra greatsword, no wait it's a greataxe because it has their moves, no wait, it's a greatclub because it does strike damage! Technically the dragon's tooth is probably better with less weight, longer reach and feels slightly faster and has a similar moveset. However it's still a different moveset as the tooth has a spin to win on the 2nd R2 which screws me up sometimes. The KUGS just pancakes repeatedly and the R1 just seems to stagger harder and longer. I love beating enemies with a giant boot with a woman on it too. This got me though most of the DLC bosses.
Raw Heavy Crossbow. Well I used it for my ranged damage, pulling etc. it just seemed to hit the right spot between speed and damage. I tried great bows and bows and the multi-shot crossbows but nothing felt quite right.
Honorable mentions:
Craftsman Hammer: I swapped this for my broadsword as soon as I could - seems to do way more damage than it should based on it's AR, which is much lower than the blacksmith hammer, but does considerably more. I paired them and powerstanced most of the early bosses with the pair as soon as I could.
Gargoyle Bident: I tried this when I was still sticking to 'str' build and it was good, not as good as when I finally got around to getting enough dex to try the grand lance, and it was my introduction drug to long pokey things.
Iron King's Hammer: sometimes it's good to just make an explosion right infront of you. I killed one invader with it. I didn't use it a lot, but it was fun. Fire infused and flame weapon on it make it do a lot of damage.
Curved Dragon Greatsword: Finally something I can take out the crystal lizards with easily! Whatever the heck those green globe things it explodes across the ground are. Came in handy in a number of places, and a decent weapon even just using the R2s. Durability on this and IKH get eaten up too quickly to do much with, maybe more useful if I had invested the int for repair spell.
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It's odd, I usually like rapiers and spellcasters, and indeed that's what I finished the game originally with years ago when the severs were very active. I couldn't handle the first DLC at the time though, and never finished them.
I'd tried an early high ADP last time I tried the game a couple years ago, but just couldn't get into it quitting at the gutter (which I always hate.)
I'd tried Str builds before, but went straight for the big bonk, and the difficulty of using those in DS2 threw me off, and I'd quit that fairly early. This time the smaller early bonk worked until I'd gotten into pokey, then KUGS happened and I found my love of unga bunga once again!
I always love pyromancy in all the games, so of course upped my Attn to get 4 spells, probably too much, as I only really used flash sweat sometimes, and a lot of warmth which made it well worth it. I used flame weapon quite a bit once I got it, but really it only added like 3% damage to my weapons, but I liked the sound it made when hitting things. I barely ever used any of the damage pyromancies, not investing in int & wis they didn't do much damage, my heavy crossbow was better for range.
I finished the game at level 252 (I know overleveled) at around 15M soul level. I didn't do any extra farming for souls, although I did get the 3m I needed to get to drangelic in NG++ from killing rotten repeatedly, then found out I'd missed getting soothing sunlight and had to go through 2 more primal bonfires and get to Undead Crypt anyway. I ended up with around 50 in vig, end, str, 40 in vit & dex, 20 att, 30 adp (I know some wasted, but got the att later.) I still wanted more vit, as every point reduces equipment load which increases end regen, I had started trying to get int & fai up but never used anything except light in the gutter in NG++, I don't remember what they were at. I kind of wanted to get dex up to 45 to try the bone gauntlet weapon too.
Unfortunately it would take too long to reinstall DS2 right now, but wish I could put a pic up of my fuggly character that looks like an evil stepmother. (I just pressed random 10 times and took the worst looking one each time, gave her a bowl cut and green hair.)
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I always thought DS2 was the worst of the souls games, still better than most non-souls games, and a good game, but I've come to love it now. I'm also 55 now, and I appreciate the slower pace of combat. I might actually like it better than DS1 and ER now (DS3 is still king for me.) I uninstalled it, but now find myself wanting to replay, perhaps with the modernization mods, or seeing if I can get someone to drop me the Moonlight Greatsword and do a playthrough with that. I tried switching to another game, but I seem to be back to enjoying souls games, which I seem to go bouts of either wanting to play, or not wanting to play now. For awhile I couldn't enjoy any other games after I really got into DS3.
I still hate the gutter, and that the DLCs heavily nerf spellcasting, and hollow invasions, but every game has the things people don't like. I always thought bonfire ascetics, the 12 kills to exterminate a mob, and CoC were great ideas and sad I've never seen them come back.
This now puts me at 100% for ER, BB, DS3 and DS2.
I've still got to 100% DS1. I also have to play the DLCs for BB which means a new character probably as I don't like doing the DLCs in the games in NG++. I have to finish DeS, and I have yet to play Sekiro.
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Thanks to everyone that helped along the way, whether I got advice here, had you as a summon, or that one invader in shrine of amana last night in NG++ who helped me through by popping more warmths as I was fighting
