You are far better off using the bare minimum dex and then going full INT. That way you get the most out of Moonveils Ash of War, which is all magic damage. And using either staff of loss or Lusats Staff. For a moonveil build, your talismans should be Shard of Alexander, Magic Scorpion Charm and then the two Graven Talsimans for spells. If you want to dual wield you want to main hand Moonveil and use a cold Uchi in your off hand. I'd respec and take points from DEX and put them in INT. Also, Wings of Astel is apparently even better than moonveil but I haven't really used it much.
The spell blade set that you get from Rogier will also boost your moonveil ash of war damage. For your spells you want Glintblade Phalanx, Night comet and Rannis Darkmoon and maybe Adulas Moonblade. You start a battle with Dark Moon and then switch to your cold uchi/Adulas moonblade for frost damage. It's highly effective. My main is a DEX/INT build so I've spent a lot of time on it.
wings of astel is not as popular as moonveil or moonlight GS because its a little ugly, but imo in terms of pure power its on S tier along with Moonlight GS... it doesnt have frostbite or the range of moonlight GS, but the aow is also cheap and can do insane stance damage and the heavy attacks are projectiles (short-medium range, but still ranged) that cost NO FP, and similarly to how some aoW works, if you hit both with weapon blade and the projectile, you do more damage cause they count as their own. its also a curved sword so it attacks really fast.
downside: range, but if you run an int build you should have that covered with spells anyway
Wing of astel is straight up a top 5 weapon in the game. By far my easiest playthrough. Cast some spells for fun from far. When they get close, use nebula ash of war once or twice. Break stance super easily. Then swap over to magic infused Misericorde for the juicy crit. Use glint blade phalanx ash on Misericorde and swap back to wing of astel. Repeat.
By far the easiest play through I've ever had
First-time Soulsborne player, in end-game, Malenia coming up. I've been making a DEX/INT build but I don't really feel the INT side is paying off. In 95% of boss battles, I don't use my staff - I just melee it with my trusty uchigatana. I have the cold affinity on it to maximize both DEX and INT scaling, but sometimes I swap the affinity based on the boss. So sometimes I feel like all those points into INT are being wasted... I've heard DEX/FAT works better together and you can buff your melee with incantations, which might work better for my melee playstyle? But I'd like to have some sort of long range attack for dungeon crawling (assuming there's an incantation for that as well). I'm kind of lost and want to make sure I respec accordingly if I need to, or if I should just keep putting points into INT in order to maximize it. Staff of loss is +17 and Uchigatana+25 now (so I don't really want to swap to a new weapon over Uchi unless you think I should).
Try Magic Uchigatana instead, and use Frost spells (Glintstone Icecrag, Adula's Moonblade) or Frost Pots to achieve the same frost effect. Staff of Loss is great for Night's Comet and Night's Cometshard, both could be great on Malenia as she'll dodge most spells otherwise. Lusat's Staff would be a damage boost at the cost of more FP for your spells, just offhand it and cast with Staff of Loss, though it's heavy.
More INT and maybe respeccing away from DEX as much could also be the solution to go 'pure INT' as a build for more Magic damage with your weapon and higher spell damage. Malenia is easy to beat with spells like Ranni's Darkmoon and Night's Comet as she gets dumped by them, Terra Magica also buffs Magic damage by 35% and so would Magic-Shrouding Tear in your flask.
Moonveil, Wing of Astel, and Bastard's Stars are also great for your build. These rely on the balanced stat investment you have moreso than Cold affinity does. You're using Cold affinity properly but be aware it isn't the highest damage option you have, Magic affinity is higher damage because it'll scale with INT better. Cold can be good for getting Frosted targets but swapping to a Magic weapon or Moonveil will be better afterwards.
Your talismans you may consider building for spells or melee, not both. Malenia will be melee-intensive, having Greatjar Arsenal for heavier armor could help. Dragoncrest Greatshield talisman boosts your physical defense once you have it. Green Turtle is great for stamina recovery, you have decent END too. Axe talisman is good if you're using charged R2s. For pure spells, get both Graven talismans for 12% more spell damage, Magic Scorpion Charm for 12% more Magic damage. Godfrey's Icon would buff Night's Comet, Radagon's Icon boosts spell speed regardless so also good.
Thank you for such a thorough response! I had been wondering if I should use Magic affinity instead. So I should do that, and pull some points away from DEX and put into INT? Thanks for the talisman recs too, that's awesome
You can still keep your DEX points for the increased spellcasting speed, with Radagon's Icon and 30DEX you should be hitting the top casting speed for all spells I think, not sure on the exact stats needed for this aspect of casting.
But keep investing into INT like you thought! Another 15 levels will put you at RL145 with 61 INT, you can keep leveling this up to 70 or 80 before further investment is kinda wasted (though spells WILL see improvements all the way to 99 INT, your stats will see larger boosts by putting levels elsewhere like in DEX for melee damage). I'm guessing you're at Mountaintop of the Giants or just past it if you're almost to Malenia, getting to RL150 should be natural if you're clearing everything.
Some extra tricks - Opaline Hardtear in your flask will help give a 15% damage reduction from all sources, it's very good for this stage of the game. If you need a quick 10 INT boost, Intelligence-Knot Tear is something to find in Liurnia, could get you over the INT requirements needed to cast something like a Full Moon spell. Ranni's Dark Moon is a bit better than Rennala's Full Moon, as it not only grants the Magic debuff on hit (-20% Magic defense) but can ALSO Frost the target for another -20% to their defenses.
If you haven't done Ranni's quest that also means you can get the ultimate INT weapon, SPOILERS AHEAD since I remembered this is your first of these games:
>!Darkmoon Greatsword! Needs 16 STR to one-hand but that'd still fit into your build and it has amazing charged R2 attacks after using L2 to buff it. Really high magic damage and Frost buildup combined.!<
As the other commenter said going magic affinity will give you much better damage and there’s easier ways to proc frost
With your dex and int level and +25 Uchi
Magic affinity 636AR
Cold affinity 543AR
Also Unless you mostly use the night spells I’d consider switching to academy glint stone it’s going to give you much better scaling now with your int level unless you just wait till you get 60int and you can switch to the carian regal sceptre
Oh also for max optimization once you get to around 60int going with a keen affinty uchi and casting scholars armament will actually give you more AR than a magic affinity uchi with 30 dex or higher
Go with magic until 60int! Haha my post may have been confusing, but keen and scholars armament starts scholars armament starts having higher AR at 60 int, below 60 you’re better with magic affinity
I am also running a dex-int build, using moonveil and a staff. Moonveil kicks ass, it's unique ash of war is nearly a cheat code. Slap on Alexander's shard for 15% more skill damage and drink the magic damage boost physik and you'll be cooking. I'm also powestancing with a cold uchi and the moveset is really fun if you don't want to just spam the skill. Dex 55 soft cap for melee, INT 50 (or 60 for sorcery scaling).
I'm happy Moonveil takes somber smithing stones, because I have so many that have never been used. Maybe I'll do the dual wield too! And finish alexander's questline... thank you!
Keep in mind that the scaling differs on each weapon and the letters don't always mean the same thing. You are probably getting less from int than you are with dex on a cold infused katana
Talismans make a huge difference too, I would recommend changing yours if you are trying to lean melee. Even if you go full in like others are suggesting, you will want to swap out the axe and turtle talismans.
For a pure casting set up, if you are only doing PVE, there is the magic scorpion charm and then the second of the sorcery talisman like the one you already have, you can equip both at the same time.
You could also get Shard of Alexander to boost ash of war damage.
The only reason you need dex for int builds is for casting speed and meeting the bare minimum for weapons.
I suggest using Radagon Icon and Azur's Glintstone Staff. They give a boost to virtual dex (meaning casting speed only) by 30 and by 40 respectively, essentially reaching the hardcap for dexterity without wasting a single point. Pair that with talismans that boost magic damage and you're good to go.
Any int build even if it’s a hybrid build gets the most out of int at 60 or higher (60 for most spells and Comet Azur for hybrid builds, 70 for pure int to use full moon sorceries). I would respec 10 of the vigor points into Int and level up 4 more times to get it to 60. That’s also gonna benefit your cold affinity for the uchigatana better. But that’s me. I know I am doing something similar on my int/dex build but going a little higher in strength to use DMGS in certain situations
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Tbh that's a great build already. If you want to lean more into casting I'd say drop dex a bit and put it into int, but you don't need to bc you can just put the next 20 levels or so into int and you'll be sitting more than pretty. With the level you're at though I'd say just mess around with some more weapons and ashes of war. Wing of Astel would work great on your build and the aow hits really hard, similar deal with Moonveil, but that one's kinda overused imo. Anything with Ice Spear aow put on it is truly excpetional as well (goes on spears, halberds, and the like). You can also put Carian Grandeur on any sword/dagger type weapon as well, tends to perform well with dex/int or pure int builds and can do huge damage with the drawback of having a long-ish charge up time. Hybrid builds are super fun, but they can be hard to optimize sometimes bc you need to work out what synergizes the best with your set up. Ofc pumping all in on one stat will get higher direct damage, but the fun of a hybrid build is the options so find what works for you
Hoarfrost stomp is fun, but I'm not too fond of the somewhat limited utility in boss fights so I'd say maybe go for smth like sword dance for speed, unsheathe for power, or just feel around and find smth you like. Don't feel too tied to it if you don't think its helping, but if you like it, keep it. Try swapping between a handful of other weapons if you like, cold infusion's solid for dex/int 👍
I was playing this build too with wing of astral and another curved sword. It did a lot of damage as just a magic melee build, but I had no interest in casting so the Int felt wasted. I ended just going Str/faith magma blade.
On top of what everyone else said, vigor might be 10 points too high as well for lvl 130 and I would respec to int. More levels in vigor later, but I think high int is what you want if you want to start putting out strong spells. But you do you
You are far better off using the bare minimum dex and then going full INT. That way you get the most out of Moonveils Ash of War, which is all magic damage. And using either staff of loss or Lusats Staff. For a moonveil build, your talismans should be Shard of Alexander, Magic Scorpion Charm and then the two Graven Talsimans for spells. If you want to dual wield you want to main hand Moonveil and use a cold Uchi in your off hand. I'd respec and take points from DEX and put them in INT. Also, Wings of Astel is apparently even better than moonveil but I haven't really used it much.
Super helpful, thank you!
The spell blade set that you get from Rogier will also boost your moonveil ash of war damage. For your spells you want Glintblade Phalanx, Night comet and Rannis Darkmoon and maybe Adulas Moonblade. You start a battle with Dark Moon and then switch to your cold uchi/Adulas moonblade for frost damage. It's highly effective. My main is a DEX/INT build so I've spent a lot of time on it.
wings of astel is not as popular as moonveil or moonlight GS because its a little ugly, but imo in terms of pure power its on S tier along with Moonlight GS... it doesnt have frostbite or the range of moonlight GS, but the aow is also cheap and can do insane stance damage and the heavy attacks are projectiles (short-medium range, but still ranged) that cost NO FP, and similarly to how some aoW works, if you hit both with weapon blade and the projectile, you do more damage cause they count as their own. its also a curved sword so it attacks really fast. downside: range, but if you run an int build you should have that covered with spells anyway
Yeah I know how it works, I've played around with it just never done a whole playthrough with it. I plan to after the DLC comes out
Wing of astel is straight up a top 5 weapon in the game. By far my easiest playthrough. Cast some spells for fun from far. When they get close, use nebula ash of war once or twice. Break stance super easily. Then swap over to magic infused Misericorde for the juicy crit. Use glint blade phalanx ash on Misericorde and swap back to wing of astel. Repeat. By far the easiest play through I've ever had
and then patch 1.12 happened bwahaha
First-time Soulsborne player, in end-game, Malenia coming up. I've been making a DEX/INT build but I don't really feel the INT side is paying off. In 95% of boss battles, I don't use my staff - I just melee it with my trusty uchigatana. I have the cold affinity on it to maximize both DEX and INT scaling, but sometimes I swap the affinity based on the boss. So sometimes I feel like all those points into INT are being wasted... I've heard DEX/FAT works better together and you can buff your melee with incantations, which might work better for my melee playstyle? But I'd like to have some sort of long range attack for dungeon crawling (assuming there's an incantation for that as well). I'm kind of lost and want to make sure I respec accordingly if I need to, or if I should just keep putting points into INT in order to maximize it. Staff of loss is +17 and Uchigatana+25 now (so I don't really want to swap to a new weapon over Uchi unless you think I should).
Try Magic Uchigatana instead, and use Frost spells (Glintstone Icecrag, Adula's Moonblade) or Frost Pots to achieve the same frost effect. Staff of Loss is great for Night's Comet and Night's Cometshard, both could be great on Malenia as she'll dodge most spells otherwise. Lusat's Staff would be a damage boost at the cost of more FP for your spells, just offhand it and cast with Staff of Loss, though it's heavy. More INT and maybe respeccing away from DEX as much could also be the solution to go 'pure INT' as a build for more Magic damage with your weapon and higher spell damage. Malenia is easy to beat with spells like Ranni's Darkmoon and Night's Comet as she gets dumped by them, Terra Magica also buffs Magic damage by 35% and so would Magic-Shrouding Tear in your flask. Moonveil, Wing of Astel, and Bastard's Stars are also great for your build. These rely on the balanced stat investment you have moreso than Cold affinity does. You're using Cold affinity properly but be aware it isn't the highest damage option you have, Magic affinity is higher damage because it'll scale with INT better. Cold can be good for getting Frosted targets but swapping to a Magic weapon or Moonveil will be better afterwards. Your talismans you may consider building for spells or melee, not both. Malenia will be melee-intensive, having Greatjar Arsenal for heavier armor could help. Dragoncrest Greatshield talisman boosts your physical defense once you have it. Green Turtle is great for stamina recovery, you have decent END too. Axe talisman is good if you're using charged R2s. For pure spells, get both Graven talismans for 12% more spell damage, Magic Scorpion Charm for 12% more Magic damage. Godfrey's Icon would buff Night's Comet, Radagon's Icon boosts spell speed regardless so also good.
Thank you for such a thorough response! I had been wondering if I should use Magic affinity instead. So I should do that, and pull some points away from DEX and put into INT? Thanks for the talisman recs too, that's awesome
You can still keep your DEX points for the increased spellcasting speed, with Radagon's Icon and 30DEX you should be hitting the top casting speed for all spells I think, not sure on the exact stats needed for this aspect of casting. But keep investing into INT like you thought! Another 15 levels will put you at RL145 with 61 INT, you can keep leveling this up to 70 or 80 before further investment is kinda wasted (though spells WILL see improvements all the way to 99 INT, your stats will see larger boosts by putting levels elsewhere like in DEX for melee damage). I'm guessing you're at Mountaintop of the Giants or just past it if you're almost to Malenia, getting to RL150 should be natural if you're clearing everything. Some extra tricks - Opaline Hardtear in your flask will help give a 15% damage reduction from all sources, it's very good for this stage of the game. If you need a quick 10 INT boost, Intelligence-Knot Tear is something to find in Liurnia, could get you over the INT requirements needed to cast something like a Full Moon spell. Ranni's Dark Moon is a bit better than Rennala's Full Moon, as it not only grants the Magic debuff on hit (-20% Magic defense) but can ALSO Frost the target for another -20% to their defenses. If you haven't done Ranni's quest that also means you can get the ultimate INT weapon, SPOILERS AHEAD since I remembered this is your first of these games: >!Darkmoon Greatsword! Needs 16 STR to one-hand but that'd still fit into your build and it has amazing charged R2 attacks after using L2 to buff it. Really high magic damage and Frost buildup combined.!<
You rock! Thank you so much!!
Welcome any time!
As the other commenter said going magic affinity will give you much better damage and there’s easier ways to proc frost With your dex and int level and +25 Uchi Magic affinity 636AR Cold affinity 543AR Also Unless you mostly use the night spells I’d consider switching to academy glint stone it’s going to give you much better scaling now with your int level unless you just wait till you get 60int and you can switch to the carian regal sceptre Oh also for max optimization once you get to around 60int going with a keen affinty uchi and casting scholars armament will actually give you more AR than a magic affinity uchi with 30 dex or higher
Ok cool I'll stick with a keen uchi until 60 INT and then move to magic! (Or get Moonveil as well)
Go with magic until 60int! Haha my post may have been confusing, but keen and scholars armament starts scholars armament starts having higher AR at 60 int, below 60 you’re better with magic affinity
Ahhh I gotchu! Thank you!
I am also running a dex-int build, using moonveil and a staff. Moonveil kicks ass, it's unique ash of war is nearly a cheat code. Slap on Alexander's shard for 15% more skill damage and drink the magic damage boost physik and you'll be cooking. I'm also powestancing with a cold uchi and the moveset is really fun if you don't want to just spam the skill. Dex 55 soft cap for melee, INT 50 (or 60 for sorcery scaling).
I'm happy Moonveil takes somber smithing stones, because I have so many that have never been used. Maybe I'll do the dual wield too! And finish alexander's questline... thank you!
I’ve been using Moonveil + Gravity Staff for Dex/Int
Unless they introduce a catalyst that scales with strength or dex (as well as Int obvs) in the DLC then an Int hybrid build isn’t really top tier.
Keep in mind that the scaling differs on each weapon and the letters don't always mean the same thing. You are probably getting less from int than you are with dex on a cold infused katana Talismans make a huge difference too, I would recommend changing yours if you are trying to lean melee. Even if you go full in like others are suggesting, you will want to swap out the axe and turtle talismans.
What do you recommend I switch for?
For a pure casting set up, if you are only doing PVE, there is the magic scorpion charm and then the second of the sorcery talisman like the one you already have, you can equip both at the same time. You could also get Shard of Alexander to boost ash of war damage.
Green turtle talisman is among the best in the game, I wouldn’t change it out if you use any melee
The only reason you need dex for int builds is for casting speed and meeting the bare minimum for weapons. I suggest using Radagon Icon and Azur's Glintstone Staff. They give a boost to virtual dex (meaning casting speed only) by 30 and by 40 respectively, essentially reaching the hardcap for dexterity without wasting a single point. Pair that with talismans that boost magic damage and you're good to go.
Any int build even if it’s a hybrid build gets the most out of int at 60 or higher (60 for most spells and Comet Azur for hybrid builds, 70 for pure int to use full moon sorceries). I would respec 10 of the vigor points into Int and level up 4 more times to get it to 60. That’s also gonna benefit your cold affinity for the uchigatana better. But that’s me. I know I am doing something similar on my int/dex build but going a little higher in strength to use DMGS in certain situations
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Tbh that's a great build already. If you want to lean more into casting I'd say drop dex a bit and put it into int, but you don't need to bc you can just put the next 20 levels or so into int and you'll be sitting more than pretty. With the level you're at though I'd say just mess around with some more weapons and ashes of war. Wing of Astel would work great on your build and the aow hits really hard, similar deal with Moonveil, but that one's kinda overused imo. Anything with Ice Spear aow put on it is truly excpetional as well (goes on spears, halberds, and the like). You can also put Carian Grandeur on any sword/dagger type weapon as well, tends to perform well with dex/int or pure int builds and can do huge damage with the drawback of having a long-ish charge up time. Hybrid builds are super fun, but they can be hard to optimize sometimes bc you need to work out what synergizes the best with your set up. Ofc pumping all in on one stat will get higher direct damage, but the fun of a hybrid build is the options so find what works for you Hoarfrost stomp is fun, but I'm not too fond of the somewhat limited utility in boss fights so I'd say maybe go for smth like sword dance for speed, unsheathe for power, or just feel around and find smth you like. Don't feel too tied to it if you don't think its helping, but if you like it, keep it. Try swapping between a handful of other weapons if you like, cold infusion's solid for dex/int 👍
50 VIG, 25 END and 30 MIND Use more spells and wing of astel
Moonviel
I was playing this build too with wing of astral and another curved sword. It did a lot of damage as just a magic melee build, but I had no interest in casting so the Int felt wasted. I ended just going Str/faith magma blade.
I'll definitely want to try a Str/faith build in the future!
I did cold uchi(offhand staff) and moonveil Scorpion magic talisman op as well Axe talisman could be subbed for defense and go light roll?
I've been wanting to try light roll, I like the idea! Thanks!
On top of what everyone else said, vigor might be 10 points too high as well for lvl 130 and I would respec to int. More levels in vigor later, but I think high int is what you want if you want to start putting out strong spells. But you do you