In depth explanation of all the Dark Souls 3 player stats so you can make the right choice in your character’s build! Details the best use of stats, what the soft and hard caps of each stat are, and gives some build ideas. Don’t make the mistake of wasting stat points on useless attributes.
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Its for spells, if you have 10 or more attunement you can equip them at the bonfire View Entire Discussion (3 Comments) More posts from the darksouls3 community. For each point of Attunement up to the soft cap at 35, you receive a gradually increasing amount of Focus Points, from 5-10. Notably you recieve 9-10 Focus points per point of Attunement between 28-35 Attunement. After 35 Attunement you recieve only 2-4 Focus Points per point of Attunement until the hard cap at 99.
Each stat is explained in detail and includes the soft and hard cap for the stat. The soft cap is where you will start seeing diminishing returns (less benefit) and is set at 40 for most stats. For example on Endurance with a soft cap of 40, raising the stat to 41 or higher will start to give you less Stamina per point. In some cases you would be better off raising a different stat instead.
We’ll have a lot more Dark Souls III builds, guides, and other information coming out so check out our other articles and be sure to come back soon!
Vigor:
- HP (Hit Points)
- Frost resistance
- Physical resistance (+1 resist per point in all physical types)
- Gradual Soft Cap to 27? (needs verification) / Medium Cap: 50 / Hard Cap: 99
- up to 27: gradually lowers from about 45 to 30 HP per stat point in vigor / 27+: 19 HP per point (?) / 50-99: +5 HP per point (?)
Vigor determines how much health your character has. It is hugely important for every class and build and should not be overlooked. At absolutely minimum, every character will probably want to invest at least enough points to reach 20 stat points in Vigor. It can mean the difference between surviving a stunlock / stagger combo that catches you. Also increases Frost Resistance as a secondary defensive effect.
Note: Currently we are working on verify specifics. It appears the 1.03 patch adjusted stats so some of the information available elsewhere is inaccurate. I can confirm that on patch 1.03 (retail release with Day 1 patch), this is true:
- Vigor stat from 19 up to 20: + 41 HP (764 total HP)
- Vigor stat from 20 up to 21: +40 HP (804 HP)
- Vigor stat from 21 up to 22: +38 HP (842 HP)
- Based on this it appears to be correct Vigor has a gradual soft cap. I will update when it is verified if there is a major point of diminishing returns.
Attunement
- Spell Slots
- Focus Power (FP)
In Dark Souls 3, similarly to Dark Souls 2, attunement is a stat that is important for Sorcerers, Clerics, and Pyromancers. Melee focused builds will likely also want enough for 1 or 2 attunement slots in order to enchant their weapons or use other minor spells. Each slot is one more spell you are allowed to “equip”. Focus Power, or FP is used to cast magic and perform Weapon Arts. It is the blue bar in the HUD. FP does not regenerate, but can be refilled by using the Ashen Estus Flask.
- Attunement Stat / Spell Slots Given:
- 10 – 13 – 1 slot
- 14 – 17 – 2 slots
- 18 – 23 – 3 slots
- 24 – 29 – 4 slots
- 30 – 39 – 5 slots
- 40 – 49 – 6 slots
- 50 – 7 slots
- 60 – 8 slots
- 99 – 10 slots
Endurance
- Stamina
- Lightning and Bleeding Resistance
- Soft Cap: 40 / Hard Cap: 99
Endurance primarily determines how much stamina you have in Dark Souls III. More stamina means you can dodge, block, run, or attack more before you need to wait for your stamina bar to refill. Almost no character will ever want to go over 40 Endurance attribute points in their build, and most will want to use considerably less. If you were to really max endurance the main real-world benefit you would get would be that you could possibly block some heavy boss attacks without being staggered if you used a high stability and damage absorbtion shield. The other use would be being able to spam attack combos for longer, but that’s not normally helpful with how PvP or PvE ends up working due to knock downs and dodge-rolls (you usually have time for your stamina to refill.)
Vitality
- Equipment Load
- Poison Resistance
- Physical Defense
- Soft Cap: 40 / Hard Cap: 99 (after 40 you gain less physical defense per point)
- +1 weight / burden per stat point in Vitality up to 99
Although it may be slightly confusing, Vitality does not affect your HP. In many games Vitality is basically synonymous with hit points, but here it mostly affects your Equip Load, which affects how much armor and weapon weight you can use. For example if you plan to build a heavily armored tank, Vitality will be a primary stat for you. In a roundabout way it also affects your roll speed, since your roll speed is based on how much of your Equip Load is used.
Equip Load / Weight Important Note: The cutoff for a “fast” roll is 70% equip load. You can see your equip weight and percentage on the character stats screen. Most characters will want to stay below 70% equip load in order to have a good roll speed and distance. From information available it appears there is a tiny advantage to going even lighter — you get slightly more distance with your roll at light equip weights. However so far most sources agree it is almost negligible and that being right at 70% equipment burden is the ideal weight.
Strength
- Increases damage with strength scaling weapons (clubs, hammers, axes, etc)
- Attack Strength
- Fire Resistance
- Increases Defense
- Soft Cap: 40 / Mid Cap: 60 / Hard Cap: 99
Strength is important for using heavy weapons and other equipment like heavy greatshields (to meet the minimum stat requirements). It also will increase damage on any weapon that scales off of strength.
Dexterity
- Increases damage with dexterity scaling weapons (finesse weapons like daggers and light swords)
- Reduces spellcasting time
- Reduces damage from falling
- Soft Cap: 40 / Mid Cap: 60 / Hard Cap: 99
Dexterity is the main damage stat for characters using lighter, faster, and “advanced” weapons in DS3. This can include daggers, bows, light swords like scimitars and other weapons – mostly light, fast, or ranged. It also reduces spellcasting time so it might be a consideration for hybrid melee / caster builds like dex and faith or dex and intelligence.
Intelligence
- Increases sorcery spell damage
- Required to meet minimum stats to cast some spells
- Increases damage with intelligence scaling weapons (which are somewhat rare)
- Magic Defense
- Also affects pyromancy
- Soft Cap: 40 / Mid Cap: 60 / Hard Cap: 99
Intelligence is the main attribute for sorcerers in combination with attunement. (Not to be confused with miracles, which instead rely on Faith for damage). Faith and intelligence are some of the few stats that don’t have sharp caps on their benefits, so take the 40 / 60 caps as a general guideline. For example a primary sorcerer will likely benefit quite a bit going up to at least 60 points in intelligence.
Faith
- Increases miracle damage and effectiveness
- Required to meet minimum stats to cast some miracles
- Increases damage with Faith scaling weapons (which are somewhat rare)
- Increases Dark Defense
- Pyromancy spells
- Soft Cap: 40 / Mid Cap: 60 / Hard Cap: 99
Faith is the main attribute for clerics, who cast miracles. Miracles can heal, do damage, and create other effects. It also affects damage and effectiveness of Pyromancy. Faith and intelligence are some of the few stats that don’t have sharp caps on their benefits, so take the 40 / 60 caps as a general guideline.
Luck
- Item Discovery boost
- Increase Bleed Resist and Damage
- Increase Poison Resist and Poison
- Increase Curse Resist
- Soft Cap: 40 / Medium Cap: 60 / Hard Cap: 99
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Luck is probably the least popular (worst) stat as of writing this. It really does not help you much in combat in most situations. It may be that some creative players work out a way to make a build based around luck, but most players would be better off not wasting stats in luck.
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Example builds
Most players are agreeing that SL120 OR SL 125 (Soul Level 125) is the end game level for PvP. This is an important consideration because Dark Souls 3 matchmaking matches you up with people in a small range of your level. Hence if you want to find people to play with, you should consider shooting for level 125 as your end-game.
The best starting classes are probably the Knight, Warrior, or Pyromancer because they have the lowest amount of luck and it is generally considered a wasted stat point. Note this does not take into consideration starting gear or early game builds, but after around 10 level ups and a few hours of play your starting class makes little difference.
Standard Versatile Melee Fighter (Start as Knight)
40 Str / 40 Dex / 20 End / 40 Vit / 40 Vig
This gives you high damage on strength and dex scaling weapons, the ability to use some decent armor, and a solid chunk of HP to fight with.
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Cleric (Start as Herald)
40 Dex / 40 Faith / 25 Vigor / 25 Attunement / 25 Endurance / 15 Vitality