If you are unfamiliar with how to create a build in dark souls, well here's some clear cut examples that you can bounce off from. As well as general equipment&item info, how equipment load works, and why poise is important.

For a quick rundown of the generalized builds:

STAT

• STRENGTH - Based upon using weapons with high STR scaling/requirement.
  
• DEXTERITY - Based upon using weapons with high DEX scaling/requirement.
  
• FAITH - Based upon using spells that have high scaling/requirement with FTH.
  
• INTELLIGENCE - Based upon using spells that have high scaling/requirement with INT.

HYBRID

• QUALITY - Based upon using a mixture of STR & DEX to have access to a wide variety of weapons.
  
• BUFF KNIGHT - Based upon using a specific weapon and buff spell of your choosing.

UNIQUE

• PRYOMANCY - Since pyromancy has no stat requirement it's dynamic on what you want to invest in.
  
• CHAOS SERVANT - Pick a specific weapon you love, upgrade it to Chaos, and then put everything else into END & VIT.

High damage but slow attack speed. Generally is combined with poise to compensate, but can experiment with light equipment load.

• 58 STR - highest STR requirement for 1 hand
  
• Soft STR 27 to 40 - STR 27 2hand is 40, 40 2hand is 60 and is the cutoff for dmg scaling for Normal
  
• Also focus on END, VIT
  
• Able to use all STR weapons
  
• 2handing a weapon gives STR a 1.5 multiplier, rounded down

ASSOCIATED WEAPON TYPES
Slow

• Ultra Great Sword
  
• Great Hammer
  
• Great Axe

Fast

• Hammer
  
• Axe
  
• Fists

http://darksouls.wikidot.com/strength

Seemingly low damage, which easily makes up in their speed. These are all about the high DPS.

• 45 DEX - casting speed cap
  
• Soft DEX 25 to 40 - 25 allows you to use all dex weapons, 40 is cutoff for dmg scaling for Normal
  
• also focus on END, VIT
  
• Able to use all DEX weapons
  
• 35 dex is when casting speed increases

ASSOCIATED WEAPON TYPES

• Daggers
  
• Thrusting Swords
  
• Straight Swords
  
• Katanas
  
• Spears
  
• Whips
  
• Curved Swords
  
• Scythes

http://darksouls.wikidot.com/dexterity

Miracles are slow. Casting speed doesn't effect them either for better or worse, meaning you can focus on STR rather than DEX. Thus effectively, you want to be a paladin(go figure). By using the strong defensive/offensive buffs in conjunction with the devastating WoG, you can become quite a tank.

A unique feature is related to those white circles you will randomly see. Some miracles create those circles in other peoples worlds, and if someone uses a miracle near it the effects are boosted. These are referred to as "Miracle Resonance".

DETAILS

• full 50 FTH - use all possible miracles
  
• basic 30 FTH - cus darkmoon, sunlight blade, great magic barrier, wrath of gods
  
• focus on Attunement, VIT
  
• most miracles are slow, but Force and WoG are fast.
  
• miracles not effected by casting speed, so DEX not required
  
• Boosted by miracle resonance
  
• Soothing Sunlight and Bountiful Sunlight require you to be in Princess Guard
  
• Darkmoon Blade requires being a Blade of Darkmoon
  
• divine and occult infusions

NOTABLE MIRACLES

• Gravelord Greatsword Dance - 0 FTH
  
• Force, Heal - 12 FTH
  
• Tranquil Walk of Peace - 18 FTH
  
• Lightning Spear - 20 FTH
  
• Great Magic Barrier, Great Heal - 24 FTH
  
• Wrath of Gods - 28 FTH
  
• Darkmoon BLade, Sunlight Blade - 30 FTH

http://darksouls.wikidot.com/faith
http://darksouls.wikidot.com/miracles
https://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Miracles

Wanna be a wizard? Have balls float around you? And use the LEGENDARY moonlight GS? Time to get a HIGH IQ.

The way you approach INT will determine how you end up. If you want to primarily be a caster then you will want DEX 35 to 45 fast casting speed. Though the tradeoff means Attunement, VIT will suffer.

However if you don't care about casting speed, whether that be because you want to focus on buffing & soulmass, you can actually put more into INT, Attunement, VIT.


Also, if you are just going for moonlight GS and that alone you can ditch attunement and just focus on VIT.

An interesting note too is, Catalysts don't require upgrading.


DETAILS

• 50 INT - use all possible sorceries
  
• Soft INT 16 to 28 - 16 for dark bead, 28 for moonlight greatsword
  
• DEX 35 is when casting speed increases, 45 is the fastest casting speed.
  
• focus on Attunement, VIT as well
  
• magic and enchanted infusions

NOTABLE SORCERIES

• Dark Bead - 16 INT
  
• Homing Crystal Soulmass - 24 INT
  
• Crystal Magic Weapon - 25 INT
  
• Pursuers - 32 INT
  
• Crystal Soul Spear - 44 INT

http://darksouls.wikidot.com/intelligence
http://darksouls.wikidot.com/sorceries
https://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Sorceries

Named after a Demon's Souls upgrade path that even'd out STR and DEX scaling[demonssouls.wikidot.com] the idea is a hybrid of Strength and Dexterity. Whether it be to use weapons that have a high stat requirements in both, weapons that have equal scaling, or just wanting the ability to use a wide variety of weapon types this can be quite a dynamic build.

Another sidenote is, Dark Souls 1 has no ingame respec feature, so this is a nice way of trying out all physical damage weapons without needing two different builds.

DETAILS

• Hybrid build
  
• full quality , 40 STR 40 DEX
  
• 2hand quality, 27 STR 40 DEX
  
• soft, 27 STR 25 DEX
  
• with remaining stats left, END, VIT
  
• Able to use most or all STR and DEX weapons

ASSOCIATED WEAPONS

• Greatswords
  
• Curved Greatswords
  
• Halberds
  
• Any STR or DEX weapons

http://darksouls.wikidot.com/strength
http://darksouls.wikidot.com/dexterity

Here's a minmaxing hybrid build. Take a weapon you love and have the specific stat requirements for it. Choose your miracle/sorcery buff of choice and apply. After that point it's choosing to become more of a glass cannon or actually have some VIT.

Really, this is more of an advanced build because it means that you are most likely dedicating everything to one weapon. So if you aren't even sure if you like using a weapon, this isn't for you.

People usually focus on fast weapons such as the Falchion or Katanas, making you have a powerful DPS output.


DETAILS

• hybrid build
  
• Meets the requirements for a weapon, as well as a powerful spell buff
  
• STR and/or DEX depending on what weapon
  
• INT or FTH depending on the buff
  
• END, VIT for the rest of your stat allocation
  
• 1 attunement slot for the buff, or 2 to have 1 additional spell for a mixup

BUFFS

• Crystal Magic Weapon - 25 INT, adds magic damage
  
• Darkmoon Blade - 30 FTH, adds magic damage
  
• Sunlight Blade - 30 FTH, adds lightning damage

http://darksouls.wikidot.com/darkmoon-blade
http://darksouls.wikidot.com/crystal-magic-weapon
http://darksouls.wikidot.com/sunlight-blade

And then, there was fire...

Since pyromancy only scales with the Pyromancy Hand (no player stats) and all pyromancy have no stat requirements, well this is a pretty versatile build that really anyone can implement right? Well, kinda.

If you don't care about casting speed, then any build can become a pseudo-Pyro build if you have the attunement slots.

However, if you want fast cast speed you will need 45 DEX. Luckily though you don't need to put anything into INT or FTH so you can put the rest into Attunement, END, VIT.

DETAILS

• Ascended Pyromancy Hand +5
  
• DEX 45 for fastest casting speed
  
• focus entirely on Attunement , END, VIT (if you dont want the fast cast)
  
• fire and chaos infusions

NOTABLE PYROMANCY
Great Chaos Fireball - 2 Slots
Fire Tempest - 1 slot
Chaos Storm - 2 slots
Great Combustion - 1 slot
Power Within - 1 slot
Black Flame - 1 slot


http://darksouls.wikidot.com/pyromancies
https://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Pyromancies

THE minmax build.

Step 1, find a weapon you love and meet the specific requirements
Step 2, infuse that weapon with chaos and get 10 humanity
Step 3, Invest everything else in END and VIT

Boom, BIG damage from chaos infusion, you can tank hits with all that VIT, and can have low equip burden thanks to the END.

Now since Chaos is one of the most popular infusions, you can do a little mixup by infuse the same specific weapon with lightning for PvP.

Trivia, this is what the giant dad build is btw.


DETAILS

• infusion build
  
• meets only the requirements of a specific weapon
  
• chaos infusion, damage scales with humanity
  
• 10 humanity for max damage
  
• can invest fully into END, VIT

ASSOCIATED WEAPONS
ANY WEAPON YOU WANT


http://darksouls.wikidot.com/chaos
https://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Chaos+Upgrades

Some generally useful equipment and items to know getting started with a build.

• fire & black fire bombs & throwing knife - snipe enemies at low HP
  
• Dung pie - inflicts toxic even if foe is shielding
  
• poison throwing knife - inflict poison buildup, even if the foe is shielding.
  
• lightning, poison, fire resin - simple dmg boost
  
• Llyod’s talisman - to prevent foe from using estus

• grass crest shield
  
• Mask of child
  
• Cloranthy ring
  
• green blossom - consumable if u dont want to use the equipment
  
• FAP ring - increases stamina amount

• havels ring
  
• FAP ring
  
• Mask of father

• Mask of Mother
  
• Sanctus - hp regen
  
• FAP ring
  
• poison, toxic & bleed clumps - heals respective status effect
  
• humanity - can actually heal you
  
• Divine Blessing & Elizabeth mushroom, rare consumables that can heal you

• white seance & darkmoon ring - attunement slots
  
• bellowing dragoncrest ring - increases magic dmg
  
• lingerint dragoncrest ring - increases magic length
  
• Crown of Dusk - increases magic dmg
  
• Crown of the Dark Sun - increases magic dmg

• darkwood grain ring - ninja flip, which has better frame data (15 iframes, faster recovery)
  
• Rusted iron ring - can move normally thro water (unnecessary if u are light weight)

For those curious about how equipment load effects you, here it is.

• Less than 25%
  
• move faster & faster roll
  
• In combination with darkwood grain ring, can do ninja flips(better frame data)
  
• Can continuously fast roll through water
  
• 13 iframes and fast roll recovery

• 25%->50%
  
• Medium movement and roll
  
• below 37.5% with be faster
  
• 11 iframes

• 50%->100%
  
• Slow movement and fat roll
  
• 9 iframes

• Over 100%
  
• slowest movement and cant roll

http://darksouls.wikidot.com/equipment-load
https://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Equip+Load
https://i.redd.it/5ka4b6b04uuy.png
https://www.reddit.com/r/opensouls3/comments/68khsv/wip_a_comparison_of_roll_frame_data_from_the_3/

To put how poise works in as simple as possible, it's the calculation to determine if your character will stagger from a hit or not.

In Dark Souls 1 there is passive poise. Meaning it's always active. Once you get hit, the attacking poise value temporarily subtracts your own and will stay there for a couple seconds until it instantly fills back. However, if it does reach 0 you will get stunned.


Some bad news about this is some weapons are extremely deadly because they can keep you stuck in the stunned animation for multiple hits. But I'll get to that later.


Just know that if you hate getting stunned, either add more armor with poise OR WEAR WOLF RING FOR FREE 40 POISE.

• 41 poise to withstand great combustion
  
• 61 poise to withstand black flame

This is just to give you a good frame of reference on how much poise you should have with your weight class. Because if your midrolling with no poise, maybe it's better to have a faster roll ya know?

• Light 0-41 poise, toggle escaping
  
• Medium 41-61 poise
  
• Heavy 61+ Poise
  
• OverEncumbered LOT OF POISE

Here's where I get technical.

There is a technique(or ZOMG EXPLOIT GLITCH PLS BAN!) called Toggle Escape. Remember how I said certain weapons can get multiple hits on you when you're stunned? Well you can actually escape that with this trick.

When getting hit, toggle your right/left equipment slot to cancel the animation and be able to roll away.

A classic example of this usage is escaping the Zweihander's swings.

A trick people will do is have two of the same weapon on their item slots (for example, two dark hands) so that it's safer to switch.

Now here comes some really bad news.
Gold Tracer, pretty fast weapon right? Exclusive to the Remaster(due to the 60fps) I've seen tests that show that if your poise breaks you CAN'T toggle escape out of it, or atleast the first hit and if you're close to them. Meaning this weapon is quite deadly IF you have no poise. If you see someone holding this, slap on the doggo ring and avoid getting right in their face.


http://darksouls.wikidot.com/poise
https://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Poise

• Fixed mention of END and spell casting. Spells don't use stamina in Dark Souls 1 so spell casting related builds don't need more stamina. - thanks Blackrabbitninja
  
• Added a quick rundown of the builds in the description.
  
• Fixed some readability.