First of all, I'd like to point that I don't suggest blindly copying my config to your game, but rather follow the general idea and create something that suits you better. Feel free to call this particular button mapping garbage in the comments, because I'd rather see you understand how to enhance your experience with the game than just use my config.

So, here's the list of important moments covered in this guide. Most of them are missing from other guides, and no other guide except this one addresses all of them.

1. Solving the double click issue. Not just working around it, but making kb&m input even more precise than that of a gamepad.
2. Making general movement better.
3. Making the controls truly ergonomic: any action can be performed without moving your hands away from WASD or the mouse, so that you can look around and move your character all the time.
4. Enabling faster target switching and playing unlocked.
5. Making parrying and scrolling through items during pvp more convenient.
6. Making guard break, jump attack and some mlg madskillz key combos easier to perform.
7. Enhancing menu navigation. Stop being afraid of accidentally opening the menu during combat and join those who swap their entire gear between parry and riposte instead!

It's also worth noting that though I mention pvp a lot, it's not just a pvp guide. It's a general quality of life guide with pvp in mind.

One final warning before we begin. From Software made the game's configuration menu even more hostile to new players than the game itself. Pressing the ESC key will discard all your changes without warning or confirmation. Use RMB context menu in order to apply changes instead. It's also a good idea to save your settings per-tab.

Key notes:

1. Disable double clicking and button combinations. For those yet unfamiliar with the famous dbl click issue, here's a quick info. The game adds input delay in order to tell single and double clicks apart. Many of us would instantly fire the person who suggested adding any form of input delay to a dark souls game, but somehow this "feature" made it to the PC version. As if that wasn't enough, the game re-enables the dbl click each time you open it, and some users report mouse buttons being slightly less responsive than the keyboard even with dbl click disabled.
2. That's why we'll be using mouse buttons mostly with bows and all of the four attack controls will be mapped to keyboard keys.
3. Target locking and scrolling through items and spells with the wheel is actually quite useful, so keep it. Also, the wheel does not seem to be affected by the double click issue anyway.
4. Everything else on this tab is disabled so that it didn't interfere with other stuff that we're going to change.

Edit: if playing with a mouse as a primary attack/block controller is an absolute must for you and you don't want to go disable dbl click every time, there is a mod at nexusmods[www.nexusmods.com]. Beware that it's a mod however. And, as they say, what kind of mod stuff can get you banned and what can't is a mystery even to the support team.

Key notes for movement:

1. You can't unmap walk and auto-dash, that's why i put them as far as possible from all other buttons.
2. Auto-dash is useless, because you should run like speedrunners do and never reach zero stamina, as it disables sprinting until you're back to full green bar.
3. Whether to use walk or auto-walk is totally up to you, but I prefer auto-walk.
4. Jumping with the F key is a good idea though. You don't need to jump very often, but when you do, you want the timing to be as precise as possible. That's why the jump control occupies such a luxurious spot.

Needless to say, the largest button on the keyboard should be reserved for rolling and it's so obvious that even From devs could not mess it up.

Key notes:

1. This section is probably the most controversial and opinion based one. Feel free to experiment and choose what's best for you. Read this list to the end to know what you're doing though.
2. I mapped right hand attacks to X and V, because I find it convenient to press W+X or W+V to perform the guard break and the jump attack respectively. These buttons are also very close to the spacebar, so that I can tap them quickly after rolling or backstepping (yes, backstep r2 is an actual pvp technique despite not having a special animation).
3. The left hand is typically holding a shield, so I block with Shift.
4. The Alt key is the parry button and I find it extremely helpful, as it allows "parry or roll" to be a split second decision with your thumb hovering over the left side of the spacebar. In my opinion, it's the only practical way to parry in pvp.
5. They call them quick items for a reason, so using them should be Q-uick.
6. Using objects in the world should be quick too, and E key serves that purpose well in many games.
7. I like two-handing with R, but it's just my personal opinion and there aren't too many buttons left around WASD at this point.
8. Lock guard stays on M as it is totally useless. Like, we wouldn't miss it if they removed it from the game kind of useless. I don't know why they bothered adding it in the first place.

Not much to discuss here. I use 1 and 3 to toggle weapons on the move. I also use 2 and 4 as backup for mouse wheel, because sometimes you just can't afford to accidentally scroll past the necessary spell or item. Some guides suggest using these two buttons for something you absolutely can't live without, so the final decision is totally up to you. According to my experience, 2 is better than MWHEELUP when performing spell combos in pvp, and MWHEELUP is better than 2 when simply scrolling the spell list for one particular spell.

In this section I will explain the general idea behind my choice of movement, attack and camera controls. Also, you will finally understand why this seemingly weird config greatly surpasses the gamepad. Here is a quick reminder on how the gamepad controls work from fextralife wiki. Ignore that it's for DS3, DS2 controls are virtually the same.


Notice that you are supposed to use your thumb for camera controls as well as for 4 important in-game actions, most notably sprinting. It means you have to keep your thumb away from the right stick for quite long periods of time. It's very inconvenient. As a matter of fact, the ability to sprint and move the camera at the same time is so important, that some pro players swap L2 and the Circle using Steam or external tools.

Now, which buttons in our control scheme can be used with your hand on the mouse? - All of them! And it's not limited to sprinting as other actions can be performed as well. And as a free bonus, the same rule applies to the left side of the gamepad: not having to stop character movement in order to press a button on a D-Pad is just one of the benefits of being a glorious PC gamer.

I would like to share two advanced techniques that you can now perform much better than the gamepad players.
1. Unlocked play. Use target lock only when it's absolutely necessary in order to land a hit and switch it off immediately after the attack connects. Your character moves a bit faster when unlocked, which allows you to play on weapon reach and attack speed difference between you and your opponent. In some situations unlocking provides extra backstab opportunities, especially against players that play locked all the time.
2. Precise jumping. Significantly improved jumping precision not only saves you from falling to your death and unlocks some speedrunner shortcuts, but also improves tactical maneuvering in several pvp areas such as the arena or the belfry towers.

For some reason, it's one of the most ignored sections in other guides. However, you can save plenty of time if you modify your menu experience. Also, as it was mentioned earlier, fast menu access provides extra opportunities during combat. In fact, ring swap is something that you absolutely have to learn to use if you want to survive at the arena. Let's discuss some key points and I will share a common ring swap strategy to provide an example.

1. I use mouse to select menu items since you can't move the camera in menu with your mouse anyway. Some players may prefer to bind at least the left arrow closer to their left hand in order to get to the main ring slot a bit faster. Keep in mind that there is no pause and you have to continue walking around while browsing the menu.
2. The most important thing in this section is to bind the confirm function to the same button as interact, so that you could pick an item from the ground with 2 quick taps.
3. Ctrl is probably not the best button for cancel regarding intuitivity, but it was available in my config and is very easy to press quickly.
Edit: after publishing the guide i decided to swap Ctrl and Tab in menu control scheme so that it became more intuitive.
4. I don't use toggle menu keys because pressing the corresponding on-screen buttons with a mouse is faster than scrolling through them.
5. Binding the two function keys so close to the left hand is somewhat useful. The only truly necessary feature it provides is the ability to quickly clear an inventory slot. Let's not break the general rule of never having to leave the movement keys. 'Cause, you know, there's no pause.

The duel ring swap strategy, as promised:
This strategy suggests that 3 out of 4 ring slots are always occupied by some rings that are important for your build (The Third Dragon Ring, the Ring of Blades and the Flynn Ring for instance), and the fourth ring is the one that you change according to situation.
1. You start the duel with the Life Ring +3, because it gives you extra hp.
2. And as soon as you get hit once or twice, you swap this ring out, which effectively means you get some free HP with this technique. The second ring may be the ring of your choice. It may be the Leo Ring or the Chloranthy Ring or any other ring depending on your build.
3. When your HP reaches 30% you equip the Blue Tearstone Ring to gain extra defense. This ring is so good that it's arguably the best ring in the game when it's effect is active. But wearing this ring when it's inactive (when your hp is above 30%) it is a waste of a slot.
4. There is one more tipping point when the BTSR becomes useless, and it's the situation when your HP is so low that you're going to die in one hit regardless if you're wearing the ring or not. When it happens it's time to pull the Red Tearstone Ring out of your pants to boost your damage and fuel your epic comeback.

Thank you for reading. Any feedback on further improving the guide will be appreciated. Good luck and may your newly gained abilities help you annihilate those filthy gamepad casuals!