I'll start off by linking this phenomenal guide for souls players new to DS2, written 4 years ago by one of the community's most hard-working contributors, u/TheHittite. If this is your first souls game, I recommend reading this guide instead.

There is another guide on steam which is just the first post I linked, copied by steam user new socks without credit. My hope is that by making a post with the same guide but credited properly, and several other valuable guides added, the author will get the recognition he deserves.

If you want to know how to build (or avoid building, if you want to have a harder time) a powerful optimized character, this collection of mini guides will help you navigate DS2’s many obfuscated and counterintuitive mechanical quirks:

A quick overview of how damage and defense works in DS2[docs.google.com], and why weapon scaling is usually weak

BiS (Best in Slot) PvE weapons list[docs.google.com]. Discusses the best options for each weapon class. Note that this list is directed at newer characters- some weapons not mentioned may do more damage than ones mentioned, but take vastly more stats or are otherwise deficient

Best PvE equipment and stat progression document[docs.google.com].

Read these four documents for highlights on some of the best equipment, stats, and progression for a casting-focused character:

Sorcerer Guide[docs.google.com]

Hexer Guide[docs.google.com]

Pyromancer Guide[docs.google.com]

Miracle Guide[docs.google.com]

All that being said, it’s important to understand that DS2 isn’t so hard that playing the strongest possible character is required in order to win and have fun. Ultimately you should use whatever you want, these guides are just to help you make informed choices.

If you've read the build optimization guide but aren't sure how to synthesize what you've learned into making a powerful character, here’s an example build. This hexer handles pretty much anything in the game with relative ease, and has the flexibility to do anything that any build can do. If you want to steamroll, I recommend this.

The stats you want, in order, are 12 DEX, 16 ATN/11 ADP, 21/20 INT/FTH, 15 STR, 20/20/20 ATN/VGR/END, INT/FTH to 30/30, VGR to 50, higher ATN and END to taste. Start as Sorcerer and buy the Rapier from Lenigrast, then once you have 15 STR and the Bracing Knuckle Ring from Lost Bastille, come back and farm the Old Knight Hammer from Heide’s Tower. Use it two handed to clear areas, and use the rapier to DPS bosses and other enemies that the hammer can’t pancake, or if your hammer durability gets too low. Get the Repair spell from Shaded Ruins as soon as you can spare the Branches.

Get the hexer kit from Felkin (Beginning of Huntsman’s Copse, Licia can help you open the rotunda path near Majula), infuse your weapons with Lightning and your Sunset staff with Dark ASAP (find the necessary stones from crystal lizards in shaded ruins and on the way down to the gutter, smooth/silky trades, and Targray in Heide’s Tower, provided you can get a token of fidelity from co op or huntsman’s copse) and stack the Dark Weapon buff on top of the Lightning infusion to deal incredible amounts of melee damage while still having plenty of levels for casting. Beyond the obvious Dark Orb, your other bread and butter spells will be Dark Fog (poison at long range abd through walks with Binoculars) and Yearn (excellent if situational crowd control). At midgame when you get access to the dlc area within the Shrine of Winter you can farm an Ice Rapier, a direct upgrade to your Rapier.

These tools, created mostly by the irreplaceable Qui[ko-fi.com] but with a lot of help from Evan, are incredibly useful, especially the damage calculator- check out the widgets! Note that for many of the calculators, you'll need to make a personal copy (File->Make a Copy) of the doc for them to function.

Comprehensive Damage Calculator[docs.google.com]

Comprehensive Enemy Defenses[docs.google.com]

Item Drop Rate Lookup Table[docs.google.com]

Buff AR Calculator[docs.google.com]

Max Level Weapon Data Comparison Sheet[docs.google.com]

iFrame Data and Visual Helper[docs.google.com]

Stamina Regen Calculator[docs.google.com]

All Weapon Stamina Costs[docs.google.com]

Poise Damage and Tip Hit Penalties Chart[docs.google.com]

Hyperarmor Multipliers[docs.google.com]

Counter Modifier True Values[docs.google.com]

Parry Framedata Table[docs.google.com]

Healing Miracle Scaling[docs.google.com]

Shield Block Scaling Calculator[docs.google.com]

Buff Duration Chart/Calculator[docs.google.com]

Blue Acolyte[www.nexusmods.com], the community-made anticheat and Quality of Life mod with features for both PvE and PvP.

Better mouse and keyboard controls

Note that you can enable borderless fullscreen without mods by following these steps:
1. Enabled the "Windowed" setting in the ingame settings menu.
2. Choose your desired resolution and close the game.
3. Navigate to your DS2 folder (the one with DarkSoulsII.exe) and open "userconfig.preferences" with your preferred text editing program (such as Notepad++).
4. Change the App.Window.X value to -10, and the App.Window.Y value to -33.
5. Save the file and set it to "Read-only" in the Properties menu.

Borderless fullscreen and double click fix mod[www.nexusmods.com] for mouse and keyboard

Controller deadzone fixes

Mouse sensitivity has two settings by default for DS2, remember to adjust them both[cdn.discordapp.com]!