DARK SOULS™ III Dark Souls III Tank Build and Damage Info Guide

What is the Damage Tank Build I made?

 
It’s as it says, it’s a damage tank. 
 
The stats and gear for the build (I’ll discuss more about the gear in another section, also you may have to download the image and zoom it in, but I’ll Iist my stats in “Equipment”) 
 
So for what purpose did I make a damage tank build? 
Well I didn’t make the build on purpose, rather it was an accident that happened when I decided to path for a tank and damage build and found a good combo of equipment just right for the ensuing stupidity I would bring forth through my play-through of the game. 
 
What are the pros and cons of this build? 
Pros- high damage, having over 60 strength is good, can take hits from strong pyromancys, sorceries, and miracles, can take on multiple people, 7-14 stamina per second regen so can fight continuously or roll often, health is extremely high, have a high chance to survive backstabs or riposts. 
Cons- near 70% weight, slow swing speed (ultra greatswords are recommended for build), can potentially kill fellow invading spirits if hit by the large range of sword, can’t equip more weapons, can’t vary rings except one 
 
 

Equipment

 
The equipment is list down bellow: 
>Fallen Knight Set- I used this set to keep a low weight yet retain moderate defense and resistances 
>Grass Crest Shield- gives 4 stamina regen per second and is used as an auxiliary tool unless to parry, not advised to block because of the chip damage 
>Pyromancy Flame- not really needed, but can be useful to have Carthus Flame Arc if the weapon is buffable for some added damage if you already didn’t have enough 
>Stamina Crest- necessary to the build, a normal ring is fine, but the +3 from the DLC is the best to go from a 7-10 stamina regen that can be stacked with Grass Crest shield for a total of 14 stamina regen per second 
>Havel’s Ring- used to balance out lower the weight needed to use Fume Ultra Greatsword (my strength based weapon of choice and what I advise) , +3 is recommended to lower the weight as much as possible 
>Ring of Favor- used for a general increase in hp and stamina and to increase equip weight, once again a +3 is recommended 
>Estus Ring- due to having a large health pool the greater heal from the ring helps to keep your hp topped off and alive longer, however this ring can be traded for rings like ring of steel protection, but I still recommend the estus ring 
>Sun Princess Ring- absolutely not needed what so ever for the build, but can help you in PVE or PVP if you don’t want to waste, use estus, or are unable to use estus even if it has a slow 2 health per second regen, I just wanted to make note of it 
>Fume Ultra Greatsword- is the strength based weapon I recommend for the build as it has a S tier scaling for strength at +5 (A scaling at 0-+4) allowing for high damages and making all the strength points worth it 
 
Stats: 
Soul Level 139 
Vigor- 46 
Attunement- 11 
Endurance- 19 
Vitality- 26 
Strength- 71 
Dexterity- 26 
Intelligence- 12 
Faith- 10 
Luck- 7 
 
 

Performance

 
To use this build you do need high stats, use the image I put in the first section for a general idea of how to scale the stats or the list I made in “Equipment”, of course this build functions best at sl 100+. But you can achieve damages around 750 on 2 handed light swings and a whopping 1260 on fully charged swings two-handeds, and 500s on one handed swings, one handed fully charged swings are about 800. So why is the damage this high? Well the sword can achieve about 650 damage at +5, but it does have S tier scaling with strength so by having 71 strength and the S scaling I get an extra 100 added on damage. My health is also high due to my +3 ring of favor and my 46 vigor giving me around 1400 hp and 1700 hp while embered. Stamina regen is high too, so I can out stamina people in most situations. Though keep in mind I only have as much faith and intelligence as I need to talk to Orbeck, use Carthus Flame Arc, and Chameleon (DLC secret), those points used there can be stacked elsewhere if you chose not to use these things. 
 
So what does this build excel at? 
1. Punishing mage builds that have low health (why eat magic when you can dodge it and make it eat one ton of stone?) 
2. Killing Gankers (every hit probably will make them need to use an estus and makes it really easy to hit someone because you can focus on one guy and then change immediately to another because the range of Fume is scarily unknown) 
3. Taking Hits (pretty hard to kill with 1400-1700 hp, even the most potent of backstabs can’t kill you) 
4. Killing stuff in PVE quick (750 damage per swing, kills pretty quick) 
5. Farming Man-Serpent Summoner Summons (just prepare a two-handed charged heavy attack as it summons and hit it when it becomes tangible and the do it again as it tries to get up and then finish it off with a light attack.) 
6. Can do follow 1-2 follow ups (good for catching people off guard because they may not expect you to use a follow up assuming you have very little stamina left or may not expect an ultra greatsword follow-up, can only do it if you have 10-14 stamina regen, or at least is advisable to do it with a regen rate that high) 
7. The high dex allows for use of bows, crossbows, and greatbows and have high damage (good for cheesing PVE or having an annoying secondary in PVP if you chose not to use Grass Crest, because sometimes you can’t get to the honest, but need to attack him and can only do so at a distance, and it also makes doing PVE a lot easier if you have a ranged option) 
 
 

My Experience

 
This build, as stupid and plain as it is served me well, and made people mad. PVE wise I shredded enemies and destroyed bosses with the staggeringly high damage. It might not be a ripost or backstab, but the damage was absurb. I remember one invasion within the ringed city in the swamp area near the steps, I was doing a 1 v 4 as an invader and was in very bad odds. I killed managed to survive and kill his 3 summons he fled and got 3 more summons, killed that round, 3 third round I died because I went up the steps out of curiosity and got cornered. Took them a while to kill me though due to my high hp and because I was spamming roll (stamina anyone?). To be honest though I feel like the host of that server did deserve my stupidity, because usually I play friendly invader and offer to help the host by killing invaders and filling one of the 2 invader slots to allow him to co-op easier. So I tried to pledge loyalty and he tried to kill me when I did. Other times I did 1 v 1 and I was usually victorious. 
 
So that concludes my guide, sorry for boring you by being an idiot with a lack of an author’s skill for writing. Hopefully though you will find this build good and fun, don’t take it out of context though. 
 

Here we come to an end for DARK SOULS™ III Dark Souls III Tank Build and Damage Info Guide hope you enjoy it. If you think we forget something to include or we should make an update to the post let us know via comment, and we will fix it asap! Thanks and have a great day!