There is a common misunderstanding in the Dark Souls community that faith builds are pointless and not very useful. So let me clarify with this guide why faith builds in Dark Souls 3 are viable – especially pure faith builds, further expanded by Soul Farming. This build will focus more on the miracles, and the items and stats will be adjusted accordingly. With that said, here is how you do the faith build.
About The Author
I have played Dark Souls 3 for 180+ hours; with significant progression in the Faith build. You can trust my recommendation for the Dark Souls 3 faith build.
Key Takeaways
Faith Build relies on using miracles and items to defeat their foes.
- Early to mid-game can be challenging for Faith Build as it takes time to become powerful.
- For close-range combat and damage dealing, consider Assassin or Mercenary builds.
- Best starting classes are Cleric (high faith) or Pyromancer (balanced stats) for an easier early game.
- Choose between Chimes or Talisman for casting miracles, with Canvas Talisman being ideal.
- Complement your Faith Build with Morne’s Ring, Sun’s First-Born Ring, Sage Ring, and Darkmoon Ring.
- High-damage spells for this build: Lightning Spear, Great Lightning Spear, and Sunlight Spear, allowing safe long-range attacks.
- Utility spells to consider: Great Magic Barrier, Deep Protection, and Lightning Stake for defense and prolonged fights.
Similar: DARK SOULS 3 BEST FAITH WEAPONS
Before I begin, you must know that this build requires a particular playstyle and is not meant for every player. Some people prefer the luck build to gather more embers and deal tons of critical strikes, while some people prefer the quality build.
Without wasting any more time, let’s get started on the faith build.
Table of Contents
How To Start
First things first, let’s discuss the items and stats you will need to become more powerful as a miracle user, and then at the end, I will look at all the different builds. The damage and efficiency of miracles are determined by how many points you put in faith. The optimal level ranges between 50 and 60 if you decide to go for the full faith build.
Choosing a Starting Class
The best starting class for the faith build is the cleric since it has the highest faith stat at the start of the game. With that being said, I still do not recommend going for the cleric class. Instead, choose the pyromancer class since it has 14 faith and 14 intelligence – which you will be needing for your setup; plus, it adds more variety.
Most of the viable miracles are found in the mid to late game – which means that you’ll have a particularly tough time in the beginning. With the pyro class, you can infuse your melee weapons and get through the start to reach the good miracles.
Chimes and Talismans
In a faith build, chimes and talismans play crucial roles as the tools for casting miracles. Here’s a breakdown of the differences and advantages of each:
Chimes:
- Chimes have their own unique weapon arts, offering self-regeneration buffs that slowly replenish your health as long as the weapon art is active.
- Chimes tend to deal slightly more damage compared to talismans.
Talismans:
- Talismans are considered more practical and viable for faith builds.
- The weapon art of talismans provides a significant advantage by granting immense poise while casting miracles. This poise allows you to continue casting spells even when hit by enemies, making it a valuable tool in combat.
- This poise feature is unique to talismans and not available in other classes, making them the preferred choice for faith-based combat.
For a faith build, the canvas talisman is an ideal choice due to its high poise, which reduces stagger, and its ability to deal substantial damage. While miracles may lack variety, the poise provided by talismans makes them a powerful choice for faith-based characters, allowing you to cast spells even in the face of enemy attacks.
Rings
Moving on to the rings that you’ll want to equip that complement this build.
Morne’s Ring: This ring, found on the Road of Sacrifices, increases your miracle damage by 12%. While not a massive boost, it’s valuable, especially since you can obtain it early in the game.
Sun’s First-Born Ring: When stacked with Morne’s Ring, it provides a substantial increase in miracle damage, making it a potent combination.
Sage Ring: The Sage Ring is essential as it greatly reduces your casting speed, allowing you to cast spells more quickly and efficiently.
Darkmoon Ring: Miracles often require multiple slots, and the Darkmoon Ring is crucial for this build. It provides two extra slots for your spells, offering greater diversity in your miracles.
By equipping these rings, you can maximize the effectiveness of your faith-based character in Dark Souls 3, whether through increased damage, faster spellcasting, or the ability to use a variety of miracles.
Damaging Spells
Your choice of spells can make a significant impact on your combat effectiveness. Here are the main spells for this build:
Lightning Spear: Lightning Spear is a reliable long-range spell that allows you to engage enemies from a distance. It’s a good starting point for faith-based characters and provides decent damage output.
Great Lightning Spear: An upgraded version of Lightning Spear, Great Lightning Spear offers even more damage and can be a staple in your spell arsenal.
Sunlight Spear: Sunlight Spear is considered the best spell among the three, focusing on long-range combat. It delivers substantial damage and allows you to engage enemies with minimal retaliation due to the range advantage. However, it consumes a significant amount of focus points, so be prepared with plenty of Ashen Estus flasks.
Lightning Storm: This spell can be obtained by defeating the Nameless King and selling his soul in Firelink Shrine. Lightning Storm covers a large area and can be challenging for opponents to dodge. While it has a slow cast speed, you can use the poise weapon art to avoid staggering. Combining Lightning Storm with Sunlight Spear can potentially one-shot your enemies, as the spell can hit opponents multiple times if timed correctly.
In PvP fights, it’s important to be strategic when using these spells, as opponents may be able to telegraph and dodge them. Trading damage and using spells when attacked can be a viable tactic with the Sunlight Spear, as its damage output can often overpower your foes.
Utility Spells
In your faith build in Dark Souls 3, you have access to some of the best support spells, enhancing your survivability and effectiveness in various situations. Here are some noteworthy support spells:
Great Magic Barrier: This spell is highly beneficial as it grants you immunity to magic damage for a duration. It’s particularly useful when facing magic-using enemies or players.
Deep Protection: Deep Protection is a versatile spell that not only increases your damage and defense but also benefits any white phantoms summoned around you. It enhances your overall performance and provides a boost to your survivability.
Tears of Denial: This spell is a game-changer as it essentially grants you an extra life. If you die with Tears of Denial active, you’ll be left with 1 HP instead of perishing. It can be a true lifesaver in challenging encounters.
Another notable spell is Lightning Stake, which can be found in the Smoldering Lake. While it has shorter range than Sunlight Spear, it offers superior damage and utility. When enemies close in on you, use Lightning Stake to deal powerful area-of-effect damage and stagger foes. Its ability to stun enemies briefly makes it a valuable utility spell.
Conclusion
I can understand why the faith build does not match most players’ playstyle, but it is certainly worth it to give it a shot. Having around 60 faith and about 30 intelligence will grant you the best amounts of damage. Using the setup discussed above, you will get the most optimal build for the faith stat. After tons of experimentation, this was the best layout I could come up with.
I hope you will try out this build to spice up your gameplay and have fun with new playing games. With that, the guide about faith build Dark Souls 3 comes to an end. Please leave a comment below telling me about your favorite type of builds.
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Maaz Bin Faisal
An enthusiastic writer who loves art and gaming, you can find Maaz casually spending his day either behind the keyboard or the canvas. Maaz holds a major in Electronics and has over 5 years of experience working as a freelance blog and content writer. He loves to talk about all things gaming and help other gamers through his guides. He’s an expert when it comes to Diablo 4, Elden Ring, Dark Souls, Starfield and Baldur’s Gate 3.
Maaz mostly plays games on PC, you can check out his library on Steam attached below: