Notes from author
This is so far my favorite build for pve and pvp so far with the new content. For shields in my humble opinion the crest shield, grass crest shield, blood shield and heater shields are the best shields for this build. Canvas talisman because it has the best adjustment for 30 faith, use the darkmoon talisman for 40 and up. Primary weapons for this build Ricards rapier (my favorite weapon), Falchion (R1 spam garbage, dont use this weapon please), balder side sword. as for the off hand i like the dark moon bow, and the dark silver tracer with ricards however you cannot have an off hand with any of the other primaries for this build because weapons such as the side sword weigh to much to have an off hand with 35 endurance. Some real strenths to this build are that it does a medium weapon selection, good scaling, and has a great counter to sorcerers (Great magic barrier), Some cons to this build are that careful spear users are difficult to approach when not using ricards rapier, a person using pyromancy from my exp. is this builds worst nightmare, It isnt that effective against backstab fishers due to the low viatality (Granted it has good vitality for one on one duels gankers in the forest will be a tough fight and i recomend the Falchion for R1 spam when gankers are about). Lastly this build is viable for pvp AND pve due to the buffs and when in combination with power within, can make new game plus and beyond actually really easy with that deadly combo. This is my primary build, enjoy!