Notes from author
The thing I notice about many players is the rely on their shield. THIS IS NOT YOUR ONLY OPTION. This build (my standard SL100) is geared up for others to use to wean them off of shield dependency. Any thrusting weapon (spear/rapier/etc) should be used in the offhand. Not only does it prevent you from using your shield, but it's also a technique than can force your opponent to fall back, if they attempt to punish a whiffed swing. I also recommend learning how to setup parry. This process is done by BLOCKING the first swing with the offhand, and then parrying their second swing. Since most players just RB/R1 spam the Painting Guardian Sword, Katanas, and the Claymore, it's not hard to set up.
