Starting Classes in Dark Souls II is a major part of the character creation at the start of the game. While the classes determine the base stats for redistribution, there are no differences in abilities between classes, and they are only a template from which you can build your character. Most Weapons and Armor from other classes can be obtained relatively early in the game. The Class system in Dark Souls II is more like a starting point than a predetermined path. You could start as a Bandit then eventually turn it into a powerful Cleric, or start from a Swordsman who loves dual-wielded swords and then turn it into a defensive class with a great shield. It boils down to how you want to upgrade or progress your character throughout Dark Souls II. Below are a list of all Starting Equipment, build tips, stats information and comparison tables for all Dark Souls II Starting Classes.Click here to view Classes list.
Best Starting Class in Dark Souls 2
- The Deprived Class is by far one of the most difficult classes to start with but can be the most rewarding and powerful one in the long run. This class gives you the most control over your character and a slight advantage once you catch up with the starting points or levels of the other classes. You start with 6 points in every stat, allowing you to progress your character in any build that you desire since it's well-balanced at the start.
Best Starting Gift for your Class in Dark Souls 2
- Our best Recommendation for a starter gift would be the Bonfire Ascetic. This gift allows your character to acquire new and powerful items much earlier than intended for you to receive. This gives your chosen class a big boost in power at the early stages of the game making runs less difficult than they should be.
All Starting Classes Guide for Dark Souls 2
Warrior
 Level 12 |
 Strength 15 |
 Vigor 7 |
 Dexterity 11 |
 Endurance 6 |
 Adaptability 5 |
 Vitality 6 |
 Intelligence 5 |
 Attune. 5 |
 Faith 5 |
Knight
| Level 13 |
Strength 11 |
| Vigor 12 |
Dexterity 8 |
| Endurance 6 |
Adaptability 9 |
| Vitality 7 |
Intelligence 3 |
| Attune. 4 |
Faith 6 |
Swordsman
| Level 12 |
Strength 9 |
| Vigor 4 |
Dexterity 16 |
| Endurance 8 |
Adaptability 6 |
| Vitality 4 |
Intelligence 7 |
| Attune. 6 |
Faith 5 |
Bandit
| Level 11 |
Strength 9 |
| Vigor 9 |
Dexterity 14 |
| Endurance 7 |
Adaptability 3 |
| Vitality 11 |
Intelligence 1 |
| Attune. 2 |
Faith 8 |
Cleric
| Level 14 |
Strength 11 |
| Vigor 10 |
Dexterity 5 |
| Endurance 3 |
Adaptability 4 |
| Vitality 8 |
Intelligence 4 |
| Attune. 10 |
Faith 12 |
Sorcerer
| Level 11 |
Strength 3 |
| Vigor 5 |
Dexterity 7 |
| Endurance 6 |
Adaptability 8 |
| Vitality 5 |
Intelligence 14 |
| Attune. 12 |
Faith 4 |
Explorer
| Level 10 |
Strength 6 |
| Vigor 7 |
Dexterity 6 |
| Endurance 6 |
Adaptability 12 |
| Vitality 9 |
Intelligence 5 |
| Attune. 7 |
Faith 5 |
Deprived
| Level 1 |
Strength 6 |
| Vigor 6 |
Dexterity 6 |
| Endurance 6 |
Adaptability 6 |
| Vitality 6 |
Intelligence 6 |
| Attune. 6 |
Faith 6 |
Class Stats Comparison Table in Dark Souls 2
| Level |
Vigor |
Endurance |
Vitality |
Attune. |
Strength |
Dexterity |
Adaptability |
Intelligence |
Faith |
|
| Warrior | 12 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 15 | 11 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Knight | 13 | 12 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 8 | 9 | 3 | 6 |
| Swordsman | 12 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 9 | 16 | 6 | 7 | 5 |
| Bandit | 11 | 9 | 7 | 11 | 2 | 9 | 14 | 3 | 1 | 8 |
| Cleric | 14 | 10 | 3 | 8 | 10 | 11 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 12 |
| Sorcerer | 11 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 12 | 3 | 7 | 8 | 14 | 4 |
| Explorer | 10 | 7 | 6 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 12 | 5 | 5 |
| Deprived | 1 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
Starting Equipment of Classes in Dark Souls 2
| Starting Class | Weapons | Armor | Items |
| Warrior |
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| Knight |
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| Swordsman |
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| Bandit |
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| Cleric |
Spells |
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| Sorcerer |
Spells |
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| Explorer |
Rings |
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| Deprived |
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Stats Identifier in Dark Souls 2
| Vigor | Raises HP and Petrify Resistance. |
| Endurance | Raises HP, stamina, physically defense, and poise. |
| Vitality | Raises HP, equipment load, physical defense, and petrify resistance. |
| Adaptability | Raises all resistances, agility, poise, and poison bonus damage. |
| Strength | Raises HP, attack damage, and quard. |
| Dexterity | Raises HP, attack damage, poison/bleed bonus, and physical defense. |
| Intelligence | Raises HP, magic/fire/dark bonus damage and increases casting speed. Raises magic/fire/dark defense. |
| Faith | Raises HP, fire/lightning/dark/bleed bonus damage and increases casting speed. Raises fire/lightning/dark/petrify defense. |
| Attunement | Increases attunement slots. Raises HP, casting speed, and agility. |
Starting Class Details and Tips for Builds in Dark Souls 2
- Designed for those who favor substantial damage and enjoy a more deliberate pace in character development, the Warrior class provides essential tools for advancing strength builds from the outset. Employing hefty dual-wielded weapons, this class delivers formidable damage output. Additionally, it offers a pathway for equipping robust defensive armor, allowing your character to spec into tank builds.
- Closely mirroring the playstyle of the Warrior class, the Knight class shares significant similarities. However, what sets the Knight class apart is its versatility—it isn't confined solely to high damage but can be tailored by players to suit any desired build through progression.
- In stark contrast to the Warrior and Knight Classes, it boasts low damage output, its exceptional speed and mobility enable it to rival high-damage classes. The Swordsman relies heavily on dexterity as its primary stat, endowing it with remarkable swiftness at the expense of raw power. This class is often favored by players well-versed in Souls games due to its unique characteristics.
- The Bandit class shares a certain resemblance to the Swordsman in its emphasis on Dexterity. However, a key distinction lies in the Bandit's utilization of ranged weapons, particularly the bow, as opposed to melee weapons. Notably, the Bandit class may find itself overshadowed by the Swordsman if players opt to gear it towards melee combat. Opt for the Bandit class if your preference lies in strategically picking off enemies from a distance.
- The Cleric is probably one of the unique classes that you can choose in Dark Souls II. It has enough Magic/Faith stats to be used from a distance, and it also has enough strength stats to wield a number of the strongest weapons in the game. So, if you want a class that can be used for healing spells while being able to brawl with enemies in close combat, then this class is for you.
- The Sorcerer utilizes attunement and intelligence stats to perform powerful spells from long range. This class excels in long-ranged battles like the Bandit, but is weak when it comes to close range. You'll need to progress your speed if you want to make use of your arsenal of powerful spells from a distance.
- The Explorer class starts with a bigger item spread than the other classes and higher drop rate, as well as a high starting Adaptability. It has very little points spent in any class specialization. Experienced players may want to use this class to focus on min-maxing a specific build.
- Regarded as one of the more challenging classes to begin with, this class proves to be exceptionally rewarding in the long term. It evenly allocates six stat points across all areas, providing players with the flexibility to shape their characters into any desired build.
Relevant Videos:
Discussion of the different classes and which is ideal for other build types, See Builds
AnonymousDeprived I honestly think is a meme class when Explorer starts with similar or better stats in everything while still not committing enough to one specific playstyle as to not be customizable. Not having to spend as many points into ADP and especially not needing to touch VIT for RoBFlynn set-ups is a very nice quality about Explorer, too.
- Anonymous
"Deprived is the best class in the long run because of its balanced stats." Same page - "Explorer is the worst class in Dark Souls II." Who writes these and why
Classes ranked
S= explorer, deprived
A= warrior, swordsman
B= k***ht
C= sorcerer
D= bandit
E= cleric (not said by patches)
- Anonymous
People sleep on the warrior because of his bad starting weapon, but you can literally grab the morningstar as soon as you get to majula, and you won't even need to twohand it as well. Only thing that sucks tho is his adp, so most of the times the knight will be slightly better in the early game cuz you won't have to dump as much levels in it.
- Anonymous
Deprived and its equivalent in any Souls-like is always S-tier.
Just nab armor/weapons off the first mobs you encounter and you're set.
- Anonymous
to whoever might be complaining that there's no pyro class in the game with some of the strongest pyros ever, pick deprived, beeline your way to no man's wharf, unpetrify straid/grind jailers until they despawn and thank me later
- Anonymous
Starting Class Tier List
S Tier: Explorer (best hat)
B Tier: Warrior, Swordsman, Bandit (hats)
D Tier: Knight, Cleric, Sorcerer, Deprived (no hats)
- Anonymous
Starting Class Tier List
S Tier:Knight, Cleric, Bandit
A Tier:Sorcerer
B Tier:Warrior, Swordsman, Explorer
C Tier:Deprived
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
The Classes suck
Warrior is basic
"Knight" isn't a knight at all
Swordsman is anime cringe
Bandit is an archer
Cleric is cool but wasted stats on faith
I don't feel like I need to explain Sorcerer
Merchant has weak items
Deprived doesn't have a weapon
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
If shields are so important, why only one class start with one?
- Anonymous
If you're going for melee build pick knight class.
If you're a caster pick sorcerer.
If you're confused pick the explorer.
If you're savage pick deprived.
Thank you.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Explorer starts with balanced stats + high Adp, free lockstone and consumables, a fast crit weapon, and a stylish beret with item discovery. Truly the thinking man's class
- Anonymous
Level Adjustment (actual points spent vs Deprived)
Warrior: -1 (SL 12 vs 10 points spent)
Knight: 0 (SL 13 vs 12 spent)
Swordsman: 0 (SL 12 vs 11 spent)
Bandit: 0 (SL 11 vs 10 spent)
Cleric: 0 (SL14 vs 13 spent)
Sorcerer: 0 (SL 11 vs 10 spent)
Explorer: 0 (SL11 vs 10 spent)
Deprived: baseline
Warrior is statistically the worst class you can pick.
- Anonymous
I’d suggest warrior, it may have a shitty weapon but it has great stats, also if you start with the petrified something and get lucky or go grab the morning star you should have a good weapon for early to mid game
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Bandit best class for no bonfire + no death run, deprived for everything else.
Leveling ADP is for bad players.
- Anonymous
I love how DS makes such **** classes to choose from. How bout hand me the 54 points and let me decide. Been a gamer since I was 4 and am now 39 years old so I think I can figure it out.
- Anonymous
Haven played in a long time, anyone remember which class is best to start with
- Anonymous
I just think its wierd that bandits have the second highest faith and yet have the lowest attunement. they have the power for miracles but not the slots. same with the explorer, has 3rd highest attunement but lower than average int and faith
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Really? No Pyromancer? I mean, c’mon! They have a dirty rotten Cleric for Gwyn’s sake! Shame on you, greedy guts!
- Anonymous
After listening to suggestions on how to deal with NPC's you have no interest in, I come to find out the default hidden class in Dark Souls is "Asshole". I love gaming.
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Haha! Looking at all the classes, Deprived seems to not care about posture.
- Anonymous
I'm on PS4 on SoTFS and I was wondering if anyone could help me boost a new character to SL 194. My PSN is NathanHawaii
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
Sorcerer starting with 3 strength. Making it one of the worst starting class
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
1. Pick sorcerer2. Go backtrack and find the track with big footprints3. Kill the big fat guy with your magic arrow4. Equip stunlock ring5. Progress through tutorial6. Find out Snorlax had friends7. Kill them8. Go back to the old ladies9. Get ladle10. Hit things with the ladle until it breaks11. ?????12. Profit
- Anonymous
I actually went with this one on my very first contact with the game and i'm now SL130+. It was a pain at the very start due to the lack of strong hits but once you get the stats up to par (drangleic armor set for example) it's getting easier. The learning curve teaches you how to be humble when playing though, definately recommend it for a first contact class, I had a blast with it and I'm only half way through the game (2 out of 4 special boss souls (the sinner and the old iron king)) but it's easier to adapt to any situation with this class (eventhough you need a lot and i mean a LOT of souls at start). Awesome experience all the way!
- Anonymous
This is my first run through of dark souls 2 and I have taken my time with it. And the more videos and walkthroughs of the game, people are using magic and I don't know how to use/select the magic for my quick select. I only have right and left handed weapon and the item.
Explorer is a good choice, aside from having a heavy investment in ADP early. The dagger is a great fast starting weapon and can be changed early for the shortsword (not far past The Crestfallens Retreat Bonfire, up 2 ladders and past the first bomber), then the fire longsword not too far further on (watch out for burnies). The explorer also comes with a bag full of goodies which can come in handy early, especially if you are doing silly stuff.
4
+10
-1