Choosing the Right Class For You

Before you begin your hunt for the Lords of Cinder in Dark Souls III, you need to choose a class. For hardcore veterans, this decision should be an easy one. But for newcomers, this choice might be more difficult, especially if you’re not sure what play style or character statistics you want to commit to. To help you decide which class to take on, we’ve compiled everything you need to know about each, and what to consider before choosing them.

For an in-depth look at Dark Souls III’s starting equipment and character build screens, check out our gallery highlighting what each class comes with.

What to Consider

In Dark Souls 3, each class has its own statistical strengths and weaknesses, but a granular leveling system allows you the freedom to choose which stats you wish to upgrade over the course of your adventure. However, it’s still best to formulate an idea of what you want before you start the game and how you want to build your character as you progress.

Below you can find all of the game’s stats and what they influence.

• Vigor: Governs your max health points.
• Vitality: Determines max carry weight, poise, and defensive stats.
• Attunement: Determines your spell slot capacity.
• Endurance: Governs your stamina and resistance to bleeding.
• Strength: Determines attack power of weapons scaling in strength.
• Dexterity: Determines attack power of weapons scaling in dexterity.
• Intelligence: Governs your sorcery power.
• Faith: Affects your ability to perform better miracles.
• Luck: Determines chance of finding higher quality item

Knight

The Knight is a great class if you’re a Dark Souls newcomer. It gives you room to make mistakes, offering high Vitality and the ability to equip decent armor early on. It’s also great class if you’re not looking to specialize your stats right away. In addition, the Knight’s Attunement, Faith, and Intelligence stats are well rounded enough to use spells later on.

• Level: 9
• Vigor: 12
• Attunement: 10
• Endurance: 11
• Vitality: 15
• Strength: 13
• Dexterity: 12
• Intelligence: 9
• Faith: 9

• Luck: 7

Mercenary

If you favor faster attacks over slow, brute strength, then the Mercenary is for you. It’s a hybrid class that can specialize in other stats, however, its high Dexterity makes it a great choice to output fast damage. The Mercenary is equipped with a set of dual blades, but also comes with a Wooden Shield. But once you’ve mastered the Mercenary’s dual-wielding abilities, you’ll barely ever have use for a shield.

• Level: 8
• Vigor: 11
• Attunement: 12
• Endurance: 11
• Vitality: 10
• Strength: 10
• Dexterity: 16
• Intelligence: 10
• Faith: 8
• Luck: 9

Warrior

If you value raw power and the number of times you can swing your weapon, then the Warrior class should serve you well. Its high Strength and Endurance stats makes it an offensive powerhouse, and its starter weapon–the Battle Axe–has a weapon art that gives you an increase in attack.

• Level: 7
• Vigor: 14
• Attunement: 6
• Endurance: 12
• Vitality: 11
• Strength: 16
• Dexterity: 9
• Intelligence: 8
• Faith: 9
• Luck: 11

Herald

The Herald is recommended if you want to use both physical attacks and magic. The class specializes in Miracles–a unique magic that scales with Faith and include an assortment of lightning spells, heals, and stat buffs. The Herald is also proficient with weapons scaling in Dexterity, starting the game with a spear.

• Level: 9
• Vigor: 12
• Attunement: 10
• Endurance: 9
• Vitality: 12
• Strength: 12
• Dexterity: 11
• Intelligence: 8
• Faith: 13
• Luck: 11

Assassin

The Assassin is a hybrid class that’s the opposite of the Herald, specializing in Sorceries–a magic that scales with Intelligence and consists of a wide range of damage types–rather than Miracles. The class has high Dexterity and Attunement, and its lesser stats are well-rounded, giving it a variety of potential specialization paths to follow. The Assassin is ideal if you enjoy using weapons and magic equally to dispatch your enemies.

• Level: 10
• Vigor: 10
• Attunement: 14
• Endurance: 11
• Vitality: 10
• Strength: 10
• Dexterity: 14
• Intelligence: 11
• Faith: 9

• Luck: 10

Thief

The Thief is recommended for advanced players due to its minimal loadout, which includes a dagger, a short bow, and light armor. While this class’s speed and maneuverability make it a great choice if you’re into backstabbing enemies, its low Vitality can often put you in danger. It’s worth noting that the Thief’s starting dagger has a weapon art that’s essentially the Quickstep maneuver from Bloodborne.

• Level: 5
• Vigor: 10
• Attunement: 11
• Endurance: 10
• Vitality: 9
• Strength: 9
• Dexterity: 13
• Intelligence: 10
• Faith: 8
• Luck: 14

Sorcerer

The Sorcerer relies on its powerful arsenal of magical attacks, which makes it a great choice if you’re not comfortable getting up close to enemies. However, since ranged magical attacks aren’t always an option in a fight, the Sorcerer can brandish a melee weapon to aid against enemies and bosses that quickly close the distance, negating your magic attacks.

• Level: 6
• Vigor: 9
• Attunement: 16
• Endurance: 9
• Vitality: 7
• Strength: 7
• Dexterity: 12
• Intelligence: 16
• Faith: 7
• Luck: 12

Cleric

If you want to focus more on the healing and buff magic of Miracles, than cleric provides a Faith-based analog to the Sorcerer. With the highest Faith stat, the class is capable of performing the best Miracles in the game. It starts out with Heal and Force–a magical attack that pushes enemies back. In addition, to compensate for its low Vitality and Endurance, the Cleric has high Strength and Luck.

• Level: 7
• Vigor: 10
• Attunement: 14
• Endurance: 9
• Vitality: 7
• Strength: 12
• Dexterity: 8
• Intelligence: 7
• Faith: 16
• Luck: 13

Pyromancer

The Pyromancer’s is another hybrid class that specializes in physical attacks and magic. But rather than utilizing Sorceries or Miracles, the Pyromancer uses fire attacks, starting out with the Fireball spell and a Pyromancy Flame that powers it. Unlike other spellcasting classes, the strength of the Pyromancer’s attacks is dependent on the level of its Pyromancy Flame. This class is recommended if you’re inclined to focus on the power of your equipment rather than your stats.

• Level: 8
• Vigor: 11
• Attunement: 12
• Endurance: 10
• Vitality: 8
• Strength: 12
• Dexterity: 9
• Intelligence: 14
• Faith: 14

• Luck: 7

Deprived

The Deprived class is only for those looking for a challenge. It has lowest overall stats and is only equipped with a club, a plank shield, and a loin cloth. While it’s a great class to choose if you want to craft your character’s stats from scratch, it’s not recommended unless you’ve got the patience and skill to survive with its weak starting stats. However, if you know what you’re doing, the Deprived is the most flexible starting class in the game.

• Level: 1
• Vigor: 10
• Attunement: 10
• Endurance: 10
• Vitality: 10
• Strength: 10
• Dexterity: 10
• Intelligence: 10
• Faith: 10

• Luck: 10