As a long-time Souls player with over 400 hours of Dark Souls 3 gameplay, I‘ve developed a borderline-obsessive passion for strength builds.
I love the feeling of hefting gigantic ultra greatswords, pancaking enemies with colossal hammers, and shrugging off blows while wearing the heaviest armor sets. Pure power, pure destruction.
In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll share everything I‘ve learned about optimizing strength builds for PvE and PvP – from essential stats and weapons to armor choices and tactics.
Let‘s dive in!
Why Choose a Strength Build?
Before we get into the specifics, here‘s an overview of why you should try out strength builds:
Raw Power – Strength builds enable you to wield the biggest, baddest weapons in the game. We‘re talking earth-shattering damage capable of felling bosses in just a few hits.
Poise for Trading Blows – Tank through enemy combos to land crushing counter attacks. Strength builds allow you to poise through attacks.
Variety of Massive Weapons – From giant greathammers to fiery demon greataxes, the variety of strength weapons keeps the gameplay fresh.
Demolish Enemies and Bosses – Pancake groups of enemies with a single greathammer slam. Stagger even huge bosses with ultra greatsword combos.
Simply put, strength builds make you an unstoppable force of nature crushing all in your path. Now let‘s get into the details…
Leveling Priorities and Stats
While the core focus is strength, you‘ll need to invest in other stats too:
Strength – Get this to 40 initially, ideally 66 later on for max scaling returns on colossal weapons. This also determines what you can wield.
Vigor – 30-40 vigor for decent HP. You‘ll be tanking some hits so vigor helps survive.
Endurance – 25-40 endurance to swing heavy weapons. Also boosts equip load for armor.
Vitality – Enough to stay under 70% equip load with weapons/armor equipped.
For starter classes, I suggest:
- Knight – Great strength and vitality starting class
- Warrior – Highest strength start, at the cost of vigor/endurance
As you progress, continue leveling strength, then vitality and endurance. Supplement with some dex if using a quality hybrid weapon.
Now let‘s check out some stellar strength weapon options…
Best Strength Weapons
Here are some personal favorite picks after hundreds of hours experimenting with strength builds:
Ultra Greatswords
- Fume Ultra Greatsword – Highest AR when two-handed. Found in Smouldering Lake.
- Cathedral Knight UGS – Fantastic scaling and moveset. One of the most versatile heavy UGS.
- Lorian‘s UGS – Gets S scaling strength when fully reinforced. Transposed from Lorian‘s soul.
Greathammers
- Ledo‘s Greathammer – Heaviest and most powerful greathammer. Found after defeating Ledo. Demolishes poise.
- Great Club – Easily acquired early game by farming thralls. Becomes a monster with Heavy infusion.
- Vordt‘s Great Hammer – Early boss soul weapon. Inflicts frost buildup to enemies along with strike damage.
Greataxes
- Yhorm‘s Great Machete – Enormous machete of Yhorm the Giant King himself. Devastating with high strength.
- Demon‘s Greataxe – Sinister greataxe with demonic moveset and damage. Scales very well with strength investment.
Additionally, the Exile Greatsword, Fume Sword, and reinforced Club are all excellent in quality/strength builds.
Infuse weapons with a Heavy gem whenever possible to get that delicious S scaling strength damage!
Now to cover some armor…
Strength Build Armor Sets
Ideal armor sets provide high poise to withstand hits without staggering:
| Armor Set | Location | Poise | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Havel‘s Set | Found after defeating Havel | 61.79 | Very Heavy |
| Cathedral Knight | Various Cathedral knights | 55.51 | Heavy |
| Smough‘s Set | Transposed from his soul | 52.95 | Very Heavy |
My personal favorite is the Cathedral Knight set – it has an excellent balance of poise and defense while keeping your equip load reasonable.
Havel‘s has the highest poise but requires massive vitality investment. Smough‘s offers lightning and magic resistance.
Best Rings for Strength
Rings to further amplify your rampaging power:
Havel‘s Ring – Massive equip load boost to wield the chunkiest weapons and armor
Ring of Favor – Raises max HP, endurance for attacks, and equip load. Core strength ring.
Prisoner‘s Chain – Instantly adds 15 levels across vigor, endurance, and vitality. Extremely efficient.
Chloranthy Ring – Faster stamina recovery for endless crushing weapon art combos.
Mix and match those as needed based on your build and style. Steel Protection, Wolf Ring, Hornet Ring, and more also have great utility.
Now time to put it all together into some killer strength builds…
Sample Strength Builds
Here are two of my most successful setups – one centered purely on colossal strength weapons, the other incorporating pyromancy:
Juggernaut Strength Brawler
This build wields some of the largest, heaviest weapons in the game to dish out devastating blows:
Stats
- Vigor: 35
- Attunement: 10
- Endurance: 40
- Vitality: 45
- Strength: 66
- Dexterity: 16
Weapons
- Primary – Ledo‘s Greathammer / Yhorm‘s Great Machete
- Secondary – Heavy Broadsword
Armor
- Head: Cathedral Knight Helm
- Chest: Havel‘s Chestpiece
- Arms: Havel‘s Gauntlets
- Legs: Havel‘s Leggings
Rings
- Havel‘s Ring +3
- Ring of Favor +3
- Prisoner‘s Chain
- Chloranthy Ring +3
This build can wield colossal weapons in both main-hand and off-hand to cleave through enemies and demolish bosses. Embrace your inner gorilla!
Quality Strength Pyromancer
In this build, I‘ve incorporated both strength and fire magic:
Stats
- Vigor: 35
- Attunement: 18
- Endurance: 35
- Vitality: 18
- Strength: 40
- Dexterity: 40
- Intelligence: 30
- Faith: 30
Weapons
- Primary – Exile / Harald Curved Greatsword
- Secondary – Reinforced Club / Pyromancy Flame
Spells
- Chaos Bed Vestiges
- Black Fire Orb
- Carthus Flame Arc
Armor
- Dragonscale Armor Set
Rings
- Prisoner‘s Chain
- Ring of Favor +3
- Great Swamp Ring
- Witch‘s Ring
This build lets you dominate enemies with a powerful chaos-infused greatsword, then torch them from range with potent pyromancies. Lots of versatility!
Concluding Thoughts on Strength Supremacy
And there you have it – everything you need to know to start dominating as a heavy-hitting strength build in Dark Souls 3.
I absolutely love my colossal weapon wielding juggernauts. There‘s nothing quite like the feeling of poising through enemy combos unaffected only to flatten them with two massive weapon art slams from Ledo‘s Greathammer.
Or pancaking groups with the charged R2 attack of an Ultra Greatsword. I hope you‘ll try out some of these strength build ideas for yourself – just be careful not to accidentally blow any holes in your monitor‘s screen!
Let me know if you have any other questions on optimizing strength setups. And praise the sun! \[T]/
