Overview
My personal analysis, feel free to disagree
TL;DR
#1: Blood Knight
#2: Sentinel (#1 for INT builds)
#3: Nobel
#4: Acolyte of Death == Assassin == Soldier
#5: Mage
And take the Crystal Bombs
Class Analysis
This guide[www.gameskinny.com] (aka the contents of links are not my work) does a great job of breaking each class down; equipment, talents, etc. My guide here on Steam is about weeding out all the noise and highlighting the important bits then giving you (the new player) my advice. So without further a do; why do I rank the classes the way I do?
#1: Blood Knight
The Blood Knight has the unique ability to heal himself WHILE attacking without having to spend any healing items – this is quite good, and mirrors the gameplay of Bloodborne (aka “Rally”) Eventually you can even unlock the ability to gain Soul Energy whenever you take damage as a Blood Knight. Unless you think you are an uber-pro who will never get hit… this trumps the other classes’ perks. PS. Any class can use any weapon / build they want with proper leveling, thus I do not even consider the weapon a given class starts with in this analysis
#2: Sentinel (#1 for INT builds)
The Sentinel has the unique ability to equip any weapon or shield while having only half the required stats to do so (rounded up) Keep in mind, you still need 100% of the required stats to equip the weapons’ abilities tho. Eg. You could equip the Vados Longsword (requires 7 STR) while having only 4 STR, but you’d still need 20 STR to equip the Longsword ability “Storm Caller.” The Sentinel’s ability to gain Soul Energy for parrying is… well, hard to take advantage of unless you “get good” at parrying (I’m hopeless at it)
Let’s look at the most expensive equip requirements to show why I place this class at #2;
Drake Knight Shield requires 62 STR
Bulwark’s Shield requires 30 STR
Tortoise Shell Shield requires 30 STR
Reaper’s Maw Shield requires 20 STR
Crystal Greathammer requires 20 STR
Solar Bow requires 40 FIN
Cosmic Bow requires 30 FIN
This means if you were going for a STR build you’d need 20 less levels “wasted” in FIN to still equip any bow or bow ability. While a FIN build could get away with only 15 STR in order to equip the Tortoise Shell (a shield that blocks no matter which direction an attack comes from) Essentially this class just makes min/maxing easier, but if you don’t care about that – just go with the Blood Knight.
As a side note, players pursuing an INT build would gain double the stat saving benefit taking this class (requiring less STR and less FIN) and wouldn’t have such a hard time of it at the beginning of the game like Mages do… Which would actually make the Sentinel #1 for INT builds then.
#3: Nobel
The Nobel gets an extra vendor who sells a +5 Halberd for 1100 shards early in the game, this gives them a decided advantage early on, but that advantage disappears once the other classes are able to level their weapons up. Getting Soul Energy from using items means you can get as much Soul Energy as you want, essentially on demand (or at least for as long as your consumables last) Additionally, other sources fail to mention that this class eventually gets +15% shards from killing enemies instead of the usual “double Soul Energy” from the class trait.
The special merchant saves you:
10 shards per Dragonberry
15 shards per Crystal Bomb
70 shards per Warp Orb
And provides access to:
Fire Bomb for 250 shards each (~2x the damage for 6x the cost of a Crystal Bomb)
Gaian Blood for 250 shards each
Abyssal Eye for 100 shards each
#4: Acolyte of Death (tied with Assassin and Soldier for #4)
This class has the unique ability to rest at extra shrines. This isn’t a huge deal but it does mean a bit less running each time you die and thus a bit easier progression. This class gains Soul Power with each mob kill; which is great for killing trash, but not so great on bosses. In SoulsBorne games players usually need more help on the bosses rather than the trash which is why I rank it as low as I do. The Assassin is essentially a clone of this class, just with a Soul Energy trait that actually works on bosses. The Soldier can be considered the STR version of the Assassin whose Soul Energy trait also works on bosses. None of these classes are “bad” they just don’t have as much to recommend them.
#5: Mage
Finally the caster; the only class to specialize in INT. The problem here is that INT is a hard build to start out as, think of it as the “Deprived” class – take it if you want to challenge yourself.
Starting Item Analysis
Vados Helm: I haven’t been able to find this item anywhere else, so if you “gotta catch em all” pick this one. Just keep in mind there will be better options later on
Spellbinder’s Aura / Shield of Warding: Both show up as placed items later on
Gaian Blood x 5: Worst option, enough said
Soul Stone x 5: You’ll end up with tons of these once you unlock the disenchanter NPC, still might help you level up a tad faster
Crystal Bomb x 8: These will let you easily kill the 1st Drake Knight elite and thus pick up the [Surging Soul] aura before even seeing the 1st boss… thus they are your best pick here unless you just want all helms
Rusty Charm: Useless except for one boss who is already fairly easy, but also can’t be obtained anywhere else as far as I can tell
Here is a guide on where / how to use the Crystal Bombs:
[link]
Conclusion & Secrets
If I missed anything or got anything wrong feel free to “correct” me in the comments ;-P
Just as a bonus for those who made it this far, here’s a secret for you:
After defeating Ione for the 1st time (a non-optional mini boss) a new NPC will spawn in the tutorial area. His name is Fink, a merchant, who many players accidentally kill; either from chasing the crystal lizard near him or not knowing what I’m about to tell you, and thus locking out TWO “questlines” for the rest of their playthrough. You HAVE to buy something from him each time you encounter him, elsewise he’ll turn permanently hostile. Each time you encounter him in a new location (as long as he is not hostile) he’ll offer better and better items – this is the 1st “questline.” Next, you’ll want to buy that [Corpse Shield] he is selling, it is not available anywhere else. Once you get to the safe hub area with the NPCs, equip it and show it to Sigur (the knight NPC) by blocking with it in front of her (you might want to exhaust dialogue with her to get a free plume first) Thus begins the 2nd questline… PS anyone know if you can save her?
Other secrets I’ve stumbled across:
Kill Bast, otherwise he’ll start killing your other NPCs. Just don’t do it right away, you have time; you’ll want to learn his dagger abilities first, and if you talk to him after returning a certain number of other NPCs to the hub he’ll also give you a free [Gaian Blood]. Additionally, he has a chance to drop [Dark Leather Boots +3] when killed.
[link]
This guide details another secret, it just fails to mention that you really do have to wait those 10 minutes and not leave the screen or else you might miss the little guy’s return and thus not get the [Immortalite].
Might add more later.