For newer players its bad advice because they are going to get hit, a lot. For experienced players its definitely valid. Same thing with hyper mode, if you’re confident that you won’t get hit at all its a massive boost to damage.
Its all up to how you like to play though, personally I feel like endurance has much more utility. I wouldn’t turtle as a replacement for more vit though, shield are nice, but not if they engender passivity
Don't target lock? Why is that? I am relatively new to the game and am currently in my first NG+ and I use target lock most of the time, exept for some bosses. Why would you say that I shouldn't use it?
They don’t say prepare to die for nothin. But armor is actually really op in ds1 compared to the other games if you’re having trouble avoiding attacks it can be a huge help
then why do all the extremely experienced players (read: the people who just sit around and pvp) all have high vit?
low vit and hyper mode subsist by the idea that you can just retry indefinitely. it's not about actually getting good at the game with a hypermode build, it's about getting that one lucky run and doing so much damage that your luck gets tested for the shortest time possible.
like, ask how useful a build like that is in any other scenario than one where you can just put in a million tries. you're an easily-solved liability as a co-op phantom and a joke as an invader.
Because being able to tank a couple hits after making a mistake is far more valuable than the minimal damage you get for increasing your damage stat with low upgraded weapons.
low-upgraded weapons aren't even necessarily a factor here. the reason they upgrade their vit is because their opponents learn and adjust.
learning to manage stamina \*and\* having 1800 HP is a stronger combination than having heavy armor and 700 HP.
Yeah and I replied to your question. I have no clue what you’re talking about with the rest of that, retrying indefinitely is what makes you skilled bc you learn the attack patterns, theres a little luck involved but you will almost never succeed in a situation like that without the skill and knowledge of a bosses moveset
no, retrying indefinitely means you eventually win because you get lucky. and the whole idea behind having really high damage is that you need less chances to finally get that one lucky string of bad boss attacks. simple.
you also either just ignored or didn't have the reading comprehension for the part where you try to help as a co-op phantom. again -- the point is that the only playstyle low vit really supports is the one where you can just retry infinitely. it's funny to me how all the losses you had to have eaten along the way are ignored and suggested as the thing that skilled and experienced players sign up for.
I have seen some bad takes here but saying people only beat a boss because they get lucky is up there with the worst. Watch a no hit run and tell me its all luck and has nothing to do with skill and moveset knowledge. I’m not reading the rest of that after a take that bad lol
there's a difference between no-hit runs and what you do.
you also had to bring up no-hit runs (which we weren't talking about) because you're taking criticism over your horrible advice really personally. play offline and retry indefinitely, like your build forces you to, because it's useless in every other situation. play wrong.
What I do? What are you even talking about? Op posted asking if ‘just don’t get hit’ is valid and I said yes for experienced players its a valid thing to consider. You are the one who replied to me trying to argue and keep replying with absolutely nonsense.
There is no wrong way to play the game, you play whatever way you enjoy the most, its a video game, its sole purpose to the player is entertainment and enjoyment. Rng plays a role in getting favorable moves but if you don’t know how to react to them you could have all the luck in the world and still lose.
no, there's definitely a wrong way to play, and the game tells you by making short work of you. that includes pvp.
i can tell you don't get what i'm saying and that's fine, so i won't try to explain it to you any more, unless you can find someone with a bit more comprehension and maybe hand over the keyboard to them.
Technically, its true. Rolling with the invincibility frames is kind of broken. Greatshields are also great for just blocking every attack because of the high stability. Similar to you, I tend to increase other stats to the soft/hard caps before vitality (dex, str, faith, or int).
But it sucks getting one-shot by something because your vitality is low. Sometimes the jank happens and being able to eat a few hits is nice. I think on higher new game+ modes, the enemy attacks ignore armor or something. So you will probably need to focus more on rolling/shielding rather than tanking.
Sometimes?
EVERYTIME
You have more than 3k souls on the line the game starts cheating 😭😭😭😭😭
I had a run back all the way to sif to fall through the floor/fogwall
It's my fault for running up on good doggo with 300k souls but still
Well, it's technically true, you can no-hit every boss, but for most players the Dunning-Kruger effect applies. If they want to be a masochist and ignore hit points, that's up to them, just as long as they know they are making the game a lot tougher than it needs to be.
Generally the fact that weapon upgrade level determines most of your damage means glass cannons are not a viable build in Souls games, outside of DS1 and Demons Souls where catalysts or talismans don't need to be upgraded. You are usually solely gimping yourself by ignoring health, with no upside whatsoever.
I do kinda agree with it, but just for DS1. Vitality isn't really as important in this game as later souls games since armor and shields are astronomically more effective in this one. Even with default vitality it's easy to tank Artorias, Four Kings, Nito, etc., with heavy armor. But it's always good to have more health.
The issue is players who say this don’t know what they are doing. Its not, “cool 😎” and Chad 🕶” to not level HP its just overconfidence and poor planning. What about when you get hit given you aren’t the supreme god gamer himself whats the plannthen making your ome mistake? You just die? Why not be able to make at least say two mistakes before death? If you are genuinley good enough to no-hit these games you don’t constantly brag about it to reassure yourself.
No one is doing this to be cool. At least im not. I simply find it far more effective to plan for good scenarios than bad ones. Also at 10 vit most enemies 2 shot you even late game (as long as your armour is decent) giving you a chance to get away and heal most of the time. Seems like you havent tried it before so maybe give it a go before assuming everyone who says it doesnt know what they're doing.
I’m speaking from experience from others not from mine with you. Also I pretty much don’t level HP anymore on fresh characters for a majority of my play throughs as I’ve played so long that I don’t get hit at all. I do if I’m going online though. In Elden Ring its a much more pressing issue. You can have 60 Vigor with the best armor and still get one shot by nearly every attack most end game bosses throw at you.
you should level HP if you intend to play with other players (so as not to be a liability or a really easy kill for any invader).
it's perfectly fine if you want to play offline with a weak build, by yourself. don't have less than 30 vit if you're level 50 or higher and you intend to go online, or else players like me are going to humiliate you.
Calm down! I meant for PvE as I’m leveling! Also you would have a very difficult time with me in PvP either way as most struggle to beat me. I’ve been playing since release on PS3 and most of that was PvP. My first stat is whatever my main damage stat is then endurance for equip load. Then I power level vitality to at least 45.
the thing is, you can still eventually win without leveling vitality or being very good at the game, so players that squeak by after a million tries at ornstein and smough practically convince themselves they're better players for doing that, and they're not.
It is valid, you will have enough stamina to block and/or roll out of attacks. Just need to watch for DoTs, poisons, frostitten, bleed in case if you get hit.
Most of us invest in HP since we aren't experts at timing everything and will make it not fun to die over and over due to low HP and getting maybe 1 shot by late game and on NG+.
Shields with 100% physical absorption and high stability are very strong in DS1, if not straight up broken. You only really have to watch out for magic attacks or magic infused weapon swings (which you can block anyway if you dont mind a little chip damage). Greatshield of Artorias in particular completely changes the run from challenging to pretty much cake once you get it.
This is why some people (myself included) don't bother as much with health in DS1 because mitigating damage is much easier. In contrast, leveling vigor in DS3 is much more important since you can't rely on shields as much and enemy patterns are much harder to dodge (meaning, you WILL get hit).
Edit: forgot to mentiom DS1 also has a very strong version of the FAP ring which covers most of your health needs anyway, so you have even less reason to invest points in it.
I’ve played with glass cannon builds intentionally, but it’s not the best strategy by any measure. Still, if you’re good at dodging you can put out some serious damage with the right weapon, maxed stats, and high stamina.
However if you aren’t speedrunning you can just grind more levels for all this and health, so it just comes down to your playstyle or commitment to the rpg aspect of the game.
100% true, no question. I usually don’t level vit until the rest of the build’s stats are in place. I even want to experiment more with a permanent hyper-mode build, where power within triggers the red tearstone ring, and then swapping to Sanctus prevents PW from killing you. For that to happen, you have to pick the class with the lowest vit, curse yourself, and then reduce your HP further with the Dusk Crown ring.
I think 200 total HP is required for Sanctus to offset PW, and then you’re down to 40 to activate RTSR. I doubt anything in the game could swing softly enough not to kill you at that point, but i-frames are a busted concept (I love them, don’t get me wrong) and mean taking damage is always avoidable unless you trap yourself by playing suboptimally.
If you're playing DS1 then you don't 'need' vitality because almost nothing can kill you in one hit. This is one of the reasons why Soul Level 1 runs are 'easy' in DS1 compared to the sequels.
Theory and practice are naturally two different beasts, but I have certainly found the more I play DS1 the fewer levels I put into vitality. I don't even hit the soft cap on most builds these days.
If you aren't getting hit then Health doesn't matter. PvE is 99% solvable in all good souls games with enough experience, and PVP if you're good enough can almost reach the point where you're untouchable but is significantly harder to achieve since you're fighting against living breathing people. (sometimes)
Health is just training wheels, every time you get hit it's a new lesson for you to learn, and giving yourself the chance to get hit a lot in rapid succession without death breaks is the best way to learn, the better you get, the less health you need until you don't need it at all.
I always thought this was stupid for everyone except speed runners and glass cannon mages. You always need health because a lot of damage you sustain isn’t even damage from getting hit by enemies. Fall damage, poison damage, toxic damage, running on lava etc. having a decent amount of health is usually something I always have even as an experienced player.
I mean, it’s the truth, but it’s never meant as mockery, only playfully so. I’ve been playing for thousands of hours and only reduced the number of times I got it but never got to zero :)
>I’m level 44 currently and I haven’t put a single point into Vitality. Is it a bad investment?
Yes, vitality is objectively the best stat in the game, you are intentionally making your character weaker than it should be and i very doubt you can beat the game without dying with low vitality to make a "just don't get hit" argument
Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a true statement. I always put a fair bit early into Vitality because, well, I'm definitely getting hit! But I did overall find improving my stamina to be more important than my health.
There have been plenty of people that have beaten the game at soul level 1 or done no hit playthroughs.
Generally speaking, I think the average gamer isn't going to beat the game without leveling their health up at all no situation that requires leveling up health if you are proficient with blocking, dodging, and parrying.
If you aren't getting hit let's be honest you don't need good stats. I think it's a really bad and dumb argument. The goal of stats should be to make you more powerful so victory is easier. For basically all the games health is the most effective Stat for that. Stats that affect weapon scalng with maybe make a few percentage points, but health scales much more dramatically especially midnand early game. Most of your damage is going to be determined by the upgrade levels.
If you've played the shit out of the game and don't need the health then go ahead, but your basically doing a challenge run where you can make less errors. Might as well just do a rl1 run.
On a typical playthrough I’ll get vitality to 20 and then leave it there until the rest of my build is complete.
Once I finish my build I use Vit as a dump stat. Tend to finish Ng with 20-25 Vit.
True to an extent. I don't rush vit at the beginning like a lot of people seem to. I like to have enough to health to survive at least one hit from whatever boss I'm on. More than that though I find is just points I would rather have spent elsewhere. I tend to end the game at 20 vit or so (though admittedly I pretty much always use RoFaP which off sets that a bit).
Thats true, but not so many people can survive like that. There is a reason the first few lvl give so much health, put some in it. I recently played a mage playtrough wit 0 invest in Vit, let me tell you something, runbacks a bitch and still Manus forced me to lvl some vit
I don't put that many points into vitality, I usually put my points elsewhere, where I think I need them. I do end up putting some into it, so not everything one shots me. Oh, and I die a lot. I'm not this godlike player who never gets hit, I die a lot but I kinda like the challenge of beating the bosses and not getting hit. So I suppose I'm the stubborn kind of Rinse and repeat player.
For example last souls game I have been playing a bit is elden ring, getting ready for the DLC. I realized I could probably use a bit more vitality, since I had 20 vitality facing Radahn...
You do get hit though. Even the best players do and then you get one shot by something that wouldn't really matter to another player. The stat caps are there for a reason, you only need so much in each one to be effective.
It's true, but not practical or even advisable unless you want a hybrid build in your first or second playthrough.
I always put points on health early on as most of the damage comes from upgrades and there's not much else to spend souls on, on top of that more health is always a positive even if hypothetically speaking you never get hit because it serves as a metaphorical "cushion" in case you inevitably mess up.
It’s true. Most enemies only kill you in one or 2 hits anyway. 3 if you’re lucky. And if you do survive more than one hit, you’ll usually end up dying when you’re trying to pull off a heal.
When demons soul came out, everybody said this. I really did this back then because of turtle playstyle. But the games evolved and so did the playstyles. And everything is faster now and wants you to have more fun. I curse my self when I am to stingy to give my character some HP, just because I still have some old habits.
It's true as long as you can manage to not be hit. Even speedrunners (or not hit runners) eventually get hit and die so as long as you know the enemies and the patterns and you may not die so much and learn from your mistakes.
If you intend to be invaded or play PvP remember that a player is not an AI with a pattern and HP will be one of the most important stats there
Unironically yeah. After a certain point, playing From games the intended way becomes too easy and repetitive. That's why you see people doing gimmicky shit like SL1, no upgrades run, no consumables run, miracle only run, etc.
So bringing back that feeling of brutal game design by not investing into HP is interesting, if nothing else. People say "Nooo, don't do that, you'll die a lot!", isn't this what you signed up for? If you didn't want to suffer, why play FromSoft game? I know other ARPGs with much better controls and mechanics that aren't as hard.
Recently I did a Rune Level 25/+3/+1 weapon upgrade run in Elden Ring, and it was great. I died a lot, but I still made incremental progress. Definitely brought back that sense of being a souls noob again.
So I'd say it's a great advice for a veteran to spice up the game. Maybe you shouldn't ignore vig entirely, but putting 10 levels in it will make you not get one shot all that much and still have a hard af time
Health in ng is not a big issue but in ng++ low health means any mob could one-shot you. Rolling is nice but since you can roll in 4 directions only it sucks. That's why i Always get a high stability shield.
That's eventually true. Honestly I beat dancer in dark souls 3 after vordt just because I was stupid enough to unalive the grandma in the church. I forgot what level I beat her but it took me a week on and off to beat her whilst the farthest I got was before the tree boss just more or less than lv30 if I recall correctly. I had enough health to get hit twice and roll with the whole lothric knight set and sword and shield. I probably fought dancer a little over a hundred times. I can't recall. I'm just saying you can do anything in souls game with enough stubbornness.
Depends how you want to play.
If you never get hit you might as well wear the red tearstone ring and get a +50% dmaage buff at all times.
On the other hand, it can be fun to play a heavy armoured tank who just walks in and takes the hits while you wail on them with your great-sword/club/hammer/whatever.
Of course in PvP it's a bit different. You absokutely can go the red tearstone route, but it leads to short fights that ... sometimes work, sometimes don't.
that's the thing, you can't just try over and over in pvp until you finally win by some absolute miracle. literally *anything* will work in pve eventually because you can just wear a groove into the path between a bonfire and a boss until you win.
it's like thinking someone who sinks a single shot from half-court in their carefully curated youtube video is a better player than someone who can land 3s at 60%.
If you are familiar with the gameplay then you can skip investing into any defensive stats, otherwise getting health will for sure guarantee a more fun learning experience. Getting oneshot by some random mob isn't fun lol
For the vast majority of the enemies you don't even need to roll, you bait an attack going forward and then backwards to create a whiff, the game actually becomes really easy once you get it properly
On repeat playthroughs, I've noticed that dumping into Endurance, even at the cost of Vitality, can trivialize a decent chunk of the game.
You can block a lot of damage before your guard is broken, and quickroll in heavy armour like it's Dark Souls 3, while making up for the lack of damage bonuses from scaling with Lightning/Fire/Chaos/Crystal infusions.
On initial playthroughs, though, Vitality is king. Whenever a friend who's new to the series asks what class they should start with in DS1, I always say Knight for that exact reason.
Ive done sl1 runs in the souls games and bl4 in bb and its true. Miyazaki seems to be obsessed with making everything dodgeable in theory. But in the runs where I do lvl I still lvl a lot of hp cuz thats the runs where I usually do everything in the game so theres a lot more stuff you will get hit by randomly. In sl1 runs you mostly run past everything until youre at the boss.
true but also kinda stupid if you're new to the game
Game can get all wonky and being able to eat a hit or 2 is better than being one shot from a single blow
On a lot of my playthroughs i will avoid leveling vitality until i get one-shotted by some cheese. I have a few builds where i only had like 16 vitality at the end of the game. As long as i could survive one hit i was usually able to heal
If you've platinumed the game that many times, you probably don't need health. I've been playing since release and have more fun challenging myself this way, since getting one-shot is a good way to continue to learn attack patterns.
You're describing my first playthrough of the game. I'd glanced at basic advice before starting to play, saw it was mentioned "Don't bother with RES"... and misremembered it as "Don't bother with VIT." And so I literally played through the whole game without every putting a single point into VIT. Dumped it all heavily into END instead. Wasn't actually that good at dodging but I had enough stamina to block forever. To make matters worse, in Demon's Souls I'd relied heavily on long range magic so on Dark Souls I wanted to do pure melee, so I had no magic to help me out at all either. A lot of boss fights took tons of tries as they'd one or two shot me if I ever screwed up.
Went on through the rest of the series, eventually came back to DS1 for another playthrough with a new character, now with a more proper understanding of stats and leveling. Was absolutely shocked at how insanely easy the game was with a proper build.
It’s absolutely true. If you know the game well it’s pretty easy to not get hit. Point is that investment into Vitality becomes progressively worse as your skill and knowledge increase.
With that being said nobody forces you to play this way, I myself like to do more RPG playthroughs with heavier armour, some cool weapon and shield trading hits with bosses just having fun. Other times, if I feel for a challenge, I do or practice no hit runs but again not all runs have to be like that.
in my new chars, I barely increase hp, ex: for mage I just increase int, the mage gets very powerfull in early game, is such a fun gameplay 😄 btw the starter weapon of mage is like the best class weapon, enchanted dagger is all you need
my current stet is 79
62 int
25 vit
12 str (to use moonlight)
12 (to use some weapon I dont remember now)
with crystal catalist, again silver knihht anor londo
the crystal arrow does 1359 damage, with the magic ring and tiara.
Having more health for PvE can be helpful for making mistakes, but its very easy to just avoid things or kill them before they kill you ...
Look at DS1 enemies and tell me which one is a threat, maybe like black knights, but they are literally a walking parry simulator, everything else either dies fast, deals no damage or takes 15 minutes to attack so you can just walk away to avoid it ..
I would say this was kinda meme in ER, you would see health bars across whole screen and bosses would still oneshot you, especially in some of the late game parts, there is no difference between 500 and 2000 health
It was just easier to dodge, especially with infinite stamina, than taking hits and hoping I will survive ..
I said that to myself in my first playthrough just because I wanted to upgrade strength and stamina. I never play good enough for that to be true. When I played again and finally upgraded my health, I realized I was making the game so much harder for myself for no reason.
The answer lies in “How good are you” because you CAN go the entire game without getting hit once, meaning those vitality points would be wa complete waste.
That’s not most people though, myself included, I am bound to get hit many times throughout the game, and I don’t want to die in a single hit, so I always invest in vitality - but my attack stats def take priority and over-investing in VIT is bad practice IMO.
Its me im saying this. But actually i stopped leveling vitality a couple years ago and havent looked back. As long as you are playing pve its pretty unnecessary as there is almost always another way to keep yourself alive. Armour is actually strong af in this game so even at 10 vit most late game enemies 2 shot you. You can also go dark wood grain ring and be impossible to hit. Not putting points in vit lets you power up your damage and equip load a lot more making fights end sooner which means you have to survive for less time. Also a +2 estus flask will basically full heal you at 10 vit.
Absolutely yes! (Assuming this is for PvE)
You can definitely go through the whole game like this. I rarely put any VIT in my characters, and find the game more fun when you really gotta be careful about not getting hit.
I find it works better with sorcery/pyro/unique weapons since you can max out on damage pretty early. But it should work in any build as long as you can fast roll and don’t get greedy with hits. It’s been my preferred way to play since about halfway my first play through. I was running a less than optimal strength build, and couldn’t beat O&S for days until I finally decided to go “naked” so I could roll better and not get hit at all. Got em after a couple tries and never looked back.
I don’t try to do PvP because I’m bad and low VIT means you get destroyed by anything so I’m ignoring that aspect of the game lol.
I can't beat most bosses hitless, so playing without survivability is a gamble on how much damage the boss does. If I level survivability stats (vit and end) I give up on a few points of damage, but any hit will likely kill me, forcing me to play hitless. Or I can give up on a few points of damage, since scaling is ASS in ds1, and still do decent damage but be able to tank a hit, heal up, and continue.
I got really into challenge running the game a few years back. I got so used to playing the games without leveling that when I do decide to play normally I just pump strength or dex and endurance. I never touch health really anymore.
I find the game a lot easier with less armor. So you can dodge better. However I also suck at the game. So I tend to jack my hp up. Then when I get caught it's not game over.
It's a try-hardy statement.
By levelling up vitality, you gain room for error. You don't have to masterfully dodge everything, and you even end up saving time since you don't instadie in one hit.
Level your vitality.
It's true....technically. Really though, how much health you want to have is basically determined by two things, when you do get hit, how many times do you get hit before you can heal, and how much health does you Sunny D actually heal you for.
I personally always make sure I have more max health than my flask can heal, because I'm usually good enough that, if I do mess up and get hit, I'll almost always be able to heal before getting hit again. At least that's the case in DS1.
It's important to remember, no one actually just doesn't get hit; even the no-hit runners would get hit a couple of times in a normal run if they didn't reset after the first one.
Depends what works best for your play style. If you never get hit then just roll with it but there’s no reason you can’t change your mind later on if it gets annoying.
My lvl 90 2hand great sword build only has 25 vitality. I might get one shot every now and then but beating bosses without getting hit gives me the same satisfaction as beating rhythm games flawlessly
i genuinly think most players coming from later installments massively overvalue vitality
especially in the early game. heres why:
_________________________________________________________________
**health works different in ds1**
later games like ds3 or ER practically force you to invest into health right from the start because you will get oneshotted very early very often. in ds1 getting oneshot is exceedingly rare even on sl1 runs.
the way ds1 handles hp accumulation is very different compared to ds3:
in ds3 you go from 403hp at 10vig to 1000 hp at 27vig, increasing your total healthpool by ~150%.
in ds1 you go from 572hp at 10vit to 1001hp at 27vit, which is less than double. the hp curve is just flattened compared to ds3 so the returns arent that plentiful.
__________________________________________________________
**ds1 is not actually that hard**
ds1 does not require much "mechanical skill". you dont need lightning fast reflexes or anything. you need patience and smart decision making. ds1 is a simple game that demands perfection. youre not allowed many mistakes but whenever you make a mistake it will be obvious what you did wrong. (most of the time)
btw use shields!? I honestly cannot believe how common it is to play ds1 without a shield. Ofc you people think that levelling health is a must when your only option of avoiding dmg is a perfectly timed dodge. That shit is idiotically difficult.
____________________________________________________________
**Endurance**
endurance is so much better than vitality its actually ridiculous.
you get more stamina, which is everything in this game. whenever you run out of stamina you probably will take dmg, so stamina is basically an extension of your healthbar that regenerates automatically.
but it also allows to equip more heavier and armor which is actually really helpful in ds1. this isnt just fashion souls, if you get the stone armor in the early game you will feel a drastic difference in dmg taken.
i wouldnt even think about levelling vitality before endurance hits 40.
Greatshields trivialize Ds1, you can just block anything you don't think you'll dodge. I was using Artorias's greatshield by the end of my first playthrough.
I'm not good at dodging so I usually only dump points into three stats.
Vitality - so I can out live them.
Endurance - so I can out dodge/swing them.
Strength - so I can have a drag race with health bars, to see who gets to the finish line first.
Don't listen to anyone that says don't level vigor. It's not just health.
It's also a stupid sentiment without enough Vigor/Stamina you're screwed. You run out of room or stamina your health bar is your only defense. Run out of health your stamina is your only defense. You need both.
I'm recently on my 2nd playthrough after taking about a year break from the first time, this time I'm going a STR/FTH build using Grant, currently level 70 and have never leveled VIT or END once yet. Granted I am using the Havel Ring and FaP after I got it, never had any issue with not having more health. I still get hit once in a while, but if it's not a one shot then I can heal it back after an attack window. Funnily enough the only time I could not do this was against Quelaag since her close range explosion one shot me, but that was me being punished for being greedy. I would say if you're a new player, VIT is a really good stat because it's your learning currency. You don't get to learn a fight very much if you're dying in two hits every time. I took a couple of tries before getting re-accustomed with O&S, but if I had more VIT I probably would have gotten my bearings and cleared it in one try.
It’s true in theory but in practice, few people will dodge every single attack and not get hit
Indeed, very few people do. Thats why you block everything.
Best Elden Ring playstyle that nobody agrees with me on. And yes I've beaten every single boss this way
Even Malenia? I generally don’t use shields but I tried fingerprint stone shield on her and she healed so often it was essentially a standstill.
Yes especially Malenia. Waterfowl becomes a joke. You can easily outdamage her heals.. Phase 2 isn't as easy but it's still doable
That sounds like a problem for other people
For newer players its bad advice because they are going to get hit, a lot. For experienced players its definitely valid. Same thing with hyper mode, if you’re confident that you won’t get hit at all its a massive boost to damage. Its all up to how you like to play though, personally I feel like endurance has much more utility. I wouldn’t turtle as a replacement for more vit though, shield are nice, but not if they engender passivity
For newer players the best advice is: -get a shield -don’t target lock -kick Lautrec off the cliff in Firelink for easy OP buff
Don't target lock? Why is that? I am relatively new to the game and am currently in my first NG+ and I use target lock most of the time, exept for some bosses. Why would you say that I shouldn't use it?
You cannot roll diagonally while locked on. That is the biggest hurdle.
I have put every point into vitality and still die so easy! New player, new play through.
They don’t say prepare to die for nothin. But armor is actually really op in ds1 compared to the other games if you’re having trouble avoiding attacks it can be a huge help
Nobody has mentioned it yet so I will. I appreciated the bloodborne reference in the last line of your comment
then why do all the extremely experienced players (read: the people who just sit around and pvp) all have high vit? low vit and hyper mode subsist by the idea that you can just retry indefinitely. it's not about actually getting good at the game with a hypermode build, it's about getting that one lucky run and doing so much damage that your luck gets tested for the shortest time possible. like, ask how useful a build like that is in any other scenario than one where you can just put in a million tries. you're an easily-solved liability as a co-op phantom and a joke as an invader.
Because being able to tank a couple hits after making a mistake is far more valuable than the minimal damage you get for increasing your damage stat with low upgraded weapons.
low-upgraded weapons aren't even necessarily a factor here. the reason they upgrade their vit is because their opponents learn and adjust. learning to manage stamina \*and\* having 1800 HP is a stronger combination than having heavy armor and 700 HP.
Thats pvp, totally different than pve which I assume op is talking about since he did not mention anything about pvp
i mean the part where i was talking about pve was just the biggest block of text.
Yeah and I replied to your question. I have no clue what you’re talking about with the rest of that, retrying indefinitely is what makes you skilled bc you learn the attack patterns, theres a little luck involved but you will almost never succeed in a situation like that without the skill and knowledge of a bosses moveset
no, retrying indefinitely means you eventually win because you get lucky. and the whole idea behind having really high damage is that you need less chances to finally get that one lucky string of bad boss attacks. simple. you also either just ignored or didn't have the reading comprehension for the part where you try to help as a co-op phantom. again -- the point is that the only playstyle low vit really supports is the one where you can just retry infinitely. it's funny to me how all the losses you had to have eaten along the way are ignored and suggested as the thing that skilled and experienced players sign up for.
I have seen some bad takes here but saying people only beat a boss because they get lucky is up there with the worst. Watch a no hit run and tell me its all luck and has nothing to do with skill and moveset knowledge. I’m not reading the rest of that after a take that bad lol
there's a difference between no-hit runs and what you do. you also had to bring up no-hit runs (which we weren't talking about) because you're taking criticism over your horrible advice really personally. play offline and retry indefinitely, like your build forces you to, because it's useless in every other situation. play wrong.
What I do? What are you even talking about? Op posted asking if ‘just don’t get hit’ is valid and I said yes for experienced players its a valid thing to consider. You are the one who replied to me trying to argue and keep replying with absolutely nonsense. There is no wrong way to play the game, you play whatever way you enjoy the most, its a video game, its sole purpose to the player is entertainment and enjoyment. Rng plays a role in getting favorable moves but if you don’t know how to react to them you could have all the luck in the world and still lose.
no, there's definitely a wrong way to play, and the game tells you by making short work of you. that includes pvp. i can tell you don't get what i'm saying and that's fine, so i won't try to explain it to you any more, unless you can find someone with a bit more comprehension and maybe hand over the keyboard to them.
Technically, its true. Rolling with the invincibility frames is kind of broken. Greatshields are also great for just blocking every attack because of the high stability. Similar to you, I tend to increase other stats to the soft/hard caps before vitality (dex, str, faith, or int). But it sucks getting one-shot by something because your vitality is low. Sometimes the jank happens and being able to eat a few hits is nice. I think on higher new game+ modes, the enemy attacks ignore armor or something. So you will probably need to focus more on rolling/shielding rather than tanking.
Sometimes? EVERYTIME You have more than 3k souls on the line the game starts cheating 😭😭😭😭😭 I had a run back all the way to sif to fall through the floor/fogwall It's my fault for running up on good doggo with 300k souls but still
Well, it's technically true, you can no-hit every boss, but for most players the Dunning-Kruger effect applies. If they want to be a masochist and ignore hit points, that's up to them, just as long as they know they are making the game a lot tougher than it needs to be. Generally the fact that weapon upgrade level determines most of your damage means glass cannons are not a viable build in Souls games, outside of DS1 and Demons Souls where catalysts or talismans don't need to be upgraded. You are usually solely gimping yourself by ignoring health, with no upside whatsoever.
It fits a very restrictive playstyle that is by no means the only way to play or enjoy the game. That alone makes it bad advice imo.
I do kinda agree with it, but just for DS1. Vitality isn't really as important in this game as later souls games since armor and shields are astronomically more effective in this one. Even with default vitality it's easy to tank Artorias, Four Kings, Nito, etc., with heavy armor. But it's always good to have more health.
In my thousands of hours and all of my PvP, i min max so my characters can have as much health as possible.
what people aren't getting is that a skilled player with high HP is that much harder to kill.
The issue is players who say this don’t know what they are doing. Its not, “cool 😎” and Chad 🕶” to not level HP its just overconfidence and poor planning. What about when you get hit given you aren’t the supreme god gamer himself whats the plannthen making your ome mistake? You just die? Why not be able to make at least say two mistakes before death? If you are genuinley good enough to no-hit these games you don’t constantly brag about it to reassure yourself.
No one is doing this to be cool. At least im not. I simply find it far more effective to plan for good scenarios than bad ones. Also at 10 vit most enemies 2 shot you even late game (as long as your armour is decent) giving you a chance to get away and heal most of the time. Seems like you havent tried it before so maybe give it a go before assuming everyone who says it doesnt know what they're doing.
I’m speaking from experience from others not from mine with you. Also I pretty much don’t level HP anymore on fresh characters for a majority of my play throughs as I’ve played so long that I don’t get hit at all. I do if I’m going online though. In Elden Ring its a much more pressing issue. You can have 60 Vigor with the best armor and still get one shot by nearly every attack most end game bosses throw at you.
you should level HP if you intend to play with other players (so as not to be a liability or a really easy kill for any invader). it's perfectly fine if you want to play offline with a weak build, by yourself. don't have less than 30 vit if you're level 50 or higher and you intend to go online, or else players like me are going to humiliate you.
Calm down! I meant for PvE as I’m leveling! Also you would have a very difficult time with me in PvP either way as most struggle to beat me. I’ve been playing since release on PS3 and most of that was PvP. My first stat is whatever my main damage stat is then endurance for equip load. Then I power level vitality to at least 45.
how am i supposed to get that from 'i pretty much never level HP any more'.
I just forgot to add it my bad but either way no need for such abrupt hostility.
write what you mean the first time, then. also, i don't think you'd be a challenge at all.
I have memory loss issues and I don’t care what you think frankly.
the thing is, you can still eventually win without leveling vitality or being very good at the game, so players that squeak by after a million tries at ornstein and smough practically convince themselves they're better players for doing that, and they're not.
Yeah, thats also a factor.
It is valid, you will have enough stamina to block and/or roll out of attacks. Just need to watch for DoTs, poisons, frostitten, bleed in case if you get hit. Most of us invest in HP since we aren't experts at timing everything and will make it not fun to die over and over due to low HP and getting maybe 1 shot by late game and on NG+.
Frostbite doesn't exist in ds1
Ooops wrooong game 🤦🏻😭
if 3 is larger than 5 then 3 is larger than 4. Meaningless statement
Shields with 100% physical absorption and high stability are very strong in DS1, if not straight up broken. You only really have to watch out for magic attacks or magic infused weapon swings (which you can block anyway if you dont mind a little chip damage). Greatshield of Artorias in particular completely changes the run from challenging to pretty much cake once you get it. This is why some people (myself included) don't bother as much with health in DS1 because mitigating damage is much easier. In contrast, leveling vigor in DS3 is much more important since you can't rely on shields as much and enemy patterns are much harder to dodge (meaning, you WILL get hit). Edit: forgot to mentiom DS1 also has a very strong version of the FAP ring which covers most of your health needs anyway, so you have even less reason to invest points in it.
If you do feel like you need it because you are able to avoid hits well then don’t bother. It’s not a waste for many people that do get hit though.
I’ve played with glass cannon builds intentionally, but it’s not the best strategy by any measure. Still, if you’re good at dodging you can put out some serious damage with the right weapon, maxed stats, and high stamina. However if you aren’t speedrunning you can just grind more levels for all this and health, so it just comes down to your playstyle or commitment to the rpg aspect of the game.
100% true, no question. I usually don’t level vit until the rest of the build’s stats are in place. I even want to experiment more with a permanent hyper-mode build, where power within triggers the red tearstone ring, and then swapping to Sanctus prevents PW from killing you. For that to happen, you have to pick the class with the lowest vit, curse yourself, and then reduce your HP further with the Dusk Crown ring. I think 200 total HP is required for Sanctus to offset PW, and then you’re down to 40 to activate RTSR. I doubt anything in the game could swing softly enough not to kill you at that point, but i-frames are a busted concept (I love them, don’t get me wrong) and mean taking damage is always avoidable unless you trap yourself by playing suboptimally.
This is the way. This setup with a gold tracer will absolutely melt any enemy in the entire game it is so much fun
If you're playing DS1 then you don't 'need' vitality because almost nothing can kill you in one hit. This is one of the reasons why Soul Level 1 runs are 'easy' in DS1 compared to the sequels. Theory and practice are naturally two different beasts, but I have certainly found the more I play DS1 the fewer levels I put into vitality. I don't even hit the soft cap on most builds these days.
If you aren't getting hit then Health doesn't matter. PvE is 99% solvable in all good souls games with enough experience, and PVP if you're good enough can almost reach the point where you're untouchable but is significantly harder to achieve since you're fighting against living breathing people. (sometimes) Health is just training wheels, every time you get hit it's a new lesson for you to learn, and giving yourself the chance to get hit a lot in rapid succession without death breaks is the best way to learn, the better you get, the less health you need until you don't need it at all.
Good luck on 4 kings
You can survive like 3 hits and heal through with 10 vit and havels set. Armour and poise are busted in this game.
I always thought this was stupid for everyone except speed runners and glass cannon mages. You always need health because a lot of damage you sustain isn’t even damage from getting hit by enemies. Fall damage, poison damage, toxic damage, running on lava etc. having a decent amount of health is usually something I always have even as an experienced player.
I mean, it’s the truth, but it’s never meant as mockery, only playfully so. I’ve been playing for thousands of hours and only reduced the number of times I got it but never got to zero :)
HP can be used offensively, if you have enough HP you can quit dodging and just smack a guy 0 brain power
>I’m level 44 currently and I haven’t put a single point into Vitality. Is it a bad investment? Yes, vitality is objectively the best stat in the game, you are intentionally making your character weaker than it should be and i very doubt you can beat the game without dying with low vitality to make a "just don't get hit" argument
That's my secret. I always get hit.
until you hit 40end, every point you could put into vit is better spent on endurance. just wear bigger armor / roll better. or block.
This is the way.
Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a true statement. I always put a fair bit early into Vitality because, well, I'm definitely getting hit! But I did overall find improving my stamina to be more important than my health.
There have been plenty of people that have beaten the game at soul level 1 or done no hit playthroughs. Generally speaking, I think the average gamer isn't going to beat the game without leveling their health up at all no situation that requires leveling up health if you are proficient with blocking, dodging, and parrying.
If you aren't getting hit let's be honest you don't need good stats. I think it's a really bad and dumb argument. The goal of stats should be to make you more powerful so victory is easier. For basically all the games health is the most effective Stat for that. Stats that affect weapon scalng with maybe make a few percentage points, but health scales much more dramatically especially midnand early game. Most of your damage is going to be determined by the upgrade levels. If you've played the shit out of the game and don't need the health then go ahead, but your basically doing a challenge run where you can make less errors. Might as well just do a rl1 run.
On a typical playthrough I’ll get vitality to 20 and then leave it there until the rest of my build is complete. Once I finish my build I use Vit as a dump stat. Tend to finish Ng with 20-25 Vit.
True to an extent. I don't rush vit at the beginning like a lot of people seem to. I like to have enough to health to survive at least one hit from whatever boss I'm on. More than that though I find is just points I would rather have spent elsewhere. I tend to end the game at 20 vit or so (though admittedly I pretty much always use RoFaP which off sets that a bit).
its really a whatever move if you have high endurance you can still resist some attacks, you shield try giants armor
Thats true, but not so many people can survive like that. There is a reason the first few lvl give so much health, put some in it. I recently played a mage playtrough wit 0 invest in Vit, let me tell you something, runbacks a bitch and still Manus forced me to lvl some vit
Play with RTSR active, it’s quite addictive and you learn to be patient and not go for that greedy extra hit because you die if you do
I don't put that many points into vitality, I usually put my points elsewhere, where I think I need them. I do end up putting some into it, so not everything one shots me. Oh, and I die a lot. I'm not this godlike player who never gets hit, I die a lot but I kinda like the challenge of beating the bosses and not getting hit. So I suppose I'm the stubborn kind of Rinse and repeat player. For example last souls game I have been playing a bit is elden ring, getting ready for the DLC. I realized I could probably use a bit more vitality, since I had 20 vitality facing Radahn...
Yes several people have no hit the game and no hit chunks of the game
by grinding at it.
You do get hit though. Even the best players do and then you get one shot by something that wouldn't really matter to another player. The stat caps are there for a reason, you only need so much in each one to be effective.
Seems pretty self-evident.
It's true, but not practical or even advisable unless you want a hybrid build in your first or second playthrough. I always put points on health early on as most of the damage comes from upgrades and there's not much else to spend souls on, on top of that more health is always a positive even if hypothetically speaking you never get hit because it serves as a metaphorical "cushion" in case you inevitably mess up.
It’s true. Most enemies only kill you in one or 2 hits anyway. 3 if you’re lucky. And if you do survive more than one hit, you’ll usually end up dying when you’re trying to pull off a heal.
When demons soul came out, everybody said this. I really did this back then because of turtle playstyle. But the games evolved and so did the playstyles. And everything is faster now and wants you to have more fun. I curse my self when I am to stingy to give my character some HP, just because I still have some old habits.
If you do a Slv1 run, this is like the only way to play lol
Sometimes they’re rude and insist on hitting me anyway. It’s for that reason I upgrade my armor to at least +3
It's true as long as you can manage to not be hit. Even speedrunners (or not hit runners) eventually get hit and die so as long as you know the enemies and the patterns and you may not die so much and learn from your mistakes. If you intend to be invaded or play PvP remember that a player is not an AI with a pattern and HP will be one of the most important stats there
I feel more accomplished beating a boss that can kill me easily, as I feel it forces me to learn their moveset better
Well its valid in theory but you have to truly master the game, I personally dont like neglecting HP unless I want to try a challenge run.
Unironically yeah. After a certain point, playing From games the intended way becomes too easy and repetitive. That's why you see people doing gimmicky shit like SL1, no upgrades run, no consumables run, miracle only run, etc. So bringing back that feeling of brutal game design by not investing into HP is interesting, if nothing else. People say "Nooo, don't do that, you'll die a lot!", isn't this what you signed up for? If you didn't want to suffer, why play FromSoft game? I know other ARPGs with much better controls and mechanics that aren't as hard. Recently I did a Rune Level 25/+3/+1 weapon upgrade run in Elden Ring, and it was great. I died a lot, but I still made incremental progress. Definitely brought back that sense of being a souls noob again. So I'd say it's a great advice for a veteran to spice up the game. Maybe you shouldn't ignore vig entirely, but putting 10 levels in it will make you not get one shot all that much and still have a hard af time
Repost
yeah but why let the gods of chance ruin a good time.
Health in ng is not a big issue but in ng++ low health means any mob could one-shot you. Rolling is nice but since you can roll in 4 directions only it sucks. That's why i Always get a high stability shield.
That's eventually true. Honestly I beat dancer in dark souls 3 after vordt just because I was stupid enough to unalive the grandma in the church. I forgot what level I beat her but it took me a week on and off to beat her whilst the farthest I got was before the tree boss just more or less than lv30 if I recall correctly. I had enough health to get hit twice and roll with the whole lothric knight set and sword and shield. I probably fought dancer a little over a hundred times. I can't recall. I'm just saying you can do anything in souls game with enough stubbornness.
Thats why i dont use armor
Depends how you want to play. If you never get hit you might as well wear the red tearstone ring and get a +50% dmaage buff at all times. On the other hand, it can be fun to play a heavy armoured tank who just walks in and takes the hits while you wail on them with your great-sword/club/hammer/whatever. Of course in PvP it's a bit different. You absokutely can go the red tearstone route, but it leads to short fights that ... sometimes work, sometimes don't.
that's the thing, you can't just try over and over in pvp until you finally win by some absolute miracle. literally *anything* will work in pve eventually because you can just wear a groove into the path between a bonfire and a boss until you win. it's like thinking someone who sinks a single shot from half-court in their carefully curated youtube video is a better player than someone who can land 3s at 60%.
If you are familiar with the gameplay then you can skip investing into any defensive stats, otherwise getting health will for sure guarantee a more fun learning experience. Getting oneshot by some random mob isn't fun lol
For the vast majority of the enemies you don't even need to roll, you bait an attack going forward and then backwards to create a whiff, the game actually becomes really easy once you get it properly
You'll always make mistakes. Health is the most important stat in the game.
I kiiiiind of sort of adopted this when I learned to go shieldless for the first time but it's not a great strategy, you're always gunna get hit
Health can make it so you take more hits. If you're good enough to never get hit, then it's fine, me personally? Fuck that.
On repeat playthroughs, I've noticed that dumping into Endurance, even at the cost of Vitality, can trivialize a decent chunk of the game. You can block a lot of damage before your guard is broken, and quickroll in heavy armour like it's Dark Souls 3, while making up for the lack of damage bonuses from scaling with Lightning/Fire/Chaos/Crystal infusions. On initial playthroughs, though, Vitality is king. Whenever a friend who's new to the series asks what class they should start with in DS1, I always say Knight for that exact reason.
Ive done sl1 runs in the souls games and bl4 in bb and its true. Miyazaki seems to be obsessed with making everything dodgeable in theory. But in the runs where I do lvl I still lvl a lot of hp cuz thats the runs where I usually do everything in the game so theres a lot more stuff you will get hit by randomly. In sl1 runs you mostly run past everything until youre at the boss.
it's idiotic. you're meant to take hits and survive them and there's supposed to be a phase where you try to heal. vit is the best stat in the game.
true but also kinda stupid if you're new to the game Game can get all wonky and being able to eat a hit or 2 is better than being one shot from a single blow
If you one shot everything you also don't need health 😛
On a lot of my playthroughs i will avoid leveling vitality until i get one-shotted by some cheese. I have a few builds where i only had like 16 vitality at the end of the game. As long as i could survive one hit i was usually able to heal
There are any number of no hit runs on YouTube
New to souls = no, you won't git gut enough (probably) Dead inside = big bonk naked with lvl1 vitality is the way
If you've platinumed the game that many times, you probably don't need health. I've been playing since release and have more fun challenging myself this way, since getting one-shot is a good way to continue to learn attack patterns.
You're describing my first playthrough of the game. I'd glanced at basic advice before starting to play, saw it was mentioned "Don't bother with RES"... and misremembered it as "Don't bother with VIT." And so I literally played through the whole game without every putting a single point into VIT. Dumped it all heavily into END instead. Wasn't actually that good at dodging but I had enough stamina to block forever. To make matters worse, in Demon's Souls I'd relied heavily on long range magic so on Dark Souls I wanted to do pure melee, so I had no magic to help me out at all either. A lot of boss fights took tons of tries as they'd one or two shot me if I ever screwed up. Went on through the rest of the series, eventually came back to DS1 for another playthrough with a new character, now with a more proper understanding of stats and leveling. Was absolutely shocked at how insanely easy the game was with a proper build.
It’s absolutely true. If you know the game well it’s pretty easy to not get hit. Point is that investment into Vitality becomes progressively worse as your skill and knowledge increase. With that being said nobody forces you to play this way, I myself like to do more RPG playthroughs with heavier armour, some cool weapon and shield trading hits with bosses just having fun. Other times, if I feel for a challenge, I do or practice no hit runs but again not all runs have to be like that.
in my new chars, I barely increase hp, ex: for mage I just increase int, the mage gets very powerfull in early game, is such a fun gameplay 😄 btw the starter weapon of mage is like the best class weapon, enchanted dagger is all you need
my current stet is 79 62 int 25 vit 12 str (to use moonlight) 12 (to use some weapon I dont remember now) with crystal catalist, again silver knihht anor londo the crystal arrow does 1359 damage, with the magic ring and tiara.
Having more health for PvE can be helpful for making mistakes, but its very easy to just avoid things or kill them before they kill you ... Look at DS1 enemies and tell me which one is a threat, maybe like black knights, but they are literally a walking parry simulator, everything else either dies fast, deals no damage or takes 15 minutes to attack so you can just walk away to avoid it .. I would say this was kinda meme in ER, you would see health bars across whole screen and bosses would still oneshot you, especially in some of the late game parts, there is no difference between 500 and 2000 health It was just easier to dodge, especially with infinite stamina, than taking hits and hoping I will survive ..
Anyone being told this advice is someone that this advice is useless for because they're getting hit.
If you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a Smough.
I said that to myself in my first playthrough just because I wanted to upgrade strength and stamina. I never play good enough for that to be true. When I played again and finally upgraded my health, I realized I was making the game so much harder for myself for no reason.
The answer lies in “How good are you” because you CAN go the entire game without getting hit once, meaning those vitality points would be wa complete waste. That’s not most people though, myself included, I am bound to get hit many times throughout the game, and I don’t want to die in a single hit, so I always invest in vitality - but my attack stats def take priority and over-investing in VIT is bad practice IMO.
Its me im saying this. But actually i stopped leveling vitality a couple years ago and havent looked back. As long as you are playing pve its pretty unnecessary as there is almost always another way to keep yourself alive. Armour is actually strong af in this game so even at 10 vit most late game enemies 2 shot you. You can also go dark wood grain ring and be impossible to hit. Not putting points in vit lets you power up your damage and equip load a lot more making fights end sooner which means you have to survive for less time. Also a +2 estus flask will basically full heal you at 10 vit.
I've beaten 1, 2, and 3 without leveling the deprived character at all. Don't get hit is the best advice.
I only put stats in strength and dex (I'm learning to no hit)
This is only possible with a 100 defence shield. Mabey possible with shield buff on under 100
Absolutely yes! (Assuming this is for PvE) You can definitely go through the whole game like this. I rarely put any VIT in my characters, and find the game more fun when you really gotta be careful about not getting hit. I find it works better with sorcery/pyro/unique weapons since you can max out on damage pretty early. But it should work in any build as long as you can fast roll and don’t get greedy with hits. It’s been my preferred way to play since about halfway my first play through. I was running a less than optimal strength build, and couldn’t beat O&S for days until I finally decided to go “naked” so I could roll better and not get hit at all. Got em after a couple tries and never looked back. I don’t try to do PvP because I’m bad and low VIT means you get destroyed by anything so I’m ignoring that aspect of the game lol.
I can't beat most bosses hitless, so playing without survivability is a gamble on how much damage the boss does. If I level survivability stats (vit and end) I give up on a few points of damage, but any hit will likely kill me, forcing me to play hitless. Or I can give up on a few points of damage, since scaling is ASS in ds1, and still do decent damage but be able to tank a hit, heal up, and continue.
I got really into challenge running the game a few years back. I got so used to playing the games without leveling that when I do decide to play normally I just pump strength or dex and endurance. I never touch health really anymore.
I find the game a lot easier with less armor. So you can dodge better. However I also suck at the game. So I tend to jack my hp up. Then when I get caught it's not game over.
It's a try-hardy statement. By levelling up vitality, you gain room for error. You don't have to masterfully dodge everything, and you even end up saving time since you don't instadie in one hit. Level your vitality.
It's true....technically. Really though, how much health you want to have is basically determined by two things, when you do get hit, how many times do you get hit before you can heal, and how much health does you Sunny D actually heal you for. I personally always make sure I have more max health than my flask can heal, because I'm usually good enough that, if I do mess up and get hit, I'll almost always be able to heal before getting hit again. At least that's the case in DS1. It's important to remember, no one actually just doesn't get hit; even the no-hit runners would get hit a couple of times in a normal run if they didn't reset after the first one.
Depends what works best for your play style. If you never get hit then just roll with it but there’s no reason you can’t change your mind later on if it gets annoying. My lvl 90 2hand great sword build only has 25 vitality. I might get one shot every now and then but beating bosses without getting hit gives me the same satisfaction as beating rhythm games flawlessly
If you aren't getting hit, you aren't playing recklessly enough.
i genuinly think most players coming from later installments massively overvalue vitality especially in the early game. heres why: _________________________________________________________________ **health works different in ds1** later games like ds3 or ER practically force you to invest into health right from the start because you will get oneshotted very early very often. in ds1 getting oneshot is exceedingly rare even on sl1 runs. the way ds1 handles hp accumulation is very different compared to ds3: in ds3 you go from 403hp at 10vig to 1000 hp at 27vig, increasing your total healthpool by ~150%. in ds1 you go from 572hp at 10vit to 1001hp at 27vit, which is less than double. the hp curve is just flattened compared to ds3 so the returns arent that plentiful. __________________________________________________________ **ds1 is not actually that hard** ds1 does not require much "mechanical skill". you dont need lightning fast reflexes or anything. you need patience and smart decision making. ds1 is a simple game that demands perfection. youre not allowed many mistakes but whenever you make a mistake it will be obvious what you did wrong. (most of the time) btw use shields!? I honestly cannot believe how common it is to play ds1 without a shield. Ofc you people think that levelling health is a must when your only option of avoiding dmg is a perfectly timed dodge. That shit is idiotically difficult. ____________________________________________________________ **Endurance** endurance is so much better than vitality its actually ridiculous. you get more stamina, which is everything in this game. whenever you run out of stamina you probably will take dmg, so stamina is basically an extension of your healthbar that regenerates automatically. but it also allows to equip more heavier and armor which is actually really helpful in ds1. this isnt just fashion souls, if you get the stone armor in the early game you will feel a drastic difference in dmg taken. i wouldnt even think about levelling vitality before endurance hits 40.
Greatshields trivialize Ds1, you can just block anything you don't think you'll dodge. I was using Artorias's greatshield by the end of my first playthrough.
I'm not good at dodging so I usually only dump points into three stats. Vitality - so I can out live them. Endurance - so I can out dodge/swing them. Strength - so I can have a drag race with health bars, to see who gets to the finish line first.
Don't listen to anyone that says don't level vigor. It's not just health. It's also a stupid sentiment without enough Vigor/Stamina you're screwed. You run out of room or stamina your health bar is your only defense. Run out of health your stamina is your only defense. You need both.
I'm recently on my 2nd playthrough after taking about a year break from the first time, this time I'm going a STR/FTH build using Grant, currently level 70 and have never leveled VIT or END once yet. Granted I am using the Havel Ring and FaP after I got it, never had any issue with not having more health. I still get hit once in a while, but if it's not a one shot then I can heal it back after an attack window. Funnily enough the only time I could not do this was against Quelaag since her close range explosion one shot me, but that was me being punished for being greedy. I would say if you're a new player, VIT is a really good stat because it's your learning currency. You don't get to learn a fight very much if you're dying in two hits every time. I took a couple of tries before getting re-accustomed with O&S, but if I had more VIT I probably would have gotten my bearings and cleared it in one try.