Bay 12 Games Forum

The start is tough, but it's fun, yeah.
Sorceries are much more powerful, in that they do better damage and are a good deal faster.
However, you are also much squishier in the early game than you would have been in DS1
I haven't gotten a Sorcerer past the first boss yet, though,
It's a really hard start.

Bump because question:
Does reinforcing a sorcery catalyst buff sorcery damage?
Knowing this before blowing what little titanite I have is key,

The best damage right now comes from Fighter, Puppets, and Magic.
Among those, Fighter is the master of 1v1, Puppets can take down groups of enemies easily, and Magic is just wrong and can do anything you want it to.

Update on my Dark Soulsian Adventures:

Possible lore spoilers beware.

Ahah, that would explain why I can't dual-wield my maces properly yet, even if everything just dies with me derp swinging them.
I made a cleric because I was sick of banging my head against that large metal humanoid wall with a big sword that floats.
Wow.
Like.
The starting robe has amazing stats, the mace is a good weapon, and having access to Heal effectively gives you access to 3 free heals per bonfire, and 6 if you buy Heal at the hag trader.

Also, a little tip, if you people want to find an Estus Shard really easy.

Oh hey, I found out how to do the actual dual-wielding attacks.
Well now this seems more useful to me.

Also, another thing on puppets, nearly every ability has some sort of CC.
Knockbacks, stunlocks, pulls, taunts, charges that brutally murder and knockback entire rooms, etc.

As a puppeteer, I can tell you exactly why they are so stronk.
Let me just copy paste a rank 1 puppet's stats:
Damage: 80-190
Critical: 60%
Balance: 50%
HP: 1200
Defense: 50
Prot: 25
Mdef: 20
Mprot: 10

And then the bonus from Control Marionette:
Min/Max Damage: +30/55
Critical: +20%
Balance: +15%
15% Act Skill Cooldown Reduction
AND AFTER ALL THAT
You get +70% of your own Damage, Crit, and Balance added to the marionette.

So, assuming you have pretty average stats, 50-100 damage, 40 crit, and 50 or so balance,
this leaves your puppet doing 145-315 damage, with a crit of really freaking high, and the cap of 80% balance.
Note that at r1, Threshold Cutter, the puppet equivalent of smash, does 700% damage, AND has a bonus 35% critical chance, so assuming every attack hits, and you have r1 critical hit, you've just done up to a bit over 5500 damage to something, and this is BEFORE special upgrades, reforges, and without taking what control bars you're using into account at all.
So I guess it's pretty strong.